Are rides realistic?

[yoav_r]

In my life, I have never seen anything like the rides in PZ in a real zoo.

The closest to it is a kiddie train which just goes around on the main path from time to time.

The game however, requires you to use rides to get guests from place to place, or they get tired. When I go to a zoo, I come when I expect to walk 2-6 km during my visit, and the guests here get tired after 50m.

So I wondered if this is just me being regionally biased, or if this feels weird for other people.

 

[LN]

I tend to walk rather than using transport rides when I'm in Zoo's.

It's not something uncommon for zoo's to have though. (At least in the Netherlands)

Blijdorp Zoo has a train

Ouwehands Dierenpark Rhenen has a monorail (The last time I went there, the monorail was out of order, not sure if they keep it)

Safaripark Beekse Bergen has a boat

 

[Miri96]

In Germany we have some that are both... a zoo and an amusement park. I know at least two not far from where I live

 

[Jaggid Edje]

Seems pretty normal to me, both the San Diego zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park have rides quite similar to what you can build in the game and those are among two of the best zoos I've ever visited.

 

[markun]

Again I’d say its the game’s theme park roots. Lots of consumer outlets and themed items but relatively very little to build actual realistic enclosures with. I know they state very clearly that this is separate from Planet Coaster and I’ve they’ve done lots of research and so on but as things stand it’s not easy to make a realistic zoo as opposed to a theme park with animals especially if you have an eye for realistic details.

 

[ralphthestick]

Most of the larger zoos I've been to have had a road train at least, if not a small steam train, which does a loop around a section of the zoo - not so much a way of getting from place to place, but just another way to see some of the animals (usually with the driver talking about the animals). I've also seen transport monorails and boat rides (both with real large boats around a lake, and small mechanised boats on a rail. Even been to one with a ski lift, which isn't a million miles away from the gondola ride in PZ.
I think it might be a bit unrealistic to have more than one or two of them in a single zoo (and the fact that they're needed to get from place to place rather than a fun bonus), but there's definitely precedent for all of them in the real world.

 

[Imagin]

I think it depends on the size of the zoo too. If you use all the space provided you can make a pretty big zoo in this game. In smaller zoos where you don't want to use rides I've found that placing benches helps with guests getting tired. Oddly, the guests don't actually use them much at all but just having them there gives them an energy boost.

 

[eulemur]

Some kind of train ride is common at least here in the UK; Colchester, Chester, Paradise Wildlife Park, I believe Whipsnade as well to name just a few. Larger Safari Park type zoos will often have road tours (Port Lympne has one) or parts of the park you can drive through yourself, such as Whipsnade, Longleat and Woburn. Boat rides less so, but I know Chester Zoo has one. It’s not even particularly restricted to high-budget zoos, though the trains don’t necessarily look as fancy as they do ingame. None of the zoos mentioned are theme parks either, the rides usually serve as additional ways to see animals as well as a method of getting around the park. Colchester in particular takes you to the back parts of enclosures such as wolves and wild dogs you can’t see from the normal viewing areas, and gives you access to a walk through enclosure you can’t reach through any other route in the park.

I would like if we could get an education boost while on these rides (for example setting educational talks on them, with a drop down similar to other education facilities; perhaps something like the conservation board where the information revolves around a theme rather than a particular specific animal, like “African savannah” or “Amazon rainforest” or something to that effect) to make them more realistic at least.

 

[Firestar97]

The game however, requires you to use rides to get guests from place to place, or they get tired.

It isn't required. I never needed one for the Guests. Maybe you don't have enough Benches. I think maybe your Guests also get tired because they can't move good enough. Maybe try to make the Path wider and place more Benches. I hope, it was helpful