Zoo Tycoon Noticeable mistakes, errors, etc. on ZT1

The etc. includes things that are weird and would be disgraceful if they were at a zoo today.

The clouded leopard in the game is 3 times bigger than one in reality.

When you have the option to change the species in the Primate House, there is one option that says "Primates of Southeast Asia", but the picture shows a chimpanzee.

Along the side of the Primate House, there are two 5ft by 3ft tanks that holds a chimp and a gibbon.

In the Reptile House, the king cobra is 20 times bigger then a real one and the cape or whatever it is that circular thing is on their head is out of major proportion.

The emperor penguins walk I would say about 20mph.

The Komodo dragon is almost black and has a purple back.

The worst error of all, if you either build a big zoo or just play on a map for a long time, there will be a glitch that has a continuous .5 second pause that can't be stopped.

The belugas, manatees, and narwhals are a couple times bigger than real ones.

 

I haven't played the game for a long, long time but the 2 mistakes I remember vividly are no herd, pack, pride or troop structures, just pairs or even numbers of males & females. Also the mixing of black leopards with clouded leopards even though they're completely different species.
Just remembered that they classed white tigers and black leopards as endangered species. Looking back I can't understand why I loved the game so much when it was so unrealistic...

 

I wonder that everyday. I think it's because it is much more fun, it has many more attractions like arcades and mini golf. It has a rarer collection of species, it challenges you, like when you get a giant panda baby you feel like you accomplished a lot and it makes you feel good. I have bred 4 of them and it was a joy. My favorite feature is that there are 4 different animal houses. I forgot to add the strange gestation period for all the animals. Isn't it like after their done breeding? All ZT2 has is a safari Jeep and s sky-ride. A larger but less rarer collection of animals and the graphics are 1,000 times better but still, I would choose ZT1 over ZT2, though I would be still playing ZT2 if I didn't shatter the disc.

 

Never really played the second one, it looked too cartoony and child-like! I was fairly young when the first game was released and for a secret zoo geek it was like all my christmas's had come at once, I couldn't stand Dino Digs or whatever it was called as it ruined the actual reality aspect even though I now realise that even without dinosaurs its still damn unrealistic!

 

I agree, they should have never had created Dino Digs.

 

I prefer ZT1 without downloads, but when you start downloading things, ZT2 becomes a lot better.

 

What kind of animals can you download. I have a question about the installation process. Whenever I download the smaller version of it, it downloads with ease. But when I download the full version, it always stops at 77% and I have to restart. Do you know why it is doing this?

 

Basically any animal you have ever heard of, or haven't. There are great fences, hacks, and everything else. Check out Tesara, they have tons!

 

In my opinion, and this is only MY opinion, Zoo Tycoon 2 is much better than Zoo Tycoon 1 but it still has many faults.

ZT1 was the original and yes it is riddled with mistakes in terms of info, size (which is hard to do correctly with such small animals) and compatibility. Zoo Tycoon 2, I feel is far superior, but does still have slight problems e.g the biomes of certain animals, some sizes and yes the original animals do look very cartoony but the ones included with the expansions were much better and some user created animals are fantastic.

I just wish there was a ZT3 which there won't be because Blue Fang are now defunct. It would be great though if another gaming company brought out another game in the style of ZT2 but with all the little problems fixed. As with any game it is about improving on what has come before it and I think ZT2 did that.

Anyway having had this discussion I want to play ZT2 NOW!!!!

 

I feel that ZT1 as a base game without any user content is superior to ZT2, at least to me. I know that there are inaccuracies in the game, but generally, the animals are more realistic.

Also, the "unavoidable .5 second pause" never happens to me. You must be using a very low-end machine.

 

Hmm? Must be, but I played on a now 3 year-old DELL computer that has no issues what so ever. ZT1 just does that when I have either created a large zoo, or if I play for a long time.

 

I always like ZT2 better, but something I really hated was that you couldn't have any indoor exhibits.

For the reptile exhibits, you have a circular stand with 3 terrariums, one with turtles, one with a cobra, and one with a lizard. And for the Insectarium thing, there's one for stag beetles, one for a tarantula, and one for scorpions.

I wish there was some kind of expansion, to create indoor exhibits, and walk through them like the outdoor ones.

 

I know how to create indoor exhibits. Build a large elevated walkway as the roof, then built marine tanks around it.

 

You can download all kind of things to make buildings just look around. So many downloads including Radical Remake that is basically Zoo Tycoon 2 already.

 

Which are mistakes and which are errors?

 

On ZT2 the polar bear is under Low Risk but they are a vulnerable species. They included koalas in the Endangered Species Pack even though are not. The Zoopedia also says that the Bengal tiger is the largest cat species in the world.

 

Some irregularities...

A penguin in ZT1 will eat almost any herbivorous animal: a zebra, a moose, even a giraffe. As mentioned by @Moebelle, they skim along at high speed when in pursuit of these animals.

The Tyrannosaurus are sexist. A man in their exhibit will be swallowed whole, women and children will not.

White tigers (classed as a separate and endangered species) will not interbreed with other big cats, including the orange bengal tiger.

 

Harbor porpoise is Dall's porpoise

 

Neither the mandrills, red kangaroos, or the ostriches were sexually dimorphic... and for some reason, African elephants don’t swim while Asian elephants do.

 

Giant panda breeding:

The animals were pedantic regarding the terrain - requiring a certain percentage of particular substrates. As we all know, the exhibit would have it's suitability expressed as a percentage. One thing I found interesting is that in one game, a Giant panda pair in an exhibit with 96% suitability wouldn't breed for love nor money.

In a subsequent game, I rushed the exhibit and it was around 74% suitability. The pandas bred almost immediately. I intended to improve the exhibit, but in the spirit of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix', I left it how it was. The pair produced two more cubs in succession, almost as soon as the previous had matured.

While the percentage thing was unrealistic; the quality of an exhibit not always correlating with breeding success was very true to life.

Other obscurities:

Guests would stay in the zoo for ages. One guy stayed for 25 years.

While guests would flee in terror from big cats; giraffes and chimpanzees were apparently of no concern.

Chimpanzees would happily scale a chain link fence into the Grizzly bear exhibit (as a kid I thought instead of surrounding their exhibit with a moat; I'd try a guard bear).

When an animal ate another animal, it's hunger wasn't satisfied.

Offspring were born fully precocious and females showed zero maternal instinct.

Birth intervals were regulated by the male. A male could not breed with more than one female, and could not breed until his previous offspring had a matured; a female however, could breed within seconds of giving birth if a new mate was provided.