was anyone surprised

[xesta]

some of the update was very welcome and fantastic, but the bugs are in at full throttle like usual

I have to wonder what frontier thinks of us, that they keep saying "this will be fixed! this will be fixed!" meanwhile the game has been out a month, they're already releasing paid dlc, and only Some of the bugs/gameplay issues are fixed while many new others have cropped up with each update. often they're gamebreaking. some people can't even play their games.

is the game just,,,,, that poorly coded? or do they just not care? or are they incompetent? money-hungry?

do they test ANYTHING before sending it out?

it has to be something, and it's not a GOOD something, no matter how you look at it.

to frontier:

we love the game and want it to succeed. however, this is not how you release a game, nor how you handle it post release. you are on the fast track to losing your fanbase, and getting a big fat "mixed" status on your steam reviews. I am not buying this dlc. I will not buy future dlc. not until the game is running how it was promised. I don't want excuses, and I think your fans are tired of them at this point as well.

to others who are not having bugs/think the game is fine:

that's cool, I'm happy for you. however a lot of us are not having the same experience, and I'd appreciate it if you considered our viewpoint as well.

 

[Jester Day]

I am just curious why it seems so random. I have encountered few bugs during my stint with the game, and none of them gamebreaking. Which makes me wonder why and how, if there is something else behind it as well.

What it does mean though is that bugs are harder to pin down than one would suspect, as what is easily reproducable for one of us is not even seen for others.

 

[xesta]

I am just curious why it seems so random. I have encountered few bugs during my stint with the game, and none of them gamebreaking. Which makes me wonder why and how, if there is something else behind it as well.

What it does mean though is that bugs are harder to pin down than one would suspect, as what is easily reproducable for one of us is not even seen for others.

it is very frustrating, because some people are just having an inability to even load saves or start the game?

meanwhile I tend to get the bugs everyone else is getting, which combined, make the game unplayable. like technically I COULD play it, but I'm not interested in dealing with it you know

 

[Jester Day]

I completely understand you. It just utterly puzzles me, as I have seen very few games have these polar opposites in play experience, and most of those have been very very heavy on the hardware.

So can can very much emphasize with the frustration, even if I have no possibility to actually do anything about it.

 

[Imagin]

I had hardly any bugs on release. 1.0.3 was so bad it caused me to lose a zoo. Now with 1.1 everything is amazing, I have no bugs at all. I don't understand how widely varied the results are from one person to the next or, in my case, for the same person and same computer with different updates.

 

[Sclurp]

PZ is a game that accommodates so many play styles, so I think it's understandable that a certain percentage of players will see the same bugs over and over while others are just having a merry ol' time.

I don't like the timing of the DLC at all. I agree with you on most of your points. The only benefit of the doubt I'm willing to give Frontier is that they wanted to stick to their schedule for releasing DLC so as to not keep their workforce toiling away on fixes so close to Christmas and instead make sure things are in a stable state over the holidays. Whether that is how things went down, who knows...Regardless, it's a slap in the face to ask for more money for a sprinkling of content while people haven't been able to enjoy the game. Other companies would bite the bullet and just delay the content, prioritizing fixes.

This is what you see with games that are "live services" because the companies that develop/publish those games know that reputation is everything. How does it look when every forum for PZ is full of bug reports?

 

[Leopard Lobbyist]

Given what we've found within JWE and PZ via the modification community I think it's safe to say that Frontier's games are coded in a very...unorthodox manner. Modders tinkering and pulling apart the games are finding things built in ways that make very little sense in both games. I don't know why this is. I wish I did. Are the devs just trying to think outside the box, not realizing there's a reason why there's a box everyone stays in in the first place? Do they just genuinely not know how to build a stable game? Are there internal management issues happening, causing devs to scramble and McGuyver things together for strict deadlines? Are the devs forbidden from communicating to each other about what they're implementing? We will probably never know the why of what's happening with PZ.

But the main issue is that it's happening at all. I've said in previous threads that I frequently buy-in to Early Access or otherwise alpha- or beta-status games. I enjoy doing so. But in all my years helping to do early testing and prototyping I have never seen anything like this. Each and every update purporting to fix bugs brings along several new ones, or even brings back older, previously fixed ones. Many, as has been said, seem to be game-breaking or at the very least enjoyment-ruining. The most basic, fundamental parts of the game seem to get broken even if a newly rolled out update had nothing to do with that part of the game. IE what on earth could have been done in this December update that altered how the game perceives animals being in an enclosure? There were changes made to climbing, and to animals phasing through walls. But I'm seeing reports of animals sitting smack dab in the middle of their enclosures, near literally nothing, being marked as "escaped." It. Is. Bizarre.

I have never been happier to dodge a bullet like this. I was going to pre-order the Deluxe, and didn't because I had to save for other expenses. I want this game. I want this game and I want it to be good. I want it to be what was advertised and what us park sim fans have been clamoring for for years. But at this rate I'm not sure it will ever get there. And that makes me really freakin sad.

