I must confirm something first!!!
Frontier Developments confirmed countless times their focus right now are the land based stuff, especially since they’ve confirmed on the official JWE Twitter account there are so many land dinosaur options to choose from.This means their focus now are the land dinosaurs and not stuff like mosasauruses.
However, Frontier game director Michael Brookes, who directed Jurassic World Evolution, in an interview with a big known YouTuber, TheGamingBeaver, while confirming there won't be any aquatic stuff at launch, he neither confirmed or declined on the possibility when asked about the possibility of such. Not only do they have to listen to community feedback to include it, they also have to make sure that if aquatic stuff is to be a thing in the game, everything must be done right with meaningful purpose and so fourth.
(The question and answer about aquatic stuff begins at 5:51 of the video.)
SO, I’ve decided to post out a “plausible” concept on how aquatic stuff could work in-game. I’m posting this now because I have no doubt it’s going to be a lot more difficult to plan and (if decided) to develop than with land stuff, and I know that they still got a lot of more potential exciting land stuff down the line, just so they already have a potential concept to consider and build upon or whatever for the "far" future ahead.
I am aware that plans can change over time, such as what they said above in that video, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try.
So, here we go!
First off, I believe that aquatics should have their own map, particularly those on any of the Five Death islands that aren’t prone to violent storms by lore. All for good reasons.
I don’t believe the current location maps are applicable for well-made aquatic creature habitats for several sub-reasons. If you look back at the mosasaurus's lagoon in Jurassic World, it's enormous in size, and no current map in-game seem like it could handle something like that because when I think aquatic creatures, I think a lot of space usage. The maps (excluding Isla Nublar North in campaign mode) in-game are designed for you to make the best 5 star rating parks you can get, and with so much space being taken up by expansive water exhibits, that's likely a waste of potential for more important stuff to use to make the best 5 star rating parks to progress, even with the most expansive maps I could think of like Matanceros or Sorna, the latter being the biggest of the main campaign story maps.
Another reason, is because of the shear sizes of the exhibits they would be placed in, can you imagine the memory eat up they would take when they're either constructing or so fourth if they were "building entities"? A piece by piece exhibit build up I don't see being a thing either, because I think it would be rather awkward for both in-game and development perspectives. Everything in this game is made to be cohesively well made, keep that in mind.
I believe the aquatic stuff like the lagoons and theaters should be map built-in elements that you can utilize yourself with out having to place them in the maps themselves, to make both the in-game and development perspectives out the best together.
No, don't go suggesting to just expand the current maps like Tacano or the Tacano Research Facility just because they already have giant lakes in them, like what some on Twitter conceptually made last year as below with the Isla Tacano map.
Source: https://twitter.com/steamblust/status/1043883833265967104
Redesigning the current in-game maps would with out a doubt mean "breaking" every single person's saves on main campaign, challenge, and sandbox saves with those specific maps. How many people in the entire world who bought and play this game, including my little brothers who play this game on their PS4, would think destroying their saves is the "fair way" just to include new exiting stuff like in those Twitter images above? I'll bet you very, very, very few of them.
So instead, they would be "completely separated maps".
For those maps, to fit within the game's story and lore, would likely be placed on islands that aren't prone to harsh stormy weather. The islands I can see where these kinds of maps would be a thing would be either Isla Matanceros, Isla Tacano and maybe Isla Sorna since that island is not prone to storms by description, despite having such in the main campaign, but I presume it's not by description because of its size.
Reason for this is because you can't really do much in the containment of the marine creatures as opposed to the containment of the land dinosaurs. Storms can damage certain structures, but I don't think that could be reasonable to have in those maps. Also, because these would be different maps and locations from the current ones, they can flesh out as to how they got so much saltwater for the creatures in a similar fashion as in the movies: A channel connecting from the lagoon to the sea. JWE is designed to have a well-fleshed out lore and story, taking elements from the film universe to make its own.
Again, with separate maps, there can be a different variety of structures in place of others or any other features to manage those maps to get five stars separated from the other maps. Claire's Sanctuary did something similar on Nublar North where you have access to only a handful of structures, so it's not impossible this concept would be expanded to future maps, particularly if something like this were to be in the game in the "far" future from now, you won't have access to all structures you can build on the previous maps, but you will also have access to structures exclusive only to those maps.
Since the features would be pre-built onto the map, there would be multiple lagoons in-place for one or more possible maps with only a handful of species for the water areas (which likely means, no land dinosaurs for these kinds of maps as the current in-game ones for the sake of the consistency of the new maps), and just enough to have a species variety rating. I see the lagoon structures being like separate tanks that are separated by tanks walls with doors that connect to a "huge" water area where shows, like the mosasaurus feeding show in Jurassic World, can take place. It's similar as to like how the orca shows at the SeaWorld parks work: The animals live in a separate water area while being able to move to the show area to perform. You will be able to manage the exhibit areas as well as the shows.
(I also wonder if the concept does come to be, if it would be possible to have "show" and "non-show" creatures for the maps, if you know what I mean?)
I'm not sure if something like this would be in free updates or charged DLCs, but if I had to choose, marine creatures would probably be best if they were in charged DLCd, considering there would be a lot of whatevers that would be involved that would be worth charging.
And this is where I will end it. What are your thoughts on this?
(14.11.2019 Update: Edited top paragraph after partial reveal of the Return to Jurassic Park DLC)
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