Planet Zoo 2

[FluffyTiger]

Relax, relax! This is just for funzies!! What the hell am I thinking?? If it's ever a thing, it's at least a half a decade away right?!

I was thinking though about some things I'd like, and one thing I'd love, not just in Planet Zoo but even Planet Coaster (which I own but have... never actually played... the shame of it...) and other 'tycoon' games as well, is more realism in terms of the logistics of the game.

Guests just don't all spawn from the same 'squares' in the map for example. They drive in and have to park, or they come in by public transport, be it bus/boat/train/etc; and they all leave the same way. You might start out with a small car park, and then get build more car parks and setup public transport stops as your zoo gets bigger.

The same thing with stock for shops, or animal food; it's bought in and brought to the zoo by trucks and then would have to be stored in fridges or freezers; and later brought to separate areas of the park where they are needed when they are needed. And similarly, when you actually get animals for the park, they just don't come from one small building in tiny crates in staff member's arms (carrying an elephant????). They're brought in by truck, and they have to be properly transported then into their habitats from the truck.

It would essentially utilise backstage areas by actually making them a necessary part of the gameplay! Staff vehicles as well They don't just walk all over your park, they drive where they need to go. Investing in different SUVs, trucks, vans, etc. Like the animal food and shop stock, it's moved to areas of your park by staff driving them to where they need to go. Each area (be it a food kiosk, keeper hut, etc) of the park has its own inventory, and when it reaches a minimum level, it prompts the game to send the staff to drive and get more from where all bought in foods and things are stored somewhere near the start of your park, and then that storage building also have its own inventory system and when it reaches a minimum level, it sends out a request to buy in more food/gifts which comes in by truck! The same process goes for anything you can think of really; garbage, building (maybe having to wait for builders to build things, and not just have everything magic out of thin air?), etc.

I don't even know if this is possible from a coding perspective, whether it's too advanced, or even if it would require mega-computers that most people couldn't afford to even run properly! Maybe I'm mad too, it's just something I've always fancied seeing in games. There is a very very small version of this in Parkitect I think for food and shops stock, all of which has to be hidden from guest view.

 

[AlexSea]

Like you said, this is just for fun, but I can't help but think that there's not really a lot a PZ2 could improve upon, at least, not much that couldn't be added in the first game. Aviaries are bound to happen now that we have walkthrough exhibits, and though I doubt we'll get fully aquatic animals, those could easily go into a Planet Aquarium.

 

[Captain Callum]

That's a real nice selection of features for such a new game, typically I would've hesitant to think of a second game especially with these kind of sandbox builders where I'd have to start alllllllll over again. But let's say it happens, who knows the next block of games scheduled in 2 or so years time could be this. There are many improvements I could think of that would warrant the attention of a second game rather than features that could simply be implemented in the current free updates.

First one is the game engine. Absolutely essential the new generation of planet games need a modern version of cobra to utilize a vast addition of new features and optimisation. Optimisation is in a dire state where I cannot see any game changing features to be added to the existing game without harming performance, the topic of free flying aviaries always brings up performance as a main cause why it may not happen

Next up is animal behaviour in both ways. We have a great setup of existing behaviours but animals can still feel like on a A-B loop. When you have thousands of gameplay hours like I do you find it's very easy to notice the painful patterns of animals that differ heavily from realistic standards. So new animal behaviours like big cats pacing, herding, family groups, advanced enrichment interactions, animal-keeper bonds, playful fighting and so many more

Guests themselves are drastically needed to be attended with new ways of pathfinding. One way paths, group avoidance abilities, able to tour entire zoos, better ways at detecting dedicated viewpoints, not getting stuck, the ability to use long range viewing tools like say a DSLR camera or binoculars. There's so many times I just turn off the guests because I don't want to babysit my guests needs who can't think straight

I'll one one to say I don't actually mind the ai of the staff so I would much rather far more realistic features like you mentioned. Backstage areas are entirely creative uses and don't serve any purpose, the use of new backstage facilities including having holding pens for breeding animals would bring so much more into the game. Staff vehicles would also be a godsend for my large zoos

Guest spawning is another great idea. I don't really like hiding guest spawner squares in my car parking areas since guests still appear out of thin air . Moving traffic would be great and isn't that hard to implement to think when games like cities skylines does exactly the same thing of car spawns outside map and drives along and then guests spawn outside of the vehicle. Of course this would mean the addition of portals in a null barrier sort of way to define entry points. Public transport should also have the options of train , boat, bus , monorail and even gondola

Ah I could go on all day but yeah it's a great thinking point

 

[ElectricMonk]

I think that planet zoo will have a long life even after support ends. Mods will keep adding to the roster and it’ll still be a great game for a long time.

I like your ideas (mainly how guests arrive) but the biggest thing I (personally) would like is the inclusion of seasons - both for weather and plants but also for animal behaviour (e.g., mating etc.) and morphology (winter vs. summer coats).

I’d also love staff enrichment training of animals - to give a boost to enrichment and health (maybe education of guests too).

Lastly, a mechanism for rotating enrichment automatically (done by keepers) would be cool.

 

[premierfong]

I think that planet zoo will have a long life even after support ends. Mods will keep adding to the roster and it’ll still be a great game for a long time.

I like your ideas (mainly how guests arrive) but the biggest thing I (personally) would like is the inclusion of seasons - both for weather and plants but also for animal behaviour (e.g., mating etc.) and morphology (winter vs. summer coats).

I’d also love staff enrichment training of animals - to give a boost to enrichment and health (maybe education of guests too).

Lastly, a mechanism for rotating enrichment automatically (done by keepers) would be cool.

Honestly, CitySkyline is still supporting and releasing DLCs, I dont see why PZ can't. We have there are much much much more animals out there.

 

[Antimony96]

Wouldn't be at all interested unless it implemented full-fledged aquarium and aviary systems.

 

[NZFanatic]

Honestly, CitySkyline is still supporting and releasing DLCs, I dont see why PZ can't. We have there are much much much more animals out there.

I suppose it depends on how much longer Frontier can justify supporting a niche market. Eventually the 'mainstream' players will drift away to other games, leaving only a core of dedicated zoo-specific fans. Yes, we would commit to every piece of new content released, but I doubt we would be enough on our own to keep things afloat indefinitely.

What I'm hoping they will do is reduce updates to one per year, mostly focused on bug-fixes and feature dumps, while actually game content comes in smaller, more frequent lots to drag things out. For example, one or two animals every month with a couple of new pieces of foliage and decorations or enrichment items.

 

[premierfong]

Wouldn't be at all interested unless it implemented full-fledged aquarium and aviary systems.

Plus all the existing roster ported into the game. Otherwise gotta wait for them over yearsssssssss. I am not a fan of the wait. We still have sxxt load of animal we want.