Spring dlc Speculation 2023

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
Iben said:
Because the target audience of Planet Zoo is a mix of builders and people who don't care about building that much. By doing a full year with only animal packs and have a very limited set of scenery items, you risk alienating that part of your target audience and missing out on that income. People who don't really care about new scenery pieces still get 5 new animals with scenery packs, that's only 3 animals less than an animal pack, so they don't loose as much in comparison.

It's kinda the same reason why we haven't seen and probably won't see mono type packs like an entire reptile pack, an entire exhibit pack or an entire primate pack. It's very specific to a subset of the target audience of Planet Zoo, and you risk alienating other parts of your audience who might entirely skip on the pack. And well, it's still a business so they have to make money, so it's better to make sure that people won't skip packs.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a zoo builder first and foremost, so animals are as essential as scenery pieces in my eyes and I think animal packs were a great addition. But I also wouldn't want no scenery packs at all because there's plenty of scenery still to be added, especially basic zoo pieces like mesh sets, easy ways to make glass domes, mud walls used in enclosures etc.

All in all, if we're getting another year of support, I think we're pretty much set for another year of two animal packs and two scenery packs, it seems to be the balance that has been working for Frontier.


To answer this question, there's two obvious ones for me personally.

A deserts pack for me seems like one of the easiest packs to do scenery for. Round boulders (which we don't have any of), barrels, skulls and bones, even a Wild West theme would work. Because as much as I can understand people going "but a Wild West theme is better for Planet Coaster", ever since the Africa Pack themed sets in DLCs have been made in such a way that the pieces themselves are quite flexible. So for me, I'm all for a Wild West theme, because I know that means we're going to get a bunch of rustic wood pieces that are going to be super useful for more grounded zoos.

On top of that, another set that can be added to a deserts pack is pieces to make glass domes with. Just an easy glass dome set would honestly already do so much, because lets face it; the current pieces just never allow us to make good seamless domes.

When it comes to the other pack, a coastal pack could add some much needed marine scenery. As much as a like the fact that the Aquatics pack added basic zoo scenery, I feel like it missed the boat (hehe) a bit by not including more marine stuff like buoys, lifebuoys, all kinds of port scenery etc. This is again a theme where they can add more wooden sets to that allow us to have some more variety in the more "basic" zoos which don't have tons of money to do big concrete buildings everywhere.
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While i still very much like the idear of a desert animal pack, if im honest grasslands added half of the roster i would have put into one and while its not hard to find replacements, really we got a closer circle for a desert pack of the collared peccary and dromedary, with animals like the ringtail, anything from australia, hamadryas baboon, addax, sandcat and african spurred tortoise as a great pool for "extra" choices. I could easily see a pack of peccary, dromedary, hamadryas baboon and a lace monitor land in a similar spot to the original africa pack, with 4 highly requested (okay maybe not the lance but i bet nobody would go like "whaaaaat australia got something in a desert pack? How terrible" even if the highly requested oceanian animals are pretty much islands exclusive) animals and a good all purpose scenery theme. + Budgies live in deserts, i want a budgie WE, frontier pls make it happen
 

NachoB

NachoB
Yeah but they are following a theme with the biome packs so far and that is that they are animal packs. So a Drylands pack will more likely be an animal pack. I'm not very interested in a wild west building set but i can see how the pieces could be very versátiles since it would be mostly wood and stables pieces. But i would like to be complementen with a "latinamerican colonial era" building pieces as well.

As for animals if we only get 5 i can see something like addax or dromedary, collared peccary, hamadryas baboon and some oddball like the roadrunner or african spurred tortoise although my choices would either the rhea or the Mara. But it feels wrong making a desert pack and not including any australian animal, so an animal pack allows for a more complete and varied roster:

1. Dromedary
2. Collared peccary
3. Hamadryas baboon
4. Patagonian Mara
5. Greater roadrunner or rhea
6. Perentie or greater bilby
7. Sand cat or black backed jackal or coyote
8. Exhibit: frilled lizard, thorny devil, egyptiam cobra.
 
