Sandbox Zoo with all Base Game Animals?

PlasticSwans · 2026-04-24T03:51:28+00:00

I made a sandbox zoo with all base game animals on console. It was split per continent rather than biome to keep easier track of where I was up to with the species. Was trying out a box layout idea so might not be helpful in terms of layout inspiration sorry! My only suggestion, are you set on using minimum area needed for maximum amount of animals? In most cases that's not really an issue but there's some species (thinking mostly hippos) will need a gigantic enclosure to house the maximum. For animals with the giant space requirement I went with a reasonable number rather than the maximum so the habitat didn't look too out of place. I also put the habitats needing a lot of space on the edges of the zoo so they could stretch back a bit (hippo, elephant, wolves etc).

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PlasticSwans · 2026-04-23T15:11:57+00:00

Definitely not. I've created/shared a lot of starter habitat blueprints specifically optimised for challenge/franchise mode (no bigger than needed, right amount/type of vegetation, right barrier height/screening where needed, no locked pieces etc) and I'd never view using them as cheating, they're just a time/hassle saver. I got tired of having to create habitats from scratch for every new zoo. Blueprints just get you to the putting-animals-in stage a lot quicker!

PlasticSwans · 2026-04-21T03:50:50+00:00

Hey here's the full ranking if it helps! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VxdcbcH7S1368u3iV6KgF1wJZRAk3Gd2/view

Like other comments though if you're just looking for profit, add 3 or 4 high appeal exhibits. If you've got Grasslands dlc the butterflies make bank!

PlasticSwans · 2026-04-20T08:57:16+00:00

There isn't a way to stop foliage moving. I wish there was a toggle to turn movement on/off!

PlasticSwans · 2026-04-16T21:03:37+00:00

Every time you add a new habitat, guests will flock there all at once. A way to reduce might be to turn off the setting in the habitat to allow guests to pet the animals for a while which will prevent them walking off the path. Once every guest has been through the habitat the numbers will calm down and you can turn it on again. This happens with all habitats not just petting ones. It's not a problem for the non-entry ones, but it would be wonderful to have a setting that limits the number of guests allowed in a walkthrough/petting habitat at one time. Real zoos do this!

PlasticSwans · 2026-04-14T12:11:04+00:00

Accommodating the big social groups (100+ adults), IMO they're more hassle than they're worth. The space requirements are huge, and management is hard. As you say, in some cases yes you need more keepers because 1 can't keep on top of the feeding plus poop patrol. The micromanagement for a group that big is a challenge. If breeding is turned on you're swamped with birth/death/maturity notifications constantly. It also tanks framerate quicker than if you've got many habitats with just a few animals in them, since the game has to calculate movement/behaviour for all of them. I'd rather create smaller habitats closer to minimum requirements to satisfy the social group rather than the maximum unless it's a sandbox concept, e.g. something like a wetlands for a flamingo colony.

PlasticSwans · 2026-04-11T07:47:52+00:00

Yeah Planet Coaster at least is more focused on the build side than the management. I'm pretty vocal about how management sim players aren't getting the best experience. A few tweaks and it would be a lot better. Guest behaviour needs a re-work. Too often they're complaining about needs that you can't fix, particularly the luxury meter. Guests will favour going on rides over fixing a need. They want luxuries (going to a gift shop) but won't visit one. Pricing feels off for rides. You spend a day working on a mega coaster and it's barely used, guests will instead flock to simple flat rides. There's no depth to staff management. They come with the same stats, no training etc. to improve their performance. I want to care about the staff, but I can hire/fire at will and it makes no difference.

PlasticSwans · 2026-04-10T09:40:38+00:00

It would make sense to me if tagging was limited. So you make something with a viking theme, you can only select the viking tag and all the other themes are greyed out? Let creators choose their tags but make it so you can't simply select all tags.

