New things you discovered in the game

[jcp011c]

We're now over the 3 year point with Planet Zoo and many of us have played since launch. Many of us are also probably discovering new things things about the game or what can be done in the game. I thought I'd start a thread for some of these tips or discoveries that may be very obvious to some, but may also not be something that's discovered or thought about right away. This thread may help to bring those tips to light and help all. This can be for building tips, animal tips, animal observations or trivia, or even little things about the game that are not always easy to find (like the sloth poster in one of the staff buildings!)

This doesn't have to be for veteran players only either, anyone can share. Though if you're just starting out, there may be a chance that what's brand new to you may be well known. That's okay, share it, maybe it's something innovative too! Also doesn't have to be for expert zoo managers, animal experts or expert builders either. The point is that we all can learn. Pictures are welcome but not required.

So to start off, an "aha" moment I had today when making my own barrier - typically when using the null barriers I would turn the part with the entrance gate into a standard barrier, for something to connect the building pieces to tightly so there's no room for escapes. Today I wondered if the grid walls with the door cutout would work, like how they go on the staff buildings and what do you know, it works. It takes a little bit to line up the building piece with the cutout to the gate, but it's much more visually appealing than having a section that's a standard barrier in the middle of what's otherwise just building pieces. I honestly can't believe it took me 3 years to realize this lol.

Interested to see more discoveries here!

 

[AlexSea]

You can align paths to the grid of a building if you select the align paths option on the building. That makes aligning paths to building layouts incredibly easy.

 

[Marvinb]

You can align paths to the grid of a building if you select the align paths option on the building. That makes aligning paths to building layouts incredibly easy.

Say what? all the times ive struggled to get a path through my buildingds...

 

[jcp011c]

You can align paths to the grid of a building if you select the align paths option on the building. That makes aligning paths to building layouts incredibly easy.

Whaaaa? I didn’t even know that was an option to choose. I really gotta read through all the window tabs for placement rather than just go for it.

 

[Colehunter35]

You can align paths to the grid of a building if you select the align paths option on the building. That makes aligning paths to building layouts incredibly easy.

i usually place a guest spawner and then align that path to a grid and fill the house/building

 

[Karen F]

I never even bothered to do the Building tutorials so I got a feeling This thread Will be interesting .

 

[Nioell]

So to start off, an "aha" moment I had today when making my own barrier - typically when using the null barriers I would turn the part with the entrance gate into a standard barrier, for something to connect the building pieces to tightly so there's no room for escapes. Today I wondered if the grid walls with the door cutout would work, like how they go on the staff buildings and what do you know, it works. It takes a little bit to line up the building piece with the cutout to the gate, but it's much more visually appealing than having a section that's a standard barrier in the middle of what's otherwise just building pieces. I honestly can't believe it took me 3 years to realize this lol.

Interested to see more discoveries here!

You can actually use the solid walls for that just fine as well, the staff just move through them. I almost never leave the barrier there, it's always the null and the gate is hidden in the wall where I place my scenery on. Staff and guests will walk though anything as long as it's on paths, once they're insade the habitat it suddenly becomes impossibel for them which is kinda annoying if you ask me because it rules out quite a few building designs :/

Staying in this area: you don't have to use the ugly walkthrough gates to make a walktrough habitat. You can simply build a custom gate on the path and the guests will walk through it just fine while the animals can't. Looks so much nicer than those gates.

 

[TheYeti]

Two things I found useful:

• If you want to align a non-grid piece to a grid that’s not property aligned with the world grid, use ‘align to surface’, place it on the side of a wall and then rotate it with the 45 degree angle to have it aligned perfectly.
• If you mess up the rotation of an object you wanna place, pressing ‘c’ will reset it to the word grid.

 

[jcp011c]

You can actually use the solid walls for that just fine as well, the staff just move through them.

Ironically I’ve done that before, so i hav no idea why I never thought about using the door piece.

 

[Aramar]

My favourite frame for the education boards is the Indian one, but turned around 180º and sunk a little bit to hide the flower.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

Have an animal in your storage center that you want to rename for later, but don't want to put it in a habitat? If you "move" the animal from your storage to a path, or just a blank part of the map where there's no habitat, it will give you a note that the animal can't be moved, but it will now appear in your animal list, so you can rename it from there without having to actually move it to a habitat to rename.

 

[jcp011c]

Have an animal in your storage center that you want to rename for later, but don't want to put it in a habitat? If you "move" the animal from your storage to a path, or just a blank part of the map where there's no habitat, it will give you a note that the animal can't be moved, but it will now appear in your animal list, so you can rename it from there without having to actually move it to a habitat to rename.

Whaa? This is very helpful. I wonder if it's a bug. Not one that needs to be fixed if it is, IMO.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

(This works in franchise mode, uncertain about others).

Sometimes when searching the animal market, there will be animals that don't have any text in the field that shows their coloration/color morph. However, if you click on "compare mates" the missing color label will almost always show up on that next screen.

This can be particularly helpful with some of the more subtle color variations (king cheetah, piebald nyala) where the animal's icon/avatar can be very subtle, or where the bronze/silver/gold badge is partially covering the area that would show the color variation.