Tropical biome shouldn't also reach over 40 degrees Celsius. And rainforest animals like great apes should have a problem coping with desert temperatures, even savannah temperatures. Right now they have suitability up to 42 degrees Celsius which is odd, also doesn't provide any challenge when building desert zoos.
Yes when building in tropical I sometimes make it rain just so guests will stop complaining about the heat.
 
Last edited:
For me it’s less a question of needing extra biomes and more one of allowing us to make our own mix of biome textures - apparently we can’t have an unlimited selection due to the engine - but I do wish we could select our own 8 textures.

And this is another opportunity for me to bang on about how I wish we had maps with neutral backgrounds, ie flat unobtrusive backgrounds for each biome. Whilst beautifully done, the backgrounds are overbearing and sometimes unrealistic meaning it can be difficult to make realistic zoos in certain locations.

For example, I can’t make a realistic zoo set where I live in the north of Sweden because the tundra map mountains are unrealistic for this part of the world and it’s too much hard work trying to hide them.

Allowing us to adjust temperature manually in sandbox would also help in building realistic location-specific zoos.
 
There are a few biomes missing from the game, which causes an inability to create zoos in their corresponding real life biome, and makes some animals' biome placement incorrect. I did the research, and here are the main biomes missing according to it:
  1. Scrub - scrublands, a semi-arid landscape defined by mid-high tempreatures and shrubland with a few trees, is a biome that is found around the mediterranean, in the Sahel in africa, southern australia, south africa and parts of the US and Mexico in NA. In the game it is replaced by desert/grassland (which is way too hot and lacks trees and bushes to represent real scrubland) or temperate (which is way too cold and green, real scrublands don't experience snow).
  2. Wetlands - the current aquatic biome should be split to wetlands and coastal. Currently wetlands animals have relatively few plants, and the aquatic biome is inconsistent with animals that live in wetlands but are not actually aquatic, like the Proboscis monkey
  3. Coastal - The coastal animals of the game havffe some weird biome combinations (like desert+aquatic for the african penguin), which means we lack both terrestrial coastal shrubs and coastal seaweed and water plants
  4. Grassland - the grassland in the game is very clearly an african savannah, which really doesn't fit for Europe, NA and Asia, both in ground textures and tempratures. This does not require a new biome, but rather new grassland maps for these contienents.

For some animals these should be their "primary" biomes, which is not currently reflected in the game.
Here are the roster animals with missing biomes:

BiomeAnimals missing a primary biomeAnimals missing a secondrary biomeBiome image
Scrub
  1. Aardvark
  2. Black Wildebeest
  3. Springbok
  4. Gemsbok
  5. Southern White Rhino
  1. African Wild Dog
  2. Common Warthog
  3. Dingo
  4. Fennec Fox
  5. Red Kangaroo
  6. Ring-tailed Lemur
  7. Spotted Hyena
  8. Pronghorn
View attachment 249874
Wetlands
  1. Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman
  2. Hippopotamus
  3. Proboscis Monkey
  4. Giant Otter
  5. Gharial
  6. Nile Monitor
  1. African Buffalo
  2. Babirusa
  3. Baird's Tapir
  4. Indian Elephant
  5. Jaguar
  6. Malayan Tapir
  7. Proboscis Monkey
  8. Pygmy Hippo
  9. Southern Cassowary
View attachment 249876
Coastal
  1. African Penguin
  2. Grey Seal
  3. King Penguin
  4. Saltwater Crocodile
  1. Komodo Dragon
  2. Southern Cassowary
View attachment 249878

In my opinion, this is one of the main things missing from the game, and I wanted to put it up for discussion and for the devs to potentially see.


Easy changes:
Even without creating new maps, as @Bearcat9948 said, it would be easy to create icons and tags for these 3 biomes, and then apply them to the animals in table above.

I'm tagging the community managers so they could see the list, and various suggestions in the post and comments: @Tim Smith @Eltanin Casciani @Francesca Falcini @Jens Erik
I think the game's simplified biome system is fine, as long as it is used consistently across the board. I believe the biggest problem with biomes right now is the inconsistent use of several biomes, temperate and aquatic in particular, in the latest DLC packs. These newer packs clearly use different criteria compared to the base game. In fact I had created such a thread a few months back and there @DrBurrito had demonstrated that base game animals also had the same issue at launch, but those issues were later addressed in some quality control review. The DLC animals apparently missed that review, not being in the game at the time, so they are still using the "old system" that was abandoned later in development. I was in fact surprised to see that almost two dozen animals from the base game had their temperate biome tags removed later. At the moment only the cockroach, capuchin, caiman and Malayan tapir follow the old system and are pending a review. I simply hope that they address the inconsistency issues with temperate and aquatic tags. I'm linking my thread here for anyone who is interested in learning more about the inconsistency issue I've mentioned.

