Hello guys I was just wondering with so many people expressing their disappointment in the recent challenge what would you like to see as prizes for completing overall and for meeting individual goals as well? I am not a huge franchise player therefore I’ve only participated in a handful of challenges but I do know it is a lot of work at times and some can truly be a challenge to complete. With some players meeting such high marks I definitely think they should be rewarded for their hard work. Me I’d like statues or a unique object but I do know this is extra work for the devs as well I did like the outfits however so maybe even unique clothing for your avatar could work I guess. Anyway what would your suggestions be?
What would you like to see as a prize for completing challenges?
- Thread starter paul78
- Start date
- Statues or plaques
- Other scenery/foilage items (Plants, animal signs or maybe even a different donation box/trash bin)
- A point system for a new ingame shop to buy avatar clothing, also from previous challenges. (I know, this would require extra programming effort)
- Avatar clothing but just random pieces. New sunglasses/new hairstyle. (maybe not even related to the actual challenge)
- More CC (a lot of people invest more CC in the challenge than they are receiving in CC reward)
- Wallpapers for your desktop
- New intro when you start the game
Or maybe even mix it up, once every 2 months a statue challenge, once every 3 months a new intro challenge.
Just a few that I can think of, I don't even fully agree with the "point system for a new ingame shop". Still wanted to share that option.
Also add a ranking to the challenge. I want to know how I fared in the community compared to other players.
Maybe even an extra price (CC/animal ?) for the actual top 3 people.
I like the idea's that are mentioned here. But i do hope that if they implement this, that the rewards are visible for players so they know what they are working for.. With the outfits for example, you were only able to see them when you have earned them.. It needs to be shown before participating
I think it would be unfair if the prizes were significant game content like statues, foliage or scenery that you can’t otherwise get. I only play sandbox mode and it seems to me that it should be something that doesn’t put other players at a disadvantage in terms of what’s available for actual zoo building.
I would absolutely love new Plants for completed Challenges. But they should be unlocked for every Player because I think it would be too unfair if some Players couldn't use Plants or Building Pieces because they didn't participate in the Challenge
almost every game has this in their games. Like with Overwatch: win 9 games in 1 specific week and you can earn a skin that you can not get on an other moment.
btw... it already IS in this game, since you could earn outfits....... i for example wanted the tiger outfit, but i didn't had the money for the game at that point, yes that was/is a dissapointment, but it is also how it works
you can not have everything.
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@markun I understand what your saying. I don’t want to necessarily divide or upset people by this thread. But I also heard about some of the numbers people are putting out and participating in these challenges and they definitely deserve more than what they’re currently getting. So I could definitely see custom avatar pieces,wallpapers, and intros being great options. I guess it’s all up to frontier to decide although I do hope they take some of these into consideration.
BF5 has the same with skins/paint and even weapons. I played STO and a lot of gift ships/weapons are unlocked when you participate in the limited time event.
I think GTA5 even had some nice rewards for just logging in at certain days.
I'm not a big fan of handing out the same rewards, for people who didn't participate in a challenge. It shouldn't be a big problem to have a barely used franchise zoo and contribute 1 animal to be eligible for the reward.
Edit: I do think the animal reward system should be changed if this should happen, like every 50 animals you donate (depends on species), you get a random medal animal. And the chances for a gold one, increases when you donate more.
(50 animals, 25% - 100 animals 50% of getting a gold one)
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I guess the difference with those examples is that Battlefield and Overwatch are not games where the primary interaction is collecting skins - the primary interaction is combat, which skins do not affect (sure, they're a nice bonus, but not the core gameplay). Planet Zoo is a game where (one of) the primary draws is building things, so restricting even a small amount of building options to people who participated in the challenge seems unfair to me. Especially seeing as most of the people who do not play franchise mode (and therefore do not participate in the challenges) are sandbox players - people who are primarily interested in the building side, rather than the management side.
It's a very tricky balancing act, I'm sure. You need to offer something that is valuable to those who participate, but not so valuable that non-participants feel left out. Having not played franchise for a while, I'm not sure what that is (unfortunately, avatar costumes felt like a really good balance!), but it seems like the rewards should be more catered towards helping with management gameplay than building.
