Terrain in Planet Zoo 2 has three tabs (paints, sculpting and stamps) plus a much better water tool. The biggest change from the first game: you can edit terrain while water is still in it.
Paints
- Paints with a small dotted icon show how that paint looks in different biomes. It's a preview, not a choice of variants.
- New soil paints: wetlands (great for covering big areas with small puddles) and water edges (looks best along shorelines). Painting another paint over them keeps the little water bodies.
- Snow stays painted regardless of climate. Waterlogged is similar to wetlands.
- You can plan a layout with paints first: sand for future paths, for example.
Sculpting tools
Tools come in opposite pairs: pull/push, smooth/sharpen and so on, plus flatten, roughen, attract and curl.
- Push: dig pools and moats.
- Pull: hills and mounds.
- Flatten to foundation: building pads and even pool rims. A reliable smooth-slope technique: pull to the maximum height, then low-intensity flatten-to-foundation with rapid click-and-drag, then a light smooth.
- Roughen: breaks up a too-perfect hill.
- Smooth: soften one side of a pond so animals can enter.
- Chisel: carves neat small water areas.
- The "deformation blocked by scenery" toggle protects terrain under placed scenery.
Stamps
Stamps raise or lower precise shapes (squares, circles, even pyramids). Toggle add/remove with R, use X for advanced move, and set height, width and angle snap. The large eroded and angular stamps generate whole mountains in one click. Turn on random rotation for natural results.
Elevated pools: stamp a raised block, then stamp a slightly narrower "remove" shape inside it to hollow it out, fill it with water and dress the rim with rocks.
Water tool
- Click to place water at the cursor's level; right-click on water to delete it.
- Select a water body to see its area and average depth, which is useful against species requirements.
- Colours: water tint, fog colour and mist colour.
- Surface: calm, breezy, rippling, flowing (rivers), choppy (sea).
- Presets: tropical, iron rich, aquarium, muddy (great for warthogs), swamp and river.
- Sliders for bubbles, fog and mist.
- Water ripples realistically around jets and waterfalls.
Check the map's base water level first. It differs per map; dig a small hole and see where water sits before planning a river.
Terrain and paths
Terrain can now be pulled right up to a path without errors, and even above barriers, which makes underground viewing areas much easier. If terrain refuses to cover something next to a path, soil panel scenery pieces bridge the gap.
Advanced collision settings
For sculpting terrain around enrichment items and scenery, disable these in Settings → Advanced: animal navigation terrain constraints, scenery collision, track collision and terrain collision.
Real examples of the terrain tools in use
Carving a river
- Dig a small test hole to find the map's natural water level.
- Use the flatten brush at that height to draw the river channel.
- Add water, then keep shaping the banks with smooth while the water is in.
- Use water edges paint along the banks and wetlands paint for marshy areas.
- Set the water surface to flowing for a river feel.
Building a hill guests walk through
- Pull the terrain up into a mound over a path tunnel.
- Use flatten to foundation at low intensity, rapidly clicking and dragging, to smooth the slopes.
- Where terrain won't cover the edge of the path, place soil panels to bridge the gap.
- Cover the mound with grass and trees so it looks like the tunnel goes into a natural hill.
Making a deep aquarium look bottomless
- Dig the middle of the tank much deeper than the edges.
- Leave rock shelves near the glass so guests see coral close up.
- Paint the walls behind the water the same blue as the water.
Moats and natural barriers
You don't always need a fence. A stamped moat (stamp tool set to remove) between the guest area and the animals can act as the barrier, with a null barrier on top. Combine it with rocks so it looks natural. Always check the traversable heat map, because a moat that's too shallow or too narrow won't stop jumpers.
Map limits
Every map has an edge, shown as a dotted line. You can't build beyond it, and some pre-placed rocks outside the line can't be moved (you can copy them, though). Check where the edge is before planning a big area right up against it.
Terrain costs money
In Franchise mode, changing the terrain costs money just like building. Big flattening jobs can eat a surprising amount of a starting budget, so plan the shape before you start pushing hills around.