What is an animal that you really want but you're not sure is making it?

[nutrit]

I think it was a really great idea for a thread. In the end we should make a small sum up of which unpopular animals are most wanted right now.
After seeing Dhole and especially proboscis monkey which were semi popular to not popular I have a feeling there is also a chance for animals not as spectacular as white rhino which I feel we are going to see in the next DLC among with meerkat and fennecs.

 

[NZFanatic]

Why would meerkats be difficult to make? I mean, Zoo Tycoon 2 had them?

Planet Zoo, Frontier, and the Cobra Engine they use for their games have nothing at all to do with Zoo Tycoon. What's possible/probable for one game is not for another. It's also worth noting that the meerkat in ZT2 was buggy as hell, much bigger to scale than an actual meerkat, and didn't display any particular unique behaviours which isn't at all how Frontier treats their animals.

I think the meerkat is more likely than many other animals, but I absolutely refuse to take it as a guarantee. I was grossly disappointed with the animal choices in the Australia Pack, so I'm not going to go ahead and get my hopes up for something else again (same with the kiwi - as possible as it seems, it isn't probable at all).

 

[Fini]

more birds (they don't need to fly frontier!)
it makes me sad that so many don't take notes of birds. they would be perfect for making mixed enclosures with other animals.
so a couple of guinea fowl to warthog? or crowned cranes with zebras or antelopes? that would look great.
But somehow I have the feeling that I'm the only one who would like to have something like that.

 

[Fossa]

Aardvarks burrow too, never seen the problem.

 

[Brandon Gill]

I think size is one issue with the meerkats, but I think the bigger issue may be burrowing, interacting with terrain. I mean, we have enough issues with escaped animals as it is. They need to get that mechanic completely worked out. But there have been a number of suggestions to get around that, having them interact with special habitat items (for shelter? enrichment even?) instead of actual terrain. Something - they just need to figure it out. I truly truly hope they do. Meerkats are my most wanted animal and have been since the base game release.

Good point about size difference and burrowing

 

[jcp011c]

more birds (they don't need to fly frontier!)
it makes me sad that so many don't take notes of birds. they would be perfect for making mixed enclosures with other animals.
so a couple of guinea fowl to warthog? or crowned cranes with zebras or antelopes? that would look great.
But somehow I have the feeling that I'm the only one who would like to have something like that.

I think many people are not taking birds into account because at this point we have no confirmation that Frontier will implement flying animals. That doesn't mean that ground based or wading birds can't be added in, just without the flying mechanics, but I'm sure that if that happened there would be some disappointment as well. I'm sure that wishlists will change drastically when and if there's proof of flying mechanics in the game. I've got a couple that would likely be in my top 10 wants but for now, they're just on a separate list of wants for me.

 

[Fini]

I think many people are not taking birds into account because at this point we have no confirmation that Frontier will implement flying animals. That doesn't mean that ground based or wading birds can't be added in, just without the flying mechanics, but I'm sure that if that happened there would be some disappointment as well. I'm sure that wishlists will change drastically when and if there's proof of flying mechanics in the game. I've got a couple that would likely be in my top 10 wants but for now, they're just on a separate list of wants for me.

Oh...i haven't even thought about that point and you might be right. i directly feel the disappointment of adding birds without the flying mechanic.
I would be fine with adding birds with no flying animation, but I know there will be quite a scream in the community.
but when nobody stand for birds in the game, frontier will be think "Okey! Noone in the communtiy want them. we don't have to implement them!"
my voice will always be "pro birds" for me personally it would make the game rounder.

 

[Chuditch]

but when nobody stand for birds in the game, frontier will be think "Okey! Noone in the communtiy want them. we don't have to implement them!"

Given the popularity of requests for aviaries and flying birds (easily the most requested new feature now that diving has been added), I doubt Frontier is unaware that people really want birds. Most wishlists at the moment reflect the current functionality of the game, which is inherently biased towards mammals.

