All terrain options in one park

[Glemt]

Wouldn't it be fun to be able to make a true desert, or a true arctic section, in your park? I love that desert look, but creating a sand part in a temperate zoo doesn't look like a desert map at all (as in, there is different sand for temperate and desert maps).

What do you guys think? Wouldn't it be cool if Frontier added this?

Addendum:
What we cannot do in Planet zoo, and what I would like is the following:

Pick a tropical climate > get the sand look from a desert climate.
Pick a taiga climate > get long grass from a grassland climate.
Etc.

I mean look at the differences in these screenshots.

Taiga Terrain types
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2420487425

Temperate Terrain types
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2420487456

Grassland Terrain types
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2420490476

Tropical Terrain types
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2420487518

This all means if you want to build a realistic-looking giraffe habitat (i.e. a grassland Savanah) in your tropical zoo, you cannot. We can place rocks and plants from those biomes, but not deposit some soil, some sand, plant some grass, lay some rock foundations.

[Just Kevin]

But you can, using the terrain tools. I think you are also able to adjust the weather via the little icon in the bottom frame that tells you the temp. I have noticed that depending on the part of the world you have picked, the terrain painting options don't look exactly the same.
Oh, also, you can place the Challenge and Career maps in to the Sandbox. Just open one, Save it. Then you can open it in the sandbox.
BTW [ and ] keys greatly increase the size of some of the terrain tools. (Thanks to whoever it was who told me that).

[Glemt]

Originally posted by David Atomburger:

I have noticed that depending on the part of the world you have picked, the terrain painting options don't look exactly the same.

That's exactly my point. Depending on the part of the world you have picked, the sand/grass/etc looks different, but it doesn't need to. I've once been to a zoo in Holland and one in Germany where they mimicked desert that isn't native to their lands (duh) with soil that isn't from there either. So why can't we do it in Planet Zoo? I would really love to make a desert with a specific Saharan feel even if the park is located in Europe.

[Just Kevin]

I guess it depends on the zoo. I watch a few documentaries on TV about them. A Scotish zoo has polar bears, for example. They live in a huge natural to the UK field with a small lake in it, living in the local temperature quite happily, not in a simulated arctic 'wasteland.' This seems common to most UK and possibly other zoos. The animals are acclimatised to where the zoo is, and they are also trained to respond to the keepers and vets, etc. They are not fully wild.
Old school sort of zoos, which should no longer exists, kept such creatures in very small habitats with concrete mouldings to look like rocks, often painted white to look like snow.

I have not heard of zoos importing soil though! Sand perhaps, because who has a sand quarry near to them? (Although I once did!) but I doubt they bring it all the way from where a creature originates.

Surely the 'Saharan' feel, is sand formed in to dunes? And vast areas of it. It may not be the same sand as on Blackpool beach, but you would have to be an expert to see the difference. So are you suggesting that there should be a terrain tool that lays down dunes and other things? Not really a bad idea, and perhaps there should be one that lays down literal rocks rather than just landscape that looks like rocks, or having to build with rocks.

PS: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-secret-life-of-the-zoo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000mh7l

Just two of quite a few.

[Glemt]

I'm not per se saying they imported soil but instead made it look like it.

I had to google the name of the zoo but found this picture for example:
https://www.fijnuit.nl/34/burgers-zoo/foto/386

Creating dunes etc. would be lovely, but that's a step further than what I was aiming for. I just mean to say: let us use the desert terrain tool for the sand on the Oceania continent, on America etc. That way, if we want to create a desert with Australian animals, we can make it look the part. We can import the plants, but to me it always looks weird when the terrain is different. Because of that, I'm always a bit saddened when making a zoo and the terrain does not fit the animal 100%. The soil is another good example, it just looks different in different parts of the world, so why not let us use it for our different animals? That way we can have a South America tropical section, and Europe temperate section, an African desert section, and whatever combination we'd fancy.

[Just Kevin]

But you can. All the terrain paint types are common to all areas, because you may not want to keep a camel in a habitat created for an Arctic wolf, but you can still have both animals in the same zoo. All the plant types also allow you to use plants natural to it's native land. But most zoo animals are bred in zoos.
Do keep in mind that a lot of the areas created in zoos around the world are fake. A lot of the rocks are plaster on wirenetting and soil etc locally obtained. Or just what is already there.

https://www.otl-inc.com/build-natural-habitats-for-animals-at-zoological-parks/

[Just Kevin]

Going back to the example real zoo habitat you gave a link to. If you zoom in to the rough sand effect in PZ, you will see that it's full of little pebbles, just like the sand in that real habitat. If you zoom in to all the landscaping paints in PZ, you will also see they are actually very detailed.

[Glemt]

Originally posted by David Atomburger:

But you can. All the terrain paint types are common to all areas

You can't though, and I think I found why we are miscommunicating. I misremembered that the terrain differences exist per continent, but in fact they differ per biome. What we cannot do in Planet zoo, and what I would like is the following:

Pick a tropical climate > get the sand look from a desert climate.
Pick a taiga climate > get long grass from a grassland climate.
Etc.

I mean look at the differences in these screenshots.

Taiga Terrain types
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2420487425

Temperate Terrain types
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2420487456

Grassland Terrain types
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2420490476

Tropical Terrain types
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2420487518

Originally posted by David Atomburger:

Going back to the example real zoo habitat you gave a link to. If you zoom in to the rough sand effect in PZ, you will see that it's full of little pebbles, just like the sand in that real habitat. If you zoom in to all the landscaping paints in PZ, you will also see they are actually very detailed.

