DLC20 Discussion (maybe, but why not?)

I'd argue we've already got every major zoo animal in the game (barring birds) and probably have for a good while now. It's now about fleshing out the roster to include secondary choices. No Indian monkeys and none of Blackbuck/Gaur/Nilgai is enough reason to justify DLC, in my opinion.
If anyone hasn't yet seen it, I'd highly recommend checking out the thread by @yoav_r exploring the areas still requiring animals, with comparison to the existing biodiversity in these areas. You don't need to agree with every single detail in the post, but I tend to agree that the main areas still lacking are India, PNG, the amazon and Patagonia.
It justifies getting more indian animals for sure, but a whole pack... eh...
Don't get me wrong, I love building indian section, so I'm really not totally disgusted by the idea of an indian pack (minus an additional elephant, honestly) but South/Latain america would have needed a FULL DLC much more in my opinion, but here we are...
So for me it is basically: An asia pack with indian animals: Justified.
A full on india pack: Why does Frontier hate south america?
 
It justifies getting more indian animals for sure, but a whole pack... eh...
Don't get me wrong, I love building indian section, so I'm really not totally disgusted by the idea of an indian pack (minus an additional elephant, honestly) but South/Latain america would have needed a FULL DLC much more in my opinion, but here we are...
So for me it is basically: An asia pack with indian animals: Justified.
A full on india pack: Why does Frontier hate south america?
I fully agree that South/Central America is super in need of an update. The "issue" is that we've just had the Americas pack so they probably won't want to focus on an American region in the near future. Probably the best option is a Rainforest pack honestly - and now I've said that I can't help but go off topic and make one:
  1. South American Coati
  2. Black Howler Monkey
  3. Jaguarundi
  4. Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo
  5. Victoria Crowned Pigeon (not sure if these would require aviaries?)
  6. Mantled Guereza
  7. Drill (the required clone species)
 
A full on india pack: Why does Frontier hate south america?
Excellent point.

Dedicated India pack only makes Americas pack look worse.

Every other theme/region gets at least two packs worth of content. India not only leans on already strong Asian roster, but has very good base game presence.

Meanwhile the whole continent gets one (1) scenery DLC throughout whole regular support run, and when they decided to keep going past Zookeeper's pack, they still make a pack where SA has to share space with continent that got almost three packs worth of content on top of base game roster (albeit poor, much richer than South Americas).

Are they that uninterested in bothering with South America properly? Are the most popular animals from there that difficult to make? Do they have some data that shows them that focusing on that region doesn't pay off? What's going on?

Anyway, sorry, your comment inspired me to rant. It's not like India pack is a bad idea in a vacuum, but I haven't stopped to think, since the reveal of the artwork, how unfair is that they're focusing yet another region with animal pack, while neglecting whole another continent.
 
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  1. South American Coati
  2. Black Howler Monkey
  3. Jaguarundi
  4. Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo
  5. Victoria Crowned Pigeon (not sure if these would require aviaries?)
  6. Mantled Guereza
  7. Drill (the required clone species)
Words can not express how much I would love a pack like this.
Anyway, sorry, your comment inspired me to rant. It's not like India pack is a bad idea in a vacuum, but I haven't stopped to think, since the reveal of the artwork, how unfair is that they're focusing yet another region with animal pack, while neglecting whole another continent.
Nah luv, I'm right with ya on this. I said it before, the older the Americas pack gets, the more I hate it for the content. Sharing the slots with NA AND the kind of useless building pieces (minus 2-3). And even the only plant we got in the update was not from SA but bloody easter focused.

And then we look at a pack that supposedly caters solely india, but even if not, still highly caters india.
To be fair, there are scenarios where I would be more happy with an india pack for biased reasons: If it had the Hanuman Langur or at least the Bonnet macaque and not the liontail macaque, not have an elephant and have stunning india building pieces. I am a sucker for them, not gonna lie.

And, quote frankly, we already have the Sloth Bear. That in an india pack and I would have screamed with joy.
 
