Best DLC for a new guy
- Thread starter Lpoo
- Start date
The biggest change to standard gameplay would probably be getting some more aquatics. For that I'd reccomend either aquaticwhich comes with:
A seal
A penguin
A large otter
A caiman
A whole load of nice building pieces that fit almost any zoo environment
Or Wetlands which overlaps a lot in terms of animals choices, it has:
A crane
The capybara
The platypus
A smaller otter
A buffalo
A caiman
A waterbuck
If your not to fussed on explicitly new gameplay and just want a good variety of unique animals i'd suggest grasslands which has:
The maned wolf
An armadillo
A wallaby
The emu
A hyena
A small cat
An antelope
Finally if you'd just like some species for a specific area after one of those other 3 I'd just suggest the one with the name of that area (I.e. Australia pack for Australian animals.) Unless you want ones from the Asian Woodlands I which case go for the conservation pack.
A seal
A penguin
A large otter
A caiman
A whole load of nice building pieces that fit almost any zoo environment
Or Wetlands which overlaps a lot in terms of animals choices, it has:
A crane
The capybara
The platypus
A smaller otter
A buffalo
A caiman
A waterbuck
If your not to fussed on explicitly new gameplay and just want a good variety of unique animals i'd suggest grasslands which has:
The maned wolf
An armadillo
A wallaby
The emu
A hyena
A small cat
An antelope
Finally if you'd just like some species for a specific area after one of those other 3 I'd just suggest the one with the name of that area (I.e. Australia pack for Australian animals.) Unless you want ones from the Asian Woodlands I which case go for the conservation pack.
If you prefer to build zoos in a specific region of the world, then you should buy that region Dlc (for example if you want to build Australian zoos, get the Australia Dlc because it has animals, building pieces and plants from that region).
If enjoy more building than animals, the Europe DLC has probably the best building pieces and most of the stickers. Aquatic pack has flexicolour wood set and faux rocks.
If you don't care much about building, then get any of the animals packs (with wetlands and North America offering the major variety)
If enjoy more building than animals, the Europe DLC has probably the best building pieces and most of the stickers. Aquatic pack has flexicolour wood set and faux rocks.
If you don't care much about building, then get any of the animals packs (with wetlands and North America offering the major variety)
None of the DLC's enhance the gameplay. All gameplay features are included in the base game; new features are added via free update patch to the base game. The DLC's are literally just content packs that add animals, scenery, and so on.
The Aquatic Pack is probably the closest to 'gameplay enhancing', since it adds four species to take advantage of the deep diving mechanics introduced in free update 1.4. However, a few other packs also add aquatic animals, so it's really up to you. The most obvious recommendation one can make is to buy all of them, since that gives you the most content, but in terms of gameplay features you aren't missing anything if you get one DLC, or no DLCs.
I agree for most continents, but for Australia I’d actually go with grasslands as ‘most needed DLC’… only applicable if you want to build an Australian section though, obviously.
I think it depends:
- If you want to build an Australia section in an international zoo, the Grasslands Animal Pack is the most needed DLC
- If you want to build a zoo based in Australia, as Aramar said, the Australia Pack is the most needed DLC
Emu and red-necked wallaby are essential for an Australian zoo, but the red kangaroo and koala are equally so (cassowary and dingo are super important too) whilst you’d be hard pressed to build a zoo here with rainbow eucalyptus as your only eucalypt.
