Meta-Suggestions list 1.9 Edition (6th edition)

Bearcat9948

Bearcat9948
Hello everyone! It's been a little while. Just as a recap, I had to take some time off from the PZ community and gaming in general last fall due to a lot of irl obligations and the like. I was very stressed out dealing with graduating college and finding a full-time job for when I do graduate at the end of spring. I also took a big trip abroad and the logistics of that needed my full attention. But! I'm happy to say all of that has been taken care of now and I'm basically coasting through this last semester of school and enjoying as much of it as possible before setting out into the real world. I've had some time to sit down and work out the newest iteration of the Meta-Suggestions list, and as usual the CM team and Dev team did a fantastic job since the 1.7.0 update adding in things we've requested. There's not much new added yet but I'm sure you will all provide input in what you'd like to see added to the game during 2022. Thank you all for your patience!

Zoopedia, Biome and Geography Issues
  1. Make the following appropriate biomes changes for the following animals/biomes
  2. Taxonomy errors:
    • "Timber wolf " refers to specifically to three North American exclusive subspecies of gray wolf. Using the Zoopedia's distribution map, along with the overall model design and the different translation names, we can logically come to the conclusion that this is in fact supposed to specifically be the Rocky Mountain Wolf, aka the Mackenzie Valley Wolf. This means it's named should be changed, and all references to Europe be stripped away from it's Zoopedia entry and distribution map.
      • As a further expansion on this point, the translated names pointed out here by @Aramar are very inconsistent.
    • Rename the “African buffalo” to be the Cape Buffalo. The full Latin name in the Zoopedia along with the distribution map indicate this is meant to be this specific subspecies only, and not a catch-all for the entire species. Thus, the name is incorrect and should be changed. As such, the Tropical Rainforest biome no longer applies. It should have Aquatic regardless, as the Cape buffalo frequents wetland regions. The rest of the bio will need to be edited.
    • Rename the “Galapagos giant tortoise” to either Chatham island tortoise or San Cristobal island tortoise (this refers to the same animal). There is no such creature as a “Galapagos giant tortoise”, as many different species that look drastically different from each other make up that group of animals. Also, the scientific name chosen for the Zoopedia, Chelonoidis niger, refers to an extinct species. The name should actually be Chelonoidis chathamensis. The rest of the bio will need to be edited.
    • The “Pronghorn antelope” is not an antelope at all. The word needs to be removed from the name, so it reads only as “Pronghorn”. The rest of the bio will need to be edited.
  3. For the "Nature" tab, Central American should be added to North America and removed from South America, in order to be accurate to geography and geopolitical issues.
    • Any animal that lives in Central America but only has the current South/Central tag will need to have the new North/Central America tag added.
  4. General Zoopedia Errors:
    • Add Baird's tapir and giant anteater to North American Zoopedia filter (the rest of Central American animals are correctly there)
    • Binturongs do not live in Singapore, as such this should be removed from it's range in the distribution map and Zoopedia description.
    • Puff adder needs the Asia tag
Exhibit System
  1. Biome changes
    • Add Aquatic biome to Goliath frog and make it the biome shown in the exhibit box.
  2. New Features
    • Allow glass, roof and bottom on exhibit boxes to be set to null individually. There is a mod that allows this, but being an official part of the game would be preferred. This will allow us to create custom displays and would go a long way for creativity options, which is easily the biggest complaint for exhibits currently. Can be implemented into the drop down menus that already exist for choose between window, opaque and background art.
    • Allow a toggle option either in the game settings or in the exhibit's settings that automatically sends newly matured animals directly to the trade center, to make balancing populations less tedious, especially when playing on triple speed.
    • Add two smaller options for various species
      • The smallest would house the invertebrates and tiniest frogs.
      • The medium would house some of the snakes and frogs.
      • The large would continue to be used by the largest animals, like the iguanas, but all species can continue to use these as well.
  3. Consistency issues
    • Add the ability to change water color and transparency to the Aquatic biome vivarium. Should be easy to implement given the system already exists for standing water and some scenery items.
    • Add 3D façade for the Aquatic biome vivarium. I was greatly disappointed that no effort was made to give it one since the base game biomes (Desert and Tropical Rainforest) both have one.
    • Since the Puff adder and Sacred scarab beetle are now in the Grassland biome rather than Desert, they deserve a new vivarium ground texture, foliage and two new custom 2D and 3D backgrounds for the Grassland biome. (Edit: It seems the beetle was moved into the desert biome, but the puff adder remains. Rather than moving the adder back to desert, please move the beetle back to grasslands, and give them their own terrain).
Animals Behaviors and Animal Models
  1. Edits for/to major behaviors (Diving, burrowing, climbing)
    • The following animals need to spend more of their time climbing, especially climbing trees; binturongs, koalas, capuchin monkeys, Chinese pangolin and red pandas. These animals in particular should not be spending so much time on the ground.
      • Specifically, red pandas and binturongs should be spending at least 80% of the time climbing on trees and climbing frames. Koalas should literally only be on the ground to poop and when moving to a tree feeder, so 95% of the time at least.
    • Add Chinese pangolin to the climbing system, and give it the binturong's "hanging" animations. This species of pangolin is actually notably arboreal and also has a prehensile tail like the binturong. Credit to @macronecu for pointing this out.
    • Finish adding diving to relevant species: Baird's and Malayan tapir, Nile monitor, Moose
      • Not diving, but re-add the swimming animations for the Chatham island/San Cristobal island tortoise that existed in beta
      • Add some more unique animations while diving such as tigers and bears play fighting
    • Allow cheetahs to climb certain types of small trees, as they can in the wild.
    • Allow the following animals to burrow; African wild dog, Chinese pangolin, Spotted Hyena, Timber/Mackenzie Valley wolf, Prairie dog, Meerkat, Fennec fox, Arctic fox
  2. Expanding enrichment usage:
    • Give all canids that do not already (except fennec fox, due to size constraint) access to rope toy, swimming pool and tennis ball enrichment items (fennec fox has this latter one anyways).
    • Add natural termite mound use and animations to chimpanzee, bonobo, pangolin, aardvark and meerkat. Currently, these can only use the non-natural one.
      • In congruence with this, give the giant anteater access to the artificial termite mound
    • Give forage wall access to all remaining bear species
    • Give hammock access to jaguar, giant panda, Formosan black bear and snow leopard
    • Replace herb scent marker with blood scent marker for polar bears
    • Give disco ball access to the bonobo and King penguin, since the chimpanzee and Cape penguin can use it, they may as well also
    • Give the moose the underwater herbivore feeder
    • Give the prairie dog access to the small and large food bowls. They currently only can use the "arboreal" feeding platforms, which are gigantic compared to their size.
    • Give the Dall sheep access to the goat climbing mountain
    • Allow European fallow deer to use the melon feeder, the hanging grazer feeder, the skittles (both types), the metal frame waterfall, the large balls (all types), and the large barrel feeder
    • Allow Dall sheep and moose to use the scarecrow feeder
    • Allow all other bears to use both the water pool and the beaver pool like the sun bear
    • Allow all canids to use the skittle feeder and the bubble machine
    • Allow proboscis monkeys to use the suspended forager and the musical keyboard
    • Allow jaguars to use the restraint feeder
    • Allow sun bears to use the fixed roller feeder, the large balls (all types), and the tree scatter feeder
    • Allow giant pandas to use the bamboo feeder and large balls (all types)
    • Allow king penguins to use the slow feeder
    • Allow alpine ibex to use the hanging grazer feeder
    • Allow Japanese macaques to use the small barrel feeder and the bobbin (both types)
    • Allow mandrills to use the small barrel feeder and small balls (all types)
    • Allow dholes to use the chew toy
    • Allow clouded leopards and cougars to use the firehose ball
    • Allow African penguins and black-tailed Prairie dogs to use the water jet
    • Allow the reindeer to use the scarecrow feeder and metal frame waterfall
    • Allow the rest of the crocodilians (gharial, saltie and dwarf caiman) to use the platform floats, since the American alligator can
    • Allow both elephant species to use giraffe feeder to showcase trunk skills
  3. New enrichment item ideas
    • Add a "sentry post" style enrichment item for meerkats, modeled after a tree stump (preferably some generic enough to fit in any setting). New animations only need to be created for getting onto the object, when on the object, the current "sentry" animations can be reused with no issue.
    • Add two new enrichments items: smaller versions of the forage box and mud wallow. This would be intended to be used only by smaller animals/smaller groups of animals. The current items are quite large, and can thus limit habitat design. Idea provided by @NZFanatic
    • A smaller version of the waterfall enrichment, for similar reasons to the above point. It looks a bit odd when using the giant one for a small flamingo habitat for instance.
    • Sleeping log/tree limb! One or two variations, perhaps a natural branch and one that's more of a generic log (flexicolor please). This would hang off of the edge of a hill or climbing platform and would provide unique sleeping/resting animations for the relevant animals, being lynx, mountain lions, binturongs, red pandas, clouded leopards, sun and moon (Formosan) bears, jaguars, lions. Super easy way to get animals climbing more often, and for longer.
    • Leafless, broken trees, but as enrichment items, with specific sets of climbing animations for different animals.
    • Water slide object that must end in a connection to a body of water, being used by otters, seals and sea lions.
    • Each biome should have a tree for a natural scratching post, except the aquatic biome. Currently the tropical rainforest and taiga biomes are the only two with trees that fit.
    • Temperate fall leaves sleeping pile.
    • Pine needle sleeping pile.
    • Artificial islands that can be placed in flatbottomed water up to a certain depth. Would be great for flamingos and other wading birds, but all semi-aquatic animals could use them. Faux rock material so it would be flexicolor. Could have some different variants where one has a few holes in it for the player to put plants etc, rather than just being totally flat and round. Maybe one with some rockier edges.
    • Fallen tree/log feeding stations, similar to the ones from ZT2 (Seen in the back of this photo). These should contain fruits and veggies, or insects for insectivores. Probably not meat for predators, definitely not fish for piscivores.
    • Blood pumpkins, but without the blood. Elephants really enjoy crushing pumpkins and squash with their feet and then eating them. Could be scaled up into giant ones. Watermelons would be good too!
    • Salt licks for hoofstock, at the very least. Salt is an integral part of animals' diet and zoos all over the world use salt licks to give them this vital nutrition.
    • Bones and antlers as a chewing enrichment for canids.
    • Clear pvc pipe feeder enrichment for giant anteaters and sun bears to show off their specialized tongues.
