Planet Zoo Planet Zoo!

Here’s an interesting conundrum: if we ever do get aviaries, how would macaws be handled? Do you just pick one species (let’s say Scarlet) and leave out all the others? Or do you add more (like Hyacinth or Blue and Gold) for greater color variety at the risk of redundancy?
A similar issue currently exists with the game’s poison dart frogs. We have Golden & Lehmann’s, but I feel like we’re missing out on the blue of the Dyeing poison dart frog. They’re all different species, but I wouldn’t want the already lacking exhibit roster to be clogged up with poison dart frogs.
Am I the only one with this concern?
 
My opinion is having two species of macaw -- Hyacinth and Scarlet. They are both large flying birds so that better suited to the game. Hyacinth has more significance in conservation, while Scarlet has greater color variety and can be used for both Central or South American themes.

P.S, regarding bird species, I think PZ needs more walker birds (such as gamebirds, Seriema, Secretary Birds, Bustards, Ground Hornbills), waterfowls and wader birds. Victoria's Crowned Pigeon is a good idea since they are large bird and spend more time on land than on trees. For flying birds, certain large species of Raptors, Hornbills and Parrots would be enough. It is very hard for the players to track small birds in the game.
 
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StellarChaser said:
My opinion is having two species of macaw -- Hyacinth and Scarlet. They are both large flying birds so that better suited to the game. Hyacinth has more significance in conservation, while Scarlet has greater color variety and can be used for both Central or South American themes.

P.S, regarding bird species, I think PZ needs more walker birds (such as gamebirds, Seriema, Secretary Birds, Bustards, Ground Hornbills), waterfowls and wader birds. Victoria's Crowned Pigeon is a good idea since they are large bird and spend more time on land than on trees. For flying birds, certain large species of Raptors, Hornbills and Parrots would be enough. It is very hard for the players to track small birds in the game.
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Good take.
Toucans would be another good choice for flyers, and I think Roadrunners can be added to the game as-is.
Agreed on the small birds.
 
StellarChaser said:
I know Frontier doesn't want to make any exhibit mammal, but exhibit species is a better way of making very tiny primates like Mouse Lemur, Pygmy Marmoset and Slow Loris, they are in fact much smaller than some current exhibit species.
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I agree that, if they showed more flexibility with exhibits, small mammals would make an excellent addition to any zoo, as is in real life. If I had to make a selection of micro mammals to add into the game, it would be as follows;
- Western pygmy marmoset
- Golden lion tamarin
- Goodman's mouse lemur
- Senegal Galago
- Pygmy slow loris
- Naked mole rat
- Lesser hedgehog tenrec/ African pygmy hedgehog
- Round-eared elephant shrew
- Turkish spiny mouse
- Long-tailed chinchilla
- Merriam's kangaroo rat
- Northern Luzon giant cloud rat (I'd rather it be a full habitat animal though)
- Southern three-banded armadillo
- Linnaeus's two-toed sloth (again, I'd rather it be a full habitat animal)
- Sugar glider
- Monito del Monte

Also, in terms of ectoterms, I feel we're mostly covered, with the following exceptions which should be added in;
- Burmese/ Indian rock python
- King/ red spitting cobra
- Panther/ Jackson's chameleon
- Madagascar day/ tokay gecko
- Mata-mata turtle
- Chinese three-striped box turtle (or any other critically endangered Asian terrapin)
- Pancake/ Egyptian tortoise
- Butterfly (many possibilities; Morpho and European peacock would be my first choices)

There are so many other unexplored possibilities with exhibits, but I'll leave it at that for now.
 
JigerofLemuria said:
I agree that, if they showed more flexibility with exhibits, small mammals would make an excellent addition to any zoo, as is in real life. If I had to make a selection of micro mammals to add into the game, it would be as follows;
- Western pygmy marmoset
- Golden lion tamarin
- Goodman's mouse lemur
- Senegal Galago
- Pygmy slow loris
- Naked mole rat
- Lesser hedgehog tenrec/ African pygmy hedgehog
- Round-eared elephant shrew
- Turkish spiny mouse
- Long-tailed chinchilla
- Merriam's kangaroo rat
- Northern Luzon giant cloud rat (I'd rather it be a full habitat animal though)
- Southern three-banded armadillo
- Linnaeus's two-toed sloth (again, I'd rather it be a full habitat animal)
- Sugar glider
- Monito del Monte