If you want a nice variety but also animals that are common in captivity, the following would be best:
For future reference, here are the many sister DLCs you can get:
Other DLC that don't have a sister DLC:
- North America animal pack - most of the animals are very common. Gators, sea lions, pumas, prairie dogs. Also, the beaver takes advantage of the underwater plant feeder that's in the base game
- Grasslands animal pack - many animals are found throughout zoos worldwide, such as the emu, maned wolf, blue wildebeest, and red-necked wallaby. It also has 5 species of butterflies for the walkthrough exhibits that are in the base game
- Arid animal pack - a lotta people may think that this is somewhat controversial, but the camel, addax, porcupine, and Somali wild donkey are found in various zoos worldwide, plus the DLC really adds to the lacking desert animals you can use
- Twilight pack - the twilight pack really complements the NA animal pack. 3/5 species are from North America and are quite fun to build for. My personal favorite is the red fox, because of the color varieties it has. The pack also comes with the common wombat, which is important for completing the Australian roster, and the Egyptian fruit bats that come in the pack are actually the very 1st WE (walkthrough exhibits) animals to arrive in the game, so you'd might wanna get it for that, as well
- Australia pack - look, you can't build Australia without this pack. Like, literally, you can't. You can kinda skip the Africa pack and build a solid African section or skip the Southeast Asia animal pack and still build Asia, but for Australia, this one is essential. Koala, red kangaroo, southern cassowary, and the dingo are all super important Australian animals and they really go great alongside the emu and red-necked wallaby from the Grasslands animal pack
- Africa pack - while African animals are kinda spread out throughout the last couple of packs as well as having much of the roster in the base game, this one is important because it adds keystone African zoo species. The southern white rhino, the fennec fox, the African penguin, and the meerkat. So, if you want an authentic African experience, this one will go perfectly with the Arid pack, especially since the building theme from the Africa pack, called the North African build theme, is based off of Egyptian architecture, so a lot of the animals from the Arid pack will match up perfectly with it
For future reference, here are the many sister DLCs you can get:
- Tropical pack & Southeast Asia animal pack - while only 2/5 animal here are actually from Asia, the building theme really complements the former pack. Also, the lar gibbon and the Asian water monitor are very cool and fit in nicely with the other SEA animals
- South America pack & Wetlands animal pack - you could argue that the Wetlands pack is more an Asian pack, but the fact is that, while the roster is super varied, the capybara and the spectacled caiman are important animals when building a SA section
- Twilight pack & North America animal pack - the Twilight pack features: striped skunk, red fox, and raccoon. All 3 complement the animals from the North America animal pack, such as making smaller NA zoos with local wildlife
- Africa pack & Arid animal pack - Africa pack roster and theme complement the Arid animal pack roster
- Australia pack & Grasslands animal pack - the Australia pack is important for the Grasslands animal pack. Without it, the emu and wallaby will feel outta place
- Arctic pack & North America animal pack - this combo is also really nice. All 4 animals are found in NA. This is the main reason why it'd match up with the NAAP. But, it also works as:
- Arctic pack & Europe pack - the Arctic pack also features 2 species that can be located in Europe. Plus, half of the build theme seems to resemble Scandinavian architecture
Other DLC that don't have a sister DLC:
- Deluxe - not worth it at full price unless you absolutely need those animals. Includes pygmy hippo, komodo dragon, and Thompson's gazelle
- Aquatic pack - features 4 semiaquatic animals that were the pioneers into deep diving for crocodilians, cats, and various other species. The pack is made up of the giant otter, Cuvier's dwarf caiman, king penguin, and grey seal. The build set also includes naturalistic faux pieces to immerse yourself (and the animals) into an environment that looks real
- Conservation pack - the "2nd Asian pack", this one features highly important animals that are endangered. Przewalski horse, scimitar horned oryx, siamang, and Amur leopard
Aquatic offers you very cool and useful scenery pieces (like the faux rocks) and the seal which is awesone. You also get an otter and a caiman and a penguin but there are versions of this animals un other packs as well si depends in what species you like the most.
África gives you very useful plaster pieces for building plus meerkats which are always a plus and an african rhino. Weirdly enough this pack also includes a penguin and the most versatile species out of the two we have.
Conservation has great building pieces as well and while the animal choices are great and they are wonderfully designed i don't think they are the most essential animals to get before others.
Australia, South América, Europe and Tropical are very thematic but out of these four i would say Australia is the one that will offer you something different with the kangaroo and the koala (and also two very iconic animals that are a must imo) and a ton of cool building props and foliage that go well not only in Australian sections. Plus the cassowary is just one of the best animals in the game.
