Can YOU save my zoo!?
- Thread starter Indiglow
- Start date
Prior to this patch, I hardly ever used the guest happiness heatmap, I didnt even think about it, it was only when my finances went wrong (losing 200k per month) did I realise that I had built the zoo for me and my animals and the guest were actually a bit of an afterthought. I was building a zoo I thought they would like, without actually checking they DID like it. Until it went pear shaped, then, from watching the guest heatmap for some time, I realised i made LOADS of mistakes which were causing the issue.
- guests traveling too far without toilets / food drinks
- zoo too spread out for guests to see enough of the animals
- certain areas not being cleaned
- certain habitats where the main animal viewing was poor
I ended up spending 1.5mil in savings and 80k of cc's (converting it to money) to save the zoo with a massive happiness upgrade. Since doing that i have moved on to this new project.
Having not enough drink/food stands was my problem.. Even though I felt I had enough..
I added a lot of stands (doesnt look pretty) and that seemed to help a lot.
Also added a new habitat for the Bengal tiger (didn't have that one yet in that zoo) and that really made the difference.
And the feeding costs for some habitats were expensive - so I sold a quite a few animals. (don't need 10 warthogs in 1 habitat etc)
Also adding exhibit animals seem to do well, I don't like the micromanagement part of exhibit animals.
So i only add 1 animal per small exhibit..
Took a hit of a 300k-400k in 2-3 years (after the patch 1.03), was able to turn it into a profit, after investing.
Then my entrance got crowded (looked like a rock-concert), everything started being vandalized, litter everywhere and visitors got stuck near the entrance.
Closed down my zoo - took another 360k loss.
This all happened in the timespan of 23 years and went from 3.2 million to 5.4 million.
Didn't sell any animals for $.. only CC.
I added a lot of stands (doesnt look pretty) and that seemed to help a lot.
Also added a new habitat for the Bengal tiger (didn't have that one yet in that zoo) and that really made the difference.
And the feeding costs for some habitats were expensive - so I sold a quite a few animals. (don't need 10 warthogs in 1 habitat etc)
Also adding exhibit animals seem to do well, I don't like the micromanagement part of exhibit animals.
So i only add 1 animal per small exhibit..
Took a hit of a 300k-400k in 2-3 years (after the patch 1.03), was able to turn it into a profit, after investing.
Then my entrance got crowded (looked like a rock-concert), everything started being vandalized, litter everywhere and visitors got stuck near the entrance.
Closed down my zoo - took another 360k loss.
This all happened in the timespan of 23 years and went from 3.2 million to 5.4 million.
Didn't sell any animals for $.. only CC.
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Are you playing the same game as me? My guests walk a mile for a Gulpee drink by the hundreds. I have lvl 5 vendors there now, because they are completely overwhelmed. And when the vendor goes for a break, nobody takes over, so I finally can oversee the mess the guests have left behind. I raised all the prices, and are still busy finetuning it. The demand for drinks is way to high for me to cope with. There is 24/7 a queue for the Gulpee stand until the vendor takes a break.
If I place my Gulpee stands to close to the entrance, lots of them don't even bother about the animals. "That Gulpee vendor gives great service. Are there animals too? Oh man, I need an other Gulpee, get out of my way!"
Maybe that is because my zoo is in Antarctica. People are expecting to see penguins, and are so disappointed that all they can think of is drinking their sorrow away.
I was running a very large zoo, this should bring some context
40+ habitats, 400+ animals, 7000+ guests. Hence why I had issues with travel distance between kiosks and guests struggling to see all the animals they came to see. So yes my guests were trying to get drinks but the distance was too far.
My biggest mistake early on was using too small paths. My guests would get clogged up and wouldn't be able to get anywhere fast enough. Now I almost always use 10m wide paths for guests, sometimes slightly smaller for some satellite paths to special viewing areas, but never less than 7m. (4m paths exclusively for staff) Now all my guests are constantly raving about how much they love how much room they have to walk around.
Also, instead of hiring more staff level up the staff you have. One 5 star caretaker is gonna be worth more to you than 5 one star caretakers. And cost less too.
I don't think there is anything wrong with starting over. Pack up the animals you can/want to keep (ask yourself if they bring you joy or not xD) and send them to storage, put the babies in Quarantine, then release all the rest of the animals. Fire all but your top level staff. Then start bulldozing. Then once you are clear, rebuild slowly.
Also, instead of hiring more staff level up the staff you have. One 5 star caretaker is gonna be worth more to you than 5 one star caretakers. And cost less too.
I don't think there is anything wrong with starting over. Pack up the animals you can/want to keep (ask yourself if they bring you joy or not xD) and send them to storage, put the babies in Quarantine, then release all the rest of the animals. Fire all but your top level staff. Then start bulldozing. Then once you are clear, rebuild slowly.