Question about zoo planning

SMK96

SMK96
Hello! Today I want to ask you, how do you plan your zoos?

I haven't worked at a big zoo in a long time, but I recently got a better computer and have been trying to plan something really good.
I play in franchise mode and I don't intend to change, but it's hard to balance things.
How many species would be acceptable to avoid performance problems? (Ryzen 5600 / RTX 3060)
Can I accommodate all these large animals without having financial problems in franchise mode? (hippopotamus, gifara, elephant, big cats)
What will the structure/map of the zoo be? Areas like tropical, desert and others? How many animals per area?

Sometimes I think I'm taking this game too seriously, spending too much time planning and not enough time actually building something decent.

You don't have to answer all these questions, but tell me about your creative process for PZ 🥰
 

Marvinb

Marvinb
I usually start with what kind of zoo i wanna build, which in my case was a coastal zoo which i wanted to feel like it was kinda squeezed into the harbor area of the city and therefore doesnt have the most of space.
After that i consider a couple key animals i for sure wanna include, polar bears, penguins and the pinnipeds in this case. After i had those id brainstorm a couple more animals i want to feature in the zoo, and due to the small space and since i wanted the polar bear to be the big highlight species i went for mostly small, very common and lowkey zoo animals like meerkats, porcupines, raccoon, ringtailed lemurs, otters and so on, aswell as a few bigger ones so its not only small critters where i settled for emu+wallaby and camels.
After that i layed out the terrain and stuff in game and drew out the space i wanted for the zoo and screenshotted it from an birds eye view, went into paint and drew out where i wanted which enlosures and wrote a couple bullet points when i had a cool idea for the enclosure or something.
That way i got a rough masterplan for the project as a guideline. Ofcourse half a year in i made a couple changes here and there, but having the masterplan definetly helped me stay on track and not get lost.

Oh a disclaimer, i build in sandbox so i dont know how much help this would be in franchise
 

Markiz

Markiz
I don't do big zoos, I like to make smaller parks with one or couple similar themes that are heavily decorated.

I limit number of large animals per theme, and have other smaller animal "orbit" their habitat. If I have 5 themes in zoo, that's 5-7 large animals for that zoo. Everything else is filled with smaller habitats and plazas.

One irrational rule that I follow, is that I don't (or try not to) repeat animals between several ongoing zoos. That forces me to be more creative with my themes, and to use all the width of our game roster. It also helps with not getting bored of single species.

I always try to have, more than one, large area that isn't a habitat, to make a creative break. They tend to usually be custom food plazas and restaurants, but sometimes museums or educational buildings.

I do structure planning mostly with pen and paper when I am bored and have time. Thing I have the most issue with, creatively, is transitions from entrance plaza and opening habitats, so I usually draw that last, when I settle everything else, seeing in which direction the zoo is going.

Other than that, I build in waves, several weeks of playing followed by more weeks of never touching PZ. I only build when something rekindles my inspiration, so I don't have one overarching formula to follow, rather I build based on current vibes.
 

RightWhale

RightWhale
SMK96 said:
Hello! Today I want to ask you, how do you plan your zoos?

I haven't worked at a big zoo in a long time, but I recently got a better computer and have been trying to plan something really good.
I play in franchise mode and I don't intend to change, but it's hard to balance things.
How many species would be acceptable to avoid performance problems? (Ryzen 5600 / RTX 3060)
Can I accommodate all these large animals without having financial problems in franchise mode? (hippopotamus, gifara, elephant, big cats)
What will the structure/map of the zoo be? Areas like tropical, desert and others? How many animals per area?

Sometimes I think I'm taking this game too seriously, spending too much time planning and not enough time actually building something decent.

You don't have to answer all these questions, but tell me about your creative process for PZ 🥰
Click to expand...
I usually just draw a rough map idea as a guideline. Then I start building. I often have to take breaks because I get frustrated when I can’t think of how to make a building.
IMG_0482.jpeg

This is a rough idea of what I am doing in Franchise.
 

SMK96

SMK96
Thanks for your answers!
At the end of the day, I think I'm overthinking it.

I loved the well-defined theme and the key animals, it makes things a lot easier.

Since I still don't know what my PC can handle, I'm going to follow your tip and make 4 well-decorated themed areas with one big animal and 4 small ones, I think 20 enclosures is a good number to work with.

