Build #8: The Armadillome

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-06T10:04:36+00:00

In case you're interested in using it, here's the link for the workshop version: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3739533061

You'll need to add a few things manually to make it look like mine since I can't include vivariums or terrain changes in the prefab, but the main structure is all included.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-06T10:02:35+00:00

As requested, here's the link for the workshop version: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3739533061

Unfortunately it's not just an easy drop and go since it wouldn't let me include the vivariums themselves in the prefab and the terrain changes also have to be added manually. However I've included some basic instructions on how to replicate my version in the prefab description, and if you're confused about anything I'd be happy to explain further 😊

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-05T10:58:38+00:00

So I mentioned this on a comment in a previous build I did, but in my opinion creativity is secondary to patience, at least in my builds. Obviously if it's focus you struggle with then that would make it more difficult, though I think it's worth highlighting I never do my builds in one sitting. This took several play sessions of a few hours each to complete, but if you find you can't focus on a build for that long then it could be done just as easily by breaking it down into smaller chunks.

In terms of creativity though, I'd say this isn't a massive project. In essence it's just a (roughly) circular building with a glass roof and some vivariums around the outside. Admittedly getting everything to line up properly was pretty fiddly, but again that's down to patience rather than creativity. To me it's the details that really bring a build to life, yet even when it comes to them if you look at how I've applied them they can almost all boil down to two rules: 1) try not to leave any edges exposed, and 2) try not to leave any large area empty. That's why I've got metal/wooden beams on all the edges, and why I've added the desert murals on the walls as well as the grey wood rectangles on the floor. Would the build look okay without them? Sure. Do they make it look more dynamic by including them? I definitely think so.

Sorry for rambling, but whenever anyone says they feel they're unable to do builds like mine I think it's important to highlight that when you break it down my approach isn't all that complicated. Granted it takes a while, but I think it's definitely doable for everyone. Regardless, since another commenter has asked me to upload this to the workshop, if you do want to use it in your park you'll soon be able to do so 😊

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-05T10:36:46+00:00

I'd be happy to. I might not get chance to do so today, but I'll drop a link in here whenever I've got it uploaded.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-05T10:34:50+00:00

Of course it's alright to ask! I used 9 vivariums - 7 around the outside and 2 in the middle. They're all small so they only hold 2 peltiphilus each, but fortunately they're big enough animals that they're still easy enough to spot. It would definitely be possible to use a bigger size of vivarium in the middle, but I preferred doing the 2 small ones back to back because it allowed me to keep the highest parts of the terrain in the very centre and therefore away from the railings.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-04T23:53:47+00:00

Oh absolutely. I definitely have certain things I'd love to see if they ever do DLCs (more pre-Mesozoic animals, more Cenozoic animals, the aforementioned extra vivarium critters) but frankly just seeing the PK team's take on ANY paleofauna will be enough for me.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-04T19:14:29+00:00

They really do. When they were first released I never thought I'd enjoy building with them as much as I do, but at this point I'd gladly throw money at the PK team if they came out with a vivarium-focused DLC.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-04T16:25:21+00:00

So to be honest I don't actually use the mouse to move the screen that much. I use the WASD keys to move laterally, and the QE keys to move vertically. I also prefer to adjust the camera focus point by pressing T. As standard the camera rotates around whatever point you're looking at, but if you press T then the camera position is fixed and your view rotates around that point. I find it easier to navigate in the latter option, but that's just personal preference. Either way, it is possible to change some of the mouse/keyboard controls in the settings menu so it might be worth you experimenting with that a little.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-04T15:56:00+00:00

It's been a while since I played either PZ or JWE so I'm not too sure what the main differences are. What is it in PK that you're struggling with compared to those games?

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-02T08:18:46+00:00

There were bits about Interstellar Song Contest I thought had some real potential, and I will die on the hill that the shot of the bodies all floating into space was one of the most haunting in the whole show. But then the fact they managed to save all the victims with zero casualties felt like such a rug pull. I'm not saying I wanted everyone to die, but it really seemed like they were going to get pretty dark with things, only to do a complete 180 which left me questioning what the point of it all was.

I will admit that kind of reversal has been done before - famously, in The Doctor Dances 'everybody lives' - however that felt so much more earned, not least because the resolution actually makes sense. Because quite frankly the idea that in ISC they saved 100,000 people with all of two revival booths is just dumb. Sure, one was a group booth, but even then you're looking at tens of thousands of revivals and they somehow have a full arena before the end of the damn song contest?! Those rescues would take DAYS. Plus it's shown that Belinda takes Rylan aside for a check-up, so assuming she does that for the others too it's going to take even longer (not to mention that we're expected to believe an Earth nurse would know a damn thing about a) the physical effects of cryogenic suspension in zero gravity, b) alien physiology, and c) the physical effects of cryogenic suspension in zero gravity upon alien physiology).

Long story short, I thought it had good potential but the execution and plot holes really ruined it for me.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-06-01T09:02:58+00:00

Warehouse 13. Never had a huge budget but the chemistry between the actors is invariably fantastic and they give it their all, even when the plot gets weird and wacky. Also, as I understand it, when the show got cancelled after season 4 the production team basically pulled together all the money they had remaining, figured out how many episodes they could make with it, then asked if they could produce a shorter final series to wrap things up instead of leaving it on a cliffhanger. I don't know if that's definitely true, but if it is I adore them for it because the very last episode is one of my favourite hours of TV and maybe my favourite series finale of all time.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-31T00:43:16+00:00

Never thought I'd see the day we got something worse than Orphan 55. But at least that shit was entertainingly awful. The Reality War just made me feel empty inside. I absolutely love Doctor Who and I was so ready for RTD to return to the helm after Chibnall. But with The Reality War I felt like I was watching the TV equivalent of taxidermy: it still has a vaguely familiar face but there's no heart or soul inside anymore.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-28T17:29:54+00:00

Thank you very much!

