Planet Zoo 2 Speculation and ideas

[NachoB]

So do you guys think we will get both aviary birds and fully aquatic species or just one?

We'll get both

 

[Stygi]

I think we might end up getting one feature in the base game and another coming exclusively in DLC

 

[NZFanatic]

So do you guys think we will get both aviary birds and fully aquatic species or just one?

We might get neither.

I do think we'll get at least flying birds, but by no means should we think of it as a given. I'm more on the fence about aquatics but that's mostly because I don't really see them as being all that important to a zoo game. I would love to throw in lemon sharks with my African penguins or attach a coral reef tank to my Australia House or give the Amazon some angelfish and piranhas but to my mind all these things are still fine without the aquaria. I don't think we're going to see whales and dolphins (as much as I love belugas). Maybe manatees?

Birds should be the priority anyway. PZ2 is basically the whole reason I think birds have been largely skipped in PZ1. Aviaries don't typically contain just one species; they're basically the baseline for mixed species enclosures. I know single-species avaries do exist, obviously, but being able to put sun conures in with macaws would be the aim.

 

[SuzieSky]

Question to all. Say you design the base game roster of PZ2 with a 100 habitat animals, you can only add up to 10 new habitat species, and port the rest habitat animals from PZ to PZ2 basegame. Which 100 animals do you pick for the PZ2 base game?

Assume if it's an older model from PZ it gets updated to the current model standard.

Keep:

1. Brown Bear
2. Giant Panda
3. Spectacled Bear
4. Polar Bear
5. Moon Bear
6. Cougar
7. Lion
8. Tiger
9. Snow Leopard
10. Cheetah
11. Jaguar
12. Lynx
13. Caracal
14. Striped Hyena
15. Meerkat
16. Binturong
17. California Sea Lion
18. Wolverine
19. Asian Small Clawed Otter
20. Red Panda
21. Wild Dog
22. Maned Wolf
23. Grey Wolf
24. Fennec Fox
25. Red Fox
26. African Elephant
27. Aardvark
28. Asian Elephant
29. Red Kangaroo
30. Red Necked Wallaby
31. Koala
32. Wombat
33. Platypus
34. Capybara
35. Crested Porcupine
36. Beaver
37. Prairie Dog
38. Giant Anteater
39. Pangolin
40. Gorilla
41. Chimp
42. Orangutan
43. Lar Gibbon
44. Ring Tailed Lemur
45. Red Ruffed Lemur
46. Japanese Macaque
47. Hamadryas Baboon
48. Capuchin
49. Saltwater Crocodile
50. Spurred Tortoise
51. Galapagos Giant Tortoise
52. Komodo Dragon
53. American Alligator
54. Dwarf Caiman
55. Greater Flamingo
56. King Penguin
57. Cassowary
58. African Penguin
59. Emu
60. Mute Swan
61. Ostrich
62. Indian Peafowl
63. Kiwi
64. Red Crowned Crane
65. Chicken
66. Domestic Goat
67. Domestic Donkey
68. Alpaca
69. Dromedary Camel
70. Wild Horse
71. Zebra
72. American Bison
73. Moose
74. Fallow Deer
75. Caribou
76. Nyala (but I want it to be a kudu instead)
77. Thomson's Gazelle
78. Pygmy Hippo
79. Hippo
80. White Rhino
81. Reticulated Giraffe
82. Okapi
83. Red River Hog
84. Ibex
85. Markhor
86. Addax
87. Gemsbok
88. Blue Wildebeest
89. Baird's Tapir
90. Malayan Tapir

Add:

1. Golden Lion Tamarin
2. American Black Bear
3. Serval
4. Ocelot
5. Geoffroy's Spider Monkey
6. Scarlet Ibis
7. Grey Crowned Crane
8. Mallard Duck
9. Coati
10. Tree Kangaroo

 

[NZFanatic]

Brown Bear

Why do people want this? The grizzly, Kodiak, and Eurasian look similar, yes, but every other subspecies looks very different.

I think we should advocate for the drop-down system.

• Brown Bear.
  • Grizzly.
  • Eurasian.
  • Syrian.
• Grey Wolf.
  • Northwestern.
  • Eurasian.
  • Arctic.
• Lion.
  • Southern.
  • Asiatic.
• Tiger.
  • Siberian.
  • Bengal.
  • Sumatran.
• Asian Black Bear.
  • Formosan.
  • Himalayan.
  • Ussuri.

Like it gets muddy when you start thinking about flamingos (different species rather than subspecies), but such a system would be brilliant. Diversity is good. Lumping things together like the "timber wolf" and then making exceptions like the Arctic wolf and dingo is bad.

