Guest Leaving for no reason and getting refund

[Chante Goodman]

To update you all on this, we're looking at what best to do with the refund system now. We've passed along all your feedback, and the dev team are evaluating how to improve it (even if it means turning them off). We thank you for always sharing your honest feedback.

I can't give you more information right now, as they're still working on it, but wanted to make you aware that we're looking into it.

 

[Adarra]

A very positive update from me: After sending my corrupted zoo to the support desk they implemented a fix and my zoo NOW WORKS AGAIN! To be clear, this wasn't a zoo that didn't load, but it loaded, showed my zoo for about one second and then returned to the loading screen before dumping me back into the main menu. But now I can play that zoo again! While before I was quite skeptical about this, please, if you still have a similar problem, send them your file. Chances are they can fix it either for you personally or for everyone who's experiencing the problem.

 

[marcnesiumHH]

A very positive update from me: After sending my corrupted zoo to the support desk they implemented a fix and my zoo NOW WORKS AGAIN! To be clear, this wasn't a zoo that didn't load, but it loaded, showed my zoo for about one second and then returned to the loading screen before dumping me back into the main menu. But now I can play that zoo again! While before I was quite skeptical about this, please, if you still have a similar problem, send them your file. Chances are they can fix it either for you personally or for everyone who's experiencing the problem.

great to hear. is that a franchise zoo? did they give any hints what the original problem was?

 

[Adarra]

Yes, it was a franchise zoo. They didn't specify what the problem was, just that they were able to implement a fix and they asked me to try it again. I watched my zoo appear... and it stayed visible! I have now been playing it for about five minutes without problems and it even appears to run more smoothly. Still unsure whether or not the refund problem still exists, but that's another problem that I hope they'll fix soon.

 

[LN]

A very positive update from me: After sending my corrupted zoo to the support desk they implemented a fix and my zoo NOW WORKS AGAIN! To be clear, this wasn't a zoo that didn't load, but it loaded, showed my zoo for about one second and then returned to the loading screen before dumping me back into the main menu. But now I can play that zoo again! While before I was quite skeptical about this, please, if you still have a similar problem, send them your file. Chances are they can fix it either for you personally or for everyone who's experiencing the problem.

Glad to hear they where able to fix it!

 

[Chante Goodman]

Hey Adarra, I can explain what the issue was!
In shortform, it was obvious that you had been working on this zoo for a long time, as you'd seen a lot of animals live out their lives. Our servers were registering many animals being active in the zoo, which was causing the problem.
Thanks to you sending in your zoo, the team were able to locate the issue and have now found a fix - the fix will be in a future update, so hopefully no one will come across this problem anymore.

 

[marcnesiumHH]

Hey Adarra, I can explain what the issue was!
In shortform, it was obvious that you had been working on this zoo for a long time, as you'd seen a lot of animals live out their lives. Our servers were registering many animals being active in the zoo, which was causing the problem.
Thanks to you sending in your zoo, the team were able to locate the issue and have now found a fix - the fix will be in a future update, so hopefully no one will come across this problem anymore.

Is that the main issue for franchise zoos not loading any more? Would be great to have a fix asap after having nailed it down. rather than

[...]Our next update is planned for sometime in the next few weeks [...]

There's nearly one additional player reporting an unloadable franchise zoo on Steam forums or in this one every day.

 

[Adarra]

Hey Chante, thank you for explaining the issue! I'm happy to hear that you were able to pin down this awful bug and that it will be fixed for other players soon as well.

 

[Chante Goodman]

Is that the main issue for franchise zoos not loading any more? Would be great to have a fix asap after having nailed it down. rather than

There's nearly one additional player reporting an unloadable franchise zoo on Steam forums or in this one every day.

Hey! As I said, they are working on a fix now. Doing a fix for one save file takes significantly less work than doing it for all our community. We want to make sure the update goes out as smoothly as possible for everyone, which will require QA testing. They will get the update out asap, but please give them time to ensure it is beneficial to all and does what it is meant to do.

