I can't believe they aren't preparing a "Community Pack" because...

[Antonin]

I mean, remember :

Tropical Pack - They put a random (sorry but it's true) monitor very low in the wishlist (something like in the 250th place) instead of the very high Coati (now in the top 3), that would fit perfectly with the theme of the pack!!
Arid Animal Pack - They "forget" to put the (again) very high in the wishlist Secretary Bird (now top 1 !!!), perfect for this pack and put instead in some ungulates (like the Dama Gazelle, cool but very low)...
Oceania Pack - Personally I love the Quokka, but same : it wasn't high in the wishlist (not at all) and so we don't have the number 5 of the wishlist, the Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo, that, again, would have been perfectly in the theme of the pack.

It can't be a coincidence : they keep all these wonderful creatures that everyone want for a special (final ?) pack. I mean, it would be so dumb to don't sell them!
What are your thoughts about that ?

 

[Colehunter35]

i think they are probably saving them for seperate future DLC's so there are still high requested animals to earn profit from the DLCS (ill gladly buy every pack without hesitation)

 

[Captain Callum]

I don't think it's for a special final pack, the pattern of including highly requested animals along with lesser known/voted animals allows for each dlc to be unique, unpredictable and fresh. Adding all these popular animals in one such pack then leaves hundreds of animals like dama gazelle and otherwise "boring" animals to somehow appeal to the average planet zoo player.

 

[becks474]

I do Not See any clues to a Community Pack from this (which nevertheless could Happen at a very Last Pack in a hopeful Long away Future). Frontier nearly always makes a mix of mostly 2 unique and/or popular, an unexpected "oddball" species and 1 (in case of Scenery Pack) "clone" species. This saves other high wishlisted animals for further integration. It Just makes sense not put all possible Fan favourites together into one Pack.

 

[Antonin]

I pretty agree with you girls and guys, but in other hand, they can't do forever specific theme that would allows all these very wanted animals to be in.

For example, Coati would have fit both on South America Pack AND Tropical Pack, Secretary Bird in Africa Pack AND Arid Pack, Frontier can't make forever loops of variation around the same "themes", just to have "non yet used star animals" to sell their pack.

Even if we want to be optimistic, we don't still have 10 DLC to come. And even if they have imagination, they can't find a lot of other variations of the same "theme" (Tropical / South America for example) to put these animals inside.
It also would have non-sense about the branding used to sell their packs (South America / Tropical / Canopy ? Come on, it's too specific, bad branding).

That's the reasons why it's not absurd to think about a "Community Pack" (whatever the name) IMO.

P.S. : sorry for my english, I'm french (oui oui, la baguette)

 

[peafowl]

one thing that the animals we got have in common is that they had similar rigs and animations as animals in the game already. rigs and animations are a lot of work. coatis and tree roos are a whole different beast and, well, you know how birds go.

 

[The_Riot22]

That's the reasons why it's not absurd to think about a "Community Pack" (whatever the name) IMO.

I agree, and I think it's likely we do eventually get a pack of this type of theme. However, a pack like this is essentially is a pack of highly requested animals to fill in the blanks and complete the animal roster with the remaining important and highly requested animals. I don't see the point in adding it right now, with the possibility of some future DLCs.

We will probably get a DLC along these lines, but it is best suited as one of, if not the, final DLC of the game.

 

[CharlieXGaming]

I mean, remember :

Tropical Pack - They put a random (sorry but it's true) monitor very low in the wishlist (something like in the 250th place) instead of the very high Coati (now in the top 3), that would fit perfectly with the theme of the pack!!
Arid Animal Pack - They "forget" to put the (again) very high in the wishlist Secretary Bird (now top 1 !!!), perfect for this pack and put instead in some ungulates (like the Dama Gazelle, cool but very low)...
Oceania Pack - Personally I love the Quokka, but same : it wasn't high in the wishlist (not at all) and so we don't have the number 5 of the wishlist, the Goodfellow’s Tree Kangaroo, that, again, would have been perfectly in the theme of the pack.

It can't be a coincidence : they keep all these wonderful creatures that everyone want for a special (final ?) pack. I mean, it would be so dumb to don't sell them!
What are your thoughts about that ?

We still have max 5 more packs to go, and with Oceania getting a pack now I wouldn’t be surprised if they saved the Coati for a Latin America Pack in the spring, Secretary Bird in the summer for some sort of scrublands or Savanna pack, and tree kangaroo was probably too hard to create with their time frame. They probably saved it to be the star of an Arboreal Pack.

 

[Fabian]

I see it this way: as long as there are still popular animals people are asking for, it's likely (not a given, but likely) that Frontier will continue developing new DLC packs.

The highly requested Tasmanian Devil could have come back in the Australia pack instead of the dingo, for example, and the kiwi could have come in the Twilight pack instead of the skunk. Then the two top-tier highly requested animals of the Oceania pack would have been in the game already, and its alternatives (the dingo and the skunk) would not have made even the Top 50 of the meta-wishlist at this point. The Oceania Pack we got just now would not really have had many feasible candidates left then, and not many high-ranking animals to sell the pack. The Oceania Pack is probably so strong because of the whole package, so it could have been good even without the devil or the kiwi, but those two animals definitely helped sell it because of their popularity.

If we extend this argument: the coati could have come in the tropical pack instead of the more polarizing water monitor, the secretary bird could have come in grasslands instead of the hyena or the wildebeest, and that would have eliminated those top-tier animals from everyone's wishlists over other animals that are less requested. The Meta-Wishlist would be slightly shifted in favor of less requested animals, because we already got more of those species people really want in the game.