 

[yoav_r]

Grey Wolf.

• Northwestern.
• Eurasian.
• Arctic.

Can we please replace one of them with a hot climate wolf?

 

[Fallax]

If we get fully aquatic habitat animals I'd expect some in the base game to highlight the big feature. I think most fish would be exhibit species but we could definitely have a good few habitat sharks. I think a trio of Whale Shark, Scalloped Hammerhead, and Sand Tiger Shark would be a pretty great trio. Pair that with a sea turtle, manatee, and manta ray and that's 6 pretty big deal marine species and that is without touching the dumpster fire that is cetaceans... That being said if we get fully aquatic species I think cetaceans will be on the radar for a lot of the community and if we get them in the base game I would at minimum except the bottlenose dolphin and beluga.... maybe the orca but that might be too controversial. I also think we could get some semi-aquatic species that are assosciated with aquaria/marine parks to tie us over too such as the walrus or sea otter. How would you all feel about these ten species in the base game for PZ2?

 

[SpookDoc]

I shouldn't say this myself but I think it's pretty obvious that the meta-wishlist has indeed heavily influenced animal picks in the DLCs.

If there was one thing I hated about the state of the forum on the months before PZ released and the year after is that literally every user would post their random animal wishlist in random threads, making them completely sterile. So yes, a meta-wishlist for PZ2 is something very needed if you ask me.

Am I the right person to host it and keep it updated? Hell no, sorry. As one gets older, life and work commitments take over more and more time (blame academia I guess).
In fact, I think it shouldn't be a personal project but more so a collaborative one, as it's a very demanding task. Especially because I reckon an initial meta-wishlist would ask for 150 base-game animals? Somewhere around that amount.
Perhaps some sort of polling system would be an option, but I don't think any poll would allow that level of flexibility. Cause how many animals would you include? It would be sensible to include flying birds and aquatic animals for this one, I guess, so: 1000? That would probably not be enough and wouldn't be convenient either.

I think it’s completely valid to say that the meta-lists you’ve managed have had an impact on PZ’s DLC rosters. Frontier was definitely looking at them and the fairly consistent overlap of DLC rosters with what was popular on the meta-lists is far from a coincidence.

All this said, I’ve been debating starting a new animal meta-list for PZ2, like the ones you managed, for a few months now. I think the writing has been on the wall PZ2 is coming for quite some time now and that we as a community need to start thinking more about it in terms of what we want. Development for it has almost certainly already started (it definitely has if it’s the CMS dropping in 2026) and I think we need to take advantage of this while we still can. Once PZ2 is announced, there’s only so much we can reasonably expect to be changed based on our feedback. By that point, Frontier will have already exhausted a ton of resources and $ into its development. Additionally, there’s still a more than decent sampling of PZ1 players engaging with PZ content and the forums (especially right now before this final pack’s release) and this will likely drop as the months pass after PZ1 support has officially ended this month (though Frontier will never directly tell us its over, they’ve given us more than enough context clues). So time is of the essence with “community feedback” if any of us hope to get a decent sized input sample.

It should also be said though, I do have slight concerns that what players will want from a PZ2 may change with time, especially since at a minimum the game is still two years away from release. So maybe allowing for semi-annual “adjustments” in individuals’ wishlists should be considered? Allowing users to adjust their wishlists too often though would defeat the purpose of such a list, so changes really shouldn’t be made often. Or maybe even at all. What are your thoughts?

I had no intentions of starting a PZ2 animal meta-list until we knew support was pretty much over for PZ1 and it looks like we are about there. But I also think a meta-list of this scale, something that is receiving new input for years to come and will likely have hundreds of species in it, needs more than one user managing it, like you mentioned. Additionally, I’m not sure the official Frontier forums would even allow for such a meta-list (I’m pretty unfamiliar with the layouts and mechanics of this site). I’m more than willing to contribute to the maintenance of such a meta-list, but only if it’s formatted effectively and not “half-baked”. It really should allow users to vote for whatever species they truly want too. Forget about all the parameters of what qualifies as a “submittable” living animal species. We are talking about a game that would almost certainly come with new mechanics and forms of customization, so “exhibit vs. habitat” and “no flyers and aquatics” really should go by the wayside for something of this scale. This all would give Frontier a FAR better picture of what players prioritize the most species-wise too. All the user input and data would exist in one large metalist, allowing for ease of user submittals, data comparisons, and it removes the redundancy of having so many broken up sub-metalists managed by different users who may or may not update them or advertise the lists well to the larger community.

