DLC20 Discussion (maybe, but why not?)

Arid, Oceania, Eurasia (Doesn't Exactly Fit The Double Up On A Group), Barnyard, Zookeepers and, Americas. That Makes Six.
I think what constitutes a "double up" is wildly inconsistent here so you could basically do this with any pack. Oceania had a double up of birds but following that logic it would also be accurate to say it has a triple up of mammals, given birds are an entire class just like mammals are. Similarly there were two primates in Zookeeper but there were also two carnivorans and two artiodactyls, all of which are mammalian orders. Given this I don't think you can really draw anything from this line of logic.
 
I think the Coyote and Bush Dog is the first double up that does feel kinda redundant. The others listed really aren't "double ups" in my opinion.

You could make an argument for Barnyard and Arid but goats and sheep are both too iconic of farm animals to really let out on similarities and I think the Addax and Dama Gazelle despite both being antelopes work together as different animals that can be mixed well together.

The coyote and bush dog both fill the niche of "small dog" for North/South America.
 
Which of these scenarios are we most expecting?

  1. DLC20 drops in June
  2. DLC20 drops in October
  3. There is no DLC20
I had a dream they confirmed it was coming later in the year lol. But they were way more transparent with the development process.

That being said I say October but hope for June. Definitely don’t think this is the end
 
I had a dream they confirmed it was coming later in the year lol. But they were way more transparent with the development process.

That being said I say October but hope for June. Definitely don’t think this is the end
Oh I hope you have the gift of prophetic dreaming 💚😴 I do a bit but never about anything useful!
 
To follow on from the Felidae chart I found, I created a Canidae chart and looked to see if there was a similar distribution of what animals were in game etc.
It wasn't quite the clear cut list like the Felidae chart but I marked the ones I thought may come in the future, based on current selection, with red dots but there are some there that feel like there should be more from the groups. Some of the vulpine foxes look visual enough to be worth adding to the game as well, but hard to decide which one I think would be next over the others.
It looks like the ursidae groups are all but complete in the game barring one, which, according to wikipedia has more population in the wild than the others combined. I've marked it as a potential future one as a completion to the group and that the Americas have a smaller collection of animals compared to the other continents.

And in comparison we have only 1 of the animals in procyonidae, of which the coati mentioned several times in this forum are members .. so, I have marked groups where hopefully one of each genus will exist in game in the future, or in the next game as mentioned by someone before.

The mustelidae also seem to be under represented although not as badly, half of the subfamilies having a representative ( rather than genus as with the other groups ) so hopefully one of the other sub families will get represented in the future.

But as was mentioned before, maybe some weren't in game because they aren't usually in zoos.
 

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Which of these scenarios are we most expecting?

  1. DLC20 drops in June
  2. DLC20 drops in October
  3. There is no DLC20
I'm also more on November, especially if this is the last DLC and/or they announce PZ2 as the FY27 game they are working on. If so, I am hoping that the animals they created for PZ1 will be compatible with PZ2. I wonder if you can mark DLCs as being compatible with 2 games rofl. But I would assume in that instance that PZ1 would get delisted so they could be linked to PZ2.
 
For the first time I did a wishlist of the 50 HABITAT species I'd want the most in the game right now. I submitted this wishlist in the appropriate thread so I won't put it here but I analyzed it and here is what I observed (I do this here not to pollute the other thread).

On the 50 species:
  • 12 of them would be useful for my American area (7 from SA, 5 from NA)
  • 4 for my Arctic area
  • 2 for Europe
  • 14 for Africa
  • 14 for Asia
  • 4 for Australia/Oceania
Considering what we already have in game, the size and the biodiversity of the different continent, I think these numbers are coherent.

10 of them are birds (things like cranes, duck, pelicans) and 10 are monkeys but also 10 are ungulates. The rest is a mix of different types of mammals except for 1 reptile (Nile Croc).

The good news for me, nearly all of them exist in mods 😄 I will never thank enough the modders community for their amazing work!
 
