As is tradition, I've been doing these since Aquatic pack, might as well...
So after three continuous threads where I tried to predict the end of a game in 2022, we're still going strong into the 2024 with no plans of stopping. And I'm for one very glad to be this wrong. I'm also glad to be wrong about choices of packs, (apart from the last year, aced it
) even tho most of the guessed animals ended up making it into the game, as we got way more diverse and nuanced pack, compared to ''realistic'' bare-bones predictions. Such a selection of animals and themes we got, that we can enter 2024 easy, relaxed with that one SA pack pending and wishes that now cover the niches rather than needs. If we don't talk about flying birds and aquatic animals, and we won't be doing that in this thread 
And who knows, my ''end is nigh" DLC predictions keep warding off that farewell pack, so I'm gonna take all the credit for that and make one every year to keep life-supporting the life support of the game.
Last (3?4?) threads were very conservative in theme and animal picks, but they were remnants of their time, when a lot of essentials were still missing. This time I will let loose a bit, and sprinkle in some of my personal wishes both in themes and animals.
Spring 2024 DLC: Safari Scenery Pack
Starting of with the Spring DLC which, by pattern, will be scenery pack, I decided for a hot new trend (at the time of writing) - Safari pack. Pack is here to round up and finish off African animals that were left behind. Many predict Mountain pack here, but honestly, 600 pages of Winter DLC got me pretty bored with it after a while. Also I got my main drive for that pack - Wolverine + Takin. Spectacled Bear will find new home, I won't need Gelada after an animal I predict for this pack. Main issue for Safari pack is the scenery, we have pretty strong (but generic) "African" pieces in base game. Someone said that those are South African and we might look to Eastern Africa for scenery, so I guess that is an option? This would easily be an animal pack if South America wasn't in dire need of one. So animals:
1. Olive Baboon
2. Kirk's Dik-Dik
3. Secretary Bird
4. Serval
5. Red Headed Agama (E)
I think the community had good idea about it. We diversify Savannah after a long while, some popular picks (Baboon, Secretary), some common zoo animals (Serval, Dik-Dik) and I chose Agama for striking colors, but anything works really, maybe a Rock Python or Mamba or whtevs.
Moving on.
Summer 2024 DLC: Central America Animal Pack
Awaited for too long, here it finally comes! Some, if not many, people think that Central America will be a theme of spring pack - therefore scenery pack. That is of course not impossible, but I do believe it would be too much of a missed opportunity after all this time. The pack is called Central America because we can't name pack South America twice, and Central American wildlife basically covers what we need anyway. Save for a few species, but don't worry there's place for them in future. Not calling it Latin America, I mentioned that already a few times, it would be weird, it wouldn't fit with the rest. Of course "patterns" have been broken many times, so I just might be full of it, and might swallow my words when I buy Latin America pack in Summer. So yeah it really fits the summer vibe and is an animal pack. Speaking of which:
1. Spider Monkey
2. White Nosed Coati
3. Ocelot
4. Agouti
5. Brown Pelican
6. Tamandua
7. Squirrel Monkey
8. Plumed Basilisk (E)
Basically a microcosm of Meta Wishlist, with an odd pick here and there and I also tried to cool it on the monkeys. God knows I could fill whole pack with them. Pelican is here to re-use that sweet, sweet waterfowl rig, and even tho Brown is not even my top 2 pick for a Pelican, I'm open to compromise from time to time. Also I sacrificed Ring Tailed for White Nosed Coati, but oh well.
