NEWS
After years in development - this project started in the middle of 2019 - I'm pleased to announce that the first major project that will be hosted here, Zoo Tycoon 2: Folksy Facelift, has been given a proper release date: December 20th, 2022!
What To Expect
On release, Zoo Tycoon 2: Folksy Facelift will be quite wide in its scope. It will be offered in two formats: as a .zip file that the user must manually extract into their Zoo Tycoon 2 folder and, similar to some very, very old UXPs, as an executable that should automatically install everything. Due to the manner in which it will be packaged, every expansion is required in order for the mod to work as intended. Most/all of the bonus downloads are highly recommended as well.
Folksy Facelift changes lots of things, and may be incompatible with other downloads that modify things like the UI and the behaviors and attributes of existing assets, like "gooeys" and space hacks.
As for the content and changes one can expect:
Several animals have been resized to more accurately reflect their real-world counterparts, typically scaled off of hip and shoulder height to compensate with the animals' stylized proportions. Whenever possible, the animals' sizes are based off of rough averages as opposed to their maximum possible sizes.
A few animals (mostly in Extinct Animals) have had their textures and occasionally their models modified to make them look more like their real-life counterparts. These changes range from subtle model tweaks to moderate reskins to drastic design overhauls.
New variants are practically everywhere - not only have several animals been given extra splashes of color, but several plants come in an array of new colors and adult guests are far more varied in terms of what they can wear. To a lesser extent, adult guests now have slightly more body type variation.
Speaking of plants, more than 15 new plants will be included to make up for the fact that the Zoo Tycoon 2: African Adventure expansion pack was released with absolutely none to speak of, including the giant groundsel, Atlas cedar and Hydnora africana! (note: plants in image are not to scale)
Though not terribly many animals have been modified in such a manner, some have been given new or modified behaviors, lots of which aren't for the faint of heart - for example, certain male big cats won't play nice with cubs that aren't their own. Be careful when planning exhibits, and be sure to treat the animals well... in some cases, if you don't, your bottom line might not be the only thing that suffers.
Every single animal in the game has been given an overhaul in terms of what biomes they can and can't happily live in, primarily using the IUCN Red List and Animal Diversity Web as references. A few animals, as well as a few plants, have also been moved to different biomes.
Where applicable, animals' conservation statuses have been updated to reflect their current standings, and several plants have also been given conservation statuses.
Changes have been made to how guests react to animals being out of their enclosures, allowing for certain animals (e.g. tortoises and koalas) to roam outside their exhibits without terrifying zoo patrons. Not only that, but Ultimate Collection's scrapped guest gate and a brand new exhibit path have been added, allowing guests to go inside of exhibits (though they can't view animals from inside them, and if they pass through an exhibit with large or scary animals, they will still panic).
A few more additions and tweaks that you'll probably notice while in the game; let's not spoil everything here, shall we?
The initial release of Folksy Facelift will not spell the end of the project. It will continue to be updated into the foreseeable future, both to address any issues and oddities it may have, to tweak the game even further and to accompany several future projects that may or may not be planned (wink).
To summarize: ZT2:FF is coming out on December 20th, 2022. If you're looking forward to this date, mark your calenders, set a reminder or something of the sort - hopefully, this'll be the start of something big.