    • Heat rocks that can be used by reptiles and big cats to lounge on. Must be in an area where there is electricity.
    • UV lamps for habitat reptiles to bask under while indoors, since UV light is important for them to be healthy.
  4. Give ambiance speakers a small privacy bonus for shy animals
  5. Remove giant anteaters as a walkthrough habitat, they are incredibly dangerous and would absolutely never, ever be allowed as one in a real zoo.
  6. Make the Bactrian camel a walkthrough habitat. Since this is supposed to be the domesticated animal, not the wild one, it makes sense to allow this as a walkthrough animal.
  7. Slightly boost the number of spotted hyena able to be kept together without infighting. Generally, hyenas can be kept in larger family groups than the game currently limits.
  8. Change any food texture items with polar bear food enrichment to be meat exclusive. Some still use a mixed fruits and veggies texture, which is fine for any bear species except polar bears, which are hyper-carnivores and would never eat fruits or vegetables, except very, very rarely in captivity only. Not common enough to justify the texture remaining the same.
  9. Allow Southern white rhino and hippo to share habitats without fighting. Doesn't necessarily need enrichment bonus, just the no fighting caveat.
  10. Every known animal model issue/error
    • California sea lion: The male model is much too small in comparison to the female model. Sea lion males are always far larger than the females, regardless of captivity vs wild. The male model needs to be made larger.
    • Southern white rhino: The rhino calf is the model of a juvenile animal, but is the size of a newborn infant. If the animal is to remain the infant size, the model needs to be reworked so that the horn is removed, as baby rhinos do not yet have horns. If the animal is intended to be a juvenile, then the model need to be made bigger, and the size of the head and feet need to be increased a bit.
    • Malayan tapir: Purple coloration, Baird's tapir mark on head is leftover, nose is too short, hump not pronounced enough etc. There. Are. Plenty. Of. Threads....that discuss this issue. I think of all the model errors, this is the most egregious, partially because the art team was able to make a sign that looks exactly like a proper Malayan tapir while the actual animal model is a 1 to 1 reskin, and partially because we know that Frontier is aware of this issue, and has patched other animals (binturong, dhole) but seemingly doesn't care enough to fix this one.
    • Llama: Not a bad issue per say, but for some reason, when color variations were added, the all white skin that was the default before color variations was removed. I am asking for it to be re-added.
    • Gharial: Skin texture should be slightly darkened, scutes missing from the back/spine, body is a bit too bulky/pudgy, head shape needs to be narrower. This 3D rendering shows how the changes to the model should be made.
    • Chatham Island tortoise: Model is too small for a full grown adult. These can usually get quite bigger than the ones in PZ are capable, as this picture will show.
    • Aldabra tortoise: Has the same issue as the above, the model is too small for a full grown adult. These can also get quite big, as this picture will show.
    • Jaguar: Fur is too fluffy and a bit too darkly colored (brown). The body is too lithe like a leopard, and should be stockier and more muscled. The head should be slightly enlarged and made more muscular, there should not be black on the front of the ears, and the spot patterns should be darkened.
    • West African lion: Probably the single most complained about animal until the binturong and Malayan tapir issues came. The lioness is good, but the cubs need these spots or mottling on them. If they were juvenile animals it wouldn't be an issue, but they are clearly designed as cubs. The male lion needs it's mane entirely redone with the updated fur shader/texture, the original one looks like plastic. Both male and female adults need the snout elongated. Male needs mane variations (both coloration and maneless variants).
    • Grizzly bear: Needs a rework because it's the wrong kind of thick. It looks way overly fat, instead of stocky with a good mix of muscle and stored fat. It literally has the body shape of a potato. This is what an actual Grizzly looks like.
    • Himalayan brown bear: Let's all be frank. This was an animal added to the base game to help pad out the roster. It's nearly an exact carbon copy of the Grizzly bear. Look at this picture and you tell me if you think Planet Zoo's bear is close to accurate. It's way too fat, the coloration is too dark, the ears are wrong. Just not great all around.
    • American bison: Slightly too small, the head needs to be a bit larger and in general should be a bit taller. Here is a diagram that compares what the average size of an America plains bison looks like when compared to an average size adult human. In Planet Zoo, the keepers are usually as tall as the bison's hump (which itself needs to be made a bit taller).
    • Bactrian camel: This is also undersized. Here is a similar diagram for you to compare sizes with. In addition, the Planet Zoo camel has the face of a dromedary camel, not of a Bactrian camel. It also needs color variations including white, dark brown, cream and gold/ginger. Seeing as this is intended to be the domesticated Bactrian camel and these variations are common in captivity.
    • Cheetah: The adults are good, but the baby cheetahs are carbon copies of the adults, when they are clearly supposed to be infant/cubs. Here is what PZ made. Now compare it to a real cub. Unfortunately, not even close.
    • Snow leopard: The face and body are too fat, overall should be more lithe. The face should be a little elongated and the eyes slightly enlarged.
    • Spotted hyena: Neck arch and hind legs need to be a bit more exaggerated than the PZ version. Also, the "mane" needs to be more pronounced.
    • Nile monitor: Skin patterning on the adult is somewhat inaccurate, but not game breaking. What is however, is that the babies are carbon copies of the adult, just smaller. This is totally inaccurate compared to how they should actually look.
    • Koala: Too cute and stylized, looks like a plush toy. The lines around the mouth should be more defined, the nose should be more defined. The ears should be whiter, and for once you have here a PZ animal that actually should have more fur but it doesn't. The ears need to be more scraggily, seen here.
    • Rocky Mountain wolf: Animal is overall too fluffy and way too fat, especially the face. It has jowls for crying out loud, it's so fat. Here are some pictures of what an actual North American gray wolf looks like.
    • Chimpanzee: Make adult face darker, not pink. Usually only infants have pink faces.
Foliage, Rocks and Landscapes
  1. General foliage ideas:
    • Less bushy bamboo options. Sometimes we just want to be able to use the taller stalks and not have gigantic leaves and branches obscuring vision. This happens even with the smallest Bengal bamboo size.
    • Taller, skinnier trees. This follows the same logic as above, we want to use trees that aren't so short and fat they obstruct vision. Around 3-4m up for the foliage to start appearing would be good for line of sight. Think of how the yellow fever trees are, tall, skinny and spread out. That's what I mean here.
    • More grasses. The drinn grass was a fantastic addition, but we could use at least 2-3 more species.
    • More Western palms (and palmettos). I've changed this to specify "New World" palms as the Africa pack and 1.6 update did a good job adding some fantastic African palms. The new world, especially North America, is lacking still.
    • More aquatic plants. Specifically, some more sea grass and giant kelp would be fantastic choices.
    • More natural looking climbable branches and logs. We're super limited still and usually have to resort to non natural looking options, which yes, I would include the log/wood climbing set. I want some really natural looking dead trees and branches.
    • Wood chip piles and flat wood chip surface covering items (just like the mulch items). These are heavily recommended by the AZA and EAZA for many habitats such as elephant and rhinos. In Goron’s video interview with a habitat designer, this was talked about and he specifically noted how PZ does not have any wood chip items.
    • Individual cattails, reeds and bamboo pieces.
  2. General rock ideas:
    • Add in 5-10 new medium and large models for the fake rocks, with some updated texturing, still make them flexicolor.
    • Add new faux rock items in the shape of the flat “rock cladding” items the “real” biome rocks have. Make flexicolor, same as the current faux rocks.
    • Kopje texture and shaped style rocks
    • Faux rock baobab tree (the tall, skinny, dead kind that zoos tend to use)
    • Dynamic snow rocks, using the taiga or tundra rocks as the base. Functions that same as the dynamic moss rocks.
  3. Foliage options for regions that are underrepresented in general:
  4. Fix tag issues for existing items:
    • Give umbrella thorn acacia the Asia tag (Exists in Middle East and India)
    • Give Spanish moss temperate tag
    • Give papyrus sedge, blackthorn bush, common water lily, Italian cypress tree, elm tree, hawthorn bush, ivy and oak tree Europe tag, and add Grassland biome as well (All of these exist across the Mediterranean)
      • Rename cypress to Italian or Mediterranean cypress
  5. Add a drop down menu when creating a new zoo that allows you to choose a background that corresponds with that biome. For instance, creating a new taiga map allows you to choose between the vanilla map background, or any of the custom made scenario/campaign ones. The full list of map backgrounds that we would be able to choose to use is:
    • Vanilla (Tropical rainforest, temperate, grasslands, desert, tundra, taiga)
    • Special location based
      • Desert: Australia outback
      • Tropical rainforest: South America Andes
    • Scenarios with unique maps
      • Temperate: (Goodwin house, Panda Park, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Red Barn River, Bernie Goodwin Memorial)
      • Tropical rainforest: None
      • Grasslands: (Great Caldera Safari Park, Myers Lake Island, Myers Entertainment Park)
      • Desert: (Mexico Conservation Park, Tanami Roadside Zoo, El Darar Bazaar)
      • Tundra: (Goodwin Arctic research, Karst Mire)
      • Taiga: None
  6. Add at least one new map background for each continent. With the restrictions of how PZ biomes work, there are many locations that do not look accurate when trying to build a zoo in that location. For instance, trying to build a temperate deciduous forest zoo in the Eastern U.S, but the only map background is for the English countryside. Here are some of my favorite options:
    • Europe: Gieranger Fjord to represent Scandinavia. Almeria, or some similar place in Italy, Greece or Croatia, to better represent the Mediterranean, with which there is currently no accurate map type or background.
    • Oceania: New Zealand beaches to represent, well, New Zealand! None of the current maps or biomes truly represent NZ.
    • North America: The Great Smoky Mountains, to fix the example issue I highlighted. Also, North American Prairie, for similar reasons as the temperate biome. The current grasslands background and plants look too African savannah to convincingly look like the Great Plains.
    • Asia: Himalayan Valleys for Nepal, China, India and Tibet.
    • Africa: Mount Kilimanjaro. Africa is actually quite well off, but this is so iconic that it would be an incredible background.
    • South America: Torres del Paine, to give some better representation to the cooler temperature areas of South America, like Chile and Argentina.
New Scenery Ideas
  1. Topographic map items of each continent, with different depths to show either biome regions or elevation, similar to the style of the globe on the main screen. Different elevation, or biomes (whichever you decide) are flexicolor to each other (Level 1, 2, 3 etc.)
  2. Additionally, one large world map item in this style
  3. Focus on more cohesive theming for any statues added into a free update. What I mean by this is, instead of giving the hippo or Nile monitor for instance, a random theme for a statue, give them some statues in the theme of the new Africa pack, that way they can all be used together. Another example, give the Baird's tapir a statue that fits the SA pack theme.
