So, for the last couple of days I've been trying my hand at franchise mode. While the core gameplay loop has be hooked, the interface is driving me up the wall. Most of the information I want, particularly to help me manage animal breeding, is buried several clicks into several different interfaces. There are also a number of inconsistencies in behaviour between different interfaces of the same type, which adds to my frustration. So, here's some improvements I think that can be made to improve functionality and increase consistency.
Animal Trading Interface
Exhibit Animal Market
Animals Tab
Overview Tab
Animal Trading Interface
- This whole interface is painfully slow and unresponsive. It makes playing franchise mode an incredibly frustrating affair. I'm fine with it taking a few seconds to return results, but setting the fields should be instant.
- It takes multiple clicks on buttons for one to register. Seven is my current record.
- There is a pronounced delay between clicking on an item that will open a drop down list or change a filter, and the list opening or the filter applying (e.g. Sex and the male and female sliders)
- The previous and next buttons don't seem to be working at all. This page should either scroll infinitely, or these buttons should be functional.
- Why does the animal trading interface default to opening the animal market and not animal storage? The exhibit trading interface opens to animal storage. This behavior should be consistent.
- should be able to sort on multiple columns at once, not just filter. Why can't I sort by age and then by appeal and then by price?
- should have a separate 'reset all filters' button
- should be able to create and set alerts for when an animal that meets my criteria hits the market rather than continually come back in the hope that there is something new. Especially given how long things take to load.
- should be able to use the compare mates with animals in my animal storage. If I buy, say, a male African wild dog for a new exhibit and have him sitting in my storage and immediately want to find him a girlfriend, I currently have to actively mate a note of his stats before I go searching for a good match.
- setting a filter by clicking the 'filter' button should close the filter's drop-down list. Currently it's another click to close it, and, as mentioned, the lag and unregistered button clicks make simple clicks tedious.
- should be able to enter exact amounts as limits when filtering by price. I'd like to set, say, 50 conservation credits as the upper threshold, but the minimum seems to be 200. And getting it to 200 using sliders is unnecessarily fiddly. I shudder to think what it's like on a smaller screen.
- It should be possible to set an upper and lower threshold on age and filter by it. At least an upper. I don't want to buy someone's run down old peacock with a month of life left. Showing it to me is just wasted bandwidth and screen real estate.
- Albino animals need to have a different portrait
- I should be able to select multiple animals at once. I can do this in the exhibit animal storage screen, why can't I here?
Exhibit Animal Market
- should default to my last filter set. The Animal Storage section of the animal market does this, so I'm not sure why the exhibits don't.
- should be able to make and set alerts for when an animal that meets my alert criteria hits the market.
- should remember my last sort order when I move to other screens. Again, the equivalent screen in the animal market does this.
Animals Tab
- clicking on the View Animal Management button should open the animal management interface pre-filtered down only to animals in that habitat
- clicking on an animal's portrait should open their info panel
- there needs to be a way to view animal's genetic information without having to click each animal individually and then going to the genetics tab. Currently, the easiest way I've found to compare animals in a given habitat is to send all of them to the trading centre, and use the trading centre's interface to do the job, then send the animals I want to keep back. This applies to exhibits too.
- Needs to be a way to set different default routine visit times for all habitats rather than having to set them individually. Maybe via the workspaces interface?
- A way to set a threshold for a mechanic to automatically be summoned would be great. E.g. if barrier status is at 75% on my tiger enclosure, I want a mechanic sent there stat. But I'd let it get down much lower for my tortoises.
Overview Tab
- Mousing over the Animal Rating star display should tell you what factors are affecting your animal's rating
- The Status information should include estimated lifespan or normal lifespan for the species so you only have to go to the Studbook tab if you want a more detailed look.
- This isn't a studbook, it's a timeline. A studbook should capture lineage. At the very least, this tab should display the animal's parents and offspring. It'd be great to drill down and be able to see parent and offspring stats as well.
- Should include details of preferred group size as per the Zoopedia. Saves clicking through to it.
- Should list offspring currently in the zoo.
- The fact that research is complete does not necessarily mean that I'm clicking on the zoo button to go to the research tab. Oftentimes I'll be going there to look at animals or finances, and get dragged off to research instead.
- Staff wages should be further broken down into employee type
- Animal food should be broken down by habitat
- Donations should be broken down by habitat
- clicking on an animal's portrait should open their info panel
- animal genetic information should be available here as well.
- should be able to sort on multiple columns at once, not just filter.
- the icons are pretty but what what on earth do they actually mean? What actual benefit am I getting for completing a research level? Smaller icons with a text explanation please.
- facilities should list what work area they're in
- animals that get cohabitation bonuses with other species should be highlighted or marked in some way.
- should be possible to filter animals here by continent, biome and how they interact with humans.
- the chosen colour scheme is far too washed out. It makes it very difficult to see roads
- should let me filter out user generated content
Great post.