Planet Zoo 2 Speculation and ideas

FoxyDee

FoxyDee
Lets be honest, the game is entering its 6th year. I would not expect anything gamechanging at this point if I were you. There are still mammals wished for by the community and they will continue to appear. I mean, last dog we got was 2 years ago. Yeah, we got 2 bears recently, but that also was years without any new one. And cats...well, we know Frontier has a bias for them, nothing to do here then to accept that. I do expect the coati to show up at least.

I would absolutely love a pack consisting of all kinds of habitat birds, but I really do not expect it. That way, I can only be pleasantly surprised.
 

SuzieSky

SuzieSky
RightWhale said:
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.
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I feel like they've been waiting too long to flesh out South America, birds, and monkeys. Whether or not you like those animals, it's obvious to most people that those are the biggest holes in the roster. Even the discussions here get a bit stale and circular. We'll keep coming back to the same themes, and then a person or two (usually with a favorite animal not included in those categories) will suggest something different. I think this game has a ton of potential to keep releasing packs that are good, but until they start addressing the main gaps, every other pack is going to seem unfulfilling. I thought Wetlands and Conservation were fine, but I've been hoping for that South America pack with tiny monkeys, flashy birds, interesting small mammals, and an elusive ocelot/margay since Europe.

A South America pack with at least two monkeys and a bird pack would do wonders for the game and the conversations here. Half of the reason I want to see those packs added is to lift up the discussions. It's hard to get excited when people share information about genuinely cool animals that don't fit those themes. I don't even think they'd need to end support after that; it would just make other themes such as East Asia, Safari, Coastal, or other pleasant surprises even more palatable.
 

RightWhale

RightWhale
SuzieSky said:
I feel like they've been waiting too long to flesh out South America, birds, and monkeys. Whether or not you like those animals, it's obvious to most people that those are the biggest holes in the roster. Even the discussions here get a bit stale and circular. We'll keep coming back to the same themes, and then a person or two (usually with a favorite animal not included in those categories) will suggest something different. I think this game has a ton of potential to keep releasing packs that are good, but until they start addressing the main gaps, every other pack is going to seem unfulfilling. I thought Wetlands and Conservation were fine, but I've been hoping for that South America pack with tiny monkeys, flashy birds, interesting small mammals, and an elusive ocelot/margay since Europe.

A South America pack with at least two monkeys and a bird pack would do wonders for the game and the conversations here. Half of the reason I want to see those packs added is to lift up the discussions. It's hard to get excited when people share information about genuinely cool animals that don't fit those themes. I don't even think they'd need to end support after that; it would just make other themes such as East Asia, Safari, Coastal, or other pleasant surprises even more palatable.
Click to expand...
Yeah and here is some fantastic news about that: we have 6+ months of potential endless circular discussion before this next dlc comes out. It is also entirely possible as this next pack comes out, it still won’t address South America, Monkeys, or Birds. So then people will just be disappointed all over again, potentially.

Don’t get me wrong, Coastal is one of my favorite pack ideas, but I agree Frontier should focus on some roster holes first.
 

Tatanosaure

Tatanosaure
2024 was catastrophic in term of DLC.

1. The choice of roster didn't please a significant part of the players. The effort on some choices and realization is debatable.
2. There was weak to no free update.
3. The pressure of is it the last pack? Doesn't help the engagement. From my side I was buying dlc day 1 to show the devs that I was into the game and wanted content and I would support them and this even if the pack wasn't exciting me, yes I see you Drylands, Twilight and stuff like that. I see Rightwale doing so, and I know we are not alone. I was waiting every day 4 pm for the animal reveal no matter if I liked the pack or not. But if I don't like the pack and that there is the high probability it's the last pack, why would it be anticipated to me, why would I care and buy a pack I don't want to support potentially nothing. So it will be in bundle or in sales.

The biggest weakness of Frontier is its communication. If I would change something for PZ2 it's this.
A roadmap which tells you were you go even if it's not clear and not all revealed. Prehistoric Kingdom does it very well.
I am not sure if I will jump in the train PZ2 (I don't want to lose what I paid hundreds of euros for and start again for a game with a weak roster for the price of few birds and freshwater species) but for sure I won't jump in it if it's the same communication and strategy for PZ2.
 

Marvinb

Marvinb
RightWhale said:
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.
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I cant even really enjoy the fact that added two primates because one is pretty much unusable imo
 

Marvinb

Marvinb
Yeah idk for an animal that should spend the vast majority of its life climbing to have behaviour that isnt anywhere close to accurate is pretty much a deal breaker for me.

