Hmm, animal-wise, then SEA is mt favorite (particularly the obsvure species, like the dhole and babirusa). I am hoping that we have more animal packs on the future, especially a North American animal pack.
Now, for theme, I'd go with South America, because I love ancient architecture and love to build ruins of Mayan/Aztec/Incan villages.
Ironically, my favorite DLC animal is the southern cassowary, but this thread isn't about animals
For me it is probably the Aquatic pack, and I actually haven't really used the animals in it yet.
Even though the format of the pack was more or less the same as we were used to, it still gave a positive feeling of DLCs not always being shaped the same way. Animals from different continents and some from places already covered in previous packs. An exhibit animal with a very unique vibe. Scenery that wasn't heavily themed and very useful for various builds. The diving behavior also felt like the biggest game changer for the animals since release of the game (even though I wish the behavior could appear in water less than 4m deep.) Overall a pack that felt like it opened some new doors, and made future DLCs even more exciting.
This is a hard one...
As others I prefer more animals, so I'd go for the South East Asia Pack . Because of the concept itself, and I'd absolutely love if the "animals only" packs would ... well, let's say... take turns with building stuff and 4+1 packs continously, cause... it'd be sad, if the animal pack would stay a one-time-and-never-again thing.
When it comes to 4+1+building-stuff concept, I'd vote for the Australian pack , because I just love the style of the building pieces and the new red desert map.
Easily the Aquatic Pack. It hits the sweet spot of "just right" in both covering much-needed animal niches (seal, otter, penguin) and having the best building pieces since release--the rocks are immensely useful for creating more artificial-looking habitats and the rock walls seen very often in real zoos, and I also get a lot of mileage out of the metal fence and artificial rock tree. It also features my favorite exhibit animal in the diamondback terrapin. Not to mention the addition of diving, a must for both new and existing animals.
It added four very necessary animal types that were entirely lacking from the game (penguin, otter, seal, and aquatic turtle) and while the deep diving update coincided with the DLC and they're technically separate things, the DLC I'm sure helped inspire that update. The fifth animal, the caiman, looks great in both its base and albino colors and while not adding something new since we have two crocodilians already is still unique from the existing crocodilians in being so much smaller.
Also, kudos to Frontier for using the King penguin rather than Emperor since King penguins are so much more common in zoos.
This is an extremely difficult question for me to answer. After the base game came out, my top 3 wanted animals were the meerkat, koala and kangaroo, in that order. We got two of those in the Australia pack, and we got my most wanted in the Africa pack. Both packs came with great building pieces as well (which tend to take a backstage to animals for me) but because of the diversity of use I'd get out the Australian packs scenery versus the Africa pack's, I"m going to say the Australia pack edges out of the Africa pack. Barely, it's really really close. I mean, meerkats! this was such a hard choice! I'm just glad they both came along. I have enjoyed all of the packs but these are far and away my favorite two.
If I had to choose, I'd say either the Aquatic, South East Asia, and Africa are my top three, but if I had to choose my absolute favorite, I think I would go with the Africa pack, I LOVE the animals we got in it, and the Moorish building theme is so so cool and unique, South East Asia is a close second just because I love the animals from that part of the world, so underrated. but really, all of the packs have been great so far, and it feels like they just keep getting better! Great job guys!
It is true that Australia had somewhat special feel to it. Its hard to explain but it felt quite unique, maybe because of the completely new map with new textures? The red sand gave the whole DLC awesome vibe to it.
Because of the animals it’s got to be SEA but my all time favorite is the Africa pack because of the building pieces that I really dreamed about and plants that I love to use.
Damn, this is indeed a hard question. I think the Africa Pack is my favourite as well. It hits all the right notes perfectly, and I think that works best.
Animal wise I think the choices are fantastic. All of the habitat animals are really common in zoos, especially the penguins and the meerkat. I like the balance between animals that are common in bigger zoos (rhinoceros, fennec fox) and animals that can also be found in smaller/starting zoos (penguin and meerkat). The new digging feature is really cool and the fact that it isn't limited by any weird rules like the deep diving is a big win for me. I honestly hope to see it implemented in some other animals as well, the aardvark especially could really benefit from it!
Scenery wise it is just spot on. I cannot stress this enough, but this should be the golden standard for all scenery themes. The theme is very specific, yet the pieces themselves can be used for almost anything. I've used the pillars for Asian themes, I've used the plaster blocks for almost every theme so far, and even the little plaster decals can be used for the most bizarre things like making doughnuts! The arbour pieces and the beams are also so incredibly versatile, it is downright insane how good that set is.
