Rn there is quite the shake up in the format of the dlcs.
We had so far 2 scenery biome packs (arctic and aquatic), 4 scenery regional packs (south america, australia, africa, europe), 2 animal regional packs (south east asia and northamerica) and 1 animal biome pack (wetlands).
Many people suggested different things, only more animal packs, only biome pack, still more regional packs, if your here on the forums you know what i mean.
But now i would like to suggest how i would handle things forward.
First of all, we will still have both animal packs and scenery packs alternaty.
In addition to that i would also suggest an alternation of regional, biome and mechanics packs.
Preferably this would mean that going forward each year they would introduce a new mechanic (examples would be petting zoos, fully aquatic animals, aviaries, a climbing based pack).
But in general i would put down some loose rules for packs:
First biome packs. I want them to only be animal packs, featuring no more then 3 animals from the same continent to make sure for max use of the concept.
For example if we get a temperate pack, i would prefer a set up like 3 eurasian, 2 australian and then 1 more asian and 2 americas exclusives over something thats basicly a europe + like 2 other animals pack. Dont get me wrong, i like europe, europe needs more animals, but while a pack like wild boar, red fox, red deer, wolverine, western capercaillie, racoon and tasmanian devil wouldnt be bad, both the racoon and especally the devil feel out of place.
A pack like wild boar, red fox, red deer, racoon, tasmanian devil, benetts wallaby and amur leopard has far more diversity, just by limiting the number of eurasian animals.
Another reason for that besides simply diversity is, that i would prefer if the biome packs would be mostly to flesh out regions we allready visited before then trying to settle new spaces that are empty with most of their animals.
The wetlands pack did a pretty great job of that, with each animal having atleast one other animal for obvious thematic areas.
The reason for that is simple, eventhough quite subjective. I believe that the game rn where every continent is atleast somewhat represented would benefit more by filling niches in allready established regions instead of just establishing more regions.
For a little example.
Rn building a himalayan area is possible, but quite predictable. Weve got its 2 apex predators (HBB and snowleopard), one smaller arboreal herbivore (red panda) and one animal that visits them sometimes (asiatic black bear).
Each of these animals would automaticly be elevated in usability, if 1 or 2 more himalayan animals would be added to allow for better and more diverse himalayan areas in our zoos.
Their are 2 good ways to do this:
1. We get a himalayan scenery pack, which while dope would take one dlc slot away to just focus on the himalaya, which makes that region much better while only leaving little impacts on other areas in your zoos.
2. We could get just 2 animals as part of a biome pack, which would allready help this region a ton but also many more!
To make this more visual, a nice himalayan pack could be something like the domestic yak, pallas cat, himalayan monal and a takin.
This would boost himalayan and central/mountainous asia areas by a ton, while also adding a small cat, bird and domestic animal.
Pretty nice.
But if we just pick out the two most impactful additions, in my opinion this would be the pallas cat and domestic yak, and add them to a well ballanced pack with lets say gelada (baboon), spectacle bear (not amazon sa animal), chinchilla (not amazon sa animal, rodent, domestic), yellow footed rock wallaby (desert, marsupial, wallaby) and a chamois (alpine, nice addition to the alpine ibex) and we got a much more liberal pack with a way bigger ripple effect on the game as a whoule, with for example finally a baboon, another marsupial, 2 domestics, non amazonian south american animals and an animal for every continent besides NA, which could get the exhibit animal.
Would we still miss some cool himalayan animals? Yeah ofcourse, for example i would adore the himalayan thar and the takin is one of the most requested ungulates on the meta wish list, but this biome pack is just way healthier for the game overall, patching up many things instead of just one big hole with a few extra mini holes.
But what about the big holes we have like the middle east or central america?
Fear not fellow planet zoo forum user, thats where the scenery packs come in.
For the few regions that are completly under represented i would suggest that we go back to the scenery pack approach to make a big 4 animal tape over that hole.
Luckily, the regions that i would describe as "strongly underdeveloped and in dire need for their own pack" are all multicontinental regions, namly central america, the middle east, islands (which would be arguably the only biome pack that should be a scenery pack imo) and east asia, which while not multi continential is a very diverse place biome and just size wise.
These 4 packs also work in favor for better biome packs, as rn these have some of the most obvious choices.
For example, a desert pack would be much freeer in its choices if we would also get a middle east pack, containing for example the dromedary, hamadryas baboon, sand cat and a porcupine.
Thats a pack that i would bet would sell quite well and have a big ripple effect, introducing 3 of the most requested animals.
This would leave atleast 2 guranteed spots for a desert animal pack open, which could boot the dromedary and very likly baboon or porcupine for something else.
Maybe a perentie and a wombat could join a pack with the emu, saiga, collared peccary, addax and a striped hyena.
Other previously unlikly but cool options could be a big horn sheep, greater road runner, humbolt penguin, african fur seal or a ring tail.
But what do you think?
What places do you believe still deserve regional packs?
What places do you not believe deserve a regional?
How would you handle these pack in the future and/or does any of my ramblings even make sense?
We had so far 2 scenery biome packs (arctic and aquatic), 4 scenery regional packs (south america, australia, africa, europe), 2 animal regional packs (south east asia and northamerica) and 1 animal biome pack (wetlands).
