@arctisman: Thank you for your kind words!

Hi Alcator, I really liked the Challenge of this mal, greatly designed. I had a few situations where I thought dangit, they really blocked off a few easy solutions. I did not even read the description here but found the easy access metal in the forest. Once you have that it is quite easy afterwards.

Finally I have moved my settlement into the forest, blocked the "windows" and outflows of the starting area and created a huge reservoir. From there I laid a pipe to the forest river, which has a one edge downflow. Thereby limiting the flow to 2.2 CMS I have build myself a perpetually flowing river :D The reservoir is so big and is filled with 18 CMS sources at the moment in temperate cycles so the water is enough for even 30 day badtides or droughts. I did all this on hard with ~30 beavers.

Cool map, tight challenge, well done! And I cant understand the other comments, it is so great to have a real challenge.

@swimspud: Thank you!

I came here because of RCE, but damn is this map (the updated version here) SO MUCH FUN! I've played like 3 or 4 long play troughs, each with a different twist. the growth challenge is real, bur you also get rewarded. this and the base game map "terrace" are my favorites. awesome job Alcator

Re: the metal, I get that this is supposed to be a "challenge map", however tedium is not synonymous to challenge. Getting to the metal is tedious.

Not sure why all the hate about having to jump a hurdle to get metal started. Downloading to give it a run, see if it makes me change my mind lol.

yo, this is that map rce is doing

@susnake: Did you perhaps switch from Stable version to the Experimental branch (or vice versa)? They have separate saves.

Hello,
I played with another old zoo ("broken" one), loaded the game today and now all my settlements are gone and I don't even have a save!

@puchiko: Nothing is preventing you from opening the map in the editor and making the scrap metal in the base accessible.

The name of the map is Zoo _escape_. It's a challenge map where you are forced by circumstances to leave the starting location to really thrive.

I see the author deleted my original comment and doesn't like criticism. I will say again the scrap metal scarcity is unnecessary and not fun. I hope the author improves on their next work and learns from this.

just a positive note that I like the scrap difficulty. Lot's of comments don't like it, I find it an interesting challenge.

Hi, @Olga, there is freely accessible metal in the map, and most players can get to it on Normal difficulty around Cycle 4.

playing with RCE :)

I like the map but I am frustrated with it because of the metal. I did not read the comments, only the gameplay instructions that state you need explosive to be able to mine the scraps. This instructions are flawed though, as you need badwater, and hence a badwater pump for explosives. And a badwater pump needs... metal blocks. I now corrected the map in the editor, but I have to restart the game. Bummer, as I already have quite some time with it under my belt.

@Adybowla - thanks for that - some of us just want to track RCE and his incidents !

DJ: please read the rest of the discussion...

Its been a good map so far, but you cannot access any of the ruins because they're all 1 block under ground. So it makes it nearly impossible to get any metal.

here guys this is the map befote the update https://psteamcommunity.yuanyoumao.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3487509215

@mike: I could do that, but I don't want people playing that version, because it was a temporary 'fix' and lacked some important features.

I was looking for the version of the map that RCE is using in his latest you tube series - it looks different to this one, is he using the version you have hidden that did not have overhangs ? if so, can you un-hide it and allow us to play the same version as RCE is using ?

@Dr Knox: Open the map in the Map Editor. Remove ONE TILE OF DIRT near the ruins in the middle. Save it. Play it. Enjoy it.

The whole forcing us to grind for metal. Not cool. Pretty amateur. Map looks great, but that's where it ends, looks. Adding unnecessary difficulties is the trademark of failed game and game content creators. It's a super amateur move.

alex: This IS the correct version. It is supposed to contain overhangs. I've hidden the crappy version without overhangs, because it was really bad.

I just tried to load this map and it still contains the old style of overhangs instead of the update 7 3D dirt. Is the updated one on the workshop somewhere?

@Diddums: Congrats! Glad you enjoy it.

