Southeast Asia: Two is not One. I can live with 2. And they did react immensly well to the Bintuwrong desaster. Also: This was a building pack and the building pieces where stunning! Edit: Nvm, building set was in tropical, everything else still stands. Also sunbear got unique animations and new enrichment items, so why you call them an easy clone is a bit beyond me, but everyone seem to have their own definition of that.
Grassland: Emu, Maned Wolf and I believe the Armadillo where very highly requested at that time and if I remember correctly the Emu has unique animations when running that no other bird in game had. Speaking of easy clones: They used that to give us MORE species in the WE, instead of just going with 1. Did they have a lot of work with that? Probably not. But it is still getting more bang for our bucks. And the way the Armadillo walks, I would not even consider it an easy clone. I also can not give you one single example of an animal that lacked in fur quality or anything.
Would I have prefered better Soundwork for the Maned Wolf. Yes. But for me these are not compareable with the packs I mentioned.
If the sun bear is not a clone, then how is the sand cat a clone, or at least not a unique animal? I get it, it's a cat, but it was far different from anything else we had (before we got Pallas).
Then Arid also had two non-clones. Plus, the Somali Wild Ass got unique running animations that make it stand out compared to the zebra and horse.
The armadillo is the only animal in Grasslands that
isn't a clone, as I said in my original post. Everything else is either a very easy clone, or a slightly modified one - the emu, for example, runs exactly like the cassowary from what I've personally seen. Also, more than one person has complained about the looks of the emu. I'd say the backlash wasn't as bad as it was for the highland cattle in barnyard, but still.
As for the Zookeeper Pack, I don't really have anything to say to defend it. Some of the animals don't really feel up-to-date with the current PZ standards, they feel like they're straight out of an older pack from 2021 (specifically the baboon and Markhor). But the Dik-dik, Tortoise, and Spectacled Bear all look amazing. I'd say there is a drop in quality, but it's the only pack where I could make this argument.
Barnyard only had one major problem (the cow's fur), but while the animals were "clones", there isn't really much you can do as far as domestic animals go. Also, this pack introduced a whole new mechanic which probably took some time and resources to develop, so I can't really complain about it. The breed choice was kinda weird, but I don't feel like that's a solid point to criticise. After all, we still got a pig, chicken, goat, sheep and whatever.
