Spring 2024 DLC Speculation

Are there any biomes you think would be an interesting theme?
Biome or not, I still think a coastal pack would go insanely hard. Not as our last pack, but maybe for a Planet Zoo 2 or something.

A scenery pack with say, a sea otter, a walrus, a pelican, and some sort of oddball shorebird like a pied avocet. Maybe some sort of crustacean - like the fan-favorite coconut crab - as an exhibit animal. Two unique, crowd pleasing carnivorans that aren't a cat, dog, or bear, two banger birds, and an exhibit species unlike any other.

The scenery could be nice too, even if it might be stuff we could already do in game with more pieces. Some nice, colorful clapboard for instance:
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Or of course, the foliage could really sell the set here. Some more beach grass species, some nice, weathered rocks, coastal pines and/or palms, more aquatic plants, etc:
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Alternatively, as an animal pack, ditch the scenery and add:

A seaduck species! A harlequin duck, spectacled eider, or a Chinese merganser for example.
The American flamingo. Another bird? Yeah, but its a "clone" and most of the best picks here are birds anyways, sue me.
The green sea turtle. I'll be real, I'm not a fan of this one as it would be feel out of place without the fully aquatic species that often accompany it, but it was the only option I could think of that wasn't another bird (I'm already pushing what's realistic lol) and I know it would make a lot of people happy.

If we want to push the definition of coastal to animals that are just sometimes found there, but not really associated with it nor permanently live there often, I certainly wouldn't mind shoehorning in an echidna lol. A gray fox could be one that comes to mind too - not my preferred option at all but certainly feels like one Frontier might throw in, especially if there are too many new rigs already.

Other picks could include a puffin species, - which I only didn't include due to debates as to whether they would look strange without flying as habitat animals/whether birds will ever appear in the walkthrough - or turning the coconut crab into a habitat animal.
 
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The Americas and a Global pack seem to dominant these pages. Are there any biomes you think would be an interesting theme?
Roughly in order of preference:
  • Rainforest: American Black Bear, Golden Lion Tamarin, Geoffroy's Spider Monkey, Guereza, South American Coati, Ocelot, Roseate Spoonbill, Emerald Tree Boa
  • Scrub: Rhea, Mara, Serval, Secretary Bird, Hamadryas Baboon, Echidna, Blackbuck, Indian Cobra
  • Coastal: Manatee, Sea Turtle, Pelican, Sea Otter, Hermit Crabs and/or sea critters, NW Coast Scenery
  • Deciduous Forest: American Black Bear, Short Beaked Echidna, Reeves's Muntjac, Mallard/Turkey, Legless Lizard, Cabin/Native American Scenery
  • Savannah: Black Howler Monkey, Hamadryas Baboon, Blackbuck, Echidna, Secretary Bird, Serval, Honey Badger, Indian Cobra
  • Alpine: Markhor, Golden Snub-Nosed Monkey, Pallas's Cat, Andean Bear, Giant Salamander, Himalayas/Cabin Scenery
  • Desert: Spurred Tortoise, Rock Wallaby, Perentie, Rhea, Mara, Bighorn Sheep, Blackbuck, Thorny Devil
  • Tundra: Musk Ox, Walrus, Rockhopper Penguin, Mountain Hare, Snowy Owl, NW Coast Scenery
 
Are there any biomes you think would be an interesting theme?
Coastal or Mangrove. Most importantly both themes have a lot to offer for birds and also tiny changes of something unique like manatees or sea turtles (these I could be without but would understand their inclusion), or maybe even coconut crab. Among mammals, it would for coastal be something like additional pinnipeds and otters, and especially the walrus and sea otter are welcome additions even though I usually don't talk additional Carnivorans up. Mangrove could offer crab-eating macaque and I'll take any long-tailed monkey at this point. For sure it will also have a fishing cat and likely a crocodilian but if the rest of the pack is good I don't mind too much.

For exhibits, we could see hermit crabs, horseshoe crabs, or mudskippers. Or even some more fishy fish maybe? That would spice things up. However, there are also more business-as-usual species to find here.

No matter what I feel like even Frontier would have a hard time messing up such themes completely. Especially now that waterfowls exist. And semiaquatic themes do tend to be among the best.
 
I’m surprised people are discussing a Safari Pack and Americas Pack (two of the least needed packs) when we could get so many heavy hitters in a Mountains Pack alone. Plus, as one of the most interesting biomes, we have yet to receive a pack which covers it properly! Eurasia and Europe come close, but not enough. A dedicated Mountains pack is needed!
I agree. A Safari Pack is essentially another Africa Pack IMO, and I don't think that there are any essential species left for NA. I think mountains is one of the best themes we have left, marketability and animal selection-wise. I mean:

Alpine Animal Pack:
  1. Markhor
  2. Spectacled Bear
  3. Palla's Cat
  4. Domestic Yak
  5. Matschie's Tree Kangaroo
  6. Rock Hyrax
  7. Reeve's Muntjac
  8. Mountain Horned Lizard (E)
 
What would be your pick for a Safari animal pack?
As much as I would love to get blackbuck, howler or echidna I think that I would really like for that kind of pack to be Africa focused:

1. Baboon
2. Secretary bird
3. Gray crowned crane
4. Serval
5. Honey badger
6. Mantled guereza
7. Eland
Ex: Cobra
WTE: Vulture

If it would be divided between Africa, Asia, South America and Australia it would not fulfill any of those regions in my opinion. 2 per continent plus 1 for Australia.