Many people suggested different things, only more animal packs, only biome pack, still more regional packs, if your here on the forums you know what i mean.
But now i would like to suggest how i would handle things forward.
First of all, we will still have both animal packs and scenery packs alternaty.
In addition to that i would also suggest an alternation of regional, biome and mechanics packs.
Preferably this would mean that going forward each year they would introduce a new mechanic (examples would be petting zoos, fully aquatic animals, aviaries, a climbing based pack).
But in general i would put down some loose rules for packs:
First biome packs. I want them to only be animal packs, featuring no more then 3 animals from the same continent to make sure for max use of the concept.
For example if we get a temperate pack, i would prefer a set up like 3 eurasian, 2 australian and then 1 more asian and 2 americas exclusives over something thats basicly a europe + like 2 other animals pack. Dont get me wrong, i like europe, europe needs more animals, but while a pack like wild boar, red fox, red deer, wolverine, western capercaillie, racoon and tasmanian devil wouldnt be bad, both the racoon and especally the devil feel out of place.
A pack like wild boar, red fox, red deer, racoon, tasmanian devil, benetts wallaby and amur leopard has far more diversity, just by limiting the number of eurasian animals.
Another reason for that besides simply diversity is, that i would prefer if the biome packs would be mostly to flesh out regions we allready visited before then trying to settle new spaces that are empty with most of their animals.
The wetlands pack did a pretty great job of that, with each animal having atleast one other animal for obvious thematic areas.
The reason for that is simple, eventhough quite subjective. I believe that the game rn where every continent is atleast somewhat represented would benefit more by filling niches in allready established regions instead of just establishing more regions.
For a little example.
Rn building a himalayan area is possible, but quite predictable. Weve got its 2 apex predators (HBB and snowleopard), one smaller arboreal herbivore (red panda) and one animal that visits them sometimes (asiatic black bear).
Each of these animals would automaticly be elevated in usability, if 1 or 2 more himalayan animals would be added to allow for better and more diverse himalayan areas in our zoos.
Their are 2 good ways to do this:
1. We get a himalayan scenery pack, which while dope would take one dlc slot away to just focus on the himalaya, which makes that region much better while only leaving little impacts on other areas in your zoos.
2. We could get just 2 animals as part of a biome pack, which would allready help this region a ton but also many more!
To make this more visual, a nice himalayan pack could be something like the domestic yak, pallas cat, himalayan monal and a takin.
This would boost himalayan and central/mountainous asia areas by a ton, while also adding a small cat, bird and domestic animal.
Pretty nice.
But if we just pick out the two most impactful additions, in my opinion this would be the pallas cat and domestic yak, and add them to a well ballanced pack with lets say gelada (baboon), spectacle bear (not amazon sa animal), chinchilla (not amazon sa animal, rodent, domestic), yellow footed rock wallaby (desert, marsupial, wallaby) and a chamois (alpine, nice addition to the alpine ibex) and we got a much more liberal pack with a way bigger ripple effect on the game as a whoule, with for example finally a baboon, another marsupial, 2 domestics, non amazonian south american animals and an animal for every continent besides NA, which could get the exhibit animal.
Would we still miss some cool himalayan animals? Yeah ofcourse, for example i would adore the himalayan thar and the takin is one of the most requested ungulates on the meta wish list, but this biome pack is just way healthier for the game overall, patching up many things instead of just one big hole with a few extra mini holes.
But what about the big holes we have like the middle east or central america?
Fear not fellow planet zoo forum user, thats where the scenery packs come in.
For the few regions that are completly under represented i would suggest that we go back to the scenery pack approach to make a big 4 animal tape over that hole.
Luckily, the regions that i would describe as "strongly underdeveloped and in dire need for their own pack" are all multicontinental regions, namly central america, the middle east, islands (which would be arguably the only biome pack that should be a scenery pack imo) and east asia, which while not multi continential is a very diverse place biome and just size wise.
These 4 packs also work in favor for better biome packs, as rn these have some of the most obvious choices.
For example, a desert pack would be much freeer in its choices if we would also get a middle east pack, containing for example the dromedary, hamadryas baboon, sand cat and a porcupine.
Thats a pack that i would bet would sell quite well and have a big ripple effect, introducing 3 of the most requested animals.
This would leave atleast 2 guranteed spots for a desert animal pack open, which could boot the dromedary and very likly baboon or porcupine for something else.
Maybe a perentie and a wombat could join a pack with the emu, saiga, collared peccary, addax and a striped hyena.
Other previously unlikly but cool options could be a big horn sheep, greater road runner, humbolt penguin, african fur seal or a ring tail.
But what do you think?
What places do you believe still deserve regional packs?
What places do you not believe deserve a regional?
How would you handle these pack in the future and/or does any of my ramblings even make sense?
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). A manatee would be cool as well or a sea turtle, although i think the manatee is less likely due to being fully aquatic. Anyway now i want this as a real pack lol
, plus a colorful snake. Mexican theme (extravagant Spanish colonial, and traditional) + Caribbean theme.
With such a Caribbean theme for an Islands Pack, you can even include Bahamian elements, as the Bahamas is considered to be part of the Caribbean, despite not being on the Caribbean Sea.