Research is so fast, its basically pointless

[LauraSaurusRAWR]

Research is just way too fast.

Its almost done immediatly. Whats the point if you have researched the animal completely like 5-10 minutes after putting it into its habitat?

Then you could just make the research be activated instantly when clicking on it.

For me the time running so fast is ruining the experience of the gameplay. Research should be something to look forward to, not something that happens right away anyway.

[Synderbelle]

Maybe for your first franchise a little slower wouldn't be too bad. Wouldn't want to wait too long though, as your scores are impacting by it. Once starting 2nd zoo or more, it should be instant as you already did the research.

[LauraSaurusRAWR]

Originally posted by Synderbelle:

Maybe for your first franchise a little slower wouldn't be too bad. Wouldn't want to wait too long though, as your scores are impacting by it. Once starting 2nd zoo or more, it should be instant as you already did the research.

Actually im rather saying it should be the exact opposite.
This wasnt supposed to be a speed-breeding simulator, wasnt it?

There is not even time to watch your animals play around, because half the population is dead or animals have spread like rabbits when you watch your wolves play for 5 minutes...

And when you watch animlas for a few minutes you get interrupted by researches already being done. Research that usually takes years to complete.

[Synderbelle]

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

Originally posted by Synderbelle:

Maybe for your first franchise a little slower wouldn't be too bad. Wouldn't want to wait too long though, as your scores are impacting by it. Once starting 2nd zoo or more, it should be instant as you already did the research.

Actually im rather saying it should be the exact opposite.
This wasnt supposed to be a speed-breeding simulator, wasnt it?

There is not even time to watch your animals play around, because half the population is dead or animals have spread like rabbits when you watch your wolves play for 5 minutes...

And when you watch animals for a few minutes you get interrupted by researches already being done. Research that usually takes years to complete.

I understand frustration with some of the aspects of franchise. I am so glad they brought out slower ageing. Besides my Franchise, I also have a zoo I play in Sandbox. It is even more fun now that I can turn off unlimited funds. I can set it up just like a franchise. Than breed the animals once. After that turn off birth, ageing and dying. Than just enjoy watching the animals.
And it does seem like franchise is all about breeding with the community goals they have.

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

Actually im rather saying it should be the exact opposite.
This wasnt supposed to be a speed-breeding simulator, wasnt it?

There is not even time to watch your animals play around, because half the population is dead or animals have spread like rabbits when you watch your wolves play for 5 minutes...

Well, it's a zoo management simulator. You're not there to sit around and watch the animals like a guest. You're there to manage your zoo. Which includes research.

5 minutes at the slowest game speed are, what, a year of in-game time? You're managing your zoo by doing nothing for a full year and then get surprised that your staff is actually working and delivering results? ;)

You may want to check your current game speed, just in case it's on one of the faster settings. Also, which mode are you playing in? In the first few zoos of the career mode, you're taking over full-fledged working zoos with already trained employees. Those work fast, which is intended, because you shouldn't have to wait 10 minutes before you can see the results of whatever the tutorial wants to show you. If you start your own zoo, with a single untrained vet who will only do research while they aren't tending to any animals, research will take longer.

If that's still not to your liking, consider playing in Sandbox mode, where you can ignore many game mechanics.

[Patriot03]

Simple fix, they should have a slider in options to manipulate the base time scale, which would then affect everything else accordingly.

The timescale is already a variable in code, so it'd actually be an incredibly easy addition to the game, just get a dev to add a new option widget that changes the float time scale variable (The same one that has a multiplier applied by the in game fast forward feature).

I for one really dislike how fast the day/night cycle is, I feel like I never really get a moment to enjoy my architecture before the whole mood lighting changes in the blink of an eye. Yea yea, we can pause the time, but I'd just like to decrease that time scale for my average gaming experience.

[LauraSaurusRAWR]

Originally posted by Psyringe:

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

Actually im rather saying it should be the exact opposite.
This wasnt supposed to be a speed-breeding simulator, wasnt it?

There is not even time to watch your animals play around, because half the population is dead or animals have spread like rabbits when you watch your wolves play for 5 minutes...

Well, it's a zoo management simulator. You're not there to sit around and watch the animals like a guest. You're there to manage your zoo. Which includes research.

