Fall DLC 2023 Speculation

Mountains or Highlands would be a great one

Wolverine
Gelada or Hamadryas Baboon
Spectacled Bear
Markhor
Takin
Rock Hyrax
Golden Pheasant
Chinese Giant Salamander

This would be my ideal Mountains/Highlands Animal Pack
8 Animal Highland Pack will arrive in the Summer since we just had a scenery pack. Expect Autumn to be another scenery pack after the summer animal pack, probably Drylands (Arabesque/Persian) which will only contain 5 animals.
 
8 Animal Highland Pack will arrive in the Summer since we just had a scenery pack. Expect Autumn to be another scenery pack after the summer animal pack, probably Drylands (Arabesque/Persian) which will only contain 5 animals.
If we can have two scenery packs in a row, we can certainly have two animal packs in a row.
 
If we can have two scenery packs in a row, we can certainly have two animal packs in a row.
This rarely happens. Usually, a 5 animal (scenery) pack is followed by an 8 animal pack and vice versa. There are exceptions but unless Frontier is planning to abandon this formula, we should see an 8 animal pack next, followed by another scenery pack in Autumn.

My guess is Highlands for the animal pack because there's not that much scenery/theme to work with there. For Drylands though, we are missing a Persian/Arabesque/North Indian theme that is found in some zoo sections. So my guess is Drylands will be the scenery pack for Autumn.
 
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This rarely happens. Usually, a 5 animal (scenery) pack is followed by an 8 animal pack and vice versa. There are exceptions but unless Frontier is planning to abandon this formula, we should see an 8 animal pack next, followed by another scenery pack in Autumn.

My guess is Highlands for the animal pack because there's not that much scenery/theme to work with there. For Drylands though, we are missing a Persian/Arabesque/North Indian theme that is found in some zoo sections. So my guess is Drylands will be the scenery pack for Autumn.
We already have an Indian theme and the africa pack pretty much has an arabesque-ish aesthetic so i expect the desert pack to be an animal pack as well. Actually they could go with Tibet/Buthan/Himalayas theming for a Highlandas/Mountain scenery pack.
 
This rarely happens. Usually, a 5 animal (scenery) pack is followed by an 8 animal pack and vice versa. There are exceptions but unless Frontier is planning to abandon this formula, we should see an 8 animal pack next, followed by another scenery pack in Autumn.

My guess is Highlands for the animal pack because there's not that much scenery/theme to work with there. For Drylands though, we are missing a Persian/Arabesque/North Indian theme that is found in some zoo sections. So my guess is Drylands will be the scenery pack for Autumn.
I've been around since the very beginning, so I know what's been done until now.

First 4 packs in a row were scenery packs. Nobody expected anything else because this was the formula.
Then came SEA, an animal pack, and people were shocked. Followed by scenery, animal, scenery, etc. And nobody expected anything other than scenery following animal pack, because this was the formula.
Then we suddenly got two scenery packs in a row again and people were shocked.

First packs focused on regions, that's what people started to expect, but suddenly we got aquatic. Back to regions, then suddenly biome. Conservation. Twilight. Biome again.

The point is, despite it being comfortable to seek and expect patterns, Frontier has been known to switch things up. There is no reason to insist an animal pack will always be followed by a scenery pack.
 
I've been around since the very beginning, so I know what's been done until now.

First 4 packs in a row were scenery packs. Nobody expected anything else because this was the formula.
Then came SEA, an animal pack, and people were shocked. Followed by scenery, animal, scenery, etc. And nobody expected anything other than scenery following animal pack, because this was the formula.
Then we suddenly got two scenery packs in a row again and people were shocked.

First packs focused on regions, that's what people started to expect, but suddenly we got aquatic. Back to regions, then suddenly biome. Conservation. Twilight. Biome again.

