Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[King Zultan]

Oh damn two updates at once, we must have all been really good this year.

[SQman]

Good? This is supposed to be a punishment.

Anyway:

Spoiler: Al-Khalij Ep.3 - With no survivors! (click to show/hide)

Was there always a path behind the guest center? No, definitely not. But where does it lead?




Okay, that viewing area looks a little ghetto, I agree. Maybe it will look better with more stuff around, or maybe it will be remade in the future. I dunno —\_(ツ)_/—. But what about this enclosure?



It's the second vanilla animal in Al-Khalij, the Doedicurus (Doedicurus clavicaudatus). It's a glyptodont with a hard shell, as armadillos tend to have, and a spiked tail club for beating each other relentlessly.



I love those planter feeders. They come in three varieties - grass, ferns, horsetails. The Doedicurus looks extremely happy with them too.



Just like the Earth it stomps on, the Doedicurus is completely hollow. Not really, but it makes you think: did people back then use shells of glyptodonts as makeshift houses? I would if I was a South American caveman.



Look at this bugger running. It's like two tons in weight, yet it's prancing around like a graceful gazelle. Being imprisoned in a small enclosure in the middle of desert doesn't sound like something I would be so cheerful about. Let's not get too deep into this issue.



I dunno, I wanted to use those brick and wood fences in some way. The rocks are there because Doedicuruses are good at harvesting stone. Or was it flint? Nevermind.



But what is that which sprouted just behind us as we were appreciating the previous exhibit. It's a hole in the ground, but what's inside?



Creeping slowly through the undergrowth is the sworn enemy of all dwarves, the Japanese badger (Meles anakuma). The main difference between these and their mainland cousin is that they are more brown.



Badgers are mustelids, and as such they are borderline agoraphobic. They feel the best when they are underground or wedged where they don't belong, like under the giant fallen tree over here. They ambush their prey from their hideout, entering a state of rage when a humanoid being gets close. Fortunately my badger costume is convincing enough for me to safely get into the enclosure. It's NOT a fursuit.



Plants, given appropriate conditions, are excessively hard to kill. This tree survived being torn apart by badgers, and now has to serve as a shelter during the day when badgers normally sleep. That's despite the blazing heat of Sahara pouring from above, and soil that's likely way too sandy. For a moment there I wanted to praise Wildlife Park games for taking into account temperature and soil type,but then I remember those games are kinda crap.



Those people are way too excited to see badgers. Some of them are even clapping, for God's sake? Those must be American tourists, the kind that claps at the movie theater.



I've wanted to do a submerged enclosure for a while now, but I haven't rolled a suitable animal until now. They used to have an enclosure like that (but worse) for badgers in the local zoo, which served as a sort of inspiration for this one.



There's now an area for kids to play and let their parents rest for a while, watch badgers, eat a hotdog... I could go for a hotdog actually; the entire time I was quarantined I had cravings like that, yet now that I can go out freely I suddenly deny myself delicious fast food.
Enough about me; let's talk about the part of the mysterious new enclosure that's visible in the left part of the screenshot.



Haven't we had those dudes in Maple Bay? These guys seem a bit smaller than those though. That's because they are not striped hyenas at all, but aardwolves (Proteles cristata), the smallest species of hyena, entirely insectivorous. Even when presented with a carcass, an aardwolf will just lick off maggots and beetles before moving on to search for termites.

Before we take a closer look at the aardwolves, there's an important matter to attend:



Our kakapos became parents! This exotic looking nest is actually three nests clipping through each other. In reality kakapos lay eggs into holes in the ground, and don't build mounds like those; this is way too much work for a kakapo. These look like tiny flamingo nests, though I'm not an ornithologist.



Back to the current matters. The aardwolves seem to have a custom animation where they sleep on top of each other like this. It's kinda cute actually. Those critters live in pairs, sleeping in their burrows during the day, eating termites at night. They have pretty hard lives, but at least they have each other.



The Pteranodons start to piss me off. Probably because of the rocks they get bugged and either complain about the lack of space or they can't find their way to the land. I'll try to solve it peacefully for now, then we'll see what happens.



