How many highly requested animals we will get in 2023- Breaking Down the Numbers

[jcp011c]

I'm wondering about trends of how Frontier is doing about giving us popularly requested animals (per the Meta list, mainly). I'm taking a look at 2021 and 2022, because the list didn't come until late 2020, and it's hard to judge for sure, but I'm sure the Koala, Kangaroo and Penguin would have been very close to the top. I'm mostly going with animals that were in or very close to the top 10 of that list at the time of the pack they were in was announced, so the list did shift over the two years as species were included.

Anyways, breaking down 2021: 10 "top tier" animals added.

I'm not sure if the Southeast Asia pack had a single top 10 or near top 10 animal in it. Sure some were in the next tier, say top 30 or so, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but that's 0 added.
The Africa Pack gave us 3 with the Rhino, the Fennec Fox and the Meerkat. The North America Animal pack gave us 5, all but the Arctic Fox and Prairie Dog....half of the top 10 at that point in time (which is why I count it as the strongest pack released, animal wise thus far). Europe gave us the Ibex and Lynx.

Breaking down 2022: 8 "top tier" animals added.
The Wetlands pack brought us the Capybara and Platypus (I think that the Platypus was right outside the top 10 at the time, close enough to count). The Conservation pack brought us 3, with the Siamang representing the Gibbon votes, and of course the Leopard and P. Horse. The Twilight pack brought us the Wombat, and the Grasslands Pack the Maned Wolf and Emu

Taking into account that as the game goes on there's less prominently discussed and wanted animals getting into the top 10, less wanted relatively of course, it's natural to see a reduction from 2021 to 2022. I imagine we'll have the same in 2023, and I'm estimating we'll get 5-6 of the higher ranked animals this next year. That is taking into account if we get content in 2024 of course; otherwise Frontier may want to try to get as many highly requested animals in as possible.

Looking at the list, without adjusting for additional votes in the last month the top 10 would sit at:
Tasmanian Devil
African Crested Porcupine (though I think most would also be content with the Caped Porcupine)
Lar Gibbon (still maintaining if the list were revamped for Gibbon/Siamang counts it would not be this high, but it is what and where it is)
Two Toed Sloth
Red River Hog
Wolverine
Secretary Bird
South American Coati
Fossa
Walrus

We would have potential pack headliners - the Devil (highly requested and potential for Nocturnal/Islands), the Porcupine (Dry climates, the Grassland pack may have taken that place though) the Sloth (Rainforests/Tropical) and either the Walrus or Wolverine for a colder weather theme, or just the Wolverine for a mountain pack. That's assuming there is no dedicated birds pack (which the Secretary could headline). Of out the Devil, Porcupine, Sloth and Walrus/Wolverine (counting as 1 total), we'll get 3 of the 4 of them. Not necessarily in the themes I mentioned of course.

That would still leave 3 more animals we could estimate we'd get, unless we got all 4 of the above, in which case just 2 left. It all depends on themes. There's ways to work out that we'd get all of these next year. But if content does continue into 2024 I suspect Frontier will save some of these as the animal that gets people's attention.

 

[Marvinb]

I too think that the Lar gibbon is way higher on the wishlist than it should be. It kind of a relic/fossil from another time, a time before the siamangs, who sated most peoples hunger for gibbons. Dont get me wrong i think it would be cool if they were added eventually but baboons, howler- and spidermonkeys and monkeys in general are still missing...

 

[biggest_dreamer]

siamangs, who sated most peoples hunger for gibbons

Did they? I've never been able to get a good gauge on this. I've seen a lot of people saying it wouldn't rank as highly post-siamang (sure) but I'm really not sure what percentage of players actually consider the siamang to be good enough, or at least good enough for now. And maybe that's because I'm in a minority who actually does still want to prioritize the lar gibbon. I just feel like anecdotally, I still see more people including it in their wishlists and speculative roadmaps than I see people outright saying they're set on gibbons.

Also, I really don't understand why so much speculation goes into headliner animals. Would anyone have guessed we'd get packs headlines by the raccoon and nine-banded armadillo this time last year?

 

[Pinguin]

Yes I would like Lar Gibbon or possibly White-Cheeked Gibbon.

 

[Marvinb]

Im not saying noone wants them.I just dont think they are a Top 10 most wanted animals anymore for most people. I would like them aswell. Especially to get a little more color in my primate areas, there is so much black .

 

[nutrit]

I'm wondering about trends of how Frontier is doing about giving us popularly requested animals (per the Meta list, mainly). I'm taking a look at 2021 and 2022, because the list didn't come until late 2020, and it's hard to judge for sure, but I'm sure the Koala, Kangaroo and Penguin would have been very close to the top. I'm mostly going with animals that were in or very close to the top 10 of that list at the time of the pack they were in was announced, so the list did shift over the two years as species were included.

Anyways, breaking down 2021: 10 "top tier" animals added.

I'm not sure if the Southeast Asia pack had a single top 10 or near top 10 animal in it. Sure some were in the next tier, say top 30 or so, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but that's 0 added.
The Africa Pack gave us 3 with the Rhino, the Fennec Fox and the Meerkat. The North America Animal pack gave us 5, all but the Arctic Fox and Prairie Dog....half of the top 10 at that point in time (which is why I count it as the strongest pack released, animal wise thus far). Europe gave us the Ibex and Lynx.

Breaking down 2022: 8 "top tier" animals added.
The Wetlands pack brought us the Capybara and Platypus (I think that the Platypus was right outside the top 10 at the time, close enough to count). The Conservation pack brought us 3, with the Siamang representing the Gibbon votes, and of course the Leopard and P. Horse. The Twilight pack brought us the Wombat, and the Grasslands Pack the Maned Wolf and Emu

Taking into account that as the game goes on there's less prominently discussed and wanted animals getting into the top 10, less wanted relatively of course, it's natural to see a reduction from 2021 to 2022. I imagine we'll have the same in 2023, and I'm estimating we'll get 5-6 of the higher ranked animals this next year. That is taking into account if we get content in 2024 of course; otherwise Frontier may want to try to get as many highly requested animals in as possible.

Looking at the list, without adjusting for additional votes in the last month the top 10 would sit at:
Tasmanian Devil
African Crested Porcupine (though I think most would also be content with the Caped Porcupine)
Lar Gibbon (still maintaining if the list were revamped for Gibbon/Siamang counts it would not be this high, but it is what and where it is)
Two Toed Sloth
Red River Hog
Wolverine
Secretary Bird
South American Coati
Fossa
Walrus

We would have potential pack headliners - the Devil (highly requested and potential for Nocturnal/Islands), the Porcupine (Dry climates, the Grassland pack may have taken that place though) the Sloth (Rainforests/Tropical) and either the Walrus or Wolverine for a colder weather theme, or just the Wolverine for a mountain pack. That's assuming there is no dedicated birds pack (which the Secretary could headline). Of out the Devil, Porcupine, Sloth and Walrus/Wolverine (counting as 1 total), we'll get 3 of the 4 of them. Not necessarily in the themes I mentioned of course.

That would still leave 3 more animals we could estimate we'd get, unless we got all 4 of the above, in which case just 2 left. It all depends on themes. There's ways to work out that we'd get all of these next year. But if content does continue into 2024 I suspect Frontier will save some of these as the animal that gets people's attention.

I think the species that would lead the packs in 2023 are:
Porcupine
Sloth
Tasmanian devil
Maybe walrus


This is meta wishlist screenshot made before the SEA premiere:

 

[becks474]

South East Asia was a pack which gave us 4 Top 20 animals plus an already leaked Sun Bear (which perhaps lead to lesser votes). I really do not understand some posts calling it a pack with a lot of oddballs. And species which were on top of the list before the grasslands pack like the Maned Wolf or the Emu had 2 years ago about the same rank like the SEA pack animals. Interestingly we nearly got all 23 species of the screenshot (Lar Gibbon (but we got another Gibbon), Sloth, Tasmanian Devil and Wolverine are missing). A further indication that Frontier is listening to the wishes eben when we do not get everything in one single pack (which I find good to spread the high wished animals over several packs). I hope we get at least 6 of the Top 10 animals next year (if support should stop all of them would make great additions, even the Lar Gibbon as it has much more color variations than the Siamang)

 

[jcp011c]

s. Interestingly we nearly got all 23 species of the screenshot (Lar Gibbon (but we got another Gibbon), Sloth, Tasmanian Devil and Wolverine are missing).

What's sort of odd then, is how the Crested Porcupine rocketed up so quickly. From not even top 20, at one point, to what is likely going to be the #2 spot. Maybe it was one of those "oh yeah, I forgot about them!" animals....that everyone jumped on wanting once it started getting mentions.

 

[becks474]

What's sort of odd then, is how the Crested Porcupine rocketed up so quickly. From not even top 20, at one point, to what is likely going to be the #2 spot. Maybe it was one of those "oh yeah, I forgot about them!" animals....that everyone jumped on wanting once it started getting mentions.

That is really interesting and further the Porcupine was already on a solid place 15 after Africa pack release (end of the old meta wishlist with 30 votes). So its popularity was increasing somehow within these 3 months from SEA to Africa pack.

 

[biggest_dreamer]

What's sort of odd then, is how the Crested Porcupine rocketed up so quickly. From not even top 20, at one point, to what is likely going to be the #2 spot. Maybe it was one of those "oh yeah, I forgot about them!" animals....that everyone jumped on wanting once it started getting mentions.

I wonder if perhaps it was getting votes split across cape and the two crested species at first before African crested finally took the lead? And of course, having 7 species removed from the top of the list certainly helped. But I do also think the "oh yeah, I forgot" explanation works. It's definitely something you run into from time to time, where someone will bring up a reasonably common zoo animal that had no real traction prior and then suddenly everyone remembers it all at once.