Modding: What will be possible?

[[VR] Deggial]

As far as I know (and I don't know much), it is quite easy to create new structures (by using existing game assets) in 'Planet Coaster' and the Stream workshop is full of awesome and creative player content.
I assume, the same will be possible in 'Planet Zoo'.

One thing I am wondereing, though: Will it also possible to alter existing animals and create variations?
Will it, for example, be possible to "create" the unlikely to be inmplemented 'European Wiesent' out of a way more likely 'American Buffalo'?

1) The quite different biotope requirements are just numbers that should be easy enough to expose for modders and be tweaked by them.
2) The animal's appearance is way trickier, of course. In the above case, though, I believe that 'Wiesent' and 'Buffalo' look similar enough:

American buffalo

European wiesent

The most obvious difference is color and possibly size (the wisent is a bit larger than the buffalo).
As far as I've understood, the fur color is variable in the game (at least inbetween a population). How felxible are fur colors currently; are e.g. albinos possible? And wouldn't this mean that the underleying variables could be exposed to modders as well? So they could "reskin" a buffalo into a wiesent?
What about the scaling of the animals? Is there a variation in the game already and could the related variables be accessible as well so it could be tweaked?

I still hope for Lynx to be represented in the game (because they are wonderful and cute and unique-looking and one of the few large predators in european forrests).
I would then love to create a zoo with European forrest thematic: Wolves, possibly lynx, maybe deer. And the most impressive and bulkiest of all inhabitants, the enormous (and once worshiped as forrest god) beast, the wiesent in its natural habitate!

 

[LN]

I guess, if the TMTK is introduced with Planet Zoo as well. That will stick to scenery pieces, and scenery pieces only.

Like with Planet Coaster it's not possible to create rides (probably to keep ride DLC's interesting), I bet the same will be with Planzoo only then with the animals.

Modding (besides scenery objects) will most likely not be a thing in Planet Zoo, Frontier does not release their engine coding, probably because they want the game to stick as close to what they think the game should be.

I do believe it is a good idea to have the ability of modding, although most mods turn out to be game crashers.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

Luuknoord, I can't press "Like(+1)" because I don't, but I am pretty sure you are correct.

 

[Aero-Bubbles]

I highly highly highly doubt that such things will be possible, and probably for good reason. The coding and behaviors of each animal is unique and distinguished from genetic to behavior. Also, each animals with a visible pattern is different from the others,
I think it would cause massive problems in game for players if modding animals were allowed.

The American Bison (as they are better known as) behaviors and characteristics are different from the European Wisent. It goes beyond looks and size

 

[[VR] Deggial]

I guess, it’s time to add the wisent to the wishlist then ...

 

[Joël]

Based on my experience with Planet Coaster and previous statements by Frontier, I personally think it will be unlikely that players will be able to add custom “modded” animals to Planet Zoo. The animal model itself might not be so hard, but the animation, animal behaviour and animal specific gameplay will be impossible to add unless you’re a developer of the game.

Something similar was already explained by other users in this thread.

 

[eulemur]

We'll most likely get the theme makers toolkit down the line, as others have mentioned. IMO that's as much as we'll get in terms of modding.

I think allowing people to mod animals wouldn't be a wise business decision if they're planning on releasing DLC - as why would people buy DLC for Australian animals, for example, if someone has already modded them all in for free? This is likely the same reason for only implementing the TMTK recently, rather than when PlanCo was first released. If we ever get the capability of modding our own animals via some sort of toolkit it wouldn't be until Frontier has exhausted all of their DLC, and even then I don't think that's likely based on the coding limitations mentioned by others.

 

[Nicholas LionRider]

Unfortunately I am leaning towards no to modding. At least animal wise. Their stance on modding is semi iffy since Planet Coaster now allows custom content, but Jurassic World Evolutions does not. I'd likely argue that modding would be frowned upon simply for quality sake. Its much harder to mod an animal for Planet Zoo than back when mods were made for ZT2 for instance. Back in the Zoo Tycoon modding days you just needed some skin swaps and maybe very basic geometry modification. The planet zoo animals have things like procedural texturing, complex animations and behaviors, and so the entry bar is much higher. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it will be very difficult. As mentioned, look at JWE as reference, people have "tried to mod" but its very difficult. Planet Zoo will likely be the same. Frontier probably also doesn't want modding for the sake of DLC money. If you want a custom sign, that is fine cause it wouldn't cost them money, but if they try selling a "Red Panda" and someone has already made one via modding, that likely wouldn't go over well.