3 or 4 DLC per year? (Also: Please increase species per DLC, or decrease the copy-paste species.)

[Jeminyne]

The first point is a question for other players: Do you guys think they will release their next DLC in December again, and then carry on with the same release dates from 2020 into the future? This would mean we'd have 3 DLC packs per year. (early Winter, mid Spring, late Summer?) Or do you think they'll release it a bit earlier, maybe end of November, then shake things up? Maybe starting 2021 with one in February, then one in May, one in August, and one in November again... and have 4 DLC per year, from then on. This is a best-case scenario and would lead to more DLC I think.

I know its impossible for us to know, and there's no rule saying Frontier has to be constant like they way I mapped it out. But I'm curious about your thoughts!


As for the second point, I know these things have already been stated, but I thought I'd make another thread because it CANNOT be stressed enough:

Please Frontier: Increase the number of habitat species per DLC, or at least decrease overly similar animals and sub-species.

I don't want to be too negative-- I'm incredibly excited whenever I think about future DLC! I mean think about it: even if we only get three DLC per year, and four habitat animals per DLC, if we keep going for two more years, that means 24 more animals to look forward to. And the game is already so fun, 24 more animals is exciting to think about!

But the animal world is so diverse and plentiful, even that might not make the game feel complete to most people. And yes, I only mean "complete" in a realistic way-- that all continents and biomes feel equally represented. And we'd have enough content to make well-developed sections out places like the Amazon, India, North American forests, Southeast Asia, Australia, etc.

And that's what stresses people out the most. The fear that this game will be treated like Frontier's least favorite child and be milked for money in the cheapest way. "We'll just put ONE animal that everyone wants in each DLC, and the rest will be copy-paste like the Arctic Wolf and Dingo!" It's definitely not that bad yet, but one can understand the frustration with animals like the Arctic wolf. I imagine people will be equally frustrated if we get a black bear in a North America DLC, or another monkey the same shape and size as the capuchin monkeys and lemurs. I sure will be.

Honestly even ONE more habitat animal per DLC would make a world of difference. I have no idea what Frontier's plans are-- if they suddenly gave us a big aviary pack or something, then my posts will look hilarious in hindsight.

Sorry for making the same rants everyone else has already made. I just love this game a lot.

 

[Swjosdotschka]

Well... Frontier surprised me in a negative way lately with the marketing, handling and caring for Planet Zoo and its community. They actually caught me completly off guard and at the moment I can't even speculate. Will things change for the better? For the worse? Just be the same? I have no idea. All I can say is, that indeed my frustration and anger also just comes out of love for the game. It's close to my heart so what I consider bad decisions hit me personally.

All I can say is, that I agree we need bigger DLCs and not just for birds, but in general, and that I will keep on supporting Planet Zoo with buying DLCs. And if there won't be any DLCs anymore in the future, I will continue to support content creators to keep Planet Zoo on everyones radar, so that another game company or Frontier considers another zoo management game for adults. And hopefully, who ever works on anything with Planet Zoo or with another game, will have as much love for Zoos as the current Frontier Devs are having for coasters. Yes, the animal world is diverse, beautiful and unique and we need a bunch of animal enthusiasts to work on any zoo game to move it forward in a meaningful way.

 

[PeppyPepp]

I think they will continue with the current model of DLCs - 4 habitat animals + 1 exhibit animal. Of course, I have no idea if we will continue to get more continent based packs, but I don't think the content will change in terms of the amount of animals we will get. I will continue to support the game and can confidently say I will (most likely) buy every pack they release because more the better. And when you look at it overall 16 habitat animals and 4 exhibit animals per year (not to mention hundreds of building pieces) it's not that bad. I don't mind the continent based packs (even though it's very hard to represent it with only 5 animals but it is what it is) however I wish that maybe in the future we could start getting different packs as in "small felines pack" or "carnivores pack" or "burrowing animals pack" etc (just brainstorming here but you get my point)

As far as copy-paste species go I don't mind them however I think that should be left for last - when the game's development starts nearing the end. I think it would be better that we could perhaps get more unique species in packs. For example the SA pack - it had the capuchin monkey, the jaguar and the llama (all very obvious choices) and then we got the anteater - which was a nice surprise and I'm happy we got it in the game.

 

[Jeminyne]

Well... Frontier surprised me in a negative way lately with the marketing, handling and caring for Planet Zoo and its community. They actually caught me completly off guard and at the moment I can't even speculate. Will things change for the better? For the worse? Just be the same? I have no idea. All I can say is, that indeed my frustration and anger also just comes out of love for the game. It's close to my heart so what I consider bad decisions hit me personally.

All I can say is, that I agree we need bigger DLCs and not just for birds, but in general, and that I will keep on supporting Planet Zoo with buying DLCs. And if there won't be any DLCs anymore in the future, I will continue to support content creators to keep Planet Zoo on everyones radar, so that another game company or Frontier considers another zoo management game for adults. And hopefully, who ever works on anything with Planet Zoo or with another game, will have as much love for Zoos as the current Frontier Devs are having for coasters. Yes, the animal world is diverse, beautiful and unique and we need a bunch of animal enthusiasts to work on any zoo game to move it forward in a meaningful way.

