Hello everyone,
I want to make this thread in order to put all our concerns in one place. However, I want this to be a big disclaimer that, I no way shape or form am not excited about the game; instead I am super excited! This post is rather to give the developers a different perspective; encase they are stuck in their “hype” bubble. I assume that they'd appreciate concerns now vs. complaints later. Also, a friendly reminder to all posters to make your posts constructive and civil. I’d rather have this be a thread where we can post our own thoughts, rather than going down a rabbit hole of discussion over one topic.
I want to make this thread in order to put all our concerns in one place. However, I want this to be a big disclaimer that, I no way shape or form am not excited about the game; instead I am super excited! This post is rather to give the developers a different perspective; encase they are stuck in their “hype” bubble. I assume that they'd appreciate concerns now vs. complaints later. Also, a friendly reminder to all posters to make your posts constructive and civil. I’d rather have this be a thread where we can post our own thoughts, rather than going down a rabbit hole of discussion over one topic.
- No Micro transactions/Loot boxes/Live service
- In the advent of modern AAA games, we see large sums of profits going to companies based on their live service models. I hope and pray that Planet Zoo is of the exception. I’d much rather see Planet Zoo release large DLC packs, rather than a $5 zebra skin in a store. While I know profits is one goal for companies, I think the longevity of a game and the “timelessness” is more important.
- Finicky building placements/Terrain restrictions
- I’ll state that I think Jurassic World Evolution (JWE) had some severe downsides when it came to placing buildings; it was cumbersome and frustrating. I felt that the buildings always had too many restrictions due to the terrain, and on top of that I felt all the buildings had to be placed all close together for maximum guest happiness. I am fond of the original zoo tycoon 1 and 2, where buildings can be a bit more spread out, for example: a bathroom didn’t have to be literally next to every food stand. Bathrooms or food carts can be a bit more spread out (like how it is in real life). My concern is that I hope guests/ buildings have a bit more of a lax process when it comes to their happiness and placement. (I hope this topic makes sense.)
- Animal Happiness/population in enclosures/"Hatching"
- Back to JWE, I think that placing animals all together was very very cumbersome and felt more restrictive than the original Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2 games. My concern is that there will never be certain combinations of animals that will not work together. For example: since a bear might be more of a solitary creature my concern is that it will have a “population” meter like dinosaurs did in JWE, in which I cannot even place a different species in the same exhibit. Moving back to Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2, while I understand some species are solitary, I was allowed more freedom in placing animals based on “biomes” rather than “solidarity/population.” Again my concern, and want is for animal populations and restrictions to be slightly more relaxed than in JWE. And even if the meter’s were the same for the original Zoo Tycoon 1 & 2 vs. JWE, I’d rather learn on my own which species work together and see animals show their discomfort rather than me playing with an animals population and solitary bar. (I hope this topic makes sense as well)
- Animal hatching: I liked Zoo Tycoon 1 & 2 where animals can be bought and placed immediately. However, JWE had a long hatching process at times and then you had to manually tranquilize and airlift animals to your exhibits (if you didn't have the hatchery next to your enclosure.) This process was way too cumbersome. In the trailer I see that a zookeeper puts down a box and a small baby elephant comes out. While I would like to see a return of instant placements of animals, having a zookeeper place a box down is probably fine, but way better than the process JWE went through to get an animal in a space.
- With animals, my concern is that their biome needs are going to be too restrictive with an exact certain set of grassland/water. While Zoo Tycoon 2 had the same system, I felt it was a bit more laxed; 1-2 trees make an animal happy, vs. JWE where exactly 34 trees will make a certain dino happy. Or with the placement of water, only 1 puddle of water was necessary for Zoo Tycoon 2, vs. JWE where almost a quarter/half of your exhibits would make other certain dino's happy. To recap, my concern is that animal happiness tied to biomes will also be very restrictive in a JWE sense.
- My concern for animal knowledge (if Planet Zoo runs off a JWE system), is that I will have a hard time finding out what animals social behaviors are. In no where, in the JWE game can I understand an animals needs until I incubate the dinosaur first, there is no information in the ingest database. This is poor design regardless and I really hope to not see this kind of system within Planet Zoo.
- I hope that animals do not break out of enclosures based on their social needs or population needs. Without mentioning the other ... cough dino cough game, an animal doesn't need to break out of their enclosure if there is no partner near by. I'd like to see a Zoo Tycoon 2 system where animals were lonely and perhaps didn't add too much of a greater "entertainment" value for the guests if they were lonely. I'd hate for them to break out for simple and silly reasons.
- Natural Barriers
- I thought that back in the original Zoo Tycoon 2 (updated*) had a really cool feature in that enclosures can be partially fenced. And you can place natural barriers as fences. The game seem to automatically designate exhibits with with natural barriers and fences. My concern is that I hope all enclosures don’t have to be fully fenced in.
- Restrictions on hardware or zoo placements
- From what I am hearing, there may be some severe limitations when it comes to hardware, like it is for planetcoaster. There is nothing like building something amazing, all for your computer to studder. I hope that there isn’t some kind of limitations in that field. With that, I hope there is no restrictions on the number of objects I can place. If I am not mistaken, this was a problem in Zoo Tycoon 2013/2016. My concern is that I hope there is a balance to all this, but at the end of the day, I don’t want my creativity to be limited.
- DLC Content/Release Schedule
- My concern is that the DLC packs won't have a lot of content in them. I am also slightly concerned for the recent "leak" that DLC packs will be about every 3 months after release. To me, doesn't this seem like the DLC packs will have 2-5 animals and some more building themes. Instead of Zoo Tycoon 2 expansion packs that had dozens of animals and new content, progression and mechanics. Again to recap, I am concerned with DLC content and timing.
Last edited:
!
