Since the Africa Pack, a Middle East Pack really appeals to me.

[NZFanatic]

Perhaps a bit random, but the more I think about it the more I like the idea. Animals for such a pack are easy, but I think a big hurdle would be coming up with a unique building theme, since there is a lot of crossover between the North African theme in the game and famous Middle Eastern architecture.

For four habitat animals and one exhibit animal, though, to me the choices seem obvious;

- Arabian oryx.
- Crested porcupine.
- Caracal.
- Hamadryas baboon.
- Veiled chameleon.

The oryx is probably the least interesting one on the list, but I think skipping it wouldn't be right considering its conservation history. The other three habitat animals also cross over into Africa (and in the porcupine's case, southern Europe) which would do wonders to expand the roster there at the same time. This might also be the last "geographical" theme that could give us a baboon (and one that is quite zoo-famous to boot, so kind of a win-win).

I tossed up between putting the caracal and the Arabian leopard on the list, but I went with the caracal simply because I know it's quite common in zoos these days, and because personally I'd prefer the Amur leopard if we do get one.

 

[SanRazo618]

I really hope we get a Arabic pack it would help round up my Asian Silk Road area of my zoo. I love that they added new pieces but without the animals to create a actual section it’s really awkward for me to be able to fit some of the new scenery in my current zoo the way it’s formatted

I hope we get the Caracal as well with them the clouded leopard, lynx, and cougar I feel like our “small cat” roster would be rounded out

 

[Bearcat9948]

I don't think a building pack would be necessary for this theme either, since between the Indian and North African pieces you can very easy make some great Middle Eastern buildings. I can however, easily think up three more animals to make this an animal pack. I would take all of your original 5 and add 3 more.

• Arabian oryx
• Crested porcupine
• Caracal
• Hamadryas baboon
• Veiled chameleon
• + Sacred ibis (unfortunately extirpated in Egypt where they get their namesake from, but still alive and well in Yemen)
• +Persian onager (wouldn't mind a wild horse species and this one seems quite popular)
• + Persian leopard (My personal favorite of the leopard species. I love their coat pattern and colorations)

Honorable mentions: Pallas cat, striped hyena, golden jackal, egyptian vulture, addax

 

[NZFanatic]

I don't think a building pack would be necessary for this theme either, since between the Indian and North African pieces you can very easy make some great Middle Eastern buildings. I can however, easily think up three more animals to make this an animal pack. I would take all of your original 5 and add 3 more.

• Arabian oryx
• Crested porcupine
• Caracal
• Hamadryas baboon
• Veiled chameleon
• + Sacred ibis (unfortunately extirpated in Egypt where they get their namesake from, but still alive and well in Yemen)
• +Persian onager (wouldn't mind a wild horse species and this one seems quite popular)
• + Persian leopard (My personal favorite of the leopard species. I love their coat pattern and colorations)

Honorable mentions: Pallas cat, striped hyena, golden jackal, egyptian vulture, addax

Good point, for some reason it didn't even occur to me to do an animal pack.

I like your options, but it might not be popular to have two cats in the same DLC, so I'd do either/or the caracal and the leopard (I think it's because I'm a history nerd, and I often associate Iran with Central Asia rather than the Middle East, but I always forget to include it when talking about the Middle East, so thanks for reminding me of poor Iran!). I'd also replace the sacred ibis with the waldrapp/northern bald ibis, which is endangered and is currently undergoing reintroduction to the Middle East (the remaining colony of original birds is in Morocco, but there are now reintroduced populations in Yemen, Syria, and Turkey).

So I guess I'd do an animal pack like this:

- Arabian oryx.
- Crested porcupine.
- Caracal/Persian leopard.
- Hamadryas baboon.
- Persian onager.
- Striped hyena/golden jackal (I like both these options, but it's hard to say which would make it in - for whatever reason the striped hyena has risen in popularity of late, whereas there seems to be canine fatigue going on - I blame the Arctic wolf and dingo for that, personally).
- Northern bald ibis.
- Veiled chameleon.

The addax doesn't actually occur in the Middle East anymore, otherwise I would definitely have picked it (one of my favourite antelope - I hope it gets in to the game at some point). I'm also not totally sold on an ibis purely because it's a really iffy spot between an aviary bird and a habitat bird, but I think we could probably get away with it. Otherwise, I'd replace it with either the hyena or the jackal and just put both of those in.

