Yeah
But to be fair the potential vs reality dilemma is something i have with basicly every pack.
The thing is besides complete dumbster dives like no rodent and awfull breed selection in barnyard (there really is no flattering explanation when the reason most people wanted african dwarf goat, kunekune, potbelly, etc is because they are some of the most common, one of them being the most common zoo animal only to get some random niche breeds for literally no reason besides taunting us i guess. Its not even a case of being easier to watch local breeds irl for the theme as they could have gone to literally the most basic petting zoo for this instead of what i can only suppouse to be an actual farm) or whoever thought including the black rhino over the spurred tortoise would be a good decision, most choices in the packs are atleast reasonable.
Like i can see the point of every animal in tropical.
Does it suck that it completly skips out on a new world monkey and that most people wanted an animal pack instead? Yes but SEA scenary and especally tropical folliage also was in high demand, the fossa, red river hog, lar gibbon and sloth where all top 10 animals on the metawishlist at the time if i remember correctly and finally giving us another monitor really is a decision hard to criticise.
Was the sloth wrong? Yes and its also imo horribly implemented with a very ugly climbing frame, but it is by far the more recogniseable one and also was for the longest time the species mentioned on the metawishlist.
Objectivly that pack was great and has woven some of the most wanted animals of the community at the time with arguably the most wanted scenery and especally foliage theme, with the only thing in the pack not bring highly requested being a reasonable diversity pick with good zoo presence and the first of its kind in a post launch dlc, even adding diving to a new group of animals.
Were people pleased with it?
Atleast at the start hell no with the very reasonable stance of "where south america" even if what we actually got was propaply among their most fan service packs.
So atleast in part we cant fully blame frontier for that, as besides those earlier mentioned dumbsterdives for no reason the vast majority of the dlc deliverd what the majority of people have wanted, even if it repeaditly left fans of more "niche" animal groups wanting more.
Are birds, reptiles, primates and south america niche?
Kinda?
If you hypothetically have no clue about south americas fauna, i doubt that the ingame selection of animals would disappoint you.
15 very diverse habitat animals and imo the only satisfactory selection of exhibit animals in the game are completly fine.
Real zoos also tend to be quite short on south american "habitat" animals that arnt primates and birds and hand on our hearts if we wernt desperate for them and theyd be not as omnipresent as they are i doubt that many would care about the rhea at this point and i dont believe that outside the more nerdy audience most do.
Birds and reptiles habe their lover but both irl and also here on the forum they are much less popular on average then most mammals and its worth to note that we allready got more birds and reptiles then any other zoo game, dinosaurs and xbox static birds excluded.
And people seem to loathe building for primates lol
These 4 groups are pretty much objectifly what the game needs for a well rounded roster at this point, but sadly that just doesnt seem to overlap with the major wants of most of the community.
And even then, imagine we get the fabled SA animal pack, imagine the roster is:
- Coati
- Ocelot
- Spectacle Bear
- Bush Dog
- Rhea
- Mara
- Monkey
- Exhibit
Imo thats pretty much the most conservative and likly lineup and ngl?
It kind of does not excite me at all.
I think this would do an important job for the game and would do a fine job of appealing to the communitys wishes and im sure most people would absolutly love it, but me personally?
Id find it lowkey boring cause while it arguably fixes south america decently enough, it doesnt really fix it for me. Sure ill use some of the animals, id even be activly excited for monkey, coati and mara,but the rest really would be a whatever pack for me, simply because my wants dont actually line up with the major wants of the community at large.
Im sure for everyone dissapointed and annoyed by the bush dogs rather pointless inclusion, there will be 100s of people cheering for the cute puppers inclusion.
I also noticed that with the dictionary pack, i freacking love that pack. All the animals are very unique and fill new and atleast to me more exciting even if more niche niches (funny huh) in the game then for example any animal mentioned above for the south america pack, with the sifaka being point and center of most likly my favorite addition to the game since the racoon in twillight dropped. Its weird and adds something fun to a very niche area in madagascar, an area that i personally have lots if interest in even if i completly agree that it objectivly should be skipped over atleast for now.
Tastes are Different, my most wanted animals for SA for example are the roseate spoonbill, white faced whistling duck and roseate spoonbill, because i would love to go through the most likly very tedious and annoying process of building a wetlands aviary for them, something that just doesnt seem to be on most people agendas.
I dont even care for the monkeys much, i just agree that they should be much more diverse on an objective level as i could count on one fingers the zoos i went to that had just one species of south american primates.
Long story Short, imagine just liking whats popular, how much easier it would be to just be happy about cute fuzzy bear instead of being grumpy, thinking about how he could have been a himalayan monal, whoops
