What is going on with the cost of feeding the animals?

[sleepy_sloth]

One of my zoos is going bancrupt, because I added a fifth elephant and my lions just had cubs. I pay 14.000 for employees, but 223.000 for food for the animals ( around 20 peafowls, 6 wildebeests, 7 gorillas, 5 elephants, and i guess around 15-20 lions, half of them cubs).

It was totally fine and made a profit each year before the lions had cubs and the last elephant was added - back in those times, I only paid around 70k each year for food.

Am I missing something here? I did not improve the quality of their meals.

 

[Cocolori]

You probably need to balance your species roster a bit. You've gone for quite a few high cost animals (gorillas, elephants and so many lions!) If you think about it that's not a very realistic scenario in the real world. Not saying you are wrong to give negative feedback but personally I like the mechanic that means you can't get all the 'high tier animals and not include the more basic critters.

 

[sleepy_sloth]

You probably need to balance your species roster a bit. You've gone for quite a few high cost animals (gorillas, elephants and so many lions!) If you think about it that's not a very realistic scenario in the real world. Not saying you are wrong to give negative feedback but personally I like the mechanic that means you can't get all the 'high tier animals and not include the more basic critters.

I literally can't, because I than get to many guests and the game starts lagging. And while i get your point, I still feel that it makes no sense regarding to my problem: one elephant and 8-10 lion cubs cost me 160k in food, while the 7 gorillas, 4 elephants, 7 adult lions, 20 peafowls and 6 wildebeest only cost me 70k in the last years.
How much are the lion cubs supposed to eat? twice the amount of what the adults eat? and the last elephant only eats hay covered in gold dust?

Also this is my third franchise zoo, and I refuse to have these nightmarishly overpopulating and constantly fighting animals like warthogs, wild dogs or wolves in every zoo. The zoo started with lions and gorillas and was perfectly fine. It probably still would be, if I just had the tools to see exactly which animals are the problem.

 

[PeppyPepp]

Did you perhaps change the food grade to better quality and that's why it's costing you more money?

 

[Maky1355]

Agreed... It was after the last update, before I was making 300k+ every year, now -300k if I don't severely reduce my populations and put shops right on the road. And I know it's a bug because I tracked my food costs exactly for the lions - 9 lions = 22k food, 17 lions = 70k food, now how does that make sense?
PS I have a HUUGE zoo, it was ridiculously easy to carry the more expensive animals but this weird scaling is such a drag, takes so much micromanaging of habitats.

 

[Kai]

I had one lion enclosure and one zebra enclosure. Once changed over to two zebra enclosures I was looking at food costs dropping from 100-200k to under 10k.
Either the zebra food is too cheap, or the lion food is too expensive (I'm going with lions are too expensive currently). Or option C, that everything is still bugged.

I was also having massive issues with animal enrichment for this zebra event - did they change something? It seemed impossible to keep it at 100% where I had no issues before.

 

[Cocolori]

I was also having massive issues with animal enrichment for this zebra event - did they change something? It seemed impossible to keep it at 100% where I had no issues before.

I think they tweaked the system of animals getting bored of enrichment (or possibly just got it actually working as I never saw it happen before the last patch)

 

[Kai]

I think they tweaked the system of animals getting bored of enrichment (or possibly just got it actually working as I never saw it happen before the last patch)

Exactly my thoughts, and honestly I can't be bothered to deal with moving items in/out constantly - guess my animals are staying at medicore enrichment levels.

 

[BasiliskOnline]

build slower, expand slower and ensure your finances are tight before expanding again. if an extra elephant and handful of cubs drives you bankrupt, the profit you were making was likely barely a profit, you need a higher margin before you expand.

 

[Dr4gon]

Let's talk about taking it slow, I am already 3 days busy to build a island with a boat ride for my gorillas. Your zoo can't go bankrupt if you take it slow and think by every step you do. Every elephant eats 3K worth of food. I have many, so I should know.

 

[Maky1355]

Let's talk about taking it slow, I am already 3 days busy to build a island with a boat ride for my gorillas. Your zoo can't go bankrupt if you take it slow and think by every step you do. Every elephant eats 3K worth of food. I have many, so I should know.

build slower, expand slower and ensure your finances are tight before expanding again. if an extra elephant and handful of cubs drives you bankrupt, the profit you were making was likely barely a profit, you need a higher margin before you expand.

God I hate these comments. My expansion was slow, didn't add another animal before researching one 100%, everything was running smoothly, I had all my expensive animals in and was making a huge profit every year, no red numbers from the start, didn't even need one loan, I couldn't understand why people had problems with cash flow (at least before the last update). Then the update hits and all of a sudden I'm at a huge loss. Now please tell me again how it makes sense it takes 20k for 9 lions and 70k for 17?

 

[Kiwolf]

You probably need to balance your species roster a bit. You've gone for quite a few high cost animals (gorillas, elephants and so many lions!) If you think about it that's not a very realistic scenario in the real world. Not saying you are wrong to give negative feedback but personally I like the mechanic that means you can't get all the 'high tier animals and not include the more basic critters.

Hate to tell you this.. but you might want to check facts on lions..
The Organization of a Pride
The size of a lion pride can vary widely, and the structure differs between African and Asian subspecies. On average, a lion pride consists of about three males and a dozen females, along with their young (although prides with as many as 40 animals have been observed). In the rarer Asian subspecies, however, lions divide themselves in gender-specific prides in which males and females remain in separate groups except for mating time.

