Welcome to Planet Zoo!

Hi everybody !

I'm a zookeeper in a European zoo. I'm crazy about planet coaster and therefore I was looking forward to a zoological version. When I learned that the game was born I was over excited ! And then the trailer... The total disappointment. Me who thought we would finally have an ultra realistic zoological game...
It's always the same sauce as for Zoo Tycoon, Wildlife Park, Zoo Empire... with enrichments and ridiculous, unrealistic feeders. No animals do not play with giant footballs in zoos ! Again, there is nothing to build real night buildings (Backstages), greenhouses, aviaries, vivarium...

I hope that the game will be as faithful as possible to Planet Coaster, where every building, every scenography must be created with our own hands from start to finish. Judging the video, it seems that the buildings are already designed by the game as the entrance to the zoo. One more disappointment...

For the moment, I find that animals, especially brown bears, are not very realistic and make me think more of a cartoon... Always the same basic species (Lion, hippo, brown bear, ring-tailed lemur...) The animal world is not just about these species ! The only thing I had liked in Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Collection was that by clicking on a species we had many choices of subspecies or species of the same type. Perhaps it will be the same here ?

I am negative because I really expected a lot of this game, as something revolutionary but for now the trailer shows me the opposite...
You may be best to read this article (link below) written by people who played the pre-alpha game and then say again if you are disappointed or not because obviously you are taking the wrong conclusions from a pre-rendered trailer.
 
You may be best to read this article (link below) written by people who played the pre-alpha game and then say again if you are disappointed or not because obviously you are taking the wrong conclusions from a pre-rendered trailer.

I read the entirety and... Animals sleep in caves (As in Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Collection) and not in real buildings (Backstages). No traces of aviaries, greenhouses.
If you have to respect the exact needs of animals like in the first zoo tycoon it will be painful to create a beautiful enclosure but to be forced to put a big game in the middle...
I sincerely hope I am wrong and that I will be very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the game. But for the moment what has been announced (Apart from the management of genetics and reproduction, lifespan, personalization of each animal...) not look like a real zoo.
 
super excited for this game! seriously! after watching the documentary Our Planet I am so happy this game's central theme is also about conservation. We should educate everyone that we can about saving the planet and I am proud we can do it through the medium of a video game. I have high hopes for Planet Zoo! :D
 

Joël

Volunteer Moderator
I read the entirety and... Animals sleep in caves (As in Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Collection) and not in real buildings (Backstages). No traces of aviaries, greenhouses.
If you have to respect the exact needs of animals like in the first zoo tycoon it will be painful to create a beautiful enclosure but to be forced to put a big game in the middle...
I sincerely hope I am wrong and that I will be very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the game. But for the moment what has been announced (Apart from the management of genetics and reproduction, lifespan, personalization of each animal...) not look like a real zoo.
Perhaps you can build a backstage night enclosure around the cave to at least simulate that animals sleep inside.

We will learn more about Planet Zoo in the upcoming months :)
 
I read the entirety and... Animals sleep in caves (As in Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Collection) and not in real buildings (Backstages). No traces of aviaries, greenhouses.
If you have to respect the exact needs of animals like in the first zoo tycoon it will be painful to create a beautiful enclosure but to be forced to put a big game in the middle...
I sincerely hope I am wrong and that I will be very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the game. But for the moment what has been announced (Apart from the management of genetics and reproduction, lifespan, personalization of each animal...) not look like a real zoo.
While I have not worked in a zoo, I was incredibly lucky to spend a two week Co-Op placement for my college degree at a larger zoo in their Kid Zoo/Outreach department. It had been my dream since the age of 5 to be a Zoo Keeper, so I got my hands on every book, PDF and website about zoos to prepare, but the universe had other plans for me. I think the big thing we need to remember is that we are seeing a VERY tiny part of the game right now. They only just announced and with a release of Fall 2019 they can't tell us everything at once or they'd lose our attention until the day of. But knowing that A) the animal will react to terrain caves and B) it uses the Planet Coaster building mechanic (which we can assume has been updated), I don't believe that its ridiculous to suggest that we can't create those backstage areas and that the animals won't recognize them as shelters, we may just have to build them ourselves first and then share them on Steam as a community. We know we're getting spiders, reptiles and birds, and there have been plenty of mentions of "Smaller enclosures/tanks" for them, so I think we will definatley get some of what you and I am looking for, just maybe not all of it. I truly believe that this game will be the closest we get to a realistic zoo game for a good while, we just have to have faith in Frontier.

I am incredibly excited for this game, it's something I truly never thought we would get after Zoo Tycoon for Xbox. Can't wait for June for the newsletters and more information. The fall cannot come soon enough.
 
Yes via the Steam workshop.
Cool.

An interesting project then would be to recreate an existing park, like San Diego Zoo. Make into a virtual park.

What about VR? Will that be supported? (If it's been mentioned already, I apologize. I'm just lazy right now :D)
 
Cool.

An interesting project then would be to recreate an existing park, like San Diego Zoo. Make into a virtual park.

What about VR? Will that be supported? (If it's been mentioned already, I apologize. I'm just lazy right now :D)
Nothing mentioned about VR.
Judging by Planet Coaster and Jurassic World Evolution I would doubt it but you never know.
 
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