Anniversary DLC

[Aero-Bubbles]

Especially a company that has horrid communication with its customers.

LOL Frontier has "horrid" communication with it's customers? really? you obviously don't have much experience with companies like EA...
Frontier actually does a pretty good job compared to a lot of companies. They often put out updates, add things people ask for in the game etc. I regularly staff interacting and commenting on posts. No one is asking you to kiss the ground frontier walks on, but the claims that frontier doesn't listen or doesn't try and appease their audience is just ridiculous , like you want them to ask "how high" every time you say jump? like YOU said, it's a company, not a charity.

It's COVID time, likely staff and work hours are reduced, no one should have to say this, it's pretty obvious and just common sense.

 

[12344321]

I know, it is a letdown OP, I was quite dissapointed when I heard there will be no anniversary update, but Chante said they are currently working on something that we will hear soon about, so I would rather wait and see what it is. Perhaps the update or DLC they are working on will be really special so lets wait and see and then decide if it was worth it sacrifise the anniversary update for.

Regarding glitches you encounter - I really did not have any game breaking glitch for ages, not sure which ones are you reffering to? Every game has bugs and devs keeps releasing updates to fix them. CMs were actually extremly helpful in the last couple of days, collecting alot of data on bugs.

The glitches have been consitent since release for me
Ex: path issues, animals not being fed or watered, animals not being taken to quarantine, barrier issues etc.

And my game stopped working after update 1.3.4...
That's what I was referring to

I will delete this 100% if PZ release an anniversary dlc (and I jumped the gun because of the lack of communication regarding it)

 

[12344321]

Just another point, Elite has never had an anniversary DLC.

Season 1 did release coincidentally the week of their anniversary though. What would you call that?

 

[12344321]

So ... gifts for birthdays, yes?

Isn’t it so that that the person who has birthday gets the gifts?
Wouldn’t this be ‘Planet Zoo’ in this case?

I guess, no one holds you back sending them money. In amounts you see fit.

Planet Zoo is the most expensive game I've ever purchased.

It was 49.99 and I also bought deluxe dlc, arctic, South America and Australia dlc....each one was more than 10 pounds. I've spent more on this game than any other game. And I've also experienced more problems with this game than any other game I've ever played. How much more money do they need in your opinion?

 

[12344321]

Can you not speak for the entire community as a whole, thanks.There are plenty of people who like it & this just seems incredibly petty.

Your attitude is "Planet zoo employees never listen to the customers, knowing planet zoo....." and that is completely false, nothing could be further from the truth, because they have done a lot to make the players happy, adding reasonable things to the game players have asked for when they are able

I apologize. There are plenty of people who liked what? The soundtrack they released instead of dlc? Do you have any numbers or evidence respectfully? If so I have been tremendously interested in seeing the sales figures thanks

 

[Cocolori]

I apologize. There are plenty of people who liked what? The soundtrack they released instead of dlc? Do you have any numbers or evidence respectfully? If so I have been tremendously interested in seeing the sales figures thanks

I think this is a bit disingenous because, as others have pointed out in threads before (maybe you haven't seen them), there's a good chance that the release of the soundtrack as a separate purchase however many months after release was a deal done with the original artists so they could promote and sell their work. I don't know why people find it annoying when it has literally nothing to do with the teams who would be working on DLC or updates and harms literally no-one. They obviously didn't release it 'instead of DLC', the community got excited because they were looking at steam logs and speculating with no indication they were right and then were disapointed. I feel like we need to distinguish between disappointment (a perfectly valid response) and aggrievment because you didn't get what you had no right to expect (speaking of the soundtrack not a DLC specifically but perhaps more broadly about the anniversary DLC).

Speaking for myself, I'd rather they took their time and worked on some new mechanics for an update than tried to meet an arbitrary deadline that is pretty meaningless. I know PC got anniversary updates but given they were often not actually really on the anniversary I suspect it was more serendipity than exact planning. I also know there were requested game mechanics that they worked hard to introduce because they were in high demand but that they stayed silent on them because they didn't know if they could get them to work so didn't want to raise expectations and then be unable to deliver.

