What IF Planet Zoo was made for Casual Players? 5 Problems of Planet Zoo

[@DeluxeGroupie]

I wish planet zoo was a bit more targeted towards the casual player, or at least a bit less towards building enthusiasts, as I love a good zoo game, but don't have the mental energy for hours and hours of complex building and complicated shortcuts.

[@kairyu9207]

I hear ya

[@SnidgetAsphodel]

Exactly.

[@bhanidtharatiyanuwat3733]

Agreed!!!

[@donkarnage6986]

Why dont you use workshop?

[@GuyBelievesInWorldPeace]

@M Mckenrick doesn’t really help though, it is so hard to place things right.

[@joshuaaspinall5524]

It's managing the space inbetween habitats and areas for me. It takes so much time to flesh out the pathed areas between them as well as managing vegetation and elevation on the edge of the zoo to avoid the endless space breaking immersion. I get majorly burnt out every time I finish a habitat or building area when I realise how much I have to do before I can even start a new habitat.

[@tashacraven]

This is me, but explained better than I could manage

[@sorrowinchrist3387]

Sadly the management is only design there is management like in cities skyline for the animals.

[@River_X2_]

For me it's the overly complicated building system. I'm avid The Sims franchise player since the times of the original Sims and building system of the game just kills all the joy for me. I understand some people love turning every damn piece around etc. each time they build something, for me it makes no sense they don't have easier building option included. I don't want to struggle with building just a basic buildings for hours before I get to decoration part. That is why I hardly ever play this otherwise amazing game. Oh and don't get me started about the path system...

[@RudiRennkamel]

haha the path system is most definitely the end boss!

[@RGroh]

@@RudiRennkamel But normaly end bosses are made for the end of the game =D

[@RGroh]

Then I start for you. It is so annoying, that you can't place buildings on a path.

[@JumpscareRodent]

I get burnt out really fast, and it’s hard to keep playing after 2-3 days and then I stop playing for like a month

[@loutrecuidance2976]

Everyday I think "omg can't wait to build a new habitat blablabla" but once I'm at home I know I will have to spend 1/3 of my playing time struggling with pathing and terrain modification that made it impossible to lay a fence etc etc, so I don't play, and stay frustrated. I played 200h maybe and most of it is building detailed buildings, I almost never played the game with animals and visitors... because I'm never at that stage, I save buildings as blueprints and delete the zoo, everytime.

[@ji8777]

my big personal issue with Planet Zoo is I have adhd, sandbox mode doesn't give me the rewarding feeling, so I give up easily. That's why I try to make my dream zoos in franchise mode, and because I am limited I get frustrated easily. The struggle when you look through my saves I have many many zoos with like 3 exhibits. Never completed a zoo, or a big building I am proud of. Idk if that's the game's issue or just me :'D

[@Frogboyaidan]

Same though iv been getting better at compleateing a zoo.

[@RudiRennkamel]

I think it's a mixture of both. Making it more accessible would help a lot

[@linelin2116]

me too

[@linelin2116]

I think the reason is at the beginning, you don't have too much money so it would be challenging to maintain the zoo. but when you have enough money later on, everything is not a problem, thus I got bored.

[@marklarrrrrr]

Start Small. That tip has helped me a ton! manage staff costs and numbers in the first 10 years. make sure you have enough donation bins around where the guests gather and make sure you have a tv set and speaker with the animal info on it nearby the donation bins. Hope this helps!

[@alexisdorris272]

I would LOVE for seasons to have more meaning in Planet Zoo, but not while our only solution is to load heaters/coolers unrealistically into open-air habitats. When we have more ways to manage temperature, REAL ways to close off areas of a habitat for winter, then I'd want meaningful seasons. But as it stands, weather affecting very little is probably better for now?

[@f4ll459]

They should also expand on the store's management, like getting stats on what objects are being sold the most and which aren't so that you can adjust their prices to maximize the money flow, besides I would love that when it rained people ran to either somewhere protected from the rain or to a information center to buy an umbrella, that'd be pretty cool too

[@badgerclaws]

In regards to management: I think unfortunately you're overlooking the money struggles that a lot of people have because you play mostly on Sandbox. A huge portion of the management issues with the game come down to money management which is not something you'd see as often as a sandbox player. I also really don't think many casual players actually go for sandbox (I could be wrong, but at least from my experience as a casual player I usually prefer playing with ALL of the management options which includes the money management.) The one thing that I think is maybe missing here is talking about how making habitats look visually appealing can be difficult too as a casual player. The terraforming tools in particular I find are troublesome to use and while it doesn't rely as much on the actual building system, I also don't want to be someone who just plops down a blueprint of a habitat. So that's where things get muddy for me.

[@RudiRennkamel]

But that's what I mean with the tools. It includes that portion. Better blueprint systems would help

[@tayloryetto]

Complete opposite. Casual players means we only like sandbox mode. Lol. I’ve never played a game like this in any other mode.

[@Gippelunited]

Your idea on how to reorganize the building menu, e.g. only one entry per rock type and for that type having a new menu to choose the rock types texture/color palette, is so great. I kinda liked getting into the building tools and management stuff but seeing that mess of a building menu every time i look for a simple moss rock is unnerving.

[@jordyjohsnon]

I think one thing that could really be improved, rather than messing with animal needs, is the detailing of terrain. In Zoo Tycoon 2 there was a button that would auto paint the ground in the biome you needed with trees and plants and rocks. That would make this game a lot easier for people who don't know how to detail habitats. Also, I was under the impression that customer needs were based on weather? Like if it's hot they're more likely to drink pipshot and if it's cold they are more likely to drink coffee. I could have sworn that was an actual mechanic in the game already because that definitely happens with my franchise zoos.

