Franchise Community Challenge Discussion

[Xrystal]

Deciding to get a bit more ambitious with this zoo
Just the land and sea sorted at this point, with a 10m wide path connecting where the animals will go
(water not clean yet, hopefully it will end up a bit bluer)

Think the real trick will be encouraging the guests to keep moving along the path:

• might need a few extra species filling in some of the gaps (sand cat and clouded leopard maybe)
• definitely going to need a transport ride connecting the two ends and probably the entrance too

View attachment 425568
Just now thinking I should have drawn the map sideways, so I could have had the entrance at the Cougars

And strange to realise that I think this is the first time in my life that I've drawn a map of the world!

First things first ... very cool map. I tried something like that for my World Zoo Collection but gave up rofl. Maybe one day rofl.
Secondly, you could move the Eurasian Lynx into Europe area and one of the African cats further north so guests can divert straight away with each path ( to Europe, to Africa, to Asia ) having their own info center stalls/shops.
Hopefully shops strategically placed will encourage them to move on. A transport station near those to encourage them to use it to go to the next area.

I haven't started mine yet. Trying to get my latest version of the A zoo completed to make sure I have storage space for all these cats. And yes, that means there are likely a bunch of Amur and African Leopards appearing on the market while I am working on it rofl.

 

[tigertimb]

Yep, drawing the map was a bit painful - soil brush to draw an outline, push brush to make the coast and then flatten brush to join the seabed to the coasts
All whilst not being able to zoom out and having an annoying white box displaying me the cost right where I was trying to work

I had similar thoughts - so will plan lots of shops along the route, as well as exhibits and a few smaller habitats - the badger being the one non-cat
Plan has progressed to look like this currently:

But like you - still tidying up the last zoo and clearing out the trade centre, which does allow me to hop between the two so I can buy up Sea Lions and Jaguars and seed the new zoo with some of the 8.5M from the other one

 

[senginous]

Yep, drawing the map was a bit painful - soil brush to draw an outline, push brush to make the coast and then flatten brush to join the seabed to the coasts
All whilst not being able to zoom out and having an annoying white box displaying me the cost right where I was trying to work

I had similar thoughts - so will plan lots of shops along the route, as well as exhibits and a few smaller habitats - the badger being the one non-cat
Plan has progressed to look like this currently:
View attachment 425584
But like you - still tidying up the last zoo and clearing out the trade centre, which does allow me to hop between the two so I can buy up Sea Lions and Jaguars and seed the new zoo with some of the 8.5M from the other one

Bit late for this advice but if you decide to do something similar in the future and aren't on console, you could try turning a picture of a world map into a .tif file rather than drawing it by hand. Looks great though, so creative for a community challenge breeding zoo

A boat ride would be great to fill up the water portion!

 

[tigertimb]

Bit late for this advice but if you decide to do something similar in the future and aren't on console, you could try turning a picture of a world map into a .tif file rather than drawing it by hand. Looks great though, so creative for a community challenge breeding zoo

A boat ride would be great to fill up the water portion!

Thanks; I knew there was a way to use an image to generate a map, but had absolutely no idea of how to do it - so just stuck with what I knew

But I'll investigate for next time: I like the idea of using a real map, but no way will I do it manually again, particularly the low achievement threshold of "been there, done that"

 

[Xrystal]

Thanks; I knew there was a way to use an image to generate a map, but had absolutely no idea of how to do it - so just stuck with what I knew

But I'll investigate for next time: I like the idea of using a real map, but no way will I do it manually again, particularly the low achievement threshold of "been there, done that"

I used the tif file route for my old South America attempt. Still hand drawn in my case but as was suggested a map file converted to a tif file will likely work well enough. But as you can see from the in game view, I definitely needs some more practise before I use it for real rofl.

 

[tigertimb]

Oooh; thank you - will definitely give that a try, but for now the key will be not to get distrac....

 

[tigertimb]

....ted

Absolutely fascinating, but a bit too spiky for a zoo
And at 9fps without any buildings or animals, it might have other struggles too!