5 minutes at the slowest game speed are, what, a year of in-game time? You're managing your zoo by doing nothing for a full year and then get surprised that your staff is actually working and delivering results? ;)

You may want to check your current game speed, just in case it's on one of the faster settings. Also, which mode are you playing in? In the first few zoos of the career mode, you're taking over full-fledged working zoos with already trained employees. Those work fast, which is intended, because you shouldn't have to wait 10 minutes before you can see the results of whatever the tutorial wants to show you. If you start your own zoo, with a single untrained vet who will only do research while they aren't tending to any animals, research will take longer.

If that's still not to your liking, consider playing in Sandbox mode, where you can ignore many game mechanics.

Hey :)
Actually I am on the slowest of all three settings.

And just to make my point clear again, in case I havent really brought it across before: I want the research to be there, but Id wish it wouldnt be so meaningless and menial and trivial. Its too fast to be research. Its just some click-gimmick.


On the slowest speed the animal I place is researched completely before I have even finished building a habitat. Thats just not making any sense to me.

Just now I build a bear habitat with some nice climbing space.
Research on the bears is on Max before I am even done with that.

So because of that research seems pointless, uninteractive and meaningless.

It would have been so much better if you actually had to get involved in it. Like helping spot stuff, or watch animals to bring forward the research on them.

But in its current state its rather like "we called this a management game, we have to have some research, lets make it click-and-5-minute-wait-then-click-again-to-be-done. "

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

I want the research to be there, but Id wish it wouldnt be so meaningless and menial and trivial. Its too fast to be research. Its just some click-gimmick.

The items that you get from the research, are required to keep your animals well. I wouldn't call that "click-gimmick" even if it was as fast as you describe (which it definitely isn't in my game).

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

On the slowest speed the animal I place is researched completely before I have even finished building a habitat.

I'm sorry, but that makes little sense to me. Do you leave the time running _while_ you are building a habitat? If so ... erm ... why?

I'd also repeat the question about the game mode you're playing in, because your description matches in no way my experience in the game. When I start a new zoo from scratch, I usually consider hiring extra vets because I'm acquiring new species _way_ faster than I can do research for them.

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

Just now I build a bear habitat with some nice climbing space.
Research on the bears is on Max before I am even done with that.

I honestly don't see how that could possibly happen, unless it's either a bug, or you deliberately leave the clock running while you build. When people build a habitat, they pause the game first (because otherwise you'd be constantly interrupted by alerts, especially in larger zoos), build the habitat, buy the animals, then unpause the game so that animals can go through quarantine and be moved to the habitat, and then pause the game again while checking and adjusting the habitat. There's no way that a research project can be completed in the few in-game days that this whole process takes, not even with highly trained vets that don't have any other jobs.

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

It would have been so much better if you actually had to get involved in it. Like helping spot stuff, or watch animals to bring forward the research on them.

That's not the concept of this game though. You're the _manager_ of the zoo. You're not a keeper or researcher. You're not supposed to get involved in the micromanagement that you seem to have wanted, the devs had a pretty clear vision of what this game should be.

[Patriot03]

Okay, not sure why people are saying it takes longer in their game because it's definitely very fast in my game as well, sure I build in paused mode but right after that it only takes a short while before everything is researched, now granted at first I was quite pleased because I quickly wanted a full fledged habitat but It is indeed fast.

In any event, just let people change their time scale, some people want stuff done quick and others want to take it slow and fully immerse themselves with every minute part of the game.

Neither is wrong, but a time scale slider would be appreciated.

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by Patriot03:

Okay, not sure why people are saying it takes longer in their game because it's definitely very fast in my game as well, sure I build in paused mode but right after that it only takes a short while before everything is researched, now granted at first I was quite pleased because I quickly wanted a full fledged habitat but It is indeed fast.

Here's an example. I just loaded my savegame from the "Maple Leaf Wildlife Park", the fourth scenario in Career mode. It starts you with one surgery (not sure if the vet is already present, but even if he is, he's at level 1). No animals.

I completed that scenario by January in year 3. By that time (so, in 2 years of in-game time) I had built 6 habitats, filled them with 7 species, as well as building and populating 4 exhibits. So that's 11 species to do research for.

I had hired an extra vet right from the start, so that one could usually stay in the surgery and do research. I also trained that one to level 2 pretty early. The other vet also had a research project, in case the lab was free while the first vet was resting or doing check-ups.

When I completed the scenario, they had managed to research the first step of research for 6 species, and one was working on the seventh. That's 6 completed research steps out of 45 available in total.

I wouldn't call that "fast research" by _any_ stretch of the imagination.

But research speeds _might_ differ depending on the game modes, so I keep asking which mode the respective data was gathered from.

