Why Was the Southeast Asia Animal Pack so Buggy/Full of Issues?

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
I just thought about this before in the thread about Animal Remodels.

The Southeast Asia Animal Pack had a great roster of animals, but it was so full of issues. The binturong in the first instance with its terrible model that needed immediate repair, and then the dhole's animation problems which required a slight model touch up as well. The clouded leopard has that annoying slow-motion jumping glitch, and seems to be the worst example of the gliding bug while climbing. Then there's the Malayan tapir.

So what was it about this pack that made it so incredibly average in terms of these problems?
 

FoxyDee

FoxyDee
If I had to guess then I would guess the sudden switch to animal pack. I mean, many of us expected animal packs to show up sooner or later, but I think it is possible that the community outcry for more animals made them produce the animal packs sooner than anticipated. Of course, we can only guess what really happened, but I would say perhaps they had to get used to produce more animals in the same time period?

If I remember it right, there were found some Asian pieces in the code that were not used, so maybe the SEA pack was planned as scenery pack at the start.
 

PnGLINNyo

PnGLINNyo
FoxyDee said:
If I had to guess then I would guess the sudden switch to animal pack. I mean, many of us expected animal packs to show up sooner or later, but I think it is possible that the community outcry for more animals made them produce the animal packs sooner than anticipated. Of course, we can only guess what really happened, but I would say perhaps they had to get used to produce more animals in the same time period?

If I remember it right, there were found some Asian pieces in the code that were not used, so maybe the SEA pack was planned as scenery pack at the start.
Click to expand...
That would make sense but that DOESN'T MEAN they can let it slide with buggy animals; especially the repainted Baird's tapir....
 

KönigDerKaffeebohnen

K
But imagine the scenery pack we would propaply would have gotten.
Ngl id kill for some SEA scenery, but damn, sunbear proboscis monkey babirusa and clouded leopard is one hell of an unexciting pack for me.
In general imo the SEA pack still is the worst pack, because its animals just are the most forgetable/replaceable bunch.
For one getting a bear, a cat and a dog in one pack isnt great, then they also choose a unique but allmost too unique monkey for the fact that its our only monkey from tropical asia and the tapir became a literal reskin. Even with my by now adoration for the dhole really the only 2 animals that feel both like fun and diverse picks are the babirusa and binturong.
Guess the B gang won that one
 

yoav_r

yoav_r
In general it's the weakest pack roster. The only pack where the general audience went "the fork is that thing" about the headliner.

It was very clearly rushed and not well thought-through. Also, unlike other packs where they left the obvious leads outside of the base roster to use to headline a pack, they used the 2 most popular SEA animals (orangutan and komodo dragon) in the base game, showing they did not plan ahead for it.

Also, it came right after the revolutionary aquatic pack which I'm sure took a lot of their resources both before and after release with the plenty of bugs that came with diving.
 

Otter Lord

Otter Lord
yoav_r said:
In general it's the weakest pack roster. The only pack where the general audience went "the fork is that thing" about the headliner.

It was very clearly rushed and not well thought-through. Also, unlike other packs where they left the obvious leads outside of the base roster to use to headline a pack, they used the 2 most popular SEA animals (orangutan and komodo dragon) in the base game, showing they did not plan ahead for it.

Also, it came right after the revolutionary aquatic pack which I'm sure took a lot of their resources both before and after release with the plenty of bugs that came with diving.
Click to expand...
I disagree about the worst roster. I actually think it has the best roster in terms of the most requested animals.

6/7 main animals were highly requested on the meta wishlist (at that time) and even the probiscis provided an old world monkey. It may not have had as much diversity for building as NA or Wetlands, but the roster featured more "star" zoo animals than any of the packs. All the biggest zoos from San Diego, Chester, Leipzig, etc. have most of the animals from the roster.

Execution-wise, it will always be the Arctic Pack of the animal dlcs since it was brand new.
 

yoav_r

yoav_r
Otter Lord said:
I disagree about the worst roster. I actually think it has the best roster in terms of the most requested animals.

6/7 main animals were highly requested on the meta wishlist (at that time) and even the probiscis provided an old world monkey. It may not have had as much diversity for building as NA or Wetlands, but the roster featured more "star" zoo animals than any of the packs. All the biggest zoos from San Diego, Chester, Leipzig, etc. have most of the animals from the roster.

Execution-wise, it will always be the Arctic Pack of the animal dlcs since it was brand new.
Click to expand...
I agree it had a lot of highly requested animals - of the options they had left. All the animals in that DLC are niche at best, and many casual fans didn't even know many of them exist.