Aquatics and South America easily take the second spot for me because of similar reasons.
I don't really know where to put the SEA pack because I feel like it's unfair to compare it to other packs given that they are very different in what they want to achieve. But I do want to say that I think animal packs are a really nice change of pace. I would like to maybe get a few more props related to said animals (like a babirusa skull), but overall I do still think that SEA is one of the better packs.
What I especially like about the SEA pack is that it does something that I'm really happy with, and that is include both really common zoo animals (babirusa, clouded leopard, binturong, malayan tapir); but also introducing a very specific animal like the proboscis monkey. I feel like those extremely niche animals like the proboscis monkey should also be included sporadically because it allows you to make a very specific zoo in a realistic fashion. If you'd make a zoo in East Asia, like in Singapore, a proboscis monkey would be a keystone animal. So its inclusion is a plus in my book!
So TLDR; overall Africa Pack is my favourite so far, and Animal Pack wise (let's just group the Deluxe Pack under animal packs shall we) it would be SEA!
I'd say the Africa pack. Versatile building pieces and animals that were must haves. In particular the meerkats. The majority of zoos I've been to have meerkats and I always love watching them. Even though I would love more animals per pack, I'm also a bit of a builder and want that as well.I just want the best of both worlds I guess.
hm, it's hard to choose just one.
I think every DLC brought something into play that I like and find useful.
The africa and the aquatic pack are the best in my opinion. They were well thought out, the choice of animals was terrific and the building pieces were super useful. There are probably one two things that I would change (africa: + secetary bird + baboon; aquatic: the wooden walls also have a horizontal texture), but that would really only be whining on a high level.
In the middle: australia, arctic and south america. All 3 packs are great, but they also have things that you just don't need
SA: why twice the bamboo/temple parts? Isn't that enough just the flexicolor parts? The animals are well chosen, but I miss my capybara.
Artic: the ice walls and these strange wooden parts, I still haven't understood what they are for xD the christmas decorations also find a bit strange. But i love the reindeer!
Australia: i love the metal bars, i use them everywhere! I wish the square metal bars could be colored in the same way as the round ones.
The only pack that completely failed me is the SEA pack. Because there are no building pieces, the animals are not selected well enough for me, except for the proboscis monkey and clouded leopard, the others are just copies of other animals for me. I'm missing a little love in the pack. I can do without building pieces, but then the animals and their behavior have to completely knock me out of my shoes. (but that wasn't really the question ... lol)
But all in all it doesn't really matter what the team throws at me, I'll buy everything anyway ... and I think if we move towards the end of support, PZ will be a fantastic game with the DLCs and updates. And then at some point we look back and say "Yep, every DLC/Update has made the game a bit better and that's a good thing"
Hard choice .. I am one of those who prefer many animals in a pack, so for me the Southeast Asia pack is important and it contained some really cool animals. However, there was not any new building material and such. But for my favorite if we look pass the number of animals, I would say the aquatic pack. Completly new kind of species (very cool ones) and nice new things to build up your zoo with. Really like that one.
It’s hard to pick just one as they all have their merits and elements that let them down.
If I had to pick one I would say in principle the South East Asia pack - because it showed that Frontier can be responsive to voices in the community calling for more animals. For me more animals are very important. And some of the animals were beautifully done.
However, at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, the Malayan tapir was a major letdown that reflects badly on the game and company and simply isn’t up to standard. What’s worse, the Malayan tapir artwork is perfect. So I really hope that they continue to listen to constructive feedback and fix the tapir.
A toss up between the Africa and South America packs. I really like the Egyptian/Moorish and Inca inspired scenery. The animals are all solid choices, too
Whilst it’s always great to see staple and iconic animals make the roster, I do think content packs are at their best when they expand on the core experience of Planet Zoo whilst adding these additions. To me, the most prominent strength Planet Zoo currently has is in its building mechanics and level of customisation allowed in gameplay.
The Aquatic Pack pulls ahead of the current packs here for me based on its inclusion of animals that capitalised on the deep-diving mechanic’s parallel introduction.