In the typical African pride, the females form the core of the group and generally remain in the same pride from birth until death—although females are occasionally expelled from the pride. As a result of remaining in the same pride throughout their lifetimes, female lions are generally related to one another. Due to this permanence, lion prides are considered to be matriarchal in their social structure.

What Is a Lion Pride?

Gain an intimate view of the social lives of lions, the only species of cat that organizes in groups called prides.

www.thoughtco.com

 

[NL_Mutso]

Now please tell me again how it makes sense it takes 20k for 9 lions and 70k for 17?

There could be a different explanation: Maybe they feeded the lions in January and December in that year and the other year just once (in July) ?
Did you check when they fill the food bowls?

Btw, can't blame those comments. A lot of players expand too fast.. And the main reason for a lot of players not making profit in the long run.

 

[Maky1355]

THe lions

There could be a different explanation: Maybe they feeded the lions in January and December in that year and the other year just once (in July) ?
Did you check when they fill the food bowls?

Btw, can't blame those comments. A lot of players expand too fast.. And the main reason for a lot of players not making profit in the long run.

It's been like this for 10+ game years, when I launched right after the update I thought it was just a "bad year" as I noticed my food costs went sky high overnight, but then it was year after year so I started severely reducing my numbers and noticed the weird price scaling and sometimes when I click on the enclosure it just says feeding costs <1000 then another time 60k.

You just can't justify this bug, no matter how you spin it... "it's not realistic to have so many animals" I'll tell you what's unrealistic - Having a cat and spending 10€ for food per week then getting 20 more (because you're a crazy cat lady and/or you don't neuter them or give them away) and suddenly it costs you 1000€/week. 20 lions is not as unrealistic as unrealistic scaling of costs, if anything it should cost less since it's in bulk and baby animals eat very little and nurse most of the time anyway. And for this game I think 20 lions is pretty realistic, a few adult females and a male, they have cubs, you release most of them and keep a few to sustain your population, since "conservation is an important part of the game".
And to the other comment that you need to balance the species roster. I'm probably missing 10 species or so, big and small, it's a huge zoo. I'd expand more (still have 3 million left, despite this) but it's laggy.

 

[marcnesiumHH]

all of the numbers in this game do not fit together, whether they are time or financial related figures. Zoo entrance is 60 $, a caretaker earning 400 $ a year? You cannot rely on any figure.
The key takeaway is that it is intentional that feeding costs for tigers, elephants or apes are meant to be expensive, it's not a bug, it's a game design thing. And either you adapt to it like we all have to do or otherwise you won't make profits.

 

[Maky1355]

all of the numbers in this game do not fit together, whether they are time or financial related figures. Zoo entrance is 60 $, a caretaker earning 400 $ a year? You cannot rely on any figure.
The key takeaway is that it is intentional that feeding costs for tigers, elephants or apes are meant to be expensive, it's not a bug, it's a game design thing. And either you adapt to it like we all have to do or otherwise you won't make profits.

You're just messing with us now, right?
Oh and tigers are very cheap, I have both species, 3-5 each (a family) and they just cost me like 5k per feed. None of the other "expensive" animals have bugged feeding costs like my lions do.

 

[NL_Mutso]

Aha, in that case I don't know…

And nobody justifies a bug, but some people on this forum calls it a bug while there's a good explanation.

I just mentioned it because I've seen a similar complaint and seemed to be the explanation. I've seen it myself in my own zoo as well..

 

[marcnesiumHH]

You're just messing with us now, right?

no, that's the reason. the feeding costs shown in the game are only updated once a year, no matter how many animals there are within the year (offspring, dead). that's the reason you cannot gain reliable figures/ ratios per animal.

 

[AlexVonHumbug]

the balancing of the game is just bad. the game is unfinished. even if the food cost work as intended, there is not enough transperancey to understand them. btw, you cant trust in the competence of them, if not even the menues and filters work in an useful way. before my big zoo gamefile broke and wasnt loadable anymore, i struggled to keep the zoos finances healthy. i had to remove every lionoffspring, afrikan elephant offspring and garial offspring to be in a surplus. and this evacuation caused the broken gamefile. dont tell people, ists their mistake, its the game, the unfinshed game, the unfinished game with the useless beta-test.

and concerning the thing, that animals are straving: maybe feeding works as intended, but then it is not posible, to keep a certain number of individuals in a habitat. at some point even with the perfect short distances, the gamemachanics dont allow too many animals to be fed in a certain time. there was a post of somebody recently, who wanted to keep more than 200 flamingos (500 should work tells the zoopedia), that seem not to work. i can imagine, that a full safari habitat with lets say 10 individuals of every species, that is supposed to work, would not work. so the system of keepers is just not working in a way, that seems to be right.

 

[Moosegun]

no, that's the reason. the feeding costs shown in the game are only updated once a year, no matter how many animals there are within the year (offspring, dead). that's the reason you cannot gain reliable figures/ ratios per animal.

This is the issue, the feed is bought once a year based on the animals at that time NOT when you look in the habitat. It is a bit simplistic but i do believe that is how it works. Also to the OP, you have a LOT of lions and elephants which are expensive animals. Money in this game is NOT realistic, it is designed to fit the gameplay.

On my third very large zoo now and this is the first I have managed to make profitable late game and the key to it was guest happiness / distribution of services. Happy guests, happy zoo.