Planet zoo - how to make it even better?

[Joozik2]

Hey guys, I just achieved 400 hours of planet zoo and to celebrate this I was thinking we can have a little discussion about how to make this game even better experience!

I love planet zoo, and it is the zoo game we all have been waiting for since zoo tycoon 2. I am not here to complain, its just some ideas how to make this game more whole rounded.

This is not another what DLC or theme pack we need post, I came up with a short list of tweaks and rather mechanics that i would love to see being added to the game. Here it go, and please share what you miss in planet zoo!

1. Entertaining - playgrounds, mini theatres, perhaps even adding and entertainment need for the guests
2. More educational options - for example listen to animal calls station, different types of animals fur boards, animal showcase with zookeeper etc
3. Fur variety (already coming)
4. Zoo tours (having a tour guide with a small groups of visitors would give me a life!) and you could actually plan the tour, that would be amazing!
5. More Plant love! Perhaps a plant version of zoopedia where we can learn some facts about different plants and the biomes they are in + plants educational boards so that you can learn while walking in the parks etc. I think I have seen plants info signs in almost every real zoo so far
6. Compost and other ecology perks to boost your parks
7. Different size and shapes terrariums and aquariums
8. Real challenges or a new challenge mode with an in game rewards. I think frontier did very good job with the challenge mode in JWE, similarly like there we could go from an easy to an apocalypse difficulty and unlocke just something small like a new fur variation, new plant colour varriation, new statue. I believe this is very needed to make planet zoo more game instead of a simulator. I know that there are communty challenges, but CC or animals are poor rewards that gives almost zero satisfaction.
9. Park Achievements. Something to make your zoo more special! - certain amount of guests, breed endangered animals, opened for a 100 years etc. And you can even be rewarded with a small plaque or something, again to make this feel more like a game.
10. Multiple entrances/exits (very common in real parks)

What do you guys think? What extra game mechanics you would like to see next?

 

[Nat1984]

I would like to see more education options.
Things like perhaps a ‘discovery centre’ which is essentially a form of education. It could simply be something the guests enter (like the toilet is) but they come out more educated, and you can just decorate it yourself to look like a discovery centre. So you assume that when inside, the guests are reading things/looking at things. I would imagine this wouldn’t be too hard for the game makers to do? It would just add another thing for guests to do in the zoo and more options for us as builders.

I think the game really needs aquariums. I am seeing them in my head as the same as exhibits, but for fish.

I’d also like a restaurant option like in planet coaster. It seems to daft to have separate food and drink shops all the time.

 

[Cool Cats and Kittens]

A big improvement would be more interesting starting maps. I really liked the campaign maps where we had to build a new zoo in the crater or the oasis. Frontier should add the already existing empty maps from the campaign and the sandbox to the franchise mode. The smaller map size is not really a problem, because we cannot fill the current map anyways due to the decreasing performance. It would be even more awesome if Frontier keept adding a new map with every updade

 

[DoctorWho1975]

Optimizations would be nice.... my hardware shouldn't be getting used less as the zoo size grows and lag/stuttering grows with it. Much of what is proposed would be problematic with mid to large zoos... great if they could get it to where 5K+ zoos flowed smoothly.

 

[Kolikokoli]

I would love to see plant education. Not necessarily complex as animals but at every Zoo I've been there's educational boards/texts about different plants and biomes.

 

[Firestar97]

I would love Education-Signs about Plants because I opened a new Zoo and wanted it to be a Combination of a Zoo and a Botanical Garden. Also if we will get a Botanopedia (or however a Lexikon for Plants would be called in the Game) I would love it if we could see there if a Plant can survive the Winter in the temperate Biome. It's a little bit annoying to need to research in the Internet everytime I want to know if a Plant can be outside the whole Year (I like to build my Zoo realistic)

I don't think there should be a Entertainment Need. These Objects should just increase the Happiness.

More Education Options would be great.

Everything on this List is great (except the Entertainment Need. But maybe this could be good if watching at Animals in beautiful Enclosures would also fulfill the Need)

 

[felinora99]

I agree so much with points 4, 6 and especially 8 ! I loved unlocking new Dinosaurs in JWE, it gave a new kind of purpose to playing. I would love another kind of Challenge Mode, where to be able to buy some animals you should have first reached some goals, as 99% happiness for all meat eaters if you want to unlock cheetas, etc ! I was thinking of giving myself these goals, but it's not the same when you know that if you want it, you can without fulfilling your goal.

