Yep exactly
The Planet Zoo Award Show | Season 2
- Thread starter CharlieXGaming
- Start date
For the best bang for your buck, I'm torn between the Grasslands pack and NAAP. Both had animals that there all near perfect and are very useful...TOP 6!
After more than 2 months building the top, we have finally cut 16 packs down to 6! This is where we get into the hard hitting categories.
Now each round one by one will eliminate 1 pack each time, until we get to the Final 3.
In the show schedule (original post), I’ve left these next 3 rounds a mystery. Let’s start with the first one:
Best Pack to Recommend
April 27th - 30th
If someone who didn’t have any of the DLCs wanted to buy one, assuming they had no special preferences, which out of the top 6 would you recommend?
Top 6:
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Only because it has local animals I've seen before, imma go with NAAP
Regarding best pack for pieces, Aquatic has the faux rocks, so that
For this category we merged the Animal and Scenery packs together so unfortunately you can only choose 1 out of the 6.
I'll go with grasslands, the animal choice is actually one of the best out of all the packs for anyone wanting just a good set of animals.
I like this category. Makes you think a bit.
I think I would recommend the Conservation pack. Got a leopard, a horse, monkey and cool-looking antelope. And a build set that really hits the "eco-friendly" build theme I've seen in quite a few zoos.
I think I would recommend the Conservation pack. Got a leopard, a horse, monkey and cool-looking antelope. And a build set that really hits the "eco-friendly" build theme I've seen in quite a few zoos.
North America seems to add the most taxonomic variety! However, I would go with South America. Its far from one of my favorites... but on an objective level it adds: A hoofstock, a big cat, a Monkey, and the Giant Anteater. All of which are from an area almost ignored in base game. I also think the scenery is iconic yet themed so its exotic. Trying to be objective is hard...
Right!
Aquatic. IMO it adds the most unique content and is the most versatile, especially for someone who doesn't have the other DLCS. Its the best all rounder for both pieces and animals.
From the "assuming they had no special preferences" bit of the instructions, I would not know the nationality of the person buying one pack. The first pack I would usually recommend to people is their local pack if there is one. Familiar animals make good starting points for learning building techniques. Also, real-life zoos tend to feature more local species, so it helps add a bit of realism when people inevitably try to construct local zoos. I would also recommend ignoring other people's tier lists of DLCs and instead focusing on the animals you personally love and want to build for, but for the purposes of this contest:
- Aquatic Animal Pack: The second pack I would recommend is the Aquatic Pack because it has a bunch of useful rocks, plants, and building pieces. It also has a good set of animals that will use the deep diving mechanic to give players a full experience.
- South America Pack: The third pack I would recommend is the South America Pack. Even more than the aquatic pack, I have trouble imagining playing without it. These animals are very central to South American sections, and I strongly recommend this one.
- Grasslands Animal Pack: Australia is the other continent that was snubbed in the base game, so I'd imagine most players would want a kangaroo/wallaby and an Australian ratite. The Australia pack fills that region's gaps even better, but this pack also comes with stuff for South America and the Middle East. The fourth pack I would recommend would be either this one or the Australia Pack.
- Conservation Animal Pack: The fifth must-have pack would be the one with the gibbon and the backstage pieces. Keeper areas are fun to build, and this pack really fleshes out that experience.
- North American Animal Pack: Finally, the base game was missing temperate animals. For that, I would first recommend the North American Animal Pack, which is my personal favorite. It comes with a wide variety of animals, including a borrower, 3 deep divers, and an arctic critter. This roster is excellent. However, I understand that some players from other regions don't really care for North American species. The Europe pack also has a good selection of animals and an excellent scenery set. For the sixth pack, I would be sure to pick up at least one of these.
- Twilight: This is not among the top packs I would recommend to a person without any DLCs. I like it a lot and think it really helps the small mammal roster, but there are other packs that are better received and more likely to make them happy.
