Do planet zoo game developer really know what we want in planet Zoo game ???

[PeppyPepp]

Not much to "complain" about free updates
Mentioned this before: Stop doing the free updates and put that content in the DLC. DLC has more content thay way (like ZT2 did)
i agree with you on the franchise part, some more attention to that mode would be nice. Sandbox got several tweaks/extra options in updates.

The thing is, Frontier usually adds a new feature with the free updates because they don't want to lock features behind a DLC which I'm sure many of us greatly appreciate. If they continue this route (and I believe they will), then I wish for more meaningful and deep management. I don't mind animals and construction pieces being a paid content.

 

[random goat]

I often wonder if they added the 30-40 most requested animals to this game how long would that hold people over for? I say this because not every animal will make the game for sure. I personally play sandbox and to me the game never gets boring honestly there’s just way too much I can do. With my experience of zt2 and mods it seems a great majority of people on the forum don’t regularly play the game. Sure the mods draw in newbies but my experience after mods and being in the community for a long time was the mod was the same way hold me over for awhile but at the end of the day it was still the playing the same old game that bored me eventually of zt2 even with mods still being pumped out at a pretty good pace. The draw for PZ even tho the game is fairly new is the depth you have in being able to terraform and create amazing looking habitats and objects that keeps the excitement up for me. Don’t get me wrong the game has needs such as more realistic building materials and of course animals. If frontier adds the right assortment of animals I really just don’t see myself wanting or needing mods really.

I agree for the most part. The possibilities to build anything with scenery pieces and terraforming are endless. And indeed, that part of the game never gets boring to me either. The thing is that, right now, if you want to build a dedicated section in your zoo with animals from X biome or X region then you do notice some limitations. Leaving the lack of a mesh building set, animal gates, info/education boards and backstage stuff aside, there is a notable lack of animals from certain regions and/or taxonomic levels. First and foremost, we lack so many birds. Also small habitat animals in general, which are 'fillers' in many zoos. Right now it's very hard to realistically build some common areas you'd find in zoos like a Madagascar area, or pretty much any themed area that would normally house birds and/or not big-ticket animals. Will that be possible when support is finished? If we only get 125-130 more animals (at most) I really doubt so.

 

[Bobble2017]

I just hope it doesn't become like Planet Coaster and Jurassic World where they suddenly give up on it and no mention that's what they have done . I have spent hours building zoos and having different animals in different zoos and trying to make them as diverse as possible and think this is an amazing game .

The biggest problem with mods being allowed in games is the damage they can cause and make it unplayable , Then you get people coming onto the official forums and screaming and shouting how their game has become unplayable . A lot of modders do a really great job but then theres always someone who copies the mod , changes something slightly , says its their own mod then denies all knowledge of it when it breaks the game

I prefer to play almost every game i have as vanilla without any mods at all , Theres only one game i use mods on but then i only get the mods from one single site where i know the standards of the mods .

Whilst i would love more animals i can only imagine how hard it is to do all the DLC for a game when the staff have to work from home and therefore cannot interact with each other all the time like they could at work

 

[paul78]

@Bobble2017 I have to agree the way they end games is a shame especially considering the people who supported the game buying every dlc. There really didn’t seem to be any warning or confirmation the game was done except for the fact support abruptly ended. Let’s hope PZ doesn’t end the same way as there’s still so much to be added.

 

[Swjosdotschka]

I will never get the "mods can break the game argument" . The Sims Franchise survived for 20+ years now. The trainwreck that is Sims 4 can only be supported over 6 years, because it has mods that makes the game INTERESTING. Major Mods don't function after big updates and there is almost never a player that shouts at EA because of that or thinks it's a game problem. Because most pc users aren't dumb. And because EA reminds in a tweet with every update to put the mods out and back in when we are sure they are compatible.
It's really no rocket science.

 

[Aramar]

I'm not sure how mods work because I've never used them (I don't play many games, so I'm a newby in the subject). Maybe the reason why Frontier doesn't support them is because if they have planned for example 10 DLCs and official mods for the animals in those packs appear before the launch of the DLC, then who would buy those packs once they are released? From the moment that mods are officially supported, in a few days all animals would be available and nobody would wait months for the new packs.

A different story will be once the last DLC is released. At that moment, we could start talking about supporting mods, but before that happens, I don't see the point.

 

[markun]

A different story will be once the last DLC is released. At that moment, we could start talking about supporting mods, but before that happens, I don't see the point.