This, however, is not a problem at all. Kakapo breeding program is going great, so far having resulted in three chicks. Parrots usually hatch unfeathered and generally unable to fend for themselves, but these three hatched with adult plumage and ready to hump human heads.



Back to the aardwolves. I'm not exactly proud of this enclosure, but at least I've learned something about an obscure animal. Truth be told, I just didn't have much in terms of inspiration with this one.



That small clump of hair out there? That's a baby Scelidotherium. Newborn sloths are about that size, but I'm talking about the three-toed sloth, not a giant ground sloth. Oh well.



Wait, another one? Better believe it, 'cause I'm on fire baby! But... it's another weird one, isn't it?



Yes, it is a weird one, from the same pack as the aardwolf, in fact. This is the binturong (Arctictis binturong), a bizarre palm civet that looks like grandma. It is a slow omnivore that mostly eats bugs and figs.



A wretched existence, that of a binturong - while its cousins are agile predators or can shit expensive coffee, the binturong's most notable trait is that it smells like popcorn. Would you like to be known for only for your smell, and even that being a stretch?



They do be drinking. But wait, something is going on on the other side of the park!

...

And the game crashed. Damn. Forget about binturongs then.

[SQman]

Spoiler: Maple Bay Ep.5 - Oops, I Did It Again and Again and Again (click to show/hide)

While making this update my shitty fucking laptop turned off for no reason whatsoever. I hate this piece of junk so much you wouldn't believe.

Whatever, we're in Maple Bay again, looking at new addition to the zoo. And believe me, there's some to be seen.



What is this? I can't see any animals despite standing two meters away from the enclosure. This is a really bad sign, let me tell you.



Are those goddamn hamsters? Or voles or whatever crappy rodents these could be? Those are not hamsters or voles, but northern bog lemmings (Synaptomys borealis). They would be at the bottom of the food chain if it wasn't for their appetite for slugs. Honestly, if I had no integrity I would have rerolled.



I gotta be honest, lemmings are far less interesting than bog vegetation. The pitcher plant of a larger variety could capture a whole ass lemming no problem. Mine managed to catch a small beetle once when I put it outside. I was so proud of my green babby.



Sundews are somewhat more effective at bug control, but they can only catch smaller prey; bigger bugs may be too strong to stick to the leaves. Round-leaved sundew like these ones are common throughout the wetlands of the northern hemisphere, but other species can be found in the south. I have a total of three different African species on my windowsill: Alice sundew, Cape sundew and Madagascar sundew. They seem to be more fragile than pitcher plants, but still more sturdy than the venus flytrap.



Enough about plants. Let's welcome our new ungulate friend - a babby gemsbok.



I really don't have much to say about those vermins. They were a part of the bog pack; I wouldn't have downloaded them if they were standalone. Seriously, I could have got something really worth it instead of  hamsters but inferior.



The place doesn't look like much, but once I build some more stuff it will be much better, trust me guys. Actually, I can prove it, can't I?



An actual building of a sort, and a jungle exhibit too. I'm sure it will be exciting! Frankly, everything seems exciting after a mud pit full of lemmings.



It's the Owston's palm civet (Chrotogale owstoni), a small critter related to the binturong. They are terrestrial vermivores, interestingly more graceful than the arboreal binturong. Evolution makes some strange choices sometimes. Could they swap lifestyles maybe?



Despite spending most time on the ground, those civets can and will climb trees to escape danger or to search for insects. They can also have nests in trees, but they are also happy with crevices in rocks, and abandoned burrows.



I'll be completely honest - there were koalas in there before civets, but the game crashed a while after I finished with them. The civet exhibit is pretty much the same except for the glass thingies on the top. Overall, I like the building much better than its content, but I don't really enjoy making places for small animals. Ironic, since about a half of Maple Bay's animals are of the small variety.



Gobble gobble, poult alert! While Al-Khalij breeds critically endangered parrots and extinct ground sloths, Maple Bay breeds common antelopes, literal turkeys, and in a while there will be babby tortoises that are common household pets.

Anyway, the next enclosure is going to be something else entirely.



