Embedded Files
8/13/2025 update: This latest update sharpens up some in-game text and works out a couple more of African Adventure's odd oversights.
Where Zoo Tycoon 2: Folksy Facelift's goal was to give the game a massive overhaul in several different areas, all while trying to keep the game's art style intact, Vanilla-Friendly Fixes is an effort to try and fix some of the game's actual problems and oversights, implement some quality of life changes that don't take anything away from gameplay, and try and make everything a little more consistent and coherent - not to mention, compatible with most other downloads.*
* It won't work well with things like space hacks, biome sensitivity hacks and sweeping overhauls like Radical Remake and Folksy Facelift, this should be stressed
Screenshots
Screenshots
These were taken over various stages in development and may not reflect the final release in some regards.
Download
Download
I'd like to extend thanks to users in the The Restorers server for giving feedback during the development of Vanilla-Friendly Fixes, with special thanks to Lgfcm for bringing attention to, and providing solutions to, fix a number of issues both with a release candidate build and unacknowledged vanilla game issues.
For now, only a manual installation option is available for Vanilla-Friendly Fixes, but an installer option might be available one day.
List of changes
List of changes
Most of the changes made in Vanilla-Friendly Fixes are very under-the-hood and not easy to pick up on in normal gameplay. Nothing here is meant to be big and in-your-face - ideally, if someone had it installed without knowing, they wouldn't pick up on anything actually having changed.
Below is a list of the vast majority of changes that VFF makes. Changes made in recent updates have a New! tag.
GENERAL
GENERAL
Though not acknowledged in each individual module's sections, some objects' fame unlock requirements have been changed to try and more closely align with the base game's logic. Objects don't unlock at half-stars (animals are exempt from this rule) and very little unlocks once zoos reach 5 stars.
Applicable animals of all biomes and popularity statuses can climb on appropriate trees and rocks.
Certain animals that poop near water shouldn't get stuck while trying to find a place to lay one down.
Several relevant animals' Zoopedia entries have been tweaked, labeling them as "Lower Risk" instead of "Low Risk" for consistency with the base game and Endangered Species. New! The taxonomy sections for many animals have also been variously completed, standardized and tightened where appropriate.
Additional modules
Additional modules
In addition to the main expansion pack-based packages, these additional ones are also included for extra, more optional quality of life changes.
Restored Guest & Staff Speed
Restored Guest & Staff Speed
Up until Marine Mania's release, guests and staff used to walk at a pretty brisk pace. This fix restores their former speed - maybe your guests will have an easier time making it to the bathroom now!
Taxonomy Touchups
Taxonomy Touchups
This module makes gentle adjustments to a couple of animals' Zoopedia entries and locations to try and better reflect what they seem to be intended to be. Specific animals impacted include:
Greater flamingo (location change)
Reticulated giraffe (Zoopedia edits)
Ostrich (location change)
Warthog (Zoopedia edits)
Curious, more file-savvy players can dig into the files to check out the reasoning behind these changes, including musings on animals that weren't changed.
Expect more addition modules in future releases!
Base Game
Base Game
General
General
In many places, animals' biome tolerance levels have been rolled back to how they were at launch. Given their real-world plasticity, animals like elephants and kangaroos should really not be as intolerant of other biomes as they are, let alone ones so similar to their primary ones. Some specific animals have been left picky, mind.
The specific animals affected by this change are as follows: grizzly bear, chimpanzee, African elephant, red kangaroo, black rhinoceros, Bengal tigerMany behaviors that the vanilla game assigns to specific biomes, like only Savannah animals being able to ram trees, have been freed from their environmental shackles.
Animals
Animals
Baby beavers can blink now. Hooray!
Baby dromedary camels' sounds should now work properly.
A specific Nile crocodile eating behavior has been fixed.
Thomson's gazelles can now eat and drink from wooden drinking troughs, in addition to metal ones.
Baby reticulated giraffes can also blink now. Hooray!
Greater flamingos now live for about a year (the same as a moose) as opposed to only four months.
Snow leopards can now use food troughs.
Moose cows can now attack guests, and can display the same variants as males. They can't rub trees anymore, though.
Ostriches can now use food troughs.
