Ducks have been my most wanted animal for awhile now. So yes I want that gentleman!
Winter 2023 DLC Speculation
- Thread starter Leaf Productions
- Start date
We went from the name of the pack to birds, why? 
This chat is wild.
This chat is wild.
Welcome to the Planet Zoo community, where we go from 0-60 and back again in the span of 5 secondsWe went from the name of the pack to birds, why?
Just wait till next week, we either get excited over the new anniversary animal or start another tsunami of rage if nothing comes.We went from the name of the pack to birds, why?
you forget the rage if no one likes the choice
I feel the only rage justified was that for the first anniversary. That was lackluster, oh my.
I didn't expect anything beyond. Planet Coaster didn't get a free ride every year. I know we had an aniversary folder for a while, but costs at Frontier cut back so drastically, it wouldn't surprise me if there won't be any anniversary animal or things like that.
Honestly the choice must be reaaaaally bad for there to be any rage
like even animals I do not want like say uhhh tanuki or African leopard I would not mind if they were anniversary at all
I think they should give us an exhibit animal this time around as well tho :L
I stand on my position and expect the anniversary animal to be the american black bear. I think it's objectively one of, if not the best choice. Whatever people think about ABB, it's one of the missing piece to properly represent North America but as a lot of people are not much excited by the species, giving it us for free is a good deal.
That beeing said, if the situation is as terrible it is said for Frontier I don't know what we should expect and if we should expect something at all.
I'm rather selfishly hoping that things will settle down at Frontier and that the developers will be able to provide us with a few more DLCs. As I've said many times before, I think the game is already quite complete, but 2-3 more DLCs over 2024 to complete South America/Central America, Central Asia/India and the Arctic zone would be very welcome. I'm ready to give up on the idea of a bird expansion, even though I think it would boost the game's sales.
That beeing said, if the situation is as terrible it is said for Frontier I don't know what we should expect and if we should expect something at all.
I'm rather selfishly hoping that things will settle down at Frontier and that the developers will be able to provide us with a few more DLCs. As I've said many times before, I think the game is already quite complete, but 2-3 more DLCs over 2024 to complete South America/Central America, Central Asia/India and the Arctic zone would be very welcome. I'm ready to give up on the idea of a bird expansion, even though I think it would boost the game's sales.
The cost cutting is only recent and they would of finished the anniversary content much earlier than they actually release it so its unlikely to be affected future packs maybe this anniversary not likely.
oh I bet at least some people would be mad if it was something like the tundra wolf or the himalayan black bear
This comment really makes me wonder if people understand the internal dynamics of a company. You really think because Frontier has announced layoffs 2 weeks ago that means "welp no Anniversary animal now" like ??? Obviously the team has been working on the anniversary content and the winter DLC long before they decided to make cuts so those are not going to get affected, if anything next years content will, even then I doubt it given they will try to reduce expenses without hindering the market performance for their biggest sellers, which includes Planet Zoo.
Also why are people giving up on birds when it is so obvious their omission is intentional
I am still excited to see what birds they add in the future Gimme duckies and parrots!!!
I agree! If there's anniversary content, I'm sure they had it ready along with the Oceania pack and all files were translated together. They just left the anniversary part waiting to be released a bit later.
I don't think the cost cutting started three weeks ago and I also don't think that the anniversary animal is planned as long ahead as DLCs. I'm not saying it effects the winter DLC in any shape or form. But they will nit work for 3 months on an anniversary animal.
We know about the cost cutting only recent, but no one can tell me the management at Frontier looked at the numbers only three weeks ago and was like "whoops, now lets cut back on cost". With PZ it's noticeable in the updates for a year now in my opinion.
Froniter is notoriously cryptic about what is actually happening behind their doors but pack and updates take time not only to build but also to playtest and get ready for release it wouldnt surprise me that what ever they do for the anniversary was already done and ready by mid to late October. We also know nothing about pack timelines so we have all just assumed its finish one start the next but who knows they could be running 2 at a time having them take 6 months to make instead of 3. The layoffs may affect planet zoo but I dont think in a large meaningful way since this and jwe2 are frontiers babies and cash cows they will avoid firing as many people working on these games as possible I think the largest hit planet zoo will see is in marketing and community management we may see less community and franchise challenges or official engagement but content production is likely going to be unaffected. But we honestly have no clue how this is going to affect frontier or when we will start seeing the affects since frontiers beautiful strategy of silence means we have no idea how much is already in development.This comment really makes me wonder if people understand the internal dynamics of a company. You really think because Frontier has announced layoffs 2 weeks ago that means "welp no Anniversary animal now" like ??? Obviously the team has been working on the anniversary content and the winter DLC long before they decided to make cuts so those are not going to get affected, if anything next years content will, even then I doubt it given they will try to reduce expenses without hindering the market performance for their biggest sellers, which includes Planet Zoo.
