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| Is the Zoo Tycoon 2 Community Dead? | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 2 2018, 02:42 PM (2,818 Views) | |
| Makaio | Jun 24 2018, 03:36 PM Post #61 |
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I'm pretty sure that the administration adjusted the "Cutoff for Active Users List" setting in the ACP over the last few days. If I remember correctly, the cutoff used to be only 15 minutes. Now, I think it's 2 hours. It certainly looks busier, but it's mostly just because recently active users stay there longer than before. |
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| BossAggron | Jun 24 2018, 05:16 PM Post #62 |
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Formerly Dilophoraptor
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I guess it shows how many people actually appear during the day, but it doesn't really bring the scope of how active the site is at any one time. |
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| dycki1231 | Jun 25 2018, 10:08 AM Post #63 |
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✓sufficient time to browse the forum ✘inadequate time to play zt2 |
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| Kaiarra | Jun 30 2018, 04:52 PM Post #64 |
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Pretty much along the lines of how I feel. I'd like to take a shot at modding but after having an eyeball at Blender today, I've concluded that I would almost certainly need to do a considerable amount of online courses/tutorials to even begin to be able to work through that program. I suspected it was complicated, and my suspicions were confirmed; I can load the models and... that's about it. Sure, there's a tonne of tutorials around various forums but trying to find ones using the latest version of Blender and GIMP (rather than Photoshop) is an uphill struggle. I would probably have to go find tutorials outside the community and then come back to ZT2 after a lot of practise. At that stage I'm not sure if I would, when I could move into a more active modding community like Ark or Skyrim. Currently at best, I could make some variants of animals already modded into the game (aka only things you don't need Blender for). Quite frankly, that's already been done to death, so it's hard to feel especially inspired. I'll probably just play through the campaign again, then give it another 5 year break (maybe next time I come back the RR lion will finally be released ).I mean, I love the game but it's just too old, buggy and limited at this point. The more you mod it, the more things break. On top of that you have the whole 'not available on Steam/legit' thing that hinders it from gaining new players. Not really surprising the community is getting less active. Sadly the console reboot was awful (totally dumbed down because console) and Jurassic World Evolution isn't much better. I want a new game with the graphics of Zoo Tycoon (console) and the gameplay of ZT2, preferably released on steam (for the easy access modding) - I can dream right? I honestly don't even really care about amazing graphics, I just want something with a vaguely up to date game engine. Checked out Zoo Manager's discord/reddit and sadly that game looks dead before it even started - I'll be amazed if they ever put out (not a fan of their animal models, but I'd still take it at this stage). Edited by Kaiarra, Jul 1 2018, 03:51 AM.
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| Megraptor | Jul 2 2018, 05:20 PM Post #65 |
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Well... Zoo Manager is the only thing we have. There isn't any other zoo managing game being developed- unless people here want to band together and make one. The problem with Zoo Manager is that they need help making it. Perhaps dropping by and asking if you could help them out is better than just saying "this game looks awful". It just seems weird that people are nice to designers here, but don't mind being harsh with other games that perhaps they could help develop. At least, that's what I see on the Discord. I'm not a coder, developer or modeler- I'm not trained in it, and my interests have taken elsewhere in life, but some people may be able to either help them out or band together to make their own game. I just think that without talking to the community, it's hard to determine activity and plans for the game. At this point, I think that is what this community needs- a new Zoo game. There is a demand for it- people talk about missing ZT2 all the time. But ZT2 is old. And the community is a shadow of what it used to be. We can say it isn't dying and the community is active- that's true, but it's not going back to what it was in the olden days. There are new hardware and software that can handle a much more beautiful game, and such not many people are interested in an old game. Sure, there are people remaking models and skins of the animals (and maybe plants and objects...?), but it's one major team and a few people here and there- and it's been a nearly decade in the making. A new game would have a flood of new modders, especially if it's made accessible from the beginning. The community would be like ZT2 in the olden days- if not bigger due to how many people are now on the internet and Steam, and the game not being locked down by Microsoft. And really, ZT2 was handled horribly by Microsoft/Blue Fang. I get that they worked with what they have, but it wasn't built to last. I mean, Blue Fang is completely gone at this point, so there isn't any way we will ever get any official updates. I think opening up TRT to new zoo managing games may help it stay afloat for a bit, but without a new game, this forum will eventually just be a group of the dedicated old guard here until it shuts down. Edited by Megraptor, Jul 2 2018, 05:24 PM.
