Planet Zoo 2's launch was rough for some players, with performance trouble, stuck guests and animals behaving oddly, while others had a smooth time. Frontier keeps an "under investigation" page of known problems and has been releasing patches regularly. This page sums up what's changed and lists the bugs you're most likely to hit, with fixes.
What's been changed or fixed
Gameplay changes
- Deluxe animals no longer need accreditation. The golden eagle, golden lion tamarin, great hammerhead shark, axolotl and blue-and-gold fusilier can be used straight away in Franchise mode.
- Franchise feels a bit easier overall, which some players welcomed and others felt took away from the challenge.
Bug fixes
- Too many diseases in aquariums: fixed. Before the patch, fish tanks caught disease far too often.
- Fake escapes: fixed. Some animals were flagged as escaped, or boxed, when they hadn't really got out.
- Animals boxing up: much better, especially for sharks and other aquatic animals.
- The move gizmo and snapping: early versions had a broken move/rotate gizmo, and position and angle snapping didn't work, which made precise building painful. Both are fixed.
- Floating objects: plants and rocks painted with brushes sometimes floated above the ground. They now sit on it properly.
- Performance: big builds were very slow for some players at launch. After the fixes, builders reported getting about twice as much done in the same time.
- Animals and pool floors: water animals can now swim closer (within about 2 m) to concrete pool floors, which makes shallow pools like touch pools easier.
New features added after launch
- Copy and paste for paths: you can now copy path pieces like scenery (Ctrl + C / Ctrl + V, Ctrl + D).
Still being looked at
Frontier's list included soft locks and hard locks (the game freezing), guests and staff getting stuck, staff quitting and walking off with animals, and various animal behaviour and animation problems.
Known bugs and workarounds
| What happens | What to do |
|---|---|
| Animals are boxed after loading a save or draining water | Click the animal and unbox it. Avoid draining a tank with animals in it if you can |
| Aviary netting only appears at the bottom of a very deep habitat | Drop one roof pole down into the habitat, apply the roof again (it now catches the poles on the rim), then lift the pole back up |
| A null barrier won't place | Use the terrain as the edge, or a concrete barrier hidden behind rocks |
| Birds won't fly to certain rock ledges | Put a perch or nest on the ledge, or move the bird there by hand |
| Keepers leave old food lying in a habitat | Refill the feeders (they clear the old food when they do) or request an urgent clean |
| Otters or other animals say they're freezing next to heaters | Put a heater in the water and raise the water temperature on the pump |
| Guests stuck under overlapping paths, slowly starving | Pick them up and drop them on a path, then fix the overlapping path |
| Railing colour won't change | Highlight the path edge again, or swap to a different railing and back |
| Train can't be tested | The track must be a full loop. Close it with temporary track first |
| Mist sprayer pieces don't spray | Use the regular mist effects instead |
| Seasons can't be paused | Save when the light is good; avoid long autumns on dark maps |
| Blueprint browser says "cannot connect to server" | The online service is temporarily down; try later |
| Staff walk through a decorative ditch or fake fence | Place a real (fake) fence or barrier piece so they path around it |
| An escape alert while you're still building the fence | It's because the habitat isn't closed yet; finish the barrier |
| Staff can't find a building | Add it to a work zone and check that a staff path reaches its door |
Tips to avoid problems
- Save often, especially before big terrain or water changes.
- Pause before editing barriers or water in a habitat with animals in it.
- Build on smooth ground. Many path and barrier errors ("terrain too uneven", "too steep") go away once you smooth the area first.
- Check the traversable heat map after every big decoration pass.