There is no combination of 4 animals from the SEA pack that would make for a good scenery pack. A good SEA scenery pack would look something like this, following the pattern of the other scenery packs:
  • Orangutan
  • Komodo Dragon
  • Clouded Leopard/Sun bear
  • Malayan Tapir
  • some exhibit

But as I said they already wasted the orangutan and komodo dragon on the base game roster, showing they didn't plan a SEA dlc from the start.

And even then, they didn't use the ASCO and Gibbon in the SEA pack, leading to it being one of the few dlcs that has only terrestrial animals. Closest thing it had to a new locomotion was the binturong tail hanging and proboscis monkey's swimming.

I love this pack, but with more planning it could've been much better made.
 

Pinguin

Pinguin
Haha, Southeast Asia is my favourite pack. I like animals included, yes even Malayan Tapir, my zoo has them and their calf. So cute. But yes clouded leopard jump in slow motion still...
 

nutrit

nutrit
For me SEA is an absolutely amazing pack species wise and I truly love SEA inspired Zekin’s Hutan Rimba reserve that is available at workshop.

This roster is not obvious and truly unexpected, especially the proboscis monkey which I use in nearly every one of my zoos.

Unfortunately a lot of animals seemed to have bugs:
  • slow motion jumping of clouded leopard and crazy space requirements
  • undeniably unacceptable appearance of Malayan tapir
  • fortunately Binturong and Dhole were fixed already
 

Otter Lord

Otter Lord
yoav_r said:
I agree it had a lot of highly requested animals - of the options they had left. All the animals in that DLC are niche at best, and many casual fans didn't even know many of them exist.

There is no combination of 4 animals from the SEA pack that would make for a good scenery pack. A good SEA scenery pack would look something like this, following the pattern of the other scenery packs:
  • Orangutan
  • Komodo Dragon
  • Clouded Leopard/Sun bear
  • Malayan Tapir
  • some exhibit

But as I said they already wasted the orangutan and komodo dragon on the base game roster, showing they didn't plan a SEA dlc from the start.

And even then, they didn't use the ASCO and Gibbon in the SEA pack, leading to it being one of the few dlcs that has only terrestrial animals. Closest thing it had to a new locomotion was the binturong tail hanging and proboscis monkey's swimming.

I love this pack, but with more planning it could've been much better made.
Click to expand...

So your reasoning is that it was a poor roster because it should have had LESS animals AND animals from the base game? Seems like you got the SEA animals you wanted, and you just think the SEA pack should have never existed?

I'm not sure about the animals being niche at best, and I don't think casual fans not knowing animals is good enough of a basis to judge. IMO, education and learning about animals is a big part of the game, so people not knowing animals shouldn't rule them out. If you applied that rule to every dlc, you would get different results depending on what your understanding of a "casual fan" is.

Most zoo people would consider Asian Rainforests a common bioregion in zoos, less common than African Savanna but equal with African Rainforests. Keep in mind, that the entire SEA region is made of FOUR biodiversity hotspots given that they are in a tropical zone made of an Island archipelago. There are plenty more animals that I would consider niche for SEA.

And too many terrestrial animals... it has the most arboreal species of any pack. ASCO would have been too soon after Aquatic pack, which is good planning.
 

yoav_r

yoav_r
Otter Lord said:
So your reasoning is that it was a poor roster because it should have had LESS animals AND animals from the base game? Seems like you got the SEA animals you wanted, and you just think the SEA pack should have never existed?

I'm not sure about the animals being niche at best, and I don't think casual fans not knowing animals is good enough of a basis to judge. IMO, education and learning about animals is a big part of the game, so people not knowing animals shouldn't rule them out. If you applied that rule to every dlc, you would get different results depending on what your understanding of a "casual fan" is.

Most zoo people would consider Asian Rainforests a common bioregion in zoos, less common than African Savanna but equal with African Rainforests. Keep in mind, that the entire SEA region is made of FOUR biodiversity hotspots given that they are in a tropical zone made of an Island archipelago. There are plenty more animals that I would consider niche for SEA.

And too many terrestrial animals... it has the most arboreal species of any pack. ASCO would have been too soon after Aquatic pack, which is good planning.
Click to expand...
You don't get what I'm saying. I'm not saying it should've been a scenery pack. I'm saying that for all packs up until the SEA pack, they very obviously left out the most popular animals from each region they planned a DLC for, in order to use it in the DLC, showing they planned for the first 4 DLCs (and the Africa pack) ahead of time.

SEA on the other hand had its 2 most popular and obvious headliners used in the base game and deluxe pack, showing a lack of planning for this pack.

My assumption is that what happened is that the SEA pack was a response to the wide criticism of not enough animals in DLCs, which means it was only concieved and made during the 1st year of support, and also during covid, unlike the other packs which have been clearly been planned beforehand.

This IMO best explains the lower quality of many animals in the pack and the overall rushed feel it has to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom