Frustration about terraforming and more...

[Lailantie]

I got the game after realizing that you can terraform and create beautiful places with animals, and after watching a youtube tutorial for complete beginners. I have been in Second Life for 10 years doing terraforming and creating landscapes, I love that, I have played quite some base building games, so I thought I would be able to handle Planet Zoo.

It is intriguing that you have SO many options to create stuff and I totally adore the amount of detail and thought that was put into the game. After 27 hours of playing however I am so frustrated that I consider to stop playing.

- Terraforming
My major issue is the clumsiness and slowness of terraforming. It is as if you want to paint a huge canvas and only have a very small brush, so you have to paint 100 times instead of 10 times. At strength set to 100 percent you have to press your mouse button for ages until a mountain slowly starts to rise. In Second Life this would have been strength 10%. If you flatten the top of that mountain, you get a platform floating in the sky, as it won't fill with the ground below. If you make a lake and want to smooth the edges so that animals can walk in and out, it takes ages until it gets only a little more smoothed. In Second life, if you put the smoothening strength at 100, you can turn a slope of 90 degrees within a few seconds into a slope of 45 degrees without much force. I also don't understand why you constantly have to remove the water to do some fine tuning, as you can't terraform when the water is in. The whole process is arduous, tedious and exhausting and totally not fun for me.

- Trains and boats
So I tried to build a train and for the life of me I could not figure out how to add a path to the platform. I spent at least 15 minutes without success and then googled for a tutorial video. Turns out you have to press a certain spot in the menu which lets you add entrance, exit and a path. This was totally unintuitive and the description of that spot didn't indicate anything useful. When I built a boat and added the rails through a large riverland, I thought I might want to have the platform on the other shore. But if you move the platform, all the rails disappear. I also could not figure out how to edit the rails or remove them from the platform. I tried building a second platform and connect it to the old rails, not possible. Why can't you move the platform and keep the rails and adjust them?

- Grids and groups
When you place a workers building or a shop, a grid and a group is created. When you place another shop next to it, the shop is turned 90 degrees to the side and I tried for a long time to turn it, but Y/Z won't work when there's a grid and I simply could not figure it out. I also saw zoos where those shops are on a kind of floor. I also tried that one by building a floor out of pathways but it wouldn't let me place shops on it. I created a flat path making the shops accessible and added a floor on top of it, but then the shops weren't accessible.

This list could go on and on.

I managed to understand the administration, workers, workzones, barriers, animals, I can nicely fulfill their conditions to keep them happy, but I don't like the looks of the zoos I experimented with so far. Yet every step I took to make the zoo more beautiful was full of blockages and difficulties, and I got so stressed out that I am taking a pause. I'm not sure if I will pick up the game again.

 

[NZFanatic]

I'm not sure if I will pick up the game again.

Well that's your choice, but unfortunately the game is designed to be slow. Everything requires patience and detail to make things as beautiful as you might see on YouTube or here on the forums. A lot of the tools you are struggling with will remain tedious to use, but the more you practice the better you'll get; there isn't really a quick fix to any of it.

For your point about 'floors', the best thing to do is to place a shop/facility first, then when you place the path you should see a button in the UI that says 'align to grid'. You can then select your shop/facility and the path will be automatically aligned to that grid, allowing you to place squares of path individually on that grid. This is generally how you create 'floors'.

The rest is really just the constraints of the game engine. There's no changing that, at least not any time soon. Perhaps one day when this game dies off in popularity Frontier might revisit it in the form of a sequel on a newly-built engine that can overcome some of the trickier aspects, but currently that's little more than a pipe dream.

The first time I played, I couldn't figure it out at all. I put the game away for a few weeks, disappointed with myself, but eventually I decided, no, I was so excited for this game, I have to try. I played and played and played and even now, three years later, I'm still not as good as the masters, but I don't think my work is anything to sniff at either. I don't have the patience for some of the stuff you see on YouTube (grandiose buildings, intensive terrain work, complex tour rides) so I avoid that as much as possible. Work on the basics first, and gradually lean into more complicated features.