Next one, my baby, my darling:
Autumn 2024 DLC: Natural History Scenery Pack
This pack plagues my mind and haunts my wishlists and predictions ever since I first thought of it. Veeeeryy unlikely unfortunately. This won't stop me from spreading propaganda here, as I've already beaten over the head, every active member around here, with it. Idea is: pack with heavy focus on its scenery which is all in vibe of education, labs and museums. I'm talking about fossils, skeletons (full and partial), pelts, horns, antlers, maybe even taxidermy. New and reinvented exhibit boxes and statues and whatnot. I really think that kind of scenery can rekindle my building flame and stretch out my old parks in new directions. And hey with this new "expansion tile" system who knows
. Animals wouldn't be lacking behind:
1. Short Beaked Echidna
2. Darwin's Rhea
3. Rock Hyrax
4. Slender Snouted Crocodile
5. Tuatara (E)
Pack like this, even tho it would produce fire scenery, maybe a bit limiting in animal choices. Especially this late into game life. But still, it's not that is animals weren't asked for. Echidna, Hyrax and Tuatara I picked because of their unique taxonomies (correct me if I'm using the wrong word) and as such great subjects for education. Darwin's Rhea is named after one of the biggest name in zoology, so there's that connection, and personally I find it prettier than Greater. Crocodile is a stretch, there was (or is) a debate in zoological circles about its taxonomy so I used it as justification.
For the 5th anniversary something simple, something nice. Blackbuck
And for the cherry on top, and our final goodbye we have:
Winter 2024 DLC: Worldwide Wildlife Wonders Scenery+Animal Farewell Pack
Everyone's basically expecting some "going out with a bang" type of stuff. Those that played Frontier's other games said that the last DLC have tendency on being beefier. And since I haven't played neither PC nor JW, I trust those people with my life. Somewhat of a consensus, at least here as far as I've noticed, is that it might be a combo of a Scenery (4+1) and Animal (7+1) packs. So sure, that sounds cool and fun and I'll be doing that. I'm not sure whether such pack would just merge number of animals (11+2) or would also add scenery on top of it, but either way I'm fine. If there's accompanying building pieces even better. It can be a little bit of whatever's still missing. For the animals I didn't have set in stone deciding factor which make it in. Some are remnant of Meta Wishlist, some are covering missing niches, some are covering continents and some just look cool. Without further ado:
1. Matchie's Tree Kangaroo
2. Sea Otter
3. Patagonian Mara
4. Mandarin Duck
5. Golden Pheasant
6. Andean Bear
7. Perentie
8. Pacific Walrus
9. Southern Pudu
10. De Brazza's Guenon
11. Egyptian Goose
12. Panther Chameleon (E)
13. Emerald Tree Boa (E)
That would be it folks. Subscribe and turn the notifications on!
So after three continuous threads where I tried to predict the end of a game in 2022, we're still going strong into the 2024 with no plans of stopping. And I'm for one very glad to be this wrong. I'm also glad to be wrong about choices of packs, (apart from the last year, aced it
) even tho most of the guessed animals ended up making it into the game, as we got way more diverse and nuanced pack, compared to ''realistic'' bare-bones predictions. Such a selection of animals and themes we got, that we can enter 2024 easy, relaxed with that one SA pack pending and wishes that now cover the niches rather than needs. If we don't talk about flying birds and aquatic animals, and we won't be doing that in this thread And who knows, my ''end is nigh" DLC predictions keep warding off that farewell pack, so I'm gonna take all the credit for that and make one every year to keep life-supporting the life support of the game.
Last (3?4?) threads were very conservative in theme and animal picks, but they were remnants of their time, when a lot of essentials were still missing. This time I will let loose a bit, and sprinkle in some of my personal wishes both in themes and animals.
Spring 2024 DLC: Safari Scenery Pack
Starting of with the Spring DLC which, by pattern, will be scenery pack, I decided for a hot new trend (at the time of writing) - Safari pack. Pack is here to round up and finish off African animals that were left behind. Many predict Mountain pack here, but honestly, 600 pages of Winter DLC got me pretty bored with it after a while. Also I got my main drive for that pack - Wolverine + Takin. Spectacled Bear will find new home, I won't need Gelada after an animal I predict for this pack. Main issue for Safari pack is the scenery, we have pretty strong (but generic) "African" pieces in base game. Someone said that those are South African and we might look to Eastern Africa for scenery, so I guess that is an option? This would easily be an animal pack if South America wasn't in dire need of one. So animals:
1. Olive Baboon
2. Kirk's Dik-Dik
3. Secretary Bird
4. Serval
5. Red Headed Agama (E)
I think the community had good idea about it. We diversify Savannah after a long while, some popular picks (Baboon, Secretary), some common zoo animals (Serval, Dik-Dik) and I chose Agama for striking colors, but anything works really, maybe a Rock Python or Mamba or whtevs.
