Southeast Asia DLC

[Duckeyboos]

Animals:
Habitat:
Malayan Tapir (Tropical)
Lar Gibbon (tropical)
Binturong (Tropical, temperate)
Malay Sun Bear (Tropical)
Clouded Leopard (tropical, temperate)
Exhibit:
Mountain horned dragon (Tropical)
Vietnamese box turtle (Tropical)
Long-nosed horned frog (Tropical)

Plants:
Jackfruit tree (Tropical)
Malay padauk (Tropical)
Curran's pitogo (Tropical)
Titan Arum (Tropical)
Hopea tree (Tropical)
Rafflesia (tropical)
Red ginger (tropical)
Tiger Orchid (Tropical)

Buildings & Facilities:
-Southeast Asia Themed building set
-Southeast Asia Themed Seating and bins

 

[FoxyDee]

Would love such DLC (only would prefer Crested gibbon to Lar gibbon)

 

[Markiz]

Shouldn't this be in Wishlists?

 

[Duckeyboos]

Shouldn't this be in Wishlists?

I tried looking for that board but im mobile so i couldnt find it

 

[Markiz]

I tried looking for that board but im mobile so i couldnt find it

It's under "Animals"
Don't worry, some mod will move it there eventually

 

[Danny_zoo]

Animals:
Habitat:
Malayan Tapir (Tropical)
Lar Gibbon (tropical)
Binturong (Tropical, temperate)
Malay Sun Bear (Tropical)
Clouded Leopard (tropical, temperate)
Exhibit:
Mountain horned dragon (Tropical)
Vietnamese box turtle (Tropical)
Long-nosed horned frog (Tropical)

Plants:
Jackfruit tree (Tropical)
Malay padauk (Tropical)
Curran's pitogo (Tropical)
Titan Arum (Tropical)
Hopea tree (Tropical)
Rafflesia (tropical)
Red ginger (tropical)
Tiger Orchid (Tropical)

Buildings & Facilities:
-Southeast Asia Themed building set
-Southeast Asia Themed Seating and bins

The animal list I support 100% but the foliage list from a zoological landscape design perspective is not appropriate, we will probably get the last great opportunity with South East Asia to receive a suitable Palm Tree collection, as we were denied both times during the SA and Australia packs (1 species in Australia, not often found in Australian thematic exhibits) some of your species are not bad, but we need to focus on species that are commonly found in South East Asia landscape thematic representation. Somehow Frontier just randomly picks flora that is native to the area they are representing, and not necessarily what you would find in a zoo. And that is why so many zoo projects set in tropical and sub tropical locations look so cartoonish and fictional.

 

[Cocolori]

The animal list I support 100% but the foliage list from a zoological landscape design perspective is not appropriate, we will probably get the last great opportunity with South East Asia to receive a suitable Palm Tree collection, as we were denied both times during the SA and Australia packs (1 species in Australia, not often found in Australian thematic exhibits) some of your species are not bad, but we need to focus on species that are commonly found in South East Asia landscape thematic representation. Somehow Frontier just randomly picks flora that is native to the area they are representing, and not necessarily what you would find in a zoo. And that is why so many zoo projects set in tropical and sub tropical locations look so cartoonish and fictional.

I think that is an issue if you want to do realistic builds but a lot of the community don't care about that so it might not be a major part of their selection process (or a priority for the original poster). They may not be a 'random selection' but have other criteria including wanting to pick flora iconic to the region (even if they aren't used in zoos) or plants that increase the overall variety in the foliage types we have and are visually pleasing.

 

[Danny_zoo]

I think that is an issue if you want to do realistic builds but a lot of the community don't care about that so it might not be a major part of their selection process (or a priority for the original poster). They may not be a 'random selection' but have other criteria including wanting to pick flora iconic to the region (even if they aren't used in zoos) or plants that increase the overall variety in the foliage types we have and are visually pleasing.

Not entirely sure about that, realistic and aesthetically pleasing builds are important for a great part of this community. The game thrives on the exceptionally built parks that are featured in social media platforms and so on, that is their major source of advertisement. The better and more realistic the zoo looks the more buzz it seems to generate. Now realistic has its own meaning in this forum and other places when it comes to this game, and not sure we are speaking about the same thing when I use it.