Kinda like if the sloth had accurate movement on the ground but is just reusing the koala rig or something while climbing
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
RightWhale said:
Or is it just so unrealistic it’s not worth it?
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Depends on what you mean by "not worth it".

It wasn't worth the effort of making and animating, no, not when easier options were available that had wider appeal. IMO the sifaka will go down as the absolute worst decision they could have made, but my theory is that they needlessly worried about including two monkeys specifically and went with the next most memetic primate instead.

I think there's definitely enough of a disconnect between baboons and typical monkeys that nobody would have quibbled about getting both in one pack.
 

Milurian

Milurian
Tatanosaure said:
2024 was catastrophic in term of DLC.

1. The choice of roster didn't please a significant part of the players. The effort on some choices and realization is debatable.
2. There was weak to no free update.
3. The pressure of is it the last pack? Doesn't help the engagement. From my side I was buying dlc day 1 to show the devs that I was into the game and wanted content and I would support them and this even if the pack wasn't exciting me, yes I see you Drylands, Twilight and stuff like that. I see Rightwale doing so, and I know we are not alone. I was waiting every day 4 pm for the animal reveal no matter if I liked the pack or not. But if I don't like the pack and that there is the high probability it's the last pack, why would it be anticipated to me, why would I care and buy a pack I don't want to support potentially nothing. So it will be in bundle or in sales.

The biggest weakness of Frontier is its communication. If I would change something for PZ2 it's this.
A roadmap which tells you were you go even if it's not clear and not all revealed. Prehistoric Kingdom does it very well.
I am not sure if I will jump in the train PZ2 (I don't want to lose what I paid hundreds of euros for and start again for a game with a weak roster for the price of few birds and freshwater species) but for sure I won't jump in it if it's the same communication and strategy for PZ2.
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I agree with most of this except the free update point barnyard had a pretty intensive free update with petting mechanics and free roaming guests which did change the game alot more than most of the previous years updates.
The worst part of 2024 was the constant second guessing when will the next dlc come, if it will even release, is it the end. Frontier has the worst pr system ever seriously it took literally the entire community agreeing the game is over for almost a whole month before they said it wasnt. Then the questionable theming choices that are controversial at best and down right harmful to the community at worst, zoo keeper addressed almost no major roster holes and barnyard only really covered a niche issue.
 

