It’s almost impossible to play when you have a slightly bigger zoo( and for “bigger” I mean with 7 habitats which is not massive at all). The fighting is constant. You don’t even have time to read that one animal is about to age that a second later one is hurt. And this is for almost every species. I had red ruffles lemurs since the very beginning of my zoo, I balanced their social group as the zoopedia states and I had the red notification that they were going to fight for 25 years now, even if it never happened. Tigers and bears are the worst, but for sure even stupid springbrooks fight like crazy and I highly doubt they do it in nature. It’s really unbearable, it needs to be balanced and also the outcome of the fight needs to be balanced, you can’t have every time someone injured! They either change it or they clearly state that this games is playable as long as you have no more than 5 habitats, possibly of only flamingos and Japanese macaque cause they seem, so far, the only two species that don’t keep fighting for alpha statues, for gender inequality or for overpopulation. Every other specie is going to be a pain in the neck to cope with, especially when you have hundreds of other stupid notifications like vendors not finding a stuff tome available when they have tons in their work zones or water treatments failing
Fighting has become unbearable
- Thread starter FediSinter
- Start date
I’ve had two of my female chimps badly injured by the supposed alpha male even if the group size was perfectly balanced. I mean, that’s unrealistic af, when do males hurt females in nature? Also, chimps? They are one of the most social creature in the planet!
Maybe to people that don’t know a thing about animals reading a couple of paragraphs of, most of the time, wrong things about a specie, can be considered educational, but to a person that know just a little bit more is ridiculous. Since when antilopes have “alpha males”? Since when wolves have an alpha structures? They have packs, usually made by family members, where the two parents are the “alpha” but they do not fight, it’s just a given thing! I don’t know why they decided to do the things they have done but so far, for me, they should have remained to work in planet coaster, where the most educational thing is how high is the percentage of vomit one of the attraction is going to create...
Chimps can actually be pretty mean. :/
I agree though, the fighting mechanic seems out of control. Animals seem to always be fighting, regardless of space and social dynamics.
But not in their own group/family... yes they can be mean to other groups, fight them to death and... everyone knows what they do with the other group members they killed. But they are very social in their own groups, even adopt babys when the mother died... they really have feelings and have probably bad days too ^^... but it's very different in the game right now... the alpha thing is too much for most species in that way.
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Probably... but in the way it is, it's just a little too much I think.
I mean its normal for animals to fight if it doesn't meet the social requirements, but the alpha fights/contesting indeed is a little over the top. Same goes for animals maturing and fighting even before they have properly grown into their adult models. Perhaps if they make it so that fighting isn't the first thing they do when they mature, we wouldn't have a lot of the problems being experienced right now. Queuing an animation or two before it would fix that. I mean that even for animals that don't meet the social requirements, since growing up isn't instantaneous in real life.
Good idea, but I think for some species the serious fighting should stop after 1-2 times and maybe just go on with the "play fighting" someone mentioned - which should never lead to injuries or dead (at least when the fights do not happen because of overcrowding - I think in that case, it's an important mechanic to realize you lost track of something 
)... so a little bit more balancing in that way, would be okay for us. The first "serious fight" should be much more random and not be "planned" as first thing when animals grow up.
)... so a little bit more balancing in that way, would be okay for us. The first "serious fight" should be much more random and not be "planned" as first thing when animals grow up.
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They literally slapped the alpha tag and polygamy structure (one male,several females) on almost every single animal ingame.Seems like they thought this fighting system was a cool mechanic,but it turned out to be just completely unrealistic and annoying.It doesn't serve the educational aspect of the game very well,but instead supports the common way of thinking that animals (especially bigger animals) are vicious,fight immediately when they don't like something and are not capable of solving their problems in another way - only through fighting.
Too bad,that literal physical fighting is actually the rarest thing you will see animals do.
Too bad,that literal physical fighting is actually the rarest thing you will see animals do.
I agree, its ridiculous. Instead of flashing out the fighting so badly, they should have had more positive interactions between animals. They are so rare, you have to stare at them for a long time before they interact for half a second. I don’t really understand who thought this was a good idea or why they decided to copy paste the same social structure to almost every specie in the game. Looks very rushed, they could have easily taken out features like retractable claws and work more on the dynamics. This game it’s all pretty graphics, but sadly, as for now, it doesn’t offer much more than a tedious micro-managing mechanism.
