Ok. So I want to start by saying that the new wetlands pack is AMAZING the animals all look great and I’m looking forward to exploring everything. But……….
the platypus, whilst it looks great and I’m really grateful that we finally get a new Australian animal has two big faults. One annoying (eyes should be closed under water), the other really, really frustrating. Specifically, it’s land requirement (and, to a lesser extent it’s water requirement) is much, much, much too large. I have seen platypus in the wild 40+ times, in multiple zoos and I’ve never seen one out of the water. In zoos they are given a couple of feet of land to haul out onto but they really, really don’t come out of the water to walk around unless they really need to. In game, though, their land requirement is very large - double the size of their water requirement, which is too large (though less so). The platypus land requirement really should be scaled back a LOT. Guides for keeping them in captivity recommend less than 1m^2 of land area. In-game, I understand it being bigger (even a lot bigger) but, as it currently stands, a platypus enclosure in-game is probably something near to 100 x larger than any real world zoo would have and the land area is even more than that (literally hundreds times as big as any zoo I’ve seen them in). I really don’t like complaining on release day, especially when the pack is so great (the animals really do look fantastic!) but this is a real issue IMO.
Edit: see the Platypus husbandry manual
Edit 2:
PZ land requirement: 180m^2
PZ water requirement: 90 m^2
Total (before enrichment, foliage etc.): 270 m^2
Care manual land requirement: < 1 m^2
Care manual water requirement: 6 m^2
Total: < 7 m^2
Land requirement difference: > 180 times recommended.
Water requirement difference: 15 times recommended.
Total: ~40 times recommended
Edit: slight error with my calculations since they need an off-display area too. Double the recommended land and water areas. This still means that the land area in game is ~90 times too large and the water area is ~7.5 times more than necessary though.
.
the platypus, whilst it looks great and I’m really grateful that we finally get a new Australian animal has two big faults. One annoying (eyes should be closed under water), the other really, really frustrating. Specifically, it’s land requirement (and, to a lesser extent it’s water requirement) is much, much, much too large. I have seen platypus in the wild 40+ times, in multiple zoos and I’ve never seen one out of the water. In zoos they are given a couple of feet of land to haul out onto but they really, really don’t come out of the water to walk around unless they really need to. In game, though, their land requirement is very large - double the size of their water requirement, which is too large (though less so). The platypus land requirement really should be scaled back a LOT. Guides for keeping them in captivity recommend less than 1m^2 of land area. In-game, I understand it being bigger (even a lot bigger) but, as it currently stands, a platypus enclosure in-game is probably something near to 100 x larger than any real world zoo would have and the land area is even more than that (literally hundreds times as big as any zoo I’ve seen them in). I really don’t like complaining on release day, especially when the pack is so great (the animals really do look fantastic!) but this is a real issue IMO.
Edit: see the Platypus husbandry manual
Edit 2:
PZ land requirement: 180m^2
PZ water requirement: 90 m^2
Total (before enrichment, foliage etc.): 270 m^2
Care manual land requirement: < 1 m^2
Care manual water requirement: 6 m^2
Total: < 7 m^2
Land requirement difference: > 180 times recommended.
Water requirement difference: 15 times recommended.
Total: ~40 times recommended
Edit: slight error with my calculations since they need an off-display area too. Double the recommended land and water areas. This still means that the land area in game is ~90 times too large and the water area is ~7.5 times more than necessary though.
.
Last edited:
