The Dichotomy of the Biome and Foliage System

[VetGirl330]

In Planet Zoo the biome of our park, and thus the terrain choices, are determined by the location of the zoo. I personally applaud this system, and find it a refreshing change towards realism in comparison to previous zoo simulations. E.g. you have the choice to plant short or tall grass in any biome, but in the temperate biome that grass will appear green and lush, and in the savannah biome the grass will be the distinctive golden umber that evokes that plains of Africa; this appearance is independent of the animals living in the exhibit or their native biome. I.e. you cannot paint an exhibit in the middle of the rainforest with savannah grass, resulting in the patchy incongruous appearance that characterized parks in Zoo Tycoon.
However in the next breath Frontier completely negates the point of this system by requiring you to only plant native flora in animal's exhibit. I can't grow savannah grass in my temperate zoo, but I can plant palm trees? Just as animals have a preference for long vs short grass but not specific species of grass, they should have a preference for types of foliage: groundcover, scrub, tree, climbable tree, but not specific species of plants. Does your grizzly bear really care if you plant a lodgepole pine, native to the North America, or Scots pine, native to Europe? My answer is no. Zoos are by and large planted with native flora, or at least native to the same biome, because those are the plants that can survive there outdoors. Requiring specific plants takes away a lot of the realism in the game, and our ability to make our parks look cohesive and unique. I would rather see pictures of a lion exhibit in England planted with native flora in contrast to a lion exhibit in the American desert planted with their native flora. Wouldn't this make sharing exhibits, and building your franchise across the globe, more interesting than everyone posting pictures with the same 5 plants clustered in different groupings over and over? It would also put less demand on the designers to keep making new flora because we would have far more choices for each exhibit. I feel this is any easy change that could be implemented, and I don't think it would (or should) have any significant impact on animal welfare.

Bonus points: if plants placed outdoors outside of their native biome die. I would personally enjoy this feature, but I can see where it would not only be more controversial but require more programming.
Bonus point 2: if plants that can be reached by herbivores can be overgrazed and die. Even ZT2 instituted this feature. It would challenge the player to be more creative (key word) in plant placement: raised planters, protective fences, etc. I would also love to see grass terrain that is over-grazed or trampled turn to dirt. With the more intelligent animal AI (supposedly) certain paths, such as between a shelter and feeder, should be much more heavily trafficked than others. These areas turning to dirt would make the exhibits look far more realistic, and would add a layer of interest and animal interaction with their environment.

 

[Silhouette]

Well, perhaps sandbox will remove that requirement. But I agree. I remember watching someone playing the game and they placed a palm tree on the outside of a bear habitat, and because it had overhang it counted as being in the bear's habitat. Therefore they were "upset" over it, and I couldn't help but laugh thinking of the bear just staring up at this tree like "F- that palm tree". Like why would the animal know or care

I think rather than punishing the animal's welfare, it should instead punish your education or something. Like the more plants you include that are native to their home, the better the education because the more realistic it is. Idk, I doubt at this point it'll change but yeah.

 

[Firestar97]

I think it was mentioned in the Tutorial that it is possible to place Plants that aren't from the same Continent but from the same Biome. Maybe there are some Savanah-Plants from Asia or Australia that can survive lower Temperatures. So it would be possible to create a realistic Lion-Enclosure

 

[MaximusSC]

Bonus point 2: if plants that can be reached by herbivores can be overgrazed and die. Even ZT2 instituted this feature. It would challenge the player to be more creative (key word) in plant placement: raised planters, protective fences, etc. I would also love to see grass terrain that is over-grazed or trampled turn to dirt. With the more intelligent animal AI (supposedly) certain paths, such as between a shelter and feeder, should be much more heavily trafficked than others. These areas turning to dirt would make the exhibits look far more realistic, and would add a layer of interest and animal interaction with their environment.

Interestingly I was painting the land surface with dirt from the shelter to and around the feeders to give the habitats this realistic look.

 

[markun]

Does your grizzly bear really care if you plant a lodgepole pine, native to the North America, or Scots pine, native to Europe? My answer is no. Zoos are by and large planted with native flora, or at least native to the same biome, because those are the plants that can survive there outdoors. Requiring specific plants takes away a lot of the realism in the game, and our ability to make our parks look cohesive and unique

I agree and I think this is really important. Hopefully this will be possible in sandbox mode at least.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

First off: I do agree with your premiss, @VetGirl330: Animals probably don't care about the origins of their plants, but more about their general characteristics. (Provided that they don't feature certain toxines that the animals are not used to, that is.)
I also agree that this might lead to quite samey parks.

