Creative Management: Franchisers Unite!

[iloveyourzoos]

I wanted to start a thread for people who play franchise mode, and are wanting to improve our "creative management" skills. The idea is for us first to find each other, and then be able to share tips, discuss issues, and get better at this aspect of the game.

Obviously, this isn't mutually exclusive, since all of us build our zoos as well as manage them. And many of us also play in the other modes too. But I've found it hard to find tips for franchise players specifically, particularly when it comes to advanced management or creative management.

A few things I've noticed (and the reason for a dedicated thread):

• I've noticed that many discussions about franchise mode get interrupted or sidetracked by just advising us to turn off welfare, switch to sandbox, or replay the careers. Which is cool (and maybe even smarter!), but not particularly relevant to the questions we may have. So having a dedicated place where franchise players could help each other without being told to abandon ship might be valuable.
• I've also noticed that tips about advanced management, or managing in different and creative ways, don't get much discussion. If they get beyond "switch to sandbox", they end up getting lost in basic management tips because that's all many folks have experimented with. So I'd love to see a place where we can get as advanced and creative about our management styles as we do our building styles. (including creative ways to build so that the management works)
• I've seen lots of youtube videos on how to build -- from basic tutorials to intermediate play-throughs to beautiful advanced masterpieces! But on the management side, I've seen some starting how-to guides and explanations of the various menus, but haven't found as many focused on advanced strategies, or getting creative about management systems.
• The recent community challenge (three-star birds), also made me think about this. I saw so much contradictory information, or various speculation, here and on steam, about what makes those stars happen, that it got me wondering what other management aspects we aren't exploring as fully as we could.
• Ever since the BroNation community did their fantastic document on things they'd like for greater creative building, I've been thinking how great it would be if the creative management side of the community could get together and gather the ideas for greater creative management too.

It could go in other directions as well, of course. This is just meant to get the ball rolling, to see if anyone is interested. And if it turns out that this already exists somewhere that I'm not aware of, I'd love to know that too, so I can join you all over there!

 

[AlexVonHumbug]

my basic mangement strategy is to built facilities as close to the habitats as posible. also, i make many small workzones for 1-3 habitats. that means f.e.:
one, two or three habitats with two/three smal keeper huts, one small staff room, one small vet station plus wind energy facility and water supply. I use one keeper per habitat and one vet for two/three. tech-workers cover 2 sets of this (so 4 to 6 habitats)
i also spread the shops around the zoo in groups of 4-6 with one workzone for 4/6 shops with one specific staff room for it.

 

[XT]

I think my most 'creative' tip is that the first franchise zoo you make is really a seed for others - I used to research all the mechanic benefits and so on (you don't need a mechanic hut, as far as I can tell once you've researched all the mechanic stuff). And as soon as you have the large staff and keeper hut researched, it's really not cost effective to use the smaller ones - unless you're literally putting a keeper hut for each and every habitiat.

I have found that once I have multiple franchise zoos, it's much easier to breed decent animals - as soon as an animal is one generation removed from each other they're no longer 'inbreeding'.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

Some tips for those who love plants, but are still trying to stay within the animal's perfect plant welfare for franchise purposes...

I found that playing with the barriers and construction pieces can help you create lush areas that look like they're in the habitat, but actually aren't. I often go back and forth to the heatmap, and if my animals can't get somewhere anyway because of rocks or other pieces, I'll move the null barrier up to that point, even if the visual fence/barrier is further back, just so that I can get in some more plants.

In one case, I used elephant grass to block off a section in the middle of a habitat, with just a tiny sliver of non-habitat blocked off like a small bridge to keep it all out of the animal's range. Visually, it looks like the animals can use the entire space like a giant circle, but the habitat is actually shaped more like a donut with a hole in the middle plus a tiny sliver or landbridge etched out as un-navigable. The donut hole is filled with foliage.

(Those can also work for terrain painting, when you want more grass/sand/soil/rock than what the animal actually allows).

I've also found that if you place plants under a tree, they sometimes won't increase your coverage area (since that portion of the habitat is already considered "covered"). So if I place a tree at the edge of a raised area, I get to decorate the space below for free -- on both levels.

And while I haven't played with this as much, construction pieces can sometimes look like plants from a distance, especially if they're flexicolor.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

Anyone have any tips on which other types of plants or construction items work similar to underground elephant grass for blocking off navigable area?

I use this trick a lot, and would like to find an alternative for each biome and continent, so that the placement doesn't show as negative for animal welfare in franchise mode where we want the animals as happy as possible.

 

[NL_Mutso]

I've noticed that many discussions about franchise mode get interrupted or sidetracked by just advising us to turn off welfare, switch to sandbox, or replay the careers. Which is cool (and maybe even smarter!), but not particularly relevant to the questions we may have. So having a dedicated place where franchise players could help each other without being told to abandon ship might be valuable.

Fair point. In some cases people are playing the wrong mode
Or people who don't play Franchise don't realize the restrictions of that mode.

I've also noticed that tips about advanced management, or managing in different and creative ways, don't get much discussion

A lot of people don't care much about management, just building and animals. Could be related to sandbox players. Tbh, don't see much questions about this either.
For the YT part - building videos are more viewed than any other video about PZ. It just doesn't get that many views.

One of the things that works best for me:

• Large workzones with 7 or 8 habitats (depending on species) with staff buildings somewhere in the middle of those. Not near an edge - just in the centre of those 8 habitats.
• Make boring paths -> Working in squares for your main paths makes it easier to plan/change your zoo. If a certain balance of buildings/staff works, you can mostly copy that setup for the same sized area.
• Start with the tortoises/reptiles -> one of the easiest way to start. Loads of appeal an decent cc from their offspring.
• 1 large main zoo with all species and several themed zoos. You can transfer animals from your main zoo to breed with your others. Requires some planning but got "fresh blood" in every zoo that way. My main zoo is the most boring with basic habitats and very structured pathing.

 

[paul78]

I don’t play franchise mode but this is a great idea. This forum could definitely use more helpful tips and tutorials in building,landscaping,and terraforming ect.

 

[iloveyourzoos]

One of the things I've been playing with more often is the different tasks that staff can do, assigning them specific ones.. (Not at the beginning of each zoo where I'm saving money, but as I grow and therefore need the staff to be able to handle things independently):

For vets and mechanics, I have separate ones for research (when needed) versus other tasks.

For keepers where there is a large habitat, I'll set one or more to clean and one or more to feed, rather than letting them figure it out themselves.

For caretakers, I noticed that their cleaning duties suffer when a new animal needs transported, leading to a jump in litter notices whenever there are lots of animals moving around. So I've been playing around with dividing these staff as if they were two different staff types: One for all the cleaning duties but who aren't allowed to transport animals, and a second who are really just my "transport engineers", who have all the cleaning tasks turned off. Sometimes I'll leave a few in who can do both. I've also been toying around with training these folks differently, but haven't mastered that yet.

Another thing I've sometimes done for the vets is turn off their "transport animals" duty -- leaving this task only for caretakers who are less expensive, and (at least hopefully) giving the vets more time to focus on caring for animals instead of just moving them around.

My newer zoos also have a LOT more staff only paths than my first zoo did. Now, I try to put them in everywhere, even if it is only a tiny 2 meter path, or building an underground junction for them. The hope is that this allows them to get around move quickly (although sometimes, I still find them on the regular busy paths and can't figure out why they took that route!

Has anyone played around with the tasks for mechanics very much? I tend to assign them based on geography within the zoo, and then set each habitat or utility for how often it should be checked. But I've noticed that they seem to need to be individually dispatched to my power/water stations, and especially transport stations, so I'm wondering if I should stat breaking those out as well?

 

[iloveyourzoos]

i also spread the shops around the zoo in groups of 4-6 with one workzone for 4/6 shops with one specific staff room for it.

For your shops, any particular pattern for which ones to include in your 4-6? I've been trying to do something similar with 1 food, 1 drink, 1 info, 1 gifts, 1 toilet. Except I find that the multiple info stands go almost completely unused -- right up until it starts to rain!

 

[Firestar97]

I've also found that if you place plants under a tree, they sometimes won't increase your coverage area (since that portion of the habitat is already considered "covered"). So if I place a tree at the edge of a raised area, I get to decorate the space below for free -- on both levels.

Thanks a lot. This could be useful

 

[PeppyPepp]

Has anyone played around with the tasks for mechanics very much? I tend to assign them based on geography within the zoo, and then set each habitat or utility for how often it should be checked. But I've noticed that they seem to need to be individually dispatched to my power/water stations, and especially transport stations, so I'm wondering if I should stat breaking those out as well?

My rule of thumb usually is I have one mechanic per work zone and they pretty much do whatever needs to be tended. I usually set utilities/habitat barriers/vending machines to be checked as often as 3 months - this way I make sure they are always working.

In terms of general management:

At the start, I make one "staff base" with all buildings except the keeper's hut and staff room (except if I have shops at the front I usually also put down a SR - which becomes a work zone on its own - just the vendors, SR, and shops). Then I start making habitats and if they are close enough I put down 1 KH and 1 SR and that manages the habitats (usually 3-4 if they are not big). I usually assign 1 keeper and 1 mechanic to habitat work zones (and also always include the main "staff base" so they have access to research). I never assign vets and caretakers.

What I found very important is to train your staff to max. That way your one keeper can tend to 4 habitats alone. Same for your mechanic. It's much better to have 1 fully trained keeper than have 2 or even 3 per 4 habitats.