Animal packs are a good way to expand the roster but i would start with scenery packs if you care about that aspect of the game. If you just care about the animals wetlands and grasslands are the best among animal packs but i think they work best as compliments for Aquatic and Australia packs respectively. The NA animal pack works great on it's own, incorporates the sea lion and the beaver and if you don't get the África pack you will also enjoy the prairie dogs imo (since they pretty much based on the meerkats) and i guess if you are from NA yourself is kind of a key pack to get.
I would leave Twilight, Arid and Tropical as least priority but really depends what types of animals you like.
África gives you very useful plaster pieces for building plus meerkats which are always a plus and an african rhino. Weirdly enough this pack also includes a penguin and the most versatile species out of the two we have.
Conservation has great building pieces as well and while the animal choices are great and they are wonderfully designed i don't think they are the most essential animals to get before others.
Australia, South América, Europe and Tropical are very thematic but out of these four i would say Australia is the one that will offer you something different with the kangaroo and the koala (and also two very iconic animals that are a must imo) and a ton of cool building props and foliage that go well not only in Australian sections. Plus the cassowary is just one of the best animals in the game.
Animal packs are a good way to expand the roster but i would start with scenery packs if you care about that aspect of the game. If you just care about the animals wetlands and grasslands are the best among animal packs but i think they work best as compliments for Aquatic and Australia packs respectively. The NA animal pack works great on it's own, incorporates the sea lion and the beaver and if you don't get the África pack you will also enjoy the prairie dogs imo (since they pretty much based on the meerkats) and i guess if you are from NA yourself is kind of a key pack to get.
I would leave Twilight, Arid and Tropical as least priority but really depends what types of animals you like.
It really depends on what youre looking for cool animals or usefull scenery.
If you can only get one id recommend the aquatic pack. Its probably the best option to enhance you game experience with just one pack. Some real nice animals that are something unlike anything in the basegame with the seal, penguin and otter, aswell as the incredible usefull fake rocks and other builing pieces
If you can only get one id recommend the aquatic pack. Its probably the best option to enhance you game experience with just one pack. Some real nice animals that are something unlike anything in the basegame with the seal, penguin and otter, aswell as the incredible usefull fake rocks and other builing pieces
Alternatively, you could wait for a sale and then get multiple packs at once for a much cheaper price. The older the DLC, the cheaper the discount
it really depends if you're more interested in the animals or building, and the themes and animals within the packs.
My personal suggestions for regarding the more essential half of the packs:
For animals -
North American Animal Pack. overall, this is probably the strongest animal roster of any of the packs, but you won't get too much besides the animals here (just signs and statues)
Australian Pack -Australia really got overlooked with the base game, with a total of one habitat animal, and this includes the two most iconic Australian animals, the Kangaroo and Koala. The building set is also pretty good, though not everyone thinks so.
Africa Pack - Another absolutely excellent roster. At launch, the Meerkat was the most missed singular species for me, it also includes an African Rhino, and other really great animal choices with the Fennec Fox and African Penguin. The building set is just okay.
For building (so the animals may still be good but aren't as important as the building sets that come with it)-
Europe - Fantastic building set that adds a lot of great potential for design. Pretty good animal roster too.
Arctic - not everyone, in fact most people won't agree with me here, but I absolutely love the Arctic building set. However, the pack also comes with some Christmas building pieces which are pretty limited in use. Noting too, the animal picks are not that strong - the Polar Bear is a massive drain on finances in Franchise and Challenge mode.
My other pick for building is the Australian pack, which not everyone likes as it is pretty stylized. This along with the Arctic are my two favorite building sets in DLC. The fact this has a strong roster and building sets, in my opinion anyways, makes it my #1 pick.
For Game Mechanics -
Aquatic pack. Outside of the Penguin I'm not that keen on the rest of the animals, but it does really add to the swimming/diving mechanic. That mechanic is also in the base game for some animals, so it's not like you have to buy this pack to have that mechanic for appropriate base game animals. I personally find the building set just okay, but I have a much lower opinion of this pack than most people, as it's usually described as one of the best packs.
