Planet Zoo News

Hayo Zookeepers!

Kick back and relax as we head towards summer with the new Planet Zoo: Tropical Pack, coming to you on 4 April alongside Free Update 1.13!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Venture through the depths of the tropical rainforest and take a look at the new friends heading your way!

Keep a keen eye up in the trees and you'll spot the Lar Gibbon leaping between the boughs, or maybe you'll even see a Fossa asleep up in the branches of the trees. If you head down to the water there are some new friends to be found too, such as the Asian Water Monitor slinking down the river. And look there, at the edge of the swamp! It's the Red River Hog basking in the sun - it looks like it's having a great time. Last but not least, we couldn't forget our new Walkthrough Exhibit mammal - the Brown-throated Sloth! They'll be sure to sloooooowly climb their way into your guests' hearts 💚



Alongside this, you'll get a range of new scenery items including architectural pieces inspired by places across Southeast Asia, and tropical foliage such as the Rafflesia, Pitcher's Plant, and Epiphytes!

Continue our ongoing story in a Planet Zoo Career Scenario as Tiffany has gotten herself into another pickle! This time, Tiffany's dad bought her a Zoo at auction and left it to her to fix up, and she's hired both Dominic Myers and yourself to help her do so - oh no! Can you help her turn the place around, and what is Myers really up to? Can he be trusted?



The Planet Zoo: Tropical Pack will be available for purchase for £7.99 ($9.99, 9.99€) on Steam from 4 April. If you want to be notified when the game is available, then head on over to Steam and wishlist it now! Please remember that you'll only be able to enjoy the Planet Zoo: Tropical Pack if you already own the base game of Planet Zoo.

Head over to our social media in the run-up to the Pack launch as we see the return of Zookeeper Steve! This time he's heading off on a research trip and is asking for your help in an unexplored tropical forest, keep an eye out there for the animal reveals. You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Also, if you missed our ✨special livestream✨ yesterday you can check it out here.

Join us on 4 April for a special charity livestream that we'll be hosting to celebrate the launch of the Tropical Pack and raise money for our friends at Chester Zoo! Chester Zoo is a world-leading conservation zoo that’s carrying out some vital, species-saving work. As a not-for-profit, the zoo ploughs everything into its conservation work, both in the UK and right across the world. The zoo is doing amazing things such as helping preserve Madagascar's rarest forest type, with Madagascar being where our new Fossa friends are from! We'll kick things off at 2pm BST on 4 April on both Twitch and Youtube, and we'll be joined by some friends both from Frontier and from our community. See you there!



We hope you enjoyed this announcement, and we look forward to exploring with you and Zookeeper Steve! Tell us what you're more excited for below ⬇️

Hayo Zookeepers,

Spring has sprung and with it comes a new Planet Zoo update! ✨Free Update 1.13✨ will be making its way to you on 4 April - take a look below for more info on what you can expect to see👀 ⬇️



Animal Sociality
A new animal interaction mechanic is making its way to Planet Zoo - introducing Animal Sociality! This feature aims to bring a more life-like approach to the introduction of new animals into your existing habitats, and to provide clarity when and why overcrowding issues happen. This will not change how you manage your animals but is instead an overhaul in how we communicate this to you, and how the animals engage within their group relationships.

All animals will now have an additional definition in their Zoopedia entry; solitary, matrilineal, patrilineal, or gregarious. This will let you know how they engage with their offspring. New animals that are introduced to a habitat (and juveniles that mature) will be marked as Outsiders if they exceed the gender or population limits of a habitat, if they are rejected due to their relationship with the group Alpha (i.e. a male in a matrilineal group), or if their parents are present when they are a solitary species. This will maintain a more stable existing population and reduce infighting amongst existing animals, instead having them group together to target the new outlier and continue to fight until they are removed (or the situation causing them to be deemed an Outsider is improved). Outsiders will also be rejected and unable to partake in group dynamics such as mating, social interaction, and playing, thus creating a more realistic experience and helping stop further overpopulation issues (so if you forget to pause and go grab a snack, you won't come back to 30+ unintentional new offspring!).

However, some groups where coexisting wouldn't have been possible without aggression (such as habitats with an unbalanced gender ratio) may now be able to be formed if the members have developed a bond prior to maturing. Sociality will show you which animals have become bonded. Bonded animals will never fight their Alpha or their bonded partners, and can become bonded through spending time together, or by being juveniles born from the same two parents. It is unlikely that all animals in a large group will be bonded but, for example, it can allow for more than one male to remain in a matrilineal society (i.e. the alpha lion's brother being able to remain within the pride). Furthermore, in some species, the alpha male or female tends to lead the group but doesn't claim exclusive mating rights. These leaders will be marked with a crown in the info panel (replacing the alpha symbol) so that, whatever claim they have, it is clear who they are within the group and so that players can be aware of their reproductive role.

