Jurassic World Evolution General Discussion *COMING TO NINTENDO SWITCH 11/3*

The game's sold 1 million copies and there's going to be more updates!

Hope they add a lot of decorative stuff.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/439652-Jurassic-World-Evolution-Community-News-Update

I got the last couple of achievements over the weekend.

Very tough getting to 5 stars on Sorna, I don't know what I was doing wrong. My park rating was all good, high percentages but it wouldn't give. Eventually I got to 5 stars when I drove around in a pen to stop some stegas breaking out. They're a handful aren't they? As soon as you have less than 5, all hell breaks loose, but then even when I'd tranqed them all and moved them back in, some of them wouldn't socialise and didn't realise there were 5 of them in there.

I like when you get 5 stars on Pena...

Spoiler:

The thing that is a big bummer is they don't currently have any plans for aquatic reptile or pterosaur DLC.

Discounting JPB, and JWTG, because they aren't park management games, it's kinda sad that Jurassic Park III: Park Builder, a gameboy game, still has the highest animal count in the franchise. (Even if it was super simplified compared to JPOG or JWE).

Especially since Pterosaurs are a hallmark of the franchise since the original novel, and marine reptiles have had an appearance since the old JP games.

And they said island size cannot be changed without breaking saves, but that's okay. They hinted they are planning on bigger maps. Which is also fine, a map generator would also be good as well.

It's not just island size, dinosaur size is also staying the same because apparently it would be too hard (which seems farfetched given we have a Zilla in JPOG with a fan made script tool); they also said no sleeping behavior. The only thing good thing so far is that they're changing how carnivores hunt (they will only hunt when hungry). As of right now it's really not enough to get me to play the game again (sorry for being a downer, but that's how I feel about the game right now).

Megaspino2 wrote:

It's not just island size, dinosaur size is also staying the same because apparently it would be too hard (which seems farfetched given we have a Zilla in JPOG with a fan made script tool); they also said no sleeping behavior. The only thing good thing so far is that they're changing how carnivores hunt (they will only hunt when hungry).

I think the thing with a bigger model, if they just stretched the model accordingly, the resoultion change of the textures would be rather noticable, alongside animations not working properly.

Zilla works in JPOG cause it is an older game, with a much simpler engine, and not as detailed polygons or textures.

Engines are more fine tuned, and require more specific coding. Hence why very few games have text-based editing capabilities anymore.

The theory I have been hearing is that it was Universal's say, because they didn't want any carnivores be bigger than the T. rex (save for the Indominus), because T. rex is the mascot of the franchise.

This is the thing about getting license rights. The license holder wants to make sure the IP is handled with respect and is faithful to the material, but they need to give the person who has gotten rights to use it a little more freedom/leeway.

And I didn't see where sleeping was a solid "No." in so far as "It's not planned right now, but something we'll look into."

(I think it would be trying to code it in a way where the dinosaur will wake up after a certain amount of time before it goes below its food/water need or comfort threshold, it doesn't block a gate, or feeders, and it doesn't cause clipping issues with other dinosaurs or ranger jeeps. And also making sure it doesn't sleep too much because even with full genomes and maybe a gene splice or two, they don't live very long. (Unless this gets adjusted so their lifespans go on longer.))

You're probably right, but it just makes you wonder why all this wasn't in the game from the beginning. If Uni rushed Frontier to get this game out for FK then it goes down as another cash grab; the sad part is if it's true FK didn't even need the marketing from the game. It was going to make money regardless since JW was loved by the G.A. If they really wanted to market both FK and the game together Uni could have pushed JWE back to when FK comes out on Blu Ray. Just seems like they're trying to put a band aid over a wound that needs stitches.

I didn't know where else to put this, but what I'd like to see in the future...

Isla Nublar Expansion

• Includes the Jeep Safari Tour attraction, which works similarly to the ingame Gyrosphere Ride; includings some alternate skins for the cars.
  
• Includes the Welcome Center, the original Visitor Center, as a placeable building that functions similarly to the Innovation Center, but with a facility rating boost.
  