Totally agree. But if you don't mind me asking, what are all the reasons for believing Frontier doesn't care about the game as much as they care about coasters? I agree that they aren't communicating enough with us lately. And that PC got an anniversary update and PZ probably isn't getting one. They are also releasing the console version of PC. But other than that, I'm not totally convinced that there's no possibility Frontier is working on big things for PZ in the future. I just kinda felt they were wrapping things up with Planet Coaster, so they're trying to go out with a bang before completely leaving the game as-is. Giving it a console version and doing any finishing touches makes sense. (I assume PZ will get a console version in the future, too.)

 

[Jeminyne]

I think they will continue with the current model of DLCs - 4 habitat animals + 1 exhibit animal. Of course, I have no idea if we will continue to get more continent based packs, but I don't think the content will change in terms of the amount of animals we will get. I will continue to support the game and can confidently say I will (most likely) buy every pack they release because more the better. And when you look at it overall 16 habitat animals and 4 exhibit animals per year (not to mention hundreds of building pieces) it's not that bad. I don't mind the continent based packs (even though it's very hard to represent it with only 5 animals but it is what it is) however I wish that maybe in the future we could start getting different packs as in "small felines pack" or "carnivores pack" or "burrowing animals pack" etc (just brainstorming here but you get my point)

As far as copy-paste species go I don't mind them however I think that should be left for last - when the game's development starts nearing the end. I think it would be better that we could perhaps get more unique species in packs. For example the SA pack - it had the capuchin monkey, the jaguar and the llama (all very obvious choices) and then we got the anteater - which was a nice surprise and I'm happy we got it in the game.

I getcha. Yeah I can see the current amount of species staying the same. Oh, but just to clarify-- "And when you look at it overall 16 habitat animals and 4 exhibit animals per year (not to mention hundreds of building pieces) it's not that bad"-- that's what will happen if there are four DLC per year. But if there is only 3 DLC per year, we'd get 12 habitat animals per year. That's why I asked if people think we'll get a DLC at the end of November, and then maybe another one before the end of Winter 2021, because that could make the difference between getting 3 per year or 4 per year. (I mean, technically we only got two this year, since the Arctic DLC was released 2019.) Everyone was convinced we'd get 12 DLC just like Planet Coaster, and probably get them 4 per year, but now we're not so sure.

I'm kinda overthinking this though. I mean it's not like I expect anybody to have all the answers for me. And there's no rule that Frontier has to stop making DLCs after three years-- maybe there's some freak chance we'll actually get more DLC than Planet Coaster got, who knows.

 

[aim_foliksta]

Before the game release I was very excited with this game as it looked like we will have lots of animal species. I still remember the announcements about the big number of species that the game will gave on its release and that during the pre-release videos about how the game was developed it was said something like that the animals were being implemented in a way that were easy to reuse the skeletons and other parts to create other animals. That really made me think that the amount of animals in this game will be something big and that even on release there were some "must-have" animals missing (polar bear, kangaroo,...), they would come in a near future. Now, after one year we got only 12 habitat animals more. I got more and more disappointed about the game after every new DLC.

On the game I mostly work one single sandbox zoo, without clearly marked themed areas (I mean, no highly theme-park themed constructions, so for me themed pieces are not really important). At this moment I had to start building empty enclosures as I have not enough animal species for my zoo. The amount of pieces is great and you can build almost all you can imagine, but when it come to select the species that you want to use on a themed area then comes the limitations. Sometimes you just have the same few species to use on that area, making it repetitive if you create many zoos as you always build exhibits for the same species, or sometimes you can't just create a themed area with enough animal diversity. For example, I'm trying to create the typical mountain themed area for goats and sheeps and I can only put one single species.


In my opinion, at this moment it is a game more focused on construction than in animals, and unless they change the way they are releasing new content, this will not change. The construction and terraforming tools are strong enough to allow us to build the zoo of our dreams. The animals are very well done and it's really nice to create exhibits for them. But this is a zoo game, and I think that animals must be the most important part of this game. I think that we have already enough pieces and that future DLC's should focus on new animals and new game mechanics and features.

 

[random goat]

Indeed, everything points towards 3 DLCs per year and not 4 (for now). It might be a bit confusing but 4 DLCs betwen Dec 2019 and Dec 2020 are, in fact, 3 per year.

In my opinion, the current DLCs are of great quality but something needs to be changed by either adding new features or adjusting the animals : building pieces ratio. I'm perfeclty fine with 3 DLCs per year but then again if we get more animals per DLC. 16-20 animals each year would be ideal.

Regarding what animals should be included in future content, they don't have to be super different for me. Sure, I wouldn't like another lion, tiger, brown bear or wolf but I would really like a black&white ruffed lemur, for instance. As it's been discussed extensively, it's a rather subjective topic and it really depends on the animals you're considering.
There are some species that look very similar but then they have very different needs. There are some subspecies that look very different from one another and some who are almost identical.

