Motivation vs Gamebreakers

[Fortunanovesia]

Hey guys,

Havent played PZ that much in the past 2 weeks, yesterday i started a new zoo and was instantly hyped again. building habitats is just so much fun. Now after building four exhibits and scenery around it, im at the point where i have a huge building in mind, which would really fit in my zoo. but thinking how much time this will take, takes nearly all of my motivation to play on. I know, itll be just great when im done - but i know, to get there ill need a couple of evenings building on it.

So i would be interested: what are the things of planet zoo that makes you still play on the game and on the other hand what are your things, that kinda frustrates you and makes you maybe take a break of the game/the zoo your building on? Thought it would be interesting what other people think about it, half a year since its release now.

 

[onk]

what are the things of planet zoo that makes you still play on the game

building...planting...landscaping...realizing imaginations

and on the other hand what are your things, that kinda frustrates you and makes you maybe take a break of the game/the zoo your building on?

pathes...

Thought it would be interesting what other people think about it, half a year since its release now.

And in fact this half year was more or less a break for me.
I spent 160 hours in the beta, but was not really satisfied and stopped playing until 1.2 update. After a couple of things are fixed or less annoying , I really have fun ( and of course same spare time due to circumstances)

 

[LN]

The fact the game offers so many scenery pieces, is the sole reason for me for playing these games. If it would just be fences and animals, I would get bored soon as well.
But the idea of me building something nice (not necessarely big) keeps me playing.

I know lots of people aren't into creativity and just want to build fast and easy stuff, which is perfectly fine, but the amount of creativity I can put into the game, actually keeps it replayable for me.

I'll admit, that I can have a blackout for ideas as well, which can be frustrating, but setting my mind on something else during that moment (other game, or something outside gaming), can bring back the motivation I need. (Spending whole evenings in front of my computer, tires me too much, as my day to day job is looking at computer screens all day long.)

There isn't really a gamebreaker for me. In general everything works the way I want it to work.
Pathes are tricky once in a while, but I've been getting familiar with this updated system now (compared to Planet Coaster), and how it reacts when I place a path in a certain way.

 

[ShadowLilly]

I have soooo much idea's for many different zoo's. I can see a whole zoo in front of me, but when I start one, I just go blanc... Don't know where to start, or how to start, or I miss pieces in the game (most of the time the pieces are there, but just way to big or to small) to create what I want

What draws me in this game are the animals, although at the same time it also pushes me away: from the anounchement video's/information that has been shared, I expected more individuality/variety and personality for the animals (because every animal would be unique), but if i have for example 3 jaguar cubs for example, they all behave the same at almost the same time. And I have never seen the 'angry bear personality' that was explained in a livestream. You just can not recognize animals by there behaviour/looks. Or the animals that jump in the water with splashing water.. that is also not in the game.

Also the notifications are annoying, I mean: 'x is about to mate, x is expecting offspring, x is about to have offspring, x has had offspring, x is about to inbreed, x is about to mature, x has matured, x had been traded out of the zoo' .... etc.... When I have 300 animals and release all the offspring for cc, you get litterly every second a notification popping up. Realy wish you could select which notifications you want to see and I prefere to select them per animal.

The ammount of shops you need are also way to much.

But the thing that REALY pushes me away is the optimization of this game.. I have a good pc for gaming (the specs are at least recommended, and a friend who has a real top gaming pc with the highest specs also encounter this): when your zoo gets a little bigger (like a quarter of the map, or even half), with lots of animals, scenery, buildings etc, the game just runs at 5 fps (not playable because of the stutter), even on low settings. I mean.. how can you make a good running zoo when the absolute top pc's can't even run that on at least 40/60 fps without any stutter? And yes i know you can adjust the guestnumbers, but that wont generate income and doesn't solve the problem .

 

[LN]

I have soooo much idea's for many different zoo's. I can see a whole zoo in front of me, but when I start one, I just go blanc... Don't know where to start, or how to start, or I miss pieces in the game (most of the time the pieces are there, but just way to big or to small) to create what I want

I always just start building with what I got on my mind the first time.

If I want to build a bridge, I build a bridge. And keep building untill I'm happy. I understand the struggle of wanting to build something, but not knowing what.
I always pick the animal first, and look into what is a good theme to fit with the animal. And I'd rather build in components, instead of working out the entire area before I start.

Eventually, once I'm busy, ideas pop up and I keep adding more, untill I'm pleased with the end result.
I hope this helps a bit, I know this routine works for me.

In regards to performance, the last update did massive leaps for my relatively mid-spec pc. When I was having lots of lag between paused and unpaused play before, that lag was gone, and fps was good. No more lag, and visually better performance. ( I only play 1920x1080, do you guys play higher resolutions (4K?)?)

 

[ShadowLilly]

I always just start building with what I got on my mind the first time.

