why is this still a problem

[xesta]

it's been well over a year since the game released and we still have the problem with animals maturing and immediately causing fights?

what kind of reflexes am I supposed to have here in order to prevent this lmao? am I supposed to make an entirely different pen each time to plop my individual babies of each species so they won't make everyone start fighting each other the literal second they grow up? what if you have big habitats like safaris with several different groups of animals in there, all of them constantly popping out babies that grow at different times

can we not get like at least a MINUTE before they start killing each other because their son grew up lmao

I literally pause and click them as fast as I see the notification and send them to the trade center and it doesn't matter, their parents immediately want to fight each other. and they fight. and it causes a chain reaction of stupidity

the game is much better than it was at launch but things like this still drag it down, it's really a pain

I'd love to see it fixed

 

[Britches]

I have this, too. They don't even fight each other to get injured. Once I get the message, the offspring grew up, one of the adults is immediately injured. Even when the partner is located on the other side of the habitat and not even close.

 

[Lea_G]

I agree 100%, it's driving me crazy at times. Sometimes I'm waiting for the message, boxing and removing the offspring before they even visibly grow up and the parents still start fighting each other instantly.

 

[xesta]

I have this, too. They don't even fight each other to get injured. Once I get the message, the offspring grew up, one of the adults is immediately injured. Even when the partner is located on the other side of the habitat and not even close.

yep, I've had that problem too. drives me nuts

 

[iloveyourzoos]

I'm wondering if we're supposed to be paying more attention and reacting to the "about to mature" notices, instead of waiting for the "has matured" ones. In real zoos, I understand that they often have to separate the fathers while children grow up. So maybe we're supposed to move the fathers to the trade center or to another habitat when we get the "about to mature" notice, and then once the maturation has happened, we can move the kids out and the dads back in?

In fairness, I'm not always fast enough to catch all the "about to" notices either. But I've often wondered if something like this is what I am supposed to be doing. As a management game, it just seems like there must be a reason that we get the "about to" notices -- and perhaps a specific action that we're supposed to take at that earlier point -- rather than just getting us ready to act later.

 

[Lea_G]

I'm wondering if we're supposed to be paying more attention and reacting to the "about to mature" notices, instead of waiting for the "has matured" ones. In real zoos, I understand that they often have to separate the fathers while children grow up. So maybe we're supposed to move the fathers to the trade center or to another habitat when we get the "about to mature" notice, and then once the maturation has happened, we can move the kids out and the dads back in?

In fairness, I'm not always fast enough to catch all the "about to" notices either. But I've often wondered if something like this is what I am supposed to be doing. As a management game, it just seems like there must be a reason that we get the "about to" notices -- and perhaps a specific action that we're supposed to take at that earlier point -- rather than just getting us ready to act later.

I try to do so, but "is about to mature" pops up months in advance, so I still loose oversight. You might be correct and we are supposed to separate them. But I wonder if we're really expected to build special habitats for those cases, because the game doesn't go that far into realism in other aspects. But I might give it a try and think of a useful setup. Hey, what about a nursing facility similar to the quarantine center, where we can move the "about to mature"-offspring and have them grow up in peace?

 

[xesta]

I'm wondering if we're supposed to be paying more attention and reacting to the "about to mature" notices, instead of waiting for the "has matured" ones. In real zoos, I understand that they often have to separate the fathers while children grow up. So maybe we're supposed to move the fathers to the trade center or to another habitat when we get the "about to mature" notice, and then once the maturation has happened, we can move the kids out and the dads back in?

In fairness, I'm not always fast enough to catch all the "about to" notices either. But I've often wondered if something like this is what I am supposed to be doing. As a management game, it just seems like there must be a reason that we get the "about to" notices -- and perhaps a specific action that we're supposed to take at that earlier point -- rather than just getting us ready to act later.

the problem with that is I don't want to play hyper realistic zoo simulator, I want to play a fun game

if you could trade or release animals once you start seeing "x is about to mature" then yeah, perfect. but the problem is in the fact that you can only do that the very second they've matured, and that second is literally too late to stop fighting between the parents. I'm obsessive about it, I'll sit there watching and waiting the second I get the notification they're going to mature, yet every time no matter how fast I am, I get punished for it.

