Guess we got the wild boar too!
Planet Zoo Planet Zoo!
- Thread starter TNT
- Start date
Here’s for a few more months of people asking for walrus, Andean bear, and secretary bird.
That aside I do consider this roster as a very solid one. The boar does solidify the suid roster. The swan shows a promising start for waterfowl assuming that PZ doesn’t lose support anytime soon.
Does anyone know what type of takin we will be getting?
That aside I do consider this roster as a very solid one. The boar does solidify the suid roster. The swan shows a promising start for waterfowl assuming that PZ doesn’t lose support anytime soon.
Does anyone know what type of takin we will be getting?
The press release on Frontier's website mentions the takin as having a 'coarse brown coat', which makes me think it might be the Mishmi takin.
Wrap up warm and head to the heart of Eurasia with Planet Zoo: Eurasia Animal Pack
Excellent roster, my current zoos entrance area was rather European themed, having a lake with swans in will make it look excellent! Very excited to build a sort of wild park area perhaps with the wild boar and wisent. This is probably the best pack of the year.
OkapiJohn
Well-Known Member
Most probably will be a generic takin, with colour variations that resemble the different populations/sub/species
Antimony96
Well-Known Member
From the screenshot it's definitely the Sichuan takin.
OkapiJohn
Well-Known Member
which screenshot?
A separate screenshot that was posted shortly after the pack and its first trailer were revealed.
Antimony96
Well-Known Member
Overall not bad - Wisent and Wild Boar are rather meh as one from NA, but I'm excited for most of the other species. Swan is very interesting, some hope for more birds yet. Getting pretty heavy with the hoofstock in the roster though, unless it's like a duiker or dik-dik really starting to feel we don't need more.
Only particular disappointment for me here is Heermann's Tortoise - there were so many missing groups that could have finally gotten representation here, but we got one of the less colorful tortoises. King Cobra, Veiled Chameleon, Giant salamanders, softshell turtles, pythons, sailfin dragons and more all snubbed again... Maybe before official support ends we can get a dedicated exhibit pack to fill some gaping holes in the exhibit roster...
Only particular disappointment for me here is Heermann's Tortoise - there were so many missing groups that could have finally gotten representation here, but we got one of the less colorful tortoises. King Cobra, Veiled Chameleon, Giant salamanders, softshell turtles, pythons, sailfin dragons and more all snubbed again... Maybe before official support ends we can get a dedicated exhibit pack to fill some gaping holes in the exhibit roster...
I don't know much about the PZ community specifically, but yes, gaming communities do usually tend to be a bit, um, feral...
Of course, looking today, most of them much happier once it's actually fully announced..! It's hilarious because if they'd teased the swan in the livestream they'd probably have gone the other way - it would have been Best Pack Ever BIRDS last night and Only ONE Bird?!? WHAAT? this afternoon.
Special bonus points to Frontier though for starting what seems to have been quite an intense and forthright "Wisent vs. Takin" debate with the teasers only to reveal this morning it's both of them anyway.
Just personal view about the species of this pack (A- great, B - good, C - so so, D - disappointed)
Heermann's Tortoise -- D: there are many choices better than this such as King Cobra, Veiled Chameleon, Giant Salamander, or Red-and-White Giant Flying Squirrel as Walkthrough Exhibit species.
Mute Swan -- A: finally we have the first waterfowl in the game, cheers
Sloth Bear -- B: if we don't have Formosa Black Bear and Himalayan Brown Bear in the game, I would mark this as A, but we already have 4 Asian bears before this pack, so Sloth Bear is not that necessary. Anyway, at least it is one of the iconic species of South Asia.
Wolverine -- A, a well-known highly demanded species, and we don't have many terrestrial mustelids in the game, Wolverine is a great offer.
Takin -- A: quite iconic East Asian and Himalayan species
Saiga Antelope -- A: Saiga Antelope is iconic Central Asian and North Asian species with high conservative value, nice to have it in this pack.
Wild Boar -- C: it would be good to have Wild Boar as an Anniversary animal, but in DLC? I would prefer some Asian primates such as Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, Lion-tailed Macaques or Hamadryas Baboon
Wisent -- D: just a clone species of American Bison, I don't oppose the Frontier making it, but rather offering in Standard pack or as an Anniversary species. I personally don't like clone species in DLC, that is wasting a precious quota.
Heermann's Tortoise -- D: there are many choices better than this such as King Cobra, Veiled Chameleon, Giant Salamander, or Red-and-White Giant Flying Squirrel as Walkthrough Exhibit species.