The Outsider relationship can be lost once an animal is removed from the habitat and time has passed allowing the relationships to decay. After this, an animal can be reintroduced to a group as if they have never met before, but unless the habitat has changed (i.e. the gender ratio is now balanced), the animal may still be rejected and become an Outsider once more. However, if all conditions that are causing an animal to be deemed an Outsider become invalid, it will enter an "integration" period, after which it will be fully integrated and accepted by the existing group. This can happen if the gender and population limits are balanced again, or if the animal is no longer impacted by the alpha of the group. The type of Outsider an animal is will be displayed within the info panel, so you will know the cause and be able to take appropriate managerial steps from there. This panel will also display the time left in the integration period, should your animal enter one.

Animal Sociality will add all of this information under the Social tab. All sociality dynamics will also be labelled appropriate per species, whether that be as a pride, pack, herd, clan, or similar.

Null Paths
Ever wanted to have a hidden or completely natural path, or to style your own via decorative items? We know you have, and now you can! Introducing Null Paths ✨

Disabling the "Kerbs on Ground Path" toggle on any Natural Path will now create a Null Path - an "invisible" path that allows guests and zoo staff to walk across a seemingly unmarked terrain. These paths will function the same as any other path meaning that terrain cannot be deformed around them, nor can facilities or similar be placed on them, but they will only show an outline when selected for building purposes and can be customised beyond that to your heart's content.

Similar to Null Barriers, any build mode will now have a settings dropdown to "Highlight Hidden Paths". This is enabled by default but can be toggled as necessary for those who really go in-depth with their building!

Multi-Axis Advanced Movement
Another improvement coming for all of our builders is an addition to your Advanced Movement options - multi-axis movement!

Until now, when moving objects you have had to pan it across each axis individually to reach the exact placement you want. Now, when you are in building mode, an additional handle has been added between each of the axis arrows. These handles can be selected to move any asset freely across two axes at once, i.e. forward/back and left/right, whilst remaining locked in position up/down. This should make building easier than ever!

Climbable Asset Toggle
Ever created a build that you're really happy with but then you unpause and - oh no! - some of your assets are climbable and now your animals keep escaping? This is no longer an issue with the introduction of the Climbable Asset Toggle!

Any object that is climbable can now have its climbing function toggled on/off. This selection is also available for groups and multi-selections, allowing you to toggle large amounts of assets at once. This will allow you to customise what animals are able to climb on, therefore restricting what they can scale - and stopping them from being able to escape from undesired areas!
When looking at the animals' traversable area, disabled climbing assets will be highlighted in black whereas enabled climbable assets will be highlighted in green. This will be particularly useful for things like custom barriers, or for creating more comprehensive climbing frames in which sections of it are maintained as purely decorative without disrupting the rest of the frame.

As always, these exciting new features will come alongside a range of fixes and quality-of-life improvements, which you can read in the patch notes after release.

There's more news coming for you soon but, for now, join us later today for a ✨special livestream✨ where we'll be taking a closer look at everything coming your way in free Update 1.13. Catch us on Twitch and Youtube at 17:00 GMT - see you there!

Hayo Zookeepers!

Update 1.12.4 is now available for download. Just update your game before you play! This update contains various bug fixes - you can read more below:

Planet Zoo - 1.12.4 Update Notes This update contains bug fixes General Bug Fixes and Improvements

• Animals
  • Fixed the Nine-Banded Armadillo disappearing when feeding from the Termite Mound
  • Fixed the Formosan Black Bear mouth being always open
    
• Facilities
  • Fixed the Grasslands Walkthrough Exhibit from requiring Twilight pack DLC to be placed
• Scenery
  • Buffalo Grass, Blue Stem Grass and Red Oat Grass dry variants reverted to their original colour variants and are now called "Parched" grass
    
    
  • Added yellow toned variants to Buffalo Grass, Blue Stem Grass and Red Oat Grass, called "Dry" grass
    

• Stability
  • Fixed a crash that could happen when using the Automation Management Population and reaching the Conservation Credit limit

Hayo Zookeepers!

Update 1.12.3 is now available for download. Just update your game before you play! This update contains various bug fixes - you can read more below:

[h2]Planet Zoo - 1.12.3 Update Notes[/h2]

This update contains bug fixes

General Bug Fixes and Improvements

• Animals
  • Fixed "moving multiple selected animals" in the exhibit info panel not always moving the selected animals
    
  • Fixed Raccoons passing through scenery to interact with enrichment toys
    
  • Fixed an issue where animals interacting with burrows were teleported across the park
    
  • Removed the possibility for animals in burrows to stand idle for long periods of time
    
  • Fixed the navigable area heatmap not updating when the selected animal had to be reset to the habitat gate
    
  • Fixed an issue where animals could not enter or exit a burrow correctly
    
  • Fixed an issue where animals were temporarily considered escaped from their habitats, particularly when climbing
    