[@GuyBelievesInWorldPeace]

Yes this

[@Devestatio]

Thank you very much for making this video Rudi, it hit everything on the nose. I stuck with the game for just over 200 hours, but every single thing you mentioned all combined together made the game feel more like a chore to me, which kept me from fully enjoying what I was doing. The final straw for me, was the fact that Breeding really didn't have ANY impact at all on the overall health, rating, and value of your zoo. To this day I am still one of less than 6% of people that played, with the Natural Selection badge, for having bread animals with all stats over 90%. But other than the badge and my own satisfaction for having done it, it didn't have any impact game-wise. Research should also play a major role in breeding and maintaining of your animals. As you research certain things, it should increase life spans, and the overall stats of the animals, which in turn makes the animals and your zoo more valuable, and desirable. I really hope Frontier sees this video and takes these points to heart. Thank you for all the wonderful videos, and I look forward to even more in the future :)

[@RudiRennkamel]

thanks for the positive feedback :)

[@DutchieDingo]

For me as a casual player management goes the other way. I play mostly franchise, because I like to have a challenge in regards of the money and welfare, but after a while the zoo gets so big that I just get overwhelmed with the amount of management needed to keep the zoo running and financially healthy, that I lack the motivation to tackle it. It starts to feel more like a rud of management of guests and money, while having hardly anything to do in regards of the animals, and after playing an hour or two it feels like I've done absolutely nothing meaningful to my zoo. This leads me to leaving zoos half finished and abandoned and me just starting a new one to get out from under the overwhelming amount of management needed to run a medium to big sized zoo. This might also have to do with the fact that I don't play long and often enough to know the full range of possibilities with the management options. I just know that for me, having to focus hours on what feels to me micromanaging guests and staff needs, spatial planning, and that kind of management tasks just to keep my zoo afloat, is keeping me from fully enjoying the game, especially once my zoos really start to turn into something more than a few habitats.

[@grizzly9101]

Commenting again after I actually *watched* the video: I especially loved your ideas regarding the management! I would love to see that in the actual game. I struggle the most with actually planing a zoo from scratch (which is the reason I actually play the campaign now first). But I watched some videos by an actual zookeeper about zoo layouts and now I feel ready to plan my own zoo in the near future! Although sometimes it feels like you need your own bachelors degree for this game..:D

[@okapijohn4351]

@Rudi Rennkamel management goes way way beyond only weather, actually, that would just add a shallow layer over what we already have. For example, impose conservation targets. Have to fulfil certain husbandry criteria to have access to certain species like pandas or elephants. You need to have a fully trained keeper or 5 fully trained keepers and 1 fully trained vet to be allowed to adopt pandas or elephants and keep them or you get a fine. I am amazed how a beginner zoo with enough CCs can so easily adopt pandas when in the real world it is one of the hardest species to get in your collection. Or for example, to have access to pandas you have to contribute 5% of your income to their conservation in the wild and reproduce them once every 5 years. This would make a huge weight on your budget! And if you fail to pay, the animals would be taken from you and your reputation would get hurt. Or if the inspector finds animals in bad welfare in 2 visits in a row you are no allowed to adopt new animals until those problems get fixed. I wish reproduction of animals would be way harder. It is way too easy and boring. In real life animals constantly lose their pregnancies, the calfs and cubs don't survive or your male and female don't like each other and you have to get different ones. These are many of the real challenges that real zoos have to deal with in real life. I wish the game had a little bit more of it. About the seasons, it would be challenging that have fewer guests in winter (low season) and crowded parks in the summer (high season). I also wish there was deeper management of shops and rides. A system of small counter the clock challenges or non refuse challenges like we had in Zoo tycoon would be nice. eg: Adopt this animal that was seized at the airport. other eg. The local government banned circuses, adopt all the animals from the circus, or the local circus got bankrupt.

[@RudiRennkamel]

I agree but I wanted to limit it to what the current game could deliver. 90% of what you said unfortunately wasn't planned into the game from its core so it's not that easy to implement. The skill level for certain staff is something tho I love as an idea

[@okapijohn4351]

@@RudiRennkamel If frontier wants, it could be made. Staff management could be more challenging as well. Is it way to easy to have your staff happy. I never had anyone leave their job. Workers constantly fight for higher wages, better conditions, etc.

[@RudiRennkamel]

@@okapijohn4351 I know but I wanted to keep it basic haha. Else that gets complicated

[@okapijohn4351]

@@RudiRennkamel you must make a video about how management could get deeper and more complex. In regards to animal collections management I can give some ideas and advices.

[@RudiRennkamel]

This is actually a great idea. Always willing to get these ideas in :)

[@alanaclose8301]

Hi Rudi, Thanks for posting this, I was one of the casual players who commented before and I think this reflects the difficulties I mentioned. I think the more in-depth tutorials would be great and utilising the planet zoo community to make them is an even better idea. On reflection the career tutorial to start with game me the basics but it doesn't go into things like work zones/building/paths etc. In any kind of detail. It's mainly about building a basic habitat putting an animal in it and giving them what they need. I have played franchise today and the hardest thing is making really good habitats (I am not good at building custom barriers), most of mine look the same because of the barriers with the main differences being terrain paint and plants. The other issue is building, because of the need to make income there isn't time in the beginning to put together really nice shops/facilities/decorations. I am finding now my zoo is making a good profit I am having to go back and try and build which makes it feel like everything is slowing down. Filling gaps in the zoo with nature/decor is always taxing. Like you suggest more accessibility to blueprints in franchise mode and better tutorials would make this quicker and easier. A lot of what puts me off doing custom buildings or barriers is how long it takes me. This is because I'm not that good with the tools. I think a lot of people are missing the point of this post! You aren't saying planet zoo sucks or its only for people with experience or who play sandbox; you are saying it's less accessible to new or casual players. It takes a long time to learn and that can make people disheartened. I know for me seeing the amazing stuff people build and comparing them to my little boxes with no decor gets me down sometimes (I am getting better at this). I really like the game even with its faults and I'm determined to improve. Equally for all those people disagreeing with the points in this video I would suggest you don't fall into the category of player Rudi is talking about. If you did atleast some of what he is saying would resonate with you. Just for an idea I only have 140hrs in the game (which is a lot for me). Thank you again Rudi for representing us noobs 😁

[@ALxdCr4ftPlays]

Problem is as you get older (especially over 25), you lose the mental & physical energy to continue playing complex games. PC is easier to play. Zoo Tycoon 2 is easier to play by far. Our work schedule also drains our energy and time too with most people not working a simple M-F 9-5 shift. However 10 years ago I spent hours with friends on Xbox 360 playing Minecraft in party chat, I was a great builder and the crafting tools are much simpler than the PC version. Solution could be a setting to make the animals less fussier! Build an exhibit with green grass most zoos in NZ/Australia have, a reasonable size. And yeah. Example Zoo Tycoon for Xbox One.

