SPECULATION QUESTIONS ANSWERED
Security Camera?: It is a new ranger post.
"Monitoring dinosaurs' health will be much easier through the implementation of the new ranger post, which looks to be a small shack that you can place anywhere in an enclosure. The rangers use this station to perform welfare checks. The dino vitals are not as clearly defined in this sequel. Woods says there's a bit of a "fog of war" to that information, and the player will need to keep tabs on it. The best way to do that is through the ranger post."
The article would also mention that we would not know the exact health of the dinosaurs as that would be a bit foggy and not as clear as they were in JWE. I like this new approach as it means that the dinosaurs are harder to predict, and we have to keep tabs with our species to make sure everything is in order.
That one building that is not connected via path?: Paleo-Medical Facility
"If a dinosaur is injured, it may need to visit the Paleo-Medical Facility, the one new structure I see among the familiar Ranger Station, Research Center, Park Tour, and more buildings from the first game. This medical facility is white, and has a large fenced-in area behind it where dinosaurs can be treated. You'll need to fly them in via helicopter. If a dinosaur cannot be treated in the field, you'll need to bring it here. The example I'm told is if one is seriously injured in battle. The Paleo-Medical Facility also comes with a unique vehicle called the Mobile Vet Unit, which you can freely control (just like all of the other vehicles in the game)."
Which the description fits the picture, as there is a small enclosure near a white building, this is where the dinosaurs could be treated. And as
@Aramus418 has mentioned prior, the pathing could be a bug of an early build of the game.
Customizability of guest buildings?: YES, and then some!
"Significant enhancements are also being applied to guests, their behaviors, and the structures you can build for them. Each guest's mood is divided into four categories: adventure, standard, nature, and luxury. They will gravitate to areas that they seek the most. For instance, an adventure junky will want to see carnivores.
The player can tailor attractions and amenities to these specific groups. These two structures are fully customizable, right down to what they offer and how they look. With the click of a button, the base attraction can transform into an aquarium, bowling alley, cinema, arcade, spa, and you name it. The design of that building is also fully customizable. The facade, roof decoration, entrance, entrance location, signage, and immediate surrounding ground can be changed with a number of preset options. For the ground, you can have trees, dinosaur skeletons, flags, and more. The color of all of the items can also be altered. If you want your shop to be hot pink, so be it. If you want each piece to be a different color, you can do that, too. The range of color is extensive, allowing for specific shades to be picked from a wheel."
The Aviary looks to be greatly expanded on: Indeed!
"The enhanced enclosure design extends to the aviary, which can hold numerous flying critters, including the
Pteranodon, which I got to see emerge from a Lab. Three of them fly out together, each animated in different ways to give off the impression of a flock. Their habitat is barren at first, but Woods dives into the editing tools to quickly add trees, water, and rocks to it. The size of the aviary is also determined by the player. More glass domes can be added freely ā much like the fencing ā to make the enclosure grow dynamically. If the Pteranodons grow agitated, they can smash through the glass and fly around the park, potentially going after guests. The player will then need to track them down and tranquilize them to get them back where they belong. I asked if the ground dinosaurs could interact with the flying reptiles, and neither Woods or Newbold wanted to talk about it just yet, saying that answer will come closer to the late 2021 launch of the game."
One new exciting information we got about this was also how dynamic the pterosaurs are, and how the enclosure could be freely expanded on. Initially, we thought it would be a set number of buildings, but this new 'fence' like implementation really expands how the aviaries could be implemented in out parks. Theoretically, we could have a park that is one giant bird cage.
Source: https://twitter.com/i/status/1407037677908729857
Plus, it looks like we could have gates for the aviary. So we could move in with our vehicles, and be able to open the gates for the pterosaurs to stretch their wings, fly around the park, and get acquainted with the guests.
The game could have a fully developed hunting system: Throw that salt away! It's here!
"I didn't see any dinosaurs fight in my demo, but I'm told the smaller variety will team up to take on larger beasts. Yes, that means raptors hunt in a pack! "Predators, when taking after their prey, will chase after them dynamically," adds Newbold. "There's no stopping and starting. There's improvements to the fighting system as well.""
This is very exciting! Back in JWE, dinosaurs would feel artificial because they had a very scripted pathing system. When observing dinosaurs hunt, run, or fight, it was a very piece by piece scripted event. Now that the pathing is refined, the dinosaurs would be much more enjoyable to observe in our parks as the more dynamic system would lead to some unforgettable events in JWE2. This new dynamic take could also make the ranger and dinosaur experience a much more engaging one, and could give off the "must go faster" sensation!
I am very excited for this implementation and cannot wait to see it for myself.
There is a notable lack of feeders: Cause there arenāt any!
"Herbivores now feed on the foliage and no longer require feeders, so you'll need to make sure you add the right plants when editing the terrain. For the Triceratops, the solution is the fibrous ground plant. "
The article also describes the new territory system. Now dinosaurs would seek out a segment of the enclosure for themselves, and would grow based on members of the herd/pack, and could be shared by other species based on compatibility. These spaces would be indicated by a white highlight, and it would make sense if the vegetation provided there are compatible with the species of that territory. SO a multi species enclosure would then require multiple forms of vegetation to keep your herbivores fed.