I've also already designed my entrance pad and first themed area, for the rest, I'll plan after the DLC announcement.

Thank you very much to all of you, you gave me some great ideas!
 

Villanelle

Villanelle
No such thing as overthinking it! If planning is a fun part of the process for you, I think it should be indulged!

I love planning and have tried lots of different methods. The minimum is a quick pencil sketch. The most I've done is a full colour map, both on paper and digital, with guest and staff areas factored in. I've got a pinterest as well with inspo from zoo and park architecture and landscaping that helps me when I'm feeling dry for ideas.

Couple of answers to your questions:

- Even the best computer set ups will struggle with performance at a certain point. The limitations are with the game engine, not your rig. Things like guest numbers, animal numbers and no. of building pieces will all increase the load. I have had to let big Franchise zoos go because they reached a lagginess threshhold that I couldn't cope with anymore. This is why builders prefer sandbox, so you dont have to have guests and can be more detailed with building. Stick to smaller, more focused parks for better gameplay.

- Large herbivores like elephants, and big carnivores like lions will be very costly in franchise. Don't get them until your coffers overfloweth. Start with small, high-appeal animals like red pandas. Check out my spreadsheet where I have given a rating to all the animals based on a cost to feed : guest appeal ratio. Its linked in my signature or here -

docs.google.com

Villanelle's Planet Zoo Data Chest

docs.google.com docs.google.com

Talk about overthinking things 😋 !
 

Topaz Star

Topaz Star
I love planning zoos! When I was on my old computer I tried to do some mild planning, pick 10 key species I would want in the zoo and then add one by one after that depending on performance & motivation. When I had my 10 key species I would think of thing to connect then into specific areas. For example, I started a water themed zoo once. I planned on having warm climate water animals on the right side of the park and cold water animals on the left side.

With my new computer I can do some bigger planning. Right now I have been working on the career level Nevada map as a base. I tried to build around the career objectives by leaving space for expansion to all areas. I knew which animals I needed to complete the objectives and started 6 areas for them:
Wolf Sanctuary (wolf objectives where all over this level) - Timber Wolves, options for expansions later with Arctic Wolves, Red Foxes & Wolverine
South America - Bairds Tapir, later expansions with maned wolves, capuchin monkeys, capibara, alpaca
African Savanne - Mixed habitat starting with springbok, buffalo, zebra & black wildebeest, expansions with giraffe, ostrich, rhino's & porcupine
Critters House - Objective is 5 exhibits, expansions with a second floor with butterflies & more exhibits & side habitat with spurred tortoise
Nile River area - Hippo's & Flamingo's mixed habitat, Nile monitor, expansion with Nile Lechwe
Asian Adventures - Red Panda, Snow Leopard, Gharial & Bactrian Camel (optional Orangutan/Indian Elephant), expansions with Pallas cat, takin, sloth bear
 

SMK96

SMK96
Villanelle said:
No such thing as overthinking it! If planning is a fun part of the process for you, I think it should be indulged!

I love planning and have tried lots of different methods. The minimum is a quick pencil sketch. The most I've done is a full colour map, both on paper and digital, with guest and staff areas factored in. I've got a pinterest as well with inspo from zoo and park architecture and landscaping that helps me when I'm feeling dry for ideas.

Couple of answers to your questions:

- Even the best computer set ups will struggle with performance at a certain point. The limitations are with the game engine, not your rig. Things like guest numbers, animal numbers and no. of building pieces will all increase the load. I have had to let big Franchise zoos go because they reached a lagginess threshhold that I couldn't cope with anymore. This is why builders prefer sandbox, so you dont have to have guests and can be more detailed with building. Stick to smaller, more focused parks for better gameplay.

- Large herbivores like elephants, and big carnivores like lions will be very costly in franchise. Don't get them until your coffers overfloweth. Start with small, high-appeal animals like red pandas. Check out my spreadsheet where I have given a rating to all the animals based on a cost to feed : guest appeal ratio. Its linked in my signature or here -

docs.google.com

Villanelle's Planet Zoo Data Chest

docs.google.com docs.google.com

Talk about overthinking things 😋 !
Click to expand...

Your database has opened up a whole new world for me!