I'm on cycle 16 now, bridged out through the windows AND over the top. Have blocked off the bad water supplies and backed them over the top and off the map with a 2 high levee wall on each side. I'm collecting scrap from the (now) clean water rivers except when there's a bad tide, and as soon as I get around to it, the top water supplies will spill inside and be ferried safely to the zoo wall drains. The central lake has floodgates so it stays 95% full and always clean.
This is a great fun map to play around on. I still don't have any explosives :D

I had a lot of fun on this map! Great concept :)

Mr_noob:

There is 150 scrap metal in the forest. That is enough to get 60 metal blocks; of which you need 5 for badwater pump and 30 for explosives factory (so you still have 25 for e.g. 2 Gravity Batteries).

With that, once you unlock dynamite, you can access the heap of scrap in the middle of your colony, you can also blow away the back of the outside badwater rivers, thus eliminating their flow around the exit holes.

so far for me the only way to get metal is on the scrapyard side from the badwater sources when there is a drought. The metal in the zoo is inaccessible with explosives which feels a bit silly.
Otherwise map is great, early game is fun. Started playing because of RCE. He got the architect version, his one is so much less hard for droughts but a bit harder for badtides.

diverting bad water gonna be a challenge without sluices

I didn't find this nearly as tedious getting metal as others. I was up on the top accessing metal by the end of cycle 2. The trick is using stacked single storage containers to scale up the wall quickly with very few materials aside from stairs. It was only 3 logs per block instead of the 12 or 20 for leveee's or dam's. Once up top, there's a spot to drop stairs down into the metal lining the rim of the top, that's easily accessible. I believe it's on the Wolf Forest side.

I used the same process to partially block water sources on either side to hold water in the basin, and in cycle 3 into 4, I'm pushing for a smelter, so I can get sluice's in place to divert bad water from the rim sources and the sources near the village center.

@Diddums: You don't have explosives until you exit the central enclosure, so...

thanks Alcator! I didn't know about that (I've never tried more than one block down)
I may be better off blasting through with dynamite or tunnelling though - that's going to be a lot of steps

I like this map, but there's a lot of hidden gotchas that make it really frustrating. You sir, are insidious. o7

@Nico: Well done! If you haven't used any explosives, that's impressive. (With explosives, it should be ~5)

23 Levees and the badwater sources in the wolf forest are redirected of the map

Diddums: Beavers can build unlimited height difference down. Once you are in the window, just tell your beavers to place platforms into the contaminated water, to create a bridge.

I'm pretty new at the game, but I don't see any way to climb down the walls back to land, even if I build steps up through the waterfalls? I know there's a ladder mod, do I need that to exit the 'zoo'?
p.s. fun map to start with!

Came to play this map because a i saw it in a RCE timberborn vid, its been fun so far

Would be good but it is needlessly tedious. Arches at the start instead of blocks forcing double the dam blocks before first drought. The sucken scrap which doesn't allow harvesting unless you have explosives. in hard it is damn near impossible to make it past the first badtide. Just makes it annoying to play. and I deleted my settlement once I finished the first bad tide.

civil vid checkin in

such a tedious process to get scrap metal for no reason

@Jsmichau: It's the other way round: what RCE was playing was messed up. This is as close to the original Update 6 version as I could make it.

Is it normal that the 3D terrain is messed up. I saw that map on Youtube with RCE, but what I got was natural overhang instead of 3D dirt block

It's just something I like to do in many of my maps. By forcing you out of your 'comfort zone' (starting area), I ensure that your settlement is spread out early.

Feel free to edit the map in the editor and create access to the enclosure metal :-)

oh i see...
but why? :)

In order the get metal, you will first need to leave the enclosure. Try the Wolf forest (to the East on the first image). There's 150 scrap metal safely available there. All you need is 100 of it to get explosives going :-)

Or you can dive into the contaminated rivers just outside for metal.

Once you get explosives, you'll be able to free the metal inside your enclosure.

metal? how to get METAL?

I can't harvest any of the metal either in the starting area or on the surrounding wall...?