Objects
Objects
Carcasses hold a little more food now.
Befitting their end-game availability, substrate piles now hold much more food and impact guests more when they see animals using them. Like carcasses, they also stimulate animals and make them a little bit dirtier.
Measures have been put in place to ensure guests will prioritize sitting and eating over standing and eating.
The lily of the valley and white lilies flowers seem to have been intended to use the unused European Temperate Forest location icon, and the former is explicitly mentioned as Eurasian in its description and Zoopedia entry. This has been mended for both of these plants.
In an effort to try and avoid animals and plants using map location icons for biomes that aren't their own, the spinosa bush and yellow cedar tree have been given brand new location icons, both pulled from a (if I say so myself, pretty darned accurate) recreation of the map the base game's location icons use.
Did you know that concrete shelters can hold more animals than other size-tiered shelters, with four animals per small shelter and six per large shelter? The Zoopedia didn't disclose this - until now.
Guests will now occasionally admire lamps and flowerbeds, which sate their amusement need a little bit. Neither have any real utility in the base game, they're just somewhat expensive eye candy for the player. Lamps are much less effective at amusing guests than statues, arches or even flowerbeds, mind.
Regular and fancy restaurants now satisfy guests' bathroom needs, but family restaurants give kids a bigger happiness boost. For balancing purposes, regular restaurants now cost $800. Restaurants now also all help guests' comfort needs, to varying extents.
Bonus Downloads
Bonus Downloads
Animals
Animals
Asian elephants are now slightly smaller. Their tolerance for wet and cold biomes have been rebalanced, they are now fairly comfy in temperate and tropical forests. Also, their guest interaction works now.
Black leopards can now use food troughs.
Musk oxen are slightly smaller as well.
Objects
Objects
Reflecting the Zoopedia, candy cane carts now resonate most strongly with children.
Select animals from the expansions can now use the stuffed prey dummy - other carnivorous bears, large cats and dogs, Komodo Dragons, dimetrodons and velociraptors will play with it.
Ditto for holiday presents. Animals that are now able to play with apple presents include Masai giraffes, Barbary apes, Dwarf sicilian elephants, geladas, crested gibbons, mandrills and orangutans, while any animal that can now play with the stuffed prey dummy should also be able to play with beef presents as well.
Endangered Species
Endangered Species
General
General
Where applicable, objects and features introduced in Endangered Species that were reused for African Adventure have been moved back under the ES filter:
- Jeep Vehicle Station
- Road
- Crossing Gate
- Vehicle Gate
- Salt LickThe following animals' biome tolerances have been softened: Spectacled bear, Przewalski's wild horse, Komodo dragon, Spanish lynx, markhor, Florida panther, Baird's tapir, African wild dog, gray wolf
Objects
Objects
The lady ferns' LODs aren't broken anymore, giving them a richer appearance close up.
The red oat grass now has its own unique location icon, instead of reusing the red kangaroo's one.
The cat climber now falls under the Endangered Species content filter.
Animals
Animals
Female giant sable antelopes can now attack guests.
The spectacled bear's guest interaction has been fixed.
Caribou are now a little smaller, and females can now attack guests.
Baby crested gibbons can now drink from landscape water.
The Przewalski's wild horse's guest interaction has been fixed.
New! Komodo dragon eggs' hatching meters shouldn't prematurely turn red anymore.
Female markhor can now attack guests.
Guests actually give a hoot about Florida panthers now! In the base game, they're barely more highly regarded than any other cat. Now guests like them as much as Giant pandas and Ethiopian wolves.
The scimitar horned oryx's guest interaction has been fixed.
It hasn't quite been fixed, but the Baird's tapir's guest interaction is a little more coherent now.
In the vanilla game, Galapagos giant tortoises live for the same amount of time as Nile crocodiles, Komodo dragons, Deinosuchus and Dimetrodon. Now, they can live for up to 90 months, or just over 7 and a half years - longer than any other animal in the game.
In the vanilla game, guests are strangely okay with having their feet mauled by wolverines. Not anymore!
AFRICAN ADVENTURE
AFRICAN ADVENTURE
General
General
The Africa-decorated Jeeps, added in this expansion, are now sorted under the appropriate filter.
