Planet Zoo is a construction and management simulation game where you put up your zoo from scratch. In your quest of establishing a zoo, you may encounter issues with overcrowding, especially among certain groups of animals. To address this issue, the developers introduced a new mechanic called Animal Sociality in Update 1.13, which is now available for free on Steam.
What Is It?
Animal Sociality is a new mechanic in Planet Zoo that aims to bring a more life-like approach to the introduction of new animals to your existing habitats. This feature institutes the following concepts: Outsiders, Bonded Animals, and Leaders.
A new animal is branded as an “Outsider” if their introduction exceeds the gender or population limits of a habitat. They can also be considered outsiders if these new animals have been rejected based on a set of new criteria called maturation type. These are the four different maturation types that you need to know:
- Gregarious: Matured offspring are accepted into the group regardless of their gender. Timber Wolves or Flamingoes are examples of a gregarious species.
- Matrilineal: Male offspring related to the habitat's alpha are becoming outsiders, while the female line is accepted to remain in the group. Plains Zebras or West African Lions are examples of a matrilineal species.
- Patrilineal: Female offspring related to the habitat's alpha are becoming outsiders, while the male line is accepted to remain in the group. Western Chimpanzees are examples of a patrilineal species.
- Solitary: Offspring of either gender are becoming outsiders while their parents are present in the habitat. Siberian Tigers or Grizzly Bears are examples of a solitary species.
Outsiders cannot partake in group dynamics, such as mating, playing, and social interaction. This measure was implemented as a means of reducing infighting among existing animals. However, an animal can form a bond with a group if it spends enough time together. Once the animal has integrated itself nicely, it will never fight the group’s alpha or its bonded partners.
It’s also worth noting that in some species, the alpha animal will lead and guide the group but does not claim exclusive mating rights. These leaders will be denoted by a crown icon next to their gender symbol instead of the alpha icon, giving you a clear picture of their social and reproductive status.
Patch Notes
- Climbing Asset toggle
- Any climbable scenery or nature object now comes with a toggle on its info panel to turn off the climbable functionality of the piece. This toggle is also available for grouped scenery or multi-selections of pieces, showing you the current status of all pieces (climbable, mixed, not climbable) and the option to change it for all objects at once
- In the animal traversable area heatmap, pieces whose climbing functionality has been turned off but would technically be traversable by your animals otherwise will highlight black instead of green.
- Multi-Axis Advanced Movement
- Advanced Movement tool now features connecting handles between all adjacent directional axes, grabbing and dragging the handles moves the object along both connected axes at the same time, allowing for much finer control when creating intricate buildings
Planet Zoo Update 1.13 is now available on PC.
