Spring 2024 DLC Speculation

I do think as time moved on each DLC has added less gameplay into the game.
Honestly we haven't seen any new gameplay since the aquatic pack. Each pack is the same gameplay as the base game. Here's a large scenery catalogue to choose from, here's some animals , go wild! Each dlc just makes the selection we have larger and more diverse gradually covering more and more areas of the world.

It's why the realistic expectation players realise only large expansions to gameplay such as dedicated aviaries and aquariums will introduce us something new to play with and change how we build certain parts of the zoo. South America, tundra, mountains, islands whatever, doesn't add anything new we don't have. It's very unlikely to happen given the trend of dlc releases as frontier likes to stick with what works and gives them reliable profit. Aviaries and aquariums as popular as they seem is still a gamble on whether they make or break the game due to the larger upfront development cost to add so many different animals, mechanics and gameplay at once.
 
I would be really happy with an arboreal or endangared pack for Easter, it could have woodlands theme with tree houses, log buildings and eco friendly power sources with:

Tree kangaroo - most wanted animal if we count both species votes
Howler - SA monkey
NA porcupine - first arboreal rodent
Coati - unique SA carnivore
WTE: Red and white Giant flying squirell - arboreal giant rodent from China

or

Tree kangaroo - Oceania rep; new rig
Goeffroy’s Spider monkey - NA rep; new rig
Père David’s deer - Asia rep; clone
Secretary bird of Gray crowned crane - Africa rep; both species would work great with crane being less demanding to create; clone if crane
WTE: Golden lion tamarin - SA rep
Such great lineups! The only big concern I have about arboreal packs is how much work each of these animals would end up being. When the Howler Monkey is likely the easiest of the habitat animals to design it makes me doubt we'd get such a great pack. But I'd love it if we did, all of those animals would be of interest to me.

Unrelated thoughts since I can't seem to multiquote this morning, but talking about a Latin/South America pack being next, what holds me back from thinking it's likely is that it would almost certainly have to be an animal pack, and we've not gotten two animal packs in a row before. Which doesn't mean they can't release two in a row, of course. I think it's entirely possible we get a Central America scenery pack though.
 
If you split hairs like that, the only truly new thing this year was......nothing.
Every animal technically can be put in the habitat of another, the gibbon is another gibbon, monitor is a croc light, sandcat is a feline fenec fox, porcupine is a spiky aardvark, quokka is props the most unique as a weird kangaroo bunny rat, witht he ladder two being things we just do not have and the mute swan is another flavor of flamingo.
If you wanna do it like that, the only truly "new" animals would be flying birds and aquatics, with an argument for petting zoo animals, most importantly guinea pigs and rabbits as they arnt ungulates.
If we want to see it cynically, everything is the same, the red kangaroo uses ungulate paddocks, every climbing animal is the same and the only thing that differentiates animals are deep diving, climbing, group size and overall size.
But thats not very helpfull is it?
If you want "new gameplay" in a sandbox game that just gives us new goodies as dlc, then you have to hope for the free updates to actually make this game worth as a management game, cause thats where the gameplay lies if your unsatisfied with just building habitat nr 50+.
If building bores anyone, then new animals wont fix that, management updates will.
And for the building crowd, last year was amazing in an understated way of giving us more choices and variety.
I bring up this exampel for the 4. time or something, but before the arid pack, north africa was technically fine, but you had just so little variety in animals that your areas wernt defined by what you put in them as much as they were by how much you left out of the 4 animals we had. Now post arid, building a new north african area actually brings that choice, that breathing room for creativity of actually being able to pick and choose what goes there.
Are 5 ungulates in one pack excessive? Absolutly, but now we got a choice of 5 desert ungulates instead of just returning to the scimitar horned oryx all the time.
We have two small predators, 2 mid size predators, a domestic, an equiid and even some more base game animals that qualify if you want like the ostrich and cheetah to actually have a choice to build expansive and different north african areas instead of just another subsaharan africa savannah slog with maybe a desert subarea and even if you wanna build that, that desert subarea is now much more unique cause you got much more choice.
So while it wasnt exciting, the polish this year brought was wonderfull and easily overlooked and the only reason people are salty about it is SAs sorry state and the fact that the ungulate quota really was very high this year, both more then valid.
And anybody not hooked like this will not come back for birds and fish, or atleast not for more then one pack, valueable sales sure but even if we are the niche diehard fans of a niche game, any "casual" still playing the game and buying dlc is not so different to us here. If they are sitll playing and buying, its because the game how it is is fun to them and they like adding new flavors, even if they arnt mindblowing.
Oh yeah I definitely agree with what you are saying,I was definitely being cynical and splitting hairs. I was just thinking about Planet Zoo and was thinking of a little thought experiment. I agree the polish this year has been great, red river hog for the Congo, more middle eastern animals (I LOVE the Somali Wild Ass), more Oceania animals, and a great pack for Europeans. I also agree, if people aren’t into planet zoo even birds and aquariums won’t bring them back.
 
