Which Game Mode do you like best

[carazan]

Which game mode where you most interested in, which do you like now, and why? And what are the pros and cons of it in your opinion?
I was originally pretty excited for sandbox but realized Franchise is a lot more interesting because I want to take it slow... In sandbox I find myself getting too grand of ideas and becoming overwhelmed.
While in Franchise I like that I can build up as I go, and grow attached to my animals. The shopping plaza make look bad now but I can slowly add a little here and a little there.
However.... I am struggling in franchise mode to figure out profit... One year I'm making tons of profit! I go from 20k to 50-70k ... Then the next without changing anything other than a few scenary pieces.. I'm bankrupt .. I've already had to start new franchise (luckily i can transfer animals between zoos so i get to keep my original Crocs!!) And I fear my current one may be close to unsalvageable...
Anyways I was really curious to see what everyone else thought about how THEY are enjoying the game?... Despite the obvious bugs (my animals still don't have texture...)

 

[FelixAkuma]

Which game mode where you most interested in, which do you like now, and why? And what are the pros and cons of it in your opinion?
I was originally pretty excited for sandbox but realized Franchise is a lot more interesting because I want to take it slow... In sandbox I find myself getting too grand of ideas and becoming overwhelmed.
While in Franchise I like that I can build up as I go, and grow attached to my animals. The shopping plaza make look bad now but I can slowly add a little here and a little there.
However.... I am struggling in franchise mode to figure out profit... One year I'm making tons of profit! I go from 20k to 50-70k ... Then the next without changing anything other than a few scenary pieces.. I'm bankrupt .. I've already had to start new franchise (luckily i can transfer animals between zoos so i get to keep my original Crocs!!) And I fear my current one may be close to unsalvageable...
Anyways I was really curious to see what everyone else thought about how THEY are enjoying the game?... Despite the obvious bugs (my animals still don't have texture...)

Depends on my mood really however I always saw myself as a sandbox player and like you found myself going towards Franchise haha.

Ironiclaly I am also unsure how to get a good profit so that I can progress my Zoo, I like the going slow hut theres a difference between slow and not being able to do much as you watch your cash fluctuate around 3k constantly. Hoping to figure out how to start making a decent profit at the moment, its weird because it looks so easy for others I saw in beta on streams. They just seemed to gain momentum.

 

[carazan]

Depends on my mood really however I always saw myself as a sandbox player and like you found myself going towards Franchise haha.

Ironiclaly I am also unsure how to get a good profit so that I can progress my Zoo, I like the going slow hut theres a difference between slow and not being able to do much as you watch your cash fluctuate around 3k constantly. Hoping to figure out how to start making a decent profit at the moment, its weird because it looks so easy for others I saw in beta on streams. They just seemed to gain momentum.

Exactly how I feel, and the finances tab make it kinda hard to exactly pinpoint what went wrong?? When i get home tonight I plan to investigate a bit more. I saw another player say they noticed a lot of donation bins weren't being used.. so i guess i have to go around and check them individually..
I only have 2 habitats both full of gold badge, high appeal animals... And I can't make a profit if I'm trying to keep it running..

A side note: i noticed a lot of guests are complaining about staff buildings so maybe that affecting people coming to the zoo? I'm trying hard to hide my water tanks and power boxes but its tough getting them to a spot that doesn't affect guests but still reaches the water..

 

[bamber]

Been Playing as I planned - I started on the training scenarios - really great fun o learn about then game mechanics. Then went to sandbox and practiced making buildings and working with the paths . good to learn how it looks and see how good my buildings looked with little or know knowledge. have so few square or rectangular buildings now. also used it to have a "practice" zoo. Went into Franchise mode and building my first zoo. Entrance leading to a Flamingo and a peafowl enclosure. With a park buiildings enclosure off to the side.

Going well and looking like I wanted it. Now want to start building the "whitehouse" with two wings as stable blocks that are my main zoo walk ways

so Im using each mode as I need them. Beta thoughts completely gone - it appears I was wrong the two things I was accepting were the only things from beta that would make the game ( the zoo pedia and the start up elephant) have also changed - so might as well forget Beta now and enjoy this new game which I am

@FelixAkuma - people did make money easy in BETA - we didn't pay taxes and got 4 or 5 figure donations constantly- money rolled in

 

[FoxyDee]

I love to build my Zoo from scratch but I also hate the idea of handling everything for free to me like in sandbox. So challenge mode it is for me.

 

[bamber]

problem wiuth Building from scratch is I make too many mistakes I like to use sandbox to learn and improve and then put that in Franchise. Yes I can use Ctrl Z but it only goes so far especially with Terrain mods/flowers

 

[NL_Mutso]

Franchise mode, for the same reason as FoxyDee.. Sandbox - Being handed everything is no challenge for me..

When I mastered building a bit more, I will use sandbox to create exhibits/building..

For the $ problems:

Like a lot of people said (also in Beta) ; tortoises bring a lot of $/people.

Started with both tortoises and crocs.. Money kept pouring in. Been building/expanding like crazy : Year 14/15 and 400k $.. not much cc though...

I also mentioned this in another topic. For Offline/challenge easy CC is when you sell exhibit spiders.. And easy $ for online franchise. Around 4k-6k everytime I clean up the vivariums.. They are cheap and breed really fast… Does require extra attention. Don't recommend it if you already have trouble managing your animals in normal enclosures.

