Planet Zoo News

• Addressed a number of issues with animals getting stuck while deep swimming.
• Addressed a number of issues causing swimming animals to escape the habitat.
• Tweaked animal deep swim navigation splines to have more variation.
• Fixed an issue where frame performance slowly decreases during run time as an animal keeps taking an infinite navigation path.
• Updated the following five animals' biome preferences on their education boards.
  
  • Desert was added to:
    • African Wild Dog
    • Cheetah
    • Common Ostrich
  • Taiga was added to:
    • Giant Panda
    • Formosan Black Bear
• Updated the Capuchin Monkey education board image to reflect the IUCN change on the conservation status from Least Concern to Vulnerable.
• Fixed multiple aquatic plant items not being available in the nature menu when the Aquatic Theme filter is applied:
  
  • Giant Rhubarb Plant
  • Lipstick Palm Tree
  • Ponytail Palm Tree
  • Titan Arum
  • Underwater Hydrilla Plant
  • Water Hyacinth Large/Medium/Small
• Fixed the Giant Otter not being tagged on the Mud Bath Enrichment, despite being suitable via the Zoopedia.
• Fixed an issue where the Frozen Blood Pumpkins and Fruit In Ice don't render when placed while the game is paused.
• Adjusted animal AI on using jetty bedding options.
• Animals no longer count as obstructions to lake placement, they will just be boxed on water being placed on top, hence improving the placement of water.
• Tweaked deep swimming animals scenery collision avoidance, will require existing lakes to be updated to cause the update to happen.
• Fixed issues with animal box buoyancy.
• Tweak path vs water hit checks to allow closer placement of path to waters edge (including water against glass barrier).
  
• Fixed the Giant Otter female's eyes turning completely white on certain animations.
• Fixed an issue where animals can float up walking to the side of a water filled glass barrier.
• Increased resolution on underwater feeder particles.
• Fixed issue causing animals to get stuck in place at the edge of water/land boundaries.
• Removed the word 'bear' from the Koala description in the Zoopedia.

• Animal Talks will now end if an escaped animal comes nearby.
• Guests now break out of viewing Animal Talks if the zoo closes.

• Added height tags to Aquatic Waterfall Cliff assets.
• Fixed small gap between Climbable Branch 4m Irregular Shape and the surfaces its being placed on.
• Fixed the Spatial Data on the Painted Slate Roof Corner 2m Eave as it was not covering the whole asset. 
• Aquatic Assets - Fixed painted Slate Roof Corner 1m Eave missing the Painted Wood colour flexicolour option. 
• Fixed the Aquatic Habitat Large Blueprint requiring the Australia DLC.
• Fixed an issue where a scenery piece had a corrupted transform in a save, causing heavy performance issues when the game is un-paused.

• Linked up the Water Temperature Regulator dial on the asset with the generated temperature.
• Fixed Caretaker and Educator sharing the same icon on staff room info panel while inside a staff building.
• Fixed staff room UI to correctly differentiate running costs and power costs.

• Fixed Habitat Barrier widgets from overlapping in the vertical axis.
• Fixed access to group flexi colour UI after opening edit group UI.
• Fixed an issue where the Guest Happiness Rating doesn't dynamically update on the Guest tab in the Zoo Overview menu.
• Fixed issue an issue of giving frequent alerts that educators are spending a lot of time walking.
• Fixed an issue where the staff info panel would not open after using the workzone manager.
• Fixed an issue where locked buildings would be removed from workzones upon accessing the workzone editor.
• Fixed an issue with transport ride management price stepper not increasing at the same rate as the info panel.
• Fixed re-doing a deletion of a transport ride while ride info panel is open from causing an error.
• Renaming an animal in the management page now instantly updates the animal's info panel.

• Various localisation fixes.

• Further crash and stability fixes.
• Performance tweaks and optimisations.

• Animals
  • Fixed an issue where animals would sometimes move a small amount in the opposite direction of their intended destination after surfacing from underwater swimming.
  • Fixed underwater particle trails exiting out of the water.
  • Increased the minimum height of the King Penguins slightly to amend scaling issues in social interaction animations.
  • Fixed Market Animals sometimes linking to the incorrect Zoopedia entry. 
  • Fixed animals escaping a habitat via the platform floats.
    