Mute Swan -- A: finally we have the first waterfowl in the game, cheers
Sloth Bear -- B: if we don't have Formosa Black Bear and Himalayan Brown Bear in the game, I would mark this as A, but we already have 4 Asian bears before this pack, so Sloth Bear is not that necessary. Anyway, at least it is one of the iconic species of South Asia.
Wolverine -- A, a well-known highly demanded species, and we don't have many terrestrial mustelids in the game, Wolverine is a great offer.
Takin -- A: quite iconic East Asian and Himalayan species
Saiga Antelope -- A: Saiga Antelope is iconic Central Asian and North Asian species with high conservative value, nice to have it in this pack.
Wild Boar -- C: it would be good to have Wild Boar as an Anniversary animal, but in DLC? I would prefer some Asian primates such as Golden Snub-nosed Monkey, Lion-tailed Macaques or Hamadryas Baboon
Wisent -- D: just a clone species of American Bison, I don't oppose the Frontier making it, but rather offering in Standard pack or as an Anniversary species. I personally don't like clone species in DLC, that is wasting a precious quota.
Both incredibly important species for Europe though. And the boar for Asia, too. Both are common zoo animals here and, trust me, while I can put a North American Beaver and pretend it's the European one fine, or the Himalayan Brown Bear in lieu of European Brown, there ain't no way you're playing that game with bison - they're just too different visually. These two species are probably the ones I'm most looking forward to!
In truth, I don't really like the term 'clone'. Not least because it's been clear for some time that to make the 8-animal packs economic some of them need to be closer (not identical!) to existing animals - so no 'clones', no animal packs (you can almost always pick out what would be dropped from each animal pack to make a saleable 'standard' pack).On that basis, they're not 'taking slots', they're adding them. Without them we'd likely only have standard packs and lose six animal slots a year.
But, honestly, I don't see any animal in any pack so far as a 'waste', and there aren't any I don't use at all. The roster is already so much better than the Zoo Tycoon of my youth. Just as long as they stick to things that at least could be in zoos (nothing extinct, fantastical, or that's a baleen whale, for instance) and I'd struggle to see anything as a 'waste'.
OkapiJohn
Well-Known Member
I do not observe this type of disdain on this side of the Atlantic. I have never seen any European, Australian or Japanese complaining because species A or B is non-existent in our zoos. I do not know if is because in Europe we have both our native species + plenty of north American species? The only iconic species from NA that we don't have are red wolf and coyotes. We even have some salamanders and snakes from NA. And if we talk about species from the deserts of Mexico and southwest of the US, those are very common around. Even North American sections are not hard to find here. But I mean, we do not have platypuses, proboscis monkeys, Baird's tapirs or Quokkas, and still, no one complained about getting those. People are just happy to have more animal diversity.
That may be a large part of it - the majority of European species included in the PZ roster are rare to non-existent here. There are no European Badgers or Wisent for instance, and Alpine Ibex and Red Deer are extremely rare. Neither Fire Salamander or Heermann's Tortoise are very common. Eurasian Lynx is around, but much less so than Canadian and Bobcat. Mute Swan and Wild Boar are better known as invasives subject to occasional culling and are pretty rare in zoos, versus Raccoon and NA Beaver seem fairly prevalent in European zoos besides their invasive status. So yeah, there's a lot of species in the roster that might not really be considered "inclusion-worthy zoo animals" from a NA perspective.
Worth noting that the few included species native to both sides of the Atlantic are typically well received, such as Wolverine, Gray Seal, and Moose.
I want to boost the point about clones -- in my discussions with game designers across multiple genres, similar characters or animals that reuse animations, ie 'clones', are almost always more like bonus slots that would otherwise not exist at all rather than taking up slots that would otherwise go to new characters/animals. Animation is actually one of the most costly and difficult parts of developing characters for games, so characters/animals that reuse animation can be done in a significantly shorter amount of time than all-new works and in one example in my mind, it was essentially one designer who separately made four clone characters to pad out a roster while leading the team that made the other twenty-plus characters in the core roster which had unique animations and characteristics. No resources were diverted from core development.
The new pack looks great and definitely further elevates PZ's roster over Zoo Tycoon as almost none of these animals were represented in the previous games.
I definitely think Frontier should try dedicated bird and reptile packs at some point.
The new pack looks great and definitely further elevates PZ's roster over Zoo Tycoon as almost none of these animals were represented in the previous games.
I think your post is very correct on the whole, but I actually have seen a few people complain about the proboscis monkeys and argue they should have selected a monkey species that is held more widely in captivity instead.
I definitely think a dedicated Exhibit Pack would be a great idea personally, and help fill those holes nicely and allow for a greater diversity than the one odd animal in a larger pack typically does. I do think it's noticeable that most of the cool reptiles you and others suggest are tropical species and the sloth bear is the only tropical species in this upcoming pack, with the other animals either from Europe or more northern Asia, which makes me wonder if the focus was meant to be more exclusive at first.
I definitely think Frontier should try dedicated bird and reptile packs at some point.
I understand many of you cheer for Wild Boar and Wisent since they definitively can enrich the European theme. Tat y I said it is good to see them being offered as Anniversary species. However, the number of DLCs is limited, so the slots of species are also limited, I don't know exactly how many more DLCs we will get in the future, probably just 4 more, 2 scenery packs and 2 species packs, then just 26 species on the way. The demanded species that not yet being offered (based upon the META wishlist in official forum) are way more than 26, which include several "clone species" such as American Black Bear, Nile Crocodile and African Leopards. In fact those "clone species" can be satisfied by Mod, while some unique species like Tree Kangaroo may need new modules (there is tree kangaroo in mod but is changed from Koala's module, so the body shape and move are not accurate), which can be done by the Frontier only. That is why I want the species offered in the DLCs can be as diverse as possible. But no one is right or wrong here, all is just personal preference.
The exhibit species in this Eurasia DLC is still tank species, not the flying bird that many people expect, and we probably only have few DLCs left in the future. So I don't think we will get the flying birds in Planet Zoo I.
Here is my prediction of next year's DLCs, the reason why I put this post here not the DLC idea thread is b/c the species below may not be what I want, but what I think the Frontier more likely to offer
Mountain pack (scenery pack with Himalayan architecture theme, 4+1 species)
Exhibit species is more likely tank species, could be something like Ethiopian Mountain Adder, Lake Titicaca Frog or Yosemite Toad. Habitat species may include Spectacled Bear, Pallas Cat, Markhor and Yak. All species here don't need new modules
Safari pack (species pack with 7+1 species)
Exhibit species is more likely tank species, probably Black Mamba or Pancake Tortoise. The Habitat species may include Secretary Bird, Baboon, Honey Badger (as the Frontier offers Wolverine now, they are likely to make Honey Badger in the future), several antelopes, two clone species Nile Crocodile and African Leopard
Cold animal pack (scenery pack with North America native theme, 4+1 species)
Exhibit species could be Northern Flying Squirrel of the walkthrough exhibit. The Habitat species could be Walrus, Sea Otter, Musk Ox and American Black Bear
Caribbean pack (species pack with 7+1 species)
Exhibit species could be either tank species or walkthrough exhibit species like Central American Squirrel Monkey. The Habitat species may include Geoffroy's Spider Monkey, White-nosed Coati, Northern Tamandua, three "clone species" American Flamingo, Ocelot and White-tailed Deer, and probably Green Sea Turtle (at least one marine species matches with the Caribbean theme
)
Here is my prediction of next year's DLCs, the reason why I put this post here not the DLC idea thread is b/c the species below may not be what I want, but what I think the Frontier more likely to offer
Mountain pack (scenery pack with Himalayan architecture theme, 4+1 species)
Exhibit species is more likely tank species, could be something like Ethiopian Mountain Adder, Lake Titicaca Frog or Yosemite Toad. Habitat species may include Spectacled Bear, Pallas Cat, Markhor and Yak. All species here don't need new modules
Safari pack (species pack with 7+1 species)
Exhibit species is more likely tank species, probably Black Mamba or Pancake Tortoise. The Habitat species may include Secretary Bird, Baboon, Honey Badger (as the Frontier offers Wolverine now, they are likely to make Honey Badger in the future), several antelopes, two clone species Nile Crocodile and African Leopard
Cold animal pack (scenery pack with North America native theme, 4+1 species)
Exhibit species could be Northern Flying Squirrel of the walkthrough exhibit. The Habitat species could be Walrus, Sea Otter, Musk Ox and American Black Bear
Caribbean pack (species pack with 7+1 species)
Exhibit species could be either tank species or walkthrough exhibit species like Central American Squirrel Monkey. The Habitat species may include Geoffroy's Spider Monkey, White-nosed Coati, Northern Tamandua, three "clone species" American Flamingo, Ocelot and White-tailed Deer, and probably Green Sea Turtle (at least one marine species matches with the Caribbean theme
)
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In their latest financial report Frontier confirmed they want to keep on supporting their gold mines, which is park simulators (Planet Zoo, Coaster which has a rumored sequel licensed by Disney and Jurassic World Evolution 2) after the recent failures in the latest installments which were a flop (F1, Warhammer and that other shooter project; apparently they even fired people from those projects), so I'm confident DLCs won't be ending as soon as we thought and perhaps may extend to more than 1 or 2 years, who knows