Also, in terms of ectoterms, I feel we're mostly covered, with the following exceptions which should be added in;
- Burmese/ Indian rock python
- King/ red spitting cobra
- Panther/ Jackson's chameleon
- Madagascar day/ tokay gecko
- Mata-mata turtle
- Chinese three-striped box turtle (or any other critically endangered Asian terrapin)
- Pancake/ Egyptian tortoise
- Butterfly (many possibilities; Morpho and European peacock would be my first choices)

There are so many other unexplored possibilities with exhibits, but I'll leave it at that for now.
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The main catch with small species is Planet Zoo operates on a very large size scale. Even the exhibits are 4m x 4m, rough equivalent 12 ft x 12 ft. The full exhibit space is something like 12 ft x 12 ft x 10 ft, which is huge for nearly all exhibit species we currently have. It's standard mew size for individually housed small to medium raptors, and several small mammals are easily housed in such space. If you look at many of the pre-made large animal climbing frames they are extremely large, a habitat needs to be a 1/4 acre or more just to fit one. The arboreal feeding platforms are 3x3m or 4x4m, which is crazy large. Habitats are forced to be huge even for small species simply because of the space required for the necessities. This makes finding and tracking small species very difficult, and all the giant items make them look all the tinier... especially when many of the habitat size requirements are rather large already.
 
Great Argus said:
The main catch with small species is Planet Zoo operates on a very large size scale. Even the exhibits are 4m x 4m, rough equivalent 12 ft x 12 ft. The full exhibit space is something like 12 ft x 12 ft x 10 ft, which is huge for nearly all exhibit species we currently have. It's standard mew size for individually housed small to medium raptors, and several small mammals are easily housed in such space. If you look at many of the pre-made large animal climbing frames they are extremely large, a habitat needs to be a 1/4 acre or more just to fit one. The arboreal feeding platforms are 3x3m or 4x4m, which is crazy large. Habitats are forced to be huge even for small species simply because of the space required for the necessities. This makes finding and tracking small species very difficult, and all the giant items make them look all the tinier... especially when many of the habitat size requirements are rather large already.
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I believe that the game should incorporate larger exhibits, maybe 4x8m wide. That ought to fix the problem, plus it would be more suitable for the iguanas and anacondas.
 
StellarChaser said:
My opinion is having two species of macaw -- Hyacinth and Scarlet. They are both large flying birds so that better suited to the game. Hyacinth has more significance in conservation, while Scarlet has greater color variety and can be used for both Central or South American themes.

P.S, regarding bird species, I think PZ needs more walker birds (such as gamebirds, Seriema, Secretary Birds, Bustards, Ground Hornbills), waterfowls and wader birds. Victoria's Crowned Pigeon is a good idea since they are large bird and spend more time on land than on trees. For flying birds, certain large species of Raptors, Hornbills and Parrots would be enough. It is very hard for the players to track small birds in the game.
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I agree that having these two species is the best choice, plus we get contrasting red and blue species. I'd release the scarlet macaw first, with the introduction of flying birds, and the hyacinth in a later DLC.
Also agreed that we need more birds in general. The absence of pelicans particularly baffles me, especially as they've also been absent in both Zoo Tycoons so far! O.o
 
Now that we're talking about both larger 4x8m or 8x8m exhibits AND birds, I still think aviary exhibits, for smaller birds, could be a great asset. Some birds that would be wonderful for this feature would be;
- Bali mynah
- Hill mynah
- Greater bird-of-paradise
- Rainbow lorikeet
- Andean cock-of-the-rock
- Greater umbrellabird
- Blue dacnis
- Northern carmine bee-eater
- Village weaver
- Guam kingfisher
- Ruby-throated hummingbird
- Common vampire bat (I know it's not a bird, buuut...)

I'm sure there are tons more good candidates
 
since yall are talking about having macaws and primates, i will say my opinion, i think we should get at least 5 macaw species, the blue and yellow macaw, scarlet macaw, hyacinth macaw, military macaw and the last but not least spix's macaw, since the hyacinth and spix macaw have a great value in the conservation and with a good history in the conservation efforts, that would be very nice, as for primates, i think we should have more variety of primates, i will create my own 20 primate pack.
 
tigris115 said:
I'd have a...

