The in-game speed of time has remained unchanged as of release day.

[Squalidskies]

For everyone complaining about the game speed, I get it. I really do. It's annoying to have to pause the game every time you want to do anything more complex than a simple building or blueprint, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. If we all played at 0.25x time, there would be an equal (if not larger) number of people taking to the forums to complain that 'my animals live forever' or that 'it takes ages for me to make money/CP'.

My point is that there has to be a line somewhere, and it's pretty clear that there isn't a setting to suit everyone. Creating loads of new speeds to the game not only adds complexity for the devs (when they have much more pressing things to worry about), but would likely create more problems than it solves.

 

[Llamadrama]

For the beta I accepted that because of course a beta is not the full game.

See, I told everyone this was a trap. I've been in dozens of betas and maybe 1% of them actually follow through and implement player feedback. 99% of them don't care or will compile it in some list thrown in a random folder, because the beta is not meant for your feedback but to test the game for absolutely high priority game breaking bugs that may harm the financial performance of the product come release window.

I got flamed, harassed, attacked, down-voted, and shunned. How could I say something like that? It's just a beta! In most cases, the beta is the full game. And the full game needs some additional balancing changes that were evidently not ready for launch, if ever.

It was never a good sign when apparently the beta, a few weeks old build vertical slice, wasn't 'complete' because and I quote "we were still working on interactions to make them perfect ". They used the month and change to finish and polish things and only the most severe bugs that were easier to fix got fixed. Hate to say it, but Frontier's pipelines are terrible and leave a lot to be desired. Don't expect balance changes to AI, breeding, time or any other ugly rearing heads any time soon, probably only just in time for the next DLC.

 

[FediSinter]

A game should be suitable for everyone to play and this feel fake. Also, the game has been stated to be about realism and bonding with your animals while with such a fast speed animals just feel like machines to breed and then to sell when they are old and useless to make more babies. It feels like all you are supposed to do is to have litters, wait those 18 minutes to watch the grow(actually, let me rephrase, you are not able to watch anything grow or even move because you’ll have thousands of notification of other animals being pregnant, things breaking down constantly etc) and then sell them again. I feel like a zoo game should first and foremost educational and have a good ethic at least, which this game doesn’t have. Is a constant struggle while time is flowing away and in a matter of hours your zoo is already old, most of the animals have died and everything you put down is broken. I see the silver lining but I don’t think that this speed is the case. This is nonsense and non ethical in my opinion.

 

[WingardiumLevicoaster]

See, I told everyone this was a trap. I've been in dozens of betas and maybe 1% of them actually follows through and implements player feedback. 99% of them don't care or will compile it in some list thrown in a random folder, because the beta is not meant for your feedback but to test the game for absolutely high priority game breaking bugs that may harm the financial performance of the product come release window.

I got flamed, harassed, attacked, down-voted, and shunned. How could I say something like that? It's just a beta! In most cases, the beta is the full game. And the full game needs some additional balancing changes that were evidently not ready for launch, if ever.

It was never a good sign when apparently the beta, a few weeks old build vertical slice, wasn't 'complete' because and I quote "we were still working on interactions to make them perfect ". They used the month and change to finish and polish things and only the most severe bugs that were easier to fix got fixed. Hate to say it, but Frontier's pipelines are terrible and leave a lot to be desired. Don't expect balance changes to AI, breeding, time or any other ugly rearing heads any time soon, probably only just in time for the next DLC.

I doubt it is a random folder. In software development you have something called a product backlog which is in priority order of bugs, features, improvements and it is constantly updated. Priorities are constantly changing too based on various factors. But you are right in when you say for release, the highest priority comes first. Some items may be dismissed if they are not feasible. Based on my experience as a non game dev

 

[Unrated]

Well to be honest, I am completly fine with the time speed too but I understand people can ask for a slower one. Still people forget that a lot of mecanics of the game are builded around the time. So making something that look like a small change might have a big Impact on the gameplay.

 

[FediSinter]

Well to be honest, I am completly fine with the time speed too but I understand people can ask for a slower one. Still people forget that a lot of mecanics of the game are builded around the time. So making something that look like a small change might have a big Impact on the gameplay.

