Mini Zoo Project

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
Inspired by all the small zoos popping up and aramar finishing another one, i wanted to try and make one aswell, but i truthfully dont have a concept beyond wildpark or small city zoo, so i wanted to ask here for idears like i did for my last zoos, so if theres anything or any animal youd like me to build for this is your chance.
Another motivation is to give franchise another shot, afterall i think i opend the most threats and am nagging most often about the lack of management so i really should give it another shot after allmost 2 years of sandbox to make sure those assesments are still fair, especally after chuddits very positive experience.

So yeah, rules for the project are simple:
  • ~15ish habitats + exhibits and faux aviarys
  • limited to a small map
  • low budget zoo
  • franchise mode
And as a challenge to myself i want to be finished by the end of the year.

Lets see how that works out, cant wait to hear you guys suggestions ^^
 

Marvinb

Marvinb
Another thing you could try to spice up the wildlife park theme is to give it some sort of gimmick.
Thats something i always try now to make building a little more intersting, like my current one is directly on the sea, the black forest one had the hiking trail and castle thingy.
Something like that :)
 

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
Marvinb said:
Another thing you could try to spice up the wildlife park theme is to give it some sort of gimmick.
Thats something i always try now to make building a little more intersting, like my current one is directly on the sea, the black forest one had the hiking trail and castle thingy.
Something like that :)
Click to expand...
Got a good idear regarding a theme

A small old zoo that gave up on keeping most of their larger animals due to its smaller size limiting them to keep them in good faith and aligning with modern wellfare and instead modernising old habitats and shifting around their current animals to better living requirements.
Take typical old sad bearpits, where the bear holding has been given up and instead been adapted for racoons, whose old cages where repurposed as an aviary.

Means im gonna put up a list of old habitats and their new inhabitants or having them sensibly expanded, for example giving up on keeping both seals and sealions and instead having one species with acess to both habitats.
 

Chuditch

Chuditch
KönigDerKaffeebohnen said:
Another motivation is to give franchise another shot, afterall i think i opend the most threats and am nagging most often about the lack of management so i really should give it another shot after allmost 2 years of sandbox to make sure those assesments are still fair, especally after chuddits very positive experience.
Click to expand...
Heh, in fairness my enjoyment of it mostly comes having to actively manage my animal populations again (rather than them basically being walking decorations in sandbox builds with needs turned off), and having Tasmanian devils as a focus animal for captive breeding also provides an extra level of engagement. I think the management still isn't super in-depth otherwise (just check your staff numbers are ok, spam education boards and vending machines everywhere, have some marketing going etc), but nonetheless I'm looking forward to seeing your new assessment of it!
 

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
Chuditch said:
Heh, in fairness my enjoyment of it mostly comes having to actively manage my animal populations again (rather than them basically being walking decorations in sandbox builds with needs turned off), and having Tasmanian devils as a focus animal for captive breeding also provides an extra level of engagement. I think the management still isn't super in-depth otherwise (just check your staff numbers are ok, spam education boards and vending machines everywhere, have some marketing going etc), but nonetheless I'm looking forward to seeing your new assessment of it!
Click to expand...
Yeah im also not expecting to be wowed or anything but its been over 2 years with things like restaurants, giftshops, the animal sociality system and just general tweaks that it might be worth checking out, even if just to get up to date.
Also with this being a much smaller scale project and me by now quite commonly building building atleast seperateable habitats it would be fun to give breeding another try and just checking out if for example stuff like baechlour enclosures are an actual benefit if my archnemesis called the trading center could just freeze them in time and especally how viable it is to play without that damn trading center.
Ngl i bet management would be thriving once that stupid thing isnt a fix all button anymore, but might aswell just try that out
 

RightWhale

RightWhale
KönigDerKaffeebohnen said:
Got a good idear regarding a theme

A small old zoo that gave up on keeping most of their larger animals due to its smaller size limiting them to keep them in good faith and aligning with modern wellfare and instead modernising old habitats and shifting around their current animals to better living requirements.
Take typical old sad bearpits, where the bear holding has been given up and instead been adapted for racoons, whose old cages where repurposed as an aviary.

