I know micromanaging and building are the major points of this game, but I’d really like to do more on an intimate level with my zoo and animals.
Trying to avoid constantly comparing to ZT2, but many people have brought up zookeeper mode, and an experience similar to this would IMMENSELY improve my enjoyment of the game and attachment to my animals. Being able to zoom in and track them with the camera isn’t as much fun as being able to walk into the habitat and watch the animals interact, and personally take care of them.
PZ works differently than ZT2 when it comes to things like feeding, so I don’t think we should just be able to press space to fill a food dish, but I DO think we should be able to prepare and fill food objects ourselves somehow. Maybe we have to go to a zookeeper hut and play a simple mini game to make the food ourselves. The more you play, the more food you make. To prevent people from endlessly stockpiling, food would of course cost money and stored food would eventually go bad. Even a click and drag game (drag food into prep space, drag tool onto food to prep, etc) would be fun. And then you bring the food back to the habitat and fill whatever container you want with as much food as you want instead of relying on questionable zookeeper UI.
A similar mini game could be implemented for things like vet visits, exhibit cleaning, and fixing barriers and utilities. It wouldn’t completely eliminate the need for staff because with larger zoos it wouldn’t be practical to handle everything yourself, but it would be a nice way to solve problems when for some reason your staff isn’t getting to it. I have the same exhibit that gets dirty and runs out of food constantly while the one next to it never has a problem... there should be no reason I’m having an issue, so rather than tear everything up trying to fix something that makes no sense, it would be a lot easier if I could just do it myself and forgive the stupid AI.
Other suggestions for small inconsequential actions would be being able to press a button to interact with an animal and triggering a small happy animation in response... that would be cute and animals often have positive relations with their keepers so it would make sense. We could pick up small toys and throw them to trigger a nearby animal to go and interact with it, or push/activate things like swinging toys for the same thing.
I’d like to walk around and see the guests reacting to the animals up close, and be able to look into the exhibits and habitats and see what guests see. I’d like to walk around like I am a guest and just enjoy my zoo for myself and be proud of what I’ve created from a realistic POV.
I don’t want anything complicated or fancy; I don’t even know how difficult it would be to do as much as I’ve suggested from a programming perspective, but I know that these little things would make the game a million times more fun and personal for me, and eliminate a lot of small frustrations I have with the staff issues.
Trying to avoid constantly comparing to ZT2, but many people have brought up zookeeper mode, and an experience similar to this would IMMENSELY improve my enjoyment of the game and attachment to my animals. Being able to zoom in and track them with the camera isn’t as much fun as being able to walk into the habitat and watch the animals interact, and personally take care of them.
PZ works differently than ZT2 when it comes to things like feeding, so I don’t think we should just be able to press space to fill a food dish, but I DO think we should be able to prepare and fill food objects ourselves somehow. Maybe we have to go to a zookeeper hut and play a simple mini game to make the food ourselves. The more you play, the more food you make. To prevent people from endlessly stockpiling, food would of course cost money and stored food would eventually go bad. Even a click and drag game (drag food into prep space, drag tool onto food to prep, etc) would be fun. And then you bring the food back to the habitat and fill whatever container you want with as much food as you want instead of relying on questionable zookeeper UI.
A similar mini game could be implemented for things like vet visits, exhibit cleaning, and fixing barriers and utilities. It wouldn’t completely eliminate the need for staff because with larger zoos it wouldn’t be practical to handle everything yourself, but it would be a nice way to solve problems when for some reason your staff isn’t getting to it. I have the same exhibit that gets dirty and runs out of food constantly while the one next to it never has a problem... there should be no reason I’m having an issue, so rather than tear everything up trying to fix something that makes no sense, it would be a lot easier if I could just do it myself and forgive the stupid AI.
Other suggestions for small inconsequential actions would be being able to press a button to interact with an animal and triggering a small happy animation in response... that would be cute and animals often have positive relations with their keepers so it would make sense. We could pick up small toys and throw them to trigger a nearby animal to go and interact with it, or push/activate things like swinging toys for the same thing.
I’d like to walk around and see the guests reacting to the animals up close, and be able to look into the exhibits and habitats and see what guests see. I’d like to walk around like I am a guest and just enjoy my zoo for myself and be proud of what I’ve created from a realistic POV.
I don’t want anything complicated or fancy; I don’t even know how difficult it would be to do as much as I’ve suggested from a programming perspective, but I know that these little things would make the game a million times more fun and personal for me, and eliminate a lot of small frustrations I have with the staff issues.