To be honest I think a big part of it is just the fact a zoo builder game has more of a market than a theme park builder game. Adding on the issues at launch and the fact they made it console compatible (at the expense of features) might put people off.
Planet Zoo 2 Speculation and ideas
- Thread starter yoav_r
- Start date
I’m gonna guess that’s why we got more Planet Zoo coming. They will continue to milk PZ as long as they can.
I think it's the best calculations. They clearly over developed PZ to avoid PZ to have a huge lack of content.
They might be concerned. They thought water parks would be a big thing enough to balance the content they removed and make people excited.
Apparently it's not game changer enough, and suddenly aviaries or aquariums that we could imagine at the launch of PZ 2 might not be neither in their mind.
If after all this time I get birds in the WTE all because PC2 isn’t doing as well as they hoped I think I would have a conniption!
PZ is not going to pay their bills tho.
It definitely isn’t going to, if anything I think it will at least bring in some cash. Admittedly things aren’t gonna look good for awhile now.
Maybe after all this time birds will come to PZ to boost sales lmao
That’s rough. I hope Frontier will be ok. They definitely should milk PZ as much as they can to keep some cash coming in while they fix PC2 but they better hope JWE3 is a hit. Selfishly I’m happy PZ keeps going but we need Frontier as a company to stay afloat and they need to go back to quality and not rushing and cutting things out to make a quick buck. They earned their audience through good faith and taking care of the player base, don’t make them restart from square one every sequel
Last edited:
I hope if that’s the case we go back to high quality DLCs and free updates again. I’m fine if they milk PZ, but I agree they have an audience to uphold. If I seriously wait around for DLCs and it’s all the same 6/7 mammals over and over again I’m gonna blow a gasket. At the very least, if we do get 6/7 mammals make it higher effort stuff, or maybe we start to go back to more traditional dlc releases. I would love to see exhibit animals again.
I was really starting to doubt it, but maybe if things stay the way they are we might see DLCs/ Free updates like the deep diving from aquatic or Modular gift shops. I know I said this before, but it would be interesting to see if an attempt to drive sales we get more birds. Or maybe fixes to exhibit boxes or climbing.
Or maybe they just keep pumping out the same stuff, and I can look forward to more of the same.
I think a telling sign if they do intend on keeping PZ content coming would be a free update whenever the next DLC is released that actually has some good content. The free updates used to be highly anticipated for what new content we could get added.
If the next Free Update gives the same "here's a few new pieces" and not much else, then I wouldn't put much faith in PZ future. If they do provide some updated features(no not flying mechanics or a massive exhibit overhaul - but something like animal behaviors/education or enrichment upgrades) then it would signal they are investing in PZ future and we should expect more content.
Yeah. If they really would want to support Planet Zoo beyond 1 more DLC they do need to level up quality and depth again in my opinion. The free updates used to be my favourite, but besides the souvenir shop they've become stale. I'm still angry about the missing donkey sounds and fur work seem to have gone backwards after the eurasia pack.
I feel torn about it, tbh. I want PZ2 to come later than anticipated as I want a better and more finished game. But I also don't want PZ to fate into nothingness with low effort DLCs and updates.
I feel torn about it, tbh. I want PZ2 to come later than anticipated as I want a better and more finished game. But I also don't want PZ to fate into nothingness with low effort DLCs and updates.
Seriously with the rough start PC2 has had I don’t see any rush to get to PZ2. Of course I want a sequel when the time is right and the hiccups in PC2 have been taken care of. Point is there’s still plenty that could be done to PZ. I’m not a huge fan of holding off certain species (flying/marine) the way JWE did this as a good sequel sells regardless. What about the individual behaviors that were first proposed for this edition. That’s a far more interesting addition any day imo. Inter species interaction new guest/animal interaction. These are the type of improvements that are going to sell.
I don't think I want a direct PZ sequel as I don't know what it could add to the game that they couldn't just add now. What they should do is a giant expansion that adds birds and full aquatics as well as overhauls exhibits and climbing and gives tlc to all the models to make them more stylistically consistant. PC2 was made in the same engine so they could even update the game and add the new tools, day system and lightng system that way. It doesn't make sense to buy the same game and dlcs all over again just because they cleaned it up a little and slapped a number 2 on it. PC2's launch put it in perspective for me. They could have just updated PC instead of charging full price for what little it actually adds. They actually lost base game content from the first game.