[@smercer1992]

For me its the lack of actual goal satisfaction. It's hard for me to describe it. It's such a sandbox game, and yes there are challenges but what do you really get out of them? I just never feel fully satisfied, like I've done anything of note.

[@sonjalalalu]

Planet Zoo ist kein Spiel zum kurz reinzocken, sondern ist ein Dauerprojekt. Ich habe vorher zwar Planet Coaster gespielt und trotzdem haben mir deine Videos und die anderer Streamer sehr geholfen und ich konnte direkt im Sandboxmodus los legen. Danke dafür.

[@tammyw-w4294]

These were really clever solutions! I really appreciate this video; I was so looking forward to getting Planet Zoo, but once I got it, I found the complexity of the building system overwhelming and I didn't really have enough spare time to invest into learning how to use it properly, so I just went back to playing other games. These solutions would definitely make the game more accessible. Good video!

[@River_X2_]

This is exactly what happened to me. It's a shame as this game has much more potential than what it's utilizing and it's so beautiful.

[@salitzzz]

As a university student I would love to go back to playing Planet Zoo again, but it's just not possible because it requires too much patience and concentration. I've put about a few hundred hours into it when I was on breaks, but still can't figure out the building and management system fully, which gets frustrating after a while. It's just extremely complicated and makes it harder to enjoy the game.

[@CallMeGameGirl]

I found the career mode to teach the very basics too overwhelming. It all takes place in a zoo that already exists. To where I get more questions than answers, because as I am doing as they say, I come up with other things i want to know. And it's just too much when your starting out for the first time. It doesnt make me feel like I can jump into making my own zoo. I think they need to make a hyrbid challenge mode where it includes a built in tutorial, so you can learn at your own pace while getting experience in starting a zoo from scratch and what things to look out for. And still giving some creative freedom in the tutorial. Honestly my biggest problem with the game so far. I also think they need to keep in mind the casual players more. Like I never had any issue jumping into zoo tycoon 2 as a kid. And yes, this is a more detailed game, but a large majority of people are just wanting that similar experience and dont quite care yet(or ever) about the intricate building system. they need a more clumped system option for people who just want a build a basic functional zoo. like not having to click in all sorts of menus to get one thing done. Like I like the filter, but its also too much effort. If i click on the animal there should be another button to just make a basic menu with everything it needs (filter already applied). I found myself googling the entire play session today, more than i was actually playing the game. because the game doesnt have a good enough explanation for what it wants. Like "navigable swimming area" maybe its supposed to be self explanatory, but I had a hard time figuring out what the game wanted me to do. It even made the option clickbale with a dropdown 'menu' that doesnt include anything on it. Like okay? A basic description of that it wants would have been nice? I appreciate that they didnt dumb down the game like other games do to appeal to JUST kids, but they also need to keep in mind that they DO get new people to the game, and although they shouldnt take away all that makes this game great and great for people who have played and know the game, but they need to add in some way for new people and dumb people to still play the game and enjoy it from the get go with minimal frustration. Like honestly, I'm gonna try to keep going with this game, but its not exactly a good sign when I feel tempted to go install zoo tycoon 2. Love the endless customize factor to this game, but there NEEDS to be a way to ease into it, and be able to ALSO do the same things in a more begginner, less customized way. making it so I can CHOOSE when I wanna get crazy with customizing if and when I'm ready or in that mindset. Like imagine if the sims 3 made you build a world from scratch before you could play the game? Sometimes you want to get in the mood to build a town from scratch with the create a world program, and sometimes you just want to get to the meat of the game. Planet zoo should be no different. Make it just as customizable as it is, yes. But make it so you can still just play without HAVING to customize every single aspect of it

[@lykeuhfox4597]

It's the pathing system for me. Everytime I pick up this game again I have to re-learn how the paths work and all of the quirks related to it. That, and as you said - the menus. Reducing the menus by selecting the model and then the texture as you said would really help me get back into the game.

[@Kisseyhersh123]

We need a game like Zoo Tycoon (or just ZT itself) back. The only options we have for zoo games at the moment are PZ and PK, and PK won't be fully released for a while. Zoo Tycoon 1, 2, and even the FDev reboot were all incredibly well-defined between challenging and accessible. I've spent hundreds, no, THOUSANDS of hours in the first two ZT games, because they were not only enjoyable, but easy to get in to. I love PZ, but as somebody with sub-par building skills, I really can't succeed. You can make a zoo look good in Zoo Tycoon 1 or 2 with very little effort, but in PZ the beautification of a zoo is its own game entirely. I love building my own stuff, but sometimes it's nice to have stuff built for you that you don't need to put in extra effort to make look good. Zoo Tycoon also has a LOT more content that PZ (at least in terms of scenarios, ZT1 alone with no expansions is nearly triple the number of PZ's scenarios). What I can gather from this is that Microsoft should re-release the first two ZT games on digital. Steam, Xbox Store, Epic Games, wherever. Those games are important to not only a lot of people, but the genre as a whole (and also to MS, but that's a different story). We need the diversity in the zoo sim genre, we only have 3 major series, and two of them are made by the same company. Maybe we can petition Microsoft to do a digital re-release of ZT1 and 2, respark interest in the franchise and maybe even get another ZT game in the future. Also, the intimidating-ness of Planet Zoo from FDev is weird. Elite Dangerous, a game that is WAYY harder to get into than PZ, holds your hand a LOT. I mean, a LOT a lot. There are almost as many tutorials as there are ships in the game. And yet PZ hardly does any of that. They barely teach you about the various sub-menus and options, about genetics and climbing space, walkable areas and guest happiness. I'm still finding stuff out about this game, and I've been playing since last October. It's really an odd decision from FDev to make PZ so challenging. I hope that we can maybe get some more official guides and tutorials in the future.

