Guests tired of staff facilities and I’m tired of them

[Werewolfmack]

First of all I just love this game, thank you for such a great zoo sim, I’ve plsyed over 50 hours since getting it two weeks ago and looking forward to many more animals added in the future.

But holy tarnations I’m tired of guests getting mad when they see zoo facilities!

I totally get the transformers and water cleaners are pretty ugly, and probably noisy, so you want to tuck those away. But supposedly guests come here for educational purposes, and the wind turbines are sustainable tech and look super cool. It doesn’t make any sense they’d hate seeing them. People would be excited to see new technologies in action and would enjoy seeing your zoos using sustainable technology. Give us an educational board display about environmentally friendly technology that I can put next to the wind and solar so guests can enjoy learning and see I’m a sustainable zoo.

Also, this applies to keeper huts. I am a sandbox player and I’ve been making “themed” zoos, most recent a rescue and rehabilitation animal sanctuary and I was sad to see guests get mad over seeing keeper huts near my exhibit entrances. Again, I imagine people come here to learn, not live in the illusion they are waltzing through the jungle somewhere. Staff fasciitis are part of any animal keeping and I think guests would not be angry to see them.

I’m really basing this off what I’d find cool in a zoo, I’d love to see the buildings where keepers prepare food for animals, we all love watching them bring food to the enclosure, and seeing a zoo using solar technology and wind technology for power would be really neat. Those are all things I’d rather see over seeing a toilet, a building a know I need to use but still ruins the ambience for me just looking at it.

So there’s my feedback so far, fortunately in sandbox guest hipness is easy to manage even if I ignore all their complaints so it’s not exactly game breaking, just my two cents.

 

[Werewolfmack]

Oh heck, also wanted to say I can’t wrap my head around “guests think the zoo prices are too low.” If I set zoo to free can we disable this alert? In no world is this something guests will complain about and if I chose to ignore it I at least want to clear the silly alert.

The guests in this game are a strange bunch indeed...

 

[Caduryn]

The radius arround Staff-Buildings is really tiny so there is zero problem placing them so that no Guest ever sees them.

Its not like you need to stuff anything in a tiny Area since the Map is huge...

 

[Werewolfmack]

It’s not about not having room, it’s that I want to make these buildings visible for aesthetic and, what I’d say is “realistic” reasons, and I don’t think guests should respond so vehemently to seeing them as they do in the game. I’d like if an education board nearby can turn those specific staff buildings into an educational experience because they would be educational in real life.

 

[NZFanatic]

The radius arround Staff-Buildings is really tiny so there is zero problem placing them so that no Guest ever sees them.

Its not like you need to stuff anything in a tiny Area since the Map is huge...

This kind of response is extremely frustrating, because it jumps to Frontier's defence and ignores a larger problem for absolutely no reasoon.

Frontier doesn't seem to know how an actual zoo operates. This feature has absolutely no basis in reality.

The only staff facility that makes sense to hide is the Quarantine facility, and that is only because a lot of zoos don't even have ther quarantines on site, let alone in public view. Many of them use privately-owned quarantines operated in or around transport links, such as airports and seaports, because it's more convenient.

Most zoos nowadays turn their vet clinics into literal displays. I can think of three off the top of my head that let guests watch animal health checks and other procedures and use them as opportunities to educate the public on the work a zoo does. Same with the keeper hut - a lot of zoos go out of their way to let the guests see what's going on in the background. Staff room? I bet nobody could even point out the staff room in their local zoo, let alone complain about it. Administration buildings aren't hidden, they're just not advertised, because there's no need to advertise them. Nobody cares about that either.

Then there's power and water treatment. These items don't make a lick of sense anyway, as zoos, like most places, exist on a power grid that runs throughout entire cities and countries. So of course you wouldn't see the power station - it's probably miles away in some other part of the region. Water is a little different, but water treatment being necessary really depends on whether the zoo is running man-made waterways or is utilising a natural feature.

 

[Werewolfmack]

Thank you for the insight NZFanatic! It’s been a while since I’ve been to a zoo and paid attention to buildings and layouts, but the last rehabilitation open house I went to made a point to show us staff facilities, the different types of jobs and volunteer positions, where all the medical rooms where, the entire facility in addition to all animal enclosures. I think anyone interested in attending a zoo has a good chance of being interested in keeper and vet interactions with animals, even on a superficial level just seeing animals interacting with humans is cool. And like you said most places would use every opportunity they can to educate people and show the intricate world of animal conservation. I imagine this kind of thing, in reality, is only limited by the funding each zoo has to plan educational layouts and train staff to interact with people and build programs, but by default most facilities would chose to if they could instead of hiding it away.

I have the game open now and it seems like zoo keepers even get unhappy if there are a lot of people watching them work. Another odd choice to penalize us for letting guests see how the zoo functions, especially since we are supposedly being encouraged to promote education in all our zoos.

 

[LN]

The feature Frontier uses is fine. Let's you think about your planning.