I will give you an example, the Baobab trees in the game are depicting fully mature trees that could be anywhere between 400 and 1000 years old, that is definitely not something you would find in a zoo, an African Safari or an excursion into Madagascar, definitely, not in a zoo. Add to that the bark coloration is completely off, and in no way representative of the real life texture of this trees. The majority of Baobabs you will find in zoos are replicas, some can be extremely realistic.

Another example the Kapok tree, now this is just an import from Planet Coaster, and a reason why the base game had very questionable foliage in comparison to the last two DLCs, Australia was amazing. Going back to the Kapok, the in game trees are representing mature specimens that have been sitting in some tropical rainforest for a few hundred years, that is again not something you will find in zoos.

Now if they are adding all of these trees, but also providing the amount of foliage that is required to built realistic zoos, I take no issue with that, because I understand that even though this game is called Planet Zoo, not Planet Africa, Planet Amazon or Planet Earth, there are definitely a variety of players here, and many do not even built zoos, they just built what they want to built and that is fine.

As an FYI, modern zoo landscape architecture specializes in getting flora that is exactly iconic to the region and more importantly the ecosystems where the animals exhibited are from. A number of times I will select plants for the visitor amenity areas that complement the exhibit that are not suitable to be displayed inside the animal habitats because they will get destroyed, but still merit being displayed in the exhibit given their iconic status. The opposite of what you probably thought I was recommending. Again we are speaking a different language here, and when I write realism, I'm covering a variety of angles and touching bases on a much broader concept than what you described.

 

[Danny_zoo]

I think that is an issue if you want to do realistic builds but a lot of the community don't care about that so it might not be a major part of their selection process (or a priority for the original poster). They may not be a 'random selection' but have other criteria including wanting to pick flora iconic to the region (even if they aren't used in zoos) or plants that increase the overall variety in the foliage types we have and are visually pleasing.

And to clarify on another point because I think it might be important, one of the reasons why a lot of the community do not take a strong stance on many of this realism issues, is due to their lack of understanding and familiarity with them. I will give you an example, there was a Player in Reddit that made a comment about how the Baobabs in DAK looked all like dead trees, and they should invest in getting some bigger ones with full canopies like the ones in the game. I went into great detail explaining to this player, that those trees were just replicas, that you can not just transport a real mature Baobab that is 1000 years old and plant it in the middle of Florida, even for Disney this would be impossible. Then I proceeded to show him what Baobabs actually look like, told him to just do a google a simple google search. His opinion completely changed after that, and now he wanted realistic looking baobabs in the game. This is the average player you are referring to.

I say this to emphasize that is not the community does not care, is that simply they for the most part do not know any better. If you try educating them in the subject, a lot of them come around pretty quickly. Think about Zoo Tycoon it opened the door for this game today, that is true, however it also created a whole generation of players that truly believe that a zoo game should include a marine expansion and a dinosaur expansion, why? How does any of that truly relate to zoos? It is the same here, and I'm doing my part so this game stays true to their original concept. Zoos.

 

[Cocolori]

And to clarify on another point because I think it might be important, one of the reasons why a lot of the community do not take a strong stance on many of this realism issues, is due to their lack of understanding and familiarity with them. I will give you an example, there was a Player in Reddit that made a comment about how the Baobabs in DAK looked all like dead trees, and they should invest in getting some bigger ones with full canopies like the ones in the game. I went into great detail explaining to this player, that those trees were just replicas, that you can not just transport a real mature Baobab that is 1000 years old and plant it in the middle of Florida, even for Disney this would be impossible. Then I proceeded to show him what Baobabs actually look like, told him to just do a google a simple google search. His opinion completely changed after that, and now he wanted realistic looking baobabs in the game. This is the average player you are referring to.

I say this to emphasize that is not the community does not care, is that simply they for the most part do not know any better. If you try educating them in the subject, a lot of them come around pretty quickly. Think about Zoo Tycoon it opened the door for this game today, that is true, however it also created a whole generation of players that truly believe that a zoo game should include a marine expansion and a dinosaur expansion, why? How does any of that truly relate to zoos? It is the same here, and I'm doing my part so this game stays true to their original concept. Zoos.