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Fallax

Fallax
I'd honestly put deserts low compared to other possible biome packs like forests or mountains in terms of probability because other than the dromedary you really need to stretch what counts as a desert to shoehorn in the porcupine and baboon and such to actually get a good pack without including a bunch of less popular animals.
 

Iben

Iben
KönigDerKaffeebohnen said:
While i still very much like the idear of a desert animal pack, if im honest grasslands added half of the roster i would have put into one and while its not hard to find replacements, really we got a closer circle for a desert pack of the collared peccary and dromedary, with animals like the ringtail, anything from australia, hamadryas baboon, addax, sandcat and african spurred tortoise as a great pool for "extra" choices. I could easily see a pack of peccary, dromedary, hamadryas baboon and a lace monitor land in a similar spot to the original africa pack, with 4 highly requested (okay maybe not the lance but i bet nobody would go like "whaaaaat australia got something in a desert pack? How terrible" even if the highly requested oceanian animals are pretty much islands exclusive) animals and a good all purpose scenery theme. + Budgies live in deserts, i want a budgie WE, frontier pls make it happen
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Exactly my opinion tbh. After the grasslands pack, I'd be satisfied with a desert scenery pack. I'd personally go for Dromedary Camel, Patagonian Mara, Crested Porcupine, Collared Peccary and Naked Mole Rat. (Some of these live in other biomes than deserts too, but hey, that didn't stop them with the grasslands pack either).

NachoB said:
Yeah but they are following a theme with the biome packs so far and that is that they are animal packs. So a Drylands pack will more likely be an animal pack.
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We've gotten two biome oriented packs (which they haven't confirmed yet, so they could very well be considered to be a theme just like the other ones), so it's far too early to make any kind of assumptions about that. If the next scenery pack again is more oriented towards a central theme and the animal pack after that is a biome one, then we can assess a pattern. For now, it's to early.

But in all honesty, I don't see them making a "drylands" pack either. We've gotten wetlands and grasslands, but those are just two common names for biomes, it doesn't all have to be a "lands" themed name 😅
 

Colehunter35

Colehunter35
Britches said:
I really, really long for a taiga/tundra pack and the Pallas Cat. That's the only animal left that I really, REALLY need and want for myself.
I'm really happy with all the animals we got until now and I never nag on the choices, but I really need this beautiful cat for the game to be the best ever for me. That would be so awesome.
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I fully agree, I have been really wanting some cold climate animals lately. I would love something with a combination of some of these animals, the takin, pallas's cat, wolverine, bobcat or canadian lynx, marten, fisher, etc.
 

Chuditch

Chuditch
KönigDerKaffeebohnen said:
okay maybe not the lance but i bet nobody would go like "whaaaaat australia got something in a desert pack? How terrible" even if the highly requested oceanian animals are pretty much islands exclusive
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Lace monitor in a Desert Pack would be weird given they're forest dwellers (especially preferring humid forests) and don't live in deserts at all. If we did get an Australian varanid in deserts it'd have to be the perentie, unless Frontier goes wild and adds something very rarely requested like a sand goanna (which I'd still be happy with).
 

DarthQuell

DarthQuell
KönigDerKaffeebohnen said:
Budgies live in deserts, i want a budgie WE, frontier pls make it happen
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Please, please Frontier. This is the only animal I'd need to make my bestie extremely happy. Blue budgies are her favorite and I wanna make her happy. I'll even pay $10, the price of a pack, for just the budgies, as long as I can make her happy
Iben said:
But in all honesty, I don't see them making a "drylands" pack either. We've gotten wetlands and grasslands, but those are just two common names for biomes, it doesn't all have to be a "lands" themed name 😅
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DarthQuell

DarthQuell
Anyways, back on subject, at this point I don't feel like any biome is lacking, now. I feel like we have a good selection.