 

[SanRazo618]

I think that the birds are inevitable as a larger pack because of the requests

 

[jcp011c]

I think that the birds are inevitable as a larger pack because of the requests

If there's any pack that should be "super sized" it's an avian pack. For #1 because it brings in a new area of the animal kingdom that has yet to be explored (not counting non-flying birds or the Flamingo/Peafowl which do fly IRL, but are mostly ground oriented). For #2 while birds do all come in all sizes and don't all look the same, the diversity of the skeletal and muscular structure, the basic things I would imagine the animal rigs are built around, are not as diverse as what's in the game now. Sure, you have your long thing wading birds, which are going to be a different build than your large birds of prey, which will be different than your smaller more traditional build of birds, but there's not so much diversity that Frontier could not use the same basic rig for quite a few animals. - Cranes, herons, Storks, Ibises, they could all use the same base rig which would then have individual modifications, just as one example. Then you have your Secretary Bird....which is kind of an anomaly I guess, that due to their spastic running would probably be fairly rare to have repeated in other species.

I just can't imagine they'd do an avian pack and give us less than 8 animals, possibly no exhibit animals. The 4 +1 model would be really disappointing now that they've shown they can do a larger animal pack. 8 birds...at minimum. And if they wanted to double that and charge extra, well, I know I don't speak for everyone in this regard, but I'd have no problems paying a good bit more for 15-20 birds.

 

[nutrit]

If there's any pack that should be "super sized" it's an avian pack. For #1 because it brings in a new area of the animal kingdom that has yet to be explored (not counting non-flying birds or the Flamingo/Peafowl which do fly IRL, but are mostly ground oriented). For #2 while birds do all come in all sizes and don't all look the same, the diversity of the skeletal and muscular structure, the basic things I would imagine the animal rigs are built around, are not as diverse as what's in the game now. Sure, you have your long thing wading birds, which are going to be a different build than your large birds of prey, which will be different than your smaller more traditional build of birds, but there's not so much diversity that Frontier could not use the same basic rig for quite a few animals. - Cranes, herons, Storks, Ibises, they could all use the same base rig which would then have individual modifications, just as one example. Then you have your Secretary Bird....which is kind of an anomaly I guess, that due to their spastic running would probably be fairly rare to have repeated in other species.

I just can't imagine they'd do an avian pack and give us less than 8 animals, possibly no exhibit animals. The 4 +1 model would be really disappointing now that they've shown they can do a larger animal pack. 8 birds...at minimum. And if they wanted to double that and charge extra, well, I know I don't speak for everyone in this regard, but I'd have no problems paying a good bit more for 15-20 birds.

I would really like to see a bigger birds pack.
It would be really great if they could divide it half to half to habitat and aviary flying birds. There are some ground birds that are highly requested and wouldn’t like to see them taking spots in other DLC’s since it’s inevitable Avian dlc would happen one day.

For example I would go with:

A. Habitat:
1. Secretary bird
2. Emu
3. Small penguin
4. Pelican
5. Gray crowned crane
6. Shoebill
7. Great Malaysian Argus pheasant
8. Any stork
9. Any goose or swan or duck
10. Great curassow

B Aviary:
1. Any eagle
2. Kookaburra
3. Any owl
4. Any toucan
5. Any macaw
6. Any cockatoo
7. Great blue touraco
8. Scarlet ibis
9. Great indian hornbill
10. Crowned pigeon

and there could be easily 20 essentials more

 

[Fossa]

I mostly want the Shoebill and Secretary Bird, my favorite missing birds, but I also really would love more peafowl-like birds to mix in with peafowls, this would be Asian Pheasants (lady and gold, blood and argus) and Lyrebird, Victoria Crowned Pigeon and guineafowl. I would love to make a cool terrain with those birds together.

 

[jcp011c]

I would really like to see a bigger birds pack.
It would be really great if they could divide it half to half to habitat and aviary flying birds. There are some ground birds that are highly requested and wouldn’t like to see them taking spots in other DLC’s since it’s inevitable Avian dlc would happen one day.

For example I would go with:

A. Habitat:
1. Secretary bird
2. Emu
3. Small penguin
4. Pelican
5. Gray crowned crane
6. Shoebill
7. Great Malaysian Argus pheasant
8. Any stork
9. Any goose or swan or duck
10. Great curassow

B Aviary:
1. Any eagle
2. Kookaburra
3. Any owl
4. Any toucan
5. Any macaw
6. Any cockatoo
7. Great blue touraco
8. Scarlet ibis
9. Great indian hornbill
10. Crowned pigeon

and there could be easily 20 essentials more

That's a great list. I think the Scarlet Ibis could be a habitat bird but otherwise that looks pretty on point, though I did have to educate myself about the curassow. I'd love to see at least two species of Macaw, prefer Scarlet and Hyacinth but there's the yellow and blue one as well, just as one further example. They're all so visually different that they'd definitely stand out from one another. I guess they could go with color variations for one animal but I'd really prefer they separate the species.