    • I previously asked for artwork and statues to be added for animals that had no items in game, which was somewhat remedied, however it is still an issue. Here is the list of animals that have no representation at all
    • Aardvark, Cape Buffalo, African Wild Dog, Aldabra Giant Tortoise, Bactrian Camel, Bongo, Bonobo, Common Warthog, Formosan Black Bear, Chatham island tortoise, Gemsbok, Himalayan brown bear, Komodo dragon, Mandrill, Nile nonitor, Nyala, Okapi, Pygmy Hippo, Snow Leopard, Springbok, Thomson's Gazelle, Lehmann's dart frog, Golden dart frog, Gila monster, Yellow anaconda, Boa constrictor, Giant leaf insect, Eastern brown snake, Death adder, Giant cockroach, Goliath frog, Goliath beetle, Titan beetle, African giant snail, Lesser Antillean iguana
  4. 1-2 placeable “pond” items so we can have small water objects without actually using the terrain tools, which can be a bit hard to use for small areas. Faux rock borders that are flexicolor, as well as flexicolor water
  5. Concrete wall panels, similar to the plaster or mud ones.
  6. A few backstage props (rakes, hoses, brushes etc)
New Game Mechanics
  1. Path changes and additions
    • The ability to make 2m and 3m wide paths without using exploits involving placing queues. This should at the very least be implemented for staff paths.
    • Add same color variations of staff paths without the logo imposed. Also, a new or color or two, such as a sandy brown, would be great.
    • Ability to place trash cans on sloped paths
    • Add a null path option
    • Add null kerbs to the terrain paths
    • Add one way paths OR add the ability to make a path one directional as a checked box option.
  2. Add an option to the null barrier that allows a toggle for visibility through it.
  3. Tone down severity of light/godrays indoors
  4. Space apart the barriers addition and extension buttons when building barriers as they often overlap, forcing you to change angles while building, which is restrictive.
  5. Smaller version of the walkthrough habitat gate
    • Null Version of both would be good as well. Option made of metal or glass would be nice but not as needed, especially if a null option is made.
  6. Allow zookeepers to walk through flat bottomed water that is 1.5m or shallower. This will allow just a little more flexibility when creating habitats such as monkey islands.
  7. Ability to set genetic size and stats etc. in sandbox mode
    • Also allow us to choose if the animal is a baby or not when buying
    • This includes the ability to disable scarring
  8. Change flexicolor status for an entire item group, even if they are of different materials.
  9. Add the ability to link bench or table objects to one or more food or drink shops, to increase the chance of guests using those objects.
    • Add the ability to also link benches and tables to keeper talk points.
  10. Add the ability to set a zoo section, so guests wont leave the section until they visit everything in it. This can include habitats, exhibits and restaurants.
  11. Add an option in Sandbox to keep food, enrichments and water always filled, and also the ability to fill it manually without the staff having to do it.
  12. Animal Ambassador Talks
    • Adds a new staff type "Animal Ambassador Speaker/Keeper"
    • Adds a talk point similar to the currently existing talk points
    • Allows a staff member to show off an exhibit animal outside of the exhibit to zoo guests, similarly to how many zoos do this in real life
    • Animals must be present in your zoo in order to be used
    • No venomous animals, poisonous animals or amphibians are able to be used. The first two are straightforward enough, the amphibians should not be allowed because skin-to-skin contact with amphibian species is highly unadvisable. The only was this would be ok is if guests are not animated to pet the animals and the staff member is wearing gloves.
  13. Allow a checkbox setting in the settings tab to disable animal scarring.
General Quality Of Life Stuff
  1. Add animal tags to climbable trees if the animal can actually climb said object. I have noticed that not every climbing animal can climb every tree with the climbable label, which means it’s very annoying to try and have to figure this out for yourself.
  2. Habitat land size reductions for these animals:
    • Australia mandates that koala habitat space is 20m^2 for a koala, with an additional 10m^2 per each new animal. The largest habitat size was around 100m^2…..PZ mandates minimum size for a Koala be 180m^2. Visual representation found here. I recommend the new minimum be 100m^2.
    • The AZA specifies the minimum land requirement for a pair of red pandas be at least 40m^2, with more being preferred if possible. I would recommend shrinking the land requirements to something more realistic, from 220m^2 for one animal to a new minimum of 150m^2. Keep climbing area the same.
    • The AZA specifies the minimum land requirements for a pair of binturongs be around 42m^2. Taking into the recommended 8-10 feet^2 (2-3m) verticality that is required, I would recommend reducing from PZ’s requirements of 182m^2 per animal, to a new minimum of 150m^2 per animal. Keep climbing area the same.
  3. Add large and small circular billboards.
  4. Ability to specifically turn off "About to mature" notifications
  5. There is a game decoration that is clearly an Asian elephant that displays the name of "African elephant sign". This hasn't been fixed in over a year and a half.
  6. Take a break from the timed challenges and just make them regular campaign maps, even if they're a simple one-off without voice acting. This is highly requested by both people on the forums, and on the PZ Reddit.
  7. Add in TikiChicki food stores and vending machines. This was the only base game PC store that was left out of PZ base game
    • Consider adding the PC world’s fair stores in a free update (since they are paid dlc for PC this may be a big ask, but I don’t think people would buy a store dlc for PZ)
    • Food stands/carts (ala ZT2) for existing brands would also be a nice touch
  8. Add the ability to make longer zoo names. Suggested by @macronecu originally
  9. Add flexicolor water and flexicolor rock to the forage pool enrichment item
  10. Add option to disable animal scarring, if not in all game modes, then at least sandbox mode
  11. Revamped tegicam system (made into an actual feature, rather than a hidden cheat)
  12. Add a “still water” or “slow flowing water” effect (or 2) to the game. We have plenty of options for fast moving water, such as water falls and rapids, but none for slow or still water.
  13. Increase giant panda star appeal to be the max amount in the game. As pandas are so rare in captivity to begin with, and generally seen as "cute", their rarity and real life popularity status should be reflected as such in the game.
  14. Decrease size of California sea lion and faux rocks hitboxes.
  15. Add the ability to group multiple separated building groups into one larger group. This works well for free form construction items but does not exist when using grid-base building pieces and can bee very inconvenient.
  16. Rename "Underwater box feeder" to "Underwater fish feeder". Now that there is an underwater herbivore feeder, it makes more sense to specify the difference.
  17. Add a toggle option to walkthrough habitat gates that allows or does not allow guests to use the gate when toggled. Can help reduce stress in animals when needed.
  18. Change the default setting for blueprints to "off", rather than "on" when loading up a park file.
  19. Increase grace period that offspring will not fight with parents, for both gameplay purposes and for realism. 2-3 years should be the minimum, but it could be larger than this. Make it proportional to the total lifespan for the animals.
    • For example, lions mature at 3 years old and become sterile at 15 years old. So giving male lions 3 in game years to live with their father would be a good compromise. At 6 years old they will start to challenge their father.
Notable Bugs
  • Slow motion jumping for clouded leopards when climbing
  • Grid flickering with pathing and terrain during construction.
  • Spotted hyena black hole throat
  • Koala in passive climbing on a tree while being at the bottom of the trunk, so it clips into the ground.
  • New birch branch items have very low resolution/texture, even on ultra settings (This might just be a problem specific to me but I'm not sure why. I play on all ultra settings)
  • Animals swimming through barriers and walls
  • Fix the male grizzly eyelids animations (missing bones on both left and right eyelids)
  • Formosan black bear has mouth open always
  • The "Merge Items into Group" button is now mislabeled "Move Selection" when multiple items are multi-selected. In addition to this, the "move selection" button now says "advanced move selection".
  • Angle-snap remaining in place while rotating habitat gates even if the box isn't checked.
  • Burrow screens reset every time the game is closed/left.
  • The habitat gate rotation is not working correctly. It appears to be linked to the angle rotation for construction items, changing the setting in the barrier tab does nothing.
  • The palm thatch roof eaves aren't listed under "roof trims" like all the others are.
  • After placing an item with angle snap and closing the object placement window, placing a new object results in the angle snap slider being locked. To unlock it, angle snap needs to be toggled on and off.
  • Clouded leopard climbing
  • Added desert biome tags to cheetah, common ostrich, African wild dogs and pronghorn.
  • Added taiga biome tags to Formosan black bear, giant panda and American bison.
  • Upgraded capuchin conservation status from LC to V.
  • Added more statues for existing animals.
  • Added more art for animals by adding custom billboards.
  • Added different sized education boards by way of custom billboards.
  • Added more ambiance sounds by adding custom sound speakers.
  • Added staff heatmap to show where keepers can and cannot walk in habitats.
  • Added continent tags to all rocks, allowing them to still be used when filtering strictly by continent.
  • Fixed visibility issue with water/tanks by allowing custom colors and visibility.
  • Updated animal icon for the binturong to show the new model.
  • Updated African bush elephant conservation status from V to E.
  • Added a search bar to animal trade centers.
  • Added diving to polar, grizzly, sun and Formosan black bear.
  • Added train all staff button.
  • Made mesh fences see-through.
  • North Sulawesi Babirusa name was changed to be the appropriate species, and the distribution map is fixed to reflect this as well.
  • African elephant name changed to specify African Bush/Savannah Elephant.
  • Red kangaroos are now walkthrough.
  • Significantly changed diving depth restrictions for all animals.
  • Added diving for jaguar and the two tiger species.
  • Rainbow eucalyptus now has Oceania tag.
  • Bramble bush now have North America and Asia tags.
  • Added natural birch branches.
  • Added path kerbs and barriers.
  • Increased cold and snow tolerance for Bactrian camel and American bison.
  • Increased size groups for American alligator, both mixed and same sex.
  • American alligator bio no longer references saltwater crocodile.
  • Fixed water surface plants (lilies, lotus etc.) being navigable, so animals no longer walk on them, breaking immersion.
  • Fixed capuchin facial glitch.
  • Added smaller signs for shops.
  • Added a null shop/counter only variant.
  • Added Aleppo Pine. No idea if this was because I suggested it or not but it was on the last list so I'll take it lol.
  • Added in a significant amount of non-grid building pieces for existing sets and made them all flexicolor.
  • Added in prop eggs! I'm super excited about this one because it was something I discussed with Chante forever ago, and I pestered @Tim Smith about it a couple of times hehe. Super appreciative about the CM team not forgetting this idea.
  • Added more natural climbing frames and branches.
  • Added in more faux rocks.
  • Added temperate and tundra compatibility for moose
  • Added aquatic biome to beaver
  • Added Europe and Asia tags for moose and updated zoopedia map.
  • Fixed the moose info sign
  • Increased both cold and snow tolerance for the Formosan black bear

