What should Frontier give us before support ends?

[tigris115]

So since support is gonna end one day, I think we should let Frontier know what specific animals we really want before support ends. IMO, in PZ's numbered days, things that should be focused on are...

Exhibit revamp
Animals with unique rigs, especially ones that modders can't really make. Ideally, those that are bigger tenants in zoos.
Birds and aviaries
Fish and other fully aquatic critters
Revamps for the base game animals and some DLC animals to make them look better (Ok that ain't totally necessary, but it'd be nice)

U guys get where I'm coming from, like things that the game NEEDS before it's put out to pasture

P.S. Frontier damned better not do some Planet Zoo 2 crap

 

[Antimony96]

Things I'd love to see but am skeptical about the feasibility of:
Exhibit revamp
Aviary system
Aquariums (other than fully-aquatic exhibits in the current system which are obviously doable)
A "children's zoo" expansion including playground equipment and an animal-feeding system
Total revamp of the pathing system

Things I think can and should be done:
Size/model/texture revisions to a good chunk of base game animals and a couple DLC (Malayan tapir) to make them more realistic
Future scenery being focused less on ornate, heavily-themed props and more on utility--backstage props, gardening equipment, gift shop props, etc.
On this--more (temperate EU/NA) garden-friendly plants, as well as more decals like the ones we've been getting.
Inspired by mods I've seen, I'd also love to see things like pine needles and dead leaves, along with the gravel pieces that are in the game's files
Return of the themed restaurants from PlanCo, or otherwise more diverse food options, from popcorn to seafood to sandwiches

Animal-wise, I think Frontier should look to the wishlist to an extent while also trying to beef up representation of the sorts of animals that are common in zoos but have little or no representation in PZ, especially habitat birds (wading birds, ground birds, waterfowl), certain small to medium-sized mammals (e.g. coati, porcupine), and primates (especially monkeys).

 

[AlexSea]

A redo to the exhibit system, with the smallest size being 1/4 the size of the current exhibit size, and being able to attach multiple exhibits to each other to make a big one, is a must, as well as aviaries. I'd also like the ability to paint the terrain with different grass, rock, and sand types, regardless of the biome you're building in, i.e. using savannah grass in the tropical biome.

 

[JanH25R]

Things I'd love to see but am skeptical about the feasibility of:
Exhibit revamp
Aviary system
Aquariums (other than fully-aquatic exhibits in the current system which are obviously doable)
A "children's zoo" expansion including playground equipment and an animal-feeding system
Total revamp of the pathing system

Things I think can and should be done:
Size/model/texture revisions to a good chunk of base game animals and a couple DLC (Malayan tapir) to make them more realistic
Future scenery being focused less on ornate, heavily-themed props and more on utility--backstage props, gardening equipment, gift shop props, etc.
On this--more (temperate EU/NA) garden-friendly plants, as well as more decals like the ones we've been getting.
Inspired by mods I've seen, I'd also love to see things like pine needles and dead leaves, along with the gravel pieces that are in the game's files
Return of the themed restaurants from PlanCo, or otherwise more diverse food options, from popcorn to seafood to sandwiches

Animal-wise, I think Frontier should look to the wishlist to an extent while also trying to beef up representation of the sorts of animals that are common in zoos but have little or no representation in PZ, especially habitat birds (wading birds, ground birds, waterfowl), certain small to medium-sized mammals (e.g. coati, porcupine), and primates (especially monkeys).

Here I really fully agree!

 

[ZSHplays]

An exhibit revamp would be a game-changer, imagine being able to actually make realistic insect/reptile houses! I also feel like it really wouldn't be hard to do unlike say aviaries or aquatics. My London Zoo reptile house was basically ruined by the exhibits, 4 species of Frog took up 64 square metres of space! IRL it would be 4 square metres. I'd also like to see some size tweaks, I don't understand why they don't just make the Camels, Tortoises etc the correct size. I've not done any programming since I was a kid but I don't think sizing them up correctly would cause the animations etc any problems? I may be missing something though, I'm not an expert. Maybe the hitboxes are the issue?

My main wishes are twofold: Flying birds (already in JWE2 so shouldn't be hard) and making the arboreal animals actually climb rather than spend 90% of their time sat on the floor. Again, they can already climb in the game so I don't understand why they only do it 10% of the time, seems like it would take 5 minutes to adjust their parameters so they spend the majority of their time climbing. It's always dangerous speculating about why things aren't the way you want them to be though, I'm sure Frontier know as much about the animals IRL as we do so, if they don't behave right, there's probably a good reason behind it.

