DLC18 discussion and predictions

[AndyZoos]

Hard to say, because JWE games are constantly getting sequels. For example JWE2 made as much revenue in 26 months as PZ in 48. Thats quite wide gap, but with JWE2 ending soon it will flatten out again instead of climbing lol.

I mean, Planet Zoo was still pretty competitive with JWE2 without console. JWE2 was still the clear winner but... Does console plus all the DLCs eventually push Planet Zoo to the #1 slot? It very well could!

I do wonder too if whatever new game Frontier announces might impact this as well. For the company's sake, I hope it's a runaway hit that can add features and have engine ugprades that would be useful for an eventual Planet Zoo sequel. Haha.

Frontier is always gonna frontier lol. I always wonder what the reasoning for things like this is? Not to be a hater but I don’t think Hatzegopteryx is popular enough to bring people to JWE3 (assuming that was the motive).

To me it’s the same as PZ, most of the popular animals are already in the game. So why do they do things like the saiga antelope instead of the blackbuck? I do like a good oddball, and the saiga is a very cool animal, but I think at times it’s a bit too much. Shoot I’ll us a more recent example: the barnyard pack. A chicken of any breed is good, and the American donkey, highland cow, and alpaca are neat. But they make the highland cow the mini variety, choose the larger donkey, and then the sheep, goat, and pigs are very unique breeds. While it’s cool to be surprised, I wish I could hear their reasoning from time to time.

Even if a dev diary came out and they said: “we chose the tamworth pigs as they are an endangered breed in the UK, and wanted to show some of our local history.” That would be cool! It would also help me understand the line of reasoning.

I’m hopeful for this next pack, but I won’t disagree with something might not be quite right. Or it can be wetlands/ grasslands and knock it out of the park.

I do wonder how much of this is based purely on the "taste" of the gamemakers. Like, there's a justifiable reason for the Tamworth but they didn't go out of their way to explain that and it's still pretty much just a "oh, we thought this would be cool." I do think the unspoken bit with some of these barnyard species is that they're all pretty "basic" which is good for modding.

But that doesn't explain things like the saiga antelope. Haha. There's a solid chance that could have been somebody saying "Oh, they're cool! Add it! They're quirky looking!" Perhaps because they were worried the wisent might be viewed as a "clone" or something. Sometimes I think they do this when a pack already has 3-4 fan favorites.

I would just really, really love to see what the decision-making process is, the list of potential species for each roster, what got cut and why, etc. As a total nerd, I would just really enjoy seeing that at some point.

 

[Markiz]

If this next PZ pack does the same as JWE2 pack and listens to the community - this could be the first animal pack not be overrun by ungulates - this could be revolutionary lol

Eh, first?

 

[Marvinb]

Frontier is always gonna frontier lol. I always wonder what the reasoning for things like this is? Not to be a hater but I don’t think Hatzegopteryx is popular enough to bring people to JWE3 (assuming that was the motive).

To me it’s the same as PZ, most of the popular animals are already in the game. So why do they do things like the saiga antelope instead of the blackbuck? I do like a good oddball, and the saiga is a very cool animal, but I think at times it’s a bit too much. Shoot I’ll us a more recent example: the barnyard pack. A chicken of any breed is good, and the American donkey, highland cow, and alpaca are neat. But they make the highland cow the mini variety, choose the larger donkey, and then the sheep, goat, and pigs are very unique breeds. While it’s cool to be surprised, I wish I could hear their reasoning from time to time.

Even if a dev diary came out and they said: “we chose the tamworth pigs as they are an endangered breed in the UK, and wanted to show some of our local history.” That would be cool! It would also help me understand the line of reasoning.

I’m hopeful for this next pack, but I won’t disagree with something might not be quite right. Or it can be wetlands/ grasslands and knock it out of the park.

Yeah its not something that the average fella will know about. But if your into dinosaurs, which i gotta assume people who play the game are atleast to some extent, you will have heard about it. Not saying it would be the superstar of the pack or a big attention grabber but still.
It feels more like a Situation to me like if we finally get a new world monkey, and instead of all the requested ones its an uber obschre one like the wooly monkey.

