Don't forget about free game updates

[Cl4ssMammalia]

I've seen much speculation here about certain features of real zoos, such as flighted birds, aquatic animals, educational guides, etc. Often the inclusion of these features is treated as an either/or; either we will have penguins on Nov. 5 or we will have to pay for them in a costly DLC later on. I have two points to make about this.

Firstly, FDev has already built the most comprehensive zoo simulator to date. If on Nov. 5 we only have a program that accurately models the complex behaviors of animals, staff, and guests, that will be more than we ever gotten before. Building an engine that can simulate park management is a hard enough challenge. No zoo simulator has even attempted flighted birds before because 3D pathing is so complex. I think we can forgive FDev if that isn't a launch day feature. I would only consider the base game incomplete if the management sim were unplayable, and I doubt that will be the case.

Secondly, don't forget about free updates. When Planet Coaster first launched, it lacked security guards, snow, ride prestige, go-karts, ride blueprints, coaster dueling, collision options, display sequencers, fireworks, video billboards, custom biomes, picnic tables, and staff buildings, and the base game had about the half the rides and shops it has now. All of those features were added just in the first year through free patches, and the first full paid DLC pack didn't come out until nearly a year after launch.

So, do I expect aquatic animals on Nov. 5? No. Underwater movement is complicated to model, and I want FDev to focus on making the core game as good as it can be. Do i expect to see aquatic animals eventually? Absolutely. They are an obvious feature of real zoos that should be included. Do I expect to have to pay for aquatic animals? Maybe, but it's just as likely that improved swimming will be patched into the game for free along with some free animals. I'm grateful to FDev for making this amazing game and I can't wait to see everything they'll add to it in the future.

Tl;dr - Just as with Planet Coaster, I expect many features will be added to Planet Zoo through free updates, and the base game will probably be completely different a year after launch.

 

[NikolaP]

I don't know what they will include later, we even don't know what is in in base game but I talked with programmers about programming under water movements and they have said to me it is really not that hard. It doesn't differs to much of coding animal moving on land. Cause of that I have hopes we can see sea lions, walruses and otters someday.

 

[Cl4ssMammalia]

I don't know what they will include later, we even don't know what is in in base game but I talked with programmers about programming under water movements and they have said to me it is really not that hard. It doesn't differs to much of coding animal moving on land. Cause of that I have hopes we can see sea lions, walruses and otters someday.

That's good to hear. I do wonder how flight compares. Before this game free flight wasn't an option because the game would have to define three-dimensional boundaries for the birds. Planet Zoo seems to make that possible with defined indoor spaces underneath terrain and scenery.

I was mostly using aquatics as an easy example for many features that players are wishing for. Even if we don't get them at launch, that doesn't necessarily mean we'll have to pay extra for them later.

 

[Silhouette]

I don't know what they will include later, we even don't know what is in in base game but I talked with programmers about programming under water movements and they have said to me it is really not that hard. It doesn't differs to much of coding animal moving on land. Cause of that I have hopes we can see sea lions, walruses and otters someday.

This. You basically find your boundaries, turn off gravity and boom you have swimming. Obviously a bit more complex to make it look and feel more realistic but it's easier in some ways than land movement because you're essentially turning off gravity which removes a lot of the more complicated things when it comes to making sure feet properly touch the ground when traversing over bumpy land etc.

But in terms of OP's statement I agree but... Complainers are gonna complain. Honestly I didn't really get into Frontier games until after PZ really started to become hype. But I did semi-follow JWE, and while I never played it until a couple weeks ago, I was always extremely impressed how quick updates went out and how fast they were at taking community feedback and implementing it. It was kinda annoying/disheartening everytime they would release an update that fixed bugs/added features and all the replies were just "BUT WHAT ABOUT 'X' THING!?!?!" Like calm down, chill, and appreciate what they have added already. Clearly they take in feedback and will get to it, but they have their own list of priorities.

This is the main reason this is the first game I've pre-ordered/bought for release in... 4, 5 years? I trust them, whereas normally I don't buy a new game until it's at least a year old.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

This. You basically find your boundaries, turn off gravity and boom you have swimming. ...