[@Kisseyhersh123]

One last point, I think FDev should take notes from ArmA 3. I love that game, because not only does it have a lot of really well made tutorials that showcase each of the game's primary features (all are fully voice acted and every single one except for the Zeus tutorial is canon as well), but it also has the Field Guide, a H U G E glossary of every single bit of information you will ever need to know. Don't know why your missile won't lock on to a helicopter? Open the FG, search missile, and see that you need to press T to lock. Why is my gun shaking? Type shake, and read that you're out of stamina for sprinting. It's an absolutely incredible feature, and it completely obliterates the learning curve. ArmA is one of the easiest shooters to get into, and it's so damn complex that it shouldn't be. But the way all of the information is presented is incredible, and I think more games need to take notes. PZ should make their help sections more in-depth, giving longer, more detailed descriptions rather than a picture of the control itself.

[@Kaneanite]

I pretty much agree with all the points ansolutions you made, but for me the biggest thing that is missing is a scenario editor. I'm a very goal oriented type of player, if i don't have goal to work towards i get bored very easily. I finished career mode on all difficulty levels simply because it gave me a goal and limited what animals/pieces i could use, which solved part of the "overwhelming" issue. With community created scenarios filling in for the lack of career expansions i would still be playing, not every day, but i'd come back to see what's new from the community.

[@sveamartens9192]

This. I played the whole career mode without worrying much about looks (I just wanted to archieve the goals, not having a zoo to come back to). When I finished career mode, I just stopped playing. I'm not good at building, and I just want to manage and fix things, but the game doesn't give you a mode to do this

[@Kaneanite]

@@sveamartens9192 Yep. I did some building and tried to make habitats look good, got to please the guests after all, but i didn't spend 5 hours building 1 habitat like hardcore players do. It was just enough to make the guests and i think "this looks nice."

[@heathernelson7291]

Yes, I am wondering how to find/ if there are player-made challenges, similar to challenges you can play in the Sims. If Frontier doesn’t have more goal-oriented challenges to play, I’d definitely try my hand at some community-made challennges

[@Kaneanite]

@@heathernelson7291 Personally i don't know of any such challenges, but there might be some on the forums. I don't really know since i don't use the Planet Zoo forum.

[@chloenyan9952]

They should take exemple on the Sims 4 for the blue prints. Let us download and upload them ingame ! And for players confort they should allow the zoo search window to remember our browsing position. You know, when you are scrolling for the perfect animal to buy and if you go out of that window you have to re-search it again. Same in the zoo managment... Keep the maturity filter activated if I don't deactivated myself plz... Or does someone have a tip for any of those inconveniences ?

[@MissZoef]

I love Planet Zoo, but it's hard to play it casually. Sometimes I just want stuff to look good, but that takes a lot of time. I sometimes wish I could use more pre created items from the game. I know you can download stuff, but it's not the same. Also sometimes management gets boring. Like you talked about it manages itsself. The challenges set by PZ help for me too. It's nice to have a goal with breeding animals

[@Der_Bierbaron]

As a casual planet zoo player here are my thoughts: 1) So I think in general building is not very intuitive. Interesting that you did not mention prehistoric kingdom, because they excel with a) a returning biome brush and b) flexible pieces. But for b) your solution is good too and would make filtering much more easier (transfer formatting should be easier too). 2) then we have the whole staff management aspect and energy and water filter, which probably looked good on paper but are way too complicated (and boring). I also fondly remember that guests hate these buildings and that the patch came too late which eases the situation. 3) another point where they aimed for realism is the breeding. In real life the whole process is so complicated where they have to sometimes separate males and females in habitats. How can you implement this interestingly in the game? I think you can’t. In the end, the biggest issue for casual gamers is the endless Menus. At least in my opinion. Yes it’s a management game. But they were way too serious. I love zoos, we have so much here in NRW. But I played more JWE because it was fun and easy to play. Curious how JWE 2 will turn out

[@donkarnage6986]

You are not a casual player.... Casual players are not using there time on this kind of video ;)

[@EmreKupcake]

I agree with this so much. Don’t get me wrong, I have never played planet coaster but due to the pandemic I had the chance last year to really learn the game in the first 200 hours of playtime and despite now being a builder on this game, the last few updates honestly overwhelmed me with the “customization” options. I am soon beginning my graduate studies again and have a job now which makes it way more overwhelming as I honestly no longer have the energy or time to spend hours on this game anymore. It is way too overwhelming and I really can’t enjoy just right away starting like I could in ZT2 without spending hours to make something look nice enough to enjoy my animals.

[@RudiRennkamel]

From all the comments I really get the feeling these 5 points hit it home! thanks for your input!

[@michaelw6222]

