Hints and Tips - Your little bits of advice

[kiilljoy908]

I need to try pressing L when I get home tonight. I'm excited to see what it does! I've waited until day to build on more than one occasion already! Related to the guest viewpoint comment above:

Organize your paths like a city map. I read a thread just after release that talked about city planners. I have 8m main routes that connect different areas of the zoo together, thinner paths within sets of habitats with view points, and a still thinner path that service individual habitats. I use three different path textures for each of them, and I never put animal viewing points on the main routes. I have relatively few refunds, and, as a side benefit, my computer is happier because the game doesn't have to spend so many cycles looking at the pathfinding.

 

[PeppyPepp]

Build viewing platforms - If you have habitats on both side of the path it's useful to build simple viewing platforms (it doesn't have to be huge, just so that guests have to move away from the main path to view the animal) because it doesn't clutter your "main" path. I found this very useful.

 

[kiilljoy908]

Just because it is not working for you, does not mean it is a bug - this game is a lot more complex and unforgiving than some people expect, 90% of the 'bugs' I have helped people with are actually user error.

I've been wondering about this...but most of the time it seems like people aren't posting enough information to figure out if there's a problem in the zoo or with the game. The game is really opaque about the "rules" of the management side of the game, and I think that the real reason so many people are getting so frustrated with the game. Even when someone posts that they "suddenly" are having issues, I have this sneaking suspicion that many did change something, but didn't realize the impact it would have, or the zoo hit a guest/animal/employee threshold and an underlying issue that wasn't an issue before, but now is.

My first franchise I set up as a breeder zoo, and for the longest time I put no shops in at all. It got to a size, and I finally caved and added a small food court. It was immediately mobbed, I got tons of trash, the zoo was completely unable to deal with it, and it started to tank. Unhappy people, vandalism, pandemonium. I ended up deleting the food court, but by that time I had the starting CC I wanted, so I let my animals live out their lives, and effectively closed the zoo.

I've been very careful and organized about how I layout my current zoo (Peneberry Park, I put up a reddit post a week ago if you want to see), and I haven't had any of the problems that other people have been describing. I've got a couple habitats that are riding the edge (I get a notification about cleanliness, but when I go to call the keeper, that keeper is already in the habitat finishing the feeding, and gets to the cleaning directly), but other than that I've had very few issues with keepers, caretakers, mechanics, and refunds.

I'm having some frustrations with vendors right now, but it feels more like I just don't have the management and staff hut placement worked out correctly more than I think it's a bug. I could probably fix it, but I'm somewhere between I can't be bothered and I'd have to do some broader structural changes to the zoo to actually fix it.

This probably belongs in a different thread, but I've also had cause to wonder in my current zoo if the guests have a similar but different and hidden "novelty" stat. Guests will swarm whenever there's a new animal in the zoo, and it seems like if you don't add a new habitat for a long enough time attendance starts to drop. This happened to me in my current zoo when I was transitioning between the habitats I built to start the zoo and starting building up the way I actually wanted the zoo to look. I was doing a lot of building and terrain modification but not adding any animals. I started losing money, and had to scramble a little to get back in the green.

 

[MrTux]

Maybe this is more of an advanced advice, but I just found out some interesting things regarding where visitors can't see anything but still try to (and complain about the view) and where visitors can't see anything and don't even try (and therefore don't complain):
If a wall or barrier blocks the guests view between the path and the outside barrier of the habitat, guests will not try to look into the habitat and they will not complain about the view being bad.
If a wall or barrier blocks the guests view between habitat wall/barrier and animal (so the wall or barrier blocking the view is inside of the habitat) or if a non-transparent wall or barrier is between path and animal in a walk-through habitat, the guests will try to see the animal, fail, and complain. But if that non-transparent barrier or wall inside of the habitat is directly next to the path, the guests won't try and don't complain.
Wall outside of the habitat, a bit away from the path (distance of the wall to the path does not matter): Visitors don't try to look into the enclosure and don't complain.
Wall inside of the habitat, a bit away from the path: Visitors try to look into the enclosure, can't see the animal and do complain.
Wall inside of the habitat, next to the path: Visitors don't try to look into the enclosure and don't complain.

All of this started because I tried to find out why visitors liked a concrete wall more than a panda. Full "research" and a trick that feels like a cheat is in this other thread.
Tip 2: The modern glass wall 2 and 3 are non-transparent for visitors. This is a bug. But modern glass wall 1 is transparent.

 

[MrTux]

This probably belongs in a different thread, but I've also had cause to wonder in my current zoo if the guests have a similar but different and hidden "novelty" stat.

The novelty stat definitely exists, I'm just not sure if it affects over-all visitor numbers or just where the visitors go. If you build a bunch of new animals in only one place the visitors will swarm to it and leave the older parts of the park almost empty. If you space out your new habitats (like build one on the left of your current park, then one on the right, etc) your park will be more evenly visited.

 

[kiilljoy908]

The novelty stat definitely exists, I'm just not sure if it affects over-all visitor numbers or just where the visitors go. If you build a bunch of new animals in only one place the visitors will swarm to it and leave the older parts of the park almost empty. If you space out your new habitats (like build one on the left of your current park, then one on the right, etc) your park will be more evenly visited.

Oh, I am absolutely already doing that. As the zoo has gotten bigger and my confidence in the building tools has grown, I have started building complexes of habitats (2 or 3 at a time) to different regions of the park, but adding animals one habitat at a time, then letting the zoo run a little bit to make sure there isn't a problem with the new habitat before moving on to the next one.

 

[Guitarmike47]

My first franchise I set up as a breeder zoo, and for the longest time I put no shops in at all. It got to a size, and I finally caved and added a small food court. It was immediately mobbed, I got tons of trash, the zoo was completely unable to deal with it, and it started to tank. Unhappy people, vandalism, pandemonium.