Okay, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here because you are clearly very knowledgable and passionate about this subject but I have to say I think you are making some slightly arrogant assumptions about the lack of diversity in play styles in this community. I can tell you that I myself don't play in order to create realistic builds and have no real interest in creating backstage areas and zoos that look like real life. In fact I'm not much of a builder at all - I play because I love animals and I love management games. I like to make my zoos look nice but it's entirely secondary to doing things like breeding high stat animals, pleasing guests etc. Now in the post above you seem (emphasis on seem) to be suggesting that it's because I'm ignorant about zoo design - clearly I'm not as knowledgable as you but I have worked in several animal collections and zoos, I have some qualifications in relevant subjects and I know what real zoos look like. I choose not to reproduce them in game because I don't want to spend hours doing fiddly builds when I can use the workshop and modify items from there to make my zoo look aesthetically pleasing and when I do build I tend to prefer over the top, modern exciting architecture that isn't commonly seen in even top end zoos. For foliage I mix continents and biomes freely and go with whatever I think looks nice.

I think you are making a mistake in assuming that the big youtube channels that do planet zoo building are representative of this community. I have immense admiration and respect for those people like Deladysigner, geekism, Sdanwolf etc. and occasionally watch their videos to nick ideas when i do want to spend some time building. However, I don't think I have downloaded a single item in the workshop from them or from showcases in their community because I'm interested in the technique but the 'realistic' results are not what I want.

So whilst you can happily tell someone on reddit who might appreciate the info that in real life baobabs like we have in game aren't realistic I myself a) don't need you to tell me that and b) would still want Giant sequoias in a North American pack for example. I'd like their to be more small sized trees and plants for greater flexibility but I don't really care about how rare it would be to see them in real life zoos. Apart from anything else the first ever animal collection I worked for was based in an arboretum so to recreate that I'd need some pretty unusual species anyway.

Sorry if I sound a bit blunt, I don't want to make assumptions because on the internet you can't get tone but I think it's worth pointing out to you that 'your planet zoo' community is not necessarily representative. Even these forums the regular posters are made up of the most dedicated players of the game with the most interest but they don't represent the casual player base. It's fine to say 'I would prefer more realistic foliage, realistic zoo animal species and build pieces for backstage areas etc.' but it's just as fine for others to say 'I want visually diverse foliage that represents rare and interesting plants'. Some people want dinosaurs, that's ok, I've disagreed with them in threads before and stated that they wouldn't be something I would want - by airing our views Frontier can see what the most popular requests are.

This plays out in the animal requests all the time - giant otter versus short clawed. My preference would be for the giant because they are rarer and the conservation message would be stronger and if I was going for a more common species it would be the european otter because we have them in the river near my house and they're ace. Frankly whatever species they may give us if it isn't my preference I might just imagine that it is for some of my zoos. But I'd never assume other players wished for the short clawed because they were 'ignorant' that the giant otter was far more endangered because in my opinion this game is principally about zoos role in conservation.

Once again sorry if I've misread your post but I did find the idea that you can persuade other players who don't care about realism that they should 'come around' if only they knew more a bit patronising. I don't believe any more education on the subject will make me more likely to build realistic zoos myself and judging by the number of really diverse blueprints available on the workshop I'm not convinced I'm the only one for whom that is true.

 

[Bearcat9948]

Steering this back towards the topic at hand lol...
I wouldn’t mind a localized Southeast Asian pack, but I would definitely want it to be bigger than the curse of 4+1 that we’ve grown accustomed to. I mean, it like SA and Aus is incredibly diverse in its wildlife and I think it would be a shame not to reflect that in a dlc.

Now, we already know the Sun bear is in all likelihood coming to the game. I get why this might frustrate people, but for me personally I’m happy with it. They’re adorable and pretty unique looking, so meh, what the heck why not haha.

My other must haves would be the Binturong (Obviously!), Gaur, Clouded leopard, Fishing cat and a species of gibbon. But I neeeeed proper brachiation for the gibbon otherwise don’t even bother quite honestly. There is a reason I refuse to use the Orangutan, aka the orange Gorilla.

I would be fine with a small set of Thai/Cambodian themed Hindu and Buddhist objects, perhaps themed around the great Angkor Wat. However, building pieces are no longer a priority to me, I think we have plenty quite honestly, so I would rather have more animals and no new scenery pieces rather than what we’ve been getting. And I say that as someone who has been fortunate enough to visit Southeast Asia and appreciate all their wonderful architecture in person.