I get that, and I’m no expert in coding and making video games, that’s not my cup of tea. But if there are 2 speed buttons other than the normal speed what would be the problem to implement a slower one? There are people willing to wait those 2/3 or even more hours to watch a baby elephant or a tortoise grow, I can’t really see any problem. Even the sims, which with the 4 game went downhill like crazy was able to make a reasonable time speed for the game, where you could speed if you wanted and you could choose the lifespan, and EA is terrible at making sims franchise at the moment. I was expecting so much more from frontier, also because they stated that the time was this fast only because it was the beta...and now, surprise, that’s what we get even after all the complaints. And the list could go on and on, like regarding animal interactions which are non existing except for the couple rubs for breeding and killing each other. I really hoped this was a game I could love and could relieve my childhood spent playing zoo games but apparently the younger generations are more interested in making money and throwing away animals as soon as they cannot breed anymore...apparently no one really cares about depth anymore, like what happened with the sims 4, which after 5 years from laugh is still lacking in very basic things

 

[Llamadrama]

For everyone complaining about the game speed, I get it. I really do. It's annoying to have to pause the game every time you want to do anything more complex than a simple building or blueprint, but there has to be a line drawn somewhere. If we all played at 0.25x time, there would be an equal (if not larger) number of people taking to the forums to complain that 'my animals live forever' or that 'it takes ages for me to make money/CP'.

My point is that there has to be a line somewhere, and it's pretty clear that there isn't a setting to suit everyone. Creating loads of new speeds to the game not only adds complexity for the devs (when they have much more pressing things to worry about), but would likely create more problems than it solves.

I agree, but the line in the sand is the opposite extreme right now and I feel like it's because Frontier was afraid of the market being 'saturated' or 'dead' because of animals taking some time to breed and people being upset they can't get pandas right away or whatever, which could have been dealt with by having to research the animals before bidding for them instead of being able to get them outright. Time going so fast isn't a technical limitation, quite clearly, but intended by design and a symptom of their online integration design for Franchise mode (which I totally support btw, online components don't kill games but 'safe' decisions do).

The priorities for 'casual' and 'hardcore' just seem all kinds of mixed up. They make some really upsetting and tedious micro-management decisions such as babysitting when animals mature, keepers feed animals, hiding maintenance buildings (I do like this one tbh) but then are concerned people will be upset and bored they can't immediately get their candy off the bat. The time going by so fast is a symptom of their design philosophy and vision rather than a limitation imo - They were afraid to lose the 'casual' crowd but picked all the wrong priorities and design decisions for the 'dedicated' crowd.

Having a slower, more methodical approach to building your own zoo was probably deemed as some sort of financial risk in a board meeting and the leads agreed to it. So instead they make all the wrong decisions and refuse to backtrack because they simply can't afford to. What's crazy about this for me is NO ONE in the world raised the issue about time going too fast or having to research rides and roller-coasters before being able to actually design the roller-coaster in Planet Coaster. So why take this approach to Planet Zoo? Bad decisions by leadership who keep thinking they're right, that's what. Unfortunately, there's people defending them so be assured nothing will change until the launch window money slows down and DLC income is under threat. It's sad I can recognize these things in a hobby, I'm in higher management myself so this is all too real unfortunately.

 

[Whats0There]

Loving the game, but I do believe Frontier is making a big mistake under-appreciating the gravity of this time issue. The bottom line is that the game is simply not relaxing to play because too many things are happening in too short a time frame. I think most people who play the game may not be able to put their finger on exactly what's wrong, but they will experience some kind of stress, some kind of constant pressure that will end up wearing them out.

 

[ChicagoZohan]

I just don't understand the people complaining about having to pause. You can play 100% unpaused with no problem, just like in Zoo Tycoon 2... if you limit your creativity to the level that ZT2 allowed. If you wanna get more detailed and spend 30 minutes on a shop instead of 30 seconds, you gotta make up for that by pausing.

