DLC18 discussion and predictions

[Xrystal]

But that’s the same situation with whatever pack they choose. In Arid, people may only be interested in the camel or porcupine and not care about anything else. The same goes for the regions; if someone’s not interested in African animals, they probably skipped the Africa and Arid packs all together. We’ve even seen that just 1 animal can sway peoples opinions on an entire pack like the swan in Eurasia.

A keeper collection pack can tie in several regions and different types of animals like a primate, so it should have a greater chance at pleasing everyone.

Sacrilege .. how can anyone skip any of the dlcs ..

 

[PlanetSoyJak]

Sacrilege .. how can anyone skip any of the dlcs ..

once you buy 1 dlc in planet zoo, your forced to buy the rest. its a curse.

 

[AndyZoos]

Yeah and hopefully if it’s actually the final pack and it is a “Zoo Keeper” Pack then it will have more animals. I agree I think getting to 200 is a good idea, I just don’t think we will get more packs than this.

Now if this is the last dlc and Frontier spends more time on it for the animals, then I agree the signs will be obvious. All I hope is that if they do the 13 or so animals they need for 200 they actually use this opportunity to fix any holes in the roster. Which means Frontier has to do something they never normally would, have a higher number of monkeys and birds. But if this is the last pack. Now is the time to do it!

Since 2021 we've gotten 22 habitat and 4 exhibit species each year. So even with reduced staff, and other factors, it doesn't feel unreasonable to anticipate this next animal pack might have more than the usual number of habitat species. Especially given the gap in time between DLC.

A pack with 10-13 habitat species would be "bigger" than usual while still being lower than the usual output. And depending on how they structure their team, the lack of an exhibit animal in the Barnyard DLC might be an indicator that there's going to be exhibit species (walk-through or otherwise) in the last DLC... Just something to consider.

I'm not sure if the pack will have more birds or not but I do still think there's a better-than-most-people-think chance that a final pack has more than usual in it.

 

[CharlieXGaming]

also barnyard was super rushed

We don't know that though. Maybe the animals reuse rigs and animations but the pack still came with animals that had a lot of intricate textures like the sheep, chicken and cattle (even though its still not at its best), and the update came with the encounters that have new animations that for all we know could've taken a bit to create.

 

[PlanetSoyJak]

Since 2021 we've gotten 22 habitat and 4 exhibit species each year. So even with reduced staff, and other factors, it doesn't feel unreasonable to anticipate this next animal pack might have more than the usual number of habitat species. Especially given the gap in time between DLC.

A pack with 10-13 habitat species would be "bigger" than usual while still being lower than the usual output. And depending on how they structure their team, the lack of an exhibit animal in the Barnyard DLC might be an indicator that there's going to be exhibit species (walk-through or otherwise) in the last DLC... Just something to consider.

I'm not sure if the pack will have more birds or not but I do still think there's a better-than-most-people-think chance that a final pack has more than usual in it.

We wont be getting a DLC for 4 months, a 1/3 of a year so I dont see the reason why they wouldnt do it. Ill be happy to pay 20-25$ for a 13 species + scenery piece pack.

 

[PlanetSoyJak]

We don't know that though. Maybe the animals reuse rigs and animations but the pack still came with animals that had a lot of intricate textures like the sheep, chicken and cattle (even though its still not at its best), and the update came with the encounters, new animations that for all we know could've taken a bit to create.

Yes, it did take them time for encounters. Still very lackluster though as the encounters are just people having their hand a feet away from the body of the animal and walking above water.

 

[AndyZoos]

I think the Zookeeper's collection thing is a double blade sword type of deal. It could offer many requested animals but at the same time not pleasing a lot of people because they would only be trully happy with one or two of those animals.

Using my self as an example, if we get such pack with like the coati and a monkey but then get stuff like american black bear, serval, baboon, american flamingo, shoebill, tree kangaroo and so on, while yes, requested by other people are not animals i'm personally excited about so sure cool i got two favorites but the rest of the pack would feel very uninteresting to me.

That doesn't mean that i would dislike every versión of such DLC concept, but it really depends on the roster. For insteance if instead we get a pelican, secretary or crowned crane, blackbuck, Palla's cat, etc i would be happy with the pack overall but at the same time for a lot of other people those animals won't be what they would like instead of the ones above.

