The Bactrian Camel needs a rework

Antimony96

Antimony96
Perhaps the strangest and worst-implemented animal in the base game--not for being an uncommon zoo animal (it obviously isn't) or a bad choice for a zoo game (again, it clearly isn't), but because it's less of a real Bactrian camel and more of a chimera of the three extant species of Old World camels.
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From top to bottom, that's the PZ (domestic) Bactrian camel, the real-life domestic Bactrian camel, the dromedary camel, and the wild Bactrian camel (which is a distinct species from the domestic Bactrian camel and in fact was a distinct species before the latter's domestication). Planet Zoo's Bactrian camel definitely at least the two humps and basic camelid body structure right, but its neck is more comparable to the wild Bactrian camel, its more rounded snout is clearly that of a dromedary camel, its humps seem too upright and rounded for a Bactrian, and while domestic Bactrian camels do shed during the summer, there's not even a hint of their famous shagginess.
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Combined with the lack of acknowledgement of them being a cold weather-friendly animal, PZ has typecast them as almost exclusively a hot desert-dweller, leaving their minimum acceptable temperature far too high (this was fixed) as well as the lack of taiga biome compatitibility. I suspect, as do many others, that PZ originally planned a dromedary camel for the base game, changed it to a Bactrian camel late in development, but partially recycled the assets of the incomplete dromedary...only to leave dromedary-related props in the base game. The dromedary camel is one of the most hotly-requested wishlist animals and will likely headline either a desert or Middle East pack in the future; when this happens, I hope we get a fixed Bactrian camel, because IMO this animal needs a binturong-level makeover.
 
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Aramar

Aramar
Antimony96 said:
Combined with the lack of acknowledgement of them being a cold weather-friendly animal, PZ has typecast them as almost exclusively a hot desert-dweller, leaving their minimum acceptable temperature far too high
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That was already fixed. Camels in game have a great tolerance to cold now.
 

Sahara

S
There is a mod that remasters it and makes it look much closer to what it should be, it also makes it larger because the one in-game is way too small for a camel. I know we'd all prefer something official, but at this point it doesn't seem like Frontier ever plans on reworking older animals.
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
Most of the base game animals could use a bit of a rework now. I'm hoping that they'll do something like this before support completely ends, to bring some of the older species in line with the newer ones, which just look phenomenal.

Stylisation is fine, but consistency is better. It's weird to have the lion, tigers, and snow leopard all look kind of cartoonish while the newer cats all look so spectacular.
 

PnGLINNyo

PnGLINNyo
NZFanatic said:
Most of the base game animals could use a bit of a rework now. I'm hoping that they'll do something like this before support completely ends, to bring some of the older species in line with the newer ones, which just look phenomenal.

Stylisation is fine, but consistency is better. It's weird to have the lion, tigers, and snow leopard all look kind of cartoonish while the newer cats all look so spectacular.
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I too believe remodeling would be appropriate for many of the animals by now, considering some of which from both base game and DLCs having uneasy inaccuracies in their apprearances.
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
Doran said:
Remodelling wont happen.
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You're probably right, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't if it's possible. Even if it's done in batches, like the addition of new diving animals. It also isn't necessary for all the base game animals, just a few that particularly stand out against the DLC animals (mostly the bears and cats, really).

That said I'd shut up about it if they at least gave us a finished Malayan tapir, and as a bonus increased the size of the male California sea lion.
 

Bearcat9948

Bearcat9948
ARK Survival Evolved went back and did like 3-4 TLC updates over the past few years where they remade some of the animals that had early models because they started to look really bad compared to the newer DLC and free update animals. Would love to see Frontier do something similar
 

Firestar97

Firestar97
NZFanatic said:
That said I'd shut up about it if they at least gave us a finished Malayan tapir, and as a bonus increased the size of the male California sea lion
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You forgot Bison and Camel Size and proper Social Requirements (Ring tailed Lemur but I think also some others)

Mjmannella said:
They re-modelled the dhole, even though that wasn't as heavily requested. I still don't know why they decided the dhole needed a new model when the Malayan tapir is an obvious reskin and right there in the SEA Pack.
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I was so happy when they've remodeled the Dhole and I also don't understand why they still didn't fix the Tapir. I'm a bit disappointed. Only kept it once so far and after that never again because how common are Hybrid Tapirs in Captivity?(do they even exist in Real Life?)
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
Urufu1997 said:
You forgot Bison and Camel Size and proper Social Requirements (Ring tailed Lemur but I think also some others)
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They don't bother me personally as much because I don't tend to use the bison or camel that liberally, whereas the sea lion is one of my favourites. The social requirements are also not a big deal to me since I play in Sandbox and tend to ignore them anyway.
 

