Frontier, we need to have a serious talk about your path mechanic.

Cantina

Cantina
I’ve been playing video games for a very long time and out of those years I have never encountered an in-game mechanic as horrid as the path placement in this game.

Zoo Tycoon and the sequel had path placement that was simple BUT effective, it also allowed you to have a freedom and get those tight corners.

Planet Zoo gives you a long strand of path (I am not even going to say what this looks like do to it being a family friendly game) that you are constantly at war with.

Place down a building in a tight location and you spend the next hour trying to direct the path to said location by unraveling half your darn zoo.

Example: Last night, I was playing Career mode. The goal to meet was adding in more animals, buildings etc. to the zoo. The zoo was built on an elevated path, and I wanted to squeeze in a food vendor near a new animal exhibit I just complete. So it should be easy, right? LOL! Nope. I spent the next hour and a half being at war with the path. I would have been done in 2-3 mins if this was Zoo Tycoon and/or the sequel.

Sure, you can fiddle with the path controls to decrease your swearing, but not by much.

And I am not alone in this, if you go to whatever search engine you use, the biggest complaint from players (behind the bugs) is how horrid the path system is.

THEN you have several Youtube videos spending 15 minutes or more just to explain how to place the path and its adjustments. Really? For paths? Oh boy! That is not a good sign.

If anyone from Frontier is reading this, as a fellow creator of game content, I would be ashamed and embarrassed to take something so simple and execute in the worst way possible.




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Kai

Kai
The worst part for me is not being able to clip a fence to the edge of a path. You can build passable square straight paths with the grid tool, but then you'll have to spend hours getting the fences in line with them. I can't understand why something so basic is missing - please just let me clip fences to my paths! I'm aware there is an option to clip paths to fences, but I always plan out my paths before enclosures so that's no help.

I really do prefer the grid/building system in ZT2, it's always a fight to build anything in this game (as I like the majority of my paths & fences perfectly straight).
 
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PeppyPepp

PeppyPepp
While I do agree that the path system is not the most friendly to use, you can get used to it. There are so many advance options for a reason, you just need to learn how to use it. After a while you'll get the hang of it and when you'll try putting a path somewhere and it won't let you you'll quickly figure it out. I guess it just takes a bit of practice to understand the mechanic behind it.

My boyfriend wanted to make a plaza yesterday and put 2 exhibits down and then wanted to put another 2 down. He quit because he could not figure it out for the life of him. I helped him and explained that it's too tight, the grid pieces won't fit and you won't be able to fit the square edges of the path around it. After "arguing" :)D) about the path system I showed him how it can be done, we just needed to move a few things, delete a few paths and voila, he got a beautiful exhibits plaza. It was 5 minutes work and it was exactly how he wanted it.

What I'm trying to say is that yes, it could be so much better, but there are ways around it and it has a bit of a learning curve (as everything else in this game I suppose).
 

Chris Hannover

C
Peppy is right that you can get used to path building in this game, and Cantina has a point that you very much have to. ;)

Laying down paths in confined spaces is frustrating, as the game often does not recognise the most obvious solutions, instead trying to force you into weird-looking ones, grid or no grid.

What bugs me the most is that right-clicking tends to delete existing paths rather than aborting your ongoing attempts at new ones, and that all path building happens in real time, costing real money.

I would suggest an overlay tool to fiddle with free of charge, with the actual costs coming into effect once you confirm the new path being to your satisfaction.

As it is, I find myself constantly re-loading while testing the path I actually want.
 

Moonfox

Moonfox
I keep getting “Obstructed” points for no discernible reason? Also, if I build one area using square paths and a grid system, so many paths don’t connect it I try to link it to non-grid pathing. It’s difficult, mostly because I can’t figure out the rules/reasons behind why it doesn’t work.
 

Seasiren

Seasiren
This isn't going to change, it is the same piece of ...pathing... they had in Planco and there were plenty of complaints about it in there as well. Honestly, I have been in building programs since the 90s starting with one called Active Worlds all the thru EQLandmark ( now there was some interesting building). This is the screwiest building system I have ever seen. The last time I posted on this subject I made mention of the fact that a overlay grid of some kind would be really nice for lining things up, such as paths and barriers and walls etc. Snap to grid for such things would be a godsend. You would have thought I was asking for them to shoot someones grandmother with people going off about loving no grid. Which is fine for them. Most, if not all, grid systems have and off/on toggle. So I never did get the pushback I got on that. Once again I am just going to assume thier game engine is such that it can't be done. But it makes zero sense not to have this as an option, particularly with the way pathing behaves. Yes there are small grid options for path(if it ever actually finds a grid to work with) that then doesn't want to play nice with non grid option. I won't even go into the supposed grid system on the building mats, that operates on a grid system of its own that never lines up with any barriers or paths you have layed down. I literally spent the first three days of this game just trying to lay paths down in my zoo. Sorry for the rant, but this has been my biggest pet peeve with the Planet games since Planet Coaster came out. Yes I know You Tube but watching videos is still not going to fix the issue of no universal grid system.
 