Tree ferns, giant Lepidodendrons, this gotta be something ancient doesn't it? Saber-toothed cats? Even more ancient. T.rex? No, further back. Dimetrodon? Not so far.



This is in fact a Dilophosaurus (Dilophosaurus wetherilli), a crested dinosaur from early Jurassic. Back in its time it was a real monster even without the frill andspitting venom. While it lacked a powerful bite of the T.rex, it could rip and tear small prosauropods with its toothy jaws just fine. Here they are covered in hair-like protofeathers which it could have well had, who knows?



I have a mod that changes those silly giant dono nuggies into actual dinosaur meat. I'm not saying that dilos wouldn't enjoy dino nugs, but come on, we're running a realistic zoo here; just don't think too hard about dinosaurs and sasquatches being here.



I'm happy with how the pond turned out. Water lillies didn't exist in Jurassic and neither did pitcher plants, and lepidodendrons had already turned into coal deposits by the beginning of Mesozoic, but this is not important right now; those dilos were grown in a vat in some laboratory, they don't know anything about palaeobotany.

And the game shat itself again. Forget about Dilophosauruses then, we'll replace them with, like, iguanas or some shit next time.

Jesus Christ, I'm gonna go ape.

[King Zultan]

Well dang that doesn't bode well for the future of the zoo.

[Enemy post]

Where did you find the sasquatches?

[SQman]

I more or less know what the source of those crashes were: the binturong crash was caused by the birth of baby Barbourofelis, the koala crash was not a crash but my laptop turning off like it does sometimes, and the Dilophosaurus crash was caused by the tall grass that I like using so much being placed densely and generously.

Where did you find the sasquatches?

Here. Apparently they use vanilla Megatherium animations.

Spoiler: Al-Khalij Ep.4 - Renovations (click to show/hide)

Keeping in mind how bad stuff happens over and over again, I've decided to make steps towards preventing further catastrophes, first step being releasing a pair of Barbourofelises on an unsuspecting South American ecosystem.



A smaller forest exhibit in the place of the Barbourofelises, huh? With how my rolling goes lately maybe it would be good to lower your expectation for this one.



Sike, it's dinosaurs! Kulindadromeus (Kulindadromeus zabaikalicus) is a fuzzy ornitischian dinosaur from Jurassic Russia. Its closest relatives were ornithopods such as the Hypsilophodon. It was discovered an entire decade after Zoo Tycoon 2 was released, and yet here we go.



The protofeathers on those little buggers among some others might imply that simillar structures appeared as early as in the last common ancestors of dinosaurs and pterosaurs, and believe me that's early.



As we all know, the Kulindadromeus coexisted with animals such as the red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), a common Jurassic mammal. There's no way it would eat cycad leaves though.



Say what you want about the enclosure, but at least with all the lavender it won't have trouble with mosquitos anytime soon. Or was it moths? I think catnip was for mosquitos. I'm sure there is something in the desert that is repelled by lavender, let's just hope it's not dinosaurs.



It's hardly the most impressive enclosure, but the game itself said I can't use tall grass. Again, we've lost large predators for this.



The second part of the Barbourofelis replacement, looks vaguely oriental. Is it pandas?



Not quite, just goats. It's actually japanese serows (Capricornis crispus) which are, well, just goats. As far as goats go, those are pretty nice ones though. I guess? I don't think you can milk them, but I can be wrong.



Umm... mind moving out of the way while I refill your water? Apparently serows like bathing. This is not a clear mountain spring, but a rock trough is better than nothing, I'll tell you that.



This thing normally floats in the air like it's nobody's business, but with some clever engineering I could make it somewhat presentable. Actually it was made to be used like this, don't tell anyone, I wanna sound clever.



Grazing, huh? Too good for the grass I'm providing you with, huh? No good jabroni goat has no respect for superior species. Just kidding, I don't consider myself better than a goat.



I quite like this exhibit. A bit more gimmicky than the last one, with its sheer rock walls and bamboo and all that.
But here we go, we've replaced terrifying predators with fuzzy dinos and goats. Now the most predatory animals in the zoo are badgers, which honestly isn't that bad considering how nasty badgers can be. They ate Gordon Ramsay's sex dwarf for god's sake.



