Possible future DLCs (?)

[IceBlood34]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to the forum but I'm a big fan of the zoo video game franchise.
It's been more than 15 years since I started this, with the first Zoo Tycoon, and then continued with Zoo Tycoon 2.
Zoo Tycoon 2 was one of the games that rocked my childhood and adolescence, and that has seen its lifespan considerably extended, with the DLCs and other additions that the community has been able to make during all these years.
With the arrival of Planet Zoo, Zoo Tycoon 2 has taken a little bit of a hit in terms of graphics, but keeps this aspect where players can add content continuously whenever they want, which I doubt very strongly, even in the future, for Planet Zoo, so much the gameplay mechanics and advanced graphics seem very hard to recreate even for such zoo enthusiasts like us.
Well, I digress... As you probably know, the Zoo Tycoon franchise has brought its DLCs with packs like Marina Mania, or Extinct Animals.
I wonder then if Frontiers (if you see my post too, I hope it will tickle you) could also take this approach and in the future, offer DLCs with aquatic shows like Marine Mania, or a DLC with extinct animals, like in Zoo Tycoon.
However, I'm afraid that Frontiers' Jurassic World Evolution adaptation is blocking this opportunity... when it could be so amazing, especially since extinct animals are not only dinosaurs... a paleontologist tells you that.

Anyway, curious to see what Frontiers will bring us in the future, because the names and themes of DLCs will quickly be reduced..

And you guys, what are your themes/packs of DLCs that you want to see happen?
Do you see Frontiers continuing to put out content for another one, two or three years?
Do you think it will be possible to generate our own "animal" creation tutorial in the not too distant future?

Cheers!
IceBlood34.

 

[DarthQuell]

Hello, Ice. Welcome to the community.

A lot of us here feel you, growing up on Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2. I myself still have my original copies.
Something stated in the past by Frontier is that they want Planet Zoo to be as realistic as possible, and unfortunately, that means no extinct animals in the game (plus, they already have Jurassic World Evolution 1 and 2 and Prehistoric Kingdom is another game out there).

About marine animals, I believe the closest we'll ever get are semiaquatic animals, like what we already have. Maybe a walrus, maybe sea otters, a 3rd penguin, but nothing much more than these types of animals. A lot of us believe that a hypothetical Planet Aquarium is a potential candidate for a future PlanCo game.


Now, about this year's DLC, I believe we'll get 2 more animal packs and 2 more scenery packs. I have a feeling we won't receive any new regular exhibit animals, unfortunately, but that we'll get WE animals instead.

For ideas about potential DLC, check out the Spring DLC Discussion 2023 thread

 

[Xificayd]

I am hypothesizing about a possible rainforest animal pack (spring), petting zoo pack (summer) islands animal pack (autumn), marine pack (winter).
This would be my ideal perfect line up, so that Planet Zoo would finally get all the essential content it's missing.

 

[jcp011c]

Welcome to the forums! Zoo Tycoon was awesome, and after nearly 20 years, it finally relinquished the throne of "best zoo simulator" to Planet Zoo not too long ago.

In terms of a general theme :
Islands
Farmlands/Petting Zoo
Drylands/Desert -
Taiga/Tundra/Highlands (cold weather theme)
Rainforest/Tropical - given the animals that could probably make an appearance, I think this is the only one of this list we're almost sure to get. A Sloth, another Gibbon, a New World Monkey (or two) Red River Hog...the pack practically builds itself with just the "almost absolute" inclusions.

 

[NegativeHeli]

In my opinion, it's criminal that we haven't gotten a Rainforest DLC considering that it's the most diverse biome on Earth

 

[IceBlood34]

Hello, Ice. Welcome to the community.

A lot of us here feel you, growing up on Zoo Tycoon 1 and 2. I myself still have my original copies.
Something stated in the past by Frontier is that they want Planet Zoo to be as realistic as possible, and unfortunately, that means no extinct animals in the game (plus, they already have Jurassic World Evolution 1 and 2 and Prehistoric Kingdom is another game out there).

About marine animals, I believe the closest we'll ever get are semiaquatic animals, like what we already have. Maybe a walrus, maybe sea otters, a 3rd penguin, but nothing much more than these types of animals. A lot of us believe that a hypothetical Planet Aquarium is a potential candidate for a future PlanCo game.


Now, about this year's DLC, I believe we'll get 2 more animal packs and 2 more scenery packs. I have a feeling we won't receive any new regular exhibit animals, unfortunately, but that we'll get WE animals instead.

For ideas about potential DLC, check out the Spring DLC Discussion 2023 thread

Thank you for your welcome messages everyone!

