Big Things Have Small Beginnings

[YoungerPrinceLothric]

A screenshot tour of one of my newest zoos — VERY much a work in progress and much will change as time goes on! Some of what you see in this post will have changed by the time I get back to the game.

Let's get a few overhead shots in:

And some obligatory close-ups, guest attractions and animals.

^ Entrance with a bridge overlooking the water, flanked by shops, a farmer's market, winter-themed emergency medical service (guest-only, but there is an animal hospital nearby), and snow forest resting area for recovering patients. The road (which I will not pretend looks 100% accurate to real life lmao) can take more seriously injured guests to the hospital complex for advanced treatment. Behind the farmer's market we can see Zarawatto's Gigantoraptors enjoying themselves.

^ Close-up of said Gigantoraptors, still in 'baby' stage, not fully developed.

^ alternate view of the EMS, road, and 'sauna.' Located behind the EMS we can see the 'Wild Arctic' where guests can learn about various arctic wildlife.

^ Beside the road we have Borsato's Red-Crowned Cranes and Hawkkeye's Snow Geese! They get along famously together.

^ Here's a closeup of a mixed smorgasbord of ungulates: Hawkkeye's Highland Cattle, North County Mule Sheep, Balkan Donkeys, and Exmoor Ponies. They were quite the challenge to make happy but worth it! (because I started them off with an entirely snowy exhibit and wrongfully assumed they would be okay with scenery objects that weren't programmed for animals. lol.)

^ another angle 

^ Close-up of the guest 'picnic' area, with nearby Nanuqsaurus exhibit and back view of the crane/snow goose viewing area (I borrowed the design from user Reuben but tweaked it to my own liking).

^ Zarawatto's Nanuqsaurusup close, still in 'baby' stage, not fully developed. 

^ Close-up of one of my personal favorites - the 'Pleistocene Ungulate Exhibit.' In here are Hawkkeye's Steppe Bison, Tarpan, and Borsato's Irish Elk. I have no idea if these animals would have roamed Scandinavian countries while they were alive but I couldn't resist putting one of RDingFT's ported AOE2 buildings as a scenery backdrop. It's called the 'Viking Borgund Stave Church' and looks absolutely breathtaking in amongst the snowy pines, chopped wood and dead foliage. 

^ enclosed within the exhibit guests are welcome to explore the various hatcheries: bird, fish, and dinosaur located in one area. 

^ the 'Martian Crash Site' area, which I designed to make it appear as though a ship crash landed into the zoo, and afterwards the higher zoo management decided to profit off of the derelict parts. This area needs serious revamping and I honestly cannot wait to trash it because I hate looking at it lol.

^ Hot dogs and nachos in between the hot air balloon thrill rides, because I'm a terrible compassionless person

^ Close-up of the Crane/snow goose viewing area. Reuben is one of my biggest inspirations when it comes to utilizing set pieces and I only just now realized there's a zookeeper walking up on the wall.

^ Close-up of the veterinary hospital, memorial maze, and church garden/animal cemetary. Behind the churches and memorial pavilion, Hawkkye's Regaliceratops and Borsato's Pachycephalosaurs can be seen

^ Close-up of the cemetery

^ Close-up of the -baby- Regaliceratops and Pachycephalosaurs. According to Hawkkeye's compatibility guide, the Blue Fang in-game Styracosaurus is supposed to go along with them, but mine does not - I'm guessing this has something to do with the Combined Realism Hack by VNDragon that overhauls biomes, foliage, and dinosaur textures among other things. For the time being, I cannot add it into the exhibit with the others.

^ Close-up of the farmer's market, with the greenhouse peeking alongside 

 

^ This area, also inspired by Reuben and connected to the Highland Ungulate Exhibit, was perhaps the most challenging that I was trying to recreate. I didn't want to outright copy him, and I wanted to challenge myself by not only experimenting with elevation but use more snow/arctic/tundra-themed pieces. This worked out for the most part, but the upper section still looks too bland and condensed in my eyes and one day I'd like to substitute the brown brick pieces with something more blue in color. It is well past time for me to learn how to use photoshop and make my own mods, and I look forward to experimenting. 

I will most likely be transforming this area to look as much like a ski lift as the game engine allows me to make it. Until then, thanks for taking the time to view this thread! I still have so, so much more space to fill and I hope you're as excited to see the results as I am!