Moving on.
Summer 2024 DLC: Central America Animal Pack
Awaited for too long, here it finally comes! Some, if not many, people think that Central America will be a theme of spring pack - therefore scenery pack. That is of course not impossible, but I do believe it would be too much of a missed opportunity after all this time. The pack is called Central America because we can't name pack South America twice, and Central American wildlife basically covers what we need anyway. Save for a few species, but don't worry there's place for them in future. Not calling it Latin America, I mentioned that already a few times, it would be weird, it wouldn't fit with the rest. Of course "patterns" have been broken many times, so I just might be full of it, and might swallow my words when I buy Latin America pack in Summer. So yeah it really fits the summer vibe and is an animal pack. Speaking of which:
1. Spider Monkey
2. White Nosed Coati
3. Ocelot
4. Agouti
5. Brown Pelican
6. Tamandua
7. Squirrel Monkey
8. Plumed Basilisk (E)
Basically a microcosm of Meta Wishlist, with an odd pick here and there and I also tried to cool it on the monkeys. God knows I could fill whole pack with them. Pelican is here to re-use that sweet, sweet waterfowl rig, and even tho Brown is not even my top 2 pick for a Pelican, I'm open to compromise from time to time. Also I sacrificed Ring Tailed for White Nosed Coati, but oh well.
Next one, my baby, my darling:
Autumn 2024 DLC: Natural History Scenery Pack
This pack plagues my mind and haunts my wishlists and predictions ever since I first thought of it. Veeeeryy unlikely unfortunately. This won't stop me from spreading propaganda here, as I've already beaten over the head, every active member around here, with it. Idea is: pack with heavy focus on its scenery which is all in vibe of education, labs and museums. I'm talking about fossils, skeletons (full and partial), pelts, horns, antlers, maybe even taxidermy. New and reinvented exhibit boxes and statues and whatnot. I really think that kind of scenery can rekindle my building flame and stretch out my old parks in new directions. And hey with this new "expansion tile" system who knows
. Animals wouldn't be lacking behind:1. Short Beaked Echidna
2. Darwin's Rhea
3. Rock Hyrax
4. Slender Snouted Crocodile
5. Tuatara (E)
Pack like this, even tho it would produce fire scenery, maybe a bit limiting in animal choices. Especially this late into game life. But still, it's not that is animals weren't asked for. Echidna, Hyrax and Tuatara I picked because of their unique taxonomies (correct me if I'm using the wrong word) and as such great subjects for education. Darwin's Rhea is named after one of the biggest name in zoology, so there's that connection, and personally I find it prettier than Greater. Crocodile is a stretch, there was (or is) a debate in zoological circles about its taxonomy so I used it as justification.
For the 5th anniversary something simple, something nice. Blackbuck
And for the cherry on top, and our final goodbye we have:
Winter 2024 DLC: Worldwide Wildlife Wonders Scenery+Animal Farewell Pack
Everyone's basically expecting some "going out with a bang" type of stuff. Those that played Frontier's other games said that the last DLC have tendency on being beefier. And since I haven't played neither PC nor JW, I trust those people with my life. Somewhat of a consensus, at least here as far as I've noticed, is that it might be a combo of a Scenery (4+1) and Animal (7+1) packs. So sure, that sounds cool and fun and I'll be doing that. I'm not sure whether such pack would just merge number of animals (11+2) or would also add scenery on top of it, but either way I'm fine. If there's accompanying building pieces even better. It can be a little bit of whatever's still missing. For the animals I didn't have set in stone deciding factor which make it in. Some are remnant of Meta Wishlist, some are covering missing niches, some are covering continents and some just look cool. Without further ado:
1. Matchie's Tree Kangaroo
2. Sea Otter
3. Patagonian Mara
4. Mandarin Duck
5. Golden Pheasant
6. Andean Bear
7. Perentie
8. Pacific Walrus
9. Southern Pudu
10. De Brazza's Guenon
11. Egyptian Goose
12. Panther Chameleon (E)
13. Emerald Tree Boa (E)
That would be it folks. Subscribe and turn the notifications on!
