I’m gonna stay hopeful but realistic if that makes sense. Before the Europe pack we didn’t have special livestreams, so not having them isn’t necessarily a sign of the end to come. Same with things like layoffs, it’s not 100% linked to a sign that support is ending. That’s the hopeful side.
The realistic side is the game is 5 years old, lay-offs have happened, and Frontier may try to move onto other projects. The other side of being realistic is Planet Zoo is still making money, and as of the last report they would continue to support the game into 2024. Now they said that a month or more ago, and things can change.
The other thing is that the community has asked for stuff that Frontier can still make money on:
- Monkeys
- Habitat birds
- South America (monkeys and birds can really cover some of this, but we definitely need more)
- A domestic animal or two (For NA players like myself almost every zoo has a petting zoo)
- A return to Africa
- India representation such as the blackbuck
- The meta wishlist still has a ton of animals on it
So if Frontier decides to continue support they have a good batch of stuff to choose from. Now I just recommend we all stay optimistic, but let’s be realistic in that things don’t look great and support won’t last forever.
You raise some good points, optimism is good but it's probably not a bad idea to be a bit skeptically realistic as well. I'm now really hoping for two more packs. I can't help but feel like South America surely has to be revisited. The developers know that, I'm sure, as it's been pointed out as the worst represented continent for nearly two years now, if not more. The question is...does Frontier corporate and shareholders know that, and do they care they do know? in the grand scheme of things it comes down to money, and if the game's new content is projected to be profitable enough to continue to produce it.
Anyways - just my own personal take on things
1. Monkeys - already mentioning South America here, if it's revisited I would really hope we'd get 2 monkeys...at the very least one. The rest of the world, I'm not so sure. A baboon has been getting great discussion and votes on the lists, so I think if any other Non-South American Monkey were to be included, it would be a Baboon.
2. Habitat Birds - less optimistic here unfortunately. The Greater Rhea or Scarlet Ibis for South America seems possible. If we just have 2 or even 3 packs left, I think the best shot for more birds is a handful going into some kind of wrap up pack. Secretary Bird, Australian Pelican, Wild Turkey, Scarlet Ibis/Greater Rhea for representatives from various continents.
3. South America - already spoken of, and agree, and do think the most likely themes for remaining packs would be for the expanded region.
4. Domestic animals - would be nice, and realistic. I'm not very optimistic though.
5. Return to to Africa - I'm not saying that it wouldn't be great to have more African animals, and if we got an entire year's worth of content I could see one of the packs being such, but given it already had a biome focus, I would honestly cautiously hope for nothing more than maybe the Secretary Bird and a Baboon (FWIW the Shoebill is my most wanted from the region, but likely would take a backseat to those animals).
6. India representation - Blackbuck would be nice, it's mind boggling we don't have a Cobra yet, and I can see those added into a finale pack. I'm not very hopeful for more than that.
7. The Meta list - will always have a ton of animals on it, and there will always be an animal on top of the list. We could get the top 100 animals and there would still be an animal on top of the list, likely holding its own with a dozen votes at that point.