Continent-wise, there are a few more. North American deserts could use 2 more species (roadrunner and peccary) to compliment the prairie dog, cougar, armadillo, and pronghorn representing the deserts.

South American taiga could use some love, like the Spectacled bear and Patagonian mara. I'd also say the rhea is important for grasslands representation.

Australia is pretty good. For international roster, it's excellent. For a local zoo, needs some more, but I think really it's the Tasmanian devil players mostly want. That's the last big one.

For Oceania as a whole, the kiwi and tuatara are important, with the blue penguin being a bonus.

For tropical biomes worldwide, it's good. Really, the key missing species are red river hogs, primates, birds, and a sloth.

That's about all I can remember at the top of my head. Am I missing anything?
 

jcp011c

jcp011c
DarthQuell said:
Anyways, back on subject, at this point I don't feel like any biome is lacking, now. I feel like we have a good selection.

Continent-wise, there are a few more. North American deserts could use 2 more species (roadrunner and peccary) to compliment the prairie dog, cougar, armadillo, and pronghorn representing the deserts.

South American taiga could use some love, like the Spectacled bear and Patagonian mara. I'd also say the rhea is important for grasslands representation.

Australia is pretty good. For international roster, it's excellent. For a local zoo, needs some more, but I think really it's the Tasmanian devil players mostly want. That's the last big one.

For Oceania as a whole, the kiwi and tuatara are important, with the blue penguin being a bonus.

For tropical biomes worldwide, it's good. Really, the key missing species are red river hogs, primates, birds, and a sloth.

That's about all I can remember at the top of my head. Am I missing anything?
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This is of course all just my opinion, but breaking down both continents and regions, all 6 continents with a variety of animal life are fairly well represented as a whole. Not taking into account flying birds:

North America is probably the most well represented overall, something we couldn't have said 15 months ago at all. The Biomes that it still needs some representation for are the Tundra and Desert. I like your suggestions for the desert and then adding in the Muskox, Walrus and Wolverine for Tundra.

Asia is the next well most represented. Again, the Middle East area could use more representation, and so could Northern Asia, but that again brings in both deserts and tundra.

Europe is also very well represented at this point. Again more Tundra animals would be good additions, but overall the biomes are covered. The Wild Boar seems to be the animal being brought up the most now. The European Brown Bear would be a nice modification to the Himalayan Brown Bear in the game now, but I'd rather it just be changed and not have an additional animal included. Also the Wolverine and Muskox would include European Tundra representation, and the Wild Boar and EBB would include both Asia and Europe, so I'm not even sure we're looking at any animals that are representing Europe only.

Oceania is a funny case. Before the Grasslands pack I would have put it at the top of the list for needing representation, and now it's slipped down to third place. Funny how the addition of two animals makes such a huge difference, but they are staple animals. We have good biome representation here. Most of the comments for more animals center around the Tasmanian Devil, Kiwi and Tree Kangaroo, so really, it's a matter of wanting very specific animals, not just more regional representation in general.

Africa is always going to be a conundrum. It's one the most represented continents in the game and in zoos in real life, yet at the same time is usually the continent that is needing more representation. I guess because African animals offer more zoo staples than any other continent, and a few continents combined. Aside from North Africa (again, the desert) I can't say the continent isn't well represented, it's just a matter of putting in even more animals from each boime.

South America is, to me, the continent needing the most representation, for all the biomes, not just tropical. There's just a lot of South America that isn't represented well at all. It seems to be more of a thought that South America should be all about the Amazons, with little thought to non-tropical South America. The Maned Wolf helped in that regard to give Grassland South America some representation, but we need more! Also do need more Amazonian representation, kind of goes against what I just said, but it's also one of the most bio-diverse regions of the planet. The game doesn't really reflect that.

So effectively, biomes needing more in general:
Deserts and Tundras. Of Asia, North America and Europe (for Tundras anyways)
All biomes for South America.
 
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