Spring 2024 DLC Speculation

[Narwhaler]

Definitely would explain why we didn’t have the baboon in arid. Honestly the big part holding this final pack roster together would be monkeys, because even though we can tell frontier is getting more comfortable with birds, we still haven’t seen them add more primates than usual, specifically monkeys. Imo we need a new world monkey and a baboon in the finale pack.

I know it might sound like a pretty silly idea, but that would kind of explain why they picked such random oddballs in some of the packs of last year. I feel that perhaps they have been working on additional animals in the shadows, so that they had enough work done to finish the final pack in time? If that makes sense that is.

Edit: I am starting to believe that a random choice such as the quokka was perhaps an addition to "pave the way" to the tree kangaroo, if you think about it, the quokka and the tree kangaroo are anatomically very similar, the only difference is that tree kangaroos are larger and have longer arms, perhaps they made the quokka so they could then add the tree kangaroo more easily on a later date? With the quokka very much finished making a tree kangaroo is a much easier task now, and we know climbing has been tested on the quokka because there are leftover chimp climbing animation files in the quokka ovl file.

Oh also a fun fact: the Tasmanian devil can climb (they have the full set of climbing animations) and the kiwi can swim (but it's disabled ingame).

 

[CharlieXGaming]

I know it might sound like a pretty silly idea, but that would kind of explain why they picked such random oddballs in some of the packs of last year. I feel that perhaps they have been working on additional animals in the shadows, so that they had enough work done to finish the final pack in time? If that makes sense that is.

Yeah, because let’s say they have the regular 3 months to make the 8 they normally would for an animal pack, then if they make one additional animal for every pack that they kept hidden for the past 4-5 packs (although grasslands did t really have a wildcard) then that would add up to at least 12. And I can kinda understand their method because if we got all the ones we asked for in the previous packs then there wouldn’t be any big hits left for a finale pack.

 

[Orkan]

I know it might sound like a pretty silly idea, but that would kind of explain why they picked such random oddballs in some of the packs of last year. I feel that perhaps they have been working on additional animals in the shadows, so that they had enough work done to finish the final pack in time? If that makes sense that is.

What could we get then?
The obvious leave out for Tropical was a New World Monkey or Coati, both of which I would be happy with
Arid was definitely a baboon
Oceania was the Tree kangaroo
Eurasia was honestly probably the Raccoon Dog or Pallas’ Cat, but those aren’t super labor-intensive.

 

[CharlieXGaming]

Oceania was the Tree kangaroo
Eurasia was honestly probably the Raccoon Dog or Pallas’ Cat, but those aren’t super labor-intensive.

The tree kangaroo would need immense work, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they saw that there are no big sellers left for Eurasia and put more time towards the tree roo.

 

[Captain Callum]

I wouldn’t be surprised if they saw that there are no big sellers left for Eurasia and put more time towards the tree roo.

Sad monkey noises

 

[Narwhaler]

The tree kangaroo would need immense work, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they saw that there are no big sellers left for Eurasia and put more time towards the tree roo.

The tree kangaroo is not as hard as you may think, specially when it would be very much a large quokka with climbing animations. In essence it has never been a huge deal (idk why people think it is? Is it because of the climbing?) when we have 3 kangaroos in the game already, the only substantial work is the climbing which isn't an herculean task either.

 

[RightWhale]

So I gues best case scenario would be 16 animals with what a lot of the last packs have been missing:

1. New world monkey
2. Baboon
3. Pallas cat
4. Tree Kangaroo
5. A domestic animal
6. Blackbuck
7. A tortoise maybe? Or a crocodile
8. Birds??????
9. A cobra maybe?????

Honestly the possibility of a bigger pack with a larger theme actually makes it harder for me to think of what comes next

 

[RightWhale]

Yeah, because let’s say they have the regular 3 months to make the 8 they normally would for an animal pack, then if they make one additional animal for every pack that they kept hidden for the past 4-5 packs (although grasslands did t really have a wildcard) then that would add up to at least 12. And I can kinda understand their method because if we got all the ones we asked for in the previous packs then there wouldn’t be any big hits left for a finale pack.

Imagine after all this time they actually have been ironing out birds in the WTE, I would laugh like a crazy person

 

[Doran]

I can already feel bad for this pack.

 

[Captain Callum]

I still feel bad for the arid pack, the supposed last pack will receive even more critical reponses.

 

[RightWhale]

Actually for funsies the last pack will have 5-8 slots available for WTE birds (don’t get your hopes up). Which species would you pick? Here would be mine:

1. Scarlet macaw
2. Toco toucan
3. Rainbow lorikeet
4. Budgies
5. Tropical pigeons (can’t remember a species right now)
6. Rainbow finch/ Zebra finch
7. Inca tern
8. Bee eaters

 

[CharlieXGaming]

Imagine after all this time they actually have been ironing out birds in the WTE, I would laugh like a crazy person

I mean they added looped pteranodons in JWEs final expansion…

 

[CharlieXGaming]

I can already feel bad for this pack.