Firestar97

Firestar97
Sahara said:
I never really noticed the changes to the dhole. Does anyone have any comparison pics?
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🤔 Isn't the Education Board still showing the old one?
The new one definitely looks way better.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CMpX9BkFW0f/?utm_medium=copy_link
www.instagram.com

Planet Zoo on Instagram: "Dholes have different dentition to all other dog species; it is thought this may help them eat faster to prevent their kills being stolen by competitors. #ZoopediaFacts #PlanetZoo #Dhole"

3,316 likes, 14 comments - planetzoogame on May 7, 2021: "Dholes have different dentition to all other dog species; it is thought this may help them eat faster to prevent their kills being stolen by competitors. #ZoopediaFacts #PlanetZoo #Dhole".
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
I hate it that it doesn't show the Pictures anymore but I think even though it says Log in, it should take you to the Pictures anyways
 

Iben

Iben
Mjmannella said:
They re-modelled the dhole, even though that wasn't as heavily requested. I still don't know why they decided the dhole needed a new model when the Malayan tapir is an obvious reskin and right there in the SEA Pack.
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I've posted this in a few topics before, but it's honestly not that special for something like that to happen.

If you look at the update notes, there were two occasions where the dhole was updated because of animation issues. Because, as even reported during the EA, the dhole distorted quite noticably when walking and there were several issues with the tongue in certain animations. Not to an extent that the rig was completely broken, but it certainly was clear to see.

Distortions are more game breaking than the tapir not fully matching the animal in real life ( I know I know, for some people it's absolutely game breaking, but for the majority of people distortions are much more game breaking), hence they allocated time for it. Usually when you have the time to work on a specific asset or a specific piece of code, you work on it several weeks/months after you initially worked on it and then there are a handful of reasons why you can pick up on things that weren't completely right the first time ( your skillset has improved, you didn't notice it the first time as you've been working on it too long, you now have time to fix something that was left as a todo for initial release, etc.). So when you already have some time allocated to work on that certain piece, you just fix the issues you see/had left as a todo. It's commonly called "boy-scouting", because the idea is to leave everything better than you found it. It's not a super new concept in terms of development, but it's one that's been gaining a lot of popularity in the past few years.

So the answer is simple. They allocated time to the dhole to fix some of the animation/rig issues because it had a higher priority and tackled some of the model issues along with it. They haven't allocated time to the tapir (yet) because it doesn't have a high priority compared to other issues, so they didn't.
 

NZFanatic

NZFanatic
Iben said:
tapir not fully matching the animal in real life
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But that's not the issue with it. The issue with it is that it's a 1:1 reskin of the Baird's tapir. Either there are no changes to the model whatsoever or they're so miniscule that they aren't noticeable.

If it was just a problem of "not quite realistic enough" I doubt people would be worrying about it so much, because a lot of the animals have the problem of not fully matching the animal in real life (especially in the base game), but the Malayan tapir looks like they slapped a coat of paint on the Baird's and called it a day. My issue is that I can't understand how they can be proud of it and call it finished.
 

coatifan

coatifan
NZFanatic said:
Most of the base game animals could use a bit of a rework now. I'm hoping that they'll do something like this before support completely ends, to bring some of the older species in line with the newer ones, which just look phenomenal.

Stylisation is fine, but consistency is better. It's weird to have the lion, tigers, and snow leopard all look kind of cartoonish while the newer cats all look so spectacular.
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Yeah, I love the base game animals, but the DLC animals (especially from 2021 onwards) are just leaps and bounds ahead. I think it's unrealistic to expect a rework for most of the roster (I can maybe see lion, Malayan tapir, and a couple resizings like the camel and bison), but it's a nice idea. Personally, I'm so fond of most of the DLC animals for out-of-game reasons (I love South Asia, South Africa, North America, and Latin America's wildlife) that I barely find myself building for base-game animals at all.
 

Iben

Iben
NZFanatic said:
But that's not the issue with it. The issue with it is that it's a 1:1 reskin of the Baird's tapir. Either there are no changes to the model whatsoever or they're so miniscule that they aren't noticeable.

If it was just a problem of "not quite realistic enough" I doubt people would be worrying about it so much, because a lot of the animals have the problem of not fully matching the animal in real life (especially in the base game), but the Malayan tapir looks like they slapped a coat of paint on the Baird's and called it a day. My issue is that I can't understand how they can be proud of it and call it finished.
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Yeah well that's what I meant :p The fact that it's a 1:1 reskin means it isn't really what the animal is in real life. I have no issues with 1:1 reskins in itself, because there certainly are plenty of animals you can perfectly tackle with just a mere reskin. But I can understand the frustration to an extent here, because Bairds and Malayan tapirs differ too much to fall into that category.

Either way it is still irrelevant to the priority. I find it pretty logical that fixing an animal that distorts is the higher priority in this case.
 
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