Another Animal that doesn't fight is the Chinese Pangolin
Male and female chimps actually do fight, and it can get pretty nasty. Even within their own families if their hierarchy is broken or for many other reasons.
A breeding pair of wolves is still called the “Alpha pair” despite there not being any lower ranks.
Antelope, deer, gazelle ect do actually have a structure, they fight to declare themselves the strongest and have breeding rights with the females. It’s not called “Alpha”’but the game still has it right.
Hate to say it, the fighting is VERY realistic. The frequency... ehhhh not so much.
EDIT: It would be nice if altering the animals (the contraceptives) made the animals less aggressive, like it does in most real situations
A breeding pair of wolves is still called the “Alpha pair” despite there not being any lower ranks.
Antelope, deer, gazelle ect do actually have a structure, they fight to declare themselves the strongest and have breeding rights with the females. It’s not called “Alpha”’but the game still has it right.
Hate to say it, the fighting is VERY realistic. The frequency... ehhhh not so much.
EDIT: It would be nice if altering the animals (the contraceptives) made the animals less aggressive, like it does in most real situations
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I wouldn't say it's very realistic. Of course fights happen in nature, but their portrayal in the game is wrong. In the case of wolves, they can call the breeding pair alphas if they want. But the young pups shouldn't fight the parents as soon as they grow up because that never happens in wolf packs. The pups leave when they want to, and those that don't are always deferential to their parents as long as they live. In the game in some absurd cases I've even had the breeding pair fighting each other as soon as their pups grow up. What the hell? How does that make any sense? What are they even fighting for?
Antelopes, deer, bison, buffalo and the rest don't have so-called alpha structures, although they do "fight" for breeding rights as you say. However, these aren't really fights. They are more displays of dominance, with the losing party recognizing when they've lost and retreating. Which is to say, keep them in the game by all means. That's a cool behaviour and nice interesting animations to have, but stop notifying me about every single pronghorn or gazelle fighting. It's absurd that in animals that sometimes live in herds of hundreds we can only have one male because of this. Fighting should only be considered a problem by the game when it happens due to overcrowding. The stupidly called "alpha" fights can exist in these species, but they should not count as problems that we get constant notifications about.
But even then, the severity of fights needs to be toned down. In nature fights to the death that result in serious injuries to one or both parties are exceedingly rare. That makes sense, because any form of injury can mean death in nature, so animals are very wary of getting hurt. But in the game it seems like every single fight currently results in "serious injury discovered, vet called."
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The unrealistic bit is that fighting always leads to injury. That is entirely absurd and seems to be in-game only to give your vets something to do so they aren't idling around.
It's been said over and over again, so I think they're going to have to change it (since they use the feedback forum as a means of deciding what people like and don't like en masse). Like I've said before, who's ever gone to a zoo with a herd species and seen only a single male? Granted if the group is small it makes sense, as you want to prevent inbreeding, but I've gone to zoos that have had multiple male nyala for example with about thrice as many females, and the fighting was usually a bit of a dance, a clatter of horns, and on their merry way they go.
Even in nature, most animal fights are to reaffirm social bonds, not contests for leadership. Especially in canines and primates. Grooming/play-fighting serve the same social purpose.
It's been said over and over again, so I think they're going to have to change it (since they use the feedback forum as a means of deciding what people like and don't like en masse). Like I've said before, who's ever gone to a zoo with a herd species and seen only a single male? Granted if the group is small it makes sense, as you want to prevent inbreeding, but I've gone to zoos that have had multiple male nyala for example with about thrice as many females, and the fighting was usually a bit of a dance, a clatter of horns, and on their merry way they go.
Even in nature, most animal fights are to reaffirm social bonds, not contests for leadership. Especially in canines and primates. Grooming/play-fighting serve the same social purpose.
It might be realistic for some animals, but it doesn't apply to all. Even with species that constantly fight it shouldn't always lead to injury. As well as frequency as you mentioned. Otherwise it wouldn't be any different than actual antisocial animals that are highly territorial and fight to the death.