Actual Expansion Packs Instead of DLC?

[Jason219]

I'm actually at this stage very curious if we're going to get actual expansions to the game.

We've had a number of DLC packs, and each has coincided with an update, but none of the packs have ever actually considerably retooled the basic game. Compared to say, The Sims franchise, it's like we've been getting "stuff packs" rather than full expansions.

I'm kinda curious to know what everyone would like to see Fromtier add or change if they actually do a full expansion.

Me personally, I don't think they could realistically add birds without an expansion. From the get-go, it was either habitats or exhibits, and shy of having non-animated birds on perches, I can't see birds fitting into that. To add birds, the game needs to add not only flying animations and mechanics, but 3D zoning to define ceilings. Not only that, but we've never had more than 8 animals in a dlc pack, and it's just not realistic that any 8 picks would satisfy. For the amount of coding involved to add flight, for the number of birds and bats they'd need to add, my opinion is they'd need a full expansion.

In terms of game overhaul, one of my biggest wants in-game would actually be small mammals. The duality between habitats and exhibits kinda makes a weird grey area for small animals. For example, jerboas, tamarins, chinchillas, various rodents, rabbits, etc are at a size that they're very small to justify a habitat, but too large or too animated to work as an exhibit. All exhibits are the same size, too. I would love an almost side-game kind of terrarium/aquarium/arboretum editor. Build tanks of various sizes, add plants, rocks, etc. And then be able to import those tanks from the terrarium editor back into the game. Like the ability to make a reptile house, or indoor small-animal enclosures.

That's just me. Any thoughts?

 

[Jeeminee]

Maybe such small animals is very difficult to ad to the game because of inzooming limitations for example.
And you will/can have to have many animals in a habitat, wich I can imagine giving the fps drops as crazy.
More exhibit sizes are asked frequently, and it would be great if that wish will come true, together with the wish to can do some more with them.

But I would love to see a real expansionpack, though!
Not (only) for another kind of animal, (Wich we hopefully get anyway), but I am hoping to see more challenges and variations in managing a zoo.

Like for example:
Staffmembers quitting the job thereselves, or being lazy or unsuitable for their function (so you can give them extra lessons to get them an other function if you don't want to fire them). something like that. Or maybe the sunpanel and windturbine can react to the weather, and give less ( or more) power during a storm/hot temperature. If you have got more energy you maybe could have the choice of selling it, or save it in a kind of battery thing for later use.
Well, these are only thoughts and examples, but I think you'll get the point.

 

[NZFanatic]

Staffmembers quitting the job thereselves

Staff can already do this. If their happiness drops too low, they can walk off the job.

 

[Jeeminee]

Yes, I know they should. But I never have seen it ,though.Even in hard mode. Apparently the managing is to easy sometimes. it can be a thing that happens in the zoo now and then,even if your zoo is going well.
Not only if they are not happy enough, but for example a staffmember can go for another job with a better salary or whatever reason.

 

[Jason219]

Maybe such small animals is very difficult to ad to the game because of inzooming limitations for example.
And you will/can have to have many animals in a habitat, wich I can imagine giving the fps drops as crazy.
More exhibit sizes are asked frequently, and it would be great if that wish will come true, together with the wish to can do some more with them.

I personally kinda want modular exhibits. Like the exhibit tank we have now is 1×1. I would like 1×2, 2×2, 1×3, 2×3, and maybe 3×3 tanks. I don't necessarily think jerboas, rabbits, mice, etc need to be animated. I could be okay with the current thing of just having your exhibit animal static in a plethora of random spawn points in the enclosure. What I'd need for that to work, though, is more square footage.

If we could get variable tank sizes, we could have a whole other category of animal that's kind of a hybrid model of exhibit and habitat. I've seen someone asking for green anacondas or other large constrictors but really the current exhibit limitations don't readily allow snakes that size.

But then again, they did just add prairie dogs, so I suppose it's possible they could do hedgehogs, jerboas, etc, as habitat animals, but I'd still like the addition of variable tank sizes.

 

[Nat1984]

I’d like there to be the option to give staff more control. So you can put a member of staff in charge of a number of habitats (like a manager) and you can set it so they manage those habitats- as in keep it topped up to a requested number of animals if one dies etc. Not sure if this would be doable but as someone who loves building and creating things, sometimes I find the habitats lose animals through death etc and it’s a faff to keep on top of it. Hiring a ‘manager’ or having a manager function would be really useful.

