Should Dinosaurs Be Unbanned

**Should Dinosaurs be Unbanned? ,** the full name being "Should Dinosaurs be Unbanned? (Feat. Casually Explained)" is a video by OG Tierzoo (Patrick Lacey) that focuses on the performance of different Dinosaur mains had they been introduced to the present expansion. TZ's most major flaws are that he did not take the Intelligence of the Dinosaur mains into account and that the Plant mains of the current expansion is vastly different from the Mesozoic meta, so some Dinosaur builds will have two analyses.

## TZ's Overview

One of the most controversial balance updates the devs have ever introduced was patch 1.3.1, also known as the Cretacous-Paleogene balance patch. Unsurprisingly, many people wanted the Dinosaur mains to go back. Since no build has ever been unbanned by The Devs/The Developers, so this video explores what would the meta look like if they allowed players to spawn as Dinosaurs again?

The main advantage of the Dinosaur builds' main advantage is its massive size. Max-level players could only be taken down were Dinosaur builds of equal size or pack-hunting ones. Size may be an advantage for defense, but can be detrimental in terms of overall survivability, as they require a massive EXP upkeep, possibly more than the current game could provide. This means that unbanning Dinosaurs meant buffing the spawn rates of pretty much everything. Additionally, they have the speed of an Elephant and the Intelligence of a Crocodile This means that most current top-tiers will outspeed and outsmart them most of the time. But this is not the case for all Dinosaurs.

## Dinosaur Intelligence

The encephalization quotient (EQ) is a primitive way to measure a legacy build's Intelligence stat and is the ratio of the size of its brain compared to the ideal Health stat of the main. The EQ of a legacy build is then compared with one that is playable in order to have a clear view of Intelligence of a banned build.

Below is the Encephalization Quotient of different non-avian Dinosaurs. Sauropods here rank among the lowest, scoring only 0.2, with their ancestors scoring even lower at least 0.05. Thyreophorans ("those with tail weapons", as stated by OG Tierzoo) have an Encephalization Quotient of 0.5-0.79. Ceratopsids (and most Marginocephalians) have an EQ of 0.7-0.92. Ornithopods are some of the smarter Dinosaur mains in the meta, having a widely distributed EQ of 0.85-1.48. Carnosaurs have among the highest Encephalization Quotients among Dinosaurs, as is fitting for a build that relies on scoring kills to get loot, at 1.01-1.92. But that is not before we get to the cutoff, with Dromaeosaurs having a maximum of 5.8 and Troodontids having a **minimum** of 5.8.

However, don't get too excited. These scores were measured using Crocodillians as the referrence point, which have an EQ of approximately 1. If scaled with the Mammalian formula, the Troodon would have only been as smart as an Opossum main,which is anywhere from 0.35-0.57. That being said, the Opossum's Intelligence is actually underrated, being able to outscore Rats, Domestic Dogs,and Domestic Cats in terms of remembering where to find loot. Additionally, they can remember noxious or toxic substances after a year of their encounter.

## Mesozoic Plants

The Mesozoic meta (patch 2.0) was very different from the current meta. First of all, most of the Plant builds around us today are flowering plants (angiosperms), and these were not playable until The Cretaceous Expansion. Second, the Mesozoic patch had fewer builds to choose from than today. There was much less diversity in terms of builds and less players as well, although the diversity increased throughout the Mesozoic patch. During the Cretacous, the gymnosperms were already losing their foothold, and the angiosperms are now on the rise. Additionally, the seed ferns (Pteridosperms) and cycaeoids mains were already heading towards the path to getting banned.

## Tier Placement and Analysis

### Ornithischians

#### Thyreophorans

##### Tierzoo's Analysis

S-tier. As the top predator builds usually attack from behind, easily avoiding face-to-face confrontations and counter-attacks from horns, tusks and bites. While effective against present-day herbivores, this would mean a death sentence for a build with a thagomizer or club. In addition, the armor on their back would make it much harder for assasin builds like big cats to land their critical strikes.