It's a very tricky balancing act, I'm sure. You need to offer something that is valuable to those who participate, but not so valuable that non-participants feel left out. Having not played franchise for a while, I'm not sure what that is (unfortunately, avatar costumes felt like a really good balance!), but it seems like the rewards should be more catered towards helping with management gameplay than building.
if the rewards are outfits or statues, then it is also not core gameplay (animal management is) and should not be a problem.
i agree
My argument is that building is the core gameplay for a decent chunk of the player base, especially for those who do not play franchise mode.
Earning a weapon (BF5) or a spaceship/unique weapons (Star Trek Online) are core items as well.
And you will still able to build. If it were building pieces like roof/wall pieces, I agree
but I don't think certain decorative items are core gameplay.
If you don't want to feel left out, just participate. I know some people will share your opinion (i'm fine with that
) but I really disagree with this logic.In most games with rewards, people have to make a choice on participating or not.
I have no issue that those rewards will become available to all players after a year (or 6 months).
We all have a different way of playing and if rewarding people means punishing others it isn’t fair.
Core gameplay for me isn’t management, it’s building.
I don’t care about doing challenges, it simply doesn’t interest me and I’m happy for people to win things that are irrelevant to my gameplay. But if people get rewards like decorative items then it becomes unfair. Their game is potentially enriched and mine isn’t just because we have a different approach to the game.
Core gameplay for me isn’t management, it’s building.
I don’t care about doing challenges, it simply doesn’t interest me and I’m happy for people to win things that are irrelevant to my gameplay. But if people get rewards like decorative items then it becomes unfair. Their game is potentially enriched and mine isn’t just because we have a different approach to the game.
To completely oversimplify and generalise, there are 2 types of people playing this game - those that primarily enjoy building, and those that primarily enjoy management. Of course, everyone has their own individual levels of preference of each of those things, and neither playstyle excludes enjoying the other, but broadly speaking, those are the two camps.
Franchise mode, and the community challenges specifically, cater to the management-focused playstyle - you need to have good organisation to maintain healthy breeding populations, keep cashflow going etc, but you do not need to build creatively to succeed (emphasis on need to, of course you can, and many do).
Sandbox caters to the creative builders - you can utilise any pieces you like to make something that looks cool, but you do not need to have any management skills whatsoever.
I think it's totally fine to have exclusive rewards for completing the challenges, but they should be things that reward the management-focused playstyle, rather than the building. 'Builders' shouldn't have to participate in gameplay they dislike in order to access building pieces, the same way that 'managers' should not have to participate in a building competition to access utility items.
Franchise mode, and the community challenges specifically, cater to the management-focused playstyle - you need to have good organisation to maintain healthy breeding populations, keep cashflow going etc, but you do not need to build creatively to succeed (emphasis on need to, of course you can, and many do).
Sandbox caters to the creative builders - you can utilise any pieces you like to make something that looks cool, but you do not need to have any management skills whatsoever.
I think it's totally fine to have exclusive rewards for completing the challenges, but they should be things that reward the management-focused playstyle, rather than the building. 'Builders' shouldn't have to participate in gameplay they dislike in order to access building pieces, the same way that 'managers' should not have to participate in a building competition to access utility items.
I'm not a fan of the whole new items thing either, and not just because it'd be unfair to those who don't participate but also because I can't help wondering what would happen if we didn't meet the requirements to win the challenge. I mean the item has to be created either way in case the goal is reach but if it isn't it's basically a waste of resources because the item won't be released. Maybe it could be done after the challenge but that'd take time and the disappointment in the community would still be huge if they didn't get the item that was dangled infront of them for a week in case the challenge failed. I know it'd be part of the game and how challenges and rewards work and all, but you can't tell me people won't throw a fit either way.
