Planet Aquarium: Let's design together

yoav_r

yoav_r
------THIS IS JUST A FUN CONCEPTUAL EXERCISE, NOTHING OFFICIAL HERE------

So... in spirit of the alternate universe PZ threads, I wanted to make a conceptual design for a "Planet Aquarium".

Next week I want to work on a basic roster, feature ideas, game loop and lifecycle, and then publish the result.


But before I do this, let's discuss:
1. What would you want in a "Planet Aquarium"?
2. What would be your base roster/dlc ideas?
3. What features would you prioritize?

Some ground rules:
1. The conceptual game needs to use the same basic engine as PZ and PC
2. The conceptual game is intended to connect with PZ should you own both, so no duplicate animals
3. Participate in this thread only if you are interested in the concept of an aquarium game
 
Last edited:

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
Well, let's assume this connects with PZ. As of right now we already have:
  1. Polar bear
  2. Giant otter
  3. Grey seal
  4. Saltwater croc
  5. California sea lion
  6. American alligator
  7. African penguin
  8. King penguins
Those are the only deep diving animals I feel would fit, really. Of course, we'll get all of them.

Now, I'd like pinniped shows, which would be fun.
 

Hinvolur

H
Mine would be something like this, excluding the crocodilians, pinnipeds and penguins from Planet Zoo (as well as potential flying birds like pelicans, puffins and guillemots).

Base Roster:
Bottlenose dolphin
Pacific white-sided dolphin
Beluga
Harbour porpoise
Antillean manatee
Amazonian river dolphin
Dugong
Sea otter
Blacktip reef shark
Whale shark
Great hammerhead shark
Sand tiger shark
Green sea turtle
Hawksbill turtle
Conger eel
Pacu sp.
Arapaima
Red-tail catfish
Green humphead parrotfish
Atlantic cod
Alligator gar

Exhibits would be more customizable, each with 5 - 10 different species of fish/crustaceans/cephalopods/jellyfish:
Coral Reef Aquarium (eg. clownfish, yellow tang, moray eel sp.
Coastal Aquarium (eg. rock lobster sp., common octopus, gurnard)
Tropical River Aquarium (eg. piranha, archer fish, black river stingray)
etc etc

Stingray touch-pool would probably be essential.
 

yoav_r

yoav_r
darthquell said:
Well, let's assume this connects with PZ. As of right now we already have:
  1. Polar bear
  2. Giant otter
  3. Grey seal
  4. Saltwater croc
  5. California sea lion
  6. American alligator
  7. African penguin
  8. King penguins
Those are the only deep diving animals I feel would fit, really. Of course, we'll get all of them.

Now, I'd like pinniped shows, which would be fun.
Click to expand...
I was thinking more in the direction of aquarium animals, like fish, crustecans, cephalopods... but I guess stuff like sea otter and a fur seal would fit in well.
 

yoav_r

yoav_r
darthquell said:
I feel like the base game would be focused on animals from the ocean.

DLCs would expand the roster with amphibious animals, freshwater. Brackish deltas/forests
Click to expand...
Also, I don't aim to cover all the ocean with the base roster, with all the different regions and biomes to cover:

1. Mediterranean
2. Red sea
3. Indo pacific coral reefs
4. Pelagic
5. Kelp seas
6. Arctic seas
7. Deep sea
8. Carribean

And in freshwster:
1. Amazon river
2. African lakes
3. North american lakes
4. European rivers
5. South/east asian fish variety

And stuff like freshwater turtles, mudskippers, snakes, lizards, crocodilians and the rest could also make it as something similar to exhibit animals.
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
yoav_r said:
Also, I don't aim to cover all the ocean with the base roster, with all the different regions and biomes to cover:

1. Mediterranean
2. Red sea
3. Indo pacific coral reefs
4. Pelagic
5. Kelp seas
6. Arctic seas
7. Deep sea
8. Carribean

And in freshwster:
1. Amazon river
2. African lakes
3. North american lakes
4. European rivers
5. South/east asian fish variety

And stuff like freshwater turtles, mudskippers, snakes, lizards, crocodilians and the rest could also make it as something similar to exhibit animals.
Click to expand...
Exactly.
Base game may focus on NA and Europe harbors, Great Barrier Reef, that stuff
 

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
Okay, i actually have quite the opinion on this.
First of, for the regions coverd in the base game of this expansion/game should have a larger focus on freshwater then saltwater, the reason being, that most aquariums actually feature more freshwater species.
For the regions, i would say the most important are the amazon, great barrier reef, european and american streams and ponds and lake victoria (also known as cichlid wonderlands), as well as a selection of famous species from other oceans like a ray, reefsharks, octopus, etc.

