Jurassic World Evolution General Discussion *COMING TO NINTENDO SWITCH 11/3*

Mr.DNA wrote:

Going into your management tab is helpful to see what the game considers an issue, but by the time you're at 4.7 stars reaching for 5, you've probably heavily, intricately structured your park and the game arbitrarily tries to say "Oh, there isn't enough 'Transportation' to Viewing Platform 8,' and you'll just be gatekept from a hard-earned 5 stars.

Yeah the 5 stars is getting to be a pain to get to. The game is super nitpicky about certain things especially the structural rating. I have a 4.6 star park on Isle Muerta and I can't get to 5 because I don't have enough room to build transportation to my hotels. Space is a real issue, every park you make is going to be cramped because there's not enough room to spread out. I would like to make large expansive paddocks for my dinos, but I can't do that because I have to conserve space for my structures. What would really be helpful is if there were small stands that you could place at certain points to fix some of your ratings because placing a fast food/gift shop around every viewing vent is taking up precious space.

Also, does anyone else feel that they can't just sit back and enjoy the beauty of their park? I like having things to do and problems come up, but it seems every time I want to sit and watch my raptors or herbivores there's an issue that needs me to micromanage it. I can see this is going to be a big issue on any large scale park (if the game even allows you to build one; I haven't gotten to Sorna or Nublar yet).

Dilophosaurus wrote:

And I agree about the Brachiosaurus. That thing is never content. Spoiler for Fallen Kingdom:

Spoiler:

Ha yeah!

Mr.DNA wrote:

Also, does anyone else feel that they can't just sit back and enjoy the beauty of their park? I like having things to do and problems come up, but it seems every time I want to sit and watch my raptors or herbivores there's an issue that needs me to micromanage it. I can see this is going to be a big issue on any large scale park (if the game even allows you to build one; I haven't gotten to Sorna or Nublar yet).

Yeah I felt that on the Matanceros and Muerta, although I've got to 3 stars on Tacano and it's been pretty chilled out!

Fallen Kingdom DLC has been released, and all new dinosaurs look really good, especially the Indoraptor. It has its own set of animations and it's really cool to just watch it move.

One thing that has been bugging me about the animations in this game is that a few carnivores have really droopy tails while running, which makes them look really stupid. Makes me wonder if it was made on purpose or if it's just an animation bug. The Giganotosaurus had it, and now the Carnotaurus and Allosaurus from the DLC also have droopy tails.

Ansel is fun

Spoiler:

Welp, unlocking the new dinosaurs was a brief moment of fun. Not very difficult after you've basically mastered each island.

Yeah I unlocked all the new dinos in about 2 hours of playtime... but as was pointed out earlier, I don't have any space to really put them without cramping my other dinosaurs up into smaller pins (which in turn affects their affinity of grassland and forest).

Same thing for me really but if they had a higher rating I replaces them. I was surprised that Allosaurus is an Apex and can only live by itself. Even Spinosaur and Giganotosaurus can live as a pair.

I'd really like to see a way to rescue my guests after they run into a paddock fleeing a dinosaur that just escaped from that paddock.

Spiegel wrote:

I'd really like to see a way to rescue my guests after they run into a paddock fleeing a dinosaur that just escaped from that paddock.

The only way is to remove the fence and let them out... which is a pain!!

So I just technically finished the entire game tonight and while I posted some initial thoughts after playing a couple hours, I now have a more clear understanding of just what the game is and what it isn't. Right now it isn't nearly what I hoped it would be when I first heard about it. It looks amazing and the dinosaurs do too, but once you get past that there isn't much else to enjoy. To be good, sim games either have to give you a challenge or give you freedom to be creative and this game gives neither (well it gives some challenge but it's mostly artificial).

The most glaring thing is the size of the "islands"; there just isn't enough room to build the kind of park you would want and even the biggest maps (Sorna and Nublar) feel extremely cramped. You are then put in a situation where you either have to cram dinos into small paddocks and have them complain and get agitated constantly, or you limit yourself to a few paddocks and try to bloat your dinosaur rating by using the genetic modifiers to bring their star rating up. This transitions nicely into the next problem, the star rating for your park is all based on numbers, not layout or design. If you have your dinosaur rating over 2,000 you'll get 5 stars for your dinosaurs regardless of anything else. For the guest side, as long as you build hotel hubs around a group of 2 or 3 paddocks with transportation to each of them and a restaurant, clothes shop, and an arcade (each with max employees) and you'll also easily get your 5 star facility rating.


The UI is honestly garbage in the sense that there is no way for you to look at things at a glance and see what's going on; there's no window where I can check my feeder stock, no window to check on the dinosaurs, no windows for what needs repair, etc. JPOG had a glut of information windows to glance through and while it was a bit much, at least it was there. The game also doesn't tell you when a dinosaur is attacking a fence and there have been times where dinosaurs will get stuck in an inescapable loop of being agitated no matter how many times you sedate them
and put them back. The way dinosaurs breakout is baffling too, any time a dino breaks out or runs out of a broken fence they start going on a killing spree which doesn't make any sense. The fences themselves are pretty broken too, because even a 6 foot tall raptor will be able to break through any fence and the only limiting factor is how long it will take them. Again, it just doesn't make any sense, why not have it to where dinosaurs attack or test fences and over time wear them down if you aren't checking. Or better yet, give us security cameras to place around "trouble" dinos which would give notifications when fences are being attacked. Even if a dinosaur becomes comfortable while it's attacking a fence it has to finish breaking it just continuing a vicious cycle.

AI is totally nonexistant and it's hilarious that a game from 2003 has more advanced AI than a game from 2018. Guests are just walking numbers who blindly run into paddocks with dangerous dinos and the dinos themselves are basically pretty computer models walking around. There's no herding behavior (unless you count the little group circle all social dinos do), no pack behavior, and carnivores have no way to gauge their hunting drive. Most carnivores will attack everything that moves in their vicinity regardless of whether they're hungry and it makes mixed paddocks or even an open range safari type of paddock impossible. Dinosaurs also don't sleep and who could blame them when there's no day-night cycle. The foliage is homogeneous mixture of tropical plants and trees and it's impossible to tell one island from the other just by looking at the terrain/biome.

The missions from the contractors are also not very fun and most are not very intuitive (ex I've gotten contracts to get a certain dino to a certain percentage when I can't even unlock said dinosaur yet). The parks themselves also seem to have this very artificial difficulty about them where everything could be going fine and then boom, the game throws everything but the kitchen sink at you at once and you can't micromanage everything at the same time. I just had this happen to me on Sorna where my stegos got upset broke out, then a bunch of dinos got sick all while a tornado destroyed most of my carnivore fences thus making it a free for all (complete with my spino and raptors getting caught in the inescapable breakout loop I described above). It just left such a bad taste in my mouth; funny enough though, the tornadoes don't even kill anything in this game.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm ranting a bit, but it's sad to see the potential that this game have go to waste. What exactly happened here? Frontier usually gives a much better experience than this (and usually much more freedom), so I'm left believing that this game was rushed out the door to promote Fallen Kingdom. I mean why would only one island be perpetually ran at night (Pena) and have them stress the night part when it does nothing to the gameplay? Also I'm pretty sure I saw a trike sleeping in one of the trailers so sleep behavior so that must have been cut from the game.

This game is gorgeous, but what fun is a beautiful looking game when it's more shallow than a kiddie pool? Very unfortunate and a bit pathetic that JPOG gives you more freedom and play time/enjoyment than this game (I've got 30 hours and I don't even feel like playing anymore).

Megaspino2 wrote:

So I just technically finished the entire game tonight and while I posted some initial thoughts after playing a couple hours, I now have a more clear understanding of just what the game is and what it isn't. Right now it isn't nearly what I hoped it would be when I first heard about it. It looks amazing and the dinosaurs do too, but once you get past that there isn't much else to enjoy. To be good, sim games either have to give you a challenge or give you freedom to be creative and this game gives neither (well it gives some challenge but it's mostly artificial).

The most glaring thing is the size of the "islands"; there just isn't enough room to build the kind of park you would want and even the biggest maps (Sorna and Nublar) feel extremely cramped. You are then put in a situation where you either have to cram dinos into small paddocks and have them complain and get agitated constantly, or you limit yourself to a few paddocks and try to bloat your dinosaur rating by using the genetic modifiers to bring their star rating up. This transitions nicely into the next problem, the star rating for your park is all based on numbers, not layout or design. If you have your dinosaur rating over 2,000 you'll get 5 stars for your dinosaurs regardless of anything else. For the guest side, as long as you build hotel hubs around a group of 2 or 3 paddocks with transportation to each of them and a restaurant, clothes shop, and an arcade (each with max employees) and you'll also easily get your 5 star facility rating.


The UI is honestly garbage in the sense that there is no way for you to look at things at a glance and see what's going on; there's no window where I can check my feeder stock, no window to check on the dinosaurs, no windows for what needs repair, etc. JPOG had a glut of information windows to glance through and while it was a bit much, at least it was there. The game also doesn't tell you when a dinosaur is attacking a fence and there have been times where dinosaurs will get stuck in an inescapable loop of being agitated no matter how many times you sedate them  
and put them back. The way dinosaurs breakout is baffling too, any time a dino breaks out or runs out of a broken fence they start going on a killing spree which doesn't make any sense. The fences themselves are pretty broken too, because even a 6 foot tall raptor will be able to break through any fence and the only limiting factor is how long it will take them. Again, it just doesn't make any sense, why not have it to where dinosaurs attack or test fences and over time wear them down if you aren't checking. Or better yet, give us security cameras to place around "trouble" dinos which would give notifications when fences are being attacked. Even if a dinosaur becomes comfortable while it's attacking a fence it has to finish breaking it just continuing a vicious cycle.

AI is totally nonexistant and it's hilarious that a game from 2003 has more advanced AI than a game from 2018. Guests are just walking numbers who blindly run into paddocks with dangerous dinos and the dinos themselves are basically pretty computer models walking around. There's no herding behavior (unless you count the little group circle all social dinos do), no pack behavior, and carnivores have no way to gauge their hunting drive. Most carnivores will attack everything that moves in their vicinity regardless of whether they're hungry and it makes mixed paddocks or even an open range safari type of paddock impossible. Dinosaurs also don't sleep and who could blame them when there's no day-night cycle. The foliage is homogeneous mixture of tropical plants and trees and it's impossible to tell one island from the other just by looking at the terrain/biome.

The missions from the contractors are also not very fun and most are not very intuitive (ex I've gotten contracts to get a certain dino to a certain percentage when I can't even unlock said dinosaur yet). The parks themselves also seem to have this very artificial difficulty about them where everything could be going fine and then boom, the game throws everything but the kitchen sink at you at once and you can't micromanage everything at the same time. I just had this happen to me on Sorna where my stegos got upset broke out, then a bunch of dinos got sick all while a tornado destroyed most of my carnivore fences thus making it a free for all (complete with my spino and raptors getting caught in the inescapable breakout loop I described above). It just left such a bad taste in my mouth; funny enough though, the tornadoes don't even kill anything in this game.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm ranting a bit, but it's sad to see the potential that this game have go to waste. What exactly happened here? Frontier usually gives a much better experience than this (and usually much more freedom), so I'm left believing that this game was rushed out the door to promote Fallen Kingdom. I mean why would only one island be perpetually ran at night (Pena) and have them stress the night part when it does nothing to the gameplay? Also I'm pretty sure I saw a trike sleeping in one of the trailers so sleep behavior so that must have been cut from the game.

This game is gorgeous, but what fun is a beautiful looking game when it's more shallow than a kiddie pool? Very unfortunate and a bit pathetic that JPOG gives you more freedom and play time/enjoyment than this game (I've got 30 hours and I don't even feel like playing anymore).  

I agree completely and expressed the same complaints to a degree. I unlocked everything in less than 40 hours, I believe 32 before the JWFK addition.

The game feels like more of a fan service than a gaming experience. It's like they just wanted to give fans a beta so they could have it.

Of course, there is a lot of potential for expansion with DLC but I've already paid $60 dollars for a well painted vase. It looks pretty but you can't do much with it aside from put some flowers in it.

In my review I said buy it if you're a JP fan, wait if you're a tycoon fan, and everyother type of gamer should just skip it completely. I still stand by that opinion.

I enjoyed my time playing aside from the initial learning curve but I dont believe there is much more than 40 hours of game play to be had.

But if you're a JP fan you've most likely played JPOG and it is barely better so it's a fail to the fans too. This game needs free patches, a boat load of DlC content (with aquariums and pterosaurs) and modding support when they're done with it or else no one will even remember it existed.