Even though IMO all the packs are so great because of the way they combine "star animals" with more obscure or less popular choices, Frontier still needs recognizable and popular animals to help sell these packs. If they run out of highly requested animals too soon, it will become more and more difficult to market new packs if the public doesn't care about at least one animal in it.

I mean, yes, they might do a "final community pack" in the end. Or they might just have left these animals out of previous packs because of their plan to develop another unique pack around them as the headliner, recognizing their value as potential "pack sellers". We don't know for sure, but I like to be so delusional to think that my theory is correct.

 

[CThree16]

I see it this way: as long as there are still popular animals people are asking for, it's likely (not a given, but likely) that Frontier will continue developing new DLC packs.

The highly requested Tasmanian Devil could have come back in the Australia pack instead of the dingo, for example, and the kiwi could have come in the Twilight pack instead of the skunk. Then the two top-tier highly requested animals of the Oceania pack would have been in the game already, and its alternatives (the dingo and the skunk) would not have made even the Top 50 of the meta-wishlist at this point. The Oceania Pack we got just now would not really have had many feasible candidates left then, and not many high-ranking animals to sell the pack. The Oceania Pack is probably so strong because of the whole package, so it could have been good even without the devil or the kiwi, but those two animals definitely helped sell it because of their popularity.

If we extend this argument: the coati could have come in the tropical pack instead of the more polarizing water monitor, the secretary bird could have come in grasslands instead of the hyena or the wildebeest, and that would have eliminated those top-tier animals from everyone's wishlists over other animals that are less requested. The Meta-Wishlist would be slightly shifted in favor of less requested animals, because we already got more of those species people really want in the game.

Even though IMO all the packs are so great because of the way they combine "star animals" with more obscure or less popular choices, Frontier still needs recognizable and popular animals to help sell these packs. If they run out of highly requested animals too soon, it will become more and more difficult to market new packs if the public doesn't care about at least one animal in it.

I mean, yes, they might do a "final community pack" in the end. Or they might just have left these animals out of previous packs because of their plan to develop another unique pack around them as the headliner, recognizing their value as potential "pack sellers". We don't know for sure, but I like to be so delusional to think that my theory is correct.

Fair point! Perhaps, then, we should actively celebrate the wackier animals we do receive in the packs. Every animal contributes something, and every wacky quokka that "steals a slot" might be prolonging the game's lifespan for another three months.

 

[Fabian]

Fair point! Perhaps, then, we should actively celebrate the wackier animals we do receive in the packs. Every animal contributes something, and every wacky quokka that "steals a slot" might be prolonging the game's lifespan for another three months.

Plus, it's definitely a positive to see Frontier highlighting less well-known animals that a lot of people wouldn't have learned about if it wasn't for Planet Zoo! How boring would it be if we only got the big-ticket animals in the game everyone knows about anyways?

 

[jcp011c]

On one hand it's one thing to assume or hope that they're holding back certain animals for use in other themes. On the other hand there's also a good chance that some of these are animals are ones Frontier just isn't planning to put in. We won't know until we know (when content stop coming).

Taking out the Kiwi and Tasmanian Devil as well as the Fossa, I personally feel like the chances of an Islands pack are very low now, which lessens the chances of things like the Tree Kangaroo and Raccoon Dog, IMO. That's just one example - the thoughts about more dryer climate African animals falls into the same category.

But...on the (third?) hand - I do have hope for some kind of finale/wrap up pack at the end of the game. Even if it wouldn't get called as such. There could be a strong roster of specific species wanted or needed as far as being absent/poorly represented in the game. I can't imagine every animal in a pack like this would be a difficult to do animal, but as with all packs I could see one or two of them being. This is actually where I have my own real theory of how a Tree Kangaroo will make it in at this point.

So it's perfectly fine to hope or assume that they're holding back animals for more DLC, and there's nothing wrong with that, But we can't imagine that for every single animal that's wanted, be it as a community want or individual want. Some animals just aren't going to make it in, and the longer the game goes on and adds animals that have less popularity, the more likely what's not in the game isn't coming at all. If that last makes sense. It goes back to the whole idea of the Tasmanian Devil not being a community priority 2 years ago to leading the list for over a year. The Wolverine and Secretary Bird are now our community priorities, but just because they're on top doesn't mean they have the same overall popularity.

 

[NZFanatic]

It can't be a coincidence

It's not, but not for the reasons you're imagining. The three species you listed are all unlike anything else in the game. Frontier doesn't include too many 'unique' rigs in each DLC. Tropical got the fossa, Arid got the porcupine (and to a lesser extent the sand cat, which has a bunch of new exclusive animations), and Oceania got the devil.

Despite being part of the same family of animals, coatis move and behave differently to raccoons, so it would still require considerable work that was already undertaken to put in the fossa, and probably the lar gibbon (yes, the siamang was already there to build off of, but it's still a complicated animal). I shouldn't need to explain why secretarybirds and tree kangaroos can't just be thrown together.

This has been the modus operandi since the start. They throw us a bone with something neat and unique and fill the rest with animals that don't take half as long to make. It's got nothing to do with a "Community Pack" (such a thing might happen, but it will be independent of these species being excluded from earlier packs).

 

[Antonin]

I totally understand your point NZFanatic!
But now, with all the recent speculations, I'm more and more thinking that my theory is very very plausible. And considering your comment!
Because like Deladysigner explained it in her last video, the last DLC would be a bigger, so with more animals (and so maybe more "unique" animals)!

 

[RightWhale]

At this point I think it’s possible, my hope is we bring the roster of 11 birds to hopefully around 15. Considering the amount of popular bird species, meta wishlist and just the amount of times people bring them up, I think it’s possible if we get a big animal pack.