• Staff
  • Fixed an issue when the user deletes a staff room while there is an educator resting in it and they are also deleted from the park with it. This also fixes a rarer case where the same thing would happen to staff members that are only in the staff building to hide from a dangerous escaped animal.
  • Educators can now head to Animal Talk Points up to three months in advance, up from the previous one month preparation time, and will autonomously determine how much time they need to reach the Animal Talk Point.
• Scenery
  • Moved the new waterfall assets to the 'Construction > Special Effects > Water' building menu.
  • Fixed an issue where duplicating a plant could make it unable to place on water. 
  • Fixed a localisation error causing Arctic Buildings being incorrectly ordered in the Blueprints menu.
  • Added missing theme tags for Arctic Shelter Blueprints.
  • Platform float now aligns correctly to the water's surface when "Align To Surface" placement option is on.
  • Fixed names for several Double Pitch Corner roof assets where the name contained incorrect height information.
  • Fixed the researching of thick glass barrier on Challenge and Franchise mode so that it now works if all other levels of Barrier Research were completed before its addition.
• Timed Scenarios
  • Fixed players being unable to save the "Red Barn River Zoo" Timed Scenario due to it including a scenery asset from the Australia DLC. The piece has been removed from the starting save.
• Facilities
  • Water temperature regulator
    • Fixed an issue where increasing the range of a Water Temperature Modifier would not update to affect newly attached lakes.
    • Fixed an issue where notifications appeared for unsuitable temperatures when Animal Welfare was disabled.
  
  
  
• Guests
  
  • Balanced visibility so that Guests will use underwater viewing areas more when animals are deep swimming.
  • Reduced destination rating pull for Animal Talks to prevent Guests from walking from all over the zoo.
    
  
  
  
• UI
  • Fixes to transport ride management "Number of Trains" and "Cars per Train" steppers.
  • Ticket Price stepper in Transport Ride Management screen now increases in increments of $0.10.
  • Guests reached stat for Animal Talks Management UI is now displaying correctly and kept between saving and loading.
  • Resolution and border improvements to the shop branding banner images.
  • Fixed the locate pin on some Timeline events breaking the Animal UI temporarily.

• Various localisation fixes.

• Fix for a crash that could happen after moving an already placed plant over water and then selecting a different plant.
• Further crash and stability fixes.

•  Franchise mode - Multi-select will be disabled as we look to investigate and carryout improvements to usability and functionality.

• NEW* - Deep Swimming
  • Brand new for 1.4 is the deep swimming system. All habitat animals in the Aquatic pack are equipped with the ability to deep swim, additionally we have also added deep swimming to the Saltwater Crocodile.
  • Deep swimming animals are able to swim smoothly underwater, using a combination of a flexible spine and subtle animations. Each species will balance their need to swim against other types of behaviour, such as those on land. They are also capable of eating from the new underwater feeding station.
• NEW* - Deep Water
  • Deep swimming animals require a minimum area size and depth in their habitat, and will only display deep swimming behaviour if this requirement is fulfilled. Specific species may have their welfare affected if these space requirements are not met.
  • This information is located in the animal info UI and related information panels:
    
    • Water depth requirements are present on info panels next to the existing land and surface area requirements.
      • Zoopedia: Natural Habitat section
      • Animal info panel: Terrain tab
      • Habitat info panel: Terrain tab
• NEW* - Underwater Feeder 
  • The Underwater Box Feeder, a new feeding station, will be available for everyone as part of the 1.4.0 update. All deep swimming animals (Saltwater Crocodile from the base game and the Aquatic Pack animals) will be able to use this in game.
  • When using this feeder, like any other food enrichment, its Information Panel will provide you with details on its food capacity, usage by animals, and food suitability.
  • Additionally, there will be a status bar that will tell you if the feeder has been placed in deep enough water for the fish particles to appear. If the feeder has not been placed deep enough keepers will not fill the feeder and animals will be unable to use it.
• General Animal Bug Fixes and Improvements
  • Fixed incorrect numbers displayed on lifetime stats for exhibits.
  • Updated the Red Eyed Tree Frog and Golden Poison Frog population numbers to reduce rapid breeding into low welfare. Players should find these 2 species easier to use.
  • Fixed an issue where the animal storage would allow exceeding the 50 animal limit which could lead to performance issues.
  • Adjusted Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, and Reindeer info boards so that the maps now reflect distinct areas between Arctic and Antarctic.
    
  • Exhibits - Humidity is now set to the ambient temperature automatically on exhibit placement, instead of being variable to ambient until set. This should make feedback more consistent and obvious.
    
  • Added detail on bonding information inside the Social tab for animals that have a single mate. If an animal is currently mourning for their missing mate, it will temporarily prevent a new bond from being formed.
    
  • Extended biomes for some animals based on player feedback and research:
    • Desert:
      • Cheetah
      • African Wild Dog
      • Common ostrich
    • Taiga:
      • Giant Panda
      • Formosan Black Bear
  • Made the small ball enrichment's available to the Arctic wolf.
    
  • The Indian rhino will now sometimes prefer to walk in shallow water, in addition to its usual land-based walking and surface swimming behaviours.
    
  • Fixed Dingo disappearing when moving camera closer to the body while using the Water Pool Enrichment.
    
  • Fixed a bug where social grouping and follow behaviours sometimes ended prematurely, resulting in diminished herding.
    
