Dedicated Animal Packs are a Welcome Shift in DLC Format

Mjmannella

Mjmannella
With the past 4 DLC packs, my biggest issue was the lack of animals. While foliage and building pieces are nice for the atmosphere, it is ultimately the animals that make a zoo game what is it. With the SE Asia Pack, this complaint has has firmly quashed. More animals means more opportunities, helping every player's zoos feel fresh and distinct.

Even animals people would consider samey like the dhole and Malayan tapir have enough utility to be used for unique zoos that their base-game counterparts can't always deliver.

In short, I think this should be the new main DLC model for Planet Zoo. May animal packs live a long and healthy life!
 

AndyZoos

A
I fully agree! Animal-focused DLC packs are a hugely welcome shift and I'm now more excited than ever about the game and what's to come!

This whole notion that an animal similar to another one already in-game is "just a clone" is strange to me. Like, I get it. It's similar. And if we were still only getting four animals per pack I'd fully understand the frustration. But...

Don't people want to be able to create zoos differently? The way I view a pack like this, it now allows us to not only organize our zoos by region, but we can also:

  • Create a "monkey house" with the lemurs, proboscis monkeys, and the capuchins (more would be ideal, but it's a start!)
  • Create a section of a zoo dedicated to canines
  • Create a rainforest/tropical building in their zoo dedicated to multiple regions of the world (or have a SE Asia rainforest building in one zoo and a SA one in another)
  • Create a more diverse "cats" section of your zoos. As it stood, people were using the same animals over and over. Now you can swap one in for the clouded leopard.
I'm not saying you couldn't do this before, but this pack will add diversity. And I'd imagine, if this is successful and the pattern continues, we'll see something similar.

One of Planet Zoo's biggest issues (form my perspective, anyway) is that many of the zoos people build wind up being inherently the same based on what's in-game. Packs like this will allow for a bit more flexibility and help to fill-in gaps both in animal types, and frankly? The fact that these animals are smaller and probably require a bit less space will help to fill-in smaller physical gaps in zoos too.
 

crg_41

crg_41
Totally agree, animal-only (or mainly) pack are great. I don't even care about that malayan tapir is a reskin of the Baird's one or to have another canid. I mean, with 4 animals I get the frustration, but now, with 7 habitat animals everything is welcomed. To be honest, since the update I was thinking about the idea of an 8 animals pack, and I was expecting the malayan tapir, they are really cool and beautiful, and the dhole is one of my favourite canid species so I'm really hyped.
And also, for the future packs this could be huge, imagine an 8 animals African pack :love: but I definitely think they would be using both models, 8 animals and 5 animals + theme. We will see I guess :)
 

12344321

1
That's how you make a dlc baby:

Clouded Leopard
Babirusa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Binturong
Proboscus Monkey
Sun Bear
Malayan Tapir
Dhole

I already have a babirusa and malayan tapir habitat thank you PZ! The gloves are off and PZ just right hooked PK
 
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Spiderhawk

Spiderhawk
I’m under the asumptiom we are going to get other animal only packs maybe 1 or 2 which I am great full for. I just hope we will get aviaries, nocturnal houses and other features in the future. Maybe the dlc can come a bit sooner but in the end I’m grateful they gave us more animals and skipped construction.
 

Swjosdotschka

Swjosdotschka
I'm still for more animals AND building pieces for a higher price point :)
Alternatively I'd also take separate building packs and animal packs with maybe 1 month or 6 week time in between.
 
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paul78

paul78
I too would like to see some building sets and objects still. But more animals is also welcome for sure. It would be kinda neat to sell both and give players the option a six to eight count animal pack for 10-13$ And a building set and objects pack for 5-10$ depending on size of course. I doubt this ever happens but it would satisfy all players.
 

jcp011c

jcp011c
I am completely on board for an 8 animal no scenery packs for some themes (though I would like to see a few plants maybe?) If they do an African pack and I think they will, I'm not sure a new building theme is needed and would rather have the 8 animals. If they revisit South Africa and Australia the same. North America, I could come up with themes I'd like to see, but ultimately would rather have the extra animals. Avaries would need some new building materials, but I would rather have more animals than a lot of building items based around a theme (not sure what type of theme there TBH). I'm having a hard time coming up with specific themes for deserts, jungles and mountains/highlands, aside from American Western for deserts.

I think the only set I'd really rather have the new building materials for and back to the 5 animals is a European theme. I know we have the classic theme in the game which I guess is what that's supposed to create a feel for, but there's definitely European themes that would be unique enough to me, that I'd rather have. But I wouldn't be opposed to building only packs that are much cheaper to help balance out the content for the builder-focused players in our community.

Needless to say, all of this is just my own wishes and opinions, I can certainly respect the animal focus, the building focus, and the balance of both playstyles and the desires to have that represented in packs.
 

RedPandaReggie

RedPandaReggie
Mjmannella said:
With the past 4 DLC packs, my biggest issue was the lack of animals. While foliage and building pieces are nice for the atmosphere, it is ultimately the animals that make a zoo game what is it. With the SE Asia Pack, this complaint has has firmly quashed. More animals means more opportunities, helping every player's zoos feel fresh and distinct.

Even animals people would consider samey like the dhole and Malayan tapir have enough utility to be used for unique zoos that their base-game counterparts can't always deliver.

In short, I think this should be the new main DLC model for Planet Zoo. May animal packs live a long and healthy life!
Click to expand...
I agree, a zoo game isn't a zoo game without a diversity of animals, and besides, using the South-East Asia Pack for an example, we already have enough items to replicate the architecture of the region with plaster, dry stone and the wooden posts and other items as well as the tile roofing. Animal Packs are a way of adding more animals to already existing packs such as Australia and South America.
In conclusion, we do have a lot of creativity at our disposal already, there can be a balance between DLCs and Animal Packs or if Frontier has everyone working, they can release animal packs in between DLCs
 

solacefruit

solacefruit
I'm thrilled, truly. I can remember late last year when there was some anxiety among players wondering if frequent 4-animal packs were going to continue throughout the lifetime of the game's DLC, and some people really thought that a larger animal pack was never going to happen. I think the additional animal options are wonderful, and I fully ditto what people are saying about these eight animals being a balm for the community re: new opportunities for creativity. I'm definitely someone who loves building and designing habitats (and don't get me wrong, I am out here praying each night for more vegetation etc., because I would love more plant variety, and I think the building sets so far have been excellent and added a lot to the game) but ultimately Planet Zoo is a zoo game, and the most crucial element of that is a gorgeous and diverse array of animals.

I think this choice to put out an all-animal DLC heralds a very exciting future for Planet Zoo this year (as Chante suggested, it's supposed to be the best yet for the game and I'll agree that it definitely looks like it so far!). The only thing that makes my heart even slightly sad about this news is thinking how much I would have adored something like this for the Australia pack etc., because I can think of so many creatures I'd have loved to see in the game--but who knows! Perhaps some of those animals will show up in the roster eventually.

Personally I'm dreaming of an Oceania pack for Australian and New Zealand species that were left out, but I know I'd go for South America 2 for a capybara, Humboldt penguin, and/or a handful of tamarins, too, you know? There's a literal world of creatures out there and it's exciting to think about what'll be coming next.
 
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