Eurasia Animal Pack Hot Takes

Skalea

S
J-Double U said:
Frontier continues to do amazing work, especially given the cuts that have been happening behind the scenes. What I'm about to say is by no means a reflection of their hard work and dedication. This pack LOOKS stunning, visually speaking, and I will still 100% buy this pack but here's my "hot take":
  • Wild boar - Although requested by many other players on the META Wishlist for a fair amount of time, this animal just doesn't interest me and isn't all too common in captivity. Probably won't use it.
  • Wolverine - A good animal for North American, European or Asian-themed zoos. The Wolverine is one of the animals I saw a lot of players begging for. I'm sure the team knocked it out of the park by making this animal as feisty and as characterful as it is in real life, but it isn't a quintessential zoo animal as only around one hundred are kept in captivity around the world. Will probably only use it once.
  • Mute swan - WE HAVE OUR FIRST WATERFOWL!!!! But beyond that, it isn't a zoo animal. May use it a few times but that will depend on how it works in the game.
  • Wisent - A conservation success story that continues to be written today. Though it may seem like a clone of the American Bison, the Wisent has a different significance to the Europeans than the Bison does to Americans. It is a nice addition, even though I wasn't crying out for it. Will probably use it a few times.
  • Takin - Another highly requested animal by the community but one that is uncommon in captivity. These vulnerable animals don't seem all too interesting, nothing game-changing but a nice addition to the Asia roster of animals, though I will probably only use it once.
  • Saiga - Shouldn't be in this pack! Saiga do not handle captivity well at all, especially in a zoo setting so for a zoo simulation game to add this is certainly an odd choice, even if the Saiga's story is one worth shedding light on. May use it once.
  • Sloth Bear - Not necessarily a Eurasian animal so it feels a bit off but it gives India, a country lacking representation in Planet Zoo, an iconic animal! It should also be unique among the current roster of bears in the game too so I don't mind this one too much, it just feels a bit out of place. May use it a couple of times.
  • Hermann's Tortoise - Nice to get a small tortoise species in the game and is a nice change to the snakes, spiders and bugs we usually get in the normal exhibit boxes. Again though, not an interesting animal nor is it kept in zoological captivity all that often as they are fairly common in pet keeping. Probably won't use it.
Overall I'm disappointed with this pack, it is easily the bottom of all the packs we've had this year. I hope we get more DLC in 2024 and that DLC has better animal choices (for my tastes) and adds animal species still missing from the game that are common in zoos and wildlife parks such as Tamarins, Marmosets, New World Monkeys, Andean Bear, Pudu, Tree-Kangaroo, Visayan Warty Pig and flying birds! The inclusion of the Swan in this pack is a step in the right direction for including more birds in the future, and there are definitely some waterfowl I'd like to see added into the game but for me, as a closing note, this pack is just a disappointing way to end what has otherwise been a good year for Planet Zoo.

My Planet Zoo 2023 Pack Rankings:
1. Arid Animal Pack
2. Tropical Pack
3. Oceania Pack
4. Eurasia Animal Pack
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Agree with a lot of that. Who goes to a Zoo to see a Swan or a Wild Boar ? Usable but not my personal choices.

To me this is a pack that makes sense if Frontier had limited resources, but one which definitely missed opportunities. For the Eurasia pack, I was certain we would get the GSNM and that, for me, was a big disappointment.
 

synthetase

synthetase
Skalea said:
Agree with a lot of that. Who goes to a Zoo to see a Swan or a Wild Boar ? Usable but not my personal choices.

To me this is a pack that makes sense if Frontier had limited resources, but one which definitely missed opportunities. For the Eurasia pack, I was certain we would get the GSNM and that, for me, was a big disappointment.
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I was certain we'd get tanuki so...
Edit to say: I get your disappointment
 

Britches

Britches
NachoB said:
This is not a mountain pack. The grumpy cat is too cute and memeable for Frontier to pass on it. We'll get it next year
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We don't even know if there will be another pack after spring. And we get cold(er) climate animals in the upcoming dlc, so the spring dlc will surely not be cold climate centered as well. The past years I was always optimistic and bought every dlc on release day. Right now I don't even know if I want to touch the game this year anymore.
 

Captain Callum

Captain Callum
I feel like I already mentioned my possibly hot take prediction yesterday where I said this pack is just going to be a merge of arid and oceania, and well I feel I was correct. A ungulate heavy pack niche to a specific range that proves useless to other areas (the americas and oceania) while having a saving grace in the form of a bird like oceania.

I'm more excited for the wild boar and wisent over the Mute swan after some thought has been put into it. Realistically Mute swans are just going to be used as ducks which I would have vastly preferred, which I hope Frontier takes some notes on how to design packs for next year.

Lack of a pallas cat is heavily disappointing, I feel both the takin and the pallas cat would have made the Himalayan representation great but oh no a bear. Yeah a bear over a cute grumpy cat.
 

