Victorian style shelters.

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

I'm using this idea a lot at the moment , we have some amazing shelters for animals but if you want something a bit more bespoke this is a good way as any. In the best traditions of the cook books which litter my kitchen you will need

 

1.Animal shelters, the small elephant shelter is used here, although almost any shelter can be used. You mainly use these to get the roof effect, so shelters that fit closely together look the best.

 

2. Genki's build your own castle pack, you will only be using the walls unless you want to go a bit more baroque than I did.

 

3. Toodlepop's Panda Research Centre; You will only need the shelter door.

 

4. Suitable arch or other ornamental feature. This is optional, but must be neutral, animals dont like the observation areas inside exhibits, for example.

 

5. The invisible Fence

 

6. Genki's Brick Fences

 

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

Method.

 

First place your animal shelters so the roofs line up, to get the effect of one solid roof.

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

Then surround them with a castle wall to give the effect of one building. You can tell if you have placed them close enough (this is important, as otherwise you won't get the effects you want) because as you run the castle wall along the shelter you should be able to see the doors & windows of the shelter as you place the wall.

 

Then , as a guide, use one of the in game walls (the tall concrete wall works best) along the side of the building you want to face into your exhibit. When you have done that, use the concrete wall to guide you in placing the invisble wall in it's place. You should then get something that looks like this

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

Next, take the large glass walls that come with dino digs, or Genki's brick & glass wall, which to me looks better. Place those where you want the windows. Be careful, however, as you want to replace the sections of the invisible fence where you want the windows. You can do this when you put the concrete wall in as a guide, putting the "window" where you want it then, but I've been doing it this way because I've been making these shelters in big batches for my zoos & I found it quicker this way.

 

You should now have this sort of thing.

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

Now you need the shelter door, and if you want to, your ornamental feature. Ive used the rainforest arch here, but as long as the shelter door will fit snugly against it you can use any neutral feature that animals wont are about. I've also used some of Rdingft's brick piers from his central park scenery & have also set the doors into his rock cliff's. Or if you want to keep it simple you can place the door against the wall directly.

 

One word of warning, I tried using the observation areas combined with fences to make shelter entrances, the animals dont like them. Most animals that like a shelter will accept Toodlepop's door, although they look a bit odd placed for giraffes & elephants. We really need a larger version of the door for those.

However, you should now have this set up. The shelter door should go over the opening to the arch in this case.

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

Lastly , the windows. Now over the last week or so I've been struggling with the fact that it looks like the windows have just been bricked up. Not the effect I wanted, but if you take the castle wall away you can see the original shelter, which ruins the effect. Then I had a brainwave. You want to hide the shelter but you want the window to look like a window.

 

So very carefully (and again you can do this when you place the castle walls if you wish) take a suitably sized section of waterfall fence and place it behind your " window" . The "window frame" hides the foam at the bottom and gives the effect of a window lit from within; so basically the waterfall fence replaces the castle wall behind each window.

 

Here's the finished object.

[(Professor Emeritus)Professor Paul]

Here are some examples from my current zoo to show you what they look like in the game

[Firehawke]

Thanks for the great tutorial!

[ARIZNANA]

WOW ! PAUL , THAT IS REALLY NEAT .

 

THANKS FOR THE TUTORIAL .

[(Admin)Cricket]

Paul, I love this tutorial! I will surely have to try these techniques :) :254: