Discussion Thread #2 - What is your favourite Planet Zoo Pack?

[Eltanin Casciani]

Hayo Zookeepers,

It's time for our second discussion! Thank you so much for the warm reception to the first thread, we loved hearing about all of your favourite zoos

Before we get started, as always, remember that this is a place for us to all enjoy chatting as a community. However, please do keep in mind that these threads have set topics and refrain from discussions outside of that or they will be removed by the moderators – but don’t fret! We’ll still be keeping an eye on the rest of the forums for your feedback, suggestions, creations, and more!

So, without further ado:

What is your favourite Planet Zoo Pack, and why?

 

[rebeq]

Hard choice .. I am one of those who prefer many animals in a pack, so for me the Southeast Asia pack is important and it contained some really cool animals. However, there was not any new building material and such. But for my favorite if we look pass the number of animals, I would say the aquatic pack. Completly new kind of species (very cool ones) and nice new things to build up your zoo with. Really like that one.

 

[HeatherG]

I would have to say the Aquatic Pack.
It brought all new mechanics, like diving, to the game. The animals are equally a-maz-ing and sooo fun to build for.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

The southamerica pack!
4 perfect and unique choices, great building pieces and some superb new plants, that pack is easily my favourite

 

[Eltanin Casciani]

My personal favourite so far is the Africa Pack since it's the first I got to work on here at Frontier, and the Fennec Foxes are soooooo cute! Not to mention that I love the versatility of all the new scenery pieces, especially the stained glass and tile pieces

 

[JanH25R]

The aquatic pack! I absolutely love the new animations that were added to the game with this pack!

 

[JanH25R]

My personal favourite so far is the Africa Pack since it's the first I got to work on here at Frontier, and the Fennec Foxes are soooooo cute! Not to mention that I love the versatility of all the new scenery pieces, especially the stained glass and tile pieces

My second choice!

 

[Aramar]

It's difficult to choose. I prefer to have more animals, so I should say the South East Asia pack, but the animals that came with that pack were not my priority (although they were good).

Therefore, I'm going to choose the Africa pack, because it was the first pack in which I wouldn't have chosen any other habitat animal instead of the ones we got. The 4 African animals were a must have for me. Also most of the building pieces are very versatile and the new African foliage is awesome.

That being said, I'm sure the best pack is yet to come...

 

[FoxyDee]

For me it is a tie between Aquatic and Southeast Asia. SEA had alot of animals and alot of them were "weird" and lesser known animals which I personally enjoy while Aquatic had amazing new animals with unique behaviour and I also very much enjoyed the Aquatic building pieces because they were not highly themed and it had the faux rock and tree pieces which I adore because they are highly used in real life zoos.

But all of them have their own charm and brought some of my favourite animals so its really hard to choose.

 

[PeppyPepp]

Yay, another discussion thread!

Oof, this is a tough one. I would say it's between the SEA pack, the Aquatic pack, and the Africa pack. SEA because we got 8 animals, aquatic because it brought a new mechanic and aquatic animals, and the Africa pack because of the meerkats and fennec foxes. I love the Africa pack just because of those two. Meerkats are such a staple zoo animal, and I am so happy they were finally added to the roster.

In terms of building pieces, I think I like the Africa pack, the SA pack, and the Aquatic pack. Africa because of all the recolourable pieces and lots more plaster which is highly versatile; SA pack because of the bamboo which I consider essential; Aquatic pack because of a more general theme, and we've got the amazing faux rocks.

 

[Birini]

So we won’t be adding to the list in September then?

 

[Eltanin Casciani]

So we won’t be adding to the list in September then?

