Be honest with us Frontier

[Fossa]

The only reasons no zoo game has the crested porcupine is because the quills are IMPOSSIBLE to create into the game, the reason no modder can create one as well. It is hard and impossible to do, there was a time no game could feature a MANTA RAY, also a very hard animal to animate, same as snakes.

But I fear, the AFrican Crested Porcupine will never see the light of day because of the impossible-to-create quills.

 

[Doran]

there was a time no game could feature a MANTA RAY

What do you mean? Manta ray was present in zoo tycoon 21 years ago.

 

[FoxyDee]

What? Quills while certainly additional work to animate, are not impossible to make. Why would they? I am 98% certain we will see Crested Porcupine. It is very marketable animal that even casuals recognize.

They animated Peafowl feather tails, I imagine quills would work very similarly.

 

[Fossa]

Still, no ZOO game in the past had them. Doran, I mean Manta Rays in non-zoo games, like in shooters or action games. They were to flat.

 

[DarthQuell]

Still, no ZOO game in the past had them. Doran, I mean Manta Rays in non-zoo games, like in shooters or action games. They were to flat.

Part of that was the limitations at the time. 15 years later, technology has advanced and 4 more years the Planet Zoo team has improved their models/rigs...
I'm sure that if they can do hundreds of scales on a monitor lizard, if they can add so much detail to tiny butterflies, then I'm sure they can figure out how to do a porcupine...


And also, what do shooters and action games have to do with a zoo builder? They're completely different mechanics, no way near comparable

 

[Pinguin]

Manta Ray in Zoo tycoon 2 was pretty good

 

[paul78]

I don’t think frontier would have any problems at all making a porcupine. Zoo tycoon Xbox featuring the South American and Australian animals featured a Brazilian porcupine. I think of the porcupine as one of the few true essentials for this game. Personally if we do get it I’m hoping for the NA version. I’d take the African crested before the Brazilian as number 2.

 

[becks474]

I don’t think frontier would have any problems at all making a porcupine. Zoo tycoon Xbox featuring the South American and Australian animals featured a Brazilian porcupine. I think of the porcupine as one of the few true essentials for this game. Personally if we do get it I’m hoping for the NA version. I’d take the African crested before the Brazilian as number 2.

New world porcupines even are more related with Guinea pigs than with old world porcupines. I would absolutely have nothing against getting both but first I personally prefer an old world porcupine. It is jut a much more iconic species in my opinion.

Edit: To answer the thread. I am pretty sure the Porcupine can be made by Frontier and I am convinced we could see it soon. It makes a really good flagship animal in my opinion. And if it should be the case that Frontier struggles with it I see no need to tell us. This is also not the communication politics of Frontier going deep into their Plans for Future DLC animals.

 

[Aramar]

Asking Frontier to be honest but not being honest on the title of the thread... It's better to lead by the example

 

[SalamAnders]

While Planet Zoo and the two original zoo tycoon games had somewhat comparable base game animal rosters, the way they expanded the rosters in DLCs/Expansions later on, is different.

Both the zoo tycoon games would go into full aquatic and extinct species over time. Whereas Planet Zoo has instead ended with a much higher focus on smaller mammal species, a trend that seems to continue. Therefore I wouldn't be nervous about something like a porcupine being too complicated for Planet Zoo.

What all these games handled badly are birds and monkeys

 

[peafowl]

Manta Ray in Zoo tycoon 2 was pretty good

pretty good? they SLAPPED.

 

[Alexjh]

I think more to the point is that not all animals are equally easy to create and that means that some are more expensive than others.

Doing, for instance, the Asian Water Monitor can be based off work already present for Komodo Dragon and Nile Monitor, making it easier and thus cheaper to decelop.

A bunch of the remaining highly reuqested things including birds and monkeys for animation And porcupine for modelling feel like they fall suspiciously in this category?

 

[becks474]

I think more to the point is that not all animals are equally easy to create and that means that some are more expensive than others.

Doing, for instance, the Asian Water Monitor can be based off work already present for Komodo Dragon and Nile Monitor, making it easier and thus cheaper to decelop.

A bunch of the remaining highly reuqested things including birds and monkeys for animation And porcupine for modelling feel like they fall suspiciously in this category?