##### My Analysis

F-tier. Their primitive and weak dentition prevents them from accessing most angiosperm loot. They are also rather slow, making it easy to simply wear them off with continous attacks despite their high Defense and Health. Their low Intelligence, as well as a lack of herd tactics, makes their moves easily predictable. While one big cat or Hyena could not take down most max-level thyreophorans, their superior Intelligence allows them to find ways to hunt these builds, like sheer numbers or attacking their weak spot.

#### Hadrosaurs (and most Ornithopods)

##### Tierzoo's Analysis

F-tier. Seeing has they have no good defensive abilities toprotect themselves with. Their best trait is that they can effectively communicate effectively and keep watch over each other. However, most of today's griefers get around this problem using Stealth. Despite being great at spotting tall carnivore players from far away, they are pretty inefficient at spotting carnivores that stayed lowto the ground. Additionally, these builds are actually rather slow compared to top predator builds of today.

##### My Analysis

Low A-tier. Hadrosaurs are actually underrated. While their speed is comparable to an Elephant, they make up for it with great endurance. Additionally, they have good vision and hearing. Considering that Dinosaur mains have trichromatic vision, in contrast to the dichromatic graphics most ungulates have today, they would actually spot low-slung predators hiding in the brush just as effectively as spotting tall ones. They also have above-average Intelligence, being smarter than a Crocodile. Additionally, their dental batteries can allow them to eat tough Plant material, similar to most ungulate builds like Cattle. Unlike them, their dental batteries can regenerate. Additionally most hadrosaurs usually have the Health stat of a Rhinoceros, and the smaller ones have the speed to compensate for it instead. Lastly,they also have a high levelling curvein addition to parental care. But the best so far is the Iguanodon. They have decent Intelligence, an additional thumb spike to defend against predators and teeth that would have been just as good as a Iguana (Green Iguana) for eating leaves,placing it in mid A-tier.

#### Triceratops (and most Marginocephalians)

##### Tierzoo's Analysis

D-tier. This well-armed herbivore can one-shot even the tankiest of opponents at full-speed. However, according to him, carnivores have gotten much better at dealing with fron-facing weapons like horns and tusks. Thus, they would struggle to fend off multiple attacks in all directions since getting behind an opponent has become a staple of every carnivore's playbook, especially for felines and canines.

##### My Analysis

C-tier. Marginocephalians would be at the middle of the bunch when it comes to the tier list. Despite having their weapons at the back, and the carnivores managing to backstab them, these builds would have no problem dealing with them, as current animals with horns like Cattle and Elephants may attest. Like Hadrosaurs, theypossesed dental batteries and tough teeth, though nowhere near as advanced as the ornithopods. Additionally, while their Intelligence is nowhere near as high as an ornithopod's, it is still enough for it to be capable of dealing with predators. Ceratopsids have a lot of Health, but can be outsped by their predators. Pachycephalosaurs, on the other hand, are quite nimble on their two feet but are quite fragile. Their teeth, while not as well-suited for eating modern plants, would work just as well on meat or as a secondary bite attack.

### Saurischians

#### Sauropods

##### Tierzoo's Analysis

Could be S or F, but most likely F-tier. Their late-game statsmake them simply impossible to beat one-on-one, as no playable build on land has approached the base stats of any Sauropod. Even the top-tier predators of the time barely stood a chance even in teams. But they only reached this potential in the late-game and have relatively few defensive options during early and mid-game aside from just relying on high-level teammates. This means that their teammates must stop an attack as quickly as possible. Their extreme height effectively prevent predators from sneaking up on them in open field, but Stealth is not the only way to catch a vigilant opponent off-guard. Some of the present-day predators can hide in trees and since big cats tend to target the neck of their opponents, they would most likely score an easy hit. While even top-tier Jaguars could not one-shot high-levelled Sauropod, arboreal big cats dan be extremely deadly for mid-game players, enough to prevent most of them from reaching late-game and defending low-level players.

##### My Analysis

F-tier. Remember what Patrick Lacey said about early-game and mid-game Sauropods being vulnerable to arboreal big cats? Well, they are actually even more vulnerable due to having even more spawnkillers than during the Mesozoic, compunded by their lack of parental care. Additionaly, their teeth would really be inferior for eating Grass. Their huge stat ceiling can also work against them as they need much more loot spawns and territories to sustain. Lastly, it is really easy to exploit the low Intelligence of a Sauropod player and lead them into inescapable ambushes or traps.

