Oceania Pack - What do we think of it now?

[CharlieXGaming]

With the next pack on the horizon, I feel like we should wrap things up with the Oceania Pack. I did this for the Arid Pack, but I’m assuming this one will have a bit more positive feedback than that one.

Compare your feelings about the pack to when it was first released. Have your feelings changed at all?

 

[NachoB]

I still think is a great pack. Kiwi is super cute and unique and fun and the building pieces are great and very useful. Si no, My feelings haven't changed. I still think we could have used another animal rather than a third penguin or the quokka, but i'm still happy with the current roster.

 

[Angeł]

Controversial opinion but it was one of my least favourite packs to date. Personally.

Whilst I can recognise that it fulfilled many wishes in the community, for me this pack did not much at all. The scenery is nice and useful. All of the animals are of amazing quality, but unfortunately I don’t get much use out of them. The only ones I’ve ever even built for are the Penguin and Flying Fox, and I don’t see that changing in the near future. The roster could have been SIGNIFICANTLY improved by replacing the Quokka with a Tree Kangaroo, preferably Goodfellow’s.

I was also disappointed because this seemed like the last opportunity for them to implement a Rainbow Lorikeet. Unless they’re saving for an Aviary pack, I really can’t see this particular Lorikeet fitting in to any other future pack theme. Which left me dissatisfied for sure.

I think that whilst this is probably many people’s favourite pack, it really didn’t scratch much of an itch for me. I’m happy that players from Oceania got a nice chunk of representation, and now we can move on to filling the other two underrepresented areas, South America and Europe.

 

[Captain Callum]

Unlike the arid pack, my opinions for oceania remain unchanged. Scenery packs are easier to take in with the more focused animal roster and scenery sets to use. So the oceania pack is still a top tier scenery set for me, the animal roster could of been better as I was never a huge fan of the kiwi or quokka. But the animal quality is great and everyone who wanted the iconic animals of oceania that Australia missed got them. I needed the tasmanian devil and got it just in time for my zoo build for them, I'm happy enough with that. The scenery is great for beach themes although I doubt a recreation project will utilise that to the fullest, the plank wood pieces and volcanic rocks will come in handy.

What it didn't do for me though is I didn't need an oceania dedicated pack, and certainly now I do not to see another. The tree kangaroo can come in some tropical forest pack in the future but realistically for north american zoo projects, oceania is done, there is no more desire to see extremely niche animals just for the sake of rounding out oceania when there are countless areas that need the same attention.

I will note that the animal roster alone forgetting the scenery, the roster is easily among the bottom tier for usability. It lacked the iconic wow factor Australia brought to zoo collections and grasslands was still relevant enough which included the common in captivity emu and wallaby. Kiwi, tasmanian devil and quokka are rather rare to see in the average zoo collection so usability is very low. I will not see any of these animals in my projects for several years to come.

 

[Marvinb]

My opinion stayed pretty similar.
Animals:
Tassie and Kiwi are still amazing. The other two i was originally rather meh about, but the quokka grew on me, a small "boring" filler animal was really missing. The penguin im still meh about tho, but thats okay every pack has those animals.
Still really sad about the flying fox, really pointless inclusion to me if im honest, even with birds aside id much prefered something like the tuatara or frilled dragon.

Scenery:
Still really happy about it. The wall set is kinda the only thing im not really fond of, idk coulnt find any use for it so far.
The rest is top notch tho and with the now recolorable thatch its even better. Still wish the painted logs were climbable tho, a new style of wooden logs would have been awesome. Same goes for the vulcanic rocks

Conclusion:
Awesome pack, although with a couple nit picks. I would place it somewhere in the upper half to third in my ranking

 

[NachoB]

Unlike the arid pack, my opinions for oceania remain unchanged. Scenery packs are easier to take in with the more focused animal roster and scenery sets to use. So the oceania pack is still a top tier scenery set for me, the animal roster could of been better as I was never a huge fan of the kiwi or quokka. But the animal quality is great and everyone who wanted the iconic animals of oceania that Australia missed got them. I needed the tasmanian devil and got it just in time for my zoo build for them, I'm happy enough with that. The scenery is great for beach themes although I doubt a recreation project will utilise that to the fullest, the plank wood pieces and volcanic rocks will come in handy.

