Always overwhelmed

[Livia]

I do very much love this game, but I am so overwhelmed ever truly getting started - there's so many possible pieces and I'm never really happy with my stuff. I've never really built out a full zoo in my own vision because of this. Even starting with a scenario map...it's so hard to get started and build!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the creative freedom, I am not complaining about that, just...sometimes I miss the simpleness of Zoo Tycoon.

[Jaggid Edje]

I hear you. What I do when I feel that way is build a zoo using only blueprints. You never have to build anything but paths if you have blueprints for everything (including habitats) and you can still make some very nice zoos.
To me, at least, that approach retains more of the simplicity that is reminiscent of Zoo Tycoon.

[Jendowoz]

Try checking out the starting videos, Livia from a couple of sources. Here are a couple of YouTube videos from Adamup that have really helped me sort my thoughts out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtTJKOHUDRI&t=841s This is his YouTube channel that has a great starting plan for franchise and a second video of "what to do next".
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSRID6ZoGR3OP0xNFzj9JuA
He is really easy to listen to and very helpful. Pawsbuild here is another really helpful channel with a lot of beginning hints. https://www.youtube.com/@PawsBuild

[Livia]

I do want to make my own stuff, that's rather the point...but I feel like everything doesn't turn out at all right, or I don't even know where to START. I have an idea I REALLY love, but I can't even begin to think how to start building the buildings for the idea, so I end up opening the zoo, struggling to start, and exiting the game.

[Livia]

Originally posted by Jendowoz:

Try checking out the starting videos

Thank you. I am not in a starting out place - I've had the game for years now. I also never play franchise (I honestly don't get why anyone does - ). I'm wanting to get more creative with the game, not getting stuck in grids. I've done plenty of grids and such playing the scenarios (which I do enjoy playing, don't get me wrong), now I want to just make really cool and beautiful zoos in sandbox. But, again, I get overwhelmed with starting, even if I know what I want the place to look like.

[Varick]

Funny you say you never play franchise. I have never built a zoo in sandbox (had the game since release) but now am building a park in sandbox with swskydancer and it has been more fun and excitement than I have had in Planet Zoo in a long time. It will be our first workshop item for either of us but the bouncing of ideas back and forth has been great. I guess I am saying maybe try collaborating with someone on a zoo? Different ideas and all that. Just a suggestion. :)

[Livia]

I'm excited to hear that for you, Varick!

[Jendowoz]

I've just started my own zoo also, Livia in Sandbox and I usually always play Franchise, but, like you, I want to make my own zoo, with a few bits and pieces from the Workshop creators, whom I will acknowledge like I always do with a lit sign near their creation and modify it if need be. I'm managing to get their slowly but for me it's a matter of familiarising myself with the pieces and trying out a few things. My biggest bug-bear is roofing and even on grid they never seem to mesh together without some form of "fill-in", so I'm beginning to think even the best creators out there need to do this too, so I am taking in my stride to give it a go.

I have been collecting zoo maps and ideas and finally decided on one I am going to use as a guide and modify as I go along and that seems to be working for me at the moment, but my go-to friends like Varick, grampers, edenmoon3, Jaggid Edje and those few You Tubers videos I gave you above have helped me through so much.

[grampers62]

Yeah, finding that inspiration to begin a zoo can be ,as you say, overwhelming. There may be no two players that address that the same way.
For me, I think up some fairly simple story concept to guide what goes into the zoos I build. Once one has a little back story they just think about how things go with the story and it all seems to just come together.
You might need a different approach but it works for me. So let your imagination run free and try to just have fun creating a little world all your own.

[Moving Target]

Originally posted by Livia:

I do want to make my own stuff, that's rather the point...but I feel like everything doesn't turn out at all right, or I don't even know where to START. I have an idea I REALLY love, but I can't even begin to think how to start building the buildings for the idea, so I end up opening the zoo, struggling to start, and exiting the game. :portiapoop:

I started learning how to make buildings by using a Tudor theme to cover various facilities rather than trying to make a building from scratch, then I progressed by adding decorative extensions to them, for instance a double shop front with an implied living area above or an archway to the side leading to a staff area. Before I knew it I had created almost a small village and learned a lot about how to manipulate building pieces, at which point I went back and reworked some of my earliest builds improving on them with the new skills I had learned. I found that the whole process had become organic, growing from 1 shop which was essentially a covered box, all it took was to have a clear theme and be prepared to walk away when it felt like I was up against a brick wall and come back to it later.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2071384692

[Livia]

Originally posted by grampers62:

Yeah, finding that inspiration to begin a zoo can be ,as you say, overwhelming. There may be no two players that address that the same way.

Oh my, I do not lack for inspiration! I have one zoo I haven't been even able to start where I 100% know what I want in terms of look...but I've overwhelmed with how to start actually building it, that is what I mean. I know exactly what I want to recreate, but how to recreate it is a whole other matter, and where I get overwhelmed and just end up exiting the game.

And then there's landscaping. My word, I just watched a video with a mind blowing mountain zoo and I just sat there, stunned over the landscaping work!

Other times I've just gone for something, started something I really liked...but then it didn't end up working out as I envisioned and then I exit out because I am just stuck.

This game is just SO BIG, it's really hard sometimes to just sit back and enjoy because I just get so stuck, I exit the game and never come back for months, usually only with a new DLC to play the scenario and then try my sandbox zoos and exit out again.

I LOVE the game, I really do, just...again, so overwhelming! Guess I am curious if others have that problem and just hearing various things people do.

