Planet Zoo's Update 1.4 Out Now, Adds Underwater Feeder, Animal Talks and More

Update: Planet Zoo’s Update 1.4 is now live alongside its patch notes. Read on below for all the new additions:

Animals

NEW* - Deep Swimming

• Brand new for 1.4 is the deep swimming system. All habitat animals in the Aquatic Pack are equipped with the ability to deep swim, additionally we have also added deep swimming to the Saltwater Crocodile.
• Deep swimming animals are able to swim smoothly underwater, using a combination of a flexible spine and subtle animations. Each species will balance their need to swim against other types of behaviour, such as those on land. They are also capable of eating from the new underwater feeding station.

NEW* - Deep Water

• Deep swimming animals require a minimum area size and depth in their habitat, and will only display deep swimming behaviour if this requirement is fulfilled. Specific species may have their welfare affected if these space requirements are not met.
• This information is located in the animal info UI and related information panels:
• Water depth requirements are present on info panels next to the existing land and surface area requirements.
• Zoopedia: Natural Habitat section
• Animal info panel: Terrain tab
• Habitat info panel: Terrain tab
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NEW* - Underwater Feeder

• The Underwater Box Feeder, a new feeding station, will be available for everyone as part of the 1.4.0 update. All deep swimming animals (Saltwater Crocodile from the base game and the Aquatic Pack animals) will be able to use this in game.
• When using this feeder, like any other food enrichment, its Information Panel will provide you with details on its food capacity, usage by animals, and food suitability.
• Additionally, there will be a status bar that will tell you if the feeder has been placed in deep enough water for the fish particles to appear. If the feeder has not been placed deep enough keepers will not fill the feeder and animals will be unable to use it.

General Animal Bug Fixes and Improvements

• Fixed incorrect numbers displayed on lifetime stats for exhibits.
• Updated the red eyed tree frog and golden poison frog population numbers to reduce rapid breeding into low welfare. Players should find these 2 species easier to use.
• Fixed an issue where the animal storage would allow exceeding the 50 animal limit which could lead to performance issues.
• Adjusted Polar Bear, Arctic Wolf, and Reindeer info boards so that the maps now reflect distinct areas between Arctic and Antarctic.
• Exhibits - Humidity is now set to the ambient temperature automatically on exhibit placement, instead of being variable to ambient until set. This should make feedback more consistent and obvious.
• Added detail on bonding information inside the Social tab for animals that have a single mate. If an animal is currently mourning for their missing mate, it will temporarily prevent a new bond from being formed.
• Extended biomes for some animals based on player feedback and research:
• Desert:
• Cheetah
• African Wild Dog
• Common Ostrich
• Taiga:
• Giant Panda
• Formosan Black Bear
• Made the small ball enrichment's available to the Arctic Wolf.
• The Indian Rhino will now sometimes prefer to walk in shallow water, in addition to its usual land-based walking and surface swimming behaviours.
• Fixed Dingo disappearing when moving camera closer to the body while using the Water Pool Enrichment.
• Fixed a bug where social grouping and follow behaviours sometimes ended prematurely, resulting in diminished herding.
• General audio bug fixes and improvements.
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Timed Scenario

Timed Scenario

• A new timed scenario set in the mountains of Luzon. Help push conservational awareness by transforming disused rice terraces into a beacon of conservation ready for the grand opening ceremonies. Available in the free 1.4 update.

