Map of the entire roster by (approximate) animal distribution

[NZFanatic]

You know, what? You guys convinced me. I will update the map later. The question remaining is what should be done with the arctic wolf? Should it be removed entirely?

There's no need to remove it. Frontier clearly wanted both to be in the game.

 

[yoav_r]

The Arctic wolf is probably the exact reason that they made the timber wolf generic. We can't know for sure, but my theory is that the timber wolf was originally going to be a North American subspecies (hence why it looks like a vague mix of North American wolves), but they changed it to give it more versatility, probably because they knew they'd be adding the Arctic wolf and didn't want the only two wolves in the game to both come from North America. There's also a campaign where it's named as a Northwestern wolf, which I assume was recorded during development before they changed their minds on it (likewise another campaign calls the West African lion the 'Barbary lion').

This was also a point of contention that arose when the Arctic Pack was released. I've been asking for clarification on it ever since then, but unfortunately Frontier has never addressed it and probably never will.

The reason I push on this matter is because I don't want people thinking they can't use the wolf to represent the Eurasian subspecies if they want to. People are obviously free to make their own choices about the animals in the game, but I think everything should be as accurate as possible to what information we actually have rather than our own coneptions.

Here's what I went with. I added a section of notes for all animals with a wide range which the single icon doesn't cover substantially.

I don't want to add extra icons, because I think the one icon per species works best for epresentation, but for some animals it does not represent the full range, so hopefully the notes can cover that better.

 

[SanRazo618]

thanks for making This it’s very helpful for exhibit animals especially

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

This map just confirmed something that was bugging me alot about the exhibit animals, pun defenetly intended.
We got a great selection from the new world and an okay selection for australia, but especally africa and god forbid asia feel lacking.
I hope dearly that we will get some more, atleast a snake (king cobra your shot) and a lizard from asia, as by now its just pityfull

 

[jcp011c]

This map just confirmed something that was bugging me alot about the exhibit animals, pun defenetly intended.
We got a great selection from the new world and an okay selection for australia, but especally africa and god forbid asia feel lacking.
I hope dearly that we will get some more, atleast a snake (king cobra your shot) and a lizard from asia, as by now its just pityfull

Very true, I actually was not aware that there were that few exhibit animals for Africa and Asia.

As a funny aside I first read this as just animals in general, not exhibit animals only, and I wasn't sure if that was sarcasm or not. Turns out it was just my reading comprehension lol

 

[yoav_r]

This map just confirmed something that was bugging me alot about the exhibit animals, pun defenetly intended.
We got a great selection from the new world and an okay selection for australia, but especally africa and god forbid asia feel lacking.
I hope dearly that we will get some more, atleast a snake (king cobra your shot) and a lizard from asia, as by now its just pityfull

Yes! Also, as much as the leaf insect and scarab look amazing, the invertebrate exhibits are very impractical to keep in the current system. They breed and die way too fast compared to the reptiles and amphibians, which (at least for me) make them a bother to deal with.

So I too would like some longer living reptiles in Asia and Africa. I still hold hope for habitat King Cobra and Green Anaconda though, even if it's unlikely.

 

[DrBurrito]

You know, what? You guys convinced me. I will update the map later. The question remaining is what should be done with the arctic wolf? Should it be removed entirely?

The only problem with the Arctic wolf is the location of the icon. The icon is thousands of miles away from the nearest wild Arctic wolf.

Using this distribution map, I have marked their range in yellow and a possible approximate icon location in green:

 

[12344321]

Love it.

So europe has nothing. Oceania has basically nothing. And same for North America and South America...

It's only africa and asia that are well represented.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

And asia only has the south east parts well represented. The desserts and the north almost have no representation. One of the reasons i like the dhole is, that atleast their historic range reaches up to korea and siberia, so thats cool and not just tropical islands

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

I have an important question for the future.
If mr worldwide was included, where shall we put him? Cause like the name suggests, that red master of survival lives everywhere in the northern hemisphere and even australia

 

[DarthQuell]

I have an important question for the future.
If mr worldwide was included, where shall we put him? Cause like the name suggests, that red master of survival lives everywhere in the northern hemisphere and even australia

Probably Europe or NA. They were introduced to Australia, and I don't believe they're naturally found in the southern hemisphere. I know for sure not SA, because SA doesn't even have foxes, they have the similar-looking zorro (ironically, zorro is Spanish for fox)

 

[yoav_r]

פ

The only problem with the Arctic wolf is the location of the icon. The icon is thousands of miles away from the nearest wild Arctic wolf.

