ZT1 vs. ZT2

[Guest RedRamage]

Howdy folks, I recently came across a copy of Zoo Tycoon in my local library and really enjoyed it. I ended up buy a copy of it. I enjoy play it... kinda like a sim city with animals! :)

 

Anyway, I see there is a Zoo Tycoon 2...yeah, I'm a little behind the times! :) So, what's the advantages of ZT2 over ZT1? One of the things I'm enjoying in ZT1 is adding in user created animals. I'm a bit of a Big and Little Cat person and have enjoyed adding all the big and medium cats (Lion, Tiger, Leopard, Jaguar, Mountain Lion, Snow Leopard, Clouded Leopard, Cheetah). But whats cool is all the small animals that other users have created.

 

It doesn't seem like ZT2 has quite as large a group of animals (not just cats, but all animals), nor does it seem like there are as many user created animals. Is this true?

 

If so, what benefits does ZT2 have to off set the lack of animals?

[(Trustee)genkicoll]

Have you tried ZT2? You can download a demo at the official site - http://www.zootycoon.com

 

ZT2 is really a completely different game with the same concept. I'll let others chime in a bit before I go into specifics. Welcome to the site!

[Boris Aardvark]

Graphics my friend graphics way better in two their 3d.

[Guest zoomeister]

Have you ever wanted to visit that zoo you just created? Have you ever wanted to know what it was like to scoop that poop or else play vet or feed and water the animals? In ZT2, you get to go inside your zoo and wander around in first person, enter exhibits and take pictures of it all.

[Guest RedRamage]

Have you ever wanted to visit that zoo you just created? Have you ever wanted to know what it was like to scoop that poop or else play vet or feed and water the animals? In ZT2, you get to go inside your zoo and wander around in first person, enter exhibits and take pictures of it all.

I've played around a bit in ZT2 now... I do like the improved graphics, and I love the first person perspective. But it also seems a bit more complex in a lot of areas.

 

Modifying terrain seems extremely less precise and with the little playing I did I can't seem to find a way to get a level surface on a raised level.

 

It also seems a little harder to figure out what the animals need to improve happiness. Buy maybe that's just getting used to a new way of doing things.

 

So far I've been mostly been doing freeform stuff. I like having to try to balance finances with building the zoo of my dreams. But in ZT2 the freeform say that I have unlimited budget.

 

Finally, the zoo area seems relatively small over all. ZT1's free form zoos seem MUCH bigger than in ZT2.

[Guest zoomeister]

I've played around a bit in ZT2 now... I do like the improved graphics, and I love the first person perspective. But it also seems a bit more complex in a lot of areas.

 

Modifying terrain seems extremely less precise and with the little playing I did I can't seem to find a way to get a level surface on a raised level.

 

It also seems a little harder to figure out what the animals need to improve happiness. Buy maybe that's just getting used to a new way of doing things.

 

So far I've been mostly been doing freeform stuff. I like having to try to balance finances with building the zoo of my dreams. But in ZT2 the freeform say that I have unlimited budget.

 

Finally, the zoo area seems relatively small over all. ZT1's free form zoos seem MUCH bigger than in ZT2.

 

As far as terrain tools go, you can play with them and level out to make cliffs and stuff or you can round them off to make hills, depends on which tool you pick and what you want to do with it. As for being imprecise, yeah I think they did that to make the terrain more natural looking.

 

As for animal happiness.... look at each animal and see if you have their needs met. They have basic needs as well as advanced needs. The more needs you meet, the greater their happiness. If a need has a green cast to it, or is neutral their need is met or exceeded. If it has a red cast to it, it means that they are unhappy and you need to work on that area. No longer do you just need to make sure they have the right terrain, rocks and foilage.... you also have to address advanced needs like health and cleanliness, stimulation and social. Start with the biome brush and add trees, flowers and bushes and rocks as you please. It's more about making a natural looking exhibit than you need X number of foilage and X number of rocks for animal happiness. Then make sure the animal has food, water if it desires it and shelter. Then you can add stimulation items like salt licks, rattle balls, pursuit balls, dummy prey etc. later when you can afford it and as you research it.

