Frontier really should focus more on aquariums instead of flying birds. They already have 80-90% of the framework needed for fully aquatic habitat animals (there are even some mods that added fully aquatic animals like koi) so it shouldn't be that far of a leap if you ask me.
Analyzing required animals by Taxonomical group
Like I said, probably both of them Will be in this hypothetical Planet Zoo 2
We're doing this in order. It'd be weird to talk about flying birds then suddenly drop in flying fish and arapaima.
We're gonna come to fish eventually, especially since Yoav started an Essential Aquarium Wishlist. Nobody is denying fish, but birds are much more popular on this forum
Ooh these are back, cool
Parrots
This could be a discussion on it's own, parrots should (hopefully) take over significant part of birds in-game roster.
Macaws: I think due to sheer variety and representation in zoos, essential number of macaws in game should be at least three. Out of those three, for me, Green Winged (due to looks) and Hyacinth Macaws (due to conservation status) are essential. Third can be any other (maybe Scarlett ot Blue and Yellow due to popularity) but I say Military Macaw has the advantage due to different coloration.
I can see them giving us Spix Macaw, as an oddball pick, due to Extinct in Wild status.
Other New World Parrots: I don't see other NW parrots as essential, I think macaws can carry that role on their own, in combination with other American birds. Not that I would mind, but if our parrot roster is limited, I'd rather see more location-diverse pickings. But here, as a honorable mention, I'm gonna fo for Burrowing Parakeet (due to biome and behavior) and Red Fan Parrot (due to looks).
Old World Parrots: I'd say here, for me, only African Grey Parrot is essential (due to popularity and behavior). As an oddball pick I'd throw Greater Vasa Parrot in there (for Madagascar representation). For India there's no essentials there, but something like Rose Ringed Parakeet (due to popularity and looks) would be great inclusion for variety sake. Plum Headed Parakeet could be an interesting alternative.
Cockatoos: I believe we could easily go with two cockatoos in game, but for at least one is essential. For that essential spot Sulphur-Crested and Palm Cockatoo are interchangeable (if we get one, the other loses essential status). Galah would be cool pick for an honorable mention. There's also a popular pet pick in Cockatiel, but I personally find it a boring one.
Other Australian parrots: There's enough popular parrot species here, to warrant at least one essential spot. My personal choice would either be Eastern or Crimson Rosella, but there's also other popular picks like Rainbow Lorikeet and Budgerigar. To reiterate, at least one of these would be essential.
New Zealand Parrots: Given some of the mammal inclusions in the game I wouldn't at all be surprised if Frontier chucks Kakapo our way, but it's far from essential. I'd classify it as an oddball. But it has enough going for it to still warrant an inclusion (like Saiga). On the other hand I truly believe that Kea is essential. For a parrot it lives in a fairly unique biome, it lives on fairly unique island, it has beautiful coloration, and as far as my personal zoo experience goes they don't seem to be uncommon in captivity, but I haven't checked.
Hornbills and Hoopoes
Hoopoes: I'm gonna start with them because they're simpler. I'm torn here, because I love them in real life, and I get excited whenever I see them in wild, but I recognize that they're far from essential for a zoo game. Let's say that at leat one Hoopoe in a game would be a sneakily good pick. I'd go with Eurasian Hoopoe due to range, other Hoopoes all look similar, but are way more limited in distribution.
Hornbills: This is such a diverse group of birds, that I think as longs as they go for distinct looking species, they can never bring too many in game. For the sake of this thread and limited roster I'd say at least four are essential for game, while any extra inclusions would still be good picks. In that essential number four, at least one would have to come for Africa, but I would split them 2/2 per comtinent. For Africa it's a little bit easier, I'd pick Southern Ground Hornbill (due to behavior and captive presence) and Red-Billed Hornbill (due to media presence). For Asia it's a more difficult choice, so I'd go for most popular species for one pick (Great Hornbill) and personal favorite for the second (Knobbed Hornbill) due to beautiful looks and exotic location. But I repeat addition of more hornbills on top of this four, would still be great choices.
Nightbirds
Personally I see none of the nightbirds, except Hummingbirds, as essential for the sequel. Therefore I'd personally qualify them all as oddballs.
Hummingbirds: Hummingbirds are all pretty similar, but they are also numerous. I don't see why we couldn't get at least 4-5 in game in a bunch (like butterflies). It's hard to say which number would be essential, but I feel like 1 or 2 is too low to represent them properly. Also I believe as long as there are enough of them, for variety sake, that no exact species is truly essential. So I'm gonna list four of them, and try to be diverse in habitat and location: Green Backed Firecrown (Patagonia, Montane and Temperate Rainforests), Anna's Hummingbird (North America, Pacific Coast, numerous biomes), Fiery Topaz (Amazon, Tropical Jungle) and Andean Hillstar (Andes, Highlands and Grasslands).
TLDR - For me number of hummingbirds is more essential than exact species, I hope for at least four.
Hoatzin: And lastly, I think Hoatzins aren't essential for the game, but I feel that they're unique enough that Frontier just might include them. I'd classify them as an interesting oddball.
Depends on how they go about it. There are no fish in JWE3 except the massive Duncleustes. For most real fish we will need small aquariums the size of exhibits, not full on habitats. And ZT1 and ZT2 never had small fish.