Originally posted by Moving Target:

I started learning how to make buildings by using a Tudor theme to cover various facilities rather than trying to make a building from scratch, then I progressed by adding decorative extensions to them, for instance a double shop front with an implied living area above or an archway to the side leading to a staff area. Before I knew it I had created almost a small village and learned a lot about how to manipulate building pieces, at which point I went back and reworked some of my earliest builds improving on them with the new skills I had learned. I found that the whole process had become organic, growing from 1 shop which was essentially a covered box, all it took was to have a clear theme and be prepared to walk away when it felt like I was up against a brick wall and come back to it later.

Hmm...yeah, maybe I just need to play with it more with no expectations. I'm likely just being far too judgmental on myself. Course, this is why I've been trying to build on scenario maps, but...still get stuck. But, okay, maybe I just play and don't stress when it doesn't work, but come back to it. Or, treat it like a learning experience instead of a masterpiece.

Thanks.

[Moving Target]

Hmm...yeah, maybe I just need to play with it more with no expectations. I'm likely just being far too judgmental on myself. Course, this is why I've been trying to build on scenario maps, but...still get stuck. But, okay, maybe I just play and don't stress when it doesn't work, but come back to it. Or, treat it like a learning experience instead of a masterpiece.

Thanks.

That's the idea! When I started I could barely manage to make a decent looking toilet! Once I had a clear theme in mind I just kept making individual facilities until MANY weeks later I realised I had enough individual buildings to create a coherent entrance area to my zoo, it took many months to add more on the same theme including a lot of failed efforts but eventually I had my masterpiece. You will too I am sure and I learned a lot about manipulating building parts to get the effects I wanted just from trial and error - good luck!
PS
If you go here you can see all the individual builds it took to make that little village lol, there is also a railway station but I wasn't able to get it to work as a blueprint, every one of these buildings started life as a bare facility that I built onto.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2015169876
PPS
I can't do landscaping either LOL

[grampers62]

Originally posted by Livia:

Originally posted by grampers62:

Yeah, finding that inspiration to begin a zoo can be ,as you say, overwhelming. There may be no two players that address that the same way.

Oh my, I do not lack for inspiration! I have one zoo I haven't been even able to start where I 100% know what I want in terms of look...but I've overwhelmed with how to start actually building it, that is what I mean. I know exactly what I want to recreate, but how to recreate it is a whole other matter, and where I get overwhelmed and just end up exiting the game.

And then there's landscaping. My word, I just watched a video with a mind blowing mountain zoo and I just sat there, stunned over the landscaping work!

Other times I've just gone for something, started something I really liked...but then it didn't end up working out as I envisioned and then I exit out because I am just stuck.

This game is just SO BIG, it's really hard sometimes to just sit back and enjoy because I just get so stuck, I exit the game and never come back for months, usually only with a new DLC to play the scenario and then try my sandbox zoos and exit out again.

I LOVE the game, I really do, just...again, so overwhelming! Guess I am curious if others have that problem and just hearing various things people do.

Originally posted by Moving Target:

I started learning how to make buildings by using a Tudor theme to cover various facilities rather than trying to make a building from scratch, then I progressed by adding decorative extensions to them, for instance a double shop front with an implied living area above or an archway to the side leading to a staff area. Before I knew it I had created almost a small village and learned a lot about how to manipulate building pieces, at which point I went back and reworked some of my earliest builds improving on them with the new skills I had learned. I found that the whole process had become organic, growing from 1 shop which was essentially a covered box, all it took was to have a clear theme and be prepared to walk away when it felt like I was up against a brick wall and come back to it later.

Hmm...yeah, maybe I just need to play with it more with no expectations. I'm likely just being far too judgmental on myself. Course, this is why I've been trying to build on scenario maps, but...still get stuck. But, okay, maybe I just play and don't stress when it doesn't work, but come back to it. Or, treat it like a learning experience instead of a masterpiece.

Thanks.

That's exactly what i thought you meant. And that's why a little backstory helps. Using a story simply helps one to organize their thoughts and develop a plan before placing things. Try not to start too big, just stick to your plans and do little areas at a time.

Know those youtubers often have way more experience in design than just playing PZ. So be kind to yourself as all that matters is if you feel good about the end result.

Also, it might be worth your time to look into creating a few heightmaps so that you can get the terrain close to what you envision more quickly.

[Livia]

Originally posted by grampers62:

Using a story simply helps one to organize their thoughts and develop a plan before placing things. .

My story I've done for a lot is to go back and fix the Myers zoos, especially as those ones had so little you could edit to actually improve. That's been kinda a starting point.

Originally posted by Moving Target:

When I started I could barely manage to make a decent looking toilet! Once I had a clear theme in mind I just kept making individual facilities until MANY weeks later I realised I had enough individual buildings to create a coherent entrance area to my zoo, it took many months to add more on the same theme including a lot of failed efforts but eventually I had my masterpiece. You will too I am sure and I learned a lot about manipulating building parts to get the effects I wanted just from trial and error - good luck!

I do have a VERY set theme in mind I want to do with plenty of buildings to look at (though I do wish it was easier to pull reference images into PZ to use when building - I use the screens, but they aren't ideal). You just look at this massive building and it's like....where do you even START!?

But I guess I just...start, and mess around with it, not expecting to build the perfect replica on the first go.

[Moving Target]

Maybe just use the reference images to get an idea of what you want rather than try to get an exact replica, build your own version of it. Try browsing through the building pieces and favouriting or pulling out the pieces that look like they fit your overall theme, I found that pulling out the pieces I might want and laying them on the ground to be copied when needed was easier than trawling through copious build menus every time I needed a new part, especially if they had been recoloured.

[Jendowoz]

I agree with all the above. I changed my avatar to match the ranger I'm playing in my sons' dungeons and dragons campaign and that play always gives me inspiration when building. Doesn't mean I can reproduce the exact things, but gives me good ideas.