 

[Cocolori]

Agree with you Bearcat - would love a gibbon species if they can get some more of the climbing right so I'm not holding my breath for now. I would love them almost just for their sound effects - it's something that sometimes gets overlooked because the focus is obviously on the visual but the Frontier sound design team are always outstanding in their work and I'd love for them to get their hands on some gibbon calls!

Sun bear I'm happy with as well even though we have the other bears - the shape is different and they are pretty distinct. Was it you who had the Viverrid thread as well? Agree one of those would be awesome and that some small cats would fill what I think is another pretty big gap in the rosta diversity.

I wonder if for scenery they may go more unexpected and do something based on modern city architecture to represent more of the modernism in Asian cities as we already have more traditional materials in game

 

[Danny_zoo]

Okay, I'm trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here because you are clearly very knowledgable and passionate about this subject but I have to say I think you are making some slightly arrogant assumptions about the lack of diversity in play styles in this community. I can tell you that I myself don't play in order to create realistic builds and have no real interest in creating backstage areas and zoos that look like real life. In fact I'm not much of a builder at all - I play because I love animals and I love management games. I like to make my zoos look nice but it's entirely secondary to doing things like breeding high stat animals, pleasing guests etc. Now in the post above you seem (emphasis on seem) to be suggesting that it's because I'm ignorant about zoo design - clearly I'm not as knowledgable as you but I have worked in several animal collections and zoos, I have some qualifications in relevant subjects and I know what real zoos look like. I choose not to reproduce them in game because I don't want to spend hours doing fiddly builds when I can use the workshop and modify items from there to make my zoo look aesthetically pleasing and when I do build I tend to prefer over the top, modern exciting architecture that isn't commonly seen in even top end zoos. For foliage I mix continents and biomes freely and go with whatever I think looks nice.

I think you are making a mistake in assuming that the big youtube channels that do planet zoo building are representative of this community. I have immense admiration and respect for those people like Deladysigner, geekism, Sdanwolf etc. and occasionally watch their videos to nick ideas when i do want to spend some time building. However, I don't think I have downloaded a single item in the workshop from them or from showcases in their community because I'm interested in the technique but the 'realistic' results are not what I want.

So whilst you can happily tell someone on reddit who might appreciate the info that in real life baobabs like we have in game aren't realistic I myself a) don't need you to tell me that and b) would still want Giant sequoias in a North American pack for example. I'd like their to be more small sized trees and plants for greater flexibility but I don't really care about how rare it would be to see them in real life zoos. Apart from anything else the first ever animal collection I worked for was based in an arboretum so to recreate that I'd need some pretty unusual species anyway.

Sorry if I sound a bit blunt, I don't want to make assumptions because on the internet you can't get tone but I think it's worth pointing out to you that 'your planet zoo' community is not necessarily representative. Even these forums the regular posters are made up of the most dedicated players of the game with the most interest but they don't represent the casual player base. It's fine to say 'I would prefer more realistic foliage, realistic zoo animal species and build pieces for backstage areas etc.' but it's just as fine for others to say 'I want visually diverse foliage that represents rare and interesting plants'. Some people want dinosaurs, that's ok, I've disagreed with them in threads before and stated that they wouldn't be something I would want - by airing our views Frontier can see what the most popular requests are.

This plays out in the animal requests all the time - giant otter versus short clawed. My preference would be for the giant because they are rarer and the conservation message would be stronger and if I was going for a more common species it would be the european otter because we have them in the river near my house and they're ace. Frankly whatever species they may give us if it isn't my preference I might just imagine that it is for some of my zoos. But I'd never assume other players wished for the short clawed because they were 'ignorant' that the giant otter was far more endangered because in my opinion this game is principally about zoos role in conservation.

Once again sorry if I've misread your post but I did find the idea that you can persuade other players who don't care about realism that they should 'come around' if only they knew more a bit patronizing. I don't believe any more education on the subject will make me more likely to build realistic zoos myself and judging by the number of really diverse blueprints available on the workshop I'm not convinced I'm the only one for whom that is true.