That's how I feel. As much as I might wish Frontier released more animals, they have a brand and intellectual property to protect and reasonably won't want often low/lower standard animals being associated with the game.

I would rather wait for the animals they make than use mods for now.

I actually found out about zt2 by googling images of animals for a project I was working on. I saw images of mods and that got me involved in the community and the game. But then it was very different. The game was no longer supported and mods went from being extras/occasional reskins to a complete high quality makeover of the game (not just Aurora Designs but also Sophie's fences and building pieces and many more I could mention) making it playable for another ten years. Planet Zoo definitely isn't in that position now. Not yet.

 

[Willyphua]

I just hope they all planet zoo crew member and game developer can come in to this threads and take a look ...

I find that what most of you are saying make sense ...and you all are actually right ...

I hope that they come in and see what we wanted as many have share their thought here ...

 

[NL_Mutso]

I will never get the "mods can break the game argument" . The Sims Franchise survived for 20+ years now. The trainwreck that is Sims 4 can only be supported over 6 years, because it has mods that makes the game INTERESTING.

Easy, TheSims franchise is not popular because of the mods. There are tons of people playing the game without mods. Maybe you think the game is a trainwreck but "can only be supported over 6 years because is had mods" is just not true. When there's no competition or successor, some themed games will remain relevant. The Sims is part of many top 10 franchise lists of all time, maybe not fair to compare such a popular franchise with other games.

While using a mod is your own risk, breaking your modded savegame/losing your progress is very common when an update happens.
I think TheSims4 is the exception with disabling your mods like that - the common rule is that you lose (a great part of) your progress.
Tbf, a lot of games don't allow you to disable the mods easily, especially script-heavy ones.
I've seen an example of someone who couldn't start a new game because a corrupted modded savegame in the cloud was causing issues. Actually making the game useless.
Don't think that Frontier support isn't waiting to fix situations caused by other parties.

With PZ Franchise mode, modders can ruin other franchises with putting modded animals on the market (you can't stop this) and I don't want to buy modded animals in that mode.
Modded could also mean good stats animals, modded albino mutation and not just new species.

I just hope it doesn't become like Planet Coaster and Jurassic World where they suddenly give up on it and no mention that's what they have done

Ehm, you realize this is what almost every dev does with singleplayer games (online different story)? Don't expect Frontier to do this differently. Announcing that they stop support or announcing the last DLC, that's very rare. Would be nice to get this notification but don't get your hopes up when the time is near.
To be clear, last year seen this with a game I own, I really appreciated it and most from the community as well - so I agree with you. There's always a group that feel entitled to longer support or DLC.

That's how I feel. As much as I might wish Frontier released more animals, they have a brand and intellectual property to protect and reasonably won't want often low/lower standard animals being associated with the game.
I would rather wait for the animals they make than use mods for now.

Also when modders create an animal, sometimes it wouldn't make sense to buy a DLC. I agree with your post, in the end it's their property.
Same here, rather wait for the animals. I am going to mention your 1 month/1 animal idea again, that's something I think would work for a lot of people. Even if those were "clones"

I've seen some comments: "I'm not happy with the game, they should release tools so I get what I want" or "this game looks too much like PC with their building mechanics".
Do some research on this game, features and their DLC models before buying, and don't buy it if it doesn't meet expectations.

 

[XT]

With PZ Franchise mode, modders can ruin other franchises with putting modded animals on the market (you can't stop this) and I don't want to buy modded animals in that mode.

I was curious to see what options there are for PZ, though I haven't put any mods in and probably won't (the online franchise aspect makes me leery of how badly your game can be messed up if a mod works incorrectly) but at least one modder who's done work for PZ indicated in their notes that mods can't be used in franchise mode - I don't understand the mechanics but evidently there's something in what Frontier has done that prevents it, which makes sense and is a good idea. Both, it can't corrupt the franchise mechanics and also prevents folks from gaming the community system.

 

[NL_Mutso]

but at least one modder who's done work for PZ indicated in their notes that mods can't be used in franchise mode

Well, the current mods aren't really the mods we are talking about.
The current ones are mostly texture/colour/pattern modifications - which isn't that difficult. Those are some local adjusments - which have been around as long as I can remember.
Use to do this all the time - not much has changed in +25 years. You can easily do it yourself if you have Photoshop skills and watch a few YT videos for the other tweaks..(always a risk adjusting game-files !!)