 

[Spiderhawk]

Ya know here’s what I’ve been thinking

As rumor has it, there are 5 dlcs remaining, I wonder if there’s a chance expansions pop up in between the dlcs and the dlcs can complement the expansions.

Many of us are leaning on aviaries coming to us next, many of us agree that 4 flying animals just simply isn’t going to cut it, thus frontier would have to make the 4th quarter dlc bigger therefore a true expansion would be better suited for our aviaries.

If frontier were to make a small mammal/medium sized exhibit feature I would expect an expansion, not too concerned on how many animals would be included but at least 8. This could work as a habitat exhibit fusion that people are hoping for. Plus something to sweeten the pack .

“Fun stuff” including a carousel, petting zoo, play ground, camp program etc for kids I could see working as one big expansion. Not sure how many animals we would request for said petting zoo but simply put these features are too much for a simple dlc.

There’s a lot of fixes that need to be made to features and staff we already have therefore we shouldn’t have to pay for them.
I could see brachiation making it into a dlc focused on an arboreal theme just like how diving was implemented.
I like the manager idea btw

 

[Iben]

Expansion packs are basically DLCs that take longer to make. If you look back at the expansion packs of for instance ZT2, for which we had to wait an entire year, PZ gives us a lot more content on a yearly basis with all DLCs of a single year combined. And instead of waiting a whole year for it, you get it in parts every three/four months.

I'd much rather have some new content every three/four months than to get the same total amount of content but waiting an entire year.

And the whole "we need more than 5 birds" in a birds DLC would have made sense in my eyes if we'd never get birds in follow up DLCs. But we've clearly seen that Frontier doesn't shy away from adding more new mechanic animals in other DLCs (burrowing in both Africa and North America Animal Pack, diving in Aquatics, Africa and North America Animal Pack), so I'd say that a 5 birds DLC is perfectly possible with the roster being expanded upon in later DLCs.

 

[NZFanatic]

As rumor has it, there are 5 dlcs remaining

That isn't accurate; there are five DLC's coming. These content packs weren't in the files before; new ones might pop up later.

 

[NL_Mutso]

Currently at least 5 DLC might be the rumour/leak but still a bit cautious on this one:

• JWE had the raptor skin pack as DLC
• PC had the Knightrider and Back to the future DLC and another one. And even a free one.

which were only minor DLC.

Hope for (at least) 5 DLC with a lot of content but other Frontier games also had very small DLC for a low price. (1,99 or 2,99)
Which also applies the other way around, bigger DLC could be part of this as well.

 

[avietar]

I'm thinking... we might not get aviary or aquatic DLC for Planet Zoo. It feels like PZ will focus on terrestrial animals, and is more of an experimentation, a first step into the genre with the engine. They're experimenting with DLCs, testing the reception.

Perhaps we'll get a Planet Zoo 2 in a few years, that will learn from everything they learned from PZ 1. It will be on a better engine, that easily allows for aquatic and aviary animals. The base roster would be larger and include more ground birds. And DLCs would be more varied and catered to player wants and needs. For instance, Flying and Aquatic expansions with 20 animals each, and large biome and continent animal packs (10 animals each). Building packs, foliage packs, and scenario packs, can be bought separately. That way people can decide for themselves whether they want to focus on building pieces, animals, scenarios, etcetera.

Aquatic / Flying Expansion pack: 20,-
Animal pack: 12,-
Foliage / Building / Scenarios pack: 5,-

 

[ElectricMonk]

For instance, Flying and Aquatic expansions with 20 animals each, and large biome and continent animal packs (10 animals each).

Aquatic / Flying Expansion pack: 20,-
Animal pack: 12,-
Foliage / Building / Scenarios pack: 5,-

So, that’d be 5x the number of animals for only 2x the price of current dlc for aquatic/flying and 2.5x as many animals for 1.2x the price of current dlc for animal packs….

Essentially you want more stuff for less money.

 

[NL_Mutso]

They're experimenting with DLCs, testing the reception.

Personally don't believe that. They research these things beforehand.
9,99 has more appeal, even when you don't play the game that often. 19,99 or 29,99 is borderline: Should I buy this expansion or a new game?
When you only play 1 or 2 games, that's not a difficult choice but playing more games, you usually wait for discounts or not at all.