So i don't think that is a safe concept for a pack to please the majority. It really depends on the roster.

And tbh i also don't think 7 habitat animals are enough to achieve that. Specially if the throw in their usual oddballs.

But that’s the same situation with whatever pack they choose. In Arid, people may only be interested in the camel or porcupine and not care about anything else. The same goes for the regions; if someone’s not interested in African animals, they probably skipped the Africa and Arid packs all together. We’ve even seen that just 1 animal can sway peoples opinions on an entire pack like the swan in Eurasia.

A keeper collection pack can tie in several regions and different types of animals like a primate, so it should have a greater chance at pleasing everyone.

Yeah, Charlie is really spot-on here. The goal isn't to make "all of our players 100% happy" but rather to "make as many players happy as possible." And a Keeper pack would be a way to give everybody a little bit of what they want. If they can make players satisfied with the roster enough to buy the pack? That's all that matters.

Maybe everybody won't be fully satisfied but there's literally no pack that would offer that, anyway. It's a literal impossibility. But with the right roster, as a theme, that could actually do pretty well for them as far as making the most number of players happy enough to press that "BUY" button.

Also unpopular opinion but I think a keeper collection pack will only have 8 animals like usual and honestly I won’t be upset by it, part of me kinda prefers it. I would rather them focus on less animals with higher quality over more animals with still high but not consistent quality. I think of it as the more animals they add to the pack, the greater the workload, and the greater the workload increases the chances for flaws in the animals like the highland cattle’s fur, donkeys stripe, sand cats head, etc.

See my above comment on this. Haha. It think it's fully possible that they add more and it doesn't affect quality... But I'm with you, believe it or not! I'd rather get a standard-sized pack at a regular quality than a bigger quality pack at a lesser quality.

 

[NachoB]

Also unpopular opinion but I think a keeper collection pack will only have 8 animals like usual and honestly I won’t be upset by it, part of me kinda prefers it. I would rather them focus on less animals with higher quality over more animals with still high but not consistent quality. I think of it as the more animals they add to the pack, the greater the workload, and the greater the workload increases the chances for flaws in the animals like the highland cattle’s fur, donkeys stripe, sand cats head, etc.

Barnyard had SEVEN and yet the highland cow happened lol

 

[AndyZoos]

The highland cow feels more like a "creative choice" rather than them having a lack of resources. I feel like they assumed most people wouldn't care, and ultimately the animal is still very usable and looks great despite the Lego fur.

There's also a chance that they lost whoever did the floof up real nice in the past and they cut corners because of that... In which case? They can just go ahead and tell us that the musk ox won't ever be in-game.

 

[PlanetSoyJak]

Barnyard had SEVEN and yet the highland cow happened lol

because barnyard and the free update was like rushed to maximum and a pretty bad pack for a 3 month period. Just clones, some new fur and looks and re-used animations and sounds and people walking on top of habitat waters and petting air instead of the body.

 

[NachoB]

The highland cow feels more like a "creative choice" rather than them having a lack of resources. I feel like they assumed most people wouldn't care, and ultimately the animal is still very usable and looks great despite the Lego fur.

There's also a chance that they lost whoever did the floof up real nice in the past and they cut corners because of that... In which case? They can just go ahead and tell us that the musk ox won't ever be in-game.

A very bad creative choice.

It was like one of the most requested domestic breeds of cattle. Why would you decide to make it look like that and then have other animals like the sloth bear in the game at the same time and coming out around the same time as well. Highland cow looks like base game material.

 

[PlanetSoyJak]

A very bad creative choice.

It was like one of the most requested domestic breeds of cattle. Why would you decide to make it look like that and then have other animals like the sloth bear in the game at the same time and coming out around the same time as well. Highland cow looks like base game material.

i think the fur editor that made the sloth bear got dropped

 

[RightWhale]

Since 2021 we've gotten 22 habitat and 4 exhibit species each year. So even with reduced staff, and other factors, it doesn't feel unreasonable to anticipate this next animal pack might have more than the usual number of habitat species. Especially given the gap in time between DLC.