I am 100% sure they do not add flying and full marine in PZ1 because they ran into technical limitations and could not do it the way they wanted to - so they decided not to. Plus, the game is 5 years old. The code probably is chaotic by now (maybe @Iben is in the mood and has time to give a programmer perspective on it, he can do it much better than me) and adding huge features onto it just risks severe bugs. Which makes me realise it is probably even not fair to ask for deeper animal personality at this point.
Climbing is still not good unless you study the system really hard before building climbing frames and I don't see flying be any different in this game.
It's like with old clothe. Sometimes you can't sew it back together again and again, refresh the colors (please Frontier, this is a metaphor, I don't want PC2 colors in PZ2!!!) and add patch over patch over patch. Sometimes you just have to start new.
So I think it's neither realistic nor fair to expect extreme huge leaps like adding free flying etc. to a game with 5+ year old code.
Climbing is still not good unless you study the system really hard before building climbing frames and I don't see flying be any different in this game.
It's like with old clothe. Sometimes you can't sew it back together again and again, refresh the colors (please Frontier, this is a metaphor, I don't want PC2 colors in PZ2!!!) and add patch over patch over patch. Sometimes you just have to start new.
So I think it's neither realistic nor fair to expect extreme huge leaps like adding free flying etc. to a game with 5+ year old code.
Yeah, honestly I’m not sure what to think. But I’ve got to be honest, if for who knows how long we get majority mammals with maybe 1-2 birds or reptiles per year, and no exhibit animals, I would rather they stop support.
In real life every animal and every species matters. In a video game it’s good to have options, but I can only stand so many antelope per year. It’s not even that I just want birds, I’m getting bored of pack layouts. Even when ZooKeeper pack gave me two primates and a reptile the rest of the pack felt very bog standard to me.
Maybe I’m being too critical, I don’t know. I don’t think I have been excited to get my hands on a DLC for awhile. Zookeeper was ok, Barnyard was fine, Eurasia had the Swan. To be honest, I think the last pack that got me excited for it was Oceania. Two birds, two marsupials, and a bat species is pretty cool. Also the scenery pieces aren’t terrible either! Still, part of me is excited for this next pack, but a much bigger part of me is dreading the actual reveal. I don’t want to get my hopes up where I feel like a pack actually goes my way. Only for it to turn out like normal.
The current DLC format isn't really working for me either, finally got 2 primates and they weren't ones I particularly cared for, also really want birds but that isn't really happening
I haven't bought neither Barnyard nor Zookeeper's yet. None of those animals are something i need atm to be honest. I would probably buy Zookeeper's first though and i hope there is a good discount on steam for Christmas so i get Zookeeper's, mostly for the alpaca, chicken and scenery.
But yeah i haven't been excited for a DLC since Oceania. I hope next one does bring back that excitement of wanting to buy it right away.
And yeah i think the DLC format needs to change, but mostly with animal selection.
But yeah i haven't been excited for a DLC since Oceania. I hope next one does bring back that excitement of wanting to buy it right away.
And yeah i think the DLC format needs to change, but mostly with animal selection.
I usually buy every pack right away. Both because I simply want all the animals, but also because I want to support the game.
The downside is I’m not exactly voting with my wallet, so it seems like the 6/7 mammal fest will continue. I don’t know, I just want the next pack to be a bit different. Or at least make it 5/7 mammals with a bird and reptile? Or shoot, make it 4/7! Call me crazy I know.
Diversity of mammals is also important. We seem to always get ungulates and cat/dogs/bears. I love when we get rodents, monotremes, bats, primates (that are not more lemurs), non bear/cat/dog carnivores (mostly musteloids), pinnipeds, xenarthrans, etc. Give me more variaty of those. They are way more exciting and fun.
I know it is! I want those too, one of the reasons I liked Oceania is the mammals we got were very unique to the roster! The reason I want less habitat mammals is because:
- I want reptiles and birds to shine a bit more
- I don’t know if I have faith in Frontier to not include the same animals over and over again
- Patagonian mara
- White nosed coati
- A monkey species
- Maybe even a South American sea lion