Merit Selket

Merit Selket
As much as I like the game, as much I hate the pathing systhem. whenever i think I learned it, something strange happens and it doesn not do what it should do( but it did do it 30sec before). it is so frustrating that I cannot build all my ideas just because I can not find a solution for the paths. yes I too watched several youtube tutorials and still try to learn it, but I don´t want to spent my time on the paths when i want to build a whole city with millions of details everywhere :rolleyes:

some people still think that Videogames make players agressive, NO! not the game , but a pathing system like this can make you pretty agressive ;)
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MONOKERUS

MONOKERUS
I really agree. Of all building simulators I've ever played, the path system in this game is by far the worst. I played Planet Coaster for a couple of hours and did not like the path system AT ALL and really hoped for it to be improved in Planet Zoo, but I don't see too much of a difference if any at all. Paths are such an important part of the building experience and when you have to search for YouTube tutorials every single time you want to use them, the system simply isn't user friendly enough. If nothing is changed, I at least hope we'll get an official tutorial showing how the paths are supposed to work because I still feel like a beginner after playing for 30 hours and watching as many path tutorial videos as I've been able to find.
(I really hate when games makes me feel stupid. These paths make me feel VERY stupid. Like, how difficult can it be to lay down a path?)
 

Chris Hannover

C
What annoys me is that - either through lack of personal skill or due to game mechanics - I can't seem to mirror existing paths and structures without them looking sluggish and askew.

Something is always a bit off, a little to the left/right/front/back for some reason and never quite like the original on the opposite side, mostly in the way it is connected to a path.
 

Cantina

Cantina
PeppyPepp said:
While I do agree that the path system is not the most friendly to use, you can get used to it. There are so many advance options for a reason, you just need to learn how to use it. After a while you'll get the hang of it and when you'll try putting a path somewhere and it won't let you you'll quickly figure it out. I guess it just takes a bit of practice to understand the mechanic behind it.

My boyfriend wanted to make a plaza yesterday and put 2 exhibits down and then wanted to put another 2 down. He quit because he could not figure it out for the life of him. I helped him and explained that it's too tight, the grid pieces won't fit and you won't be able to fit the square edges of the path around it. After "arguing" :)D) about the path system I showed him how it can be done, we just needed to move a few things, delete a few paths and voila, he got a beautiful exhibits plaza. It was 5 minutes work and it was exactly how he wanted it.

What I'm trying to say is that yes, it could be so much better, but there are ways around it and it has a bit of a learning curve (as everything else in this game I suppose).
Click to expand...

All video games have to be learned. No one is going to jump into a video game and know off the bat how to do "X, " use "Y," and get from point A to point B.

There is a BIG difference between learning a game (mechanic) and tolerating a game (mechanic). Toleration should never be a solution to a video game problem you and I paid for. That is how bugs etc. do not get fixed which then allows the developers to make the same mistakes over and over again.

Its a problem. Period.

Can I tolerate the mechanic? Sure --- for about an hour. Then I get so frustrated I end up quitting and play a game that does not.

*A lead game developer (who I will not name) end up causing a whole slue of in game problems, which lead to more problems. Understand that several known employees voiced their concern and did not agree with the changes the lead developer was making. We (including me) had enough and made ourselves heard on the forums. Fast forward a month later (give or take) and he was fired.

*Another lead developer of a beloved game, made a slue of promises on the next installment. So what happened? The game came out about a year later, and it was beyond shocking. The game was a broken buggy mess. The main story made no sense in terms of lore. The world was unfinished. Three years of work they put in to this and then they charged fans $60 bucks?!?! Yeah, um. By the time I arrived to the forums it was already lit up like it was freaking Christmas. It got so bad they had to literally shut down the forums. This was the start of their collapse. A year or so later the company died.

Should we create a riot and act aggressively toward Planet Zoo's developers and get them kicked to the curb!?!?! No! Absolutely not. Thee above were just examples to show how powerful fans can be to make their voices heard.

What we should do is step-up and say, "Yes, it is a very bad mechanic and [we] the players want this fixed.

I really want to enjoy this game. But its kind of hard too when your waging war on the game mechanics instead of enjoying them. :confused:
 
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