From a technical perspective, I'd think we'd sooner see aquarium in Planet Zoo or not at all than that we'd be getting a separate Planet Aquarium game. Whereas Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo share base features, they are in many ways different. With a possible Planet Aquarium you'd have much more mechanics that would overlap with Zoo. It would take a lot more effort and resources to maintain two incredibly similar games at the same time. We're talking about such a gigantic overlap in mechanics that the point to make it a separate game becomes moot. It's cheaper to just introduce it to your existing game, of which you already know there is a target audience for.
I think we're going to quickly over the whole "aquariums are too different" argument, because let's not kid ourselves here, the game rightfully simplifies a lot of zoo mechanics today already. I see no valid reason to assume that such a thing would not be the case for aquatic animals and aquariums. A bunch of mechanics mentioned here can easily be made using similar mechanics we already have today, and other stuff would be simplified. From a game perspective, a zoo or an aquarium game don't have to differ as much as they'd differ in real life.
The only thing that would be an issue here would be the water navigation. But a potential PA would need to introduce that to the Cobra Engine as well, so whether you rewrite that portion for Zoo or for a new game isn't the major show stopper. It's work you're going to have to put in either way.
My best guess is that if we ever get any aquarium related stuff it's going to be integrated into PZ and it will be a simplified version of reality, just like zoo elements are already simplified in the game. A Planet Aquarium game seems more unlikely based on the technical aspects alone. And that's not even considering the fact that there are already active market competitors that form an actual competition, something Zoo never really had.
Iben great post, and excellent breakdown of your point of view, please allow me to counter. Everything you have stated is absolutely possible and it is by all accounts likely if a small aquatic/marine DLC was ever introduced to this game, however a full fledged Aquarium would be unlikely, let me explain my point in more detail. A while back I introduced the idea of a Planet Zoo 2.0 as an add on game to Planet Zoo using the same logic that you have just argued for above. While almost everyone agreed that they would happily pay for it, the vast majority felt that such a large amount of content, features and new mechanics being introduced at a single point in time would cripple the current game. It seems there are a lot of concerns about what the current game engine can and can not handle. Now while my recommendation for a Planet Zoo 2.0 as an add on did pack a substantial amount of features and a much larger animal roster than your average DLC up to this point it would be eclipsed by anything remotely accurate and realistic in the Aquarium department.
It is not that we are going too quickly over the assumption that Aquariums are a whole different concept to Planet Zoo, the fact is that they are Iben. Frontier seems to have a standard of quality for the content that has been introduced to Planet Zoo, that for the most part they will not compromise. We all know there are hundreds if not thousands of inaccuracies, shortcomings and missing content in Planet Zoo when attempting to simulate a real zoo, especially given the fact that the game is supposed to allow you to build a zoo of any kind. But looking at it from a general perspective, zoos are possible with the number of animals already provided, scenery, animations and so on. Aquariums hold by rule of thumb large numbers of species, from fish to crustaceans to corals and everything else in between, never mind the mammals, reptiles and amphibians that too often are part of their collections as well. If Frontier wanted to introduce anything remotely relevant and realistic as an aquarium, you would need at the very minimum, and that is just to create a very basic aquarium concept over a hundred species. That number is of course skipping the vast majority of species that visitors will encounter in an aquarium and focusing on significant species that almost everyone remembers, never mind counting corals among them.
(I'm currently building a 1:1 scale aquarium, highly realistic in a different platform and the final species count seems to be around 800, that should give you an idea) Keep in mind I could have easily kept on adding species, but I needed to keep the aquarium to an allocated size and scope in relation to the facility I'm designing.
From a technical standpoint it gets even more complicated, almost everyone has assumed that just updating the game mechanics, and adding water navigation. That is 100% incorrect, while I do agree that Planet Zoo has simplified realistic animal behavior to its minimal, it also true, that a lion and a chimp behave and move differently in the game, the same would apply in an Aquarium expansion, a green sea turtle would behave and move completely different than a school of Tuna. A Japanese Spider Crab would be a completely different design from a technical standpoint than a Leafy Seadragon. In short the list would be endless, do you still think Frontier would be up to the task of adding this Planet Zoo as an add on?
