Planet Zoo 2...

Mr Gharial said:
For new species I don't have any super specific requests, but there are some pretty big gaps in the roster. African mainland monkeys (Colobus monkeys, DeBrazza's and L'Hoest's monkeys, Cherry-crowned mangabey, etc), African crocodilians (Nile, Slender-snouted), Asian deer (Axis, Sika). Asian hoofstock was luckily filled with the last DLC (includes Blackbuck and Nilgai) but I'm still really missing the Banteng and Anoa. I get why free-flying birds are difficult to add, but why are there still no Guineafowl or pheasants (ignoring the Peafowl)
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Largely agree, primates as a whole feel especially underwhelming roster-wise outside of great apes. But I feel the need to bring up that, as of the most recent DLCs, we have a whopping total of two primates from the new world! That feels like a woefully unexplored niche! A perfect opportunity to give us howler monkeys or something! Really, the roster decisions from Frontier have been absurd. I really don't have high expectations for PZ2, truth be told, but I hope for some more primates & some more crocodilians something fierce.

If we do end up getting aquatics & flyers as part of PZ2's selling point, I would hope that would bring more crocodilians, more pinnipeds, etc, but, really, it's anybody's guess with this game, I suppose.
 
I don’t want to jinx it , but I do wonder if there will be any animals from the first game that will be completely removed from the roster of the second game? It’s of course very early to come up with predictions but I can imagine a small handful of taxa that won’t make it to the sequel, even as DLC fodder.
 
If Planet Zoo 2 doesn't have avian birds and aquatic species, I'm just straight up not going to buy it. But other than that, I don't think I necessarily need every animal from the first game in the sequel. The first game's roster is mostly pretty good but there's also a lot of fat that can be trimmed (particularly in the carnivores and ungulates department). Like others have mentioned, a sequel could address any problems with the first game's roster, such as the lack of New World primates. Retooling subspecies as variations of the same animal would also save a lot of roster space.
PossumRoach said:
I don’t want to jinx it , but I do wonder if there will be any animals from the first game that will be completely removed from the roster of the second game? It’s of course very early to come up with predictions but I can imagine a small handful of taxa that won’t make it to the sequel, even as DLC fodder.
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Unfortunately, if any animals do get cut out, I have a feeling that the exhibit species aren't very high on Frontier's priority list. I'm probably one of the few people who considers smaller reptiles, amphibians, and invertebrates to be essential zoo game animals, but I thought their inclusion in the first game made the roster so much more interesting than it otherwise would have been. I could definitely live without some species such as the Hermann's tortoise or titan beetle, but if the red-eyed tree frog, Gila monster, diamondback rattlesnake, boa constrictor, and Goliath birdeater get cut from the sequel I'll be very sad ☹.
 
Rijin said:
If they cut things from the roster it'll be because Frontier is scummy, not because of roster size. They're not going to be completely rebuilding the engine or something, and even with JWE3, the rough majority of JWE2 is still coming to basegame. Even JWE1 to JWE2, with I think the exception of some hybrids & crichtonsaurus(?), basically the entire roster carried over to JWE2's basegame.

Given JWE2 and PC2, it's safe to say that Frontier's current formula for park-builder sequels is "Just Add Water," which is...less than I would want from this kind of thing, truly. I'm not asking for a Zoo Tycoon -> Zoo Tycoon 2 type of transition but I'd like a little more than what seems to have happened between JWE -> JWE2 and PC -> PC2.

Of course, PZ2 in its entirety is purely theoretical at this time- Frontier's financial records seem to show that none of their sequels have been, uh, doing well. At all. If that wasn't evident by Planet Coaster 2 regularly being ~40% off on Steam under a year after release, and Planet Zoo suddenly receiving a bunch of DLCs again. I think we really just have to wait and see how JWE3 does to truly judge the future of the Planet franchise. With their scummy DLC practices and buggy, unfinished game releases, it's entirely possible, if not outright likely, that Frontier has burned through most of the goodwill they built up with Planet Coaster, particularly!

