The long requested marine reptiles are nearly upon us, but I have been seeing a mixed response from the community over them. From all that we know they appear to be somewhere in-between the Return to Jurassic Park Aviary and the new JWE2 Aviary. All the aquatic reptiles are free moving, the lagoons are built modularly, and so forth, but beyond that there are a lot of questions as to what they actually do.
Frontier has shown off the famous shark feeder, standard fish feeders, and a little lagoon viewing gallery complete with elevator. Its a nice set piece, but I remain skeptical that is all there is to it, Frontier is likely holding something back to surprise us with for release. So, I thought I would just touch upon some ideas and speculation that could give the lagoons a bit more of a role besides extravagant decorative piece.
Just wanted to get this out there before the Dev Diary becomes all the talk, and possibly undermines my speculation tomorrow. Thoughts? Opinions? I really want this conversation to catch on, I haven't really been hearing much about what people would want for marine reptile gameplay, so I am curious to hear your ideas.
Frontier has shown off the famous shark feeder, standard fish feeders, and a little lagoon viewing gallery complete with elevator. Its a nice set piece, but I remain skeptical that is all there is to it, Frontier is likely holding something back to surprise us with for release. So, I thought I would just touch upon some ideas and speculation that could give the lagoons a bit more of a role besides extravagant decorative piece.
- First, I already suggested in my attractions thread the Submarine Tour using the submarine from the start of Fallen Kingdom as the basis. If you can't bring the aquatic reptiles to the guests, bring the guests to the aquatic reptiles. Not only would this be a unique and fascinating point of view in the game, but you could really get up close and personal with all these different creatures Frontier is modeling and animating that could only be appreciated from such close quarters, but its raw gameplay. If your marine reptiles become agitated, they might not be able to just bust out of the lagoon, but they can turn that onto your guests trying to snack on those submarines. That accomplishes the goal of creating risk during crises the same way it does for terrestrial dinosaurs and flying reptiles.
- Second, the "lagoon cleaners" I mentioned in that same thread, unlike the Aviary, the Lagoon is unique in that it requires regular upkeep. Its water will become murky and discolored like swamp water if you aren't manually employing cleaners to filter the water from potentially deadly algae build-up. Ignore it, you got a visibility penalty for your attractions, and at its worst your marine reptiles are going to start dying from algae-born diseases.
- Third, I am going to go out on a limb here and concur with Bestinslot that Frontier is teasing tomorrow's Dev Diary that we can build on the coasts we have longed desired from the the moment we saw them on Isla Muerta. Notice, the lagoon is on the beach and its so incredibly close to the ocean, what if this is a means of escape? They can't just escape and rampage in your park like other reptiles, but instead they receive bonuses or only certain species will tolerate being located near coastlines? You would be incentivized to take this kind of risk, and maybe an escape is possible, but instead of running rampant its more like the RtJP DLC and your aquatic creatures simply disappear into the oceans altogether?
We could always conceive of some reason for this to make sense, like maybe lagoons are best situated on the coasts due to the ability to regulate water levels to optimally counter the algae build-up, this requires a Flood Wall and aquatic gates to quarantine your marine reptiles and you could also use this as an excuse if you want to customize the bed of the lagoon with corals, seaweed, etc. There is a lot of potential here and it would make marine reptiles very unique and this escape more acceptable than with flying reptiles.
- Fourth and finally, I think we could still introduce a new guest arrival point. We have seen helipads and monorails, so can we revive the idea of docks or a wharf? These have to be placed along coastlines, they thematically fit with marine reptiles, so most players will want to build lagoons near the shores anyway, and if there is an escape, maybe its possible they can attack guests on the docks or something of the sort. I am really skeptical of this one, but there is room for future development to make them all they can be the same way Frontier revisited Aviaries and have made them into something really stellar.
Just wanted to get this out there before the Dev Diary becomes all the talk, and possibly undermines my speculation tomorrow. Thoughts? Opinions? I really want this conversation to catch on, I haven't really been hearing much about what people would want for marine reptile gameplay, so I am curious to hear your ideas.
