Where's the fun in Career Mode?

DeluxeGroupie

D
So, I didn't want to say negative things about this game, but then I made it past the career mode level that's set in Canada... and guys, it's just awful after that... at least for the next two levels (Safari and the one in Greece). Don't know if I will make it any further.

It feels like someone left me with hundrets of broken pieces and glue that doesn't stick well, saying: "Here, fix this! I'm going now."
In Planet Zoo that means you need to open pretty much every window, statistic or heat map there is, in order to figure out where all the issues lie. You don't even proceed towards the levels' goals this way, but you need to fix the pieces before you can actually start working on the goals. This isn't fun at all, this is work...nothing more.

I could give more precise info if somebody needs it. Right now I don't have the time to go into detail.
What are you guys thinking of career mode? I really like the story and characters, to say something positive too.
 
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Silhouette

S
I'm really enjoying it? 🤷 Personally I like feeling more constrained with the scenarios after the Canada one, because for me having unlimited creativity makes me just anxious. The highly themed levels also means I have a chance to practice my building by making my new stuff match the current level.

And I'm not really sure... What you were expecting from career mode...? If it was always just unlimited do whatever you want, then you may as well just play any other mode?

These scenarios are also quite reminiscent of ZT2, which I like. Most of those you were also thrown at a zoo that was falling apart or had extremely unhappy animals, etc, and the whole point was to fix things and make them better before adding to it.

So yeah. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea but I'm really enjoying career mode.
 

DeluxeGroupie

D
Silhouette said:
I'm really enjoying it? 🤷 Personally I like feeling more constrained with the scenarios after the Canada one, because for me having unlimited creativity makes me just anxious. The highly themed levels also means I have a chance to practice my building by making my new stuff match the current level.

And I'm not really sure... What you were expecting from career mode...? If it was always just unlimited do whatever you want, then you may as well just play any other mode?

These scenarios are also quite reminiscent of ZT2, which I like. Most of those you were also thrown at a zoo that was falling apart or had extremely unhappy animals, etc, and the whole point was to fix things and make them better before adding to it.

So yeah. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea but I'm really enjoying career mode.
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As far as I can remember in Zoo Tycoon it was at least the actual goal to fix all those things.
Oh, and what about the uncleanable water in the Safari level. It felt like a bug, but is it? This added so much frustration. My game even crashed when I wanted to add another water filter.
The issue I'm having is really not about unlimited freedom, more about more interesting tasks rather then: "Ups, we made a very complex mess, please fix it, bye!"
 

Silhouette

S
It seems a lot of people had an issue with that scenario but honestly I didn't? Yeah it was annoying the water was always unclean (although I got it clean somehow for a couple minutes), but my vets were very efficient at healing animals, so the only really annoying part was always being informed of sick animals. Otherwise it wasn't really detrimental to my playthrough.

Idk. Honestly it's a vast improvement from PC's scenarios so I'm really happy. I enjoy them and I keep rushing the gold star cause I'm always excited to see what the next level has in store for us.
 

daisymayuk

D
I loved Canada and Im thinking of going back and playing it more. I have started Africa 4 times today and each time its been rubbish. I cant work out how the work zones are set up and they are not working properly. It needs more water cleaners and electric because the lake gets dirty and causes disease in the animals with dirty habitats, and I can find nowhere to put them because of the amount of uneditable stuff in the way. I have got all 3 stars so far but im think maybe I can just fudge through the first star so i can move on.... but thats not really the point. I think ive missed something big, but if I have it would be nice if it was in the goals.
 
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Dr4gon

Dr4gon
When you do the careers, you can play them in sandbox mode and a little time to see it running and play it yourself. I personally find them boring too, but that counts for every tutorial. :)
 

DeluxeGroupie

D
daisymayuk said:
I loved Canada and Im thinking of going back and playing it more. I have started Africa 4 times today and each time its been rubbish. I cant work out how the work zones are set up and they are not working properly. It needs more water cleaners and electric because the lake gets dirty and causes disease in the animals with dirty habitats, and I can find nowhere to put them because of the amount of uneditable stuff in the way. I have got all 3 stars so far but im think maybe I can just fudge through the first star so i can move on.... but thats not really the point. I think ive missed something big, but if I have it would be nice if it was in the goals.
Click to expand...

Yes, that's what I'm talking about. The status quo seems so flawed that it is just unfair to let somebody else sort out the mess, while calling it a computer game.
 

daisymayuk

D
I even tried deleting the water in the lake but it wouldnt let me ... I put ticket prices down to try get more visitors but im now losing money
 

Charmmy Colour

Charmmy Colour
While I love “here’s a mess, fix it” (really, it’s my favorite thing!), I think the annoying part is that I CAN’T fix it because the scenario won’t let me.

