Community Challenges Suggestion to Make them more Individualized Since the Community Cannot Complete them

[Artistaparker]

Please change community challenges to individual challenges since there is no community surrounding this game. The community challenges are great, but they should always be achievable by the community, and if not, then individuals should be rewarded for major contributions.

I released 518 3-star birds and spent so many hours last week trying to help the achievement. I even put maxed 3-star birds up for trade to help other people get their achievement. Then it failed and all my 518 released birds were for nothing. I thought for sure I was going to be the highest contributor.. Now I realize if the challenge is still at like 7% after a few days the community won't be able to do it and it's pointless to participate. That doesn't help morale or make us encouraged to participate in another community challenge.

If you make such a hard feat like 3-star birds (even though it's easy for people with arctic pack) then why not make the number lower than 100,000? Or somehow encourage people to purchase the arctic pack with more marketing?

There is no way to communicate with other players, so why not give us some sort of chat room to help us encourage each other on the community challenge? Another idea is to create a page where we can see how many birds the top person has contributed - so we know it's possible to do the challenge with flying colors? People will start thinking about why the community challenge is so much easier for this person, then think - oh, I need the arctic pack!

It's like you knew this week couldn't be completed. I feel very upset that all my time was wasted and here I thought I would be the number one contributor this week.

This is a great game.. It isn't marketed well at all, but it's a fantastic game. It still deserves more sales and more plays and more people working on it. It's better than every other building game out there, so why are you letting it die?

p.s. I'm upset.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

Just wanted to say how amazing 518 is!
I'm sorry to hear that we didn't make the challenge, but you should be proud of your achievement. I definitely understand the disappointment though (rightly so!).

I agree that the stars challenges may need some tweaking.... (maybe others too). I'd note in the forums that the first time they did it with ostriches we had this problem too.
A few ideas:
Maybe some more guidance for the community about what allows an animal to get to three stars. ie. what to try or what to avoid. So that it doesn't feel so random.
Maybe some more intermediate awards in the individual contribution section. Once you get above a certain number, the individual bonuses spread out pretty far between them. Which definitely can lead to the type of disappointment or feeling like you've wasted your time. I know I myself had a bunch of penguins that would have qualified, but when I saw that we weren't going to make it, I made the decision to hold them instead of releasing, because the incentives weren't there to lose all those animals.

Of course, maybe that's part of it too. Greedy people like me not doing our part, so the whole community suffers. (I did release about 70 total).

I love the idea of a chat room. I think I'll start a thread for that in the discussion section to see where is the best place for that: Here on the forums, on steam, etc...

Again, OP, so sorry that we didn't come through for you as a community. But wanted to let you know that at least one fellow player is amazed at your accomplishments and thankful that you did so much.

 

[NL_Mutso]

If you make such a hard feat like 3-star birds (even though it's easy for people with arctic pack) then why not make the number lower than 100,000? Or somehow encourage people to purchase the arctic pack with more marketing?

Bit confused about why owning the arctic pack would make this one easier.

The community challenges are great, but they should always be achievable by the community

That's the big issue. I think in the first weeks a Rhino (?) challenge failed. I stopped doing those rating/star challenges a long time ago, not much fun imo.
This one with the birds - would be more doable if you had more

There is no way to communicate with other players, so why not give us some sort of chat room to help us encourage each other on the community challenge? Another idea is to create a page where we can see how many birds the top person has contributed - so we know it's possible to do the challenge with flying colors?

You can join a discord channel and you can post on this forum. A chat system in-game, likely not happen = privacy/kids protection reasons.
I like the idea of that page.

I'd note in the forums that the first time they did it with ostriches we had this problem too

First challenge I had major issues with
There was a trick of putting your animals in your trade centre (they still receive rating/but don't age). Didn't like it, if there's a problem with the challenge - the challenge itself needs to change and not a workaround method. This one failed so a clear message that this challenge wasn't interesting/not achievable.

 

[Red Anders]

Over on the Elite Dangerous forums we have a Community Goals section which is run by volunteers - there is support in terms of a contact route, via one or more of those volunteers, to FDev to highlight issues and a generally supportive atmosphere in the interest of furthering community goal success and enjoyment.

Perhaps those of you who feel strongly about the issue could get your heads together and approach FDev to see if a similar approach could be trialed for Zoo community goals.

 

[Artistaparker]

Bit confused about why owning the arctic pack would make this one easier.