Originally posted by Patriot03:

a time scale slider would be appreciated.

Yes, that would be a useful addition. Still wondering under which circumstances people can perceive the research as "fast" though.

[Patriot03]

In franchise mode, I've just got a vet with no training and I can fully research animals without time acceleration very quickly, I should time it but I swear it happens before a single day/night cycle (That's visual day night, not what ever speed the game passes a technical day in).

Someone should test it, maybe I will if I care to tomorrow but I'm telling you it's fast.

[LauraSaurusRAWR]

Originally posted by Patriot03:

In franchise mode, I've just got a vet with no training and I can fully research animals without time acceleration very quickly, I should time it but I swear it happens before a single day/night cycle (That's visual day night, not what ever speed the game passes a technical day in).

Someone should test it, maybe I will if I care to tomorrow but I'm telling you it's fast.

It is fast. Its like with every game. There is people who deny reality for absolutely no reason.

Yes, it is fast. Its fast for everyone. And it makes no sense that level one vets can research everything.

And of course I leave the game running when building something. I am not playing a round-based strategy game, am I?
I want to see the animals moving aswell. If I want to look at a still picture, then I will look at a still picture. If I want to play an actual game with moving things and animals, I will not spend 99% of my time stuck in pause mode.

I just placed 2 snails in the habitat.
Half a minute later they were 8. That makes just absolutely no sense AT ALL.
I sold 6, but its still taking the fun out of the game.

[Patriot03]

I agree on pause mode, for posterity I try and keep the clock running as often as possible. As for the speed it is possible that some hijinks goes on in the Tutorial/Campaign mode, I haven't really spent any time in that since I just want the Zoo Tycoon Experience of franchise so that's all I play.

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

And of course I leave the game running when building something. I am not playing a round-based strategy game, am I?

Well, that's the problem. You're playing the game in a very unique way that it wasn't designed for. Pausing the game is literally the first thing that the tutorial tells you, that should make obvious how important it is.

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

I want to see the animals moving aswell. If I want to look at a still picture, then I will look at a still picture. If I want to play an actual game with moving things and animals, I will not spend 99% of my time stuck in pause mode.

Then you should not play Planet Zoo, frankly. It was not designed to provide you the experience you are looking for, it was created for a different audience - i.e., people who enjoy a zoo management simulation, rather than just watch the animals.

You can try if you get some enjoyment out of Sandbox mode, but I doubt it. You want some things to be more complex (like research), but that would automatically require more time for you to make your decisions. Since you don't want to pause the game, you'll get lots of notifications and alerts as your zoo grows. Your two main requirements (having more complexity without having to pause the game) are incompatible.

You still haven't specified the game mode or scenario you're playing in, btw.

[Patriot03]

Originally posted by Psyringe:

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

And of course I leave the game running when building something. I am not playing a round-based strategy game, am I?

Well, that's the problem. You're playing the game in a very unique way that it wasn't designed for. Pausing the game is literally the first thing that the tutorial tells you, that should make obvious how important it is.

Originally posted by Lillycookie:

I want to see the animals moving aswell. If I want to look at a still picture, then I will look at a still picture. If I want to play an actual game with moving things and animals, I will not spend 99% of my time stuck in pause mode.

Then you should not play Planet Zoo, frankly. It was not designed to provide you the experience you are looking for, it was created for a different audience - i.e., people who enjoy a zoo management simulation, rather than just watch the animals.

You can try if you get some enjoyment out of Sandbox mode, but I doubt it. You want some things to be more complex (like research), but that would automatically require more time for you to make your decisions. Since you don't want to pause the game, you'll get lots of notifications and alerts as your zoo grows. Your two main requirements (having more complexity without having to pause the game) are incompatible.

You still haven't specified the game mode or scenario you're playing in, btw.

What BS, your comments aren't useful so go find somewhere else to waste your time.

"You don't pause the game like me? The game wasn't designed for you" - Pausing literally exists in cases where you can't keep up, that's the only gameplay purpose for it what so ever, in particular for building critical infrastructure.

If you pause ALL THE TIME no one is going to sit here and shame you for it, but it's because YOU can't keep up.

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by Patriot03:

I agree on pause mode, for posterity I try and keep the clock running as often as possible.

That may be the main difference between us then. :) I like watching the animal behavior too, but I don't think the game was designed for that. I would consider pause mode the most important tool in the entire game, I leave it only when I need more money to come in.

Which _might_ explain why you perceive the research as fast, while I perceive it as slow. ;)