Keepers need to just clean habitats...

[Thtp15]

Found the source where the task order is explained:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/helpful-information-on-zookeepers.528619/

Keepers always enter a habitat and inspect before doing anything else. If animals need water they will deal with this immediately. If they need food the keeper will leave the habitat (this is normal) and go to the closest keeper hut to prepare food before returning to feed – this is why keeping keeper huts and habitat gates in close proximity is so important. If there are no more pressing jobs the keeper may choose to clean the habitat, keepers will normally clean habitats after feeding.

So give the cleaning less importants is something by design from the begin of release.

 

[Jacob1989]

Found the source where the task order is explained:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/helpful-information-on-zookeepers.528619/

So give the cleaning less importants is something by design from the begin of release.

Actually when the game was first released back in September, this wasn't the case. Keepers would clean the habitat first after their inspection, and then head off to the keeper hut. People complained so much for more than a month about having their animals starve because of improper setups and some beta stage bugs, they changed this priority. Now those early gameplay bugs are fixed and people know how to play the game better, so there is no reason to keep the new priority order that wasn't initially intended by design.

On top of that, the problem right now isn't as simple. Apparently some other things in the code was changed as well, to cope with the negative feedback. How did I come to this conclusion? I did so as a result of the test I did that I explained on page 2 of this thread. So the problem isn't a simple priority issue. Even if you have food as top priority, keepers shouldn't be delivering food when food is ticked off during times of crisis. First the game switches to the next keeper in-line when you tick off their food, and then if you manage to turn off food for all keepers the game finally sends the last one to deliver food instead of cleaning when that last keeper's food is turned off. The game's coding right now literally fights orders given by the player to do what it thinks is the right thing even though the player has told them not to do so countless times. I don't know why this was implemented, but the only possibility that comes to mind is to stop people complaining about their animals starving even when they order keepers not to feed.

Of course you can hire more keepers and set up work zones to minimize this problem, but the flaw in design which was only later added to the game, will still be there. And I wish the issue only resulted in momentary problems like the one you described where the habitat gets dirty while keeper is placing food in multiple stations.

Edit: Even the official response you linked mentions animals shouldn't need to be fed more than once a year, but cleaning would be more frequent. So setting up priority based on the rarer occurrence doesn't make much sense.

 

[MightyRevenge]

However, a lot of the time the keeper comes in, looks around, then goes to the hut to prepare the food, which I think is very inefficient. What also happens is that my 'cleaning keeper' turns up, starts cleaning and then the feeding keeper doesn't even come to the habitat! Probably because the AI thinks the other keeper is feeding the animals, even though I have that option turned off.

This is a good point. I think even if you do the whole set one keeper to do X and another to do Y, and assign them both to the same habitat, doesn't quite fix the problem because of this detail not recognized by the "call to keeper" command. If needs to know the correct keeper to call then.

To be honest, the problem would exist even if you assigned keeper priority to every keeper, since you hitting the "call keeper" button just fetches the most available / closest keeper, if you get your "wrong priority keeper" you end up with the same issue of your tasks not being done right. I think what the priority system really solves is when it's happening automatically.

The solution here needs 2 pieces:

• priority setting (order) and checkbox for each keeper.
• optionally specify which of the assigned keepers + remaining unassigned keepers to choose when "calling keeper". Clearly show their priorities or selected tasks in this UI - so you can pick the keeper you want to come.

 

[Sclurp]

I just did a bit of an experiment (a stress test to see how keepers behave), I had an enormous enclosure filled with hundreds of tigers. I set the speed to the fastest option and let them go about their business for 30 minutes (real time) and had four keepers who weren't assigned work zones but only had one habitat to deal with. There were two feeding keepers and two cleaning keepers -- what I found was that the feeding keepers would do regular checks and keep the animals well fed but the cleaning keepers also would only stop by the habitat every month and not as and when the habitat needed tending to. Now, this is realistic as no keeper in real life would sense an animal has just done a poo and go rushing over to shovel it up - no. But this is a videogame and I can't assign keepers to do more regular checks than monthly check ups and so what I saw, while the habitat filled up with waste, was keepers just wandering around for a month doing nothing. The Call Keeper button summons the closest keeper, as you all have described and doesn't recognise the issue that you're trying to fix.

There really needs to be a "Clean Habitat" button as a sub category. Or a priority system...something...anything!
EDIT: I just want to add that I don't want to seem like I'm suggesting I want the player to have to micromanage this. I want the player to be able to come up with a strategy they think will best deal with the number of animals/the type of animals they have in a habitat and the number of keepers they have assigned to that habitat. I want us to have the ability to manage the zoo.


Granted, how I was playing is not how you properly care for animals. But there are instances (say with peafowls) where this issue creeps up on you.


The keepers are our staff members in the game, we need to be able to direct them.

 

[felinora99]

The keepers are our staff members in the game, we need to be able to direct them.

* applause sound * I can't agree more !

 

[Adarra]

The keepers are our staff members in the game, we need to be able to direct them.

THANK YOU! Also, thank you for conducting this experiment, it gives more insight into our keeper behavior and how currently not addressing the issue of cleaning on time.

 

[Skawt]

I feel like something is up. I have no proof of course, but since the patch, my Keepers have been really "off" when it comes to keeping the habitats clean. I've experimented with assigning 2 keepers per habitat - one to clean, one to feed and inspect. No noticeable effect. I suspect that there can only be 1 keeper inside a habitat at any given time? (can anyone confirm this?)

 

[Adarra]

I noticed the same problem. After the patch I kept getting swamped with dirty habitat notifications so I tried having one keeper clean and one keeper feed (or two/two when dealing with larger habitats or work groups) and it made absolutely no difference. The 'food keeper' kept coming in, even when the animals didn't need food, when I used the 'call keeper' button, but the 'cleaning keeper' was chilling in the staff room.

 

[NZFanatic]

I noticed the same problem. After the patch I kept getting swamped with dirty habitat notifications so I tried having one keeper clean and one keeper feed (or two/two when dealing with larger habitats or work groups) and it made absolutely no difference. The 'food keeper' kept coming in, even when the animals didn't need food, when I used the 'call keeper' button, but the 'cleaning keeper' was chilling in the staff room.

I'm having the same issue, but I'm finding that it does go away after I request a keeper. It comes back quickly but the habitat is getting cleaned (in Sandbox at least - I don't play Franchise).

 

[DrBurrito]

I'm having the same issue, but I'm finding that it does go away after I request a keeper. It comes back quickly but the habitat is getting cleaned (in Sandbox at least - I don't play Franchise).

Maybe they changed a few things regarding priority with 1.2? I am yet to test this, but your post gives me hope that at least some of the issues mentioned were already addressed.

 

[Adarra]

I'm playing Franchise, so it might be different for me. I also tried figuring out if there was a keeper who was maybe 'stuck in a loop' of running to and from the habitat, but thankfully that didn't happen.

 

[Skawt]

Maybe they could add the habitat cleaning functionality to caretakers (perhaps at higher ranks of training and limited to non-carnivores) - and also the ability to enter a habitat occupied by a Keeper.

 

[rdsidwe]

I have definitely notice a drop in habitat cleaning since the patch. I've Assigned additional keepers and assigning the to clean habitat only, and they don't seem to do anything. checking on them much later and they did no tasks for a year. This definitely discourages from large multispecies habitat or using the species that have large groups.