We want more variation in coat colors and appearance.

[DR00Lz]

Variation is very important for me in a simulation game so that I dont get bored.
Before frontier launched planet zoo they promised each animal would be an individual.... still the only visible difference in most animals that are not tigers or zebras is just their height.

for example the African wild dog... they ALL have the EXACT same coat while in real life they have unlimited amount of different patterns. would it be so difficult to make at least 15 different skins for the african wild dog?
I dont feel attached to them even if I do want to... would be so much easier to see who is who, like the alpha male has a white butt or whatnot.
whats even more sad is that the wild dogs don't even have an ''albino'' version. so no variation at all.

same with the timber wolf. sure the arctic wolf is coming in a few days but pretty sure you cant keep them in the same enclosure in franchise.

would be great with color and pattern variations in all other species too. but these two feel mostly like clones with isnt very fun.

Other ideas on realistic variation other than fur color:
-More color mutations would be a treat.
-Vitiligo (uncurable disease, not mutation)
-Blind on one or both eyes from fight or old age.
-Missing pieces of ear from fight. big and/or small pieces.
-No tail mutation or injury.
-Heterochromia (mutation idea)

^ these arent necessary but just general ideas.

 

[Kai]

Couldn't agree more. The variety of coat colours is super disappointing; certainly one of the weakest aspects of the game. Most of them look like clones - not what I expected when they claimed they would have variation between individuals. I will be extremely disappointed if they are not planning to add more variations to every base animal species, and to be clear, I mean normal-type coat variations, not things like albino, leuc and melanistic skins (though I would like to see those as well). This is what I was expecting (a few examples of ZT2 variant mods):

Spoiler: Reindeer

ZTABC Variants

Z T A B C ~ V A R I A N T S General Information: Creator: Lgcfm Original Creator(s): ZTABC Team Language(s): Any Downloads Required: Artiodactyla, Car

thezt2roundtable.com

Spoiler: Bongo

The ZT2 Round Table-MiBound's Secret Lab

Eastern Bongo Preview #2 Now to work on variants!

thezt2roundtable.com

Spoiler: Grey Wolf

The ZT2 Round Table-Grey Wolf Remake

G R E Y ~ W O L F ~ R E M A K E General Information: Creators: UT2 Expansions Required: EE, ZT2 Language: All languages Bugs: None known Extra Informa

thezt2roundtable.com

Spoiler: Caiman

The ZT2 Round Table-Broad-snouted Caiman Variants

Broad-snouted Caiman Variants General Information: Creator: Azrael Language: N/A Bugs: None Extra Information: Credits: Zerosvalmont and Hendrix Descr

thezt2roundtable.com

 

[P3NGU1N]

Would be nice for sure if there were more variants.

 

[Moonfox]

@Kai Oh man, it hurts to see those pictures!! Those colour variations are exactly what I was expecting in Planet Zoo. I feel like it would be a simple thing to patch in, I don’t understand why it hasn’t happened yet. Hopefully this is being made a priority item and will be implemented soon - look at how beautiful those coat variants are, imagine how wonderful they would be on Planet Zoo models!

 

[Mkau]

There are already a lot of threads about this topic and Frontier still didn't make any official statement regarding that topic.Time is flying by and more people are questioning the missing features.My guess is that Frontier released the game too early,hyped the game too much,but then didn't have time to implement their advertised features (which is...strange) and is now way too busy fixing all the bugs and glitches.To me it looks like that the animals are not the top priority of Planet Zoo,but the creative piece by piece building is(first DLC "only" 4 animals,but 200+ non-animal related building pieces).There is just so much work to do,so that the animals don't just look like pretty robots,feel more alive,add/tweak social behavior/interactions,add colour (maybe horn,antler and tusk) variants,correct overall misinformation (labelling all colour mutations as albinism,wrong group sizes,every species having an alpha tag/polygamy structure slapped on,sexual dimorphic colours in species,which don't actually have any,wrong baby appearances etc.).My colleauge told me,that his son now literally thinks that ostriches are giving live birth.
It's really strange and disappointing that Planet Zoo has no colour variants - except from albinism and leucism.
I really,really hope that they will add colour variants,but I hope that they don't try to charge us for some "variant packs" (like the raptor skin pack from JWE),because these things should have already been in the base game - and were announced to be.

 

[Grayyy]

I think we won't be getting variations on purpose, so that they can sell more animals that are basically the same but with a different skin ( like the Arctic Wolf ).

 

[DR00Lz]

I think we won't be getting variations on purpose, so that they can sell more animals that are basically the same but with a different skin ( like the Arctic Wolf ).

sure hope not. that would feel extremly cheap from their side.

then again wouldnt make sense if we cant put arctic and timber wolves in the same enclosure.