  • General audio bug fixes and improvements.
    

• Timed Scenario
  • A new timed scenario set in the mountains of Luzon. Help push conservational awareness by transforming disused rice terraces into a beacon of conservation ready for the grand opening ceremonies. Available in the free 1.4 update.
• Animal Talks
  • As a new way to educate and entertain your guests, Animal Talks can now be scheduled in your zoos. Guests will gather at the designated talk point to watch a live presentation held by an Educator to learn about the animals in your zoo.
  • Animal Talk points are purchased from the Education facilities menu and can be freely placed around paths in your zoos.
  • Animal Talks can be customized and scheduled on the point’s info panel.
    • Select a nearby species as the target of the presentation.
    • Schedule at which time of the year the Animal Talk will be held.
    • Set the mood for upcoming talks by selecting music to play while not active.
  • Clever placement of Animal Talk points next to habitats with low enough barriers will allow the Educator to feed some animals during their presentation.
  • Some of the more curious animals in your zoos will be interested to check out just what your guests are looking at. Keep an eye out for some bold individuals showing off!
  • A new staff type, the Educator, has been added to the game to tend to Animal Talks.
    • Educators can be hired through the staff panel like any other staff member.
    • They can be assigned specific Animal Talks via the workzone manager, or will take care of Animal Talks autonomously.
    • Like other staff members, Educators can be trained to maximise the impact Animal Talks have on your guests.
  • The new Animal Talks management UI helps you keep an overview of all talks scheduled and available in your zoo.
  • New Animal Talk animations and audio have been added to a select list of adult animals, which have a chance to play during an Animal Talk in their habitat:
    • African Elephant
    • African Wild Dog
    • Arctic Wolf
    • Bengal Tiger
    • Bonobo
    • Bornean Orangutan
    • Colombian White-faced Capuchin Monkey
    • Common Ostrich
    • Common Warthog
    • Dingo
    • Giant Otter
    • Giant Panda
    • Grey Seal
    • Grizzly Bear
    • Himalayan Brown Bear
    • Hippopotamus
    • Indian Elephant
    • Indian Peafowl
    • Indian Rhinoceros
    • Japanese Macaque
    • King Penguin
    • Mandrill
    • Polar Bear
    • Pygmy Hippo
    • Red Ruffed Lemur
    • Ring Tailed Lemur
    • Saltwater Crocodile
    • Siberian Tiger
    • Snow Leopard
    • Spotted Hyena
    • Timber Wolf
    • West African Lion
    • Western Lowland Gorilla

• Water Temperature Regulator

• Adjust the Regulator's effective range
  
• Adjust the target temperature all water volumes in range should be regulated to
  
• There will also be a new Heat map mode added to the Water overview for the Water Temperature Regulator, that will show you:  
  
  • The current range of each Water Temperature Regulator in your zoo
    
  • The temperature each Water Temperature Regulator is set to
    
  • The temperature of each volume of water in your zoo

• Transport ride management screen

• Update 1.4 will include a new management screen that will summarise all of the Transport rides in the zoo. This screen will enable you to make faster and more accurate decisions about your transport rides to better manage your zoo.
  The new Overview Tab will inform you on:  
  
  • The number of different rides
    
  • The most popular ride in your zoo
    
  • The most popular station in your zoo
    
  • The total annual profit for all rides
    
  • The total number of guests that have used the rides in the current year
    
  • The lifetime profit from the rides
    
  The Stats tab will break down each individual ride into more detailed information for you, by showing you:  
  
  • Annual profit
    
  • Annual guests
    
  • Total track length
    
  • What stations guests are using
    
  • Each station's scenery rating
    
  The Management Tab will allow you to edit:  
  
  • The number of trains (only while the ride is closed)
    
  • The number of cars per train (only while the ride is closed)
    
  • Maximum speed
    
  • Ticket price (per station)
    
  • The status of the ride (overall and per station)
    

• New Scenery 

• Font: Noto Sans Alphabet (Large, Small, and Planes)
• Font: Boogaloo (Planes)
• Decals Set (11 assets)
• Barriers
  • New glass barrier variant with glass habitat gate
    • Features flexi colour posts to enable blending into faux rocks and terrain textures
      
• Paths
  • 2 x New guest paths:
    • Natural Path
    • Water Path
  • 3 x New Queues Paths:
    • NEW - Wooden Queue Path (horizontal and vertical variants).
    • NEW - Duplicated "beach board" guest paths to the ride queue paths (horizontal and vertical variants).
    • NEW - Duplicated "natural" guest paths to the ride queue paths.
• Foliage
  • Eel Grass (3x variants)
  • Weeping Willow (3x variants)
  • Lotus (3x variants)
  • Hydrangea (3x variants)
  • Temple Plant (6x variants)
  • Water Banana Plant (3x variants)
  • Virginia Creeper (5x variants)