Seeing as how I'm late with this list, I will leave suggestions open until we get the 1.9.0 update. Just please don't expect things that are added right before that update goes live to be added in. New changes that have been added will be reflected in green. New additions will be reflected in the color red.

As always, @Jens Erik @Eltanin Casciani @Francesca Falcini @Tim Smith , if you discuss any of these points with the dev team and they tell you something is impossible, for one reason or another, feel free to post that here and I will happily remove it! Thanks again for all the hard work you've done for us as a community.[/spoiler]
 
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Doran

Doran
About moose:
Bearcat9948 said:
the Zoopedia should have North America, Europe and Asia as continents, and have taiga, temperate, tundra and aquatic biomes.
Click to expand...
1641407720374.png

Bearcat9948 said:
  • Aquatic: Moose, North American Beaver
  • Tundra: Moose
  • Temperate: Moose
Click to expand...
1641407255381.png
 

sockeyejo

sockeyejo
Fab list! I'd also like to see temperate and taiga versions of the dynamic moss rocks, as well as the snowy versions you mention. Both can be worked around with duplicate moss or snow rocks but it would be so much easier to just put them down once.

Other suggestions include flexicolour paths (thinking of the mosaic and tile ones, for example); a consistent, uniform design of signs and artwork for all animals and foliage types; boxless waterfall pieces; uniform (and smaller!) shop wall signs; snap barriers to paths.
 

Gabboi

Gabboi
Here I have a few more suggestions I been thinking about for this:

  • Add one way paths or the ability to set an order of visit using numbers for habitats and relevant places, for example, setting a habitat as the first or number 1 means guests will visit that habitat first, then go to the 2nd habitat and follow a specific order.
  • Following the first point, adding a dynamic zoo map that you can both select in the UI to see it, or place it as an item, this map should be flexicolor, allow different styles and change once the user adds a new habitat, exhibit, or building for guests, or with a button press that “updates” the map to the current appearance of your zoo, this would also include the numbers of each section or habitat like irl zoo maps have, so guests know where to go next.
  • Also related to the other points, add the ability to set a zoo section, so guests wont leave the section until they visit everything in it, for example, setting a group of exhibits+habitats as a reptile house section should make guests visit each exhibit and habitat first and then leave, instead of visiting one, leaving to a different section, then going back.
  • Add enrichment items for Orangutans to brachiate (this would also be useful for certain type of possible upcoming animals).
  • Fix the male grizzly eyelids animations (missing bones on both left and right eyelids).
  • Activate climbing for Cheetah.
  • Add an option in Sandbox to keep food, enrichments and water always filled, and also the ability to fill it manually without the staff having to do it.
  • In addition to a proper first person mode, it would bring new life to the game to add animal interactions with the player and being able to clean their habitats and refill their food and water.
  • Add driveable vehicles, this is way harder to implement but it was a really fun part of a certain past zoo game.
  • Specially for Sandbox, the ability to buy the animals however we want them, being able to buy them as babies, albinos, with a specific size or color variation.
  • In addition to null exhibit boxes, add some looped animations for exhibit animals, for when they eat and interact with each other.
 

Mjmannella

Mjmannella
I've got some suggestions for the list:
  • Homogenisation between diggers and burrowers. Essentially, aardvarks and European badgers would be able to dig while meerkats and black-tailed Prairie dogs would be able to use burrows. I think this would help make the two concepts easier to understand.
  • Additions to the expanded colourmorph system as discussed in my thread
  • Homogenisation with animals and enrichment use
    • Allowing European fallow deer to use the melon feeder, the hanging grazer feeder, the skittles (both types), the metal frame waterfall, the large balls (all types), and the large barrel feeder
    • Allowing Dall sheep and moose to use the scarecrow feeder
    • Allowing all other bears to use both the water pool and the beaver pool like the sun bear
    • Allowing all canids to use the skittle feeder and the bubble machine
    • Allowing proboscis monkeys to use the suspended forager and the musical keyboard
    • Allowing jaguars to use the restraint feeder
    • Allowing sun bears to use the fixed roller feeder, the large balls (all types), and the tree scatter feeder
    • Allowing giant pandas to use the bamboo feeder and large balls (all types)
    • Allowing king penguins to use the slow feeder
    • Allowing alpine ibex to use the hanging grazer feeder
    • Allowing Japanese macaques to use the small barrel feeder and the bobbin (both types)
    • Allowing mandrills to use the small barrel feeder and small balls (all types)
    • Allowing dholes to use the chew toy
    • Allowing clouded leopards and cougars to use the firehose ball
    • Allowing African penguins and black-tailed Prairie dogs to use the water jet
    • Allowing the reindeer to use the scarecrow feeder and metal frame waterfall
    • Allowing the Arctic fox to use the tunnel
Hopefully these are minor enough to be added to the list. Also, Dall sheep can already use the goat mountain, it just wasn't mentioned in the update.
 

Aramar

Aramar
Bearcat9948 said:
The info sign for the moose references Alces alces gigantes which is the specific Alaskan subspecies, however this change is not reflected in the actual animal. The info sign should instead just be Alces alces , the Zoopedia should have North America, Europe and Asia as continents, and have taiga, temperate, tundra and aquatic biomes.
Click to expand...
The education board has been fixed (except adding aquatic to the Moose)
Bearcat9948 said:
Increase cold and snow tolerance for Formosan black bear to be more realistic.
Click to expand...
This has also been fixed.
Bearcat9948 said:
Food stands/carts (ala ZT2) for existing brands would also be a nice touch
Click to expand...
We have the new shop counters. Maybe this should be considered like fixed too.


I would add this to your list: the puff adder doesn't have the "Asia" tag despite the map and the description of the Zoopedia saying that the animal is also found in the south part of the Middle East (Arabia, Yemen and Oman, which are part of Asia).
 

