Howdy! I'm brand new to the forums so I hope I'm understanding how posting and tagging works haha. Quick disclaimer (just in case), none of the images in this post are mine except the below diagram. Thank you google images for the rest.
Anywho, now that the NA animal pack has been officially announced and will likely not include any new paths/building pieces aside from animal themed scenery (like the SEA pack), I figured I'd make a post about something that's been on my mind since beta: nicer looking paths. I'm not talking about the pathing system, I've been playing long enough to forgive how goofy it is, I'm talking about textures. Don't get me wrong, we have some really beautifully made paths already, but I tend to default to the exact same ones over and over, or I'll tile over them with floor pieces if I just don't like the look of the regular paths. However, it would be nice to lower the piece count. I use a dinky old laptop to play PZ, so, anything to reduce the amount of things to process, the better. Also, trying to cover up inclines is tricky, and I really don't like watching guests or staff clip through my custom paths. It breaks the immersion for me.
For reference, here are all the paths we have currently (minus staff paths and alt. texture directions):
Something that drives me absolutely bonkers about the current paths is that, in my opinion, most of them can only be used in an indoor environment. Most of the wood looks pretty strange outside of an enclosed space with the exception of the white wood. That, at least, looks weathered and appropriate for outdoors. The more vibrant woods (the parquets and bamboo especially) are a little too nice to be used outside. Furthermore, the tile paths also don't really suit the outdoors either. I've only ever used them in gift shops or restaurants because they're just too gimmicky, with the exception of the water pattern path that I use for splash fountain plazas or what have you. Otherwise, it just looks strange, especially when you zoom out to get an aerial view of your zoo and you see a streak of bright blue. It's just odd. As a solution, I would absolutely love to have some sort of flexicolor option for most paths, including stone and wood. It would be so nice to change the bright stone slab path to gray or brown, or the concrete/asphalt to a clay red or light aqua or even a sandy yellow, like these:
Perhaps the brighter stone is one solid color while the multicolored one can have multiple swatches for more naturally colored stones? Or whatever colored stones you'd want. Personally, I'm dying for reds and grays and browns.
Additionally, I would love some more variety in stone path patterns. The queue paths are so pretty, I really wish we could use them for regular pathways, especially that white brick. I assume the purple wood is meant to be flexicolor, but I've not found a way to change it, and because it's purple I've never used it, unfortunately (or at least it looks purple on my screen haha). Here are a few examples for paths I'd love to see in the future:
Animal pattern (like tiger/zebra stripes or pawprints) or plant pattern paths would look so good in a zoo... I know paths are getting an update in 1.7, so that gives me a little hope that they can be updated again in future patches. Apologies for the length of this post haha. I'm not sure how to close things off, I just hope we eventually get some prettier, more flexibly designed paths. : )
Anywho, now that the NA animal pack has been officially announced and will likely not include any new paths/building pieces aside from animal themed scenery (like the SEA pack), I figured I'd make a post about something that's been on my mind since beta: nicer looking paths. I'm not talking about the pathing system, I've been playing long enough to forgive how goofy it is, I'm talking about textures. Don't get me wrong, we have some really beautifully made paths already, but I tend to default to the exact same ones over and over, or I'll tile over them with floor pieces if I just don't like the look of the regular paths. However, it would be nice to lower the piece count. I use a dinky old laptop to play PZ, so, anything to reduce the amount of things to process, the better. Also, trying to cover up inclines is tricky, and I really don't like watching guests or staff clip through my custom paths. It breaks the immersion for me.
For reference, here are all the paths we have currently (minus staff paths and alt. texture directions):
Something that drives me absolutely bonkers about the current paths is that, in my opinion, most of them can only be used in an indoor environment. Most of the wood looks pretty strange outside of an enclosed space with the exception of the white wood. That, at least, looks weathered and appropriate for outdoors. The more vibrant woods (the parquets and bamboo especially) are a little too nice to be used outside. Furthermore, the tile paths also don't really suit the outdoors either. I've only ever used them in gift shops or restaurants because they're just too gimmicky, with the exception of the water pattern path that I use for splash fountain plazas or what have you. Otherwise, it just looks strange, especially when you zoom out to get an aerial view of your zoo and you see a streak of bright blue. It's just odd. As a solution, I would absolutely love to have some sort of flexicolor option for most paths, including stone and wood. It would be so nice to change the bright stone slab path to gray or brown, or the concrete/asphalt to a clay red or light aqua or even a sandy yellow, like these:
Perhaps the brighter stone is one solid color while the multicolored one can have multiple swatches for more naturally colored stones? Or whatever colored stones you'd want. Personally, I'm dying for reds and grays and browns.
Additionally, I would love some more variety in stone path patterns. The queue paths are so pretty, I really wish we could use them for regular pathways, especially that white brick. I assume the purple wood is meant to be flexicolor, but I've not found a way to change it, and because it's purple I've never used it, unfortunately (or at least it looks purple on my screen haha). Here are a few examples for paths I'd love to see in the future:
Animal pattern (like tiger/zebra stripes or pawprints) or plant pattern paths would look so good in a zoo... I know paths are getting an update in 1.7, so that gives me a little hope that they can be updated again in future patches. Apologies for the length of this post haha. I'm not sure how to close things off, I just hope we eventually get some prettier, more flexibly designed paths. : )