For DLC, i would choose the amazonas (headlined by the arapaima), indian ocean (headlined by the red lionfish), madagascar (headlined by the white spotted bamboo shark), a general reef pack (headlined by the emperor anglefish) and a mediterania pack (headlined by a moray), each featuring plants from their specific regions and as you might allready noticed, add primarly saltwater fish, that we have hold back a bit on before.

So animals i would want to get brought over from planet zoo, are honestly only the caiman and the african penguin come to mind, eventhough i also wouldnt mind small monkeys and small otters, as well as smaller reptiles and rodents. The focus should be on reefs, oceans and tropical and temperate rivers, supporting these choices with fitting smaller animals.

My priorisations would be a better exhibit/aquarium system, where we can choose presized tanks (or build them ourself) that we can fill like a real aquarium. Imagine something like entering a seperate screen/menu, where your only designing the tank, with only it in a zoomed in way visible. That way we could also add things like adding substrate and smaller objects, because the place where we would do it from would be highly zoomed in. There should also be a way to view the animals this way while the animals are in their tanks.
For bigger tanks i want the system we have right now.
I would also like a much bigger focus on management and backstage, in form of actually requiering it, like you would in real life. Aquariums are almost never build against a wall, but as part of it, while behind it is the maintainance area for the keeper, technicians, whatever. This would also help switch up the gameplay, because decorating tiny tank, after tiny tank, after tiny tank would get tiring, so this should do the trick for a nice gameplay loop of in depth aquarium decorating and bigger scale management and planning.

Thats what i have from the top of my head, but yeah, i want a planet aquarium to also do our exhibits justice. See ya later aligator
 

yoav_r

yoav_r
KönigDerKaffeebohnen said:
Okay, i actually have quite the opinion on this.
First of, for the regions coverd in the base game of this expansion/game should have a larger focus on freshwater then saltwater, the reason being, that most aquariums actually feature more freshwater species.
For the regions, i would say the most important are the amazon, great barrier reef, european and american streams and ponds and lake victoria (also known as cichlid wonderlands), as well as a selection of famous species from other oceans like a ray, reefsharks, octopus, etc.

For DLC, i would choose the amazonas (headlined by the arapaima), indian ocean (headlined by the red lionfish), madagascar (headlined by the white spotted bamboo shark), a general reef pack (headlined by the emperor anglefish) and a mediterania pack (headlined by a moray), each featuring plants from their specific regions and as you might allready noticed, add primarly saltwater fish, that we have hold back a bit on before.

So animals i would want to get brought over from planet zoo, are honestly only the caiman and the african penguin come to mind, eventhough i also wouldnt mind small monkeys and small otters, as well as smaller reptiles and rodents. The focus should be on reefs, oceans and tropical and temperate rivers, supporting these choices with fitting smaller animals.

My priorisations would be a better exhibit/aquarium system, where we can choose presized tanks (or build them ourself) that we can fill like a real aquarium. Imagine something like entering a seperate screen/menu, where your only designing the tank, with only it in a zoomed in way visible. That way we could also add things like adding substrate and smaller objects, because the place where we would do it from would be highly zoomed in. There should also be a way to view the animals this way while the animals are in their tanks.
For bigger tanks i want the system we have right now.
I would also like a much bigger focus on management and backstage, in form of actually requiering it, like you would in real life. Aquariums are almost never build against a wall, but as part of it, while behind it is the maintainance area for the keeper, technicians, whatever. This would also help switch up the gameplay, because decorating tiny tank, after tiny tank, after tiny tank would get tiring, so this should do the trick for a nice gameplay loop of in depth aquarium decorating and bigger scale management and planning.

Thats what i have from the top of my head, but yeah, i want a planet aquarium to also do our exhibits justice. See ya later aligator
Click to expand...
This is the kind of indepth analysis I was looking for. Amazing!
 

12344321

1
I think planet zoo is my favorite game ever. I've definitely played it the most. I would LOVE Aquarium DLC in planet zoo.

I really hope Frontier adds aquarium exhibits, sharks, rays etc to Planet Zoo. But personally I would never play (or buy) a Planet Aquarium game. I want more aquatic species in Planet Zoo....not an entirely different game.

That's just my humble opinion, I still really enjoy reading everybody else's ideas for Aquariums.👍 I'd love all of those ideas in a DLC or expansion for Planet Zoo!
 

Sclurp

Sclurp
I think it would be a neat idea to have a Planet Aquarium game that can be a standalone title or connect with Planet Zoo and share its assets, gameplay and animals.