TheYeti

TheYeti
Bearcat9948 said:
Hello everyone! It's been a little while. Just as a recap, I had to take some time off from the PZ community and gaming in general last fall due to a lot of irl obligations and the like. I was very stressed out dealing with graduating college and finding a full-time job for when I do graduate at the end of spring. I also took a big trip abroad and the logistics of that needed my full attention. But! I'm happy to say all of that has been taken care of now and I'm basically coasting through this last semester of school and enjoying as much of it as possible before setting out into the real world. I've had some time to sit down and work out the newest iteration of the Meta-Suggestions list, and as usual the CM team and Dev team did a fantastic job since the 1.7.0 update adding in things we've requested. There's not much new added yet but I'm sure you will all provide input in what you'd like to see added to the game during 2022. Thank you all for your patience!


Zoopedia, Biome and Geography Issues
  1. Make the following appropriate biomes changes for the following animals/biomes
  2. Taxonomy errors:
    • "Timber wolf " refers to specifically to three North American exclusive subspecies of gray wolf. Using the Zoopedia's distribution map, along with the overall model design and the different translation names, we can logically come to the conclusion that this is in fact supposed to specifically be the Rocky Mountain Wolf, aka the Mackenzie Valley Wolf. This means it's named should be changed, and all references to Europe be stripped away from it's Zoopedia entry and distribution map.
      • As a further expansion on this point, the translated names pointed out here by @Aramar are very inconsistent.
    • Rename the “African buffalo” to be the Cape Buffalo. The full Latin name in the Zoopedia along with the distribution map indicate this is meant to be this specific subspecies only, and not a catch-all for the entire species. Thus, the name is incorrect and should be changed. As such, the Tropical Rainforest biome no longer applies. It should have Aquatic regardless, as the Cape buffalo frequents wetland regions. The rest of the bio will need to be edited.
    • Rename the “Galapagos giant tortoise” to either Chatham island tortoise or San Cristobal island tortoise (this refers to the same animal). There is no such creature as a “Galapagos giant tortoise”, as many different species that look drastically different from each other make up that group of animals. Also, the scientific name chosen for the Zoopedia, Chelonoidis niger, refers to an extinct species. The name should actually be Chelonoidis chathamensis. The rest of the bio will need to be edited.
    • The “Pronghorn antelope” is not an antelope at all. The word needs to be removed from the name, so it reads only as “Pronghorn”. The rest of the bio will need to be edited.
  3. For the "Nature" tab, Central American should be added to North America and removed from South America, in order to be accurate to geography and geopolitical issues.
    • Any animal that lives in Central America but only has the current South/Central tag will need to have the new North/Central America tag added.
  4. General Zoopedia Errors:
    1. Add Baird's tapir and giant anteater to North American Zoopedia filter (the rest of Central American animals are correctly there)
    2. The info sign for the moose references Alces alces gigantes which is the specific Alaskan subspecies, however this change is not reflected in the actual animal. The info sign should instead just be Alces alces , the Zoopedia should have North America, Europe and Asia as continents, and have taiga, temperate, tundra and aquatic biomes.
    3. Binturongs do not live in Singapore, as such this should be removed from it's range in the distribution map and Zoopedia description.
Exhibit System
  1. Biome changes
    • Add Aquatic biome to Goliath frog and make it the biome shown in the exhibit box.
  2. New Features
    • Allow glass, roof and bottom on exhibit boxes to be set to null individually. There is a mod that allows this, but being an official part of the game would be preferred. This will allow us to create custom displays and would go a long way for creativity options, which is easily the biggest complaint for exhibits currently. Can be implemented into the drop down menus that already exist for choose between window, opaque and background art.
    • Allow a toggle option either in the game settings or in the exhibit's settings that automatically sends newly matured animals directly to the trade center, to make balancing populations less tedious, especially when playing on triple speed.
  3. Consistency issues
    • Add the ability to change water color and transparency to the Aquatic biome vivarium. Should be easy to implement given the system already exists for standing water and some scenery items.
    • Add 3D façade for the Aquatic biome vivarium. I was greatly disappointed that no effort was made to give it one since the base game biomes (Desert and Tropical Rainforest) both have one.
    • Since the Puff adder and Sacred scarab beetle are now in the Grassland biome rather than Desert, they deserve a new vivarium ground texture, foliage and two new custom 2D and 3D backgrounds for the Grassland biome. (Edit: It seems the beetle was moved into the desert biome, but the puff adder remains. Rather than moving the adder back to desert, please move the beetle back to grasslands, and give them their own terrain).
Animals Behaviors and Animal Models
  1. Edits for/to major behaviors (Diving, burrowing, climbing)
    • The following animals need to spend more of their time climbing, especially climbing trees; binturongs, koalas, capuchin monkeys, Chinese pangolin and red pandas. These animals in particular should not be spending so much time on the ground.
      • Specifically, red pandas and binturongs should be spending at least 80% of the time climbing on trees and climbing frames. Koalas should literally only be on the ground to poop and when moving to a tree feeder, so 95% of the time at least.
    • Add Chinese pangolin to the climbing system, and give it the binturong's "hanging" animations. This species of pangolin is actually notably arboreal and also has a prehensile tail like the binturong. Credit to @macronecu for pointing this out.
    • Finish adding diving to relevant species: Baird's and Malayan tapir, Nile monitor, Moose
      • Not diving, but re-add the swimming animations for the Chatham island/San Cristobal island tortoise that existed in beta
      • Add some more unique animations while diving such as tigers and bears play fighting
  2. Expanding enrichment usage:
    • Give all canids that do not already (except fennec fox, due to size constraint) access to rope toy, swimming pool and tennis ball enrichment items (fennec fox has this latter one anyways).
    • Add natural termite mound use and animations to chimpanzee, bonobo, pangolin, aardvark and meerkat. Currently, these can only use the non-natural one.
      • In congruence with this, give the giant anteater access to the artificial termite mound
    • Give forage wall access to all remaining bear species
    • Give hammock access to jaguar, giant panda, Formosan black bear and snow leopard
    • Replace herb scent marker with blood scent marker for polar bears
    • Give disco ball access to the bonobo and King penguin, since the chimpanzee and Cape penguin can use it, they may as well also
    • Give the moose the underwater herbivore feeder
    • Give the prairie dog access to the small and large food bowls. They currently only can use the "arboreal" feeding platforms, which are gigantic compared to their size.
    • Give Dall sheep access to "Goat Climbing Mountain". Could also be renamed to be "Caprid Climbing Mountain" as ibex are not goats, and that fits better incase the dev team ever adds in something like a takin.
    • Give prairie dogs and African wild dogs access to burrows. I'm sure there's more but I haven't made a comprehensive list yet.
  3. New enrichment item ideas
    • Add a "sentry post" style enrichment item for meerkats, modeled after a tree stump (preferably some generic enough to fit in any setting). New animations only need to be created for getting onto the object, when on the object, the current "sentry" animations can be reused with no issue.
    • Add two new enrichments items: smaller versions of the forage box and mud wallow. This would be intended to be used only by smaller animals/smaller groups of animals. The current items are quite large, and can thus limit habitat design. Idea provided by @NZFanatic
    • A smaller version of the waterfall enrichment, for similar reasons to the above point. It looks a bit odd when using the giant one for a small flamingo habitat for instance.
    • Sleeping log/tree limb! One or two variations, perhaps a natural branch and one that's more of a generic log (flexicolor please). This would hang off of the edge of a hill or climbing platform and would provide unique sleeping/resting animations for the relevant animals, being binturongs, red pandas, clouded leopards, sun and moon (Formosan) bears, jaguars, lions. Super easy way to get animals climbing more often, and for longer.
    • Leafless, broken trees, but as enrichment items, with specific sets of climbing animations for different animals.
    • Water slide object that must end in a connection to a body of water, being used by otters, seals and sea lions.
    • Each biome should have a tree for a natural scratching post, except the aquatic biome. Currently the tropical rainforest and taiga biomes are the only two with trees that fit.
    • Temperate fall leaves sleeping pile
  4. Give ambiance speakers a small privacy bonus for shy animals
  5. Increase cold and snow tolerance for Formosan black bear to be more realistic.
  6. Remove giant anteaters as a walkthrough habitat, they are incredibly dangerous and would absolutely never, ever be allowed as one in a real zoo.
  7. Make the Bactrian camel a walkthrough habitat. Since this is supposed to be the domesticated animal, not the wild one, it makes sense to allow this as a walkthrough animal.
  8. Make it so that water based plants, in particular the lilly pad and water lotus, are not able to be walked on. It completely ruins immersion to see a hippo or elephant walking on a patch of water lilies.
