Quetzalcoatlus is one of the coolest additions to the game, yet with the second highest base appeal of 2400, I am surprised how easy it is to acquire this pterosaur to your park via research and excavation, and how just how many you could enclose in an aviary.
There is this cool process of getting high-appealing animals in the game via research, as it takes some effort to acquire the animal which makes it very satisfying to have in the park. The more value the animal could bring to your park, the harder it is to research the animal. They could cost millions of dollars, would require multiple skilled scientists, are often at the end of dinosaur research branches with some prerequisites like dinosaur fights, housing a number of animals, star ratings, collecting other dino DNA, and would take some time for the research to be completed.
Not only that, but even if you got the animal researched, they would still need to have the fossils dug up, which often takes multiple trips that cost millions of dollars per trip. Only after you incubated the animal does it feel satisfying to go through the process of garnering the giant boost in appeal.
However, the quetzalcoatlus is too easy to acquire and enclose for such high appeal:
• You could get her as soon as 2 stars, as that is when players could research the aviary, with the only prerequisite being to research the Tapejara.
• It costs $500,000 to research her, with staff skilled at 3 Logistics and 12 Genetics, and no other prerequisites like achieving a star rating, housing a number of pterosaurs in your park, or anything unique like building an aviary with at least 5 modules.
• The costs of excavation would set you back by $540,000 per trip with a logistics requirement of 4, while other excavations for such animals would require high logistics with costs nearing or in the millions per trip.
So the effort to acquire the quetzalcoatlus is very straightforward and easy, with the only setback being the expensive cost of synthesizing and incubation, as well as the time it takes to synthesize and incubate, which is not uncommon among the highly appealing animals.
Housing the animal is almost just as easy.
I made an experiment to compare the quetzalcoatlus with the mosasaurus, as they are comparable in star appeal with the mosasaurus only being higher by 100 points for a total appeal of 2500.
The rule is that the enclosure is only meant to be 7 units in size, with the modules forming a hexagonal aviary and lagoon, and the alpha of each species has a humble trait so that we could place in as many members of the species as possible within the appropriate enclosure and not have them be uncomfortable. All other environmental needs would otherwise be met.
With the mosasaurus, I am only able to place in 2 in said hexagonal enclosure, with them not even having enough space to be in perfect comfort, at 86%.
With only two mosasaurs at 2500 appeal each, this makes this enclosure house a total dino appeal of 5000.
As for the quetzalcoatlus hexagonal aviary:
There are 9 members in this aviary, with only needing an additional pterosaur to lower the area environmental need, so you could squeeze in a few more at the risk of losing the perfect comfort of 100%.
This means that the aviary houses a total dino appeal of 21600, more than 4 times that of the hexagonal mosasaur lagoon!
Since aviary modules already cover smaller land foundation than lagoon modules, you are effectively able to have such a high dino rating in an otherwise tight space.
At least in my experience, this feels wrong, as the quetzalcoatlus that should feel more like a goal to reach and a challenge to maintain feels like a quick way to get a high star rating with little consequence from the player's end. Not to mention that, unlike the mosasaur, you could house in other pterosaurs like the Tapejara and dimorphodon to add further dino appeal to the enclosure. Most other animals in such high appeal would otherwise need a lot of space, have more demanding and potentially conflicting environmental needs, or are very territorial to balance out the dino appeal in the enclosure. This then makes a quetzal aviary very tempting in challenge mode as it basically lets you gain high appeal in a short amount of time, nullifying any challenge once you have set up a means to grow your quetzal population.
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In the end, I just think the quetzalcoatlus needs to be rebalanced, in a way that would make the player put in the effort to research, dig, and unlock the giant pterosaur, as well as make it more demanding with the environmental needs. I feel it currently loses a bit of luster by having it be so easy to research, dig, and house in an enclosure. With a base rating of 2400, I feel the effort needed to acquire and house the animal should be on par with the more challenging animals in JWE2. To have her more of a rewarding end goal than a means for quick appeal.
