Realistic design...

[hockeyhacker97]

One thing I have not seen any of in any footage for the game so far is any moats in the front of any of the animal pens that you would normally see in many zoos. Yes I have seen pens being below the paths like several of the attractions would have in a real zoo for animals like pigs and hyenas, but not of the pits that you would normally see in front of say the bear, tiger, and sea lion pens, something that is just a squared off straight drop to prevent the animals from even getting close to the fences. For example at the Denver Zoo at the Grizzly Bear pen you have short hip high fence followed by a few feet of land (in case a kid leans over as to not fall in I am guessing) followed by about a 25 foot drop straight down with about a 15-20 foot wide moat that has a 80 degree incline (probably in case the bear falls in so it can get out) on the bear side and a 90* wall on the human side.

While I know it would be possible to simulate this with a lot of time and patience using the digging tools and not connected paths, but I would like to see an option for fencing that just naturally adds that moat that many real zoos use for their bigger predators. Just a suggestion if they hadn't already thought of adding that type of fence since it would be a very common build for people wanting the zoo to be realistic even if it isn't needed for the game mechanics.

[Ransom_Romanus]

I would suspect that it will be possible for players to build moats around animal pens since the game is very similar to Planet Coaster. Will just have to use the terrain editing tools. The question will be will a steep slope prevent the animals from climbing up and down that slope.

[hockeyhacker97]

Originally posted by frozen_ghost:

I would suspect that it will be possible for players to build moats around animal pens since the game is very similar to Planet Coaster. Will just have to use the terrain editing tools. The question will be will a steep slope prevent the animals from climbing up and down that slope.

Yeah obviously with the terrain tool it would be possible to simulate the moats, but still even then if you did take the metric ton of time it would take to do it would not be the right materials and would be very hard to get to look natural, which is why I suggested their being a few different fence styles that include a pre deigned moat attached to them, something that would allow it to be a uniform width the entire length of the front fence, allow the material to be concrete like most zoos do use while not effecting the grass to tree to sand to water ratio that the animals want.

It's not a question of if it can be simulated in the game, Planet Coaster has great terrain tools apart from the way water works which is better in a game like say City Skylines where there is actual water flow. But rather a question of convience since you would be putting these moats in multiple exhibits in every zoo you make, it wouldn't be a one time build, having a set piece to be able to make these bear/sea lion/ tiger pits quick and easy would be nice, specially if it used the same tool as the paths with maybe being able to choice the width of the moat to keep it uniform but adjustable to what you want it to look like.

[hockeyhacker97]

In terms of execution, think of it like taking the fence tool and path tool and combining them together. where it is a fence that has the standard length and angle snap on/off options but also three more options "moat width" (same as the path width tool) "moat depth" and moat left or right side of fence.

All the mechanics to impliment it already exist in Planet Coaster, it would simply be a mix between the fence building (ok that's more from JWE then it is PC but still), path building, and the auto dig option that coasters have to remove the ground around their track to go through mountains, and the which side is the entrance and exit of this ride that coasters have, all four things needed to make a simple tool for this feature already exist in one form or another.

[mbiggiani]

Well moats are common with large predator enclosures but they aren't the rule. There are plenty of zoos that let tigers, lions, and bears get right up close to the class and interact with guests. Moats should be a player choice tbh.

[hockeyhacker97]

Originally posted by mbiggiani:

Well moats are common with large predator enclosures but they aren't the rule. There are plenty of zoos that let tigers, lions, and bears get right up close to the class and interact with guests. Moats should be a player choice tbh.

Of course it would be an option and not forced, I am not saying make all fences force a moat, you can obviously choice what fence you want to use regardless of animal, point was that having moats near certain fences is a fairly common thing to see in many zoos so it would be nice to have the option of a tool to do it without each pen taking 12 hours to build and correct every single time, it is often a feature only in the front of pens and not on the sides or back so obviously you would use x fencing for the back, y fencing for the sides, and z fencing for the front. It wouldn't be something that gets added just because you have a tiger, but rather something you could have because you have a tiger. Basicly have the options of Fence A, Fence A with moat, Fence B, Fence B with moat, etc,

EDIT: Heck doing it this way would actually make it so that you wouldn't need to have 30 different fences, you could have 15 different fences with a moat on/off toggle
END EDIT

heck if you wanted to get really fancy you could also add an option for totally dry, splash of water near the bottom, or half full of water, or what color cement you want to use, but my point wasn't to add anything that would require a lot of new work, but rather to add something where all the mechanics already exist on objects already in their engine but combining multiple things together into one for the option to have that style of cage.

