How should I sort the dinosaurs?

[JoaquinZaba]

I want to make a "great park" across the main islands (Matanceros, Muerta, Tacaño, Pena, Sorna, Muerta East and Tacaño Research Facility), with ALL the species (59)...and I can't think of any criteria to choose where each one should go.
Do you have any suggestions?

 

[Pixelated Sparkster]

That’s interesting. It is rather hard to decide as the parks very in size.

I was initially going to suggest putting in parks based on the star rating to unlock dinosaurs. So base dinosaurs are in muerta, and end game dinosaurs are in sorna. But that would feel meh on further inspection.

How about categorizing them. We now have 59 dinosaurs to play with in our parks if you got all the dlc. 59 / 5 = 11.8 species (a dinosaur is gonna have to lose a leg XD).

So we could say you could use 12 dinosaurs species in each island and 11 in pena. Not to be exact but that should give you a lot of growth and identity between the parks.

Then I would suggest going for one of each niche in a park. So each park must have at least:

1 Small carnivores
1 Medium carnivore
1 Large carnivores (we have 5 giants now XD)
1 Ceratopsid
1 Ankylosaur\nodosaur
1 Hadrosaur niche
1 Small herbivore
1 Stegosaur
1 Hybrid

And you could have one based on your choice. I think I would go for earliest to best. So a tyrannosaurus rex in matenceros, an accrocanthosaurus in muerta, a carcharadontosaurus in tacarno, a giganotosaurus in pena, and a spinosaurus in sorna.

 

[spruce56]

I like to have a lot of dinosaurs in each paddock, so I sorted the list of dinosaurs by the max population they would tolerate, and put them together that way. You can get a list here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/dinosaur-comfort-requirements.433256/page-2#post-7745470

I also like visible variety in a paddock, so different shape/size dinosaurs.

If you're being efficient for space, consider:

1. Keep dinosaurs that tolerate similar populations together
2. Keep dinosaurs that tolerate similar space together (so, you only need one very small paddock to keep an Ankylosaurus, Sauropelta, Nodosaurus, and Polacanthus together)
3. Dinosaur welfare - you can combine large carnivores and small carnivores, and small carnivores and armoured or giant herbivores, but they will panic each other. Get around this by having multiple food and water sources far apart, so that they can eat and drink in peace

 

[JoaquinZaba]

I was initially going to suggest putting in parks based on the star rating to unlock dinosaurs. So base dinosaurs are in muerta, and end game dinosaurs are in sorna. But that would feel meh on further inspection.

I thought almost exactly the same thing, each dinosaur in the island it's unlocked...but someone in this forum already did that, and only 2 species in Muerta east would be kinda boring

How about categorizing them. We now have 59 dinosaurs to play with in our parks if you got all the dlc. 59 / 5 = 11.8 species (a dinosaur is gonna have to lose a leg XD).

So we could say you could use 12 dinosaurs species in each island and 11 in pena. Not to be exact but that should give you a lot of growth and identity between the parks.

Then I would suggest going for one of each niche in a park. So each park must have at least:

1 Small carnivores
1 Medium carnivore
1 Large carnivores (we have 5 giants now XD)
1 Ceratopsid
1 Ankylosaur\nodosaur
1 Hadrosaur niche
1 Small herbivore
1 Stegosaur
1 Hybrid

Mhm...this is interesting.
If you look at the game there are 6 categories: Large and Small carnivores, and Small, Medium, Armored and Giant herbivores.
Looking at your list, I can make up 10 categories:

• 5 Large carnivores (the game lists it as such, hunts Iguanodon, Indominus rex and Indoraptor not included)
• 7 Medium carnivores (the game lists it as "large carnivore", it fights Iguanodon, Spinoraptor not included)
• 6 Sauropods ("Giant herbivores" except for Ankylodocus)
• 6 Ceratopsids (Chasmosaurus, Pentaceratops, Torosaurus, Triceratops, Sinoceratops and Styracosaurus)
• 5 Stegosaurians (Chungkingosaurus, Gigantspinosaurus, Huayangosaurus, Kentrosaurus and Stegosaurus)
• 5 Ankylosaurians/Nodosaurians (Ankylosaurus, Nodosaurus, Polacanthus, Sauropelta and Crichtonsaurus)
• 6 Small herbivores (the game lists it as such)
• 8 Medium herbivores (the game lists it as such)
• 6 Small carnivores (the game lists it as such)
• 5 Hybrids (Indominus rex, Indoraptor, Ankylodocus, Spinoraptor and Stegoceratops)

 

[Pixelated Sparkster]

• 5 Large carnivores (the game lists it as such, hunts Iguanodon, Indominus rex and Indoraptor not included)
• 7 Medium carnivores (the game lists it as "large carnivore", it fights Iguanodon, Spinoraptor not included)
• 6 Sauropods ("Giant herbivores" except for Ankylodocus)
• 6 Ceratopsids (Chasmosaurus, Pentaceratops, Torosaurus, Triceratops, Sinoceratops and Styracosaurus)
• 5 Stegosaurians (Chungkingosaurus, Gigantspinosaurus, Huayangosaurus, Kentrosaurus and Stegosaurus)
• 5 Ankylosaurians/Nodosaurians (Ankylosaurus, Nodosaurus, Polacanthus, Sauropelta and Crichtonsaurus)
• 6 Small herbivores (the game lists it as such)
• 8 Medium herbivores (the game lists it as such)
• 6 Small carnivores (the game lists it as such)
• 5 Hybrids (Indominus rex, Indoraptor, Ankylodocus, Spinoraptor and Stegoceratops)

I really think this would work out perfectly. There is no category with less than 5 dinosaurs, so each island will feel unique! About 10 dinosaur categories per island, with some allowing for multiple species. I hope you have fun with this direction