Just get Zoo Tycoon 2 on MyAbandonware. It's awesome, and NanoLacen did this awesome mod, Folksy Facelift. Heck, Mjmannella made Forgotten Animals, which brings the Zoo Tycoon 1 animals to Zoo Tycoon 2 (hopefully it's done soon and all bundled together so I don't have too much clutter in my ZT2 file)
I still have my old CDs don’t worry. I love the mods in that game. But despite what I said I love PZ still and recognize the tone shift, I just thinks some Easter eggs and gags would be cool
 
Are they that uninterested in bothering with South America properly? Are the most popular animals from there that difficult to make? Do they have some data that shows them that focusing on that region doesn't pay off? What's going on?
I think the animals left are just complicated, or small and weird so wouldn't sell with the public. Let's go over potential additions:
  1. Coati - new rig required, climbing animal
  2. Mara/agouti - small and weird
  3. Any monkeys - Frontier tends to avoid climbing animals
  4. Tamandua - climbing
  5. Tayra - climbing
  6. Tamarins/marmoset - tiny, climbing
  7. Tree Porcupine - climbing
  8. Chinchilla - new rig, rock climbing
With that said, yeah Frontier neglected the continent to a ridiculous extent. Both Wetlands and Tropical pack should've had more South America representation.

And there are some choices that hurt the roster. Rare in zoos species like the Sloth and Armadillo, two Caimans, no reuse of the capuchin rig... I want to know their decision Makin process. Especially when North America got 4 dedicated/heavily featured packs (Arctic, North America, Twilight, Americas).
 
I mean, a Canada Pack that got, say, Sea Otter, Walrus, Musk Ox, canada goose and a couple of others (snowshoe hare? Black bear? Wapiti?) would be absolutely rock solid. Walkthrough Snowy Owl and you'd really lock it down haha.

Theres also ones where it may not be the absolute most iconic left, but you could still make something that feels very quintessentially of that country.

I still also maintain a China pack with say yak, mandarin, golden pheasant, raccoon dog, pere davids deer, chinese giant salamander and golden snub nosed monkey would also feel very "China" too

Brazil would be easy to lock down a pack worth of.
I think you summed it up fine. The 4 obvious DLCs that we could have based on a single country are: Canada, Brazil, China, and India.
The other gaps are too geographically scattered to be enough for a single country DLC. It does help that those 4 countries are some of the biggest in the world and include several different biomes, obviously... 😂
 
Watching some commentary videos. Why is everyone saying - Sri Lankan elephant, must be an India pack! They are separate countries 😅 it's gotta be an Asia or Central Asia pack surely. You can't call it an India pack and have an animal named after a literal other country, like, cmon
people are just assuming it will be about the indian subcontinent not the actual country it would be a pr nightmare for a british company to include the srilankan elephant in an india pack.
I personally think that given how much we have talked about it in the past this is going to be an india pack and the elephant is actually irrelevant as its just the indian elephant in the background. It could be a general asia pack but to me the honey badger does not suit this theme and I would of expected a prominently east asian animal to headline that sort of pack like tanuki, snub nosed monkey or pheasant.
 
Lacking representation? I'd argue we already have any major zoo animal from that region...
We may do. But imo you cant call a region well represented if it only has the big ticket animals.
I think the animals left are just complicated, or small and weird so wouldn't sell with the public. Let's go over potential additions:
  1. Coati - new rig required, climbing animal
  2. Mara/agouti - small and weird
  3. Any monkeys - Frontier tends to avoid climbing animals
  4. Tamandua - climbing
  5. Tayra - climbing
  6. Tamarins/marmoset - tiny, climbing
  7. Tree Porcupine - climbing
  8. Chinchilla - new rig, rock climbing
With that said, yeah Frontier neglected the continent to a ridiculous extent. Both Wetlands and Tropical pack should've had more South America representation.

And there are some choices that hurt the roster. Rare in zoos species like the Sloth and Armadillo, two Caimans, no reuse of the capuchin rig... I want to know their decision Makin process. Especially when North America got 4 dedicated/heavily featured packs (Arctic, North America, Twilight, Americas).
Is being small and weird really a big no no? Bushdog is small and weird. Heck, pretty much half of zookeeper was small weirdos with pallas, dik dik and sifaka.