Well, I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be able to have packs with extinct animals or aquatic animals in the future.
The richness of Zoo Tycoon 2 is unparalleled in this respect, and you can remain realistic by just putting extinct animals in your game, because you can keep the attitudes of present-day animals to copy from the animals of the past.
I'm pretty sure that the community would get a good reception from the arrival of some extinct animals in Planet Zoo, while keeping the realistic side of making enclosures, taking care of animal happiness, etc. without going into utopia.
The same goes for Marine Mania-like, I don't see how the arrival of an "Aquarium" theme would take away the realism of playing Planet Zoo, on the contrary, more gameplay mechanics (dolphins shows, etc.) and the game's lifespan (in both cases) can be extended indefinitely.
In any case, you have to take advantage of what you already have, but Zoo Tycoon has already passed the test, why not Planet Zoo?

 

[yoav_r]

Thank you for your welcome messages everyone!

Well, I'm a bit disappointed that I won't be able to have packs with extinct animals or aquatic animals in the future.
The richness of Zoo Tycoon 2 is unparalleled in this respect, and you can remain realistic by just putting extinct animals in your game, because you can keep the attitudes of present-day animals to copy from the animals of the past.
I'm pretty sure that the community would get a good reception from the arrival of some extinct animals in Planet Zoo, while keeping the realistic side of making enclosures, taking care of animal happiness, etc. without going into utopia.
The same goes for Marine Mania-like, I don't see how the arrival of an "Aquarium" theme would take away the realism of playing Planet Zoo, on the contrary, more gameplay mechanics (dolphins shows, etc.) and the game's lifespan (in both cases) can be extended indefinitely.
In any case, you have to take advantage of what you already have, but Zoo Tycoon has already passed the test, why not Planet Zoo?

There will always be mods for that. There sre many aquatic and extinct animals mods.

While I'd like fully aquatic animals, I think ZT2 did a disservice to with marine mania by focusing on large marine mammals that don't fit in captivity and unethical shows, and a proper marine expansion shoulf focus on fish, coral reefs, coastal animals and so on with just the few marine mammals that do well in zoos.

Regarding extinct animals you should probably check prehistoric kingdom.

 

[IceBlood34]

There will always be mods for that. There sre many aquatic and extinct animals mods.

While I'd like fully aquatic animals, I think ZT2 did a disservice to with marine mania by focusing on large marine mammals that don't fit in captivity and unethical shows, and a proper marine expansion shoulf focus on fish, coral reefs, coastal animals and so on with just the few marine mammals that do well in zoos.

Regarding extinct animals you should probably check prehistoric kingdom.

Thanks for your information, I was totally unaware that there were animal mods for Planet Zoo at the moment. Unless it's not the case yet?
Sorry if I didn't understand well.

I see, so from what I understand, we should potentially have 3 different games (Planet Zoo, Prehistoric Kingdom and a potential Planet Aquarium) to deal with these different themes, and not on a single game such as ZT franchise.

 

[Captain Callum]

potential Planet Aquarium

Well possibly, all we know there is a supposed planet series game releasing around 2025. Open minds to whether that's an aquarium game (which I hope) , a new planet coaster or something totally different

 

[premierfong]

Well possibly, all we know there is a supposed planet series game releasing around 2025. Open minds to whether that's an aquarium game (which I hope) , a new planet coaster or something totally different

I kind of hope, they can be combinable. I still hope to build a zoo that have everything.

 

[LindaBroer]

For mods check out Nexus. There are litterally thousands of them. Just know they aren't officially endorced by Frontier.

The topics you specifically want in the game (marine mania in particular) are strongly polarizing. Some people are all for it and some people are extremely negative about it. For that reason alone it is highly unlikely to be included in PZ. There have been many very vocal threads about this very topic on the forum.

Realistically though, none of us know what Frontier will throw at us. At first we could semi guess what the packs would be, helped along with people mining the code and finding hints for future animals. Nowadays every pack is a huge surprise, with only one guide to look at. The meta-animal wish list. Every recent pack had at least some animals highly requested in the wishlist on it. If you want to have a guess at what is coming to PZ, check the wishlist out. Other than that, just be surprised with the rest of us.

 

[eviltiger13]

Welcome iceblood

I think

Desert animal pack why? We need the dormedary camel. Maybe sand cats. Maybe coral snakes

Nocturnal animal pack the twilight was good. But felt missed a lot of bit hitters like tasmanian devil, aye aye, fossa and to be honest I want a couple more bats


Primate animal pack the most underrated of all the mammals. Yes we have great apes in plenty but where are the new and old world monkeys?

