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Create your own roster
Topic Started: Apr 22 2018, 12:19 AM (919 Views)
Sahara
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I decided to make up my own roster of animals for the zoo building game I've always wanted but never got. Why? Well, for one, I was really bored today, and two...... Yeah that's pretty much it. This is what I do in my free time, people.

I decided that a healthy roster of animals in a game today would range between 35-45 animals. If anyone here has a different take on what would be a more reasonable number, please go ahead and share. That brings me to the main point, I'm interested in seeing what animals you guys would prioritize on your lists. Here's mine with 45 animals. Feel free to share your own (if you want to).

Spoiler: click to toggle


Also feel free to use the alphabetizer for your lists: https://alphabetizer.flap.tv/
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tknoff87
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Interesting topic, your list actually shows that the game designers did a pretty good job at selecting the animals in the original game. Other than a couple of species swaps (emperor for king penguin, mountain for lowland gorilla) you only got rid of 2 of the original animals (the beaver and the ibex). I think a "perfect" animal list might include these factors which could potentially compete with each other. Some of this comes from thinking of the list not only from a zoo/realism perspective but also from a game perspective.

1. What animals do people expect in a zoo game (Lions, Tigers, Elephants, Giraffes etc...)
2. Animals from each continent / in game biome, enough so that a multi unit exhibit or themed area could be built.
3. Giving players a surprise. Most people may expect a bear or a zebra but they might not expect a pangolin or tapir which would be interesting and then exciting, encouraging them to keep playing.
4. Animals that perform different roles. (Seals that could perform shows, pygmy goats that the guests could pet) allowing for a variation in play experience with each animal.
5. Not having too many animals that fill the same role (more than 1 antelope or cow).

All in all I think your list is pretty good I'd probably only make a few changes.

1. Change warthog for wild boar (no uniquely European mega-fauna on the list (I know wolf and moose, but they are also North American.)
2. Swap out Thomsen's Gazelle for Pygmy Goats (low level petting zoo animal)
3. Swap gemsbok for Capybara (additional South American animal, plus there is already the kudu which fills the antelope role.
4. Swap out the hyena for a Rhesus Macaque or Hunaman Langer (Hyena would just end up being a poor man's lion from the typical users perspective and monkeys would be a popular and expected zoo animal)
5. Swap the sloth (doesn't do much) for a California Sea Lion (could be used to performs tricks)

1 African Elephant
2 African Leopard
3 African Lion
4 Bengal Tiger
5 Bighorn Sheep
6 Blue Wildebeest
7 California Sea Lion
8 Cape Buffalo
9 Capybara
10 Cheetah
11 Chimpanzee
12 Dromedary Camel
13 Galapagos Tortoise
14 Giant Anteater
15 Giant Panda
16 Greater Flamingo
17 Greater Kudu
18 Grizzly Bear
19 Hippopotamus
20 Honey Badger
21 Indian Peafowl
22 Jaguar
23 King Penguin
24 Koala
25 Komodo Dragon
26 Lowland Gorilla
27 Malayan Tapir
28 Mandrill
29 Meerkat
30 Moose
31 Okapi
32 Orangutan
33 Ostrich
34 Plains Zebra
35 Polar Bear
36 Pygmy Goat
37 Red Kangaroo
38 Red Panda
39 Reticulated Giraffe
40 Ring-tailed Lemur
41 Rhesus Macaque
42 Saltwater Crocodile
43 Timber Wolf
44 White Rhinoceros
45 Wild Boar



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KoenZoo
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If I create a roster I always try to keep it balanced. And not only for the overal, but also per region/continent. With your roster I think it has too many large/special animals and not some smaller/more common species to make it more balanced.

For example I would do this:

Africa:
- Meerkat
- Porcupine
- African-spurred Tortoise
- Fennec Fox
- Serval
- Zebra
- Gazelle/Antelope
- Ostrich
- Lion
- Elephant

You can create this way a large savanne exhibit with some species and also some smaller exhibit at the sides and finally with the Lion and Elephant you have two species which visitors always like.
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Arrancon
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Here's my concept for a new Extinct Animals expansion. I'm going for 40 species: 10 from Paleozoic, 20 from Mesozoic, and 10 from Cenozoic. I went for a mix of obvious choices with some obscure ones tossed in, trying to represent various time periods and locations.