Regardless, in a sequel, I would still very much like aquatics & shows. I've already been somewhat burned with the Zoo Tycoon board game including aquatics in the most minimal & annoying way possible- this is a zoo builder (with a mediocre-at-best campaign mode, mind you), not a conservation program or something, a mistake of the Zoo Tycoon board game devs that I hope Frontier does not repeat. Let me have an orca show, for Pete's sake! It's a staple of the genre!

I'd also really love more oddball picks. As much as I love Marine Mania, the roster was pretty cetacean-and-shark heavy. Give me a giant squid or something. And also some freshwater aquatics would be very nice- I'd love to do a boto exhibit, if PZ2 does happen.
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I haven't played the Zoo Tycoon board game so I can't speak for its gameplay, but looking at its roster, I honestly thought it had a pretty solid selection of marine species; a good mix of charismatic species like sea turtles, walruses, and eagle rays alongside smaller aquarium fish. I do agree though that the lack of cetaceans in recent zoo games is a bit of a bummer. I do understand that there are welfare concerns for keeping an animal the size of a school bus in real life facilities, but I feel like the outright exclusion of dolphins in orcas in fictional zoo games accomplishes little other than hindering player creativity.
That being said, if aquariums do happen in Planet Zoo, I don't want to see any narwhals, baleen whales, pelagic fish, or great white sharks; I don't think I could stretch my suspense of disbelief that far. But like you mentioned, a few oddball picks and freshwater species would be a nice inclusion.
 
Hopefully, the PZ2 could improve the road mechanism, use the new engines to avoid lagging, and offer the eagerly demanded aquarium and aviary systems.
Here some questions:
1. how many species in the current PZ1 rosters are likely to be offered in the standard version of PZ2? We have around 198 species now
2. If the PZ2 truly offers the aquarium and aviary systems, the aquatic and flying species would have huge rosters, at least how many aquarium and aviary species do you want
 
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If we get avains and aquatics, I'd say we should have 10 of each at the bare minimum, but 30 of each would be more ideal.

Honestly, I'm feeling optimistic about the second game's announcement. I look forward to seeing what it has to offer
 
StellarChaser said:
Hopefully, the PZ2 could improve the road mechanism, use the new engines to avoid lagging, and offer the eagerly demanded aquarium and aviary systems.
Here some questions:
1. how many species in the current PZ1 rosters are likely to be offered in the standard version of PZ2? We have around 198 species now
2. If the PZ2 truly offers the aquarium and aviary systems, the aquatic and flying species would have huge rosters, at least how many aquarium and aviary species do you want
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210 species to be exact.
 
It would take inspirations from in terms of designs, animation, and mechanics from Jurassic World: Evolution 3 and Planet Coaster 2.
 
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The animals mostly the base game ones would have redesigned glow ups, new animations maybe nursing and for birds, reptiles, and platypus laying eggs, and social behaviors within groups.

An Overhaul of the terrarium system of course.
 
Above and beyond anything else, the path system has to be overhauled. And we need multiple habitat gates. Birds and aquatics would great, but the base mechanics are the highest priority. I would also love a (maybe optional) realistic day/night cycle where guests only stay for a few hours and then leave, and (depending on context) the animals need to be brought inside for the night.
 
Orca obsessed said:
Will DLC packs be tranferable or will I have to buy them all again? Seems like such a waste of money..
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Considering we literally know nothing other than there being a second game, it's impossible to answer at this stage. Unlikely though!
 
Given JWE3 has customizable aviaries for pterosaurs and tanks for aquatic reptiles and a much better pathing system, hopefully Frontier can take what they learned here and tweak them sufficiently to improve PZ2. These ideas are not long shots and clearly within their existing power. Separately I think it'd be great if they could improve the 'Habitat Animal' system as others have said.

I think a big thing to keep out for, and what I would recommend to Frontier, would be to prioritize any new major species as those with flexible animation sets that can be reused -- obviously a lot of DLC animals reuse animations from base game animals, so what resource is spent on new animations would be best for something versatile. I think back a lot to how in 2006, a lot of early Zoo Tycoon 2 designers would reuse Secretary bird animations for a wide variety of birds and dinosaurs, before we were able to create custom models and animations...
 
