I can see what people mean about the red-crowned crane not being the best choice (at least compared to a duck, pelican, or smaller wader), but it's still a great pick and I wouldn't trade it in a pack that frankly should've had multiple birds in the first place. If we were to ditch something for a "better" bird, have it be one of the pack's many mammals (cough cough double bovids) instead of having the game's already tiny bird amount remain the same.
Hot takes for planet zoo
- Thread starter Mr-Hyrax 2
- Start date
I have mixed feeling about the coyote...
Better options would be bush dog or tanuki! Those two species look different relative to other dogs with their short legs for example. A fourth Canis and third North American canid isn't too exciting in my personal opinion. Still, at the end of the day, I'd be pleasantly surprised to see Coyote because we have not gotten a new dog in a while.
And we don't really need any. But if we are to get a new canid then either bush dog or a jackal.
Fully agreed. The view of "we haven't gotten X in a while so we should get another one" feels very counter-productive since there's a lot of clades where the picks are critically lacking and should take complete priority
- That's a big reason for me and probably many NA players, given their range, but the bear would also complete an iconic taxa, has cool color morphs, and should have more biome tags than any black-colored bear. On the other hand, local bias is pretty much the only reason I'd somewhat like the coyote. White-tailed deer are a bit boring, but they also have a big range and are the only native ungulate for a big chunk of the NA players.
- Yep.
- It's pretty good for an ungulate, but it wasn't one of my favorites, either. I know at least one person really wanted it, so I'm happy for them.
- The grey-crowned crane was more popular at the time, SA could have gotten a bird, and ducks would have been great. While I personally wanted those other three a little bit more, the RCC is a very important bird for East Asia and iconic enough that it likely would have made many 'essential' lists eventually. East Asia hasn't gotten much DLC attention relative to its playerbase, so I don't think removing the RCC would have been wise. I would happily drop the ungulates and more reluctantly the caiman in favor of additional birds and a red river hog. I don't mind this pack's oddballs too much, to be clear, and SEA would probably need a bovid at some point.
- Definitely, and I think many others would make that trade. The harbor seal is cuter and has a much bigger range.
Tbh while i think id still have prefered a pelican or duck over the crane its still a great pick.
And if we didnt get it back then we would say now how silly it is that we dont have a single crane yet
I dont really get the egg laying tbh.
Its not like mammals give birth either, so i dont really see why birds should.
And especially considering the Intubation time of birds the whole process of laying egg to hatching would be like 1,5 minutes in game, so it would a blink and you miss it situation.
Its not like mammals give birth either, so i dont really see why birds should.
And especially considering the Intubation time of birds the whole process of laying egg to hatching would be like 1,5 minutes in game, so it would a blink and you miss it situation.
Argument #5322 for why time should be slowed down for a sequel
Well that’s why we’re advocating for time to be slowed down like PC2 and for there to be actual cool management when it comes to managing my zoo game.
I don't think more dogs are needed when I compare the canid roster gaps to monkeys and birds. They don't help the overall roster lineup too much.
However, from a business perspective, many people like dogs, and alienating dog-fans could be bad. Demand is low, so they don't have to come in the next two packs. If support continues after that, I kind of expect one.
I think the fox rig and maned wolf were difficult, but canids seem to be fairly easy for Frontier. All of the foxes were decently popular, and I could see room for the raccoon dog, grey fox, and bat-eared fox as solid 'clone' picks if support justifies them. Jackals and bush dogs are a bit odd, but I think people would appreciate their uniqueness.
Seconding this. Tbh even as a massive canid fan we really don't need any more. The family has been treated very, very well by Frontier, I never would've thought the game would've gotten a maned wolf, dingo, dhole, or three foxes, yet here we are. I'd rather get some diversity in than repeat the same groups of animals over and over again.
I know some canid fans have voiced jealousy of cat fans getting even "better" treatment, but that's not an issue of the game "needing" more canids to "catch up", and more that it just needs to slow down on cats. The same goes for people trying to get broader carnivorans and ungulates to constantly one-up each other like they're somehow the only two groups that matter.
