DLC20 Discussion (maybe, but why not?)
- Thread starter DarthQuell
- Start date
See i have no problem with more caprines as long as they look unique from the ones we have (bharal, aoudad, musk ox, etc) but out of all the species of flamingo the american flamingo is the one that looks the most like the greater flamingo just brighter in color. They did more than tone up the hue in the end and now we have a brand new updated flamingo that would completly replace the greater flamingo that looks terrible in comparison. So in essence it was a "remaster" of sorts and the annoying part about that is that a roseatte spoonbill would have probably taken the same amount of work (maybe a bit more because of new animations) but would have been much more versatile. And i would be ok if it is because of budget restrictions or shortcase of resources but then they skip the coati, choose to give bush dog a whole bunch of new animations and do the same thing with a sifaka, two animals that while yes cool and would have probably eventually wanted them at some point, were not the place at this time to put the extra resources in, specially when animals that are more popular, more wanted and would probably take the same amount of work to make are still being ignored (and have been ignored for ages now).
i feel like we are due for a "cold" pack though... the one and only hope to get some of my favorites like musk ox, sea otter, rockhopper penguin and patagonian mara... but i'm not counting on it tbh.
And rainforest pack would be great, but idk how likely it would be, specially after these two packs.
I feel like the final pack would either A) focus entirerly on the safari theme and be basically an expansion to the african roster or B) a worldwide pack
I am a freelancer and my only work force, so believe me when I say I want people to get paid fair for their work and I don't expect anyone to work for goodwill. And with every base game animal BUT the lion I would agree that the game just aged, so an upgrade would not be a fix by definition (other than, say, the Tapir, the Binturong etc).
But with the course Frontier is currently taking with their hidden price raise of the DLCs (again, I would be fine with an open price raise but with the quality we were used mid-game), the idea of paying them for remastering the old animals just does not sit right with me. I feel it opens possibilities to something I am not sure we would like to see the end of.
I mean, now we would pay for animal models that are 5 years old. Could be justified. But I am not sure with the next PZ they would then release the animals low quality on purpose and then charge again for the upgrade a year into the game.
Yes, maybe I am suspicious and pessimistic these days. I too would really love to go back to the days where I was just super happy with how things were and praised Frontier all along the way. And maybe I'll get back to the trusting stage, who knows. I am not there right now.
Yeah, their animal choices are frustrating and questionable at times. And with the Sifaka it also does sometimes not walk like one so it would have been better to not make it at all, but that is just my opinion.
And at the end of the day, most discussions we have here at the end come down to: "Why X and not Y." I miss the Dev Diaries. Would be nice to have some insight on how they pick and choose animals for the DLCs and why some animals are (seemingly) ignored.
Yes, i would love an insight on the species selection process because honestly some of their picks are just mind boggling, specially when the obvious and some times even easier pick was right there and written all over the walls of this forum lol
I've been wanting this since forever. Haha. Just based on pure curiosity. Like, beyond "fans want it" there are really some odd choices along the way that would be fun to know why. Did we get the proboscis instead of, say, a langur, because they thought the nose and swimming would make people think "oooh unique"? What animals were considered but ultimately cut (and why). That sort of thing would be really interesting, and likely frustrating (LOL), to learn about.
Yeah i could see the pack after this being something more cold climate. Americas was more or less 50-50 tropical and dry/grasslands and assuming this pack is indeed india it aswell will likely be something in that ballpark. Although with bear, markhor, pallas, sheep and coyote aswell as the whole of eurasia we also got a good share of cold/temperate climate animals in recent times. I think there is also a decent chance that an india pack will also include a himalayan animal of some kind.
Yes very frustrating, specially if the answer to some like the sifaka or the bush dog is that they just liked and wanted to work on those animals and not others, despite being more requested. So if we ever get something like this i hope is after support ends lol otherwise i would be mad at some choices if there isn't a good enough justification lol
Time between the additions of Oceanian animals in PZ:
- Base Game (November 5th 2019) -> Australia Pack (August 25th 2020) = 9 months and 20 days
- Australia Pack (August 25th 2020) -> Wetlands Animal Pack (April 12th 2022) = 1 year, 7 months and 18 days
- Wetlands Animal Pack (April 12th 2022) -> Twilight Pack (October 18th 2022) = 6 months and 6 days
- Twilight Pack (October 18th 2022) -> Grasslands Animal Pack (December 13th 2022) = 1 month 25 days
- Grasslands Animal Pack (December 13th 2022) -> Oceania Pack (September 19th 2023) = 9 months 6 days
- Oceania Pack -> today = 1 year, 8 months and 18 days
Ouch.At least Australia feels more complete than South America
I would argue it is both a funding issue and legislative issue. Australia has notoriously had issue with invasive species so this makes importing anything a national risk. If you look closely at what non native species are allowed in zoos you will find alot are already established invasives or established breeding populations in zoos and no new ones are allowed to be imported. For those you can import alot have limits on on gender or age to make it as close to impossible to accidently create an invasive.
Whilst it would be the best for us it would suck from a financial perspective and would not facilitate a large numbers of packs and animals.
Each pack would be full of top picks which at first seems great but then in 5 packs all the top picks that would sell packs on their own are gone and we end up with packs that no longer hold broad appeal and make less money. Which would lead to packs with less marketable animals but just as essential leading to lower animal count and diversity since packs would inevitably stop sooner due to less interest and funding.
This strategy would basically kill the concept of proper filler animals and most importantly variety. We would likely wouldn't see more than 1 lemur or more than one african antelope, a second penguin we would struggle to fill realistic combination habitats and be almost more limited than we are now. After we get the main want from a group the community wouldn't likely reach a consensus on a second from the group we would see a wider range of species maybe even more diversity in some groups but overall we would have less usable variety. Imagine if every time you wanted to build a lemur habitat you had to use the ringtail or every time you wanted to build for a penguin you had to build for the king because the community has decided that group has enough.
Im also a major oddball supporter things like the saiga and proboscis monkey give the game some charm whilst being unique and fun additions
Lowkey, there's 2-3 animals, maybe even a scenery pack full of animals from Australia that could easily make it into a game for me without stretching/feeling redundant
well saurus crane here we come its about time australia got a proper waterbird.
Perentie, short beaked echidna, numbat, bilby, quoll, oppossum, lyre bird, sugar glider?
Bowerbird would be awesome, too. Are those zoo animals?
I could fill a whole animal pack easily and most of these arent even repeats but major groupings
- short beaked echidna
- greater bilby
- perentie
- common brushtail possum
- Australian brushturkey
- australian white ibis
- yellow footed rock wallaby
- northern corroboree frog
yes seen them multiple times usually without cool nests.
I think we're reaching the point in the roster where which region feels more or less complete is going to differ from person to person. Frontier generally did a much better job at managing the Australian roster than South America, with no redundancies and essential species prioritised, but we've also reached the point where South America has nearly twice the number of habitat species as Australia (well over twice as many when including all animals) whilst arguably only having a few essentials left (coati, mara and a couple more monkeys). For me personally the two are now feeling pretty close to one another in regards to how well represented they are.At least Australia feels more complete than South America
EDIT: It's also worth pointing out that Australia's current rep is very biased towards eastern/south-eastern Australia, which only covers about a fifth of the country - the arid interior, southwest and northern savannas each have no more than three habitat species each, most of which are just generally widespread animals rather than ones unique to those regions, so overall its representation leaves a lot to be desired.
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