Hi everyone and welcome to our 4th post launch update for Zoominoes. This update is our biggest, both in content and bug fixes. We’ve resolved some key issues like startup crashes and animals getting stuck “mid-air”, and also made a huge swath of balance changes. Thank you so much to everyone who has given feedback and reported bugs. It really helps us zero in on what to prioritize to make Zoominoes the best game it can be. Also, remember to please leave a review for Zoominoes if you haven't yet. It makes a huge difference!
Design Changes
Design wise, our goal was to respond to a number of pieces of feedback we’ve received. Let’s break it down.
Balance changes
We’ve buffed a large number of animals that felt a bit weak. There will always be animals that aren’t as strong as others, but we want all animals to have appeal and have times when they are good choices.
Starting decks are too big
Starting decks full of weak animals is intended to be a problem for players to solve, but we don’t consistently give players the tools to do so. To alleviate this, we have a number of changes in this update, with more to come if they still feel needed.
Senior Keeper difficulty no longer adds an Ant to your starting deck. Instead, “Every Thursday is a special event” moved from Director to this difficulty.
Pancakes now permanently remove the animal you give it to.
Sodas have been reduced in price from $2 to $1.
Some Zookeepers and Challenges are too challenging
We’ve buffed a number of Zookeeper Starters to make sure early days aren’t too difficult, and made significant changes to two of the hardest Challenges. Additionally, there were certain Special Events that made specific Challenges nearly impossible, and we now prevent those combinations. If you see any you think we missed, please let us know!
Animals
Owl (Rich starter): "Give a random +point space +3."
Raven (Draven starter): 3 -> 4 points, "Turn your leftmost animal Black (for the day)."
Wildebeast (Speedy starter): 2 -> 3 points.
Bat: 4 -> 6 points
Bald Eagle: 3 -> 5 points
Blue Rhino Beetle: 3 -> 4 points
Coral: 4 -> 6 points
Meerkat: 4 -> 2 points, +4 -> +7 for each neighbor
Rhino: "I charge sideways as far as I can (gaining the bonuses of all spaces I go through)."
Starfish: +6 -> +7
Woodpecker: 5 -> 6 points
Angler: 8 -> 10 points
Frog: "I hop hop hop to a neighboring space three times (gaining the bonuses of all spaces I go through)."
Narwhal: "Bonus space abilities are doubled on me. I get the bonuses of all neighboring spaces."
Pufferfish: +2 -> +3
Tilapia: 5 -> 10 points
Blackbird: 20 -> 25 points
Chimpanzee: 15 -> 20 points
Garden Eel: 5 -> 8 points, +5 -> +8
Jellyfish: 10 -> 15 points
Lovebirds: 12 -> 14 points
Orangutan: removed (but not permanently)
Chimera: 20 points, "Double my points for each neighbor."
Dragon: 30 -> 60 points
Harpy: 30 -> 90 points
Imp: 10 -> 50 points
Kitsune: "Permanently transform the leftmost animal in your hand into a random Mythical animal."
Phoenix: 20 -> 50 points, "Summon me at the start of each day."
T-Rex: 100 -> 200 points
Zookeepers
Rex: +1 -> +2
Rainbow Ray: now has the +3 starting spaces.
Rainbow Ray: colored spaces now count as bonus spaces.
Mythica: "Start by picking a Mythical animal. You get it at the start of week 3.”
Trinket: Added “Goals increase faster.”
Snacks
Sodas: $2 -> $1
Black Snowcone: $2 -> $1
Pancakes: “Make an animal permanently disappear. Permanently give its points to the leftmost animal in your hand.”
Souvenirs
Rare Booster Pack -> now contains snacks
God Pack -> now contains snacks
Giraffe Mask: +5 -> +10
Zebra Mask: +10 -> +20
Silver Postcard: +5 -> +7
Vanilla Candle: +5 -> +10
Vanilla Candelabra: 3x -> 10x
Triple Rainbow: Rare -> Mythical
Challenges
Platinum Hits Challenge: goal increase reduced to 50%.
Plain as Day: "Start with all animals with no abilities [2, 3, 4 points], but with improved starting spaces [+1 play, +1 coin, x2, +5]."
Special Events
Simon Says special event: can no longer pick the same animal back to back.
Face Paint Day special event: can no longer turn animals their current color.
Ant Invasion ants now say that they’ll go away at the end of the day.
Difficulties
Senior Keeper: “Start with an Ant.” -> “Every Thursday is a special event.”
General Changes
Snacks that create spaces can now be played on existing bonus spaces.
When an animal changes color to its current color, that now counts as changing color for Phoenix Feather and Rainbow Feather.
We now prevent certain combinations of Challenge + Special Event that were either frustratingly difficult (such as Earthquake Drill on Row Row Row Your Boat), or redundant (such as Color Wars on Color Wars 2).
Miscellaneous
Added SFX for Marina.
Added SFX for Crimson and Azure.
Added SFX for Skylar.
Added SFX for Chipmunk, Coelacanth, Decorator Crab, Leafy Sea Dragon, Lionfish, Lorikeet, Peregrine Falcon, Rock Agama, and Warthog.
For very long animations, increased the maximum speedup from 3x to 10x.
Holding R for 2 seconds will now open Zookeeper select so that you can retry runs quickly.
Bug Fixes
Summons no longer count as plays for Triple Rainbow, Earthquake Day, Costume party, and Dance Party.
Fixed localization for decillion points.
Archaeopteryx no longer has strong hinting for completing a row.
Optimized animations for Snacked Deck (snacks will resolve much faster now with large decks).
Fixed mixed up animal facts.
Parrot no longer loses the points it copied.
Loading a saved game no longer can lead to gaining score or gold.
Chimera no longer counts as an extra type for Variety Zoo.
Card Shark and Half Day achievements now correctly check plays.
Animal Collector achievement now checks every animal in your deck, not just the winning animal.
Djinn + Costume Party no longer can cause crashes.
Cherufe’s ability correctly doubles with Matching Outfit.
Cheetah/Hummingbird/Sailfish now work correctly with animals that copy abilities.
Fixed an issue where Lyrebird could fail to double hand buff abilities (such as Kong).
Summoned copies of animals (such as from Moth) will now properly summon after being returned to your hand.
Archaeopteryx now correctly works with Caterpillar.
Otter now has strong hinting next to animals of its color.
Added animation for +1 play space.
Fixed a possible cause of corrupted save files, and added logging to help us track down any issues still present.
Animals sticking in random places should no longer be an issue.
Loch Ness Monster will now correctly leave for the day during Touring Test.
Reconnecting will no longer break Gemma’s shop ability.
Nan Infinity should now display as and count as infinity.
Animation speedup works better when higher speed settings are selected.
Thanks everyone for enjoying Zoominoes!