It's why the realistic expectation players realise only large expansions to gameplay such as dedicated aviaries and aquariums will introduce us something new to play with and change how we build certain parts of the zoo.
To be fair, would it really? Like, in terms of gameplay, what's the real difference between a looped bat and a looped parrot? How much would exhibit aquariums and maybe full on water based habitats really deviate from what we have to day?

Solely looking at gameplay, I think the game pretty much covers what there realistically can be covered in terms of building habitats. There's not much new under the sun really, unless you make backstages more complex than they are now but is that really something you want younger or more casual players to deal with?

I think in terms of gameplay, it's more the management side of things that could really introduce different things. That's where you can actually change what you do on a day to day basis in the game.

Something as simple as a school trips mechanic would have to make you rethink how to handle education (build class rooms for instance), would impact the flow of your zoo, the flow of your food courts, etc. A mechanic to set up conservation programs would force you to keep animals in a different way and would be a whole new way of education. A mechanic like local wildlife that appear as ambient animals would pose potential problems with the animals you keep, could create diseases you have to deal with. More complex marketing mechanics where you can invite the media for the birth of certain animals would also bring something new to the table. Etc. etc.
 
Honestly we haven't seen any new gameplay since the aquatic pack. Each pack is the same gameplay as the base game. Here's a large scenery catalogue to choose from, here's some animals , go wild! Each dlc just makes the selection we have larger and more diverse gradually covering more and more areas of the world.

It's why the realistic expectation players realise only large expansions to gameplay such as dedicated aviaries and aquariums will introduce us something new to play with and change how we build certain parts of the zoo. South America, tundra, mountains, islands whatever, doesn't add anything new we don't have. It's very unlikely to happen given the trend of dlc releases as frontier likes to stick with what works and gives them reliable profit. Aviaries and aquariums as popular as they seem is still a gamble on whether they make or break the game due to the larger upfront development cost to add so many different animals, mechanics and gameplay at once.
I agree, we probably won’t get anything like aquariums or aviaries anytime soon. Especially because the formula works in regards to dlc.
 
Something as simple as a school trips mechanic would have to make you rethink how to handle education (build class rooms for instance), would impact the flow of your zoo, the flow of your food courts, etc. A mechanic to set up conservation programs would force you to keep animals in a different way and would be a whole new way of education. A mechanic like local wildlife that appear as ambient animals would pose potential problems with the animals you keep, could create diseases you have to deal with. More complex marketing mechanics where you can invite the media for the birth of certain animals would also bring something new to the table. Etc. etc.
Actually, wait a minute, hold the fort. This might be what I have been looking for the whole time. This might be heresy, I might be more excited about management changes like this than even birds (assuming in a sequel we get more habitat birds at least).

One of my favorite features from Zoo Tycoon for the Xbox was tracking animals you released into the wild. I think something like that would be a great feature again.

I mentioned this in an earlier thread, one feature I always wanted was holiday related celebrations at your zoo, like one for Christmas, Halloween, summer activities, etc. Also summer camps would be fun! To do all this, I think Frontier would have to drastically slow down the games timespan.
 
If you split hairs like that, the only truly new thing this year was......nothing.
The sloth & mute swan I would say were the gamechangers of 2023. Even if they didn't bring so much as really new gameplay, gotta give them credit for these two guys. Many people deemed the sloth as an unrealistic want because it would never work. And finally giving us waterfowl with the swan is also something new.
 
The sloth & mute swan I would say were the gamechangers of 2023. Even if they didn't bring so much as really new gameplay, gotta give them credit for these two guys. Many people deemed the sloth as an unrealistic want because it would never work. And finally giving us waterfowl with the swan is also something new.
But they are not gamechanging features. It doesn't change the gameplay. They introduced new kind of animals and open the possibility of more like them but the gameplay remains the same.

Deep diving, brachiation, the WTE and to some extent the butterflies with the multiple species and guest interactions were Game changing features but other than that i don't remember any other.

We are demanding these supposed big gamechanging updates but the game never offered that really? Just some new mechanics some times when an animal required them.
 
The sloth & mute swan I would say were the gamechangers of 2023. Even if they didn't bring so much as really new gameplay, gotta give them credit for these two guys. Many people deemed the sloth as an unrealistic want because it would never work. And finally giving us waterfowl with the swan is also something new.
Pretty much everyone was basing the sloth inclusion off a habitat animal and dismissed the walkthrough exhibit because loops and exhibit limitations. We still had/have? people thinking the two toed sloth could be a habitat animal because its a more realistic option or they move faster or whatever theory they go with.
 
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