Is one way glass the only way to avoid stress?
- Thread starter Wrathloki
- Start date
Take a Look at the Security Heatmap to see the Radius of the Signs. You'll probably need multiple of those. Make also sure that your Animals have something to hide like a Shelter, some Rocks or Foliage where Guests can't see them. Then they should be stressed way less. You can also sink the Signs into the Ground if you don't want to see them every few Meters
Coverage is good, plenty of out of sight space. They just won’t go to the out of sight spaces.
Sometimes the Animals in the Game are just acting stupid and wait for 10 Hours until they decide to move. Did you already look on the traversable Area Heatmap to make sure that they can reach the Hiding Places? Screenshots of the Enclosure might make it easier to give some TipsCoverage is good, plenty of out of sight space. They just won’t go to the out of sight spaces.
They don't help. For some Reason it was a Rumor for a long Time but it was confirmed that they don't help with Stress
Really! That's definitely new information for me. Thank you. I could have sworn I had some stressed animals get less stress with them, but that could have been other factors.
Just my opinion then, but I feel like they should help reduce stress, as they would help the animal feel like they're in a more natural setting.
I gave up on the signs as I placed a lot and nothing seemed to work unless a security guard walked by.
Hiding spots are really the only way.
It was confirmed by a dev that ambiance speakers do not help reduce stress. I personally think they should change that.
Hiding spots are really the only way.
It was confirmed by a dev that ambiance speakers do not help reduce stress. I personally think they should change that.
The do-not disturb signs seem to help a little, but if a shy animal can simply see too many guests it freaks them out and that seems to be the stronger factor.
My personal workaround for animals not seeking shelter is moving the stressed animals across their habitat and into a hiding spot manually.
My personal workaround for animals not seeking shelter is moving the stressed animals across their habitat and into a hiding spot manually.
The Signs do help. They don't stop the Animals from getting stressed though but only slow it down which gives them more Time to hide
The best way to avoid animals getting stressed is to locate them somewhere far away from large crowds and keep the viewing areas and adjacent paths to a minimum. On top of that do all the other things: 1-way glass, plant, terrain and shelter coverage, as well as shut up signs. These things help when the crowds around the habitat aren’t too big, but once those get too large not even that’ll help with the noise and exposure.
So yeah, put them in a far corner so not as many people go there at once. putting shy species right next or close to the main path is the worst thing you can do. And you should obviously avoid elevated paths without a 1-way glass barrier at visitor height around it and walkthroughs as well, since those expose the animals just as much if not more.
So yeah, put them in a far corner so not as many people go there at once. putting shy species right next or close to the main path is the worst thing you can do. And you should obviously avoid elevated paths without a 1-way glass barrier at visitor height around it and walkthroughs as well, since those expose the animals just as much if not more.
Honestly this is the worst part of the game so far I think. It’s not particularly realistic and it has me wanting to completely avoid whole swathes of animals. I don’t even want to deal with the headache. IRL if the animal is stressed by the crowds they’ll actually try to avoid them instead of standing right in front of them until their stress is maxed out.
It may be annoying but it's actually one of the more 'realistic' complexities of zoos - how to allow humans good views of animals (particularly shy ones), while not making the animals themselves miserable. All the above advice is good - one way to encourage animals to move to sheltered areas is to put some enrichment there - food, a toy, etc. They tend not to go to sheltered areas just because they're stressed (this is a part where the game falls down).
The stress is triggered by sightlines. If the animal can see people, their stress increases (also, I think if guests can see them, not quite sure of the details of that mechanic). Signage, etc won't help that. What does help however is to not put animals in pits. They get exponentially more distressed if people are looking down on them all the time. Pits, though very common in the history of zoos, are slowly being phased out as they add to animal distress in real life too. The best option I've found is the reverse of pits. The habitat rises from front to back so the animal is higher than the guests for some of their exhibit. This also keeps them viewable as people can look up to see them climbing around (also, more interesting movement). Sort of like a terrace - the front area is level or slightly higher than the guest path, and it rises towards the back.