I'm not interested in making nursery pens either, or having to put males/parents away before the offspring grows up. I just think it's a design oversight that needs badly changed. a grace period of like a real life minute, or even 30 seconds, would fix everything.

irl animals aren't THAT punctual or simple. it goes with how planet zoo has some random weird things about animals wrong, like how you can't have a group of up to 3 male lions running a pride, or how the interbirth period for most animals is weird where you'd have them getting pregnant again while they still have a baby irl, you can't in game most of the time

if it's intended for you to separate them before they're grown, it's bad game design and unfun management. and as much as pz wants to be a realistic zoo simulator, it needs to remember we're playing a game, first and foremost

 

[Namelessesst]

Hi all,

I ran into this problem too and while I agree that it is kind of weird that the parents will start fighting the second the kids grow up, even though you box them right away, I might have a solution that you could give a try. I'm not sure if it works all the time, but most of the time it worked for me.

When you get the notification "has grown up":
1. Pause the game immediately.
2. Select the kid and send it to trade center, release it to wild or do what you want that brings it OUT of the habitat IMMEDIATELY.
-> if you send it to an other enclosure there would have to be a zookeeper coming and picking it up which takes too long and the parents will fight
3. Unpause for a quick second for the box to pop up around it an disappear into thin air with the kid so it is defenitly not shown in the habitat menu any more
-> Don't mind if you get the parents to start a fight just yet (they will need a second to face each other before they are really hurting each other)
4. Pause the game again. (Double check if needed that the grown up is NOT in the habitat any more)
5. In the habitat menu in the animals tab click on the "box all animals for transport" option (I HOPE this is what its called as im not playing in english).
6. Unpause again and see all animals (including parents) be put in a transport box but stay in the habitat (just you would do if the barriers break to prevent them from escaping)
7. Click the "unbox all animals" option to release them of the boxes.

Normally now the animals are kind of "reset" as if they where dropped into a new habitat and so i think the game now checkes all conditions like size, supplies, enrichment and partners again before deciding what the animal routine will be next. But as the kid is not present anymore there are not too much adult animals and so they wont start fighting again.
As said sometime if you don't get to it quick enough the parents may have already started the fight to the point where the already hurt each other but most of the times you can prevent the hurting and scaring with this (not very quick or confortable) workaround.

I hope it helpes you as it helped me at least until this may be fixed.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

Normally now the animals are kind of "reset" as if they where dropped into a new habitat and so i think the game now checkes all conditions like size, supplies, enrichment and partners again before deciding what the animal routine will be next. But as the kid is not present anymore there are not too much adult animals and so they wont start fighting again.

I tried this method this weekend, and it did seem to produce fewer injuries. (But might also be a placebo effect, since I was paying more attention to it!)

Hey, what about a nursing facility similar to the quarantine center, where we can move the "about to mature"-offspring and have them grow up in peace?

Your mention of the quarantine actually gave me an idea to just use the quarantines as if they were a nursery! After all, quarantine doesn't have to be just for illness or injury. So when I get the "about to mature" notice, I've been sending the kids to quarantine (or if I need them moved more quickly, trade center followed by quarantine). That way they actually mature in the nursery/quarantine area, and can be moved from there to the trade center, avoiding the fights all together. It seems to work pretty well!

 

[SirTophamHatt]

I'm wondering if we're supposed to be paying more attention and reacting to the "about to mature" notices, instead of waiting for the "has matured" ones.

This is the best time to ship off the babies to the trade centre if you're planning on keeping them for a new breeding brood.
Obviously doesn't work if you want to sell them though. But then depending on the age / stats, sometimes I replace the "about to mature" with the existing mother or father and buy in a member of the opposite sex to start a brand new family. Can work quite well if you have a load of female lions. Ship out the existing mother and father, buy a new boy and allow them to mate with all the just-turned adult females, giving maximum amount of return to any further cubs as well as the female's age.


I haven't found any of my animals immediately fight but if I forget, I'll eventually get a message saying they are fighting though.

Are there any animals specifically that you are having trouble with?
FYI: All of them isn't an acceptable answer.

 

[Britches]

Are there any animals specifically that you are having trouble with?

Siberian tigers. Everytime their offspring grows up, the mother or father immediately has (visible) injuries and is marked as injured. Even when both are sleeping and the cubs haven't switched to their adult models. It happens right in the moment the message pops up that the cubs are mature now. Same with snow leopards.

However, it seems for herbivores there's more time to remove the offspring from their habitats. They usually have a visible fight before they get injured.