While the cohabitation system in Jurassic World Evolution 2 is largely successful in how it varies options for park builders, and in particular has come a long way since the game's release, I've caught a few select oddities that could be ironed out to make for more coherent and engaging cohabitation system:
- The strangest choice in cohabitation description and design is absolutely the 3 'Dr. Wu Hybrid' creatures, including the Indominus Rex, Indoraptor, and the Camp Cretaceous Dinosaur Pack's Scorpius Rex; While a large portion of the game's roster features a justified dislike towards this entire category, many species also oddly only feature a distaste towards only one or two of them (particularly sauropods, who don't dislike the Indoraptor despite it disliking all sauropods and even being able to hunt the Amargasaurus and Nigersaurus). Even more oddly, species in the scavenger class such as Compsognathus dislike all 3 and choose to have all of them listed individually, disregarding the far more intuitive 'Dr. Wu Hybrid' title. All 3 of these hybrids themselves also sport individual named territory titles, as opposed to most species in the game, which sport more general titles such as 'Ceratopsid' or 'Sauropod' within the territory tab. Standardization for the 'Dr. Wu Hybrid' title across all species would greatly cut down on remaining bloat within the territory menus, a small but greatly appreciated change to ensure consistent quality within menus.
- The Jeholopterus is also oddly handedly in it's cohabitation- featuring no preferences towards or against anything aside from the typical dislike of Dr. Wu Hybrids. Due to its small size and high numbers, this makes cohabitation far more difficult to manage and maximize than one would think, greatly limiting options for those in gamemodes and settings that utilize cohabitation preferences. While there are multiple approaches to rectifying this design decision, such as bringing it more in line with other flying reptiles via a few unique likes and dislikes with other aviary species, I feel that a much more unique and creative way to give the Jeholopterus more potential is to make it part of the scavenger class. Being a scavenger would be an immense help to making Jeholopterus stand out amongst other flying reptiles for park builders, allowing for vast cohabitation options (especially for those that utilize outdoor flying reptiles without endangering guests in sandbox mode) completely unique to it, giving Jeholopterus a never-before-seen niche to be appreciated by players. As an additional note, their territory title being called 'Jeholopterus' instead of 'Flying Reptile' like that of ever other aviary species also feels like an design oversight that could be fixed.
- In the same vain as the Jeholopterus, I feel the Nothosaurus, Archelon, and Lystrosaurus could all be tweaked to have more cohabitation preferences, although I don't feel the need to elaborate on them as much due finding them to be much less jarring in their limitations compared to those of the Jeholopterus.
- Nothosaurus currently lacks any cohabitation preferences towards or from any marine species, which I believe could be changed in some manner to create more variety in viability towards specific lagoon combinations.
- The Archelon has a remarkable amount of liked creatures, but noticeably doesn't feature any other lagoon creature with a preference towards or against it, a situation largely designed not to occur in species cohabitation. Unreciprocated preferences have the adverse effect of not allowing one species' preference from being fully utilized, which is an unfortunate fate for a peaceful and highly desirable species like the Archelon.
- The Lystrosaurus, similar to the Nothosaurus, feels like it could benefit from more dynamic cohabitation preferences beyond the appreciated nod to Jurassic World Dominion via its mutual hatred of Oviraptor. As a small herbivore, it currently serves as an outlier for being unable to extensively cohabitate with its peers. Additional cohabitation preferences, perhaps even liking the vast majority of species in the same manner as Scavenger class species, would allow for a much more versatile addition to Jurassic World Evolution 2's roster. This has been somewhat helped with the addition of Microceratus, but given Microceratus' wide array of liked species, it serves to make the Lystrosaurus even more of an outlier.
- Both the Atrociraptor and Monolophosaurus, unlike the vast majority of species in the game, don't like Scavengers. While a minor problem (due to both species predating on most scavengers), this is an oddity compared to very similar creatures like the Velociraptor, and as such should be considered to be adjusted.
- As one final adjustment, I support the return of positive cohabitation preferences around Dimetrodon present prior to version 1.5 of the game, in which it was capable of cohabitating with a wide variety of herbivores. While I understand Dimetrodon's current preferences are in line with other carnivores present in game, I found the ability to introduce it into typically herbivore-exclusive exhibits made it stand out as an even more distinctive and desirable species to introduce into my parks. While I can understand not being able to cohabitate with Pachycephalosaurids in particular (due to Dimetrodon being comparable in size with most species in the group, and being able to hunt the Homalocephale), I believe bringing back the ability to safely and comfortably house a dimetrodon with Sauropods, Hadrosaurids, and Ornithomimosaurids would be greatly appreciated by park builders. These changes could also be brought to the Lystrosaurus, putting them both under the Synapsid title and allowing for more enclosure variety for both species. Old dimetrodon cohabitation preference shown below for reference, Compsognathus would now encompass all Scavengers
- While a personal preference, I believe the loss of cohabitation between the Spinoraptor and Indominus Rex to be a poor decision, due to both being greatly lacking in cohabitation options aside from a shared like towards Velociraptor and the Spinoraptor's like for scavengers. Allowing for cohabitation between these two species was a very distinctive cohabitation option- something often lacking from carnivores, and the carnivorous hybrids in particular. I could see the argument that the change was done over balance concerns for challenge mode, or potentially an aim to keep a theming with hybrids being largely unwilling to cohabitate, but this change drastically limits the already few options for mixed species enclosures involving these fan-favorite species. As such, I'd propose one of two changes:
- Revert the change, allowing for the Spinoraptor and Indominus Rex to freely cohabitate (and remove Spinoraptors panicking from the Indominus, as I remember this being an issue in the prior game version). If this route was to be taken, I'd personally embrace this cross-species cohabitation by introducing an additional social animation between the two, cementing it as a desirable pairing for park managers.
- Switch the Spinoraptor to instead cohabitate (and socialize!) with the Spinosaurus. The lack of cohabitation between these species, while somewhat understandable due to the Spinosaurus' portrayal as particularly aggressive, was a glaring omission when compared to every other species added by the Secret Species Pack- with the exception of the Spinosaurus and Spinoceratops, which I find to be understandable given their drastic differences. Allowing the Spinosaurus to cohabitate with the Spinoraptor would give the Spinosaurus a unique pairing that it, unlike the Indominus and Spinoraptor (via the Velociraptor), currently lacks.
- Alternatively, both! Versatility is a key aspect of varied cohabitation options, and every species involved in these cohabitation adjustments would greatly benefit from the additional options from an interest and gameplay standpoint for park managers. Both additions would also call for Spinoraptor to not panic in the presence of its bigger cousins, which would greatly improve the viability of pairing them up.
- Potentially one of the more outlandish ideas here, but implementing the 'joining' feature between most, if not all, of the Secret Species Pack animals and their parent species would feel consistent with the idea that the animals are communicating and interacting; if this would happen, the 'dominant' species in every case would be the hybrid (with the exception of the Spinoraptor potentially joining with the Indominus or even Spinosaurus), causing the parent species' needs to match theirs. This would offer mild gameplay changes in how the needs and cohabitation preferences of certain species would change, opening up possibilities like the Diplodocus cohabitating with another sauropod by being part of a herd of Ankylodocus, promoting greater usage of these rather controversial species. There is an argument that hybrids drastically different from one of their parent species shouldn't join with them, with the Ankylodocus and Ankylosaurus being the prime example, but very similar species joining together would be a pleasant addition to the game.
- While not effecting gameplay, Microceratus is specifically listed in the 'likes' section of every Ceratopsid species and Stegoceratops (except for the Spinoceratops for whatever reason), despite already being considered a Ceratopsid in-game and thus already being liked by its cousins. This appears to be menu clutter and as such should be removed.
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