Hayo Zookeepers,
Spring is here, and with it is the Planet Zoo: Wetlands Animal Pack! The new Pack alongside Update 1.9 are officially out now, update your game to enjoy the free content.
The Wetlands Animal Pack introduces 7 new habitat animals and 1 new exhibit animal. Show your guests the wonders of water with the loveable Capybara, the unusual Platypus, the excitable Asian Small-Clawed Otter, the scaly Spectacled Caiman, the steadfast Wild Water Buffalo, the loyal Red-Crowned Crane, and the nimble Nile Lechwe. Don't forget to also expand your exhibit areas with the Danube Crested Newt, the smallest of its species!
Your animals are also sure to love these new water-themed enrichment items! Let them soak themselves under the new Hot Water Tap, have some fun in the sun with the new Natural Water Jet, or dive down deep with the new Small Underwater Feeder and Underwater Buoy items. Not only that, but your Capybaras can really indulge with the new bathing behaviour to relieve stress!
Lastly, join us on a trip to the Pantanal in Brazil in an all-new Timed Scenario, where you're challenged to build a forever home for rescue animals who are unfit to return to the wild. This scenario features a high welfare requirement with limited space restrictions due to the tricky wetlands environment, but we're sure you're up to the task!
The Planet Zoo: Wetlands Animal Pack is available now on Steam for £7.99 ($9.99, 9.99€)
You must have the base Planet Zoo game to be able to play this content. Update 1.9 is out now to install and is free for all players.
Update 1.9 is free and available to all players who own the base Planet Zoo game now, simply update your game to play!
This update brings exciting new features including free-roaming Educators, a new way for your Educator staff to bring enriching experiences to your guests. If you missed it, head over and check out some of our team trying their hand at becoming Educators in our announcement video!
It's not just the Educators who can get up-close and personal with your zoo guests now, thanks to the new Roaming Camera! This camera mode lets you see your zoo from a guest-level point of view. Now you can see what your exhibits look like as if you were really there!
As mentioned above, new bathing behaviours are making their way to Planet Zoo. While players will need the Wetlands Animal Pack to add Capybaras to their zoos, they won't miss out as this behaviour is also enjoyed by the Japanese Macaques! Simply create a shallow pool of water and heat it with a Water Temperature Regulator to create an experience your Macaques are sure to love. To help you find the right depths for this, we've also added a new Flatten to Terrace terrain brush! This isn't the only behaviour change, with the small burrows being added in update 1.9 that can be used by the Meerkat, Prairie Dog, and newcomer that is the Platypus from the Wetlands Animal Pack.
Alongside this we've made a few other additions including a new management screen for speakers, billboards and cameras, making them easier to manage than ever, and new water options including flexicolour on exhibit water, and mist/bubble effects in habitats. For more info on this and other quality of life updates, check out our 1.9 Update announcement post.
You can also care for your Capybaras using NVIDIA's GeForceNOW service, which gives you instant access to GeForce PC performance on nearly any PC, Mac, SHIELD TV, Android, iOS device or Chromebook without any downloads! This will let anyone experience the richness of the Wetlands and Planet Zoo no matter the device they're on!
Thank you as always to our incredible PlanZo fam for the love and support in the run-up to this release! We know the Capybara in particular is one you've been excited for, and we can't wait to see how you spoil them in your zoos. Keep an eye on our social channels for future news and announcements, and for highlights from the Wetlands Animal Pack. As always, we'll also make sure to share your wonderful builds and screenshots, so be sure to upload them to the Steam Workshop and tag us in your posts on social media!
To celebrate this launch, you can tune in for a special charity stream where we'll be joined by some very special animal friends. You'll be able to find us on Twitch starting at 11am BST (right now!) and help us raise money for the Shepreth Wildlife Conservation Charity!
Planet Zoo - 1.9.0 Update Notes
This update contains many more bug fixes, updates and some new content.
