Now fully understanding what the "Breeding Countermeasure" is like in the Return to Jurassic Park DLC, I now have full confidence on sharing my idea of "Breeding and Growing" dinosaurs I came up and built up for the past few weeks.
So, there are a number of requests from various places for "breeding" dinosaurs. But, I haven't really seen any explained way that I personally would agreed with, especially since I personally believe the developer team were probably aiming for the "population control" concept for this game as it is a JP franchise game with a fleshed out lore and concept all together, and also to make things a little more easy for the general player population. Frontier Developments did confirm a long while back (I don't remember if they stated this here on the Frontier forums or on the official JWE Twitter account) they are well aware that "breeding" is a top wish for many people, but had no "current plans" to add such a feature, and I can totally see why, adding the fact there are now over 60 species of dinosaurs in the current game. But remember, they said "currently" as in, no plans for it "right now", meaning this may or may not be a thing for the game, depending on the circumstances as time goes.
Still, despite the varying possibilities, there is a suggesting way I have thought of that could work if the idea is to be planned and decided, which I'm going to talk about here, so here we go!
First off, I don't believe that "every single dinosaur species" in the game should be allowed to breed, particularly the five hybrids (Indominus rex, Indoraptor, Spinoraptor, Ankylodocus, and Stegoceratops). Reasons for this are because the hybrids in the film series and indeed in the franchise as a whole aren't really viewed as "breeding" types, despite the fact there were partially seen Indominus hatchlings, but those were not naturally bred. So, with those five guys out, this leaves about only 63 candidates out of the total of 68 in-game species. Do I think that all of the remaining 63 species could have the "Breeding and Growing" mechanic I'm about to share? Probably not, but I would be surprised if they did which I will get into why later.
As for the mechanic itself, it is pretty much inspired by the dinosaur nest and egg breeding mechanic from the 2004 zoo business game, Zoo Tycoon 2 and its subsequent expansions that came out over the following few years.
In ZT2, dinosaurs breed by laying eggs of course. But, unlike all the other animals that do lay eggs in that game, instead of just spawning the eggs themselves on the ground, the dinosaurs spawn them in nest structures that they build first where both the egg (the baby) and the nest become one whole entity together.
Below is an example photo I made with a pregnant female Stokesosaurus building a nest first before laying the egg (the baby Stokeso) which despawns the nest structure entity and gets replaced with the egg with the model of a complete looking nest:
(Admittedly, it's not the best image I made, because for some reason, the photos must be so doggone small for them to upload on the forums.)
Now, in Zoo Tycoon 2, the Stokesosaurus above builds the nest for several seconds in four phases before eventually despawning it to replace it with the model used for the dinosaur egg, which is a nest filled with egg models instead of just spawning one egg on the ground like with all the other egg laying animals in-game.
Do I think the dinosaurs in Jurassic World Evolution should build nests? For this idea, I think this can be done, but in a more simpler way. Instead of going through several phases with nest building animations like in ZT2, I imagine JWE's version of being like this: The egg laying dinosaurs won't be able to build nests with animations, but they would instead spawn in on the map right next to them as complete looking nests with an egg or more when the player's camera is not looking at their direction, just like how a twister will always spawn outside of the player's camera current positioned range. When that happens, you shall get a notification that a dinosaur has nested eggs.
Back to Zoo Tycoon 2, when the egg hatches, there is no hatching animation, just the baby itself spawning in place, just like when a non-dinosaur egg hatches (which do have animations), as I demonstrated with a newly born Velociraptor below from nest/egg after the mother lays it, to hatchling:
So, in Jurassic World Evolution, if baby dinosaurs are to be born from other dinosaurs, they would start out being in nests that shall randomly spawn on the map at any given time. The nests will contain a certain number of eggs (ex. small herbivores would have 3 or 4 eggs, while large carnivores shall only have 1 egg). It's up to you to either have a ranger team collect them and despawn them for good, or leave them to hatch. When they do hatch, the babies spawn from the nest in a "growing" animation by starting off as tiny and eventually turn into a proper size (even though this may sound unrealistic, but ZT2 does the same when a baby grows to an adult. But, I would like to think there are other possibilities for this to work as long as those other alternatives won't sound too complicated for Frontier to develop).