We have nothing to announce about further updates for Planet Zoo at the moment, but this thread is to talk about past packs, not any future content

 

[Tim Smith]

For me I have a soft spot for the Australia pack because I just love the Cassowary! However overall, I think Africa pack is my current favourite, little Fennec Fox is so adorable

 

[Antmar97]

Like i said in a simil thread my favourite pack is the Southeast Asia Pack, because the more animals the better, even if there are some problems that need to be addressed (the strange case of the Malayan Tapir, discussed in this thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/malayan-tapir-redesign.569592/ ), the other packs are all at the same level for me because they add something that i like and something that i don't like.

Hope to see more animals pack in the near future.

 

[Jens Erik]

I absolutely fell in love with the Aquatic Pack, mostly because all the animals in it are so incredibly adorable <3 Before that I was a huge fan of the Arctic Pack, actually, mostly because it had a campaign level set in Norway. I rarely get to see home be represented in games, so it was a fun surprise!

 

[random goat]

First and foremost, I just want to emphasize how great these discussions are for the community. This is the sort of engagement we've been requesting sometimes. It allows players to exchange their opinions on various topics and at the same time it should also generate useful information for the devs, hopefully.

Now, the packs. I'd say that when it comes to DLCs, there's a pattern of them getting better and better over time, in general. At least, I think most people would agree that the 3 oldest DLCs are not as good as the 3 newest ones, overall. That being said, I believe pretty much every DLC has brought up either paramount animals that were missing at launch or super useful and versatile building pieces or foliage.

Arctic pack was probably the weakest one, as it came shortly after the official release and many of its scenery items were a bit too thematic for a zoo. But oh well it gave us the polar bear and so far the only in-game cervid (reindeer) and caprid (Dall sheep), so it was still pretty decent.

From there, things got better and better in terms of animal selection, their models and building pieces.
Frontier devs nailed it with the animal selections for the last two packs. They couldn't possibly get any better given the plausible constraints with brachiation. The animal models (leaving aside some exceptions like the obvious Malayan tapir) have been noticeably improved as time went by, to the point that there were barely any complaints about the animal models in the Aquatic and Africa packs. The building pieces are getting more versatile too.

Aquatic, SEA and Africa packs could all be my first pick for different reasons. But due to the fact that North African architecture is what I've been growing up with and I love it to bits, I guess I'd put the Africa pack on top.

 

[Leaf Productions]

I could not be more happy with the spread of both Africa and Aquatic! Both presented amazing new gameplay mechanics, features, and scenery to the game that I now could not live without! However, the older I get, the more happy I am with the South America Pack. Very underrated when they came out, and they're sneaking up to be one of my favorites.

 

[peafowl]

I liked Australia a lot. It gave us a colorful and unique bird and added animations / behaviors i didn't expect them to do for the koala and the kangaroo (pouch-baby marsupial thing). It's great to see very species specific behaviors. I mostly like it for the cassowary, though. It really meant a lot for me, personally.

The best pack is probably aquatic. It unlocked a whole new dimension for the animals and i think the choices were pretty good. I like the otter species that was chosen (my favorite) and I was positively surprised to see a new habitat reptile.

South east Asia would with the additional animals be first for me if it wasn't for the tapir recolor thing and the glitches i've experienced with several of the species, especially the clouded leopard.

 

[Eltanin Casciani]

First and foremost, I just want to emphasize how great these discussions are for the community. This is the sort of engagement we've been requesting sometimes. It allows players to exchange their opinions on various topics and at the same time it should also generate useful information for the devs, hopefully.

Thank you, this is very sweet! We've been enjoying them a lot too

 

[Aidan635]

Australia Pack for me. Aquatic would be a close second though. I think it was just the anticipation of the pack, waiting all of last summer waiting and waiting for it to be announced and ultimately released. The pack features probably my favorite Planet Zoo animal, the Cassowary and not far behind, probably in the top 20, the Kangaroo. The Blue-Tounged Lizard is one of my favorite exhibit animals as well. Not to forget the scenery and foliage pieces we got, which are so useful.

While Australia is my favorite, I have a feeling a North America Pack would be my new favorite, if it's done right in my mind. Don't disappoint Frontier! (I know you won't!)