What did you do in Planet Zoo today?

Alright I kind of 'cheated' with all that plaza slabs, in the end I just decided to place a bunch of plaster floors and create the slabs using those indonesian wooden beams to create the effect rather than spends days and days figuring out how to align individual plaster flooring around a circular shape. Extending into the actual plaza is some custom planters which is a familar style as I saw those style of planters virtually everywhere in the southern usa. I might actually make the parking lot even more realistic and add some weathered road details if I can figure out how to do that in my style of building.

Planet Zoo Screenshot 2024.02.17 - 22.46.03.18.png

Planet Zoo Screenshot 2024.02.17 - 22.47.25.87.png
 
Today I left my artic zoo behind and went to a older zoo, „Tierpark Gemsendorf“ and build an Africa savanna with giraffes, zebras and scimitar horned Oryx 🦓 I really like that habitat. I always don’t know, how to make the savanna’s not empty, but with the buffalo Grass, I think I found a good way. What do you guys say?

View attachment 383942
View attachment 383940View attachment 383941
View attachment 383944View attachment 383945View attachment 383943
View attachment 383946
Looks absolutly amazing, even if a little flat
 
A few days back, I had a pretty ambitious idea in my head for an Amazon-themed building in my park (something I wanted to do before but never really with a clear plan), so I started to experiment a bit. I finally feel like I'm actually getting somewhere today.

rhrOZ14.png


The complex will contain a reptile/insect house section, and some transitional exhibits/habitats: the first of those contains a small night section with armadillos and sloth, the latter of which can also move to the walkthrough aviary outside which will contain capuchins and (in my imagination) birds.

N5pWbYD.png


For another section of the building, I'm trying to get a combined caiman / butterfly habitat, where visitors can walk through the butterfly forest while the caimans swim beneath. There should be viewing points for the caimans on both sides (land view from inside the building and underwater view from outside).
 
Here is the anteater and capybara enclosure in my unnamed zoo. I built a little feeding station in the back of the habitat that includes a feeding trough and a little feeding tube for the anteaters to search for totally real food! The shelter building is still in progress, but I'll finish that when I start on the otters.
20240219155242_1.jpg
20240219155250_1.jpg
20240219155415_1.jpg
20240219155428_1.jpg
20240219155452_1.jpg
 
So I unfortunately don’t have any pictures yet, but these past couple weeks I have been working on a zoo project in between school. It’s a classic themed zoo I call Birchwood, and it has a bit of lore to it. I’ll get around to screenshots one day. For now I just started laying the foundations for the Indonesia building.

I layed down the path, adding the outline of the building, and completely finished the main habitat. It’s a giant indoor rainforest for 4 lar gibbons and a Malayan tapir. Let me tell ya, building the climbable vines and trees was very frustrating. Luckily it has a natural look I don’t mind. Despite using the 16 m vines I don’t see the gibbons brachiating much which makes me sad. Maybe if I spend more time watching them.

The Indonesia building I’m thinking of is a brutalist/ concrete type design. The building will also have the soectacled flying fox, which actually extends into Indonesia.

This is the first time I ever made a full zoo in Sandbox. It has been great so far, and I don’t know if I could ever go back to Franchise. Still, the pathing and some of the other building systems can be super frustrating at the best of times, and sometimes it makes me not want to play for a day or two to calm down.

As of right now this is the plan for birchwood:

  1. Former birchwood manor: complete with sea lions looking out the back
  2. Food stalls with bathrooms: complete
  3. Gift shop with information stall nearby: complete
  4. Reptile house: complete with dwarf caiman and exhibit box animals
  5. Gardens: complete with butterflies, mute swans, and peafowl
  6. Camels: complete
  7. Indonesia house: incomplete
  8. Red crowned cranes: incomplete
  9. African hoofstock + ostrich: incomplete
  10. Emu + wallaby: incomplete
  11. The penguin house: incomplete
My idea was it being a small zoo, and I would like to say I’m not experienced like some of you, so I am not the best builder. I play this game for the animals first.
 
I now understand why older style zoos are difficult to build, even the simple looking classic architecture is quite the challenge, it is over 400 pieces of pain just for the roof piece alone. I mean I figured out how to make the roofs like these but alignment of all the curved pieces is a really painful process. Individual brick pillars, curved tile patterns and windows of course inside these walls because the default window pieces look far too basic. The entrance of the houston zoo is a slow and patience testing process.

20240220191314_1.jpg


20240220191336_1.jpg
 
I've been working on a tropical house for Ovonia park and I've come to 2 conclusions:

1) I miss my old good computer. For the last months I've been using my old one which doesn't have a good graphic card. Building indoor with with low graphics and blurry textures is a pain in the Somali wild...
2) Building for crocodiians sucks with their huge land and water requriements. I had to enlarge their enclosures several times and ended up completely removing the gharial. Now I don't know where to put that animal in the zoo.

Anyway, here are some shots of the entrance and the cassowary enclosure. It has an outdoor area, and the walls of the indoor area are made of glass to allow continous vision indoor-outdoor.

20240220203329_1.jpg

20240220203436_1.jpg

20240220203509_1.jpg

20240220203528_1.jpg

20240220203702_1.jpg
 
The entrance booths have been given a much-needed remodelling... including a new guest services building!
1708564661138.png

The new entrance booth design:
1708564696817.png

And finally, I always thought the porcupines felt a little out of place so I have replaced them with prairie dogs. One half of my entrance is Europe themed, now the other is North American themed... having the grey seals in between is quite perfect really.
1708564804420.png

Now the last thing to do for the main entrance is to add a cafe! And then just a little bit of tidying up and I can finally move on to finish my European trail (planning on 3 more habitats) and start the North American section.
1708564936908.png
 
I now understand why older style zoos are difficult to build, even the simple looking classic architecture is quite the challenge, it is over 400 pieces of pain just for the roof piece alone. I mean I figured out how to make the roofs like these but alignment of all the curved pieces is a really painful process. Individual brick pillars, curved tile patterns and windows of course inside these walls because the default window pieces look far too basic. The entrance of the houston zoo is a slow and patience testing process.

View attachment 384174

View attachment 384176
Quell would be proud…
 
Back
Top Bottom