How many Headliner animals are left?

[yoav_r]

Frontier has never been predictable with which animals they use to headline a pack, but still it's clear from looking at the meta-wishlist that the top 20 are now mostly composed of animals which are B-tier at best for general audiences, if they even heard of most of them. So, the question is, what animals could still headline a pack?

As in the animals ideally need to be:

1. Popular with general audiences
2. "Charismatic" - striking looking and marketable
3. Be found in zoos

Of course, maybe I'm completely off-base here. After all, Frontier have used the sun bear to headline the SEA pack, an animal few people which are not animal nerds have heard of.

So, which potential headliners are left?

Examining the wishlist I see:

• Tasmanian Devil
• Porcupine
• Sloth
• Kiwi
• Ocelot
• Walrus?
• Manatee (which is cheating as it's completely aquatic)

 

[Pentoleaf]

I'm of the opinion that the hedliner doesn't matter, because this game has always been marketed to two groups - the zoo nerds and the builder nerds.

The zoo nerds are happy about even the most obscure animals so long as we get more animals and the picks fill new niches.

The builder nerd are happy with a two cm section of pipe and a pile of leaf mulch.

The casual players are only going to be buying dlc if it contains their favorite animal, and favorite animals are both incredibly varied, and incredibly fad based. A sloth might be a headliner today, but in six months armadillos, or gernuks, or tanukis might be the new animal trend.

Which means it's in Frontier's best long term interests to have as many animals dlc options as possible, headliners or no, because right now there's no good competition in zoo sim land, which means they'll be attratcting new players and selling dlcs to old ones for years.

City Skylines and Sims4 have been out for how long and players still buy dlcs.

 

[yoav_r]

City Skylines and Sims4 have been out for how long and players still buy dlcs.

That's a really good point. Although I do think city builder games have a wider base than zoo games.

 

[Pentoleaf]

That's a really good point. Although I do think city builder games have a wider base than zoo games.

Yes and no. Citybuilders are for the managers and the builders. The Sims games attract the storytellers and the builders.

Planet Zoo doesn't have a huge amount for the managers and the storytellers. It doesn't have nothing; there is a managerial element in franchise and you can tell a story if you want, but it's not build for those play styles in the same way, and those players are unlikely to by the game unless they're also into animals or building.

But for the dedicated builder, the piece by piece system is heaven. There are players who have never placed a single animal or built a habitat.

 

[The_Riot22]

Here would be the best headliners left from my pov:

• Walrus
• Maned Wolf
• Tasmanian Devil
• Another Penguin
• Sea Otter
• North American Elk
• Wolverine
• Emu

I'm not really even sure any of these would be solid headliners. None of them could "carry" a DLC. You'd probably need to combine at least 3 of these B-type tier animals to get a solid pack.
Honestly the best headliners still out there are clones, such as Asiatic Lion, and Tiger, Rhino, Giraffe, etc species currently not in game...Mountain Gorilla would be a cool clone.

 

[FoxyDee]

I believe anything that is requested enough can headline a pack, so I would not worry.

Also SEA pack had no "headliner" animal imo, most of the animals were lesser known by genereal public and it did well.

 

[TheYeti]

I do think most packs will do better with a headliner, but it seems like this can be quite a number of options. For animal packs it may not even matter at all, as the quantity of new species is probably more important. As long as there are some larger animals included as eye-catchers and some species with new behaviours, an animal pack is likely to sell. Also if we get things like bird pack, reptile pack or fully aquatic pack a clear headliner would not be necessary.

Species that I could definitely see as headliners would be the following:

• Great White Pelican (or any pelican)
• Linnaeus' Two-Toed Sloth (or any sloth)
• Walrus
• Emu
• Hamadryas Baboon (or any baboon)
• Caracal
• Green Sea Turtle
• Tasmanian Devil
• Musk Ox
• Wolverine

 

[Aramar]

Almost any animal could be a headliner with good marketing support. The ones that would work better for me are:

-Tasmanian devil
-Porcupine
-Baboon
-Sloth
-Dromedary
-Pelican
-Toucan (for aviaries)
-Walrus
-Wolverine
-Fossa
-Armadillo
-Any additional bear (yes, yes, I'm serious)

 

[Angeł]

I think we have a few headliner animals left. There are very loose definitions around what a headliner animal should be, and that’s great because it means there are many possibilities. A headliner animal should either be completely recogniseable by the general public (Penguin, Koala, Meerkat etc) or introduce the public to a new and quirky species that they may or may not have heard of (Sun Bear, Capybara, Lynx etc). There shouldn’t be any wishywashy animals that aren’t either interesting or recognisable.

I’ll list potential headliner animals and potential packs they could lead:

•Two Toed Sloth (Rainforests / Forests / Nocturnal)
•Aye Aye (Nocturnal / Islands)
•Crested Porcupine (Grasslands / Nocturnal)
•Emu (Grasslands / Drylands / Outback)
•Secretary Bird (Grasslands / Savannah)
•Wolverine (Forests / Mountains)
•Yak (Mountains)
•Honey Badger (Grasslands / Savannah)
•Striped Skunk (Forests / Woodlands / Nocturnal)
•Raccoon (Forests / Woodlands / Nocturnal)
•West Indian Manatee (Islands / Marine)
•Walrus (Polar / Marine)

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Headliner animals are a stupid mindset and of little concern, this community just is for some reason really obsessed with them.
Wanna know why?
Whole forum was calling for the cougar or moose to be the north american flag ship and said that we cant have a europe pack because there isnt a good european flag ship.
Few months later, we know that neither moose or cougar were allowed on the cover, but the allmighty BEAVER and that right after the murrica pack we got a europe pack with a lynx on the cover.
So much to the past headliner conceptions and doomertalk.
Frontier isnt stupid, their Marketing team especally isnt stupid and by now they know their audience, which are zoo and animal nerds/appreciators, some of them have become them because of this game, and builders. Builders dont care as much about the animals and the building pieces just have gotten better and better with an endless amount if new themes like farm, nocturnal house, slavic, south east asian, carribean, etc.
And us animal nerds?
Aslong as the packs are well ballanced, we are gonna buy them anyway.
Hell people here have discussed potential clone packs allmost as often if not more then more normal pack idears.
They got us guys. We will most likly buy everything that isnt a complete failiure, which they so far have never put out.
"Casual" players arnt part of the market after 3 years anymore, you either fall in love with the game or you have stopped playing and buying dlc long ago.
Someone allready mentioned sims abd city skylines and thats also their market Strategie: find a dedicated fanbase and just sell stuff to them.
And frontier found their dedicated fanbase thats only gonna grow from here if they dont completly screw up.
So yeah, im quite confident in a great future for the game, this years dlc been nothing but confirmation to me that if anything frontier panders even more to both the zoo nerds and builders, making the conservation pack a rather meh buy for anyone not belonging to those grouos or just being completly in love with the wild horse, as back stage props and especally the scimitar horned onix but also the other animals are clearly aimed at the realistic builders and zoo nerds.
And imo thats great! Frontier is at the point where they risk making highly niche content which doesnt do that well in the casual market, but is a bullseye critical hit for their dedicated fans.
Im really glad that we are at this point and aslong as frontier doesnt completly drop the ball im sure we are gonna get more dlc thats well tailored to our tastes in the following years.
Thank you for reading my ted talk, have a meme.

 

[SpookDoc]

Yeah, as others have mentioned “headliners” is really subjective and likely isn’t as clear of a category as many would like to think. I will say though that one thing to keep in mind with headliners is the “visual repeat” factor. What I mean by this is that Frontier isn’t likely to market a species as a DLCs headliner if a visually similar species has already been a marketing headliner. So say in the future Frontier decides to sell a pack including another wild equid species. The equid would still be included in the pack, but it would not be the “poster child” for the DLC as the visually similar P. Horse has already been used as one.

 

[FoxyDee]

Yeah, as others have mentioned “headliners” is really subjective and likely isn’t as clear of a category as many would like to think. I will say though that one thing to keep in mind with headliners is the “visual repeat” factor. What I mean by this is that Frontier isn’t likely to market a species as a DLCs headliner if a visually similar species has already been a marketing headliner. So say in the future Frontier decides to sell a pack including another wild equid species. The equid would still be included in the pack, but it would not be the “poster child” for the DLC as the visually similar P. Horse has already been used as one.