Do let me know what you think, and thanks for reading.
There is this cool process of getting high-appealing animals in the game via research, as it takes some effort to acquire the animal which makes it very satisfying to have in the park. The more value the animal could bring to your park, the harder it is to research the animal. They could cost millions of dollars, would require multiple skilled scientists, are often at the end of dinosaur research branches with some prerequisites like dinosaur fights, housing a number of animals, star ratings, collecting other dino DNA, and would take some time for the research to be completed.
Not only that, but even if you got the animal researched, they would still need to have the fossils dug up, which often takes multiple trips that cost millions of dollars per trip. Only after you incubated the animal does it feel satisfying to go through the process of garnering the giant boost in appeal.
However, the quetzalcoatlus is too easy to acquire and enclose for such high appeal:
• You could get her as soon as 2 stars, as that is when players could research the aviary, with the only prerequisite being to research the Tapejara.
• It costs $500,000 to research her, with staff skilled at 3 Logistics and 12 Genetics, and no other prerequisites like achieving a star rating, housing a number of pterosaurs in your park, or anything unique like building an aviary with at least 5 modules.
• The costs of excavation would set you back by $540,000 per trip with a logistics requirement of 4, while other excavations for such animals would require high logistics with costs nearing or in the millions per trip.
So the effort to acquire the quetzalcoatlus is very straightforward and easy, with the only setback being the expensive cost of synthesizing and incubation, as well as the time it takes to synthesize and incubate, which is not uncommon among the highly appealing animals.
Housing the animal is almost just as easy.
I made an experiment to compare the quetzalcoatlus with the mosasaurus, as they are comparable in star appeal with the mosasaurus only being higher by 100 points for a total appeal of 2500.
The rule is that the enclosure is only meant to be 7 units in size, with the modules forming a hexagonal aviary and lagoon, and the alpha of each species has a humble trait so that we could place in as many members of the species as possible within the appropriate enclosure and not have them be uncomfortable. All other environmental needs would otherwise be met.
With the mosasaurus, I am only able to place in 2 in said hexagonal enclosure, with them not even having enough space to be in perfect comfort, at 86%.
With only two mosasaurs at 2500 appeal each, this makes this enclosure house a total dino appeal of 5000.
As for the quetzalcoatlus hexagonal aviary:
There are 9 members in this aviary, with only needing an additional pterosaur to lower the area environmental need, so you could squeeze in a few more at the risk of losing the perfect comfort of 100%.
This means that the aviary houses a total dino appeal of 21600, more than 4 times that of the hexagonal mosasaur lagoon!
Since aviary modules already cover smaller land foundation than lagoon modules, you are effectively able to have such a high dino rating in an otherwise tight space.
At least in my experience, this feels wrong, as the quetzalcoatlus that should feel more like a goal to reach and a challenge to maintain feels like a quick way to get a high star rating with little consequence from the player's end. Not to mention that, unlike the mosasaur, you could house in other pterosaurs like the Tapejara and dimorphodon to add further dino appeal to the enclosure. Most other animals in such high appeal would otherwise need a lot of space, have more demanding and potentially conflicting environmental needs, or are very territorial to balance out the dino appeal in the enclosure. This then makes a quetzal aviary very tempting in challenge mode as it basically lets you gain high appeal in a short amount of time, nullifying any challenge once you have set up a means to grow your quetzal population.
----------------
In the end, I just think the quetzalcoatlus needs to be rebalanced, in a way that would make the player put in the effort to research, dig, and unlock the giant pterosaur, as well as make it more demanding with the environmental needs. I feel it currently loses a bit of luster by having it be so easy to research, dig, and house in an enclosure. With a base rating of 2400, I feel the effort needed to acquire and house the animal should be on par with the more challenging animals in JWE2. To have her more of a rewarding end goal than a means for quick appeal.
Do let me know what you think, and thanks for reading.