1. Baboon - headliner
2. Secretary bird - most requested
3. Howler - SA primate
4. Rhea - Bird
5. Blackbuck - gap in India roster
6. Lion tailed macaque - my favorite primate
7. Echidna - something for Australia
Ex: Cobra
WTE: Vulture
 
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DLC: Mountains Animal Pack🏔️
  • Domestic Yak
  • Alpine Marmot
  • Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo
  • Spectacled Bear
  • Barbary Macaque
  • Gelada
  • Bukharan Markhor
  • Chinese Giant Salamander (E)
I’m surprised people are discussing a Safari Pack and Americas Pack (two of the least needed packs) when we could get so many heavy hitters in a Mountains Pack alone. Plus, as one of the most interesting biomes, we have yet to receive a pack which covers it properly! Eurasia and Europe come close, but not enough. A dedicated Mountains pack is needed!
An américas pack that Focus in NA is certainly not needed. But South American animals are needed.
Since some people want the ABB the american flamingo and the musk ox and the Américas are the only continents that haven't been revisited in last years packs people speculate next pack might be a larger all Américas DLCs with a Focus on LATAM and some northamericans/arctic species.
 
we have yet to receive a pack which covers it properly
With not many packs left Eurasia is probably the closest we’ll get to it.
I’m surprised people are discussing a Safari Pack and Americas Pack (two of the least needed packs)
Safari can get us not only a lot of meta wishlist animals like the crane, Secretary bird and baboon, as well as a lot of other cool African creatures like serval or the Badger, but ig África isn’t a priority for many so this may just be me. As for Americas it’s less of people wanting it, but it’s more probable cause North America hasn’t gotten it’s revisit yet (yes twilight is but it’s not marketed as that).
 
I mean i think you can do a really nice african safari type animal pack, but imo this late into the game its definetly preferable to extent the safari them to a more general scrub/savannah theme and cover india and patagonia aswell, since they need it more then africa does ( even though there are definetly a ton of african animals id still like.

And ngl im kinda afraid they would just once again boot out all the monkeys and birds and just fill an african safari pack with giraffe, 2 antelope, cat, bat eared, nile croc and honey badger :D
 
I made my own roster for this DLC. (which I already posted here.)

Also, why Domestic Yak?
Well the Yak is the most iconic animal of the Himalayas, the most famous mountain range possibly on earth.
And then I choose the domestic version over the wild version because:
1. as far as I’m aware, there’s no wild yaks in captivity, but domestic yaks are very common
2. choosing the domestic version makes them a more versatile pick, being able to be included in not just Asian sections and Himalayan sections, but also Children’s Zoo and Barnyard areas and
3. A tonne of colourmorphs make this a more interesting looking pick as opposed to the wild yak, which only comes in one colour.
 
Say it were to be a £12.99 larger pack to finish and we were given 12 new animals, what do you think is the most likely animal to feature in each slot and how would Frontier balance the pack to try to please everyone as best as possible?

1. Coati
2. South American primate 1
3. South American primate 2
4. African terrestrial bird
5. Waterfowl
6. Hoofstock 1
7. Hoofstock 2
8. Hoofstock 3
9. Cat species
10. ???
11. Exhibit animal 1
12. Exhibit animal 2
I know that there are going to be animals on my list that are unlikely to appear in the game. But still, I would like to see them
  1. Ethiopian Wolf (EN)
  2. Black Howler Monkey (NT)
  3. Black-footed Ferret (EN)
  4. Markhor (NT) or Barbary Sheep (VU)
  5. Southern Elephant Seal (LC)
  6. Secretary Bird (EN)
  7. Grèvy's Zebra (EN)
  8. Banteng (EN)
  9. Spectacled Bear (VU)
  10. Andean Mountain Cat (EN)
  11. Gaboon Viper (VU) or Rhinoceros Viper (VU)
  12. Chinese Cocodrile Lizard (EN) or Thorny Devil (LC)
 
Also if the next pack is a scenery pack, the chances of getting an ungulate are low, as the last 3 haven’t had a single one. It seems the animal packs are the ones that usually have loads of ungulates.
Frontier makes some beautiful ungulates, so that makes sense as it’s kind of their specialty. Which makes me wonder, we always assume that they could use birds for “clones/filler” but I wonder if they are harder to make. It might be as simple as Frontier makes ungulates easy so that’s their go to filler.
 
It might be as simple as Frontier makes ungulates easy so that’s their go to filler.
That’s probably exactly it. I think the same challenges apply to primates with how they climb, maybe how their tails work when they climb, could explain why the last 2 primates don’t have tails.

Also I should’ve specified, we haven’t had an antelope or Buffalo species in a scenery pack, cause we have had the RRH in the tropical pack. Buffalos and antelopes are the ones people usually skim over as they’re kinda boring the more we get them, at least to me.
 
What would be your pick for a Safari animal pack?
Safari Animal Pack
  1. Grèvy's Zebra (EN)
  2. Giant Eland (VU)
  3. Helmeted Guineafowl (LC)
  4. Secretary Bird (EN)
  5. Hirola (CR)
  6. De Brazza's Monkey (LC)
  7. Niger Giraffe (VU)
  8. Exhibit: Giant Girdled Lizard (VU) or Gaboon/Rhinoceros Viper (VU)
 
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