I bought all the packs at once and thought penguins were in the arctic pack, but after posting I realized it's the aquatic pack.

 

[ikonet]

I would like to see improvements to the challenges as well. My fear is that the community is simply not large enough to reach these goals. If everyone is on and if everyone is participating, then the goal might be achievable. Otherwise, the challenges are only being used by the most die-hard players.

I like participating when I can, but I usually never see them. I cannot play PZ every week and I seem to always login on an 'off' week. For this most recent bird challenge I got to see it on the very last day and didn't even bother trying. In the past I've suggested solving the problem by having smaller challenges, and a lot more of them, so that everyone has a chance to participate in at least one of them: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...enges-multiple-challenges-at-one-time.553982/

 

[ShadowLilly]

It would also help if the rewards were actually rewards sometimes clothes for an avatar that you do nothing with, or a few cc (when you have over 5 miljon cc ) isn't rewarding at all

Also breeding or releasing animals isn't very challenging tbh

 

[Villa11]

I have never participated in the community events, I found them frustrating because they made the animal prices spike (i don't have 10k cc as I sell my animals at reasonable prices) and there is no feeling of community for me.

I agree with NL_Mutso that chat is probably not going to happen, but an actual friend system would be nice. Like trading or gifting animals to your friends.

 

[Artistaparker]

A friend system would be nice, I agree. I'm still upset that I contributed so much and see this 3x animals on my community challenge page but I'm not actually getting 3x animals.. taking away that reward because of other people not playing enough is just... wow.

 

[Jileha]

I haven’t done any challenges lately, but a few challenges I did participate in, failed. It wouldn’t be a challenge, if there were no chance that they might actually fail. There were also a few challenges that looked like they might fail, where indeed participants put in a lot of effort over the final weekend days to make it happen. And then there were a couple of challenges where Frontier realized the goals were unrealistic and they lowered the required number of animals.

Usually, even when a challenge fails, you still profit from making a lot of CC. Birds (without the DLC cassoway and penguin) were probably not the best animals in this regard either. This might also be a reason why this particular challenge failed. It’s hard to get peacocks and flamingos to three stars.

 

[Artistaparker]

I haven’t done any challenges lately, but a few challenges I did participate in, failed. It wouldn’t be a challenge, if there were no chance that they might actually fail. There were also a few challenges that looked like they might fail, where indeed participants put in a lot of effort over the final weekend days to make it happen. And then there were a couple of challenges where Frontier realized the goals were unrealistic and they lowered the required number of animals.

Usually, even when a challenge fails, you still profit from making a lot of CC. Birds (without the DLC cassoway and penguin) were probably not the best animals in this regard either. This might also be a reason why this particular challenge failed. It’s hard to get peacocks and flamingos to three stars.

After 77 birds released there are zero CCs given. So basically I'm working really hard on the community challenge for a gamble that I'll get my 3x animals, which is the only real fun/reward for me. Sure, challenges should be able to be failed you're right about that. However, if It says 3x implying you'll get 3x rewards in the challenge though.. they need to take that out so it's not mystical, or give the top participants the rewards anyway to be fair. It's like saying you win a prize when you actually don't. The CC points don't matter when you have over 250k of them from playing the game a few months.

 

[ShadowLilly]

After 77 birds released there are zero CCs given

You need to claim the cc, and there is only cc for a few animals, after a while there are no cc rewards

 

[NL_Mutso]

or give the top participants the rewards anyway to be fair

I actually disagree with this one. It's always part of a risk when you participate in a community challenge.

Rewarding only a specific group when a challenge failed, is just wrong.

You need to claim the cc, and there is only cc for a few animals, after a while there are no cc rewards

There were some threads about suggesting more option rewards for this. It's tricky to get a good view on what people think should be a individual reward for community challenges

 

[Artistaparker]

I actually disagree with this one. It's always part of a risk when you participate in a community challenge.

Rewarding only a specific group when a challenge failed, is just wrong.


There were some threads about suggesting more option rewards for this. It's tricky to get a good view on what people think should be a individual reward for community challenges

I feel it's wrong to say you'll get 3x rewards when you won't be getting anything. These people would just be getting what it says they are getting in the first place. 3x,2x and 1x rewards.. Like OK.. The community failed, but the people who worked twenty+ hours on it aren't losing their time because a bunch of people didn't care about or missed the chance to participate. It's fine to agree to disagree, but people shouldn't be told they are getting 1x,2x or 3x when they are not.