Take the examples of tortoises and gazelles, for instance. For me (and I believe it's a general view), most giant tortoises species look very similar and would be considered as clones. On the other hand, we have gazelles, which could arguably be considered clones by many people but certainly not by me and surely some other animal/zoo enthusiasts. Okay, gazelles are divided in 3 genera, but for me, as many as 8 gazelles would be worth being included (Thomsom's gazelle, Dama gazelle, Grant's gazelle, Soemmerring's gazelle, Rhim gazelle, Speke's gazelle, Goitered gazelle, Dorcas gazelle). Same goes for many other genera of animals, particularly inside the primates group. Obviously I'd rather get meerkats, penguins, otters, gibbons, etc. first.

So the more animals the better (obviously within the limits Frontier are capable of producing). If we keep having 12 animals per year I really hope mod support is considered after they're done with DLCs.

 

[LN]

I'm fine with anything Frontier throws at me.
It's all bonus material on top of the base game.

4 DLC's is what I'm used to so that's fine.
Concerning the size of content, Frontier knows what they can manage to make with a certain period and the engine's/game's limits, so I'm sure what we get is the best they can do at the moment, with the current resources available.

 

[random goat]

Concerning the size of content, Frontier knows what they can manage to make with a certain period and the engine's/game's limits, so I'm sure what we get is the best they can do at the moment, with the current resources available.

That's a very good point that should be taken into consideration too (I forget about it sometimes). Adding more and more animals could eventually jepoardise performance. A clear and simple example of this is how laggy the animal menu was in ZT2 when a few animal mods were installed. On top of that, every animal is shown 4x in PZ (in sandbox), so even just the UI could easily become laggy.

 

[Kolikokoli]

Well the solution would be 2 DLCs per year with 8+2 animals rather than 4 DLCs per year with 4+1 animals.

 

[FutureFear]

I would also love to see more animals per DLC and things like aquatic and (flying) birds etc. On the other hand, I'm also realistic and understand the seriousness of a global pandemic that's is still going on in most if not all countries including the UK where Frontier's HQ is located.
It tends to slow things down.

That said also keep in mind that we can't compare DLC's of Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster in size. As my understanding of rigs and animation is quite large I can tell you guys that animating a train on a coaster or some rotating attraction is "easier, as in faster" than the movement of an animal. Especially if you take into account the realism and standard Planet Zoo already offers for all its species. So reusing some of the animations is key to a faster workflow, hence we see another "bear", another "flyless bird", another "dog", another "cat."
From a development standpoint, it makes sense to release them first, with one or two new "rigs" (animated bodies). The hours of research and time it takes to create those assets and implement them into the game's engine, test them, color them, add sound, etc. are a lot longer than most of you think.

I would love to see anyone here creating an animated 3D animal in a 3-month schedule, with the same quality Frontier does. If you can I would suggest sending your resume to them...

 

[Jeminyne]

I would also love to see more animals per DLC and things like aquatic and (flying) birds etc. On the other hand, I'm also realistic and understand the seriousness of a global pandemic that's is still going on in most if not all countries including the UK where Frontier's HQ is located.
It tends to slow things down.

That said also keep in mind that we can't compare DLC's of Planet Zoo and Planet Coaster in size. As my understanding of rigs and animation is quite large I can tell you guys that animating a train on a coaster or some rotating attraction is "easier, as in faster" than the movement of an animal. Especially if you take into account the realism and standard Planet Zoo already offers for all its species. So reusing some of the animations is key to a faster workflow, hence we see another "bear", another "flyless bird", another "dog", another "cat."
From a development standpoint, it makes sense to release them first, with one or two new "rigs" (animated bodies). The hours of research and time it takes to create those assets and implement them into the game's engine, test them, color them, add sound, etc. are a lot longer than most of you think.

I would love to see anyone here creating an animated 3D animal in a 3-month schedule, with the same quality Frontier does. If you can I would suggest sending your resume to them...

funny you should mention that, I'm in a 3D animation (and modelling and rigging) program right now!

 

[Sclurp]

I would like expansion content to add new gameplay opportunities as well as animals and scenery.

 

[juliandracos]

For me, it is the cost/value of the DLC. I am more interested in the animals that the scenery. For 12-16 habitat animals per year would cost $30-$40. Compare that with a ZT2 expansion pack. You get 20 animals, plus new features, a lot of scenarios to play with, and new scenery. The cost was $20-$30. I understand inflation and that PZ is more detailed in many ways. Expansion packs are how I am used to buying things and how I prefer to do it. Civ VI is sort of splitting hairs by offering both DLC and then larger game expansions.

For me, either the cost of DLC needs to be lowered to $6 or more content needs to be added. 8 scenarioes + 16 habitat + 4 exhibit per year for a cost of $30 is my value point. I am much happier plopping down a larger sum of money for a lot more content once a year, than the nickle and dime approach that games are doing now through DLC. This is not just PZ, but many games use this model.