Zoo Tycoon Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection

Sloth and sun bears were added as dlc previously.

 

Ahhh right thanks for that!

 

Also just seen the tapirs and there is two in such a tiny exhibit that they just walk around in circles. I'm so dissapointed that they are a mini exhibits.

 

Actually, sloth bears were DLC in the original game.

 

Just a few questions:

Can this game really be bought/played on Windows 10? I've only seen it on Xbox?

I've seen the species list for ZTUAC and could not find lions, tigers, elephants etc. Are these not available in this game?

Can animals still no longer breed once they reach Level 15 (release)?

Are there colour variations (melanistic jaguars etc.) as in the original released on Xbox?

Can animals in a mini exhibit (apparently most of the species) still no longer breed?

Are there still animal limits Eg. 8 for a large exhibit, 2-3 for a mini exhibit?

 

In short
Yes
Yes
Not sure
Yes
Yes

 

Sorry @Charlie Simmomds, do your five answers to the six questions relate to the first 5/6 questions or the last 5/6 questions?

 

The ones you said in the exact sport I replied to

 

My mistake, I assumed "In Short" was a heading, not an answer. Not that I doubt your ability to use a colon :

Could you just elaborate on your response to it working on Windows 10, are there any limitations etc. to it working as expected?

 

That I'm not sure of my apologises

 

That's okay, does anyone else have experience of playing this on Windows 10?

 

I'm honestly so mad that there's nine different species of agouti (an animal I once called 'the most filler zoo animal of all' to a friend, sorry agouti fans), in place of like...gorillas, zebra, penguins, etc.
Like, I get the need to represent lesser known species. But I personally would rather have as many ABC species as possible if it meant sacrificing the smaller exhibits (and no, Microsoft, nine different lions don't each count as a species).
In my mind, what defines a zoo tycoon game is the ability to make an exhibit for a pride of lions and then unleash maned fury on your guests, which you can't even do here. This game is a zoo simulator by Microsoft, but it's not Zoo Tycoon.
I like the concept of mini exhibits (but tapirs? really??), but the poor design of them and the mini exhibits, the lack of design control, the abysmal original cast of animals, and the enormous middle finger that was this expansion pack all come together to make this game hot garbage.

And the worst part? I'm going to buy it. Because Microsoft owns my soul and I've been starved of a good zoo simulator for so long. And they're going to bring out another expansion in the next few years after people start to hate this one, and I'll buy that crap too.

 

How about a zoo game where the number of animals is directly proportional to the size of animal clades in the real world?

 

I agree, I like the idea of a couple of sub species of each animal but not 9 types of lion. African lion, Sumatran Tiger, Siberian Tiger, Jaguar, African Leopad, Sri Lankan Leopard, Snow Leopard and Puma would be better.

I always like to see the sub species I've seen in my local zoos, but not to the extent where it's the be all and end all of game play.

I also don't like how you can't breed an animal that lives in a mini-exhibit. In my ZT/ZT2 zoos, the only animals not breeding are those destined for phase out.

 

I'm not sure many people would buy a game with 8 large cat species, but 1,000,000 insects...

 

Why not?

 

People aren't interested in inverts, or in having taxonomic diversity in zoos. Zoo Tycoon buyers want the ABCs and some wacky looking things that they've not seen. Whilst I know that Zoo Tycoon 2 catered for mods to give people the freedom to do whatever they wanted, it didn't include place-able small inverts (the invert and marine houses / standalones being exceptions). So if the 1,000,000 insect species were actually put into the game, they would largely be completely unused. This is to say nothing of the game dev time required to actually build that many different insects and code them individually.

Even if this was dropped to a 'realistic' 100 insect species in the evenly proportioned zoo, there would then only be 1 bird species and a couple of fish. Maybe a single mouse species.

I know this is puritanical, but it's also thinking about where to draw the line. I'm all for increased diversity in zoo sims (heck and in games in general), but I just don't see it happening. I don't think any player actually benefits from having nine agoutis or lions, especially when they are reskins with no thought put into their diverse ecology.

 

Well, the world of inverts has no trouble providing that

 

Yeah, when I heard that the XBox One version came with 101 animal species as base, I thought "Oh, that sounds promising". Was disappointed to see that much of the list consisted of several variations of the same species that don't even really offer any gameplay differences. Looking at the animal list on the wikia, all tiger subspecies with exception of the Siberian tiger have tropical rainforest habitats. Maaaaybe you could justify keeping the South China tiger for geographic diversity, like if you had Chinese wildlife themed challenges or there are Chinese themed decorations/buildings and players might want to make China-themed areas, but that's about as far as I'll go. There's no purpose to have all of those animal variations except to advertise how many animals you have. Shoot, even Pokemon doesn't count alternate versions as separate Pokemon, and many of those actually have significant gameplay differences.

In defense of ZT2, the lack of small animals may have had more to do with graphics limitations. Even on the highest setting, you wouldn't be able to see most insects, and even exhibits would have been difficult to do. Maybe if they decide to make another traditional ZT game (as opposed to the thing that came out on XBox) they'll add more insect stuff.

Regarding species diversity, this is where the use of expansion packs is beneficial. I play Sims 3 on and off and there are eleven expansion packs and nine stuff packs, (which just give items and don't really add new gameplay stuff) not to mention a TON of extra stuff (clothes, furniture, neighborhoods, etc.) that you can buy from the download site. If the base game tried to include all of that stuff, it would take forever to make, it would be super expensive, and not many computers would be able to run it. But with the expansion packs and whatnot, the player gets the ability to choose what's important to them. I get the Supernatural pack because I love fantasy, the Pets one because I love animals, but I skip out on the university and future themed ones because I wouldn't use them much. It would be cool to see a zoo game go to that extreme. Someone who wants insects or other small animals could buy a pack that offers them.

 

Hey guys. How about a zoo tycoon game that focuses exclusively on arthropods? I know it wouldn't be terribly popular, but how would it work?