What it didn't do for me though is I didn't need an oceania dedicated pack, and certainly now I do not to see another. The tree kangaroo can come in some tropical forest pack in the future but realistically for north american zoo projects, oceania is done, there is no more desire to see extremely niche animals just for the sake of rounding out oceania when there are countless areas that need the same attention.

I only really want the echidna and the perentie and i'm good (not counting birds). Would love a Victoria crowned pigeon but don't think is likely. Tree kangaroo has never been a priority to me but i will not complain if we get it and i'll be ok if we never do as well.

 

[CharlieXGaming]

The roster could have been SIGNIFICANTLY improved by replacing the Quokka with a Tree Kangaroo, preferably Goodfellow’s.

I agree however I knew we wouldn’t get all 3 kiwi devil and tree roo, the tree roo would be a lot of work and they wouldn’t have had enough time.

I’m honestly good with the Quokka. I didn’t like it at first cause it wasn’t common in captivity but honestly I enjoy building for it and it’s made me want more small animals for the future.

 

[Fallax]

I still think it is a great pack but I haven't had the chance to use any of the animals yet simply because my current zoo is predominantly focused on Europe and Africa. Depending on how it unfolds I may end up with an Oceanian section though I think I'll be doing Asia next (still a long while off). I do look forward to getting around to all of it though.

 

[CharlieXGaming]

I thought that this pack would make me not want any more Australian animals anymore cause the void would be filled, but oddly enough, this pack has actually made me want more Oceanian animals, specifically small ones.
These 4 would be amazing:

 

[NZFanatic]

It's a great pack.

 

[Marvinb]

I thought that this pack would make me not want any more Australian animals anymore cause the void would be filled, but oddly enough, this pack has actually made me want more Oceanian animals, specifically small ones.
These 4 would be amazing:
View attachment 374699

Yeah there are still a few id like to see: Echidna and treeroo are still high up my wishlist, crowned pigeon and black swan aswell.
And to a lesser degree brushtail possum and a species of quoll would be awesome for nighthouses

 

[Orkan]

It’s probably in the middle of packs in my book.

I love the Kiwi and the scenery is pretty useful, but everything else is just kinda meh for me. The Quokka is pretty much nonexistent in NA, The Penguin is just something I probably won’t use because I suck at semiaquatic habitats, and the devil isn’t found anywhere near where my zoo is set, so I didn’t use It. The only reason I have the Kiwi in Eastborro is because I can pretend them got it from the chick that hatched at FPZ and got another from NZ to breed it with.

 

[paul78]

I like the pack but it’s probably somewhere in the middle to lower packs for me. Than again I’m a huge fan of the arctic pack while most rank that lower tier. To me I rank the arid pack higher as it had more animals on my personal want list. The animals are great though although I too think it was a perfect chance for frontier to finally pull the trigger on birds with the lorikeet. A huge missed opportunity on frontiers part. On the other since I mostly build temperate and taiga maps I don’t really use them a whole lot.

 

[Marvinb]

I like the pack but it’s probably somewhere in the middle to lower packs for me. Than again I’m a huge fan of the arctic pack while most rank that lower tier. To me I rank the arid pack higher as it had more animals on my personal want list. The animals are great though although I too think it was a perfect chance for frontier to finally pull the trigger on birds with the lorikeet. A huge missed opportunity on frontiers part. On the other since I mostly build temperate and taiga maps I don’t really use them a whole lot.

Devil, kiwi and penguin are all temperate animals tho

 

[paul78]

True I guess in the case of the penguin usually I go with the king penguin in most of my zoos. As for the other three the devil has appeared in two of my zoos but the other two not at all to date. I like the quokka and do have some plans to combine them with wallaby. The kiwi on the other hand is so rare in zoos I just haven’t gotten around to using them yet.