New Content - Planet Zoo: Wetlands Animal Pack
- NEW - Animals
- New animals in the Planet Zoo: Wetlands Pack:
- Asian Small-Clawed Otter
- Capybara
- Nile Lechwe
- Platypus
- Red-Crowned Crane
- Spectacled Caiman
- Wild Water Buffalo
- Danube Crested Newt
- The following new toy enrichment items are included with the Planet Zoo: Wetlands Pack:
- Hot Water Tap Small, available for:
- Japanese macaque
- Capybara
- Hot Water Tap Large, available for:
- Japanese macaque
- Capybara
- Submarine Buoy, available for:
- Bengal Tiger
- Grizzly Bear
- Formosan Black Bear
- Siberian Tiger
- Polar Bear
- Jaguar
- Giant Otter
- Grey Seal
- King Penguin
- African Penguin
- Sun Bear
- California Sea Lion
- North American Beaver
- Asian Small-Clawed Otter
- Capybara
- Platypus
- Hot Water Tap Small, available for:
- New animals in the Planet Zoo: Wetlands Pack:
- NEW - Timed Scenario
- The Pantanal Timed Scenario, Located in the heart of South America, Brazil, is the world's largest tropical wetland area, and the world's largest flooded grasslands. Covering some 81,081 sq miles and home to an immense variety of life, this Is just the place for a new rescue project! Although, Building around all of this water could be tricky...
- Challenge, and Sandbox versions of the map are available
- Terrain only sandbox and challenge variants of the map are also available
- NEW - Scenery Pieces
- Submarine Buoy Enrichment
- Hot Water Tap Small Enrichment
- Hot Water Tap Large Enrichment
- Wetlands Animal Sign Wild Water Buffalo
- Wetlands Animal Sign Spectacled Caiman 01
- Wetlands Animal Sign Spectacled Caiman 02
- Wetlands Animal Sign Capybara 01
- Wetlands Animal Sign Capybara 02
- Wetlands Animal Sign Capybara 03
- Wetlands Animal Sign Capybara 04
- Wetlands Animal Sign Nile Lechwe
- Wetlands Animal Sign Danube Crested Newt 01
- Wetlands Animal Sign Danube Crested Newt 02
- Wetlands Animal Sign Asian Small-Clawed Otter
- Wetlands Animal Sign Platypus 01
- Wetlands Animal Sign Platypus 02
- Wetlands Animal Sign Red-Crowned Crane
- Wetlands Animal Sign Decal Butterfly 01
- Wetlands Animal Sign Decal Butterfly 02
- Wetlands Animal Sign Decal Butterfly 03
- Wetlands Animal Sign Decal Snail 01
- Wetlands Animal Sign Decal Snail 02
- Wetlands Animal Sign Decal Snail 03
- Reward Statue Capybara Stone
- Reward Statue Capybara Bronze
- Reward Statue Capybara Silver
- Reward Statue Capybara Gold
- NEW - Avatar Costume
- New Red-Crowned Crane avatar costume
- NEW - Roaming Educators
- Educators now have access to a new task, enabled by default: Roaming Talks
- Educators who are assigned to hold Roaming Talks will wander the zoo, occasionally stopping to hold a short informative talk about nearby species, or a random conservation topic, as long as they have enough energy and aren't due to hold an Animal Talk
- Guests who don't have higher priority destinations will stop and listen to nearby Roaming Talks, gaining small boosts to happiness and education, based on the educator's level
- NEW - Small Burrows
- A small version of the burrows is available for the following species:
- Meerkat
- Prairie dog
- Platypus
- Small burrows share the large burrows' functionalities - suitable animals will attempt to seek shelter, sleep and give birth in them
- Small burrows are equipped with an integrated habitat webcam, which can be linked up to billboard screens
- A small version of the burrows is available for the following species:
- NEW - Audio And Billboard Management Screen
- A new management UI has been added for an easier overview of all customisable audio-visual items
- Audio: lists all speakers with their currently set track or educational content
- Billboards: lists all screens with their size, type of content and currently set image
- Cameras: lists all camera items, with an option to enter their view, and info on any potentially linked habitats
- A new management UI has been added for an easier overview of all customisable audio-visual items
- NEW - Explore Camera
- The new Explore camera mode is available via the Camera Modes widget in the main HUD, allowing you to place the camera on any surface in the park
- The Explore camera is controlled with the WASD keys and follows the terrain at a fixed height, allowing you to enjoy the views in your zoo the same way your guests would
- The tegidcam cheat has been retired
- NEW - Customisable Exhibit Water