 

[DR00Lz]

There are already a lot of threads about this topic and Frontier still didn't make any official statement regarding that topic.Time is flying by and more people are questioning the missing features.My guess is that Frontier released the game too early,hyped the game too much,but then didn't have time to implement their advertised features (which is...strange) and is now way too busy fixing all the bugs and glitches.To me it looks like that the animals are not the top priority of Planet Zoo,but the creative piece by piece building is(first DLC "only" 4 animals,but 200+ non-animal related building pieces).There is just so much work to do,so that the animals don't just look like pretty robots,feel more alive,add/tweak social behavior/interactions,add colour (maybe horn,antler and tusk) variants,correct overall misinformation (labelling all colour mutations as albinism,wrong group sizes,every species having an alpha tag/polygamy structure slapped on,sexual dimorphic colours in species,which don't actually have any,wrong baby appearances etc.).My colleauge told me,that his son now literally thinks that ostriches are giving live birth.
It's really strange and disappointing that Planet Zoo has no colour variants - except from albinism and leucism.
I really,really hope that they will add colour variants,but I hope that they don't try to charge us for some "variant packs" (like the raptor skin pack from JWE),because these things should have already been in the base game - and were announced to be.

idk, its only been a month since launch and they already plan to add one big free update, fixing the fighting alpha status and stuff.
also since its the first month, stuff might be more busy now than they will be in a few months. hopefully they just dont have time for everything right now.

Im trying to be hopefull. Im not one that -needs- stuff -this instant right absolutely now this secound- im okay waiting as long as they actually fix it.

 

[Kai]

idk, its only been a month since launch and they already plan to add one big free update, fixing the fighting alpha status and stuff.
also since its the first month, stuff might be more busy now than they will be in a few months. hopefully they just dont have time for everything right now.

Im trying to be hopefull. Im not one that -needs- stuff -this instant right absolutely now this secound- im okay waiting as long as they actually fix it.

That's an easy fix though. All they need to say is that they do plan to add (considerably) more skin variations (to the original animals) at some point in the future (as a non-paid update). The people needed to do reskins are not the people who work on programming bugs or fix the UI (they notably would be part of the team working on paid DLC though).

 

[QueenOfTheNorth]

I'm optimistic that we'll see a serious upgrade to the animals at some point in the future, because the current behavior set/individual variation feels (as stated across the forums) lackluster at best and inaccurate at worst. Coat variations are high on my list too, I like being able to differentiate my animals through a bit more than size. Nesting/eggs would be extremely cool too if we'll be getting more bird/reptile species in the future. (lol live-birth ostriches sounds nightmarish) I'm curious if perhaps Frontier's release schedule/plan had them under the gun and which led to things being less polished than originally intended? As a long-time ZT2 fan though, I'm certain that if Blue Fang Games + Microsoft could make such an awesome game (animal variant skins, family trees, edible plants/grazing, animals laying actual eggs, underwater swimming, unique behavior patterns, etc) Frontier is certainly capable too based off of what they've made so far!

 

[VioletGrey]

I'd love more coat color variations as well. Melanistic animals would be very welcome, as would more subtle variations.

 

[Leopard Lobbyist]

I think we won't be getting variations on purpose, so that they can sell more animals that are basically the same but with a different skin ( like the Arctic Wolf ).

I can't imagine it going over well if this ends up being the case. We'll have to wait and see what the next few animal pack DLCs are before we can determine it. I really hope Frontier isn't that awful.

 

[Tirelia]

I totally agree. I actually stopped playing because my biggest excitement was breeding and bonding with the animals. I feel like that is impossible this way. I read somewhere on a forum that they are busy with a skin color patch, but I am not sure if that will happen anytime soon. As long as it won't i'm kinda bored playing. I want more than just a planet coaster experience in the form of a zoo.

 

[Iben]

Frontier has already confirmed in another topic that they were going to add them in a free update and that the devs were already working on it. It is more complicated than we probably imagine depending on how their current variant system is set up.

They were either going to be spread over multiple updates or just one big update later on. This was all before COVID, so it's probably delayed.

 

[Firestar97]

Frontier has already confirmed in another topic that they were going to add them in a free update and that the devs were already working on it. It is more complicated than we probably imagine depending on how their current variant system is set up.

They were either going to be spread over multiple updates or just one big update later on. This was all before COVID, so it's probably delayed.

I think they've wrote that they won't add Variations for all Animals at the same time, but they will add Variations for multiple Species in one Update

 

[sympatrick]

At least for some animals fur variations are a must have, so I'm glad this was confirmed.

 

[Moonfox]

It would be awesome to have an update on how this is going... or an update to implement a few new coat variations

 

[SimoneV]

Agreed, we NEED variations in the game.

 

[Iben]

I think they've wrote that they won't add Variations for all Animals at the same time, but they will add Variations for multiple Species in one Update

Ah yes, that's what it was indeed!