 

[LindaBroer]

Always a hard one. I'm really sattisfied with the game as a whole and yet there is much I would be happy to see included though I don't think most of it is really neccesary to make my time in the game fun. I'm personally not a big proponent of flying birds. Though I would be happy to see them included it is not a must for me. For me the 'must haves' are more on the side of the guests as well as animal enrichment if anything.

For the guests I want more options. The boxless shops are great, but why only food and drink? I want to build realistic looking gift shops and smaller gift stalls. Like a small balloon selling stall somewhere in the middle of the park. Also being able to deck out my gift stalls without grabbing to mods or spending a gazillion pieces would be awesome. And more activities for the guests in general. I don't want rollercoasters or something like that, but a working playground would be nice. And if I'm really stretching the wish list a small caroussel (not sure if named correctly, but you know what I mean I hope. The one with the horses, and lions etc. kids can sit on and go round and round in circles). Also for a select number of species, hand feeding them should be a thing. I'm thinking about the peafowl, the fallow deer, the goats.

For the animal enrichment I primarily want more natural looking enrichment. The scratching trees and the log rubbing pad are excellent examples of that. And I want older animals to get access to new enrichment items. It still feels weird that the hammock can only be used by the clouded leapord and the sun bear. I'm sure other cats and bears would enjoy it. And the great apes too. We get amazing new enrichment items with each pack, but none requiring new animations are retro-fitted to existing animals meaning that the old animals become more and more lack-luster. They look less good and have far less options in terms of cool enrichment. It's sad to me.

 

[markun]

A Malayan tapir please.

 

[Aramar]

1. The exhibit revamp
2. The remaining shop counters (especially info/souvenirs)
3. Animal signs in the same style for all the animals in the game
4. Animal statues in the same style for all the animals in the game
5. Gridded mesh building set
6. Horizontal wood building set
7. New barriers (classical stable wooden barrier and iron bar barrier)
8. A proper chairlift/cable car and a carousel
9. And all the animals we want

 

[TheYeti]

I'd add more options to customise barriers and paths.

Barriers:

• More barrier types (wood, bamboo, different types of stone which we already have as construction pieces)
• More add-ons (we now have climb-proof, but what about an electric wire or barbed wire on top)
• Options to tilt barriers
• More options for barrier poles (the brick and concrete pillars are extremely large and make the barrier less smooth)

Paths:

• More generic paths (i.e. shells, Portuguese stone, grey stone tile)
• Flexicolour options (at least for concrete and various stone paths)
• Options to add each path barrier to each path
• Options to add each path barrier on only one side of the path
• 2- and 3-meter paths without using the cheats
• Options to make a path go only in one direction
• Options to un-block terrain modification

In addition I think we need some more general zoo items:

• Triangular mesh/net pieces (if we don't get aviaries)
• Sand, gravel and woodchip patches (comparable to mulch patches)
• New construction sets (horizontal wood, modern tiles, different stone textures)
• Animal feeding stations
• More natural climbable items.

More far-fetched options which I dream of:

• More exhibit options (as mentioned in posts above)
• Flying animals and aviaries
• Fully aquatic animals and aquariums
• Branchiation
• Playgrounds

 

[Pentoleaf]

• Underwater tunnels without exploiting glitches
• Ability to choose railings for elevated paths
• Transparent path so we can make glass floors
• More styles for barriers, as well as keeper and guest gates
• More garden friendly plants, smaller trees and grasses
• More small mammals (primates, small cats, mustelids, racoons...)
• More ungulates (including the beleaguered dromedary)
• More ground, wading, and water birds (pheasants! fowl! ducks! cranes! swans!)
• More assets/scenery for building realistic zoos and backstage areas without using ten thousand pieces.
• All appropriate animals can use all appropriate enrichments
• Matching signs and statues for all animals
• More decals
• Leaf litter and mulch
• More shop types + blank counters for every shop type
• A merry-go-round

And in a perfect, but very unlikely world:

• A re-model, resize for all animals which need it
• Aviaries
• Aquariums
• A full revamp of the exhibits system
• Working playgrounds
• African dwarf crocodiles
• A zt2 esque mod kit that allows us to put mod animals on the workshop.

 

[MicHaeL MonStaR]

Where do you want me to post the massive text-file?...