Food courts frequently have the same effect on me IRL.

 

[Dr4gon]

Food courts frequently have the same effect on me IRL.

Brings me visions of Black Friday

 

[Jaggid Edje]

I got a new one that I thought to share; it took me a lot of playtime before I realized it:

Exhibits and shops do NOT need to be connected to the path to function. The game auto-snaps them both, making you think you need to make these connections, but doing them can often just jink up your carefully laid out paths that look so nice around them with the building you put them in. So just...don't make the connection.
People will still use shops if there is a path directly in front of them (such as if you used grid path layout using the shop as the grid) and people will still look in exhibits and enjoy them from a path that is near...and not even right on top of...the exhibit. I've left as much as a 2m space between the path and the exhibit and they still were used and enjoyed.
Edit: Regarding exhibits, I do think you need at least one path to get right up to it (though not necessarily connected) for your keeper to do their job with them...just thought I'd clarify that since I mention the 2m space I've left around them. I always get one path tight to it on at least one side for the keeper....although I'm pretty sure one time I while I was still working on it but had the game time moving, the keeper stepped off into the grass to do it.

 

[Dr4gon]

Pro tip from experience: When your income is low, and you are running a loss, don't let the game keep running. Especially when you are taking a loan. Your loan is gone before you know it, and so will be your zoo. Spend your loan first and hope it works.

 

[AlexVonHumbug]

i have several guest, that are walking in front of the foodstores, the drinkstores and the atm, but dont buy anything. they say, they have not enough money to buy anything, but refuse to use the atms, even if i put another atm or put the guest somewhere else. on top of that, they are still happy enough to not leave the zoo, even if their food and drink demands are very low red. how to solve this? is there an option to remove all the broken guest or all guest? should i set the lions and tigers free to clean the shoping area?

 

[Jaggid Edje]

i have several guest, that are walking in front of the foodstores, the drinkstores and the atm, but dont buy anything. they say, they have not enough money to buy anything, but refuse to use the atms, even if i put another atm or put the guest somewhere else. on top of that, they are still happy enough to not leave the zoo, even if their food and drink demands are very low red. how to solve this? is there an option to remove all the broken guest or all guest? should i set the lions and tigers free to clean the shoping area?

That is very rare in my game as long as there are enough ATMs without long lines. I put ATMs...everywhere. I'm greedy. But, some visitors just aren't inclined to make further withdrawals. Perhaps there is a random element generated for each visitor regarding how much they have available in the bank. LOL

Instead of wanting to get rid of them, be glad you have bled every last cent of their discretionary spending money and give them a balloon for free when they finally do leave the zoo.

 

[Dr4gon]

Are you charging them for use of the ATM? Many guests hate that.

 

[NL_Mutso]

i have several guest, that are walking in front of the foodstores, the drinkstores and the atm, but dont buy anything. they say, they have not enough money to buy anything, but refuse to use the atms, even if i put another atm or put the guest somewhere else. on top of that, they are still happy enough to not leave the zoo, even if their food and drink demands are very low red. how to solve this? is there an option to remove all the broken guest or all guest? should i set the lions and tigers free to clean the shoping area?

-Check your shop prizes, maybe you accidently raised them too much ?..
-Are your atm's powered ?
-Do you charge people for using ATM's

You can just close your zoo temporarily, on your zoo overview page. You have to take a big hit in your finances though..

 

[AlexVonHumbug]

-Check your shop prizes, maybe you accidently raised them too much ?..
-Are your atm's powered ?
-Do you charge people for using ATM's

You can just close your zoo temporarily, on your zoo overview page. You have to take a big hit in your finances though..

as an reply i could just post my original post again, but that would be a little bit cheeky. yes power on, no, pirizes low, no charge for atms. its a not working game mechanic, a KI or maybe a pathfinding issue again, but i wanted to be a bit more "friendly" and less direct this time. and we are talking about a distance of some 10 to 12 in game meters.

 

[AlexVonHumbug]

That is very rare in my game as long as there are enough ATMs without long lines. I put ATMs...everywhere. I'm greedy. But, some visitors just aren't inclined to make further withdrawals. Perhaps there is a random element generated for each visitor regarding how much they have available in the bank. LOL

Instead of wanting to get rid of them, be glad you have bled every last cent of their discretionary spending money and give them a balloon for free when they finally do leave the zoo.

but i am used to turn red and yellow bars into green ones, thats the whole point isnt it ? ^^

 

[Jaggid Edje]

but i am used to turn red and yellow bars into green ones, thats the whole point isnt it ? ^^

There's an old adage, you cannot please everyone. You must be younger if you actually still have the mindset to try... LOL

But seriously, there are always going to be some unhappy people in your zoo, no matter how good you design it. Make your goal keeping overall happiness high such that there is no vandalism and no refunds rather than worry about a few specific individuals, that's as good as it gets.

Someone else brought up a good point though, if your ATMs are not free, that is an issue. Some people are not willing to pay to use them. And others simply are so broke they can't afford to use them. I learned to set them as free in one of the early career maps where I set them to a mere 15 cents....then noticed some guests were so broke they could not use 'em. They aren't profitable enough to be worth setting a price on anyway, and if you prevent people from withdrawing more money to spend...charging to use them actually leads to a loss of profit.

 

[AlexVonHumbug]

my first high end computer had floppy disks, is this old enough?

 

[Moosegun]

my first high end computer had floppy disks, is this old enough?

Pah, mine had cassette tapes......

 

[Guitarmike47]

Pah, mine had cassette tapes......

Commodore PET, baby! Did it look like this? Sounds like you're old school like me, Moosegun!