Unofficial Modding Thread

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Leaf Productions

Leaf Productions
Please delete if not allowed. Going to be tagging @HeatherG for clearance on this one. Just delete this thread if I'm too bad of a boy!

I'm hoping to have this be a one-stop shop for modding in Planet Zoo for the forums users. If allowed, please use this thread to ask any questions or answer any questions or general discussion about Planet Zoo modding. I will also do my best to provide updates in terms of mods and what progress we've made.

Just a reminder that links to modded content (Images or Nexus) are not allowed on the forums, but I will do my best to help out as best I can without those!

If you have lost a map to mods as well, I am happy to assist on that front as well. Something that was lost can always be recovered.
 

XT

XT
Can you tell me something (for the very lay person) about how the fish mods work? I know they're based on otters/crocodilians in general but I've seen a large variety between the uh 'fish' that spend most of their time in the water like fish should and some mods where the fish are trying to evolve real-time and spend a lot of their time on land. Are modders able to change things like % time spent in water vs. land and such?
 

Leaf Productions

Leaf Productions
nutrit said:
I would love to know personally why such a beautiful mod as Jen created for Red River hog was never released? Do you you have any Intel on that?
Also I would like to take the moment to Thank you @Leaf Productions for all the amazing things you do for the community. Just wanted you to know how thankful we are.
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Currently in the works! Expect a few more as well. Happy to help :) Modding was always super important to me in ZT2 and I never really was a big part of it, but I'm happy to assist wherever I can nowadays for an even better game.

XT said:
Can you tell me something (for the very lay person) about how the fish mods work? I know they're based on otters/crocodilians in general but I've seen a large variety between the uh 'fish' that spend most of their time in the water like fish should and some mods where the fish are trying to evolve real-time and spend a lot of their time on land. Are modders able to change things like % time spent in water vs. land and such?
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Modders can change a whole bunch, especially how often they spend time on land or in water! Fish included, they're coded so that if they can find deep water, they'll stay in there except to come on land and give birth, which is a bit annoying, but if you're a sandbox player like me, it shouldn't occur ever.
 

XT

XT
Ah - maybe it's the deep water part. I had a relatively shallow pool for some specatcled caiman and wanted them to share space - the fish spent a lot of time on land. The other time I had fish, it was in a deep water pool and they stayed in the water. (except for breeding/birthing, which I keep on in sandbox and just overlook their little trips).
 

HeatherG

Volunteer Moderator
HeatherG
Okay, so, after talking to the other moderators, I'll leave the thread here but discussing people who make them isn't allowed because it's seen as "promoting them".
I deleted one post that mentioned people by name, but as long as you only discuss the animal mods I will leave this open for discussion.
THanks ❤️
 

jcp011c

jcp011c
I'll be honest I don't use mods right now. I did use some for a little while when we didn't have the capybara because that was just too essential to me not to have, but I decided to hold off on them until official support ends. That's just a "me" decision though. I do think a vast majority of the mods look great and I'll definitely be using them in the future. I think the big reason for me not to so far is that I'm mostly a franchise player, and of course modded animals are only available in sandbox. I truly respect those who are voluntarily putting hours (days...) of work into bring the game further to life, it's something I could never figure out how to do - such technical things are waaaaay beyond but skill lol. I also understand the view point that for modding it's more important to get more unique rigs than animals similar to what we already have. It makes the modders voluntary work at least less difficult if not possible at all.

The amount of animals available as mods are astonishing. I do find it interesting that there's no Red River Hog as a new animal yet, given we have a base rig that would probably be used for it, and that it's highly requested. At points I thought that maybe the modders weren't doing that one because they suspected that it would be coming to the game soon, but now I'm not so sure. Not that they have to do it, again, it's all voluntary and they are not obligated to do any at all! It's just an interesting note to me.
 

Leaf Productions

Leaf Productions
HeatherG said:
Okay, so, after talking to the other moderators, I'll leave the thread here but discussing people who make them isn't allowed because it's seen as "promoting them".
I deleted one post that mentioned people by name, but as long as you only discuss the animal mods I will leave this open for discussion.
THanks ❤️
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Sounds great Heather! If we break any rules please let us know. I want to do my best to bridge this gap for accessibility while also respecting what Frontier wants in their own site. Cheers :) 💕

jcp011c said:
I'll be honest I don't use mods right now. I did use some for a little while when we didn't have the capybara because that was just too essential to me not to have, but I decided to hold off on them until official support ends. That's just a "me" decision though. I do think a vast majority of the mods look great and I'll definitely be using them in the future. I think the big reason for me not to so far is that I'm mostly a franchise player, and of course modded animals are only available in sandbox. I truly respect those who are voluntarily putting hours (days...) of work into bring the game further to life, it's something I could never figure out how to do - such technical things are waaaaay beyond but skill lol. I also understand the view point that for modding it's more important to get more unique rigs than animals similar to what we already have. It makes the modders voluntary work at least less difficult if not possible at all.

