Alien Zoo is just a Holo Theatre reskin?

[Asherogar]

First of all, I don't use any balance alterating mods, only a few iron man compatible visual ones.

I accidentally noticed that Alien Zoo is identical in stats to a Holo Theatre. They both provide 2 entertainer jobs. The only positive difference is Zoo 50% cheaper to build and upkeep. Which is not a big deal even for first 10 years of the game, if we're talking about a single building on a single planet.

But let's put it into perspective: to even get Alien Zoo you need to have a pretty rare feature on one of the planets, research the corresponding technology and only then you can build a single or two on a specific planet with the feature. With no upgrades, forever lvl 1 building with 2 jobs per slot.

At the same time Holo theatre is literally a starting building available to every bio empire from day 1, that can be later upgraded.

Did Zoo always been this bad? Most of my games i don't have a single planet with the feature needed, so i haven't given much attention to it, i only remember that Betarian station is quite good and always assumed that Zoo is somewhere here too.

[Peter34]

I honestly don't remember what Alien Zoo was like back before the v2.2 changes, or if it even existed back then, but ever since the POP Job/slot changes, it's been a bad Building. Or rather, it's totally been a Building not to get excited about, because it does nothing interesting, or special or worthwhile.

It's not inherently bad, but as you say, it doesn't do anything thta a Holo-Theatre doesn't do.

Betharian is a bit the same, except I'm pretty sure that that actually *was* a thing before 2.2, and it was somewhat nice back then, but became sucky and largely pointles after 2.2. Or at least, in my experience, planets with a Beth deposit usually have 4, 5 or 6 Generator Districts, which means they're not suited to being Energy "power houses" (pun intended?) and so the presence of the Beth doesn't do that. I'd totally love to a see a planet with 9, 10 or 12-13 Generator Districts and also a Beth, that'd be nice, but in my experience those just never occur.

So yes, both are cases of boring-and-pointless.

I've seen a few mods that try to change that, but none that I like. None that seem to understand what game balance even *is*.

[lemurs2]

It least betharion provides 4 jobs and some free power (10?), the zoo is awful. Was it better? I do not remember.

[mss73055]

The "isolated valley" rare zone takes the place of an industrial zone.
The zoo is a holo-theater without upgrade path.
And you have to drop 2500 research into it.

It acts as a penalty.

[HappySack]

The zoo used to come with 1 or 2 cultural worker jobs in addition, not sure why those needed to be removed because it's a rare feature anyway.

[Astasia]

The Alien Zoo has been in the game since 1.0 I believe. In the old tile system it was a fairly strong building, boosting happiness by 5%, increasing migration attraction by 25%, and adding 4 society research and 4 unity output. These were high enough bonuses if you don't remember that you would pretty much always build a zoo if a tile had the alien pets resource, unless you were gestalt.

When the game shifted to the jobs system the building was gutted for whatever reason. From the introduction of the jobs system until the unity rework the building gave 2 culture worker jobs and 1 entertainer, which was still pretty bad, but slightly better than a basic unupgraded building.

The unity update changed it into just 2 entertainers. I think whoever is balancing it at this point doesn't know what it is, since it's a pretty rare thing to be able to build.

[Flakstruk]

It should get a buff (society research maybe) if you do the species recovery mission

[Danny]

Didn't it used to give society research as well?

[titanopteryx]

I wonder if it has extra use for the 2 machine empire types that use biological pops. Driven assimilator and whatever the other one is. I don't think they can build holo theaters.

[TheBird]

titanopteryx eredeti hozzászólása:

I wonder if it has extra use for the 2 machine empire types that use biological pops. Driven assimilator and whatever the other one is. I don't think they can build holo theaters.

Gestalts are not allowed to build it and it gets destroyed if they take a planet with one.

[Jarlaf]

It needs a buff badly. But I do like the idea of rare zones with a special building, They just needs to be worth it, so when you see the zone you're like 'Cool, that's useful'

[Cronkonium]

It's actually an atrocious VESTIGE of the game - if you watch people like MONTU PLAYS in YouTube or Astra's channel & so on... and it's mostly because it takes up a 'Potential Research Slot'. Now in patch (BETA) 3.6 with Culture Worker upgrades/changes even it still hasn't been altered back to 2 culture + 1 entertainer.
And therefore/so by getting a planet with this on it (even when it is in colonisation - before a population is visible on the planet), I've gotten this as a *Research Alternative* which makes it actually worse than horrible.

What I've found with patch 3.6 so far is that Amenities take or give far more happiness than previously, especially at the start of the game. And so as a 'Teacher of the Shroud' player, I use gene clinics to up my population growth with habitability & basic worker boosts on new planets + give the needed amenities, etc.

What really throws me for a loop is the fact AGAIN is that alien zoos actually take up a space for such important technologies as 'Hydroponics, Planetary Unification, Gene-Clinics & the +20% Society Research from Jobs research'. In multiplayer games this can be game-defining, as in you're literally a research-behind from the start & lose exponential growth from this - even having it take up a slot in the society tree as the game goes on... Like this would KILL a unity build potentially, where society actually is made useful by society over research builds.

[Half Phased]

About the only good thing about this building is if you’re playing with the warrior culture civic, the building provides duelists instead of entertainers.

Meaning your pops are being entertained by watching duelist fight cute alien pets.

[Ragnarr Loðbrók]

#MakeZooGreatAgain

[NormiescOUT]

Half Phased eredeti hozzászólása:

About the only good thing about this building is if you’re playing with the warrior culture civic, the building provides duelists instead of entertainers.

Meaning your pops are being entertained by watching duelist fight cute alien pets.

Ayy lmao, thanks for that detail

[Kiriveh]

Alien zoo is completely useless, always has been and always will be