I just watched the new species profile for Amargasaurus and had a thought.
I originally wanted piece by piece building in JWE2. I realize that's never going to happen, but I'm cautiously optimistic about the new customization options being enough for what JWE is.
However, if the game will lack the building depth that PZ has, I think it needs to make up for it elsewhere - for example, dino behavior.
When I first saw our spiky friend in the new game, I thought this would mean better behaviors for our species. I was hoping they'd spar with those spikes or defend from predators with them - ie unique animations per dino (and why not? Planet Zoo gives unique animations to, say, dingos vs wolves vs dholes). One of JWE's biggest failures was the fact that, for example, all ceratopsids were roughly the same size, when there should have been small ones as well as enormous ones.
Most animals in JWE feel like they fall into a category - small theropods, medium theororopods, extra large theropods; ornithomimid, ceratopsid, ankylosaurid, stegosaurid, medium sauropod, large sauropod, hadrosaur. Two dinos in the same category feel basically identical.
There are a few standout exception, like compies or pachycephalosaurus (though there we have 3 basically identical dinos in different sizes...). But most dinos in JWE feel interchangeable with any other dino in their category. Iguanodon feel unique within their group, which is nice. But at the end of the day, the vast majority of dinos are totally interchangeable.
I tried to figure our why this is. Why are lions, leopards, jaguars, and cheetahs so distinct in PZ while the large theropods in JWE feel so similar? I think it comes down to the fact that they have pretty different requirements, their exhibits can be themed so differently, etc.
This is hard to achieve in JWE because the dinos don't have different biome requirements or unique behaviors. Tigers and jaguars love water; lions and cheetahs don't. Jaguars love to climb trees, while lions prefer rocks.
The animals in Planet Zoo all feel different from each other. There are some weak points, like the two brown bears. But all in all, every animal feels different. In JWE, all ceratopsids share animations, so we end up with ceratopsids with blunt curved horns somehow impaling attackers.
I think the best way to accomplish this in JWE2 would be to give the dinosaurs different behaviors. Don't minimize the size differences between ceratopsids, even if it means they each have their own animations. Give us shelters and enrichment items for dinos, and make different dinos behave very differently.
The addition of fish feeders and water requirements to JWE1 did a lot to differentiate Spinosaurus and Baryonyx from other similar dinos, but I don't think that it went far enough. I hope that Frontier will build these animals up as totally unique beasts from the ground up in JWE2, with unique wading, swimming, crouching in water to ambush, etc animations for these dinos.
The news about paleo plants, territories, and revamped combat is great. Those are all wonderful systems, especially if they take them further than their JWE equivalents. But please, don't make every ceratopsid interact with all these systems exactly the same way, all ankylosaurids another way, all stegosaurids a third. Make every individual dino unique. Give them the same love and attention you give every animal in Planet Zoo, and JWE2 will be a winner for me. Treat dino categories identically like in JWE, and this game will be a pass for me. I believe in you Frontier! Please make JWE2 the pinnacle of the park building genre like I know you can.
I originally wanted piece by piece building in JWE2. I realize that's never going to happen, but I'm cautiously optimistic about the new customization options being enough for what JWE is.
However, if the game will lack the building depth that PZ has, I think it needs to make up for it elsewhere - for example, dino behavior.
When I first saw our spiky friend in the new game, I thought this would mean better behaviors for our species. I was hoping they'd spar with those spikes or defend from predators with them - ie unique animations per dino (and why not? Planet Zoo gives unique animations to, say, dingos vs wolves vs dholes). One of JWE's biggest failures was the fact that, for example, all ceratopsids were roughly the same size, when there should have been small ones as well as enormous ones.
Most animals in JWE feel like they fall into a category - small theropods, medium theororopods, extra large theropods; ornithomimid, ceratopsid, ankylosaurid, stegosaurid, medium sauropod, large sauropod, hadrosaur. Two dinos in the same category feel basically identical.
There are a few standout exception, like compies or pachycephalosaurus (though there we have 3 basically identical dinos in different sizes...). But most dinos in JWE feel interchangeable with any other dino in their category. Iguanodon feel unique within their group, which is nice. But at the end of the day, the vast majority of dinos are totally interchangeable.
I tried to figure our why this is. Why are lions, leopards, jaguars, and cheetahs so distinct in PZ while the large theropods in JWE feel so similar? I think it comes down to the fact that they have pretty different requirements, their exhibits can be themed so differently, etc.
This is hard to achieve in JWE because the dinos don't have different biome requirements or unique behaviors. Tigers and jaguars love water; lions and cheetahs don't. Jaguars love to climb trees, while lions prefer rocks.
The animals in Planet Zoo all feel different from each other. There are some weak points, like the two brown bears. But all in all, every animal feels different. In JWE, all ceratopsids share animations, so we end up with ceratopsids with blunt curved horns somehow impaling attackers.
I think the best way to accomplish this in JWE2 would be to give the dinosaurs different behaviors. Don't minimize the size differences between ceratopsids, even if it means they each have their own animations. Give us shelters and enrichment items for dinos, and make different dinos behave very differently.
The addition of fish feeders and water requirements to JWE1 did a lot to differentiate Spinosaurus and Baryonyx from other similar dinos, but I don't think that it went far enough. I hope that Frontier will build these animals up as totally unique beasts from the ground up in JWE2, with unique wading, swimming, crouching in water to ambush, etc animations for these dinos.
The news about paleo plants, territories, and revamped combat is great. Those are all wonderful systems, especially if they take them further than their JWE equivalents. But please, don't make every ceratopsid interact with all these systems exactly the same way, all ankylosaurids another way, all stegosaurids a third. Make every individual dino unique. Give them the same love and attention you give every animal in Planet Zoo, and JWE2 will be a winner for me. Treat dino categories identically like in JWE, and this game will be a pass for me. I believe in you Frontier! Please make JWE2 the pinnacle of the park building genre like I know you can.