For example maybe I want to make one zoo that is more like a safari rather then a zoo, while another zoo I want to recreate the Denver or San Fransisco zoo down to the t and don't want to spend 87 hours trying to perfect 1 of 30 moats that exist in the Denver Zoo.

[Magnus Aurelius, Bright Lord]

Build your own moats, the point of the game is to buuld your own zoo.

[hockeyhacker97]

Originally posted by Hobotango:

Build your own moats, the point of the game is to buuld your own zoo.

I'm just going to pretend like your not just trying to troll with comments like that and simply explain that having a tool like this to save yourself dozens upon dozens of hours of work per zoo you make doesn't prevent other people from hand crafting their own moats. But in saying that you said, by that logic you should not have any templates to any of the pre designed buidlings or coasters in Planet Coaster either because "The point of the game is to build your own theme park", an option for a fence/moat combo is no different then having building blueprints for a pirate themed burger shack in Planet Coaster. Just because something is in a template doesn't mean that you can not alter it to fit your style after you place it, maybe you just want a starting point to work with.

[Ransom_Romanus]

Originally posted by hockeyhacker97:

Originally posted by Hobotango:

Build your own moats, the point of the game is to buuld your own zoo.

I'm just going to pretend like your not just trying to troll with comments like that and simply explain that having a tool like this to save yourself dozens upon dozens of hours of work per zoo you make doesn't prevent other people from hand crafting their own moats. But in saying that you said, by that logic you should not have any templates to any of the pre designed buidlings or coasters in Planet Coaster either because "The point of the game is to build your own theme park", an option for a fence/moat combo is no different then having building blueprints for a pirate themed burger shack in Planet Coaster. Just because something is in a template doesn't mean that you can not alter it to fit your style after you place it, maybe you just want a starting point to work with.

It seems like you just want the game to do it for you as opposed to you using the tools of the game as they were designed. There's nothing wrong with terrain editing tools to dig a moat then placing walls along the edges to get what you seek. Sure it might take a little time to do but in the end you'll still get what you are seeking out of the game.

[hockeyhacker97]

Originally posted by frozen_ghost:

Originally posted by hockeyhacker97:

I'm just going to pretend like your not just trying to troll with comments like that and simply explain that having a tool like this to save yourself dozens upon dozens of hours of work per zoo you make doesn't prevent other people from hand crafting their own moats. But in saying that you said, by that logic you should not have any templates to any of the pre designed buidlings or coasters in Planet Coaster either because "The point of the game is to build your own theme park", an option for a fence/moat combo is no different then having building blueprints for a pirate themed burger shack in Planet Coaster. Just because something is in a template doesn't mean that you can not alter it to fit your style after you place it, maybe you just want a starting point to work with.

It seems like you just want the game to do it for you as opposed to you using the tools of the game as they were designed. There's nothing wrong with terrain editing tools to dig a moat then placing walls along the edges to get what you seek. Sure it might take a little time to do but in the end you'll still get what you are seeking out of the game.

No, on the contrary, knowing how their engine works with terrain alteration it would simply be a template that could then be remolded after it is put down to fit the needs, to add in the imperfections and add in the tigs and stuff you would often find in pits like that. it would simply be like building the pirate shake shake and then removing the sign and re coloring the walls and adding pyrotechnics to make it your own, simply starting with a template to save some time. The moat itself when built would probably use the same digging tools the coaster tracks have where it digs out an area that you can then go back in and fill in to your desire afterwards, it wouldn't be some static moat that can not be altered it would be a good starting point to make designing the moat your way take an hour or two rather then twelve hours.