So, that’d be 5x the number of animals for only 2x the price of current dlc for aquatic/flying and 2.5x as many animals for 1.2x the price of current dlc for animal packs….

Essentially you want more stuff for less money.

That's usually the case when people are discussing expansion packs. Most people want larger packs but the price ratio/content is somewhat debatable. The flying/aquatic one with 20 birds sounds like a 29,99 or even a 39,99 DLC.
Back in ZT/ZT2 times, you'd pay € 30-35 for 1 expansion. It was good but it is an expensive addition for a game.

 

[Iben]

I'm thinking... we might not get aviary or aquatic DLC for Planet Zoo. It feels like PZ will focus on terrestrial animals, and is more of an experimentation, a first step into the genre with the engine. They're experimenting with DLCs, testing the reception.

Perhaps we'll get a Planet Zoo 2 in a few years, that will learn from everything they learned from PZ 1. It will be on a better engine, that easily allows for aquatic and aviary animals. -

The current engine is for 90% sure to be the same engine as to what JWE2 is build on. So aquatic and aviary animals should be already possible. Especially aquatics, people seem to think you need a massive overhaul here, but from a technical perspective you're just a few steps (special gate and no land requirement) away from having fully aquatic animals. There isn't this huge boundary that needs to be overcome for aquatics really, that's just in the minds of some people.

I don't see what you see though. PZ is a successful game, much more than they anticipated and they are actively expanding on it to this date, and successfully doing so. This isn't just an experimentation, this is a well thought out and planned game as @NL_Mutso mentioned.

 

[avietar]

So, that’d be 5x the number of animals for only 2x the price of current dlc for aquatic/flying and 2.5x as many animals for 1.2x the price of current dlc for animal packs….

Essentially you want more stuff for less money.

They can re-use a lot of things they already created for PZ 1, which is why I went with this.

Also, this is just a thought experiment... I'm not wanting or demanding anything. Relax.

 

[avietar]

The current engine is for 90% sure to be the same engine as to what JWE2 is build on. So aquatic and aviary animals should be already possible. Especially aquatics, people seem to think you need a massive overhaul here, but from a technical perspective you're just a few steps (special gate and no land requirement) away from having fully aquatic animals. There isn't this huge boundary that needs to be overcome for aquatics really, that's just in the minds of some people.

I don't see what you see though. PZ is a successful game, much more than they anticipated and they are actively expanding on it to this date, and successfully doing so. This isn't just an experimentation, this is a well thought out and planned game as @NL_Mutso mentioned.

I don't know anything about game creation, so I'll take your word for it.

The reason I even thought of PZ 2 is because we're getting JW 2, so perhaps there will be a PZ 2 and/or PC 2 as well.

And for the record, I'm not dissing Planet zoo, I love the game. Some comments make me feel like I've said something wrong.

 

[Sahara]

I don't know anything about game creation, so I'll take your word for it.

The reason I even thought of PZ 2 is because we're getting JW 2, so perhaps there will be a PZ 2 and/or PC 2 as well.

And for the record, I'm not dissing Planet zoo, I love the game. Some comments make me feel like I've said something wrong.

Jurassic World is a licensed title. Frontier doesn't have full ownership of it. The reason a sequel is coming is very likely because Universal asked them to make one. Jurassic World dominion is coming next summer, so it makes sense that there would a game to coincide with it.

Planet Coaster 2 is almost definitely in development. I suspect we may hear about it in 2022.

I doubt, however, that Frontier has even started thinking about PZ 2 yet. And I don't think a sequel can be expected in another 5-6 years. Planet Zoo seems to have been more successful than both JWE and PC, so they're likely going to continue to expand on it rather than ditch it for a sequel so soon.

 

[Tally]

An Aviary Expansion would be the ideal for me. Something with a good 10-15 birds or more. Birds are ubiquitous in zoos—I consider them pretty much essential to the game, and I'm really hoping we'll get them.

By contrast, even though I'm not necessarily opposed to marine animals (orcas, sharks, etc.) in PZ, we still need SO MANY terrestrial animals AND birds, I'd really prefer the devs focus their attention that way. Rather than get a few marine animals in PZ via expansion or DLC, I'd love to see a dedicated Planet Aquarium game from Frontier at some point.