Using this distribution map, I have marked their range in yellow and a possible approximate icon location in green:

View attachment 248160

I found conflicting reports in wikipedia. I will later update the map with a few fixes.

 

[yoav_r]

Love it.

So europe has nothing. Oceania has basically nothing. And same for North America and South America...

It's only africa and asia that are well represented.

*sub-saharan africa and south east asia.

The sahara, middle east and northern asia are practically empty.

 

[DrBurrito]

*sub-saharan africa and south east asia.

The sahara, middle east and northern asia are practically empty.

Basically the Palearctic as a whole has poor representation. I hope for more animals from this realm in future DLC's.

 

[SalamAnders]

Nice thread, just a small comment - It is the grey seal we got in game.

Harbor Seal - Found in the northern Atlantic Ocean, including Canada, Greenland, Iceland, UK and Ireland

It really seems like they tried to compensate for continents lacking habitat animals by doing exhibit animals instead. Explains why South America got so many while Asia and Africa got so few.

 

[ZSHplays]

I compiled a map of animals by distribution. each animal is placed in roughly the center of it's distribution. Thought this could help people plan their zoos and examine the roster.


Habitat animals:

View attachment 247341

Spoiler: Notes for animals with a wide range

1. Timber Wolf - according to the zoopedia, he wolf represents the entirety of the gray wolf,so its full range includes North America, Europe, and Asia
2. Saltwater Crocodile - range includes India, Indonesia and Australia
3. Greater Flamingo - migratory, range includes most of Africa, southern Europe, and western and southern Asia
4. King Penguin - range includes islands in the Indian Ocean, southmost South America and some islands south of New Zealand
5. Southern Cassowary - found in both australia and Papua new guinea
6. Jaguar - found both in southern NA and most of SA
7. Harbor Seal - Found in the northern Atlantic Ocean, including Canada, Greenland, Iceland, UK and Ireland

Spoiler: Exhibit animals

View attachment 247342

Spoiler: Habitat animals (base game roster)

View attachment 247350

I love this!

 

[DarthQuell]

Nice thread, just a small comment - It is the grey seal we got in game.



It really seems like they tried to compensate for continents lacking habitat animals by doing exhibit animals instead. Explains why South America got so many while Asia and Africa got so few.

Are exhibit animals hard to make compared to habitat animals? What's preventing the devs from including more?

 

[yoav_r]

Are exhibit animals hard to make compared to habitat animals? What's preventing the devs from including more?

Not a game dev, but as a software developer I can assume doing new exhibit animals (not reskins) is harder than it looks.

Even if you only use the existing exhibits, you need new rigs and skins to do justice to most animals, which means more animations.

If you create a new exhibit (like they did with the terrapin and scarab) it means designing and texturing what is practically a new building.

So while it should be easier than habitat animals, it is not as easy as some people in the community think it is.

 

[DarthQuell]

Not a game dev, but as a software developer I can assume doing new exhibit animals (not reskins) is harder than it looks.

Even if you only use the existing exhibits, you need new rigs and skins to do justice to most animals, which means more animations.

If you create a new exhibit (like they did with the terrapin and scarab) it means designing and texturing what is practically a new building.

So while it should be easier than habitat animals, it is not as easy as some people in the community think it is.

Ok, good to know. Thanks. Maybe the devs can one day crank out a couple extra exhibit species per pack. Until then, we can only hope

 

[yoav_r]

Ok, good to know. Thanks. Maybe the devs can one day crank out a couple extra exhibit species per pack. Until then, we can only hope

I'd actually like them to keep making 1 at a time, but high quality. In the base game the anaconda reuses some boa animations which real anacondas never do (like cuddling themselves on a branch), and the Iguanas are reskins of each other, instead of having the green Anole, or green Basilisk which would fit much more as a south american exhibit lizard.

The dlc exhibits have a much better quality.