 

[SunnyJDP]

People pause to build, yes, but thats not the root of the issue people are 'complaining' about. The issue is timescale is too fast to enjoy the game - with or without pausing. Sure, you pause for an hour to build an enclosure, then you play for an hour to manage your zoo and three in game years has gone by

 

[onk]

I just don't understand the people complaining about having to pause. You can play 100% unpaused with no problem, just like in Zoo Tycoon 2... if you limit your creativity to the level that ZT2 allowed. If you wanna get more detailed and spend 30 minutes on a shop instead of 30 seconds, you gotta make up for that by pausing.

This misunderstanding is very dominating in here. It’s really about the fact, that 3 seconds are one day or 20 minutes a year, not building paused or unpaused.
So why do some of us think this is a problem?
If you want to verify your changes to paths,if your shops are working, you want for example watch the visitor flow/ behavior…and as the people in game walk in “realtime”…this takes a long long virtual time. Btw, the inspector is also a good example…the inspections itself take several month and the break between them is often shorter. Another example, there is something not really well working, you tell your staff to do this and that…but…it also takes months for them to even walk to a certain point. Putting several animals in a habitat by one staff member causes at the end, that equal old animals out of the trade center are maybe 1 year apart in the habitat.

And this kind of time balance is something a couple of users don’t like.
You don’t have to have the same opinion, but please admit, that the pause button is not a proper solution for us and people are simply not happy with it.

 

[FediSinter]

I feel like everything in planet zoo has been strategically made in relation to the market. They decided to speed up the normal time so that it would be full of animals to fulfil the tantrums of players that want straight away a panda, a tiger, a snow leopard and so on. I don’t really understand why because in every single game to achieve the best things you should have to work you butt off a little at least. With time slowed down the market would fill up much slower, you would get cc much slower, you would have to start any franchise mode with basic animals like the tapir, the ostriches and the warthogs, and then move up to the golden ones. Also, i don’t understand why you can’t research an animal before you have it in your zoo; how unrealistic is to get straight away such a rare and precious creature as the snow leopard without knowing a damn thing about it? That’s the problem, promising people everything in a matter of literally minutes and then pretend that everyone enjoys it. There is sandbox mode to have all the animals straight away, isn’t it? Then no problems if time was actually slower people that want it faster could simply speed it up, as they usually suggest people that want it slower to press the pause button. This is a simulation game, it shouldn’t be stressful! If I want to be stressed out I will play other games but definitely not a sim game. Real life is hectic enough with job, uni, grocery, laundry and errands all piling up that maybe people want to play a SIM game to escape it. I’d play RDR2 if I want to be hyped and stressed, not freaking planet zoo. I mean, even a crappy game as FarmVille had a bit more of real feel to it, how is possible that such a complesse and worked game lacks reality, freedom and realness so much? What age target they want to aim for? 5 years old or people that will actually play for longer time? Also, I see it wearing out its novelty very fast by the time you can achieve pretty much EVERYTHING in a matter of 3 hours. But let’s all be happy and smiley for the game speed and let’s all play the game paused by the time this is the solution they have provided so far.

 

[softcatsocks]

If you have a small zoo, it may seem fine. But I was watching a big zoo run, and animals still popping babies left and right, overcrowding the enclosure. Notifications popping up about animals every other second saying they need urgent care. Can't even take the time to admire the zoo. I hope Frontier doesn't just nerf birth rates and up animal lifespan again. They can't say a wolf's life span equals about 35 years. That would be straight up false info for a supposedly educational game.

I gave a benefit of doubt that the fast time is just a temporary implementation for the beta. And some of the official Frontier streams even said that they sped up time for demonstration purposes on their streams. I'm very disappointed that the full release is the same.

Please just give us the option to scale down time (more seconds per day).

 

[edjenoh]

Congrats for winning a award for the least original comment.

I don't think anybody at Frontier lies awake at night because you don't buy it.
And neither do I.

I had a blast playing the game last night, enjoyed my Aardvarks for a few years, had a birth, time speed felt good to me.

Neither do we care about your opinion. Isn't it funny how it's just you, one other guy and the 'silent majority' that agrees with you even though almost every other post is a complaint about game speed. Would it really matter to you, if a large part of the player base get's an option to tweak time flow speed? You can play on in your happy little fanboy world. But you just have to retort to making assumptions that folks need to L2P, even though the bulk of us are swimming in money and CC and the complaint still holds.

