Can this game be stress free?

[Dr. Cadco]

Hey everyone, my fiance is a very casual gamer who rarely plays games, but when she does she can get very hooked. She has at different times put a ton of time into Skyrim, Stardew Valley, and Minecraft. She has a real preference for games that let you set your own goals and don't have much true "failure", i.e. she doesn't like action games where she dies all of the time.

In Planet Zoo I think she might really like zoo building, but I don't think she will like the zoo management mechanics. Dealing with customer happiness and little micro-management stuff will annoy her when she will just want to build a cool park. I know this game has a sandbox mode, but my question is, does that sandbox mode allow you to cut out all of the stressful parts of the game?

[marcnesiumHH]

Yes, 90% of it. There are some remainings (Sandbox mode was derived of the main game mode), but these are really neglectable.

[jcp011c2]

Sandbox would be the best way for her to play. Almost everything is an option to turn on or off in Sandbox - you can have unlimited money or conservation credits or set your own amount, you can have no guest or animal needs, no barriers breaking, no disease, no death, no fighting from animals etc. The only thing I can think of right now that you cannot choose to have or not have in Sandbox is researching items for building, as it is only set to have all items and diseases researched, i.e, you cannot make it to where you have to research these things.

[Tiberius]

Yes, the sandbox has plenty option to trivialize the game.

The stress tho, will come from fighting with the pathing mechanic

[Catsim]

She might get bothered by the alerts. Also I think the most annoying part for her might be if she doesn't make habitats properly and the animals escape. Like she'll make a monkey habitat with a climbable material and not turn on the climbing blockers or putting a climbable tree in it and having it hang over the edge of the barrier.

Planet Zoo is a very complex game. That complexity affords a lot of creative freedom but also allows the player to screw up pretty easy.

[Dr. Cadco]

Thanks guys. It sounds like it mostly has the option she would want, although it'll be interesting to see if she is ok with the game's complexity. It seems like I would enjoy it though so if she ends up hating it I can try it to get our money's worth from it.

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by Cadco:

Thanks guys. It sounds like it mostly has the option she would want, although it'll be interesting to see if she is ok with the game's complexity. It seems like I would enjoy it though so if she ends up hating it I can try it to get our money's worth from it.

The game is not complex as in managing stuffs. It's actually pretty light in micromanagement. It just offer "complex" aka non intuitive tools to build stuffs.

If you're looking for something like factorio, you will be very disappointed with planet zoo. If you love building and decorating, then you're gon love this game.

[Krall]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Yes, the sandbox has plenty option to trivialize the game.

The stress tho, will come from fighting with the pathing mechanic

And how! It’s kind of perplexing they don’t let you put paths down like floor construction pieces.

[Trentscousin]

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Yes, the sandbox has plenty option to trivialize the game.

The stress tho, will come from fighting with the pathing mechanic

Is pathing an issue if playing in Sandbox mode?

[Caduryn]

75 Hours now and never got any Pathing-issues

[Trentscousin]

Thanks, I will give it another try.

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by Trentscousin:

Originally posted by Tiberius:

Yes, the sandbox has plenty option to trivialize the game.

The stress tho, will come from fighting with the pathing mechanic

Is pathing an issue if playing in Sandbox mode?

Yes, even the best planet zoo designer you could find on yt will still bemoan abt it. Ppl have been voicing their concerns abt the pathing since planet coaster but it seems frontier didnt bother to change at all. It's even more horrendous if you're into grids.

For example, watch the video at 11:50
https://youtu.be/H1sFHFqCNmA

He's one of the most experienced builders out there, yet you could see how much trouble he had even at building something thats supposed to be simple.

Have fun

[Trentscousin]

I guess I will wait a bit, certainly they are aware of this.

[MrHappy]

Most pathing issues are people getting used to the pathing. It isn't a brilliant system but it's the same as Planet Coaster which was also tricky to get used to at first.

The stress will come from all of your animals staving to death and not being able to do anything about it. Or it might come from all your Conservation Credits disappearing while you're logged out, or maybe it will be that you guests constantly want refunds, or possibly the stored animals getting stuck in your trade center. Or maybe constant important alerts when absolutely nothing is wrong.

Take your pick, if I had known then what I know now I never would have bought Planet Zoo.

[Tiberius]

Originally posted by MrHappy:

Most pathing issues are people getting used to the pathing. It isn't a brilliant system but it's the same as Planet Coaster which was also tricky to get used to at first.

The stress will come from all of your animals staving to death and not being able to do anything about it. Or it might come from all your Conservation Credits disappearing while you're logged out, or maybe it will be that you guests constantly want refunds, or possibly the stored animals getting stuck in your trade center. Or maybe constant important alerts when absolutely nothing is wrong.

Take your pick, if I had known then what I know now I never would have bought Planet Zoo.

animal needs can be turned off in sandbox mode tho. but yea frontier should do something abt it too

[Trentscousin]

I gave the game a Second try with the updated Sandbox modes.......I turned everything that could be turned off.

I put in a puff adder in a prefab........the game knows what are the animal's temp/humid needs, the game knows I am playijng in Sandbox.........the game knows...I have turned OFF animal welfare.............

the game STILL says animal too hot/cold and is stressed, it then says workzone not set up correctly and at that point...

I hopped out to stay inside my 2 hour window of time.


I get they wished to make t nearly true sim for management.....I have negative interest in management........I enjoyed ZT but it is an old game.


Maybe they will reconsider the options in SANDBOX mode to include the following:


Prefabs to auto configure to animal's needs once placed inside in Prefabs in........ S A N D B O X mode.


Till then


Back it goes.....


I speak ONLY for myself when I state I want a completely (completely) chill animal zoo game....