Great points. Thank you for making this video. This comment ties into the game play aspects of PZ. I love managing zoos in Planet Zoo, but it is WAY too easy. Starting out a brand new zoo is a bit challenging for a minute, then it is way too easy. There is no in-between. And the only reason it is challenging for the first little bit, is the limited cash at the start. That's it. There are many reasons, but the main reason is that there are not enough/severe enough penalties when you screw things up. There is no incentive to actually prevent management disasters. It's so much easier to just let the disasters happen and then fix them after the fact because there are no meaningful penalties/consequences. To make my point, I've watched many youtubers (who are all excellent at various aspects, especially building) do things that should absolutely destroy their zoo, but it actually has little impact. And please don't jump to conclusions about what I am getting at. My point is not to criticize the players. I get it. They are making videos and have so many things to focus on. My issue is with the game, not the players. However, it does make for an excellent example of the lack of negative impacts in the game. And this is even when playing on medium and hard level. There can be disaster after disaster with animal escapes, facility breakdowns, overcrowded animals, hungry animals, protesters, etc. The only consequence might be a small fine. After what should be a complete meltdown and epic failure, the player is still sitting on a four or five star zoo, has oodles of CC, very happy guests and employees, and rolling in a ridiculous amount of cash. There are some serious balance issues when I can run a breeding farm in Franchise and breed lots of one type of species, run my cash 10 million into the negative, have the zoo closed with zero guests in the zoo, and zero education, but as long as the animals are happy, I can have a 2.5 star zoo. My issue here is not with breeding farms, but is an example of how easy it is to build up a zoo reputation when you are running a crap zoo. For whatever reason, here's what I think are some of the major flaws: * Too easy to gain stars. * Not accounting for research, pretty much everything is available to a 1 star zoo that is available to a 5 star zoo. * There should be significant monetary and conservation credit penalties when things go wrong. Penalties should also include loosing stars. * Marketing has way too big of a positive impact on zoo rating/stars. * The challenges that pop up for you in challenge mode are severely lacking. Again, a bit interesting for the first minute of a game, then become redundant, but worse, they become obsolete. Who cares about $2,000 when you've got $600,000? The challenges are simple things you are going to be doing in the course of running your game anyway - adopt, breed, release. You are not having to go out of your way or do anything interesting to "challenge" you. You are getting paid to do stuff you are going to do anyway. Some of these challenges ought to be more like the community challenges (which has it's own issues), like breeding a specific species or endangered status, or gold level, or star rating, etc. That would be a start.

[@grizzly9101]

Oh you really made a video on that! I saw that green screen with the title "5 problems for casual players" (paraphrased..) on the newest episode of Tiny Zoo and got very excited for your talk upon that topic and was a little confused when you didn't do that in that video :D I guess that was a cutting mistake then?

[@RudiRennkamel]

Ohhh lol thats were that thing webt

[@Sarcasticallyinspired]

I don't want to be a casual player but I am. Real life commitments mean I can only play a few hours on a few nights in the week. I like other games though, so even the hours I do have don't all go into one game. PZ for me is too much to remember after a break. The grid build system, and non grid items drives me nuts. I prefer the easy pick-up of JWE, where PZ just frustrates me every time I try and go back to it.

[@HyunjinsPinkyToe]

I don`t agree on the "after a few sessions the zoo runs itself".... I have quite a big franchise and if I would walk away and leave it unpaused for some minutes I am pretty sure everthing would go down the drain. For my personal taste I have to manage more then enough especially with a big zoo and when you play on medium or even hard mode.

[@thepixelatedhedgehog90]

As a casual player I could write a novel about this topic, but I won't, because I agree with most of the things you mentioned xD so instead of repeating what you said I will just leave my thoughts on how I think the game could improve for more goal oriented casual players. One of the most important things for me in this game, has turned out to be the research. I like to play with goals. And I can find this in both franchise and challenge mode, however I have lost interest in those two because of how the trade centers work. In franchise mode, it's ridiculously expensive to get animals and in challenge mode it's ridiculously hard to get what you want and sometimes even hard to find a breeding pair, which kind of kills the whole idea of a zoo. And franchise will probably be history when frontier are done with the game too, since they probably won't keep up the maintenance. But I think sandbox could become a good option for casual goal oriented players, since we have all of the settings we have now with economy, guests, staff etc. The only thing really lacking for me is the option to turn on and off research in sandbox. Sandbox mode doesn't necessarily has to be for creative gamers/builders as maybe some players view it as, it can work very well for casual players, with some improvements that you also mentioned in the video. I hope this comment made some sort of sense, I tried to keep it short 😂

[@honeybunny5222]

I would love to see a change in the management of animals where you could go in and help the zookeepers out like in zoo tycoon if a habitat was dirty you could go in and clean it. I have zoo keepers with a keeper room right next to the habitat but the habitat is always claiming it is too dirty, so let me go in and fix it, that part drives me crazy

[@lokirathehunter]

This game is meant for in depth zoo simulation. There wasn't a game for that and now there is. I'm sure there's a ton of casual zoo games for casual players. I love that planet zoo is such an in depth simulation. I do wish they would have better tutorials so casual players will have an easier time learning the game

[@emilyauld8622]

Oh I love that blueprint idea! Another thing I would like to see is a line tool. I know you can use the gizmo, copy paste etc but for perfectly straight barriers, or a nice quick way to wack down a line of trees. Etc Edit. Or at the very least, get rid of the 20m limit on barriers.

[@BrianCoville]

The complexity of this game is crazy it's like the jigsaw puzzle from hell

[@RudiRennkamel]

hahaha

[@NerdyPanda-td1tz]

This game doesn’t have enough content. They release tiny DLC every 3 months. It’s no wonder everyone is bored or burnt out. There’s no more excitement with planet zoo. The thing zoo tycoon did so great was making fully fleshed out DLC that got you super excited and it didn’t die after a week. There was so much to explore in the new DLC. Planet zoo gives us 5-8 animals. And usually only one new feature. And some building things. The excitement dies instantly. Planet zoo management feels too complicated and overwhelming. Which sucks. I don’t care too much about the management side. I would like it better if it was more basic.

[@AzraelThanatos]

There are a lot of things that I would love to see added just to make things easier that would have helped a lot. One that would be a great one would be a full, align to grid option that could be used. So that you would have everything aligned using the grid system, making it a toggle, which would shift to the way things currently are. This would be great for habitats and fences and other things for people starting out, and even later on. Even shifting the paths to grid, and having the various curved pieces as still an option, but still tied to the grid. Options with paths and barriers to have one align or parallel the other for placement is something that would make it far less frustrating in setting up habitats where you want a consistent distance from a path, and being able to just having it follow the path as an option would save a LOT of headaches there.

[@annak2764]

I find it really hard to create a park that I actually enjoy hanging out in. You CAN create a really cool park, but it takes hours upon hours to build all that up. I feels as if you need to put a lot of energy and work into this game in order to actually make it enjoyable :(

[@sueze3300]

Great ideas, anything that would help a casual player like myself. Not climate matching my climate, I usually play in warm no rain climates to get away from reality .