Animal Talks

• As a new way to educate and entertain your guests, Animal Talks can now be scheduled in your zoos. Guests will gather at the designated talk point to watch a live presentation held by an Educator to learn about the animals in your zoo.
• Animal Talk points are purchased from the Education facilities menu and can be freely placed around paths in your zoos.
• Animal Talks can be customized and scheduled on the point’s info panel.
• Select a nearby species as the target of the presentation.
• Schedule at which time of the year the Animal Talk will be held.
• Set the mood for upcoming talks by selecting music to play while not active.
• Clever placement of Animal Talk points next to habitats with low enough barriers will allow the Educator to feed some animals during their presentation.
• Some of the more curious animals in your zoos will be interested to check out just what your guests are looking at. Keep an eye out for some bold individuals showing off!
• A new staff type, the Educator, has been added to the game to tend to Animal Talks.
• Educators can be hired through the staff panel like any other staff member.
• They can be assigned specific Animal Talks via the workzone manager, or will take care of Animal Talks autonomously.
• Like other staff members, Educators can be trained to maximise the impact Animal Talks have on your guests.
• The new Animal Talks management UI helps you keep an overview of all talks scheduled and available in your zoo.
• New Animal Talk animations and audio have been added to a select list of adult animals, which have a chance to play during an Animal Talk in their habitat:
• African Elephant
• African Wild Dog
• Arctic Wolf
• Bengal Tiger
• Bonobo
• Bornean Orangutan
• Colombian White-faced Capuchin Monkey
• Common Ostrich
• Common Warthog
• Dingo
• Giant Otter
• Giant Panda
• Grey Seal
• Grizzly Bear
• Himalayan Brown Bear
• Hippopotamus
• Indian Elephant
• Indian Peafowl
• Indian Rhinoceros
• Japanese Macaque
• King Penguin
• Mandrill
• Polar Bear
• Pygmy Hippo
• Red Ruffed Lemur
• Ring Tailed Lemur
• Saltwater Crocodile
• Siberian Tiger
• Snow Leopard
• Spotted Hyena
• Timber Wolf
• West African Lion
• Western Lowland Gorilla
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Water Temperature Regulator

With Update 1.4, we’ll be adding a new Water Temperature Regulator facility that will allow you to customise the temperature of all water volumes within its range. This will help you have full control over the welfare of animals that like to spend a lot of time in the water, which will allow you to ensure your animals have maximum comfort in your care.

Using the Water Temperature Regulator Information Info Panel, the facility can be customised to suit the layout and requirements in your zoos, as you’ll be able to:

• Adjust the Regulator's effective range
• Adjust the target temperature all water volumes in range should be regulated to
• There will also be a new Heat map mode added to the Water overview for the Water Temperature Regulator, that will show you:
• The current range of each Water Temperature Regulator in your zoo
• The temperature each Water Temperature Regulator is set to
• The temperature of each volume of water in your zoo
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Transport ride management screen

• Update 1.4 will include a new management screen that will summarise all of the Transport rides in the zoo. This screen will enable you to make faster and more accurate decisions about your transport rides to better manage your zoo.

  The new Overview Tab will inform you on:

• The number of different rides
• The most popular ride in your zoo
• The most popular station in your zoo
• The total annual profit for all rides
• The total number of guests that have used the rides in the current year
• The lifetime profit from the rides
• The Stats tab will break down each individual ride into more detailed information for you, by showing you:
• Annual profit
• Annual guests
• Total track length
• What stations guests are using
• Each station's scenery rating
• The Management Tab will allow you to edit:
• The number of trains (only while the ride is closed)
• The number of cars per train (only while the ride is closed)
• Maximum speed
• Ticket price (per station)
• The status of the ride (overall and per station)
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New Scenery

• Font: Noto Sans Alphabet (Large, Small, and Planes)
• Font: Boogaloo (Planes)
• Decals Set (11 assets)
• Barriers
• New glass barrier variant with glass habitat gate
• Features flexi colour posts to enable blending into faux rocks and terrain textures
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• Paths
• 2 x New guest paths:
• Natural Path
• Water Path
• 3 x New Queues Paths:
• NEW - Wooden Queue Path (horizontal and vertical variants).
• NEW - Duplicated "beach board" guest paths to the ride queue paths (horizontal and vertical variants).
• NEW - Duplicated "natural" guest paths to the ride queue paths.
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• Foliage
  • Eel Grass (3x variants)
  • Weeping Willow (3x variants)
  • Lotus (3x variants)
  • Hydrangea (3x variants)
  • Temple Plant (6x variants)
  • Water Banana Plant (3x variants)
  • Virginia Creeper (5x variants)

• General bug fixes
• Fixed the Alpine Currant Small foliage displaying a black texture on its lower leaves when light is shined on it
• Fixed Indian Street Light 01 & New World Decorative Lights Bracket adding to power cost when they do not produce light
• The following three lights no longer require power as they use flames as a light source
• African Lamp Post 01
• East Asia Lamp Post 02
• Indian Wall Light Metal 02
• 33 new flipped quarter circle roof pieces to address this issue:

Game Modes

Staff

• Cash and Conservation Credit settings have been simplified when an unlimited amount is disabled.
• Fixed Keeper tablet having a red screen when in use.

Guests

• Fixed the missing clipboard from the Reporter who appears in some scenarios.
• Updated a fix to the slim adult male guest shirts to all fit over trousers.
• Fixed an issue where some users were reporting Protesters were still refusing to leave zoos.
• Fixed dark and dim textures appearing on the protestor signs.

