FYI - also posted on Reddit as interested to hear viewpoints.
Since bats were introduced to Planet Zoo I have been absolutely baffled as to why there has been no follow up with birds. The state of play is we had bats in Twilight pack, butterflies in Grasslands pack, Sloth as WE in Tropical pack and now a normal exhibit in Arid pack. 2 packs since our last flying animals.
So I see four possible different scenarios -
1) Development is planned to continue further into the future (possibly into 2024). Bats were an experiment, Frontier have taken a few DLC’s out from flying to fine tune the mechanic in the background and then it will return, potentially with birds in future packs (this may have always been in the plan if packs are planned 6 months - a year in advance giving review and refinement time) . They may have taken on board feedback about the loops being obvious and developing an improved solution for the WE.
2) Frontier focuses resource for each pack based on complexities of the animals and needs. For Tropical pack brachiation was advanced, for the Arid pack the porcupine was complex and took up resource, which might have been focused on rather than developing other innovations (like flying) any further for now.
3) Bats were a test run to see how they were to develop and if the WE was well received. Either they took up too much resource to develop and are not financially viable, or Frontier assessed the response as not being enthusiastic enough to warrant development of birds.
4) Planet Zoo 2 is planned for the future and birds will be a bigger focus then. This would be a similar approach to Jurassic World Evolution 2. Frontier may be working on PlanCo 2 currently with a Planet Zoo sequel in development after that. New technology by then may support new features and mechanics in game.
I’ve seen speculation going around about Planet Zoo development continuing into 2024 and if this is true, where Frontier are still holding back headline animals for the future and continued development of the game remains financially viable (either which I see are at least possibilities), perhaps birds are just still being refined with a bigger focus in the future to hook the player base even longer.
I write this realising that birds can raise a lot of feelings for those who want them, those who don’t and this conversation is getting old, I’m just so confused by those bats and no follow up, when the community’s clearly hungry for more flying animals. It just doesn’t make business sense unless they are too complex and cost too much to develop each time.
I’m open to any thoughts, and just offer this as a constructive discussion.
Since bats were introduced to Planet Zoo I have been absolutely baffled as to why there has been no follow up with birds. The state of play is we had bats in Twilight pack, butterflies in Grasslands pack, Sloth as WE in Tropical pack and now a normal exhibit in Arid pack. 2 packs since our last flying animals.
So I see four possible different scenarios -
1) Development is planned to continue further into the future (possibly into 2024). Bats were an experiment, Frontier have taken a few DLC’s out from flying to fine tune the mechanic in the background and then it will return, potentially with birds in future packs (this may have always been in the plan if packs are planned 6 months - a year in advance giving review and refinement time) . They may have taken on board feedback about the loops being obvious and developing an improved solution for the WE.
2) Frontier focuses resource for each pack based on complexities of the animals and needs. For Tropical pack brachiation was advanced, for the Arid pack the porcupine was complex and took up resource, which might have been focused on rather than developing other innovations (like flying) any further for now.
3) Bats were a test run to see how they were to develop and if the WE was well received. Either they took up too much resource to develop and are not financially viable, or Frontier assessed the response as not being enthusiastic enough to warrant development of birds.
4) Planet Zoo 2 is planned for the future and birds will be a bigger focus then. This would be a similar approach to Jurassic World Evolution 2. Frontier may be working on PlanCo 2 currently with a Planet Zoo sequel in development after that. New technology by then may support new features and mechanics in game.
I’ve seen speculation going around about Planet Zoo development continuing into 2024 and if this is true, where Frontier are still holding back headline animals for the future and continued development of the game remains financially viable (either which I see are at least possibilities), perhaps birds are just still being refined with a bigger focus in the future to hook the player base even longer.
I write this realising that birds can raise a lot of feelings for those who want them, those who don’t and this conversation is getting old, I’m just so confused by those bats and no follow up, when the community’s clearly hungry for more flying animals. It just doesn’t make business sense unless they are too complex and cost too much to develop each time.
I’m open to any thoughts, and just offer this as a constructive discussion.
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