You could look up the collection of any real life zoo and I can almost guarantee you that animals species would be missing from that zoo. You could use replacements but that still feels incomplete...
Fall DLC 2023 Speculation
- Thread starter Leaf Productions
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I don't know if people want them because they themselves want them or because we as a community want them. I think those are cool animals of the three I want the walrus. However, I think alot of them are chosen based on their popularity.
Depends entirely on where you’re from - for zoos near me, the devil is absolutely’zoo basic’ whereas the coypu, and swan arent.
I mean my want for the Tasmanian devil is nearing desperation at this point so it's fair to say that there are people who really want these animals themselves. Popularity, content creators or nostalgia (dunno who's nostalgic for Zoo Tycoon: Ultimate Animal Collection lol) don't have anything to do with it.
The tree kangaroo is one of those animals that I don't really understand how it's necessary. I would like to see it in the game, but in no way do I need it. They are unique and a nice New Guinea animal but these are pretty rare animals in zoos and there is way more essential Oceanian picks imo (Tassie devil, Kiwi, Echidna) that are all way more iconic and important.
Exactly! But not only that. I'm from Europe and I saw Tasmanian devils last year for the first time in my life at Copenhagen zoo. The devil is not common here, but I still really want that animal for being so unique and exotic to me. It caused a much bigger impression and happiness than seeing the lions or the tigers at the zoo. There are many animals that would be considered more basic that giant pandas for example, but a game without those bears would look incomplete. For me, it's the same feeling with the devils.
Free cookies for everyone.
In my case, the American black bear is essential, while an Australian animal, like the Taz, isn't (although I still want Taz)
San Diego Zoo has 650 species of animals, do you really think your recreation is complete with the animal roster as it is?
Yes, there are mods but the animals tend to be of lower quality and there are certain things they can't do well right now. Also, it makes building complete zoos impossible on franchise mode.
Well it means production/product final. Updates to this don't mean it is any closer to release, the outsource_Iqa update is the only reliable sign to estimate a release date.
This isn't necessarily the case for most though. If there's a close animal substitute, then a species is not necessarily needed.
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Most of those are birds and insects. I have no problem with using static bird models to represent the aviaries, something that is apparently a sin in the forums. Regardless mods very much complete the mammal portion of the habitats with near or identical animals. Sure the reptile and insect buildings aren't complete enough of the real zoo but it really doesn't detract the experience of walking through a virtual zoo recreation.
I've been doing recreations since 2019, the ingame roster is so much better for recreations than it used to be. Its not perfect because blank is missing but we will never ever have a zoo game where every single species can match the real zoo species list.
I still think there's an off-chance that a new DLC WILL be announced on September 2nd and released on September 15, exactly a month after it was updated. I'm going to mark September 2 on the calendar as the first day DLC announcement could come. So if Frontier announces Special Livestream on any date after this (or on this day), it means DLC is likely coming.
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This is not just your problem, literally every zoo recreation right now is limited/flawed for the exact same reasons you just listed. And that's not really an ideal situation. And while perfection is impossible as you said we can get closer and closer to that goal with every new DLC, especially if they released dedicated Birds/Reptiles/Monkey/Primate/Nocturnal/Insect Pack(s) in the future.
Also, I'll note massive zoos like San Diegos have a ton of similar species: multiple monkeys for instance. If you use a close/similar species for each monkey exhibit, you will run out of choices and will have to reuse animals.
Regarding to the prod_final, I felt that we are already very close to the fall DLC. And you confirmed this! Thanks!
Yeah this is why I love using mods to fill the gaps , Multiple monkeys using the base game roster is typically done with wrong species using Capuchins, black and white lemurs, red lemurs, and proboscis monkeys.
Someone with an eye for realism will absolutely hate that combination, but using the monkeys from san diego as a comparison:
- De brazza monkey
- Colobus Monkey
- Mandrill
- Tufted Capuchin
- Lion Tailed Macaque
- Red ruffed lemur instead of de brazza monkeys (mod available)
- Black and white ruffed lemur for colobus monkeys (mod available)
- Mandrill
- Ingame Capuchin is close enough for the tufted Capuchin but mid available if wished
- I hate it but Japanese Macaque for Lion Tailed Macaque (mod available)
Just looking at this video shows the limitations of this approach. What are you going to use to substitute for Coquerel Sifaka if B&W Lemur is being used for De Brazza? And I believe SDZ has Red Ruffed Lemur as well.
When it comes to realism, people want to be immersed and unfortunately that's really not quite possible right now due to the amount of substitute and repeat animals, but it will get better as more DLCs are released.
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Well simply all 3 lemurs to fill diverse desires, its the best of what we have at the moment because simply the chances of getting a sifaka officially are next to none at this stage. Also there's a mod of it so not a huge concern.