Why did you find both Tropical and Arid disappointing? I started just after Arid and loved the Arid pack choices, but I am in the minority of ungulate lovers, too.
Here, I certainly get the point, but I like the Barnyard Animal Pack, too.
I like it too. I was asking for a Barnyard pack for a while now, and we got it. Just, the roster wasn't what I had hoped for. I was hoping for something a little.more international than what we got
I am from Europe, I love the idea of a highland cow and I quite like the Alpine goat (though I would have equally liked an African pygmy goat). Insstead of the Hill Radnor sheep, I would've gone for a Cameroon sheep.
If you look back now and don't think about how it could've been an animal pack and whatever about what we could've got, the Tropical pack is honestly one of the best packs imo and is probably the pack that aged the best. Has extremely useful pieces, good foliage, covers several areas and has animals that are very popular in zoos and look beautiful. The gibbon, red river hog, fossa, and sloth are all 10/10 picks and are still some of my favourites, even the monitor isn't that far down either.
Its the most recognizable for the region they chose since most people know what a coyote is (even if they don't want it) over something else like a rhea or saki. Which begs the theory actually - was this just originally planned to be a South America 2 pack but none of the animals were that famous so they had to throw in 2 popular ones that live nearby?
Arid was the 1st pack I was disappointed with. Now I'm ok with it, but at the time many of us had hoped for some proper desert rep, and when the Arid pack released, it featured only African animals. On top of that, the Hamadryas baboon was extremely requested and instead we got things like the black rhino and dama gazelle.
I mean, I guess so. I personally don't feel like it was meant to be due to the scenery they're showing in the keyart. I still feel like it'll be the Latin America animal pack, or perhaps the New World animal pack if you wanna get fancy
I don't think there's need for doubt when we had packs where entire rosters were based upon animals from the meta-wishlist. And that included animals that weren't as "obvious" as things like a meerkat or a white rhinoceros.
Eh, I wouldn't really say that the roster itself points towards a deserty direction.
I think it's really as simple as this game is still reaching a much broader audience than just us zoo nerds. Because frankly, aside from the "living sauropod-in-reverse" video that pops up like once a year, coati aren't that well known by the general public and you're better of with an animal that's fairly recognizable.
I think the fact that a lot of people were initially disappointed speaks to the fact that there was never really anything wrong with the animals themselves; but just the combination of them all instead of them being spread out over more packs that was the big problem with the pack.
Yeah, that's how I feel. I was never truly disappointed with the animals themselves (I use them quite often), but I was dissapointed more with the rosters per pack. Arid might’ve been a better hit at the time had it been more international or at least had a better name. Similarly, Tropical would've been better had the roster been more international
Fair enough but isn't a monkey or a flamingo more recognizable and marketable than a coyote? Idk maybe is just me but coyotes look like a generic canid, on isolation without context i don't know if i would even recognize it on the spot as a coyote.I think it's really as simple as this game is still reaching a much broader audience than just us zoo nerds. Because frankly, aside from the "living sauropod-in-reverse" video that pops up like once a year, coati aren't that well known by the general public and you're better of with an animal that's fairly recognizable.
We spent way too much time looking at the cover animal with zoo-nerd-goggles and not enough with a general "animal-loving" audience googles. Once you do the latter, animals like the raccoon, coyote, wild horse, manul and even the wisent (you don't need to know it's a wisent, recognizing it as a bison is enough) start to make perfect sense. They're either animals that are recognizable wild animals without having to know the animal itself or they trigger an emotional reaction because they remind you of your pets; and sometimes both.
We zoo nerds over here are part of the audience, but the audience is much much bigger than that and these key-art pieces, the animal rosters and the fact that the game is still profitable seems to underscore that
Admittedly, at the time I formed my thoughts about the Arid Pack, I just loved (and still love) especially the Dama gazelle and Addax. I also think the sand cat is quite useful and cute. However, I didn't know there were wishlists that could be or could have been incorporated - and I didn't know e.g. Hamadryas Baboon was requested.
Yeah, maybe we (including me?) far overestimate how many people would know what a coati is outside of Central and South America.
i started playing this game around wetlands pack the animal i noticed that was missing for north america at the time was immediatly the coyote. If i go ask my friends an animal for america no one is going to say flamingo thats for sure, monkey maybe really maybe if i say south america. Also we dont have a single pack with a dog as the cover, one of the most popular types worldwide, from the options we have now and including the coati (that the majority of people dont even know what it is) the dog is the best option.
And there you have it. An animal that reminds you of your dog at home, which is the emotional reaction. You don't even need to know the animal itself, instant reaction. Dogs are insanely marketable, far more than monkeys or flamingos, because of that.
For the Americas, I would first think of bison, cougars,...
Perentie would've been nice, actually. It's the only animal I'd like from Australia right now.
And which animals or packs would that be in your opinion?
The Sloth Bear being part of the Eurasia Pack was a joke. It is clearly an Asian animal, not Eurasian. And as far as I know it wasn't high on the wishlist either. So also a weird choice that Frontier did. The European Fishotter would e.g. have been a much better choice.
Sakis in deserts? okay... I didn't know that.
I would really question if people that are not zoo nerds wouldn't know coatis. Also coatis look cute and special, which could also be a USP that speaks for them. Honestly, when I first saw the key art of the coming DLC, I wondered if it would be reworked Australia pack with a Dingo as front animal and Emus in the shadows. No-Zoo-nerds can maybe hardly distinguish the coyote from a fox, wolf or dingo or what so ever...And if we assume that most players who are supposed to buy the new DLC already bought the ones before, they may already have animals very similiar to the coyote, like the Dhole or Fennek, so again, the coati would have been the besser choice.
Sorry, but who does play a zoo game if not zoo-nerds? Especially at this point in time, where all ABC animals are more or less in game already!
Agreed. And the lack of a road map or Frontier fooling us sometimes in the old livestreams, e.g. when the wanted us to believe we would get the Spectacled Bear as part of as South America Animal Pack instead giving us the Spectacled Caiman as part of a wetlands pack. Or making us believe we would get the highly requested Mountain Animal PACK with MAnul, Markhor and Baboon in the keyart, when it wasn't. Sometimes there marketing strategies are really strange. And again letting me wonder, why they don't take the meta-wishlist more "serious" or at least as a bigger inspiration as they obviously do.We zoo nerds over here are part of the audience, but the audience is much much bigger than that and these key-art pieces, the animal rosters and the fact that the game is still profitable seems to underscore that
I think the fact that a lot of people were initially disappointed speaks to the fact that there was never really anything wrong with the animals themselves; but just the combination of them all instead of them being spread out over more packs that was the big problem with the pack.
Honestly I Feel Like The Roster Would Be El Chupacabra, Loch Ness Monster, Jackalope, Drop Bear, Mongolian Death Worm, Mkolele Mbembe, Bunyip and, Tsuchinoko.