 

[Dr4gon]

Something that disturbs is that they let complaints "expire". That is a "If you don't look, it will go away" mentality. At least they have the money for Christmas, we have a crappy product.

 

[Kai]

Given what we've found within JWE and PZ via the modification community I think it's safe to say that Frontier's games are coded in a very...unorthodox manner. Modders tinkering and pulling apart the games are finding things built in ways that make very little sense in both games. I don't know why this is. I wish I did. Are the devs just trying to think outside the box, not realizing there's a reason why there's a box everyone stays in in the first place? Do they just genuinely not know how to build a stable game? Are there internal management issues happening, causing devs to scramble and McGuyver things together for strict deadlines? Are the devs forbidden from communicating to each other about what they're implementing? We will probably never know the why of what's happening with PZ.

But the main issue is that it's happening at all. I've said in previous threads that I frequently buy-in to Early Access or otherwise alpha- or beta-status games. I enjoy doing so. But in all my years helping to do early testing and prototyping I have never seen anything like this. Each and every update purporting to fix bugs brings along several new ones, or even brings back older, previously fixed ones. Many, as has been said, seem to be game-breaking or at the very least enjoyment-ruining. The most basic, fundamental parts of the game seem to get broken even if a newly rolled out update had nothing to do with that part of the game. IE what on earth could have been done in this December update that altered how the game perceives animals being in an enclosure? There were changes made to climbing, and to animals phasing through walls. But I'm seeing reports of animals sitting smack dab in the middle of their enclosures, near literally nothing, being marked as "escaped." It. Is. Bizarre.

Dunno, they sort of remind me of Studio Wildcard and Ark. Things coded really bizarrely, stuff that was fixed being broken with patches, releasing paid DLC when the game was still in early access (this game isn't in early access but there were/are so many issues it might as well be). Don't get me wrong, I love Ark, but every expansion/update is usually some sort of mini-disaster.

That said they also provide a huge amount of content for free (including animals), hire popular modders to work for them, and delay their launch dates when they know something is just not ready to be released - they do enough things right, that I still buy their expansions. I'm still on the fence if I'll be buying any PZ DLC (at least until it's on sale).

I really wish PZ had launched in December (with the Arctic DLC baked in the base game); it would have given them so much more time to fix and polish things.

 

[Ashen Shugar]

The term in coding circels is spaghetti code, fix one thing breaks another, TBH pre patch I hadn't noticed many bugs, not saying they haven't affect others. post patch it is a bug fest. but hey they got some DLC money.

 

[Mkau]

I really wish PZ had launched in December (with the Arctic DLC baked in the base game); it would have given them so much more time to fix and polish things.

I couldn't agree more with this!

 

[Imagin]

Most people who buy this for xmas will have a good experience.

 

[malcmall]

Really?? My game was fine, then the first update came and now it crashes every 15 minutes. With this new update I now have animals escaping all over the place when I had nothing before. Animals get boxed up until I un box them. I have played loads of games over many years but this game needs a lot of work I have never seen anything like it. With each update it gets worse and then they release DLC without fixing it!!! I do love this game and spent a lot of hours on it in between the crashes I want it to work it is such a great game but it is still in a mess.

Planet Coaster is another brilliant game and I have never had any trouble with that. So for Christmas fix the Zoo.

 

[Imagin]

The vast majority of people are playing this game without problems. I know that isn't the impression you might get on the forums where people come to complain and look for answers to problems, but the people on the forum are a very tiny minority of all those playing Planet Zoo. For whatever reason this last update fixed the problems I had and now everything is working perfectly - for me. I'm sure it will be for you too soon.

Really?? My game was fine, then the first update came and now it crashes every 15 minutes. With this new update I now have animals escaping all over the place when I had nothing before. Animals get boxed up until I un box them. I have played loads of games over many years but this game needs a lot of work I have never seen anything like it. With each update it gets worse and then they release DLC without fixing it!!! I do love this game and spent a lot of hours on it in between the crashes I want it to work it is such a great game but it is still in a mess.

Planet Coaster is another brilliant game and I have never had any trouble with that. So for Christmas fix the Zoo.

 

[xesta]

The vast majority of people are playing this game without problems. I know that isn't the impression you might get on the forums where people come to complain and look for answers to problems, but the people on the forum are a very tiny minority of all those playing Planet Zoo. For whatever reason this last update fixed the problems I had and now everything is working perfectly - for me. I'm sure it will be for you too soon.

just because the "vast majority" of people aren't dealing with bugs (that they know of) doesn't mean that it's not a big problem. the forum is filled with issues, and how many people do you think see the forum, use the forum, out of those who have bought and played the game? how many do you think bother to post reviews? before this game even, I was NOT someone who bothered with making a review or even posted about bugs anywhere. and now I am. because I'm invested, and because this is one of the first games I've run into that was THAT bad. before, if a game was bad, I'd just shut up and refund it or walk away. this small section of people complaining on the forum is most definitely part of a larger audience. heck, even people who play the game on youtube complain about all the things they deal with. I've seen many of them (usually who do builds) say "I don't play my game unpaused, because it's nearly impossible to play without an issue." I bet if the building aspect wasn't so good, these youtubers would ditch the game instantly.