Would need a decent amount of editing to scale it down and simplify - but another day.

Sorry - a bit off topic, unless someone else fancies a go for the challenge: I got my image from here: Tangram Heightmapper

 

[Xrystal]

Very basic layout for my zoo. This currently takes up half the zoo but that will be too big for the number of habitats here so will likely shrink it down to take up just a quarter of the zoo if not less. The blue line is an above ground monorail or train that runs the length of the zoo with stations near zone paths. Each zone ideally will have a main guest area for them to congregate between habitat visits. With each animal for the most part single pairs with their babies the habitats will be generally small. And with the Ocelot and Coyote coming soon to add to the Americas areas it fills the areas out a bit.
I'll probably add above ground transport across the 'oceans' but keep staff within their zones.

 

[tigertimb]

Looks good and I like how the monorail forms the trunk connecting all the branches
We're going to be similar in animals, but I think your entrance is better placed - just watch out for the excessive tariffs

 

[Xrystal]

Looks good and I like how forms the trunk connecting all the branches
We're going to be similar in animals, but I think your entrance is better placed - just watch out for the excessive tariffs

Oh yeah I know .. it will probably be a lot more compact than this shows .. I hate those space tariffs. I'll use the maximum size needed for the animals habitats as a guide to the area. So, the Asia and Africa areas will probably be the largest in area. Especially with the lion having a harem and the extra space that needs.
I used the Felidae chart here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felidae which is interesting when you compare what animals we have on that list in the game ..
Apart from the Bay Cat sub branch we have at least one animal in the Felinae sub branches, and almost all of the animals in the Panterinae ( big cat ) branch.

 

[Xrystal]

Well ended up with this as a starting point. The transport loop meant I had to do at least one habitat at each stopping point to give me a gauge on distance. And as you can see down to practically nothing with just pathing, transport, invis barrier habitats, water cleaners and a few info centers scattered. Will have to get loans out and get minimal staff buildings until the staff list grows and hope I have/get enough animals to populate them one habitat at a time and still make some money.

 

[tigertimb]

Hmmm - just got my Jaguars settled and this happened:

The concept of a world zoo breaks down a bit when you have to pick a single climate, but this still felt unlucky having picked temperate

Cougars going in now, and I'll add the badgers to Europe in the distance and then think about letting guests in.
The boat trip up and down the med and back and forth over the Atlantic gives me a bit of the loop which might keep guests happy as I start to work on Africa and then Asia - boat seen here just after rounding a snowy Cuba
(Might need to hop back to the other zoo for some cash though - it may be a while before I break even )

 

[Xrystal]

Just set up the Jaguars and opened the doors ( need to recover that 50k loan rofl ). -33k so far rofl but only 3 years left of the loan so hopefully the loan payment and interest disappearing after then mean that I'll be making money to start building up the areas nearest the entrance.

 

[Fatiguedcoffey]

All right guys bear with me but I'm new at this. What's your breeding strategy? Also how many females as well for one male?
I get overwhelmed and rage quite haha.

 

[Xrystal]

All right guys bear with me but I'm new at this. What's your breeding strategy? Also how many females as well for one male?
I get overwhelmed and rage quite haha.

When I was starting out I just played my zoos as per normal with no special strategy involved, and some of my animals gave credit. It is a game after all. The challenge is just something I do now after 5 years.

As a veteran challenge player ( although there are some more serious about it than me ) it changes per challenge.

For this challenge though, bear in mind that all but the lion are 1 male, 1 female breeding couples, with the lion having a female harem for the 1 male.
It is one of the harder challenges, so might be challenging for new players to dive into them.
This one is a harder challenge because it is not just the case of babies being born, but they have to be released once they get to 5*. And to get to 5* they need to be well looked after and preferably a longer lifespan to have time to reach 5* as the stars increase slowly over time depending on the animals status.