Other noted pack:
South America also got very little in terms of base game habitat animals (it has two in base game), so even though it's not one of my favorite packs overall, the South American pack is probably still essential for more representation from the continent. Other packs that have at least two South American animals: Aquatic (Giant Otter, Curviers Camian), Wetlands (Capybara, Spectacled Camian), and Grasslands (Maned Wolf, Armadillo), but to get the most out of additions to the continent, the South America pack is probably the way to go.
Packs I would not recommend as starting out with, unless there's particular animals in them you're really interested in getting:
Southeast Asia Animal pack - some good additions but very much a roster that brought in animals that weren't as popularly requested. One of the weaker animal rosters overall - IMO the weakest actually. Since its' an animal pack there's no scenery to better balance that out.
Twilight Pack - Sure it adds more for building, but the building set feels like "Europe-lite". The animal roster is generally regarded as not that strong. Not to say it's bad it's just not as exciting as other packs.
My personal suggestions for regarding the more essential half of the packs:
For animals -
North American Animal Pack. overall, this is probably the strongest animal roster of any of the packs, but you won't get too much besides the animals here (just signs and statues)
Australian Pack -Australia really got overlooked with the base game, with a total of one habitat animal, and this includes the two most iconic Australian animals, the Kangaroo and Koala. The building set is also pretty good, though not everyone thinks so.
Africa Pack - Another absolutely excellent roster. At launch, the Meerkat was the most missed singular species for me, it also includes an African Rhino, and other really great animal choices with the Fennec Fox and African Penguin. The building set is just okay.
For building (so the animals may still be good but aren't as important as the building sets that come with it)-
Europe - Fantastic building set that adds a lot of great potential for design. Pretty good animal roster too.
Arctic - not everyone, in fact most people won't agree with me here, but I absolutely love the Arctic building set. However, the pack also comes with some Christmas building pieces which are pretty limited in use. Noting too, the animal picks are not that strong - the Polar Bear is a massive drain on finances in Franchise and Challenge mode.
My other pick for building is the Australian pack, which not everyone likes as it is pretty stylized. This along with the Arctic are my two favorite building sets in DLC. The fact this has a strong roster and building sets, in my opinion anyways, makes it my #1 pick.
For Game Mechanics -
Aquatic pack. Outside of the Penguin I'm not that keen on the rest of the animals, but it does really add to the swimming/diving mechanic. That mechanic is also in the base game for some animals, so it's not like you have to buy this pack to have that mechanic for appropriate base game animals. I personally find the building set just okay, but I have a much lower opinion of this pack than most people, as it's usually described as one of the best packs.
Other noted pack:
South America also got very little in terms of base game habitat animals (it has two in base game), so even though it's not one of my favorite packs overall, the South American pack is probably still essential for more representation from the continent. Other packs that have at least two South American animals: Aquatic (Giant Otter, Curviers Camian), Wetlands (Capybara, Spectacled Camian), and Grasslands (Maned Wolf, Armadillo), but to get the most out of additions to the continent, the South America pack is probably the way to go.
Packs I would not recommend as starting out with, unless there's particular animals in them you're really interested in getting:
Southeast Asia Animal pack - some good additions but very much a roster that brought in animals that weren't as popularly requested. One of the weaker animal rosters overall - IMO the weakest actually. Since its' an animal pack there's no scenery to better balance that out.
Twilight Pack - Sure it adds more for building, but the building set feels like "Europe-lite". The animal roster is generally regarded as not that strong. Not to say it's bad it's just not as exciting as other packs.
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For me I'd say both are the bare minimum to do either. Cause generally if a zoo has a whole section dedicated to aus there would be more then 3 animals. And if your building a local zoo Emu and wallabies are still such mainstays.
The first pack I would get is your local pack if there is one. The familiar animals can be a great starting point for building habitats and recreating zoos in your area.
