Spring 2024 DLC Speculation

[Milurian]

Marketing only matters if there's an audience. The main point is that according to all the reports we've had access to (financial report, Steam data) engagement with the game has been declining even with new DLC. There's always a spike, but overall there are less people playing and buying than there were to begin with. That's normal with any game.

We might get another year of DLC, or another half year, or only two more. We don't know the ins-and-outs of Frontier's finances. We don't know their overheads. All we know is that PZ is profitable right now.

Anyway, hoping and expecting are two very different things. I will always caution against expecting anything at all, because that's pretty much a self-own if you don't get what you want.

Planet zoos has been repeatably been displayed as their strongest own ip title and has an 80% sustain rate in yearly profits which is good for a game.
I personally think 2024 will get all 4 dlc and 2025 might get a spring pack to push to the next financial year. This is my own personal opinion so I could be totally wrong.

 

[sumcherish82]

Planet zoos has been repeatably been displayed as their strongest own ip title and has an 80% sustain rate in yearly profits which is good for a game.
I personally think 2024 will get all 4 dlc and 2025 might get a spring pack to push to the next financial year. This is my own personal opinion so I could be totally wrong.

If frontier provide dlcs until 2025, they should give us some game changing features such as aviary to attract general game players

 

[IndianRhino19]

Assuming that we get an animal pack in December (most likely highlands), I would guess that the Spring DLC would be a scenery pack. I’m betting on Latin America with the following animals:

Black Howler Monkey
Collared Peccary
Greater Rhea
South American Coati
Exhibit: Eyelash Viper

 

[NZFanatic]

I agree it tells us nothing about what support will look like.
We have no idea how well the game is doing in frontiers eyes we have no idea if its meeting or exceeding expectation we have no idea what support will look like going forward All we truly know is that whatever is coming it wont be unexpected to frontier it wont be a sudden welp we have run out of funding so we have to stop it will have been planned whether that means the games ends spring next year or in 40 years who knows.

This forum is labelled speculation for a reason

My concern is that a lot of people seem unable to imagine support actually ending. We're four years in - the game has exceeded the original expected lifespan (3 years, based on Coaster). Maybe we get another year of support, sure, but that's still only one year. The ever-shrinking core of players can't sustain it alone forever.

 

[yoav_r]

Do we really need this thread yet?

 

[NZFanatic]

Do we really need this thread yet?

The winter one was started at the same time as the autumn one.

 

[QueenCinna]

I hope the game gets more support than we expect.

Realistically I am aware there is likely only a few packs left if that.

 

[QueenCinna]

yeah I have had it in my head for a while now that they are following the ingame tags to make sure they cover everything The have already done at least 3 of the biomes as well aquatic, grasslands and tropical arid to me is like australia and south east asia where technically it covers the biome its just not named that so we may still see a desert pack.
I definitely see asia being a potential theme since alot of the animals people want especially for highlands are central asian animals.

I want to add to this. I've listed the biomes and regions in game. Named packs are in bold.

Biomes:

Temperate​

Tropical​

Grasslands​

Desert​

Taiga​

Tundra​

Aquatic​

​

Regions:

Africa​

Asia​

Australia​

Oceania​

Europe​

North America​

South America​

Central America​

Artic​

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​

(If I am wrong on the region tags let me know I'm doing this from memory I don't have the game in front of me right now).​

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​

So that leaves us with six tags that don't have a pack directly sharing their names.​

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My animal picks are solely based on animals I want to see in game.​

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Temperate - arguably Oceania is a stealthy temperate pack but they both have their own tags.​

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American Black Bear​

Short Beaked Echidna​

Bobcat​

Tree Kangaroo​

Kleinmanns Tortise​

Scenery is Rustic Horizontal Log cabins. Flexicolour leaves and nice mushrooms not the weird twilight ones.​

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Desert - we do have the arid pack so I have mixed thoughts about getting one. Would be nice to have some of our missing hot climate species​

