Option to set parameters around micromanagement

[Geordie1881]

For certain species (e.g. Common Warthogs), they can reproduce readily. It would be good to have a new role (promotion of current role) for a Head ZooKeeper (multiple needed for a large Zoo) who can operate on a predefined set of instructions, such as:

• Auto-release captivity-bred adults of the following species X, Y and Z
• Auto-list for trade captivity-bred adults of the following species X, Y and Z for AA credits
• Stop trade if other adults are > XX years old

etc.

This would reduce the amount of micromanagement for trading etc and would allow more focus on Zoo growth.

 

[felinora99]

I fully support this idea, as I said in another thread about the micromanagement issue, it would be more realistic and be a real management. It could be limited, for exemple a keeper could only become a Head Keeper after being fully formed and working in the zoo for X (let's say 10) ingame years. There could be only one new Head Keeper per ingame year, etc, so that it doesn't feel "too easy", but that we still can make bigger zoo and focus on real management (management is about making decisions that really impact the zoo and its future, not deciding to feed every month or every 3 month some animals..)

 

[MightyRevenge]

for exemple a keeper could only become a Head Keeper after being fully formed and working in the zoo for X (let's say 10) ingame years. There could be only one new Head Keeper per ingame year, etc, so that it doesn't feel "too easy"

Instead of a head keeper, how about being able to unlock more tasks as you train your keepers? 3, 4 and 5 star training should unlock new tasks. This way we still keep the simplicity of the staff types.

I think there's a really fine line between automation completely making the game feel like a bore, and alleviating some of the repetitive tasks in the game. I personally have been on the other end of this, where we cry to the developers to add more management and decisions in the game. I really don't want us to go in the "boring" direction where the game takes care of everything and you have no decisions to make. I do like the idea of as you get more experienced as a manager, you're more focused on bigger decisions, but I feel like these bigger decisions right now aren't that many in number. I think we still need to be challenged, but maybe there's a different way to do this, instead of just hitting an "auto-list" or "auto-this" "auto-that" button?

Just wana brainstorm more potential solutions here.

 

[felinora99]

. It could be limited, for exemple a keeper could only become a Head Keeper after being fully formed and working in the zoo for X (let's say 10) ingame years. There could be only one new Head Keeper per ingame year, etc, so that it doesn't feel "too easy", but that we still can make bigger zoo and focus on real management

Maybe this Head Keeper thing I was proposed could simply be the level 5 ? I don't remember in which thread, but I had too an idea with the levels for keepers.

For example, level 3 : they automatically run to the dirtiest habitat as soon as cleanliness goes under 60% / run to the animal who is the most starving (the lower the number, the higher the priority). I'm tired of having to tell each ingame month to my keeper (whose only task is to clean the ONE habitat in his workzone) to go clean it because my animals are all getting sick, and this is a kind of micromanagement that should slowly disappear while having a better zoo with better formed people.

Level 5 : you can only form 1 level 5 keeper per ingame year, when a keeper reach level 5, you can, for each habitat in his workzone, set rules where the offspring are automatically sold (to the automatic price already proposed by the game, in CC or in money), or automatically released under some conditions. Someone proposed a bar where you set the minimum and maximum percentage for each caracteristic that make them sellable (for exemple : size 0 - 60, longevitiy 0 - 80 etc).
Maybe also add the possibility to automaticall send an offspring in the trade center ?

There we have two solution :
1 : As soon as an offspring becomes an adult, it triggers the condition and the level 5 keeper runs to sell the offspring if it meets the condition
2 : Every time the level 5 keeper goes into the habitat, it "checks" for sellable animale given the conditions. This implies at least a 1 month tolerance for offspring who fights their parents as soon as they turn adults, to avoid us being attacked by notifications.

Another solution, that could be a first solution to implement to test the popularity of this "auto sell per level 5 keeper", is to just select, for a specie in an habitat, to put the offspring in the Trade Center as soon as it becomes adult. This way people deal with it the way they want (keep it for breeding program, sell it for an higher price than the automatic one etc), and it maybe is simpler for Frontier to implement as there are no conditions on the caracteristics.