- Exhibits containing water can now be customised for colour and transparency values
- The 'Windows' tab in the exhibit info panel has been renamed to 'Customise', and contains the water settings for the exhibit
- NEW - Expanded Water Customisation
- Water in the zoo can now be customised with mist and bubble vfx, to add more detail to larger bodies or surfaces of water
- The 'Colour' tab of a body of water has been rebranded to 'Customise', and contains new sliders for mist and bubble density
- NEW - Flatten to Terrace Terrain Brush
- The new Flatten to Terrace terrain sculpting mode creates distinctively levelled areas when applied over an area of raised terrain
- The height of these terraces can be defined via a slider in the sculpting settings
- If checked, the 'Shallow Pool Offset' setting indents the terrain slightly below the next level of the voxel terrain, which can then be filled to create wading-height water features for animals (we recommend using this mode to create areas for Japanese Macaques and Capybaras to bathe in!)
- NEW - Foliage
- Water Tupelo Trees x 3
- Bald Cypress Trees x3
- Bald Cypress Knees x2
- NEW - Scenery
- Small underwater feeder enrichment
- Natural water jet enrichment
- Animals
- Added a new bathing behaviour, available to Japanese Macaques and Capybaras
- Animals who can bathe will, if available, attempt to rest in a pool with the highest suitable temperature within their temperature tolerance
- While bathing, animals won't gain stress from guest views or noise
- If nearby a bathing animal of their species, animals have a chance to join in on the relaxed fun and come bathing as well
- Animals can bathe in any pool that is shallow enough for them to walk in, that is being heated by a water temperature regulator
- Fixed animals not eating guest food when thrown into a habitat from a vending machine
- Fixed animals teleporting to unexpected places during burrow entrance and exit animations
- Fixed Jaguars repeatedly stretching and yawning whilst sheltering from adverse weather conditions
- Fixed activities like grazing not selecting a range of animations
- Fixed animals being able to dig tunnels through objects placed on the ground
- Fixed Arctic Foxes being able to dig and jump into objects placed on the ground
- Fixed some instances of animals sleeping inside of objects
- Corrected the European Badger zoopedia continent and countries information
- Fixed animals having to pass quarantine twice after reloading
- Fixed an issue where temperature bounds were not accurate in specific biomes, resulting in some animals not being able to cope with excessive heat or cold in their native biomes. The majority of animals should now not need heater or cooler support when placed in a zoo of their native biome, barring a few intentional exceptions where species have a noted problem in coping heat or cold (i.e. Moose)
- Most Appealing Animal has been split into Most Appealing Habitat Animal and Most Appealing Exhibit Animal
- Added a new bathing behaviour, available to Japanese Macaques and Capybaras
- Habitats
- Fixed a bug where holding down barrier placement after adjusting the height of a barrier placed pieces continuously
- Fixed species assigned to animal talks sometimes being identified as a 'misassigned species' when placed underground, even if a habitat is nearby
- Barrier highlighting can now be discontinuous. The selection/deselection can now begin from any hovered post
- Fixed a bug where changing the height of a barrier post in Flat Top Editable Bottom mode made the barrier top wavy
- Fixed electric fence power cost being free and not being added to the habitat power cost UI
- Added the ability to assign keybinds to barrier placement options (length, curved/straight, etc.) separate from the keybinds for path placement options
- Scenery
- Fixed the sprinkler, water jet and waterfall enrichment items incorrectly indicating that they need power
- Fixed an issue that allowed vending machines to snap to the end of an incomplete path that is staircased
- Added missing water splash effects to Piñata and Fire Hose Ball
- Fixed an issue where the habitat bedding capacity would not take into account animals that do not require bedding
- The order of the flexicolour buttons are now consistent in the info panel and object browser
- Vertical snap option added to placement UI modes
