Let's play: Top 10 finalists

Alexjh

Alexjh
In a gambling sense.... kinda tricky cos Frontier really loves african antelopes, and some of them (looking at you Nile Lechwe and dama gazelle), came out of absoluely nowhere and are hard to predict because there is no reason anyone would expect them? Anyway, so I made some educated guesses then pumped in a few bonus ungulates XD

1. Coati sp.
2. Golden Lion Tamarin
3. Musk Ox
4. Tasmanian Devil
5. Kiwi
6. Spectacled Bear
7. Wolverine
8. Markhor
9. Tibetan Antelope
10. Guar
 

Aramar

Aramar
So the 10 animals that I think Frontier will make are:
  1. Tasmanian devil
  2. Wolverine
  3. Andean bear
  4. Blackbuck
  5. South American coati
  6. Markhor
  7. Howler/Squirrel/Spider monkey
  8. Walrus
  9. Pallas's cat
  10. Wild boar
 

biggest_dreamer

biggest_dreamer
A lot of you seem to have really lofty expectations, thinking we’d get multiple birds or primates within two or so packs.
  1. Tasmanian devil. I keep saying that at some point, the #1 species on the meta wishlist simply isn’t going to be able to make it in. Prior to a few weeks ago, I was terrified that that species was going to be the porcupine. Now I suspect it will be the secretary bird. All that to say, I never considered the possibility that Frontier could ignore these guys. They’re unique and cool, a household name (even though I contend most international folk couldn’t pick them out of a lineup of small carnivores), and moreover by allowing them to sit at #1 in the most visible fan wishlist for over a year now, Frontier has (intentionally or not) allowed them to develop a sense of expectation. They’re coming.
  2. Pallas’s cat. Honestly the only other habitat species I’m highly confident about, and it’s because of a combination of two factors: the sand cat opening the door for truly small cats, and my perceived likelihood of a mountain pack within the next 6 months. It’s the perfect storm.
  3. Markhor, and…
  4. Takin. Hedging my bets here, but with the surprise (and in my eyes, very welcome) simultaneous inclusion of the addax and dama gazelle, I don’t think they’re at all impossible to get at the same time anymore. They’re both popular and obvious inclusions for a mountain pack.
  5. Spectacled bear. Just another very obvious, fairly easy mountain pack inclusion in my eyes. That it’s from South America is a tremendous plus.
  6. North Island brown kiwi. No matter how I shake it, I can’t separate these guys from the devil. They would have appeared in an islands pack together, and now that my expectations have shifted to temperate/woodlands they’re still hand in hand. They’d be quite possibly our final bird, and our final pair of Oceania species.
  7. Ocelot, and…
  8. Coati. I don’t actually have an anticipated pack in mind for these two. I’m on board with temperate/woodlands and mountains/highlands for the rest of the year, particularly after tropical and “desert” slotted in exactly where we’d expected. Still, I think these two are among the most glaringly missing common zoo species at this point, and South America still feels so underrepresented, I can’t help but expect Frontier to finally do something unexpected and properly fill out the region.
  9. American black bear. I find it a bit odd that we haven’t gotten a bear in over two years despite having three perfectly serviceable candidates. I’m still not going to write off getting two back to back bears at this point - we’ve gotten back to back foxes before, we’ve seen Frontier re-kindle their love for antelopes in the latter half of DLC (5 across the past 6 packs vs 0 across the first 8), so I can see an outpouring for love for bears happening. I initially wrote this with a woodlands pack in mind, but I still think they’d also work as a solid anniversary species to parallel the old world’s red deer.
  10. Wolverine. Can’t say I’ve ever been enthused about this species, but it’s got a shot in both of my anticipated next two releases and it’s a reasonably popular, somewhat unique carnivoran so it’s got a pretty solid shot.
I also want to address my personal bias pick, the raccoon dog. I think it’s actually in a very favorable position at this point, far more so than I think most would give it credit for. I’m not confident enough to include it in my list, but consider: canids are popular, and Frontier has consistently pumped them out. It’s been two packs since we’ve gotten a canid, and I would be shocked if we went two more without one. All of the other most popular candidates would have found their homes in the Tropical Pack (bush dog) or Arid Animal Pack (jackal, bat-eared fox, coyote if the pack had slightly different branding). It’s not impossible that they’ll find other paths in, but… Temperate, woodlands, and still islands are among the most popular expectations for a fall pack. Frontier always seems eager to revisit Asian species, yet temperate east Asia is still somewhat underrepresented compared to tropical southeast Asia. Are the stars truly aligning for me here? I know I can’t be the most objective judge, but… maybe?
 