Meanwhile, we're still waiting on a second NW monkey, a second wild galliform, and a second waterfowl ;-;
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Sorry for the double post, but totally the same here. I think all three are/were essential even if they're different levels of such (though tbh I'd actually put a crane over a pelican in levels of priority). Hell, I still think a second crane would be fully justified (hoping for gray crowned someday).
Dog fans have plenty of pre-existing options. They aren't gonna boycott unless Frontier did something stupid like removing DLC packs from being purchasable
I think zoo games need more cats than dogs in general. I've rarely been to a zoo with more than one large canid. Of that group, only maned wolves, grey wolves, and wild dogs are common and well-known. Dingos, dholes, and arctic wolves are nice for variety but not as necessary relative to the monkey and bird gaps, especially. I like having a canid for each realm, though. The foxes were nice and they, along with small dogs, have some decent contenders remaining, but again, they aren't critical like many other picks.
Big cats are so famous and popular that I fully expected all 5 plus the taxonomically different but zoo-niche similar clouded leopard, cougar, and cheetah. Many zoos I've attended have 3 or more big-sized cats, so I'm going to need twice as many bigger cats than bigger canids. I would probably have eliminated subspecies to get more birds, but I don't think getting rid of the others would have made the majority of people happy.
Mid-sized cats are also at least twice as common as foxes in my experience. I've been to plenty of zoos with no foxes, but rarely to a zoo with no mid-sized cat. The lynxes, caracal, serval, and ocelot are the big ones, in my experience, but we're still missing two. The smaller Pallas's, sand, and perhaps someday fishing cat are closer to oddballs among them, but they are still decently common and well-known. Smaller dogs could use an oddball and/or variety pick (I've got plenty of bigger canid variety/oddballs), but I wouldn't compare that to the critical gaps in other clades' rosters.
It's less about which is better and more about what is realistically needed. I think they have mostly slowed down on cats and dogs despite two popular recent additions. Throwing one or the other in here and there to sell to people who just want their favorite clades/cute animals and don't care much about overrepresentation is fine. Cat and dog videos supposedly make up a huge chunk of internet traffic. It's hard to be mad when that trend continues, as much as I want to see more birds and smaller monkeys in PZ.
Sorry, but the cats vs dogs thing irritates me.
By 'bad' I meant stop engaging with new DLCs more than a rage-quitting boycott. Dogs have gotten a lot of attention, especially early on.
- I don't care at all about getting a lagomorph. Rabbits aren't zoo animals where I'm from lol
- Ungulates and carnivores are not overrepresented, all the other groups are underrepresented
- I don't understand the hype around pelicans
- We still missing a lot of filler species for Africa (monkeys, crocodilians, small antelopes) and Asia (hoofstock, monkeys, exhibit reptiles).
- Probably the biggest one, I don't care about really fleshing out the bird roster the way it is now. Like, it's so stupidly bad how unrepresented they are, I'd rather just wait until PZ2 for aviaries (hopefully), and continue with the mammal-heavy DLCs.
Another crane is not only justified. Is necessary. Specially an african crane. C'mon, how cone we got the crane in wetlands and still haven't recieved the grey crowned crane, probably the second most famous crane after the red crowned one?
(Although same can be said about american flamingo and i don't want them to get any ideas about that one
)Which is ironic because I've only heard people complain about the cat models Frontier makes
No, I completely agree. It's the same in my experience, hell I've been to plenty of zoos with no canids at all. I more meant fewer cats in comparison to the roster as a whole than dogs specifically (though I can understand the want for one or two more medium/small cats).
While cats are certainly more common overall, I still do think the overabundance of them becomes an issue when we start getting things like the African leopard (though then again, I suppose the same could be said for the Arctic wolf even if that was much earlier on). I do think one subspecies of each (or two for tigers) big cat is completely expected (and arguably needed) though.
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