Hayo Zookeepers!
It's time for us to share some news about what you can expect to arrive in Planet Zoo soon. We're excited to reveal free Update 1.5, arriving 30 March 2021!
This free update contains multiple highly requested additions, as well as some quality of life changes. Thank you for sharing all of your feedback and suggestions with us, it has helped us sculpt this update and we're proud to reveal what we've got coming to Planet Zoo! This post will explain what you can expect and how it will affect your gameplay.
Multiple Zoo Entrances
We've heard your requests - you will be able to place multiple zoo entrances in every gameplay mode. They will be expensive, but you'll be able to set up the perfect spawn points and entrances, further increasing the efficiency of your zoo! This will also add close options on your spawn points, so you can disable any that are outside the park boundaries, if you would like to. This means that you'll have complete freedom with the spawn locations, something we know many of you are after. These changes bring a new warning notification that will pop up if your newly placed guest spawn points are too far away from a ticket booth, which would lead to guest inefficiency.
Water Visual Setting UI
Water volumes are now set up as fully interactable and selectable objects, meaning that you will be able to click on them to bring up their information panel (although, this will only happen if your cursor can detect the body of water - if you have the water completely covered in scenery, for example, you will also be able to find the water in the 'Select Lake' option in the Terrain Tools section).
Via the water's UI, you will find some trivia statistics about the lake, connection details for what cleaning and temperature facilities are affecting the lake, and, most interesting, customisation options. These options will allow you to change the colour of the lake via flexicolour and change the 'fogging' distance, which will allow you to make the lake more or less clear in visibility. We know this was something many of you were reporting feedback on, so we're happy to bring you these creativity options! These changes will be available for all the water around your zoos, meaning that you'll have these options whether it's within a habitat blueprint or it's a moat around your zoo. You'll be able to cater the water to your requirements!
Please keep in mind that changing the water visuals will override the visual cleanliness. This means that the water will look the way you have designed it to, but it does not affect its actual cleanliness rating in the game. You will still need to follow the correct steps when setting up your water to ensure you animals can enjoy it safely.
Billboards
Custom Billboards will be making their Planet Franchise return in Update 1.5! With the introduction of Custom Billboards, you will be able to create your own bespoke signs around your zoos, meaning you'll be able to customise the signs to whatever you'd like to showcase in your zoos. Like in Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo's Custom Billboards will include new assets, such as screens, that will allow you to change the image on it to one of your own. The formats of the images Billboards will use are currently jpg, png, tiff, tga, and bmp.
You will also be able to override Habitat, Exhibit and Conservation Education Boards. However, you will still need to set up your boards to be pointing to the animal or topic in the UI menu, as this is what the guests need to understand what your custom image is trying to show them. We know that some of you enjoy creating custom videos alongside your custom images, and we're proud to announce that the Education Boards, Conservation Boards and Billboards will also be capable of displaying video. These work in the same way to images, but your videos will need to be in the webm format. You will be able to have audio in these videos.
Like in Planet Coaster, we will also be bringing Custom Audio to the speakers! The audio will need to be in flac or ogg format. When adding in your custom audio, you will need to set the Education Speakers up via the UI to state what species or topics your custom audio is representing, so your guests will understand. Customisation on the Education Speakers will also allow you to add in new music to the Educator Talk Points, which will play while the Educator is not giving a talk. As we're currently working on Custom Audio, we will be sharing an update for when you can expect to see them at a later date.
Free Timed Scenario
Update 1.5 will have a new Scenario for you to tackle! Go back to the beginning, to before Bernie created his first ever zoo, at Goodwin House. Take over the renovation of Scholey Manor, the grounds of Bernie's first zoo, and build it into a thriving attraction. See if you can beat Bernie's record for a successful Lion breeding program in this new free Timed Scenario. We can't wait to see you tackle this challenge!
Timed Scenarios
The Front End Globe UI that you see on the main menu screen has been updated to better present the Timed Scenarios to you, rather than it being hidden behind the Career button. This update is linked to the Scenario Rewards below.
Scenario Rewards
We're adding the statues you see on the Globe of the Career and Timed Scenarios as scenery pieces that you will receive as a reward for completing them! Completing a medal on a Scenario level will earn you that medal's colour version of the statue (bronze, silver or gold) and unlocking a new level will unlock the stone version of that statue too. This means that there'll be a range of new scenery statues you can earn by completing a Scenario level, that you'll be able to place all over your zoos!
For those of you who have already complete the scenarios (which we read via your profile data), you will be presented with a fanfare on the Globe screen telling you that you've unlocked some or all of these statues already. Otherwise, when you complete a level, a fanfare will show you the new item you have unlocked. The locking mechanics behind these rewards works the same as if you haven't already researched an item - they appear with a lock on them in the scenery browsers, and any blueprints that use an item you haven't unlocked will have a lock on them.
Changes to UI (Franchise Web Browsers)
We're switching the Franchise Animal Trading UI from using the webpage to using the same UI as our offline modes. The intention behind this is to both unify the feeling and features of the game modes, and also hopefully address usability issues some community members were having with the Market.
Save Franchise Zoos as Sandbox
On the Front End My Zoos page, you can now use the 'Open as Sandbox' or 'Open as Challenge' option on your Franchise Zoos to save them as fresh Sandbox or Challenge Mode Zoos. This will also allow you to upload these separate saves to the Steam Workshop to share; we cannot wait to see your beautiful Franchise Zoos start popping up on the Steam Workshop.
Staff Traversable Area Map
We've added a new habitat Heat Map Mode that shows the traversable area of Staff members within a habitat. You will be able to see where Staff members can reach, just like the animal traversable area Heat Map, and objects that the Keeper needs to reach such as feeding trays and drinking stations will also be highlighted.
Multi-Select
We will be adding multi-select back into Planet Zoo! Designed to make it easier for you to manage your animals, multi-select will be in the form of a tick box that will be added to the Animal Storage tab across the different Planet Zoo modes.
Deep Swimming added to Gharials
In Update 1.5, we will be adding deep water swimming to the Gharials. In future updates, we're looking at adding deep swimming to other animals in the roster. When we have more to share on these, we will let you all know.
This update will also arrive alongside some gameplay tweaks and bug fixes, which we've been working on with your suggestions and feedback in mind. Update 1.5 will go live 30 March, and you will be able to read the full list of Update Notes then.
To all the PlanZo Fam, we'd like to thank you for your continued support. We're looking forward to having a great 2021 with you all, and can't wait to share what else we've been working on soon. Keep an eye out for any announcements!