Zoo Construction

• Fixed a bug where security cameras would not incur a yearly power cost.
• Visual tweaks on clean water density and caustic values.

UI

• Main Browser
• Added a new category for lettering and decal scenery assets in the main browser.
• Updated text for better clarity on the Education Menu categories.
• Fixed issues with the path edit align to grid button being in the wrong state.

</li>Franchise Mode</li>

• Multi-Select for Franchise Mode Animal Storage and rewards - Something that has been requested for a long time now, we're proud to bring you the multi-select tool to Franchise Mode Animal Storage! This will make it easier for you to manage your animals when the peacock breeding gets out of hand!
• Info panels
• Added "Out of Range" status to heaters and coolers. Heaters and coolers are limited so they can't go below / above the ambient temperature respectively, so the UI now shows this.
• Habitat info panel - Fixed the value next to the food icon under 'Maintenance' on the not showing the correct value.
• Shop info panel have been updated with minor improvements including new shop brand images.
• Info panel tabs are now saved when switching between different animals.
• Heatmaps
  • Vandalised objects for DLC 2-4 will now appear in heatmap.

  • Added lights found missing from the power heatmap.
    • South American Wall Light 02

    • Koala Light

    • Australian Wall Light
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    • Added a specific water temperature heat map to the game.
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    • Help Topics
    • New help topics for:
    • Animal talks
    • Educator
    • Water temperature regulators
    • Water temperature heat map
    • Water depth
    • Reporters
    • Updated help topics for:/li>
      • Inspectors
    • Management Screens
    • Added "deselect all" support to animal storage tabs.
    • Fixed Animal Market list displaying the first entry cut in half.
    • Fixed the Salary slider in the Zoo Management > Staff not allowing the player to click and hold.
    • Fixed the Guest Facilities menu not displaying running costs.
    • Fixed No highlights used in management and animal list.
    • Settings
    • Fixed heatmap temperature units remaining in Celsius when game units changed to Fahrenheit in the settings interface.
    • Fixed FXAA option to provide correct visual effect.
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    Localisation

    • Fixed some of the Rusted and Painted Metal Rods having incorrect sizes in their name.
    • Fixed Glass Pane Rectangle 4m x 4m and 4m x 2m being mislabelled.
    • Fixed Inconsistent terms in the Animal trading/Habitat trading when accessing the same menu from object browser or trade centre UI.
    • Various localisation fixes.

    Stability

    • Further crash and stability fixes.

    Known Issues

    • Plant assets will disappear when placed in water if it has been duplicated from an existing asset.
    • In Franchise and Challenge modes the new "Thick Glass" barrier type is not available to research if you load a save where the barrier research is already fully completed. The new "Thick Glass" barrier type is available in sandbox mode.

    Original: Publisher and develoepr Frontier Developments today revealed more details about Planet Zoo's Update 1.4, which launches on December 8.

    The free Update 1.4 brings a handful of new additions to Planet Zoo, including the Water Temperature Regulator.

    Players can use this new facility to customize the temperature of all volumes of water located within its range.

    
    

    Planet Zoo Update 1.4 Release Date

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    It comes with a new heat map of its own, ensuring that you have more tools to make those animal friends who enjoy spending a good chunk of time in water more comfortable.

    Speaking of animals that are fond of water, Planet Zoo's Update 1.4 also brings the Underwater Box Feeder.

    This is a new feeding station that will add another food enrichment option but only for Saltwater Crocodiles at first. Other animals will be able to use it in future updates.

    If you're having trouble managing all the cool rides in your zoo, a new management screen that will summarize all of them is also on the way.

    When Update 1.4 drops, you'll have easy access to a list of all your rides, their popularity, profit, alongside individual details like track length and annual guest numbers.

    Planet Zoo will also receive a new timed challenge scenario set in the Philippines, as well as Animal Talk Points where Educators – a new type of staff – can share their knowledge about different animal species with your guests.

    You can read all about Planet Zoo's upcoming Update 1.4 in the most recent Steam post detailing its features.

    Planet Zoo is now available on PC.

    Keep updated on the latest PC Gaming news by following GameWatcher on Twitter, checking out our videos on YouTube, giving us a like on Facebook, and joining us on Discord. We may also include links to affiliate stores, which gives us a small commission if you purchase anything via them. Thank you.