But really, I want to see some improvements in some of the stuff that's already there, like pathing, AI-logic, interface-design/organization, etc.
Oh, and not to forget improvements in performance, cause I still see no reason for the game to act the way it does.
(But if the engine is just... that way... and they can't do anything about it or something, well, too bad I guess.)

I will still post some of my feedback and ideas a bit later, but I'll try to note everything as clearly as possible, and who knows what will be used...
I've played this game for well over 100 hours within like 3-4 weeks and I'm still learning everything that's in it. - But I easily noticed room for improvement.
And I think some of my ideas are a must, no question about it. It's not even that "genius" or anything, just basic logic.

 

[MicHaeL MonStaR]

A "children's zoo" expansion including playground equipment and an animal-feeding system

By that, do you mean what they'd also call a "petting zoo"?... Because, yes, that's what I'd like to see.

And in my view, that would be like a smaller section of the zoo, basically like a habitat, in which you'd (also) have your more common animals like goats, sheep, chickens, and so forth. Which in turn could obviously also do something more for the satisfaction of guests, especially the children I suppose.
But yea, that would be the cutest ' addition... O yea, bunnies!... How can I forget. - Or maybe llamas and such goofballs.
Even if such common animals won't be included, perhaps a "petting zoo" could include snakes or something, where guests can hold them and freak out. A "reptilian" version or section of it, I suppose.

Just brainstorming...

 

[markun]

A Malayan tapir please.

In addition to this there are so many other things and most have been mentioned already.

If I could pick just one priority it would be maps and biome textures. I still can’t make the kind of zoos I want to because the map backgrounds are too dramatic and intrusive and because we can’t select different biome textures.

For example I really dislike the grass colour of the taiga maps and would love to use some of the tropical textures for indoor areas on a temperate map.

So I really hope we will get

• Basic maps with low lying backgrounds
• Ability to select different biome textures
• Manual temperature control so snow can stay on the ground in non-tundra maps.

 

[jcp011c]

"Should" give us versus what we "want" them to give us are different things.

Animal wise, the biggest misses are a Leopard, Emu, Przewalski's Horse and the Gibbon (though I'm getting less confident we'll see that last one). Also more Oceania/Australian habitat animals in general, at least packs worth (4 animals) though they can all be in one pack or spread out through various packs. Animals like the Red River Hog, the Maned Wolf, the Wolverine, and the Tasmanian Devil (along with my personal biggest want, the Wombat) are probably second tier that would be really really great to get, but as important and popular as they are, I wouldn't assign them to first tier "needed" animals at this point.

The ability to select different types of terrain than what is default for that biome. So we can make grass green even if the biome is automatically yellow/brownish. Ideally for all modes, but at the very least for Sandbox.

Things I want to see:

Flying Avians. I'm definitely team bird here. And I fear at this point in the game, it's very possible we may not get them, or if we do, it really won't be enough to satisfy most wants. I feel like they'd have to put them in an extra large pack (for more money) and there's been no indication that they would release such a pack. Alternatively they could supply some lesser wanted but still important birds in a free update, and keep the bigger draw animals in the pack, but there's been nothing to indicate they'd do that either.

Exhibit system overhaul - Larger, smaller, modular. This is the weakest point in the game right now. Are exhibit animals generally less exciting because there's so little we can do with them, or is there so little we can do with them that they're generally less exciting? Only one way to find out really, and that's give us options.

Matching signs. Haven't really picked up on this in the past, but I'd love to have at least one set of signs for all animals that is consistent. Right now every pack's signs look very different from one another. They don't give a cohesively designed look. Ideally I'd love a couple of sets but even just one would do.

I'm completely neutral on fully marine animals. It'll be great if they come to the game, but I'm also fine if they don't.

 

[hudsonbear]

Gridded mesh building set

This! I like the mesh pieces we have, but was disappointed when I realised they weren't gridded. This would make building 'aviaries' for primates etc so much easier.

As pps have mentioned, I also want a revamp to the exhibits. It just seems bizarre to me that insects have the same size enclosures as iguanas and anacondas.

 

[TheHippoGirl]

So many great ideas in this thread ! Gotta love the PlanZo community !

My biggest priorities:

- Flying birds/aviaries. No zoo can feel complete without them. I know it might be technically difficult to implement so I would even be OK with a system where we could place pre-built aviaries in our zoos (like the exhibits but some different sizes) and slightly customize them. We could then add birds into them and they would have looping animations. I would be OK with that. It would definitely be better than nothing. (I would love to get aquariums too but they are less essential to me than aviaries).