 

[paul78]

It simply takes time. When I first played the game in beta I thought because of my experience playing zoo tycoon games I could just jump in and build no problem. This wasn’t the case tho as everything took time. But the more I played the better I got. I also notice at least for me that if I don’t play for a long time it seems like your rusty on some things but it comes back quickly. Terraforming just takes patience and practice just like everything else. I too was a little intimidated as were most players who never played planet coaster before. I played PC but this game still was a learning curve in comparison. You’ll get better tho the more you play.

 

[XT]

As many have said, this is not a casual game and it takes a fair bit of time to really feel you are in control of the core mechanics. Pathing and water are the most finicky issues in the game, and you're seeing that. I'd say it took me several months of pretty devoted play to feel like I fully understood how the pathing and water works. Youtube videos will help greatly, I'd suggest continuing to watch them.

The reason you can't terraform around/with water in place is because (as I understand it) it's a volume, that animals can interact with (ie: swim in) and not simply a decoration, like it is in many games.

If I'm understanding your issues with the facilities/shops/other interactive buildings: You cannot place a facility or shop on a path, it interferes with guest movement - you can't place it just above, or whatever either. The path needs to be freely available for use. You have to place it next to a path and connect it or, for shops, you don't need an actual connection it just needs to be very close.

For your gridded items aligning themselves oddly, you can turn off snap to position and that may solve the issue.

I haven't played second life but it's not a comparable game. Much of the terrain, the water, the trees etc in PZ are interactive items for guests, animals and staff - all of which behave differently when interacting with these things, so there's a whole host of programming going on behind the scenes whenever you plop down a tree, or mess with the terrain. I'd guess that most of second life's items are solely decorative.

If you want a zoo with terrain changes you can find people who have created ones via the relatively new terrain map function and use theirs. It's easier. There's a thread around here somewhere and also in the reddit for PZ.

Finally, PZ is, simply, finicky. There are bugs and other problems that the devs can't seem to fix, or don't feel they are priorities.

 

[Karen F]

I think everyone goes through the frustrations you described. It takes a long time to really understand this game and how to build. But I must admit that building mechanics, path and transportation placement could have been so much easier. A lot of improvement is possible.

 

[Lailantie]

Thank you all so much for your replies, tips and encouragement!

I read in some other thread that someone suggested to start very small with a franchise zoo and only have one habitat and let your vet explore that animal fully. That was a completely different approach and I tried that. I discovered a lot of new things which weren't implemented in sandbox mode, I kept it small and decorated small areas. So now I have four habitats and more than 200 000$, everyone is happy and everything works. I still have no idea how to build houses and stuff, but I downloaded some from the workshop and I'm having fun. The stress level is down to a point where I can now enjoy the game and learning as I move along. Thanks again!

 

[Tatanosaure]

I think the most important is to take this game as every other games, not starting playing with in mind that video tutorials will be enough to reach the levels of these players. By accumulating the hours of playing, you will slowly get new inspirations leading to get new skills. Also, keeping in mind that everyone is capped at different levels. I was also very frustrated at first and I let the game aside for a long timmmmme. But each new update, I was coming back with new ideas and gaining some skills. Still not a good builder but I became very satisfied with my landscape and natural part, so I build my zoo in very natural environments and when I need sophisticated buildings I use the insane skills of the community workshop. And at the end now I always get a lot of fun playing my way.

Find your way to have fun you will learn step by step to enjoy the games and its tricky tools

 

[GGG2021]

I think the game is like a Sara-Lee cheesecake - layer upon layer upon layer and it takes time to savour all of the magnificent sweet delight.
And in all seriousness - the landscaping and building and terra-forming is what I love - although I have been playing since Zoo-ception. I think if you stick with it you too will fall in love with it like we all have. You'll find the Zoo within a Zoo within a Zoo too - all the different game playing modes are great and suit each mood. Also - the plants and level of botanical detail is AMAZING - and the great-rockery too.
It's a game that let's you really relax!

 

[wowman]

Just abput everything mentioned sounds like its more about learning how to use the features effectively. Yes, it may take a while, but pratice makes perfect, and like others have mentioned...search YT for how to videos as they can help a lot. If there is a specific item you struggle with, ask with details in the forums and most always you will get help. So, what one thing from above would you like some help with that we can start with?

 

[Antmar97]

- Terraforming
My major issue is the clumsiness and slowness of terraforming.

I suggest you to try the Freebuild mod that increase the strenght and the size of the brush and it's way more faster, plus there are a lot of changes for the building side.