Grouping WorkZones [ORIGINALLY AS BETA FEEDBACK]

meimento

M
Seems like my posts get hidden in the shadows of other posts really quickly and I did post this before but seemed ignored.

I wrote this back in the beta feedback [https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-good-idea-if-we-can-group-work-zones.524676/] but I never got a word on what the Dev's think.

Would be scary to think that now with the current system I could have way over 100 workzones to just scroll through.

Here's what I wrote back then:

"
Ok, for example.

So I had filled the entire franchise map, and had every animal, and that most animals have their own exhibits, and a couple can share.

Say if my sample work zone list was like:
  • Entrance Plaza Main Entrance left
  • Entrance Plaza Main Entrance Right
  • Entrance Plaza Guest Services
  • Entrance Plaza Restaurant A & Restaurant B
  • Entrance Plaza Store A & Store B
  • Entrance Plaza Main Research Building (the Staff members dedicated to researching only)
  • Asia Snow Leopard Exhibit (contains all staff and staff facilities for the particular exhibit)
  • Asia Indian Elephant
  • Asia Red Panda & Giant Panda
  • Asia Indian Rhino & Indian Peafowl
  • Asia Komodo Dragon
  • Asia Bengal Tiger
  • Asia Restaurant A & Store A
  • Africa Elephant
  • Africa Zebra & Giraffe
  • Africa Lion
  • Africa Restaurant A & Store A
Instead I would group them under
  • Entrance Plaza
  • Asia
  • Africa
and then each open up as an accordion to reveal what each group contains. "


Another thing to bring up but it might be too late for this I guess, is using a Lasso Tool to highlight the working areas, that might work better for the caretakers, security guards and mechanics?
 

Snaffles1301

S
No I think the idea is good. I agree if you have a big zoo you can end up with so many workzones but I’m not really Sure how it would work. And there are so many bigger issues to be dealt with before this. Like refunds and food costs.

I like your idea. I also think that it would be nice to have more sorting options for work zones. So that you could see for example how many workzones cover your bongo habitat. Maybe a heat map that shows all your workzones or something.

The way I set my workzones is essentially three different workzones per area - one for my keepers/vets and one for security/maintenance/caretakers and one for vendors. But it can be confusing when you have a lot of animals and a big zoo to make sure everything is covered.
 

Jaggid Edje

Jaggid Edje
Think it's a brilliant idea. I would love something...anything...like this to help me organize and manage the work zones. Heck, at this point I'd pay extra just to get them to sort alphabetically in all the drop down lists.... I end up with a ton of work zones in the larger zoos because of how I do keepers. 3 habitats with 2 keepers per work zone for them is what I do, to keep them most efficient so I end up with a ton of Keeper work zones in the large zoos.
 

marcnesiumHH

M
there are others as well, using the search helps:
forums.frontier.co.uk

UI Feedback - Sorting/Filtering Staff Members Tab - Needs Overhaul.

The Staff tab desperately needs an upgrade. I have 161 staff members in my zoo and scrolling down the page trying to find people is unbelieveably tiresome. I'm know I'm not going to have the right terminology for these things so please bear with me. Each type needs to be in a collapsable...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk

however, everyone who eventually runs a larger zoo faces this issue. It starts with the non-alphabetical order of work zones in a staff member's tab. There are many UI issues around when managing a larger zoo while using work zones.

Sometimes one has to wonder if they ever play their own game or just focus on the average player with 40-60 hours of play time (no rant in here).

153477
 

NL_Mutso

NL_Mutso
Personally i wouldn't use such an option...

I got 40 habitats, multiple exhibits and a lot of shops... And I only use 6 workzones... And have no issues.
If you need 100 workzones, i think people are doing things wrong

The current system works great.. I don't see much added value with this option..
 

Jaggid Edje

Jaggid Edje
NL_Mutso said:
Personally i wouldn't use such an option...

I got 40 habitats, multiple exhibits and a lot of shops... And I only use 6 workzones... And have no issues.
If you need 100 workzones, i think people are doing things wrong

The current system works great.. I don't see much added value with this option..
Click to expand...
It's not about need, it's about efficiency. Just because things are "working fine" doesn't mean they are as efficient. Your staff is certainly spending more time walking then working compared to someone using more, tighter work zones. Which is fine if you are fine with that, just means you will need more staff than someone who tries to optimize their efficiency.

This is a game, it's not about "need" when it comes to 99% of the features, it's about wanting. Pong was a basic game, they could have spent the next 30 years just making pong and no other games....we didn't "need" more variety in games, we wanted it. Same is true for this feature.

Respect the fact that not everyone finds value in many game features, but adding them for the players who do find value is not a bad thing.

Edit: Just to illustrate why more, tighter work zones are nice. My newest zoo has gotten very large and the 5 mechanics I had working in it were no longer keeping up on repairs of facilities and habitats without my intervention (i.e. they were falling behind on the scheduled maintenance). I could have just hired more mechanics, but instead I split them into work zones so each covered a smaller area. My solution worked and resolved the problem.
 
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NL_Mutso

NL_Mutso
Jaggid Edje said:
It's not about need, it's about efficiency. Just because things are "working fine" doesn't mean they are as efficient. Your staff is certainly spending more time walking then working compared to someone using more, tighter work zones. Which is fine if you are fine with that, just means you will need more staff than someone who tries to optimize their efficiency.

This is a game, it's not about "need" when it comes to 99% of the features, it's about wanting. Pong was a basic game, they could have spent the next 30 years just making pong and no other games....we didn't "need" more variety in games, we wanted it. Same is true for this feature.

Respect the fact that not everyone finds value in many game features, but adding them for the players who do find value is not a bad thing.

Edit: Just to illustrate why more, tighter work zones are nice. My newest zoo has gotten very large and the 5 mechanics I had working in it were no longer keeping up on repairs of facilities and habitats without my intervention (i.e. they were falling behind on the scheduled maintenance). I could have just hired more mechanics, but instead I split them into work zones so each covered a smaller area. My solution worked and resolved the problem.
Click to expand...

I wasn't using "working fine", but great.. I'm able to keep my zoo running on the fastest speed for an hour.. No problems.. atm 22 keepers and 8 mechanics (I could fire 1-2 mechanics because i never get the maintenance/barrier notification, and don't get much feeding notifications)

Just to illustrate my zoo's experience: Efficient enough and could lose 1-2 keepers as well - but earning $ 2 million in 23 years (with the increased refunds and closing my zoo for a year -/- 360k) makes it easy - I don't like having many notifications and rarely have to call for a keeper to my habitats. (except for my African Elephants - that's a bit too crowded and messy but bring in so much CC)

My other bugged zoo has more workzones (20ish if i remember correctly).. Slightly bigger (almost every animal/exhibit and a few double ones).
Maybe a bit more efficient, when I take the animal species/habitat placement in account. But not that much..

Having more options is more an expression of creativity/passion. For example; We didn't want tetris but this was presented to us, then came the wow-factor. This accounts for a lot of video game history. Changing a feature is not so much a variety.. Sorry, your comparison doesn't make much sense to me.

You had to bring up respect, so maybe respect different opinions and don't make assumptions on behalf of others.
I could've just answered his questions (2nd comment) and call it a bad idea or that basically nobody cares..
That wouldn't be rude because OP actually gave us those options :D
 

meimento

M
NL_Mutso said:
I wasn't using "working fine", but great.. I'm able to keep my zoo running on the fastest speed for an hour.. No problems.. atm 22 keepers and 8 mechanics (I could fire 1-2 mechanics because i never get the maintenance/barrier notification, and don't get much feeding notifications)

Just to illustrate my zoo's experience: Efficient enough and could lose 1-2 keepers as well - but earning $ 2 million in 23 years (with the increased refunds and closing my zoo for a year -/- 360k) makes it easy - I don't like having many notifications and rarely have to call for a keeper to my habitats. (except for my African Elephants - that's a bit too crowded and messy but bring in so much CC)

My other bugged zoo has more workzones (20ish if i remember correctly).. Slightly bigger (almost every animal/exhibit and a few double ones).
Maybe a bit more efficient, when I take the animal species/habitat placement in account. But not that much..

Having more options is more an expression of creativity/passion. For example; We didn't want tetris but this was presented to us, then came the wow-factor. This accounts for a lot of video game history. Changing a feature is not so much a variety.. Sorry, your comparison doesn't make much sense to me.

You had to bring up respect, so maybe respect different opinions and don't make assumptions on behalf of others.
I could've just answered his questions (2nd comment) and call it a bad idea or that basically nobody cares..
That wouldn't be rude because OP actually gave us those options :D
Click to expand...
Regardless of play style, the feature is simple, self grouping the list of workzones we make. That’s it, doesnt change how the game functions, won’t change how you or I play. It’s an organizing tool.
 

Vayman

Vayman
This sounds like a very good idea. Work zones are a useful way to manage your way to a successful zoo. Anything to enhance that system would be very welcome to me!
 
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