• Includes the Petting Zoo attraction, a placeable building with a pre-animated pen that allows guests to play with young dinosaurs.
  
• Includes a new, shorter fence (both electrified and non-electrified) for smaller dinosaur species.
  
• Includes Euplocephalus, Hadrosaurus, Herrarasaurus, Segisaurus, Proceratosaurus, Microcerratus, Troodon, Compsognathus, Coelurus, and relevant digsites.
  

Operation Genesis Expansion

• Includes the Balloon Tour attraction, which works similarly to the ingame Gyrosphere Ride; includings some alternate skins for the balloon.
  
• Includes the Viewing Vent, a smaller attraction that allows guests to relax and enjoy the view of dinosaurs up close.
  
• Includes the Retro Gift Shop, as a placeable building that functions similarly to the Gift Shop, based on the Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis design.
  
• Includes the Retro Kisok, as a placeable building that functions similarly to the ingame Fast Food, based on the Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis design.
  
• Includes the Maximum Security Shelter, as a placeable building that functions similarly to the ingame Visitor Center, boasting a higher capacity and based on the Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis design.
  
• Includes the Water Fountain, a decorative object.
  
• Includes Homalocephale, Dryosaurus, Ouranosaurus, Albertosaurus, Acrocanthosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, [Edmontosaurus], [Allosaurus] and relevant digsites.
  

Triassic Pack

• Includes the Viewing Dome attraction, which allows guests to travel through an underground dome to vew dinosaurs from inside their enclosure.
  
• Includes Plateosaurus, Coelophysis, Mussasaurus, Procompsognathus, Eoraptor, and relevant digsites.
  

Flying Reptile Expansion

• Includes the Aviary construction set, which enables creating enclosed structures for housing pterosaurs, in a similar manner to existing enclosures. Styles including aviary, cage, and dome-style,  with electrified and non-electrified variants.
  
• Includes the Lodge attraction, a costly and luxurious viewing area suitable for all kinds of enclosure that also offers food and drink for guests in addition to dinosaur viewing.
  
• Includes the Walkway attraction, a smaller attraction for viewing pterosaurs, allowing guests to view them up close.
  Includes the Fish Dispenser food item, which generates fish in water for pterosaurs and spinosaurids to eat at their leisure.
  
  
• Includes Pteranodon, Dimorphodon, Geosternbergia, Cearadactylus, Quetzocalactus, Tapejara, Pteradactylus, and hybrid Pteranodon.
  

Since the game is profitable, hopefully they add aquatic attractions in the future.

They pretty much shot down both aquatic animals and flying reptiles; they said there weren't any plans at the current time. Getting canon/movie skins also seems like pulling teeth with them shooting down a blue skin and saying that Universal has to approve every skin they make.

In the Frontier forums, they only explain why they can't put the Blue skin, but fail to answer, why they're not giving us the other skins.

Why is Universal so hesitant giving us the movie skins? JWE have dinosaurs from all 5 movies and the database have certain entries from all 5 movies (characters, places etc.). So, where's the problem with a bigger variaty and giving us more skins from the previous movies?

And I kinda don't get their whole "we can't give Blue, cause she's a character" answer. Why not having the freedom to simply have clones of Blue? The Indoraptor was also an unique character, but we can
clone him to oblivion. I don't know, it's so frustrating, that they now treat them as unique and don't want us to allow to have them. I get past that she's a character. I just love the design of Blue and would love having a pack of her.

My theory, why we won't getting movie skins is, that they're gonna hold them up for a potential sequel (for JW///). I can imagine that. And also give us aquatic and flying reptiles in the next game.
IDK, seems like a profitable strategy to me.

NikoRex wrote:

In the Frontier forums, they only explain why they can't put the Blue skin, but fail to answer, why they're not giving us the other skins.

Why is Universal so hesitant giving us the movie skins? JWE have dinosaurs from all 5 movies and the database have certain entries from all 5 movies (characters, places etc.). So, where's the problem with a bigger variaty and giving us more skins from the previous movies?

