Planet Zoo Mod support?

[Asano]

Im unsure if somebody mentioned it before, but looking at all the discussions about new animals, I think majority of players want more than the devs will ever be able to deliver.
I've read thru many wish lists and saw people want, lets say a tiger species which look at 90% the same as the ones we have in the game, but people want it because its just special for them.
I dont think Frontier will ever release a pack of that type where the do a copy paste animal like that, they want to give us many different animals, with different models and behaviours. And I support that and love those.
Many people are going to be very dissapointed and many are going to be happy to have new animals, but I think the problem with having similiar animals can be well fixed with mods.
I believe allowing people to add their own creative projects to the PZ world would make the game even better than it already is.
Example, Zoo Tycoon 2 was/is an immortal game, and you know why? Because of the modders. Many games rely on the community in this way, and it just make the game better.

I dont say, "WE WANT IT NOW!", no. I think this would be the best to add after Frontier is done with supporting PZ. Maybe when all the packs they wanted to do are done, in two years or more. A modding tool as a laast gift for the community, so twe can get even more creative. This would be the best, I think, so Frontier can still make money by having their own packs, yet modded animals would drawn more people to the franchise. I think a modding tool is something that will satisfy both sides, people who want 10 types of tigers or bears, and people who want different animals than that.
The current 'replacement' of animals is pretty bad right now, so a proper mod tool would be really welcome.

Tell me what do you think!

 

[LN]

I think I don't need mods.
Or do I want to start demanding things. It's not my style.

And as it appears that Frontier is very keen on keeping their Engine Architectural design inhouse, I don't see it anytime soon. But we might expect a scenery object builder like Planet Coaster has with the TMT.

That's what I think.

 

[Firestar97]

If Players would be allowed to create new Animals themself, I think they would need to somehow prevent the Change of Species that are already in the Game to prevent Cheating in the Franchise-Mode.

But we might expect a scenery object builder like Planet Coaster has with the TMT.

Would absolutely love this. I think I would look all the Time for Plant Mods and also try to create new Plants myself

 

[12344321]

I think since Frontier likely won't give us larger dlc's or the animals the community has been so vocal about like you've said....this is the ONLY way we could ever get these animals in this game.

(IF Frontier had plans to give us larger dlc's or requested animals they wouldn't communicate it with their fanbase anyway, so you'd just be left guessing anyway due to the lack of communication)

I'm dying for new dlc's and more animals. I Frontier wants some feedback waiting 4 months for 4 animals is killing the game for me. I've seen a ton of people lose interest in the 4 month gaps (the interest is there but the wait times are causing people to lose interest at an alarming rate). Then dlc release and the game comes to life again online. The current release model is causing people to stop playing and lose interest rather than wait 4 months for 4 animals and continue supporting the game.

 

[paul78]

@12344321 Im just curious do you prefer sandbox or franchise gameplay. I’ll admit dlc is slow moving but so we’re mods for zt2 when done at a high quality but to loose interest in playing simply because dlc takes time maybe PZ isn’t the game for these people. I can still stay plenty busy playing in between dlc. As for zt2 being the wholly grail it’s simply not. Mods were needed in order to create a more realistic game. At the end of the day zt2 was a game on life support that lasted as long as it did simply because good zoo sims were so hard to come by. As good as some of the mods were gameplay was still very stale.

 

[Asano]

I think since Frontier likely won't give us larger dlc's or the animals the community has been so vocal about like you've said....this is the ONLY way we could ever get these animals in this game.

(IF Frontier had plans to give us larger dlc's or requested animals they wouldn't communicate it with their fanbase anyway, so you'd just be left guessing anyway due to the lack of communication)

I'm dying for new dlc's and more animals. I Frontier wants some feedback waiting 4 months for 4 animals is killing the game for me. I've seen a ton of people lose interest in the 4 month gaps (the interest is there but the wait times are causing people to lose interest at an alarming rate). Then dlc release and the game comes to life again online. The current release model is causing people to stop playing and lose interest rather than wait 4 months for 4 animals and continue supporting the game.

I agree with this, the lack of communication is killing the game, and not only PZ but it seem like this with every game they create. The "looks at this cool fact about this animal!" is just not keeming me interested that much.
I just really feel like mod support and growing interest in modding in new animals would keep way more players playing the game.
I love all those pack and I buy them on day no.1, but the silence between them is just annoying and pretty much a torture.

 

[12344321]

@12344321 Im just curious do you prefer sandbox or franchise gameplay. I’ll admit dlc is slow moving but so we’re mods for zt2 when done at a high quality but to loose interest in playing simply because dlc takes time maybe PZ isn’t the game for these people. I can still stay plenty busy playing in between dlc. As for zt2 being the wholly grail it’s simply not. Mods were needed in order to create a more realistic game. At the end of the day zt2 was a game on life support that lasted as long as it did simply because good zoo sims were so hard to come by. As good as some of the mods were gameplay was still very stale.

