Australian Animals
- Thread starter Zai
- Start date
Would love one as well! I'm hoping for a Dingo, Koala, Kangaroo and Emu, and a Wombat.
There are such unique and amazing creatures from Australia and none of them are in the game! I would love an Australian DLC
Given that the next DLC is due in the northern hemisphere summer, Australia would fit that theme. We might see it sooner than later.
The dingo would just be another variation of the wolf. What we really need is the Tasmanian devil. It's very much endangered, a major focus of Australasian conservation projects at the moment, and the only major true Australian carnivore.
I don't know much about the Tasmanian Devil but recently someone (don't know which platform) mentioned he/she only wants Tasmanian Devils if they add nocturnal behavior to the game/to these animals.
But that person also had some issues with RL zoos changing the wild behavior of Devils to please the visitors during opening hours.
So I don't know if it's nitpicking or a legit concern.
But that person also had some issues with RL zoos changing the wild behavior of Devils to please the visitors during opening hours.
So I don't know if it's nitpicking or a legit concern.
I'd be disappointed if we got the dingo but no Tasmanian devils. I think that is a much more iconic species with a more important educational message. To be honest I would only want the dingo if it was at the bottom of a list of several other species. And given how the current DLC model seems to be, that's unlikely.
Australia is in the southern hemisphere, is it not?
my personal pick would be red-necked wallaby, koala, emu, and perhaps a wombat. I wouldn't be bothered at all about dingoes, and honestly the same goes for Tasmanian devils
I would suggest:
Red kangaroo - could equally be grey kangaroo
Emu - essential for me
Koala - essential for me
Tasmanian devil
Exhibit animal - frilled lizard
If it had more than four habitat animals I would add the common wombat and a wallaby species. I would also love the cassowary and echidna but double the number of animals we have seen previously in DLCs so far might not be realistic.
Red kangaroo - could equally be grey kangaroo
Emu - essential for me
Koala - essential for me
Tasmanian devil
Exhibit animal - frilled lizard
If it had more than four habitat animals I would add the common wombat and a wallaby species. I would also love the cassowary and echidna but double the number of animals we have seen previously in DLCs so far might not be realistic.
The only "essential" Australian animals for me, would be the Emu and Red/Grey kangaroo (prefer the Red Kangaroo)
Other than that, they can include any animal from Australia. The Wombat and Australian Pelican would be nice, but far from essential.
I know a lot of people mentioned the Koala. While it's a very iconic animal (one of the first animals you think of)
Is it really that interesting to have in the zoo? They sleep a lot and don't expect much social interaction.
Mother cutting of their connection with previous offspring when pregnant again.
It wasn't the most exciting animal in ZT2013, with a very small habitat.
Recently someone actually pointed this out - and I didn't consider that POV yet. Very interesting to look at it this way.
It's one of the coolest looking animals of Australia (imo), for that reason I understand having it.
A genuine question: What do people expect from the koala?
(like also gestation period/time in pouch/offspring interaction/behaviour and habitat needs like ZT2 or like ZT2013)
OP mentioned such unique animals but for gaming purposes that requires more effort.
Other than that, they can include any animal from Australia. The Wombat and Australian Pelican would be nice, but far from essential.
I know a lot of people mentioned the Koala. While it's a very iconic animal (one of the first animals you think of)
Is it really that interesting to have in the zoo? They sleep a lot and don't expect much social interaction.
Mother cutting of their connection with previous offspring when pregnant again.
It wasn't the most exciting animal in ZT2013, with a very small habitat.
Recently someone actually pointed this out - and I didn't consider that POV yet. Very interesting to look at it this way.
It's one of the coolest looking animals of Australia (imo), for that reason I understand having it.
A genuine question: What do people expect from the koala?
(like also gestation period/time in pouch/offspring interaction/behaviour and habitat needs like ZT2 or like ZT2013)
OP mentioned such unique animals but for gaming purposes that requires more effort.
I would be happy with a koala that just sits in a tree and sleeps most of the time as that would be pretty realistic.
When hoping for animals I try to think of how you would build a zoo. A zoo in Australia - one of the things I’m working on but taking a break as I’m not happy with the trees - would really need koalas.
Internationally Australian sections generally have emu and a kangaroo or wallaby species. And small zoos very often have emus and wallabies.
When hoping for animals I try to think of how you would build a zoo. A zoo in Australia - one of the things I’m working on but taking a break as I’m not happy with the trees - would really need koalas.
Internationally Australian sections generally have emu and a kangaroo or wallaby species. And small zoos very often have emus and wallabies.
That's great to hear. Just commented it to get a better understanding what people would expect.
When/if they add a Koala and it doesn't live up to the expectations (which probably won't for some people), I'm expecting reactions like: Why no baby in pouch animation? Why is my Koala just hanging in a tree? Why doesn't offspring climb on the back of their mother?
And imo the Koala shouldn't need a water dish but Eucalyptus leaves should fulfill food/water needs, will this be implemented like this? (it's a very unique trait and not used for other in-game animals)
Didn't see much backlash with the SA DLC but with the Arctic one - a lot of people mentioned the swimming/lack of diving with the Polar bear.
And let's face it, Australian animals are more unique and require unique features to accompany that.
That is a bit of an odd hangup to have considering pretty much every single animal in a zoo has their natural behaviour altered. Australian zoos do tend to have a nocturnal native animals section with flipped light timing but devils are not kept there. It is usually spinifex hopping mice, ghost bats, quokkas, bilbys, bandicoots and the like.
I would like to see devils as well however to model them accurately, they would be fighting and injuring each other constantly. At my local safari zoo here in Australia, they have large signs posted around the devils explaining that the patchy baldness, wounds and scars are signs of natural behaviour. While I was reading the sign, two devils who were a mated pair started screaming (the name devil is well earned) and attacking each other. The issue? One wanted to walk straight through the other one, neither wanted to yield so they had a scrap. Then one took two steps to the left and they were each on their way.
I'm leaning towards nitpicking as well That person wasn't happy with the aardvark as well. But some people are just more passionate about certain animal species.
I think the idea behind this that they also want nocturnal behavior somewhere down the line.
I think most animals got a workable adjustment compared to their actual behavior.
I like how you mentioned the Tasmanian Devils behavior. Some people would like to see their RL zoo behavior in PZ but some just want the calmer behavior.
Could be an interesting one to have, with constant fights. (Finding a way to work around this)
That person wasn't happy with the aardvark as well. But some people are just more passionate about certain animal species.I think the idea behind this that they also want nocturnal behavior somewhere down the line.
I think most animals got a workable adjustment compared to their actual behavior.
I like how you mentioned the Tasmanian Devils behavior. Some people would like to see their RL zoo behavior in PZ but some just want the calmer behavior.
Could be an interesting one to have, with constant fights. (Finding a way to work around this)
Last edited:
Yes. That isn't what I meant.
I only mentioned the northern hemisphere because that is where Frontier is based; Australia fits the 'summer' theme, ergo, when it's Frontier's summer time, an Australia Pack would be a good fit. I suppose they could save it for the Christmas release and do it in the southern hemisphere summer, though, but northern hemisphere players (which doubtless greatly outnumber us southern hemisphere players) would probably think it's an odd fit for Christmas.
Typically after any kind of open wound is received in a zoo the animal gets a quick check-up, but this doesn't always require complete vet intervention. It would need to be simplified in-game for it to be a worthwhile feature, so I guess one thing they could do would be to create two separate 'fight' animations for the devils, one which is a 'regular fight' (i.e. a fight for dominance/space/resources, which always results in injury like with other animals) and a 'devil fight' (which would occur like a regular interaction between the animals, be loud and frightening, but not result in injury). The distinction would be in the animation, but also in the fact that only the 'regular fights' give you an alert.
I have similar hangups about the kiwi, but in my case it's because I don't think any zoo (certainly not in New Zealand, which has the largest population of captive kiwi) has public kiwi displays that aren't confined to nocturnal houses, whereas a lot of zoos have daytime viewing for aardvarks, Tasmanian devils, and giant anteaters without any real trouble. For me the solution to any such problem is 'indoor lighting' (even with the kiwi, if they gave us indoor lighting I'd be perfectly happy), because you can use it to at least 'fake' a nocturnal house (blue, green, and red lights, hidden around plants, maybe some kind of big wall light that resembles the moon as well).