Beyond that, check out the animal roster and see what you're interested in. Everyone has wildly different tastes. The base game is kind of lacking South American, Australian, Temperate/Cold Climate animals, Southeast Asian, and aquatic animals. If you are interested in those groups, you might want to get packs that address those gaps. Also, The quality of the animals has increased over time. The newer packs' animals will generally look nicer.
Here is a general ranking of what I would recommend, but I strongly encourage you to start with your favorite animals and possibly building themes if you picture yourself getting into building right away:
Personal biases at play: I don't usually make fancy buildings, I prefer animals, I'm from North America, I played zoo tycoon, and I don't like building semi-aquatic habitats.
Beyond that, check out the animal roster and see what you're interested in. Everyone has wildly different tastes. The base game is kind of lacking South American, Australian, Temperate/Cold Climate animals, Southeast Asian, and aquatic animals. If you are interested in those groups, you might want to get packs that address those gaps. Also, The quality of the animals has increased over time. The newer packs' animals will generally look nicer.
Here is a general ranking of what I would recommend, but I strongly encourage you to start with your favorite animals and possibly building themes if you picture yourself getting into building right away:
- The base game doesn't have much for aquatic animals, so you might want to pick up some of those. The aquatic pack has a seal, a penguin, an otter, and a cute caiman. It also comes with some useful recolorable rocks and a recolorable build set. It is one of the most popular packs though it's not a personal favorite of mine.
- The grasslands animal pack does a good job adding things from regions that were lacking. South America gets the maned wolf and armadillo; Australia gets the sorely needed emu and wallaby, and the Middle East gets a striped hyena and the caracal. This starts to address the gap in the the roster for Australia. You could exchange this with the Australia animal pack.
- The conservation pack has some great animals that were highly wished for by the community: a gibbon, the wild horse, a leopard, and a desert oryx. It also has some great pieces for building and decorating your habitats to make realistic work areas.
- The South America pack is basically essential for building a South American section. The base game only has a tapir and a giant tortoise. The jaguar has a black morph which shows up frequently and looks nice. Capuchins are cute if a bit loud, anteaters are awesome, and the llamas are funny. The building pieces are not typical favorites, but this pack does add bamboo walls and ruins for building jungle habitats.
- The North America Animal pack adds 7 animals (moose, mountain lion, arctic fox, prairie dog, beaver, alligator, and sea lion) instead of the usual four. It doesn't come with scenery, but I and quite a few other players would gladly make the trade. There isn't much for temperate animals in the base game, and this pack has a fun variety that will encourage you to build different habitats. Each habitat for this pack will look vastly different. If you don't care for North American animals, this niche could also be met by the Europe pack instead, which comes with a nice set for building.
- The Tropical pack adds another gibbon, a red river hog, a fossa (which hunts lemurs, of which there are 3 in the base game), and an Asian water monitor. Southeast Asia has a lot of cool animals that I personally was less familiar with. If you like the roster better and aren't interested in the scenery (this pack has a good set, but it is kind of niche), you could swap it with the Southeast Asia animal pack, but there are some quality issues with those animals.
- The Africa pack has a popular roster, but the scenery is mid. An African rhino seems essential to a zoo game. I like the African penguin better than the king from the aquatic pack. The meerkat and fennec fox are iconic and cute as well. It is hard to go wrong with these animals. If you don't care about the penguin as much, I might consider exchanging it with the Arid pack, which also has an African rhino.
- The Wetlands Animal Pack has some very niche animals and some adorable favorites. Capybaras are awesome, and I love the Asian small clawed otter! Australia gets the iconic platypus, and this pack adds a bird. I prefer this otter an caiman to those in the aquatic pack. This pack also has 3 random animals. It's a nice pack, and the animals are of good quality.
- The Australia Pack adds some iconic picks from an underrepresented continent. The cassowary, red kangaroo, and koala seem essential to me. The build pieces are rusty and interesting, but their colors aren't flexible. The building set is thus mid. The animals are of great quality except the koala, which is ok.
