THE GEM OF LAOS - Aekuamani National Park, Laos

[brittle owl]

Welcome to Northern Laos, and to the Annamite Mountains! Due to your expertise as a tracker, you have been called in to search for rare and endangered species of animals, such as the Indochinese Tiger, Indochinese Leopard, and Saola, to see if we have any of these species within the reserve. We also have a multitude of other species such as the Gaur, Sun Bear, and one of the only wild Banteng herds in mainland Asia.
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Animals:

Mammals:

Returning:
Northern Red Muntjac (C2)
Wild Boar (C5)
Sambar Deer (C7)
Banteng (C9)

New:
Burmese Hare (C1)
Lesser Mouse Deer (C1)
Asian Golden Cat (C2)
Marbled Cat (C2)
Binturong (C2)
Clouded Leopard (C3)
Chinese Goral (C3)
Mainland Serow (C4)
Saola (C4) (LOW POPULATION)
Sun Bear (C5)
Elds Deer (C6)
Asiatic Black Bear (C7)
Indochinese Leopard (C7)
Gaur (C9)
Asian Elephant (C10)

Birds:

New:
Cotton Pygmy Goose (C1)
Eastern Spot-Bill Duck (C1)
Falcated Duck (C1)
Red Junglefowl (C1)
Siamese Fireback (C1)
Silver Pheasant (C1)
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The new reserve weapon would be the Simonov SKS, chambered in 7.62x39mm (Class 2 - 5)
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The Siamese Fireback (Left) and Silver Pheasant (Right) are rather large Pheasant species which live in thick jungle habitats.

Therefore, they would act more like Turkeys or Capercaillie, not needing to be shot off the ground in order to keep the harvest check.

The Simonov SKS Carbine is the reserves weapon. It is a Semi-Automatic rifle that has become rather popular among hunters as a Sporting Rifle.

It was also widely used by the Laotian Armed Forces after the Vietnam War, leading to a surplus of this particular weapon.

Due to these reasons, I decided to choose this as an interesting piece of history, somewhat like the Gandhare Rifle.

[gloomy girder]

Would like to See a Blue peacock aswell

[brittle owl]

Blue Peafowl are not found in Laos, with their nearest population being about 1200 KM.

Green Peafowl are occasionally seen in Laos, but very rarely, and are not thought to have a breeding population within the country.,

[gloomy girder]

Oh okay Google said they live there but thanks

[sturdy thicket]

Nice

[neon tinsel]

YES THIS IS EXACTLY what I'd wanna see. We need a Leopard so bad and if not African, Indochinese works.

[brittle owl]

Tbh I’m surprised that they didn’t add Indian Leopards with Sundar, although seeing that they had Tigers already I guess it makes sense. Seeing as the Indochinese Tiger has been thought to be Extirpated from Laos, it makes sense that we add Leopards to the map instead.

[neon tinsel]

The fun thing about Indochinese Leopards too is that in some areas like 85% of them are melanistic, definitely a unique hunting experience where mela is common

[brittle owl]

Yeah, that would make for a unique thing. It’d kinda be like Jaguars I guess, where Mela could be a Common or Uncommon fur type

[neon tinsel]

Course you could still have rare fur types like silver and strawberry

[brittle owl]

I also found this image of a Taxidermy Leopard. It says Albino but it looks more Leucistic to me.

[neon tinsel]

Oh yeah that one, could be either cause what makes their rosettes in addition to color is a difference in texture, hence even melanistic ones have visible spots

[frail rampart]

This is an amazing concept! If Leopards are gonna get added into the game it's either the second Africa map or another Asia map

[gusty holly]

Most likely leucistic I don’t think there’s a proven case of albinism in the Panthera genus from what I can find aside from very old but questionable records.

[brittle owl]

Thank you! It was actually your Japan idea that reminded me of the possibilities we have in Asian Reserves. Laos could fill in Indochina really well, along with Malaysia.

[frail rampart]

Yeah Asia needs some love and with Sundar the possibilities are many

[brittle owl]

I was originally thinking of including Asian Elephants with this map as there are between 700 - 1200 wild Elephants in Laos, but idk if a lot of people would be up for having Asian Elephants because of how endangered they are.

[neon tinsel]

To be explicitly clear Sundar needs a lot more. It's almost pathetic.