Having completed the game, can I restart islands without losing all my unlocked stuff. Like if I restart Sorna will I still have the tech and species I unlocked there, available on my other islands?

Spiegel wrote:

Having completed the game, can I restart islands without losing all my unlocked stuff. Like if I restart Sorna will I still have the tech and species I unlocked there, available on my other islands?

From what I can tell, you keep everything, you just start the island over from scratch.

On another note, some of the park guests will spawn as same-sex couples:

Spoiler:

1morey wrote:

Spiegel wrote:

Having completed the game, can I restart islands without losing all my unlocked stuff. Like if I restart Sorna will I still have the tech and species I unlocked there, available on my other islands?

From what I can tell, you keep everything, you just start the island over from scratch.

On another note, some of the park guests will spawn as same-sex couples:

Spoiler:

They remind me of those identical twins that wear the same clothes and do everything together lol.

Oh thank god that's been included. I kept thinking this game needed something and this must be what it was.

Major props must be given to this game's writers: it's the first time in 25 years where Ian Malcolm actually talks and feels like Ian Malcolm.

Got the game earlier today in the mail. Will play it soon but want to get it updated first. Wifi isn’t that great so it’ll be a while.

I've casually played this game since its launch date of June 12, and actually I have the same concerns for the game as everyone else does (ex: no herding mechanics, disproportionate sizes in large carnivores, no terrain customization from planet coaster, etc.), and this may come as a bit of a surprise: I worry that this game may or may not get fresh updates largely based on how Frontier Developments have "no news" to share with us at the moment. If this is true, and the current version is the only version of JW:E that we'll have for a long time....



But that's just me feeding off of the information that others write.

deinocoop wrote:

I've casually played this game since its launch date of June 12, and actually I have the same concerns for the game as everyone else does (ex: no herding mechanics, disproportionate sizes in large carnivores, no terrain customization from planet coaster, etc.), and this may come as a bit of a surprise: I worry that this game may or may not get fresh updates largely based on how Frontier Developments have "no news" to share with us at the moment. If this is true, and the current version is the only version of JW:E that we'll have for a long time....

What's funny is that the game doesn't seem impossible to mod, so if Frontier decides they don't want to fix what they should have maybe the community will find a way to do it. I looked at the files the other day out of curiosity and the .ovl extension is the same one used for RCT3 (which was heavily modded) and Planet Coaster (which people are trying to work on).

deinocoop wrote:

I've casually played this game since its launch date of June 12, and actually I have the same concerns for the game as everyone else does (ex: no herding mechanics, disproportionate sizes in large carnivores, no terrain customization from planet coaster, etc.), and this may come as a bit of a surprise: I worry that this game may or may not get fresh updates largely based on how Frontier Developments have "no news" to share with us at the moment. If this is true, and the current version is the only version of JW:E that we'll have for a long time....



But that's just me feeding off of the information that others write.

I do find it surprising that Frontier still has put limits in the game in the manner that they did (few film canon skin options for animals like Velociraptor, Brachiosaurus, or Tyrannosaurus; small maps; not a whole lot of attraction/facility options or even decorations, etc., and simplistic animal behaviors).

The biggest criticisms that Thrillville: Off the Rails and Zoo Tycoon had were the confined building areas, and then the power limit for Thrillville which really restricted your parks (even more so when you could only build in pre-determined areas), and Zoo Tycoon had the zoo limit, pre-designed habitats and the glaring omission of certain world renowned zoo animals (pandas being one of them).

Thankfully the Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection (although re-worked by a different developer) removed the zoo limit, and added new animals (though they still omitted pandas).

I'm glad that Planet Coaster and Elite: Dangerous have great track records at least, but it comes off that Frontier still seems stuck in this mindset of...adding great ideas, but then omitting the glaringly obvious.

And I get that developing games is not an easy task, and you can't expect every video game to include every idea, because ultimately it comes down to time and money.

And I think anyone who was asking for a next-gen game that combined RollerCoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon/Wildlife Park, and Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was asking for too much.

To be honest, I would love a Jurassic Park business management game like that, but if you throw in too much content in a game, it can be overwhelming for people (especially if they are not used to a game like that.)

Plus there needs to be a balance, too much content can reduce the quality of the overall game, whereas too much quality, ultimately lowers the amount of available content (at least at launch).