Oh my gosh! When I read this, the scales did fell from my eyes!
I thought, the a bit unwieldy water placement that we have in PZ (in contrast to the easy handling in PC) would be due to the more refined shaders that simulate volumetric effects. This was never really convincing for me, though.

Nope! Now I believe that they are already spanning a volume with well defined boundaries in preparation for diving animals! Such calculations could definitely make it necessary to limit the extend a player can modify the volume after it's creation!

 

[Serpentrax]

Planet Coaster was also very reasonably priced (thirty bucks at release) and it didn't have any relevant content locked behind some pre-order scheme or digital deluxe shizzle. That has obviously changed already, so what guarantees that this game's roadmap and lifecycle will still follow that of PlanCo?

 

[Joren91]

Planet Coaster was also very reasonably priced (thirty bucks at release) and it didn't have any relevant content locked behind some pre-order scheme or digital deluxe shizzle. That has obviously changed already, so what guarantees that this game's roadmap and lifecycle will still follow that of PlanCo?

Planet Coaster did have content you had to pay extra for on release, being an early bird and participating in the alpha, a digital booklet, the soundtrack, a King Coaster entertainer,... very similar to Planet Zoo. The only difference is indeed the price, but even that isn't that big of a difference.

Of course we don't know if development is going to go similarly to Planet Coaster's, but everything points in that direction at the moment. Frontier has said repeatedly they'd continue development after launch, implying free content instead of just DLC.

 

[LN]

Planet Coaster was also very reasonably priced (thirty bucks at release) and it didn't have any relevant content locked behind some pre-order scheme or digital deluxe shizzle. That has obviously changed already, so what guarantees that this game's roadmap and lifecycle will still follow that of PlanCo?

Like Joren91 says. It did indeed. Both Alpha access, as well as the in-game entertainer, soundtrack.

Some people even paid much more for:

• A tile on the in-game entrance turnstile with their own text
• designing a special character, etc.

 

[Serpentrax]

Hence my notion of relevant content. Beside the reskinned entertainer and some crown for your avatar, there was no actual in-game benefit to paying more/ early for Planet Coaster. That's a different order of magnitude than the locked animal species today.
Although Frontier is not quite on the level of cooperate greed and sheer avarice we see in some/ most other publishers, they are definitely catching up and I feel a change from the humble and sympathetic company it was three years ago. Ah well.

 

[LoneBlind]

Hence my notion of relevant content. Beside the reskinned entertainer and some crown for your avatar, there was no actual in-game benefit to paying more/ early for Planet Coaster. That's a different order of magnitude than the locked animal species today.
Although Frontier is not quite on the level of cooperate greed and sheer avarice we see in some/ most other publishers, they are definitely catching up and I feel a change from the humble and sympathetic company it was three years ago. Ah well.

I think you're exaggerating. To be honest, I'm extremely anti-DLC at launch as well. DLC started as a way for devs to continue working on a single game after its release and add more and build on an already finished game. Now widely used simply to squeeze more money out of players for essential content (Dragon Age: Inquisition making the ending of their game $20 DLC comes to mind) But what frontier is doing isn't anywhere near that. I bought JWE on sale for $30 with all the DLC included. That's half of its full price tag at launch, and that's a game that has a big name IP that they don't own so it was probably subject to third party price guidelines. Frontier isn't the type to screw its players like that, and if you're super miffed about it and still want the content, wait till its on sale.

I don't think they will make essential features DLC. But I also don't think a fully fleshed out aquatics system would be "Essential" I would happily pay extra for it later on. I don't know why everyone is so freaked out at the moment, and having really bad faith in Frontier. Already through development they've shown they're listening to us about this game. There's no reason to get upset about things they haven't done yet. The game isn't even out.

 

[MaximusSC]

Hence my notion of relevant content. Beside the reskinned entertainer and some crown for your avatar, there was no actual in-game benefit to paying more/ early for Planet Coaster. That's a different order of magnitude than the locked animal species today.
Although Frontier is not quite on the level of cooperate greed and sheer avarice we see in some/ most other publishers, they are definitely catching up and I feel a change from the humble and sympathetic company it was three years ago. Ah well.