A pack with 10-13 habitat species would be "bigger" than usual while still being lower than the usual output. And depending on how they structure their team, the lack of an exhibit animal in the Barnyard DLC might be an indicator that there's going to be exhibit species (walk-through or otherwise) in the last DLC... Just something to consider.

I'm not sure if the pack will have more birds or not but I do still think there's a better-than-most-people-think chance that a final pack has more than usual in it.

Yeah, Charlie is really spot-on here. The goal isn't to make "all of our players 100% happy" but rather to "make as many players happy as possible." And a Keeper pack would be a way to give everybody a little bit of what they want. If they can make players satisfied with the roster enough to buy the pack? That's all that matters.

Maybe everybody won't be fully satisfied but there's literally no pack that would offer that, anyway. It's a literal impossibility. But with the right roster, as a theme, that could actually do pretty well for them as far as making the most number of players happy enough to press that "BUY" button.


See my above comment on this. Haha. It think it's fully possible that they add more and it doesn't affect quality... But I'm with you, believe it or not! I'd rather get a standard-sized pack at a regular quality than a bigger quality pack at a lesser quality.

Yeah, I’m a bit more convinced something bigger will happen. But I will also believe it when I see it, as of now I’m gonna be realistic but hopeful.

I’m also in a camp that they won’t be able to 100% satisfy everyone, but can still satisfy to a certain degree. Like let’s say the next pack has a handful of birds and a handful of monkeys. With the right choices it can be good enough. Not perfect, I have a deep feeling that NA will never get a bird. Still, if done well enough it can work!

 

[CharlieXGaming]

There's also a chance that they lost whoever did the floof up real nice in the past and they cut corners because of that... In which case? They can just go ahead and tell us that the musk ox won't ever be in-game.

Forget the musk ox what does that mean for my baboon

 

[NachoB]

Forget the musk ox what does that mean for my baboon

It means olive baboon instead

 

[CharlieXGaming]

Also its interesting, the packs that have had the most "flaws" with the animals designs, have all mostly been animal packs. The SEA pack had problems with 3 of its animals (leopard, tapir, binturong), grasslands had the hyena situation, arid had the sand cat, barnyard had the donkey and cattle. The only scenery pack to have an issue was the conservation pack with the leopard. Maybe its just coincedences, or maybe what I said earliar really was true, more animals doesn't always mean consistant quality. Of course there are animal packs that have had no issues like Eurasia, Wetlands and NA.

If over half of the animal packs have had problems with some animal designs, imagine an animal pack with 13 animals, thats what I'm concerned about.

 

[NachoB]

Tapir aside, most of those issues had to do with them insisting on a cartoonish cutsie look for their animals instead of going to the real life look of the thing, Yes hyenas are ugly, binturongs have creepy eyes, don't make them cute to fit your game, just do them as they are. Is what most people prefer anyway.

 

[PlanetSoyJak]

Also its interesting, the packs that have had the most "flaws" with the animals designs, have all mostly been animal packs. The SEA pack had problems with 3 of its animals (leopard, tapir, binturong), grasslands had the hyena situation, arid had the sand cat, barnyard had the donkey and cattle. The only scenery pack to have an issue was the conservation pack with the leopard. Maybe its just coincedences, or maybe what I said earliar really was true, more animals doesn't always mean consistant quality. Of course there are animal packs that have had no issues like Eurasia, Wetlands and NA.

If over half of the animal packs have had problems with some animal designs, imagine an animal pack with 13 animals, thats what I'm concerned about.

Im expecting this pack to have somewhat lacks imo, a third of a year should give a lot of time to create animations, hair and other things. All they need to do it is get the models creatly, modify past animations, implement sound effects and we are good to go.

 

[PlanetSoyJak]

Tapir aside, most of those issues had to do with them insisting on a cartoonish cutsie look for their animals instead of going to the real life look of the thing, Yes hyenas are ugly, binturongs have creepy eyes, don't make them cute to fit your game, just do them as they are. Is what most people prefer anyway.

Binturongs do have cute eyes irl not creepy eyes, who doesnt look orange eyes . What I do hate is how they made Koala look like a build a bear plushie.

 

[Doran]

The only scenery pack to have an issue was the conservation pack with the leopard

And siamanzee. Would love to see thought process behind knunckle-walking gibbon.