[@shinramox1520]

As someone who puts the laptop on for two hours and scrolls reddit and youtube for around half that time as I just get exasperated i agree. Love this game but the building is a learning curve in itself, let alone building a zoo and terraforming

[@bjornbeenkens2704]

I agree with pretty much everything. I mostly struggle with the thing that i dont know what to build or that i dont know how to build something. And at that point i go on youtube for tutorials for example landscaping which i find really hard to do.

[@kominowaci8460]

The greatest issue at this point is lack of any option to lower the render distance/distance of drawing. I like my game being detailed, but as far as I know, my zoos can get a lot bigger than they possibly should, that usually ends on playing the game with 10-20 fps. Ability to just disable distant objects from being rendered would improve the performance alot.

[@WhoElseButJarjosa]

I want to play Planet Zoo, and I have spent a fair amount of time with it, but every time I boot up the game I can't bring myself to have any fun with it. Put simply, it's just way too complicated. It's so frustrating because I see people making all these amazing things and as badly as I want to create my own kick ass zoo, I'm just too overwhelmed by all the options - and frustrated with the user interface - to be able to truly play it.

[@abdoharby]

for me, the biggest problem is that I must create all habitats from scratch yes that will be good for more creativity but at least until you know how to play the game I would love to have pre-made habitats for all animals at least in the base game because not all people can spend 3 or 4 hours designing one habitat I don't want to prepare a master in planet zoo I want to play it for 1 or 2 hours a day also, DLC is another problem because it keeps demanding you to pay money for it, and it isn't cheeped until it is on sale and for me, I love to pay once for the game yes can only buy the base game and don't buy any DLC but since the game is based on creativity so as many new pieces you have you can be more creative and I hate this pay-to-win style so much

[@LaurenElizabethYT]

I love Planet Zoo but also sometimes it drives me crazy, because despite technically having played like 200 hours, I feel like I’ve barely played it, because I never get very far into a zoo. Maybe because I’m just bad at it, but my zoos always end up looking crappy or I mess something up and usually quickly abandon a half-built zoo. For me a big issue is/was the fact that I get bored with unlimited money, but in the challenge or career options, most of the construction pieces are locked making it even harder to build something that looks decent and I end up frustrated. I’m really excited about the new sandbox settings that they added a while ago, but I haven’t had much time to play PZ since that update 😭 but I did start a new zoo with custom settings! Gave myself a budget big enough to be create while also having a money-management challenge!😁

[@Sergioshi_]

Fps turning awful is the reason I always abandon my theme parks and zoos halfway completion. I can't be bothered to add more building pieces like that

[@Aaine784]

I've had this game for a year and I've had several long sessions with it. I build in the Sims 4 (which is widely recognised as having a pretty strong Build mode) and transitioning to this game has been...wild. I still don't feel confident with it despite having thousands of hours in a similar game. I really have no idea where to start when I open a game. It's not the relaxing game I thought it would be when I bought it. I still really like it though.

[@damorocks93]

I used to love ZT2 so much when i was a kid. So i was excited for this game, but i just find everything so needlesssly complicated. Why cant i just click and drag a path or fence? Why are there no premade themed buildings like in zt2? I really prefer zt2 but its not on steam or any other online store.

[@meikahidenori]

What would be good is a balance. More prefab beginner exhibits/habitats for casuals to plonk down & pull apart to learn the more advanced stuff at own pace. I love how sims 4s current build mode is (not perfect, but it's a little more easier to wrap ones head around) and something similar wouldn't hinder experienced players at the expense of beginner ones. That said, I would love the option to FULLY invert the camera. It's very frustrating to build for many players when scrolling downwards the camera looks upward and trying to look up the camera looks down. They have done this with the screen going left & right & it's just AMAZING for creators like myself as it feels far more natural to use. (no offense Neurotyplical creatives but having the camera veer right when you want to to go left is the absolute ridiculous thing implemented in games as it doesn't feel natural and you never fully get used to it - even sims 4 has this option & my goodness it's a game changer! Accessibility options shouldn't be a difficult thing to include!)

[@einemeinung2809]

"This is a great game we all agree of that...." No, sorry Rudi, thats one of the biggest points WHY it isn't really For casual gamers. It isn't a "game", it has so many Features who didnt Work, it explodes this topic if i beginning to tell that. Its a wounderfoul Peace of program for Building landscapes, Nature, habitats, buildings, dioramas(🤪) but its not a GAME. But thx for your suggestions👍

[@RudiRennkamel]

Sandbox is a game in my opinion. I think we talk about the same. It's not a good management game ;)

[@einemeinung2809]

@@RudiRennkamel 🤷‍♀️😀😘

[@YukinaraMuto]

The part of solution 4 where you have for example one rock and just differnt patterns to choose there, is actually realised in Prehistoric Kingdom as it seems. And it would be soo great, to have it in Planet Zoo too. For example also just to use the same buildung in different biome-zoos but in different patterns :-)

[@marie-christinelajerige6672]

I love the idea of having dammages after storm...

[@davidhenry1156]

I'm new to the game from couple of weeks agoI would give a 10/10 if the time didn't go so fast,would really love to actually watch the aminals through the game too without getting alerts on a regular as i feel under pressure then.

[@piotrj.451]

I just searched for a fun relaxing zoo game, and im drained after 2hrs of managing everything. After you set up some basics, the 80% of my game is paused because once you just leave it, everything goes wild. Even animals might block in their own habitat and, workers not working, generators getting choked up and not giving electricity etc. Where is fun? Will i have a time to just sit back and relax, looking at the animals? (rhetorical question since obviously not)

[@projectnightfall6882]

I see Planet Coaster as mainly a sandbox game as after I've built a few rides the park almost runs itself. However Planet Zoo I do keep having to step away from building to deal with animal breeding or a sudden lack of cash (due to increased running costs). So as a game I feel Planet Zoo is a step up. Your point about tweaking settings is all the games need to sort some of the management out. I've worked at a Theme Park so when I play Planet Coaster I feel the running costs for scenery pieces is underused as in reality effects like pyrotechnics would blow a lot of budget really quickly. Similar for enclosure upkeep in a Zoo.