I’m in grad school, work two jobs, and still try to have what-little of a personal life I can, but I’m totally willing to dedicate some time to a PZ2 species meta-list if others are interested too. I really think something like this, if formatted and managed properly, would have a massive effect on what happens with a potential PZ2.

 

[Captain Callum]

I think it’s completely valid to say that the meta-lists you’ve managed have had an impact on PZ’s DLC rosters. Frontier was definitely looking at them and the fairly consistent overlap of DLC rosters with what was popular on the meta-lists is far from a coincidence.

All this said, I’ve been debating starting a new animal meta-list for PZ2, like the ones you managed, for a few months now. I think the writing has been on the wall PZ2 is coming for quite some time now and that we as a community need to start thinking more about it in terms of what we want. Development for it has almost certainly already started (it definitely has if it’s the CMS dropping in 2026) and I think we need to take advantage of this while we still can. Once PZ2 is announced, there’s only so much we can reasonably expect to be changed based on our feedback. By that point, Frontier will have already exhausted a ton of resources and $ into its development. Additionally, there’s still a more than decent sampling of PZ1 players engaging with PZ content and the forums (especially right now before this final pack’s release) and this will likely drop as the months pass after PZ1 support is officially ended this month (though Frontier will never directly tell us its over, they’ve given us more than enough context clues). So time is of the essence with “community feedback” if any of us hope to get a decent sized input sample.

It should also be said though, I do have slight concerns that what players will want from a PZ2 may change with time, especially since at a minimum the game is still two years away from release. So maybe allowing for semi-annual “adjustments” in individuals’ wishlists should be considered? Allowing users to adjust their wishlists too often though would defeat the purpose of such a list, so changes really shouldn’t be made often. Or maybe even at all. What are your thoughts?

I had no intentions of starting a PZ2 animal meta-list until we knew support was pretty much over for PZ1 and it looks like we are about there. But I also think a meta-list of this scale, something that is receiving new input for years to come and will likely have hundreds of species in it, needs more than one user managing it, like you mentioned. Additionally, I’m not sure the official Frontier forums would even allow for such a meta-list (I’m pretty unfamiliar with the layouts and mechanics of this site). I’m more than willing to contribute to the maintenance of such a meta-list, but only if it’s formatted effectively and not “half-baked”. It really should allow users to vote for whatever species they truly want too. Forget about all the parameters of what qualifies as a “submittable” living animal species. We are talking about a game that would almost certainly come with new mechanics and forms of customization, so “exhibit vs. habitat” and “no flyers and aquatics” really should go by the wayside for something of this scale. This all would give Frontier a FAR better picture of what players prioritize the most species-wise too. All the user input and data would exist in one large metalist, allowing for ease of user submittals, data comparisons, and it removes the redundancy of having so many broken up sub-metalists managed by different users who may or may not update them or advertise the lists well to the larger community.

I’m in grad school, work two jobs, and still try to have what-little of a personal life I can, but I’m totally willing to dedicate some time to a PZ2 species meta-list if others are interested too. I really think something like this, if formatted and managed properly, would have a massive effect on what happens with a potential PZ2.

Revision on an existing wishlist is a really bad idea if you value your sanity, it's time consuming enough collecting all the data and organising it into tables and that's just the new entries. Wanting to edit possibly hundreds of individual wishlists at certain points of the year would require cooperation with wishlist users which a response to a question isn't guaranteed and needing everyone to follow formatting correctly. @SuzieSky got this right, an annual animal wishlist allows everyone to adjust their wishlist accordingly which helps the community and frontier track the desired animals of the year rather than relying on years old data.

 

[NZFanatic]

Can we please replace one of them with a hot climate wolf?

No

But seriously just add one in. It's a random idea. What hot-climate wolves, aside from the dingo, are common in zoos? Indian wolf? There's the African wolf but it's a separate species (C. lupaster).

 

[Stygi]

I think it’s completely valid to say that the meta-lists you’ve managed have had an impact on PZ’s DLC rosters. Frontier was definitely looking at them and the fairly consistent overlap of DLC rosters with what was popular on the meta-lists is far from a coincidence.

All this said, I’ve been debating starting a new animal meta-list for PZ2, like the ones you managed, for a few months now. I think the writing has been on the wall PZ2 is coming for quite some time now and that we as a community need to start thinking more about it in terms of what we want. Development for it has almost certainly already started (it definitely has if it’s the CMS dropping in 2026) and I think we need to take advantage of this while we still can. Once PZ2 is announced, there’s only so much we can reasonably expect to be changed based on our feedback. By that point, Frontier will have already exhausted a ton of resources and $ into its development. Additionally, there’s still a more than decent sampling of PZ1 players engaging with PZ content and the forums (especially right now before this final pack’s release) and this will likely drop as the months pass after PZ1 support has officially ended this month (though Frontier will never directly tell us its over, they’ve given us more than enough context clues). So time is of the essence with “community feedback” if any of us hope to get a decent sized input sample.