The point is, despite it being comfortable to seek and expect patterns, Frontier has been known to switch things up. There is no reason to insist an animal pack will always be followed by a scenery pack.
In the early days, Frontier ONLY did scenery packs until they came under criticism for releasing animals too slowly. Afterwards, they have ALWAYS alternated between animal and scenery packs WITH ONE EXCEPTION.

As for overall theme (region/biome/special ect), I agree there is no consistency and it could be anything. But the record since the introduction of animal packs suggests we will probably continue the animal-scenery alternating approach unless they want to change the formula. It's the most probable outcome based on what we know now.
 
8 Animal Highland Pack will arrive in the Summer since we just had a scenery pack. Expect Autumn to be another scenery pack after the summer animal pack, probably Drylands (Arabesque/Persian) which will only contain 5 animals.
Why should highlands release in summer when it is more associated with a colder theme anyway, Islands is the best for summer as it represents a warm temperature, the autumn would be another scenery pack, but then that would focus on some cooler themes, and winter would probably be cooler, or they do what they did last year and change perspectives based on hemispheres, that did grasslands at a cooler time for the Northern hemisphere, but for the Southern it was warming up, so they can interchange
 
Why should highlands release in summer when it is more associated with a colder theme anyway, Islands is the best for summer as it represents a warm temperature, the autumn would be another scenery pack, but then that would focus on some cooler themes, and winter would probably be cooler, or they do what they did last year and change perspectives based on hemispheres, that did grasslands at a cooler time for the Northern hemisphere, but for the Southern it was warming up, so they can interchange
I simply believe Drylands followed by Islands has the best potential for a scenery pack. There are plenty of zoos with exotic Arabesque/Persian/North Indian themes but far fewer with Bhutanese/Nepali/Tibetan themes in my experience. Africa pack was more of a Mali/ancient Egyptian theme and so it's not the same.

However if you included some exotic Chinese Sichuan themes with "Highland", it can be released as a scenery pack. But Q1 had a pretty Asian theme so I'm not sure a Q3 release of sort of similar architecture theme is on the cards.

The problem with Islands is it has a somewhat tropical theme (albeit Polynesian) so it might be too soon to release it in Q3.

So my guess is Q2 will be Highlands animal pack, Q3 will be Drylands (with Arabesque/Persian/North India/Central Asia theme), Q1 2024 will be Islands.

Q4 could either be birds or (more likely) nocturnal animal pack (implementing circadian rhythms) if they have no plans to do flying birds.

Children's zoo DLC will probably be the last DLC to be released if they do it at all. It will be tricky to animate visitors interacting with animals.
 
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Wasn't the inclusion of key island architecture and plants in the tropical pack kind of a answer to the islands pack. I seriously can't see how frontier can market an island pack after doing a very island heavy scenery pack.
More Polynesian/Pacific Islands/Hawaiian vibe as opposed to Southeast Asia? Also more beach/coastal pieces, the majority of the Tropical pack pieces go better with tropical jungle interior environments imo.

In any case, the speculation that Frontier is completely done with scenery packs because they've completely exhausted all options is at least 2 DLCs worth of content early in my view. There are plenty of players that care just as much about architecture as animals and Frontier has to continue to cater to them as well.
 
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More Polynesian/Pacific Islands/Hawaiian vibe as opposed to Southeast Asia? Also more beach/coastal pieces, the majority of the Tropical pack pieces go better with tropical jungle interior environments imo.

In any case, the speculation that Frontier is completely done with scenery packs because they've completely exhausted all options is at least 2 DLCs worth of content early in my view. There are plenty of players that care just as much about architecture as animals and Frontier has to continue to cater to them as well.
Agree, i think the 50/50 distribution of scenery and animal packs is the perfect middle ground. And there is still so much unused potential for scenery stuff.
 
I am so hopeful that Frontier does animal packs from here on out. Unless the builders who want scenery are ok with clones taking up "slots". I'm sorry, I want another canid. I don't expect one 100%. If Frontier adds one more and its a coyote... (n)😭 Only if Frontier adds a coyote in addition to an unique canid I'd welcome it, the song dog prairie wolf of the backyard wilderness. They have beautiful voices!
The reason I want animal packs over scenery... Because, it allows a whole scenery pack worth of "unique" animals in addition to three more clone like animals. Just because one person is sick of canids, or African antelope (which ARE a big part of zoos by the way) doesn't mean we as a community all are.
 