And I kinda don't get their whole "we can't give Blue, cause she's a character" answer. Why not having the freedom to simply have clones of Blue? The Indoraptor was also an unique character, but we can
clone him to oblivion. I don't know, it's so frustrating, that they now treat them as unique and don't want us to allow to have them. I get past that she's a character. I just love the design of Blue and would love having a pack of her.

My theory, why we won't getting movie skins is, that they're gonna hold them up for a potential sequel (for JW///). I can imagine that. And also give us aquatic and flying reptiles in the next game.
IDK, seems like a profitable strategy to me.

It's just broken logic; in canon Blue was going to be cloned over and over for the military project anyway and like you pointed out we have both I.rex and the Indoraptor in game. On top of this, there were also dinosaur characters previously in the franchise who were unique like "The Big One" in JP and yet you can't tell her apart. That doesn't make her less of a character though.

People on the JWE reddit are practically begging for movie skins so it isn't like they wouldn't make a nice profit from Uni just lending Frontier some of their texture assets (they already gave them their models apparently). The whole game (and the franchise as of late) is being mismanaged. I don't understand why Uni needs to micromanage JWE to such a strong degree (like needing to approve every skin that's put into the game); just imagine if all of the older JP games had that kind of handling.

Making a sequel would be a bad idea; I couldn't justify giving them more of my money if they didn't even try their best with the first game and I'm not sure if many people could. It would be like saying, "hey remember all the things you wanted in the other game a few years ago, yeah well they're in this new game! That'll be $60 please, thank you very much."

Megaspino2 wrote:

It's just broken logic; in canon Blue was going to be cloned over and over for the military project anyway and like you pointed out we have both I.rex and the Indoraptor in game. On top of this, there were also dinosaur characters previously in the franchise who were unique like "The Big One" in JP and yet you can't tell her apart. That doesn't make her less of a character though.

People on the JWE reddit are practically begging for movie skins so it isn't like they wouldn't make a nice profit from Uni just lending Frontier some of their texture assets (they already gave them their models apparently). The whole game (and the franchise as of late) is being mismanaged. I don't understand why Uni needs to micromanage JWE to such a strong degree (like needing to approve every skin that's put into the game); just imagine if all of the older JP games had that kind of handling.

This is so true. I mean, it's just a game. This is not Star Wars, where the developers have to support the canon with their work in some ways. Enough time has passed for keeping the JW theme brand forward. It's now time to expand to the other movies: Let us have the chance to build a Jurassic PARK, or a Lost World with those special skins. Heck, would it be so much work, if they give us JP/// Raptors? It just frustrates me.

Megaspino2 wrote:

Making a sequel would be a bad idea; I couldn't justify giving them more of my money if they didn't even try their best with the first game and I'm not sure if many people could. It would be like saying, "hey remember all the things you wanted in the other game a few years ago, yeah well they're in this new game! That'll be $60 please, thank you very much."

I know what you mean. I even think that their excuse would be: "Hey we are now able to integrate the flying and marine reptiles. Buy our new game to get the whole new experience!!1!"
Frontier isn't honest to us. I remember when they told us many times that shrinking the dinosaurs wouldn't be possible and could even corrupt our game progress etc., but after many fans complained that T.rex is bigger than Spinosaurus and even Giganotosaurus, then all of a sudden, Frontier changed the sizes. So it was possible. Or their excuse why animals won't sleep.
Also, when I see the second Trailer I felt kinda cheated. It's marked as "in-game footage", but where is this detailed T.rex at 0:33? IDK...

100% agree; the spinoraptor hybrid looks really nice and the gene editing sounds useful (which begs why it wasn't in the main game) but I won't buy the DLC until the core game improves.

Apparently from what I heard something happened to the rex model in that trailer. It is a very nice looking rex though; the one we have looks a bit off, like its posture or its head. The funny part about skins is they aren't hard to implement. Because of the way the files store skins (main textures are stored as normal maps and detail textures are stored in one big file) you would only need to change the colors since texture isn't changing from movie to movie; for example, all the raptors have the same or almost identical texture. All you'd need to do is add a new custom color pattern.

People are already making custom movie skins but they aren't releasing them. I'd be very curious to see how Frontier and Uni would react if someone did.