 

[Moonfox]

“These animals aren’t common where I’m from so we don’t need them, or any more from that region” can go down as my absolute least favourite comment of all time. It irks me so much, and it’s a very self centred way to look at a globally released game. It’s also the exact opposite of how I, personally, like to play the game. Give me more of what I never get to see in zoos! The more species, the better, so we can play how we like.

That said, the Oceania pack has never been one of my favourite packs, though I do think it’s worth the price and does add to the game (I still bought it at release). I bought the pack for the devil (it’s a phenomenal model and it was one of my top 30 most wanted animals), kiwi and penguin, and the flying fox was a great addition but I wish we’d had some flying birds. I love the foliage additions.

I’m an Aussie girl who has been a zookeeper at a few different zoos and I have to say... I could have done without the quokka. I know everyone loves them, and I used to enjoy bringing our quokkas out for school groups to pat at the zoo, and they got a crowd engaged in a conservation talk. But man, some Aussie wildlife are just boring and quokkas are right up there with wombats and koalas for me. Little brown/grey lumps that for some reason, tourists can’t get enough of. At least in game they don’t sleep 90% of the time. Give me exotics any day of the week! Or at least a more visually interesting small macropod like the yellow tailed rock wallaby.

Ok, quokka rant over. The scenery pieces are too themed for my personal taste. I love any addition we can have to the game, but I’m hoping for a more exciting pack in December, which for me would mean some larger exotic (to Australia) mammals, generic and versatile build pieces (if any) and at least one flying bird.

Edit: more, not boring Aussies:

• numbat
• echidna
• tree kangaroo
• quoll
• brushtail possum
• Aussie fur seal
• Leopard seal
• black swan
• Aussie pelican
• crowned pigeon
• whistling duck
• so, so many flying birds… so many

 

[CharlieXGaming]

But man, some Aussie wildlife are just boring and quokkas are right up there with wombats and koalas for me. Little brown/grey lumps that for some reason, tourists can’t get enough of.

How are wombats boring? I love watching them every time I go to the zoo.

but I’m hoping for a more exciting pack in December

Same, but since I’m expecting mountains, the only Australian animals that might have a chance are rock wallaby or tree roo which is a stretch cause it would need a lot of work.

 

[Moonfox]

How are wombats boring? I love watching them every time I go to the zoo.

Same, but since I’m expecting mountains, the only Australian animals that might have a chance are rock wallaby or tree roo which is a stretch cause it would need a lot of work.

I just don’t find their behaviour or appearance interesting. They’re almost always asleep, and even when they’re awake they just plod along on their own, eating grass. The joeys are cute, but I don’t see them often. I’m glad you enjoy them though .

I’d love a tree kangaroo to come with a mountains pack! I don’t even mind which species, tbh.

 

[CharlieXGaming]

I just don’t find their behaviour or appearance interesting. They’re almost always asleep, and even when they’re awake they just plod along on their own, eating grass. The joeys are cute, but I don’t see them often. I’m glad you enjoy them though .

I must be lucky then cause the last few times I’ve been to my local zoo they’ve been awake and moving around. Their inside enclosure at my local zoo is filled with dirt so they usually dig really deep holes or eat, or even when they’re asleep they usually sleep upside down it’s really funny

I’d love a tree kangaroo to come with a mountains pack! I don’t even mind which species, tbh.

Even for people who don’t want it, it’s pretty hard to say no to such a unique creature and a cute one at that.

 

[NachoB]

Edit: more, not boring Aussies:

• numbat
• echidna
• tree kangaroo
• quoll
• brushtail possum
• Aussie fur seal
• Leopard seal
• black swan
• Aussie pelican
• crowned pigeon
• whistling duck
• so, so many flying birds… so many

Had to google the brushtail possum just to be sure i was thinking about the right animal, and i was, and i don't understad what is that so many people find interesting about it.

Echidna, numbat, black swan, perentie, collared lizard, quoll... and with lower priority but also tree kangaroo and yellow footed rock wallaby are all australian species i would still love to get though.