I remember when I first played RollerCoaster Tycoon (the original, which I bought off a neighbor when they had a yard sale, so no instruction manual) I did not realize at first that you had to open each attraction/facility and the park overall before guests could use them, you also had to make sure that the entrance fee was at a decent price (as well as the attractions) so guests weren't complaining.

You had to hire handymen to keep the paths tidy and mow the grass, security guards to patrol the park or unhappy guests would vandalize benches, lamps, or trash bins, entertainers to help increase guest happiness, and mechanics to repair broken down rides.

You also had to maintain the attractions, or they could cause a catastrophic malfunction (which in the case of the water slides, the tower drop, and roller coasters, could kill the guests). If you manually built those rides, you had to be careful of the speeds, otherwise, they could crash (and again, kill the guests). You also had to be careful of paths over water, cause if you destroyed them, the guests (and employees) would fall in and you had to rescue them or they'd drown.

And I won't even start with how customizeable the color schemes for a majority of the facilities/attractions (and even the employee uniforms) were.

As for the older Zoo Tycoon games (and Wildlife Park), you had to make the habitats suitable for each animals' needs, with water, terrain, and trees/plants. You also had to keep the animals healthy, safe, and your guests safe.
And (at least in Wildlife Park's case) you had to hire veterinarians (and build their facility) to go into the habitats to keep animals healthy. I haven't played the old Zoo Tycoon games, and I haven't played enough of Wildlife Park 2 to know all the ins and outs, but they seem to have their own set of intricacies.

And I think combining both those aspects with a next-gen version of JP:OG, would have turned off a lot of casual gamers.

As much as I liked the complexities of RollerCoaster Tycoon (and to a larger extent, Civilization IV), both those franchises had to change to be more approachable to a wider audience.

It's essentially a balancing act for game design. You don't want the game too simple, because hardcore gamers want something that presents a challenge, but you don't want to create a niche game, because that is not financially viable in this day and age, so you have to design the gameplay where newer players aren't getting too much thrown at them at once, and it turns them away.

On top of that, if Frontier (or anyone) were to design a game like that, then that would kill off the concept of a sequels or reboots, and gaming would be reduced to generational remasters.

Now, if Frontier has indeed learned from their past games, I think it is way too early to say that they just put out the game and are done with any major updates or extra content.

The Aviary and Aquatic options are the two most widely requested things for JW:E, and while that may require an engine overhaul, its not totally impossible to do. (Xbox One games have gotten brand new engines in updates, and I presume PS4 and games on Steam or Origin are capable of the same.)

I figured from the announcement trailer that the gameplay mechanics would be shallow but the graphics beautiful, which was basically what happened with their version of Zoo Tycoon and is honestly the trend in the gaming industry and even modding communities these days. This is pretty much exactly what we received, so clearly my expectations were realistic. I've had fun with the game from that respect.

Still, there's some flaws. The lack of behavior has been discussed, but I also don't feel like the dinosaurs' individual needs were well-thought out, as a lot of them seem to simply behave normally, become upset over something trivial, and immediately break out. There's no threshold to build - more akin to a time limit - and the choices, such as forest/grassland and social/population feel too... binary. There should be a little room for error, and for creativity. Biomes might be overkill, but grass v. dirt and a separate foliage need alone would've added a third dimension to building an environment, for example.

The lack of thought and care towards guests bugs me a lot though. The guest AI in these games has never been  very complex, and JPOG had a very simple but reliable grouping system and it was one of the things I actually felt it did a little better than ZT2, which had fine guest AI as well. Expanding on that would have added a lot to the game, and made it a lot easier, since Facility Rating tends to be pretty difficult to figure out.

I also found the dinosaur roster really fun but a hair repetitive. We could've used a therizinosaur, a titanosaur, a few Triassic species including a prosauropod, an ornithopod, a larger dromaeosaur, a few more small carnivores, and a few more of the earliest dinosaurs known to science as well. Certainly it's nice to finally have all of the film species in here though, save the stranger than before omission of Compsognathus after I thought Frontier had suggested we had everything... still, Herrarasaurus could've knocked off two of those places already, plus a notch off inGen's list... certainly could've used more of those than another Chinese stegosaur. (Interesting species all of them, but all coming from one digsite pushed it into overkill.) I also think Homalocephale might've been a better choice than Dracorex, despite it's cool name.

