Planet Zoo 2 Keep/Not Keep Game

[Birb（｡･ө･｡）]

Keep - A mix of less iconic essentials and some favorites that I worry might not have as good of a chance of making it back. For example nothing like the African bush elephant as much as I love it, because there’s no way it isn’t being included. Also, birds, because all of them have been good additions and I’d be bummed if we lost even a single one with how few we have:

1. North Island Brown Kiwi
2. Little Blue Penguin
3. Southern Cassowary
4. Emu
5. Mute Swan
6. Red Crowned Crane
7. Red-Necked Wallaby
8. Maned Wolf
9. Spotted Hyena
10. Tasmanian Devil

Delete - Some animals that I never use and/or are redundant with super similar sub/species in game:

1. Saiga
2. Himalayan Brown Bear
3. African Leopard
4. Bonobo
5. Black Wildebeest
6. Nile Lechwe
7. Tamworth Pig
8. Dall Sheep
9. Alpine Goat
10. Hill Radnor Sheep

Add New - Birds because the current roster of them is pitiful. Nearly every mammal I’ve wanted barring monkeys and a few species from South America and Oceania has been added but I’m still missing the most basic avian essentials:

1. Grey Crowned Crane
2. Helmeted Guineafowl
3. Scarlet Ibis
4. Cape Barren Goose
5. Black Swan
6. Mandarin Duck
7. Nēne
8. Victoria Crowned Pigeon
9. White-Faced Whistling Duck
10. Burrowing Owl

 

[DragonNTiger]

Hmm... I'll go with this for now...

Keep

• Saiga
• Sichuan Takin
• Wolverine
• Giant Anteater
• Babirusa
• Caracal
• Tasmanian Devil
• Platypus
• Cuvier's Dwarf Caiman
• Mute Swan

Delete

• Bacon Pig
• Milk Goat
• Mutton Sheep
• Pre-KFC
• Neighing Donkey
• Himalayan Brown Bear
• Black Wildebeest
• Bengal Tiger
• Wild Water Buffalo

Add

• Grey Crown Crane
• Gerenuk
• Japanese Raccoon Dog
• Reeves's Muntjac
• Spider Monkey
• Himalayan Monal
• South American Coati
• Greater Hog Badger
• Palawan Peacock-Pheasant
• Blackbuck

 

[Birdman02]

I’ll play this game…

Keep

• Bonobo
• Aldabra tortoise
• Springbok
• Asian water monitor
• Platypus
• Nyala
• Formosan black bear (change to generic Asian black bear)
• African leopard
• Giant otter
• Wild water buffalo

Delete

• Himalayan brown bear
• Wisent
• Saiga
• Black wildebeest
• Nile monitor
• Alpine goat
• Proboscis monkey
• Quokka
• Dall sheep
• Arctic wolf

Add

• Greater/lesser kudu
• Grey crowned crane
• Matchie’s tree kangaroo
• Nile crocodile
• Sea otter/na river otter
• American black bear
• Nigerian dwarf goat
• Black howler
• Black and white colobus
• Pink backed pelican

 

[FoxyDee]

Keep: everything.

I just see no reason to delete any animals from the game if they already have the model. Only exception would be if they planned to improve the model and brought it up later new and improved.

 

[Iben]

I just see no reason to delete any animals from the game if they already have the model.

The reason is rather simple, but it isn't a fun reason. It's the longevity of the sequel.

Whilst there might seem to be an infinite amount of animals, there's a finite amount of animals that work in a commercial setting. That's already the case for real life zoos, but it's even more the case for a zoo game. And it's easy to see what those animals are, because if we look at the past two decades and compare all zoo games with each other; these rosters don't really differ that much from one another. Sure, there's differences in accents and depending on how well the game was doing the more you go into the territory of more lesser known animals; but in general they are largely the same.

Even with the addition of birds and fish, Frontier is going to need those "ABC" and "DEF" animals to sell DLCs. Mostly because, and again that's something that real zoos also massively struggle with, the majority of your general audience doesn't care that much about lesser known animals, and even in general birds and fish. There's whole chapters in zoo design books about how much harder it is to make your general audience not move past those animals too fast in favor of bigger animals. It's a shame, but I understand the sentiment to a degree.

