Sure that works as well. Between the AWD and Wolf though, they've definitely got a rig they could work with to make dingos.
Oceania/Australian DLC incoming (unofficially)
- Thread starter Danny_zoo
- Start date
Sure that works as well. Between the AWD and Wolf though, they've definitely got a rig they could work with to make dingos.
Wow, it looks absolutely great. Especially how they are adding the Leaves in the TrailerSpeedTree is a group of vegetation programming and modeling software, it is the premier tool within the video game industry to create foliage and other landscaping props. Many architects use it also in real life, as I was familiar with it, way before Planet Coaster or Planet Zoo were announced. Basically if you ever play a video game, and think that the foliage looks good and realistic, chances are you are looking at SpeedTree. The thing here is that you and anyone else can purchase their models, etc, and with the correct platform add your works or their pre made models to any game. I have quite an extensive collection of their models, over 400 of them. Once the TMT was available in Planet Coaster someone uploaded some palm trees species to the workshop, and the models are even superior in quality and detail to the ones found in the game. These were limited additions, since my best guess is that whoever did it did not want to incur the cost of acquiring new models, it can get quite expensive. As I have mention before, I already own an extensive collection of models from SpeedTree and Xfrog as well, and have no problem investing in additional support for the game, I care that much. My only reservation is that I would need Frontier to implement the TMT into Planet Zoo, and I already have several pros willing and available to upload the entire collection for a very reasonable fee. But as everyone else here, I would love for frontier to keep on adding official content, as much as they are able to handle.
SpeedTree Cinema – SpeedTree
store.speedtree.com
You are correct, I used field terminology, that is a bad point of reference when it comes to this game, in the zoo world, just as many other countries do observe, Oceania is referenced as a continent and not just a geographical area. When we built zoological collections from Australia, it is usually just comprised of species found in mainland Australia and Tasmania. However by naming the DLC Australia, it does leave out the possibility of it including other countries within Oceania. I can assure you I have no issue with the DLC being named Australia, as I think it would be fitting, since most of the animals we do want in the game are from there to begin with.
Oh yeah it is fantastic, the attention to detail is superb. Without any real inside knowledge I could tell you, that looking at frontier's work, while exceptional, what they are doing is stylizing the foliage in a way that it blends with everything else without it standing out as being too realistic, since the game does have unfortunately (at least for me) a cartoon aspect to it. However if you were to import a tree or plant into the game, as long as you know what you are doing, the difference would not be drastic, in fact due to the quality of frontiers work it would blend right in.
I know it's a bit unfair, but to be honest, an Australian DLC was mentioned ever since the game launched and it was always so predictable that it will come in the first summer of the games life span. And some players got really angry about there only being a few snakes from Australia in game, while europeans just shrug. Technically we have no European animal in game. No, the Timbre Wolf isn't european. But so what? They will come eventually, there is no need to get angry.
I like the Australian fauna, and if we get an outback farm building theme I am the happiest woman on earth. But at this point the Australian topic is being overhyped ever since the arctic pack came out and I just want to get over with it, to actually be surprised by something again and hear something else than "Australia"
Sorry to my fellow aussie players, it really has nothing to do with your continent.
I know it's a bit unfair, but to be honest, an Australian DLC was mentioned ever since the game launched and it was always so predictable that it will come in the first summer of the games life span. And some players got really angry about there only being a few snakes from Australia in game, while europeans just shrug. Technically we have no European animal in game. No, the Timbre Wolf isn't european. But so what? They will come eventually, there is no need to get angry.
I like the Australian fauna, and if we get an outback farm building theme I am the happiest woman on earth. But at this point the Australian topic is being overhyped ever since the arctic pack came out and I just want to get over with it, to actually be surprised by something again and hear something else than "Australia"
Sorry to my fellow aussie players, it really has nothing to do with your continent.
Has any dlc really surprised you though? To me they have all been predictable and nothing that was surprising (except lack of animals added). And I cannot really imagine any future dlc being a major surprise. "Australia" hype will just be replaced with a new continental or biome or such until that then comes to be as well.
Actually, yes. With the first we didn't had an idea about the continent theming (which is a problem in itself for me), and I would never have thought of South America. Especially not being before Australia.
I still wish they would consider another themeing if their DLCs, which is less predictable. Not continents and not biomes.
You seem discontent with the DLCs overall, what is your major point of contention, the lack of animal species being released with each DLC, the actual geography and choice of theme, or maybe something else?
I just wish the Leaves on some Trees would at least look a little bit more realistic. I really noticed that they are a bit too stylized on at least one Tree when I made a few Closeup Pictures of a Lemur. But everything else on the Plants looks great
What theme did you have in mind? Anything in particular?
Similar thoughts as well.. Not against Australia or anything like that (can't imagine people be against this)
At several points we had multiple australian DLC topics on 1 page and back then some comments were somewhat pointing it out: They were tired of the Australian DLC topics.
Going to answer this one too because i like the question
Personally I think it would be poor move from Frontier to switch to a different type of DLC after Australia (continent based DLC). If you are going to address continents - you should address every continent in DLC.