It should also be said though, I do have slight concerns that what players will want from a PZ2 may change with time, especially since at a minimum the game is still two years away from release. So maybe allowing for semi-annual “adjustments” in individuals’ wishlists should be considered? Allowing users to adjust their wishlists too often though would defeat the purpose of such a list, so changes really shouldn’t be made often. Or maybe even at all. What are your thoughts?

I had no intentions of starting a PZ2 animal meta-list until we knew support was pretty much over for PZ1 and it looks like we are about there. But I also think a meta-list of this scale, something that is receiving new input for years to come and will likely have hundreds of species in it, needs more than one user managing it, like you mentioned. Additionally, I’m not sure the official Frontier forums would even allow for such a meta-list (I’m pretty unfamiliar with the layouts and mechanics of this site). I’m more than willing to contribute to the maintenance of such a meta-list, but only if it’s formatted effectively and not “half-baked”. It really should allow users to vote for whatever species they truly want too. Forget about all the parameters of what qualifies as a “submittable” living animal species. We are talking about a game that would almost certainly come with new mechanics and forms of customization, so “exhibit vs. habitat” and “no flyers and aquatics” really should go by the wayside for something of this scale. This all would give Frontier a FAR better picture of what players prioritize the most species-wise too. All the user input and data would exist in one large metalist, allowing for ease of user submittals, data comparisons, and it removes the redundancy of having so many broken up sub-metalists managed by different users who may or may not update them or advertise the lists well to the larger community.

I’m in grad school, work two jobs, and still try to have what-little of a personal life I can, but I’m totally willing to dedicate some time to a PZ2 species meta-list if others are interested too. I really think something like this, if formatted and managed properly, would have a massive effect on what happens with a potential PZ2.

I am also totally on board with helping to manage a PZ2 meta wishlist and I agree that we should start soon so it can have an impact. I think editing lists could be ok but it should be infrequent e.g. every 3 months and users have to be very explicit about what they are changing

 

[SanRazo]

If we’re doing a meta wishlist again for the sequel it needs to be ASAP the sequel is being worked on as we speak

 

[NZFanatic]

If we’re doing a meta wishlist again for the sequel it needs to be ASAP the sequel is being worked on as we speak

There's always DLC.

 

[Captain Callum]

There's always DLC.

Can't wait for the 5 birds and aquatic animals we get in the base game and all the iconic ones to be locked behind dlc for another 2 years.

 

[Stygi]

Well when someone makes the thread post it in here

 

[TheYeti]

If we get fully aquatic habitat animals I'd expect some in the base game to highlight the big feature. I think most fish would be exhibit species but we could definitely have a good few habitat sharks. I think a trio of Whale Shark, Scalloped Hammerhead, and Sand Tiger Shark would be a pretty great trio. Pair that with a sea turtle, manatee, and manta ray and that's 6 pretty big deal marine species and that is without touching the dumpster fire that is cetaceans... That being said if we get fully aquatic species I think cetaceans will be on the radar for a lot of the community and if we get them in the base game I would at minimum except the bottlenose dolphin and beluga.... maybe the orca but that might be too controversial. I also think we could get some semi-aquatic species that are assosciated with aquaria/marine parks to tie us over too such as the walrus or sea otter. How would you all feel about these ten species in the base game for PZ2?

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Walrus and sea otter can be implemented with current dynamics so no need to include them in this list.

I'd scrap the whale shark, bottlenose and beluga for welfare reasons. Not sure how common the hammerhead shark is, so no opinion from me now. The selection above is very much in line with Zoo Tycoon, but not so much with real zoos and aquariums.

If we do get aquariums, I'm hoping they go with species we can realistically see in real zoos. Marine species include some of the above, as well as things like:

1. Greater Barracuda
2. Humphead Wrasse
3. Green Moray Eel
4. Ocean Sunfish
5. Bluefin Tuna
6. Octopus
7. Red Lionfish
8. Parrotfish
9. Goliath Grouper
10. Leopard Shark

Ideally, we'd also get small reef fish (butterflyfish, clownfish, triggerfish, blue tang etc.) that we can put in large aquariums, but not sure if/how this can be implemented.