Yes they do. Thats why we perhaps can expect only 1 (Scenery pack) to 2 (animal Pack) or Maximum 3 (optimism) special animals per pack. I mean a Spider Monkey is much different to a Howler Monkey or even smaller Monkeys. Easier to make surely are baboons or other macaques. Same for habitat birds. A Secretary bird needs a unique model compared to a Shoebill and a Nene. I totally understand why Frontier gave us the Lar Gibbon. I think the model of the Siamang was more complicated than most others and reusing the rig Just makes Sense to me.

 

[Fossa]

Yes they do. Thats why we perhaps can expect only 1 (Scenery pack) to 2 (animal Pack) or Maximum 3 (optimism) special animals per pack. I mean a Spider Monkey is much different to a Howler Monkey or even smaller Monkeys. Easier to make surely are baboons or other macaques. Same for habitat birds. A Secretary bird needs a unique model compared to a Shoebill and a Nene. I totally understand why Frontier gave us the Lar Gibbon. I think the model of the Siamang was more complicated than most others and reusing the rig Just makes Sense to me.

In a animal pack with 7 animals ok, but with only 4 new animals, I don't want clones, and I don't understand people agreeing with this.

 

[FortressDoor]

Nobody prefers clones over more unique exciting animals, but Frontier is always going to include a certain number of clones in packs to keep costs down and spread big ticket animals across multiple packs. Every single DLC pack has had clone-ish animals and expecting Frontier to change that is just being unrealistic.

 

[becks474]

In a animal pack with 7 animals ok, but with only 4 new animals, I don't want clones, and I don't understand people agreeing with this.

I will stay on my opinion. Better to get 2 great looking unique animals with new Animations and 2-5 so-called Clones (Most of the animals some people call Clones are Not Clones, at least in my Definition) than Semi-good work. But you surely can have your own opinion. But this is how the DLC Work. Other expectations lead to disappointment.

 

[DarthQuell]

I think we are officially done with apes and lemurs, too (although I'm not against the sifaka and the aye-aye)...

For future primates, a true baboon (would be similar to the mandrill, I assume). There are just too many monkeys I want, though

 

[Alexjh]

I think we are officially done with apes and lemurs, too (although I'm not against the sifaka and the aye-aye)...

For future primates, a true baboon (would be similar to the mandrill, I assume). There are just too many monkeys I want, though

I'd agree with the liklihood being no more apes - there's certainly options there, but nothing that wouldn't come across as a clone. Aye-aye, a Sifaka or maybe Indri I'd give middling odds of turning up at some point if support continues, just because they do have some amount of cultural cache amongst lemurs as a whole, but I wouldn't bank on it.

I think a big problem for the glaring omission of New World Monkeys is that they generally have prehensive tails, which is going to make animating them that much more elaborate? Spider-monkeys in particular would probably be one of the most complex to animate authentically in the game as they functionally have 5 limbs for climbing.

 

[FoxyDee]

I'd agree with the liklihood being no more apes - there's certainly options there, but nothing that wouldn't come across as a clone. Aye-aye, a Sifaka or maybe Indri I'd give middling odds of turning up at some point if support continues, just because they do have some amount of cultural cache amongst lemurs as a whole, but I wouldn't bank on it.

I think a big problem for the glaring omission of New World Monkeys is that they generally have prehensive tails, which is going to make animating them that much more elaborate? Spider-monkeys in particular would probably be one of the most complex to animate authentically in the game as they functionally have 5 limbs for climbing.

Agree with Spider Monkey possibly being hard to animate well, but there are still good options like extremely common Squirrel Monkey, Howler Monkey or Saki-Monkey. I think these 3 are on the spectrum of being possible atm. And maybe some others that I do not know much about.

 

[DarthQuell]

Agree with Spider Monkey possibly being hard to animate well, but there are still good options like extremely common Squirrel Monkey, Howler Monkey or Saki-Monkey. I think these 3 are on the spectrum of being possible atm. And maybe some others that I do not know much about.

I would add to this the uakari, as well. While not as common as the rest, it is more common than the proboscis, so it's that unlikely either...

I believe spider monkey could work, though, because the binturong uses its tail at times, so I think that it's entirely possible, but a little harder than the other New World monkeys we mentioned