That is the problem, I see the whole zoo in front of me, not just small pieces, lol that is why I go blanc, because when I had an idea for a competition (I made a cozy panda cabin), I saw it in front of me and I could build it, but with a whole zoo it just doesn't work, lol

What you say about performance, I noticed less fps and more stutter since the last big update. It droped from like 58 to 37 in 1 zoo even though nothing has changed in that zoo with animal/guest numbers. I also play on 1920/1080 (my monitor can't handle more ).

 

[LN]

I also play on 1920/1080 (my monitor can't handle more ).

Mine neither, I was wondering if this could be of influence.

It's so weird that performace is so different between players. Hopefully they can further improve.

 

[Arrakai]

Also the notifications are annoying, I mean: 'x is about to mate, x is expecting offspring, x is about to have offspring, x has had offspring, x is about to inbreed, x is about to mature, x has matured, x had been traded out of the zoo' .... etc.... When I have 300 animals and release all the offspring for cc, you get litterly every second a notification popping up. Realy wish you could select which notifications you want to see and I prefere to select them per animal.

I for one like these notifications, as without them I have no idea what is happening in the zoo. I need to know when animals give birth (as I'm breeding 100% animals and want to put those in the tradecentre as soon as possible), I definetly need to know when animals grow up! (since they took away the animal fighting alert ) and the animal dying notification is also very important, cus without it you could have empty habitats without knowing it. The notification about animals leaving the zoo is also very good, as it gives me a good timestamp of where in the notification line I'm in. I hope they never remove them (And I really really hope they get the animal fighting notification back to beeing an alert!)

 

[NL_Mutso]

Motivation:

• Building/decorating stuff in general
• creating new habitats or very extensive building in a specific theme. (or using only 2 themes in your entire zoo or section)
• Starting a new zoo: when a zoo runs for some time, it runs automatically, enough funds and I need a "challenge" - so starting a new zoo makes it more fun for me.

---------
Gamebreaker:

• Performance (FPS) with big zoos
• The new notification system for animal fighting is not an immense gamebreaker, but the current feature is really annoying me.
• The unresponsive buttons for the market in franchise. Sometimes just frustrating how bad they work - I know pressing the enter key or space bar helps more than mouse clicking. When it's really bad, I just quit the game.

-------

Last time I played that many hours on a game is Ark Survival Evolved (Survival building game) and The Movies (managing your own movie studio and creating your own movies - in a simple way).

• The thing I really liked about The Movies is the competition between AI movie studios. Winning awards because you outperformed other competitors.
• The other thing I really like about management games like Theme Hospital, are the emergency situations.

To me, those 2 are missing from this game.

I play RTS, management, simulator, building games for a long time 25+ years (starting with games like Dune2/C&C/Civilization/Theme park/Gangsters) - most games nowadays are too easy for me.
If the games limits me/new introduced theme/is difficult or gives me a in-game setback (or tries to) that's when my motivation kicks in.

 

[Lea_G]

Motivation: Creating beautiful zoos - I have ideas for many things and I'm still very impressed with the variety the game offers. I like to give the animals the best environment that is possible and to try to give the zoo a concept that is pleasing and nice for the guests. And there are things I still wish to get better at - like paths, terraforming and water landscaping.

My main breaker ist possibly the lack of time. I love to lose myself in a game and play for hours straight, and even in those times, this is only possible on some weekends. Ingame, what annoys me a bit is that I can't build large zoos due to the performance. After my first one was finished, I took a little pause because starting a new one felt so overwhelming and much work. (The disappearance of the fighting notification is not cool, but I wouldn't call it a gamebreaker for me).

 

[stdape2011]

Love Animals and enjoy the Game, But like LillidarAn i am the Same have ideas, but go Blank. Some people are used to designing, but as i never played similar Games, bit new to me.
I do find the Paths/Building/Water/Guests annoying. Slowly getting Hang of it, And have a Zoo i keep adding to, but not greatly designed like some, but the Animals are Happy, Producing, etc.
One of the Most Annoying is the Polar Bear, for size of Habitat, even though has been reduced.
In the Main the Game itself is Brilliant especially the Animals.

 

[ShadowLilly]

I for one like these notifications, as without them I have no idea what is happening in the zoo. I need to know when animals give birth (as I'm breeding 100% animals and want to put those in the tradecentre as soon as possible), I definetly need to know when animals grow up!