  • Increased the size of skeletal remains left by juvenile Emus that decomposed in a habitat
    
  • Added interspecies enrichment bonuses between Emus, Red Kangaroos and Red-Necked Wallabies
    
  • Fixed Raccoon's whiskers and fur disappearing if viewing from specific distance
    
  • Fixed Formosan Black Bear Juvenile eyes floating if viewing from specific distance
    
  • Fixed Nine-Banded Armadillo teleporting when exiting burrow
    
  • Made Scarecrow Feeder more accessible for Blue Wildebeest
    
  • Fixed some sharp edges on the Maned Wolf sleeping animation
    
  • Fixed leg flickering on the Emu walking animation
    
  • Fixed overextended front upper legs on the Blue Wildebeest Female walking animation
    
  • Adjusted animation when the Striped Hyena shakes
    
  • Adjusted animation when the Nine-Banded Armadillo turns
    
  • Updated Striped Hyena animal icons for both Male and Female
    
  • Updated Striped Hyena Zoopedia images
    
• Facilities
  • Fixed Tour guest wellbeing being rated much lower than expected
    
  • Fixed "Educational item placed too far from target species" alert on Tour Points not assigned to an Animal Talk
    
  • Fixed some habitat objects being incorrectly considered scenery objects when using the bulldozer tool
    
  • Fixed an issue where ride stations sometimes do not get fully deleted when using the bulldozer tool
    
• Franchise
  • Fixed the Automated Exhibit Population Management rules showing the "Release to wild" option in franchise mode
    
• Game Modes
  • Height map zoos created in the following places now use their matching flat skirts:
    
    • Africa Savannah
      
    • Antarctica Tundra
      
    • Asia Tropical
      
    • Europe Tundra
      
    • North America Savannah
      
    • North America Temperate
      
    • Oceania Tropical
      
  • Path added to Temperate Europe Sculpted map entrance
    
  • Loans are now available in Sandbox mode
    
• Guests
  • Enabled moving tour guests onto staff paths during their tour
    
  • Added feedback for inaccessible Tour Points in tours
    
• Habitats
  • Fixed habitat shelter heatmap not displaying correctly
    
  • Fixed incorrect animal accessibility message on climbing frames
    
  • Fixed habitat object accessibility considering irrelevant animals' accessibility
    
  • Improved habitat object accessibility algorithm
    
  • Fixed an issue where terrain around a burrow interior could be edited
    
  • Removed possibility to place burrows in lakes
    
• Localization
  • Added localized string informing players when Tour Points are inaccessible
    
  • Fixed a spelling mistake in the Red Barn River timed scenario description
    
• Scenario
  • Foliage removed from beneath terrain in Pumamarca Educational Reserve
• Scenery
  • Fixed some glass construction assets to allow guests to see animals through them
  • Added Temperate biome to Emu's infoboard
    
  • Adjusted specular response of the Buffalo Dry Grass
    
  • Adjusted colour variants on the Buffalo Dry Grass, Blue Stem Dry Grass and Red Oat Dry Grass.
    
• Staff
  • Fixed tour guide gliding away from the Tour Point at the end of a tour
• UI
  • The UI flow for creating and naming tours has been simplified
    
• Crashes
  • Fixed a crash when placing a quarantine building
    
  • Fixed a crash when placing a staff building
    
  • Fixed a crash when placing a habitat gate
    
  • Fixed a rare crash when getting a welfare notification for Butterflies
    
  • Fixed a rare crash when Butterflies attempted to land on guests
    
  • Fixed a crash when species did not have a listed food grade in their habitat
    

Hayo Zookeepers!

Update 1.12.2 is now available for download. Just update your game before you play! This update contains various bug fixes - you can read more below:

Planet Zoo - 1.12.2 Update Notes

This update contains bug fixes

General Bug Fixes and Improvements

• Animals
  • Nine-Banded Armadillo adult male and female will now interact with the Natural Termite Mound 
• Game Modes
  • Fixed an issue where updating the terrain in diorama mode would cover paths, changed to match all over terrain tools
• Guests
  • Fixed an issue where tour guests wouldn't use the bins they passed while following a presenter 
• Scenery
  • Added localisation for the Education sub category under Facilities in the browser
• UI
  • Fixed an issue with the 'Facility Inaccessible' notification coming up for tour spots 
  • Fixed an issue with animal navigation heatmaps not updating after switching to a different animal 
• Crashes
  • Fixed a crash that could occur when assigning a vendor to a single shop 
  • Fixed a crash that could occur sometimes after multiple butterfly births in the same frame push the population over the exhibit limit 
  • Fixed a crash that could happen if a butterfly dies while landing on a guest 
  • Fixed a rare crash that could happen when manipulating tour spots in the tour manager 

Known Issues

• If you have a save with over 95 butterflies in a single exhibit that crashed due to the exhibit limit, clearing these out below the limit should now avoid this crash