My wrist is killing me and I need to go to bed lol.

Edit: I started this zoo on September 7th. I've been chipping away at it since then, just to clarify. None of this was created in one single sitting I promise lol.

[Goosifer]

48 minutes ago, YoungerPrinceLothric said:

^ Hot dogs and nachos in between the hot air balloon thrill rides, because I'm a terrible compassionless person

If only there were a Chipotle mod lol

 

I love the humor! The density in your zoo is great. It feels like a lively little tourist town. What size map are you using?

[YoungerPrinceLothric]

at the moment I am away from my desk but I believe it's one of the large 'basic grass maps'

[pukkie]

These are some serious zoobuilding skills  YoungePrinceLothric

Outstanding! And I am a huge fan of your memorial maze!

 

I like the enormous variety of animals you use

I do tend to stick to ingame animals with only  a couple of user made animals

Not at all an adventurouse moose

[Truly_happy]

Love it!

[fountain]

You've used some animal I planned in a zoo and now I have a better idea of how the prehistoric birds will look. The great RDFT walls with the small hot houses on top and modern birds and new barnyard styles.

    Great looking and animals zoo.

 

[YoungerPrinceLothric]

Today, we have some shots of the marine show area. Following Z.Z.'s Marine Show Complex Tutorial, I have created an area right next to the 'Meteor Crash Site' where guests can watch the (vanilla) Orcas, Great White Sharks, Sea Lions, Sea Otters, and Bottlenose Dolphins perform in shows. The Shows themselves are set to "Frequent" and will cycle through each animal, one after the other. I have placed various restaurants around the grandstands as well as food cart stands so guests can grab a snack for the performances. Behind the grandstands are various marine-centric giftshops, bathroom stalls, and carnival games for added fun. There is also a circus.

Here's the link to Z.Z.'s post:

^ Here, in front of the Meteor Crash Site we have Hawkkeye's Barbary Lions. They behave well and are steadily building a pride to rival the zoo's ungulate herds. At the time of writing this, there are 25.

^ Another angle of the circus, with indoor swim clubs on both sides. 

[YoungerPrinceLothric]

I spent the better part of this evening working on this exhibit and I'm proud to finally show it off: This is an African ungulate exhibit featuring Hawkkeye's Angolan Giraffe, his Common Eland, and Khaydar's White Rhinoceros.

Ignoring the fact that the Genghis Khan Mongol hut from RDingFT would ideally be in an Asian exhibit, I'm extremely happy with how this came out. When I remembered that Catfish and Coeur de lion made those shelter annexes, I knew I had to use them for one of Hawkkeye's giraffes. At the time of posting this, guests have not traversed into the area yet and used the annex but I know they'll be heading over there soon. Using a variety of neutral RDingFT and Genki statue and foliage, pieces, I created a lush sanctuary for the ungulates to live in and they're very content. They get along with each other famously and gave me no issues whatsoever.

[(Designer)Z.Z.]

Those are beautiful exhibits Lothric :)

[YoungerPrinceLothric]

Today we are featuring a Coniferous wildlife exhibit that showcases Hawkkeye's Lac La Croix Ponies, Stellar's Jays, Black-Tailed Deer, and Elk. Screenshots are shown from each angle, with foliage hidden at the end. The animals are housed altogether in an aviary to keep the birds from flying away.

^ the Steller's Jay are very small and easy to miss but everyone gets along famously! The black-tailed deer have already given birth to two extra fawns since drafting this entry!

^ What you're seeing here is a visual glitch that thankfully doesn't affect anything mechanically.

 

The following screenshots show a mountainous region beside the Coniferous wildlife exhibit that feature a 'hotel' and 'staff & service' for guests who want a more pampered experience. Inspired by Zoo Tek Phoenix user Professor Paul and his dynamic style of zoo layouts, I didn't want to outright copy him but instead put my own twist on the location. Genki's mods - namely her rock wall pieces and "Egypt Megapack" statues in particular steal the show. I wanted the rock walls, with their eyecatching bore holes, to look as though water was spilling out of them from built up pressure 'behind' them. Below them is a blossoming apricot foxglove 'garden' at the very edge of the waters, courtesy of Tek user Brandi. A souvenir shop waits below for guests who want to take a piece of the zoo home with them.