Also why are people giving up on birds when it is so obvious their omission is intentional
I cant speak for other but I have personally given up on birds for a couple of reasons. One is that I think adding a completely free flight system is too much for the engine to handle with out it being very unoptimised and they likely gave up on that idea a long time ago my guess around the time of the europe pack which is when I think frontier really started to think about adding birds with the egg props being released along side the pack seemingly at random.
The bat in the twilight pack was I think frontiers way of testing the waters for flying exhibit animals as an alternative solution because when it first released it screamed flying birds but after the backlash from the bat itself or just the general idea that birds could be in the box I think frontier had trashed the idea of birds at least initially. I think thats at least why up until this point we havent seen free flight birds.
The probable reason why we havent seen more other birds is simply because mammals tend to be easier to make rigs for especially when they all share a similar body plan and we have alot of them and that in general mammals tend to be more charismatic. Up until the last 2 years we havent really started to run out of really iconic mammals so frontier didnt need to focus on birds but I have a feeling there will be a shift to at least include more ground birds such as the 2 in the last pack or that is potentially just a one off.
We may yet see flying birds in the walkthrough boxes because people have slowly at least in the forums changed their minds about whether birds should appear in them and the butterflies as an exhibit animal have done incredibly well proof that flying animals can work. They are also running out of viable options for walkthrough exhibits since as a concept the are pretty limited they are essentially just avairies they too big to repurpose as large exhibits since everything big enough to be in there could be a habitat animal anyways so it has to have another reason for needing lopped animations sloth had speed bats and butterflies had flying. If frontier doesnt want to spend the time making complicated rigs I could see them adding tree snakes and gliding animals to the walkthroughs to try and extend their lifespan but gliding animals are 100% possible as habitat animals and snakes could be. So unless they add birds, gliding animals or snakes the choice for exhibit boxes are limited since people screamed at the viper for being a regular exhibit and screamed at the flying fox for being a reuse.
A theory that is plausible but I also dont like is that they are waiting for a sequel to add birds since that would be a major selling point and would make the sequel standout from the original and yes I do think they have at least planned for maybe even started a pz sequel.
Keep in mind this is all just heavy speculation and my personal opinion. Sorry for the long post.
Yeah you're right. I was intentionally pessimistic and I overreacted. I know the anniversary content and the winter DLC are probably finished. I even think we'll have at least one DLC in 2024 but past that point I don't know what's going to happen.This comment really makes me wonder if people understand the internal dynamics of a company. You really think because Frontier has announced layoffs 2 weeks ago that means "welp no Anniversary animal now" like ??? Obviously the team has been working on the anniversary content and the winter DLC long before they decided to make cuts so those are not going to get affected, if anything next years content will, even then I doubt it given they will try to reduce expenses without hindering the market performance for their biggest sellers, which includes Planet Zoo.
Also why are people giving up on birds when it is so obvious their omission is intentional
Whatever, I send all my support to PZ dev and Frontier teams in general.
Who is saying anything about free flight at all? Walkthrough exhibits are clearly the way they would implement "flying" birds, just like they implemented bats and butterflies. Also for what I have seen the flying fox was gladly welcomed by most people? People were still requesting flying foxes after the bat, I think having a flying fox and a nocturnal bat is good enough variation for the game.
"Frontier wont add birds because they are harder" is not really a solid excuse, as you do not know if that is true or not, this is on the same line as when some people said "Frontier isn't going to add a porcupine because it is too difficult" because they didn't add porcupines right away after them reaching the top position in the meta wishlist. The truth is there is nothing stopping them from adding waterfowl or similar birds that would work exactly as existing ingame birds.
"Frontier wont add birds because they are harder" is not really a solid excuse, as you do not know if that is true or not, this is on the same line as when some people said "Frontier isn't going to add a porcupine because it is too difficult" because they didn't add porcupines right away after them reaching the top position in the meta wishlist. The truth is there is nothing stopping them from adding waterfowl or similar birds that would work exactly as existing ingame birds.
Highlands and Islands because of their isolation in general lead to different cultures and with that in mind lean better to scenery packs over animal packs. Mountain ranges like the Andes and Himalayas are prime examples. So i was thinking of a more generic animal pack that doesn't require specific scenery and scoops up a couple of cold climate animals as well.
'Tundra Animal Pack'
Musk Ox
Wolverine
Elk
Walrus
Alpine Marmot
Mountain Goat / Bighorn
Western Capercaillie
Walkthrough Exhibit options: Butterflies / Moths or Snowy Owl
Exhibit options: Adder, Alpine Longhorn Beetle, Alpine Salamander
'Tundra Animal Pack'
Musk Ox
Wolverine
Elk
Walrus
Alpine Marmot
Mountain Goat / Bighorn
Western Capercaillie
Walkthrough Exhibit options: Butterflies / Moths or Snowy Owl
Exhibit options: Adder, Alpine Longhorn Beetle, Alpine Salamander
Can someone explain to a confused german what an elk is, if a moose isn't? What we got in game would be "Elch" in my language and when I google elk vs. moose something else comes up as elk, but I have no idea how to check the german translation for whatever animal that is. I can only guess. Is it a Wapiti?