- REALISTIC BACKSTAGE PROPS. I've already talked about this so many times, I'm not going to repeat myself again. But please Frontier, this is so badly needed...

- More realistic automatic water dispensers and feeders (especially for ungulates).

- A fixed Malayan tapir.

- The remaining shop counters.

- More food shops (chicken, sushi, salads, etc.)

- Getting the texture of the elevated natural path as a standard path.

- Ability to add path barrier on only one side of the path.

If technically possible:

- Playgrounds

- An improved climbing system and especially making some very arboreal animals (koala, binturong) spend less time on the ground. For the koala, maybe we could get a sleeping tree enrichment item (like the eucalyptus feeding tree) in which they would sleep. If you place that enrichment tree in their habitat, they would spend 90% of their time sleeping in it like they would do in real life. This would be a great option for people who care about realism - and those who care less would have the option to not use that enrichment item and their koalas would remain more active.

Finally, I have to say I like the exhibit system as it is and its revamp is not one of my priorities at this point. I know this is an unpopular opinion. I'm not opposed to some improvements either, don't get me wrong. I think having a smaller size for the little insects and frogs would especially make sense. But I feel like the exhibits are not as bad as a lot of people say they are. I enjoy them very much and, for me, all the things I talked about above are much more important than an exhibit revamp. Just my opinion of course.

 

[warrior-king]

Things I'd love to see but am skeptical about the feasibility of:
Exhibit revamp
Aviary system
Aquariums (other than fully-aquatic exhibits in the current system which are obviously doable)
A "children's zoo" expansion including playground equipment and an animal-feeding system
Total revamp of the pathing system

Things I think can and should be done:
Size/model/texture revisions to a good chunk of base game animals and a couple DLC (Malayan tapir) to make them more realistic
Future scenery being focused less on ornate, heavily-themed props and more on utility--backstage props, gardening equipment, gift shop props, etc.
On this--more (temperate EU/NA) garden-friendly plants, as well as more decals like the ones we've been getting.
Inspired by mods I've seen, I'd also love to see things like pine needles and dead leaves, along with the gravel pieces that are in the game's files
Return of the themed restaurants from PlanCo, or otherwise more diverse food options, from popcorn to seafood to sandwiches

Animal-wise, I think Frontier should look to the wishlist to an extent while also trying to beef up representation of the sorts of animals that are common in zoos but have little or no representation in PZ, especially habitat birds (wading birds, ground birds, waterfowl), certain small to medium-sized mammals (e.g. coati, porcupine), and primates (especially monkeys).

I completely agree, all that should be really good in Planet Zoo!

 

[warrior-king]

• Underwater tunnels without exploiting glitches
• Ability to choose railings for elevated paths
• Transparent path so we can make glass floors
• More styles for barriers, as well as keeper and guest gates
• More garden friendly plants, smaller trees and grasses
• More small mammals (primates, small cats, mustelids, racoons...)
• More ungulates (including the beleaguered dromedary)
• More ground, wading, and water birds (pheasants! fowl! ducks! cranes! swans!)
• More assets/scenery for building realistic zoos and backstage areas without using ten thousand pieces.
• All appropriate animals can use all appropriate enrichments
• Matching signs and statues for all animals
• More decals
• Leaf litter and mulch
• More shop types + blank counters for every shop type
• A merry-go-round

And in a perfect, but very unlikely world:

• A re-model, resize for all animals which need it
• Aviaries
• Aquariums
• A full revamp of the exhibits system
• Working playgrounds
• African dwarf crocodiles
• A zt2 esque mod kit that allows us to put mod animals on the workshop.

I completely agree, all that should be really good in Planet Zoo! But when we are gonna get the next Planet Zoo upgrade?

 

[jcp011c]

I completely agree, all that should be really good in Planet Zoo! But when we are gonna get the next Planet Zoo upgrade?

You mean update and likely the next DLC? It's likely - though by no means for sure - that it will be either later this month or sometime in July. Nothing's been confirmed yet, just going by timetables and estimates.

 

[NachoB]

Birds and aviaries.
And a gift shops pack.
Playgrounds for kids.
And honestly fill the roster of animals with iconic zoo and wild species that are missing such as waterfowls, dromedary camel, leopards, emu, monkeys, gibbons, small cats, and (even though not my priority nor my preference) petting zoo/farm animals, with petting interactions.