Spring 2024 DLC Speculation

It is confirmed that a dlc is coming by the end of may, the dlc is delayed but definitely not being skipped over unless frontier is ignoring their own financial report which is extremely unlikely.
I'm not sure why people keep speculating about this one. Hah. They'd be lying to shareholders if they don't deliver on that. Things can always change and they could communicate through different channels or whatever if that changes but... Something drastic would have had to have happened between now and then.

It could be as simple as them saying to their team, "take your time on the spring DLC; we're delaying the release a few weeks to accommodate the console drop" rather than it being some wild scenario.

Now here is a question, to match what I said above, is there any animal you don’t particularly want but would actually be happy with their inclusion?
Markhor! This is an animal that I don't really need but I would be happy with its inclusion. Others I'd probably just shrug on (e.g., hamadryas).

So lets turn this into a game then:

Make a finale pack that has your ideal 16 animals, arguably the best number of animals realistically.
Then, sacrifice 4 from it and bring it down to 12, the "if we get lucky" number of animals.
Cross off another 4 and bring it down to 8, probably the most realistic number of animals outcome.
And finally the worst outcome, remove 3 and be left with 5, the disaster outcome of the finale pack being a scenery pack.
You must have 1 exhibit animal from the 16 list all the way to the last 5.
All of my packs would be generic/catch-all with the exception of the "scenery" pack...

16 Animal Pack (Best):
  • Latin America (6 species): Coati, Tamandua, Golden Lion Tamarin, Ocelot, Black Howler Monkey, Scarlet Ibis
  • North America (3 species): NA Porcupine, NA River Otter, Burrowing Owl
  • Africa (2 species): Hornbill, Bat-eared fox
  • Asia (2 species): Reeve's Muntjac, Cloud Rat
  • Oceania (2 species): Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo, Sugar Glider
  • Exhibit (1 species): Macaw
12 Animal Pack (Lucky):
  • Latin America (4 species): Coati, Ocelot, Black Howler Monkey, Scarlet Ibis
  • North America (3 species): NA Porcupine, NA River Otter, Burrowing Owl
  • Africa (1 species): Hornbill
  • Asia (2 species): Reeve's Muntjac, Cloud Rat
  • Oceania (1 species): Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo
  • Exhibit (1 species): Macaw
Regular 8-Species Animal Pack (Realisticoutcome):
  • Latin America (3 species): Coati, Black Howler Monkey, Scarlet Ibis
  • North America (1 species): NA Porcupine
  • Africa (1 species): Hornbill
  • Asia (1 species): Reeve's Muntjac
  • Oceania (1 species): Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo
  • Exhibit (1 species): Macaw
Scenery Pack (Worst): Arboreal Animals
  • Tree Kangaroo
  • Coati
  • Tamandua
  • Scarlet Ibis
  • Exhibit: Jackson's chameleon
 
What are your top 3 animal picks for each represented Class? (Or all of them if less than 3)

The represented classes are Mammals, Birds, Reptiles, Amphibians, Arachnids, Insects, Centipedes (happy to include Millipedes) & Gastropods.

You also have the option to include top 3 picks for the categories "Other Vertebrates" & "Other Invertebrates"
Mammals:
  1. Goodfellow's Tree Kangaroo
  2. South American Coati
  3. Geoffroy's Spider Monkey
Birds:
  1. Red-legged Seriema
  2. Greater Roadrunner
  3. Kakapo
Reptiles:
  1. African Spurred Tortoise
  2. Perentie
  3. Tomistoma
Amphibians:
  1. Olm
  2. Mexican Burrowing Caecilian
  3. Common Toad
Other Vertebrates/Fish:
  1. Red-bellied Piranha
  2. Common Sea Horse
  3. Ocellaris Clownfish
Insects:
  1. Lord Howe Island Stick Insect
  2. European Stag Beetle
  3. Leaf Cutter Ant
Arachnids:
  1. Peacock Spider (Maratus volans)
  2. Kenyan Deathstalker
  3. Colombian Whip Scorpion (Mastigoproctus colombianus)
Centipedes/Millipedes:
  1. Giant African Millipede
  2. Mediterranean Banded Centipede
  3. Galapagos Centipede
Gastropods:
  1. Banana Slug
  2. Mediterranean Green Snail
  3. Giant African Land Snail
Other Invertebrates:
  1. European Lobster
  2. Indigo Velvet Worm
  3. Atlantic Ghost Crab
 
Mosquito WTE
Guests hand feeding the animals is sorely needed:

WTVT-Still-2023-04-25-06h36m28s920.jpg
to2lxwez9oo11.jpg


I can imagine "Please feed these animals" signage everywhere in that exhibit.
 