So I was thinking and besides the whole avatar outfits and shop idea that already came up, I thought maybe something that actively affected the franchise would be cool. Like if the challenge is won the franchises participating would get a higher chance of gold rated offspring for a week or get a CC bonus for released animals. Or maybe a certain amount of cash that goes into a bankaccount that can be used in any franchise zoo and isn't limited to one particular park, so you get a chance to save one of your zoos that has been struggling for a while. The could also add blueprints that could be placed for free in one of your zoos, which would help when starting a new zoo and so on. Those things wouldn't have any negative impact on those who don't play franchise, but those who do and participate would still get something useful out of it besides animals and a few CC.
So I was thinking and besides the whole avatar outfits and shop idea that already came up, I thought maybe something that actively affected the franchise would be cool. Like if the challenge is won the franchises participating would get a higher chance of gold rated offspring for a week or get a CC bonus for released animals. Or maybe a certain amount of cash that goes into a bankaccount that can be used in any franchise zoo and isn't limited to one particular park, so you get a chance to save one of your zoos that has been struggling for a while. The could also add blueprints that could be placed for free in one of your zoos, which would help when starting a new zoo and so on. Those things wouldn't have any negative impact on those who don't play franchise, but those who do and participate would still get something useful out of it besides animals and a few CC.
Perhaps those items can still be assigned to some future challenge? For instance we had a few community challenges that included costume rewards that failed. I'm pretty sure those too won't go to waste.
Rewards for playing one mode do not punish anyone. That is some entitled way of thinking. If you want rewards from playing franchise, play franchise. Sandbox mode already gives you everything people earn in franchise mode. And rewards have already been given for these challenges, what does it matter if the reward is a statue rather than an avatar costume?
On topic - I think any cosmetic rewards are great, be it for avatar or statues. But the only issue I see with statues amd such is that they may cause blueprint problems.
@ralphthestick, I don't agree with your conclusion (even if it's oversimplified and generalized). I think the logic that Franchise mode/Sandbox have a focus on a playstyle is a wrong assumption to start with.
I play sandbox in the same way as Franchise. The only difference is unlimited cash, so I can start building those large habitats/buildings from the start instead of Franchise replacing stuff when you have enough money.
Please don't this personally but do you have any experiences with rewards-systems in other games? Because most people accept when they don't participate in an event, they don't get the rewards. (rewarding someone else, doesn't mean punishing others - never liked that logic)
The comment from Markun "if rewarding people means punishing others it isn’t fair", basically means you can stop doing community rewards. There's always a group that feels left out.
I'm really sure it's not meant this way but reading the comments, gives a certain vibe: "If I can't have it, you can't have it".
I play sandbox in the same way as Franchise. The only difference is unlimited cash, so I can start building those large habitats/buildings from the start instead of Franchise replacing stuff when you have enough money.
Please don't this personally but do you have any experiences with rewards-systems in other games? Because most people accept when they don't participate in an event, they don't get the rewards. (rewarding someone else, doesn't mean punishing others - never liked that logic)
The comment from Markun "if rewarding people means punishing others it isn’t fair", basically means you can stop doing community rewards. There's always a group that feels left out.
I'm really sure it's not meant this way but reading the comments, gives a certain vibe: "If I can't have it, you can't have it".
That's where I was leaning towards as well. At some point a second chance. Or using a logic from Cities Skylines: The pre-order unique structures were added to a free update in a later update (+1 year later). Something similar could work imo.
Maybe an automatic 'delete all trophies' when you upload could solve this. Tbh, they have to change blueprint uploading for this. Good point, btw !!
Earning a weapon (BF5) or a spaceship/unique weapons (Star Trek Online) are core items as well.
And you will still able to build. If it were building pieces like roof/wall pieces, I agree
but I don't think certain decorative items are core gameplay.
If you don't want to feel left out, just participate. I know some people will share your opinion (i'm fine with that
In most games with rewards, people have to make a choice on participating or not.
I have no issue that those rewards will become available to all players after a year (or 6 months).
I agree. If I remember correctly, I think some weapons in BF5 became available to all players after certain time. I specifically remember the Type 2A (which caused all the rage and I think it was part of a weekly challenge) which every medic used. I remember it because I despised it and refused to use it. I didn't complete the challenge, but remember it became part of my armory after a while.