NachoB

NachoB
Britches said:
We don't even know if there will be another pack after spring. And we get cold(er) climate animals in the upcoming dlc, so the spring dlc will surely not be cold climate centered as well. The past years I was always optimistic and bought every dlc on release day. Right now I don't even know if I want to touch the game this year anymore.
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We'll i guess that if next DLC is not a big one we inderectly know there Will be more content to come. If it is an expansion pack of sorts then we know is the last pack.
 

Eletan888

Eletan888
Ok sooo.

1 (Disclaimer): I think this packs roster is solid and I'm happy that so many people are really happy.

However... I prefer Arid to this pack. The only packs this pack beats out for me are Twilight and Europe
 

Markiz

Markiz
In one hand I understand the "Swans are not zoo animals" argument, in a sense that:

1. They're not exotic enought to be kept in zoos

2. That no zoo have dedicated habitats for Swans

On the other hand however, I don't think I've ever been to a zoo that didn't have Swans. Not in separate habitat, to be clear, but had them nonetheless. I mean, one could say then that Peacock isn't a zoo animal also.

And we need those animals as well if we want to make realistic zoos no?
 
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SalamAnders

SalamAnders
The swan saves this pack from being SEA and Arid kind of disappointing to me. It would probably still be better than those two but only just. Unless they mess up the bear and tortoise (which I don't expect) the animal model quality is no doubt much better than SEA and it feels more diverse than Arid and hits a few more favorites for more people I believe. But all packs are still put together the same way. 6 spots for ungulates and carnivorans. Since the tortoise is the first of its kind in the exhibit and therefore needs more work than what was put into the snake and insect, I imagine this pack also gets a small win here. Though I hoped to see a small tortoise like this for habitats, but I can't judge it yet.

But the big win is the swan. All three packs landed well with the choice of type of animal for the 7th spot but the swan is the most important of them.
The Proboscis monkey is a like-it-or-hate choice of species. I'm mostly just not fond of it because of the lack of basic monkeys that haven't become any better since.
The porcupine does everything right. It is just so unique that it can barely be used for making other animals in the future. Which I find important for new rigs.
The swan, while not my favorite choice of waterfowl, it is a freaking WATERFOWL! We won't run dry on good options for that rig before support ends, even if we get another four years with DLCs. Among the most important animals added to the game since launch. Just a shame it first shows up now.
The rest of the pack I'm somewhat neutral about. A lot of animals I expected to show up sooner or later and a few I really think should have been something else but because of the swan I don't care much.
 

Orkan

Orkan
I’m actually not mad at the Wisent’s inclusion. I think I was just bitter because I thought it would replace the Takin.

Anyway,


Saiga was a bit unneeded and could’ve been replaced with a deer or other antelope

I would’ve preferred a duck over a swan, but hey, they’e both good

A cobra might’ve been a better pick than the turtle

The turtle shouldn’t be an exhibit animal, or there should be options for null exhibits
 

The_Riot22

The_Riot22
Unfortunately this pack was a pretty big letdown.
The theme makes no sense with at least 2 animals(Takin, Sloth Bear, and maybe the Tortoise) that don't fit the theme. I honestly think they ran out of Eurasian animals so they added a couple random Asian ones to fill it out. If so, that makes the whole pack confusing, with so many better options available for multiple animals here. I mean, if any Asian animal works, then wouldn't a King or Indian Cobra be better than the tortoise?
  • I think the Wisent, Saiga and Wolverine are the only animals that hold any interest here for me.
  • I'm glad we finally got a good waterfowl, but the swan is pretty underwhelming.
  • We've desperately needed more mountain/alpine animals, but Takin was pretty much at the bottom of that list for me

I'm glad for those who like these animals, but this one is definitely a pass for me. Only slightly better than Twilight.
 

Markiz

Markiz
Fallax said:
Why do people think Eurasia means the animals have to live in BOTH Europe and Asia??? To me Eurasia means animals from Europe, Asia, or both. I don't get why people are upset that they included the Takin because it doesn't live in Europe. That seems so weirdly arbitrary.
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I think 2 Asian, 2 European and 4 shared animals is actually a very good balance for Eurasian pack.

But I do find weird that people who say that Takin and Bear don't fit the theme, don't say that for Wisent, which is exclusively European.
 

Angeł

Angeł
Markiz said:
I think 2 Asian, 2 European and 4 shared animals is actually a very good balance for Eurasian pack.

But I do find weird that people who say that Takin and Bear don't fit the theme, don't say that for Wisent, which is exclusively European.
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The Takin fits, but the Bear does not. Nothing to do with their continental range, but to do with climate. All the other animals fit with the cold theming of the pack. The Bear does not. It would’ve been better off as a Pallas’ Cat, Golden Snub Nosed Monkey or even Eurasian Brown Bear (theming wise)
 
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