That being said, I'd personally be a fan of Biome->Continent->conservation status->carnivore/herbivore->Biome->Continent-> etc..... (but this should be an approach from the start)
I agree with you, I think there is always room for improvement. If you look at some of the foliage models in Planet Zoo, while the quality is always good, it does range in just how good. When the base game came out, many of the plants and trees were just improvements of Planet Coaster, (That game had terrible foliage concept art in my opinion) but essentially it was the same model. There are some species within the game, that are represented by some not so good models (A minority, but it is still noticeable, the banana trees come to mind) The detail in the leaves of some trees as you mention, is another angle that could be improved as well, not sure if the problem here might be game performance, it would be definitely interesting to find out. The South American DLC did bring a higher degree of quality, and I wonder if their artist or team working on foliage was the same as before. Hopefully with this DLC the quality is just as good or better than the South American DLC. It could also be that the artist has progressed and become more efficient with experience, being an artist myself I could definitely see this being the case.
thorny devil (Moloch horridus)
Similar thoughts as well.. Not against Australia or anything like that (can't imagine people be against this)
At several points we had multiple australian DLC topics on 1 page and back then some comments were somewhat pointing it out: They were tired of the Australian DLC topics.
Going to answer this one too because i like the question
Personally I think it would be poor move from Frontier to switch to a different type of DLC after Australia (continent based DLC). If you are going to address continents - you should address every continent in DLC.
That being said, I'd personally be a fan of Biome->Continent->conservation status->carnivore/herbivore->Biome->Continent-> etc..... (but this should be an approach from the start)
Thank you for responding, I would have assumed that this would be the point of contention. This is just my opinion, but based on everything I have seen, it is my believe that Frontier wants to of course prioritize the construction pieces and theme elements of the game, and the continents are just a better fit for this. It does not necessarily have to be the case as i can think of thousands of pieces that could be added alongside those DLCs you suggested. It has to be addressed that Frontier seems to rely on YouTube and other social media outlets as their biggest marketing tool, and for the majority of the creative players there, that are actually bringing in new purchases of the game, themes based on continents might be somewhat more appealing that Biome and conservation status theme packs, since not only it would mean a lot more research in their part as to how to use those pieces, but it would not necessarily be appealing to your average player, that might not be absolutely crazy about all things zoo. I do however believe that there is plenty of room after all of the continents have been explored to work on some of those suggestions. There is always the question of birds and aquatic animals, if at some point they are added to the game, a much different DLC would have to be developed, since the current format would not work.
I'd love a little more fun approach. My favourite would be "splish splash" , with water animals like otters, sea lions, beavers and such.
"City wildlife" with wild animals that are pretty common in some cities. Foxes, racoons, opossums...
"Little zoo stars" with meercats, prairie dogs etc.
It doesn't have to be a playful theme, but I just wish the animal rooster in a DLC were a little more surprising.
However, I admit, there is one Continent DLC I am absolutely longing for. An American DLC with a western building theme, country music, skunks, mountain lions and things like that. How much I'd love that...
squirrel glider (Petaurus norfolcensis)
I know it's a bit unfair, but to be honest, an Australian DLC was mentioned ever since the game launched and it was always so predictable that it will come in the first summer of the games life span. And some players got really angry about there only being a few snakes from Australia in game, while europeans just shrug. Technically we have no European animal in game. No, the Timbre Wolf isn't european. But so what? They will come eventually, there is no need to get angry.
I like the Australian fauna, and if we get an outback farm building theme I am the happiest woman on earth. But at this point the Australian topic is being overhyped ever since the arctic pack came out and I just want to get over with it, to actually be surprised by something again and hear something else than "Australia"
Sorry to my fellow aussie players, it really has nothing to do with your continent.
Thank you for sharing your views, it is understandable as you have no real wildlife representation in the game. When it comes to Europe the one thing that I would really look forward to is an even bigger selection of historical/classical pieces, the ones currently found within the game are exceptionally designed, but there just not enough decoration elements and styles, I would love for them to expand on that. As you well said, it will certainly come, there are already hints within the game, that a fox, a skunk, a deer and Iberian Lynx are all possibilities. There are many possibilities, and designs that focus on classical/city/Victorian/historical zoos would benefit greatly from this.
The one thing we do know is there's a finite amount of continents on Earth, so once they get through them all, they'll have to use a different method! (Or at least I hope they don't have so few DLC that they only fill out the continent quota. That would suck, lol)
An aquatic DLC with those species you mention would be exceptionally welcomed, never mind that it would introduce a whole new set of mechanics to the game, and that I think we all would love. The City concept you mention, is also quite interesting, the animals might not be nessesarily the highlight of this DLC for me, but it would be a great opportunity for Frontier to add so many items that we are currently missing to create realistic zoos, I'm refering to genetic pieces that you could use in a variety of designs, animal statues, fountains, banners, additional barrier styles, animal holding areas props/behind the scene elements, and the list goes on.
As far as North America, it would be interesting to see what they do. I have visited I believe every major zoo in this country, and I have yet to see any large exhibit worth its salt that had a western theme, but having lived in Europe and visited many zoos there, I do understand that the western concept is appealing to Europeans somehow. My recommendation to Frontier would be that when they do focus on North America, they look closely at introducing species from all over this continent, the Californian Condor would be a must, the Florida Panther (One of the most endangered mammals in this US) Key Deer, West Indian Manatee (if aquatic mechanics are possible) Alligator and the list goes on. An Everglades theme would be fantastic, and the is something you would actually see in many zoos here in the U.S. They could even include an airboat ride if they wanted to.
I actually love all the dlcs, just 4 animals always feels kinda slim to me, especially for a huge category like South America, for example. But I believe they will stick to continent or biome themes as it is easy way to get both animals and building themes in.