Now prepare your booties everyone because here comes the real star of the show. A real big bastard, the terror of the Triassic era, the croc, the myth, the legend...



...Fasolasuchus (Fasolasuchus tenax), one of the largest terrestrial predators of its time. While dinosaurs were yet to join the ranks of megafauna, monsters such as these were the rightful rulers of the land.
The name Fasolasuchus comes from Polish fasola (bean) and Greek suchos (crocodile), making it a bean croc. I;m thinking about thos bean crocs. Actually it was named after Tomas H. Fasola, an Argentine palaeontologist, but I like my version better.



It looks so peaceful when it just lies like that, alsmost as if it wasn't made to swallow dinosaurs whole.



I like using prehistoric foliage even if the time period doesn't mach with the animal. The Williamsonia, as primitive as it looks, actually apeared later than Fasolasuchus. The Araucarioxylon in the back was actually contemporary to the croc, and was an actual tree related to the modern monkey puzzle tree. The cactus-like Madagascar ocotillo is not actually a prehistoric species, but I like it a lot.



In this enclosure I intended to recreate Triassic environment as well as I could, but I'm not a palaeobotanist, geologist or an exterior designer. Still, it turned out really well.



We're anime now. It would be a real shame if one of our flamingos were to fall in love with a Kemono Friends flamingo girl cutout.



The last exhibit in Al-Khalij for today is this funky little building. Granted, it's not a marvel of architecture, but the animals inside are not marvels of animal kingdom either.



Those are beech martens (Martes foina), extremely common predators native to Europe and Asia. They are universally disliked by people who raise rabbits and chickens because those furry little fellas aren't afraid to get close to human settlements. My old dog managed to catch and kill two of these while they were on the hunt for tasty, tasty rabbits.



Those people are way too excited to see those weasely buggers. They are cute, but these are hardly exotic animals. Well, maybe they are for the locals.
Hey, some of those people have plushie badgers!



While the martens were technically the last new exhibit for today, there's one more change that needs to be mentioned. The pteranodons were pissing me off big time with their constant bugging out, so I've got rid of them and built a huge tank where teir aviary used to be.



The tank houses two species. the manta ray (Mobula alfredi) and the Archelon (Archelon ischyros). Mantas are giant plankton-eating rays that swim around tropical oceans; pretty well known stuff. The Archelon is the largest tortoise that ever lived, a member of Cretaceous megafauna.



This may be because of Radical Remake, but marine animals are easier to see from up high. You can sort of see that the Archelons have hard shells instead of leathery ones, which is wrong as far as i know.



I was never a big fan of marine enclosures, and that applies to both Zoo Tycoon and Zoo Tycoon 2. They require some serious work to make look good.
Oh, by the way, Archelons and mantas were hand-picked just like the Pteranodons were.



And there we have it! Al-Khalij is over halfway done. Pteranodons and Barbourofelises were replaced with Kulindadromeuses and KJapanese serows to avoid bugs, while the Fasolasuchus and beech martens are completely new additions.
Next time we'll tackle Maple Bay. I'm supposed to be doing stuff right now, so this is it.

[Enemy post]

Thanks for the answer regarding the sasquatches.

[King Zultan]

What even is a sex dwarf?

[Enemy post]

Could we add some spotted hyenas? Always liked them.

[SQman]

What even is a sex dwarf?

Spoiler: It's a reference to this gem of a headline (click to show/hide)

Every celebrity should have a dwarf porn star look-alike, if you ask me.



Anyaway, sorry for being quiet for so long, but I got a new laptop a while ago, and I didn't feel like transfering all the game files, or rather booting up the old laptop. I'm on it now, and I'm telling you, that old piece of junk is barely working; it was DEFINITELY a right choice to upgrade.

The hiatus is soon coming to an end, is what I wanted to say.

[King Zultan]

Every celebrity should have a dwarf porn star look-alike, if you ask me.

Your saying what everybodies to afraid to say out loud.


Also huzza this is coming back.