JP-like park simulator idea (just for fun)

i hope this is the right section for this--it's not really a fan creation, but is is heavily based on Jurassic Park in basic principle, and it's not something that i necessarily plan on making in the future--i just like writing designs for if i can.

this is just an idea i've been batting around for a while--i mentioned it once or twice on JPL as my ideal JPOG2. in the simplest terms, it'd be JPOG with even more elements of Zoo Tycoon 2 and an expanded species list, possibly handled as DLC expansion packs for other broad periods of prehistory. diverging from JPOG and ZT2, the actual cloning of fossil animals is a major feature, and instead of just finding fossils, extracting them, and then getting the animal instantly, you may have to splice them with one or more different animals because actually finding fossils and extracting DNA from them is supposed to be difficult here, therefore encouraging JP-style hybridization. if you get 100% of an animal's DNA with no other additives, then the resulting animal will be as accurate to current knowledge as possible (feathered raptors, quadrupedal Spinosaurus, etc.) but is extremely expensive and takes a long time to hatch and grow, and depending on the environment of the park (every major biome in many different countries rather than always a tropical island somewhere in Central America) may start suffering from health problems. to mitigate that (and to let just about any fictional dinosaur be represented), you're able to splice them with both modern creatures and other fossils animals. depending on the degree you splice them to, the animal might get a different outward appearance or some unique abilities--this is how the fictional spitting dilophosaurs and camouflage carnotaurs and so on would be available.

i even came up with at least a first draft of how percentages go down and what it would result in:

• 100% single species: as accurate as current knowledge allows with no above and beyond abilities aside from what's known
  
• 75% base + 25% other: the hybrid is physically identical to a 100% accurate version, but has some behavioral traits and coloration based on the spliced species; this also gives the species their accurate species name (contrast if they have just 51% of the base genome and a plurality of spliced DNA, in which case they get the plurality species name)
  
• 51% base + <9% others: the hybrid is a mongrel without any notable abilities, a sickly appearance, greater susceptibility to disease, and unpredictable behavior (and is automatically given the species name mutatus)
  
• 51% base + 49% others with a common trait: if the hybrid has a combination of other animals spliced in that all share a common trait, then the animal will have that common trait no matter what, even overriding one of their own (for example, if a dinosaur is spliced with 49% furry mammals, then it'll have fur instead of feathers or scales)
  
• 51% base + 49% others without a common trait: the hybrid has extra abilities and behaviors based on what was spliced into it, assuming that any other species spliced make up at least 10% of the genome
  
• 51% base only: this is the bare minimum to clone a fossil species, just like in JPOG, and they'll be reasonably accurate, but will lack any kind of outer coating (think your classic naked raptors, but also hairless mammoths and featherless terror birds and the like) as well as having a shorter lifespan and greater vulnerability to disease
  

in addition, after you research a special Advanced Gene Splicing technology in a saved game, you can create up to ten "exotic hybrids" as fully-customizable non-fossil genera which require 51% of a genome for the basis and, unlike mongrels, are stable enough to have less than 10% of other species spliced but gaining all (or most of) the traits of those species, and this would be how the likes of Indominus are included, complete with being able to give them a unique name and encyclopedia entry. external traits in any hybrid are almost always determined by the fossil species spliced into them (such as horns) while abilities come from modern animals (color-changing, venom, vocalizations), and behaviors are taken from both as well as from the base



moving away from the animals themselves, park locations. they're always secluded and are set in real countries, but aren't always islands: they include plateaus and valleys and the like as well. i've admittedly based pretty much all of them on either Jurassic Park locations or otherwise on lost world fiction--what i have so far are the Azores, Bolivia, the Congo, Costa Rica, Fiji, Guam, Japan, Kenya, Kurdistan (this one is actually based on a little-known book called Pleistocene Redemption), New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Seychelles, South Africa, and the South Sandwich Islands. depending on which site you choose, you'll get discounts on fossil sites, different starting species, and the local environment will affect your animals differently. this is also were splicing could be useful: in Antarctica, splice fur onto a usually hairless animal and they'll be able to adjust more easily, or an anti-freezing gene so that they look like they usually do but can take the cold

that's about all i have to share for now. remember, this is just for fun i would like input on what some fossil sites could be and what animals are available from them, both fossil and modern.