Paleozoic:

1. Arthropleura
2. Cameoceras
3. Dimetrodon
4. Dinogorgon
5. Dunkleosteus
6. Eryops
7. Isotelus (largest trilobite)
8. Lystrosaurus
9. Megalograptus
10. Stethacanthus

Mesozoic:

1. Plateosaurus
2. Staurikosaurus
3. Nothosaurus
4. Cymbospondylus
5. Arizonasaurus
6. Crylophosaurus
7. Stegosaurus
8. Archaeopteryx
9. Dicraeosaurus
10. Plesiosaurus
11. Kronosaurus
12. Gastonia
13. Psittacosaurus
14. Alxasaurus
15. Pteranodon
16. Platecarpus
17. Velociraptor
18. Lambeosaurus
19. Torosaurus
20. Tyrannosaurus

Cenozoic:

1. Ambulocetus
2. Daeodon
3. Kelenken
4. Chalicotherium
5. Dinofelis
6. Glyptodon
7. Megatherium
8. Elasomtherium
9. Wooly Mammoth
10. Dodo
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Guilmon
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Rob Schneider herp de derp, rated PG-13!

I'd start the base game with FIFTY animals!

Spoiler: click to toggle
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Sahara
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Revised version of my list, based on some of your suggestions.

Spoiler: click to toggle


1. I got rid of the moose, because I honestly feel like the only zoos that have them are within the native regions. I've never seen a moose in any zoo I've been to. It seems only North-American zoos have them. Could be wrong.

2. Agree with you on the sloth. I love sloths, but game-wise, it doesn't seem very flexible enclosure wise as it will almost always be up in a tree. Probably works better as a pre-built enclosure animal.

3. I gotta disagree with hyenas. I personally love them and most zoos I've been to have em', so I've gotta stick with it.

4. I actually considered Wild Boars for my initial list. Looking back, I just realized that there really weren't any european animals on the list, so I made space for at least one.

5. Aldabra tortoise are more common in zoos, so I switched the Galapagose Tortoise for it.

6. Added Sea Lions, Otters, and Porcupines for a little more diversity. Got rid of the gemsbok as well.

I honestly think a cool system could be one where you can switch out an animal on the roster for something similar. You could select an alternate 'skin' for an African Elephant and get an Asian Elephant. Or maybe a Bactrian camel instead of a dromedary and so on. That way you wouldn't have an issue of too many animals cluttering up the roster. You'd click on the icon of a tiger, and you'd get an alternate list that features different subspecies such as Bengal, Siberian, or Sumatran. Pretty much the same thing they did in ZTX except without having 12 different species of bear. I'd be okay with one or two alternates per animal. It be cool if you could unlock them through challenges or scenarios. (But knowing the industry today you'd probably just have to buy them). But anyways, here's a list of alternates I've come up with.

Spoiler: click to toggle

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Ztlabraptor211
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Your alternate skin idea is great. Roster spots wouldn't be wasted on having animals that are too similar but the slight changes in animal species could allow more variety for different playthroughs
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bunteriro
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I made a filter system for my game so if I have a limited number of animals I go through the different filters and pic which I want. I don´t use all the categories all the time or pic more than one animal of a category, that differs by the zoo I have in mind. And I try to pic animals from different sizes and continents.

So for example if I pic the african lion I wouldn´t take (in a small zoo) another (big) predator of africa (like leopard or african wild dog) but e. g. the eurasian wolf (europe/asia), the spectacled bear (south america) and the australian sea lion (australia) to fill the spots for canids, beer and seals. And to spice up the asian and north american collection I can add smaller predators like the red panda or clouded leopard and the bobcat or raccoon. In a super small zoo I would only take one or two big predators, e. g. with a grizzly for bears/north america there could be the caracal for cats/africa and the raccoon dog for canids/asia.

As I told I use this for building a zoo but I think it could be also helpful to get a well rounded roster for a zoo game.