- The Europe pack had a great selection of animals. The fallow deer comes in many colors and guests can walk in its habitat. The lynx and badger are cute, and this pack brings one of the two goats in the game. The other is in the arctic pack. You could exchange this pack with North America if you prefer European animals.
- Arid: This is the first pack that I would not recommend to beginners, unless you can't live without the porcupine. Most of the roster is hoofed animals that will live in nearly identical habitats. I actually love these animals, and I'm glad it fills out North Africa. It has a lot of nice filler that I appreciate as I build bigger zoos.
- Twilight: I also would not recommend this pack to beginners. The animals are cute, but not as essential as other additions, and this pack adds a lot of filler. The base game doesn't have much for small animals, so you should consider it eventually and especially if you want Halloween/spooky decorations.
- Southeast Asia: The roster is interesting. There is a wide variety of animals that mostly look nice. The Malayan Tapir is the worst animal of the pack, which I'm sure you'll hear so much about you'll be sick of it if you stay with the community for 2 weeks. You could exchange places with the tropical pack if you like the overall roster better. They've fixed the worst issues in everything but the tapir.
- Arctic: I would not recommend this pack to beginners. These animals are tricky to build for, and the scenery is very niche. This pack is perfect if you like Christmas/snowy buildings. It also adds polar bears and caribou, which are iconic tundra animals even if they don't show up in many zoos.
- Deluxe DLC: Get this on sale. It usually comes on sale for $3. The pygmy hippo is awesome, and the komodo dragon is a staple of Southeast Asia. I love all of these animals, especially the gazelle, but it isn't worth the regular price.
Personal biases at play: I don't usually make fancy buildings, I prefer animals, I'm from North America, I played zoo tycoon, and I don't like building semi-aquatic habitats.
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I understand the bias towards certain things but aquatic is really your least favorite?! I get it's not as special after wetlands but I fell like it's at least better than the arctic pack.
Yep. I adore arctic wolves. I watched Balto as a kid (it is not historically accurate), and they just bring a mystical vibe that not many other animals do. Polar bears and caribou seem essential, and I like Christmas decorations. The Dall sheep did bring the first caprine although I'm not happy that it took the white North American goat slot over the mountain goat. The mountain goat and bighorn would have been the more famous pair with the most differences in appearance and biome. Their ranges overlap just enough to be put together if you wanted, but I'm not sure they're friendly.
I like the ASCO, spectacled caiman, sea lion, and African penguin much more than their counterparts, but I'm glad the giant otter is in the game. The dwarf caiman is also kind of cute. I just don't use the animals in this pack as much. I don't generally like building semi-aquatic habitats with deep diving, but I greatly appreciated the effort that went into this mechanic. I get frustrated with the pathing levels, and the animals used to swim straight through walls. I don't know whether that last problem has been fixed. I tend to build them sparingly, and when I do, it's usually for otters, a beaver, or a sea lion.
The build set seems very basic, but I don't find myself using it either. I'm glad the community liked it. I even bought it full price because of the hype, but I quickly realized it wasn't for me. I still have it at the top of my recommended list though. I know my dislike of it is almost entirely personal biases. It is a great pack.
My recomendation for your 3 first dlc would be Grasslands, Wetlands and the arctic pack.
The first 2 are simple, they thogether cover most major exclusion from the base game region wise, with the emu and wallaby enabling small australua sections, with the platypus and base game croc working in synergie for an australian wetlands area, the caiman, capybara and bade game tapir represent south american rainforest with the maned wolf and armadillo representing its grasslands. Europe is allready quite allright with the free red deer addition, giving you the continents main carnivore and herbivore basegame.
Asia in the base game suffers greatly from centerpiece only syndrome, with allmost no small animals or ungulates and only big star animals, so the addition of a non fancy ungulate with the buffallo, a small otter, the beautiful crane and 2 small to mid size carnivores help asian areas out alot.
With the grassland pack you also get access to 5 different butterflys, all of them enabling the completly new WEs and butterfly houses, the only truly dlc locked thing.