 

[JamieCA]

To update you all on this, we're looking at what best to do with the refund system now. We've passed along all your feedback, and the dev team are evaluating how to improve it (even if it means turning them off). We thank you for always sharing your honest feedback.

I can't give you more information right now, as they're still working on it, but wanted to make you aware that we're looking into it.

Thank you for listening to concerns

 

[Jileha]

To update you all on this, we're looking at what best to do with the refund system now. We've passed along all your feedback, and the dev team are evaluating how to improve it (even if it means turning them off). We thank you for always sharing your honest feedback.

I can't give you more information right now, as they're still working on it, but wanted to make you aware that we're looking into it.

Personally, I would love refunds to stay. If there are no real consequences (such as a potentially desastrous loss of income), why should we care to make the guests happy? It’s also a helpful indication that, even if all categories are green, not everything is well in paradise and we need to start paying attention. How else would we notice that?

It would be nice, though, to include more information regarding causes (we still have this mysterious catch-all category of “unhappy with visit”) of and remedies for unhappy guests within the game. I can imagine that many players don’t visit this or the Reddit forum (or not regularly enough) to get helpful tips from other players. Such issues that can drive a previously successful zoo into bankruptcy in a very short time should not hit players completely unprepared and cause them to give up playing, but should be fully explained in the in-game help. Maybe the first couple of Career scenarios, which are intended as tutorials, could be updated to provide better step-by-step training on guest happiness and refunds - maybe a scenario where one goal is to achieve zero refunds before bankrupting the zoo.

 

[delete account]

I can imagine that many players don’t visit this or the Reddit forum (or not regularly enough) to get helpful tips from other players.

No matter what you do to keep your guest happy they WILL LEAVE AFTER 1 HOUR, so you can do whatever you want to make the guest happy even if they are fully happy they will leave after 1 hour.

 

[Adarra]

It would be nice, though, to include more information regarding causes (we still have this mysterious catch-all category of “unhappy with visit”) of and remedies for unhappy guests within the game. I can imagine that many players don’t visit this or the Reddit forum (or not regularly enough) to get helpful tips from other players. Such issues that can drive a previously successful zoo into bankruptcy in a very short time should not hit players completely unprepared and cause them to give up playing, but should be fully explained in the in-game help. Maybe the first couple of Career scenarios, which are intended as tutorials, could be updated to provide better step-by-step training on guest happiness and refunds - maybe a scenario where one goal is to achieve zero refunds before bankrupting the zoo.

THIS. This is what I think most, if not all, players want. I don't want the refunds to be completely turned off, I want to know what's wrong, what's causing guests to be unhappy and leave BEFORE 'their hour' is up, so I can take appropriate steps to make sure it doesn't happen (or at least happens less). As it stands my main problem with finances is not just the 'unhappy with visit' guests, but primarily the insanely high food costs. Though, come to think of it, maybe the unhappy guests do influence my finances, since they won't be as willing to donate a lot of money or adopt animals. I have no idea how to calculate that, though. Because if the donation costs were to somehow be balanced against the food costs I'm sure that the finances would be in a far better position.

Right now my main zoo, that I got back, has gone from 15 million in-game currency to 6 million. The amount of guests fluctuates WILDLY and is still somehow tied to me rearranging pathways, which cause several thousands(!) of guests to suddenly leave or simply disappear from my zoo.

 

[Firestar97]

Hey Adarra, I can explain what the issue was!
In shortform, it was obvious that you had been working on this zoo for a long time, as you'd seen a lot of animals live out their lives. Our servers were registering many animals being active in the zoo, which was causing the problem.
Thanks to you sending in your zoo, the team were able to locate the issue and have now found a fix - the fix will be in a future update, so hopefully no one will come across this problem anymore.