Fallax

Fallax
Bringing back this thread to pose a question on what animals people think are "necessary" for a zoo game. I decided to count and see how many animal species are in all three major zoo games (Zoo Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon 2, and Planet Zoo). I've left out Zoo Tycoon 3 because of its frankly bizarre roster and much different style of gameplay and yes I know of other games like Wildlife Park but they were never as big and everyone can see Planet Zoo is a spiritual successor to the first two Zoo Tycoon games. Anyway, I counted a grand total of 41 species that are in all three games:
  1. African Buffalo
  2. African Bush Elephant
  3. Lion
  4. Common Warthog
  5. American Bison
  6. Grey Wolf
  7. Tiger
  8. Leopard
  9. Black Rhinoceros
  10. Alpine Ibex
  11. Brown Bear
  12. California Sea Lion
  13. Cheetah
  14. Chimpanzee
  15. Blue Wildebeest
  16. Dromedary Camel
  17. Gemsbok
  18. Giant Panda
  19. Greater Flamingo
  20. Hippopotamus
  21. Jaguar
  22. Mandrill
  23. Markhor
  24. Moose
  25. Okapi
  26. Common Ostrich
  27. Plains Zebra
  28. Polar Bear
  29. Red Kangaroo
  30. Snow Leopard
  31. Thomson's Gazelle
  32. African Wild Dog
  33. Asian Black Bear
  34. Asian Elephant
  35. Bongo
  36. Cougar
  37. Reindeer
  38. Sable Antelope
  39. Przewalski's Horse
  40. Komodo Dragon
  41. Bornean Orangutan
There is also 8 species archetypes present in all 3 games I think are worth mentioning:
  1. A Large Antarctic Penguin (Emperor in ZT1/2, King in PZ)
  2. A Giraffe (Generic in ZT1, Reticulated and Masai in ZT2, Reticulated in PZ)
  3. A Gorilla (Eastern Lowland in ZT1, Mountain in ZT2, Western Lowland in PZ)
  4. A Large Crocodile (Saltwater in ZT1 and PZ, Nile in ZT2)
  5. A Hyena (Spotted in ZT1, Striped in ZT2, PZ has both)
  6. A Tapir (Malayan in ZT1, Baird's in ZT2, PZ has both)
  7. An Asian Rhinoceros (Javan in ZT1/2, Indian in PZ)
  8. An Otter (Sea Otter in ZT1/2, PZ has Giant and Asian Short-Clawed)
My question is, out of all these regularly occuring animals, which are truly necessary in your opinion for a zoo game?
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
Fallax said:
Bringing back this thread to pose a question on what animals people think are "necessary" for a zoo game. I decided to count and see how many animal species are in all three major zoo games (Zoo Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon 2, and Planet Zoo). I've left out Zoo Tycoon 3 because of its frankly bizarre roster and much different style of gameplay and yes I know of other games like Wildlife Park but they were never as big and everyone can see Planet Zoo is a spiritual successor to the first two Zoo Tycoon games. Anyway, I counted a grand total of 41 species that are in all three games:
  1. African Buffalo
  2. African Bush Elephant
  3. Lion
  4. Common Warthog
  5. American Bison
  6. Grey Wolf
  7. Tiger
  8. Leopard
  9. Black Rhinoceros
  10. Alpine Ibex
  11. Brown Bear
  12. California Sea Lion
  13. Cheetah
  14. Chimpanzee
  15. Blue Wildebeest
  16. Dromedary Camel
  17. Gemsbok
  18. Giant Panda
  19. Greater Flamingo
  20. Hippopotamus
  21. Jaguar
  22. Mandrill
  23. Markhor
  24. Moose
  25. Okapi
  26. Common Ostrich
  27. Plains Zebra
  28. Polar Bear
  29. Red Kangaroo
  30. Snow Leopard
  31. Thomson's Gazelle
  32. African Wild Dog
  33. Asian Black Bear
  34. Asian Elephant
  35. Bongo
  36. Cougar
  37. Reindeer
  38. Sable Antelope
  39. Przewalski's Horse
  40. Komodo Dragon
  41. Bornean Orangutan
There is also 8 species archetypes present in all 3 games I think are worth mentioning:
  1. A Large Antarctic Penguin (Emperor in ZT1/2, King in PZ)
  2. A Giraffe (Generic in ZT1, Reticulated and Masai in ZT2, Reticulated in PZ)
  3. A Gorilla (Eastern Lowland in ZT1, Mountain in ZT2, Western Lowland in PZ)
  4. A Large Crocodile (Saltwater in ZT1 and PZ, Nile in ZT2)
  5. A Hyena (Spotted in ZT1, Striped in ZT2, PZ has both)
  6. A Tapir (Malayan in ZT1, Baird's in ZT2, PZ has both)
  7. An Asian Rhinoceros (Javan in ZT1/2, Indian in PZ)
  8. An Otter (Sea Otter in ZT1/2, PZ has Giant and Asian Short-Clawed)
My question is, out of all these regularly occuring animals, which are truly necessary in your opinion for a zoo game?
Click to expand...
This is gonna sound like I chose the easy way out, but all of them.
All those animals are not only charismatic, but they're all super common to see in zoos worldwide.
Having a zoo game without them would be super weird and will feel like something is missing
 

leehonglocal

L
Fallax said:
Bringing back this thread to pose a question on what animals people think are "necessary" for a zoo game. I decided to count and see how many animal species are in all three major zoo games (Zoo Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon 2, and Planet Zoo). I've left out Zoo Tycoon 3 because of its frankly bizarre roster and much different style of gameplay and yes I know of other games like Wildlife Park but they were never as big and everyone can see Planet Zoo is a spiritual successor to the first two Zoo Tycoon games. Anyway, I counted a grand total of 41 species that are in all three games:
  1. African Buffalo
  2. African Bush Elephant
  3. Lion
  4. Common Warthog
  5. American Bison
  6. Grey Wolf
  7. Tiger
  8. Leopard
  9. Black Rhinoceros
  10. Alpine Ibex
  11. Brown Bear
  12. California Sea Lion
  13. Cheetah
  14. Chimpanzee
  15. Blue Wildebeest
  16. Dromedary Camel
  17. Gemsbok
  18. Giant Panda
  19. Greater Flamingo
  20. Hippopotamus
  21. Jaguar
  22. Mandrill
  23. Markhor
  24. Moose
  25. Okapi
  26. Common Ostrich
  27. Plains Zebra
  28. Polar Bear
  29. Red Kangaroo
  30. Snow Leopard
  31. Thomson's Gazelle
  32. African Wild Dog
  33. Asian Black Bear
  34. Asian Elephant
  35. Bongo
  36. Cougar
  37. Reindeer
  38. Sable Antelope
  39. Przewalski's Horse
  40. Komodo Dragon
  41. Bornean Orangutan
There is also 8 species archetypes present in all 3 games I think are worth mentioning:
  1. A Large Antarctic Penguin (Emperor in ZT1/2, King in PZ)
  2. A Giraffe (Generic in ZT1, Reticulated and Masai in ZT2, Reticulated in PZ)
  3. A Gorilla (Eastern Lowland in ZT1, Mountain in ZT2, Western Lowland in PZ)
  4. A Large Crocodile (Saltwater in ZT1 and PZ, Nile in ZT2)
  5. A Hyena (Spotted in ZT1, Striped in ZT2, PZ has both)
  6. A Tapir (Malayan in ZT1, Baird's in ZT2, PZ has both)
  7. An Asian Rhinoceros (Javan in ZT1/2, Indian in PZ)
  8. An Otter (Sea Otter in ZT1/2, PZ has Giant and Asian Short-Clawed)
My question is, out of all these regularly occuring animals, which are truly necessary in your opinion for a zoo game?
Click to expand...
Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2 had African subspecies of leopard. 1 had one more subspecies in black. 2's only leopard was black.
 

