I found some Mods to Improve Animal Looks, but on using them Game Crashed. Had to Verify Files, have Frontier blocked this or can i stop this happening
Planet Zoo Mods?
- Thread starter stdape2011
- Start date
HeatherG
Volunteer Moderator
Please see Paul's quote below, from another thread on the topic of mods. It's not blocked by Frontier but not recommended for the reasons he listed below.
You probably used outdated mods that weren't updated to work with the latest official update. I'm using a few mods like that myself and don't have any problems, but I always make sure they're compatible with the latest game version and double check that I put the files where they're supposed to go.
Btw, talking about mods is fine, right? If not please feel free to delete this post and pretend it was never there
Btw, talking about mods is fine, right? If not please feel free to delete this post and pretend it was never there
Can not see why some are not included with the Game? Just wanted to try some as read on how good some are. Maybe Frontier could work with some of them.
HeatherG
Volunteer Moderator
You can discuss mods its just photos, links and videos that are not allowed so you're fine.You probably used outdated mods that weren't updated to work with the latest official update. I'm using a few mods like that myself and don't have any problems, but I always make sure they're compatible with the latest game version and double check that I put the files where they're supposed to go.
Btw, talking about mods is fine, right? If not please feel free to delete this post and pretend it was never there
I sincerely think that there should be official mod support and some level of collaboration with mod makers. I know many of them personally and can attest that they are some of the most talented and creative people in the whole fandom. IMO, the best outcome would be to have Frontier collaborate with the people making the modding tools because they have a pretty intrinsic understanding of the workings of game modding and the wants/needs of modding communities. Allowing them this will make the Planet Zoo experience so much richer.
It will also contribute to sales because some mods need a corresponding DLC. With JW:E, for example, I explicitly bought the Claire and Herbivore Packs for the sake of using the mods that people made for those dinosaurs. Thus, mods made Frontier money in that instance. On top of that, more than a few people (a.k.a. a ton of people) I know bought the DLC RtJP for the explicit reason of downloading and playing with different mods. And RtJP is about 20 USD so, IMO, Frontier has a monetary incentive to greenlight official mod support.
I'm passionate about this because I've been lucky enough to be a part of the ZT2 and JP:OG fandoms, two groups which contained some of the most ingenious people one could meet, many of whom are now keystone members of the Planet Zoo and JW:E modding communities. So I implore Frontier Developments to at least reach out to these people as it will greatly benefit anyone who plays these games.
It will also contribute to sales because some mods need a corresponding DLC. With JW:E, for example, I explicitly bought the Claire and Herbivore Packs for the sake of using the mods that people made for those dinosaurs. Thus, mods made Frontier money in that instance. On top of that, more than a few people (a.k.a. a ton of people) I know bought the DLC RtJP for the explicit reason of downloading and playing with different mods. And RtJP is about 20 USD so, IMO, Frontier has a monetary incentive to greenlight official mod support.
I'm passionate about this because I've been lucky enough to be a part of the ZT2 and JP:OG fandoms, two groups which contained some of the most ingenious people one could meet, many of whom are now keystone members of the Planet Zoo and JW:E modding communities. So I implore Frontier Developments to at least reach out to these people as it will greatly benefit anyone who plays these games.
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Personally I've never been a fan of unofficial modding. Even back in the Zoo Tycoon days the modded animals tended to look "out of style" with the official roster, and their Zoopedia entries and such were rife with grammatical errors. No matter how hard people tried they just couldn't get their modded animals to fit seamlessly into the game - they always seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. I did start to get really into Aurora Designs' mods, but because they were always left unfinished it was like half my game was beautiful and fresh and the other half was still old and outdated. From what I've seen, it's largely the same with Planet Zoo mods in terms of internal consistency.
If Frontier did collaborate with modders, however, that would be a different story for me, because then we would know that there is oversight. I think such a collaboration would be useful for cosmetic changes to what is already in-game (rather than modders creating whole new animals or whatever). If Frontier "employed" (/opened up modding of some aspects) people to add variant skins or make slight adjustments to models, then that seems like a win-win; they have their people freed up to do other work, and the modders get some recognition for the good work that they do while also enriching the game experience without leaving too much of a footprint.
If Frontier did collaborate with modders, however, that would be a different story for me, because then we would know that there is oversight. I think such a collaboration would be useful for cosmetic changes to what is already in-game (rather than modders creating whole new animals or whatever). If Frontier "employed" (/opened up modding of some aspects) people to add variant skins or make slight adjustments to models, then that seems like a win-win; they have their people freed up to do other work, and the modders get some recognition for the good work that they do while also enriching the game experience without leaving too much of a footprint.
I can understand some Mods get beyond silly in Design, and The Animals should be Zoo Animals not some Fantasy, but things like Buildings, Construction should not be a problem, as lacking a lot of Variation.
A Game i used to play Farming Simulator, people designed Mods, Maps etc and were Excellent and free. Plus has its own Editor, and 3D software plugins.
I am not too fussed having a Amazing Zoo designed like so many Great Ones, as long as the Animals are Well looked after.
So always a touchy subject Animals should be Kept by Frontier and Modders in Cooperation
Above Game mentioned the Company actually took on a lot of the Modders.
A Game i used to play Farming Simulator, people designed Mods, Maps etc and were Excellent and free. Plus has its own Editor, and 3D software plugins.
I am not too fussed having a Amazing Zoo designed like so many Great Ones, as long as the Animals are Well looked after.
So always a touchy subject Animals should be Kept by Frontier and Modders in Cooperation
Above Game mentioned the Company actually took on a lot of the Modders.
JWE also doesn't have official mod support, so people bought DLC without any effort from Frontier. It seems it will solve itself, like you (and many others) bought JWE DLC without any official mod support.
If you are going to release tools for animal editing - everybody will have their own choice of modding. Even silly designed animals will be part of the modding community.
I don't think you can stop it.
Since PC/JWE and PZ doesn't have official mod support, explained why they don't - I really don't expect they will cooperate with modders.
I was told that big modding projects would need the modding community to allow access to certain files - which certain DRM doesn't allow you to do. Similar reason why games with the same DRM don't have many mods or just texture/reskin mods.
Just want to pitch in re: not supporting mods
Much of todays games longevity relies on mods, that is why games like witcher3, Ark, skyrim and halflife have survived so long is because of the ability to mod the game to enhance the enjoyment. Games that completely ban mods end up being forgotten much faster, or less played.
For me, I seek mods to enhance the looks and colours of animals, while your artists do an amazing job, there is just some aspects I still seek to be improved, for example albino anteaters didn't look right. So I sought a mod to make albino anteaters to look like the actual albino.
If you introduced a way to modify animal colour varieties ingame, it would solve people seeking an illigitimate mod to do it. but anyone who wants a mod with unicorns etc is still going to seek those out. You cannot prevent players from trying to modify a game they want to enjoy more with alternative solutions. How you approach those situations is of course up to you, but not supporting mods does limit your games longevity and marketing of the product. If a similar zoo game came out that offered a modding tool, you would likely see a very quick shift in playerbase.
The gaming world has changed so much in the 26 years I have been playing (I started gaming at 10 in 1994), and in today's playerbase it does revolve around modding. The younger generations are getting much smarter much younger, we have children at the age of 6 making mods for games, and the gaming industry is lagging behind with old traditions, as a result those games lose players to games that are becoming more fluid to the idea of modding.
Much of todays games longevity relies on mods, that is why games like witcher3, Ark, skyrim and halflife have survived so long is because of the ability to mod the game to enhance the enjoyment. Games that completely ban mods end up being forgotten much faster, or less played.
For me, I seek mods to enhance the looks and colours of animals, while your artists do an amazing job, there is just some aspects I still seek to be improved, for example albino anteaters didn't look right. So I sought a mod to make albino anteaters to look like the actual albino.
If you introduced a way to modify animal colour varieties ingame, it would solve people seeking an illigitimate mod to do it. but anyone who wants a mod with unicorns etc is still going to seek those out. You cannot prevent players from trying to modify a game they want to enjoy more with alternative solutions. How you approach those situations is of course up to you, but not supporting mods does limit your games longevity and marketing of the product. If a similar zoo game came out that offered a modding tool, you would likely see a very quick shift in playerbase.
The gaming world has changed so much in the 26 years I have been playing (I started gaming at 10 in 1994), and in today's playerbase it does revolve around modding. The younger generations are getting much smarter much younger, we have children at the age of 6 making mods for games, and the gaming industry is lagging behind with old traditions, as a result those games lose players to games that are becoming more fluid to the idea of modding.
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With some games it's difficult to determine if the mod had anything to do with it. I play/played Battletech and not convinced that mods did anything for the community. A while ago they even announced they are done with the game - it's finished and the update would be the last one after releasing the game 2 years earlier.
Skyrim/Witcher 3 were highly popular even without the modding. But at least with Skyrim, the modding expanded the game to endless years (almost 9 years old), one of the best examples how modding can extend the lifespan of a game.
I used to play Star wars Knight of the Old republic 2, which had a huge modding community as well. But Star Wars is a strange community and some are extremely passionate.
Ark basically relies on mods - the huge options with having your own server really created sub-communities within the community. A great example of the mix of modding really gives the game something different and unique to every server. Mostly because the vanilla settings on official servers take too much time - i think the base game would be too boring and they made the right choice regarding mods from the start.
Btw, PZ doesn't ban mods, but just doesn't officially support them.
I would add: only to direct competition. People who like to build in Ark Survival Evolved are mostly a different community than PZ.
The mods for the Batman Games (like Arkham Asylum) didn't do much for that game. It's still played but people just moved on.
Judging from 20 years - zoo games are rare and not popular among developers - so wouldn't worry about that one. Really depends if the developers wants longevity - maybe they want you to move on to their other game after 4-5 years or a sequel after 5 years? You know what I mean, right? In short: maybe the community wants longevity for their money (mods are free) but the developer wants you to move on to their other products (when you think management games, you think about Frontier).
Edit; want to point out - not against mods. I just have a preference for a different time for this. First let the devs finish their game and when they stop releasing content - mods would be really nice.
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Well @NL_Mutso, in my ideal world, the fellows that made the modding tools are the ones that would be called upon by Frontier to help. This is because the 2 main men behind it have a ton of experience with zoo game modding communities and would deliver the optimal results. And as for quality, I think that the low-quality mods will not persevere as long as you have high-quality counterparts that are accessible.
I am not against mods. Mods kept the ZT2 community going for years. long after the original developer Blue Fang went out of business. From animals to building sets, modders really changed the look and game play of ZT2. However, I personally think it is too soon to allow modding of PZ. If people do it, that's fine. But Frontier does not have to support it. I suspect that Frontier has a very long road map planned out for PZ. I am sure they know exactly what DLCs they will be releasing through 2021 and maybe even longer. They probably have developers working on content now that won't be released for another 2 or 3 DLCs down the road. If they allowed modding now it could interfere with their game development, resourcing, planning, budgeting and everything else that goes into software development. I am totally on board with waiting to see where Frontier takes this game.
I'm not against mods, but officially supported animal addition mods would quickly make DLCs useless. Even if some people preferred normal, even if they weren't in franchise, Frontier would lose a lot. However, I think other types of mods are pretty harmless. I'm sure their main concern is that they'll bring bugs to the users games, but anyone who gets them is doing it at their own risk, it won't be Frontier's fault.
Yeah, really good point. If Frontier allowed mods, how could they ever trouble shoot reported bugs. First question they would have to ask is do you have any mods installed. Or if you have mods, remove them and see if you still have the bug. Or Frontier would have to review, test and approve any user made content to ensure that it doesn't conflict with the game, which I am sure if something they would not want to do or have the resources for.
I don't think most mods affect save-games. I think you can load in most save games and the mods only changes the look/texture etc. I think only a few mods change more.
And that's why they say they don't officially support it - no obligation towards user created stuff. Could easily be an official update that breaks down a mod. That's a problem for the modder.
Er I was making up my own game scenarios at age 6 in 76 before I even had a computer.
One more thing. In this hypothetical scenario, there would be rules that are already self-instated among modders already.
The 2 big ones are
1. No making DLC animals replace stock counterparts. Since many animals share rigs, it'd be easy to slap one onto another without much training. Mods that do this before the official release of an animal will be discontinued (A friend of mine made a jaguar b4 the SA pack and once the pack was out, she discontinued it).
2. No Personal Use mods that cost money. Paying a modder a commission to make an animal is fine BUT that mod must be made public for all to enjoy. So no one can just pay someone to make a mod and keep it all to themselves.
Also, if you wanna be really anal-retentive about it, you can have some figure heads approve and dissaprove mods to maintain quality.
The 2 big ones are
1. No making DLC animals replace stock counterparts. Since many animals share rigs, it'd be easy to slap one onto another without much training. Mods that do this before the official release of an animal will be discontinued (A friend of mine made a jaguar b4 the SA pack and once the pack was out, she discontinued it).
2. No Personal Use mods that cost money. Paying a modder a commission to make an animal is fine BUT that mod must be made public for all to enjoy. So no one can just pay someone to make a mod and keep it all to themselves.
Also, if you wanna be really anal-retentive about it, you can have some figure heads approve and dissaprove mods to maintain quality.
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Oh heck yea. If you look at BestinSlot's channel rn, many of his big hitter videos are JW:E mod showcases, ranging from amazing to silly.