Poo in water is like the quintessential of this. You can’t clean it. But you can’t remove the water. But you can’t easily just keep it outside. Most times you can’t relocate the animals either.

So they’re telling you to fix it, and you know how, but they don’t let you do the how, so problems keep escalating and it’s. So. Frustrating.
 

SatiricCross

S
I loved the safari map. I had no issues with cleaning the water whatsoever, and I really like the concept of fixing another person's mess. If that's not something that appeals to you, I doubt you'll enjoy the next several scenarios either. I'm working on the third from last currently, and that's the first one since the Canada map that I've had a blank slate to build from.
 

Souldrake

Souldrake
Some of the Career mode levels I really enjoyed. The others, I got to a bronze star and hightailed it out of there and tried the next one. The one in Yamaguchi is a hunt for several needles over an entire farm trying to fix vandalized things. Plus, they made it worse by placing staff facilities in easy access to people. I'd have liked it, personally if instead of "empty" they would have labeled the habitats "old X habitat" so I know at least initially where they intended for certain animals to be housed because it was rather not obvious for a few of them.

The Siberian tundra one? Awful. The Safari park could have been better, but the lake issue and the feeding issue just made me want to toss it till those issues were fixed. I liked the quarry one and the Nevada one (wish you could have placed water though...). The Canadian one was actually nice except they really needed to let you modify terrain because in some places plopping down pathing was a nightmare. The greece one wasn't actually that bad, I felt. I skipped gold starring it just because I wanted to see and unlock the other maps first.

Edit: I suppose one of my biggest gripes about Career mode? So many species... and I always seem to be limited to a handful of them =/
 
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KarmaNikita

K
I really love the Career mode! I love cleaning up all the mess and opening every heatmap, really searching for all the issues. Even loved the Safari zoo; I also put a fence around the lake and deleted all the workzones and made my own. I am now playing the Casino zoo, I am almost at 3 stars.

I really love the restrictions you get because you need to (micro)manage and organize everything in detail.

There are al lot of types of players, so if you can't enjoy a level why not just get bronze and skip the rest? Or play franchise mode?

I hope they will add more levels in the future!!
 

DeluxeGroupie

D
Interesting that so many like this kind of gameplay. Well, then I will probably try sandbox next and will maybe revisit career mode once the bugs are fixed.
 

daisymayuk

D
DeluxeGroupie said:
Interesting that so many like this kind of gameplay. Well, then I will probably try sandbox next and will maybe revisit career mode once the bugs are fixed.
Click to expand...
I think if there were not so many invisible issues and it was just the problems you were told about it would be a lot nicer to play, or even if your were told its all horribly wrong please fix it and you were able to.

I finally got bronze in Africa because I got it all working, then accidentally went on and got silver too ... (but managed to delete the ticket guy on the second ride station and cant work out how to get him back) I'm going to continue but not try to get a failing attempt working, I will start again sooner if it all goes wrong. I dont mind a challenge if I know what it is lol

I did play sandbox for a while, but it isn't really what id call sandbox, which is why I switched to career.

I did get a baby elephant and then mum had a rest on the track .... that was quite fun!

150585

150584
 
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MightyRevenge

MightyRevenge
daisymayuk said:
I think if there were not so many invisible issues and it was just the problems you were told about it would be a lot nicer to play, or even if your were told its all horribly wrong please fix it and you were able to.
Click to expand...

Although this personally frustrated me too.... in retrospect it was actually enjoyable to find and fix it. My approach with the next scenario completely changed, ans I immediately started looking for the problem areas.

I do understand some frustrations when you can't fix something because a control needed is locked.. that isn't ok. Other than that, I find the career mode super enjoyable.
 

ShadowLilly

ShadowLilly
DeluxeGroupie said:
A bit off-topic, but:
I think the water issue isn't fixable. I ended up putting a fence around the lake. You can make money with raising the price for the safari ride.
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I had the water cleaned with a watercleaner (don't know the right name for it, sorry) and it never got dirty again..
 

felinora99

F
I personnaly really didn't like Career Mode, it almost prevented me from keeping playing, and then I thought that the "tuto part" was over and I tried Challenge Mode, then Franchise Mode.

If you don't have fun in it, play another Mode, you'll feel much more free. Maybe more Challenge or Sandbox, because there are still a lot of issue with Franchise and right after Career it might drive you mad
 
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