Yep me too. The last time I touched the game was to test the challenge mode. After 2 and a half hours and only 2.2 stars on easy mode, I've realised that his mode is not for me. I can't rush myself to build a park. I've spent to much time to make everything fine and dandy.

That's odd. I've checked the trailer again and noticed that the Raptor in the trailer looks more detailed than the final product, too. IDK. I've heard rumors that they've invest Universals budget moslty on Planet Coaster. Dunno if that is really true...
Yeah I know what you mean. The head seems really a little bit too big. I remember that they had a "Rexy" skin, but I guess Universal shut it down, too.
That's interesting, how the skins are stored. Man, and then I ask myself where the problem is. It can't be that Uni is so picky, what to put in and what not. besides, wouldn't it be kinda a good thing to "promote" the other films, by implementing other skins? I would really like to know the reason.

Yeah I've saw some great result on reddit and even this "mod" on YouTube what few people created to change the skins. That is really great for the PC players. I only have it for PS4. Did they still work on this?

So, more updates have come and gone and I still pop the game up for each one and play some. There's a new dedicated sandbox mode including every island, which is pleasing, and I've finished both dlc campaigns shortly after release. There are a total of sixty-six dinosaurs currently including the entire OpGen roster, the majority of the first inGen list, and a few more novel species, as well as some new species. Terrain modification has also been added, and a bit more scenery.

It's a real shame all of these features weren't in the game at launch, as I'd say at this point it just about satisfies those original promises. It's not enough to make me stop messing with zoo2 and it lacks some of JPOG's charm but it's certainly better than I ever expected in this day and age.

There's still some species I'd like to see - particularly a large dromaeosaur (Utahraptor possibly) and a prosauropod (Plateosaurus please!) as well as Segisaurus to complete the inGen list, and a few more novel species. Everyone's pulling for Therizinosaurus so much I forget to root for it, lol

Also, by now, custom textures are being done a bit more often, dunno the details yet

Well, here's a snippet from a post I made from over 2 years ago taken from the 'Reveal Trailer' thread that sums up my thoughts on JWE even after 16 months of updates:

"It may look so good, but also may lack many things. We'll see."


I feel like I have so much to say about how disappointing JWE is, but I'd rather not get into that. I'm sad how this game has turned out. The 'save games' thing due to it being released so prematurely has forever prevented it from being substantially improved when it comes to mechanics and functionality. It's been mostly just more 'toys in the toy box'. I don't know. I just don't know how a game company and publisher could have thrown so much potential away and dumbed everything down. JPOG was a very solid foundation to draw from, Frontier have the official backing of Universal (who seem to be hawk-eying all over this thing), and the help of community feedback and suggestions there to aid them all along the way. And yet, it's still a less than mediocre Jurassic park builder, imo.


How is it that a Jurassic park builder from 2003 is still the winner? How?!


I was so patient with this thing, but the reality is that it's been nearly a year and a half and, as far as mechanics go, only very (very very) minor mechanics stuff have been added. It's boring and not charming at all. A spokesman for Frontier said that the game would continue to receive support and improvements post-launch (technically it has, but not in any way that I thought), but it's been clear that monetizing is the priority. I still check up on the latest plans and updates for the game out of curiosity, but I had to bail and went back to JPOG after not booting it up in so long. I'm even more appreciative and thankful of what Blue Tongue did than I've ever been. And it looks like there are going to be some seriously good quality mods releasing over the next year thanks to some very talented people that love the game!


Anyone remember this video?




The rex and Raptor looked so good there... what happened? I was so super excited at the time. I miss those days now.


JWE score........ 2/10 (16 months after release). I'm perhaps extra harsh with this rating because of the seeming lack of genuine passion from the developer here in regards to this huge opportunity they've been given. It's not every other year this kind of Jurassic game is made. Hopes and dreams of a 'JPOG 2' crushed so hard.


...