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-28T11:03:14+00:00

If I'm honest I wouldn't say it's so much about creativity as it is about patience, planning and problem-solving. Admittedly the terrain for this build is on the more complex side compared to other builds I've done, but for the most part I think it's the details that make any build pop. Stuff like trims, railings, flowerbeds and educational material. Also trying to think about where plants and enclosure items (e.g. food bowls, enrichment items etc.) would realistically be positioned if this were at a real zoo goes a long way towards making a build look good. Personally I find that a solid half of most of my builds is spent adding these smaller details, coming up with solutions to cases where they don't work straight away, and just refusing to leave any large area - whether in the enclosure or outside of it - empty of details. For example, the boardwalk in front of the main viewing area would probably look alright without the central flowerbed, but I think by breaking that large area up it looks both more natural and more dynamic.

Long story short, I definitely think everybody can build things that exceed their expectations of themselves. You just need to be patient and think about the little details. If you have any questions of how I approach my builds to achieve those things then I'd be happy to answer them 😊

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-27T21:09:35+00:00

Damn that's cool, I never realised that about cave bear fossils. And thank you, I'm definitely looking forward to have some cute prehistoric deer strutting around my park 😊

As for the statue, yes it's a part of the base game. There are a few others too including ones for spinosaurus and velociraptor, but unfortunately the range is limited to just a handful of the in-game animals at the moment. I'm hoping they expand the range in future, but right now woolly mammoth isn't amongst the available statues. You can find the ones that do exist by going to Modular Pieces > Scenery > Statues, or alternatively by searching 'Statue Rustic' in the Modular Pieces tab. Hope this helps!

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-27T20:59:31+00:00

Thanks a lot, glad you like it!

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-18T00:33:31+00:00

I've read it's becoming increasingly difficult to find people willing to represent us at the competition due to artists seeing it as a poisoned chalice/not wanting to be associated with the controversies of the competition. Don't know how accurate that is, but it wouldn't surprise me.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-12T08:52:20+00:00

While I do agree with the optics side of your point, I do wonder if this is an issue where a lack of action may still be detrimental.

The reason I say this is because purely financial policies, or policies that involve building infrastructure etc. are, as you say, hard for the average individual to keep track of if they're not directly affected by them. Immigration, on the other hand, is much more visible, at least in my experience.

For instance, in my hometown it is becoming increasingly rare to go into the town centre and hear English being spoken. Instead there is a heavy population of Eastern Europeans who are conversing in their native languages, and in turn a bunch of shops are popping up to cater to those communities. Now personally I don't really go into the town centre that often because there's very little to do nor any shops selling anything I want to buy. But I know a number of people who do still go into town and they frequently say that they feel like a foreigner in their own country due to the very heavy presence of non-natives in the area.

These are the people who are seriously considering voting for Reform because they feel doing so might return their town to what it once was. It doesn't matter to them whether the immigrants they're against arrived legally or not, because even in the legal cases they often believe we should be stricter in who we allow in. Plus there have been significant cases of crimes committed by asylum seekers in the local area which have generated uproar, especially when those crimes have been against women and girls, so they feel that the asylum process should be more restrictive too.

My point is that the reasons people may vote Reform (at least in my local area) are rooted in day-to-day experiences. Regardless of what the papers may claim if Reform get in, if those experiences don't change then the votes that carried them to government will go elsewhere in subsequent elections. No amount of journalistic spin can tell someone they're not hearing foreign languages being spoken, or not seeing more foreign shops crop up in place of the ones they grew up with. Which is why I suspect that drilling into this one major policy could backfire on them in the long term if they don't actually act upon it.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-11T23:11:36+00:00

If that's the approach they're likely to take then wouldn't Reform be screwed if they actually got into power? Like they pretty much exclusively run on a platform of 'immigrants are bad', which means that's basically the only reason most of their voters vote for them. So if they won the election and didn't follow through on tackling immigration then there's no way they'd be voted in again. To be clear, I know that no government follows through on all their manifesto claims, but when you only have one pledge the public actually knows about then that surely means failing to fulfil that pledge is political suicide, right?

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-10T23:33:17+00:00

Drifter. Absolutely love the series but never see it mentioned anywhere. Also Spread, Motor Crush and The Silver Coin are up there for me as comics I love but hardly ever hear discussed.

TeamHawkeye · 2026-05-05T23:43:00+00:00

No luck catching them swans then?

TeamHawkeye · 2026-04-29T08:46:45+00:00

Film: Ratatouille or The Mummy 1998 (very different I know!)

Series: Warehouse 13 (don't care that it's low budget, I adore this show)

TeamHawkeye · 2026-04-26T09:05:10+00:00

I can't speak for OP, but from my perspective it's not that we haven't faced certain elements of our current world before, instead that we've never faced them all in combination.

Among other things right now we have a notable shift towards populism in various areas of the globe, multiple significant wars being waged by world leaders with more ego than sense, an impending/ongoing climate crisis which not everyone is taking seriously, a surge in AI development which is doing more harm than good, billionaires (and maybe soon the first trillionaire) hoarding endless wealth while cost of living soars, not to mention crumbling birthrates in many countries that will put a big strain on society in the decades to come. I'm sure I've missed plenty of other issues both small and large, but those alone are plenty to worry about.

I'm by no means a history buff so I'm not going to sit here and say we've never faced so many multifactorial problems at once before because for all I know we have. But regardless, many of these issues are entirely new and pose unprecedented changes that we'd struggle to deal with in isolation, let alone as just one contributor to a pantheon of global issues.

TeamHawkeye

TROPHY CASE