Planet Zoo Planet Zoo!

DesertRhino150 said:
The next pack has been announced - the Tropical Pack. The five animals are the fossa, red river hog, Asian water monitor, lar gibbon and (walkthrough exhibit) brown-throated sloth.

More information can be found in the link below:
Planet Zoo: Tropical Pack arriving 4 April
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Not the islands or birds pack I was expecting, but this is good, too! And not a bad animal in sight! Fossa is nice for Madagascar sections (and is just a cool animal in general), Red River Hog is a quintessential African Forest animal, Lar Gibbon is a good alternative for the Siamang, Water Monitor is our first DLC habitat reptile that isn’t a crocodilian, and sloths are sloths are sloths! Honestly, this is probably the best DLC in a while.
 
Nice in itself but perhaps a bit safe - not necessarily anything wrong with that though.

Slightly wish it were one of the two-toed sloths just for realism and Lar Gibbon feels like it's following a little soon on Siamang to be really exciting but all good stuff. Looking forward to see how the sloths work in-game and Fossa definitely the pick of the pack otherwise.

Actually, for once the scenery looks almost as good as the animals - very Chester/Islands - guessing not a coincidence given they're doing a charity tie-with that zoo in particular!
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Just learned that the water monitor will have deep-diving, which immediately puts it into the upper end of the animals in the pack, personally speaking.
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I'm hoping that that means that the Nile monitor will also get it, and that the improved brachiation seen in the trailer means that the orangutan and siamang will also be improved.
 
i'm personally happy with the pack, the only that it bothers everyone, it's the fact that the sloth they chose should have been the linnaeus's two-toed sloth, as they are easier to keep and are very common in captivity, my local zoos has them, and they are walktrough animals, but the rest i just don't care i'm happy with the selection.
 
BetoYoung said:
i'm personally happy with the pack, the only that it bothers everyone, it's the fact that the sloth they chose should have been the linnaeus's two-toed sloth, as they are easier to keep and are very common in captivity, my local zoos has them, and they are walktrough animals, but the rest i just don't care i'm happy with the selection.
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I'm not bothered by the inclusion of the Three-Toed Sloth instead of the Two-Toed Sloth. A sloth is a sloth, and Three-Toed Sloths are more recognizable, anyways. Plus, like the Proboscis Monkey and Platypus, their rarity in captivity is their main appeal (aside from their slothitude). Remember, this is all just a video game, a few breaks from reality are fine.
 
Corangurilla said:
I'm not bothered by the inclusion of the Three-Toed Sloth instead of the Two-Toed Sloth. A sloth is a sloth, and Three-Toed Sloths are more recognizable, anyways. Plus, like the Proboscis Monkey and Platypus, their rarity in captivity is their main appeal (aside from their slothitude). Remember, this is all just a video game, a few breaks from reality are fine.
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I think the main slap in the face for people is there are two camps:

1) the realism builders who really wanted a two-toed but have no use for a three-toed

2) the people that don’t care that much about realism/taxonomy and would be happy with either.

very few people specifically wanted the three-toed. It’s all two-toed or don’t mind. So when the two-toed is right there as an option it’s a bit of rubbing salt in the wound so to speak.

I would argue the proboscis monkey and especially the platypus are different cases because they don’t particularly have a substitute. Particularly the platypus. The proboscis monkey was also solely chosen because of its nose as a ‘look this is weird’ animal, so also doesn’t really have a substitute.

On the other hand the sloth really does. So why disappoint half the player base when you could’ve made all quite happy, a two-toed would’ve satisfied the realism Animal nerds and the ‘cute animals lalala’ players.
 
Corangurilla said:
I'm not bothered by the inclusion of the Three-Toed Sloth instead of the Two-Toed Sloth. A sloth is a sloth, and Three-Toed Sloths are more recognizable, anyways. Plus, like the Proboscis Monkey and Platypus, their rarity in captivity is their main appeal (aside from their slothitude). Remember, this is all just a video game, a few breaks from reality are fine.
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yes, you're right.
 
Fresco3 said:
I think the main slap in the face for people is there are two camps:

1) the realism builders who really wanted a two-toed but have no use for a three-toed

2) the people that don’t care that much about realism/taxonomy and would be happy with either.

very few people specifically wanted the three-toed. It’s all two-toed or don’t mind. So when the two-toed is right there as an option it’s a bit of rubbing salt in the wound so to speak.