Megalodon was also there. Other sharks, Leedsichthys and Xiphactinus.
Yes, it is huge leap. If you ever been following JWE franchiese then you would understand Frontier flying animals are way more advanced than aquatic ones despite always having framework for latter. There is something we dont know about whole aquatic stuff and just because terrestrial animals can dive doesnt mean it has anything to do with fully aquatic species. Even Prehistoric Kingdom devs said basically same thing about implementation of them. Basically aquatic animals require completely different system compared to everything else, while flying animals are simply part of land fauna.
I know based on your comment history you are in hard denial state regarding fish fate, but you really should accept reality.
there is also the whole zoo vs aquarium situation. Birds are exclusively zoo animals and are in just about every zoo whereas fish do occasionally appear in zoos but are primarily kept in completely separate institutions which are fundamentally different to build and maintain than what we see in planet zoo currently. The aquarium gaming market is also strong and healthy with many competitors making fish a financial risk as there is no assured success unlike birds.
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On the other hand tho, every major zoo game up until now had Marine expansion, so that kinda sets expectations
firstly it has been over 20 years since a serious zoo game offered a marine expansion pack and 2 data points does not make a trend. Even then my point was about fish not all marine animals. Specifically cetaceans are often zoo animals more than they are aquarium animals. This is even reflected in the marine expansions of old zoo games with a majority of the fully aquatic animals not being fish but rather cetaceans and also containing many semi aquatic species.
Do you mean MegaAquarium or there is any other? I have it and it's good but I wouldn't say that is a competitor for an expansion that adds aquarium building to PZ. One is very aquarium specific focusing more on management and with very basic graphics (barely 3D), the other one is a full zoo game focusing on building and with pretty good graphics.
It would be so much less a competitor for either a PZ Aquarium DLC or PZ2 with aquaria from the start, than Parkitect has been for Planet Coaster 2, which I think it hasn't been a strong competitor even though it is a pretty complete theme park game.
megaquarium is definitely one but no I was more referring to the forty million aquarium designing games that exist like aquarium simulator, aquarium designer, fish game and the aquarist.
Most of the games in this genre focus on the management and interior of tanks very few explore the actually building of the main building so there is a potential angle for planet zoo but when competing with the highly detailed management and tank designing systems I just dont think planet zoo could compete on solely the main building alone.
planet zoo only has as much power as it does because it is pretty much the only modern zoo game trying to look realistic same reason architect never was a competitor for coaster it wasnt trying to be a realistic builder. Aquarium enthusiasts already have plenty of highly detailed and realistic building games that planet zoo would have to compete with.
None of those games are competition for PZ. Plenty of zoos have an aquariums and an aquarium only style planet game would flop so hard Frontier would go off the face of the Earth.
Every major zoo game has had a marine expansion, and the casual market go nuts for it. I’ll go nuts for it, and Frontier will go nuts over the money it’ll make them. It’s for sure going to be in a sequel game it doesn’t take a lot of nuts to understand why it’ll be a good idea. I’m going nuts talking about it over here.
Im for sure team birds. Just because i think birds are alot more essential to the zoo experience than fish are. And you can throw in an aviary in pretty much every section whereas for aquariums you really either need to build a dedicated aquarium building or atleast some kind of tropical house, so imo you get alot more milage out of aviaries.
Anyways, a sequel should have both
Anyways, a sequel should have both
Yeah, both is good.
I would also take vivarium buildings over those standardized outside tanks as exhibits.
The Dallas World Aquarium is an aquarium that also has a decent collection of birds as well. It's probably the odd one out though.
Also, I didn't mean small fish but rather big fish like Arapaima, Tuna, Manta Rays, and Sharks.
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Bird park in Brazil i've been too had hummingbirds walkthrough house and I saw another one in Peru but not in a zoo.
Interesting. I will only list essentials.
Parrots-
• Scarlet Macaw- duh
• Blue and Gold Macaw- Beautiful bird
• Sulfur Crested Cockatoo- Iconic, relatively common
• Galah- Interesting bird
• Rainbow Lorikeet- Everywhere, walkthrough
• Budgies- Same as above
• African Grey Parrot, interesting mixes and really interactive
Hornbills and Hoopoes-
• Great Hornbill- Iconic
• Rhinoceros Hornbill- Good headliner, many zoos have them
• Von Deckens Hornbill- African, Many zoos have them
Night Birds-
• Tawny Frogmouth- could be mixed with Kiwi
• Hummingbird Species- Any would work, I personally don’t care for their addition, but I would prefer a “wild animal feature” to include them in zoos.
Hoatzin-
• Hoatzin- unique
So, imma bring up the Hoatzin again. I think that it'd actually be an important addition, not due to being relatively known or popular, but more because it's exactly what the game needs: random oddballs to bring up interest or knowledge to something unique or different
The sequel should roughly have both, but if not obvious I’m on team birds. I have been to many zoos with no fish, I’ve never been to a zoo without a single bird. Genuinely without aviaries it’s much harder to recreate certain zoos than having to deal with no fish. Likewise while modding has tackled “fully aquatic” animals, it has also done the same with “flying birds”. GreatCakes has given us something that Frontier never would, enrichment items that lets birds fly.
I’m not sure about aquatic habitat animals, but the exhibit boxes could definitely have fish in them. Either way, the sequel should have both I think.