Really, I think borrowing from Megaquarium would be the best idea. That game doesn't concern itself with how it looks (that's for sure - despite having some charm with its simple and stylised graphics/art). But the gameplay is chef's kiss with managing staff who need to work away in backstage areas to maintain heaters, filters and protein skimmers etc... that are connected to pumps. This maintenance happens every 5 days or so (maybe that'd be too long for PZ as the days are much shorter in Megaquarium.)
Meanwhile the other staff members are on a mad dash to get all your fish, crustaceans and corals fed.
Guests interacting with your tanks give you prestige, science points or nature points based on what's in the tank. This all goes into filling up research bars that give you new fish and new equipment. It's a very satisfying game to play as you're given lots of feedback for what you plonk down and there's a constant stream of unlocks.

But with each tier of equipment, there's some mastery needed. It's not that it's (the tech) more expensive because it makes your life easier...No, it opens up new gameplay possibilities because the fancier equipment allows you to build bigger tanks, house larger fish or more all together in one tank, and you have to have staff who're trained enough to operate the equipment and care for more demanding animals. Training staff doesn't mean they're just faster at what they do.

All of this I'd love to see in the Planet engine with Frontier's own take on it.

What I wouldn't want to see is that the gameplay is the same as Planet Zoo but now you just put fish in a body of water and then leave the tank to it. I know I've gone on about another game for most of my post but what this boils down to is this: I want gameplay to be put first. Not building pieces and not necessarily the quantity of animals either (if it comes down to picking one over the other). Trusting the players to be interested enough and smart enough to figure out the puzzle of fitting the right equipment together for big tanks, and making sure the right water quality/ temperature is met, balanced against how you stock the tank and what plants you put in that tank, that's key.

Species:
Whatever is included, I just want the gameplay to incorporate their behaviour...Again, take a look at Megaquarium with its bully-wimp system, it's size charts that manages what fish can eat each other, which fish need a hiding place and which need a rounded tank etc etc etc
 

Spiderhawk

Spiderhawk
Hey thanks for making this
I once created a forum about a theoretical “Planet Aquarium” and the moderators moved it to off topic from being on PZ forums.
Bellow is from my original post
Realistically I believe frontier will give us much requested land animals and a few requested semi aquatic animals, but we really shouldn’t expect sharks, cetaceans etc for the remainder of PZs life.

Therefore I think the best way to incorporate marine life should be in a separate game unofficially and theoretically known as Planet Aquarium.

A game that can function similar to both PZ and PC in regards to animal care and guest attractions. Your aquarium can be built inside and outside that can be expanded anytime. Also you have several floors where you can build on, some tanks can be so big they cover 2 floors.

Aquarium themes: while watching The Aquarium and remembering visits to the Monterey aquarium I thought of some themes.
Aquatic theme that we have in PZ
Sunken ship
Polar
Florida/Hawaii/Caribbean vibe
Deep sea
Small and medium tanks should function similar to exhibits but the animals move around and you customize the tanks with more stuff that our exhibits don’t. Guests will get bored looking at the same tanks designs so there should be some more motivation to mix up your tank designs.
Small tank animals.
Crustaceans, eels, mollusks.
Small fish: Instead of buying them individually we buy them in schools or small numbers. Clown fish, tangs etc. fish from Great Barrier Reef, Hawaii, Caribbean, Red Sea etc.

Medium tank animals
individual animals such as groupers, sting rays, eels, knife fish, alligator gar, small sharks, any big freshwater marine life. These will function similar to habitats and get a lot of inter species bonus provided they are carefully matched.

Large tanks animals
Whale sharks, manta rays, sea turtles anything that is big and would need a lot of room.

Reptiles
Bring our crocodilians from PZ along
Marine iguanas
aligator snapping turtles


Pinnipeds
Sea lions: either keep our Californias or give us steller or even Galapagos
Walrus could certainly stand out
Seals: Ones that come to mind are hawaiin monk seals or any of the ice seals. Or bring along our gray seals.

Others
polar bears
Manatees
Giant otters
Sea otters
Asian small claw

Birds
bring along the African penguins but maybe some macaroni or humboldt could fit in. Maybe king penguins or go emperor
If they can figure out aviaries then I say bring on puffins, Pelicans and other deep diving marine birds.
Maybe wadding birds.

Cetaceans
Now here’s the controversial area.
I’ve seen belugas in aquariums, they seem happy and a lot of research is done on them. There’s many held captive in Russia right now so maybe we would do the world a favor by rescuing some and be able to rehab in our aquariums?
maybe rehabbing dolphins?

Absolutely off limits
No orcas, porpoises, great white sharks, giant squid.

Guest features.
IMAX educational theater, you pick what kind of film will be shown. They can range from any topic or any issue regarding our oceans or highlight areas of interest in our oceans or on animals not found at the aquarium.
Touch tanks
Education boards similar to PZ but cover ocean related issues
Animal talk points
Bigger and customizable gift shops

Staff stuff
Staff and guest facilities function the same as PZ
Water filter and temperature regulators need to be specific and can only cover so many tanks. I personally want bigger and better backstage stuff.
I would like cool freshwater critters for PZ but with the rumor of 5 dlcs remaining, I certainly would rather PZ focus on missing land animals and birds. So a new game I’d much rather prefer.
 