  9. Slightly boost the number of spotted hyena able to be kept together without infighting. Generally, hyenas can be kept in larger family groups than the game currently limits.
  10. Change any food texture items with polar bear food enrichment to be meat exclusive. Some still use a mixed fruits and veggies texture, which is fine for any bear species except polar bears, which are hyper-carnivores and would never eat fruits or vegetables, except very, very rarely in captivity only. Not common enough to justify the texture remaining the same.
  11. Allow Southern white rhino and hippo to share habitats without fighting. Doesn't necessarily need enrichment bonus, just the no fighting caveat.
  12. Every known animal model issue/error
    • California sea lion: The male model is much too small in comparison to the female model. Sea lion males are always far larger than the females, regardless of captivity vs wild. The male model needs to be made larger.
    • Southern white rhino: The rhino calf is the model of a juvenile animal, but is the size of a newborn infant. If the animal is to remain the infant size, the model needs to be reworked so that the horn is removed, as baby rhinos do not yet have horns. If the animal is intended to be a juvenile, then the model need to be made bigger, and the size of the head and feet need to be increased a bit.
    • Malayan tapir: Purple coloration, Baird's tapir mark on head is leftover, nose is too short, hump not pronounced enough etc. There. Are. Plenty. Of. Threads....that discuss this issue. I think of all the model errors, this is the most egregious, partially because the art team was able to make a sign that looks exactly like a proper Malayan tapir while the actual animal model is a 1 to 1 reskin, and partially because we know that Frontier is aware of this issue, and has patched other animals (binturong, dhole) but seemingly doesn't care enough to fix this one.
    • Llama: Not a bad issue per say, but for some reason, when color variations were added, the all white skin that was the default before color variations was removed. I am asking for it to be re-added.
    • Gharial: Skin texture should be slightly darkened, scutes missing from the back/spine, body is a bit too bulky/pudgy, head shape needs to be narrower. This 3D rendering shows how the changes to the model should be made.
    • Chatham Island tortoise: Model is too small for a full grown adult. These can usually get quite bigger than the ones in PZ are capable, as this picture will show.
    • Aldabra tortoise: Has the same issue as the above, the model is too small for a full grown adult. These can also get quite big, as this picture will show.
    • Jaguar: Fur is too fluffy and a bit too darkly colored (brown). The body is too lithe like a leopard, and should be stockier and more muscled. The head should be slightly enlarged and made more muscular, there should not be black on the front of the ears, and the spot patterns should be darkened.
    • West African lion: Probably the single most complained about animal until the binturong and Malayan tapir issues came. The lioness is good, but the cubs need these spots or mottling on them. If they were juvenile animals it wouldn't be an issue, but they are clearly designed as cubs. The male lion needs it's mane entirely redone with the updated fur shader/texture, the original one looks like plastic. Both male and female adults need the snout elongated. Male needs mane variations (both coloration and maneless variants).
    • Grizzly bear: Needs a rework because it's the wrong kind of thick. It looks way overly fat, instead of stocky with a good mix of muscle and stored fat. It literally has the body shape of a potato. This is what an actual Grizzly looks like.
    • Himalayan brown bear: Let's all be frank. This was an animal added to the base game to help pad out the roster. It's nearly an exact carbon copy of the Grizzly bear. Look at this picture and you tell me if you think Planet Zoo's bear is close to accurate. It's way too fat, the coloration is too dark, the ears are wrong. Just not great all around.
    • American bison: Slightly too small, the head needs to be a bit larger and in general should be a bit taller. Here is a diagram that compares what the average size of an America plains bison looks like when compared to an average size adult human. In Planet Zoo, the keepers are usually as tall as the bison's hump (which itself needs to be made a bit taller).
    • Bactrian camel: This is also undersized. Here is a similar diagram for you to compare sizes with. In addition, the Planet Zoo camel has the face of a dromedary camel, not of a Bactrian camel. It also needs color variations including white, dark brown, cream and gold/ginger. Seeing as this is intended to be the domesticated Bactrian camel and these variations are common in captivity.
    • Cheetah: The adults are good, but the baby cheetahs are carbon copies of the adults, when they are clearly supposed to be infant/cubs. Here is what PZ made. Now compare it to a real cub. Unfortunately, not even close.
    • Snow leopard: The face and body are too fat, overall should be more lithe. The face should be a little elongated and the eyes slightly enlarged.
    • Spotted hyena: Neck arch and hind legs need to be a bit more exaggerated than the PZ version. Also, the "mane" needs to be more pronounced.
    • Nile monitor: Skin patterning on the adult is somewhat inaccurate, but not game breaking. What is however, is that the babies are carbon copies of the adult, just smaller. This is totally inaccurate compared to how they should actually look.
    • Koala: Too cute and stylized, looks like a plush toy. The lines around the mouth should be more defined, the nose should be more defined. The ears should be whiter, and for once you have here a PZ animal that actually should have more fur but it doesn't. The ears need to be more scraggily, seen here.
    • Rocky Mountain wolf: Animal is overall too fluffy and way too fat, especially the face. It has jowls for crying out loud, it's so fat. Here are some pictures of what an actual North American gray wolf looks like.
    • Chimpanzee: Make adult face darker, not pink. Usually only infants have pink faces.
Foliage, Rocks and Landscapes
  1. General foliage ideas:
    • Less bushy bamboo options. Sometimes we just want to be able to use the taller stalks and not have gigantic leaves and branches obscuring vision. This happens even with the smallest Bengal bamboo size.
    • Taller, skinnier trees. This follows the same logic as above, we want to use trees that aren't so short and fat they obstruct vision. Around 3-4m up for the foliage to start appearing would be good for line of sight. Think of how the yellow fever trees are, tall, skinny and spread out. That's what I mean here.
    • More grasses. The drinn grass was a fantastic addition, but we could use at least 2-3 more species.
    • More Western palms (and palmettos). I've changed this to specify "New World" palms as the Africa pack and 1.6 update did a good job adding some fantastic African palms.
    • More aquatic plants. Specifically, some more sea grass and giant kelp would be fantastic choices.
    • More natural looking climbable branches and logs. We're super limited still and usually have to resort to non natural looking options, which yes, I would include the log/wood climbing set. I want some really natural looking dead trees and branches.
    • Wood chip piles and flat wood chip surface covering items (just like the mulch items). These are heavily recommended by the AZA and EAZA for many habitats such as elephant and rhinos. In Goron’s video interview with a habitat designer, this was talked about and he specifically noted how PZ does not have any wood chip items.
    • Individual cattails and reeds
  2. General rock ideas:
    • Add in 5-10 new medium and large models for the fake rocks, with some updated texturing, still make them flexicolor.
    • Add new faux rock items in the shape of the flat “rock cladding” items the “real” biome rocks have. Make flexicolor, same as the current faux rocks.
    • Kopje texture and shaped style rocks
    • Faux rock baobab tree (the tall, skinny, dead kind that zoos tend to use)
    • Dynamic snow rocks, using the taiga or tundra rocks as the base. Functions that same as the dynamic moss rocks.
  3. Foliage options for regions that are underrepresented in general:
  4. Fix tag issues for existing items:
    • Give umbrella thorn acacia the Asia tag (Exists in Middle East and India)
    • Give papyrus sedge, blackthorn bush, common water lily, Italian cypress tree, elm tree, hawthorn bush, ivy and oak tree Europe tag, and add Grassland biome as well (All of these exist across the Mediterranean)
      • Rename cypress to Italian or Mediterranean cypress
  5. Add a drop down menu when creating a new zoo that allows you to choose a background that corresponds with that biome. For instance, creating a new taiga map allows you to choose between the vanilla map background, or any of the custom made scenario/campaign ones. The full list of map backgrounds that we would be able to choose to use is:
    • Vanilla (Tropical rainforest, temperate, grasslands, desert, tundra, taiga)
    • Special location based
      • Desert: Australia outback
      • Tropical rainforest: South America Andes
    • Scenarios with unique maps
      • Temperate: (Goodwin house, Panda Park, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Red Barn River, Bernie Goodwin Memorial)
      • Tropical rainforest: None
      • Grasslands: (Great Caldera Safari Park, Myers Lake Island, Myers Entertainment Park)
      • Desert: (Mexico Conservation Park, Tanami Roadside Zoo, El Darar Bazaar)
      • Tundra: (Goodwin Arctic research, Karst Mire)
      • Taiga: None
  6. Add at least one new map background for each continent. With the restrictions of how PZ biomes work, there are many locations that do not look accurate when trying to build a zoo in that location. For instance, trying to build a temperate deciduous forest zoo in the Eastern U.S, but the only map background is for the English countryside. Here are some of my favorite options:
    • Europe: Gieranger Fjord to represent Scandinavia. Almeria, or some similar place in Italy, Greece or Croatia, to better represent the Mediterranean, with which there is currently no accurate map type or background.
    • Oceania: New Zealand beaches to represent, well, New Zealand! None of the current maps or biomes truly represent NZ.
