Animal welfair vs beautiful lush habitates

[moneymouse2]

I have been watching a lot of videos on how to build realistic beautiful habitats. but I have found that many of my animals don't like all the plants or the fact that their are so many . Do some people just build for show? I prefer to keep my animals happy. Is there a happy medium I don't know about?

[bcarter1100]

A lot of the YouTube videos you see with these extravagant enclosures usually play on sandbox mode where you can adjust the animals' needs and happiness settings in the settings menu. Those who do play campaign often use "construction" pieces such as the marine rocks or broken logs and branches to create a fuller, realistic looking habitat. It's also wise to use small grass type bushes that do not take up much space around a group of rocks to help with that natural look. There are many natural looking rock formations on the steam workshop that can help you with your habitat design. Or maybe give you some inspiration to build your own formations if you prefer not to use other people's work.

My personal trick is raising the ground slightly, use the rock paint brush and paint the top of the mound, add a few rocks, then some small bushes in between and around the rocks. Quite often, in my designs, the rocks are the star, and the bushes are the accents, while a single tree or two (if added) is kind of like a center piece, but not necessarily necessary.

[moneymouse2]

Thanks for the help. I have not tried sandbox yet. I like to play with more of a challenge.

[Just Kevin]

The challenge in the Sandbox depends entirely on what setting options you pick. And before a Sandbox scene is created you can choose 3 hardness levels, area of the world and flat or hilly. As to creating habitats. Clicking on an animal in a habitat brings up a UI specific to that species. Type of landscape, type of flora, if they need water, how deep it needs to be. Even how many of its own type it's happy to live with. There's no reason good looking habitats cannot be made and still keep to that that the animal wants.

[grampers62]

There are some planted panels that one may use in habitats that do not count as plants which can really help those habitats with species that don't like much scenery. Backdrops to the habitat can also go a long way to creating green space that isn't part of the habitat but does blend with said habitat.
But yeah, most of those fantastic images and youtube videos are usually not suitable franchise habitats. I prefer to play in franchise most of the time so I sort of think outside the box to create scenes that feel better within the species' needs.

[moneymouse2]

Yes, I enjoy playing franchise and keeping my animals happy. But i may give sandbox a try and look over the setting options.

[Anthracite]

Franchise and challenge modes aren't remotely realistic, no animal even knows what plants are native to their country of origin let alone care, that's why I play sandbox with foliage, terrain and space off (because again, the requirements in this game are ridiculously high compared to real zoos). You can still keep all the other options on and have a more realistic experience while still managing animal and guest happiness plus finances/crime/research.

[grampers62]

Escrito originalmente por Anthracite:

Franchise and challenge modes aren't remotely realistic, no animal even knows what plants are native to their country of origin let alone care, that's why I play sandbox with foliage, terrain and space off (because again, the requirements in this game are ridiculously high compared to real zoos). You can still keep all the other options on and have a more realistic experience while still managing animal and guest happiness plus finances/crime/research.

It's more about the challenge of making things work rather than recreating a real world experience.
But to each their own, and that's one of the great things about Planet zoo.

[Just Kevin]

It's true that animals have no idea what their habitat should look like. Most zoo animals are born in them, not in the wild. Often, due to that, they are also often acclimatised to the part of the world the zoo is in. Within reason. I doubt it would be possible to make a penguin happy in a desert. Most flora will only survive in the climate it is used to also. Zoos in the UK, for example, are full of trees such as oaks, not palm trees. Having said that, habitats look nice when flora and landscapes native to where an animal originated from looks nicer than one full of stuff native to where in the world the zoo is supposed to be. Zoos do make an effort to make habitats look 'natural'.