Here's a somewhat of a sequel to the: Natural History DLC. If last idea was scenery pack focused on props and building pieces with update focused on guests, this idea will be an animal pack and accompanying update will focus more on animals. I wanted to continue the trend of tying animals to discoverers and history, so since this is an animal pack it will have broader theme: Old and New World in terms of Age of Discovery.
To continue forward let's define what both terms are covering using Wikipedia:
Old World: ''...In the context of archaeology and world history, the term "Old World" includes those parts of the world which were in (indirect) cultural contact from the Bronze Age onwards, resulting in the parallel development of the early civilizations, mostly in the temperate zone between roughly the 45th and 25th parallels north, in the area of the Mediterranean, including North Africa. It also included Mesopotamia, the Persian plateau, the Indian subcontinent, China, and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa...''
New World: ''...The term New World is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. The term gained prominence in the early 16th century, during Europe's Age of Discovery, shortly after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci concluded that America (now often called the Americas) represented a new continent...''
So animals in this pack can come from all the places mentioned above. I personally see it as perfect opportunity to tackle two of the game most underrepresented regions: MENA (Middle East/North Africa) and South and Central America. I will try to keep list as realistic as possible, even tho one would be tempted to fill it with an Old World Porucpine and 7 New World Monkeys. I will restrict myself to three picks from Meta Wishlist TOP 20
ANIMALS
-Dromedary Camel - Animal that embodies whole of Middle East and North Africa in itself. Long time coming.
-Ocelot - Colorful, fairly small and pretty popular pick for obligatory carnivoran of DLC.
-South American Coati - This and the next pick would be tied for community favorite spot of the pack. Feel like this is fair compensation for unlikely second monkey of pack.
-Geoffroy’s Spider Monkey - Personal pick for, oh so needed, South and Central American Monkey in game.
-Addax - Appearance, conservative status and range should sell this species well enough. I needed, however, horned Old World species to go along update I have planned below.
-Rock Hyrax - We're into oddball territory now. Unique taxonomy pushed this one in the pack.
-Patagonian Mara - Now oddball swings into New World as well. However I believe it would be loveable.
-Common Chameleon (E) - To even the score with four species in NW, I choose Chameleon species present on all three continents of Old World.
FREE UPDATE
No scenery in animal packs so the transition to the update is quick. This update could or would be one of the biggest updates, for me personally, if it could be executed right. Accompanying this pack would be animal physical uniqueness update that would strive to make each individual animal more unique. I feel like frontier made some great steps in that direction with color morphs and color mutations. I would continue walking down that road with targeting first and foremost:
Horns, Tusks and Antlers
The easiest way to tackle this topic is to go after animals with most striking physical features in shape of horns, tusks and antlers. Simplest changes to this features would give your animals whole new ''personality'' with enough options. I feel this could ''reintroduce'' some of the older animals in game and zoos as if they were brand new DLC additions. Animals that could be affected by this update would be: Elephants, Hippos, Rhinos, Deers, Antelopes, Bovines and Caprids. Just like color morphs and variations these would be randomly generated with variable levels of rarity. These are the ways I would go about implementing this kind of enrichment:
Size
Just like we have variety in different colors, variable in size of tusks and horns would go a great way to breath new life into our animals. I chose Hippo with enlarged tusks and Moose with somewhat smaller antlers to show how different ''feel'' these new adjustments give to the animals.
Variety
Next to size different variety of shapes is the other thing that would enrich our animals greatly and give them unique feel. More ''branches'' to antlers, or less, different curve to the horn, straightening the tusks are some of the possibilities where this one could go.
Damage
Damaged or half broken tusks and antlers give a feeling of personal history to that one animal in your zoo. It prompts whole new story for your residents. One team that did mods for ZT2 actually successfully pulled this off in one of their Elephants/Mammoths pack, where each bought animal would randomly generate different tusks.
Human Element
This one I am not that sure about, or how well it would go with childs game, but I still choose to suggest it. If anything it could have highly educational effect on younger players. By human element I mean hunting and poaching. Ideas for this could be Rhinos with sewed off horns, elephants with missing tusks...It could even add more of a conservative or rehabilitation aspect to the game.
Patterns, manes and tails
Other different ways of implementing more physical differentiations could be patterns (big cats, giraffes, wild dogs...), manes (that would be specific to lions) and I don't mean colors (which would also be welcomed), but shape, volume and whatnot. Tails could be another factor: Wolves with shorter tails, Foxes and Raccoons with longer and fluffier tails, different lengths of Monitor tails...
SANDBOX SLIDERS
Final but one of the most important (for me) parts of this update would be the Sandbox ''Animal adoption Sliders''. These would help you pick perfect specimen for your zoo. Not realistic at all, but if anything, in true nature of Sandbox mode, where you can escape animal shop and randomness it brings. In these sliders you could pick and choose age, size, fertility, color morphs, variations and any potential physical changes this fictional update would bring.