Marvinb

Marvinb
Fallax said:
Bringing back this thread to pose a question on what animals people think are "necessary" for a zoo game. I decided to count and see how many animal species are in all three major zoo games (Zoo Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon 2, and Planet Zoo). I've left out Zoo Tycoon 3 because of its frankly bizarre roster and much different style of gameplay and yes I know of other games like Wildlife Park but they were never as big and everyone can see Planet Zoo is a spiritual successor to the first two Zoo Tycoon games. Anyway, I counted a grand total of 41 species that are in all three games:
  1. African Buffalo
  2. African Bush Elephant
  3. Lion
  4. Common Warthog
  5. American Bison
  6. Grey Wolf
  7. Tiger
  8. Leopard
  9. Black Rhinoceros
  10. Alpine Ibex
  11. Brown Bear
  12. California Sea Lion
  13. Cheetah
  14. Chimpanzee
  15. Blue Wildebeest
  16. Dromedary Camel
  17. Gemsbok
  18. Giant Panda
  19. Greater Flamingo
  20. Hippopotamus
  21. Jaguar
  22. Mandrill
  23. Markhor
  24. Moose
  25. Okapi
  26. Common Ostrich
  27. Plains Zebra
  28. Polar Bear
  29. Red Kangaroo
  30. Snow Leopard
  31. Thomson's Gazelle
  32. African Wild Dog
  33. Asian Black Bear
  34. Asian Elephant
  35. Bongo
  36. Cougar
  37. Reindeer
  38. Sable Antelope
  39. Przewalski's Horse
  40. Komodo Dragon
  41. Bornean Orangutan
There is also 8 species archetypes present in all 3 games I think are worth mentioning:
  1. A Large Antarctic Penguin (Emperor in ZT1/2, King in PZ)
  2. A Giraffe (Generic in ZT1, Reticulated and Masai in ZT2, Reticulated in PZ)
  3. A Gorilla (Eastern Lowland in ZT1, Mountain in ZT2, Western Lowland in PZ)
  4. A Large Crocodile (Saltwater in ZT1 and PZ, Nile in ZT2)
  5. A Hyena (Spotted in ZT1, Striped in ZT2, PZ has both)
  6. A Tapir (Malayan in ZT1, Baird's in ZT2, PZ has both)
  7. An Asian Rhinoceros (Javan in ZT1/2, Indian in PZ)
  8. An Otter (Sea Otter in ZT1/2, PZ has Giant and Asian Short-Clawed)
My question is, out of all these regularly occuring animals, which are truly necessary in your opinion for a zoo game?
Click to expand...
Id say the asiatic black bear strikes me as the least important. Also the sable antelope and to a lesser extend the gemsbok, i feel these are somewhat interchangeble with other large antelope
 

The_Riot22

The_Riot22
I also agree that all the species - including the honorable mentions - are essential.
But I do agree with Marvinb that some of the African Antelopes are interchangeable. It's less about the specific species and more about the category. AA are essential to the game, but you could go with a roster of Eland, Hartebeest, Impala and Waterbuck over Sable Antelope, Thompsons Gazelle, Gemsbok, and Bongo and I'd say that would still fill the niche well.
 

Fallax

Fallax
I think for me a good set of African antelopes would be the following:
  1. Blue Wildebeest
  2. Gemsbok
  3. Addax
  4. Bongo
  5. Impala
  6. Sable Antelope
  7. Thomson's Gazelle
I think with that set you get a good amount of variety, there is always more you could add like Eland, Dik-Dik, Springbok, Duiker, Waterbuck, Kudu, Blesbok, more Gazelles etc. but those are the core ones I'd include.
 
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