Exhibit pack this I dont think will happen but I would buy a pack if it gave more design choices and more species for the exhibits. This could also be a great opportunity to add more animation and even introduce some mammals to exhibits like rodents

 

[LindaBroer]

Exhibit pack this I dont think will happen but I would buy a pack if it gave more design choices and more species for the exhibits. This could also be a great opportunity to add more animation and even introduce some mammals to exhibits like rodents

Before the update to exhibits I would have been against this as a DLC, but now it might actually be good. I wouldn't want it in one of the expected/hoped 4 DLC slots though, as they are likely not to be many/any more after this year. But as a surprise in-between DLC I'd be all for it.

 

[Xificayd]

While I'd like fully aquatic animals, I think ZT2 did a disservice to with marine mania by focusing on large marine mammals that don't fit in captivity and unethical shows, and a proper marine expansion shoulf focus on fish, coral reefs, coastal animals and so on with just the few marine mammals that do well in zoos.

If we go back in time to when we played ZT2 (for the ones of us who did) we would have to admit that those large marine mammals were the most interesting gameplay part and animals of that DLC for the majority of players. So we shouldn't be hypocritical about pretending their inclusion in Planet Zoo would be bad.

Speaking for myself, the Orcas in Zoo Tycoon 2, spiked my interest in those animals which led me to learning about their welfare and issues they face in zoos. Thanks to the game I gained strong empathy for them. This will be the case for many people as well if we add them in Planet Zoo, because they will get in touch with those animals and be interested in learning more about them via the in-game Zoopedia or Internet. If we don't add them, then the people who never heard about them, will never be exposed to the Orcas and thus won't learn about them.

Adding animals to the game spikes the interest for them in real life for the players. That causes them to get informed about their favourite animals, it doesn't promote the idea of keeping whales in zoos, that a senseless implication that I read on the forum all the time.

 

[IceBlood34]

If we go back in time to when we played ZT2 (for the ones of us who did) we would have to admit that those large marine mammals were the most interesting gameplay part and animals of that DLC for the majority of players. So we shouldn't be hypocritical about pretending their inclusion in Planet Zoo would be bad.

Speaking for myself, the Orcas in Zoo Tycoon 2, spiked my interest in those animals which led me to learning about their welfare and issues they face in zoos. Thanks to the game I gained strong empathy for them. This will be the case for many people as well if we add them in Planet Zoo, because they will get in touch with those animals and be interested in learning more about them via the in-game Zoopedia or Internet. If we don't add them, then the people who never heard about them, will never be exposed to the Orcas and thus won't learn about them.

Adding animals to the game spikes the interest for them in real life for the players. That causes them to get informed about their favourite animals, it doesn't promote the idea of keeping whales in zoos, that a senseless implication that I read on the forum all the time.

I totally agree with you, and I thank you for understanding my thoughts.
Just because marine animals are added to Planet Zoo, it doesn't mean that we agree with the fact that large marine mammals should be placed in captivity in real life.
Then, you have to go beyond that, it is only a video game, and no "direct" consequence on the ethics and the current status of aquariums and other parks on these marine animals.
Planet Zoo is a simulation which tries to retranscribe the spirit of zoological parks, but we must not forget that it is above all a video game.
This approach is the same for prehistoric animals though.

 

[premierfong]

I totally agree with you, and I thank you for understanding my thoughts.
Just because marine animals are added to Planet Zoo, it doesn't mean that we agree with the fact that large marine mammals should be placed in captivity in real life.
Then, you have to go beyond that, it is only a video game, and no "direct" consequence on the ethics and the current status of aquariums and other parks on these marine animals.
Planet Zoo is a simulation which tries to retranscribe the spirit of zoological parks, but we must not forget that it is above all a video game.
This approach is the same for prehistoric animals though.

Also there are a lot of other audience in this game. Some parts of the world may not like large marine mammals to be in Zoos BUT some parts do. If the person dont like it then don't use it. If as person like it then use it to make Sea World. Honestly I still think there are more ppl liking large marine mammals in Zoo then don't.

Frontier has been tailoring the game to everyone in the world, I think they will consider.

 

[IceBlood34]

Also there are a lot of other audience in this game. Some parts of the world may not like large marine mammals to be in Zoos BUT some parts do. If the person dont like it then don't use it. If as person like it then use it to make Sea World. Honestly I still think there are more ppl liking large marine mammals in Zoo then don't.

Frontier has been tailoring the game to everyone in the world, I think they will consider.

Exactly that, it takes everything to make a community, without criticizing the choice of one or the other.
Frontier can offer packs of marine animals or extinct species, without it being mandatory for players, everyone is free to download the content or not.

 

[premierfong]

Exactly that, it takes everything to make a community, without criticizing the choice of one or the other.
Frontier can offer packs of marine animals or extinct species, without it being mandatory for players, everyone is free to download the content or not.

Or have a mixed pack includes sea otter and walrus. Everyone wants these two. Haha.