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Greater Bilby​

Arabian Oryx​

Hamadryas Baboon​

Perentie​

Dik Dik​

Coyote​

Desert Bighorn sheep​

Thorny Devil​

​

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Taiga - could be a way for us to see some of our mountain animals added into the game​

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Tahr​

Gelada​

Patagonian Mara​

Roosevelt Elk​

Blue spot salamander​

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Tundra - could be awful, could be great​

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Wolverine​

Musk ox​

Artic hare​

Walrus or leopard seal​

Exhibit: European adder​

Scenery: style that pays respect to Eskimo, Inuit, and Sami cultures.​

​

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Asia - I think this is a likely pack. not necessarily my picks, but definitely the pack.​

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Golden snub nosed monkey​

Takin​

Markhor​

Golden pheasant​

Muntjac​

Yellow throated pine marten​

Saiga​

King cobra​

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Central America - clearly a huge demand for one.​

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Ocelot​

Brazilian Agouti​

Coatimundi​

Geoffrey's Spider monkey​

Black Howler monkey​

Cotton top tamarin​

Tamandua​

Common basilisk​

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So, what are your thoughts? Do you think that these packs could be in our future? What line up would you hope to see?​

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I will edit to add my own picks in later.​

Edited: added my picks​

 

[NZFanatic]

IMO they'd be better of fusing taiga and tundra into one pack if they're doing it that way. Then again, in the game alpine biomes come under taiga, so who knows? I struggle to think of even four "necessary" species for the tundra biome; the muskox is really the only one (wolverine, too, but I imagine it fits taiga more closely). There are some species in demand, like the walrus, but they're not really "zoo animals" in the sense that there are so few of them in captivity, and there's the whole controversey around them being de-tusked. A few people have thrown in the Arctic hare or snowshoe hare, but that one just feels like a "I can't think of anything else" choice than something people actually want.

Snow goose? Perhaps. Atlantic puffin? Doubtful. A different polar seal? Leopard seal? Maybe. A fourth penguin? I want the gentoo, but I don't think everyone else does.

 

[The Carcharodontogenius]

Leopard seal?

I prefer Southern Elephant Seal.

 

[QueenCinna]

IMO they'd be better of fusing taiga and tundra into one pack if they're doing it that way. Then again, in the game alpine biomes come under taiga, so who knows? I struggle to think of even four "necessary" species for the tundra biome; the muskox is really the only one (wolverine, too, but I imagine it fits taiga more closely). There are some species in demand, like the walrus, but they're not really "zoo animals" in the sense that there are so few of them in captivity, and there's the whole controversey around them being de-tusked. A few people have thrown in the Arctic hare or snowshoe hare, but that one just feels like a "I can't think of anything else" choice than something people actually want.

Snow goose? Perhaps. Atlantic puffin? Doubtful. A different polar seal? Leopard seal? Maybe. A fourth penguin? I want the gentoo, but I don't think everyone else does.

I have the tendency to throw arctic hares at the tundra pack, but I actually want a lagomorph in the game, it is the largest hare species, and imo the nicest looking out of the non domestic lagomorphs. I also think it would be nice variation in that pack and having it here vs a mountain hare or European rabbit leaves slots open in other spaces for more interesting animals. I wouldn't mind seeing a vole in the exhibit but that's probably not going to happen.
I wouldn't mind:

Wolverine
Musk ox
Arctic hare - it's my best chance for a rabbit although ermine or lemming could just as easily swap into this place. Ermine brings us a small Carnivore.
Walrus - you have good points about it not having a high zoo presence, I think Frontier has been unafraid to add animals in that aren't high in captivity before - proboscis monkey, brown throated sloth, spectacled flying fox come to mind.
Exhibit I am in two minds, the Siberian newt is an amphibian I find interesting, but the European Adder is visually much more interesting.
Scenery - items that pay homage to indigenous native tribes, thinking of Eskimo, Inuit, Sami

 

[Aramar]

Then again, in the game alpine biomes come under taiga, so who knows?

I never understood why the Alps and part of the Himalayas are under taiga and then Andes are only under tundra.