On the other hand ...

• On the other hand, this will make habitats for species of the same family look unique. It was already mentioned, that the difference between grizzlies and those Himalayan brown bears is barely visible. What will be visible though, is the habitate they live in, with all the unique foliage (in addition to different terrain needs, of course). This might be true for other (future) animals as well.
• Furthermore, it will make the habitat creation feel way more unique. We will not place the same tree (or bush or flower) over and over again, but have a new variation every time we add a new animal to our zoo. And I belive, this is a very important part of Planet Zoo!
• In addition to that, nothing is holding us back to limit ourselves to biome-specific plants outside of the habitats (= everywhere else) to make our zoos look unique and characteristic. It's deffinitely something I plan to do! The habitats might look samey, but the whole zoo composition will varey quite a bit! (Notwithstanding that there is even an incentive to limit our animal choice as well, due to the climate conditions in every biome!)

Soooo ... at the end, I do belive that the Frontier team has made a good choice in their decision regarding the foliage requirements.
I feel that overall, it will add more to the game than it will take away.

 

[Miri96]

That reminds me of the game Wildlifepark 2 and 3
There the plants needed the right ground (measured from 1 (soft) to 100 (hard)) and the right temperature, so you had to find plants that would work with the conditions the animals need.

 

[Amrunril]

I have mixed feelings about the continent origin side of this. On the one hand, featuring foliage from the same continent as the animals should have an educational benefit for the guests, even if the animals don't care (many zoos are also botanical gardens). On the other hand, for some species and conditions, there would be a risk of the introduced plant species becoming invasive (of the plants in the game, goldenrod immediately comes to mind as an American plant that can be a problematic invasive in Eurasia. This is obviously something conservation/education focused zoos would like to avoid, but accurately representing what conditions would create such a risk seems far beyond the scope of the game.

As for biome matching, perhaps animals should make less distinction between plants from similar/adjacent biomes. Plenty of temperate grassland plants, for instance, could easily be found in a small clearing within a temperate forest area. When it comes to more drastically different biomes, I think the bigger issue is the game allowing you to create outdoor habitats for these biomes in the first place. If you want to create a tropical rainforest exhibit in Minnesota, for instance, you have to do it inside. There's no plausible way for outdoor heaters and coolers to create such dramatic changes- the heat would disperse far too rapidly. If the game is going to allow us to create these conditions for animals, I guess it makes sense for it to work for the plants as well. I'd prefer, though, to see heaters and coolers (and humidifiers/dehumidifiers) that are only effective in enclosed spaces (this limitation could be removed in sandbox games). I also think that if the game wants to do a better job of replicating these dynamics, they need to focus more heavily on the seasonal cycle. African savanna species, for instance should do fine in temperate climates in the summer months but need good indoor housing over the winters.

 

[markun]

I think should also be able to change the soil/grass/biome within a zoo.

For example if I build a tropical hall in a taiga biome, I want to be able to have tropical soil in that building. Likewise I might have aardvarks in there, or gharials and I don’t want to be limited to the local biome for that building.

 

[ArcanumElite]

well markun that is impossible... there is a limit to how many textures they can have loaded at once.. and it was already increased from planet coaster... its an engine limitation.

 

[markun]

well markun that is impossible... there is a limit to how many textures they can have loaded at once.. and it was already increased from planet coaster... its an engine limitation.

I know literally nothing about the technology concerned. But in ZT2 for example, which seems a less complex game, If I was building a polar bear enclosure I might have used alpine grass for the main body of the enclosure with lighter scrub soil marking where the animals might typically walk more heavily - around the edges perhaps. And then I’d use boreal soil for the ground of the off show holding areas/shelters as it looked like a nice deep brown soil and could also look like bark or peat. I might use several biomes in one enclosure to get the most realistic effect possible. Would that kind of combination be impossible?

 

[ArcanumElite]

Its an engine limitation that prevents something like that... the engine can only handle so many textures loaded at once which is why each map has its own set of textures specific to that area.. this cannot be changed as the engine simply cannot handle any more than that... i think it has something to do with the textures being able to overlay each other and merge together... i think that is what prevents adding more but i may be wrong.