And don't hire too much staff..

 

[Fishook]

More of a campaign person normally, but the idea of Franchise seems to be growing with me the last couple of days. Starting off small then expanding it especially with the research and breeding. Will be rotating between the two modes.

 

[Lundiboy8]

I am enjoying Career mode. This is a first time playing a game from this developer so I enjoyed the first couple tutorial scenarios and everything after that is giving me something new to learn with controls and what works and doesn't work. I will get into franchise mode in time but taking the time to learn everything first is a priority for me.

 

[eliselove]

I’ve always been a sandbox player. I love not having to worry about money etc. But I’ve realised I much prefer franchise. The mechanic research is a bit of a pain but I really enjoy sharing my animals and giving back to the community offering reasonable CP prices.

 

[Chante Goodman]

I'm a Sandbox player myself, but not a very good one!

 

[Sirlacker]

Franchise for me. Not had much of a chance to play yet but made a little start and it's where I'll be staying. I want to be able to take part in the community challenges, the trading makes getting animals a little more difficult which for me is a good thing and then there's the whole slow side regarding research and cash building you don't get in the sandbox.

Having the game open with nothing to worry about I think would be too overwhelming for me.

 

[Garyd73]

I am playing through the Career mode first, I have never really gone for Sandbox in any game as I don't really have ideas of what to build next. Will certainly be going to Franchise when finished the Career as hopefully I might have seen some things I want to try and build and it leaves the gameplay elements in still.

 

[TheWetDolphin]

I'm finding the Career mode fantastic, its the only mode I've played so far! Such a huge improvement over the Planet Coaster Career mode, I hope they continue to add more scenarios in the future.

 

[AkumaKitei]

Franchise. I haven't really played with sandbox properly yet, not sure I will, and I do enjoy the campaign but the majority of my time has been in franchise so far. I like the community challenges and enjoy the fluctuating marketplace on animals.

 

[Chris Simon]

I can see myself playing Sandbox for quite some time, now. I'm a laid-back guy and I don't like challenges (read: I'm lazy). Sandbox is just perfect. No hard management decisions, freedom of choice of animals instead of having to choose "profitable ones" and mainly the ability to turn off aging - that's a big deal for me.
Franchise and its weird economy doesn't really interest me
I'm rather looking forward to playing the story mode at some point. But first I have to get good. I don't want my own incompetence to be a deciding factor of whether or not I'm successful in scenarios.

So yeah. Sandbox.

 

[Imagin]

I thought I was going to prefer Franchise mode but I decided to start in Sandbox to learn everything and I'm loving it so much I think now I might never leave The unlimited creativity is just amazing. I can still monitor animal and guest happiness, but I'm not being bugged every 2 minutes and having to stop what I'm doing and take care of some emergency, or running out of money, or having animals die if the keepers are slow with the food. I don't have to pause my game all the time. I can take the time to enjoy everything and I look forward to every new birth. I like relaxing gameplay where I set my own challenges. I also very much enjoy learning on my own and figuring stuff out as I go. Yeah, I'm probably never going to leave Sandbox Thank you, Frontier. This is exactly the game I've been wanting for a very, very long time!

 

[Sclurp]

I hear you about feeling overwhelmed when it comes to sandbox mode. I think the prospect of filling that entire map with something of my own creation makes my mind panic - nothing I create seems good enough and I have to say: "Chris, just keep building. Edit later."

Saying that, diving into the campaign where the terrain is already set and I have a limited budget forces me to think of creative ways to build something decent without going bankrupt and I've been enjoying that a bit more and giving myself a break when things don't look amazing because I ain't a millionaire yet!

I might start creating maps with sculpted landscapes for people who have the same experience as me, so they can download and use them for sandbox mode and challenge mode. Maybe they won't feel the pressure to imagine something on top of that blank canvass but instead look at something and think 'Oh, in this valley I could build such and such...'

 

[carazan]

I hear you about feeling overwhelmed when it comes to sandbox mode. I think the prospect of filling that entire map with something of my own creation makes my mind panic - nothing I create seems good enough and I have to say: "Chris, just keep building. Edit later."

Saying that, diving into the campaign where the terrain is already set and I have a limited budget forces me to think of creative ways to build something decent without going bankrupt and I've been enjoying that a bit more and giving myself a break when things don't look amazing because I ain't a millionaire yet!

I might start creating maps with sculpted landscapes for people who have the same experience as me, so they can download and use them for sandbox mode and challenge mode. Maybe they won't feel the pressure to imagine something on top of that blank canvass but instead look at something and think 'Oh, in this valley I could build such and such...'

That's a pretty good idea, I would DEFINITELY be interested in that! Before the game even realized I made a bunch of drawn out maps and ideas for a sandbox park... and I tried to tackle the entrance for it last night... but I made one enclosure and staff area and just lost my mind because everything just seems like such a big task.. ;--;

 

[Silhouette]

So far career mode. I'm feeling a bit stressed over "falling behind" in not playing Franchise mode and participating in the tiger breeding challenge but... I'm actually really enjoying the scenarios so far! It's a pleasant surprise since I wasn't as enthused when it came to PC's scenarios.

Once I'm done these I'll be switching to Franchise and Challenge more. I might eventually play Sandbox a bit but I've always been a person that enjoyed having some restrictions to a game; unlimited creativity just makes me stress over everything I can do and then I end up not doing anything