I also think PC had less bugs to sort out at launch (and not in the middle of a pandemic). You could argue that was because they had a much longer beta for PC which would be valid but I'm not sure there's a real difference these days. I suspect the coding for planet zoo was also more innovative and they've tried to do more with the engine (water, weather, animal pathing as well as guest etc.) so more bugs were probably inevitable. So maybe less developer time has been devoted to new mechanics. Again it's a stance I would appreciate - not neglecting bug fixing to pump out new content and sell more.

Ultimately we don't know that an anniversary DLC was ever planned, it isn't a standard part of every frontier game (PC and JWE got them every yearish, PZ and Elite haven't always) but that doesn't logically mean less support or content will come along for PZ. Most of the sizeable new game mechanics that really expanded the play for PC didn't come until year 2 in development and I'm hoping they are working on those rather than just expanding the species list which is great up to a point but without new mechanics becomes less important.

Rant over! All views my own, high chance of me having got some stuff wrong and everyone should feel free to disagree completely!

 

[NL_Mutso]

Do you have any numbers or evidence respectfully? If so I have been tremendously interested in seeing the sales figures thanks

Well, you started claiming that everybody hates it. So it would be fair that you would provide numbers?
Since the last part of your sentence basically confirms that you haven't seen those numbers/sales figures - how do you come to that conclusion?
Tbh, I've only seen 1 person on this forum hating that DLC.

What would you call that?

As long as they don't brand it as an anniversary DLC/update, it's not an anniversary update - that should be pretty obvious.


People love comparing to ZT/ZT2, maybe Frontier should follow that lead. Only put features/content (also for base game) in paid DLC.
People don't expect free stuff and DLC will have more content. The only "free" stuff would be performance tweaks/bugfixing.
That should make everyone happy, right?

 

[ElectricMonk]

I bought 4 digital animals for 10 pounds are you insane. How much hard work went into that????

If you didn't think the DLCs were worth the money why did you buy them?

Mods are available online. And guys make digital animals single handedly lol
But a team of a hundred employees working 9-5 cant do better than some guy in his basement.

Modders reskin existing animals - that's very different to building a rig, animating it, adding behaviours etc. etc. etc.

I do see giving elite dangerous, jurassic world, and planet coaster but not giving planet zoo anniversary dlc as a slap in the face.

At very least its neglect. If you had 4 kids and every birthday (anniversary) they get a gift (dlc).

But your youngest (planet zoo) who also is your fastest selling child to reach 1 million...gets no birthday gift.

It's neglect, it's not caring enough about your fans that make your game a success

I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a global pandemic that means that release schedules this year can't really be compared to previous years. Overall, your complaints don't do anything so much as reveal a weird entitled attitude... Am I disappointed there won't be a big free anniversary update? Sure, free stuff is always nice, but in no world is it fair to complain that a company isn't giving stuff away for free, especially when each of the major updates has included a heap of free content. In the end, you're complaining that you don't think Frontier is giving you enough stuff for free.... Get over it.

 

[paul78]

About the soundtrack to each their own on whether you like it or dislike it. I personally find the soundtrack to be a definite highlight. It goes with the game very nicely and captures the right vibe for a zoo sim.

 

[NL_Mutso]

About the soundtrack to each their own on whether you like it or dislike it. I personally find the soundtrack to be a definite highlight. It goes with the game very nicely and captures the right vibe for a zoo sim.

Same here. One of the better game soundtracks from the last years. Fits great with the game but the best part: It's very relaxing music.

 

[Ozric]

Season 1 did release coincidentally the week of their anniversary though. What would you call that?

An Expansion. One that was expected when the game released and detailed many months ahead of it's release.

 

[12344321]

Well, you started claiming that everybody hates it. So it would be fair that you would provide numbers?
Since the last part of your sentence basically confirms that you haven't seen those numbers/sales figures - how do you come to that conclusion?
Tbh, I've only seen 1 person on this forum hating that DLC.


As long as they don't brand it as an anniversary DLC/update, it's not an anniversary update - that should be pretty obvious.


People love comparing to ZT/ZT2, maybe Frontier should follow that lead. Only put features/content (also for base game) in paid DLC.
People don't expect free stuff and DLC will have more content. The only "free" stuff would be performance tweaks/bugfixing.
That should make everyone happy, right?