This is amazing, thank you very much, and yes, you think too much too, but this is a great planning tool!
I've been using Pinterest for inspiration too, it's very efficient for coming up with ideas and modifying them to work in my zoo.
In terms of performance, what number of species or enclosures do you think is acceptable?
I'm very inclined to make the biggest zoo that performance allows me, but I also don't want to have to abandon it halfway through because I'm too ambitious.
And I prefer to play in the franchise both because I like the management and the animal business.

Soon I hope to be able to show my progress in this new zoo here on the forum.
 

SMK96

SMK96
Topaz Star said:
I love planning zoos! When I was on my old computer I tried to do some mild planning, pick 10 key species I would want in the zoo and then add one by one after that depending on performance & motivation. When I had my 10 key species I would think of thing to connect then into specific areas. For example, I started a water themed zoo once. I planned on having warm climate water animals on the right side of the park and cold water animals on the left side.

With my new computer I can do some bigger planning. Right now I have been working on the career level Nevada map as a base. I tried to build around the career objectives by leaving space for expansion to all areas. I knew which animals I needed to complete the objectives and started 6 areas for them:
Wolf Sanctuary (wolf objectives where all over this level) - Timber Wolves, options for expansions later with Arctic Wolves, Red Foxes & Wolverine
South America - Bairds Tapir, later expansions with maned wolves, capuchin monkeys, capibara, alpaca
African Savanne - Mixed habitat starting with springbok, buffalo, zebra & black wildebeest, expansions with giraffe, ostrich, rhino's & porcupine
Critters House - Objective is 5 exhibits, expansions with a second floor with butterflies & more exhibits & side habitat with spurred tortoise
Nile River area - Hippo's & Flamingo's mixed habitat, Nile monitor, expansion with Nile Lechwe
Asian Adventures - Red Panda, Snow Leopard, Gharial & Bactrian Camel (optional Orangutan/Indian Elephant), expansions with Pallas cat, takin, sloth bear
Click to expand...
Oh, that sounds like a great project, are you having success in putting it into practice?

I also like to plan, although most of the time the plans change a bit, as said @DarthQuell

I was planning sessions by continent, but I always get carried away and the number of animals becomes too large. I'm currently working on the Tropical Africa session with red hog, sifaka, fossa, mandrill and okapi.

It's so exciting to be doing something planned in advance, my old zoos were so disjointed.
 

Topaz Star

Topaz Star
SMK96 said:
Oh, that sounds like a great project, are you having success in putting it into practice?

I also like to plan, although most of the time the plans change a bit, as said @DarthQuell

I was planning sessions by continent, but I always get carried away and the number of animals becomes too large. I'm currently working on the Tropical Africa session with red hog, sifaka, fossa, mandrill and okapi.

It's so exciting to be doing something planned in advance, my old zoos were so disjointed.
Click to expand...
Yess, I have build basically everything I've described. I'm trying to add the orangutan & gibbons and Indian Elephant on the asian side of the zoo now. On the other side I'm kinda on the fence right now. I probably leave some room for more south-america expansion and could start a small Oceania area with at least the little blue penguin. So yes im in the planning fase where I have build all my initial plans and start to make some new plans haha.

Tropical Africa sounds like a good project, want to try that someday!

My trick with planning is just either pick one big theme or pick a few themes and stick with them. If I have the choice of every animal in the game it's just impossible to choose and make a planned zoo :ROFLMAO:
 

Villanelle

Villanelle
@SMK96 here's some overthinking for you. I printed out my map along with the hex codes for the colour pallette I want all my buildings so use, and a sketch of a main feature I want to build that might be a little finnickity.

Then I made a gridded version and printed that too, so I can line up my zoo with it better and more easily.

This all took 2 days. Fun part over! Now I can start playing!

1000028111.jpg
 

Villanelle

Villanelle
Oh and I wrote a little story about the idea behind this zoo. You can read it over on Sidechat if you are so inclined. Its just a short paragraph, nothing major! I like having a little story behind my zoos, although I don't usually write them down. Just annoy my husband with them :)
 

SMK96

SMK96
Villanelle said:
I am loving canva draw! You can collect all your inspo in one place and easily make different kinds of marks and text

View attachment 423513
Click to expand...

This is really cool, useful for macro or regional planning, especially with the color palette and plant/biome style, you are giving me great ideas here.

We are both planning enthusiasts, I am using your database a lot, especially in my free time at work.

I am so happy!

Oh, and your map is great, it is a very good idea.
Please show the result when you put it into practice. I'm excited to see it!
 
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