TURN OFF THE REFUND MECHANISM

So, enough is enough. 100 hours in a zoo and it is gone because of the refund mechanism. So, this is an official petition in the hope that you will actually listen.

Please turn off the refund mechanism until you have either: re-balanced or fixed it.

We can't keep losing our zoos because of a poorly coded mechanic; or you will lose players. Simple as that.
 
I disagree. When you have guests with 100% bars leaving with the thoughts of "I wish I had stayed longer to see XXX" (and there are 3 animals they didn't get to see) getting a full refund. There is something wrong.
Not every guest, who leaves without having seen their favorite animals, gets a refund. But the whole "unhappy with visit" mechanism is unclear and not explained at all.
 
I agree that the 'unhappy with visit' mechanic is not just unclear, it's also weird as heck. I usually don't get my money back when I'm unhappy with a zoo visit, unless there's a specific reason that the zoo is to blame for what has caused my visit to be a bad experience. I get that guests can be unhappy with habitats or with the facilities or with there being a lot of garbage on the ground and things being broken by other unhappy people, but 'unhappy with visit' is far too generic to be of any use.
 
Same here, refunds work fine for me.. zero refunds most of the times

Would you reckon that all the messages that can now be turned off have something to do with this?
Maybe it's better to read it and take actions instead of ignoring them?

I only get those messages and unhappy people in my sandbox, clearly because I don't care any bit about all the mistakes I make there. But in other modes, it's better to look at things and take action.

Unhappy animals also lead to unhappy people.
 
there are no alerts or helpful heat maps for this problem at all. nor is it explained somewhere. I have 0 alerts regarding guest issues, I have a 90% total visitor happiness (93% before the recent patches), zero vandalism, zero problems with education boards or speakers, shops every 40-50m and I still get 10-20k refunds a year. why? the game doesn't tell me.
 
Also, just because you don't experience an issue, doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed. If you don't experience it? Great! But others do, so it should be addressed. ;-)

Honestly, if people feel this is a bug, they should just report the issue, and place the link here, so others who experience it can upvote.
Otherwise there is little chance of it being adressed.
 
I've also just put this to the test.. with my zoo that failed anyway. I closed it. Emptied it and re-opened it.

I had around 400 guests who just arrived, visited 4 shops then went home again, complaining because they haven't seen the animals they wanted when in reality they didn't even try. They visited the 4 shops at the front of the zoo and went home.

If that isn't a broken mechanic, then what is?
 

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I've also just put this to the test.. with my zoo that failed anyway. I closed it. Emptied it and re-opened it.

I had around 400 guests who just arrived, visited 4 shops then went home again, complaining because they haven't seen the animals they wanted when in reality they didn't even try. They visited the 4 shops at the front of the zoo and went home.

If that isn't a broken mechanic, then what is?

Looking at the picture (which does not show very much), it appears they already need to walk a fair bit and haven't seen a single animal yet.
Maybe the time they arrive there they are fed up with it.

Can't see any benches to rest on either.

I've read somewhere someone said guests need regular positive input otherwise their happiness drawns away slowly.
They just need to be triggered more often by positive stuff, which from the look of your picture doesn't happen for the first few minutes they are in the zoo.
 
Which in itself is an issue. The high maintenance aspect of the guests is too extreme to keep up with.

This is the zoo in its glory. If the guests need so much input, then this creates another balance issue completely. The driveway to the entrance isn't exactly far to walk. if they get fed up in that short space then how on Earth are we meant to create large zoos?
 

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HeatherG

Volunteer Moderator
So, enough is enough. 100 hours in a zoo and it is gone because of the refund mechanism. So, this is an official petition in the hope that you will actually listen.

Please turn off the refund mechanism until you have either: re-balanced or fixed it.

We can't keep losing our zoos because of a poorly coded mechanic; or you will lose players. Simple as that.
Just an FYI, I removed "(Un)Official Petition:" from the thread title since it's feedback on the game and petitions are not allowed on the forum.
Thanks! :)
 
Would you reckon that all the messages that can now be turned off have something to do with this?
Maybe it's better to read it and take actions instead of ignoring them?

I have all notifications on... I react to most notifications but i don't get those a lot.

I got 80-90% happiness in 1 zoo and 0 refunds in the last 15 years.

Also, just because you don't experience an issue, doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed. If you don't experience it? Great! But others do, so it should be addressed. ;-)
Also if you have an issue, and others not.. Doesn't mean it should be changed. :D
Some issues are player-related instead of game-related..

I don't think it's broken, some players just need to improve their zoo..
The game is already too easy to eliminate all challenges...
 
Which in itself is an issue. The high maintenance aspect of the guests is too extreme to keep up with.

This is the zoo in its glory. If the guests need so much input, then this creates another balance issue completely. The driveway to the entrance isn't exactly far to walk. if they get fed up in that short space then how on Earth are we meant to create large zoos?

I think your entrance is your issue.. From my POV it's a far to walk to an animal exhibit.. And you don't have that many shops..
How does your guest tab looks like? (in your overview page)

Also you have a lot of notifications and your visitors are between happy (green)/not happy(orange)
 
Which in itself is an issue. The high maintenance aspect of the guests is too extreme to keep up with.

This is the zoo in its glory. If the guests need so much input, then this creates another balance issue completely. The driveway to the entrance isn't exactly far to walk. if they get fed up in that short space then how on Earth are we meant to create large zoos?

That zoo looks great, Compliments for that.

Maybe they are too demanding, but looking at your picture, it appears I'm correct with my analysis, that are very large plaza's. BUT, it could indeed mean that it's not possible to build Zoo's like this, which should not be the intention of the game.
 
Every plaza has education points and every enclosure has both screens and audio, with a shop and info nearby.

I've also noticed that guests get to the fork and turn around and go home. They don't even attempt to get into the main part. It's like the AI is also broken with it.

If it isn't the intention to have plazas, why code them into the game? Have they even been to a zoo? Just like PlanCo, It seems that the scaling is all off. You need to have shops every 40m, you need to have enclosures that are vast, but the guests can't see beyond a shop or enclosure to experience the back of the zoo. It could even be as simple as the "guest eye" not being wide enough.

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not bad at the game. The zoo was profitable and prosperous until 1.1 came out.
 
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