Yeah, but why is the kiwi any less deserving of a spot than cranes, flamingos, ostriches, or cassowarys. Were they all "wasted?" - why do we need a dedicated bird pack to make them worthwhile? IMO, they'd be more of a waste there, since that kind of pack should concentrate on flying birds, not flightless birds, assuming a flying mechanic were added (all the other birds he lists are flying birds). Why is it less deserving of a spot than any of the similar sized mammals we already have? I'm not sure what a 'bird house' is (as opposed to an aviary) - I've only ever seen Kiwi in nocturnal houses specifically designed for them and Cassawary out in normal habitats.... In any case, The kiwi certainly (IMO) deserves at least consideration for a slot in any 'essential' list, since it is essential for anyone building a zoo set in New Zealand or any zoo with a New Zealand area of any sort. In comparison, I'd say that almost none of the animals on Lion's list are essential (though I want them all, which kind’ve underlines the difference) - sloth would be great, but SA monkeys are (IMO) much more essential to a SA area. Maned wolf is great, and i'd love it, but its not essential for any particular build or area, Red river hog and porcupine great but aren’t exactly 'essential'? ... Maybe the hog for congo-themed areas? . Devil I discussed above (there’s at least 3 more ‘essential’ Australia animals). Tree kangaroo, fossa and dromedary I’d agree with, since they’re necessary for building zoos or themed areas for their regions. Overall, I think that Lion has just provided a list of things he wants (there are no birds because, for whatever reason, he doesn’t like birds) - not “the will of the people” and certainly not a list of “essential” animals.
To explain my reasoning a bit further since I think a lot of people really misunderstood my stance on birds. I first would like to mention, select birds I do think are worthy of being added with or without a bird dlc. Emus for instance, I think are the perfect example. However I think this would also have been hypocritical if I was like "Emu is fine, but Shoebill and Kiwi aren't" so I omitted all birds. As for the "essential" aspect of it. The context is "essential for the game"
at this point. Tree Kangaroo, Tasmanian Devil and many others I listed absolutely do not need to be included if Frontier were to stop development after Conservation Pack. However, if they are going to continue, essential-ness is relative to both popularity, realism and animals that both satiate the demands of all aspects of the community (modders, animal lovers, mac or future console players, etc). Plus you need stuff that generally just sells DLCs. Stuff like a Tasmanian Devil is a good poster animal for a pack. As is a Baboon or Dromedary Camel.
Other misconception is that people say "I was just projecting what
I wanted, that is far from the case. I actually don't care if we never got a red river hog, tasmanian devil, porcupine, etc. I think they'd be fine and worthy additions but I really did do my research (looking at modding download numbers, demand for unreleased mods (IE Red River Hog being
the most demanded mod, mixed with the metawishlist and polling community members in a few sections. I did run this all through my own human eyed (and in fairness, modder) filter but there was a definite clear distinction between the "wishlist stuff I wanted", vs the stuff I genuinely believe the community wants. I would also like to put it out there, I omitted the birds and marine animals for the simple reason of, "I dont need to explain that the community wants those first and foremost, that's obvious". But I also play by Frontier's rules. So I'm not gonna say manatee is essential in a game that has yet to prove they will even be possible. Similarly I'd rule out frankly improbable animals like a sumatran rhino or mountain gorilla because this isn't zoo tycoon where anything goes. Frontier has deliberately said time and time again they want this to be a realistic modern zoo simulator. Lastly I omitted other choices due to as I said, redundancy. I apologize if some people still want lar gibbon or wolverine
after similar animals were added, but its important to note that those people also are not the majority. And once "a gibbon" was added, and no one was repolled if they'd like to "remove lar gibbon" from their choice, that's an issue I was just pointing out.
At some point I intend on doing my own system with better numbers. I've already ran a few test polls each getting around 600 votes in a single day. I will say that video I'm not super proud of because even though "I" and many I consulted on the project (including other content creators, redditors, modders and forum users) agreed with the list and the majority of people who watched the video agree, there was an undeniable backlash. But I think that was more towards my poor wording on why I ommited birds and less on the rest of the video and its points.