[brittle owl]

I have added Red Junglefowl as a Huntable species on the map

[wicked spindle]

Love this

[neon tinsel]

Instead of two Spot-bill Ducks, I'd suggest the Cotton Pygmy Goose for one of them

[brittle owl]

I’ve been thinking of adding Asian Elephants to the map, as Laos does have between 700 - 1200 wild Asian Elephants.

I’ll make it a vote:
Reply to this message with 👍 for Yes
Reply to this message with 👎 for no

[neon tinsel]

Asian Elephant is cool because females don't have tusks/they are very small, so far less incentive to hunt them.

[brittle owl]

Good idea. I saw them on the Wikipedia page for Birds in Laos but didn’t really think of putting them. They’d probably be more interesting than 2 species of near identical Spot-Bills

[brittle owl]

And the Bulls can have rather large tusks as well, as seen by this image.

I think that this map would be one of the best places to introduce Asian Elephants if they were to ever add them. Laos has the 6th largest Asian Elephant population, and seeing as we’re very unlikely to ever get an Indian map as we already have Nepal, it would work nicely.

Nepal has only about 260 Wild Elephants, so I don’t feel they’d work as well on Sundarpatan.

[neon tinsel]

Would be cool for taxidermy too

[brittle owl]

Agreed. I also think an Asian Elephant would fit far better in our current lodge as they could fit on Massive Platforms very easily, and could probably also fit on Extra Large platforms.

They’re huge, but not African Bush Elephant huge.

[neon tinsel]

Imagine a mount that's an Asian Elephant bull facing off with a tiger - especially if the Tigers get a much-needed rework.

[brittle owl]

Tbh the tigers just need a size change. Their models look amazing, but they are far too small. A large tiger should outsize a Lion by a good margin (then again, if Lions get a rework they need to be far smaller).

[neon tinsel]

Yep, then have the Snow Leopard, and then Leopard added with this map our big cat list rocks.

[brittle owl]

The only other big cat we’d need would be the Jaguar (and maybe African Leopard as they are a different subspecies and they are slightly larger than the Indochinese Leopard).

[neon tinsel]

Maybe, but I wouldn't hold out for the African Leopard personally 💀

[brittle owl]

I’d much prefer Cheetahs on another African map over Leopards if we get an Asiatic Leopard Subspecies.

I know this map already has a ton of species, currently sitting at 23, but I have more species that I think would work well. I’ll hold off on adding them for now, but they include:

The Dhole
The Rhesus Macaque
The Asian Small-Clawed Otter

[neon tinsel]

Dhole and Rhesus Macaque should've been on Sundar even!

I actually really like how FarCry 4 handled dholes, and I imagine they'd be really similar in COTW if we ever got them.

Not sure I'd want Asian Small-clawed Otter over Eurasian Otter. Plus this map already has a lot of small game, so maybe no Otter at all.

[brittle owl]

Dhole would fit well on Sundar as they can survive in a variety of Habitats (likely being present in both Terai and Pahad).

The Rhesus Macaque should be present on any South Asian map in my opinion, as they’re considered a pest throughout most of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Myanmar, and Pakistan. They’re widely hunted throughout most of Southeast Asia for both meat and to protect agricultural plants.

[neon tinsel]

Yessss it's such a miss they weren't put in.

[brittle owl]

It could be because they’re Primates, and the hunting of Primates is generally a sensitive topic, but seeing as they’re a massive pest (a dangerous one at that seeing as they’re not only spread disease but attack people regularly), they probably should’ve been added.

[neon tinsel]

Absolutely, especially since a lot of Sundar's story is about human-wildlife conflict

[brittle owl]

I’d image the missions of this map would be similar. I’m still thinking them out but I want to somehow include the Saola in them. I originally wanted to include them as a Huntable species, but seeing as how they have not been seen by researchers in nigh on 12 years, o thought that would be too unrealistic.

Still, they are heavily affected by human hunting and encroachment onto their remote mountain habitats. At least a POI on the map referencing them would be nice.

[neon tinsel]

Okay okay it's maybe an actual fever dream but I was thinking Saola too. Make it comparable to snow leopard in Rarity.

[brittle owl]

I wouldn’t be opposed, although I’m unsure of what others would think. Then again, I know very few people that have even heard of them, so perhaps many wouldn’t care.

There’s a lot of species I want to include in the missions, such as the Kouprey. They wouldn’t be a Huntable species as they’re almost certainly Extinct but still.

