New 25 essential habitat animals META-WISHLIST
- Thread starter random goat
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The game implicitly defines "tropical" as meaning a rainforest environment. For example, the llama, found in Bolivia and Peru (within the tropic of Capricorn), is not "tropical" in-game; neither are the African Elephant, Cheetah, Giraffe, and lots of other African species found in the tropics. In-game, "tropical" is shorthand for "tropical rainforest."
I ignore such unscientific and random definitions, especially as it is a zoo game not an in-situ conservation sim.
Yes, that’s what tropical means IRL, but in-game it represents tropical (and subtropical) rainforest. ‘Grassland’ represents tropical grassland more than ‘tropical’ does.
edit: @coatifan got there first.
yes, but if the PLANET ZOO DEVELOPERS were to make a tropical pack, they would use the PLANET ZOO definition of tropical, not the geographical term (even though it is more technically correct to use tropical to refer to the whole of the tropics). Moreover, the word "tropical" has connotations when used casually of warmth and humidity characteristic of a tropical rainforest, even if it is entirely possible for a location in the tropics to be a grassland, dry forest, or even alpine tundra.
edit: to be clear since this came off as a bit passive-aggressive -- you're right. However, the game is riddled with such inaccuracies for the sake of making it flow smoother and be more simple and comprehensible. I tend to ignore ones like these that are clearly an intentional stylistic choice rather than simple error or laziness.
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I make no assumptions about what they would or wouldn’t put in a tropical pack. And the original question just asked about tropical without specifying if it referred to the developers’ definition and their Star Wars inspired map and random inaccurate globe.
EDIT: sorry if I’m grumpy but I find the maps and biomes irritatingly limited, over the top and inaccurate.
EDIT: sorry if I’m grumpy but I find the maps and biomes irritatingly limited, over the top and inaccurate.
No offense but this feels like willful pedantry. The original question was pretty clearly asking about a hypothetical pack from either region, which would, once again, follow the same rules as those established in-game. And I'd also like to point out that real zoos make the same "oversight": the Bronx Zoo's Tropic Zone and Minnesota Zoo's Tropic Trails both house almost entirely tropical rainforest animals. Honestly, though, the developer's aren't stupid -- they chose to use innacurate terminology for some inscrutable reason -- and hey, no one goes around criticizing them for the habitat/exhibit distinction, despite both referring to the same thing in real life.
Those rules established in-game? What are they then?
Tropical refers to tropical rainforest.
Note the overlap between Planet Zoo's "tropical" and the real world's tropical and subtropical rainforests.
In addition, a vast majority if not all of the tropical animals in Planet Zoo are found in forested tropical areas.
But why would they use their made-up definition for everything but the DLC?
Listen. I get it. We all like correcting people online (at least, I do), at least in part because it's rude to tell those kids at the zoo that no, that's not an elephant, it's a tapir. But at the same time, not only are we all mature, intelligent people here, but we fundamentally agree. Both of us know that the Planet Zoo version of tropical is different from the real version therein. That's a fact. You think this is inaccurate, I don't really care. That's a matter of opinion. I'm not gonna argue back and forth on this because if you're anything like me, you probably are well-informed about animals and firmly rooted in your opinions about how the game should be. That's great! But at a certain point (especially after the original asker, @yoav_r , specified that pedantic definitions didn't matter to Frontier and thus wouldn't affect pack themes), I'd rather we say agree to disagree and talk about something else.
Also in general, "tropical" is much more associated with rainforests than anything else, except perhaps coral reefs.
The average person likely never heard of 'tropical grassland', 'tropical dry forest' or 'temperate rainforest'.
And to add another layer of misconception over that, to most people jungle≈rainforest≈tropical.
So a "tropical dlc" would just need 7 popular jungle-associated animals for it to be correctly themed in the minds of most people, regardless of official definitions.
The average person likely never heard of 'tropical grassland', 'tropical dry forest' or 'temperate rainforest'.
And to add another layer of misconception over that, to most people jungle≈rainforest≈tropical.
So a "tropical dlc" would just need 7 popular jungle-associated animals for it to be correctly themed in the minds of most people, regardless of official definitions.
The issue lies in the fact that Frontier have (for whatever reason) mixed terminology for climates (temperate, tropical) with terminology for biomes (grassland, taiga, tundra, desert). Is it weirdly inconsistent? Yes, but it’s what they e decided to do. IMO it’d be weirder and even less consistent for some animals from a ‘tropical’ pack not to have the tropical tag.
So definitely no maned wolf and black howler monkey, despite popular belief inside community for some reason.
For supposed easy pack concept, a lot of people have problem with making proper animal list. Everyone have different definition.
I hope it would all be clear in a couple of hours.
I would gladly welcome Maned Wolf and Howler monkey in Amazon or Rainforest pack despite the fact that they are not from Amazon neither the rainforest.
I would just like to see at least 5 most popular species from the meta wishlist enriched with 3 that would be a nice surprise.
The lack of SA species is really disturbing so I hope it would be an animal pack dedicated entirely to South American species.
I would gladly welcome Maned Wolf and Howler monkey in Amazon or Rainforest pack despite the fact that they are not from Amazon neither the rainforest.
I would just like to see at least 5 most popular species from the meta wishlist enriched with 3 that would be a nice surprise.
The lack of SA species is really disturbing so I hope it would be an animal pack dedicated entirely to South American species.
Just to clarify the "maned wolf don't lives in tropical forest" thing: Maned wolfs lives in a tropical forest called the Atlantic Forest.
They’re found in the region but Actively avoid rainforest areas.
Huh? How is that relevant to their habitat preferences? Habitat availability is accounted for in the analyses.