biggest_dreamer

biggest_dreamer
Oh, three other runner up species I meant to bring up, because I guess I didn’t realize just how long-winded I was feeling today:
  • Blackbuck. I just can’t ignore this one for whatever reason, and again, Frontier has been on an antelope kick lately, much to my delight. They’d probably be the overall best received new antelope now that the addax is in, and I think they’d be pretty much the ideal anniversary species.
  • Two-toed sloth species. Following the Conservation Pack, there was a thread where people predicged the single likeliest species to be added in the future. It was mostly filled with the obviously reasonable guesses of dromedary, emu, maned wolf, porcupine, Tasmanian devil, but I saw things differently: it had to be the lar gibbon. I went as far as saying that the lar gibbon would be in the next pack where the theming fit, and lo and behold three DLCs later we got the Tropical Pack with the lar gibbon as headliner. The logic was simple: it was still a highly requested species, the gibbon rig was high effort and ripe for reuse, and Frontier isn’t typically afraid of double dipping. That all felt a lot more concrete to me than “we need the dromedary, and it has signs” no matter how much we genuinely did need the dromedary or how many dozens of signs it had. Now I feel the same way about the sloth. The two-toed species are still popular (arguably more popular than three-toed, at least on this forum, again paralleling the siamang/lar), and the rig and enclosure were high effort. Obviously some tweaks would have to be made given their different morphologies, but I think overall the two-toed sloths hit the sweet spot of desirable, doable, and marketable for walkthroughs without requiring a ton of additional effort or stretching the boundaries of what walkthroughs can hold. The only reason I’m not feeling as bold as I was with the gibbon where I proclaimed it will happen is that I’m just not convinced we’re getting a suitable pack for them before support ends at this point.
  • Black howler. If it’s true that the monkey sign in the base game is meant to represent this species (I don’t know, I haven’t looked at it in a while, and this suggestion hinges entirely on this sign’s identity) then I think it’s fairly likely at this point. While I firmly believe there was little coordination or intention regarding which species got signs compared to what actually appeared in game, I do think that at some point Frontier decided to make a concentrated effort to actually go back and include them all. I see this as the biggest contributing factor to the red crowned crane and red deer’s inclusions, and at least a small one for the black rhino.If that isn’t supposed to be the black howler and is instead a capuchin then this is all moot, but I did consider it worth bringing up here.
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
biggest_dreamer said:
If it’s true that the monkey sign in the base game is meant to represent this species (I don’t know, I haven’t looked at it in a while, and this suggestion hinges entirely on this sign’s identity) then I think it’s fairly likely at this point.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if it's supposed to represent a howler, but in terms of shape it's the closest resemblance at least.
 