A JWE2 and a PC2 don't have this disadvantage. New rides are being made every year. New dinosaurs are being discovered every year. And if a dinosaur is obscure, you can give it a cool and flashy design to make people care about it. Those things are not the case for a zoo game, which interesting roster of animals has barely changed in the past two decades. JWE and PC have the ability to make things interesting by coming up with clever new designs, but an lesser known/ less popular animal is often that for a reason, and that's not easily changed.

So then you get to the point. Do we want the sequel to last as long as its predecessor did? If yes, then we'll have to sacrifice some animals so that next to the zoo nerds, the general audience keeps turning up for the game as well and keeps buying those DLCs. It's not an nice thing to accept, but it's a truth we're probably going to have to accept either way.

Personally, looking back at the past 5 years of Planet Zoo and how every update came with requested features, I really want a sequel to at least reach 3 years of support so that we have enough time to get our wishes across and that those have time to be implemented. And for that, I'm willing to sacrifice animals and wait for them; if it means we've got enough support so that the game can grow like the current game has done.

Also as an extra thing, Frontier resells stuff all the time. People who bought the Adventure Pack in Planet Coaster had to pay for the exact same pieces again in the South America Pack. People who bought Planet Zoo had to pay to get the exact same pieces again in JWE2. People who bought Planet Zoo and will buy Planet Coaster 2 will pay for a bunch of pieces that they already paid for in zoo. We make this distinction for animals, but we've been repaying stuff for years.

 

[FoxyDee]

The reason is rather simple, but it isn't a fun reason. It's the longevity of the sequel.

Whilst there might seem to be an infinite amount of animals, there's a finite amount of animals that work in a commercial setting. That's already the case for real life zoos, but it's even more the case for a zoo game. And it's easy to see what those animals are, because if we look at the past two decades and compare all zoo games with each other; these rosters don't really differ that much from one another. Sure, there's differences in accents and depending on how well the game was doing the more you go into the territory of more lesser known animals; but in general they are largely the same.

Even with the addition of birds and fish, Frontier is going to need those "ABC" and "DEF" animals to sell DLCs. Mostly because, and again that's something that real zoos also massively struggle with, the majority of your general audience doesn't care that much about lesser known animals, and even in general birds and fish. There's whole chapters in zoo design books about how much harder it is to make your general audience not move past those animals too fast in favor of bigger animals. It's a shame, but I understand the sentiment to a degree.

A JWE2 and a PC2 don't have this disadvantage. New rides are being made every year. New dinosaurs are being discovered every year. And if a dinosaur is obscure, you can give it a cool and flashy design to make people care about it. Those things are not the case for a zoo game, which interesting roster of animals has barely changed in the past two decades. JWE and PC have the ability to make things interesting by coming up with clever new designs, but an lesser known/ less popular animal is often that for a reason, and that's not easily changed.

So then you get to the point. Do we want the sequel to last as long as its predecessor did? If yes, then we'll have to sacrifice some animals so that next to the zoo nerds, the general audience keeps turning up for the game as well and keeps buying those DLCs. It's not an nice thing to accept, but it's a truth we're probably going to have to accept either way.

Personally, looking back at the past 5 years of Planet Zoo and how every update came with requested features, I really want a sequel to at least reach 3 years of support so that we have enough time to get our wishes across and that those have time to be implemented. And for that, I'm willing to sacrifice animals and wait for them; if it means we've got enough support so that the game can grow like the current game has done.

Also as an extra thing, Frontier resells stuff all the time. People who bought the Adventure Pack in Planet Coaster had to pay for the exact same pieces again in the South America Pack. People who bought Planet Zoo had to pay to get the exact same pieces again in JWE2. People who bought Planet Zoo and will buy Planet Coaster 2 will pay for a bunch of pieces that they already paid for in zoo. We make this distinction for animals, but we've been repaying stuff for years.