The following animals' biome tolerances have been softened: Aardvark, African buffalo, Warthog, White rhinoceros
A few tweaks to animals' locations, mostly Scrub and Wetlands animals.
New! If an animal is not in the same habitat as a kopje, reptile pool, secretary bird nest or meerkat sentry post, they will no longer attempt to use them.
Animals
Animals
Reflecting the species' previously-very disingenuous Zoopedia entry, aardvarks can now tolerate many more biomes than just Savannahs and Grasslands. They also need slightly less space, and last but not least, they are cheaper. Guests don't enjoy being attacked by them anymore. They can now use the large scrub burrow. The large savannah burrow seems to have been made specifically for them, so they can still use them even though they don't belong to the right biome.
In the vanilla game, when secretary birds are ready to reproduce, they will wantonly fight other secretary birds to the death - even if they're potential suitors!! This has been changed to make it so they'll only engage birds of the same sex in combat. They can also use food troughs now.
Bongos have WAY less intense space requirements! In the regular game, bongos need more space than elephants! Now they need around as much space as a sable antelope. Its guest interaction has been fixed.
The African buffalo's biome preferences have been softened, and its guest interaction has been fixed.
For the caracal's guest interaction, the vanilla game makes the... fascinating choice of having the caracal do a regular big cat attack animation while the guest reacts as if they were being attacked by a Spanish lynx. You're left with a caracal yowling at a guest who seems to be having a panic attack. This has been changed to the caracal attacking the guest as if it were a Spanish lynx.
The gerenuk boasts a brand new location icon (well, shared with the spinosa bush in the core module).
The striped hyena now uses the large desert burrow instead of the large boreal burrow.
The Masai giraffe's guest interaction animation has been fixed. The crew behind ES and AA don't seem to have tested these very much.
Internally, the Nile monitor is a Schrodinger's wetland animal - it has a WetlandsAnimal boolean, but it also has a ScrubAnimal boolean and a WetlandsOdd boolean left over from the Komodo dragon. This has been cleaned up a bit. They also need less space, and are just a bit less eager to indulge in cannibalism.
New! Their eggs' hatching meters shouldn't prematurely turn red anymore.No more stinkin' ratels - they're not gone, they just don't stink anymore! Also, like with the wolverines in the last expansion, guests don't like them razing their toes. They can now rest in large grasslands burrows.
African spurred tortoises now require much less space. They also move slightly faster now, to offset their smaller size than Galapagos giant tortoises. Also, nevermind guests not getting mad when interacting with them anymore, their guest interaction works in the first place! New! Their eggs are also assigned to the same location as hatched tortoises.
White rhinos are now more ambivalent towards biomes other than Scrub, like the rest of AA's Scrub animals.
The warthog has softened biome preferences. Its guest interaction now happens at a more reasonable distance. Like its giant, extinct cousin, it can rest in small concrete shelters - and in large savannah burrows, mostly so that shelter can have a user from the Savannah biome besides the African wild dog.
The wildebeest's guest interaction has been fixed.
Like the ratels, Ethiopian wolves don't stink anymore.
Marine Mania
Marine Mania
General
General
Just about all applicable animals have had their base donation values adjusted to account for popularity. Almost all of them are just a dead-bottom 60 by default, even super popular animals like orcas and white sharks. Worth mentioning is that West Indian manatees have been knocked down in this area.
The detail objects for the marine biomes now reflect the base game biomes they most closely reflect:
- Benthic = Scrub
- Coastal = Brand new! Based off of Grassland
- Pelagic = Boreal Forest
- Reef = Tropical RainforestThe tussac grass's Zoopedia entry has been fixed; no more papyrus icon. Its location has also been changed to reflect the fact that it grows on land and not out in the open ocean.
Reef rocks have less insane hitboxes now.
New! The Benthic biome's shore textures are no longer broken.
Objects
Objects
If an animal gives birth on a rock island or lays eggs on a desert island, it will be able to breed again afterwards, and zoo messages will appear for island shelter birthing tasks as well.
All crocodilians and penguins should be able to hunt live fish prey now.
Animals
Animals
West Indian manatees are no longer immortal.
Guests don't like being impaled by blue marlins and narwhals anymore.
