Spring 2024 DLC Speculation

Corail

C
Another thing that's important to understand about why people want manatees over other zoo animals, is how they've been used in several zoos in Europe.

Here are two examples : Beauval's Equatorial Dome ; and Burgers' Zoo's Mangrove. In both cases, those are big areas with several species and enclosures with manatees tank as the centerpiece - in two of the biggest, richest, most important zoos in Europe (and in the world).

Personally, that is why the manatee is my biggest wish : I want to be able to build such areas. They are not extremely common, but they are a sign of big, rich zoos who uses them as the centerpiece of Latin American areas. To me they're as central to South American areas (and domes, especially) as Giant Pandas are to East Asian areas in zoos. It makes them significantly, culturally distinct to other fully aquatics, who are basically always on the side (like most fish), or central to an aquarium area (like some sharks, rays, sea turtles, etc ; and cetaceans, which are central to dolphin parks kinda zoos but that's pretty controversial) which would be great to make but which we currently can't really make - so it doesn't really matter to me if we don't get it. But I did make an SA dome in one of my games, and I really wanted a manatee to go there, but we don't have it.

But, I reckon we probably won't get it. Not because it would be so hard to make - tbh I think we only need a few new animations for keepers - but mainly because I don't see frontier making fully aquatic animals just for the manatees, and never go back to this again ; and I don't see them releasing two full packs of fully aquatics to have a decent amount of fish for our aquarias.

When it comes to these new mechanics, I'm sometimes afraid that the decision to not have any non-habitat bird nor any aquarium is because they want those mechanics to come with Planet Zoo 2 - to be the innovation which would make us buy the sequel.
 

Narwhaler

Narwhaler
Corail said:
Another thing that's important to understand about why people want manatees over other zoo animals, is how they've been used in several zoos in Europe.

Here are two examples : Beauval's Equatorial Dome ; and Burgers' Zoo's Mangrove. In both cases, those are big areas with several species and enclosures with manatees tank as the centerpiece - in two of the biggest, richest, most important zoos in Europe (and in the world).

Personally, that is why the manatee is my biggest wish : I want to be able to build such areas. They are not extremely common, but they are a sign of big, rich zoos who uses them as the centerpiece of Latin American areas. To me they're as central to South American areas (and domes, especially) as Giant Pandas are to East Asian areas in zoos. It makes them significantly, culturally distinct to other fully aquatics, who are basically always on the side (like most fish), or central to an aquarium area (like some sharks, rays, sea turtles, etc ; and cetaceans, which are central to dolphin parks kinda zoos but that's pretty controversial) which would be great to make but which we currently can't really make - so it doesn't really matter to me if we don't get it. But I did make an SA dome in one of my games, and I really wanted a manatee to go there, but we don't have it.

But, I reckon we probably won't get it. Not because it would be so hard to make - tbh I think we only need a few new animations for keepers - but mainly because I don't see frontier making fully aquatic animals just for the manatees, and never go back to this again ; and I don't see them releasing two full packs of fully aquatics to have a decent amount of fish for our aquarias.

When it comes to these new mechanics, I'm sometimes afraid that the decision to not have any non-habitat bird nor any aquarium is because they want those mechanics to come with Planet Zoo 2 - to be the innovation which would make us buy the sequel.
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The manatee is up in the meta wishlist because it's the only fully aquatic mammal thats free of controversy, end of the story.
 

Tinou97

Tinou97
I want my walrus, only then I will be open to having manatee 😉 But indeed manatee is the only fully aquatic species I'd accept in PZ. For me aquariums should be the subject of another game. Not that they don't have their place in a zoo, it's just that to be realistic we need a lot (like A LOT) of species to fill the aquariums and we won't have that in PZ. Impossible. And I don't want to have like 5 species and have to rely on modsfor the rest. I would totally pay for a different game called Planet Aquarium (wink wink Frontier).
 