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I keep saying we don't need more scenery, that there's no more themed items that we need, etc. But I've been repeatedly proven wrong! Yeah, I want more animals and will be really bummed if support ends without a tree kangaroo, secretary bird, ocelot, Tasmanian devil, a few more monkeys and so on being added to the game but... I understand the approach. And frankly, while I do think we have plenty of heavily "themed" items there's still a range of foliage and more generic zoo pieces that could be added to the game.

Ultimately, my semi-realistic pipedream is for them to end the year with two strong packs using the alternating pattern (e.g., summer DLC will be animals; fall DLC will be scenery; and final December DLC will be animals). From there, assuming this is the last year for formal support, free updates, etc. it would be fantastic if they just continued on without free updates and just released animal-focused DLC for another year or two. Maybe with a few smaller prop or foliage-focused DLC packs in-between (e.g., a set of 10-20 new plants from a given region, a pack of signs for base game animals in the new/current design, gardening tools, things to help put together parking lots and so on).

That would really help to round out the roster and would be a pragmatic way to expand foliage options, fill-in the gaps with smaller things that may not fit fully into a given theme, etc. And so long as the DLC are still selling nicely? No reason for them to stop expanding on the paid DLC options.

All that said - I'm banking on the fall DLC being another scenery pack (assuming summer is animals).
 
Ultimately, my semi-realistic pipedream is for them to end the year with two strong packs using the alternating pattern (e.g., summer DLC will be animals; fall DLC will be scenery; and final December DLC will be animals). From there, assuming this is the last year for formal support, free updates, etc. it would be fantastic if they just continued on without free updates and just released animal-focused DLC for another year or two. Maybe with a few smaller prop or foliage-focused DLC packs in-between (e.g., a set of 10-20 new plants from a given region, a pack of signs for base game animals in the new/current design, gardening tools, things to help put together parking lots and so on).

That would really help to round out the roster and would be a pragmatic way to expand foliage options, fill-in the gaps with smaller things that may not fit fully into a given theme, etc. And so long as the DLC are still selling nicely? No reason for them to stop expanding on the paid DLC options.

All that said - I'm banking on the fall DLC being another scenery pack (assuming summer is animals).
All in all this is my ranking of DLC possibility and chances.

Medium to High Likelihood

-Highlands/Mountain
-Drylands/Desert
-Oceania/Islands
-South America/Amazon Pack

Medium Likelihood

-Dedicated Large Flying Birds Pack (maybe leaving this for PZ2)
-Nocturnal Pack (implementing circadian rhythms)

Low to Medium Likelihood

-Petting/Children's Zoo (more reptile, amphibian, invertebrate, small bird exhibits alongside petting animals) (tricky to animate animal-visitor interactions and a lot of work creating numerous exhibits)
-Aquarium pack adding manatee, beluga, ect.

Low Likelihood

-Extinct animals pack

Ultimately support will last until AT LEAST Q2 2024 OR possibly Q2 2025. Frontier game launches are at the end of the year, so it makes sense to cut off support for existing games by mid-year. We know they have a major game due next year and in 2025. I just don't see Q2 2023 being the last DLC pack.
 
While it definitely depends on the next pack's theme, one pattern I could see is a Summer Temperate animal pack and leaving this to be a Petting Zoo/Children's Zoo/Farm scenery pack. Sure, there's ways to tie that into the spring theme but there's just as many to tie in to the fall theme.

Of course, Drylands and then Islands for all is also a possibility. I'm leaving a Rainforests out of the equation, but I feel like the two big possibilities for summer are Drylands and Temperate type themes. The two big scenery packs for the fall being Islands and Petting Zoo etc.
 
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