Animal packs vs Regular DLC? What is better 4 U?

[nutrit]

What are your preference: animals or building pieces?

Would you like only animal packs from now on or maybe regular DLC’s is what you think was the best?

Or maybe building pieces and foliage should be sold as a separate DLC’s not to mess with the price of the packs?

I’ve read a lot of opinions already and at first I thought that people who request building pieces are some kind of right and there should be more ballance between both building pieces and animals.

But I can see that most of the people crave for animals more than building pieces and extra animals extend life of the DLC’s.

So maybe a new 8 animals model is the only thing right for the masses and maybe building pieces and foliage should be sold separately?

What do you think?

 

[Aramar]

The ideal situation for me is that they add some more basic pieces in free updates and then animal only DLC (or with a few plants). The last update brought us lots of statues and all the screens, so that could be the trend to follow.

My second option would be what I said on this thread: 6+1 animals + a few pieces or 5+1 animals + more pieces. I don't want to go back to just 4 habitat animals

If there's ever an only building pieces, it should be between normal DLC. Having to wait for 6 or 7 months to have new animals would be a nightmare.

 

[Lord of the Vegetables]

To be honest I think there are enough building pieces in the game (with the exception of a mesh building set), and only a few plants missing (California fan palm, banyan tree, etc.). So I would prefer to get animal packs only for the rest of the game's life.

Side Note: I believe that the updates that came alongside the SA, Australia, and Aquatic DLCs came with free foliage and maybe scenery, so I could see this happening again instead of getting paid DLC with just plants.

 

[Sahara]

I don't want anymore stylized set pieces. I think we have enough of those. I'd prefer more generic zoo scenery, based on more modern zoos. Similar to the stuff we got in the aquatic dlc.

 

[solacefruit]

For me, I would be satisfied without more building pieces (I like what we have and I'm not feeling a powerful lack of anything at this stage) but I would really love to see a lot more foliage for the game. That's something I'd happily get as a separate DLC if I had to, because it's so versatile when it comes to giving a space a unique feeling and adds so much to the design experience for me.

I do think the eight animal packs are the way forward for the game, though, broadly speaking, and I think that would be my preference for the future.

 

[Antmar97]

I would like to see a fusion between the two types of packs for future dlc, with a bigger price of course, so they can please everyone, builders and animal lovers.
Probaby the only building pieces i really want are the one that zoos actually use (more glass, mesh, ecc..) so no more themed pieces please.
Maybe 8 animals + Building pieces = 14.99 Euros?

 

[NL_Mutso]

A mix of those.

Animals - Regular - Animals - Regular, or something like that.
Regular could be a different content - 1 or 2 more animals and less building pieces. (depends on the theme)

Heard a lot of builders already bored by the DLC. (after approx. 1 week)
Mostly the lack of building challenges for habitats, the new animals are pretty generic in requirements.

With a regular DLC both parties have content, atm the builders didn't get any content. They have to wait another 3 months or maybe even longer.
And building is a large part of the game as well.

But I can see that most of the people crave for animals more than building pieces and extra animals extend life of the DLC’s.

Some people stopped commenting on that because it's an unpopular opinion and feel "mobbed" by some reactions or getting downvoted if they express that opinion.
And I know some people have chosen to ignore the game for several months, they'll check the game when there's a next DLC.

 

[Orque41]

For me full of animals it's all because I love to reproduce zoos

 

[ElectricMonk]

I don’t particularly love highly themed items but we always need more build pieces. We need waaaaay more foliage options too. I like the SEA pack with lots of animals (and Australia, especially could do with an animal only pack, and a threatened species pack would be amazing) but if we don’t get a LOT more build pieces I’ll be pretty disappointed.

 

[Aramar]

Heard a lot of builders already bored by the DLC. (after approx. 1 week)
Mostly the lack of building challenges for habitats, the new animals are pretty generic in requirements.

I understand that some people want more pieces, and I don't oppose to that. I wish we had the basic pieces like mesh, steel bars and homogenised signs for all the animals in the game, and of course more plants.

However, I disagree with the comment that builders didn't receive anything new since the Aquatic pack. I think that the custom billboards added in the last update were a big plus for the builders and they allow for a lot of creativity, probably more than having 100 new non-customisable items, a new African vase or a new street lamp with the shape of a Koala. I've seen some videos from Rudi, for example, where he is using the screens to add new textures to his buildings.