Call me if you need a tiebreaker
I can’t pick because the options don’t stand out as a recommendation over another to new players.
1. SA: personally loved. The builds I don’t think are good for a new player. Animals great though.
2. AQ: gives the new player a chance to understand aquatic animals and better rock choices. Might want a better understanding of normal animals first.
3. NA: one of my favorite animal dlcs. Good amount of biodiversity. With its aquatics and different requirements, I don’t think it’s the best for a new player.
4. Con: good Scenary and props. Idk
5. Grasslands: great choices and different diversity from across the globe. Great selection but isn’t too new for players who have gotten used to base game.
6. Twilight: while it gives us our first WTE, I just say no because no.
I can’t pick because the options don’t stand out as a recommendation over another to new players.
1. SA: personally loved. The builds I don’t think are good for a new player. Animals great though.
2. AQ: gives the new player a chance to understand aquatic animals and better rock choices. Might want a better understanding of normal animals first.
3. NA: one of my favorite animal dlcs. Good amount of biodiversity. With its aquatics and different requirements, I don’t think it’s the best for a new player.
4. Con: good Scenary and props. Idk
5. Grasslands: great choices and different diversity from across the globe. Great selection but isn’t too new for players who have gotten used to base game.
6. Twilight: while it gives us our first WTE, I just say no because no.
Wait a minute.. i just realized this. How did Twilight got in there but Wetlands was eliminated??
After more than 2 months building the top, we have finally cut 16 packs down to 6! This is where we get into the hard hitting categories.
Now each round one by one will eliminate 1 pack each time, until we get to the Final 3.
In the show schedule (original post), I’ve left these next 3 rounds a mystery. Let’s start with the first one:
Best Pack to Recommend
April 27th - 30th
If someone who didn’t have any of the DLCs wanted to buy one, assuming they had no special preferences, which 1 out of the top 6 would you recommend?
Top 6:
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Aquatic
None of them.
After more than 2 months building the top, we have finally cut 16 packs down to 6! This is where we get into the hard hitting categories.
Now each round one by one will eliminate 1 pack each time, until we get to the Final 3.
In the show schedule (original post), I’ve left these next 3 rounds a mystery. Let’s start with the first one:
Best Pack to Recommend
April 27th - 30th
If someone who didn’t have any of the DLCs wanted to buy one, assuming they had no special preferences, which 1 out of the top 6 would you recommend?
Top 6:
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None of these packs are actually that good of a fit for a new player without anything else.
The best standalone packs for a new player are those that bring something exciting that the basegame doesnt offer while also not being frustrating to build for while also helping them to learn the game and having a near universal appeal. No use for a dlc the person could not be interested in using.
So lets go pack by pack why i think they arnt that great.
North America gets the first strike as it only adds north american animals which means if your from NA and want to create a local animals area great if not not so much.
I can only speak for myself but most people tend to start with africa as its THE zoo area and also the only well represented one in the base game. Add no scenery and id simply tell them only by this if you activly want to build for one of the animals.
Next up grasslands, for a new player besides the wallaby and emu all these animals are super niche or dont have the backbone to function. Sure build an SA area with just tapir, tortoise, maned wolf and armadillo, have fun! Caracal and striped hyena are niche compared to cheetah, hyena and wild dog and the wilderbeast allways was redundant. The butterflies are cool, but butterflies + emu and wallaby are all id recommend here with again no scrnery to save it.
Twillight is a great pack with great animals and scenery, buuut not as a first pack. The animals are fine, but again the wombat is left alone and the other 3 boil down to europe/na areas. The scenery also mostly shines with good metall piecess, door pieces and a nice freshup on european plants... but thats all stuff either harder for a newer player to use or understand why its so neat.
Conservation added my favorite scenery theme, but when your a new player are you gonna get excited about backstage pieces, flowers and wooden planks?
And the gridded pieces are straight ugly.