#### Theropods

##### Tyrannosaurs (Tyrannosauroidea)

###### Tierzoo's Analysis

C-tier. While it may be an unpopular opinion, the largest builds would not fare very well in the current meta. Being min-maxed for damage, they are specialized to deal with the tanks of its time. In the current meta, however, only Elephants have this much HP, and thus, would be the only build of present-day where its damage would be important. While this is important, having only one good matchup is not a viable strategy. All Elephant players need to do to counter this specific tactic is to spec into slightly higher Mobility, since the T-Rex's top speed is extremely low compared to builds of present day. Smaller Tyrannosaurs would still be viable, as they have not sacrificed Mobility, which is the name of the current game for predators right now.

###### My Analysis

B-tier for the smaller variants, C-tier for Tyrannosaurus Rex. Tyrannosaurs were one of the more intelligent Dinosaur builds in the game, and seeing as most Dinosaurs on average are much dumber than many Mammal mid- and top-tiers of present day, this is a godsend. The ability to crush bones allow them to have an advantage over most mammals in their weight class, as few builds have bone-crushing capabilities in the current meta and if they were, they could be easily challenged by mid- and early- game tyrannosaurids, who are meant to be played differently from late- game tyrannosaurids. Their stats are usually great enough to challenge other current-meta top-tiers. As for Tyrannosaurus Rex, their low Mobility means that they could not outrun most builds, and their high stats would only be really useful on an Elephant.

##### Dromaeosaurs (Dromaeosauridae)

###### Tierzoo's Analysis

S-tier. Since Mobility is the name of the game, dromaeosaurs are too OP for the current meta. However, they also don't have to adjust much from their play style in the Cretacous. As in the Cretacous, they mostly preyed on small animals, occasionally banding together to take down bigger builds. This niche is still very much available today and raptors would have little trouble in combat versus builds like Opossums, Raccoons and Birds. This is the same role that the Fox and Coyote occupy right now. Could Raptors compete with them? In 1vs1, Raptors have the edge, despite their fragility. Raptors make up for it by having better burst damage. Canines use persistence hunting and require several attacks to bring down targets. Raptors however, can easily one-shot their targets due to their high-damage sickle claw. Both employ team strats, high Mobility and Intelligence. So Raptors would normally be the advantageous ones.

#### My Analysis

A-tier. Dromaeosaurs were long thought to be capable of hunting in packs. However, recent dataming shows that they actually hunted solo. That is not say that they are overrated. Their sickle claw still allows them to take down prey with surprisingly much higher stat ceilings than them. They also have very high Intelligence for a Dinosaur build, with Crocodillans setting the bar for Dinosaur Intelligence, being the bare minimum requirement to outsmart most Mammal builds. Dromaeosaurs also have high Mobility, giving them lots of viable targets in the current meta to choose from. Regarless, they still did not have to change their playstyles, it's just that they were more like Komodo Dragons than canines.