Means im gonna put up a list of old habitats and their new inhabitants or having them sensibly expanded, for example giving up on keeping both seals and sealions and instead having one species with acess to both habitats.
Click to expand...
I like this idea! When I think of “small zoos” ranging from Buttonwood, Stone Zoo, to Central Park, to Capron there are a number of animals that are common.
  1. Local animals, so depending on where you make your zoo you will have some options. You mentioned raccoons and that’s a good start.
  2. A farm area or a safe domestic animal or two. I’d go with the chickens, and then whatever else.
  3. Swans
  4. Red pandas
  5. A semi aquatic animal, like an otter, seal, or sea lion.
My PC can only handle small zoos, so that’s how I build a lot. What I recommend for building a small zoo is deciding three things:
  1. What will be the biggest animal in your zoo. Considering it’s a small zoo, maybe you have nothing bigger than the dromedary camel. Even then, the dromedary may be way bigger than the second largest animal. So deciding who the biggest animal first is always a good idea.
  2. Second, I choose what is the “Star animal”. What is your small zoo known for? Maybe it’s the red pandas, maybe the snow monkeys, maybe the African penguins. These are the guys who will be on all the merch. Even if the giraffe is a common zoo animal, at a small zoo it’s the centerpiece and Star of the show.
  3. Likewise decide if you are gonna have 1-2 themed areas, or if it’s all just gonna be a hodgepodge. So will you have a small African area, with a porcupine, ostrich, and zebra? Or could you find the cape porcupine close to a wallaby? Like the zoo is so small there is no theming at all.
 

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
Currently the vibe im feeling is a mix of heritage breeds (cheap yet important conservation work), a handfull of contributions to a larger stoodbook of endangerd animals and some filler, with most of them being rescues from either the wild or animal shelters.

Regarding "themed" areas, i like the idear of the malayan tapir as the zoos main attraction animal, deserving now that we got a pretty one, living in what once was a hippo habitat, with a small SEA themed area of them, lar gibbons, ascos, an exhibit (imagine having those for SEA) and an aviary.

Besides them, i allready decided on freeroaming peafowl and chicken, a waterfowl pond, a turtle pond, some aviarys for parrots and local birds like crows and owls, old fashioned bearpits - the bears, old seal/sealion/polarbear enclosures and an ex bigcat enclosure.

Now i just gotta find time to actually play
 

Marvinb

Marvinb
While thinking about the repurposed habitat idea the south america house of cologne zoo came to mind. It was once one of those old tiles and metal bars ape houses and due to monument protection they couldnt get rid of it, so they repurposed it into a walkthrough tropical house for sloths, sakis and birds. I think its worth a look since it fits the idea of the zoo pretty well, maybe as the indoor area for the tapir and gibbon?

Another thing that you could do is one of those classic old hoofstock rows, now merged together to give more space to the animals and houses wallabys, emu and capybara, all of which would also fit the small low budget zoo like a glove imo
 

RightWhale

RightWhale
KönigDerKaffeebohnen said:
No you gotta add to it to build a mega park to fry your pc, while also leaving holes everywhere to keep that unfinished touch while you wait for future content that would fit perfectly there, especally birds, primates and south american animals
Click to expand...
I am going through that, really badly right now. Besides being busy I am going super slow on a tropical house because I am HOPING AND PRAYING Frontier might just give us a good bird for the place. White faced whistling duck, scarlet ibis, roseate spoonbill, elegant crested tinamou, Brazilian teal. Literally anything.
 

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
Started the zoo, franchise is a pain, oh well.
For more interesting stuff then a second rant a rough sketch of what i want to do next.
For the start i got some goats in dark green and a pond with a gibbon island in light blue, with most likly flamingos joining for the ladder.
Propaply gonna start expanding to the right, where there will be a fusion of what once were 2 or more smaller habitats into a larger ungulate habitat.
Not sure what to put in there yet, bactrian camels dont feel bad in a low budget setting and fit the asian vibe i want the right side of the zoo to have, but i also wouldnt be opposed to a wisent or waterbuffallo habitat as i love building for bovids.
Behind them in red will be the ex hippo habitat and house, now featuring malayan tapirs and maybe binturongs or something, aswell as a row of aviarys at the wall of the zoo filled with different birds.
On the bottom left i want to establish some back stage in the orange area aswell as a petting zoo area with goats, chicken and alpacas. And for the rest of the zoo, no clue
mini2.png
 

markun

markun
So actually I went too big. I wanted to do a four seasons zoo set in Finland using the Tundra map in diorama but I had forgotten how much I dislike the terrain textures, plus landscaping such a big space is too overwhelming at the moment so I am reluctantly trying something less ambitious instead.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom