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Animal Colour Variation
We're excited to introduce differences in animal colour, which will make it easier to identify individuals around your zoos. We've done so by sticking to known and realistic colours, and by improving upon the general appearance of groups and herds with subtler differences in colour.
We've added a way for you to see colour and pattern information from the Animal Market trading window, to make it easier for you to carry out your breeding and population goals, and to provide our colourblind players with information. This includes the scientific terms for the Colourmorphs we use in-game, such as if an albino is classed as Albino, Leucistic, or simply another colour.
The availability of inheritable Colourmorph genes in the animal market population is now variable per species, in particular:
- 6% (approx.) of the Jaguar population are now Black Jaguars
- Bird and Reptile Albinism or Leucism are now more likely than before; in-line with natural results
- Llama colourmorphs are extremely common, and follow the same breeding rules as albinos, with an additional set of colour variations
In addition to the Colourmorph genetics, your existing zoo animals carry existing genetic information for both colour and pattern. This information applies colour variation on top of the animals existing textures, and allows for subtle and gradual changes in colour between different animals.
When animals breed, their offspring create colour and pattern values in a range around the average of their parents, most often looking similar to at least one of their parents. However, there is now a small chance that colour or pattern will pick a value far away from the parent colour, perhaps looking more like a distant relative.
The team researched animal colour and pattern variation, and found that documentation was rare and highly variable in quality depending on the species. We've done our absolute best to stick to research photo reference, and do them justice. With this in mind, we've tried to avoid colouration that only applies to single, individual animals, as the contrast of colour would begin to look strange in groups.
We have not added colour variation to exhibit animals, partly because their environments are so dense it is harder to distinguish minor variation at a distance. The highly saturated and often very distinct colours and patterns would be more suited to additional Colourmorphs.