This is a brilliant idea!

okay, a bit more. i think i'll cover fossil sites and species today:

fossil collection is handled by buying the rights to fossil sites, though the first one you can get is free (unlike JPOG, you get a few starting species--probably three--depending on where you decided to build your park and you can pick one site to start you off besides that). fossil sites have 5-10 species each (though the first free site is limited to ones with five species) and the more species a site has, the more expensive it is (as well as the cost rising for each new site acquired--alternatively, since alot of sites turned out to have just five species anyway, it could be that the combined size of the animals in each site determine their cost, or they might be revised to having 3-5 species each instead). also unlike JPOG, there's no limit to the number of fossil sites you can buy, but rising costs will mean that you'll probably be limited to a certain number in-game and want to plan accordingly based on that.

along with fossil animals, each site gives you access to some modern animals based on what that area is like in the present-day (though in some cases using prehistoric but still-living animals instead of or in addition to contemporary ones--La Brea will be the most prominent example in this case)

now for some of the actual fossil sites. the basic idea i had was to get an "essential" species list based mainly on Jurassic Park (for dinosaurs, at least) and build a more diverse list around that, though a good number of fossil sites are also intended as cultural references (Cedar Mountain is supposed to be a bit of an homage to Raptor Red, for example). at least some of the fossil site ideas i have so far include:

• Cedar Mountain Formation: Acrocanthosaurus, Astrodon, Deinonychus, Gastonia, Kronosaurus, Utahraptor
  
• Dashanpu Formation: Gasosaurus, Mamenchisaurus, Teleosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus, Yangchuanosaurus
  
• Dinosaur Cove: Australovenator, Leallynasaura, Koolasuchus, Muttaburrasaurus, Steropodon (this one ended up being a Walking with Dinosaurs reference)
  
• Djadochta Formation: Citipati, Oviraptor, Pinacodon, Protoceratops, Velociraptor
  
• Elrhaz Formation: Anatosuchus, Elaphrosaurus, Nigersaurus, Ouranosaurus, Suchomimus
  
• Flaming Cliffs: Alioramus, Deinocheirus, Gallimimus, Mononykus, Therizinosaurus
  
• Horseshoe Canyon Formation: Albertosaurus, Edmontosaurus, Euoplocephalus, Pachyrhinosaurus, Saurolophus
  
• Kem Kem Beds: Carcharodontosaurus, Deltadromeus, Rebbachisaurus, Sigilmassasaurus, Spinosaurus
  
• Neuquen Group: Abelisaurus, Argentinosaurus, Aucasaurus, Mapusaurus, Megaraptor, Notosuchus, Unenlagia
  
• Santana Formation: Anhanguera, Cearadactylus, Irritator, Santanaraptor, Tapejara
  
• Solnhofen Limestone: Archaeopteryx, Compsognathus, Ichthyosaurus, Pterodactylus, Rhamphorhynchus
  
• Two Medicine Formation: Daspletosaurus, Edmontonia, Einiosaurus, Maiasaura, Troodon
  
• Wealden Group: Baryonyx, Becklespinax, Hypsilophodon, Ornithocheirus, Polacanthus
  

aside from these, other possible sites include:

• Como Bluff
  
• Dinosaur Park Formation
  
• Hell Creek Formation
  
• Tendaguru Beds
  
• La Brea Tar Pits
  
• Bissekty Formation
  
• Bayan Shireh Formation
  
• Big Bend National Park
  
• Dinosaur National Monument
  
• Elliot Formation
  
• Glen Canyon Group
  
• Isle of Wight
  
• Jiufotang Formation
  
• Jurassic Coast
  
• Kitadani Formation
  
• La Colonia Formation
  
• Lakota Formation
  
• Lance Formation
  
• Lossiemouth Formation or Monte San Giorgio
  
• Morrison Formation
  
• Mount Saint Peter
  
• Nemegt Formation
  
• Niobrara Chalk
  
• Ojo Alamo Formation
  
• Valle de la Luna
  

an important goal here is to try to get as diverse a species list as possible, though keep in mind that not all of these would be the type species of that genus (in one draft, for example, i figure that Psittacosaurus could be represented by a Japanese species instead of the Mongolian one). an ideal goal would probably be to divide the species list into sixths and use that to determine how many different kinds of animals should be available: 3/6 (half) should be Mesozoic, 2/6 (one third) should be Cenozoic, and the remaining 1/6 should be Paleozoic; overlapping with this, probably one third should be aquatic (not counting animals capable of swimming that don't explicitly live in water) and 1/6 should be flying animals