As appealing as it may be to have a barrier-less zoo where the animals all run free, the fun only lasts so long. Your guests will all leave, you'll stop making money, and your predators will hunt down all their prey. For a successful zoo, barriers are a necessity, however there is quite a bit of creativity you can do with them. First lets understand how to use them.
There are 12 different barriers included in game. Depending on what mode you are playing, they may not all be available at first. For franchise, challenge, and career modes, you will need to research the additional barrier options. Your options are not limited to these twelve but we'll talk about that more later. There are also 2 different habitat gates for use by staff, matching vehicle airlocks, and a guest gate for walkthrough exhibits (future entry...).
In the Zoopedia, there is a tab called Natural Habitat.Under this tab, each animals barrier requirements are listed including size, grade, and height (if required).
Types of Barriers
If you hover over each barrier in game, they have classifications for grade, visibility, climbability, and water tightness. Grade is how strong your fence is. Some animals will require a stronger fence and will break through weaker fences. Visibility is how much your guests will be able to see. A transparent barrier will give your guests better views than an opaque one. Climbability is pretty self explanatory. If a fence is climbable and an animal can climb, it will. Water tightness is whether the barrier can hold water. For instance if you try to place water against a chain link fence it will give you an error.
Concrete - Grade 6, Opaque, Not Climbable, Water Tight, Flexicolor
Glass - Grade 2, Transparent, Not Climbable, Water Tight
1 Way Glass - Grade 2, Opaque one side, Transparent one side, Not Climbable, Water Tight
Wood Logs - Grade 3, Opaque, Climbable, Not Water Tight
Steel Mesh - Grade 4, Semi-Transparent, Climbable, Not Water Tight
Red Brick - Grade 5, Opaque, Not Climbable, Water Tight
Gabion - Grade 5, Opaque, Climbable, Not Water Tight
Corrugated - Grade 2, Opaque, Not Climbable, Not Water Tight, Flexicolor
Chain Link - Grade 2, Semi-Transparent, Climbable, Not Water Tight
Electric - Grade 6 when powered, 1 when not powered, Semi-Transparent, Not Climbable when powered, Climbable when not powered, Not Water Tight
Hedge - Grade 1, Opaque, Not Climbable, Not Water Tight
You may have noticed two things about the above list. First, there is a classification that I did not talk about before, Flexicolor. When hovering over the barriers, you won't see this listed, however there are two fence types that are colorable. That's right, I said colorable.
Concrete and Corrugated fences can be changed to whatever color you like. Also, each piece of fence is colorable so you can use more than one. If you want to make a rainbow, you can. If you want to make Barbie's dream zoo with pink barriers, you can (Bad examples, I know). Just scroll down to the bottom of the settings and you can select a color.
The second thing you may have noticed is that that was only 11 barriers. The 12 barrier deserves it's own section. It is called the Null Barrier.
Null Barriers
Many have compared null barriers to an invisible fence, but it's not really. The null barrier is really more of a place holder or marker. It tells the game where an exhibit is but will do nothing to keep animals in or guests out. You will need to explore other options to keep your animals in. This is where your barrier possibilities increase exponentially.
Construction Pieces
You can use any construction pieces to keep your animals in. You can use
wall pieces, logs, build fences out of beams. The possibilities are limited only by the available construction
pieces. You can even build indoor habitats (domes are very popular in the community).
Rocks
You can use rocks to line the edge of your habitat. The important thing to remember with using rocks is to check your traversable area heat map to make sure your animals can't get up on the rocks and escape.
Terrain
Some animals may be contained by using terrain to build a sunken habitat. Alternatively, you could build up terrain walls around the habitat. Learn more about terrain editing here.
Moats
Wet or dry moats can be used to keep animals in also. View my entry on moats here.
An important tip for using null barriers is to make sure the null barrier lies outside of whatever barrier you choose to use in order to prevent false escape alerts.
Settings
There are a number of settings to make placing barriers easier and more unique.