 

[Jileha]

prizes that are given out no matter whether a participant ultimately succeeds or not are participation awards. You get that in the form of CC at certain number of animals (are there still avatar outfits?). No competition awards first/second/third prizes when there is no winner. Since it’s a community event that fails when the community does not reach the goal, there are no winner prizes. It’s only logical and to be expected. Don’t blame the competition for your unrealistic expectations.

ending up with no prize is your risk for taking part in a competition. Look at other Frontier competitions such as creating a great themed habitat or a zoo poster. All participants put in lots of time and effort for the chance of winning. But IIRC there is only one winner of the physical prize. Nobody complains that they should have gotten the first place prize just for putting in lots of time and effort.

 

[Artistaparker]

prizes that are given out no matter whether a participant ultimately succeeds or not are participation awards. You get that in the form of CC at certain number of animals (are there still avatar outfits?). No competition awards first/second/third prizes when there is no winner. Since it’s a community event that fails when the community does not reach the goal, there are no winner prizes. It’s only logical and to be expected. Don’t blame the competition for your unrealistic expectations.

ending up with no prize is your risk for taking part in a competition. Look at other Frontier competitions such as creating a great themed habitat or a zoo poster. All participants put in lots of time and effort for the chance of winning. But IIRC there is only one winner of the physical prize. Nobody complains that they should have gotten the first place prize just for putting in lots of time and effort.

It's ok if you disagree. I'm saying they shouldn't say we are getting 1x,2x or 3x prizes when we're not. They said one person wins the poster challenge.. That's entirely different. They shouldn't say we're getting a reward when there is no reward.

 

[Jileha]

It's ok if you disagree. I'm saying they shouldn't say we are getting 1x,2x or 3x prizes when we're not. They said one person wins the poster challenge.. That's entirely different. They shouldn't say we're getting a reward when there is no reward.

Did they say anywhere that you would get a prize when the challenge fails? They probably did not anticipate that anybody would in all seriousness claim they earned a prize when the challenge fails and therefore did not think it necessary to point that out explicitly. when you take part in the challenge, you gamble/bet on a large enough community effort. If that does not happen, you lose your bet. You lose = no prizes. Why is this so difficult to understand? That’s how all competitions/challenges work. The risk of spending hours on the challenge for nothing (or money on a lottery ticket or an entrance fee on a race, etc.) is all yours.

 

[Artistaparker]

Did they say anywhere that you would get a prize when the challenge fails? They probably did not anticipate that anybody would in all seriousness claim they earned a prize when the challenge fails and therefore did not think it necessary to point that out explicitly. when you take part in the challenge, you gamble/bet on a large enough community effort. If that does not happen, you lose your bet. You lose = no prizes. Why is this so difficult to understand? That’s how all competitions/challenges work. The risk of spending hours on the challenge for nothing (or money on a lottery ticket or an entrance fee on a race, etc.) is all yours.

Why are you so hopped up about my suggestion? It's comical, I'm enjoying it, I hope you'll reply again. Psychologically saying there is a 1x, 2x, or 3x reward, then not giving it simply sucks. It makes people not want to participate. End of story. Please reply, let's be friends. You're so cool. I like you. So smart too, I bet we could chat all day. My hero, Jileha. Reply. Pls. This thread matters so much in life. It's important. So so important. You must reply.

 

[TFG21]

3 x 0 still equals 0. Technically no false advertising.

 

[NL_Mutso]

The community failed, but the people who worked twenty+ hours on it aren't losing their time because a bunch of people didn't care about or missed the chance to participate. It's fine to agree to disagree, but people shouldn't be told they are getting 1x,2x or 3x when they are not.

I think nobody sees this as a problem because everybody knows you are not getting prizes when you don't complete the challenge?
Are there games that hand out prizes even if people fail community challenges?
You are getting rewards for doing the challenge: some CC. But fair enough, that is debatable if that's enough - especially if you contributed big numbers.
Shouldn't be the same as the actual prize, though.

I don't think people arent't told they are getting 1x, 2x or 3x prizes for participating in these challenges - where do you get that ?
There's a community standing but that's only a indication for which category prizes you'll be placed if the challenge is succesfull.
(not indicating the actual prize - which was a big surprise when they first changed the prizes )