• General bug fixes
  • Fixed the Alpine Currant Small foliage displaying a black texture on its lower leaves when light is shined on it
  • Fixed Indian Street Light 01 & New World Decorative Lights Bracket adding to power cost when they do not produce light
  • The following three lights no longer require power as they use flames as a light source
    • African Lamp Post 01
    • East Asia Lamp Post 02
    • Indian Wall Light Metal 02
  • 33 new flipped quarter circle roof pieces to address this issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/PlanetZoo/comments/ecvpqy/how_do_you_rotate_the_pattern_in_floor_quarter/ Flipped versions are part of content packs, you'll receive the flipped versions for the content pack you've purchased

• Game Modes

• Staff are now fully trained staff on placement in Sandbox Mode.

• Cash and Conservation Credit settings have been simplified when an unlimited amount is disabled.
  
• Fixed Keeper tablet having a red screen when in use.
  

• Fixed the missing clipboard from the Reporter who appears in some scenarios.
• Updated a fix to the slim adult male guest shirts to all fit over trousers.
• Fixed an issue where some users were reporting Protesters were still refusing to leave zoos.
  
• Fixed dark and dim textures appearing on the protestor signs.
  

• Fixed a bug where security cameras would not incur a yearly power cost.
  
• Visual tweaks on clean water density and caustic values.
  

• Main Browser
  • Added a new category for lettering and decal scenery assets in the main browser.
  • Updated text for better clarity on the Education Menu categories.
  • Fixed issues with the path edit align to grid button being in the wrong state.
• Franchise Mode
  • Multi-Select for Franchise Mode Animal Storage and rewards - Something that has been requested for a long time now, we're proud to bring you the multi-select tool to Franchise Mode Animal Storage! This will make it easier for you to manage your animals when the peacock breeding gets out of hand!
• Info panels
  • Added "Out of Range" status to heaters and coolers. Heaters and coolers are limited so they can't go below / above the ambient temperature respectively, so the UI now shows this.
  • Habitat info panel - Fixed the value next to the food icon under 'Maintenance' on the not showing the correct value.
  • Shop info panel have been updated with minor improvements including new shop brand images.
  • Info panel tabs are now saved when switching between different animals.
• Heatmaps
  • Vandalised objects for DLC 2-4 will now appear in heatmap.
  • Added lights found missing from the power heatmap.
    • South American Wall Light 02
    • Koala Light
    • Australian Wall Light
  • Added a specific water temperature heat map to the game.
• Help Topics
  • New help topics for:
    • Animal talks
    • Educator
    • Water temperature regulators
    • Water temperature heat map
    • Water depth
    • Reporters
  • Updated help topics for:
    • Inspectors
• Management Screens
  • Added "deselect all" support to animal storage tabs.
  • Fixed Animal Market list displaying the first entry cut in half.
  • Fixed the Salary slider in the Zoo Management > Staff not allowing the player to click and hold.
  • Fixed the Guest Facilities menu not displaying running costs.
  • Fixed No highlights used in management and animal list.
• Settings
  • Fixed heatmap temperature units remaining in Celsius when game units changed to Fahrenheit in the settings interface.
  • Fixed FXAA option to provide correct visual effect.

• Localisation

• Fixed some of the Rusted and Painted Metal Rods having incorrect sizes in their name.
• Fixed Glass Pane Rectangle 4m x 4m and 4m x 2m being mislabelled.
• Fixed Inconsistent terms in the Animal trading/Habitat trading when accessing the same menu from object browser or trade centre UI.
• Various localisation fixes.

• Further crash and stability fixes.

• Plant assets will disappear when placed in water if it has been duplicated from an existing asset.
•  In Franchise and Challenge modes the new "Thick Glass" barrier type is not available to research if you load a save where the barrier research is already fully completed. The new "Thick Glass" barrier type is available in sandbox mode.

The new Planet Zoo Aquatic Pack DLC introduces loads of fresh content, including five adorable new animals (yes, the dwarf caiman is adorable), over 170 new scenery pieces to spruce up your zoo, and a brand new challenge in which you are tasked with reviving a water-themed zoo set around a dried-up riverbed in Oregon, USA.

Extend a warm welcome to the king penguin, giant otter, grey seal, dwarf caiman, and diamondback terrapin. Don't forget to keep your new additions entertained with some of the new enrichment items they have added in, such as the rubber duckie. No one will be able to resist visiting your zoo if there is a giant otter floating downstream with a rubber duck on its belly.

Once you have chosen which new animals you would like to add to your zoo, it's time to decorate. New scenery pieces include murals depicting the icy tundra for your King Penguins, luscious mangrove murals for your Dwarf Caiman, reflective surfaces to mirror your watery environments, and glorious waterfalls for you to admire.

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