Yeah, I should have specified that if they want to re-sell some of the big name animals (and improve the models when needed), I really have no issue with that. But I really hope they will not ommit some animals for good. I guess we will see in the Planet Coaster 2 lifecycle, if they will bring back all the rides from the first game eventually or not. And to be honest, itis a real shame that even the building themes from the first game are not included in the sequel.

 

[Iben]

Yeah, I should have specified that if they want to re-sell some of the big name animals (and improve the models when needed), I really have no issue with that. But I really hope they will not ommit some animals for good.

I firmly believe that if they resell animals, they're going to get a graphical update and that they're not going to be a 1-to-1 resell.

AFAIK pretty much all rides from PC are already in PC2, but with zoo I can see some animals omitted. We know they're capable of getting statistics out of the game, so if they see that certain animals are hardly ever used they might kick those out (I wouldn't miss you HBB); but I don't think that will be a number that's going to be really high or anything.

 

[Fossa]

Imagine not wanting a Sable Antelope in Planet Zoo 2, wth.

 

[Fallax]

Imagine not wanting a Sable Antelope in Planet Zoo 2, wth.

I feel like it will probably stay, it alongside the gemsbok, Wildebeest, bongo, and a gazelle of some kind seem to be the zoo game staples for antelopes.

 

[Mjmannella]

I firmly believe that if they resell animals, they're going to get a graphical update and that they're not going to be a 1-to-1 resell.

That happened to 1 out of the 4 cut JWE1 animals when being sold at a premium price in JWE2. I'm not very optimistic we'll see big changes to models that already have good textures

 

[Iben]

That happened to 1 out of the 4 cut JWE1 animals when being sold at a premium price in JWE2. I'm not very optimistic we'll see big changes to models that already have good textures

I was mostly talking about the older animals of course, not the newer ones. Changes for the sake of changes isn't good resource management either, if something is already good enough I'd much rather let them focus their resources on making other stuff better or make new content.

I'm also not expecting them to make a complete new model for a pole piece just because it's a new game, so why would that have to be expected if it's an animal. The difference is just an arbitrary one, if something is already good, then it's good. And given that it's a new game, you pay for it to be in that game.

 

[Mjmannella]

The 4 cut JWE1 animals were older too. It wasn't stuff from the last batches of DLC, but 1 base-game animal and the 3 DLC hybrids. Only one (Ankylodocus) got a new model.

 

[Chuditch]

I don't really have the will or energy to make a full keep/delete/add list, but I will say the animal I'm worried the most about in regards to PZ2 is the dingo. If PZ2 doesn't have the full roster of PZ1 from the get go (which I think is a good possibility), I feel like the poor reception it got when it was added to the game makes the dingo one of the more likely animals to be cut, and if it's not in the base game I doubt they'd try to resell it as DLC. It'd be a pretty devastating omission for me personally, they might even be my most used animal.

So basically-
Keep:
1. Dingo
2. also just gonna put Tasmanian devil here because I will keel over and die if I have to wait 4 years again. I would be perfectly happy buying them again as DLC if it was enough justification for Frontier to go to the effort of obtaining recordings of actual Tasmanian devils to use in-game though.

 

[Iben]

The 4 cut JWE1 animals were older too. It wasn't stuff from the last batches of DLC, but 1 base-game animal and the 3 DLC hybrids. Only one (Ankylodocus) got a new model.

Okay, kinda proving my point that Frontier does go and update the animals that really need an update. I see no reason to suspect that animals like the lion won't get a visual upgrade.

IDK man, this feels like another one of those thousands of unfounded worries the community that eventually gets debunked because it's was pointless to worry about it to begin with.

 

[NachoB]

This is fun.

Tbh i would keep like 90% of the roster as it is now, but i would pick the absoluta 10 i want to keep:

1. Capybara
2. Maned wolf
3. Mute swan
4. North island Brown kiwi
5. Jaguar
6. Meerkat
7. Lar gibbon
8. African penguin
10. Californian sea lion (updated)

That was hard. Asco, red river hog/peccary and red panda are also up there.