I play the sandbox mode exclusively. I've bought all the dlc so far, even though I find them all really underwhelming (especially since I like new animals more than scenery). I just wanted more animals, I love the game I've put like 1000 hours into it (there's no game I like even close to this much) and at this rate we're never going to get the huge amount of requested animals. I just want people to stay interested and counting seals is not the communication I need from Frontier.

 

[paul78]

Ok I was just curious. Anyway we all want more animals fingers crossed that they continue to support the game for another couple years as there’s really no need atm to do a sequel. I think this type of game favors long term support. Maybe frontier has a plan to include animals and scenery in the first two yrs and hit it hard with all animal packs at the end. I don’t really think qty is as important as what they put in and how crucial a niche is to zoo building. For example aviary is important so even if we only get 5-10 flying bird species it’s better then nothing plus covers that niche. I highly doubt aquatic and aquarium is going to be done even my local zoo did away with their big aquarium section a decade ago. Of course more crucial habitat species are needed as well. The problem I have with mods is eventually you got more then your game and pc can handle and half of my zt2 ones I was to stubborn to get rid of even tho I didn’t really use them or had to many and had to settle on which ones to put in the game folder and not crash my game.

 

[Bearcat9948]

I'm pretty surprised no one has been talking about this around here, given the big news that's come out of the JWE community this year. If you don't know what I'm referring to, a couple of JWE modders (notably Hendrix) found out a way to successfully add a new creature into the game without using the old method, which involved replacing an already ingame animal. They were able to have all species, plus one new one.

This means, in my opinion anyways, that at some point someone will be able to figure out how to do this in PZ. Which would be a good thing. It seems like we can really only expect to see an average of 12-16 or so new animals each year, so best case scenario I'd expect no more than 32 new animals (8 or so being exhibits) by the end of life. So that wuld obviously leave some pretty huge gaps to fill, which could only be done by a modding community. The modding community is the sole reason ZT2 thrived for an astounding 10+ years after initial release. And tbh, it would probably still be thriving had PZ not been developed. With a PZ2 at least 5 years away, we need mods to help this game last. It's possible to do without dedicated modding support, as Hendrix has shown us, but it would definitely be a lot easier if Frontier decided to help us out on that front.

 

[paul78]

@Bearcat9948 I really don’t see a reason for a sequel to this game. Planet coaster needs a sequel simply because of the engine limitations that hindered the ability to supply customers much wanted features such as water parks ect. Planet zoo appears to be the total package and has a modified version of the cobra engine. That’s why I don’t see why frontier can’t drag this game out for a couple years honestly. The devs designing this game seem very dedicated and proud of their accomplishments with this game. Your also right about zt2. It was a amazing game that kept me occupied for yrs and the mods were great. Now mods definitely helped but the truth is mods were needed to keep that game alive as the community was very ready for a better zoo sim but no one was stepping up to the plate. If planet zoo had come out five yrs ago zt2 would be in the same position as today. I will admit tho the mods for jwe are impressive. I don’t know and really wouldn’t count on frontier supporting mods tho. I can understand the companies stance right now because the game is still in development but I guess only time will tell. As I mentioned tho we don’t know anything about frontiers future plans and how many yrs support we’ll get we could get only 24-32 more animals or we could get 60 plus if all animal packs are eventually made.

 

[Villa11]

I'm pretty surprised no one has been talking about this around here, given the big news that's come out of the JWE community this year. If you don't know what I'm referring to, a couple of JWE modders (notably Hendrix) found out a way to successfully add a new creature into the game without using the old method, which involved replacing an already ingame animal. They were able to have all species, plus one new one.

This means, in my opinion anyways, that at some point someone will be able to figure out how to do this in PZ. Which would be a good thing. It seems like we can really only expect to see an average of 12-16 or so new animals each year, so best case scenario I'd expect no more than 32 new animals (8 or so being exhibits) by the end of life. So that wuld obviously leave some pretty huge gaps to fill, which could only be done by a modding community. The modding community is the sole reason ZT2 thrived for an astounding 10+ years after initial release. And tbh, it would probably still be thriving had PZ not been developed. With a PZ2 at least 5 years away, we need mods to help this game last. It's possible to do without dedicated modding support, as Hendrix has shown us, but it would definitely be a lot easier if Frontier decided to help us out on that front.

I was thinking about that JWE modding news too. Even if Frontier doesn't give modding tools, it can still be done.
However, with the game only being 1 year old I think it is to early to ask for mod support. Frontier clearly wants to make more dlc packs with both animals and scenery, and they likely feel that giving mod support might impact their sale numbers. The PC toolkit only came very late in PCs life and only gave the option to make scenery pieces. I do think this tool will eventualy make its way to PZ, but i'm not sure they will support modded animals. And even if they do, the modded animals might be locked in Franchise mode.

I do think we will get a PZ2 eventually as I think some of the problems the game has (the paths that cannot be saved in blueprints e.g.) cannot be solved in this version of the engine.

 

[paul78]

@Villa11 I did forget about the path system. I have to admit I do miss how easy zt2s path system operated. I’ve gotten quite used to the path system in game from planet coaster and now this but I can see how it could give people headaches.