Yeah, I know, and it's not about the detail. : ) I will amend my starting post to reflect my desire better. Thank you for all your input and feedback. Maybe I should look into if this stuff is able to be modded.

[Just Kevin]

It's possible that the different lighting can effect what the terrain looks like. But anyway, I am not sure what you arr after, because even real zoos do not build habitats from soil grass and and shipped from all over the planet. At least PZ provides plants and even rocks from different areas of the world. often also something real zoos don't do. It's hard to get palm
trees to grow in the arctic circle :)

[Glemt]

Originally posted by David Atomburger:

It's possible that the different lighting can effect what the terrain looks like. But anyway, I am not sure what you arr after, because even real zoos do not build habitats from soil grass and and shipped from all over the planet. At least PZ provides plants and even rocks from different areas of the world. often also something real zoos don't do. It's hard to get palm
trees to grow in the arctic circle :)

Indeed, but that's also why I don't want to lean on the "realism" factor too much. Guests also don't visit a zoo for six months on end, and that's something that Planet Zoo does too, so why not let us use all the kinds of soil.
As for you not being sure what I'm after, did you check the screenshots I posted? Don't you see a difference between the soils (look at the light soils, which is always the third one from the left). There is a major difference. So your panda habitat in a tropical park will look hugely different from a panda habitat in a temperate park. You will use the same plants in both zoos, but the ground looks different. And because, in my opinion, some plans congeal well with certain grounds but not others, this creates something that I would like to see changed : )

[Just Kevin]

Well, as I said. Zoos don't import soil and sand, or even rocks, native to an animal, for habitats. It would cost a fortune, and is not necessary. They build the habitats on the ground already there, and no doubt get sand in bulk from a local builders merchant.. It does not matter it may not look exactly the same, but seeing as most zoo animals are raised in zoos, I doubt they will notice or care. I watch many documentaries about zoos and I have never heard any one say, we need to buy 500 tons of Burmese soil. It's good of PZ to actually include plants native to the many species, because zoos rarely bother, unless the animals eat it. But it would be great to have other types of land 'paint.' I vote for auto-swamp :)

[Glemt]

Originally posted by David Atomburger:

Well, as I said. Zoos don't import soil and sand, or even rocks, native to an animal, for habitats. It would cost a fortune, and is not necessary. They build the habitats on the ground already there, and no doubt get sand in bulk from a local builders merchant.. It does not matter it may not look exactly the same, but seeing as most zoo animals are raised in zoos, I doubt they will notice or care. I watch many documentaries about zoos and I have never heard any one say, we need to buy 500 tons of Burmese soil. It's good of PZ to actually include plants native to the many species, because zoos rarely bother, unless the animals eat it. But it would be great to have other types of land 'paint.' I vote for auto-swamp :)

When it comes to realism it indeed wouldn't make sense, but yeah, it's all about creating this perfect zoo for me : P (even if I'm bad at designing it half the time).

When it comes to non-native stuff... I'm also surprised when I see people make zoos that just look good but animals actually hate the plants they put in the habitat.

[HareMoose]

I would love to see the paint tools get some love.

It's perfectly realistic, at least as far as it needs to be for this game (where you can own hundreds of lions if it pleases you). If you've ever lived somewhere like Oklahoma, you'd know that you can have both red soil and loamy soil, or red rocks and lime rocks, and it's all easily transported for $$$

Aside from just letting us use currently available options across all biomes, it would be wonderful to see things like a tool for gravel, and long grass with wildflowers. Even a full-on spray paint option (since environmentally safe grass paint is a thing).

I don't think that more paint tools are going to ruin the game for anybody, but it will make a lot of people happy. Let people get their creative on :)

[Just Kevin]

When it comes to non-native stuff... I'm also surprised when I see people make zoos that just look good but animals actually hate the plants they put in the habitat.

A: there's been a lot of discussion on here about environment. Some seem they cannot be bothered to add plants at all, never mind what the game expects for each species.

[Just Kevin]

Originally posted by Crow Crash:

I would love to see the paint tools get some love.

It's perfectly realistic, at least as far as it needs to be for this game (where you can own hundreds of lions if it pleases you). If you've ever lived somewhere like Oklahoma, you'd know that you can have both red soil and loamy soil, or red rocks and lime rocks, and it's all easily transported for $$$

A: Well, soil from half way across the world is 'easily' transported for cash, but most zoos don't have such cash, and there's no need to transport it anyway.

Aside from just letting us use currently available options across all biomes, it would be wonderful to see things like a tool for gravel, and long grass with wildflowers. Even a full-on spray paint option

A: Quite so, Let's hope there's more options in PZ 2, or the next DLC. In Frontier's Jurasic World you could 'paint' on entire forests, and swamps, and grass with flowers and weeds. But I suppose that would not be easy because each species needs different plants, and I suppose that's why we have to plant them one at a time, otherwise there would have to be 1000s of 'paint' effects.

(since environmentally safe grass paint is a thing).

A: not sure what you mean by that.

I don't think that more paint tools are going to ruin the game for anybody, but it will make a lot of people happy. Let people get their creative on :)

A: indeed, but there are limits when creating a game. Let's not forget that it's software and not real. And some people already have trouble running the already complex PZ. I am sure Frontier do not wish to make it only runable on very high end gaming machines.

[iloveyourzoos]

People probably already know this, but there is a gravel path, which you can place into habitats to give a gravel look. (Just don't connect it to the rest of your guest paths!)