In case you are let us continue, let's depart from the animal collection and tackle the barrier system, because here it gets really interesting. Forget the days of the old Marine Mania expansion with Zoo Tycoon, to release anything of the sort in 2020 and by the makers of Planet Zoo, would just be an insult. So let us assume that the game keeps it somewhat realistic. Now we are talking about new barrier systems, that can allow for walk thru tunnels, a modular shaped Plexiglas that does not only curve, but can go in different directions as most modern Aquariums are inverting and curving their Plexiglas panels to enhance the design and create additional viewing possibilities. In short the current system in place would just not hold. In addition aquariums come in all shape and sizes, many are small, oval or cylinder in shape, we would need to allocate for that.
Lets move on to the visitors experience, and explore what that might look like, gondolas, boat rides, trains and monorails, will not cut it for Aquariums, we are not building Sea World (even though you could if you wanted to) we are talking about aquariums and marine parks, this would be a completely different territory for Frontier, since they would need visitors to interact with animals like sting rays, can you imagine an aquarium without this very basic feature, much like a zoo without birds, and how did this work out? You would want to implement the ability for visitors to swim with certain animal species as many aquariums create substantial revenue from this. You will want to add animal presentations, regardless of how anyone feels about them, they are a part of Aquariums in most of the world, so if you add dolphins, you will want to have trainers come in and interact with them in some sort of stage that can of course be customized by players, I'm not talking about Sea World spectacles here, but animal interactive presentations that could include dolphins, otters, sea lions, penguins and so on.
Now Iben I know you are creative builder just like me, and you will appreciate this next point I will make. While a great portion of casual players might assume that the construction assets for an Aquarium are already found in the game, minus the complementary scenery this is far from the truth. Most of the construction in Planet Zoo takes places outdoors, and players heavily rely on the beautiful foliage and ground texture found in the game. Realistic Aquariums would take place mostly indoors, needing for a much greater range of materials and props to what is currently found in the game. You be able to create realistic building interiors and true architectural blueprints, you would need a much greater variety of constructions pieces, of all sizes and shapes, currently not part of the game. Even the best building interiors I have seen in this game from players, and not only lacking, but fall short of realism. In an Aquarium DLC this truth would be much more self evident, since almost every asset and component that defines an aquarium would need to be added to the game. One of the biggest complaints now in the game is the lack of props that relate directly to zoos, behind the scene assets and so on. Imagine the outcry in an Aquarium game. If anyone even has a basic concept of everything that goes into play to make an aquarium run efficiently, you would know first hand that we would need a much greater number and variety of facilities added. I suggest anyone with an interest in this, take a behind the scenes tour of the Georgia Aquarium, they do a great job in showing visitors what it takes to run one of this facilities. It would literally blow your mind.
The list goes on and on, from new staff added to the game to new visitor behaviors and understanding of the terrain and layout (highly unlikely based on the current peeps being clons of Planet Coaster) Now if you think that all of this can be easily implemented then all I can say if that your expectations of Frontier are even higher than mine. Honestly when I suggested that a Planet Aquarium game could be in the horizon for Frontier, what I really meant is that it is definitely a possibility for the Future, meaning 3 to 4 years down the line. There is nothing that suggests that such a massive enterprise would be in the works currently, as their attention is sadly focused on car racing now last i heard.
In any case, as I mention before Aquariums, maybe not the way some expected them, but incredibly realistic looking aquariums are already possible. I'm currently working on a large scale project, that would love to share with the forum once it is complete, have invested close to 2000 hours on it already, but it is still a long way to go.
What you are saying makes a lot of sense regarding the dogma of the game. Yes I am new to the game and very excited about it and love the educational aspects of it. I have been on the lookout for games that are creative and educational and this fits. I was not aware of the controversial issues surrounding some animals..however, that makes sense. I will have to look up the Georgia Aquarium and educate myself more in this area.