NachoB

NachoB
biggest_dreamer said:
Oh, three other runner up species I meant to bring up, because I guess I didn’t realize just how long-winded I was feeling today:
  • Blackbuck. I just can’t ignore this one for whatever reason, and again, Frontier has been on an antelope kick lately, much to my delight. They’d probably be the overall best received new antelope now that the addax is in, and I think they’d be pretty much the ideal anniversary species.
  • Two-toed sloth species. Following the Conservation Pack, there was a thread where people predicged the single likeliest species to be added in the future. It was mostly filled with the obviously reasonable guesses of dromedary, emu, maned wolf, porcupine, Tasmanian devil, but I saw things differently: it had to be the lar gibbon. I went as far as saying that the lar gibbon would be in the next pack where the theming fit, and lo and behold three DLCs later we got the Tropical Pack with the lar gibbon as headliner. The logic was simple: it was still a highly requested species, the gibbon rig was high effort and ripe for reuse, and Frontier isn’t typically afraid of double dipping. That all felt a lot more concrete to me than “we need the dromedary, and it has signs” no matter how much we genuinely did need the dromedary or how many dozens of signs it had. Now I feel the same way about the sloth. The two-toed species are still popular (arguably more popular than three-toed, at least on this forum, again paralleling the siamang/lar), and the rig and enclosure were high effort. Obviously some tweaks would have to be made given their different morphologies, but I think overall the two-toed sloths hit the sweet spot of desirable, doable, and marketable for walkthroughs without requiring a ton of additional effort or stretching the boundaries of what walkthroughs can hold. The only reason I’m not feeling as bold as I was with the gibbon where I proclaimed it will happen is that I’m just not convinced we’re getting a suitable pack for them before support ends at this point.
  • Black howler. If it’s true that the monkey sign in the base game is meant to represent this species (I don’t know, I haven’t looked at it in a while, and this suggestion hinges entirely on this sign’s identity) then I think it’s fairly likely at this point. While I firmly believe there was little coordination or intention regarding which species got signs compared to what actually appeared in game, I do think that at some point Frontier decided to make a concentrated effort to actually go back and include them all. I see this as the biggest contributing factor to the red crowned crane and red deer’s inclusions, and at least a small one for the black rhino.If that isn’t supposed to be the black howler and is instead a capuchin then this is all moot, but I did consider it worth bringing up here.
Click to expand...
I do wish you are right about the blackbuck and the howler
 

The_Riot22

The_Riot22
The only DLC that I have any high degree of certainty on the horizon is a Highlands/Mountains pack, so my Top 10 Most Likely list goes heavy on that:
1. Wolverine
2. Tasmanian Devil
3. Markhor
4. Yak
5. Roosevelt Elk
6. Spectacled Bear
7. Hamadryas Baboon
8. Secretary Bird
9. New World Monkey - I'm gonna choose the Golden Lion Tamarin
10. Nile Crocodile
 

arafan

A
1. Tasmanian devil: I still think it will come, even though it's taking its time.
2. Manul: honestly, nothing I was really hoping for, but as said by others, the fact we got a new small cat rig and it being quite popular, give me the feeling we'll get it.
3. Spectacled bear: also a species that is taking its time, would have expected it a bit earlier, but also very low on my wishlist
4. Takin/markhor: I can definitley see one of the two coming, but I'm not sure if we will see both
5. Wolverine: it may would need a new rig, which could be the main problem, but still, I can see it coming
6. Gelada: my biggest wish for this list. The fact we didn't get a baboon in either the Arid or Grasslands pack could mean that they saved the Gelada for a Mountains pack, or that we simply won't have any "baboon" at all, I'm hoping for the former.
7. Tanuki: another quite popular species, which probably wouldn't need too much effort to be done

Honestly, I can't really think about other species. Pelicans and other waterfowl are unlikely due to the rig, galliformes could reuse the peafowl rig, but they could have done that already, new world monkeys (specially a spider monkey, as this would need a new rig) seem unlikely too, the same goes for tree kangaroo.
I would definitley bet on more antelopes, but can't really think of any packs to include them...
 

YesIndeed

YesIndeed
Here's mine. A lot of these will be pretty similar.

1. Tasmanian devil
2. North Island Brown Kiwi
3. Short beaked echidna
4. Markor
5. Great White pelican
6. Wolverine
7. Black howler monkey
8. Patagonian mara
9. South american coati
10. Nile crocodile
 

Humble Bumble

Humble Bumble
Most likely.....

1. Markhor
2. Walrus
3. Musk Ox
4. Wolverine
?

5. Grey Crowned Crane

6. Ring tailed Coati
7. Bush Dog
8. Spectacled Bear
9. Patagonian Mara
10. Collared Peccary
?
?
?

So a Winterland Scenery Pack with Himalayan Architecture, a freebie crane and the start of a Latin America centric animal pack with no confirmed primates.
 
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