To be honest not a single person asked for the soundtrack (or wanted it). But people on reddit and frontiers forums have been vocal about wanting new dlc.

It's like thousands of people on pz twitter and PZ forums and PZ reddit want dlc....and instead of listening to the community PZ released a soundtrack literally no one asked for....that's tone deafness. And not releasing an anniversary dlc is tone deaf on behalf of PZ.

If they were listening to what people are asking for it was dlc not that soundtrack. I have no hope they listen to the community for the future dlc

 

[12344321]

About the soundtrack to each their own on whether you like it or dislike it. I personally find the soundtrack to be a definite highlight. It goes with the game very nicely and captures the right vibe for a zoo sim.

Fair enough. My point was nobody asked for it on PZ twitter, PZ reddit or PZ forums (so who wanted this)....and I doubt anyone purchased it by itself (maybe the artists family and friends did)

 

[Cocolori]

To be honest not a single person asked for the soundtrack (or wanted it). But people on reddit and frontiers forums have been vocal about wanting new dlc.

It's like thousands of people on pz twitter and PZ forums and PZ reddit want dlc....and instead of listening to the community PZ released a soundtrack literally no one asked for....that's tone deafness. And not releasing an anniversary dlc is tone deaf on behalf of PZ.

If they were listening to what people are asking for it was dlc not that soundtrack. I have no hope they listen to the community for the future dlc

Not to be antagonistic but you didn't address my point which is that there is no way that they released a soundtrack 'instead of DLC'. It's like saying 'Frontier is now selling Planet Zoo cuddly toys but the community wanted DLC!' They wouldn't have pulled developers who would be creating new animal rigs off making a DLC to stuff cuddly toys and I don't believe they had them adding the soundtrack to steam either. It's not even like they had to spend money on creating a soundtrack - it already exists! How much effort do you think it really took to release it? What does it have to do with gameplay? I really struggle to understand your issue.

 

[12344321]

An Expansion. One that was expected when the game released and detailed many months ahead of it's release.

An expansion. One that was released the week of Elite Dangerous' anniversary.
(truthfully, and respectfully I'm not sure what your point is you are arguing....if you doubt season 1 of elite dangerous came out the week of their anniversary, your cellphone has a calendar in it)

By the way I am SO jealous that Frontier gave Elite Dangerous fans a heads up about when to expect dlc/seasons. Too bad they didnt let planet zoo fans know about dlc "many months ahead of its release"

 

[12344321]

Not to be antagonistic but you didn't address my point which is that there is no way that they released a soundtrack 'instead of DLC'. It's like saying 'Frontier is now selling Planet Zoo cuddly toys but the community wanted DLC!' They wouldn't have pulled developers who would be creating new animal rigs off making a DLC to stuff cuddly toys and I don't believe they had them adding the soundtrack to steam either. It's not even like they had to spend money on creating a soundtrack - it already exists! How much effort do you think it really took to release it? What does it have to do with gameplay? I really struggle to understand your issue.

"It's not even like they had to spend money on creating a soundtrack - it already exists! How much effort do you think it really took to release it?"

Exactly. It was already made. And it comes with your game. And to get some more bucks from fans who might not know the soundtrack comes free with the game they decided to sell the soundtrack individually.

It screams cash grab, "how can we exploit our fans into buying more of our stuff" (without actually giving them what they have been so vocal about...mainly new dlc)
So it was a cash grab?

 

[12344321]

Not to be antagonistic but you didn't address my point which is that there is no way that they released a soundtrack 'instead of DLC'. It's like saying 'Frontier is now selling Planet Zoo cuddly toys but the community wanted DLC!' They wouldn't have pulled developers who would be creating new animal rigs off making a DLC to stuff cuddly toys and I don't believe they had them adding the soundtrack to steam either. It's not even like they had to spend money on creating a soundtrack - it already exists! How much effort do you think it really took to release it? What does it have to do with gameplay? I really struggle to understand your issue.

