Board Game Arena

I understand that many people are striving to get to the end of the game with as few coffee breaks as possible - but I like to play a lot of animals and not rush the game. But, I like playing all the maps. Is there a combination of settings to get a more leisurely game? I don’t mind losing, buts it’s frustrating to be waiting for my whomping while the other player tests a few different moves to see if they can beat me even quicker

You mean "slower" as in more turns per game?
Or more minutes per turn?

There is no setting to prolong the game, to lets say ending at 110/120/130 points and that's pretty much the only way to accomplish what you are asking for.
Ark Nova is a race game essentially as I often said to people posting really high scores on Facebook pages.
Scoring 160 points is meaningless if it took 40 turns to accomplish.

Regarding the players testing different moves: So long as no new information was revealed ( cards drawn, pilfer effects resolved, end game discarded) players can undo their turn.
Sometimes it's quicker to just play throught a turn and see how much it scores and costs , and then undo and make a different play to compare than to calculate both plays. The only way to prevent this is to shorten turn time so people have less time to do so.
But that would only work if you are willing to time out the player if they are going over time and somehow I feel that's not your style.