[@DirgeCrowley]

I find the biggest oversight in building is the fact there is no key to rotate an item 90 degrees vertically the way z rotates something horizontally. Trying to make loose pieces line up using the manual rotation is awful

[@DZstudios.]

I like how in the Thumbnail it is a picture of a kid instead of Call me Kevin

[@RudiRennkamel]

Hahaha

[@Thesladenator97]

Completely agree. It would be nice to research the animals before you can unlock them in franchise. It'd be nice to kinda have an animal research tree which cos money to unlock each new branch. Even a mini game to unlock them would be fun. Just something to make you feel like you've worked for it. It could be education via taxonomy. You unlock the big cat branch. Rather than just researching the animal enrichment AFTER you buy it. Make it so it has to be researched before you can buy it. And maybe have a mini game to help speed up research or zoo funding and donations from outside parties. Maybe have a world map where you send scientists like in JWE to research the animals in the wild and it tells you the facts as you research. Like it unlocks parts of the zoopedia and you start with some 'low rated' animals all ready researched - this could depend on where you zoo is based. Eg antelope for Africa, aardvark or like bison for north america. I liked the statues they introduced but it'd be cool to unlock tourist attraction/educational placeable rides building that you place when you finish campaigns. Eg conservation center, cinema, carousel. Things that could give you a specific boost. It would be nice to have a bit of mix of the large buildings of JWE but not to ruin the overall experience. It could be like a restaurant as an object building rather than building a restaurant yourself and not a blue print. It'd be nice to have the choice between blueprints, functioning large buildings and building it yourself. Like you could unlock ferris wheels, aquariums (just fish no dolphins or anything) education center 3D cinema, face painting, photo booth, small rodent petting zoo, touch pools that you can see your guests interact with. Franchise is boring to be honest. I've been struggling wanting to play the game and they've tried to make tweaks to franchise but it just needs more. I don't have that much inspiration to be creative all the time and it's just wearing too and it'd be nice to have some entertainment for the guests. Obviously in sandbox you wouldn't have the research tree etc but right now the only feature of franchise is breeding and who really cares that much about breeding it's fun until you get gold animals. Then it's boring.

[@terroristeoverdoz]

I actually prefer feeling overwhelmed, when there are lots of options it means there are lots of possibilities and depth, I always love to explore all those functions and what I need to learn, especially there are not much to do in a building simulator so I definitely prefer complex, but this game do need a better building tool, just give everyone a basic tool to build beautiful zoo before go full on the XYZ axis.

[@coffeandbagels4003]

I could have made this video myself! I am a casual player and planet zoo, although being amazing, is probably the hardest game I’ve ever played. Sure, it doesn’t help the fact that I’m not a gamer and I’ve only played simulation games my whole life, but none of them is as overwhelming as planet zoo. I’ve learnt how to built in the sims for example, and now I’m pretty good, but planet zoo, oh gosh, not a possibility. I haven’t played for a whole year because I want a beautiful zoo but I’m not able to build or terraform so whatever I do is awful, which makes me frustrated. I switched the game on just yesterday and I didn’t even remember how to turn objects, let alone the more advanced build settings. Ah, such a wonderful game but definitely targeted for people that have the time to really put their minds into it.

[@iguanobro9925]

i mostly suck at building stuff + i'm deffo a more "old school" guy when it comes to zoo building games.

[@rain3948]

You should upload it on the forums, so Frontier knows those things! I'd love to see those changes and improvements

[@RudiRennkamel]

i think they are well aware if it ;-)

[@madrangadan5210]

Coffee bad in summer? Crazy talk. Coffee always good. I'm not a coffee addict, I'm a caffeine based life form.

[@kreativuntermdach7351]

I dont think that classifying a building by the players can be an option. Everyone would just classify everything as vanilla. But you could classify some basic stuff in every Expansion as suitable for others, too. Like make everything that is a plaster wall option vanilla and maybe some of the wooden parts, too. But no actual specific designs like the small decorations, lamps, windows.....because there must be a reason why casual AND pro players will buy the expansions. And most of it is the parts.

[@gardevoirmaster5743]

Ok I don’t have planet zoo yet but I really want it. I normally don’t have the patience to build and organize except when it comes to like house building or animal exhibits because I love creating and building but I normally have the problem of losing motivation but I know I won’t for this game

[@Strangekabuki]

Just got the game. I come from playing a lot of Cities Skylines and Trainz. I've watched a bunch of YT vids over the last couple of days. Like in CS, I think hyper-detailers are WAY over represented on YT. It is amazing and fun to watch, but way beyond my skill/creative tool set. I think you see a very similar breakout of player type that you get in CS. Some are the 'Gamers" They play to solve problems or challenges, Max population or money, manage disasters and such. This type of player would be the market for the increase in the management aspect. It looks to me like this game has the same issue for Gamers that a lot of other simulations have, Middle/end game bordome. In CS once you get about $1m in the bank the real challenge, without disasters, is really only traffic management. Gets really boring for them. Then you have the Creatives/Detailers. THey live in the sandbox mode and want to create the most beautiful or original blueprints. They love building from scratch and finding clever ways to use material. But in general are not interested in making money except as a metric to tell them how successful a particular design is. These players need the constant 'fix" of new DLCs to provide fresh material for new creations. Then you have us poor "Casual Players". We just want to lay about a sort of nice looking zoo, have guest show up and watch them and the animals. A little bit of money/animal management without a lot of micromanagment, like who breeds with who. I would like to make it easy to download from the workshop, plop and hook up. Maybe add a few extra touches. buy animals then move on. I like the idea of having workshop items be locked except for addition. Having to buy a DLC to use a pre-created blueprint seems a bit much. I have found if I start using a lot of workshop assets from a particular DLC in a game, I will usually buy the DLC to get all the other bits and bobs for my own use. THe whole "game on pause" problem should be easy to fix by allowing for an adjustable. time scale. The scale is sort of irrelevant. Just have a slow mode that allows the sim to run while you build without the zoo falling apart.