But how would the dinosaurs breed their babies? The only explanation I can think of is the introduction of actual "male dinosaurs". Males do appear in the lores of the film series, so males aren't too far fetched (excluding the male raptors and rex from the original trilogy for good reason in an in-game perspective thanks to the Return to Jurassic Park DLC). I imagine in order to get actual male dinosaurs, it would require a different way to receive them instead of the regular old cosmetic gene mechanic (although, I'm not sure how much dev work would have to be done if the tour voices that detect them must refer to them with male pronouns if planned and decided, as the dinos in-game are referred to with female pronouns). So, when a male finds a mate, and the female becomes the male's mate, that's when the randomizing of dinosaur eggs spawn in, but only when both individuals are close enough and enclosed together. They won't have "mating" animations, nor will the females have a "pregnancy" mechanic system. It's instead, a very simplified mechanic that randomly spawns eggs when both a male and female are enclosed and close enough together when the dinosaurs are a "mated pair". This can be exceptional with the JP DLC when in the campaign of that DLC, where the female dinos in the first part of Isla Nublar (1993), particularly the dinosaurs where you must use the countermeasure on, as well as the stegosaurus herd (only) on Isla Sorna (1993) have the randomizing chance of breeding asexually, but that then turns off when you get to Isla Nublar (1993) again.
The same goes when the babies are grown into adulthood. Again, just like in ZT2, when a baby animal reaches maturity into adulthood, they instantly change into their adult models first before literally grow larger until they reach their full size, even when the game pauses when this occurrence starts before ending. But here, I think maybe they could be given some juvenile forms first before switching to their adult model in due time, and for both transformations, it would be like in ZT2 but only when the player's camera view is out of range just like how twisters form, just so it makes a little more sense, even if it won't be entirely realistic. And the reason why I say maybe on the possibility of juvenile forms is because it would mean more work for Frontier to develop on, especially since all dinosaur models must mesh good enough when performing animations, which can be a really potentially big pain if you look at it deeply.
Lastly, what species could qualify for this mechanic? Well, you must know there are currently 68 species in-game. The five hybrids as said above I belive are out of the picture, leaving just 63 species. Due to the sheer number of species, I have doubts that all of these species would be given such a feature as it will be a waste of stress, time and money for more important and greater stuff for the game. However, 24 certain species I have found in-game do have some potential qualifications for such a feature. Whether or not there really will only be a certain number on non-hybrid dinosaurs or indeed all 63 of them (or all of the 24 candidates, but not all of them at once), just by releasing a certain number of them per update, I have good reasons as to why the 24 candidates I found have potential, some with high potential, some with fairly low potential but still worth bringing up, can end up having this conceptual idea should it be planned and decided. However, because this list will be massive in length, I'm not going to post it here because it will make the thread look and feel like a wishlist. So, I'm going to post it in the discussion forums whenever I can and link it here so that it still connects.
(Any thoughts and feedback?)
So, there are a number of requests from various places for "breeding" dinosaurs. But, I haven't really seen any explained way that I personally would agreed with, especially since I personally believe the developer team were probably aiming for the "population control" concept for this game as it is a JP franchise game with a fleshed out lore and concept all together, and also to make things a little more easy for the general player population. Frontier Developments did confirm a long while back (I don't remember if they stated this here on the Frontier forums or on the official JWE Twitter account) they are well aware that "breeding" is a top wish for many people, but had no "current plans" to add such a feature, and I can totally see why, adding the fact there are now over 60 species of dinosaurs in the current game. But remember, they said "currently" as in, no plans for it "right now", meaning this may or may not be a thing for the game, depending on the circumstances as time goes.
Still, despite the varying possibilities, there is a suggesting way I have thought of that could work if the idea is to be planned and decided, which I'm going to talk about here, so here we go!
First off, I don't believe that "every single dinosaur species" in the game should be allowed to breed, particularly the five hybrids (Indominus rex, Indoraptor, Spinoraptor, Ankylodocus, and Stegoceratops). Reasons for this are because the hybrids in the film series and indeed in the franchise as a whole aren't really viewed as "breeding" types, despite the fact there were partially seen Indominus hatchlings, but those were not naturally bred. So, with those five guys out, this leaves about only 63 candidates out of the total of 68 in-game species. Do I think that all of the remaining 63 species could have the "Breeding and Growing" mechanic I'm about to share? Probably not, but I would be surprised if they did which I will get into why later.