[neon tinsel]

Maybe revolve the Gaur storyline around them? Like "we don't want to lose these too, so hunting gives us extra funding etc" maybe one of the outposts has Kouprey horns as a tribute

[brittle owl]

That would be nice to see. Their horns are unique and fray at the tips, so having them at an outpost would be really cool.

[brittle owl]

The only problem I can see with adding in a species as endangered as the Saola is the possible backlash from places like the Saola Foundation. Then again, it could do the exact opposite and bring more awareness to the current plight of the Saola and overall be a good thing.

They’re one of my favorite species to read about, even though we know very little about them. They’re something I’ve known about for years and are one of the reasons I got into Wildlife Biology as a profession.

[neon tinsel]

I genuinely believe it'd be better to than not - it'd be the biggest PR they've ever really gotten I think aside from a scent from a perfume company iirc?

[brittle owl]

True, and seeing as how a good amount of this community is heavy on conservation it would probably be a good thing.

I’ll probably do a vote for adding them once I get results for the Elephant.

[brittle owl]

Here is what the in game map would look like (Courtesy of CervidSlayer)

The map is set on the shores of the Ou River, a major tributary of the Mighty Mekong.

The western part of the map is a large marshland, where you’ll find Ducks, Geese, Muntjac, and herds of Eld’s Deer and Sambar.

The central portions of the map are lowland forests where you can find Junglefowl, Siamese Fireback, Silver Pheasant, and many of the big game species such as Banteng, Gaur, Sun Bear, Asiatic Black Bear, and Binturong.

The Eastern parts of the map is a forested mountain range, complete with thick forests and mountain streams from further up the mountains. The species you can find here include the Clouded Leopard, Mainland Serow, Chinese Goral, and Lesser Mouse Deer.

[neon tinsel]

WHOA THAT'S SO COOL

[brittle owl]

CervidSlayer is an amazing artist.

[brittle owl]

After 12 hours of leaving the Asian Elephant vote up, the people have spoken. In a 5-1 win, yes won out. Asian Elephants have been added to the map.

There would be approximately 50 elephants on the map, spread throughout the Marshes and Lowland Forest habitats.

There would be 2 herds of 15 females that go around the map

There would be 2 herds of bachelor bulls, ranging between 3 - 5 bulls.

The rest of the elephants would be solitary bulls.

They would not have a drink zone, as to not make hunting too easy. The areas they’re in is already open as it is, so hunting would be far too easy if they were to have a drink zone.

Now I ask: what would people think about having a low population of Saola on the map?

They’re an incredibly rare species which is very rarely seen, and I only bring up the idea of adding them to bring awareness to their current plight in their range.

They would likely be similar to Snow Leopards, having 10 - 12 on the map and only in the mountains. They would be very difficult to hunt, and their presence on the map could be explained via the mission line.

Reply to this message with 👍 for yes
Reply to this message with 👎 for no

[neon tinsel]

Yessss this is insanely well thought out. Amazing work.

[brittle owl]

Returning Species Range Maps:

Northern Red Muntjac

Wild Boar

[neon tinsel]

Lmao coolest excuse ever for a wild boar rework

[brittle owl]

Sambar

[brittle owl]

Agreed, they really need a remodel (preferably a subspecies differentiation as well, since the boars in Southeast Asia tend to look different than Eurasian Wild Boars).

Banteng

[brittle owl]

In a 6-0 vote, Saola have been added to the map.

I’ll begin adding species profiles for the new species soon, including their behavior, habitat, and range maps.

[restive shuttle]

Water boar

[neon tinsel]

Everyone's cocky until the sea pig attacks

[brittle owl]

Species Profile #1

Burmese Hare

Behavior: Territorial

Habitat: Marshes and Open Woodland

Senses: Excellent Hearing and Sight, Decent Sense of Smell

Social: Solitary

Active: Crepuscular and Nocturnal

Recommended Equipment:
Class 1 Ammunition

Species: Lepus peguensis

Difficulty: Easy

[brittle owl]

Species Profile #2

Lesser Mouse Deer

Behavior: Shy and Elusive

Habitat: Forests, Farmland, and Disturbed Areas

Senses: Good Smell and Hearing, Poor Vision

Social: Highly Solitary

Active: Mainly Nocturnal, occasionally Diurnal

Recommended Equipment:
Class 1 Ammunition

Species: Tragulus kanchil

Difficulty: Average

Pretty much anything bigger than a .375 would take it down fairly easily. The .470 would be good weapon for them. The .454 would be a good defense weapon against them as well.