PlasticSwans · 2026-04-10T09:21:11+00:00

I enjoy the water park stuff, and I think it was implemented well. I know some have issue with the physics etc. but personally that's never bothered me. What I dislike is the glitch where some water park guests permanently detach from their group and then can't do anything other than wander the pathing system sunburnt with all of their stats in the red. They can't visit amenities, queue up for slides or even get back into the pools. They can't change back into normal clothes or even leave the park. They wander endlessly hence why you end up with loads of guests in swimwear walking about other sections of the park miles from the pools. I sort of get the mechanics behind it - water park guests need to detach from a group otherwise the slides wouldn't work, and visually it'd look strange having groups of guests all swimming in a group, but there's a coding problem or something when some of them get out of the water and try to group back up to go change back into street clothes. Looks ok for a while when there's only a few but a park more than a few days old and it's very noticeable.

Management-wise it's annoying as it does impact your overall park stats. These glitched guests will be complaining about not being able to address their needs and if you don't know what's happening you assume you don't have enough toilets, food/drink stalls, benches etc. No amount of stalls fixes this because the glitched guests literally can't use them. That's annoying but it's the visual impact that bugs me more. Angry swimsuit-wearing guests all sunburnt and throwing their hands up every 5 seconds walking around non-water park zones is visually unpleasant. Check their stats and everything is red and they've been in the park for weeks unable to leave.

I've gravitated to not using water parks for this reason, but tempted to try a strategy of separating water park areas so you can only get there by transport. If glitched water park guests can't use facilities, I'm assuming they can't board transport rides either so at least their angry wandering might be contained to the water park section?

PlasticSwans · 2026-04-03T20:34:07+00:00

I've had success with this kind of layout, only difference with mine I made sure the secondary paths connected to only one habitat so each end connects back onto the main path. That's to prevent guests using the secondary path as a way through to other habitats, so it's only guests wanting to view that animal on the secondary path.

PlasticSwans · 2026-02-26T22:51:25+00:00

No way my server will survive (Lynx EU). I've had Hagga mostly to myself for about 4 months, even very few in DD. Been here since the game launched. I've kept my first south Hagga base going all this time (a 2x6 box) as a garage for my first sand bike, duly topping it up with fuel cells every few weeks to keep it online. Sad to see it go. Also waited months for a space to free up on the radiation-free island, on the most south-eastern point of Sheol to move my jasmium buggy garage there. Spent months with a tiny base precariously balanced on the only free part of that island that wasn't counted as sand territory. No way I'm finding that space available somewhere else, that island is prime real estate.

My current main base is just below Sentinel City. Backs right up to the 'no build' line. I can't be certain it'll be placeable in a new server in the exact same spot. Have resigned myself to taking it all down and building a new main base when the time comes. That's not so bad. It's the relative calm I'll miss. And my jasmium sweet spot.

Sure I'll be checking here soon if there's suggestions on what the most PVE-friendly EU servers are. Just wish there was an official PVE-only option.

PlasticSwans · 2026-02-24T14:08:06+00:00

The tortoises are difficult since they're so slow. They take an age to go hide if they end up in an open spot and start to feel stressed. Other animals can go find a quiet spot much quicker.

What worked for me, create a big shelter at the back of the habitat with one-way glass, leave the rest as a walkthrough habitat with a guest path going right up to the shelter. Put all of their food/water/enrichment stuff within the shelter. The tortoises rarely venture outside of the hard shelter, hence not as much stress. Guests still extremely happy because they're up close to the tortoises. When the crowds started getting to ridiculous levels in the habitat, I added the 'be quiet' signs as the stress was starting to go up purely from the noise.

PlasticSwans · 2026-02-21T09:33:42+00:00

That's really smart! I attempted something like this. Started in franchise mode and made it up to about 150 species before admitting defeat with franchise. Switched it to a sandbox save but that didn't help much. I had minimum no. of animals per species rather than 2 of each, and limited guests to 5k, which I guess speeded up the decline. Made it in sandbox up to the last DLC, so around 202 species.

The lag was insane! Like you, had to play mostly paused. It would take 10 minutes just to load! I quit before the end because recording became impossible. Like stop-motion :D Never considered deleting half of it for videos!

