Hi all. This has probably already been said hundreds of times in this forum, but I feel I need to stress how important this one issue is. Btw I also created an account just to post here, today. I'm a big veteran of tycoon/sim games, and management titles in general. I loved zoo tycoon, and I want to love Planet Zoo. I really do. It's beautiful. Really. Very inspired and even more in depth than any other zoo sim to date.
But holy insane micromanagement. There's good and rewarding micromanagement and then there's Planet Zoo after about a half dozen exhibits, or way less if you use pack animals, or animals that breed like rabbits. It's like getting hammered and trying to stop the room from spinning with just your willpower. The player shouldn't be slammed with 100 notifications about births/possible incest every five minutes, and neither should they be forced to shove contraception pills down most if not all of their animal's throats in order to avoid the constant spam altogether. That's ridiculous. No zoo does that. No. Zoo. No, we shouldn't have to slow down time artificially either. We should be able to play the game as is, without tricks. Without having to live in the market screen and go through lists of animals 24/7.
People at the top anywhere delegate responsibilities to middle managers. Because otherwise, like in Planet Zoo, you'd go insane with having to personally interfere with and listen to every single small yet extremely time intensive issue that should've been automated ages ago. And your job/vision suffers as a result. You shouldn't have to click on every single exhibit birth notification to quickly dump 90% of the spawns into the wild, because you can't be bothered to pause your game for an hour in order to meticulously go through each individual bundle of pixels and make sure their welfare is optimal like it's your actual job. It shouldn't be your job. Not unless you want it to be. Some things should be streamlined. This is one of those things. Keepers should be in charge of simple culling measures for exhibits, that the player should be able to fine tune once and very importantly leave alone.
Also, there will come a point in any growing zoo in which the player will be forced to pause for long periods of time, just to take care of dozens and dozens of issues that spawn every single minute. Or they'll be forced to pause just so they can build in peace, because attempting to build in realtime in a busy zoo is a nightmare. It shouldn't be a nightmare, frontier. Even in a 100% efficient zoo with perfect staff zones, this is still a huge problem.
Will adding the option of middle management take the fun out of Planet Zoo? NO. God no. If anything adding tools to automate certain functions like buying animals with good genes (and placing them automatically into quarantine and eventually their pens) and training staff under specific circumstances will free the player to actually enjoy building in realtime. Enjoy watching animals be animals in real time, actually feel a bond with one beyond thinking of them as Lion#234. Enjoy breeding super animals in real time. Enjoy watching guests in real time and following them from the beginning of their journey to the very end. You know, all the things you want us to enjoy, but we really can't without a very needed and necessary management update.
If players can't build big zoos easily and efficiently, with the ability to actually breathe every now and then and enjoy their work without constantly pausing or getting blasted with small time problems 24/7, then Planet Zoo is missing the point of management sims. It's not about having a bloated checklist a mile long every hour (or mass sterilizing animals), it's about the little things, the end results, and getting there without wanting to tear your hair out.
Please add more automated management options. Thank you. End of rant. I'm a fan and only want to see this game get better, not worse. Have a good day.
But holy insane micromanagement. There's good and rewarding micromanagement and then there's Planet Zoo after about a half dozen exhibits, or way less if you use pack animals, or animals that breed like rabbits. It's like getting hammered and trying to stop the room from spinning with just your willpower. The player shouldn't be slammed with 100 notifications about births/possible incest every five minutes, and neither should they be forced to shove contraception pills down most if not all of their animal's throats in order to avoid the constant spam altogether. That's ridiculous. No zoo does that. No. Zoo. No, we shouldn't have to slow down time artificially either. We should be able to play the game as is, without tricks. Without having to live in the market screen and go through lists of animals 24/7.
People at the top anywhere delegate responsibilities to middle managers. Because otherwise, like in Planet Zoo, you'd go insane with having to personally interfere with and listen to every single small yet extremely time intensive issue that should've been automated ages ago. And your job/vision suffers as a result. You shouldn't have to click on every single exhibit birth notification to quickly dump 90% of the spawns into the wild, because you can't be bothered to pause your game for an hour in order to meticulously go through each individual bundle of pixels and make sure their welfare is optimal like it's your actual job. It shouldn't be your job. Not unless you want it to be. Some things should be streamlined. This is one of those things. Keepers should be in charge of simple culling measures for exhibits, that the player should be able to fine tune once and very importantly leave alone.
Also, there will come a point in any growing zoo in which the player will be forced to pause for long periods of time, just to take care of dozens and dozens of issues that spawn every single minute. Or they'll be forced to pause just so they can build in peace, because attempting to build in realtime in a busy zoo is a nightmare. It shouldn't be a nightmare, frontier. Even in a 100% efficient zoo with perfect staff zones, this is still a huge problem.
Will adding the option of middle management take the fun out of Planet Zoo? NO. God no. If anything adding tools to automate certain functions like buying animals with good genes (and placing them automatically into quarantine and eventually their pens) and training staff under specific circumstances will free the player to actually enjoy building in realtime. Enjoy watching animals be animals in real time, actually feel a bond with one beyond thinking of them as Lion#234. Enjoy breeding super animals in real time. Enjoy watching guests in real time and following them from the beginning of their journey to the very end. You know, all the things you want us to enjoy, but we really can't without a very needed and necessary management update.
If players can't build big zoos easily and efficiently, with the ability to actually breathe every now and then and enjoy their work without constantly pausing or getting blasted with small time problems 24/7, then Planet Zoo is missing the point of management sims. It's not about having a bloated checklist a mile long every hour (or mass sterilizing animals), it's about the little things, the end results, and getting there without wanting to tear your hair out.
Please add more automated management options. Thank you. End of rant. I'm a fan and only want to see this game get better, not worse. Have a good day.
