Anyone struggling?

markun

markun
I’m starting to think the game just isn’t for me. I’m annoyed with the game and annoyed with myself for buying a new laptop especially to play.

The habitat barriers are horrible, the path system is awful. Why can’t the paths align directly next to the barriers? It’s incredibly annoying. I want to build realistic zoos like I could in ZT2 but it’s proving impossible because fences won’t join up, paths won’t go next to fences. Back of house areas are almost impossible. Then there’s the ugly and reality shattering staff paths and clunky gates. Who thought of this system?

It’s supposed to be the spiritual successor to ZT2 but frankly it’s becoming a nightmare and I’m getting very fed up indeed.

The trees and plants are great and the maps and weather are fantastic. The animals seem beautiful but I haven’t actually got to place any apart from an experiment with the flamingos as I’m constantly struggling to actually build anything I’m happy with.
 

Wolfen75

Wolfen75
The paths can be set to "snap alongside barriers".
Lower right of the screen when you're building the paths is a clockwork symbol for the settings.

edit: but yes, for an oldschool player that is used to a real grid, this is confusing at times.
Because everything has it own grid, but the map not seems to have one.
 

peteuplink

peteuplink
This game suffers from many of the same problems that Planet Coaster has, in that it just feels very clumsy to get things where you want them to be. I think placing stuff would work better if there was a snap to grid option. If there is one, I can't find it.

It also has a very steep learning curve for a management game. I've just got silver on the second tutorial zoo and the Welsh lady in the tutorial has basically told me to go off and build some more habitats and exhibits to complete the objectives... This is great, but the game hasn't really taught me anything about how to plan things out effectively and it feels like I've basically been given a load of bricks and mortar and no training, and the site foreman has basically gone "On you go! Build me a nice house!"

Also I had a problem with Bonobo's climbing out of their enclosure, because I didn't put a climb proof fence up. But the game never told me at any point that I had to do this when I fixed the broken fence.

For a management game it's quite stressful and I'm not really enjoying it.
 
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Barje

Barje
Imo,its a problem that need to be fixed,also the paths snap to fences seems not working for me.
But for now the biggest disappointment for me are problems with controls and frame rate.
 

Lilo

Lilo
Remember that you can move the barriers. Build the barrier alongside the path, then use the move tool on each fence post (looks like a plus sign with four arrows) to move it snug up against the path.
 

Nat1984

N
I have to say, I felt like this until today, but I just clicked with the game today and had to tear myself away from it after about 5 hours non stop!
I spent the week making mistakes, watching tutorials on YouTube, browsing this forum for advice and then I slowly started to try to build a zoo, bit at a time. I’ve played with paths, barriers and terrain and feel like I’m starting to get it now. I’m never going to be super creative and I have a dreadful tendency to make everything ‘flat’ but i had a lot of fun.
 

Imagin

Imagin
I like that this game has a lot to learn. That means it has depth. I think that it's best to go very slow with it because if you try and experience everything the game has to offer right away you're going to be very overwhelmed. I hated the career mode tutorial stuff. I did just enough to barely get me started then found beginner videos and asked questions on Discord and in this forum. I'm a creative self-learner type so now I'll likely never leave Sandbox Mode but I'm quite happy with that. I can still monitor my animals, guests and staff happiness, see if my zoo is profitable overall. I can adjust prices for my shops and monitor sales. For me, that's enough management. I just want to relax and make pretty zoos with happy animals :) Even if you aren't overly creative I think that Sandbox is the best place to learn the basic skills in this game, it's much less frustrating and not so much to have to deal with all at once.
 

markun

markun
I think I’m just going to avoid doing buildings for a while even if it means having no entrance or zoo walls and just work on some enclosures and get the animals in. Try and be positive and see what happens.
 

Imagin

Imagin
markun said:
I think I’m just going to avoid doing buildings for a while even if it means having no entrance or zoo walls and just work on some enclosures and get the animals in. Try and be positive and see what happens.
Click to expand...

That's a good idea. Just pick one thing and do a bit of research and do that. Don't move on to something else until you feel comfortable with that. There is no need to master every aspect of this game right away or even ever really. If buildings aren't your thing you don't ever have to go there - you can use the ones in the game or just download others from the Workshop.
 

markun

markun
Thanks I really appreciate that. I think I’m finding it especially frustrating as I know exactly what kind of entrance area I’d like and I always started zoos in ZT2 with the entrance buildings and then move on to the enclosures.