I have a feeling that the exhibit overhaul is going to come in the next big update, and that could again open the door for more creativity from builders without needing hundreds of new pieces. Obviously, the more pieces and the more animals we get the better, but I think that at this point animals should be a priority over pieces.

 

[Antonin]

Personnaly, I think we've enough modular pieces, I would love to have new packs only focused on animals. But it could be cool to have, with these animal packs 2 or 3 new vegetation species (Cedar of Lebanon is the main one missing in my opinion, this majestic tree could create some great and peaceful picnic area for example, but would be also perfect for habitats).

I wouldn't be sad to have new modular pieces somehow, but I would be disappointed if they took the place of new animal species in a pack.

 

[FoxyDee]

I personally have enough themed pieces, so I am all fine with the animal packs. But it would be nice if the DLCs, or in the free updates, there would be some essential zoo building pieces that are often used to build enclosure for certain animals. An excellent example was the aquatic pack, with the faux rocks and trees, which are very much often used to build aquatic enclosures.

It was a great oppurtunity to introduce mesh pieces in the Southeast Asia DLC, because mesh roofing is often used for clouded leopards. I would be fine with for example 10-20 pieces like that with the animal packs (+ new enrichment items of course, I can never have enough of those!).

Example with potentional African animal pack - could come with faux burrow like structures for meerkats etc. That way, having a small amount of essencial zoo (non themed) pieces within animal packs would work for me.

But of course, people that play mostly for the building would disagree with me, but I think animals are more important for the majority of the players and for most casuals at that.

 

[NL_Mutso]

However, I disagree with the comment that builders didn't receive anything new since the Aquatic pack. I think that the custom billboards added in the last update were a big plus for the builders and they allow for a lot of creativity, probably more than having 100 new non-customisable items, a new African vase or a new street lamp with the shape of a Koala. I've seen some videos from Rudi, for example, where he is using the screens to add new textures to his buildings

I though so too until i saw differents comments. In short: Creating/designing a billboard is not building. Creativity with textures/photos caters do a different type of player.
I agree with them, builders got nothing with the DLC. I think 100 building pieces would add more playing hours for them than custom billboards..

Some people want a lot of more foilage but I think we got enough foilage options for PZ. You see, everybody has different priorities for the game.

Personally I'm fine with animal packs and a mixed balance, but only animal packs will be reason for a lot of players to stop playing the game.

 

[Swjosdotschka]

I would like to see a fusion between the two types of packs for future dlc, with a bigger price of course, so they can please everyone, builders and animal lovers.
Probaby the only building pieces i really want are the one that zoos actually use (more glass, mesh, ecc..) so no more themed pieces please.
Maybe 8 animals + Building pieces = 14.99 Euros?

Yep, this please

 

[Jevana]

BOTH ! A "regular pack", then an "animal only pack", then a "regular pack", then an "animal only pack"... so everyone is happy
Personnaly, I love plants so I would also buy a "foliage pack" if they ever decide to make it

 

[Lea_G]

If I had to decide, I'd say "animals" very clearly. I enjoy building and I love all the pieces, but more animals are my absolute priority. I think alternating those two DLC models in some way is an excellent approach. But I'd always sacrifice the building pieces if I were to choose.

 

[jcp011c]

Animal pack for sure, though I don't want the builder focused players to get left out. I don't want zero building pieces from here on out. I wish there could just be an increase in price and get the 8 animals and some building pieces too, but I know also that takes more work, more time and they likely don't want to go past that $9.99 USD mark. Even though I'm not a builder I do use items from the workshop, and am totally blown away by the creativity of our builder-focused players.

 

[12344321]

Animal packs for me, there's just so much untapped possibilities. I'm hoping PZ comes back around and gives us animal packs for South America and Oceania.

Also, aviary packs and an aquarium pack would sell sooooo well.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

I'm definitely more on the animal side myself. We've got hundreds, if not thousands, of building pieces already in the game -- many of which are flexicolor and can be rotated/sunk/reused to multiply that number into even more things. But we have much fewer animals by comparison. That's not the builders' fault. They just got more of their desired items up front, and are now feeling left out as the animal side tries desperately to catch up. But given where we are now, at this moment, I think that animals are more needed. And I think that once everything is through (whenever that may be), when we look back we'll be more sad that we're missing all these types of different animals, than that we're missing out on new wall texture 273B or a stylized version of a particular statue or sign.