What 'in game benefit' do those who purchased the deluxe version of the game actually get from owning three animals that can only be acquired but through the purchase of the deluxe version of the game? The only perk to that is to say "I have animals that you don't". In reality breeding and trading those animals might be more difficult as those animals trading is dependent on a smaller number of potential breeders.

 

[LN]

Hence my notion of relevant content. Beside the reskinned entertainer and some crown for your avatar, there was no actual in-game benefit to paying more/ early for Planet Coaster. That's a different order of magnitude than the locked animal species today.
Although Frontier is not quite on the level of cooperate greed and sheer avarice we see in some/ most other publishers, they are definitely catching up and I feel a change from the humble and sympathetic company it was three years ago. Ah well.

Irrelevant for you. Maybe relevant for someone else.

I would never invest so much money for a in-game tile at the entrance of the park. But maybe someone else feels the need and think it gives that extra personal touch to his park, and thus find it relevant to have.

 

[Cl4ssMammalia]

There's also a good reason for an increased price tag for Planet Zoo. Many of those patched features for Planco will be launch day features for PlanZoo, so it's already a bigger game.

 

[Founchou]

Salut,
En ce qui concerne les prix, je n'ai jamais autant dépensé avec Planet Coaster: jeu + dlc = 110 €.
Avec mes autres jeux, je suis patient et j'attends au moins un an et les prix sont bas pour acheter. Sauf exceptions comme Assassin's Creed ...: 55 € pour chacun à leur sortie.
Pour réduire ces prix d'achat aux prix par heure jouée et j'obtiens:
Assassin's Creed (pour 100h de jeu par épisode): 0 € 55 par heure de jeu.
Planet Coaster: 0 € 08 l'heure de jeu (actuellement 1400 heures).
Donc, je continuerai à dépenser pour Planet Coaster si de nouveaux DLC arrivent (avec des arrière-plans PZ) et je dépenserai pour Planet Zoo de la même manière. Ces jeux sont largement rentables dans la vie et bien sûr du plaisir.

Désolé pour mon anglais, je suis français, le traducteur fait le travail.

 

[Joël]

Salut,
En ce qui concerne les prix, je n'ai jamais autant dépensé avec Planet Coaster: jeu + dlc = 110 €.
Avec mes autres jeux, je suis patient et j'attends au moins un an et les prix sont bas pour acheter. Sauf exceptions comme Assassin's Creed ...: 55 € pour chacun à leur sortie.
Pour réduire ces prix d'achat aux prix par heure jouée et j'obtiens:
Assassin's Creed (pour 100h de jeu par épisode): 0 € 55 par heure de jeu.
Planet Coaster: 0 € 08 l'heure de jeu (actuellement 1400 heures).
Donc, je continuerai à dépenser pour Planet Coaster si de nouveaux DLC arrivent (avec des arrière-plans PZ) et je dépenserai pour Planet Zoo de la même manière. Ces jeux sont largement rentables dans la vie et bien sûr du plaisir.

Désolé pour mon anglais, je suis français, le traducteur fait le travail.

Please use English only on these forums, with the exception of the International forums. Thanks!

Translation by Google Translate;


Hello,
As for prices, I have never spent so much with Planet Coaster: game + dlc = 110 €.
With my other games, I'm patient and I wait at least a year and prices are low to buy. Exceptions like Assassin's Creed ... 55 € each for their release.
To reduce these purchase prices to the prices per hour played and I get:
Assassin's Creed (for 100h of play per episode): 0 € 55 per hour of play.
Planet Coaster: 0 08 € the hour (currently 1400 hours).
So I will continue to spend on Coaster Planet if new DLC arriving (with PZ backgrounds) and I will spend Planet Zoo in the same way. These games are largely profitable in life and of course fun.

Sorry for my English, I'm French, the translator does the work.

 

[Founchou]

Sorry mistake handling with google translator

 

[Balwick]

Many of the features Frontier implement in their games over time essentially require a free update. When something significant changes in the code, that has to be patched into everyone's game.

As an example, when (and I do think it's a when, rather than an if) we see implementation for butterfly houses, bat caves, and aviaries, that will require some new way of handling the animal containment. You can expect everyone to get access to a couple of critters for that feature, with DLC offering you more, because everybody's game needs to be able to handle it in case you visit a zoo that features such an exhibit.