    • North America: The Great Smoky Mountains, to fix the example issue I highlighted. Also, North American Prairie, for similar reasons as the temperate biome. The current grasslands background and plants look too African savannah to convincingly look like the Great Plains.
    • Asia: Himalayan Valleys for Nepal, China, India and Tibet.
    • Africa: Mount Kilimanjaro. Africa is actually quite well off, but this is so iconic that it would be an incredible background.
    • South America: Torres del Paine, to give some better representation to the cooler temperature areas of South America, like Chile and Argentina.
New Scenery Ideas
  1. Topographic map items of each continent, with different depths to show either biome regions or elevation, similar to the style of the globe on the main screen. Different elevation, or biomes (whichever you decide) are flexicolor to each other (Level 1, 2, 3 etc.)
  2. Additionally, one large world map item in this style
  3. Focus on more cohesive theming for any statues added into a free update. What I mean by this is, instead of giving the hippo or Nile monitor for instance, a random theme for a statue, give them some statues in the theme of the new Africa pack, that way they can all be used together. Another example, give the Baird's tapir a statue that fits the SA pack theme.
    • I previously asked for artwork and statues to be added for animals that had no items in game, which was somewhat remedied, however it is still an issue. Here is the list of animals that have no representation at all
    • Aardvark, Cape Buffalo, African Wild Dog, Aldabra Giant Tortoise, Bactrian Camel, Bongo, Bonobo, Common Warthog, Formosan Black Bear, Chatham island tortoise, Gemsbok, Himalayan brown bear, Komodo dragon, Mandrill, Nile nonitor, Nyala, Okapi, Pygmy Hippo, Snow Leopard, Springbok, Thomson's Gazelle, Lehmann's dart frog, Golden dart frog, Gila monster, Yellow anaconda, Boa constrictor, Giant leaf insect, Eastern brown snake, Death adder, Giant cockroach, Goliath frog, Goliath beetle, Titan beetle, African giant snail, Lesser Antillean iguana
  4. 1-2 placeable “pond” items so we can have small water objects without actually using the terrain tools, which can be a bit hard to use for small areas. Faux rock borders that are flexicolor, as well as flexicolor water
  5. Concrete wall panels, similar to the plaster or mud ones.
  6. A few backstage props (rakes, hoses, brushes etc)
New Game Mechanics
  1. The ability to make 2m and 3m wide paths without using exploits involving placing queues. This should at the very least be implemented for staff paths.
    • Add same color variations of staff paths without the logo imposed. Also, a new or color or two, such as a sandy brown, would be great.
  2. Ability to place trash cans on sloped paths
  3. Add a null path option
    • Add null kerbs to the terrain paths
  4. Add an option to the null barrier that allows a toggle for visibility through it.
  5. Tone down severity of light/godrays indoors
  6. Space apart the barriers addition and extension buttons when building barriers as they often overlap, forcing you to change angles while building, which is restrictive.
  7. Smaller version of the walkthrough habitat gate
    • Null Version of both would be good as well. Option made of metal or glass would be nice but not as needed, especially if a null option is made.
  8. Allow zookeepers to walk through flat bottomed water that is 1.5m or shallower. This will allow just a little more flexibility when creating habitats such as monkey islands.
  9. Ability to set genetic size and stats etc. in sandbox mode
  10. Change flexicolor status for an entire item group, even if they are of different materials.
  11. Add the ability to link bench or table objects to one or more food or drink shops, to increase the chance of guests using those objects.
    • Add the ability to also link benches and tables to keeper talk points.
  12. Expand base game sets to be flexicolor (ex: corrugated plastic roof, Indian sandstone, thatch roofs)
General Quality Of Life Stuff
  1. Add animal tags to climbable trees if the animal can actually climb said object. I have noticed that not every climbing animal can climb every tree with the climbable label, which means it’s very annoying to try and have to figure this out for yourself.
  2. Habitat land size reductions for these animals:
    • Australia mandates that koala habitat space is 20m^2 for a koala, with an additional 10m^2 per each new animal. The largest habitat size was around 100m^2…..PZ mandates minimum size for a Koala be 180m^2. Visual representation found here. I recommend the new minimum be 100m^2.
    • The AZA specifies the minimum land requirement for a pair of red pandas be at least 40m^2, with more being preferred if possible. I would recommend shrinking the land requirements to something more realistic, from 220m^2 for one animal to a new minimum of 150m^2. Keep climbing area the same.
    • The AZA specifies the minimum land requirements for a pair of binturongs be around 42m^2. Taking into the recommended 8-10 feet^2 (2-3m) verticality that is required, I would recommend reducing from PZ’s requirements of 182m^2 per animal, to a new minimum of 150m^2 per animal. Keep climbing area the same.
  3. Add large and small circular billboards.
  4. Ability to specifically turn off "About to mature" notifications
  5. There is a game decoration that is clearly an Asian elephant that displays the name of "African elephant sign". This hasn't been fixed in over a year and a half.
  6. Take a break from the timed challenges and just make them regular campaign maps, even if they're a simple one-off without voice acting. This is highly requested by both people on the forums, and on the PZ Reddit.
  7. Add in TikiChicki food stores and vending machines. This was the only base game PC store that was left out of PZ base game
    • Consider adding the PC world’s fair stores in a free update (since they are paid dlc for PC this may be a big ask, but I don’t think people would buy a store dlc for PZ)
    • Food stands/carts (ala ZT2) for existing brands would also be a nice touch
  8. Add the ability to make longer zoo names. Suggested by @macronecu originally
  9. Add flexicolor water and flexicolor rock to the forage pool enrichment item
  10. Add option to disable animal scarring, if not in all game modes, then at least sandbox mode
  11. Revamped tegicam system (made into an actual feature, rather than a hidden cheat)
  12. Add a “still water” or “slow flowing water” effect (or 2) to the game. We have plenty of options for fast moving water, such as water falls and rapids, but none for slow or still water.
  13. Increase giant panda star appeal to be the max amount in the game. As pandas are so rare in captivity to begin with, and generally seen as "cute", their rarity and real life popularity status should be reflected as such in the game.
  14. Decrease size of California sea lion and faux rocks hitboxes.
  15. Add the ability to group multiple separated building groups into one larger group. This works well for free form construction items but does not exist when using grid-base building pieces and can bee very inconvenient.
  16. Rename "Underwater box feeder" to "Underwater fish feeder". Now that there is an underwater herbivore feeder, it makes more sense to specify the difference.
Notable Bugs
  • Slow motion jumping for clouded leopards when climbing
  • Grid flickering with pathing and terrain during construction.
  • Spotted hyena black hole throat
  • Koala in passive climbing on a tree while being at the bottom of the trunk, so it clips into the ground.
  • New birch branch items have very low resolution/texture, even on ultra settings (This might just be a problem specific to me but I'm not sure why. I play on all ultra settings)
  • Animals swimming through barriers and walls
  • Added desert biome tags to cheetah, common ostrich, African wild dogs and pronghorn.
  • Added taiga biome tags to Formosan black bear, giant panda and American bison.
  • Upgraded capuchin conservation status from LC to V.
  • Added more statues for existing animals.
  • Added more art for animals by adding custom billboards.
  • Added different sized education boards by way of custom billboards.
  • Added more ambiance sounds by adding custom sound speakers.
  • Added staff heatmap to show where keepers can and cannot walk in habitats.
  • Added continent tags to all rocks, allowing them to still be used when filtering strictly by continent.
  • Fixed visibility issue with water/tanks by allowing custom colors and visibility.
  • Updated animal icon for the binturong to show the new model.
  • Updated African bush elephant conservation status from V to E.
  • Added a search bar to animal trade centers.
  • Added diving to polar, grizzly, sun and Formosan black bear.
  • Added train all staff button.
  • Made mesh fences see-through.
  • North Sulawesi Babirusa name was changed to be the appropriate species, and the distribution map is fixed to reflect this as well.
  • African elephant name changed to specify African Bush/Savannah Elephant.
  • Red kangaroos are now walkthrough.
  • Significantly changed diving depth restrictions for all animals.
  • Added diving for jaguar and the two tiger species.
  • Rainbow eucalyptus now has Oceania tag.
  • Bramble bush now have North America and Asia tags.
  • Added natural birch branches.
  • Added path kerbs and barriers.
  • Increased cold and snow tolerance for Bactrian camel and American bison.
  • Increased size groups for American alligator, both mixed and same sex.
  • American alligator bio no longer references saltwater crocodile.
  • Fixed capuchin facial glitch.
  • Added smaller signs for shops.
  • Added a null shop/counter only variant.
  • Added Aleppo Pine. No idea if this was because I suggested it or not but it was on the last list so I'll take it lol.
  • Added in a significant amount of non-grid building pieces for existing sets and made them all flexicolor.
  • Added in prop eggs! I'm super excited about this one because it was something I discussed with Chante forever ago, and I pestered @Tim Smith about it a couple of times hehe. Super appreciative about the CM team not forgetting this idea.
  • Added more natural climbing frames and branches.
  • Added in more faux rocks.
  • Added temperate and tundra compatibility for moose
  • Added aquatic biome to beaver
  • Added Europe and Asia tags for moose and updated zoopedia map.