When you have tools to actually edit/create new in-game stuff, this will happen - basically handing over the keys of the game-engine.. People will just modify the mod-tools.
All games with online parts have problems solving this and you can't stop this (on PC).
People love to cheat or ruin other people's games. With GTA online there are mods which allow you to crash other people's games and even get your IP address - I know that's a different kind of online experience but really shows how modding tools can be used.
Even a lot of modders agree you shouldn't do this in the online parts of a game - you can potentially ruin other people's games/playing experience..
It's far less of a problem with PS4/PS5 or Xbox one/X.

 

[PeppyPepp]

I have used a few PZ mods and they do work in the franchise. However, as Mutso said, those are re-skins of existing animals and they will break when the game updates (which is normal and something to consider when using mods). People should always be cautious when using mods because they can ruin your game/game files. At the same time, if used as intended, they can enhance your game very much (speaking generally, not just for PZ).

 

[XT]

I guess I never really considered using mods for anything beyond 'creating' new animals. I'm very non-competitive and just don't get the idea of cheating in game, especially a game like this where there's no real win or loss.

 

[NL_Mutso]

I'm very non-competitive and just don't get the idea of cheating in game, especially a game like this where there's no real win or loss.

I'm fine with people cheating if it can only affect your own game but when it comes to online games/online parts of a game - that's why I personally have issues with.
I don't get it either.

And next to cheaters there's a group that just wants to ruin your gaming experience. Especially with online there are people who love to troll and worse.

 

[delete account]

For me it's the same as with Planet Coaster, if there are certain things that are not implemented or changed the game will die off (double stations, slow entering stations....)
Also the fact that almost every update there is something wrong, there is a bug or they implement new options....find out later it doesn't work very well and then de-activate it (multi-select).

Frontier makes me feel like a "test-gamer", especially in this game, and i have to pay for it to participate.........
I keep saying if there was not the option for constantly updating the game Frontier would be out of out business and put to shame.

Please wake up Frontier!!!

 

[Swjosdotschka]

For me, there are and will probably always be worse companies. But the fall from unconditionally support to where I am now was a hard one for me and I definately got some bad bruises. With every DLC we tell them, that the utter silence between the packs is disturbing - nothing changes. And when they supported Simply Savannahs empty shell challenge , I caught myself being surprised, that they for once know what's going on in the community. Way too often they don't (or don't show they do). And of course it doesn't only come down to trends and content, but to animal requests, feature requests, bug reports and more.

So while I don't feel like a test-gamer or call the Plant Zoo dead yet, I can second this part of @MikeyMike1 : Wake up, Frontier!

Read the room, act on it, don't let the potential of the game be wasted and don't let PZ stand in the shadow of Prehostioric Kingdom. In all honesty, I couldn't care less about extinct animals, BUT the way Crytivo is communicating, reacting to feedback, showing a road map and interacting with it's customers makes me and others drawn to it. Because, to be fair, as a bulding simulator it already seen to have the better features (resizing objects). And as a management simulation / zoo game, PZ has to offer less and less anyway, the more time passes. The small packs change absolutely nothing and the educator talk to me honestly is not a feature but a bad joke. Not more of a gimmick than dancing zoo keepers and that was only a cheat.

 

[LN]

A bit of topic, but: Honestly, I mean no disrespect to the team, but we really really really need more zoo enthusiasts that know a lot about zoos onto the team. And some really interactive and chatty CMs that do not vanish every three month and can read a room and feel when the mood shifts - and act on it. People who do not only have 3-5 content creators in their radar, but the whole community. Recreations of RL zoos alone show what staple animals are missing and what species are prefered. You can not only look at one zoo and be done with it.

That honestly reads like a bucket full of disrespect just being poured over the team IMO.

Why frontier or planet zoo don't let other modders to be part of animal designing or making ???

Because they are protecting their intellectual property, which is their right.

 

[NL_Mutso]

BUT the way Crytivo is communicating, reacting to feedback, showing a road map and interacting with it's customers makes me and others drawn to it.

Outside their discord, they are barely communicating. The roadmap is nice but it's an alpha game/expected going into EA this year, you need to advertise your game somehow - it's not a popular game title/studio. They have to create a hype.
It took them years to get to an EA stage, keeping their customers in the dark for a long time in several periods.

With every DLC we tell them, that the utter silence between the packs is disturbing - nothing changes

Just wait, at some point people will be able to accept this

 

[Firestar97]

Outside their discord, they are barely communicating.

keeping their customers in the dark for a long time in several periods.

If it didn't change, they show monthly Updates on their Website

 

[LN]

As soon as the game is released, it will be mostly silence like any other game developer with a update every once in a while.
People shouldn't act like companies like for instance Crytivo are the holy grail.