All the other ideas are really cool too, it would be amazing if some could be added

 

[raf8655]

I totally agree, especially point 1-2-3-4-5-7-9!!!

We need playground for the children, that can interact with structure.
More educational panels, games, interaction beahvoir.
Zoo guide like we can see in the annuncement trailer...

 

[NZFanatic]

I'm not a fan of your eighth point. Many of us want the game to be a simulator, and don't want the hassle of challenge mode or Franchise. Personally I'd be pretty annoyed if they added in a new feature, but it was only unlockable by forcing me to play through some challenges. I usually view the game as a form of meditation; I play it to relax, and to flex my brain-muscle by being creative. Obviously I understand that some players do enjoy a more challenging aspect to it, but it wouldn't be fair to swing one way or the other in terms of giving us new content.

As to the rest;
- Absolutely would love to see playgrounds added. Honestly even if they were just scenery objects I'd be happy, as pretty much every zoo as a "children's area" with some playground equipment. If nothing else it would greatly add to the realism.
- More educational items are an absolute must. This has been a long-requested addition to the game at this point, so I'm hoping that Frontier has already added it to their own list. Your ideas are very good in terms of what they could add; I'd also like to see some plain education and conservation boards that are basically 2D posters you can attach to walls, rather than the hefty electronic screens we currently have.
- Different shapes and sizes for exhibits is also something I think just about everybody wants. We could definitely use some much smaller varieties to more realistically display the invertebrates and tiny poison frogs (and, in the future, small lizards). I could take or leave aquariums.
- The plant Zoopedia is another very good idea. In fact I was thinking about that myself. I'd like it if we could see an 'ideal temperature range' for plants as well. Like others I try to build as realistically as possible, which also means ignoring animal plant requirements and going for plants that grow in the zoo's native biome (outside of greenhouses and such). Like Urufu says, a Zoopedia for plants would be very useful for this.

 

[Atiggerx33]

I'm not a fan of your eighth point. Many of us want the game to be a simulator, and don't want the hassle of challenge mode or Franchise. Personally I'd be pretty annoyed if they added in a new feature, but it was only unlockable by forcing me to play through some challenges. I usually view the game as a form of meditation; I play it to relax, and to flex my brain-muscle by being creative. Obviously I understand that some players do enjoy a more challenging aspect to it, but it wouldn't be fair to swing one way or the other in terms of giving us new content.

Maybe everything remains unlocked in Sandbox, leave Franchise as is, but add the challenging stuff to... well Challenge mode? Include a toggle in Sandbox (similar to the other Animal, Guest, Economy, and Staff toggles) to "Enable Challenges"

 

[felinora99]

Maybe everything remains unlocked in Sandbox, leave Franchise as is, but add the challenging stuff to... well Challenge mode? Include a toggle in Sandbox (similar to the other Animal, Guest, Economy, and Staff toggles) to "Enable Challenges"

Yes it would be great ! Or include the toggle in Challenge Mode too, for the ones that like it as it is, and you can choose the "Enable Challenges" ! This way the ones that like the game as it is have nothing changed, but us who would like more challenges can have it too =D

 

[DoctorWho1975]

Something I thought of... for exhibit animals allow us to set a number of males and females where if it goes over that the newly born animals are moved to trade house automatically. Only alert when trade is full. Many of these animals don't live all that long and its a lot of micromanagement to remember hey I need to replace them.. or remove contraception because they are going to die soon.

 

[WingardiumLevicoaster]

I love these ideas, especially aquariums, plant education and compost! By animal showcase do you mean like a talk? It would be nice to plop down a point like the entertainment meeting points in planet coaster and have keepers (or new staff) give a talk to boost education about an adjacent animal. I would also love entertainers even though they are not super common, but they are not unknown. Face painting stations would be amazing too!

I would also love the sign advertise destination feature from Planet Coaster as it's great to get guests to go to places they wouldn't. Especially shops that are not busy.

 

[Nat1984]

I think an option to ‘always keep exhibit stocked’ is a good idea. So if all the exhibit animals die, it automatically replaces them with 2. I find it a pain to keep having to check exhibits and buy new animals if they’ve croaked (I use contraception on exhibits because of the sheer volume that can be born)