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| HENDRIX | Jul 2 2018, 06:04 PM Post #66 |
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-retired-
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Prehistoric Kingdom? Parkasaurus? Clearly some overlap with ZT2 at least. TBH, it's not like they are being ran over by new fans; sure, they have a solid following, but I think they are still fairly niche, relatively speaking. You can't just ignore the fact that there was a big biz pushing ZT2, and indie devs don't have that. On the other hand, I don't think JWE really has a long term appeal unless there are some significant upgrades. So how about 'we' make our own zoo game? You can easily count the people in the ZT2 community who would actually be good game developers on one hand, probably even if you lost a finger or two in an accident... And I'm not one of them. I tried, and failed. But I do have enough experience to tell you what will not work. Game developing needs programmers, good ones. I have programmed enough little tools and programs to know how time consuming development processes are, even on a small scale, and how much you can improve the result by pouring even more work into it. If you don't have a good team of semi-experienced programmers, your game project is stillborn. You can have as much awesome graphics as you want, but they won't do any good without a solid core. Realistically, I don't see a zoo game evolving out of the ZT2 community because there are virtually no programmers. It is just wishful thinking to assume coders will magically appear like mushrooms after the rain. Who do you want to recruit if there are no people with the right skills and nobody is willing to learn what it takes? |
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| Ecnd | Jul 2 2018, 08:08 PM Post #67 |
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Ecnd
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Due to the new comments and a radiant energy that I want to spend here I second opinion of the theme "Design ZooTycoon 2 complexity and other games" I will try to be brief, although knowing me I probably write a lot (I like to detail everything from A to Z and transferring to other writings X3) First of all, in the ZT2 design, I was testing the blender and I managed to make an acceptable model of a tegu from scratch, in the past I tried to make several models on many occasions (in 2013, and twice in 2014) without achieving more than one cylinder at 90 °, the new blender is very different from the old ones above all in terms of design, but in essence it is the same. The reasons why I think I could not do it in 2013-2014 and now yes, are two reasons; l The first is because the new design gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to making the models, before it depended a lot on the vertices of the cylinders that you made, also the aerial view was quite uncomfortable, thanks to the design of lines and a more easily displaced, I was enough with a couple of images and much visualization based on internet photographs to give more or less what I wanted. The Second would be my age, because when I tried to do it in 2013 I was thirteen and fourteen years old, I was also much more immature and I did not focus too much on small details, now with seventeen years of age I can understand. If there is something I learned from the ZT2 design, it is that you must follow the steps one by one and pay a lot of attention to the small details It's difficult ? Yes, it is very complicated to make models, in which I show in the project room after about 11 hours to finish, BUT, I am new designing, it is normal that I do not do it with an outstanding speed (Although I am sure that someone else did it in 5 hours xD) and I think that once I finish my first project, and have understood well what it is to design, I can make models in less time and higher quality Talent when it comes to doing something is not really important, because in reality you only do something that you like and then with dedication and experience you become good at it, that's what talent is about. Now talking about whether or not there is a good game of Zoos, I think the answer is quite obvious. Well, no game of Zoos or parks gives you as much freedom when designing as ZT2, and not only that, thanks to the moderators we now have a bestial freedom; The enormous amount of new realistic animals, the possibility of removing the border fences, the possibility of putting plants and objects anywhere, creating roof structures and modifying them to taste, no game has that freedom of design. Added to that this game although it is complicated to get legally (Download it illegally is quite easy), has the advantage of being an ambiguous 3D game, and adapt to outdated computers I am a low class person, I do not have the resources to give me a PC Gamer this year, and surely there are enough people like me, I personally do not play a game after 2015 with fullHD graphics, but if I'm doing quite well the ZT2 with mods, it is not very heavy and it gives me enough hours of entertainment. In summary, I have a game that does not weigh much compared to the amount of entertainment, that personally does not give me any expense, that thanks to the moderators I have hundreds of objects and animals to use, and even if it does not exist I can create them by my own account There are millions of people in the world, I think a game like this can rarely be seen, and if there are people who like animals and dedicate only a short period of time to the community, automatically increase their interest in the same Obviously the ZT2 community is not going to live forever, it is obvious, everything has an end but frankly, I think it depends a lot on the current people and not so much on other games as they think; Because at this point a gigantic company should give a lot of interest to a game of Zoos, which I stress that is not as attractive as a racing game or Shooter, give not only the current quality of the games nowadays, but also a freedom identical to the ZT2 with mods (Minimum 500 species and the same system as original ZT2) And even with all that, probably the game is incredibly heavy (40-50 Gb or more) and could not work on PCs other than gamers. And finally, find a new game, do not want to say that that's why people stopped playing the other, surely some would go, but even I think it would still be half. Also if a new game that does not meet the expectations of a user that same user can search similar games on the Internet, in fact the ZooTycoonXbox output was a failure, because it did not give you freedom almost nothing but choose the animal to put, the only novelty was the possibility of interacting "Directly" with the animal, I am sure that many people eventually discovered the community thanks to that (especially the youngest ones) In a second summary; A company should give interest to a community that does not have much popularity, spend millions of dollars in programming, modeling, animations and sound, make it the most updated and optimal for several PC 's consoles, and to compensate the costs to release it at a price elevated, which to top it off is not one of the tendencies of the people who play video games, so that it finds a "extinction of the community" in less than a year It is difficult to make a game superior to the current ZT2, for the resources of the people and for the fact that the mods were made with many hours of work of hundreds of different people, who decided that their work would have to make the person happy who wants it and not only to herself. Finally Mega congratulations to have read a quarter of that |
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| Iben | Jul 3 2018, 10:49 AM Post #68 |
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There'll be no foot-walking! Just air-flying!
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This. People underestimate what it's like to be a full-time developer in an actual development team. There's a massive difference between doing small scaled projects on your own or with a few people, and actual big software development projects like making a game. Working with a decent team is even more time-consuming, given that there's so much management that needs to be done as well, on top of things like code-reviews, sprint planning, etc. And tbh, as a developer, I honestly understand everyone who doesn't feel like programming anymore when they get home Seriously, this shit is tiring to do full-time, combining that with a home-made project is a guarantee for a burn-out.
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Seriously, this shit is tiring to do full-time, combining that with a home-made project is a guarantee for a burn-out.