My filters/categories are:
Spoiler: click to toggle
Edited by bunteriro, Apr 23 2018, 04:01 AM.
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Guilmon
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Rob Schneider herp de derp, rated PG-13!

Great job Sahara. I'd like to give you some suggestions, though. You could also have the American alligator as an alternative to the saltwater Crocodile. A lot of the zoos I remember going to have American alligators. They're pretty common, at least here in the Northeast.

Also, you could use either Species of black bear (American or Asiatic) as an alternative to the grizzly.

I'll edit this post if I come up with more ideas.
Edited by Guilmon, Apr 23 2018, 07:21 AM.
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Zoo Tycooner FR
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#Lithopédion

Sahara
Apr 22 2018, 05:11 PM
1. I got rid of the moose, because I honestly feel like the only zoos that have them are within the native regions. I've never seen a moose in any zoo I've been to. It seems only North-American zoos have them. Could be wrong.
Actually, even though only a dozen of collections keep moose in North America (barring rescue centres and some zoos exhibiting only local species), there are more than 100 holders of Eurasian moose just in Europe (and one holder of American moose as well being Obterre in France + a few holders of Amur moose in Russia).

Now you could argue American and Eurasian moose are different species, but then you could include Eurasian moose for more diversity when it comes to Eurasian mammals (and since it is common in captivity). I personally wouldn't and to be honest a roster is very hard to make, most of the time they are very mammal-centric but I want some diversity so my roster would include rodents, birds, herps and even invertebrates which are often over-looked even though some species are very common in captivity.
Edited by Zoo Tycooner FR, Apr 23 2018, 08:56 AM.
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magpiealamode
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No good hero is a one-trick phony.

If I'm correct it also would depend on region... Australian and French zoos, for example, are probably going to have very different collections. A lot of well-known "zoo staples" aren't actually found very often outside their range, such as Bengal tigers. The fact is I don't think I could ever make a roster because the world is so diverse that I could never decide.
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Sahara
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Quote:
 
I want some diversity so my roster would include rodents, birds, herps and even invertebrates which are often over-looked even though some species are very common in captivity.


I think the issue with animals that small is just how different designing an enclosure for them is than larger animals. Birds typically need to be kept in aviaries, which game-wise would require an entirely separate form of construction. Animating them would also be much more difficult, because of their three-dimensional movement. They would also need to be able to perch and fly from tree to tree. It wouldn't be impossible, but it would be more difficult. Hence why they would probably be demoted to mini-exhibits, same as smaller reptiles and rodents.

Quote:
 
If I'm correct it also would depend on region... Australian and French zoos, for example, are probably going to have very different collections. A lot of well-known "zoo staples" aren't actually found very often outside their range, such as Bengal tigers. The fact is I don't think I could ever make a roster because the world is so diverse that I could never decide.


While there is truth to this, I don't think Bengal Tigers are one of those animals. Every zoo I've been to has had Bengal Tigers, even the crappiest zoo in Jordan had a pair (unfortunately). I feel there are certain animals zoos strive to obtain, no matter what the case. But yes, region does have a huge impact. A zoo in Australia will mostly have Australian animals. The zoos I've been to in the Middle East have always had camels, oryxs, and desert foxes, but I don't expect a zoo in Russia to have the same.

But when it comes to animals like lions, tigers, and zebras, I feel like almost every zoo has or at least tries to have them. They're good for popularity. A zoo in the UAE got all the craze just when people found out it had elephants.
Edited by Sahara, Apr 23 2018, 12:48 PM.
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bunteriro
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Domestic camels and fennecs are staple animals in european zoos but not a single zoo in europe keeps bengal tigers. Most of the tigers here are siberian tigers because they can be kept much easier (can go out the whole year even in snowy winters).
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magpiealamode
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No good hero is a one-trick phony.

I don't think many or any zoos in America keep Bengals, either. It must be just Asian zoos.
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Furka
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Don't think there are many Bengals outside of Asia, most likely zoos naming their tigers Bengal because it sounds more appealing than calling them the mutts they are.
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