I stated my issue in the first post...its insulting if elite dangerous, planet coaster and jurassic world evo got anniversary dlc (or dlc the week of their anniversary) and planet zoo seemingly is being ignored. The lack of communication is also annoying, like nobody knows when to expect anythong. Thank GOD someone hacked/leaked their roadmap in 2019, so we kinda knew dlc would be every 4 months (but that wasnt from the developers they just keep silent about things when the community asks questions). And finally the soundtrack that released....why.....it comes free with the game already (literally NOBODY asked for this) but the thousands of vocal fans, that support this game from day one have been asking for dlc and.....silence again!

 

[Cocolori]

"It's not even like they had to spend money on creating a soundtrack - it already exists! How much effort do you think it really took to release it?"

Exactly. It was already made. And it comes with your game. And to get some more bucks from fans who might not know the soundtrack comes free with the game they decided to sell the soundtrack individually.

It screams cash grab, "how can we exploit our fans into buying more of our stuff" (without actually giving them what they have been so vocal about...mainly new dlc)
So it was a cash grab?

Or it screams 'this artist worked hard to create a great soundtrack for us, they deserve to be able to sell it without the game so that they and Frontier can make more money'. Of course no-one in the Planet Zoo community wanted it - we already have it. So let's assume it wasn't aimed at pleasing us which is completely fine. I don't know why anyone would be annoyed at a company making more money when it has literally no demonstrable negative impact on anyone.

And if it's the communication you are annoyed at then sorry that's always been Frontier policy for the majority of the games they've created. As a Planet Coaster player we never knew when DLC or updates were coming. I'm ok with it because I always think roadmaps are either too vague to be helpful or too detailed to be believable and setting everyone up for disappointment. Got to be honest I don't know why knowing about something ahead of time is so important as it won't make it happen any faster. As I've said before, Frontier won't talk about anything they aren't sure they can deliver so even with a DLC schedule they would never talk about new game mechanics like swimming. It also would suggest they wouldn't prioritise the requests of the community - lots of people wanted coat variation so they've implemented it. They probably didn't have that in any roadmap or plan but they did it anyway. If they'd had a plan the bits of the community that didn't care about coat variation would have got annoyed that their asks weren't being prioritised and would be complaining about that. So they've gone with a strategy that says 'we don't talk about stuff until we know when we are releasing it'. It's a perfectly valid strategy even if it isn't one that everyone likes.

The one thing about the comms I do agree with is around bug fixes and which bugs they are working on. They seem to be trying to be more open about that in the forum recently with Chante regularly posting so that's a good sign.

 

[12344321]

If you didn't think the DLCs were worth the money why did you buy them?



Modders reskin existing animals - that's very different to building a rig, animating it, adding behaviours etc. etc. etc.



I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a global pandemic that means that release schedules this year can't really be compared to previous years. Overall, your complaints don't do anything so much as reveal a weird entitled attitude... Am I disappointed there won't be a big free anniversary update? Sure, free stuff is always nice, but in no world is it fair to complain that a company isn't giving stuff away for free, especially when each of the major updates has included a heap of free content. In the end, you're complaining that you don't think Frontier is giving you enough stuff for free.... Get over it.

Who said free? Dont put worda in my mouth

I do not expect planet zoo or frontier to give their community ANYTHING for free.

The free soundtrack that came with the game is for sale on steam...so frontier makes you pay for everything, even free soundtracks

 

[Bearcat9948]

Exactly. It was already made. And it comes with your game. And to get some more bucks from fans who might not know the soundtrack comes free with the game they decided to sell the soundtrack individually.

It screams cash grab, "how can we exploit our fans into buying more of our stuff" (without actually giving them what they have been so vocal about...mainly new dlc)
So it was a cash grab?

This is technically not true. The soundtrack comes with the deluxe dlc pack, which also includes 3 animals for $12 USD.

The weird thing is that the soundtrack was made into it's own dlc, which is also $12 USD. I don't understand why they did this tbh. I guess the logic is that now people who don't own the game can download the soundtrack, but I really can't think that the market for that would be that big. It's also strange they decided to value it the same amount as the deluxe dlc, despite containing less content. I agree that it is definitely a cash grab when taking all of this into account though.

Edit: If anyone knows of a way to see how much the soundtrack on it's own paid dlc made, I would be very interested in that. I would be surprised if it made over $1000 USD, but I guess you never know.