Like the manatees, whale sharks have been dealt a humbling hand.
Owing to the vanilla interaction between guests and white sharks being utterly broken, it's been given a relatively novel one here; the shark bolts in to grab the guest and... well... yikes! This not-so-gruesome display satisfies the shark's hunger need. They're also called "white sharks" in the Zoopedia like they are when adopted, not "great white sharks".
Guests don't like being bowled over by a ton's worth of Pacific walrus meat anymore, but they do like when walruses communicate with each other now.
This is something of a weasel call; solely in the interest of a little variety, the false killer whale has been moved to the Reef biome. Its Coastal compatability has been kept mostly intact. Adults also draw guests now, for some reason guests have zero interest in seeing them in the vanilla game.
EXTINCT ANIMALS / DINO DANGER PACK
EXTINCT ANIMALS / DINO DANGER PACK
General
General
Disruptive changes EA makes to guests perceiving animals as threats have been reverted. Old downloads hopefully shouldn't make guests panic around enclosed animals, and freeroaming peafowl should no longer scare guests either. Guests will still flee from rampaging animals, however, and certain animals are predisposed to scaring the pants off of zoogoers when uncaged. Obvious "scary" dinosaurs will scare guests more often when on the loose, like when attacking zoogoers, not just when "behaving aggressively".
Caveman are now parented to male guests and have unique internal icons.
Select Extinct Animals campaign maps no longer have preset fossil locations, opening the door for better compatability with downloads that include new fossils.
If a guest is eaten by a Carnotaurus or a Tyrannosaurus rex, the dinosaur's hunger need will be satisfied. Check, please...?
Donation values for super aurochs, Carnotaurus, Styracosaurus, Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus have been adjusted.
Mated pairs of Carnotaurus, Stokesosaurus and T. rex can now play fight with each other, as they're supposed to going off of the game files.
The biome sensitivity values of the four Dino Danger dinosaurs (Carnotaurus, Styracosaurus, Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus) have been updated to match the rest of the extinct animals. This means that they need climate objects, like glaciers and misty springs, to be fully satisfied with their enclosures.
Objects
Objects
The biome objects now affect animals' environment needs equally, multiple tar pits and misty springs aren't necessary for maximum satisfaction anymore. Glaciers are a little smaller for ease of portability, too. As a fun wrinkle, tar pits also satiate grassland animals now.
Deinonychus, Deinosuchus and Utahraptor can now play with the Dino Prey Dummy.
Like the glacier, the rock shelter is now a little smaller to make it easier to fit in exhibits.
Animals
Animals
Ankylosaurus now excrete dinosaur poop.
In the vanilla game, guests can pet escaped aurochs - and absolutely hate the experience for whatever reason. This has been amended. Also fixed is the fact that mother aurochs and their calves are unable to interact, thanks to Lgfcm for providing code to amend this weird issue, and finally, super aurochs' Zoopedia buttons link to the super aurochs Zoopedia entry.
Adult Carnotaurus are slightly larger. This animal also has a new location icon.
Consistent with the other 4-star extinct animals, saber-toothed cats are more expensive.
Just to compensate for the smaller utahraptors more than anything, adult Deinonychus are now smaller, very slightly so.
Dodo chicks and dwarf Sicilian elephant calves are now quantified as small prey.
Guests won't be upset after interacting with dodos anymore.
Kentrosaurus and Stegosaurus now excrete dinosaur poop. The former's binomial name in its Zoopedia entry has been fixed for good measure.
The American mastodon can now rest in elephant houses.
Adult Stokesosaurus are just a bit smaller. They've also been bumped down the food chain a little bit.
Male Triceratops can blink now. Hooray!
Adult Tyrannosaurus rex are a little larger - funnily enough, their super sizes in the normal game are practically perfect for a respectably-sized T. rex, so those values have been used for the normal rexes here. One of the Extinct Animals tutorials, 'Dealing with Dinosaurs', has been changed to reflect this fix.
Adult Utahraptor are smaller, markedly so. This animal has also been bumped down the food chain. They now excrete dinosaur poop.
Please be aware that dinosaurs in pre-existing save files will not have their sizes changed with VFF installed.
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