Seeing as how I'm late with this list, I will leave suggestions open until we get the 1.9.0 update. Just please don't expect things that are added right before that update goes live to be added in. New changes that have been added will be reflected in green.

As always, @Jens Erik @Eltanin Casciani @Francesca Falcini @Tim Smith , if you discuss any of these points with the dev team and they tell you something is impossible, for one reason or another, feel free to post that here and I will happily remove it! Thanks again for all the hard work you've done for us as a community.
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Thanks for making a new comprehensive list.

I do not agree with adding Central America to North America. While it makes sense in the game logic, which follows the miserable concept of 'continents', it doesn't make much sense when we talk about wildlife. It would be better to look at bioregions, in which case Central America is closer to South America or should be a region on its own.

On a similar note, I would like to see the regions Africa and Asia split up in smaller regions that are clearly distinguishable from each other. For instance, we could have North Asia, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Middle East, North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa (which could even be split into West-, South-, East- and Central-Africa).

Finally, I would add some points:
  • We need new items comparable to the mulch patches but with different textures (gravel, sand, woodchips).
  • Flexicolour natural rocks may also be a nice addition.
  • Some hitboxes need to be fixed. I had particular problems with the Komodo dragon.
 

Bearcat9948

Bearcat9948
Gabboi said:
Here I have a few more suggestions I been thinking about for this:

  • Add one way paths or the ability to set an order of visit using numbers for habitats and relevant places, for example, setting a habitat as the first or number 1 means guests will visit that habitat first, then go to the 2nd habitat and follow a specific order.
  • Following the first point, adding a dynamic zoo map that you can both select in the UI to see it, or place it as an item, this map should be flexicolor, allow different styles and change once the user adds a new habitat, exhibit, or building for guests, or with a button press that “updates” the map to the current appearance of your zoo, this would also include the numbers of each section or habitat like irl zoo maps have, so guests know where to go next.
  • Also related to the other points, add the ability to set a zoo section, so guests wont leave the section until they visit everything in it, for example, setting a group of exhibits+habitats as a reptile house section should make guests visit each exhibit and habitat first and then leave, instead of visiting one, leaving to a different section, then going back.
  • Add enrichment items for Orangutans to brachiate (this would also be useful for certain type of possible upcoming animals).
  • Fix the male grizzly eyelids animations (missing bones on both left and right eyelids).
  • Activate climbing for Cheetah.
  • Add an option in Sandbox to keep food, enrichments and water always filled, and also the ability to fill it manually without the staff having to do it.
  • In addition to a proper first person mode, it would bring new life to the game to add animal interactions with the player and being able to clean their habitats and refill their food and water.
  • Add driveable vehicles, this is way harder to implement but it was a really fun part of a certain past zoo game.
  • Specially for Sandbox, the ability to buy the animals however we want them, being able to buy them as babies, albinos, with a specific size or color variation.
  • In addition to null exhibit boxes, add some looped animations for exhibit animals, for when they eat and interact with each other.
Click to expand...
I added quite a few of your ideas. I worry that the zoo map might be too difficult to add in but I can try and ask one of the CM's to ask the devs to see if it could be feasible. I'm also hoping brachiation will be a behavior rather than an enrichment item. I do think the driveable vehicles is too difficult and while it might be fun, isn't really intended for what the game is.
Mjmannella said:
I've got some suggestions for the list:
  • Homogenisation between diggers and burrowers. Essentially, aardvarks and European badgers would be able to dig while meerkats and black-tailed Prairie dogs would be able to use burrows. I think this would help make the two concepts easier to understand.
  • Additions to the expanded colourmorph system as discussed in my thread
  • Homogenisation with animals and enrichment use
    • Allowing European fallow deer to use the melon feeder, the hanging grazer feeder, the skittles (both types), the metal frame waterfall, the large balls (all types), and the large barrel feeder
    • Allowing Dall sheep and moose to use the scarecrow feeder
    • Allowing all other bears to use both the water pool and the beaver pool like the sun bear
    • Allowing all canids to use the skittle feeder and the bubble machine
    • Allowing proboscis monkeys to use the suspended forager and the musical keyboard
    • Allowing jaguars to use the restraint feeder
    • Allowing sun bears to use the fixed roller feeder, the large balls (all types), and the tree scatter feeder
    • Allowing giant pandas to use the bamboo feeder and large balls (all types)
    • Allowing king penguins to use the slow feeder
    • Allowing alpine ibex to use the hanging grazer feeder
    • Allowing Japanese macaques to use the small barrel feeder and the bobbin (both types)
    • Allowing mandrills to use the small barrel feeder and small balls (all types)
    • Allowing dholes to use the chew toy
    • Allowing clouded leopards and cougars to use the firehose ball
    • Allowing African penguins and black-tailed Prairie dogs to use the water jet
    • Allowing the reindeer to use the scarecrow feeder and metal frame waterfall
    • Allowing the Arctic fox to use the tunnel
Hopefully these are minor enough to be added to the list. Also, Dall sheep can already use the goat mountain, it just wasn't mentioned in the update.
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I added your enrichment suggestions with the exception of the fox using the tunnel, I think it's likely too small for the Arctic fox. I'll have to look at it in-game myself.
Aramar said:
The education board has been fixed (except adding aquatic to the Moose)

This has also been fixed.

We have the new shop counters. Maybe this should be considered like fixed too.


I would add this to your list: the puff adder doesn't have the "Asia" tag despite the map and the description of the Zoopedia saying that the animal is also found in the south part of the Middle East (Arabia, Yemen and Oman, which are part of Asia).
Click to expand...
Thank you for pointing these out, I will fix it.
 

Mjmannella

Mjmannella
I have a couple additional suggestions:
I would like to comment on some of the suggestions listed as well
  • Llamas effectively had a pure white skin re-added with the expanded colourmorph system for 1.8
  • The Eastern blue-tongued lizard has 3 biomes listed (grassland, temperate, and tropical) while using the xeric exhibit setting. I could easily see the dung beetle and puff adder in a similar situation (being in both in the desert and grassland biomes with the xeric exhibit setting).
    • Sidenote: but I believe that the American bullfrog and fire salamander use a temperate exhibit setting, which would mean 4 of the 7 in-game biomes have an exhibit type (the remainders being grassland, taiga, and tundra)
  • If the African buffalo is being renamed, I think the same should be done for the American bison. Last I checked, the zoopedia used a trinomial referring to the Plains bison specifically. I would also mention how it should be in the genus Bos as to match genetic studies, bovini genetics are a bit ambiguous at the moment (though to keep Bison as a genus, it would be required to include yaks)
 

Spartan_Squat

Spartan_Squat
Love that you made a new edition! Some of the changes you proposed before were added like the moose and beaver biomes, but I have hopes they will add new changes like the correct biomes, taxonomies or behaviours like giant anteaters, those guys are really dangerous like zebras.
Also sea lions education board has only aquatic biome, missing the temperate biome
 
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SalamAnders

SalamAnders
I don't believe this has been fixed yet.
(Going to work in 10 minutes, so can't check myself)

Reindeers do not live in Denmark which is among it's listed countries in the Zoopedia.
And Greenland being under the Danish realm is not reason enough to add Denmark there.
Especially since Greenland is already mentioned among the other countries.


A fix for the more or less extreme amount of swimming seen among a lot of the species (like a lot of the hoofstock) which are capable of swimming in real life, but would mainly do it if they see no other alternative.
 

Orque41

Orque41
Bearcat9948 said:
Give prairie dogs and African wild dogs access to burrows. I'm sure there's more but I haven't made a comprehensive list yet.
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Here are the animals that are missing

1. Beavers
2. Meerkats
3. Fennec fox
4. Pangolins
5. Common warthogs
6. Giant Otter
7. Spotted Hyena
8. Polar Bears

Allow Bongo and Pygmy Hippopotamus to share habitats without fighting.

Guest settings

Activate Shop

For visitors to say more or not find a store
 
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Mjmannella

Mjmannella
Perhaps a controversial suggestion, but I'd like to see a toggle for rocks to count towards rock terrain in a habitat. This was a feature added and removed very early into the game because of its unpopularity. I, however, thought it was perfectly sound for rocks to count for an animal's rock needs and wanted the mechanic to stick. To satisfy everyone, I think having a toggle would be the best approach that lets everyone be happy.
Edit: Something else that sprung to mind. You know how in Planet Coaster where guests would recoil when hit by a piece of coaster? It’d be nice to see this occur when guests run into an elephant of rhino. Just to give escapes a bit more weight.
 
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NegativeHeli

N
My ideas

1) Allow the East Asia roofs (the ones in grey and look most Chinese-style) to be flexicolour. I would love to make those roofs dark green in colour to make a more realistic Chinese Pagoda.

2) Red Pandas should get a slight appeal rating increase. They're also fairly attractive animals in zoos and people still gather to see them, since they're rare and exotic. Snow Leopards also need an increase in appeal since they're also very rare and beautiful creatures and many people including me would pay anything to see them.

3) Red Pandas need a remodel as well. Their faces are way too round and fat.

4) If the game wants to keep the Europe and Asia part for the Timber Wolf, I think renaming it to "Grey Wolf" would be a little more accurate.

5) Give Indian Elephants mottling variations. Some Indian Elephants have a lot of mottling, while others have little to no mottling on their trunks. Also, add tusk length variations. Some have long and some have short tusks.

6) New Idea: Add Indian food and Chinese takeout shops to the game. There is a lack of Asian food shops. They could also be more appropriate when having an Indian or Chinese animal zone.
 

jcp011c

jcp011c
Great ideas as always! Hoping as with every update, the next base game update will feature an exhibit system overhaul, if there's not a set pack for flying or fully marine animals.

and more restaurant options are always welcome! Chinese and Seafood would be my favorite additions.
 

Iben

Iben
Spiderhawk said:
Cheetahs cannot climb. Their claws are semi retractable
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Cheetahs are not as adapted to climbing as for instance leopards, but they can most certainly climb and climb trees in real life. There's more than enough videos and pictures where you can see cheetahs climb, albeit they usually need a small jump to get up the tree initially. The EAZA manual even mentions that they climb fences.

So given all that, asking for the cheetahs to climb in this game, with climbing being the compromised game system as it is, is a fair thing to ask.
 

Villa11

V
Here are my suggestions:
Give the lemurs more realistic social requirements, they should be able to live in mixed gender groups with several males instead of the harem group.
Add more menu options for the restaurant and add a restaurant sign.
There is a typo in the Zoopedia of the Lynx, fix it. Here it is on the Issue tracker
Add the hammock enrichment to all bears and apes.
Add burrows to: Beaver, Prairie Dog, All canids, All bears, warthog, meerkat, Hyena
Allow the webcams to link to billboard, just like the burrow cameras.
Allow Dall sheep, the cougar and the snow leopard to use the rock climbing enrichment.
Make the Fallow deer a walkthrough animal.
 
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