How many Animals where in the Zoo? I want to have the biggest possible Colony in my Flamingo-Pond but now I fear it could cause Problems

 

[delete account]

How many Animals where in the Zoo? I want to have the biggest possible Colony in my Flamingo-Pond but now I fear it could cause Problems

I have a big group of Flamingo's left, about 180 adults and 50 young. I have had some bigger groups but then they will starve to death because of the whole feeding issue.
So you need to keep a good eye on numer of animals because when they get hungry they starve quite quickly. In the whole game i think i nearly lost 80 Flamingo's due to starvation

 

[Lea_G]

Personally, I would love refunds to stay. If there are no real consequences (such as a potentially desastrous loss of income), why should we care to make the guests happy? It’s also a helpful indication that, even if all categories are green, not everything is well in paradise and we need to start paying attention. How else would we notice that?

It would be nice, though, to include more information regarding causes (we still have this mysterious catch-all category of “unhappy with visit”) of and remedies for unhappy guests within the game. I can imagine that many players don’t visit this or the Reddit forum (or not regularly enough) to get helpful tips from other players. Such issues that can drive a previously successful zoo into bankruptcy in a very short time should not hit players completely unprepared and cause them to give up playing, but should be fully explained in the in-game help. Maybe the first couple of Career scenarios, which are intended as tutorials, could be updated to provide better step-by-step training on guest happiness and refunds - maybe a scenario where one goal is to achieve zero refunds before bankrupting the zoo.

I agree, refunds should maybe not disappear completely. But they should be a bit more reasonable and also identifiable. I'd say, realistically, you have the right to ask for a refund when the zoo is closing unexpectedly, when you are being chased by an escaped lion... But not when you are unable to see ONE species among 30 or when the waiting line for the lemonade was a bit long. And of course, in case there is a bug with the guest AI (which seems to be the case for some players), that should be fixed.

 

[Arletario]

No matter what you do to keep your guest happy they WILL LEAVE AFTER 1 HOUR, so you can do whatever you want to make the guest happy even if they are fully happy they will leave after 1 hour.

I'm just curious - why exactly should that be a problem?

According to the Guests-Info screen in one of my zoos the "Average Time in Zoo" is 38 minutes, e.g. The overall guest happiness is 93% and my refunds because of unhappy guests are between $ 250/year and $ 800/year.

It's a Franchise zoo (started on launch day of PZ) with 8.000 guests, 400 animals of 41 species in 65 different habitats without exhibits.

 

[delete account]

I'm just curious - why exactly should that be a problem?

Like i said..... if they did not seen all the animals they wanted to see they get a refund.
I guess my park is bigger than yours and if they want to see the hippo's (back of the park) + one other animal combined with the food and drink needs their 1 hour is over....
I never said that the refunds should go away, i said that it's ridiculous that guest who are fully happy leave the park after 1 hour even when they did not seen all the animals

 

[Jileha]

Like i said..... if they did not seen all the animals they wanted to see they get a refund.
I guess my park is bigger than yours and if they want to see the hippo's (back of the park) + one other animal combined with the food and drink needs their 1 hour is over....
I never said that the refunds should go away, i said that it's ridiculous that guest who are fully happy leave the park after 1 hour even when they did not seen all the animals

Do you have transport rides? The guests use them to get closer to the animals they want to see. I just added a monorail loop to my zoo, only to transport guests around the zoo, not driving through habitats. They love it. they want to see an animal at the back of the zoo? They hop on the ride and are really happy about using it.

If there are no other issues, I haven’t seen a singular guest get a refund because they didn’t get to see one of their animals. On the other hand, I have seen guests leave 100% happy in spite of not having seen all of their animals. The only times when I have seen guests complain “I wish I could have stayed longer to see X” was when the lines at the shops were too long and they wasted all their time walking from one shop to the next.

 

[marcnesiumHH]

Do you have transport rides? The guests use them to get closer to the animals they want to see. I just added a monorail loop to my zoo, only to transport guests around the zoo, not driving through habitats. They love it. they want to see an animal at the back of the zoo? They hop on the ride and are really happy about using it.

If there are no other issues, I haven’t seen a singular guest get a refund because they didn’t get to see one of their animals. On the other hand, I have seen guests leave 100% happy in spite of not having seen all of their animals. The only times when I have seen guests complain “I wish I could have stayed longer to see X” was when the lines at the shops were too long and they wasted all their time walking from one shop to the next.

How many guests do you have in this zoo? Is the monorail having profits?