The story plays out fine enough, although it's a shame that while the division characters, Wu and Malcolm play into it, characters like Finch and Claire feel mostly outside of it. (Yes, Finch has a few moments.) Nothing's outright wrong with it but it leaves it feel lacking.

Strictly personally, I remain utterly shocked the Explorer Tour was not included in any form. I was always much more one for the Explorers than the Jeeps.

Quote :

As for the older Zoo Tycoon games (and Wildlife Park), you had to make the habitats suitable for each animals' needs, with water, terrain, and trees/plants. You also had to keep the animals healthy, safe, and your guests safe.
And (at least in Wildlife Park's case) you had to hire veterinarians (and build their facility) to go into the habitats to keep animals healthy. I haven't played the old Zoo Tycoon games, and I haven't played enough of Wildlife Park 2 to know all the ins and outs, but they seem to have their own set of intricacies.

Neither Zoo Tycoon game had separate veterinarians, their abilities were filed under the zookeepers, who basically performed all animal care duties. Zoo2 did have 'Trainers' for marine animals but they assisted with shows only.

The reason the community for the Zoo Tycoon games has survived so long is they remain the most mechanically flexible Zoo games ever created, capable of creating intricate, detailed exhibits even without mods, as much as simply making a square and throwing some animals in. The graphics may be wildly out of date for most fans' liking, but it's mechanics remain unmatched.

Zeta Designs has put out some Jurassic World content for Zoo Tycoon 2. The depth of creating a park is much more rewarding than this is click, copy, and paste type game play of JWE. I mean, in JWE you make a box of fence, attach a viewing port, and place a feeder.  In Zoo Tycoon 2 you can actually build the Trex Kingdom from Jurassic World. Check out this picture:



Also, here's a link, for anyone still playing ZT2 that wants these modifications.

Zeta Designs Jurassic World Content

Spiegel wrote:

Zeta Designs has put out some Jurassic World content for Zoo Tycoon 2. The depth of creating a park is much more rewarding than this is click, copy, and paste type game play of JWE. I mean, in JWE you make a box of fence, attach a viewing port, and place a feeder. In Zoo Tycoon 2 you can actually build the Trex Kingdom from Jurassic World.

Yeah, but to be fair with JW: Evolution, while the building tools and mod support in Zoo Tycoon 2 lets the player do basically whatever zoo he wants, the animal AI and animations in ZT2 were never something to write home about. Especially downloaded animals. I don't think I've ever found a fan-made animal that did anything other than walk around in circles inside its paddock (looking at you, every-fanmade-theropod-ever-for-ZT2). JWE's animations may get repetitive after a while, but they are still very detailed, and miles ahead anything ever made for Zoo Tycoon 2.

Mr. Robustus wrote:

Spiegel wrote:

Zeta Designs has put out some Jurassic World content for Zoo Tycoon 2. The depth of creating a park is much more rewarding than this is click, copy, and paste type game play of JWE. I mean, in JWE you make a box of fence, attach a viewing port, and place a feeder.  In Zoo Tycoon 2 you can actually build the Trex Kingdom from Jurassic World.

Yeah, but to be fair with JW: Evolution, while the building tools and mod support in Zoo Tycoon 2 lets the player do basically whatever zoo he wants, the animal AI and animations in ZT2 were never something to write home about. Especially downloaded animals. I don't think I've ever found a fan-made animal that did anything other than walk around in circles inside its paddock (looking at you, every-fanmade-theropod-ever-for-ZT2). JWE's animations may get repetitive after a while, but they are still very detailed, and miles ahead anything ever made for Zoo Tycoon 2.

As a longtime Zoo Tycoon 2 designer, you should probably know virtually every usermade animal is reusing the AI created by Blue Fang for the games, and it's actually much better AI than is traditionally understood. There is coding for things like herding behaviors and pack hunting, which JWE lacks fourteen years later. The artificial intelligence is not the problem at all; the real problem is that there are conditions for those behaviors, first, and second, that the game's animation system is highly lacking, especially for dinosaurs. There's about four or five animation sets for dinosaurs in Zoo2, and two of those (Rex and Ceratopsian) were made for a low-budget premium download that EA overrode.