 
I on the other hand think that biomes are not important at all for most habitat animals. Most ZOOs have the foliage of the biome they are located in. So they use trees and shrubs not from the animal biome, but local. That's why I think game should not force us to use for example snow in arctic animals habitats (maybe introduce some snow enrichment item instead - like "pile of snow" or something).
 
I on the other hand think that biomes are not important at all for most habitat animals. Most ZOOs have the foliage of the biome they are located in. So they use trees and shrubs not from the animal biome, but local. That's why I think game should not force us to use for example snow in arctic animals habitats (maybe introduce some snow enrichment item instead - like "pile of snow" or something).
The snow requirement is utterly ridiculous. I only play in sandbox so it doesn’t impact me but right from the start I couldn’t believe they’d have such a thing.
 
That's why I think game should not force us to use for example snow in arctic animals habitats (maybe introduce some snow enrichment item instead - like "pile of snow" or something).

That enrichment item a really good suggestion, worth its own forum topic.

Same with removing the snow requirement (which I only understand with polar bears). Specially weird that Japanese macaques need at least 10% of snow terrain, I hate that.
 
I'd love to see new biomes and maps added, or even just continue to add new foliage where we could create the look within the existing biomes (if that's easier to achieve).

As elsewhere, my hope would be that these could be added as additions for the appropriate animals/plants/textures, rather than replacing or deleting options that exist now. I'd much rather see devs focused on adding options to the game that everyone can use, rather than vindictively deleting things just to hurt those who play differently.
 
I would love a Seaside town - with Amity type architecture and with infinite water on one/two edges and sandy/rocky shores.

So I can build an aquatic Seal and penguin area like Monterey Bay Aquarium (Brutalist Architecture) and other seaside/rocky Coast architecture - with lots of concrete and rocky fusions . . .

And plants - with a Mangrove inlet so I can landscape it and make it feel like a marine/freshwater estuary - and have Salty's in the estuary and broken logs and more magnificent Mangrove roots, foliage and Seaweed and Kelp aquatic plants.

Also Swamp Cypresses and Manta Rays, Dugongs/Manatee, Dolphins, Groupers and smaller species whales and sharks and crab/Sting Ray touch tank Exhibits.

Also Underwater Tunnels that are part of the pathing system and easy to implement. All neatly packaged in a Marine and Coastal Biome, Aquarium and Coastal wetlands plant pack.:)🐬🐟🐠🦀🐋🚡🚠🚝
 
Last edited:
But even polar bears have no ‘need’ to be kept on snow and it’s just not something that happens in zoos except when it actually snows or if they are given piles of ice as enrichment.

Indeed, I meant that the polar bear was the most reasonable choice for a snow terrain requirement, given that the developers decided to portray them as specially difficult to handle in captivity, together with the more enrichment needing and the requirement for huge space (currently partly solved).
 
When I made the feedback on the biome and continent tags certain plants miss, I saw a strikingly high number of plants who are found in a mediterranean climate (which counts as grassland in the game) who lack the grassland tag.
A lot of these plants would not fit in a classic grassland
This made me support the seperation of the scrub biome (though it may be better to call it "mediterranean" for the climate) from the grassland
 
A few more animal additions for the suggested biomes:
African penguin and common ostrich in scrub (former as primary and latter as secondary)
Greater flamingo in wetlands (secondary)
Grizzly bear as coastal (secondary)

Also adding the tags to the description of certain exhibit animals (such as coastal for the scarab beetle and the terrapin)
 
A few more animal additions for the suggested biomes:
African penguin and common ostrich in scrub (former as primary and latter as secondary)
Greater flamingo in wetlands (secondary)
Grizzly bear as coastal (secondary)

Also adding the tags to the description of certain exhibit animals (such as coastal for the scarab beetle and the terrapin)
Adding the flamingo and the ostrich. Why the penguin and Grizzly though?
 
I saw a strikingly high number of plants who are found in a mediterranean climate (which counts as grassland in the game) who lack the grassland tag. A lot of these plants would not fit in a classic grassland
The nonsense of Grassland = Mediterranean :rolleyes:
 
Adding the flamingo and the ostrich. Why the penguin and Grizzly though?
I take it back with the primary biome of the African penguin being scrub. It should still have it though, as it does live in mediterranean climate in places like South Africa
A lot of grizzly bear populations forage on the shore, feeding on things such as clams.
A lot of other carnivorans have populations that feed on the shore, which may justify giving the biome to them, but it is extremely prominent with these bears.
 
I take it back with the primary biome of the African penguin being scrub. It should still have it though, as it does live in mediterranean climate in places like South Africa
A lot of grizzly bear populations forage on the shore, feeding on things such as clams.
A lot of other carnivorans have populations that feed on the shore, which may justify giving the biome to them, but it is extremely prominent with these bears.
I did some research and you appear to be correct, adding these.
 
Back
Top Bottom