The simulation is extremely shallow, the game is easy. Part of the reason is because running a puppy mill is so easy. Infinite babies and guests dumping cash by the thousands per month from the get-go you call a steep learning curve. It's the same problem with planzoo as it was with planco. Frontier doesn't have any expertise in the management department. It doesn't mean it's a bad game. Planco is a great creative building game and so is Planzo. They did a great job in terms of graphics, music, optimization of the engine and the added online features are fun. But that doesn't mean you should put on your fanboy hat and try to quelch any and all criticism. Sad case.

 

[SleepyEngi]

You should feel lucky. I can't even play the game because my animals barely breed and the few that did disappear in transport to the trade center.

Before you say anything the animals were fully researched as were habitats and the animals had decent fertility ratings.

Heh. Perhaps the game is just too hard for you? Well, that is what you wanted after all. You told us before the problems we experienced were our fault because we were doing something wrong, so perhaps that’s what is happening to you. My bengal tigers just had their second set of children, and they’re supposed to be one of the hardest to breed. Maybe you’re just picking infertile animals. FYI the infertility gene isn’t all there is to fertility. Try comparing mates to see if the animal has lost it’s fertility.

 

[Grayyy]

Please, for the love of god, fix the timescale

 

[ChicagoZohan]

People pause to build, yes, but thats not the root of the issue people are 'complaining' about. The issue is timescale is too fast to enjoy the game - with or without pausing. Sure, you pause for an hour to build an enclosure, then you play for an hour to manage your zoo and three in game years has gone by

I'm not sure what you expect. This is a game, you know. It goes by faster than real life does, otherwise you'd die of old age before your elephant breeding program can really kick off.

 

[NL_Mutso]

Neither do we care about your opinion. Isn't it funny how it's just you, one other guy and the 'silent majority' that agrees with you even though almost every other post is a complaint about game speed. Would it really matter to you, if a large part of the player base get's an option to tweak time flow speed? You can play on in your happy little fanboy world. But you just have to retort to making assumptions that folks need to L2P, even though the bulk of us are swimming in money and CC and the complaint still holds.

The simulation is extremely shallow, the game is easy. Part of the reason is because running a puppy mill is so easy. Infinite babies and guests dumping cash by the thousands per month from the get-go you call a steep learning curve. It's the same problem with planzoo as it was with planco. Frontier doesn't have any expertise in the management department. It doesn't mean it's a bad game. Planco is a great creative building game and so is Planzo. They did a great job in terms of graphics, music, optimization of the engine and the added online features are fun. But that doesn't mean you should put on your fanboy hat and try to quelch any and all criticism. Sad case.

I have no problems at all, games runs fine. When i see people struggling with certain features like the speed, that means a steep learning curve for a lot of people.. It's quite manageable. But people are still going bankrupt after starting multiple zoos/franchises..

I mentioned the personal attacks/mob-mentality in a different topic... Glad you're one of the people confirming the attitude of these topics...

I'm out of this topic.. Going around in circles again.....

 

[Joël]

Hey everyone,

Here's another reminder to not discuss each other on these forums. Please keep it on topic of the game.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Aiste]

Franchise mode, year 45, 1 million in a bank account, 14-15000 CC, nine habitats, 76 animals.
In the last four to five hours of the game, I've done nothing but emptying habitats by selling, releasing, or rehoming animals. I'm tired. I'm stressed, I'm bored. That is not the game; it's hard work in the office. No fun at all. Finished with one habitat, in the next father tries to kill the son in the same second the son grows up. Sold the father, in the next-to habitat, two females cut into each other's throat to find out which one will be the alpha. And on and on in the circles. If you say that the time pace in the game is OK, play a little bit, and not in a sandbox mode, of course. And thank you, Lord, that the breeding pace is slowed down.
I doubt I will come back to play any time soon.

I think they can not do anything with the time pace because the life span of animals is too different in reality. 7-10 years VS 100 years - what you can do about it? While the tortoise matures (22 years), three generations of dogs die. In my opinion, the only way to change something regarding the time pace is to unleash from reality and adjust the age. In the end, this is only a game. It should be fun.