A howler monkey
A (true) baboon (Papio).
A spider monkey
A mantled guezera
A "generic" old world monkey. Either a vervet monkey or a crab eating macaque.
A sifaka
Aye-aye
A tamarin/marmoset

If I could somehow force Frontier to make a 20 primate pack, I'd add...
  1. Aye-aye
  2. Barbary Macaque
  3. Black Crested Mangabey
  4. Black-Headed Spider Monkey
  5. Black howler Monkey
  6. Common Marmoset
  7. Common squirrel monkey
  8. Coquerel's sifaka
  9. Cotton-top tamarin
  10. Gelada
  11. Golden lion tamarin
  12. Golden snub-nosed monkey
  13. Gray mouse lemur
  14. Grey Langur
  15. Hamadryas baboon
  16. Lar gibbon
  17. Lion-tailed macaque
  18. Mantled guereza
  19. Olive Baboon
  20. Vervet monkey
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So, This is my 20 primate pack, in this pack we have many unique species of primates that live in different biomes and are found in many zoos around the world.
 
the golden snub nosed monkey was a great choice as it would be a great primate specie, since it's a primate that live in a different region with cold climate in the temperate coniferous forests in china, but i can feel people complaining about having this monkey, since it's extremely rare in captivity like the proboscis monkey, but i bet people will love it because it has a strong conservation message.
 
StellarChaser said:
Actually, Golden Snub-nosed Monkeys are fairly common in Chinese zoos, Kumamoto Zoo in Japan and Everland Zoo in S. Korea also have them. Some species that already in PZ are rarer in captivity, like Platypus and Goliath Frog
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Or completely non-existent like the Titan Beetle.
Anyways, I’d be down for Golden Snub-Nosed Monkeys in PZ! They’re one of my favorite monkeys, and if the Proboscis Monkey can make it in, I bet the GSNM could too!
 
Great Argus said:
Goliath Frog is also basically non-existent in captivity.
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And Wild Water Buffalo, from what I’ve heard.
Speaking of the Water Buffalo, I don’t really get the distaste for it. Yeah, they’re rare in captivity, but so is the Platypus. It was the “big guy” of the Wetlands Animal Pack, and most of the “remade” Wetlands Packs I’ve seen don’t have a good equivalent.
My philosophy is that Planet Zoo is a video game. It’s not always going to be 100% accurate to reality, for better or for worse, and having animals that are uncommon in captivity like the Proboscis Monkey or the Water Buffalo is for the better.
 
Corangurilla said:
And Wild Water Buffalo, from what I’ve heard.
Speaking of the Water Buffalo, I don’t really get the distaste for it. Yeah, they’re rare in captivity, but so is the Platypus. It was the “big guy” of the Wetlands Animal Pack, and most of the “remade” Wetlands Packs I’ve seen don’t have a good equivalent.
My philosophy is that Planet Zoo is a video game. It’s not always going to be 100% accurate to reality, for better or for worse, and having animals that are uncommon in captivity like the Proboscis Monkey or the Water Buffalo is for the better.
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Platypus is a fairly standard zoo species in Australian zoos, so I don't know that I'd call it "rare in captivity".
 
birdsandbats said:
Platypus is a fairly standard zoo species in Australian zoos, so I don't know that I'd call it "rare in captivity".
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They’re only “standard” in Australia. So while they’re not “rare in captivity”, they’re not widespread like 90% of Planet Zoo’s habitat animals. I think the Proboscis Monkey is in a similar boat, not being held anywhere outside of Asia (which is a fair bit bigger than Australia, but my point still stands).
I still remember waking up to the Southeast Asia Animal Pack announcement and being like "Okay, we have a Sun Bear-IS THAT A PROBOSCIS MONKEY?! 8 ANIMALS?!"
And with the Wetlands Animal Pack it was like, "Looks like I'll have to wait until Thursday for a DLC announcement-NEVER MIND we got wetlands-PLATYPUS?!"
I wasn't expecting either of them to be added to the game, and then they were added to the game and became my favorite animals of their respective packs.
And that's the magic of Planet Zoo: if you want a build a zoo with Proboscis Monkeys, Chinese Pangolins, European Badgers, and Platypuses in the United States, go right ahead! And if we ever get aviaries, I wouldn't be surprised if Frontier decided to add the Philippines Eagle!
 
Personally, the animals I want the most are those with fairly unique skeletons and animations that modders wouldn't be able to do full justice to. That and major fan requests like the red river hog
 
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