I do think a larger caliber such as .577 Tyrannosaur or .600 Nitro should be added eventually if Elephants are added in game.

[dawn gale]

I'd not be against this but hunting saola is as the person that wants pygmy hippos and okapi still absurd it's like as rare as it goes otherwise I'd be in favor of an map in the greater Sundays or south east Asia Generally

On the other hand this is a game so of they add it I wouldn't protest for them to remove it

[brittle owl]

I was also apprehensive to add them for this exact reason, but I think it would overall be a good thing for the Saola population in real life. They’re heavily endangered and seeing as a lot of people who play this game are hunters and conservationists it could bring some attention to their plight.

They’d have an incredibly low population similar to Snow Leopards on Sundar.

[dawn gale]

Yeah hard to say this is a game and it looks like an antelope so I have nothing against them honestly I play this as a game to enjoy all the animals of the world Beeing vegan irl. I remember not long ago when I suggested cheetahs on an Iranian map, rhinos in Indonesia and snow leopards in Pakistan and was only met with negative feedback so may be now. The time has come to create a north Africa map with all the animals I love from there.

[brittle owl]

I think with the release of Sundar the community kinda realized that we could get a lot of cool new species that we never thought we could before.

I think if we ever to get a Laotian Map in game we likely won’t get Saola, Asian Elephants, or Sun Bears, but I have them here anyways.

[dawn gale]

On a Laos map sun bear is pretty likely I'd say

[dawn gale]

@brittle owl I made a map concept with all of those rare species i like the most those of Saharan Africa well see how it lands
https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1325982630792921159

[dawn gale]

Yeah I think so only one ik about is that albino cougar but that's not in the panthers genus but it's theoretically possible but just ultra Rare.

[gusty holly]

Only one I’ve seen that might be legit is the one in Nicaragua but it’s eyes are blue and turning yellow so I doubt it’s actually albino but they haven’t genetically tested it as far as im aware

[dawn gale]

Ye, I mean albinism is just the complete lack of pigment in an animals body so it is possible but rarely observed in big cats or cats in general

[gusty holly]

Possible yes concretely observed at this point is questionable at least in big cats, domestic cats of course have been documented

[dawn gale]

Yeah definitely super rare but I dont see why it shouldn't be possible

[gusty holly]

Might just be how genetics play out, similar to how there are no melanistic African lions (or albino lions for that matter, they should really change that if they ever do a remodel of em)

[dawn gale]

Yeah

[brittle owl]

Species Profile #3

Asian Golden Cat

Behavior: Shy and Territorial

Habitat: Farmland and Lowland Forests

Senses: Great overall senses

Social: Solitary

Active: Nocturnal and Crepuscular

Recommended Equipment:
Class 2 Ammo

Species: Catopuma temminckii

Difficulty: Average

[brittle owl]

Species Profile #4

Marbled Cat

Behavior: Incredibly Shy and Elusive

Habitat: Dense Forests and Farmland

Senses: Overall great senses

Social: Solitary

Active: Nocturnal

Recommended Equipment:
Class 2 Ammo, Jackrabbit Distress Caller

Species: Pardofelis marmorata

Difficulty: Average

[brittle owl]

Guess we’re getting the SKS, I may need to find a new weapon to include for this.

[sturdy thicket]

Good ole bump

[kind umbra]

more tropical maps in general would be awesome, I totally support this 👍

[sturdy thicket]

bump

[woven kelp]

saolas can only be found in vietnam im pretty sure and they can not be hunted.

[fresh thorn]

We need another tropical map, Te awaroa is good but it lacks so many things to really add to a tropical experience, like lizards on the beaches, tropical birds, goats everywhere and not just in the mountains, there’s probably more that i’m missing

[brittle owl]

Saolas are found throughout the Annamite Mountains, which straddle the border of Vietnam and Laos, and yes I know they cannot be hunted, this map has several species that cannot be hunted, such as Indochinese Leopards and Asian Elephants.

[woven kelp]

My bad sorry

[brittle owl]

Gonna bump this up, I will be making some more range maps for the species of this map when I have some spare time.