I would be able to build it really quickly in ZT2 (thanks to Sophie’s building sets which are really great and versatile) and now I just can’t do that with any ease so my whole zoo building process has to be re-examined.
 

Valhooli

V
I did the tutorial and then dove into franchise mode. this was a mistake, my zoo was awful, disorganized, habitats didn't make sense or work, I leveled up way to many staff, had way to many staff. Ultimately I ended up saying F it and just kept failing and learning stuff. I made a second zoo in the franchise and its soooooo much better. just try and learn stuff, maybe check out a streamer or two that plays it and ask questions learn from them. that's a lot of what I did!
 

Nat1984

N
markun said:
I think I’m just going to avoid doing buildings for a while even if it means having no entrance or zoo walls and just work on some enclosures and get the animals in. Try and be positive and see what happens.
Click to expand...

I struggle with buildings too. I just don’t have any creativity when it comes to building them. They end up looking like boxes put together like a toddler? I was the same in PC, I ended up just using the workshop items and to be honest, I’m happy with that. The fun for me is layout and making a nice looking zoo, I don’t mind using ready-made creations. Although I do wish I was more talented with building, but sadly I’m not!
 

londonx

L
Sounds more like you are trying to run before you can walk. If you have gone through the tutorial and jumping into Franchise or Sandbox modem forget grids, there is no grid system, the game world is open ended, flexible, unlimited in landscaping possiblities, yet the visitors and animals react correctly to it accordingly, its not scripted its AI, thats the whole point of the game. It's why people can create amazing content and put it on youtube for you to gawp at. If you want a grid game from 2006 play a free to play game on your phone.

If you can't hack "fiddling" around trying to craft stunning bespoke content then just use the buildings that are already in the game! They might look boring especially the undecorated staff and visitor buildings but they work perfectly fine, use z key to orientate the shop window or door and plonk it down and connect the shop window or door with a path. Simple. Hide their ugliness with plants and trees. When you research scenery you get access to funky pre-created buildings, or just play Sandbox for instant access to everything. Using a pre-created building is not fiddly, but to begin with let things breathe for convenience, there is a large space for you to play with, use that space for learning the mechanics and worry about space efficiency and aesthetics later.

Barriers are simple too, just tick the snap to angle of 90 degrees option and create a square on the default flat surface. stick in a door at any point and connect that door to the main path. Stop worrying about paths not aligning perfectly with barriers, or plazas or whatever, it's a purely aesthetic issue, the goal first is to understand how to create stuff and move your mind away from gridyness. If you want to change the Barrier type just click on the Barrier, select Edit Barrier and highlight the section or mutiple sections then select the barrier type you want to change too. You can change the barrier height also at this point.

Once you have your enclosure and wonky path network linking the enclosures and buildings with the zoo entrance, then play around with altering the terriain inside the enclosues and around the paths, the terrain will alter around them.

When you get into the mood to designing buildings with decoration and structure pieces, then try it away from everything else on a nice flat spacious piece of land so there are no distractions. A building has its own grid which auto-expands depending on its content, so for clarity best to do in plenty of space and then move it after. When you select structure pieces like walls or floors or roof pieces they snap to the buildings grid; decoration pieces instead snap to the suface of what ever is there. Start with the basic walls and roof pieces first before trying to decorate it. Once you have a building, exit edit mode and select the building and you can move and rotate it to fit it into your zoo elsewhere and connect the shop window or door to the path if its needed. Save the building as a blueprint so you can use it in other zoos.
 
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Imagin

Imagin
I think of this game as a marathon not a sprint. The first zoo you create is going to be awful, mine certainly was! But you can use it as a learning tool and then just make another zoo. The next one will be better but you'll also learn a lot more bulding on what you learned from the first one. I strongly suggest you pick one thing - if you don't like building buildings yet, make one habitat. Pick an animal you can get. Look at Reddit or YouTube and see what others have created for this animal. Get some ideas. But don't make it too hard on yourself. Don't expect that you're going to make something like one of the pro streamers habitats. The more you do the more you learn - but not if you're trying to get your head around everything at once. If Franchise mode is overwhelming - it certainly was for me - then play in Sandbox mode where there are hardly any bugs - and relax and enjoy the game!
 

Imagin

Imagin
Barje said:
Truth is,that building pieces mostly won't clip correctly.
Click to expand...

What do you mean? Guests walk right through all building pieces except trashcans and benches. That's why we put the pieces on facilities like shops, staff buildings, etc.
 

Barje

Barje
i mean,building parts wont stick correctly,perhaps i just used wrong word. bigger building is,further building parts depart from the core.
 
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