Birth challenges are the easiest to do so might be something to look out for if you want to wet your toes in a challenge

My personal suggestion for you would be to build a zoo with a few big cats in and just play as per normal. Once the challenge starts hopefully some of them will be 5* and ready to be released. We still have a few days to go before it starts so you have time to set things up, like we're doing.

 

[tigertimb]

My personal suggestion for you would be to build a zoo with a few big cats in and just play as per normal. Once the challenge starts hopefully some of them will be 5* and ready to be released. We still have a few days to go before it starts so you have time to set things up, like we're doing.

The alternative is just to grind the numbers and maybe stick to just the Lions - but I'd agree with Xrystal: have fun playing the game whilst doing the challenge

And the added difficulty with this challenge is that the cats cost a lot to feed, particularly a pride of Lions - I've had a zoo with 15 different animals and my Lions cost more to feed than all the other animals combined, as well as all the staff wages

Breeding wise, I like to keep two habitats for each animal, and in this case most of the cats have variants: ie a pride of Lions and a pride of white Lions; black jaguars etc
Swapping babies between them at birth, doesn't upset them, but in a lot of cases does speed up when the mother is ready to breed again
And it helps to avoid inbreeding - babies from one habitat will be able to mate with the animals from the other when they mature

You can see 3 pairs of enclosures here: (but have decided I need to add the Caracals near the port in N. Africa before I've got a nice loop and will let the guests in)

(I've somewhat cheated - bought animals for cash in an existing zoo, and sold them here, to give me seed money, so my building isn't slowed by lack of funds)

Just remember to have fun whilst doing the challenge

 

[DarthQuell]

All right guys bear with me but I'm new at this. What's your breeding strategy? Also how many females as well for one male?
I get overwhelmed and rage quite haha.

Depends on the animal. If it's a solitary animal (meaning that I can only have 2 at most), then I simply just put them together.
If it's an animal that lives in groups, I check the breeding habits:

• Promiscuous - they'll breed with everything, whether they're relayed or not. For control, I have 1 male and a few females. Once the offspring come, I sell/release all the male offspring and keep the females. Sometimes I'll use contraceptives on the female offspring to avoid inbreeding, other times I'll replace the male with new blood. Depends on what I'm looking for
• Polygamous - similar to Promiscuous, but doesn't require so much micromanaging
• Monogamous - it's easy to control. All you'd need is several males and females. They won't steal mates since they'll only breed with 1

Look in the Zoopedia at the animal info to see their breeding habits

 

[tigertimb]

• Monogamous - it's easy to control. All you'd need is several males and females. They won't steal mates since they'll only breed with 1

Look in the Zoopedia at the animal info to see their breeding habits

Watch out for Monogamous a little bit - for some animals it seems to mean 1 mate at a time, and maybe that's one per season?
For others, it explicitly states that they mate for life (or until their current mate dies, is released or is traded away)

But I noticed with the African Penguins, give them a single choice of mate and they're very indecisive; give them choice and they seem to choose quicker (until next year)
(some of that may have been my imagination, but it was a consistent enough pattern to mean that I introduced new penguins in batches of 4)

 

[Xrystal]

Watch out for Monogamous a little bit - for some animals it seems to mean 1 mate at a time, and maybe that's one per season?
For others, it explicitly states that they mate for life (or until their current mate dies, is released or is traded away)

But I noticed with the African Penguins, give them a single choice of mate and they're very indecisive; give them choice and they seem to choose quicker (until next year)
(some of that may have been my imagination, but it was a consistent enough pattern to mean that I introduced new penguins in batches of 4)

Yeah, I've noticed that with the penguins as well. Which makes it awkward when i am adding them as couples .. takes a long while before I can put the next couple in.

 

[DarthQuell]

But I noticed with the African Penguins, give them a single choice of mate and they're very indecisive; give them choice and they seem to choose quicker (until next year)
(some of that may have been my imagination, but it was a consistent enough pattern to mean that I introduced new penguins in batches of 4)

Never knew that. I always put them in even groups, so I never truly experienced that