Agreed, I have seen many people being surprised that the Amur Leopard was not on the cover of the Conservation pack. I believe it is simple, it just looks too similar to the Jaguar featured on the cover of the South America pack, therefore they chose a different popular animal from the pack.

 

[premierfong]

can they start doing country theme please.

 

[yoav_r]

can they start doing country theme please.

Howdee fellas, how's it going. Have I got a dlc pack for you
whips out guitar

Today we've got with us quite a few mighty specimens.

For our first animal, we have the horse, for every man needs a good horse at the farm.

For our second animal, we have the delicate cattle. She be goin' supplyin' us with meat and milk and leather.

For our third animal, have we got you somethin', why it's the pride of Alabama, the Red Turnip Truck.

Our fourth animal, ladies and gentelman, is Corn. This one may not seem impressive at first, but it's the base of this proud country.

The exhibit animal, as is expected, is Jolene. She won't be takin' any man again while she's locked in that 4x4 cube.

The pack will be coming with a farm theme, with cowboy clothes, tractors, and lot's and lot's of scarecrows, for any use you can imagine.

We are all excited for the new Country Themed Pack, and hope we'll see ya with us on the release of it this very October!

 

[avietar]

I think headliners are very subjective. Most animals mentioned in this thread are very meh for me. They are fine animals, but they aren't bringing stars to my eyes.

For instance, great headliners to me, personally, are

West Indian manatee
Red deer
Tasmanian devil

These animals are so good that I would dedicate a section of the zoo to them, with other animals in 'supporting' roles around them.

 

[jcp011c]

I'm going to answer this two ways. Headliners based on generally recognized animals by casual players and casual fans of animals; and the ones that more animal and zoo knowledgeable players (most of us here, I'd think) would know. Not getting into avians and marine animals since we have no confirmation either is coming (though I hope so)

For general public:
Sloth (in general, no specific species)
Porcupine (in general, no specific species)
Red Fox
Walrus
Raccoon

For many of us here:
Tasmanian Devil
Maned Wolf
Wolverine
Emu
Secretary Bird
Red River Hog( Possibly)
Gibbon (more specific species, and possibly)

 

[nutrit]

I would probably never understand what is so special about the red deer that people desire it so much and even see it as the headliner species?

It has no conservation value and it’s rarely seen in the most important zoological gardens that put all their efforts on conservation and rare species breeding programs.
And please don’t compare European animal parks to zoo’s because it’s totally not the same thing.

Don’t get me wrong I think that the species itself is absolutely gorgeous but in my opinion there are many more deer species that should find it’s way into the game.

 

[NachoB]

I would probably never understand what is so special about the red deer that people desire it so much and even see it as the headliner species?

It has no conservation value and it’s rarely seen in the most important zoological gardens that put all their efforts on conservation and rare species breeding programs.
And please don’t compare European animal parks to zoo’s because it’s totally not the same thing.

Don’t get me wrong I think that the species itself is absolutely gorgeous but in my opinion there are many more deer species that should find it’s way into the game.

Lol agree. I mean is a beautiful deer but i prefer other species. Also is a plague in many countries.

I feel the same about the raccoon.

 

[Doran]

There is no such thing as headliner animal at all.
It depends on overall pack theme. Remember, frontier always pick pack theme first and later chose 5/8 animals from big list. No the other way around.
This why we had 2 packs with good thematics (Southeast Asia and Europe), but both of them were lacking true headliner species. It wasn't a problem, because both packs as a whole sold their thematics very well.
Headliner animal can be referred as most fitting animal to represent pack, and not something frontier pick from wishlist and builds pack around.

Imo grasslands pack would be good example of this. It have no remaining big ticket animal, but as a whole it can do wery well. Good thematic resolving around most important plant species in recent history: grass.

 

[jcp011c]

Lol agree. I mean is a beautiful deer but i prefer other species. Also is a plague in many countries.

I feel the same about the raccoon.

I can understand both of them. Raccoons particularly, since I've had to modify my trash cans to keep them out of it. But I recognize they're popular, so I include them in pack ideas even though I would be absolutely fine without them being in game.

Red Deer are a bit nicer to me, but that's probably all because I'm American and don't see them. I consider White Tailed Deer too common though, so that's probably an equal animal in terms of being boring or common.