It's very well-acknowledged in the fan community that EA's stock Theropod animations are terrible, and while many designers have made their own, there's also no way to override them for the stock dinosaurs, so anything made before animation editing was figured out maybe five years ago was limited to available options.

I mean, not to mention Zoo2 was made fourteen years ago and was built keeping in mind a lot of people were still using budget systems 3-4 years older than that, whereas Jurassic World Evolution is really a major console release that happened to also be made available for gaming PC's. So, the game's actually doing pretty well for the standards of the industry back when it was created, even if it's absolutely true that it hasn't aged well visually, but it remains mechanically superior to pretty much everything else out there... and I loved JWE

JVM wrote:

Mr. Robustus wrote:

Spiegel wrote:

Zeta Designs has put out some Jurassic World content for Zoo Tycoon 2. The depth of creating a park is much more rewarding than this is click, copy, and paste type game play of JWE. I mean, in JWE you make a box of fence, attach a viewing port, and place a feeder.  In Zoo Tycoon 2 you can actually build the Trex Kingdom from Jurassic World.

Yeah, but to be fair with JW: Evolution, while the building tools and mod support in Zoo Tycoon 2 lets the player do basically whatever zoo he wants, the animal AI and animations in ZT2 were never something to write home about. Especially downloaded animals. I don't think I've ever found a fan-made animal that did anything other than walk around in circles inside its paddock (looking at you, every-fanmade-theropod-ever-for-ZT2). JWE's animations may get repetitive after a while, but they are still very detailed, and miles ahead anything ever made for Zoo Tycoon 2.

As a longtime Zoo Tycoon 2 designer, you should probably know virtually every usermade animal is reusing the AI created by Blue Fang for the games, and it's actually much better AI than is traditionally understood. There is coding for things like herding behaviors and pack hunting, which JWE lacks fourteen years later. The artificial intelligence is not the problem at all; the real problem is that there are conditions for those behaviors, first, and second, that the game's animation system is highly lacking, especially for dinosaurs. There's about four or five animation sets for dinosaurs in Zoo2, and two of those (Rex and Ceratopsian) were made for a low-budget premium download that EA overrode.

It's very well-acknowledged in the fan community that EA's stock Theropod animations are terrible, and while many designers have made their own, there's also no way to override them for the stock dinosaurs, so anything made before animation editing was figured out maybe five years ago was limited to available options.

I mean, not to mention Zoo2 was made fourteen years ago and was built keeping in mind a lot of people were still using budget systems 3-4 years older than that, whereas Jurassic World Evolution is really a major console release that happened to also be made available for gaming PC's. So, the game's actually doing pretty well for the standards of the industry back when it was created, even if it's absolutely true that it hasn't aged well visually, but it remains mechanically superior to pretty much everything else out there... and I loved JWE

Oh yes, I'm aware of that. I'm not trying to fault the fan-made projects, I'm just saying that in the animation and AI aspect of the core game, ZT2 doesn't blow Evolution out of the water. Even Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, who's slightly older than ZT2, fared a lot better on those aspects (in fact, sometimes it fares better than Evolution itself)

Mr. Robustus wrote:

JVM wrote:

Mr. Robustus wrote:

Spiegel wrote:

Zeta Designs has put out some Jurassic World content for Zoo Tycoon 2. The depth of creating a park is much more rewarding than this is click, copy, and paste type game play of JWE. I mean, in JWE you make a box of fence, attach a viewing port, and place a feeder.  In Zoo Tycoon 2 you can actually build the Trex Kingdom from Jurassic World.

Yeah, but to be fair with JW: Evolution, while the building tools and mod support in Zoo Tycoon 2 lets the player do basically whatever zoo he wants, the animal AI and animations in ZT2 were never something to write home about. Especially downloaded animals. I don't think I've ever found a fan-made animal that did anything other than walk around in circles inside its paddock (looking at you, every-fanmade-theropod-ever-for-ZT2). JWE's animations may get repetitive after a while, but they are still very detailed, and miles ahead anything ever made for Zoo Tycoon 2.