JVM said:
Given JWE3 has customizable aviaries for pterosaurs and tanks for aquatic reptiles and a much better pathing system, hopefully Frontier can take what they learned here and tweak them sufficiently to improve PZ2. These ideas are not long shots and clearly within their existing power. Separately I think it'd be great if they could improve the 'Habitat Animal' system as others have said.

I think a big thing to keep out for, and what I would recommend to Frontier, would be to prioritize any new major species as those with flexible animation sets that can be reused -- obviously a lot of DLC animals reuse animations from base game animals, so what resource is spent on new animations would be best for something versatile. I think back a lot to how in 2006, a lot of early Zoo Tycoon 2 designers would reuse Secretary bird animations for a wide variety of birds and dinosaurs, before we were able to create custom models and animations...
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Now that I think about it, Planet Zoo 2 could probably get away with reusing the same few animation models to create potentially hundreds of flying birds. Most of the birds that weren't possible with the previous game's mechanics (such as vultures, eagles, hawks, owls, hornbills, toucans, parrots, passerines, and falcons) are members of the larger clade Telluraves - which means they all share a level of arboreality and a similar body design. Obviously some of these species would need to have custom models, but I am sure that one model could be used to create most of the birds of prey and another could be used for fruit-eaters like parrots and toucans.
 
Jurassic World Evolution 2 at launch had all JWE species, DLCs included (except for the weird choice to lock the Huayangasaurus in the Deluxe edition and the Dr Wu hybrids which were released later with some redesigns) plus a few additions of Aviary and Lagoon animals;

With JWE3 they did not release all creatures from the previous game at launch because I imagine they have to code all the family units, so they prioritised only a part of the roster, but the latest update introduced a new family unit for free which makes me hopeful that, at the very least, the rest of the animals present in previous installments will be available for free while they add other new animals through DLCs as they always did (if they release the hybrids behind a pay wall for the third time and people still buy it at this point the fault is of the audience).

It would be auspicable that Frontier reworks the exhibit/aviary feature to make it much more versatile and in line with what real zoos have.
It would also be auspicable, in my opinion, that they rework the clone animal "problem": rather than wasting space on identical animals (bears, tigers, elephants and butterflies as examples of species already present but others may be parrots, stoats, toads, tortoises and many invertebrates just to name a few) they could simply have a system of similar species/subspecies/morphs/ecotypes in which the animations are not varied but the aspect of the animals is, they could even have a category system of animals, lumping a broad clade/taxonomic hierarchy (be it Genus, Family and the likes) for the sake of animations and enrichments and with each DLC expanding those categories and selling new ones.

An example: when you adopt an animal you have different categories of animals such as big cat, small cat, deer, prosimian, lizard, owl etc. and when you select one Family/Order you get a curtain selection of species with phenotype characters like morphs, subspecies or ecotypes highlighted for you to choose.

Not everything must have these characters available (monotypic animals coming to mind) but there is a great possibility for variety with this system; as much as I'm not a fan of this concept, they could even sell - in addition to new rigs, models and animations - phenotypic variations as part of DLCs similar to other live service games which sell cosmetic items and also similar to what happened with past DLCs of JWE (the JP velociraptor skins were all available after purchasing Return to Jurassic Park).

As an example: should a DLC be themed around Chinese wildlife, they could sell new species (Snub-nosed monkeys, crocodile lizards, rat-snakes) along new cosmetic variations of existing animals (South Chinese tiger, Mishmi takin, Chinese red panda which, despite being agreed by most as a separate species, can still be sold as a variant of the other Base-Game red panda etc.).

With this system there is technically potential for great variety without needing mods for subspecies or morphs which would be officially endorsed and no waste of model rigs and DLC slots; but I do know it is highly unlikely and that they will probably sell subspecies as brand new taxa.
 
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