Can animals be added to DLC post-release
- Thread starter tigris115
- Start date
On a technical level? I mean, yeah, it's possible in the strictly technical sense that they're able to do so. It'd probably be on the level of 'here let's add this to an upcoming patch' in terms of difficulty.
Are they likely to? I doubt. TBH, there's quite a lot of work that goes into making an animal- Modeling, texturing/rendering, building the AI, animating (especially if there's unique behaviors), all the research that has to go into making sure the in-game text and the animal's habitat requirements are accurate... And yeah, to an extent they can modify and re-skin existing animal frameworks to make new critters, but that's still a fair bit of work. Yes, there's a ton of work involved in making new foliage, build items, mechanics, and everything, but it's the animals that are the key selling point for a zoo game.
I think it's much more likely that if they revisit regions they've already done DLC for, they'll just make a new DLC pack. So what we'd functionally get is 'Arctic II', 'South America II', etc. Frankly, I'm cool with that. It's a great game, the DLC packs are really reasonably priced for the amount of additional content and gameplay mileage we get out of them, and I want Frontier to, y'know, be able to pay its dev teams and treat them well. I'm on board with giving them money for new animals.
Are they likely to? I doubt. TBH, there's quite a lot of work that goes into making an animal- Modeling, texturing/rendering, building the AI, animating (especially if there's unique behaviors), all the research that has to go into making sure the in-game text and the animal's habitat requirements are accurate... And yeah, to an extent they can modify and re-skin existing animal frameworks to make new critters, but that's still a fair bit of work. Yes, there's a ton of work involved in making new foliage, build items, mechanics, and everything, but it's the animals that are the key selling point for a zoo game.
I think it's much more likely that if they revisit regions they've already done DLC for, they'll just make a new DLC pack. So what we'd functionally get is 'Arctic II', 'South America II', etc. Frankly, I'm cool with that. It's a great game, the DLC packs are really reasonably priced for the amount of additional content and gameplay mileage we get out of them, and I want Frontier to, y'know, be able to pay its dev teams and treat them well. I'm on board with giving them money for new animals.
@Grayyy I believe this dlc will do just fine as it will appeal to most. I know some people don’t have the Arctic pack for whatever reason but I think their missing out. I know price per pack will always be debatable but I have heard a lot of people who were big name modders in the zt2 community who have even commented that people deserve to be paid for their work and time it takes to do even the most simple edits or full on new coding and animations. To me if they did all continents 4-6 animals a piece you’d still have some great animals as a 10-20 pack per continent would be extremely time consuming not to mention severely hamper other continent releases.
It's a good question tigris, however as DLC is a product, and it's being sold, we would never retroactively add paid content to a Pack. Free updates of course are a different matter, as they are accessible to all - but if you add content to a product post-release, it would affect the price. That's not allowed from different levels 
hope that makes sense, and thanks for asking!
hope that makes sense, and thanks for asking!
Okay, this makes sense.
But can there be a continuation of a pack, for example South America Vol.2?
I think and hope so, both because Frontier with his resources and the great quality in the realization cannot miss the opportunity to improve the game and create other important animals of these region, and because there are elements and signals in the game (like the presence of the poster of the sloth) that make me imagine a future realization of him...
But can there be a continuation of a pack, for example South America Vol.2?
I think and hope so, both because Frontier with his resources and the great quality in the realization cannot miss the opportunity to improve the game and create other important animals of these region, and because there are elements and signals in the game (like the presence of the poster of the sloth) that make me imagine a future realization of him...
We obviously cannot answer that question very specifically but we still are working on many ideas of what we might bring into Planet Zoo. When it comes to posters and stuff in the base game, you have to be a bit lenient with our Art team; they like designing fun things but these are in no way to be taken as "signs"!