That would be it for this idea. As always I would love to hear your opinion and what would you remove or add?
To continue forward let's define what both terms are covering using Wikipedia:
Old World: ''...In the context of archaeology and world history, the term "Old World" includes those parts of the world which were in (indirect) cultural contact from the Bronze Age onwards, resulting in the parallel development of the early civilizations, mostly in the temperate zone between roughly the 45th and 25th parallels north, in the area of the Mediterranean, including North Africa. It also included Mesopotamia, the Persian plateau, the Indian subcontinent, China, and parts of Sub-Saharan Africa...''
New World: ''...The term New World is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. The term gained prominence in the early 16th century, during Europe's Age of Discovery, shortly after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci concluded that America (now often called the Americas) represented a new continent...''
So animals in this pack can come from all the places mentioned above. I personally see it as perfect opportunity to tackle two of the game most underrepresented regions: MENA (Middle East/North Africa) and South and Central America. I will try to keep list as realistic as possible, even tho one would be tempted to fill it with an Old World Porucpine and 7 New World Monkeys. I will restrict myself to three picks from Meta Wishlist TOP 20
ANIMALS
-Dromedary Camel - Animal that embodies whole of Middle East and North Africa in itself. Long time coming.
-Ocelot - Colorful, fairly small and pretty popular pick for obligatory carnivoran of DLC.
-South American Coati - This and the next pick would be tied for community favorite spot of the pack. Feel like this is fair compensation for unlikely second monkey of pack.
-Geoffroy’s Spider Monkey - Personal pick for, oh so needed, South and Central American Monkey in game.
-Addax - Appearance, conservative status and range should sell this species well enough. I needed, however, horned Old World species to go along update I have planned below.
-Rock Hyrax - We're into oddball territory now. Unique taxonomy pushed this one in the pack.
-Patagonian Mara - Now oddball swings into New World as well. However I believe it would be loveable.
-Common Chameleon (E) - To even the score with four species in NW, I choose Chameleon species present on all three continents of Old World.
FREE UPDATE
No scenery in animal packs so the transition to the update is quick. This update could or would be one of the biggest updates, for me personally, if it could be executed right. Accompanying this pack would be animal physical uniqueness update that would strive to make each individual animal more unique. I feel like frontier made some great steps in that direction with color morphs and color mutations. I would continue walking down that road with targeting first and foremost:
Horns, Tusks and Antlers
The easiest way to tackle this topic is to go after animals with most striking physical features in shape of horns, tusks and antlers. Simplest changes to this features would give your animals whole new ''personality'' with enough options. I feel this could ''reintroduce'' some of the older animals in game and zoos as if they were brand new DLC additions. Animals that could be affected by this update would be: Elephants, Hippos, Rhinos, Deers, Antelopes, Bovines and Caprids. Just like color morphs and variations these would be randomly generated with variable levels of rarity. These are the ways I would go about implementing this kind of enrichment:
Size
Just like we have variety in different colors, variable in size of tusks and horns would go a great way to breath new life into our animals. I chose Hippo with enlarged tusks and Moose with somewhat smaller antlers to show how different ''feel'' these new adjustments give to the animals.
Variety
Next to size different variety of shapes is the other thing that would enrich our animals greatly and give them unique feel. More ''branches'' to antlers, or less, different curve to the horn, straightening the tusks are some of the possibilities where this one could go.
Damage
Damaged or half broken tusks and antlers give a feeling of personal history to that one animal in your zoo. It prompts whole new story for your residents. One team that did mods for ZT2 actually successfully pulled this off in one of their Elephants/Mammoths pack, where each bought animal would randomly generate different tusks.
Human Element
This one I am not that sure about, or how well it would go with childs game, but I still choose to suggest it. If anything it could have highly educational effect on younger players. By human element I mean hunting and poaching. Ideas for this could be Rhinos with sewed off horns, elephants with missing tusks...It could even add more of a conservative or rehabilitation aspect to the game.
Patterns, manes and tails
Other different ways of implementing more physical differentiations could be patterns (big cats, giraffes, wild dogs...), manes (that would be specific to lions) and I don't mean colors (which would also be welcomed), but shape, volume and whatnot. Tails could be another factor: Wolves with shorter tails, Foxes and Raccoons with longer and fluffier tails, different lengths of Monitor tails...
SANDBOX SLIDERS
Final but one of the most important (for me) parts of this update would be the Sandbox ''Animal adoption Sliders''. These would help you pick perfect specimen for your zoo. Not realistic at all, but if anything, in true nature of Sandbox mode, where you can escape animal shop and randomness it brings. In these sliders you could pick and choose age, size, fertility, color morphs, variations and any potential physical changes this fictional update would bring.
That would be it for this idea. As always I would love to hear your opinion and what would you remove or add?
I would prefer the blackbuck to the addax as well.