Also, not every square inch of habitat needs to be something the guests can look into. You can create viewing points by making plazas, building walls (this tends to only work sometimes), or solid barriers (that always works), that limit view to only a few specific points, so that much of the habitat is not open to constant oversight.
Finally, your screenshot shows alot of crowding. You can reduce guest crowding by having little side paths, or plazas or something where the view to the habitat is not directly bordering a main path - this will also help with guest movement. If you look at real zoos, you'll see similar - there are main paths and then little meanderings and loops that lead to viewpoints.
The stress is triggered by sightlines. If the animal can see people, their stress increases (also, I think if guests can see them, not quite sure of the details of that mechanic). Signage, etc won't help that. What does help however is to not put animals in pits. They get exponentially more distressed if people are looking down on them all the time. Pits, though very common in the history of zoos, are slowly being phased out as they add to animal distress in real life too. The best option I've found is the reverse of pits. The habitat rises from front to back so the animal is higher than the guests for some of their exhibit. This also keeps them viewable as people can look up to see them climbing around (also, more interesting movement). Sort of like a terrace - the front area is level or slightly higher than the guest path, and it rises towards the back.
Also, not every square inch of habitat needs to be something the guests can look into. You can create viewing points by making plazas, building walls (this tends to only work sometimes), or solid barriers (that always works), that limit view to only a few specific points, so that much of the habitat is not open to constant oversight.
Finally, your screenshot shows alot of crowding. You can reduce guest crowding by having little side paths, or plazas or something where the view to the habitat is not directly bordering a main path - this will also help with guest movement. If you look at real zoos, you'll see similar - there are main paths and then little meanderings and loops that lead to viewpoints.
That’s what I mean, that’s the part where this game is really annoying. If they let the animals run away before they hit low welfare and you end up with protestors it would be more realistic. You don’t end up with protestors in real life because an animal was in view for a little too long. It’s a small part of the game that kind of ruins the whole experience.
Actually I think it's pretty realistic as I can't remember real zoos putting overly shy animals right where the largest guest crowds will form, more like the contrary and what I suggested you do in my previous post. They also have signs to ask people to refrain from making too much noise when certain animals can easily be stressed because of it. So yeah, pretty realistic overall I think, it's all part of the planning.
It's not just that. It's the noise of large crowds as well. I had animals completely behind high concrete and brickwalls without any windows close by get stressed because a crowd was forming on the other side of the fence. So you gotta take that into consideration, too, not just the sightlines.
I don’t know what you mean, when you’re at a real zoo you can see all the animals, otherwise it would be pointless to have them in the zoo. If you have to cut off sight lines all the time then there’s no benefit to having them in my zoo. And also, IRL the animals will shy away from the viewing areas if they’re feeling stressed, you won’t have their welfare drop to 0 (don’t know how you’d quantify that IRL) and just stand there in the stress zone and end up with a bunch of protestors as a result.
I never said you can't see them and not put viewing areas there? I said you gotta think and plan where you put them and that's what is done in real zoos as well. They won't put a terribly shy animal into the middle of a huge plaza where large guest crowds are constanly forming. They'll put it in a space where some guests walk to specifically see this animal, not do anything else and tell them to keep quiet, as to not add needless stress for the animal. I really don't know how else to try to explain that because it's a very simple thing to do. And animals staying where they are until the get uncomfortable and leave in RL is exactly what's happening in the game. They do their thing until their stressmeter is too triggered and then they run off, which is pretty much 1:1 what you just described...
They stay until you get a low welfare alert and then run off to hide, and then you get protestors. That doesn’t happen IRL just because the animal didn’t run off soon enough.
No, when they're in less crowded areas they run off and their stress level recovers way before you get the constant low welfare alert and protesters. I only have that happen when the animal is constantly stressed, not when their stress hits 0% for a second or two and when a real zoo would display those animals where they're stressed 100% of the time they'd get people protesting against that as well. As has been said, it's one of the more realistic features in the game with how it works and all and you not agreeing with it doesn't make it any less so. There've been a whole lot of suggestions and tips of what to look out for when planning your zoo and how to deal with shy animals, take that into consideration and you won't have issues anymore.