However, nothing yet has been showcased for the carnivores and piscivores of your parks. I could imagine that they may require their own feeding methods, outside of prey species.
I could imagine that we could see the return of the goat feeder for the carnivores, and potentially even other farm animals (pigs, cows?), as this would be a new source of meat for your carnivores that would highlight their new hunting mechanic.
I also think that large bodies of water could be populated by fish. Not just for the spinosaurids, but also as a means for your pterosaurs to swoop down and catch a meal.
Hopefully more information could come soon to answer these questions.
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So far, these have been some of our speculations answered. The answers were sourced from the game informer article listed below:
Frontier Developments is putting more focus on story as it expands the park building operations.
www.gameinformer.com
So far based on the article, so many questions were answered, and the new title is looking to become interesting, even new details have been brought up:
⢠Guests have 4 new types of personalities: Adventure, normal, standard, and luxury. These won't just be handled by the facilities built, but also by the dinosaurs available. Like "They will gravitate to areas that they seek the most. For instance, an adventure junky will want to see carnivores."
⢠Time could be manipulated, it could be sped up or paused, which makes the waiting moments pass by quicker, and to allow players to build a park without interruptions. However, if a disaster should occur, this time manipulation will be halted until the situation is under control.
⢠A new disaster has been revealed: Snow storms, which covers the whole park with a layer of snow and cause problems like power outages.
From here, the new locations to build on could lead to new disasters. If the teaser is to go by, we could also experience sandstorms in the desert environment, which could bring its own problems.
⢠The hatchery has a deeper level of utility. Dinosaurs could be incubated as a batch, and chosen which of the dinosaurs from said batch should grow to maturity.
⢠Bio engineering dinosaurs looks to be improved on as well:
"I'm told each dino has roughly a dozen body colors along with seven different patterns. Holding true to the expeditions from the first game, dino DNA is once again obtained from fossils. When eggs are synthesized, you can tweak the DNA to enhance social behaviors, make them more resilient to disease, less aggressive to rangers, and more. Rather than incubating one egg at a time, you can now generate a clutch of eggs. "As part of this editing phase, you are increasing or decreasing the chance of any of those traits manifesting," adds Newbold. "Once you make that decision, you choose which ones you want to bring to maturity and release them all in one go as a group."
If the dinosaur coloring is anything to go by, it sounds like the patterns are stackable with palette colors. So if a dinosaur could have 12 body colors, and 7 patterns, then there should be around 84 different ways the dinosaur could look! It could be (Palette A with Pattern A) or (Palette E with Pattern D). It may still be a set, but that ability to apply the pattern with a palette of choice would allow us to make dinosaurs as we please. My only lead on this theory is the amargasaurus leaving the hatchery, as it has the same pallette color as the one from the photographs, but a new pattern with the darker spikes and a large side stripe.
Source: https://twitter.com/i/status/1407067243402469377
Also, this image of the nasutoceratops herd also makes me question if mutations could be brought up from batch incubation, allowing some dinosaurs a notable difference in appearance to give them a sense of individuality, as the nasutoceratops on the right has a notable green hue (mostly observable on her snout), where the others have a more brown colored hide.
Hopefully, the dinosaur bioengineering could be showcased even further, as it looks like we could have dinosaurs to be very customizable not just in stats, but in appearance and behavior.
⢠The buildable space also looks to be a LOT bigger:
"The gameās director Richard Newbold tells me we are looking at a Sandbox map, which stretches across the entire screen. āAll of the maps the player has access to are a lot bigger than the first game,ā he adds. āThere's a lot more space available to build and place as many dinosaurs as possible. With changes to the territory system, theyāre going to need a lot more space in some instances, especially since thereās a direct conflict between some species. Itās not as easy to put as many dinosaurs in the same space. Thereās a lot more balance that needs to be done.ā Along with the forest theme, the player will make parks in desert settings."
Source: https://twitter.com/i/status/1407095324175441930
A SIDE NOTE
It looks like the viewing gallery has shrunk down considerably. It used to be twice as tall as the fence, and now it it just about the same height.
I thought it would be that there is a taller fence, but it looks to be the same height (5 visible bars). If the galleries have shrunk down in size, this is great as it both allows for more room for the dinosaurs, and would make the dinosaurs look a lot bigger in comparison to the attraction. It has yet to be seen if the galleries are divided into different sizes.
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Overall. I am very excited for the future of this game, as it looks to cover a lot of issues I had with JWE and delivers more to create a JWE game that feels alive. Hopefully we could see the aquatic reptiles in actions, more dinosaurs, more behaviors, more customization, and I personally would love if we could place in the park entrance, and to see some gameplay footage soon to look at repeatedly until the game releases.
And I want that amargasaurus.
Until next time, take care!
