Making a Beginner's Guide

[Sirithiliel]

I know that this is for beta and everything might change when the game releases, but it'll be easy enough to edit it once the game is out to update it to any changes

Am I missing anything? Any tips / start up tricks i've not posted? A important part of the game I forgot to make a section for? Are there better starting animals i should list instead, etc etc. I appreciate any feedback on what can be done to improve this and make it easier to follow for new players, especially once the game releases


https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1877005298

 

[Silhouette]

Looks really good to me I just have a couple suggestions, apologies if you have it in already and I skipped over it

1) When placing down water treatment and power facilities, make sure to change the mechanic visit from every year to every month
- despite a lot of people having issues with these constantly breaking on them, I never had a single one break on me and I think it's cause I had them checking every month

2) Similar thing with habitats, I would have the mechanic visit every 3 months, the vet every 3 months, and the zookeeper every month.
- never had barriers break on me with this system.

Those are my two suggestions that I felt were missed

 

[Sirithiliel]

good ideas, i'll be sure to put that on there

 

[VetGirl330]

Very nice overview (and screenshots). You seem to be focusing on actual gameplay but personally I would advocate for including sections on controlling the camera and moving/rotating objects. I personally played very little of the Beta because of how annoyingly difficult it was just to navigate through my park. I did figure out how to move the camera but I found it neither intuitive or easy to move to where I wanted or get a good angle to do what I wanted. I haven't mastered moving objects at all. I can "Z" rotate, but that's it. I haven't been able to use any of the "Y" axes successfully, or adjust the elevation of objects.

 

[Sirithiliel]

Very nice overview (and screenshots). You seem to be focusing on actual gameplay but personally I would advocate for including sections on controlling the camera and moving/rotating objects. I personally played very little of the Beta because of how annoyingly difficult it was just to navigate through my park. I did figure out how to move the camera but I found it neither intuitive or easy to move to where I wanted or get a good angle to do what I wanted. I haven't mastered moving objects at all. I can "Z" rotate, but that's it. I haven't been able to use any of the "Y" axes successfully, or adjust the elevation of objects.

i can do that, i was thinking the tutorial would cover the camera, but i can definitely include a section for that too and moving objects

 

[dom38]

Well, since I did not find answer to my question in your guide I am just putting it here :
I built a train and the only thing I need to get it going is to connect an alley (queue) to it... however I can't seem to find out how to do this and the game won't help.

 

[Sirithiliel]

hmm i haven't messed with the train. I know the 2nd path option are queues, have you tried those? i'll look into it though, i just havent' researched the train in my game because mechanic research is so finicky

 

[dom38]

I finally found out but it wasn't obvious at all. In the train station popup where it says "There are problems" there is a list of those "problems" to fix... like placing the door to go in, out, and alley .. however it does not tell HOW ... and I was trying to modify placements of the station, to link desperately the queue to the station and it would not work.. guess what... you have to guess that the "place entrance" is actually a button.. there's a rounded rectangle behind and a very tiny drop-shadow but tbh I did not see that at first glance.. not at all.

By the way.. how did I find the solution ? I googled for quite a long time "planet zoo train" blahblah.. without success ...and finally tried "planet coaster how to place queue" and found a video demonstrating that...

There is a feeling I had a lot by testing that Planet Zoo Beta ..and it is not pleasant : I often felt like I had to know, to have been playing Planet Coaster, before trying that game... but no, sorry.. I am not interested. Only zoos. And yeah, it's as if devs thought we all did... at least I had that feeling a lot.

 

[Sirithiliel]

i will be sure to put a 'rides and transportation' section for the guide, though i won't be able to do much with it until the full game releases

i appreciate you bringing it up though, as that is a section i should have

 

[Bobble2017]

I am still trying to work out how to rotate objects when they are attached to another part of a build . IE to put a wall the right way instead of sideways as it starts out

 

[Sirithiliel]

I am still trying to work out how to rotate objects when they are attached to another part of a build . IE to put a wall the right way instead of sideways as it starts out

you press Z and it will rotate it once, and keep pressing it until it's pointing where you want

i should include a Construction tab, perhaps? for building custom buildings?

 

[Sirithiliel]

Alright I'm adding:

Transportation and Rides
Construction
Animals - Shelter
Animals - Enrichment
Animals - Food Quality
Camera Control
Moving Objects

 

[MaximusSC]

Well, since I did not find answer to my question in your guide I am just putting it here :
I built a train and the only thing I need to get it going is to connect an alley (queue) to it... however I can't seem to find out how to do this and the game won't help.

I am still trying to work out how to rotate objects when they are attached to another part of a build . IE to put a wall the right way instead of sideways as it starts out

There are many good tutorials and video's already out there for Planet Coaster. I know, I know this is Planet Zoo. But, what you may not realize is that building things in Planet Zoo is exactly the same as it is in Planet Coaster.

Planet Coaster :: Building on the Roller Coaster Platform

Planet Coaster College - Smooth Paths & Plazas Tutorial

Planet Coaster Advanced Tutorial: Efficient Building
Skip to the 8:00 minute mark to see how to place wall pieces at adjacent to another at angles > than < 90 degrees.
Note that the same can be done with actual wall pieces. You just need to detach the wall piece that you want to place at at an angle from the current building so you can rotate that wall piece to your desired position.

 

[Bo Marit]

Well done on the guide and tutorials!

 

[Sirithiliel]

Well done on the guide and tutorials!

thank you!