 

[paul78]

This is a great idea unfortunately I get the feeling we only might have 2 dlcs left. I know a YouTuber brought up the fact that Planco had eight dlcs and they couldn’t see PZ being any different. Now I know that it was mentioned that support will go till 2022 but it’s really not specified how far into 2022. Could be a normal 4 dlc year with the very last being Xmas time. Could be the end of this year slightly carried into 2022 slightly for the last dlc. If it were the case it’s most likely NA and Aves. I guess will see very realistically the game has to end at some point but disappointing at the same time but I guess will see.

 

[NZFanatic]

This is a great idea unfortunately I get the feeling we only might have 2 dlcs left. I know a YouTuber brought up the fact that Planco had eight dlcs and they couldn’t see PZ being any different. Now I know that it was mentioned that support will go till 2022 but it’s really not specified how far into 2022. Could be a normal 4 dlc year with the very last being Xmas time. Could be the end of this year slightly carried into 2022 slightly for the last dlc. If it were the case it’s most likely NA and Aves. I guess will see very realistically the game has to end at some point but disappointing at the same time but I guess will see.

There's no reason to believe support will end after the next two DLC's. The latest info from Frontier was that they plan on continuing support through to the end of FY22, which at this stage is March (which also leaves February open for a third DLC), but so far the trends between PlanZo and PlanCo haven't actually matched up. I really don't think it's necessary to believe support will end soon, especially since they've recently done a hefty engine update to bring PlanZo in line with JWE2.

Edit: I'll add that you shouldn't take the YouTubers at their word. They tend to think they have more insight than they do.

 

[HunterIsCookie]

A pack based off of the Middle East is an interesting idea, I'll give you that. I do have some slightly differing opinions on species however.

1. Dromedary Camel - It's incredibly weird that we have at least 5 signs in game that depict a species we don't have. Even weirder is that 4 of them are dlc. Dromedaries are far too iconic to leave out, no matter your opinion on domestic species.
2. Hamadryas Baboon
3. Caracal
4. Crested Porcupine
5. Persian Onager
6. Striped Hyena
7. Rock Hyrax - Notable for somehow being related to elephants and manatees, this little critter can help add more smaller "filler" animals to your zoos.
E. Veiled Chameleon

 

[NZFanatic]

A pack based off of the Middle East is an interesting idea, I'll give you that. I do have some slightly differing opinions on species however.

1. Dromedary Camel - It's incredibly weird that we have at least 5 signs in game that depict a species we don't have. Even weirder is that 4 of them are dlc. Dromedaries are far too iconic to leave out, no matter your opinion on domestic species.
2. Hamadryas Baboon
3. Caracal
4. Crested Porcupine
5. Persian Onager
6. Striped Hyena
7. Rock Hyrax - Notable for somehow being related to elephants and manatees, this little critter can help add more smaller "filler" animals to your zoos.
E. Veiled Chameleon

True, I did forget the dromedary. I wonder if there's a way to get both the camel and oryx into the game. The Arabian oryx is pretty iconic for the region and as I said has a long history of conservation success, so leaving it out feels wrong (not to mention there are actually far fewer antelopes in the game than there ought to be).

 

[Ursidae]

True, I did forget the dromedary. I wonder if there's a way to get both the camel and oryx into the game. The Arabian oryx is pretty iconic for the region and as I said has a long history of conservation success, so leaving it out feels wrong (not to mention there are actually far fewer antelopes in the game than there ought to be).

I have a feeling they would not add the Arabian oryx because they somewhat resemble the gemsbok. Scimitar oryx is more likely, but again not from that region.

 

[NZFanatic]

I have a feeling they would not add the Arabian oryx because they somewhat resemble the gemsbok. Scimitar oryx is more likely, but again not from that region.

I doubt that would stop them, to be honest.

 

[becks474]

A pack based off of the Middle East is an interesting idea, I'll give you that. I do have some slightly differing opinions on species however.

1. Dromedary Camel - It's incredibly weird that we have at least 5 signs in game that depict a species we don't have. Even weirder is that 4 of them are dlc. Dromedaries are far too iconic to leave out, no matter your opinion on domestic species.
2. Hamadryas Baboon
3. Caracal
4. Crested Porcupine
5. Persian Onager
6. Striped Hyena
7. Rock Hyrax - Notable for somehow being related to elephants and manatees, this little critter can help add more smaller "filler" animals to your zoos.
E. Veiled Chameleon

This pack sounds good and I would sign HunterIsCookies list. Perhaps I would exchange the onager for the Barbary Sheep. But all in all I would be very happy with your list.