12344321

1
Spiderhawk said:
Hey thanks for making this
I once created a forum about a theoretical “Planet Aquarium” and the moderators moved it to off topic from being on PZ forums.
Bellow is from my original post
Realistically I believe frontier will give us much requested land animals and a few requested semi aquatic animals, but we really shouldn’t expect sharks, cetaceans etc for the remainder of PZs life.

Therefore I think the best way to incorporate marine life should be in a separate game unofficially and theoretically known as Planet Aquarium.



A game that can function similar to both PZ and PC in regards to animal care and guest attractions. Your aquarium can be built inside and outside that can be expanded anytime. Also you have several floors where you can build on, some tanks can be so big they cover 2 floors.

Aquarium themes: while watching The Aquarium and remembering visits to the Monterey aquarium I thought of some themes.
Aquatic theme that we have in PZ
Sunken ship
Polar
Florida/Hawaii/Caribbean vibe
Deep sea
Small and medium tanks should function similar to exhibits but the animals move around and you customize the tanks with more stuff that our exhibits don’t. Guests will get bored looking at the same tanks designs so there should be some more motivation to mix up your tank designs.
Small tank animals.
Crustaceans, eels, mollusks.
Small fish: Instead of buying them individually we buy them in schools or small numbers. Clown fish, tangs etc. fish from Great Barrier Reef, Hawaii, Caribbean, Red Sea etc.

Medium tank animals
individual animals such as groupers, sting rays, eels, knife fish, alligator gar, small sharks, any big freshwater marine life. These will function similar to habitats and get a lot of inter species bonus provided they are carefully matched.

Large tanks animals
Whale sharks, manta rays, sea turtles anything that is big and would need a lot of room.

Reptiles
Bring our crocodilians from PZ along
Marine iguanas
aligator snapping turtles


Pinnipeds
Sea lions: either keep our Californias or give us steller or even Galapagos
Walrus could certainly stand out
Seals: Ones that come to mind are hawaiin monk seals or any of the ice seals. Or bring along our gray seals.

Others
polar bears
Manatees
Giant otters
Sea otters
Asian small claw

Birds
bring along the African penguins but maybe some macaroni or humboldt could fit in. Maybe king penguins or go emperor
If they can figure out aviaries then I say bring on puffins, Pelicans and other deep diving marine birds.
Maybe wadding birds.

Cetaceans
Now here’s the controversial area.
I’ve seen belugas in aquariums, they seem happy and a lot of research is done on them. There’s many held captive in Russia right now so maybe we would do the world a favor by rescuing some and be able to rehab in our aquariums?
maybe rehabbing dolphins?

Absolutely off limits
No orcas, porpoises, great white sharks, giant squid.

Guest features.
IMAX educational theater, you pick what kind of film will be shown. They can range from any topic or any issue regarding our oceans or highlight areas of interest in our oceans or on animals not found at the aquarium.
Touch tanks
Education boards similar to PZ but cover ocean related issues
Animal talk points
Bigger and customizable gift shops

Staff stuff
Staff and guest facilities function the same as PZ
Water filter and temperature regulators need to be specific and can only cover so many tanks. I personally want bigger and better backstage stuff.
I would like cool freshwater critters for PZ but with the rumor of 5 dlcs remaining, I certainly would rather PZ focus on missing land animals and birds. So a new game I’d much rather prefer.
Click to expand...


I don't see the logic. Dolphins maybe...but porpoises absolutely no? And killer whales, which are dolphins are also an absolute no?
 

ElectricMonk

ElectricMonk
TBH I don’t think the cobra engine is very well set up for Aquaria- Don’t get me wrong, I like to go to the aquarium (I worked in a fairly large one for 5 years), but aquaria tend to be largely indoor and that’s something that is hard to get right in PZ and PC.
 

Spiderhawk

Spiderhawk
12344321 said:
I don't see the logic. Dolphins maybe...but porpoises absolutely no? And killer whales, which are dolphins are also an absolute no?
Click to expand...
What I mean is
Example there is a pacific white sided dolphin at at Vancouver aquarium with injuries that cannot be released. I mean maybe this game could have us rehabilitating them to be released. Say example they were captured from the wild and we are working to get them back.
yes I know orcas are dolphins
 

Hinvolur

H
12344321 said:
I don't see the logic. Dolphins maybe...but porpoises absolutely no? And killer whales, which are dolphins are also an absolute no?
Click to expand...
Harbour porpoises and river dolphins are the cetaceans that I have been absolutely comfortable about seeing in captivity because of their size and sedentary habits respectively.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom