🐾 Developer Journal: Africa Pack 🐾

[Sahara]

The pieces might be niche for a lot of you, but for someone who has been to a lot of zoos in the Arab gulf countries, they are very useful as many of them use this style.

 

[NZFanatic]

I think it looks incredible so far and cannot wait to use these pieces tomorrow. Sure, it's niche, but they're going to be versatile, I can just taste it. Look at the South America pack, with the rubble pieces. Most people wouldn't even touch them, but BroNation builders revitalized them by utilizing them for purposes of making rocks and pebbles. Look at the glory of the gutter pieces to be used to make things like stuffed animals to faux animals. These pieces I can already tell will be wonderful for purposes like these. Hell, even that big Meerkat statue will have a place in my zoo once I figure out the best way to use it.

I'm just going to say that the uses you're talking about are already niche. Making fake animals and stuffed animals isn't what a lot of people want to do, or are even capable of doing, for a variety of reasons. It ups the piece count in the zoo which is a drain on the engine, and it puts the onus on us to make things that could be in the game anyway. I have the same issue the billboards but on a lesser scale - I'm not visually artistic, I don't have Photoshop or anything like that, but Frontier's solution to the once-common clamours for more basic education signs and the like is "here, make them yourself". I think it's a great feature, sure, but I still want official content. Maybe because you're a modder you don't quite get that.

There are pros and cons to everything in the game. What the content creators do, with their apparently infinite amounts of free time and their multi-thousand dollar gaming PC's and their free money from advertisers, is already niche in itself.

 

[markun]

I think people are taking this "cultural insensitivity from meerkat statues" a little too far. Where were you guys when the Dall Sheep was on the banners for the Arctic Pack on Nordic Scenery? I don't see a problem with it since it's for a themed zoo based in Sub-Saharan Africa. We can tell from the screenshots and the trailers that this zoo that Frontier built is located in a sandy oasis, presumably within the span from Morocco to Egypt. It makes sense to have these scenery pieces around here to match the local cultures.

I don't find ancient Egyptian meerkat statues culturally insensitive but I do find them tacky and over the top. And historically and zoologically inaccurate. Just like I found the so-called Nordic scenery a tacky Frozen 2 cash in. And living in Sweden I don't find that pack particularly helpful in building a realistic zoo set where I live.

The themed pieces overall just aren't for me because I prefer to build zoos that don't feature that kind of Epcot style theme park architecture. Hopefully the update will help me build the kind of zoos I want to build as it is frustrating to lack those pieces when we have so much over the top theming that does nothing for me.

 

[Roxxsmom]

The new theme and vegetation look really pretty, and it looks like we are definitely getting meerkats! Yay!

I'm not sure that I'd go all in for the theme itself, but more pieces that allow mixing and matching when building stuff makes me happy.

I can see why some folks are meh about it, though. I have one of those "multi thousand dollar" (well barely multi thousand dollar) computer that was certainly never as expensive as some but designed for gaming and not a slouch either, and now it's about 3 years old. It still exceeds the recommended game specs, but I have to play around with some settings for it to run smoothly, especially when a zoo gets bigger and more complex. If I don't turn the program priority up to high I get a thing where interface buttons randomly become non clickable for varying time periods, which is intensely irritating. I've never had a report of this substantiated/confirmed and no one else ever mentions having the same issue, but I am guessing other players get their own glitches and it's worse with more normal computers. I don't even try playing it on my old laptop.

I'd definitely be down for another animal only pack again in the future, and I'd definitely like to see more species from Europe and North America too, as it's definitely hard to make a convincing "locally themed" zoo, or even a reasonable sized "native fauna" area of a larger zoo.

 

[ElectricMonk]

I totally get why some are criticising the theme as being wrong when most of the species are sub-Saharan. However, we should note that there’s been a sub-Saharan theme in the game since launch. A counter argument, obviously, is that sub-Saharan Africa is, itself, extremely diverse. That argument could be made for every theme though- the Australian indigenous art is from a specific region of Australia, the Indian theme is very much northern Indian, the South American theme is mostly Aztec, the polar theme is Scandinavian (sort of - in a theme-parky way) the East Asian set is, essentially Chinese… in each case a particular culture that isn’t universal to the continent has been chosen because it has to be - there’s no way to include the full diversity of cultures any more than there’s a way to include the full diversity of animals and plants.

 

[ElectricMonk]

I still think the theme is too niche to be as versatile as they claim it to be, but I guess I'll have a better grasp of it when the pack drops. I find that I get more use out of the Arctic walls and beams than most of the other building sets because of how generic they are (and obviously the Aquatic pieces which were really great). Beyond scenery, I hardly use any of the other theme sets.

I have the same reservation about the theme. I would note, though, that all of the themes are a bit like that - You find the Arctic theme to be broadly useful, whereas I hardly use it (like you I don’t really do highly themed areas) - I find the SA theme much more useful - my main zoo is very sloped and the pieces are great for retaining walls and foundations and the bamboo is super-useful for light theming, especially in SE Asian areas.

 

[Otter Lord]

I appreciate the amount of research that you guys put into the scenery pieces in making sure they are culturally appropriate. You probably do more research into depicting other cultures than real zoos.

 

[NZFanatic]

I have the same reservation about the theme. I would note, though, that all of the themes are a bit like that - You find the Arctic theme to be broadly useful, whereas I hardly use it (like you I don’t really do highly themed areas) - I find the SA theme much more useful - my main zoo is very sloped and the pieces are great for retaining walls and foundations and the bamboo is super-useful for light theming, especially in SE Asian areas.

I don't use the overtly Scandinavian pieces - mostly just the walls and beams (not the decor) because they have a really good "old wood" look to them. I've used the bamboo pieces here and there from the SA Pack but the one time I used the temple pieces it made me think of a minigolf place I used to go to as a kid that was "temple of doom" themed. Making them flexicolour didn't really help their versatility, IMO.

I think the only "theme" that I've ever used extensively has been the base game Africa theme, mostly with the thatch roofs and the art pieces.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

Interesting insights into the process. My favorite part of this was the reassurance that devs are looking at the forums for ideas. After all, that's why most of us are here instead of (or in addition to) being spread out on the socials, discords, steam, etc.

Frontier is clearly trying to emphasize the building community with this pack. I give you all credit for circling the wagons to make sure you were heard and responded to so quickly. Hopefully other parts of the community will follow your example, making the game the best possible for everyone.