- Burrows can now be renamed, making it easier to find their cameras for billboards
- Fixed the burrow camera assignment not always being shown in the info panel for screens or education boards
- Added the flexicolour editor to selections of similar objects in Multi Selection mode
- Fixed certain scenery pieces having a power consumption they shouldn't have
- Fixed guest balloons being considered valid placement surfaces
- Added flexicolour to forage pool feeder
- Fixed vandalised screens not restoring their assigned images after being repaired
- Fixed the Education Board for the 'Thomson's Gazelle' incorrectly displaying an image of the 'Pronghorn Antelope'
- Fleeing guests now report the hostile animal that is causing them to flee
- Fixed lights having a power cost when turned off
- Fixed facilities placed adjacent to Large Quarantine floating due to Auto Stacking
- Fixed unexpected terrain cursor position when moving the camera during an edit
- Fixed a bug where guests could respond negatively to staff facilities before they entered a zoo
- Added tooltip to the flatten terrain toggle to specify if the selected object will always flatten the terrain
- Guests
- Guests will now watch screens displaying burrow cameras and react in a similar way to viewing the species in a habitat
- Fixed guests playing smartphone animation when viewing burrow webcams
- Fixed guests glitching and sliding when leaving exhibits
- Fixed guests leaving ride queues after loading a save
- Fixed an animation glitch when guests take out an umbrella
- Fixed guests and mechanics teleporting back to paths after interacting with vending machines
- Fixed guests becoming trapped when navigating to animal talk seating
- Fixed guests sometimes getting stuck and spinning around when trying to navigate large paved areas
- Guests will no longer have thoughts when leaving the park about not getting to see an animal if that animal was in the trade centre storage
- The path type on either side of a guest gate can now be changed independently on newly placed guest gates
- Staff
- Fixed keepers not feeding hungry animals because of inaccessible food in their habitat
- Fixed keepers placing food within animal bedding
- Added option for keepers to be called to a destroyed enrichment via the enrichment's info-panel
- Improved the distribution of guest standing positions around animal talk points
- Illness and Injury notifications now say "Vet requested" instead of "Vet called"
- Fixed escaped animals causing habitat last visit statistics to reset
- Mechanic no longer phases though the Ride Station control box while trying to repair it
- Mechanic lifetime stats now track Facility repairs and Vandalism repairs separately. Fixed a bug where vandalism repair stats were not correctly updating
- Educators are now highlighted in the education heat map
- Game Modes
- Fixed a spurious alert about an inaccessible transformer in the "Bailing Out" scenario
- Fixed animals sometimes appearing in both the trade centre and a habitat in franchise mode
- Fixed Inspectors sometimes never visiting zoos, blocking scenario progress
- Transport rides
- Instead of continually reverting the number of cars back to 1, Shuttle Mode now visibly disables changing the number of cars on a Transport Ride
- UI
- Info Panels
- Fixed an issue where the animal info panel would not specify "Young Adult" or "Elderly"
- Fixed closed staff rooms incorrectly showing a running cost
- Vendors can now be assigned to shops via a button on their info-panel
- Fixed animal info-panel not correctly updating when an animal dies in a fight
- Fixed the infertility indicator not updating in the compare mates menu
- Fixed Compare Mates UI showing incorrect gene potential when switching between animals
- Added habitat tax to the habitat info pop up's finances tab
- Fixed a bug where the staff zone selection incorrectly indicates no Staff Building is present
- Added a new widget on facility and habitat info panels showing all workzones they are assigned to, as well as the option to edit or create workzones containing this building or habitat
- Guest info panel finance overview now shows donation spendings rather than attraction spendings
- Fixed exhibit finance log power cost showing incorrect value
- Added an ear slot to guests carried items for audio guide headsets