Just for fun I've been thinking what I would like to see for a potential DLC20. I'm going to go with the Zookeepers as a reference in terms of what is do-able within their budget, and I'm frankly also going to go with the wiggle room that they used for both Arid and for Grassland in the definition of an animal that fits the pack. I'd stick to the current pattern of animal pack with 80/90 pieces of scenery, which I think is honestly the best of both worlds.

With that, I would like to see an Asian Animal Pack. All of the choices are what I would like to see and what I think is do-able within the budget; I'm not thinking about the greater community here. You don't need to agree with everything I say here, to each their own, it's not meant to spark a debate in any kind 😅

1. Père David's deer
Frankly, I think the game can never do wrong by adding another deer species and this one simply has too much zoo history to not be in the game. It's such a good story of what zoos can achieve in terms of conservation and the story isn't that well known, so bringing it to the forefront is always good to me.
2. Domestic Yak
Another animal that I really like, and one that I personally think is unique enough compared to the Water Buffalo and the two Bison. It's found in tons of European zoos, so for me that's an extra added bonus.
3. Nilgai
Relatively uncommon species to see in people's wishlists but it has enough of a presence in captivity for me to want it when building zoos. It's one of those animals that's visually distinct and in a pack with already two other ungulates I don't think this one looks anything like the other two.
4. Asian Palm Civet
A civet! Weirdly enough we haven't had a civet in all these years, and the Asian or Common Palm Civet is well represented in Asian and surprisingly UK zoos. It's one of those animals where I think "hey, they're not common world wide but they are in specific regions", like for instance the Platypus and the Proboscis Monkey. In terms of animations civets are already do-able in the game and require some but no major animations adjustments.
5. Golden Pheasant
The key-art animal of the pack, the Golden Pheasant is the one bird addition to the pack to please all those who want birds. It's very common in captivity and it's one of the few pheasant species that has enough of a "wow" factor that even people who aren't really into birds could look at it and go "okay, that's one pretty bird". Can easily work on the peafowl-adjusted chicken rig.
6. Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo
As they live in the Indonesian part of New Guinea, I say they're allowed to be a part of an Asian Animal Pack. Having seen what Monsoon has done with making the quokka climb, I'd say that it's reasonable to assume that whilst this would be the animal that requires the most extra animation work it's well within the realm of reason given that the other animals of the pack do not require them.
7. Sea Otter
Now, this is the one I expect most people to go "but is this really an Asian animal??", but they are found near the coasts of Japan and near the Kurril Islands; so I'm going to go the Arid/Grassland route where I'm saying that if the animal is found in an Asian area it can work as an Asian animal. It is pushing the boundaries a bit, but frankly, it doesn't matter that much. In terms of animation work I'd say we're looking at a sifaka situation where the rig would be slightly adjusted that visually the overal animations would look different, and one or two animations of the animal lying on its back would be added. Would it be perfect? No. Would it be believable? I'd say more than the Sifaka was for most people.

I didn't include a monkey, but more as a "hey I already have enough ones as a mod" and if the civet gets replaced with any kind of langur then I'd be fine. Again, mostly a personal wishlist.

In terms of scenery I'd like just 5 or 6 pieces to be added for each animal's native range. This can be in terms of foliage, like for instance the yellow stalked common bamboo; but also actual scenery pieces like for instance Tibetan flags and decorations to be matched with the Domestic Yak. I'd want this scenery to be an extension to the already existing East Asia scenery theme from the base game, where more is added to differentiate individual regions. Some stuff tailored to Tibet, some tailored to Japan, some more stuff tailored to China; all in all just additions to what we already have. For the visual language I'd focus more on the East Asian aesthetic, with sakura trees being very present in the overal marketing.

