Hello everyone! It's time for my third iteration of this suggestions list, which are aimed at small scale additions that would nonetheless have big impacts on the game. I generally release these the week of/after a dlc release, and update it continuously for about a month afterwards, and hope that it gives the devs enough time (roughly two months) before the next dlc release.
Zoopedia Changes
This is a new section to the list, since it seems foliage is relatively easy for them to do in a short amount of time, I've decided to start suggesting some options here.
General Game Mechanics
That’s it! Hopefully some of this stuff is at least thought provoking for you guys, and if it can be added into the game even better. If the CMs bring up any of this stuff with the dev team at one of your meetings, and they tell you something on here is not possible, please let us know and I’ll remove it! If I have any more ideas, or if anyone else has some and they fit the theme of being small things, but having a relatively big impact, I’ll add them to the list. Thanks!
Zoopedia Changes
- Make the following appropriate biomes changes for the following animals/biomes
- Desert: Jaguar. (Although not nearly as common as they once were, Jaguars are still found in Northern Mexico and the American Southwest, and there is plenty of data to show that Jaguars are perfectly capable of surviving in true, arid deserts. I have been asking for this small change since last August and I'm not sure why it hasn't been addressed, when other biome related animals were. There is plenty of research to show why this should be changed.)
- Also add American bison and pronghorn to desert.
- Desert: Jaguar. (Although not nearly as common as they once were, Jaguars are still found in Northern Mexico and the American Southwest, and there is plenty of data to show that Jaguars are perfectly capable of surviving in true, arid deserts. I have been asking for this small change since last August and I'm not sure why it hasn't been addressed, when other biome related animals were. There is plenty of research to show why this should be changed.)
- The ability to filter the Zoopedia by both continent and biome, or just one of each at a time.
- Increase the wild population of Gharial to 300-600, in order to be more accurate.
- The North Sulawesi babirusa's distribution map currently displays the distribution of the Buru babirusa, which is on a completely different island. Credit to Chuditch for pointing this out.
- Giant otters and caimans need to have their depth requirement greatly reduced, if possible. It is highly unrealistic to require a depth beyond 2-3m for both species, so as long as there is no technical reason for this requirement, it should be reduced.
- Allow Cuvier's dwarf caiman maximum group to be 6 individuals. Ideal ratio is 2M to 4F. This is more realistic than the current max of two individuals.
- Allow the two other species of Canis lupus (Timber wolf and Arctic wolf) to use the rope toy enrichment. Also allow the African wild dogs to use this as well (I imagine they use similar rigs/models so I don't think it would be too much work but I could be wrong).
- In that same vein, all remaining canine species should also get access to the swimming pool. I believe the dhole can use this now, but the earlier canids cannot.
- Try and find a way to make koalas, capuchin monkeys and red pandas stay in trees longer/spend more time climbing, and less time spent on the ground.
- Give ambiance speakers a small privacy bonus for shy animals
- Increase cold and snow tolerance for Bactrian camel, American bison and Formosan black bear
- Make red kangaroos available as a walkthrough habitat. There are plenty, plenty of irl examples of this working with no issues. There really isn't a reason for them to not be.
- Make it so that water based plants, in particular the lilly pad and water lotus, are not able to be walked on. It completely ruins immersion to see a hippo or elephant walking on a patch of water lilies.
- Slightly boost the number of spotted hyena able to be kept together.
This is a new section to the list, since it seems foliage is relatively easy for them to do in a short amount of time, I've decided to start suggesting some options here.
- Less bushy bamboo options. Sometimes we just want to be able to use the taller stalks and not have gigantic leaves and branches obscuring vision. This happens even with the smallest Bengal bamboo size.
- Taller, skinnier trees. This follows the same logic as above, we want to use trees that aren't so short and fat they obstruct vision.
- More grasses, especially some longer dried out grasses, perfect for making an African grassland habitat when you aren't actually on the grassland map.
- More palms. Can't really have enough palms and palmetto plants
- More aquatic plants
- More natural looking climbable branches and logs. We're super limited still and usually have to resort to non natural looking options, which yes, I would include the log/wood climbing set. I want some really natural looking dead trees and branches.
General Game Mechanics
- The ability to make 2m and 3m wide paths without using exploits involving placing queues. This should be relatively easy to code into the game
- The ability to have two staff (or more) staff entrances and exits in a habitat.
- Ability to place trash cans on sloped paths
- Add a null path
- Add an option to the null barrier to toggle visibility through. This one would be huge and solve so many issues with guests looking through rocks etc. and complaining they can’t see the animal!
- Tone down severity of light/godrays indoors
- Space apart the barriers addition and extension buttons when building barriers as they often overlap, forcing you to change angles while building, which is restrictive.
- Allow glass on exhibit boxes to be set to null. There is a new mod that allows this, but being an official part of the game would be preferred. This will allow us to create custom displays and would go a long way for creativity options, which is easily the biggest complaint for exhibits currently.
- Make short grass or soil the default terrain that is used when terraforming instead of long grass.
- Fix the issue where the placement grid flickers in and out over paths (HIGHEST PRIORITY. PEOPLE HAVE EPILEPSY)
- Train all staff button on staff UI page
- Add circular billboards
- Add fake eggs props for various in-game species (ex: Cassowary, caiman, Komodo dragon, Ostrich). Idea originally discussed with Chante in "Eggs" thread.
- Make Bactrian camels and bison models larger. They are currently way, way too small compared to how they should actually look.
- Give rainbow eucalyptus the Oceania tag
- Give the mulch items retexture options that are the same textures as the different soil types on each map. This solves people wanting to use a hard soil brush for Tropical dirt on a Grasslands map for instance. This would be an incredible addition.
- Add in 5-10 new models for the fake rocks, with some updated texturing, but still make them flexicolor. It will give us even more variation for habitat building.
- Ability to specifically turn off "About to mature" notifications
- Allow zookeepers to walk through flat bottomed water that is 1.5m or shallower. This will allow just a little more flexibility when creating habitats such as monkey islands.
- There is a game decoration that is clearly and Asian elephant that displays the name of "African elephant sign". This hasn't been fixed in over a year and a half.
- Added desert biome tags to cheetah, common ostrich and African wild dogs
- Added taiga biome tags to Formosan black bear and giant panda
- Upgraded capuchin conservation status from LC to V
- Added more statues for existing animals
- Added more art for animals by adding custom billboards
- Added different sized education boards by way of custom billboards
- Added more ambiance sounds by adding custom sound speakers (NOT YET IMPLEMENTED 5/20/2021)
- Added staff heatmap to show where keepers can and cannot walk in habitats
- Added continent tags to all rocks, allowing them to still be used when filtering strictly by continent
- Fixed visibility issue with water/tanks by allowing custom colors and visibility
- Updated animal icon for the binturong to show the new model
- Updated African elephant conservation status from Vulnerable to Endangered
- Added a search bar to animal trade centers (NOT YET IMPLEMENTED 5/20/2021)
That’s it! Hopefully some of this stuff is at least thought provoking for you guys, and if it can be added into the game even better. If the CMs bring up any of this stuff with the dev team at one of your meetings, and they tell you something on here is not possible, please let us know and I’ll remove it! If I have any more ideas, or if anyone else has some and they fit the theme of being small things, but having a relatively big impact, I’ll add them to the list. Thanks!
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