LostWorld wrote:

I feel like I have so much to say about how disappointing JWE is, but I'd rather not get into that. I'm sad how this game has turned out. The 'save games' thing due to it being released so prematurely has forever prevented it from being substantially improved when it comes to mechanics and functionality. It's been mostly just more 'toys in the toy box'. I don't know. I just don't know how a game company and publisher could have thrown so much potential away and dumbed everything down. JPOG was a very solid foundation to draw from, Frontier have the official backing of Universal (who seem to be hawk-eying all over this thing), and the help of community feedback and suggestions there to aid them all along the way. And yet, it's still a less than mediocre Jurassic park builder, imo.

The problem is the core structure of the game is very limited; this game was not designed with many of the features people expected a modern JP park builder to have. It's astounding how JPOG's text editor based AI from 2003 manages to be better than an AI from 2018. It's even more disappointing considering who the devs are; if this was a dev who had no past experience with park builders it'd be a little more understandable but this is Frontier. They made RCT3, Planet Coaster and now Planet Zoo all of which are perfect examples of what most people expected JWE to be only with JP licensed material.

The game reeks of being half baked; there's no way the devs behind Planet Coaster (even if it isn't the same team) could have looked at the released build of JWE and said, "Yes, this is a product we want our name on". Something major happened during development that seems to have impacted the game. Whether it was the dev time not being long enough, the rumored Universal forcing Frontier to put it out for FK, or the speculation that Frontier throttled money and manpower from JWE into Planet Coaster and then rushed to get JWE out. I find it very improbable that Universal wouldn't want their iconic dinosaurs designs in their JP/JW park builder when they're also making all kinds of merch using those same designs.

Regardless of what happened it's clear this game was very disappointing and quite honestly unless the community makes huge strides in modding this game then it will quickly be forgotten.

I think that you summed it up very well there. The very structure of their in-house engine inherently puts a lid on many things from being implemented. JPOG in its 'locked' state has much more going on in there. I believe that someone from Frontier even made a statement sometime back about the lack of pack hunting and the ability for dinosaurs to attack vehicles was down to the engine not having those capabilities. If that's how it is, then I have to question why Frontier agreed to this. If they've at least seen the films and looked at JPOG, they should know what people would like to have in a Jurassic park builder. You're also right in that it's not like the company are new at park builders, they've been around for 20+ years specializing(?) in this kind of thing. Zoo Tycoon 2013 is another game from a loved series to get poor treatment by Frontier -- are they just out to cash-grab by using other past successful park simulators and the power of nostalgia to fill their pockets? I really don't like this.  

Honestly, if I were the Game Director and involved in the production of this game, I'd be embarrassed to have my name on this thing. What really stands out to me is how the game seems to be catering mostly to 7-12 year olds. It's just really safe, dumbed down, and inoffensive. And many of the dinos just look like cute toys rather than animals. JPOG is most likely the sole reason that JWE exists in the first place, but its presence is barely felt here. Ideas are clearly there, but the game just screams 'generic' and same-y. 1000 guests could die in the park and there's barely a penalty before the rating quickly climbs back again. I could go on and on and on, everyone knows what I'm talking about.  

Anyway, the T.rex looks like a derpy goofball, and if a professional game developer can't get the literal face of the franchise looking right (with Universal actively helping them) then that says a lot about their approach with this.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go place just one more tree in the Brachiosaur enclosure or else they will be highly uncomfortable and the world will feel the wrath of several earth-shaking terrors!

DLC themed to the original park is coming out in December
https://www.reddit.com/r/jurassicworldevo/comments/dwevku/1993_dlc_confirmed/

I'm literally so excited I peed a little.

If I go back into the game right now it'll probably say I haven't played in many months. I got incredibly bored of it and I didn't care about skins enough to do all the Jurassic challenges and whatnot. I didn't think Claire's Sanctuary or the Secrets of Wu DLCs looked all that interesting either. I wanted classic Jurassic Park and finally I'm getting it. I'm so happy this is happening. I'm for sure setting up the original park and then going from there.

Yeah when the DLC becomes available, I will definitely get back into the game! I dont think i ever eve finished the main campaign.

First gameplay videos for Return To Jurassic Park

RIP JWE pretty much. I'll be picking this up though. I wanted it on Switch in the first place haha.

Complete edition, so no more DLC basically.