Again, most of this is my personal preference, I understand that I'm squinting and stretching when it comes to the sea otter but frankly I don't care. Sometimes you just have to go with what you want 😂
 
Just for fun I've been thinking what I would like to see for a potential DLC20. I'm going to go with the Zookeepers as a reference in terms of what is do-able within their budget, and I'm frankly also going to go with the wiggle room that they used for both Arid and for Grassland in the definition of an animal that fits the pack. I'd stick to the current pattern of animal pack with 80/90 pieces of scenery, which I think is honestly the best of both worlds.

With that, I would like to see an Asian Animal Pack. All of the choices are what I would like to see and what I think is do-able within the budget; I'm not thinking about the greater community here. You don't need to agree with everything I say here, to each their own, it's not meant to spark a debate in any kind 😅

1. Père David's deer
Frankly, I think the game can never do wrong by adding another deer species and this one simply has too much zoo history to not be in the game. It's such a good story of what zoos can achieve in terms of conservation and the story isn't that well known, so bringing it to the forefront is always good to me.
2. Domestic Yak
Another animal that I really like, and one that I personally think is unique enough compared to the Water Buffalo and the two Bison. It's found in tons of European zoos, so for me that's an extra added bonus.
3. Nilgai
Relatively uncommon species to see in people's wishlists but it has enough of a presence in captivity for me to want it when building zoos. It's one of those animals that's visually distinct and in a pack with already two other ungulates I don't think this one looks anything like the other two.
4. Asian Palm Civet
A civet! Weirdly enough we haven't had a civet in all these years, and the Asian or Common Palm Civet is well represented in Asian and surprisingly UK zoos. It's one of those animals where I think "hey, they're not common world wide but they are in specific regions", like for instance the Platypus and the Proboscis Monkey. In terms of animations civets are already do-able in the game and require some but no major animations adjustments.
5. Golden Pheasant
The key-art animal of the pack, the Golden Pheasant is the one bird addition to the pack to please all those who want birds. It's very common in captivity and it's one of the few pheasant species that has enough of a "wow" factor that even people who aren't really into birds could look at it and go "okay, that's one pretty bird". Can easily work on the peafowl-adjusted chicken rig.
6. Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo
As they live in the Indonesian part of New Guinea, I say they're allowed to be a part of an Asian Animal Pack. Having seen what Monsoon has done with making the quokka climb, I'd say that it's reasonable to assume that whilst this would be the animal that requires the most extra animation work it's well within the realm of reason given that the other animals of the pack do not require them.
7. Sea Otter
Now, this is the one I expect most people to go "but is this really an Asian animal??", but they are found near the coasts of Japan and near the Kurril Islands; so I'm going to go the Arid/Grassland route where I'm saying that if the animal is found in an Asian area it can work as an Asian animal. It is pushing the boundaries a bit, but frankly, it doesn't matter that much. In terms of animation work I'd say we're looking at a sifaka situation where the rig would be slightly adjusted that visually the overal animations would look different, and one or two animations of the animal lying on its back would be added. Would it be perfect? No. Would it be believable? I'd say more than the Sifaka was for most people.

I didn't include a monkey, but more as a "hey I already have enough ones as a mod" and if the civet gets replaced with any kind of langur then I'd be fine. Again, mostly a personal wishlist.

In terms of scenery I'd like just 5 or 6 pieces to be added for each animal's native range. This can be in terms of foliage, like for instance the yellow stalked common bamboo; but also actual scenery pieces like for instance Tibetan flags and decorations to be matched with the Domestic Yak. I'd want this scenery to be an extension to the already existing East Asia scenery theme from the base game, where more is added to differentiate individual regions. Some stuff tailored to Tibet, some tailored to Japan, some more stuff tailored to China; all in all just additions to what we already have. For the visual language I'd focus more on the East Asian aesthetic, with sakura trees being very present in the overal marketing.

Again, most of this is my personal preference, I understand that I'm squinting and stretching when it comes to the sea otter but frankly I don't care. Sometimes you just have to go with what you want 😂
Yea the Sea Otter would be awesome and I honestly think with a couple of unique animations they’re believable on the current otter rig
 
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