 

[NL_Mutso]

Really depends on your own opinion and the reason why you visit the zoo.
I don't want to see staff buildings when i walk the specified route within the zoo.
I'm not angry about it but when a zoo doesn't have a good lay-out (too much space between animal habitats), i don't like it.

But most zoos have their buildings hidden behind other fences or scenery.
Lowering this radius with scenery seems a more logical approach.

Most zoos nowadays turn their vet clinics into literal displays. I can think of three off the top of my head that let guests watch animal health checks and other procedures and use them as opportunities to educate the public on the work a zoo does. Same with the keeper hut - a lot of zoos go out of their way to let the guests see what's going on in the background. Staff room? I bet nobody could even point out the staff room in their local zoo, let alone complain about it. Administration buildings aren't hidden, they're just not advertised, because there's no need to advertise them. Nobody cares about that either.

Maybe this differs from country/continent? I know that a lot of zoos don't let you see what's going on behind the scenes.
Only on specific (paid) tours for that - but those are mostly exclusive, not in the summer and smaller groups.

A water treatment option with less/no sound would be nice, but it's not a big problem since the radius is pretty huge.

The feature Frontier uses is fine. Let's you think about your planning.

Yeah same here, i like this feature. But understand why people don't like it.

 

[Chante Goodman]

Hayo! Thanks for sharing this feedback with us. It is something we are looking into at the moment, and although no changes will be in our next update that we're finalising now and aim to release some time this week, we should have more news on this for you soon.

 

[LN]

Hayo! Thanks for sharing this feedback with us. It is something we are looking into at the moment, and although no changes will be in our next update that we're finalising now and aim to release some time this week, we should have more news on this for you soon.

Great to hear.

A suggestion that could work very well is scenery objects reduce the radius. Just like scenery in Planco makes a ride more interesting. Let's use it to make facilities more appealing.

It's good to know you guys are thinking with us about this one. I like the feature of having them be build backstage but sometimes if you want to have them close to habitats. It's hard to place them in a efficient way if a guest path is nearby.

 

[NZFanatic]

Great to hear.

A suggestion that could work very well is scenery objects reduce the radius. Just like scenery in Planco makes a ride more interesting. Let's use it to make facilities more appealing.

It's good to know you guys are thinking with us about this one. I like the feature of having them be build backstage but sometimes if you want to have them close to habitats. It's hard to place them in a efficient way if a guest path is nearby.

Being able to hide them with scenery would be a good work around, but if we're doing that we might as well get rid of the radius altogether. Primarily because not many players seem to leave them uncovered anyway, so it becomes a moot point.

I'd say it doesn't need to apply to every building. The workshop, quarantine, and research centre make sense to be hidden away behind the scenes, because there's nothing to see anyway (and as I said earlier, most quarantines are off-site - can't do that in the game, so no complaints there, it is what it is, and some zoos do have on-site quarantine anyway). Staff rooms and keeper huts are the biggest issue, because you need so many of them. Yes it's all well and good to say "plan your zoo better", but in reality you probably walk right past staff rooms and kitchens in real zoos without knowing any better anyway. As for the vet clinic, well, it especially needs the radius removed; in fact, I'd advocate for guests getting an education boost for being around the vet clinic.

Granted, not all zoos do allow public access to their vets, but there are two great examples in New Zealand, which only has a small handful of major zoos. Auckland Zoo has the NZCCM and Wellington Zoo has The Nest. For the Auckland Zoo one, here is the blurb:

"The Auckland Zoo Vet Hospital is where our talented team of vets and vet nurses care for our zoo animals, treat sick and injured wildlife, work on vital conservation projects, and undertake important research on conservation medicine.
With a viewing area for visitors, you can watch procedures unfold and experience a real vet hospital in action. You might get to witness such sights as a tiger getting a root canal, an injured little penguin getting an X-ray, or a Lace monitor lizard undergoing an ultrasound examination. You can also see the in-house veterinary laboratory in action, such as the microscopic examination of samples for parasites. We are open during Zoo hours, so be sure to visit and see all the ways in which the zoo vet team contribute to conservation."

This is a major trend for many zoos. I know a number of Australian Zoos do the same thing. In any case, even if you were not allowing guests to see what goes on in the vet clinic, it also isn't unusual for zoos to advertise their vet centres as big state of the art buildings which show off how modern they are (and as evidenced by the posted blurb, the vet centres often have the PZ research building incorporated into them as well, but at this point that's not hugely important and still tends to occur behind the scenes).

In terms of programming I'm not sure how feasible it is to pick and choose which staff buildings are affected by the radius and by how much, but if it was at all possible I'd really like to see more done with the vet clinic.

 

[yoav_r]

We have it in Israel as well.

 

[Red_lilies]

Great to hear.

A suggestion that could work very well is scenery objects reduce the radius. Just like scenery in Planco makes a ride more interesting. Let's use it to make facilities more appealing.

It's good to know you guys are thinking with us about this one. I like the feature of having them be build backstage but sometimes if you want to have them close to habitats. It's hard to place them in a efficient way if a guest path is nearby.