I completely understand you, and I did before as well. As you well said a lot of stuff gets misinterpreted thru this beautiful platform called the internet Definitely not calling you or anyone here ignorant, what would be the point of that? We are having a constructive dialogue and understanding trying to understand each other. Of course that we have major differences in the community from the way we play to what we want to receive from Frontier, I agree with you there, and that is the whole point of it all. However from that great part of the community that you mentioned, the ones that do not care much about what the zoo end ups looking like, my intention with my comments was to clarify that even there you have a segment of players that if you show them a different way they will now have different choices to make, and many of them will gravitate towards more aesthetically pleasing zoos.

Modern zoo architecture is amazing, glad that you enjoy it, and it is great to know you have worked in zoos before, there is few current and former industry professionals here, and it is always a pleasure to communicate with them. Not trying to be patronizing in my steering of the great wheel but definitely understand that it can come across that way at times, just trying to present a different angle that is all. The YouTubers you mentioned are all great, and very creative individuals, but most of their builds are not necessarily realistic, in my opinion, even though a lot of them seem to come pretty close, and they definitely place a lot of effort in their designs.

While I have never been interested in the management aspect of this game, I do recognize that it is an integral dimension of what this game is all about, however and forgive me I sound patronizing again, it does seem that it is quite limited and simplistic, so I would imagine that it can get tedious and unexciting at times, does it not? The difference is that with building zoos, you have endless possibilities and a longer longevity in the game, but I could be completely wrong, like I said never tried that aspect of the game.

 

[FoxyDee]

I think the vast majority of players are casuals. Now the easiest way for casuals to share their creations is to share it on steam, without the need to log in into other platforms where more dedicated communities are. Now if you look at the most screenshots shared there, it is obvious most players are there for the cool animals. Yes there are builds too, but not really realistic. Most of the habitats are just 4 walls and some randomly placed plants. Building is one of the main pillars of PZ, but I think it is safe to assume that is not what most (and that would be casuals - the main source of income) people play it for.

I would share some screenshot from steam, but I do not want to dehonest someones work, its the best bet to just look for yourself. And sort if by the newest screenshots by the way, not the most favourites.

While I love the advanced building and I am greatful for it, I kind of think the management and animal simulation parts kind of suffer because of it. As it seems it is the main focus with the DLC. Alot to build with but not really alot of new mechanisms or gameplay features and things to add to your zoo (beside animals) to actually play it.

But back on topic, I reallly hope for malayan tapir and gibbon at some point! Seems like really favourite animals.

 

[Danny_zoo]

I think the vast majority of players are casuals. Now the easiest way for casuals to share their creations is to share it on steam, without the need to log in into other platforms where more dedicated communities are. Now if you look at the most screenshots shared there, it is obvious most players are there for the cool animals. Yes there are builds too, but not really realistic. Most of the habitats are just 4 walls and some randomly placed plants. Building is one of the main pillars of PZ, but I think it is safe to assume that is not what most (and that would be casuals - the main source of income) people play it for.

I would share some screenshot from steam, but I do not want to dehonest someones work, its the best bet to just look for yourself. And sort if by the newest screenshots by the way, not the most favourites.

While I love the advanced building and I am greatful for it, I kind of think the management and animal simulation parts kind of suffer because of it. As it seems it is the main focus with the DLC. Alot to build with but not really alot of new mechanisms or gameplay features and things to add to your zoo (beside animals) to actually play it.

But back on topic, I reallly hope for malayan tapir and gibbon at some point! Seems like really favourite animals.

I definitely agree with everything you have said, it makes perfect sense, and I did not look at it in that way, steam is very good indicative of how the community plays, I guess I have been paying attention to YouTube a little more, and there the more detail, creativity and at times realism that a design carries, the more enthusiasm the community shows. But steam does show a completely different story, the one you described. That brings me to another thought, many times I have seen some casual players complain about boring the game is and how quickly you can go thru it, and it makes perfect sense, because if you are building just four walls and placing objects randomly while concentrating in the management aspect of the game, then I would assume that it would get boring very quickly as there is very little motivation to play for a very extended period of time.
When I have seen those comments, I have always thought, how could anyone ever bored of playing this game, the possibilities are endless, and building a zoo could take ages if you are putting in some serious effort. But I definitely understand that most casual players, just want to play the game for the gameplay and not the construction element, that makes sense.