This will leave you with a sufficent mix of animals from all areas that can be boosted with their specific dlcs down the line. Afterall you dont need all at the start.
When i started playing my first build was an asian area so i bought the SEA pack the arguably worst non deluxe dlc and it was the right choice for me at the time. When i came around to do a temperate and south american area i bought the arctic and south america dlc. So really just buying what you currently need is also a great way to go that ensures you actually use what you buy. God knows that while i used some dlcs animals to death most notably the wetlands, others not so much. I own the tropical pack since release and eventhoug i got some hours in i didnt use its content, i build for gorillas, peacocks and fallow deer instead cause that was what i felt like at the time.
Lastly why do i recommend the rather low ranked arctic pack?
Simply because imo its the best building set to teach you how to build.
The wood pieces look great and just using the arctic beams to frame them allready looks quite nice, but when you start using all the smaller decorative pieces it really flows together and makes creating rustic looking cabins and stables quite easy, teaching you the right mindset to pursue while building buildings for the rest of the game.
Also arctic beams are an addiction, people allways talk about faux rocks and rightfully so but the arctic beams are easily top 5 pieces in the game for me, they are that good.
Tdlr: Wetlands and Grassland for a good starting foundation of animals across the globe that compliment well the base game roster, all other packs just buy them when you feel like using any of their content in the moment. Arctic building set is pretty much an immersive tutorial and a great place to start building
The first 2 are simple, they thogether cover most major exclusion from the base game region wise, with the emu and wallaby enabling small australua sections, with the platypus and base game croc working in synergie for an australian wetlands area, the caiman, capybara and bade game tapir represent south american rainforest with the maned wolf and armadillo representing its grasslands. Europe is allready quite allright with the free red deer addition, giving you the continents main carnivore and herbivore basegame.
Asia in the base game suffers greatly from centerpiece only syndrome, with allmost no small animals or ungulates and only big star animals, so the addition of a non fancy ungulate with the buffallo, a small otter, the beautiful crane and 2 small to mid size carnivores help asian areas out alot.
With the grassland pack you also get access to 5 different butterflys, all of them enabling the completly new WEs and butterfly houses, the only truly dlc locked thing.
This will leave you with a sufficent mix of animals from all areas that can be boosted with their specific dlcs down the line. Afterall you dont need all at the start.
When i started playing my first build was an asian area so i bought the SEA pack the arguably worst non deluxe dlc and it was the right choice for me at the time. When i came around to do a temperate and south american area i bought the arctic and south america dlc. So really just buying what you currently need is also a great way to go that ensures you actually use what you buy. God knows that while i used some dlcs animals to death most notably the wetlands, others not so much. I own the tropical pack since release and eventhoug i got some hours in i didnt use its content, i build for gorillas, peacocks and fallow deer instead cause that was what i felt like at the time.
Lastly why do i recommend the rather low ranked arctic pack?
Simply because imo its the best building set to teach you how to build.
The wood pieces look great and just using the arctic beams to frame them allready looks quite nice, but when you start using all the smaller decorative pieces it really flows together and makes creating rustic looking cabins and stables quite easy, teaching you the right mindset to pursue while building buildings for the rest of the game.
Also arctic beams are an addiction, people allways talk about faux rocks and rightfully so but the arctic beams are easily top 5 pieces in the game for me, they are that good.
Tdlr: Wetlands and Grassland for a good starting foundation of animals across the globe that compliment well the base game roster, all other packs just buy them when you feel like using any of their content in the moment. Arctic building set is pretty much an immersive tutorial and a great place to start building
Agree with most of what you said, but not this (at all) - IMO the arctic pack is close to or actually the worst scenery pack in terms of build pieces - certainly much, much worse than the Australia or Africa packs… I guess that just demonstrates how much opinions can vary.
Lol to me Australia and África are some of the best scenery packs. The pieces are very useful. I don't use the arctic pack stuff much though but the worst DLC remains the twilight pack for me both in animal roster and building pieces.