Get rid of:

1. American standard donkey
2. The basic pig
3. Arctic wolf
4. Himalayan Brown bear
5. Cuvier's dwarf caiman
6. Titan beetle
7. Giant burrowing cockroach
8. Springbok
9. Aldabra Giant tortoise
10. Saiga

New:

1. Greater rhea
2. Patagonian mara
3. Southamerican coati
4. Black and Golden howler monkey
5. Mandarín duck
6. Great White pelican
7. Secretary bird
8. Victoria crowned pigeon
9. Golden pheasant

 

[Mjmannella]

kinda proving my point that Frontier does go and update the animals that really need an update

Except there was absolutely a good reason to update the other three. Huayangosaurus still doesn’t have its tail club, Stegoceratops still looks nothing like its canon design, and Spinoraptor could’ve made use of the feathering that they’re pushed so much in JWE2. Frankly the Ankylodocus was only updated because of subjective rationale, which is not a good precedent.

 

[Angeł]

Keeping all the oddballs. I’d put the Common Hippopotamus in here, but I know it will come no matter what. So no need to take up space!

Top 10 Keeps:
1. Striped Skunk
2. Wisent
3. Highland Cattle
4. Wild Boar
5. Siberian (Amur) Tiger
6. Amur Leopard
7. Wolverine
8. African Penguin
9. Scimitar Horned Oryx
10. Egyptian Fruit Bat

Delete Forever:
1. Himalayan Brown Bear
2. Bengal Tiger
3. Proboscis Monkey
4. Pronghorn
5. Black Wildebeest
6. Dall Sheep
7. Dingo
8. American Standard Donkey
9. Spectacled Flying Fox
10. Brown Throated Sloth

Replace With:
1. Eurasian Brown Bear
2. Sumatran Tiger
3. Gelada
4. Roseate Spoonbill
5. Scarlet Ibis
6. Domestic Yak
7. Muskox
8. Shetland Pony
9. Rodrigues Fruit Bat
10. Linnaeus’ Two Toed Sloth

 

[FoxyDee]

I don't really have the will or energy to make a full keep/delete/add list, but I will say the animal I'm worried the most about in regards to PZ2 is the dingo. If PZ2 doesn't have the full roster of PZ1 from the get go (which I think is a good possibility), I feel like the poor reception it got when it was added to the game makes the dingo one of the more likely animals to be cut, and if it's not in the base game I doubt they'd try to resell it as DLC. It'd be a pretty devastating omission for me personally, they might even be my most used animal.

So basically-
Keep:
1. Dingo
2. also just gonna put Tasmanian devil here because I will keel over and die if I have to wait 4 years again. I would be perfectly happy buying them again as DLC if it was enough justification for Frontier to go to the effort of obtaining recordings of actual Tasmanian devils to use in-game though.

If they will not add the Dingo back, we will start a riot. I am with you on this.

 

[NachoB]

If they will not add the Dingo back, we will start a riot. I am with you on this.

The whole american, European and South american roster should be added complete as it is now to the base game imo. Is from those áreas that we still have a lot of species left for DLCs and not to offend European players but i don't find most of the European animals interesting enough to be taking spots in sequel DLCs again and they are all of great quality and not that many. All of them should be in base game from the get go.

 

[Angeł]

I really think (and hope) that all of the continents will get at least a ‘small base’ coverage of what I’d call their ‘charismatic megafauna’. Like the most recognisable basic land mammals from each continent.

We all know Africa’s multitude of megafauna, Asia too. But for example, I’d imagine Europe’s base game roster to look something like this:

Eurasian Brown Bear
Eurasian Lynx
European Bison
Red Deer
European Fallow Deer
Wild Boar
Red Fox
Eurasian Wolf

These are the bare minimum animals for base European coverage. Animals like the Alpine Ibex and Wolverine are big selling DLC animals, IMO, and probably will be held back for exactly that purpose. But the basic megafauna for Europe is this, and should be the coverage from base game!