I also don't really get the argument that billboards don't "count" as building pieces. It was a highly requested feature by every youtube builder I've ever seen before we had them, and yet when the billbaords finally arrive we're supposed to pretend that they were meant for someone else? I can understand people saying they wish they'd gotten more, but can't understand pretending that they got nothing. Indeed, from a numerical standpoint, the most recent south east asia pack still actually had more construction pieces than animals in it! (in the form of the multiple new signs and enrichment items -- but I suppose if billboards don't count then these don't count either).

Having said that, I do think it really does depend a lot on which type of animals, and which type of building pieces, and which type of foliage we're talking about. Realistic pieces like mesh netting or steel or the other real-life items that have been mentioned, I would happily sacrifice an animal for. But if it's highly stylized items that aren't really going to be used, or "padding" the construction pieces by giving us a flexicolor version but then adding a non-flexi variety just to say you've doubled the piece count, then I'd say that in that case their focus would be better given to animals. Same thing with foliage: versatile plant species that can be used in multiple ways would be my vote over something so specific and stylized that you only get to use it once.

A mesh fencing set versus a reskin? Give me the building pieces. A mecha-roo or an anteater bench versus an actual capybara or platypus? Give me the animals.

I also think it's important to remember that this whole disagreement doesn't really stem from the different play styles at all, even if that's how it usually gets presented. What we're all really reacting to is the fear that the game support is going to end sooner than it needs to. If we were all working under the assumption that the game was going to have a five year life span (or longer!), I think there would be much more willingness to say "throw it all in!". But because we don't know how long new content will continue to come out, we tend to get pitted against each other to make sure our own needs get met.

But since the pitting has already begun, I'll just add this: I think that the potential of a limited timeline for PZ is itself another reason that animals should get the priority. There are going to be lots of other games for pure builders to move on to when PZ is over and done. Some of the youtubers have already jumped ship to PK -- and were telegraphing that they'd be doing that even before south east asia was announced, back when the packs were all still builder-focused. But it seems much less likely that another zoo game of this quality is going to come along soon. So the animal lovers are likely going to be living with whatever decisions, compromises, or omissions are made much longer than someone who just has to wait for the construction piece to appear in planet coaster 2.

Indeed, even the argument that some builders may be going elsewhere until the next dlc only serves to prove the point: They HAVE somewhere else to go in the meantime, while the animal folks really have this game as our only best option.

 

[XT]

I think the thing for me is that ... I love the animals and want to see many more of them (especially cooler climate North American, European or similar animals) but ... there's not much creation involved in them once you've built a habitat for them. Because of the remarkable complexity in the behaviors, they're fun to watch but there's not much interaction or activities to do with existing animals besides breeding them - and so far as I can tell, there's no real way to breed for specific colors aside from albino or melanistic black for those few animals (like the leopard) who has that (please, correct me if I'm wrong). Now, I'm here for the animals, and wouldn't for example buy something like planet coaster to build stuff for an amusement park - that just doesn't interest me. Most of the time lately, I play in sandbox and never even open the zoo - I really couldn't care less about the guests.

OTOH - the building pieces, like blocks, are endlessly variable so I can build a dozen different zoos with a completely different feel or theme. I don't tend to build 'zoos' exactly anyway, I often build a imaginary story, like my Lost City - which is a desert type place which ranges from a small desert town with a market place and a public bath, before travelling further to see the abandoned farm, the haunted graveyard, the serpent temple, etc. All of these are habitats with various animals, but I'm not trying to make them look like a particularly realistic zoo, but to fit with my sort of distant lands kind of theme. I have an ecotopia; a futuristic place ala 1970s idea of what an ideal future would look like, my Last Ark, set in Antarctica where survivors of some unknown environmental catastrophe are trying to save what animal species they can ... etc. And these all are uniqe built environments. Unlike most of the commenters, I like the themed pieces and would be happy to see more. I'd love to see more themes that focus on indigenous architecture (Mongolian yurts anyone?), or 1970s style brutalism, or art deco and so on.

In an ideal world, where we didn't have to anticipate Frontier sunsetting the game, I'd like to see the continuation of mixed DLCs with both animals and building pieces - or perhaps to split the two; animal focused DLCs, and scenery/building focused DLCs. Frontier could potentially get more money from those who buy both (as I would) and let folks chose what they like the most in their game.

Though I do agree, more generic zoo-like pieces are really needed for the game. Mesh screens, guest path airlock doors (for temperature controlled habitats), generic-ish animals signs (perhaps just expand the color scheme that was used for the caiman set to all the animals or something). I'd like some better way to build domes besides the current million piece method. And I still can't figure out why they included those hex glass pieces when there's no way to build geodesic domes with them.