Guests constant needs for shops ruins the game

[addisonnolann]

Could we please get a Dev response regarding this issue? It clearly affects a lot of players, and we'd be happy to know if this is the intended behaviour of the guests, if this is a bug, or something else that is looked into. Just to know that the devs are aware that this situation affects a lot of people.

Thanks

Yes please!

 

[ShadowLilly]

Yes please!

i would also like to know their thoughts about this.

 

[yoav_r]

Could we please get a response to this? The last update changed the way guests queue but not their needs. Just so we know that the feedback has been passed forward.

 

[DrBurrito]

Shop revenue is probably the number one source of income that keeps the zoo running without going bankrupt. I am not sure they can lower shopping needs without making changes to food costs of animals first. Therefore it is a much more complicated issue than it looks like.

 

[NL_Mutso]

Shop revenue is probably the number one source of income that keeps the zoo running without going bankrupt. I am not sure they can lower shopping needs without making changes to food costs of animals first. Therefore it is a much more complicated issue than it looks like.

Too much is connected with another feature, maybe they have to adjust the AI for ticket prices/donation boxes to compensate for this.
It's not like they can use the "trial and error" approach. If they mess up the balance - people can bankrupt their +500 hour zoos. Imagine the backlash...

Looking at some comments reacting to the CM/dev's comment "We are looking into this", I think they should communicate this when they actually have a solution.
Even though I prefer a lower demand in shopping needs

 

[Nioell]

I think at this point the best and probably easiest solution for everyone would be to give us shops and/or restaurants which can handle more customers at once in a shorter amount of time. That way our zoos will actually be able to deal with all those guests that come in once they grow bigger and more popular without spamming food and drink stalls every 10m. The small shops we have ATM simply aren't made to cover the needs of all those thousands of guests that visit our zoos.

I mean it makes sense that a smaller zoo can deal with small food stalls since there are less people around, but once a park reaches a certain size and gets more visitors it usually needs something bigger than a few simple stalls to deal with all those people.

 

[DrBurrito]

I think at this point the best and probably easiest solution for everyone would be to give us shops and/or restaurants which can handle more customers at once in a shorter amount of time. That way our zoos will actually be able to deal with all those guests that come in once they grow bigger and more popular without spamming food and drink stalls every 10m. The small shops we have ATM simply aren't made to cover the needs of all those thousands of guests that visit our zoos.

I mean it makes sense that a smaller zoo can deal with small food stalls since there are less people around, but once a park reaches a certain size and gets more visitors it usually needs something bigger than a few simple stall to deal with all those people.

Exactly. Agree 100%

 

[NL_Mutso]

Same here, agree with this one..
Like it !!

 

[MightyRevenge]

how about that: you give us something bigger, like restaurants, they need more space but are more satisfiyng for the guests, so we don´t have to turn the whole zoo into a foodcourt

I think this is a great idea, and has been mentioned many times in this thread. I think each shop can have a "large" version of itself that can handle more people. Perhaps it needs more vendors, but can handle even more people.

funny thing is, they do not need much toilets - why? are they using my foliage?!

Hahaha, this made me laugh.

Exactly, all I know is, when I arrive with my family to a zoo, theme park or any other location, the chance of one of them needing food / drink / toilet (and or all the above) is pretty high. That need for refreshment doesnt change that much throughout the day, it is always a consideration....... not sure if the game is being unrealistic or the players are.

Agreed completely! I think while we make all these suggestions to guest behavior changes, we also need to think about how accurate it would be. We need to picture ourselves visiting zoos in various scenarios, and understand how their needs would reflect that.

My quick solution, vending machines and drinking fountains. Give smaller boosts.

I think at this point the best and probably easiest solution for everyone would be to give us shops and/or restaurants which can handle more customers at once in a shorter amount of time. That way our zoos will actually be able to deal with all those guests that come in once they grow bigger and more popular without spamming food and drink stalls every 10m. The small shops we have ATM simply aren't made to cover the needs of all those thousands of guests that visit our zoos.

I thought of this today. It would be so nice to have additional source of small income. Vending machines would be perfect, so would small food "stands". Popcorn? Hot dogs? Chocolates? And yes to drinking fountains or even better... water bottle refill stations.

The problem with this is that the way the game is designed... we rely on donations and the stall for most of our income.. The game designers have to change a lot more in order for things to work correctly.. One of the major changes would have to be how much we pay for feeding animals.. Because as it is, the price is seriously out of control.

You're absolutely right. The whole idea of a zoo almost entirely relying on food/drink income and donations (other than entrance fees) feels really unrealistic. It should be a bit more balanced. Or maybe use the donations to alleviate the feeding costs so you can at least break-even, because as it stands my animals are literally eating me out of a business. I could of course stop breeding them, but I think that's kinda besides the whole point of having a zoo.

I think if the "small sources of income" I mentioned before is implemented, it'll fix a lot of the income balance issues. I personally feel this too. Animal feed eats an insane amount of my income, and it fluctuates so unpredictably it's hard to counteract it.

1. They come in with needs they need filled ASAP or they may turn around 5-10 minutes into their visit. This could be a simple fix. They could allow a second port of entry to avoid all guests hovering in one location, or simply have the guests be more willing to view animals on entry or to walk farther to get their soda.
2. They need to stop at so many shops that it takes up far too much of their time. Tamper down these needs. I never go to any location like a zoo and visit more shops or vendors than what I came to view. Museums, zoos, aquariums: I tend to visit the exhibits and animals more than shop for snacks. I may be wrong, but I believe most would be like this as well. A few stops for a drink or pretzel? Maybe a meal if I am starving, sure. Allowing them the ability to walk farther before being fed up a shop is busy would also help alleviate this issue. And tampering down their needs.
3. This wish I could have stayed longer to see & _. Well, you have twenty minutes left and every other comment & indicator is green...why do you not venture their on your way out of the zoo? This puts a lot of guests in the yellow or even red. Easy fix: Allow more time and have them utilize all of it.
4. Finally, and not really tied into this thread, but a strange annoyance for me, is the 35% of guests who complain when it snows or rains that they should have brought an umbrella or hope it is a small flurry. I have never once been mad at an establishment for it raining or any other weather anomaly on the day I choose to go.

I love the last point here. I think weather needs cannot be blamed fully on the zoo. I think they should buy umbrellas. However, I also think they need to have adequate access to umbrellas and also decent "sheltered" areas. I mean this is what I would expect at a zoo anyway if the weather suddenly turned. Wouldn't blame the zoo completely, but some things would help.

As for the game, I rather take it as a challenge to understand the logic behind it and incorporate it. But it would be nice if they accepted to buy water when soda is crowded rather than walking past 150 animals without looking and getting totally exhausted because that one other Gulpee thing is at the other end of the zoo

Does this actually happen? Huh didn't know. Thought they would take any drink source.

I followed a group of guests around. They went into my vivarium building with 8 exhibits, went out briefly to use the toilets, back into the building, out to get a drink, back into the building, out to get something to eat, back into the building... I watched them go in and out 8 times before I had to stop watching them.

One guest said she had run out of money (although she still had $800 in her pocket and there were lots of free ATMs around), so she could not afford a drink to quench her thirst. She ran from one shop to the next, only to realize that she had no money to buy anything and head to the next shop. Endlessly round and round all the shops in the same food court. Finally she decided to go home.

There is definitly room for improvement in the guest AI! Watching the guests can be quite entertaining.

I think this is definitely the best way for any of us to understand the issue ourselves and for Frontier to debug it. Follow a sample selection of guests around!