Hayo Zookeepers!
It's time for another insight into what you can expect to see coming up in Planet Zoo! We're happy to announce that free Update 1.7 will be available to get your paws on from 4 October!
Our team has been hard at work trying to bring you some of your most requested features, as well as a few surprises! The first of these we revealed last week, with the announcement of our upcoming Custom Heightmaps, but it's now time to reveal what else you can expect. Update 1.7 will bring you varied terrain options, deep swimming for cats, animal talk seating areas, path barriers, a scenery placement randomisation toggle, and some quality of life improvements to the Zoopedia!
For more information on all of this, read on below:
Mapping Tools
Custom Heightmaps are making their way to Planet Zoo! These will allow you to really get creative with your map terrain via uploading image files. For more in-depth information on how this will work, check out our forum post from last week!
But wait, that's not all! We also have new Terrain Type options coming to give you even more variation in pre-made maps.
When you go through your standard set-up for starting a new zoo, you will now have a new option: Terrain Type. From here, you'll be able to select "Flat", which is your standard map area that you know and love, or "Sculpted", a range of new options, with one new sculpted option per biome type. We won't spoil all of these so you can discover them yourselves, but one special one is the "Desert - Oceania" map, a flat desert with a mountain in the middle similar to Uluru!
You will now also be able to use Scenario Zoo maps in Sandbox Mode! There are 9 timed scenarios and 14 regular scenarios, which means 23 new terrain maps and 30+ new terrain variants! Though, please note that scenario maps are not available in Franchise Mode. Scenario Zoos in Sandbox Mode will also have the new "Terrain Only" button which removes everything except the terrain, another variation for you to start out with! This is perfect for people who want to jump into a Scenario Zoo terrain, but still have the freedom to create their own zoo from scratch.
Swimming Changes
Following the Bears from the 1.6 Update, some of our big cats will be getting their paws wet with Deep Swimming. The cats taking the plunge will be:
- Jaguar
- Bengal Tiger
- Siberian Tiger
This will include the male, female, and juvenile of each species. Be sure to start adjusting your habitats, as we bet they can't wait to make a splash the second the update drops!
To go alongside this, we're also implementing some tweaks to the swimming depth requirements for individual species. This should allow diving turns for deep swimming animals to remain smooth, while also preventing clipping! Minimum depth requirements range from 2-4m.
Animal Talk Seating Areas
Rally up your guests because it's time for a show! Animal Talks are going to be bigger and better than ever with the addition of new Seating Areas, increasing the capacity per Educator and helping you better control the flow of guests around these areas.
Pick one of our new talk-specific seating options and link an Animal Talk Point to it, and guests will now be able to sit and really give their full attention! But don't fret, you will still be able to use the Animal Talk Points as standing attractions as well. What animal will you pick as your first to have its very own seated education area?
Path Barriers
On top of the new Seating Areas to help you control your Zoos guest flow, we're also adding Path Barriers! These will render areas of path inaccessible to guests and staff alike, allowing you to direct the traffic in your zoo more accurately. For areas where you want guests to have the option to pass, but to be less likely to do so, we're also adding in Kerbs. These will discourage guests from crossing, but they will still use it if the area is otherwise too crowded or there is no other route.
Scenery Placement Randomisation
Ever been placing lots of the same scenery item, and had to manually adjust it each time to keep things looking natural? Well, no longer! We're introducing a new Randomisation Placement Toggle which, when turned on, will randomly change the rotation of the item you are using in between each placement. This will allow you to create an organic appearance much faster than before!
We know this will be a game-changer for foliage and rock-heavy builds. What are you most excited to use this on?
Zoopedia Changes
Finally, we're adding a few quality of life improvements to help with your Zoopedia usage:
- The Animal Management screen has a new Zoopedia link button, connected to the listed animals
- Animal Management and Animal Market buttons have been added to the Zoopedia, taking you to the filtered animals
- Habitat space requirements have now been added to the Zoopedia UI
- Biome filters have also been added to the Zoopedia filter options
And lastly, we've also added the option to quick trade from the Animal Management screen! This will work similar to Release to Wild, and means that Quick Trading is now available beyond the Trade Centre.
We hope you're looking forward to all of these new changes! The update will come with various other tweaks and bug fixes, so as always, we will have a full list of patch notes for you on launch.
There's more news from us still to come very soon, so be sure to keep an eye out on our social media, but for now we'll be hanging out on Twitch to chat about update 1.7 and spend some time with you all. See you there at 17:00 BST!