TheRealAtropos
05-04-11, 08:43 PM
This isn't a rant, I promise! I have legitimate questions while I wait patiently for something interesting to be added to give the game some kind of purpose or direction. I'll try not to beat any dead horses, because they could make me more money as zoo attractions.
Now, I understand the concept of visiting neighbors in the other Story games. There's lots of farms in places, lots of adjacent cities and towns, many nearby restaurants, entire districts with nightclubs or bakeries.
But neighbors in Zoo Story make no sense. How do so many zoos exist so close together? Normally there's one zoo in a major city, and the next closest one is 3 or more hours away.
Secondly, why am I farming? I have never in the world heard of a zoo that grows the food for their animals. Don't they buy it and have it shipped there?
Thirdly, Why are my lions eating wheat? How did I teach my pythons to eat bananas? Should I be concerned that my elephants are on an all-asparagus diet? Don't animals have carefully controlled diets or something? The food options are not based on anything the animals would actually eat, and seems like it was just tacked on to try to make the game have depth.
Fourthly, what's the purpose of the little teleporting people in my zoo? They don't pay for anything, the money just magically appears. If I remove all the paths from my zoo and just have farm and income buildings and animals wall to wall, I still get money. In fact, if I wanted to make a really efficient farm that rakes in loads of money, the best way to do it is to set my farm... er, zoo up so there's no visitors at all.
I'm not trashing the game, I nearly maxxed it out less than a day after it was released and am anxiously waiting for some new content to be released like the rest of us. Who doesn't love seeing llamas and elephants I hatched myself from little eggs? I just don't understand how all of the gameplay elements which are based entirely on fantasy are supposed to tie my zoo-farm together and make me magical coins when there's absolutely nothing to distinguish it from my 99 neighbors other than their crops are all dead and mine aren't.
Fifth... Ah, I had to delete all my other points since I don't want to slam Team Lava too much. I just wish they would actually develop a complete game rather than throwing up a rough game design directly after a good brainstorming session, and only occasionally throwing half-hearted updates down the pipe while they move on to their next story adventure. *PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL LLAMAS, FORCE YOUR PROGRAMMERS AND DESIGNERS TO PLAY THE GAMES THEY MAKE AN HOUR A DAY EACH!!*
That's all I have to say about that.
Now, I understand the concept of visiting neighbors in the other Story games. There's lots of farms in places, lots of adjacent cities and towns, many nearby restaurants, entire districts with nightclubs or bakeries.
But neighbors in Zoo Story make no sense. How do so many zoos exist so close together? Normally there's one zoo in a major city, and the next closest one is 3 or more hours away.
Secondly, why am I farming? I have never in the world heard of a zoo that grows the food for their animals. Don't they buy it and have it shipped there?
Thirdly, Why are my lions eating wheat? How did I teach my pythons to eat bananas? Should I be concerned that my elephants are on an all-asparagus diet? Don't animals have carefully controlled diets or something? The food options are not based on anything the animals would actually eat, and seems like it was just tacked on to try to make the game have depth.
Fourthly, what's the purpose of the little teleporting people in my zoo? They don't pay for anything, the money just magically appears. If I remove all the paths from my zoo and just have farm and income buildings and animals wall to wall, I still get money. In fact, if I wanted to make a really efficient farm that rakes in loads of money, the best way to do it is to set my farm... er, zoo up so there's no visitors at all.
I'm not trashing the game, I nearly maxxed it out less than a day after it was released and am anxiously waiting for some new content to be released like the rest of us. Who doesn't love seeing llamas and elephants I hatched myself from little eggs? I just don't understand how all of the gameplay elements which are based entirely on fantasy are supposed to tie my zoo-farm together and make me magical coins when there's absolutely nothing to distinguish it from my 99 neighbors other than their crops are all dead and mine aren't.
Fifth... Ah, I had to delete all my other points since I don't want to slam Team Lava too much. I just wish they would actually develop a complete game rather than throwing up a rough game design directly after a good brainstorming session, and only occasionally throwing half-hearted updates down the pipe while they move on to their next story adventure. *PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL LLAMAS, FORCE YOUR PROGRAMMERS AND DESIGNERS TO PLAY THE GAMES THEY MAKE AN HOUR A DAY EACH!!*
That's all I have to say about that.