there's also the fact that each single person who is having bugs paid at least $44 for this game, if not /more/. I paid for the deluxe version, and I haven't even been able to buy a deluxe animal yet! because they don't exist on the trading center! and that's just one issue the game has, where my money has been straight up wasted. if I could, I'd refund the game.

do you know how many times I've seen "if I could, I'd refund it" from people? often.

how many people have paid around $50 for a horrible experience? for a game they can't play? for a game that broke? for a game that worked fine, but the updates broke? for a game that is prioritizing dlc over a working, functional game?

it's very much a problem, and hearing "other people are doing fine" is not something we need at this time. even a few people saying "I want my money back" is a significant amount of money and should be treated as such.

like I said in the beginning, it's fine if your game is running fine. but don't try and minimize our issues, because they ARE significant, and they shouldn't be taken lightly. this update broke a lot of things for a lot of people.

 

[AaronTuckwell]

I'm starting to put this game up there with RCTW for worst experience.. the only thing saving it is the familiarity with PlanCo. The very fact that the game has so many of the early bugs that PlanCo had suggests that they just did a copy / paste of that earlier code and edited it for animals. Of course, they didn't; but that's just how it feels. I've had so many crashes today I've rage-quit and gone back to PlanCo.

The balance of the game is just... ugh. I've ranted about that else-where..

But.. ultimately, we are here, feeding all of this back to Frontier and they. Just. Aren't. Listening.

None of our rants, none of our feedback and none of our suggestions will ever properly be taken seriously. Well, I mean very few, maybe "none" is unfair. We fed back about the time passage from beta. We were ignored. Instead we got a band-aid slider that doesn't actually fix the issue. We have fed back about the balance, that is as yet not sorted. We have fed back about Franchise being way too hard, ignored. We have fed back about power / water still being an issue in negative effect and radius (and not changing when hidden underground or behind walls), ignored (the radius are surely just numbers in the code!).

And yes, the arctic pack is lovely. But I fear that profits are now starting to take priority over quality. They rushed out a DLC in 6 weeks when there are still things in the base game that need addressing. The more DLC they come out with the less likely it is that base game stuff will be fixed. I mean, why bother when you can keep milking DLC money?

Cynical? Maybe. Unfair & "entitled" comments? Probably. Fearful that I might actually be correct? Very.

 

[Imagin]

...
like I said in the beginning, it's fine if your game is running fine. but don't try and minimize our issues, because they ARE significant, and they shouldn't be taken lightly. this update broke a lot of things for a lot of people.

I lost a zoo to 1.0.3 that I had over a hundred hours into. I do know how you feel. This kind of thing happens because we are too eager to give game companies our money on pre-orders. There is no incentive to finish a game properly and lots of incentive to release on time no matter what. Put the game aside for a couple of months, we both know it's going to be great when it's fixed.

I got lucky this time and 1.1 seemed to fix all the bugs I had, but that could change with the next update and I could lose another zoo. If that happens I'll be setting it aside for some months too. Lesson learned - no more preorders. I absolutely love Planet Zoo but I don't much like how it was released without any real QC testing. Right now I'm having great fun but I don't feel overly secure that won't change either.

 

[Crea_TivELA]

Nice to hear some people got no problems at all during all updates, I'm really lucky for all of you... really, I just would wish it would be the same for me (and I think there are a lot people regarding to all reported bugs here and on the issue tracker). Not everyone is writing on forums, not everyone knows about them or searched for them... I think at least some are disappointed and sad about their current game on their own and can't explain what's happening in their game... because they have no proper internet access or can't speak, understand or write in english.

I lost 4 zoos because of bugs, which crashed the zoo. The first one was a money bug where I can't even speak out the number. Then starving animals and no way to replace them because the trade center was empty while I just could effort animals for money... so I ended up with a zoo without animals, which was running fine a long time until the bug occured and "walked" threw every habitat I had... the third one lost it's save file somehow and couldn't be saved from getting lost forever... the last one I gave another try to had starving animals again and there was not enough space to save them through quarantine or the trade center - I tried to work around the bug and I lost, because I had a lot of animals which were happy a long time before. I didn't had all the bugs explained here in the forum but plenty of them... I putted many hours of building and improving my zoo and worked around bugs succesfully, but to make it short: I didn't play since 3 weeks, because as much as I love the game I lost completly my motivation to start over new again.

So I sit here and take a look at the forum frequently to see if something has changed in the basic mood here to maybe give it another try... I didn't change my mind yet - because as far as I can see it, there are more bugs happening and since I had plenty I probably would lose my zoo again to some weird stuff going on. I'm really sorry... but I won't play again until the game is fixed MUCH more and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm not alone with this and others have also stopped to play because they have lost their motivation or became annoyed.
I think this is a problem.

The last memory of my first zoo... I went down from 86.000 + to this from one second to the other... I'm still sad I lost it... it was the pretty one so far.