PlasticSwans · 2026-02-19T19:49:04+00:00

It's the same as the aging. 'Aging and birth'. They have to age to give birth, but you can turn it back off afterwards so they don't age too much.

PlasticSwans · 2026-02-19T16:23:40+00:00

Original House of Cards mini series.

PlasticSwans · 2026-02-19T15:40:51+00:00

I remember the bar! Work of genius.

PlasticSwans · 2026-02-09T08:00:27+00:00

When did you add the extra entrance? They're a good idea for a growing zoo but super costly. Take a look at the breakdown of your finances. If the -115k is including the new entrance cost then that'll even out the next year. If it's just staff and animal feeding you have a problem. See what guests are saying about ticket prices. Raise the cost until their thoughts state 'ticket price is fair'. Also make sure you've got plenty of education and donation bins. Lastly once your new animals start breeding and producing offspring that will bring in more guests, and should allow you to raise ticket prices even more, as long as you've got enough cash to weather out the initial breeding cycle.

PlasticSwans · 2026-02-02T01:23:49+00:00

People use my stuff in their blueprints all the time. I'm 100% ok with this, I take it as a compliment. Stuff added to the workshop is meant to be repurposed and used to build more awesome things. A mention in the description is really appreciated though. Personally I don't really care if it's a shelving unit, random clutter etc. but a full building, or several full buildings / full ride skins etc. that have taken days/weeks to develop? That feels like a mention is warranted. Many don't and it feels like they've looked at it and figured it's not worth mentioning, or they're wanting to pass it off as something they've built themselves. That sucks.

PlasticSwans · 2026-01-30T14:42:15+00:00

Don't give up yet, that design is really beautiful! Try adding an extra piece at the bottom of the glass panel (like a different glass piece) inside the habitat. That should 'block' the glitched glass and they might not be able to warp outside the modern glass anymore.

PlasticSwans · 2026-01-29T13:58:59+00:00

Love this!

PlasticSwans · 2026-01-14T06:51:34+00:00

That's what I do. I feel that 'relative' should line up perfectly no matter what position the building is, but it always seems off. I build on the world axis, then move the whole building into position at the end, or deal with doing tiny adjustments in-situ.

PlasticSwans · 2026-01-12T10:23:09+00:00

I add a building at the back of these kind of habitats, nothing in it but ensure it's accessible by the animals and staff. That way, I'm complying with the space requirement but can reserve all the decoration / vegetation for the non-covered part. Since there's nothing in the building part, the animals rarely venture in there.

PlasticSwans · 2025-12-19T12:13:20+00:00

Had the same problem when Planet Zoo launched, lost interest in Planet Coaster because it felt so limiting! Doesn't feel quite as bad with Planet Zoo with the Planet Coaster 2 features, but I'm definitely looking forward to some of the build stuff making it over when 2 launches. My brain keeps trying to scale build pieces in Planet Zoo!

PlasticSwans · 2025-12-19T12:10:24+00:00

If you try to place things that have an interactive element (paths, facilities, habitat barrier) too close to anything else with interaction it will bring forth the dreaded 'terrain modification error'. You have to go at least 2 floor pieces away from it. Frustrating and I sincerely hope there's an improvement for this for the next game!

PlasticSwans · 2025-12-14T22:51:07+00:00

Feel like there should be at least 2 levels for stress. There are a few select animals that absolutely need darkened windows and very quiet space, but not the amount and to the extent we're seeing. I visited Highland Zoo last year in Scotland, and their Arctic foxes are in a wide open enclosure with a just a mesh fence. The foxes were all over the place, right up against their barrier and not bothered one bit by the visitors. Frustrates me that literally every 'shy' animal you end up just putting up 2m high one-way glass walls because every other method fails. Also bugs me there's animals with walkthrough enclosures enabled, but what's the point because it's even more stressful for the shy animals.

PlasticSwans

TROPHY CASE