- Fixed enrichment feeder UI showing there was no food left when there was food left
- Front End
- Selecting a scenario zoo in challenge or sandbox highlights the scenario location on the globe
- Added an "Are you sure" confirmation box when there are unsaved changes to the avatar customisation menu
- Fixed bug that prevented closing the species filtering with the escape button in the Animal Management panel
- Management
- Added a breakdown of donations each species has received in the finance window
- Added a new customisable shortcut to opening the Zoopedia, bound by default to F3
- Added the View All of this Species button to habitat animals
- Fixed an issue where selling a lot of animals in franchise mode would cause an error
- Fixed bug in the Animal Storage panel where the Select All toggle would remain toggled after moving animals into a habitat
- Fixed bug in the Animal Rewards panel that prevented the Select All button from displaying the number of selected animals
- Fixed "View all of this species" button not filtering animal management to solely that species
- Fixed an issue where the animal studbook parents wouldn't load when the data exists
- Fixed an issue where the status tooltips on the release to wild pop up could be empty
- Fixed an issue where the "Compare Mates" screen would sometimes show a duplicate entry
- Fixed an issue where you could release animals to the wild during relocation using multiselect
- Fixed "View Genealogy" button not enabling/disabling correctly when selecting multiple animals
- Favouriting an animal is now consistent across the compare mates and animal trading menus
- Vet and mechanic research categories are now listed alphabetically
- When the research task for a vet or mechanic is disabled, they will automatically be unassigned from any current research
- Fixed cheats not working when entered via management screen
- Using the locator pin on reporters now focuses the camera on them
- The research button in the Zoopedia is no longer disabled if there are no animals of that species in the current zoo
- Animal Overview filters are now saved. Fixed a bug where resetting the filters would not reset Location filters
- Changed the finance management screen to show loans data in its own drop down
- Game Modes
- Fixed an issue where selected scenarios would not clear when backing out of the selection
- Fixed animal welfare alerts appearing when disabled
- Fixed the timing on some of the scenario cutscenes
- Added sandbox setting to enable or disable research
- Added a new Sandbox option to enable injury. If disabled, animals will no longer gain new injuries and scars from fights
- Notifications
- Fixed an issue where the notification for an animal joining a pack would appear before the notification of birth
- Fixed alert for an animal being boxed for too long not disappearing when the animal moved to the trade centre
- Guests requesting a refund notification now opens the finance screen
- Localisation
- Fixed an issue that caused a large majority of base game blueprints to not have relevant naming
- Tweaked names of security camera objects to be more indicative of their shape
- Tweaked description of marketing costs in finance log
- Station validity checklist buttons changed to say 'Place or Move Entrance/Exit' as selecting the buttons now let you move the Entrance or Exit
- Fixed issue in the Notification settings where long species names would be cut-off by the toggle boxes
- Main browser
- Fixed a bug where the filter for the Europe Pack was not visible to players who do not own the Europe Pack
- Added a randomise all axis toggle to randomly rotate objects on all axis
- Fix scenery items rotating wildly when using the Z key for some players
- Fixed a bug where the tooltips of buttons in scenery selection could become misaligned
- Changed the flatten terrain toggle to be hidden for objects that will never flatten the terrain
- Misc
- Fix keybinds to some keys on non-English keyboards like '<' not showing in the help UI
- Players can now hide their player avatar from their friends' globes and zoos
- Info Panels
- Stability
- Fixed a crash that could happen from assigning video to a memorial plaque screen
- Fixed the game crashing when changing game settings while placing a track
- Fix crash opening Zoopedia from the animal rewards menu
- General stability fixes
- Performance
- General performance fixes