Captain Callum

Captain Callum
Tinou97 said:
I want my walrus, only then I will be open to having manatee 😉 But indeed manatee is the only fully aquatic species I'd accept in PZ. For me aquariums should be the subject of another game. Not that they don't have their place in a zoo, it's just that to be realistic we need a lot (like A LOT) of species to fill the aquariums and we won't have that in PZ. Impossible. And I don't want to have like 5 species and have to rely on modsfor the rest. I would totally pay for a different game called Planet Aquarium (wink wink Frontier).
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If fish is even a realistic suggestion for planet zoo or another game, I don't think we should have individual species for fish tanks as the exhibit or animal market would be even more bloated than it already is. Even downloading mods for a semi realistic diversity of fish, it takes a very long time to download and manage all those mods at once. I'm not talking about 5, 5 is easy, I'm thinking upwards of 20-30 mods working together to provide the best experience.

One suggestion is having individual species for large standout full aquatic animals like large fish, cetaceans, manatees etc but having small fish in groups. Like an actual small group of diverse fish of say 5-12 different species for each representative area such as a group of tropical reef fish for example. Sure games like megaaquarium have individual groups but that game is hardly realistic in regards to what one would expect in a recreation of a true aquarium tank.
 
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Narwhaler

Narwhaler
While I agree that a fully fledged aquarium game would be great, I also think that Planet Zoo on its own has enough features to have at least a small amount of marine species like Zoo Tycoon had, many zoological institutions combine land animals and aquarium species, not to mentions that many animals in planet zoo are present in aquariums like the penguins, seals and sea lions. Separating them completely is a huge mistake.
 

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
My biggest problem with fish is that theyd be harder to tickle in imo.
Lets look at flying birds.
If we got just one randomly in a pack as the new big thing or even got a scenery pack dedicated to them and tickle them into the game slowly afterwards, that would work just fine as birds, while special in the aviary part, can still easily fit the allready existing types of areas we got in the game.
If we just randomly got a snowy owl, then cool they now fit in perfectly with other tundra animals or just as a random filler animals.
Same for macaws, eagles, budgies, vultures, etc, theyd just fit somewhere neatly and thats nice for both them and the other animals in those regions.
Birds are not isolated.

Lets say we do the same with fish and we are giving them a full scenery pack on their own, with all the pieces and care to build nice fish tanks.
And suddenly we run in the problem of "uhm what now?".
So we got that pack and can build an aquarium, but is anyone actually satisfied with an aquarium with just 5 animals?
Lets say we get a nice mix for two spaces for the start, amazon and reef sound like the most important ones to cover.
Black tipped Reef sharks are common with a massive range, so we take those as our shark, clownfish and anemones are a must and go for the exhibit, Red lion fish are stunning looking while not moving much, so thats our final one for the ocean and for the amazonas ocellate river stingrays are beautiful and among the most common in zoos all around the globe and the arapaima is a classic.
Sounds like a good starting roster to me, but even then, the first 3 sound quite inconvenient to work around, while the ladder 2 only work cause they can be fit in the preexisting southamerica squad.
So focusing on freshwater fish is the name of the game right?
Maybe but now imagine they release the same two fresh water fish with african cyclids as the exhibits, a koi and a catfish maybe?
Im sure many of those casual players that would be targeted by an aquarium pack to get back into the game would be asking, wheres the shark, wheres the clown fish, where are the oceans, but unlike those frustrated about no penguins in the arctic pack i think those are more then deserved critcs.
So we either start with a rather mid roster and mind you, imo i still picked quite a banger and no brainer combination of animals, hoping it gets expanded, taking places in packs that at that point are juggling land animals, fish and hopefully flying birds, or we get an even worse starting roster cause frontier, or we get one pack and one or two extra stranglers before support comes to a stop which could be fine, maybe, potentially, but it feels wrong in a way i cant describe.
Technically every non african area started of like this, venturing into new frontiers 5 animals at a time, but with fish it just kind of feels to late.
Imo the best fish to add would be more on the end of living scenery then the main appeal, kois for outdoor ponds, a south american stingray for tropical houses and id be good there, but thats even less likly to happen.
Meanwhile the manatee is right there as a one and done solution, that fits right in as the would be most unique headliner animal in the game, representing the tropical waters of the americas and standing on its own. You can put a manatee in a big tank in its own house or a tropical house or even opentopped and whatever and just have it vibe there, no other aquatics needed. Sure they wont hurt the manatee, but what mix sounds more interesting? Manatees with stingrays or capuchin monkeys?
Manatees dont need other fully aquatics, while all others do, so it feels like the best first one and if it works well and frontier wants to extend the games life span again, then they can sprinkle in more fish aswell. I personally opperate on a + 1 year time span whenever talking about planet zoos future and i find it hard to see fish being worthwhile in a year when monkeys havent been worthwhile in 4 and still scoot around at just 4 in the game.
And if frontier cant even keep up with these more charismatic groups i doubt that we see more then one or two extra fish a year from them.
I trust them much more to give us flying birds consistently, as they are just much more charismatic and they can easily do like the aquatic pack and give us 4 less popular version first and then slam dunk the more popular ones afterward, for example golden Eagle => bald Eagle, King Vulture => Andean Condor, Great Grey Owl => Snowy Owl, Hyazint Macaw => Scarlet Macaw while also sprinkling in some others inbetween like budgies or a tucan.
I can see a slow and steady stream of them, without feeling like they take away from the packs but add to them, something i cant see for fish after half a year.
Maybe im also overthinking this hard, but imo if the game will be supported for longer, it defenetly needs some consistency in its quality and appeal over longer time, introducing birds slowly would feel like it would help that, letting them space out the last habitat animals that are really desired while offering something equally cool + some of the expected filler (i swear while i want this game to continue support for 3 more years and defenetly see the potential, i allready know that we will complete all bears, get atleast one cat a year if not most likly more and will rightfully drown in ungulates before we get our 7. monkey), meanwhile fish seem as labor intensive but less sustainable in a consistent flow.

