What I mean is how do you decide what you use and how you build your zoo. I hear and have actually seen some people draw out there zoo. Some look at pics on the internet for inspiration. Me I from time to time look at pics for ideas and thoughts. Like right now I’m considering doing the Dallas zoos Giants of the Savanna exhibit. A huge exhibit that houses 5-7 animals including elephants,giraffe,zebra,and impalas to name some. I always tried in zt2 but planet zoo has so much better landscaping capabilities. Usually I just wing it tho like right now my zoo features 3 exhibits with Siberian tigers, flamingos,and Indian rhinos. I’m not going to follow the normal continent groups with this zoo. I also have a large lake with several row boats. And a info building so far.
What’s your method of building in planet zoo?
- Thread starter paul78
- Start date
Hello, how do I decide what my zoo should look like?
I actually had no precise ideas.
Although I had a lot of different ones, which I cannot implement due to my laptop.
But then I heard about someone building a kite in beta.
I wanted to see this with my own eyes.
I also found one or two dragons, but I had imagined it differently.
But was impressed by the whole pictures and how much effort people put in.
Unfortunately, I cannot use the blueprints, because for the time being I can only use the laptop.
I really regretted it. But who knows what the future will bring.
But I couldn't let go of the dragon.
I wanted a large walk-in kite.
And I implemented that.
Yes, I also roughly recorded what the dragon should look like.
Not only on paper, but I "sketched" the dragon floor plan with the terrain colors
But everything comes spontaneously.
I know roughly what it should look like in the future, but a lot changes with time.
The nice thing is that I have the opportunity to create a lot of new zoos.
I actually had no precise ideas.
Although I had a lot of different ones, which I cannot implement due to my laptop.
But then I heard about someone building a kite in beta.
I wanted to see this with my own eyes.
I also found one or two dragons, but I had imagined it differently.
But was impressed by the whole pictures and how much effort people put in.
Unfortunately, I cannot use the blueprints, because for the time being I can only use the laptop.
I really regretted it. But who knows what the future will bring.
But I couldn't let go of the dragon.
I wanted a large walk-in kite.
And I implemented that.
Yes, I also roughly recorded what the dragon should look like.
Not only on paper, but I "sketched" the dragon floor plan with the terrain colors
But everything comes spontaneously.
I know roughly what it should look like in the future, but a lot changes with time.
The nice thing is that I have the opportunity to create a lot of new zoos.
Seeing what others have built can be disheartening, but to be honest once you play the game enough it becomes rather easy to make things look good. The trouble is rarely with one's skill, but with the game's mechanics. The pathing system and terrain system are abysmal, for example. Super hard to work with.
For my current zoo, I have a sketch which rougly outlines the different sections and the animals I want in each of them. But what the acutal habitats and buildings look like are spontaneous decisions. I get a lot of inspiration from the www, of course. Even though I'm not even close to the level of detail some of the people out there achieve, they give me many ideas and tricks, which items could be used to create certain looks etc. So even though I know I'll never be THAT advanced, I find their content rather encouraging than disheartening.
Having at least an idea of the whole zoo when I started definitely helped me to make the setup work.
Having at least an idea of the whole zoo when I started definitely helped me to make the setup work.
@Yaffle dont feel bad I think there’s a lot of us on here that are still learning the ropes and aren’t happy with where are building skills are at. I use a lot of workshop items at times and thanks to all the builders who share their creations with the community. I did see deladysigner say in her latest video that she struggled and stressed with planet coaster in the beginning like everyone else. She said the biggest thing is learning the controls and just keep practicing. I’m getting better and have recently forced myself to learn the building aspect of the game. But I’m far from advanced. @Dienstbier I feel your pain I used to play planet coaster on my home pc and couldn’t really enjoy the game the way it was meant to be played. Low graphics and a lot of basic design. I was happy that I could play at least but frustrating not to enjoy all the features of the game.
Same here. I'm not the best builder, but my ideas are my own. I find that watching youtube videos are fun, but timesinks that take away from gameplay and after a while you start building like them and loose some creativity in the process.
Oh, I quite enjoy the YouTubers, most of the time, but I only tend to take inspiration from them in broad strokes. For example, if they use a certain animal, sometimes I'll think, "Oh, I haven't used that one yet, or in a while, so I'll use it too." I've still never made a dome, nor do I ever intend to.
