Future of Franchise and Moving Animals between Zoos

[Siola]

Hello,

I really hope for an offline franchise mode in the future so that I can continue to trade/move animals between my zoos. Challenge mode is not going to cut it when the servers are eventually shut down because you cannot move your animals between your different zoos. The aspect of the game that I enjoy most is breeding animals in one zoo and moving them to another. My fear is once the servers get shut down, a player will never be able to move animals between their zoos again. Are there any plans in development for making an offline franchise mode if and when the servers are shut down? I would like for this to be thought about and planned now before Frontier stops spending the resources to develop the game.

Side Note: I'd be willing to pay for a DLC that is just a game option to have an offline franchise. That is how important this feature of moving animals between your zoos is to me.

 

[jcp011c]

I'm hopeful for something as well. While I've come to accept the trade market as it is, every single other zoo game I played had animals that were set prices, and were always available, provided you had either reached certain goals/levels and hand the funds together. So it was a bit of an adjustment getting used to that concept, and I stayed off Franchise mode for the first few months. It's now what I play about 80% of the time though.

At any rate, to the point, having something like that, as a new mode of play, would be great. You could also interconnect your zoos to your storage, and share franchise research. So basically how franchise is now, but with only the game auto-generating new animals at random for certain prices. I'd even be fine with Frontier having tiers encoded for price versus genetics, rather than just one set price for animals like most other zoo games. I don't think those games have ever tackled the genetics issue before, so having that concept kept would be neat.

Otherwise - long long term thinking...once official content ends, the servers will most likely stay up for several years at least...and who knows, they may keep them up indefinitely. but if they don't and there's no other franchise-like mode to play on, that's a whole style of playing that's just gone.

 

[Roxxsmom]

I don't see why they couldn't have players able to transfer their animals between their different offline zoos, though I hope they aren't planning on closing the franchise servers down any time soon. It's fun buying and selling animals with other players. I wish they'd expand the franchise experience, actually. It would be cool if you could tour other players' zoos in real time and interact with other players when they are online playing (though a DND mode would be good for folks who'd rather not interact).

 

[jcp011c]

I don't see why they couldn't have players able to transfer their animals between their different offline zoos, though I hope they aren't planning on closing the franchise servers down any time soon. It's fun buying and selling animals with other players. I wish they'd expand the franchise experience, actually. It would be cool if you could tour other players' zoos in real time and interact with other players when they are online playing (though a DND mode would be good for folks who'd rather not interact).

I doubt they'll shut the franchise servers down any time soon. Even after support for new content ends, I'm pretty sure those will run for several years at minimum. and who knows, they may plan to keep them open for years and years...at best guess I'd say those servers will likely run for another 5 to 10 years and maybe longer.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

I love this thread!

One of the things I love most about franchise mode is that it allows me to play as if I am running a true franchise or a regional organization, not just a single zoo that happens to need money and have a market. For me, this means transferring animals strategically between and among my zoos, and running what the AZA calls Species Survival Plans (SSP), which I believe are called EAZA Ex situ Programs (EEP) by the EAZA, and Species Management Programs (SMP) by the ZAA. I work hard to improve stats over time, avoid inbreeding, and maintain a stable and sustainable population for the regional collection/franchise as a whole, rather than just the selection in any single zoo. I even go a step further and treat the different color morphs as if they were separate subspecies or variants that I manage as distinct entities.

While a lot of players that are coming from sandbox mode first notice that they have to use money, or the market, or the existence of the challenges, I feel like this transferability of animals among one's own zoos adds a whole other level or management and strategy for those of us who choose to use it. I actually use the transfer abilities even more than I use the formal market.

This thread is important because it highlights how players are actually using these tools and this mode to do something completely different than what other modes allow, rather than thinking of it as simply sandbox plus money, or sandbox with an animal trading market, which is how it sometimes gets defined. While I obviously hope that franchise continues as an online game for many years or decades, I agree with the OP that if they do have to close the online part at some point in the distant future, that they really consider how to keep this transfer functionality (and this style of management and play) alive. The devs should consider how players in the mode are actually using it to do new and different things, and not fall into the trap of thinking that we're playing in the same way as other modes are.

 

[DarthQuell]

Yes. I think that Franchise is the best mode, and I think that it could have the potential to be even better.
Something that I'd love, though, is the ability to travel between zoos on that mode instead of having to save, exit franchise, then reenter in another zoo. It's a bit time consuming, methinks, when we could just immediately travel instead.

Of course, loading would take some time depending on the construction and amount of animals/guests, but still

 

[Siola]

I'm hopeful for something as well. While I've come to accept the trade market as it is, every single other zoo game I played had animals that were set prices, and were always available, provided you had either reached certain goals/levels and hand the funds together. So it was a bit of an adjustment getting used to that concept, and I stayed off Franchise mode for the first few months. It's now what I play about 80% of the time though.

At any rate, to the point, having something like that, as a new mode of play, would be great. You could also interconnect your zoos to your storage, and share franchise research. So basically how franchise is now, but with only the game auto-generating new animals at random for certain prices. I'd even be fine with Frontier having tiers encoded for price versus genetics, rather than just one set price for animals like most other zoo games. I don't think those games have ever tackled the genetics issue before, so having that concept kept would be neat.

Otherwise - long long term thinking...once official content ends, the servers will most likely stay up for several years at least...and who knows, they may keep them up indefinitely. but if they don't and there's no other franchise-like mode to play on, that's a whole style of playing that's just gone.

Yea,

I agree. I stayed off of franchise mode initially because I did not like the online aspect of it, but after awhile and the ability to move my animals between multiple different zoos, it is all I play now. I don't think I could ever go back to a single zoo style in challenge mode because of how many limitations there are. Franchise mode is essentially limitless with how many zoos you can own and operate which really is a game changer for this game. This whole franchise mode is a gem in a coal mine that I think they just so happened to stumble upon but without the ability to own and operate many zoos, many people would not stay engaged. The ability create these zoos and use them to move animals around is what keeps the fan base and audience so enticed to keep playing so they will not get bored. Once you spend all your time breeding certain animals to get their stats up, you can have a sustainable population for other zoos and do not have to spend time doing it again for each and every zoo. If I had to do that for every zoo, I would have quit playing a long time ago.

So in short, that is why I hope Frontier develops an offline franchise mode for the future.

Thanks!