As a longtime Zoo Tycoon 2 designer, you should probably know virtually every usermade animal is reusing the AI created by Blue Fang for the games, and it's actually much better AI than is traditionally understood. There is coding for things like herding behaviors and pack hunting, which JWE lacks fourteen years later. The artificial intelligence is not the problem at all; the real problem is that there are conditions for those behaviors, first, and second, that the game's animation system is highly lacking, especially for dinosaurs. There's about four or five animation sets for dinosaurs in Zoo2, and two of those (Rex and Ceratopsian) were made for a low-budget premium download that EA overrode.

It's very well-acknowledged in the fan community that EA's stock Theropod animations are terrible, and while many designers have made their own, there's also no way to override them for the stock dinosaurs, so anything made before animation editing was figured out maybe five years ago was limited to available options.

I mean, not to mention Zoo2 was made fourteen years ago and was built keeping in mind a lot of people were still using budget systems 3-4 years older than that, whereas Jurassic World Evolution is really a major console release that happened to also be made available for gaming PC's. So, the game's actually doing pretty well for the standards of the industry back when it was created, even if it's absolutely true that it hasn't aged well visually, but it remains mechanically superior to pretty much everything else out there... and I loved JWE

Oh yes, I'm aware of that. I'm not trying to fault the fan-made projects, I'm just saying that in the animation and AI aspect of the core game, ZT2 doesn't blow Evolution out of the water. Even Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, who's slightly older than ZT2, fared a lot better on those aspects (in fact, sometimes it fares better than Evolution itself)

I think my only major complaint with JP:OG was that the dinosaurs for some reason eventually clump together in the southwestern portions of the map/paddock, and remain there. AFAIK, this was an engine issue with no known workaround.

Also the tornadoes. I got so sick of them, I had to adjust the code so they never spawn. At least the tornadoes in JW:E aren't as obnoxious.

Mr. Robustus wrote:

JVM wrote:

Mr. Robustus wrote:

Spiegel wrote:

Zeta Designs has put out some Jurassic World content for Zoo Tycoon 2. The depth of creating a park is much more rewarding than this is click, copy, and paste type game play of JWE. I mean, in JWE you make a box of fence, attach a viewing port, and place a feeder.  In Zoo Tycoon 2 you can actually build the Trex Kingdom from Jurassic World.

Yeah, but to be fair with JW: Evolution, while the building tools and mod support in Zoo Tycoon 2 lets the player do basically whatever zoo he wants, the animal AI and animations in ZT2 were never something to write home about. Especially downloaded animals. I don't think I've ever found a fan-made animal that did anything other than walk around in circles inside its paddock (looking at you, every-fanmade-theropod-ever-for-ZT2). JWE's animations may get repetitive after a while, but they are still very detailed, and miles ahead anything ever made for Zoo Tycoon 2.

As a longtime Zoo Tycoon 2 designer, you should probably know virtually every usermade animal is reusing the AI created by Blue Fang for the games, and it's actually much better AI than is traditionally understood. There is coding for things like herding behaviors and pack hunting, which JWE lacks fourteen years later. The artificial intelligence is not the problem at all; the real problem is that there are conditions for those behaviors, first, and second, that the game's animation system is highly lacking, especially for dinosaurs. There's about four or five animation sets for dinosaurs in Zoo2, and two of those (Rex and Ceratopsian) were made for a low-budget premium download that EA overrode.

It's very well-acknowledged in the fan community that EA's stock Theropod animations are terrible, and while many designers have made their own, there's also no way to override them for the stock dinosaurs, so anything made before animation editing was figured out maybe five years ago was limited to available options.

I mean, not to mention Zoo2 was made fourteen years ago and was built keeping in mind a lot of people were still using budget systems 3-4 years older than that, whereas Jurassic World Evolution is really a major console release that happened to also be made available for gaming PC's. So, the game's actually doing pretty well for the standards of the industry back when it was created, even if it's absolutely true that it hasn't aged well visually, but it remains mechanically superior to pretty much everything else out there... and I loved JWE

Oh yes, I'm aware of that. I'm not trying to fault the fan-made projects, I'm just saying that in the animation and AI aspect of the core game, ZT2 doesn't blow Evolution out of the water. Even Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis, who's slightly older than ZT2, fared a lot better on those aspects (in fact, sometimes it fares better than Evolution itself)

Part of my point, however, was that Zoo Tycoon 2 has superior AI to Jurassic World Evolution.

JVM wrote:

Part of my point, however, was that Zoo Tycoon 2 has superior AI to Jurassic World Evolution.

How so?