YouTubers can be annoying at times as well though. Obviously they're good at what they do and all very creative, but it bugs me when they throw words around like "realistic" when making something that is exactly not realistic, or they profess some piece of knowledge that is entirely wrong, or they miss the point of something in the game. DeLady, for example, is doing a City Zoo at the moment, and the first build (the bonobo habitat) was great, but she separated the males and females, which for primates isn't something done very frequently (I can give that a pass, as it does happen in some zoos), but then the next build (the hyena and lions) while beautiful would be a management nightmare for a real zoo and is totally outside the realm of practicality and functionality. The hyena and lions are separated by a very thin, see-through barrier which would cause myriad problems for both species and be a major hindrance to their welfare.
I do also take some inspiration from real zoos, though not a lot, and again, only in broad strokes. My local zoo has a number of big paddocks around the periphery where they tend to keep "random" hoofstock. Along the back you've got zebras, Tibetan yak, giraffes, Asian water buffalo, American bison, white rhinos, and waterbuck, and then there's a huge cheetah enclosure, and then along the front there are addax and ostriches (there used to be scimitar-horned oryx here, but they're off-display now). That's something I quite like, as it's a good way to include some odds-and-ends animals in the game without having to squeeze them into a themed area. Animals like the bison, pronghorn, gemsbok, Bactrian camel, and reindeer, which don't really go anywhere specific due to their biomes or regions look quite nice in big open areas around the outside of the zoo.
lol domes are youtubers icons. In a similar way I say that about their habitats, some are done in a way where I go, now why didn't I think about that?
I have to admit now that I was just watching that DeLady video #3 heh. It also seemed unrealistic that the habitats were small looking and it sounded like she was using shrubs that the animals wouldn't like. You're right, it's more form over function, though I do like how the inside of the building is laid out as it's realistic at least that's how my local zoo has the facilities done.
That's a good idea to keep them on the outskirts instead of squeezing them into the center.
You know, most YouTubers aren't zookeepers and some even not animal experts. I am 95% sure they would appreciate your feedback about the realism of a habitat when you direct it to them in a friendly way. Would also be more polite and helpful for everyone, in my opinion.
This is in general a friendly community, why don't we help each other out and learn from each other instead of using words like "annoying"? And if you tend to take inspirations from them, wouldn't it be fair to also give back a little? They provide their content and their ideas for free.
This is in general a friendly community, why don't we help each other out and learn from each other instead of using words like "annoying"? And if you tend to take inspirations from them, wouldn't it be fair to also give back a little? They provide their content and their ideas for free.
I already give back, by watching their videos.
For my franchise zoo I just move around one section at a time and decide what I want to do next with regards to exhibits, waterfalls, enclosures, shops etc. For my Sandbox zoo I am doing a replica of Singapore Zoo which I approached differently. For this I laid all the paths out and put every enclosure in with walls to give a rough idea of size and location. I then started at the front and moved around filling in the animals and buildings we currently have in the game. I will keep coming back to this as more get added.
The zoo's a mostly flat, I would like to add in more terrain around the whole zoo than just sculpt the enclosure but it's really tricky on a large scale to do, would really like some more blank landscaped zoo's as templates.
The zoo's a mostly flat, I would like to add in more terrain around the whole zoo than just sculpt the enclosure but it's really tricky on a large scale to do, would really like some more blank landscaped zoo's as templates.
You could do this yourself and use it as your main workshop theme. I am sure it would be popular. Create nothing but terrain and water models, surround the entire thing with a barrier, save it as a blueprint for others to use. I think there maybe a few of these out there already and the landscaping is one of the most interesting parts of the game IMO.
Usually I'll only mess with the terrain as needed. For example, one area I made had pygmy hippos in a ground-level habitat with a waterfall at the back, and the waterfall spilled from the flamingo pool at a higher level behind it. You could see the flamingoes sometimes at the back of the hippo enclosure when they were near the edge of the waterfall. In another case, I built up a sort of mountain for a giant panda habitat, where at the start I had the pangolin in a lower habitat representing the foothills, and then you climb up and around and get a top-down view of the giant pandas in a valley (I had planned on expanding this to red pandas and snow leopards but wound up deleting that zoo).