So lets turn this into a game then:

Make a finale pack that has your ideal 16 animals, arguably the best number of animals realistically.
Then, sacrifice 4 from it and bring it down to 12, the "if we get lucky" number of animals.
Cross off another 4 and bring it down to 8, probably the most realistic number of animals outcome.
And finally the worst outcome, remove 3 and be left with 5, the disaster outcome of the finale pack being a scenery pack.
You must have 1 exhibit animal from the 16 list all the way to the last 5.
16 animals Around The World pack:

G. Rhea
Andean Bear
P. Mara
Spider Monkey
Coati or Tamandua
Ocelot
Roseate Spoonbill
White pelican
Musk Ox
Sea Otter
Mandarin Duck
Markhor
Golden Snub-nosed monkey
Grey Crowned Crane
Baboon (any) or Black and White Colobus
Chameleon (any) E

12 animals pack (American animals)
Andean Bear
Rhea
Mara
Spider Monkey
Coati or Tamandua
Ocelot
R. Spoonbill
Brown Pelican
Wood Duck
Sea Otter
Musk Ox
Basilisk (E)

8 animals (Americas)
Andean Bear
Coati
Mara
Spider Monkey
Ocelot
R. Spoonbill
Sea Otter
Basilisk (E)

5 animals (Latin America)
Coati
Andean Bear
Mara (or maybe ocelot?)
Spider Monkey
Basilisk (E)
 
So lets turn this into a game then:

Make a finale pack that has your ideal 16 animals, arguably the best number of animals realistically.
Then, sacrifice 4 from it and bring it down to 12, the "if we get lucky" number of animals.
Cross off another 4 and bring it down to 8, probably the most realistic number of animals outcome.
And finally the worst outcome, remove 3 and be left with 5, the disaster outcome of the finale pack being a scenery pack.
You must have 1 exhibit animal from the 16 list all the way to the last 5.

16:
1. Pelican
2. Coati
3. Howler
4. Rhea
5. Mara
6. Wicuña
7. Musk ox
8. Père David’s deer
9. Tree kangaroo
10. Baboon
11. Serval
12. Gray crowned crane
13. Andean bear
14. Lion tailed macaque
15. Sumatran rhino
16. WTE: Golden lion tamarin

12:
1. Pelican
2. Coati
3. Howler
4. Rhea
5. Mara
6. Wicuña
7. Musk ox
8. Père David’s deer
9. Tree kangaroo
10. Baboon
11. Serval
12. WTE: Golden lion tamarin

8:
1. Pelican
2. Coati
3. Howler
4. Musk ox
5. Père David’s deer
6. Tree kangaroo
7. Baboon
8. WTE: Golden lion tamarin

4:
1. Pelican
2. Coati
3. Père David’s deer
4. Baboon
5. WTE: Golden lion tamarin
 
I wonder with console being released this week if we will see steamdb update? Or maybe just sometime within the next two weeks. Granted I wouldn’t be surprised if the final dlc drops in late May as opposed to early May.
 
Literally tons of , especally once you consider the fact that this "management game" lacks any management
Some examples of areas in use of a free update desicated to them:
  • Staff Management, letting them specialise, having things like an actual staff plan with not all staff available at all times due to different shifts, holidays and injurys
  • Everything vet related, from unlocking the option to vaccinate your animals once you researched an illness to higher death rates in general and things like complication in childbirth
  • animals actually displaying signs when they are ill, for example eating less, being less active, sleeping more, limping, etc and maybe even the addition of unhealthy behaviours for animals who dont hsve their wellfare met, like pacing up and down, sleeping alot, inhuring them self, etc
  • Guests being less of a pain that only wants to eat and drink
  • Alot more ways to education, for example being able to designate topics to pieces cause yk custom signage, which will educate the guests about that topic with a bonus when matching educational topics of an animal, for example if the topic tag is "Invasive species" then having notorious invaders like red fox, racoon and wild boar near by would give an education boost
  • Plant Pedia
  • Play grounds
  • Exhibit update
  • Giving bathing, chorus and deep diving to more animals
  • more new behaviours in general
  • new colormorphs
  • Model updates

I think you get the point
 
Now that it's clear that they're not releasing a DLC around the same time as console, I think two possible dates are the 23th of April or the 28th of May. Both are then followed directly by a Frontier Recap stream, and my assumption is that rather than preceding the DLC with a stream they're now doing it the other way around.
 
Now that it's clear that they're not releasing a DLC around the same time as console, I think two possible dates are the 23th of April or the 28th of May. Both are then followed directly by a Frontier Recap stream, and my assumption is that rather than preceding the DLC with a stream they're now doing it the other way around.
Honestly I don’t know how much time they spent on the dlc, like if they are working on it in tandem with the console or not. I would not be surprised if the dlc is on the 28th of May. I’m gonna guess after console they need as much time as they can get, without going against their promise of another dlc in this financial cycle.
 
Honestly I don’t know how much time they spent on the dlc, like if they are working on it in tandem with the console or not. I would not be surprised if the dlc is on the 28th of May. I’m gonna guess after console they need as much time as they can get, without going against their promise of another dlc in this financial cycle.
Well we've known for a very long while now that they work on DLC's further in advance than the 3 months between DLCs, that's something that was mentioned by Frontier and was already clear back in the day with the SEA leaks.