The amount of animals available as mods are astonishing. I do find it interesting that there's no Red River Hog as a new animal yet, given we have a base rig that would probably be used for it, and that it's highly requested. At points I thought that maybe the modders weren't doing that one because they suspected that it would be coming to the game soon, but now I'm not so sure. Not that they have to do it, again, it's all voluntary and they are not obligated to do any at all! It's just an interesting note to me.
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It’s actually so interesting that New Exhibit Species do work in Frsnchsie mode but it makes sense. They don’t really affect the market too much. However, they’re not a thing yet publicly so it’s not like you can use them yet haha.

Re: the Red River Hog, a certain community member had a version that was just too good not to wait for, and just like the Common Eland, we as a community respect the pseudo-“dibs” system that we kinda have and are waiting on them to finish it up. I’ve seen it though and from what I can see it’ll be worth the wait :)
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
Leaf Productions said:
It’s actually so interesting that New Exhibit Species do work in Frsnchsie mode but it makes sense. They don’t really affect the market too much. However, they’re not a thing yet publicly so it’s not like you can use them yet haha.
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So Leaf, I know that 1 new exhibit animal was released but now discontinued when the official version came out. Why aren't people making any more new ones?

I saw some nice mods that change existing species into other colors/species, but they don't add any new ones
 

Leaf Productions

Leaf Productions
DarthQuell said:
So Leaf, I know that 1 new exhibit animal was released but now discontinued when the official version came out. Why aren't people making any more new ones?

I saw some nice mods that change existing species into other colors/species, but they don't add any new ones
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Those too aforementioned ones work in franchise too :)

The main issue with the new exhibit species is because there was an issue in regards to crashing in the research screen. Haven’t figured it out just yet but I hope we find some time to workshop it soon!
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
Leaf Productions said:
Those too aforementioned ones work in franchise too :)

The main issue with the new exhibit species is because there was an issue in regards to crashing in the research screen. Haven’t figured it out just yet but I hope we find some time to workshop it soon!
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Well, hopefully y'all figure it out. That would really help to fill in the gaps that we lack in the exhibit animals.


By the way, does the modding community believe that an official modding toolkit will come for Planet Zoo, much like Planet Coaster had?

If so, will the community move over to Steam or stay on the modding website or both?
 

Leaf Productions

Leaf Productions
DarthQuell said:
Well, hopefully y'all figure it out. That would really help to fill in the gaps that we lack in the exhibit animals.


By the way, does the modding community believe that an official modding toolkit will come for Planet Zoo, much like Planet Coaster had?

If so, will the community move over to Steam or stay on the modding website or both?
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TMTK absolutely, Animals? No. I don't believe so.
I will probably assist with my (friend) in transferring stuff like the Safari Pack and other items over.
 

AndyM_75

A
I’ll be honest that I consciously didn’t buy planet zoo until mods were available/possible. I used to play ZT and ZT2 and think that mods enhance the game hugely. Whether it’s regarding the base animals - using one of the remaster mods, editing the LOC or main files for some of the animals to help maintain the immersion in the game by correcting inaccurate naming/details, or adding a couple of new animals so that I can create my local zoo(s). I recognise that Frontier have limited development resources but there are some animals that I’m really keen to use that simply aren’t in that roster and seem unlikely to ever be developed as they are variations close to the animals already in the game (won’t name the animals as easy to infer the modder but more than happy to share with Frontier if interested). I simply wouldn’t enjoy the game as much without them and would have stopped playing the game by now without those mods - so am very grateful to those who put their time and energy into enhancing other people’s enjoyment.

I don’t see it as ‘massively‘ different to using Steam to get enhancements to buildings etc. I don’t add many new animals - and have always had a strong interest in one animal family so it‘s pretty much only mods in that family group.

It is a shame from my perspective that mods to add habitat animals can’t be used in franchise mode - I don’t play that mode because of that. I do wonder whether there is an opportunity at some point for Frontier to embrace a limited number of existing mods (for animals that are variants and Frontier have no expectation to ever add). I’d personally be happy to pay for a pack of endorsed mods to be able to use in Franchise mode which could be commercially viable for both Frontier and the modders involved.

Hope all of this post is ok and I didn’t say anything which would contravene what can be posted on a Frontier forum (as appreciate none of it is possible without Frontier’s fantastic game) or isn’t in the spirit of the thread.
 

Pentoleaf

Pentoleaf
I don't use mods, and am unlikely to do so without official support since I had a bad run in with the Sims haunted doll back in the day and I've been leery ever since.

I do think that the work done by moders is very beautiful. I've watched youtube videos with mods and am super impressed by their efforts, especially with regards to fish mods. I also see how modders prolonged the life of zt2 and hope that pz gets the same community longevity. Even if I'm not using the mods, I still like watching people show off their pretty creations.

I really hope that some kind of official support comes out one day so I can do more than watch. I know there is a saiga mod, but I'm waiting and hoping for a supported version.
 
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