That seems like too popular an animal to give away for free
Future Anniversary Animals
- Thread starter RedPandaReggie
- Start date
I agree, but I mean we did get the red deer, which was very much requested.
I'm not gonna say it's impossible, but it's not likely
Honestly, I would prefer this option.
Habitat animals are constantly given each DLC and free one wouldnt make much difference. Especially when this species would be easily achievable through modding just like lemur and deer were.
On the other hand we have exhibits, which frontier probably shafted in favor on new shiny WE. Anniversary would be last chance to get cool critters like chameleon, mantis, locust, new snake and go on.
Before, we assumed that animals that encroach on dlc spots would not be given away. The black-and-white ruffed lemur was a quick model and color change, and we got a brand new animal with not much strain on the team, based off of a base-game animal.
The red deer of course changes that, being fairly well requested until the fallow deer was picked instead during the European pack in Winter 2021 (wow I can't believe it's been that long, I feel old).
So I think it would be fair to look at the 2022 dlc animals and see what might be included based off of their rosters for this year (assuming we get a dlc animal). I think the dromedary or wisent are too easy to have as "clone" animals in a Desert Animals or Forest Animals pack respectively, so I won't mention them.
Animals we got in last year's dlc:
The red deer of course changes that, being fairly well requested until the fallow deer was picked instead during the European pack in Winter 2021 (wow I can't believe it's been that long, I feel old).
So I think it would be fair to look at the 2022 dlc animals and see what might be included based off of their rosters for this year (assuming we get a dlc animal). I think the dromedary or wisent are too easy to have as "clone" animals in a Desert Animals or Forest Animals pack respectively, so I won't mention them.
Animals we got in last year's dlc:
- Asian-small clawed otter
- Capybara
- Nile lechwe
- Platypus
- Red-crowned crane
- Spectacled caiman
- Wild water buffalo
- Amur leopard
- Przewalski's horse
- Scimitar-horned oryx
- Siamang
- Common wombat
- Red fox
- Striped skunk
- Common raccoon
- Nine-banded armadillo
- Maned wolf
- Blue wildebeest
- Emu
- Bennet's wallaby
- Caracal
- Striped hyena
- Nile crocodile
- Sandhill (or some other species) crane
- North American or Eurasian river otter
- African (or another species) leopard
Based on that criteria, getting an otter (ideally sea otter) or another armadillo makes sense to me. Feel like Frontier can make too much money off a bird or big cat to give it away for free.
Fowls, macaques, and tortoises feel like good categories for Frontier to dive into here. None have been added since the base game, for behaviors and animations you don't have to change a whole lot, while you can still find some species that would look quite different from what we already got. All would help address some of the current issues with the animal roster. What an anniversary that would be!
I like to think that the red deer was chosen because it nicely fills hole in the basegame and didnt require too much work.
The base game has no deers and no real european animals making the red deer the perfect animal to fit both of these spots.
In addition to that they didnt have to build it from the ground up since the fallow deer already had all the nessecary animations
And third, there was already scenery for it in place.
I really hope this years anniversary animal follows along theese lines
Something i would really enjoy for this year would be a squirrel monkey since it has pretty much the same situation going on as the red deer:
The basegame has only 2 habitat animals for south america, one of which doesnt even really count imo. And there is no classic monkey in the base game, i know we got the mandrill and macaque, but those dont give the same vibe.
Ironically both of those areas, SA and monkeys are still lacking even if you have all DLCs.
And lastly there is a monkey silhouette sign
The base game has no deers and no real european animals making the red deer the perfect animal to fit both of these spots.
In addition to that they didnt have to build it from the ground up since the fallow deer already had all the nessecary animations
And third, there was already scenery for it in place.
I really hope this years anniversary animal follows along theese lines
Something i would really enjoy for this year would be a squirrel monkey since it has pretty much the same situation going on as the red deer:
The basegame has only 2 habitat animals for south america, one of which doesnt even really count imo. And there is no classic monkey in the base game, i know we got the mandrill and macaque, but those dont give the same vibe.
Ironically both of those areas, SA and monkeys are still lacking even if you have all DLCs.
And lastly there is a monkey silhouette sign
Maybe we could get a squirrel monkey based on the capuchin monkey.I like to think that the red deer was chosen because it nicely fills hole in the basegame and didnt require too much work.
The base game has no deers and no real european animals making the red deer the perfect animal to fit both of these spots.
In addition to that they didnt have to build it from the ground up since the fallow deer already had all the nessecary animations
And third, there was already scenery for it in place.
I really hope this years anniversary animal follows along theese lines
Something i would really enjoy for this year would be a squirrel monkey since it has pretty much the same situation going on as the red deer:
The basegame has only 2 habitat animals for south america, one of which doesnt even really count imo. And there is no classic monkey in the base game, i know we got the mandrill and macaque, but those dont give the same vibe.
Ironically both of those areas, SA and monkeys are still lacking even if you have all DLCs.
And lastly there is a monkey silhouette sign
Yeah that was the idea. Forgot to mention that
A sea otter is far too different than a typical riparian living otter, it would need a whole new set of animations, special food item added etc.
Probably a new rig too.
As for the leopard I can't see a theme it fits into, and most people would be upset if it was a paid animal. It's demand has rapidly decreased since the Amur leopard was added, but it still has a niche and people wouldn't be upset to get it for free. No new animations or sounds, minial rig and skin changes. Pretty simple.
Whatever it is I imagine it will be whatever base game is lacking. So another bird would be one of the first things I think of, and considering base game has walk through exhibits but nothing to use it I think maybe a couple birds would be perfect. If not that then a habitat bird, South American rep, Nile crocodile, etc.
I'm still not convinced we'll get an animal based off a DLC species. The red deer seems like an exception made for reasons @Marvinb summarised:
That's pretty sound logic, IMO, and besides maybe the black rhinoceros or some kind of monkey (the sillhouette sign is fairly generic but most closely resembles a howler monkey, I think) there aren't any "DLC-based" species that could fit the bill.
Assuming we get another free animal, I think the green peafowl is a strong contender. Community is clamouring for more birds, it's come up before as a general 'wish' and given the desperation nobody's being too picky, not to mention it would be ruffed lemur levels of quick and easy.
Part of me also thinks the red deer assets already existed to an extent, like perhaps it was halfway made already for the Europe Pack before they decided to go with the fallow, or for some other reason.
In that scenario, I would prefer the American flamingo since it has different continents. The green peafowl would be another asian peafowl.
Yeah but as has been said the dromedary is/has been in such high demand that it's a decent contender for a DLC slot. While it's not impossible that it could be an anniversary animal, it feels less likely when it's a reasonably "easy" animal to add while still making money.
That's also entirely possible, I just wanted to speculate within those given parameters. I, like you, also think there are a good chunk of animals that could be made from the base game animals (or even a very early dlc animal). If we expanded my speculation to include that, I would say the following are likely:
- Nile crocodile
- Sandhill (or some other species) crane
- North American or Eurasian river otter
- African (or another species) leopard
- Green peafowl
- Malaysian tiger
- Masai giraffe
- African spurred tortoise