At first i thought maybe they went with thanatosdrakon because its actually know from a relatively completely skeleton, which kinda is a new one for the giant pterosaurs.
But then again JW always took fossil evidence as more of a suggestion and made whatever they felt like, so might aswell take hatzegopteryx, which is known from like a piece of skull and two vertebra or something and roll with it

 

[Marvinb]

Eh, first?

First in recent times i guess

 

[Captain Callum]

Eh, first?

Guess having 2 animal packs in a row being ungulate heavy is enough to upset people.

 

[RightWhale]

I will say, from the first couple packs where every choice felt like a great idea (exception being arctic, dall sheep and arctic wolf are certainly out there) to now it definitely feels like a shift occurred in the office. Maybe once the main animals got in Frontier wanted to include personal favorites?

 

[CharlieXGaming]

Eh, first?

Well first in what feels like forever lol

 

[RightWhale]

Guess having 2 animal packs in a row being ungulate heavy is enough to upset people.

In some alternate universe we got something like 12 birds in one year, and people are still waiting for some of the most basic ungulates.

 

[NachoB]

Guess having 2 animal packs in a row being ungulate heavy is enough to upset people.

3

Arid (6), Eurasia (5) and Barnyard (6)

 

[CharlieXGaming]

3

Arid, Eurasia and Barnyard

In a row though

 

[NachoB]

In some alternate universe we got something like 12 birds in one year, and people are still waiting for some of the most basic ungulates.

I mean... Nile lechwe, dama gazelle, donkey... All could've been birds.

 

[Captain Callum]

3

Arid (6), Eurasia (5) and Barnyard (6)

Oceania blessed us with a non ungulate pack so the 10 Oceania players could finally play the game

 

[NachoB]

In a row though

We never got 2 animal packs in a row. But all these are in the same financial year so they are in a row in a way.

 

[NachoB]

Oceania blessed us with a non ungulate pack so the 10 Oceania players could finally play the game

Now do that with SouthAmerica so the 5 southamerican players we can play

 

[DarthQuell]

Now do that with SouthAmerica so the 5 southamerican players we can play

Wait, who are the 5 anyways?

• NachoB
• MarikMoon
• Utahraptor104

I'm missing 2

 

[Thylaco]

The Meg and the Microceratus were HEAVILY requested, like the Microceratus was basically the “flying birds” comments on every post of PZ like with JWE2. Segisaurus wasn’t too requested except for when people thought we would get a JP pack for the 30 year anniversary - and the pterosaur they choose specifically was nowhere near requested but people wanted another large pterosaur in general.

Congrats btw. Your intuition on the little and big theme was effectively correct, two big & two little (Little Eatie is there too I guess, which is also big).

That Segisaurus, it really is an exceedingly average carnivore. Very fitting from a name literally only wanted for that JP1 brochure map and nothing else.

Existing lagoon lights being place-able on land, a bit sad that it's 1 out of 2 highlights for the final update.

So this does have final pack vibes for JWE2. After learning more about the species list, the name of the pack itself, and the new Jurassic Park game coming in 2025 it feels like it does.

They've done their best to make it clear it's finished, without really being able to say so directly. You can only hope it'll be as obvious for Planet Zoo when the time comes.

 

[RightWhale]

Now do that with SouthAmerica so the 5 southamerican players we can play

Frontier: “South America, South America, …… where have I heard that before? Oh, yes now I remember. We did a pack to there a few years ago. We also did the capybara, peccary, and the sloth since then. Best we can do is more African animals. We might be able to throw in an ungulate though.”

 

[Captain Callum]

Frontier: “South America, South America, …… where have I heard that before? Oh, yes now I remember. We did a pack to there a few years ago. We also did the capybara, peccary, and the sloth since then. Best we can do is more African animals. We might be able to throw in an ungulate though.”

People keep asking for the spectacled bear, they better prepare for a bear for south America instead of a bird or monkey

 

[FoxyDee]

I mean... Nile lechwe, dama gazelle, donkey... All could've been birds.

The donkey (if you mean the wild one) was actually a pretty good pick. It is critically endanged and we did not have that many equines to begin with. It was one of the better ungulate picks in my opinion.

 

[RightWhale]

People keep asking for the spectacled bear, they better prepare for a bear for south America instead of a bird or monkey

Nah, it’s gonna be the bush dog or ocelot. That’s it. No monkey, no coati, no bird, no bear.

If it’s gonna be a bear it’s gonna be something like another Asian bear subspecies.