Maybe the aquarium-aviary thing Will be the new WTE vs exhibit box pic. One or the other in a DLC.
Planet Zoo 2 Speculation and ideas
- Thread starter yoav_r
- Start date
Aquatics are in every continent aswell, they could easily take the continents again and pop out the first 7 DLC's with that (north america, south america, europe, africa, australia, antartica, asia) or even split asia again into middle east, east asia & south-east asia.
If they leave it at the same format of 5 animals + scenery I could see them going:
1 completely new regular habitat animal
1 regular habitat animal that didn't make the baseroster
1 aquatic
1 flying bird
1 exhibit animal
If they leave it at the same format of 5 animals + scenery I could see them going:
1 completely new regular habitat animal
1 regular habitat animal that didn't make the baseroster
1 aquatic
1 flying bird
1 exhibit animal
The we better get the majority of current animals in base game roster because at that pace we will miss out a lot of animals that we already have haha
I don’t think there is a straight forward answer on that. And I think even Frontier is trying to test out how diverse they can get with DLC formats. At first PZ1 just had standard “building” packs, then animal packs, and with the recent Barnyard pack, they have now tested a new format. And similarly we can look at all the different formats they tried with JWE2’s non-expansion DLCs, though Universal is in the mix on those decisions so take it with less value. There was never a consistent need for both an aquatic and “flyer” in every JWE2 DLC, instead only where they fit the theming. I think there will be even less format consistency in PZ2 DLCs than what we got in PZ1. But I also think how aquatics and/or flyers are handled mechanically-speaking (habitat vs. exhibit box) will greatly affect DLC formats too.
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aquatics can work for basically all packs except specific biome packs. Regions have all kinds of fish and fully aquatic mammals, biome packs can fit all kinds of of aquatic animals depending on the biome ie not desert or grasslands but tropical could contain basically anything from the amazon, tundra could have all sorts of ceteaceans, temperate isnt just a terrestrial biome. I think we will see on or 2 per standard pack but what will be the more likely is that aquatics will get dedicated packs such as coral reef packs
The dlc format of planet zoo 2 will be really interesting will they stick to scenery vs animal pack do the new hybrid style or completely reinvent how dlc are structed to stretch less animals over longer time.
As it stands there are 53 habitat animals in the base game (51 unique species) and 23 exhibit species. leading to a total roster of 76 species
Given that many of the animals will be able to reuse assets from planet zoo 1 and that having a greater number would be an easy incentive to get the sequel I think its fairly safe to assume around 100 animals will make it into the sequel.
my guess most but not all of the 51 base game habitat animals will make it in to pz2 base game with some alterations namely not including both bonobo and chimp. I am also on enough copium to think that the way subspecies are handled will be changed to allow for more flexibility and therefore im am completely ignoring them here. I think the base game of pz2 will have 50 habitat animals as we know them more than half of which will be form pz1s base game because even as much as we like to forget alot of the base game animals are essential. In total I expect less than 10 new habitat animals everything will come from pz1 base game or dlc.
The other 50 will be split 20 exhibit animals 15 new birds and 15 aquatics ( 5 aquatic mammals 10 fish).
I think its also safe to assume that there will be a preorder / deluxe bonus I think it will likely be raised from 3 - 5 animals since many people consistently say its not worth it for 3 as an incentive at least 3 will be new animals that are unique or interesting oddities no zoo staples.
Since the dlc contain 19 exhibit and 92 habitat animals it is very unlikely that they will all immediately be accessible but all (I refuse to accept otherwise) will return in dlc since they have been used once they are now desirable to see again and may be easy clones. What I am interested in seeing play out is how they manage the returns since people will be modding in the pz1 models form the start will they rush to get them all back or spread them out.
Given that many of the animals will be able to reuse assets from planet zoo 1 and that having a greater number would be an easy incentive to get the sequel I think its fairly safe to assume around 100 animals will make it into the sequel.
my guess most but not all of the 51 base game habitat animals will make it in to pz2 base game with some alterations namely not including both bonobo and chimp. I am also on enough copium to think that the way subspecies are handled will be changed to allow for more flexibility and therefore im am completely ignoring them here. I think the base game of pz2 will have 50 habitat animals as we know them more than half of which will be form pz1s base game because even as much as we like to forget alot of the base game animals are essential. In total I expect less than 10 new habitat animals everything will come from pz1 base game or dlc.
The other 50 will be split 20 exhibit animals 15 new birds and 15 aquatics ( 5 aquatic mammals 10 fish).
I think its also safe to assume that there will be a preorder / deluxe bonus I think it will likely be raised from 3 - 5 animals since many people consistently say its not worth it for 3 as an incentive at least 3 will be new animals that are unique or interesting oddities no zoo staples.