Coati i dont think really needs a new rig to be honest. Add a couple new animations to the raccoon and make the tail raise up while walking and your pretty much there
 
I for one want a Liechtenstein or a Vatican pack. These biodiversity hotspots deserve representation.
I know this is a joke. But a pack with like black rat, red squirrel, mallard and feral pigeons would honestly be kinda fun 😂

All of those would be cool for modding and atleast the squirrel but mostly the pigeon and mallard would be fun to just have run around your zoo as ambient animals
 
It justifies getting more indian animals for sure, but a whole pack... eh...
Don't get me wrong, I love building indian section, so I'm really not totally disgusted by the idea of an indian pack (minus an additional elephant, honestly) but South/Latain america would have needed a FULL DLC much more in my opinion, but here we are...
So for me it is basically: An asia pack with indian animals: Justified.
A full on india pack: Why does Frontier hate south america?
Thanks. Never thought about it like that. But You are right... once more southamerica getting the scraps.

Although honey badger is useful for África as well, but other than that, hyena and caracal which we already have ( and possible asiatic lion to substitute the african one we have) i can't think of other indian or East asian animals that extend their range beyond that.
 
Just get Zoo Tycoon 2 on MyAbandonware. It's awesome, and NanoLacen did this awesome mod, Folksy Facelift. Heck, Mjmannella made Forgotten Animals, which brings the Zoo Tycoon 1 animals to Zoo Tycoon 2 (hopefully it's done soon and all bundled together so I don't have too much clutter in my ZT2 file)
I'm quite flattered there's people here keeping in touch with that! I've mentioned it before on the server but the biggest setback right now is that the teams' remaining animals require a lot of animating and bone-rigging work that the team unfortunately doesn't have time to put into motion. I will say that every animal does at least have some work that's been put into them, so nothing's been untouched.
 
Excellent point.

Dedicated India pack only makes Americas pack look worse.

Every other theme/region gets at least two packs worth of content. India not only leans on already strong Asian roster, but has very good base game presence.

Meanwhile the whole continent gets one (1) scenery DLC throughout whole regular support run, and when they decided to keep going past Zookeeper's pack, they still make a pack where SA has to share space with continent that got almost three packs worth of content on top of base game roster (albeit poor, much richer than South Americas).

Are they that uninterested in bothering with South America properly? Are the most popular animals from there that difficult to make? Do they have some data that shows them that focusing on that region doesn't pay off? What's going on?

Anyway, sorry, your comment inspired me to rant. It's not like India pack is a bad idea in a vacuum, but I haven't stopped to think, since the reveal of the artwork, how unfair is that they're focusing yet another region with animal pack, while neglecting whole another continent.
I don't think they do hate South America so much as its just lined up in such a way that most of the high demand stuff is also high dev effort stuff ie. Birds and things with prehensile tails etc that'll require more custom work. Like, there's certainly stuff there thar doesn't need that extra work, but its also generally, less high demand stuff.
 
I don't think they do hate South America so much as its just lined up in such a way that most of the high demand stuff is also high dev effort stuff ie. Birds and things with prehensile tails etc that'll require more custom work. Like, there's certainly stuff there thar doesn't need that extra work, but its also generally, less high demand stuff.
They have at least one thing with a prehensile tail already and 3 brachiating primates. Instead of wasting resources on a half baked sifaka or a bush dog, both mid tier popular animals, they could have made a coati, tamanduas, mara and howler/spider monkey and everyone would be pretty content with the SA roster now and the rest would be great extra options.
 
I'd like to think that Tamarins would be a relatively straightforward clone from the Capuchin and that Howlers would be easy to clone from the Siamang but I'm not a developer, there may be very frustrating reasons they are tough to make. I think in general primates are really tough and ungulates are pretty easy, hence why we have so many ungulates (not that I'm complaining about ungulates)
 
I'd like to think that... Howlers would be easy to clone from the Siamang
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Yeah I don't think it'd work out really
 
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