I still feel bad for the arid pack, the supposed last pack will receive even more critical reponses.

Why are we all of a sudden turning negative people lol

 

[RightWhale]

I still feel bad for the arid pack, the supposed last pack will receive even more critical reponses.

I can already feel bad for this pack.

Yeah I just don’t know if Frontier can provide the expectations they set up, while I can agree part of it is on us, Frontier always being quiet about their development and choices hasn’t helped them. Considering we have no clue what the final pack is, I will not be surprised if it gets heavily scrutinized. Even if the criticism is fair or not.

 

[Captain Callum]

Why are we all of a sudden turning negative people lol

Doom talk week 2! Everyone becomes negative and doubts their huge wishlist.

 

[CharlieXGaming]

Doom talk week 2! Everyone becomes negative and doubts their huge wishlist.

That’s why I set my expectations really low, a baboon, waterfowl, a new world monkey at minimum and I’m good.

 

[Swjosdotschka]

This might be wishful thinking, but they seem to have invested so much time into the swan model... what if they really throw out 3 or 4 waterfowl in a much larger pack then we expect?
The sloth model has also only be used once. Spectacled Bear doesn't sound too far fetched, given the Meta Wishlist and their work on the Sloth Bear...
I dunno, just playing a bit "what if..." here. What rigs come to your mind that haven't been used much, can easily be re-used and would enable Frontier to bring out a larger (more expensive) DLC without leveling up the investment costs that much?

 

[Annie_konik]

I still feel bad for the arid pack, the supposed last pack will receive even more critical reponses.

Yeah, I always felt a bit sad to read all the criticism around Arid Pack. It's such a lovely DLC; it's one of my favorites, for sure.

Anyway, what if the final pack would be something like "Stars of the Zoo DLC," including impressive animals from many different categories, for example, very colorful, very loud, big horns, big teeth, and such?

My lineup for such a pack would look like this:

• Watussi Cattle - big horns (Markhor would also fit in this category)
• Baboon (not sure which species) - big teeth (optionally Walrus)
• Pere David's deer - big antlers
• Brown Pelican - big beak
• Spider Monkey - very agile
• G. Crowned Crane - very elegant
• Howler Monkey - very loud
• Patagonian Mara - very fast (the fastest rodent)
• Flemish Giant Rabbit - cute (or maybe a Sea Otter for this category)
• Echidna - bizarre (Aye-aye could also work)
• Scarlet Macaw or a Chameleon for the "colorful" category (WE or E), or maybe both?

The scenery would include several statues, for example, 12 in Classic style and 12 in Modern style, and a good number of new plants

 

[random goat]

This might be wishful thinking, but they seem to have invested so much time into the swan model... what if they really throw out 3 or 4 waterfowl in a much larger pack then we expect?
The sloth model has also only be used once. Spectacled Bear doesn't sound too far fetched, given the Meta Wishlist and their work on the Sloth Bear...
I dunno, just playing a bit "what if..." here. What rigs come to your mind that haven't been used much, can easily be re-used and would enable Frontier to bring out a larger (more expensive) DLC without leveling up the investment costs that much?

At this point in time, with Frontier devs teams shrinking more and more, even theoretically easy re-models may not be as 'easy' or rather 'quick to produce' as we might think. If they've struggled to get DLCs out in time in the past (we know this has been the case in various DLCs) I doubt they will manage to make a big expansion now even if most of the animals are re-using rigs. It's still dev time - perhaps several days work for a single person.

My realistic expectation would be a scenery + 8 animals pack, with 3-4 these animals having more unique rigs (eg. baboon, coati, tree roo, secretary bird), while the others could perfectly be the spectacled bear or a duck. In that regard I think it’s more realistic to get a howler monkey compared to a spider monkey, for instance. And with regards to ‘easy re-skins’, the crowned crane and squirrel monkey seem like good candidates.

 

[Veah]

At this point in time, with Frontier devs teams shrinking more and more, even theoretically easy re-models may not be as 'easy' or rather 'quick to produce' as we might think. If they've struggled to get DLCs out in time in the past (we know this has been the case in various DLCs) I doubt they will manage to make a big expansion now even if most of the animals are re-using rigs. It's still dev time - perhaps several days work for a single person.

My realistic expectation would be a scenery + 8 animals pack, with 3-4 these animals having more unique rigs (eg. baboon, coati, tree roo, secretary bird), while the others could perfectly be the spectacled bear or a duck. In that regard I think it’s more realistic to get a howler monkey compared to a spider monkey, for instance. And with regards to ‘easy re-skins’, the crowned crane and squirrel monkey seem like good candidates.

An easy way to add more content than in a regular pack even with the shrinking teams would be scraping the barrel and throwing in the stuff that was made (at least partially) for previous DLCs and then discarded. I remember the Torii gate and the stick insect, but there must be some more that we know and many more that we never knew.