TDLR cause this is long: Id prefer to just get the Manatee and a consistent flow of birds over the years that leaves room for other interesting additions beyond fillers in packs instead of getting both flying birds and fish, which would get old real quick and most likly tank dlc roster quality over time. And if i had to choose just one Birds >>>>>>>>> fish
 

CharlieXGaming

CharlieXGaming
I’d prefer no fully aquatic animals, no manatee and we continue with land animals and potentially birds if they decide to which I highly think not. I’ve accepted we probably won’t get birds/aquatics, so I’m now focused on getting my 4 remaining land animals; Gelada, Pelican, Spider Monkey and Aoudad.
 

Marvinb

Marvinb
While i agree with most points about why the manatee makes more sense than most other aquatics and could stand on his own, i still dont see it happen.
Making a completely new typ of animal happening just to use it once just feels wrong to me. Not to mention people will 100% ask for more and will get really disappointed when they wont add more. It like the bat but no birds situation all over again
 

Topaz Star

Topaz Star
In one way it's funny how people still have more faith in flying birds over aquatics. When years ago with zoo tycoon, they have already done aquatics but no flying birds.

I don't really expect any flying birds or aquatics anymore at the moment (except for maybe in WTE), but if we would get them I would be very surprised and happy. So yeah not expecting it, but if they say "here have an aquatics pack of 8 aquatic animals and that's it" I would still be extatic. Same for flying birds.
 

Marvinb

Marvinb
NachoB said:
I mean that roster is nice. I don't personally care about the NA porcupine and would take a rhea instead or a duck.
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Yeah id take a duck over it aswell, but it would feel weird to have a NA scenery set and only have 1 NA animal in the pack, and since the bear is kinda a given i added the porcupine as something that is common outside of NA (atleast all zoos near me got them).
Idk if we would get a duck directly after the swan so i went with the pheasant instead, which together with the muntjac as the mandatory ungulate of the pack would add to temperate asia. And the tuatara is just the best temperate exhibit animal option imo
 

Topaz Star

Topaz Star
A temperate pack for spring just seems too basic for me, like it's fine but it really doesn't excite me in anyway.

And I like the trend someone recently pointed out that all the scenery packs from 2023 have had a WTE while the animal packs have had the normal box exhibits. So I feel that if we are getting a scenery pack in the spring, which is likely, it will have a WTE.
 

Captain Callum

Captain Callum
Topaz Star said:
A temperate pack for spring just seems too basic for me, like it's fine but it really doesn't excite me in anyway.

And I like the trend someone recently pointed out that all the scenery packs from 2023 have had a WTE while the animal packs have had the normal box exhibits. So I feel that if we are getting a scenery pack in the spring, which is likely, it will have a WTE.
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Especially after eurasia which features a lot of animals commonly seen as temperate. I still feel will see the south america pack in spring following past year trends.
 
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