My take on exhibits aka. the Goldilocks proposal

As far as the current system for the reptiles and amphibians, not sure what you mean, since they are literally statues unless you get right up close to one of them, they are basically looping animations, the only thing I'm asking is for the box to be taken away.
My reasoning for this part was that they are all species that don't move much, and it doesn't feel wrong for them not to move. And yes, they do loop, but in very subtle ways, like heads slowy moving, unlike an active creature moving around in circles, which would seem much more repetitive. That's my logic. And I do agree that since we have flamingos and peafowl, flying birds that spend a majority of time foraging on the ground could be added, and not feel too out of place. Storks, pheasants, cranes (hopefully Afterican crowned, and perhaps sandhill, whooping cranes are nice, but I find sandhills more iconic to NA, mostly do to the rarity of whoopings. Or maybe all three), turkeys, ducks, the list goes on.
 
My reasoning for this part was that they are all species that don't move much, and it doesn't feel wrong for them not to move. And yes, they do loop, but in very subtle ways, like heads slowy moving, unlike an active creature moving around in circles, which would seem much more repetitive. That's my logic. And I do agree that since we have flamingos and peafowl, flying birds that spend a majority of time foraging on the ground could be added, and not feel too out of place. Storks, pheasants, cranes (hopefully Afterican crowned, and perhaps sandhill, whooping cranes are nice, but I find sandhills more iconic to NA, mostly do to the rarity of whoopings. Or maybe all three), turkeys, ducks, the list goes on.

I understand now what you meant, and like I wrote before, it would not be my first choice either, but it is a compromise that we should all be willing to make, if at the end Frontier can not add flying mechanics without blowing up everyones equipment. Again this are all assumptions since, I have no knowledge of what they can or can not do, many in this forum have stated that there is a good chance that this might not be able to happen, mostly based on game performance limitations. But I'm glad that we agree that there are enough bird species that behave and are exhibited in zoos in similar fashion to the flamingos, so there is no reason why they can't be added as habitat animals. Having an African grassland exhibit with no birds other than the African Flamingos is a big disappointment. I can close my eyes and imagine, Openbill Storks, Sacred Ibis, Marabu, Secretary Birds, Crowned Cranes, Southern Ground Hornbills, I see duck species and Pelicans interacting with the flamingos, vultures just around the corner on top of a hollow log, then I open my eyes and it is a ghost town again.
 
I would also like to see mammals and birds as habitat animals over exhibit mostly due to gameplay reasons mentioned here, like exhibit animals only having idle animations. At the same time I know that Frontier probably has something planned and already working on it, and I doubt it would ever change based on the discussions made on the forum, since major features like this are planned ahead of time and takes a long time to implement. Either way, I would be happy with both styles as long as they are well made.
 
I'm glad you see it this way, because I have come to understand that if at the end small/medium birds are not possible as habitat animals, since it would add a tremendous amount of lag to the game, then the animals in looping animations without restrictive exhibits would be an ideal solution.
Actually it's the large animals that are very performance demanding, idk why but that's the way it is. A few elephants or hippos lag the game as much as several dozen small animals. I had tested this in an empty sandbox zoo. So I don't think small and medium birds being habitat animals would necessarily cause extra game lag. Even though I would prefer even smaller birds to be habitat animals, the developers know the constraints of their engine better than any of us, so we'll all have to trust their decision on this. For instance people expected koalas to be exhibit animals in the near past, but we saw how the official decision was different to that.
 
For instance people expected koalas to be exhibit animals in the near past, but we saw how the official decision was different to that.

I don't really think anybody expected that. The most commentary I saw on koalas prior to the Australia Pack was that people assumed they'd be missed out for various reasons.

Early in the game's life Frontier did state that exhibits would only be for reptiles and invertebrates. Who knows how it will go for birds? As I've said before my biggest concern is having to compromise on what goes into my zoo. Right now it's already difficult choosing a good mixture of "unusual" and "iconic" species for the zoo (i.e. animals you'd expect to see in a zoo and animals that you wouldn't see very often), so throwing birds into that mix is going to cause all sorts of headaches.
 
I don't really think anybody expected that. The most commentary I saw on koalas prior to the Australia Pack was that people assumed they'd be missed out for various reasons.
I did see a lot of comments (discord mostly) predicting koalas would and should be exhibit, just like sloths. But I guess that doesn't matter now anyways.
 
Resurrecting this thread to see if I can get people interested in this as I'd really like to have this ingame.

Also, I feel like we need at least 50 to 80 extra exhibit species.

Oh, and have some looped animations that they do
 
To me an exhibit update is as important as adding flying mechanics, but I don't necessarily need 50-80 exhibit animals.
An update would make those we already have way more interesting. If they then just added a small amount of new species with the update and otherwise continued with one in each DLC, I think we might land a decent place.
 
I do feel there are at least a few extras that'd be nice.

For example cobras. Like the goddamned engine is named Cobra so why aren't there any goddamned cobras in the game?
 
I keep saying every update, that I hope the next major update for the game is an overhaul on the exhibit system. Make it more modular and including must of what your first post included, maybe with even more options - the ability to create "L" shaped exhibits or even circular ones for instance. I still think it's the least interesting aspect of the game, because there's so little you can actually do with the interior of it.

I'd like to see more exhibit animals as well; agree that the fact we don't have a cobra of some type is baffling. A Chameleon of some type is right up there for me as well.
 
If there is an exhibit TLC the following things would definitely be a step in the right direction
  • Multiple exhibit sizes, including 50cmx50cm enclosures for tiny species like spiders/bugs that can be placed/rotated without path snapping.
  • Ability to have borderless exhibits to expand design freedom like the borderless shops.
  • more exhibit size decorations that we can use to place inside exhibits to give our own flair without blocking the view of the animals.
The biggest thing that could change is the ability to place exhibit animals similar to props for care wherever we please. This would allow players to use the exhibit animals and their animations in a variety of ways, like adding life to a habitat, or creating an encounter area with exhibit species. They could still retain their stagnant positions and use their animations, but now they have further utility and interaction with your zoo. Sadly I doubt this would happen :( But it would be the best thing to happen for exhibit animals if it did.

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At a Place I worked we had a micro exhibit section which included nudibranchs, gunnels, unique crabs, warbonnets and other creepy/cool small critters that were pretty small but enough for them to be comfortable and visible for guests to view.
id say the only animals suitable for the exhibit size we have are all reptiles except for anaconda and iguanas. The insects don’t need that much space. I’d say the bullfrog is the only sized amphibian suitable for the current exhibit size. Not sure about the arachnids but I think the centipedes work.
at this rate idk how the future is going to look, the next dlc or an expansion pack will show us if the game will include anything with new mechanics as opposed to themes or animal only.
 
Honestly even the anacondas and the iguanas are fine. I don't get why people think they need biger boxes. 4x4m is roughly the size of an average human bedroom, and it's about what they'd get in a real life zoo. They just look small because PZ's inherent scale is off. When you stand a guest in front of bare exhibits, they look as big as they're supposed to. Considering the reptiles in question are not particularly active, mainly only moving to eat, warm up, or cool down, the space they have is just fine. We do not need bigger exhibits.

We do, however, need smaller ones. Housing inverts in a room as big as my bedroom is ridiculous. They need even less space than reptiles do. Inverts happily live in egg cartons stuffed in plastic bins stuffed in a cupboard. Obviously that's not what we need from a zoo enclosure, but the point is that they definitely don't need the same housing unit as an anaconda does.
 
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