I know, but now you get a notification when something is 'about to happen' and 'when it has happend'. I'd like to have 1 notification in stead of 2.. also I don't want it per individual animal (I mean.. I had a babyboom with my nilemonitors/gazelles/peafowls.. almost 120 baby's, then getting 240 notifications when they grow up is crazy that can easily be like 1 or 2 per species per year)

 

[ShadowLilly]

I hope they never remove them

I don't want them to remove the notifications... just make it an option for the people who want them, and don't want them You for example want the notifications about leaving the zoo, I don't want them.. so if there will be an option: you leave it on, and I turn it off

 

[ShadowLilly]

One of the Most Annoying is the Polar Bear, for size of Habitat, even though has been reduced.

to me that is the challenge that comes with that animal

 

[Wistala]

Motivation:

• Building
• Landscaping
• The animals (aka watch them use their habitat I created)

Gamebreak:

• Paths. (frustrating)
• Lag/slowness in gameplay. (worrying but not as bad right now)

Stress levels in animal and the inability to do much if pathing is above ground so you can't use one-way glass. (almost quit when I tried to fix that issues with my flamingos. Were using bridges as path of the guests, but that meant I couldn't use one-way glass and foliage didn't work)

• Vague explaining in things like making a path, or trying to fill up a pond. Saying "Obscured" doesn't help much in finding out what is the cause of it. (more annoying than anything)
• Animals with the ability to climb, are climbing sideways. (annoying but that's it)

Might seem like a lot but its mainly the path or the stress level in animals that has the potential to make me quit/take a break. Unless the lag/slowness gets worse then its instant quit, since I wouldn't be able to play. So yeah.

 

[LN]

O,

I know, but now you get a notification when something is 'about to happen' and 'when it has happend'. I'd like to have 1 notification in stead of 2.. also I don't want it per individual animal (I mean.. I had a babyboom with my nilemonitors/gazelles/peafowls.. almost 120 baby's, then getting 240 notifications when they grow up is crazy that can easily be like 1 or 2 per species per year)

This is both off-topic and a bit in line with the gamebreaking subject so I have a question related to this.

Does every species in your park have so much offspring? And does every park you build have this?

Because I run my zoo, on the bare minimum of what is a good number of animals per species. Every species also has 1 habitat, so I run a quite expanded Zoo with aprox 40-50 animals max, all animals are on birth control to avoid overcrowding, and mating is only allowed when I say so.

I guess we have pinpointed the lag problem. 120 animals with only 3 species!!! How many animals in total in that park?

 

[craftymutt]

I don't want them to remove the notifications... just make it an option for the people who want them, and don't want them You for example want the notifications about leaving the zoo, I don't want them.. so if there will be an option: you leave it on, and I turn it off

I am pretty sure there are ways to turn off certain types of notifications, I don't have the game in front of me but I think there's an option button on the top right of the expanded notification list? Have a dig around and hopefully you can get it more to a level that works for you!

My motivation is always to create the most believable looking building, enclosure, landscape piece, and then enjoy watching animals and guests enjoy all my hard work. Sandbox with breeding and aging turned off changed the game for me, since I no longer had to spend 99% of my time on pause for fear of breeding thousands of animals or everyone dying out, and I get to see everything moving!

The paths I still find very frustrating, and always will unless there is considerable, hard-to-make changes to the system. I can manipulate it to create things I like pretty fine, but when I come back to an intricate area and want to make a small change, for example, delete one of the entrances onto an intersection or plaza area, it usually messes up the whole thing and I need to delete a huge area around it and re-build the paths, and that is no fun for me. It can really turn me off on starting new projects that involve minor edits to existing paths.

 

[ShadowLilly]

O,


This is both off-topic and a bit in line with the gamebreaking subject so I have a question related to this.

Does every species in your park have so much offspring? And does every park you build have this?

Because I run my zoo, on the bare minimum of what is a good number of animals per species. Every species also has 1 habitat, so I run a quite expanded Zoo with aprox 40-50 animals max, all animals are on birth control to avoid overcrowding, and mating is only allowed when I say so.

I guess we have pinpointed the lag problem. 120 animals with only 3 species!!! How many animals in total in that park?

Not every animal has had so much offspring since most of them don't get lots of baby's per birth. But i didn't pay attention (my bad ) to the animals... so they just reproduced sooooo much, especially the peafowls and gazelles :O I had like 300 animals in total in my zoo at that time. And i want to gain cc, so i let al the animals just breed and i release the rest of the animals when they mature. And no, not every park has this, because in my other parks i pay more attention to those things, this is my challenge park and i let it run on full speed all the time when i am busy, lol

 

[ShadowLilly]

I am pretty sure there are ways to turn off certain types of notifications, I don't have the game in front of me but I think there's an option button on the top right of the expanded notification list? Have a dig around and hopefully you can get it more to a level that works for you!

on the timeline there is a checkbox for 'notifications per animal'.. but whether i 'check' the boxes, or not, they keep popping up.. Even when i disable every notification in the gamesettings

 

[Arrakai]

I don't want them to remove the notifications... just make it an option for the people who want them, and don't want them You for example want the notifications about leaving the zoo, I don't want them.. so if there will be an option: you leave it on, and I turn it off

Well the problem is that if people say here on the forum that the notifications are annoying, there is a risk that frontier will just remove them. That is what happened to the fight alert. It seems like people were complaining about the alerts, so they removed them, wich made the game much worse (in my opinion). I just don't want that to happen