 

When you're talking about size of zoo's.... hmmm, I've never thought about it, just played 'em. I'm not into counting grid squares to see if they match up from version to version or not. I played one of the large challenge zoos (the big map as far as I can tell) and I got gifted with a whale shark when I completed a challenge. After researching whale sharks, which said that after five years they get huge, I went with a humongous sized tank. Large enough that I have seven full sized whale sharks now and numerous immature ones in the same tank and still have room for more. There was still enough space in my zoo for three other tanks and a show tank, seventeen huge land exhibits, a jeep tour, a sky-tram tour, several elevated walkways and entertainment/refreshment areas galore. Not to mention the pathways and statues and stuff and stuff and stuff that goes into a zoo.

 

If you want limitations on things, try a challenge or campaign zoo. In most of those, you are limited as to resources, size and animals available. Depends on what and where you want to start. Also, unless you have a freeform unlock, most of your unlockable items won't be available to you to use.

[Guest ShenTirag]

The zoo map areas are "smaller" than the ZT1 maps primarily because ZT2 is in 3D and has to cater for a wide range of PCs. Having too large a map makes it difficult to cap numbers of models and AI packages the game is running which would seriously choke non-high end PCs. A lot of people with lower end PCs find it difficult to run the game on high graphics even with these comparatively smaller maps than ZT1, when they are brimming with animals and guests!

 

There are 30 animals in ZT2, which isn't too many less than in ZT1, and several expansions now. There are a large (and ever increasing) amount of user made animals for ZT2...except most of them were hosted at poor suffering Zoo Admin, which is currently having server problems. There are a few at Zoo Mania and other smaller sites though, as well as some here at Tek.

 

Animals are a lot less fussy and that really lets people be a lot more creative with their zoos, with wonderful mixed exhibit and landscaping opportunities!

[Guest RedRamage]

I guess I'll have to pull out my ZT2 disks again and see if I can get into it a little more...

 

I think I'll need to practice a lot more on terrain though to see if I can get it working for me enough. Here's why I want to be able to do this. I started messing around in ZT1 with making a large Lion exhibit. Then I thought would be really cool is if there was a way for the guest to actually "get into" the exhibit to see around easily. So in my large rectangle I put in a path with the concrete and plexiglass walls. Then when I was making the Mountain Lion exhibit, following the same plan as the Lions exhibit I accidentally raised up the walk-in area a little higher than the hills around it... and I thought it made a lot of sense. Suddenly all my exhibit walk in areas started getting raised up a little bit. Now the guest can "get into" the exhibit rather than just look from the outside. And all the platforms are slightly raised to make it easier to see around the exhibit.

 

I doubt this has any real impact in terms of guest happiness in the game itself, but I think it looks cool and it is something that I, as a guest, would find really cool to experience.

 

However, I'm not sure that something like this is even possible given ZT2 far less precise terrain tools. Granted, this is only one aspect, but for me, any big exhibit I do will have this feature from now on, so it's kinda important for me.

[Guest Hughesy]

u siad there is not mich content around... there is you can get alot of extinct ones at zootycoon volcano and when zoo admin comes back there is alo alot alot of downloads there

[Guest zoomeister]

Now the guest can "get into" the exhibit rather than just look from the outside. And all the platforms are slightly raised to make it easier to see around the exhibit.

 

Actually, in ZT2 there are three ways that a guest can view the exhibit from closer up than just from the border.

 

1) SkyTram - an above ground automated conveyance that will take your guest over the top of your exhibits.

 

2) Jeep Vehicle Tours - an on ground tour where guests ride in Jeep vehicles along pre-laid routes through your zoo to view animals and objects.

 

3) Elevated Pathways - Pathways made of stone or wood that allow the guest to walk above an exhibit thereby getting even closer to the animals than just following a pathway around the perimeter.