Just a thought, but another option for changing whether or not guest like seeing the staff buildings might be to add education for them. Perhaps unlocking an education board via research for different building such as Vet clinic or the research buildings that remove the penalty and turn it into a bonus. From a personal stand point, being able to see behind the scenes in a vet clinic would be great, but as it takes work on the part of the zoo to make it happen, this might be a middle ground for quasi realism? I know if I could see the vet clinic but not know anything about it I would be bummed personally. For Staff rooms I do think these should be hidden/plant screened but more for the staff. They need to get rest without people staring at them.

I also agree that solar and wind turbines should be no penalty, but they also could use the education bonus after it's unlocked maybe?

 

[JamieCA]

Hayo! Thanks for sharing this feedback with us. It is something we are looking into at the moment, and although no changes will be in our next update that we're finalising now and aim to release some time this week, we should have more news on this for you soon.

Not sure if this is something Devs have considered but what about someday adding in tours as a game mechanic?

We could set a predetermined walk through various areas of the zoo, including staff areas, led by a keeper or other staff member, as happens in real zoos. Guests on the tours would have their dislike of staff buildings turned off since they are paying to see the behind the scenes areas. Special enrichment items could be added for the tours that would encourage the animals to come over for food during the tour. I imagine this might take a good bit of programming but it would be neat and realistic. Maybe the route could be selected by highlighting the paths and players could set the price for the tour. I realize this probably won't happen but if it does I'd be super jazzed!

 

[marcnesiumHH]

Not sure if this is something Devs have considered but what about someday adding in tours as a game mechanic?

As they had already shown a 'tour guide' in their own announcement trailer last year, they at least added one for marketing purposes. It had been mentioned, discussed and addressed many times on this forum and there haven't been any answer to it. So don't be too optimistic to get an answer this time...

Where’s the Guides?

In the announcement trailer for Planet Zoo, we see a guide talking to a group of guests over the giraffe habitat. However, said staff member is nowhere to be found in the beta or any other footage. So where are the guides?

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Werewolfmack]

Hayo! Thanks for sharing this feedback with us. It is something we are looking into at the moment, and although no changes will be in our next update that we're finalising now and aim to release some time this week, we should have more news on this for you soon.

Very exciting to hear and I’m looking forward to seeing what the official team comes up with!

Just a thought, but another option for changing whether or not guest like seeing the staff buildings might be to add education for them. Perhaps unlocking an education board via research for different building such as Vet clinic or the research buildings that remove the penalty and turn it into a bonus. From a personal stand point, being able to see behind the scenes in a vet clinic would be great, but as it takes work on the part of the zoo to make it happen, this might be a middle ground for quasi realism? I know if I could see the vet clinic but not know anything about it I would be bummed personally. For Staff rooms I do think these should be hidden/plant screened but more for the staff. They need to get rest without people staring at them.

I also agree that solar and wind turbines should be no penalty, but they also could use the education bonus after it's unlocked maybe?

I like this solution too. I wanted to reiterate I don’t dislike having to think about zoo planning ahead of time and the mechanic itself isn’t necessarily bad. It makes sense to hide unnecessary buildings and power stations away. But I would like the option to intentionally plan my zoo to highlight some of these facilities because realistically they are opportunities for education and a lot of them are simply cool to see! I want to be able to build a zoo that lets these things be public-facing for the sake of awareness and education and I think the planet zoo mechanics right now could easily integrate/support that. Which is why if I had to pick one option, I’d pick the education board that hides the radius of the buildings.

 

[NZFanatic]

I think it mostly comes down to a sense of immersion. For whatever reason the game acts like guests don't want to be in a zoo, as though zoos are a bad thing, and the only way around it is to pretend they're in the wild or something by hiding away everything that suggests the zoo is a functioning business. In reality people appreciate a sense of immersion, but don't shy away from the fact that they are visiting a zoo, and nobody except those who don't actually understand what zoos are and what they do (or those who haven't visited a zoo outside of the 1920's or something) thinks they're a bad thing.

Vet clinics and such are often public-facing because people like to know that the zoo animals are being looked after, and the zoo likes people to know that as well. "Yes, this situation isn't ideal, but left on their own these animals would be wiped out. Here's what we're doing to make sure they can be as healthy and natural as possible while in captivity."

Edit: This is why it always bothers me when the YouTubers try and hide enrichment items and food containers in natural features, and claim it's "realistic". That's not realistic at all, or zoo-like at all either.

 

[geraor20]

Hayo! Thanks for sharing this feedback with us. It is something we are looking into at the moment, and although no changes will be in our next update that we're finalising now and aim to release some time this week, we should have more news on this for you soon.

just a suggestion the range of the staff buildings that effects guest could be smaller if we build around them or even build a way to hide them from guest paths.

 

[paul78]

I’ve seen YouTube videos where they hide them by using the terrain to make a tunnel and others who just make a building around them.

 

[NZFanatic]

I’ve seen YouTube videos where they hide them by using the terrain to make a tunnel and others who just make a building around them.

That doesn't hide them, it disguises them. Every staff building has a radius, and if guests pass through the radius they get a negative effect. Covering the staff building in building pieces or terrain doesn't affect the radius.