One of the biggest parts of development is planning, so if they want to release it in April, they'll have started the work for the DLC accordingly. 🤷‍♂️
 
Well we've known for a very long while now that they work on DLC's further in advance than the 3 months between DLCs, that's something that was mentioned by Frontier and was already clear back in the day with the SEA leaks.

One of the biggest parts of development is planning, so if they want to release it in April, they'll have started the work for the DLC accordingly. 🤷‍♂️
Yeah I figured they don’t crunch 5-8 animals in 3 months, makes me wonder if console pushed anything back though. I’m gonna guess it was probably planned for accordingly. Which makes me kind of excited! This dlc is taking awhile to cook in the oven so I’m curious to see how it turns out.
 
Also, in retrospective I should have said this when I first shared the link, I known we've been joking with the video, but DO NOT under the circumstances harass, chastise, or leave negative comments for LionRider.
We can have fun with a video of his that aged like milk (he even says so), but he did literally nothing wrong and if anyone pulls a stunt after I shared the link, I'm going to be really, really, really mad.
 
Some examples of areas in use of a free update desicated to them:
  • Staff Management, letting them specialise, having things like an actual staff plan with not all staff available at all times due to different shifts, holidays and injurys
  • Everything vet related, from unlocking the option to vaccinate your animals once you researched an illness to higher death rates in general and things like complication in childbirth
  • animals actually displaying signs when they are ill, for example eating less, being less active, sleeping more, limping, etc and maybe even the addition of unhealthy behaviours for animals who dont hsve their wellfare met, like pacing up and down, sleeping alot, inhuring them self, etc
  • Guests being less of a pain that only wants to eat and drink
  • Alot more ways to education, for example being able to designate topics to pieces cause yk custom signage, which will educate the guests about that topic with a bonus when matching educational topics of an animal, for example if the topic tag is "Invasive species" then having notorious invaders like red fox, racoon and wild boar near by would give an education boost
  • Plant Pedia
  • Play grounds
  • Exhibit update
  • Giving bathing, chorus and deep diving to more animals
  • more new behaviours in general
  • new colormorphs
  • Model updates

I think you get the point
Planet Zoos current time system is way too fast, but I would love to have seasonal management systems. This time I’m not talking about anything to do with animals. I’m talking about special discounts, events, and other things you can plan around the zoo! Here, I’ll go by season:
  • Fall: this one is common, but a Boo at the Zoo. This Halloween event would have special decorations that can be placed around the zoo, think the twilight pack for a very intentional example. Guests will react positively to the scenery, and if you have your zoo in a colder area it is a good way to boost visitors. The Boo at the Zoo event can even have staff dress up, and could culminate into a Halloween night event. Maybe candy can be given to children NPCs. You could also have a generic Harvest type event, maybe with less pumpkins and ghosts and more leaves and scarecrows.
  • Winter: Christmas is obvious, and the first thing I can think of is Santa at the Zoo! You can hire a special staff member to dress as Santa, which drastically boosts winter engagement. For those who don’t celebrate Christmas, I imagine a Winter Lights event where you can place special glow in the dark decorations. At least for zoos where I am from, Winter is the slowest season. So it would be cool if that could be reflected in game, and winter events can turn that around!
  • Spring: spring has sprung! I honestly can’t think of much for Spring. It’s a bit of an awkward middle stage, at least for where I am from. I can imagine a Spring Flowers event. Where guests can buy native flowers to help pollinators. Easter is another obvious one, like Santa you can hire a special Easter Bunny, and the kids can collect eggs!
  • Summer: ok, here is the big guy! Brew at the Zoo could be a special adult only event, boosting engagement and (intentionally expensive) sale of alcohol. Downside is more security might be needed. Obviously this game might not allow alcohol, so a more safe idea would be Summer Lights. This is the counterpart to the winter light show. Same idea as before, bright signs and statues decorate the zoo for visitors to see at night! The biggest one would be Summer Camps. Hire a special staff member, and place down a special building type, and you can begin hosting summer camps for the kids. Drastically boost community engagement as well as acting like an educational tool. A think it would be cool to have a Summer Volunteer Program as well. Get free labor, and as these staff members gain experience you can eventually hire them. These new experienced staff members will be more efficient than just hiring a random person off the rip.
So that was my ideas for some seasonal management, but I also want to get into Conservation management ideas:
  • You can join a fictional AZA/ EAZA type organization, with perks being higher guest confidence in your zoos, increased staff experience, and better research into animal care being at your disposal. The downside is the standards for your animals welfare are 10x higher, they won’t settle for less! Also a certain percent of your income is expected to go to conservation, this can be money to protect habitats, breeding programs, field research, etc.
  • You can hire a new staff member called the researcher. They can work with the zoos veterinarians to gather data on the animals in your zoos, or you can send them to the field to work with animals in the wild. The researcher can also help with animal breeding, allowing endangered species to breed better in your care. A real world example is how the Bronx Zoo was able to breed and save a type of spray toad that almost went extinct. Or the wild horse, golden Lion tamarins, and California condors also work as great examples.
  • Animals you release into the wild can be tracked, and you can get updates on them as you go along!
 
Back
Top Bottom