 

[nutrit]

Curassow are amazing birds. I loved them ever since I’ve saw one in the zoo. I wanted to add some South American ground birds to the list.
I think that even 50 birds wouln’t satisfy our carve for amazing birds. But to keep it diverse i decided for the one type of the most known spectacular birds from all over the world.

 

[SanRazo618]

If there's any pack that should be "super sized" it's an avian pack. For #1 because it brings in a new area of the animal kingdom that has yet to be explored (not counting non-flying birds or the Flamingo/Peafowl which do fly IRL, but are mostly ground oriented). For #2 while birds do all come in all sizes and don't all look the same, the diversity of the skeletal and muscular structure, the basic things I would imagine the animal rigs are built around, are not as diverse as what's in the game now. Sure, you have your long thing wading birds, which are going to be a different build than your large birds of prey, which will be different than your smaller more traditional build of birds, but there's not so much diversity that Frontier could not use the same basic rig for quite a few animals. - Cranes, herons, Storks, Ibises, they could all use the same base rig which would then have individual modifications, just as one example. Then you have your Secretary Bird....which is kind of an anomaly I guess, that due to their spastic running would probably be fairly rare to have repeated in other species.

I just can't imagine they'd do an avian pack and give us less than 8 animals, possibly no exhibit animals. The 4 +1 model would be really disappointing now that they've shown they can do a larger animal pack. 8 birds...at minimum. And if they wanted to double that and charge extra, well, I know I don't speak for everyone in this regard, but I'd have no problems paying a good bit more for 15-20 birds.

I would’ve paid more money for all the dlcs if they added more stuff... I really want them to start upping the content in general... more animals for a higher price and give people the scenery they still want (I just want animals)

 

[kadiedabuggy]

Platypus! When the Australian DLC dropped I felt it would be too early to release them; limitations with animating. Now that we have the diving animations in game I think it is way more likely.

Besides them, any amount of birds (Shoebill is my #1 wanted bird) or small mammals (Pink Fairy Armadillo, Sugar Gliders) would be great! For the smaller mammals, and potentially birds, I think it would be very interesting if they brought more customizations to the exhibits and house them there. Varying shapes and sizes (XS-XL) would help immensely and there could be a size requirement put into place for all exhibit animals. I also think that being able to customize their boundaries into other materials is very important for this (netting, mesh and chain-link to name a few) as small mammals and birds are not typically housed behind glass. I also would not mind looped animations for such small creatures because I would have them in game and that would make me happy enough.

 

[SanRazo618]

Platypus! When the Australian DLC dropped I felt it would be too early to release them; limitations with animating. Now that we have the diving animations in game I think it is way more likely.

Besides them, any amount of birds (Shoebill is my #1 wanted bird) or small mammals (Pink Fairy Armadillo, Sugar Gliders) would be great! For the smaller mammals, and potentially birds, I think it would be very interesting if they brought more customizations to the exhibits and house them there. Varying shapes and sizes (XS-XL) would help immensely and there could be a size requirement put into place for all exhibit animals. I also think that being able to customize their boundaries into other materials is very important for this (netting, mesh and chain-link to name a few) as small mammals and birds are not typically housed behind glass. I also would not mind looped animations for such small creatures because I would have them in game and that would make me happy enough.

The Platypus is up there on my wanted list

 

[Xificayd]

Orcas, not unrealistic, but there are so many people who are actively posting day and night and begging Frontier to not include it, that will most likely not make it in (less work for Frontier, so ofc they'll choose to not make an animal over making one)

 

[Swjosdotschka]

Orcas, not unrealistic, but there are so many people who are actively posting day and night and begging Frontier to not include it, that will most likely not make it in (less work for Frontier, so ofc they'll choose to not make an animal over making one)

I doubt their reason behind not including it would ver be "less work" though.

 

[Xificayd]

I doubt their reason behind not including it would ver be "less work" though.

Not that, but I am just assuming that a large animal like an Orca is harder to make than something like a small shark. Not just based on modeling, but also the mechanics of the animal and how it interacts with the environment.