## Referrences

1. ↑ https://adventuredinosaurs.com/2021/08/15/dinosaur-intelligence-traditional-eq-and-comparisons/
2. ↑ https://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/anatomy/Brain.shtml
3. ↑ https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/60622/10-brainy-facts-about-troodon
4. ↑ https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=jyEahxSFAKkC&pg=SA23-PA3&lpg=SA23-PA3&dq=opossum+encephalization+quotient&source=bl&ots=\_uuTekyY5x&sig=ACfU3U3o-x5NYs2DPHu1iBWELpgvqaQ2YA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjwtOC2pcL0AhWUN5QKHR1UAmI4ChDoAXoECAcQAg#v=onepage&q=opossum%20encephalization%20quotient&f=false
5. ↑ https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=-esZPRUN\_9YC&pg=PA31&lpg=PA31&dq=opossum+intelligence&source=bl&ots=8AmlAO9Dpq&sig=ACfU3U1A36f\_XgprcS9AqewYVyq7\_mkygg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiL-7DMpsL0AhUBFogKHS1dDE84ChDoAXoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=opossum%20intelligence&f=false
6. ↑ https://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/plants/
7. ↑ https://www.britannica.com/animal/dinosaur/Ankylosauria
8. ↑ https://nayturr.com/top-10-slowest-dinosaurs-of-all-time/
9. ↑ https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/stegosaurus-interview-dinosaur-expert.html
10. ↑ https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=ZQhQDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA254&lpg=PA254&dq=thyreophorans+solitary&source=bl&ots=eXQpssABbI&sig=ACfU3U20OffghKeWdxqAxgI9EJpaC\_rl3g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjopYipodn0AhVswosBHao8DIQQ6AF6BAg5EAI#v=onepage&q=thyreophorans%20solitary&f=false
11. ↑ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/duck-billed-dinos-gave-t-rex-a-run-for-its-money/
12. ↑ https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=\_H3JotLS-rMC&pg=PA76&lpg=PA76&dq=hadrosaurs+sense+of+sight&source=bl&ots=3-HkA-x\_h4&sig=ACfU3U1UVQgEHDBpduLfnfsm-KW-\_4UOqQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjo7\_jU\_cj0AhUmCqYKHVrQAXoQ6AF6BAhDEAI#v=onepage&q=hadrosaurs%20sense%20of%20sight&f=false
13. ↑ https://www.joannalambert.com/color-vision-feathers-dinosaurs/
14. ↑ https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=QwDSr1qdqXUC&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=hadrosaurs+dental+batteries+grass&source=bl&ots=EkabSBHoBq&sig=ACfU3U2V0UsZ1yMX6SLZmCsBf\_G9IDOkAw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiap7XNgcn0AhWOBKYKHfqlBQwQ6AF6BAgwEAI#v=onepage&q=hadrosaurs%20dental%20batteries%20grass&f=false
15. ↑ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/duck-billed-dinosaur-defended-itself-by-outgrowing-predators#:~:text=The%20rings%20also%20revealed%20that,in%20just%2010%2D12%20years.
16. ↑ https://www.prehistoriclife.xyz/cretaceous-period/eggs-nests-and-parental-care-in-ornithopods.html#:~:text=An%20adult%20hadrosaur%E2%80%94most%20likely,to%2020%20eggs%20per%20nest.
17. ↑ https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/the-discovery-of-iguanodon.html
18. ↑ https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ar.20978
19. ↑ https://www.arizonamuseumofnaturalhistory.org/explore-the-museum/exhibitions/dinosaur-hall/ceratopsians
20. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/science/lost-worlds/2013/jul/26/dinosaurs-fossils
21. ↑ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-vegetarian-dinosaur-ate-meat-pachycephalosaurus-paleontology
22. ↑ https://www.thoughtco.com/were-dinosaurs-good-parents-1091906
23. ↑ https://www.nature.com/articles/news051114-13
24. ↑ https://www.discovermagazine.com/planet-earth/tyrannosaurus-rex-scary-smart-social
25. ↑ https://www.upi.com/Science\_News/2019/01/31/Ancient-archosaur-was-crushing-bones-before-T-rex/1851548900610/
26. ↑ https://scitechdaily.com/when-t-rex-dominated-medium-sized-predators-disappeared-replaced-by-juvenile-tyrannosaurs/
27. ↑ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/jurassic-park-may-have-been-rightsome-dinosaurs-hunted-packs-180953831/
28. ↑ https://www.icr.org/article/dinosaur-raptors-likely-hunted-alone
29. ↑ https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/deinonychus-and-velociraptor-used-their-killing-claws-to-pin-prey-like-eagles-and-hawks
30. ↑ https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/buzz/popular.html#:~:text=They%20had%20modestly%20large%20brains,little%20smarter%20than%20typical%20dinosaurs.
31. ↑ https://www.fossilguy.com/gallery/vert/dinosaur/dromaeosaurs/index.htm
32. ↑ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8294369/Scientists-claim-raptors-did-NOT-hunt-packs-like-Komodo-dragons-crocodiles.html