Animal wise horse, antelope and yellow snow leopard arnt that special compared to basegame and i wont recommend a pack only for the most finicky monkey to build for.
Aquatic and South america are good enough, but both still wouldnt be my first choice.
Lets be real, standalone giant otter and cuviers dwarf caiman suck if they only have bairds tapir and the tortoise to fall back on.
Penguin and Seal are great though and should be exciting for all kinds of players.
Scenery is also good with very good gridded pieces and the faux pieces beibg next to essential and easy to use.
So quite nice honestly
South america has the opposite though, with all animals being great with the jaguar being the weakest, building a great basis for south america and adding the games only new world monkey. Scenery is garbage though besides the thin bamboo pieces.
So of these 6, id say its aquatic but in general?
Australia and it isnt close.
First of regarding animals, as a two animal powerhouse the kangaroo and Koala are among the strongest with similar general appeal as penguin and seal.
Cassowary is also a nice choice and the dingo gets carried.
But the real star is the scenery.
Gridded pieces? Amazing, one of the prettiest wall sets and a simplistic and easy to use roof
Plants? This pack is basicly required for any australian plant representation
Other pieces? The metall is a god send and unlike the twillight packs very easy to use.
From the perspective of a beginner that has nothing australia is all around the best standalone pack as it offers great yet easy to use scenery, animal appealing to allnost anyone and building up a strong base for more australian additions. Without this pack animals like the wombat or platypus are way less usefull on their own, not to mention the oceania pack, so it also does arguably the best job of all packs together with south america to prepare for incoming additions to make sure they have a basis to stand one instead of being whatever content
Agree with the animals but for me the scenery in the Australia pack kinda sucks. The plants become way less usable once we got the stuff from the Oceania pack, and the grid pieces in the pack I almost never use, the metal grid walls look very cartoonish compared to other walls imo.
But while I’m here I might as well cast my vote, and I’m going to say Conservation. Out of the 6 I think this one is the most useful in a general sense. The siamang being the most unique adds something different to the primate roster from the base game, and the leopard adds a big cat from Asia alongside the snow leopard that is a more tundra animal. The other 2 (horse and oryx) hold great conservational stories and are great add ins for Asian filler sections, especially having one as iconic as the Przewalski’s Horse. The scenery while most is backstage, I feel like the average player would use this stuff in the majority of builds in stuff like shelters. The foliage is also really good providing stuff like the Yorkshire grass and the sunflowers, very useful iconic types of foliage. Aquatic pack is a close runner up, but Conservation animals are also better quality which slightly edges aquatic out.
I also vote for Conservation pack. Actually for the same reasons mentioned above by Charlie, I don't have much to add. Maybe an extra point for the axolotl aka my fav exhibit animal in the game.
Conservation and Tropical are two sets I actually bought for my friend as a gift and she was very happy with both. Tropical because she loves RRH and Conservation because it's the best DLC
Conservation and Tropical are two sets I actually bought for my friend as a gift and she was very happy with both. Tropical because she loves RRH and Conservation because it's the best DLC
The corrugated walls are actually pretty good for what they are, they really need to be paired with other metal pieces such as metal beams from the australia pack or girder beams to bring out the corrugated metal textures. I agree with on their own, they do look a bit cartoonish. An example of a proper use of corrugated walls I've built is the cooling towers I did for the air conditioning packs:
Grasslands.
After more than 2 months building the top, we have finally cut 16 packs down to 6! This is where we get into the hard hitting categories.
Now each round one by one will eliminate 1 pack each time, until we get to the Final 3.
In the show schedule (original post), I’ve left these next 3 rounds a mystery. Let’s start with the first one:
Best Pack to Recommend
April 27th - 30th
If someone who didn’t have any of the DLCs wanted to buy one, assuming they had no special preferences, which 1 out of the top 6 would you recommend?
Top 6:
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This is hard. I'm going to say Aquatic pack based on that we are assuming they didn't have any of the DLCs.