Straight or Curved – Some barriers can be used as straight or curved pieces. Concrete, glass (including 1-way), red brick, and hedge can all have curved barriers. Currently there is a trick for the other barriers to be curved as well. Design your habitat with one of the above barriers. You can then select the barrier and change it to any of the barriers and it will remain curved, however this could potentially change with future updates if frontier so decided.
Height modes – There are 3 height modes to choose from:
Undulating- Post length remains constant above ground level. Ex. If your height is set to 7m, it will be 7m all the way around which may cause dips and dives in the top of your fence on uneven terrain.
Flat Top- Post lengths vary to keep top of barrier flat. On uneven terrain, you may end up with shorter barriers and will want to make sure that it is still tall enough to keep your animals in.
Flat Top with editable bottom – Same as above however the depth of the bottom can be edited for building barriers across unusual terrain. If you find gaps in the bottom of your barrier, give this mode a try.
Angle Snap – As with everything in Planet Zoo that has this setting, angle snap allows you to set the angle for your barrier corners. This helps with making specific shapes with your barriers. When using curved barriers, this can help make a circular habitat.
Length- This is simply how long each piece of fencing is. You can also use = (+) or – to adjust the length of the barrier as you are placing it.
Height Snap – If you are trying to get nice even heights (to match a 4m wall for instance) you can set the height snap to increase in set increments.
Snap to adjacent heights – Adds notches to height adjustment when matching the height of adjacent posts/sections. This is useful for leveling out your barrier. As you move the barrier, it will snap into position with the barrier next to it. You can do this manually by looking at the barrier markers but snapping makes it a little quicker and easier.
Windows – As an alternative to an all glass barrier, you can add a glass window to any of the
other barriers except for chain link, steel mesh, electric, and hedge. You can chose 1 or 2 way glass and can adjust the size and placement of the window.
Height labels – You can choose whether you want your height labels to be above terrain or sea level. This is completely personal preference.
Camera – Also a personal preference, you can choose how the camera works as you place barriers. You can have it in free mode where you move it to where you want it, you can have it follow the path of your barrier, follow the path of your barrier and center it, or follow the path of your barrier and rotate it. I tend to just have it follow.
(Second Tab Settings)
Climb proof – On climbable barriers, you can add a climb proofing mechanism to keep your animals from climbing and escaping. You will need to choose which side to place it on, or if using in between two climbing animals (or as an extra precaution), you can add it to both.
Habitat Perimeter – Sometimes you may want to use a barrier as something other than the habitat perimeter. If you uncheck this box, the barrier will not be recognized as part of the habitat.
Curved Barrier Top – You can choose whether to make the top of your barrier curved. This
allows you to add some decorative wavy features to the top of your barrier. Once you select this box, you will be given additional settings to adjust the start and end of your curve.
Placing Barriers
Now that we've gone over all the types of barriers and your settings, lets talk about placing barriers. Placing is fairly simple. Click where you want the first piece of fence to start click again where you want that piece to end and the other begin. You can increase the height of your barrier by click and holding while dragging up or down. Once you have placed your barrier, you can continue to tweak it until it is the way you want it. You can edit each
individual piece, or click the arrows and drag along a section or the entire habitat to edit the whole thing. You can drag the individual posts to move them where you want them, or to stretch out or pull in your habitat walls to adjust the size. If you have trouble finding the arrows or any of the adjustment icons, try moving your camera. The camera angle can sometimes cause the icons to be stacked.
To make your habitats more aesthetically pleasing ( and realistically accurate), I recommend using multiple barrier types in a habitat. Use a windowed brick wall on one side and steel mesh on another. Add a null barrier with a moat in front and wood posts around the sides and back. You can also dress up your fence with wall decor, lights, rocks, etc. Look up some real life exhibits and take notes of the different barrier types incorporated. As always, if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments, and don't forget to follow @MamaZooana on twitter for updates.
Comments