I would argue the proboscis monkey and especially the platypus are different cases because they don’t particularly have a substitute. Particularly the platypus. The proboscis monkey was also solely chosen because of its nose as a ‘look this is weird’ animal, so also doesn’t really have a substitute.

On the other hand the sloth really does. So why disappoint half the player base when you could’ve made all quite happy, a two-toed would’ve satisfied the realism Animal nerds and the ‘cute animals lalala’ players.
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I understand the realism, but I fail to see the practical difference between the two in terms of what you do with them (in real life their could be a behavioral difference I'm unaware of that is significant, but this is a video game), or that you could just pretend it's a two-toed. I get the "appease the camp that cares" thing, but.... a sloth is a sloth, in terms of what it does, unless you're really in the weeds of the behavior/needs of a specific species in a way, as far as I know, you don't need to be in Planet Zoo.
 
And here's my usual... TOP 5 TROPICAL PACK ANIMALS

5- Asian water monitor: While another monitor species is fine in of itself... I feel that this one is too similar in niche to the Nile monitor, and, being an Asian species, overlaps with THREE other exhibit reptiles. I would have preferred something like the New Guinea crocodile monitor or lace monitor instead, or better yet, something like a radiated tortoise, Bornean crested fireback, great curassow... But I guess it could be worse.

4- Lar gibbon: Different enough from the siamang to be a good enough second gibbon species, and I do hope it gives us the chance for more multispecies exhibits. However... It seems to me to be a missed opportunity at including a new world monkey, which I feel more people, including me, were clamoring for.

3- Brown-throated sloth: I don't care that much that it's a rare species in captivity, having a sloth in the game at all is wonderful. However, I have two little issues with it.
A) I hope it can be mixed with fruit bats or butterflies, as such combinations have been carried out successfully in other zoos. A bit sad they can't be mixed with capuchins or armadillos, however... And what about green iguanas?! Couldn't they be kept with them too?!
B) I feel it perhaps could have been a habitat animal, and I feel jipped that we didn't get any flying birds or at least tamarins and/or marmosets.

2- Red river hog: Now THIS is an excellent third pig species! Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but I hope we can mix it with African rainforest animals like bongos or okapi; that would be an excellent treat!

1- Fossa: The missing piece of the Madagascar puzzle! Very happy they finally got included, and now I can create more proper Madagascan areas in my zoos!

Overall, kind of a mixed bag, and I was disappointed in some aspects. Like the wetlands pack, while it may have done with a couple of fixes, it has included some genuinely great animals in there.
 
Fresco3 said:
I think the main slap in the face for people is there are two camps:

1) the realism builders who really wanted a two-toed but have no use for a three-toed

2) the people that don’t care that much about realism/taxonomy and would be happy with either.
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I was part of camp 3: the people who genuinely thought sloths didn’t have a chance. Still, I prefer the Three-Toed Sloth aesthetically, although that might be fueled by my desire to see one IRL.
 
JigerofLemuria said:
3- Brown-throated sloth: I don't care that much that it's a rare species in captivity, having a sloth in the game at all is wonderful. However, I have two little issues with it.
A) I hope it can be mixed with fruit bats or butterflies, as such combinations have been carried out successfully in other zoos. A bit sad they can't be mixed with capuchins or armadillos, however... And what about green iguanas?! Couldn't they be kept with them too?!
B) I feel it perhaps could have been a habitat animal, and I feel jipped that we didn't get any flying birds or at least tamarins and/or marmosets.
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I’m kind of glad that the sloth isn’t a habitat animal for two reasons:
A) They don’t really do much, and if enough people think that the Koala is unrealistic because it’s active, imagine the outcry over this hypothetical sloth.
B) You know how a lot of PZ players hate tortoises because of how slow they are? Like, “they’ll die of thirst on their way to get a drink” slow? Well imagine that but EVEN SLOWER, with the added bonus of having to come down from a tree or climbing structure to get to the water source on the ground.
I guess sloths were always a “damned if they do them, dammed if they don’t” type animal, but I guess that comes with the territory of being named after a sin :p.
 
Eh, pretty meh pack for me. We're already pretty heavy on tropical species and there are other species I would have liked to see more. I do like the Fossa, but would have rather seen it in an Islands pack. Sloth is nice, but why did it have to be three-toed? Asian Water Monitor is just a disappointment, that slot could have gone to King Cobra, a chameleon, a gecko, even a large habitat aquatic turtle... instead we got our second semi-aquatic monitor.

The clamor for birds, Tassie Devil, islands and highlands packs goes on...
 
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