Since the dlc contain 19 exhibit and 92 habitat animals it is very unlikely that they will all immediately be accessible but all (I refuse to accept otherwise) will return in dlc since they have been used once they are now desirable to see again and may be easy clones. What I am interested in seeing play out is how they manage the returns since people will be modding in the pz1 models form the start will they rush to get them all back or spread them out.
If they go with realism there should be no snow at all after like 2040
What even is left? All I can think about is the baboon, and even then you could argue that for the average player the mandrill is close enough.
Baboon
Pelican
Duck
Goose
Stork
Treekangaroo
Echidna
Australian monitor
Wide variety of fun critters from oceania
Wide variety of primates
ABB
American Deer
Tree Porcupine
Rabbit
Guineapig
Chinchilla
All of south america
Small habitat tortoise
Martens
Squirrel
Marmot
More Cats and Dogs
I could go on about recogniseable Animals an average player would buy a pack for but i doubt i need to continue
I could definitely see them switching up the DLC format, I could see larger expansion packs happening twice a year with a broader theme allowing for a more random group of animals
My take on a potential pz2 rooster
Both aviaries and aquatics work for all packs.
People keep bringing up the baboon but the mandril already covers that for what the idea of a baboon is.
There are still some basic ABC animals left though, some of them that you mentioned:
Pelican
Duck
Squirrel
Rabbit/Hare
Walrus
Stork
Hedgehog
And... That's all i can think of, at least at most basic level.
Yeah but they mean basic ABC animals.
People keep bringing up the baboon but the mandril already covers that for what the idea of a baboon is.
There are still some basic ABC animals left though, some of them that you mentioned:
Pelican
Duck
Squirrel
Rabbit/Hare
Walrus
Stork
Hedgehog
And... That's all i can think of, at least at most basic level.
But let's not go back to the argument that the general audience is dumb as a rock and isn't interested in any animal that can't be recognized by a toddler 
. Packs have been selling fine, even with less recognisable animals. People don't even have to know the specific animal to be interested. "pretty bird" could be enough in a way.
. Packs have been selling fine, even with less recognisable animals. People don't even have to know the specific animal to be interested. "pretty bird" could be enough in a way.I don't think that is viable in the modern gaming market.
It has nothing to do with the general audience being "dumb as a rock", it's just a common challenge that even real life zoos face. Multiple zoo design books mention the problems of exhibiting lesser known animals, some even mention how something as common as bird aviaries often don't retain the audiences attention unlike larger animals like elephants do. It's a simple fact, and it's not really weird that that translates to a zoo game as well.But let's not go back to the argument that the general audience is dumb as a rock and isn't interested in any animal that can't be recognized by a toddler
You can even see it in the rosters of zoo games of the past decades. If you look at them and you compare them to Planet Zoo, there's so much overlap for a reason. The popular animals and less popular animals from a decade ago are still pretty much the same, with some exceptions here and there (which was bound the happen with the internet of course). It's not surprising really.
Planet Zoo seems to still be doing well in sales, but other than the cumulative sales we don't really have much information about how well packs are doing. Yes, there's the steam charts that give you some indication, but it's not a 1:1 ratio either. We'll never really know which packs sold really well and which didn't.
I wouldn't say there's nothing left, I wouldn't also go as far as say that every animal @KönigDerKaffeebohnen has mentioned would really capture a large enough audience either. With what is possible in the game right now, I'd say you could have done one more full year of DLC, but not without the risk losing money as well.
If you'd introduce fish and birds however you could go for at least a year or two; but you don't want to start a new game with only the prospects of like two years of DLC after you had your previous game have 5 years of it.
100% this.
Larger expansion packs take more time to make and you have to really deliver to be able to pull that off (for instance No Man's Sky). People here are already pressed because we didn't get a new DLC in 3 months after the previous one, if you want bigger packs you're going to have to wait longer and I don't think a lot of people want that.
Looking at the wait time we had in ZT2 and the content we got with an expansion pack; Planet Zoo delivers a hell of a lot more in a year than ZT2 ever did. I'm perfectly fine with having it split over 3 months, it keeps the game much more interesting.
I think the main reason people are so upset over the long gap between dlc is because it is irregular, for the longest time dlc came every 3 months, if the standard was set at 6 months I feel people would be far more happy about the gaps than they are now
Then we actually agree on that because that was exactly what I was saying
This is a roster I would feel pretty happy about for the base game, 62 returning habitat animals, I would add a couple of new habitat species as well:
1. Lowland Tapir
2. Common Squirrel Monkey
3. Greater Rhea
4. Grey Crowned Crane
5. Chilean Flamingo
6. African Spurred Tortoise
7. African Pygmy Goat
8. Reeves Muntjac
I have left out some zoo staple animals to help sell DLC especially ones that need significant work such as the Koala and Orangutan. What are people's thoughts on these animals?
Edit: Replace domestic pig with African elephant and American flamingo with Chilean flamingo
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