As for the mechanic itself, it is pretty much inspired by the dinosaur nest and egg breeding mechanic from the 2004 zoo business game, Zoo Tycoon 2 and its subsequent expansions that came out over the following few years.
In ZT2, dinosaurs breed by laying eggs of course. But, unlike all the other animals that do lay eggs in that game, instead of just spawning the eggs themselves on the ground, the dinosaurs spawn them in nest structures that they build first where both the egg (the baby) and the nest become one whole entity together.
Below is an example photo I made with a pregnant female Stokesosaurus building a nest first before laying the egg (the baby Stokeso) which despawns the nest structure entity and gets replaced with the egg with the model of a complete looking nest:
(Admittedly, it's not the best image I made, because for some reason, the photos must be so doggone small for them to upload on the forums.)
Do I think the dinosaurs in Jurassic World Evolution should build nests? For this idea, I think this can be done, but in a more simpler way. Instead of going through several phases with nest building animations like in ZT2, I imagine JWE's version of being like this: The egg laying dinosaurs won't be able to build nests with animations, but they would instead spawn in on the map right next to them as complete looking nests with an egg or more when the player's camera is not looking at their direction, just like how a twister will always spawn outside of the player's camera current positioned range. When that happens, you shall get a notification that a dinosaur has nested eggs.
Back to Zoo Tycoon 2, when the egg hatches, there is no hatching animation, just the baby itself spawning in place, just like when a non-dinosaur egg hatches (which do have animations), as I demonstrated with a newly born Velociraptor below from nest/egg after the mother lays it, to hatchling:
But how would the dinosaurs breed their babies? The only explanation I can think of is the introduction of actual "male dinosaurs". Males do appear in the lores of the film series, so males aren't too far fetched (excluding the male raptors and rex from the original trilogy for good reason in an in-game perspective thanks to the Return to Jurassic Park DLC). I imagine in order to get actual male dinosaurs, it would require a different way to receive them instead of the regular old cosmetic gene mechanic (although, I'm not sure how much dev work would have to be done if the tour voices that detect them must refer to them with male pronouns if planned and decided, as the dinos in-game are referred to with female pronouns). So, when a male finds a mate, and the female becomes the male's mate, that's when the randomizing of dinosaur eggs spawn in, but only when both individuals are close enough and enclosed together. They won't have "mating" animations, nor will the females have a "pregnancy" mechanic system. It's instead, a very simplified mechanic that randomly spawns eggs when both a male and female are enclosed and close enough together when the dinosaurs are a "mated pair". This can be exceptional with the JP DLC when in the campaign of that DLC, where the female dinos in the first part of Isla Nublar (1993), particularly the dinosaurs where you must use the countermeasure on, as well as the stegosaurus herd (only) on Isla Sorna (1993) have the randomizing chance of breeding asexually, but that then turns off when you get to Isla Nublar (1993) again.
The same goes when the babies are grown into adulthood. Again, just like in ZT2, when a baby animal reaches maturity into adulthood, they instantly change into their adult models first before literally grow larger until they reach their full size, even when the game pauses when this occurrence starts before ending. But here, I think maybe they could be given some juvenile forms first before switching to their adult model in due time, and for both transformations, it would be like in ZT2 but only when the player's camera view is out of range just like how twisters form, just so it makes a little more sense, even if it won't be entirely realistic. And the reason why I say maybe on the possibility of juvenile forms is because it would mean more work for Frontier to develop on, especially since all dinosaur models must mesh good enough when performing animations, which can be a really potentially big pain if you look at it deeply.
Lastly, what species could qualify for this mechanic? Well, you must know there are currently 68 species in-game. The five hybrids as said above I belive are out of the picture, leaving just 63 species. Due to the sheer number of species, I have doubts that all of these species would be given such a feature as it will be a waste of stress, time and money for more important and greater stuff for the game. However, 24 certain species I have found in-game do have some potential qualifications for such a feature. Whether or not there really will only be a certain number on non-hybrid dinosaurs or indeed all 63 of them (or all of the 24 candidates, but not all of them at once), just by releasing a certain number of them per update, I have good reasons as to why the 24 candidates I found have potential, some with high potential, some with fairly low potential but still worth bringing up, can end up having this conceptual idea should it be planned and decided. However, because this list will be massive in length, I'm not going to post it here because it will make the thread look and feel like a wishlist. So, I'm going to post it in the discussion forums whenever I can and link it here so that it still connects.
(Any thoughts and feedback?)
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