That said, I've worked with devils before, and there isn't really anything the zoo specifically does to keep them diurnal. If they want to hide away and sleep, then they aren't prevented from doing so. I've had to explain to people before that the animals don't operate on a schedule, and if they aren't there for people to see, the best you can do is leave and come back later in the day and see if you have better luck. Every second day they do a public feeding display which draws the devils out, but even then they aren't always interested.
People would love to make an enclosure filled with Australian animals and putting Australian theme buildings and decorations. I could imagine the ones the players are putting their videos on youtube for gameplay of the new DLC.
I'd want:
Habitat animals:
1. Kangaroo (any)
2. Eastern Quoll
3. Koala
4. Wombat
Exhibit animals:
1. Eastern water dragon
2. Bearded dragon
3. Thorny devil
Habitat animals:
1. Kangaroo (any)
2. Eastern Quoll
3. Koala
4. Wombat
Exhibit animals:
1. Eastern water dragon
2. Bearded dragon
3. Thorny devil
I miss the Australian Animals very much, too - although my Eastern Brown Snake exhibit is doing well and financing the Zoo, er, "single-tailedly"? "single-fangedly"? ;-)
Anyway, ofc, the iconic ones are a "must-have" - but I understand they had to be kept back, DLC-wise, on the other hand, it wouldn't have hurt to have Kangaroos instead of, say, Okapis. (My apologies to you Okapi-lovers out there) Though the question remains, do we have one Australian Animal we just don't recognize? (If my memory serves me well, there's a very large Camel-population, invasive as it may be, but it doesn't look like it's going to be under control anytime sooner or later).
So, the Kangaroo, the Koala and the Tasmanian Devil are must-haves, I'd love Emus and Platypus and Echidnae, too! And blue-tongued-lizards! I love lizards They'd probably make a good exhibit, although I'd love to see them in a proper habitat. And don't forget Kasuars!
With a later Aquatic DLC I'd love to see Cone Snails as an exhibit animal. And maybe some day there'll be a Bird DLC, you could build proper aviaries... then the list gets even longer.
Anyway, ofc, the iconic ones are a "must-have" - but I understand they had to be kept back, DLC-wise, on the other hand, it wouldn't have hurt to have Kangaroos instead of, say, Okapis. (My apologies to you Okapi-lovers out there
) Though the question remains, do we have one Australian Animal we just don't recognize? (If my memory serves me well, there's a very large Camel-population, invasive as it may be, but it doesn't look like it's going to be under control anytime sooner or later). So, the Kangaroo, the Koala and the Tasmanian Devil are must-haves, I'd love Emus and Platypus and Echidnae, too! And blue-tongued-lizards! I love lizards
They'd probably make a good exhibit, although I'd love to see them in a proper habitat. And don't forget Kasuars!With a later Aquatic DLC I'd love to see Cone Snails as an exhibit animal. And maybe some day there'll be a Bird DLC, you could build proper aviaries... then the list gets even longer.
If they added the kangaroo in the base game - most likely not that many requests for Australian animals.
For a DLC-strategy it's a understandable thing to do.
We got the Saltwater Crocodile, which somewhat applies to Australia - I know, more range in Asia but Steve Irwin and Crocodile Dundee are pretty iconic and 'stereotypical' for the portrayal in many kinds of media.
I think the Freshwater Crocodile would be a disappointing addition to fill an animal 'gap' for Australia.
With all the Australian topics in the recent months, I really think they should also add New Zealand in the mix as well. Don't expect an only NZ DLC.
Imo NZ would benefit slightly more from an aviary DLC (not talking about Kakapo and Kiwi - not given that much thought as an in-game animal) but at this point maybe 1 or 2 exhibit animals from NZ, would be fine as well.
I would love that. Frankly in order to convincingly do New Zealand the game only needs at most three things; the kiwi, the tuatara, and the ability to use lights indoors during the day time (some 'NZ-themed' scenery pieces wouldn't go amiss, either, but not a priority). Right now it's impossible to build a convincing New Zealand-based zoo in the game, as every zoo here basically has to run a conservation project for our native animals. Even our aquariums keep kiwi and tuatara. If we had just those three things, I'd be pretty content (adding in more exhibit animals, such as our green geckos or native skinks, wouldn't go amiss, and I'd love to see some our birds (not the kakapo, as they don't exist in captivity, but something like the kea or kaka, or the kereru/NZ wood pigeon) show up if such a function is ever added to the game, but beggars can't be choosers).