When returning to the game, this update wasn’t just a motivator to build more of the same, just creatively for new themes, iconic zoo areas/biomes and iconic animals. Rather it made us do things inherently differently than we had been to account for these animals’ unique standard way of being presented to guests and enclosures built and planed for. These deep-diving behaviours made them stand out from the rest of the roster as more than just ‘omissions’ whilst asking us to play and think differently when engaging in our standard gameplay. Introduction of water temperature and colour further complimented this.
I wouldn’t want to loose any pack we currently have due to the animals within them, but if I were to have them drip fed back to me, this would be the one I’d feel I needed most.. this may decrease as we gain more deep-divers, but for the purpose it served, it’s been the biggest “must have” on release for me by playing so well into its corresponding paralleled free update and the game’s current strengths.
Maybe future packs that have a focus on expanding the way we play will get a chance to rival the ‘splash’ our aquatic additions had. Even if this isn’t by focusing on building, but another area of management or gameplay entirely? Can you imagine if the education talk points were paired with a pack focused on walk-through exhibits, or the webcams and billboards with nocturnal and nesting animals!?
I only have the Aquatic pack so far as a new player, but I've already put Penguins in my first sandbox zoo and love the underwater diving. It's great watching them swim around. I'm looking forward to trying out the other aquatic animals as well. Oh, I also have the Giant Otters too with an underwater viewing area. It's fun doing the underwater areas, if a little tricky to get right!
Really tough call - in the end though, I think the Africa pack because each of the other packs have either animals I’d have preferred (especially the Australia pack), build pieces that are too theme-parky (especially arctic pack), or mechanics that make some animals difficult or impossible to use realistically (e.g. 4m depth requirements for caimans and otters).
The Africa pack had a perfect animal selection coupled with super useful build pieces.
First and foremost: I love all the DLCs and wouldn't want to miss a single one of them.
When it comes to answering the initial question, I would say the African pack - but not because it's a dream come true for me, but because it's the only pack I have nothing to complain about except the one point I bring up with every DLC: I want bigger packs for a higher price point. The Hymadras Baboon or a grey crowned crane is deeply missing as iconic and widespread zoo animals in my opinion. But nevertheless the Africa pack has a well picked animal rooster (I was most happy about the african penguin, as it is the most common penguin in zoos, even in low budget ones) and beautiful and versaitile building pieces.
Now: The DLC I was waiting for the most and longed for before it was even on the horizon was the aqatic pack. But it is now not on top of the list.
What the aquatic pack did right was the theming and the items. Very zoo like, something we are yet missing in PZ. Still.
But the deep dive requirement honestly kills all the fun of having these animals in game, as it's almost impossible to build realistic habitat. And the animal rooster is far from "common in zoos". Now, we got the african penguin in the africa pack, so I'm fine with the king penguin and glad it's not the emperor. But the giant otter.... nope. Still think it should have been the asian small clawed and the grey soeal should have been the habour seal. And that is, because I hope we will get the California Sea Lion (much more iconic), somwhere down the line. All in all, I see the aquatic pack as the pack that would have benefit the most of a bigger DLC model or at least an animal pack.
SEA pack: Animal rooster is awesome, Bintu-wrong gate was acted on exceptional, the Malayan Tapir is a problem that has been discussed and I wish the Bunturong would finally show his hanging tail behaviour more often and even when there are enrichment items in their habitat - because they don't currently. But to be fair,if you aren't exactly building a specialized SEA area in your zoo, most animals don't come into play regularly. So while I don't want to miss it, after a while it's not on top of the list anymore.
SA pack: Love the building pieces. The look of the jaguat is a bit off for me, but all in all a good DLC. But again one that feels lacking due to it's size.
Aussie DLC: I was hopeing for the run down look with a lot of metal and I got it. Building wise an absolute winner! But for me it introduced problems still present to this day (climbing frame issues, logs suddenly having a front and a back side but when you work with them you don't know which one is which, so the gizmo is a disaster). And limiting the "out of pouch" animation to a one time birthing special even scene is... a terrible decision and feels quite lazy. But it represents what it is common in PZ still: Lack of mother-offspring interaction. When I have tolook at the family tree to see which juvenile belongs to whom, juvenile behaviour is not really realistic I should see it at first glance, because the juvenile is close to its mom.
Arctic pack: Oh well... I was very happy when we got it, but it will always be in the shaddow of everything that came after it. Because, and that's where I end my post:
So far every DLC has been better than the last.
Funny enough I feel like I missed just one DLC but I didn't. Weird...
I should see it at first glance, because the juvenile is close to its mom.