This actually explains all the things people have been complaining about the main menu biomes for months. No wonder it is tropical all over the southern hemisphere in the game. The version with the corrections addresses all of these issues and more. I wish these corrections were made before the game's launch or Frontier goes back on their decision to not edit the map a second time.
Single Source to Fix All Front-End Globe Biome Issues
- Thread starter DrBurrito
- Start date
As someone from New Zealand, I can say that not being able to build the zoo of my dreams in my home country is probably the reason why I don't have hundreds of hours in this game yet. I would have taken a much more creative route with my NZ and AU zoos if the game had better representation of biomes for Oceania.
Therefore, I'm glad this thread exists. Great work!
Therefore, I'm glad this thread exists. Great work!
As I've mentioned earlier, I would love this map replacing the current one, but I want to ask you a question I've seen people discuss quite a few times on this forum. As someone from New Zealand, what do you think about the fact that it will actually be snowing in the game if this map was to replace the current one?As someone from New Zealand, I can say that not being able to build the zoo of my dreams in my home country is probably the reason why I don't have hundreds of hours in this game yet. I would have taken a much more creative route with my NZ and AU zoos if the game had better representation of biomes for Oceania.
Therefore, I'm glad this thread exists. Great work!
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Personally I would prefer having the temperate biome over it not snowing. There are already places on the globe with the temperate biome that shouldn't be snowing, so that wouldn't be too big a deal. Furthermore, if you want an Aussie zoo that doesn't snow, you'll still have the Outback, Queensland and Northern Territory to build zoos in. This way, the player will have the option to build a zoo in Australia that isn't a tropical rainforest.
It does snow in New Zealand occasionally. It's far rarer now than it used to be (climate change, woooo) but especially in the South Island we get snow forecasts every year (even if it doesn't often actually come to pass).
Honestly even with these changes I don't think I could - it just isn't a New Zealand zoo without the kiwi and tuatara (at the very least).As someone from New Zealand, I can say that not being able to build the zoo of my dreams in my home country is probably the reason why I don't have hundreds of hours in this game yet. I would have taken a much more creative route with my NZ and AU zoos if the game had better representation of biomes for Oceania.
Therefore, I'm glad this thread exists. Great work!
There's always a tradeoff in every decision. The flipside here is some places like Northeastern NSW will indeed receive snowfall in the game, which rarely happens in real life. However, like @sympatrick said, the same is true for other regions on the globe that already have the temperate biome, so it isn't new to the game. For instance, much of the Southern U.S. would fall into this category, but it snows regularly in the game. It would only be consistent with the rest of the globe if Oceania followed the same pattern.
Here's the average annual snow depth map of the world. You'll notice the current version of the front-end globe in the game is much less consistent:
Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment
SAGE brings together researchers from the natural, health and social sciences, engineering, and other fields to study regional and global problems stemming from interactions between environmental systems, natural resources, and human activity.
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There's always a tradeoff in every decision. The flipside here is some places like Northeastern NSW will indeed receive snowfall in the game, which rarely happens in real life. However, like @sympatrick said, the same is true for other regions on the globe that already have the temperate biome, so it isn't new to the game. For instance, much of the Southern U.S. would fall into this category, but it snows regularly in the game. It would only be consistent with the rest of the globe if Oceania followed the same pattern.
Here's the average annual snow depth map of the world. You'll notice the current version of the front-end globe in the game is much less consistent:
Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment
SAGE brings together researchers from the natural, health and social sciences, engineering, and other fields to study regional and global problems stemming from interactions between environmental systems, natural resources, and human activity.
View attachment 238087
View attachment 238086
My sentiments exactly. The reason why I wanted to start this discussion was to debunk the ideas and concerns I've seen elsewhere on the forum. As that map shows, snow would make much more sense in Japan, parts of South America, New Zealand and SE Australia/Tasmania than much of the Southern United States, where it already snows in-game and proves this shouldn't really be a topic to prevent front-end globe corrections.
Honestly, I would rather have the temperate biome over it not snowing even in Auckland, where the all time high is 30 degrees or something. The temperate biome map has a much better overall representation of the climate than the tropical biome map, where it is 42 degrees all the time...
I was hoping for an islands pack, but after Australia got the cassowary instead of the emu, I lost hope.
Yeah at this point it feels like I have to make a zoo game myself to get the emu in. Maybe if they start approaching birds in the coming years we might see it, who knows?
That would be a neat setting for sandbox. It would also let us turn off certain types of weather for different spots on the globe, and turn it on for others. For instance no snow in temperate biome in one place, or turning on rain for desert and tundra in another place that better represents that region. The best would probably be able to turn on snow for grassland-steppe zoos in Siberia or Canada.
They really need to do something about the Placement of Zoos. I like building Zoos in Europe but due to the small Size of the Continent you get Problems relatively quick. I'm trying since Days to open a Zoo in a specific Area (another Area wouldn't really make Sense for that Zoo) but it needs a lot of Distance from the other Zoos and it also isn't really possible to place Zoos precisely anymore when Europe is too full. It even starts to move Zoos there around, so you won't even know if your Zoo ended up where you want it. It even affects Great Britain for some Reason even though I do only have one Zoo on the Island, but now the Game claimed that it's on the Mainland. I really wish for a Option to either make the Location Markers smaller or some other Way to solve these Problems
I believe the minimum possible distance between two pins in Franchise Mode is around 800-1000 km, which makes choosing locations for new zoos pretty difficult, especially in Europe and Oceania. I agree that they need to find a solution to that problem, possibly by reducing the minimum distance so that at least the pins can be side by side, if not overlapping. Honestly I wouldn't even mind if the pins overlap, as long as the player makes that decision.
I would also like the Sandbox Mode pins to stay where they were initially placed.
Besides the biome, does placing a zoo, say in tropical Africa, differ from placing a zoo somewhere else, like tropical Asia?
I'm not sure what you mean - the biome would be the same, too.
Only specific maps in specific areas have unique backgrounds. E.g. the big mountain map for Tropical South America. Tropical Africa and Asia would be identical.
Ok, so basically the only differences between locations (besides biome) is the background?
There is terraforming as well, but like @NZFanatic said only very few biomes/continents have these unique maps. I hope more get added in upcoming packs.
One nice feature they added with the heightmaps update is, now you can choose between the default and custom maps for each continent when starting a new zoo. For instance, if you want to build a default looking 'Tropical' zoo in South America, now you can.
If you use a Heightmap, you also get a smaller Entrance Building that doesn't take away Space from your buildable Area
