Imo oceania currently isnt about whats needed but whats neat.
Id agree with most people that since oceania the bases are coverd, but similar to europe pre eurasia pack theres still some polish left to had.
Oceania is currently pretty bare bones, featuring mostly one animal for every region, maybe two, but thats it mostly.
Ofcourse like everywhere besides the americas and by now europe, exhibits are severly underdeveloped in quantity and basically a lost battle, but on the habitat side theres a bit more hope.
Priority nr 1 should be in any case to add the short beaked echidna. Besides being one of the more common australian mammals internationally and neatly putting a bow on the monotremes this guy hears australian and says mine. Look at this.
This is crazy literally everywhere, which is what we need. Every 1 will be a 2, every 2 a 3 and so one.
Next up on the surprisingly common in international collections and has a very wide range is the common brush tailed possum and where the shortbeaked echidna is rediculiously specific yet unspecific in how its used. Short beaked echidnas work as a filler animal, but the common brush tailed possum IS a filler animal and just like the quokka, thats amazing.
Australia is really missing just some random critters to fluff up its roster and the possum is in a prime position to be one of the best options.
It would also be very neat to have an aboreal animal that is not a koala, cause while the possum might not be equivalent of a monkey, when compared to a bear shaped marsupial sloth its still very agile in comparison. For example unlike koalas they can jump into a direction that isnt downwards.
The other two must have would be a monitor and a waterfowl, with both having 2 major tempting options.
For monitors our two prime candidates are the lace and the perentie, presenting the option between a more ballanced or a more hard winning approach.
Both chare the fact that they are good climbers, with the perentie also being a great digger, so they defenetly got something going on gameplay wise.
The perentie is also not that much less common then the lace, being everywhere comparable besides the fact that they are absent from europe besides israel while the lace has a decent population there.
Really the main difference between them is if we want to focus on the temperate east or the desert central and wester parts of australia with both having its pros and cons.
The main pro going for the perentie is the fact that it helps out the more underrepresented region, bosting the outback together with the echidna from just 3 animals in the red kangaroo, emu and dingo to 5, a quite decent number, but still the difference between 4 and 5 isnt that big. Most smaller sections are 3-4 animals, so reaching atleast 3 is the critical point, but anything above 4 is mostly just to pick and choose or to make it that tiny bit bigger. Meanwhile from ~7ish animals the appeal of a larger section rises again, therefore the appeal of the animals, leaving the 5. and 6. animal lowkey in the dust.
Meanwhile temperate australia is just there for that critical turning point, featuring with our two prior additions temperate australia goes up from 7 to 9 animals, moving past that critical point where larger and more elaborate areas are viable options. In addition to that, temperate australia will generally benefit more from most additions as there are just more possible additions to choose from in the much friendlier ecosystem then the harsh desert.
Both are completly valid options and it ends up with personal preferance, even if choosing both would be ideal without diminishing each other thanks to their quite different coloration and biome..
Regarding the waterfowl the discussion is atleast to me primarly between the magpie goose, a primitive anseriform that atleast to me looks more like an aquatic vulture and the beautiful black swan. Both got some clear pros and cons, but first the chared stuff. For one both are among the more common australian animals found internationally, especally the black swanand both would fill the niche of waterfowl, enritchting wetland areas the most with a third water scentric creature to add next to the saltie and platypus, but even more importantly they can serve as an ambience animal in ponds and waterfowl collections.
Their main differentiating factors are uniqueness and range.
The blackswans main triumph is the fact that it lives a little bit all over the place, being found in most places with water that are neither desert or tropical, aswell as tasmania. Meanwhile the magpie goose is mostly restricted to the tropical and suptropical wetlands of northern australia, aswell as a temperate coastral strip in southern australia during their breeding season, but also southern new guinea. Again just like the monitors both would work well next to each other if not even more so due to the larger differences in appearance, but the blackswan would do better for the temperate australia black aswell as the west, while the magpie goose would give the underdeleoped north and new guinea some love, both valid preferences, even if personally new guinea does edge the magpie goose out here.
Regarding uniqueness though, the black swan is as close to a clone as acceptable and the magpie goose is a complete freak, which again opens up pros and cons.
Would it be kinda boring if both of our waterfowl would be swans? Yes
Would they still work really well together? Also yes
The cost factor of the black swan severly favors it regarding acual liklihood, meanwhile the magpiegoose would just be the more interesting standalone animal, especally as colouring the mute swans feathers black and the beak red sounds like a prime modder job.
On the other hand if we would get a hypothetical austalia 3 pack down the line, the black swan would eliviate financial pressure and allow more time and budget to flow into the other content of the pack, which really cant hurt regarding the shortbeaked king of uganda or our first climbing habitat reptiles, so as most things in life its a give or take.
But these are atleast my two cents on the matter of what i, a non oceanian, would prioritise in another oceania/australia focused pack if we are talking about just fleshing out the region to get to a spot where it feels like atleast mainland australia needs nothing else to add.
Sure there are still great animals to add to the surrounding islands like the victoria crowned pidgeon, pig nosed turtle and especally tree kangaroo to new guinea or the kunekune pig to new zealand. but thats just what happens when grouping such diverse and different ecosystems together. Sometimes some have to be cut short and from a discussion standpoint, i sang all threes praises enough before, slapping them together with the echidna might be efficent, but also boring and wouldnt tackle the main problem of lack of polish oceania has. Id rather have a polished up australia with okayish representation for new guinea instead of an okayish representation for both, even if i really really love new guinea and its fauna and would have no problem with an entire new guinea pack