[@NerdyNanaSimulations]

Great video, Cities Skylines would be a great example of a game that does a lot of these things. Enjoyed this video as well as your tutorials, got me back in the game. Blessings

[@solotango5576]

Simply put, for me, it just takes too long to do anything of substance.

[@Empress_Lisanne]

Exactly

[@christysank7705]

I'm not playing but watching everyone to play it because to more for me to play

[@tayloryetto]

Wasted a lot of money on a game I didn’t realize would be too hard to play. Was hoping it was going to be more like rollercoaster tycoon/ zoo tycoon/ sims.

[@kars28123]

I'd like an easier way to build buildings etc... all the small parts look overwhelming. I'd like a different tool as well, more simple, like in the sims or something!

[@definitlynotbenlente7671]

I was hoping this would be zoo tycoon 3 but it was not

[@donkarnage6986]

Guys guys guys, you are not casual players... dont lie ;) if you have time to find this channel, and use 30 min to watch it, then you have alot of hours of screen time! thats a fact. Casual player have at most 5 hours a week for gaming... at most... they dont have time to commet on youtube

[@RudiRennkamel]

That's a very fair point hahahaha

[@vulpesvelox03]

My biggest gripe is how long it takes to build one exhibit sometimes, I shouldn't be spending 2.5 hours on a cougar exhibit... the game feels slow to me, just trying to find the right piece, finding the right place to put it, yadda yadda. I wish there was a way to not have it take my entire free time... Then again, I'm recently playing Zt2 and that game feels weirdly quick paced- my wolf only live one year before old age by the time it had died, My zoo was half done... they need to make a baby where it's the perfect pace

[@SeanMcBeard]

Great German footage you got there 😉

[@RudiRennkamel]

the bestest!

[@TheSilverwing999]

The management aspect is absolutely lacking. Especially money management, since it's difficult for like the first 20 min and then money isn't ever an issue anymore. It becomes boring fast. Then franchise is basically only about conservation credits. Like there is no game play loop outside making areas pretty by building that exists in this game. Literally the only thing you have to do for your animals is change out enrichment items (on hard mode), change the quality of food, and filter out newly adult animals so they don't fight or inbreed. That's it.

[@damian5528]

Yeah I’m a little overwhelmed by this game, I really want to play it make my own zoo in it. But I feel it’s gonna take me forever, I feel it’s a bit fiddly (especially when it comes to the paths and fences), I feel I can’t make it as good as how you and other players do it. Especially if you build/setup a zoo that’s that’s realistic & very detailed or even if it’s not too realistic/very detailed but too simple at the same time. Like how frontier have built the zoos in the campaign mode, also I don’t know what theme I want my zoo to be & how I want to lay out, I wanna do a zoo in the style of Busch Gardens or Chester zoo even. Also when I try to play it like Jurassic World evolution by just placing down blueprint buildings & sceneries I keep feeling that that it’s going to look odd & unrealistic, the way I’ll position them

[@EddieM1994]

I would like Blueprints to let you know what research they require.

[@sorrowinchrist3387]

It is made for casual players its what some buyers have been telling me. They don't want any more harder stuff of management things in the game.

[@amieamie6268]

My biggest problem right now is that my computer cannot run the game :/

[@barbaracoleman6641]

I don't play every day, I am not an insanely talented builder, and I am not committed to building extremely realistic habitats. As far as I know I am a casual. I just like the game.

[@RudiRennkamel]

Which is totally fine :) you can't generalize it for everyone but it was kinda a look into what many people said

[@Sergioshi_]

Pathing is hard af, building pieces are problematic, the fps get destroyed after a way too small amount of additions, etc

[@GuyBelievesInWorldPeace]

I LOVED zoo tycoon so much that after years and years I have purchased the whole franchise after losing it somewhere in my house, lost it again (hopefully will find it again in the future) so I got this game when it came out, I can’t play this game game, I just can’t, I remember playing days to learn the system, could barely get a hold of it, after few years where excited to try the DLCs, I think I am gonna ask for refund, I can’t get a hold of it. Just wanted to relax and play with animals that I love so dearly, I think I am gonna stick to pure daydreaming imagination rather than playing this.

[@Hunterofsighs]

Well... I play it ocasionally... I mean... like one month or two in a row...then my energy is out ( as in many games ) I will put it aside and come back when I am full of new ideas ( wahtcing planet zoo vids on YT always helps alot ) - still my skills are ...well...they are getting better. :))

[@runstygge]

Idk why I stopped playing, I just don't think i find it fun enough to play everyday for 6 hours.

[@mtj19fan19]

tbh I suck at building so I just download stuff from the workshop and watch the animals

[@Frogboyaidan]

Pretty good

[@ltshears]

I only play challenge mode. I like a challenge.

[@JuniperBrew]

Two currencies are not "alot of currencies"

[@RudiRennkamel]

Well i should have mentioned time and research as well as I meant these included. Fair enough, that was not clear haha

[@CapybaraDudeOfficial]

I play on Xbox AND PLANET ZOO!!! IS NOT ON concel!

[@Elephant-Puppet]

First One Here Rudi

[@eruiluvatar6688]

Your suggestions on management will make me hate the game even more

[@AttorneyGamer]

I disagree with you on PZ being made for sandbox players. I play PZ more than any other game and I have never once touched sandbox mode. I have never enjoyed sandbox modes cause it just feels like playing a game with cheats on and it gets boring quick.

[@RudiRennkamel]

That's totally fair, but then you got the groove. From what I read the majority don't unfortunately. But good to hear you do!

[@druout1944]

The game is a conveluted mess; and unecessarily so. That's just making things needlessly complex; which is not a grey cell issuel; it's just straight up bad game design that obviously was spearheaded by people with no knowledge of other games that did it better like Cities Skylines or even Sim City.