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Oh the barbary sheep would be a great pick, in my opinion we cant have enough goats in the game. Also they are commonly living with baboons or other smaller monkeys in zoos, so that could be a really cool paring.
For smaller animals, both the sandcat and the sandgrouse could be great picks

 

[KönigDerKaffeebohnen]

Perhaps a bit random, but the more I think about it the more I like the idea. Animals for such a pack are easy, but I think a big hurdle would be coming up with a unique building theme, since there is a lot of crossover between the North African theme in the game and famous Middle Eastern architecture.

For four habitat animals and one exhibit animal, though, to me the choices seem obvious;

• Arabian oryx.
• Crested porcupine.
• Caracal.
• Hamadryas baboon.
• Veiled chameleon.

The oryx is probably the least interesting one on the list, but I think skipping it wouldn't be right considering its conservation history. The other three habitat animals also cross over into Africa (and in the porcupine's case, southern Europe) which would do wonders to expand the roster there at the same time. This might also be the last "geographical" theme that could give us a baboon (and one that is quite zoo-famous to boot, so kind of a win-win).

I tossed up between putting the caracal and the Arabian leopard on the list, but I went with the caracal simply because I know it's quite common in zoos these days, and because personally I'd prefer the Amur leopard if we do get one.

btw this is a super strong roster, if anything i would add to it, but all 5 animals should stay (even though the dromedary would stay elusive again

 

[Aramar]

Personally, I don't need a Middle East building theme now that we have the
North African one. Hence, this pack should be an animal pack, but I find it difficult to choose 7 habitat animals from this region.

So basically, I would prefer a generic desert animal pack:
-Dromedary
-Addax
-Crested porcupine
-Armadillo
-Przewalski horse or wild donkey
-Collared peccary.
-Baboon
-Leopard gecko (E)

 

[becks474]

Oh the barbary sheep would be a great pick, in my opinion we cant have enough goats in the game. Also they are commonly living with baboons or other smaller monkeys in zoos, so that could be a really cool paring.
For smaller animals, both the sandcat and the sandgrouse could be great picks

At Wilhelma in Stuttgart the Barbary sheep live together with the baboons and the rock Hyrax. It is one of my favourite habitats there.

 

[Swjosdotschka]

This is a great idea unfortunately I get the feeling we only might have 2 dlcs left. I know a YouTuber brought up the fact that Planco had eight dlcs and they couldn’t see PZ being any different. Now I know that it was mentioned that support will go till 2022 but it’s really not specified how far into 2022. Could be a normal 4 dlc year with the very last being Xmas time. Could be the end of this year slightly carried into 2022 slightly for the last dlc. If it were the case it’s most likely NA and Aves. I guess will see very realistically the game has to end at some point but disappointing at the same time but I guess will see.

YouTubers also thought we would get birds the time we got the aquatic DLC.
YouTubers were absolutely sure support would end at the latest at the beginning of this year.
YouTubers were absolutely sure we would get animal packs only at the end of the life span and no building pieces ever again.

In my opinion it doesn't make sense to update the enginge for just two more DLCs when demand is still that high and production costs are pretty low. Because what I DO believe is, that the PZ team is pretty small. What I interpreted as a bad thing for a long while can also mean longer support in small bits like we get now with the DLCs.
Was it @Tobs or @NZFanatic who said that IF they introduce birds (and looking at JWE2 with the same enginge I am sure they will) it doesn'm make sense to indroduce flying with only 4 species. You have to keep in mind the work that goes into programming. Using that feature only for one pack wouldn't be logical from a financial point of view. Which is why they keep on introducing diving animals in packs (thankfully!).

Planet Coaster is no argument. Planet Coaster has never had an engine update and therefore was at the end of what it could handle. Planet Coaster had competitors, so making money with it became harder. With Planet Zoo we are talking about a monopoly and if Frontier REALLY doesn't milk this game until it physically can't anymore, I will forever doubt their ability to make good business decisions.

 

[NZFanatic]

At Wilhelma in Stuttgart the Barbary sheep live together with the baboons and the rock Hyrax. It is one of my favourite habitats there.

Damn it, that would be awesome. I thought I was so sure of the animals for this pack, now it's all up in the air.