More importantly, there should also be a focus on freshwater species. My most important picks would be:

1. Arapaima
2. Red-Bellied Piranha
3. Koi
4. Ocellated Stingray
5. Sturgeon (not truly freshwater but oh well)

 

[Utahraptor Arcanus]

Aquarium and it speculation are fun and games for sure, but i'm more interested to the moment someone mention the Great white shark. Then things will really get fun

 

[Mr-Hyrax 2]

As others have mentioned, yeah I’m referring to the kiwi lol. My favorite little freak, a solid addition to my NA zoos, and Aotearoa’s most essential species <3

I’d trade almost the entirety of Arid and Eurasia just to have these boogers back in a sequel’s base game ngl
View attachment 404254

How dare you say that about my precious takin, oh and the rest of the Arid and Eurasia Pack animals to.

 

[Puzzelo]

Planet Zoo 2 should definitely have all the current animals in its roster (195) or at least the habitat animals, look what happened with JWE2, it had almost all the dinos from the first base game + DLCs except 4, one in the deluxe version and the other 3 in a DLC, and I'm very active in the JWE2 community and it was something super criticized and even months and years later, the community is very upset, the ankylodocus for example although it had a huge redesign, people hated that they sold it again.

I agree. The selling point for a PZ2 game would undoubtedly be birds and potentially some aquatics in addition to mammals not currently in the game. So I see the majority of PZ2 DLCs being those 3 things. They’ll have to include some in the base game as a selling point, but the majority will come from DLCs.

 

[jcp011c]

Question to all. Say you design the base game roster of PZ2 with a 100 habitat animals, you can only add up to 10 new habitat species, and port the rest habitat animals from PZ to PZ2 basegame. Which 100 animals do you pick for the PZ2 base game?

Assume if it's an older model from PZ it gets updated to the current model standard.

This actually ended up being easier than I thought it would be. Assuming new species would not be fully marine animals, but terrestrial habitat animals. Grouping by continent/most associated continent in my mind, new species in bold. Realizing this takes most of the high profile DLC animals and puts the base game but it's how I'd do it anyways.

Africa (36):
1. African Elephant
2. West African Lion
3. Western Lowland Gorilla
4. Western Chimpanzee
5. White Southern Rhinoceros
6. Plains Zebra
7. Hippopotamus
8. Reticulated Giraffe
9. Aardvark
10. African Crested Porcupine
11. African Wild Dog
12. African Buffalo
13. Nile Monitor
14. Meerkat
15. Mandrill
16. Okapi
17. Blue Wildbeest
18. Bongo
19. Cheetah
20. Red River Hog
21. Common Warthog
22. Sable Antelope
23. Dromedary Camel
24. Spotted Hyena
25. Springbok
26. Gemsbok
27. Thompson's Gazelle
28. Pygmy Hippo
29. Bonobo
30. Common Ostrich
31. Greater Flamingo
32. Ring Tail Lemur
33. African Penguin
34. Nile Crocodile
35. Masai Giraffe
36. Secretary Bird

Asia (22):
37. Giant Panda
38. Common Peafowl
39. Asian Small Clawed Otter
40. Bornean Orangutan
41. Chinese Pangolin
42. Formosan Black Bear
43. Japanese Macaque
44. Snow Leopard
45. Striped Hyena
46. Bactrain Camel
47. Clouded Leopard
48. Sun Bear
49. Markhor
50. Red Panda
51. Przwalski's Horse
52. Lar Gibbon
53. Komodo Dragon
54. Indian Rhinoceros
55. Indian Elephant
56. Siberian Tiger
57. Sumatran Tiger
100. Amur Leopard - (found this was the missing animal from my spreadsheet but I'm too lazy to go back and renumber every single animal below)

Europe (8):
58. European Badger
59. Red Deer
60. Wild Boar
61. Alpine Ibex
62. Eurasian Lynx
63. Mute Swan
64. Eurasian Brown Bear
65. Eurasian Otter

Oceania (9):
66. Emu
67. Southern Casowary
68. North Island Brown Kiwi
69. Platypus
70. Saltwater Crocodile
71. Koala
72. Red Kangaroo
73. Tasmanian Devil
74. Common Wombat

North America (12):
75. Timber Wolf
76. American Bison
77. Moose
78. Cougar
79. Pronghorn Antelope
80. Reindeer
81. American Alligator
82. Polar Bear
83. Red Fox
84. California Sea Lion
85. Wolverine
86. Grizzly Bear

South America (12):
87. Jaguar
88. Baird's Tapir
89. Llama
90. Capuchian Monkey
91. Giant Anteater
92. Galapagos Tortoise
93. Maned Wolf
94. Capybara
95. Black Howler Monkey
96. South American Coatimundi
97. Patagonian Mara
98. Greater Rhea

Antarctica:
99. King Penguin.