A tundra pack is possible:
Musk ox: no need to explain
Walrus: popular and iconic. It's not very common in zoos worldwide, but that hasn't stopped Frontier from making the Oceania pack with several animals found in few zoos, apart from Himalayan brown bear, proboscis monkey or even the giant panda.
Wolverine: their distribution map covers both taiga and tundra, so it fits perfectly
North American river otter or Eurasian otter: That makes 3 unique popular animals, so the last one must be a clone-ish animal. Now that we got s third penguin, I'm leaning more towards one of the cold biome otters

Other option for a clone-ish animal: Siberian crane.

 

[NZFanatic]

I have the tendency to throw arctic hares at the tundra pack, but I actually want a lagomorph in the game

I mean, your choices are your choices, but this isn't an opinion I've ever really understood. Do Arctic hares feature in a lot of zoos? I know domestic rabbits tend to - petting zoos, barnyards, children's zoos, and the like - but aside from one or two collections holding pikas I can't say I've ever heard of a zoo putting much of a focus on lagomorphs.

 

[NZFanatic]

Wolverine: their distribution map covers both taiga and tundra, so it fits perfectly
North American river otter or Eurasian otter: That makes 3 unique popular animals, so the last one must be a clone-ish animal. Now that we got s third penguin, I'm leaning more towards one of the cold biome otters

You see, though, both of these could easily fill out the roster in a taiga pack (and frankly I think the sea otter is hands-down the more likely third otter).

 

[Aramar]

You see, though, both of these could easily fill out the roster in a taiga pack (and frankly I think the sea otter is hands-down the more likely third otter).

Of course they can fit in a taiga pack, but that doesn't mean there can't be a tundra pack, especially when there are many other animals that can also fit in a taiga pack, so making a tundra pack with those two could free some slots in a taiga pack.

For example, the porcupine could have fit in the grasslands pack, but they put it in the arid pack instead. There are many more examples of animals that could fit in several packs. Or a reverse example, fossa and Tasmanian devil could have fit an island pack, but we got them both and no islands pack.

 

[The Carcharodontogenius]

I never understood why the Alps and part of the Himalayas are under taiga and then Andes are only under tundra.

A tundra pack is possible:
Musk ox: no need to explain
Walrus: popular and iconic. It's not very common in zoos worldwide, but that hasn't stopped Frontier from making the Oceania pack with several animals found in few zoos, apart from Himalayan brown bear, proboscis monkey or even the giant panda.
Wolverine: their distribution map covers both taiga and tundra, so it fits perfectly
North American river otter or Eurasian otter: That makes 3 unique popular animals, so the last one must be a clone-ish animal. Now that we got s third penguin, I'm leaning more towards one of the cold biome otters

Other option for a clone-ish animal: Siberian crane.

Muskox & Walrus are better in a Polar Animal Pack:

1. Southern Elephant Seal.
2. Orca.
3. Muskox.
4. Eurasian Brown Bear.
5. Chinstrap Penguin.
6. Weddell Seal.
7. Walrus.
8. Beluga Whale.
9. Colossal Squid
10. Snowy Owl [WE].

 

[Aramar]

Muskox & Walrus are better in a Polar Animal Pack:

1. Southern Elephant Seal.
2. Orca.
3. Muskox.
4. Eurasian Brown Bear.
5. Chinstrap Penguin.
6. Weddell Seal.
7. Walrus.
8. Beluga Whale.
9. Colossal Squid
10. Snowy Owl [WE].

Sorry, but I think my idea is much more likely

 

[The Carcharodontogenius]

Sorry, but I think my idea is much more likely

We all have our opinions.

 

[NZFanatic]

We all have our opinions.

Yes but yours includes whales, multiple pinnipeds, a squid science barely knows anything about, a flying bird, and ten animals, so it's guaranteed not to happen.

 

[NZFanatic]

Of course they can fit in a taiga pack

My point being that they're more likely to show up in a taiga-themed pack than a tundra one (given those are the two themes we're discussing, not any other hypothetical variations of them).