Let me see your successful zoos!

[PixelFlorist]

So! I've been binging youtube videos, trying to learn how to build effectively, and lay things out so that they work. Admittedly, I haven't had much success. As soon as I try to go beyond "a path with enclosures on either side" and try to make things a bit fancier, I start drowning in debt, loosing guests, and all around bombing it. I would absolutely love to see your zoo layouts, and hear about what you did to keep them running smoothly. Show off a bit! I'm sure it'll be a good learning experience.

Thanks!

 

[Neerolyte]

This is my first and only franchise zoo. My trick is to really pack everything in and keep everything close together so there aren't much walking needed for the staff to do their jobs. Also I didn't use any blueprints.

https://imgur.com/a/sZDHCwG

Source: https://imgur.com/a/sZDHCwG

 

[TheGaijin87]

okay so i am doing some kind of arctic adventureland but because its cold (duh) everything is in big indoor areas who are connected with hallways. i got a few pictures for you.

the building so far took me about 5 hours. and its running for about 2 ingame years now with just minor changes needed regarding animal feeding, as the turtles are just too slow to reach their food... :-/

Here we go. First a complete overlook (the small left building is the entrance with info and the 3 merch stands. the next bigger one is the dining / pause area and the big one in the back is the first habitat building (5300 pieces of walls/roofs)

Here is the entrance indoor:

And here is the dining area:

and here are a few indoor shots: (i got around 140 animals so far):

i have 3 workzones in that habitat with 3 complete facility houses in the backend. everythings working relatively smooth so far. got 4000 guests in it.

 

[aberdonian]

I haven’t yet got photos of my zoo because in all fairness it’s very basic and not themed much. How ever I could definitely go back now and theme away freely. I currently have a flamingo circle as you come in, which then splits off into 3 direction, 2 grizzle bear habitats, Bengal tiger habitat, red and ring tailed lemur habitat and a zebra/giraffe mixed one. My zoo is symmetrical and habitats are all next to each other but it’s working, I have the zoo full of donation boxes and atms and I haven’t needed to even look at the money. To the point I hired 10 mechanics and vets and places research buildings and workshops to just research everything fast, then once I have done that I can sell them and get rid of staff to save money. But it really does seem the more donation boxes you have the more money you get and atms make people stay.

 

[Kai]

Honestly, I feel like I'd need to play on sandbox and remove the guests to have the freedom to make a nice zoo. I envy anyone can make pretty + franchise work!
One day I'll have to make a nice looking 'non-grid' zoo in sandbox, but it seems a bit pointless when I can't use my franchise animals - maybe when I breed a perfect franchise animal I can 'allow' myself to use it in sandbox.

Afraid mine just end up looking like glorifed versions of Wolfen's prison camp, but hey they work and stay in profit. Amazed the guests are still happy as they have no food/drink stands.
They'd just start throwing litter everywhere, and I can't be bothered to deal with it - no food/drink/bins for bad guests! Suppose I could decorate it up, but I'll probably rip the whole thing down after the bear event.

Spoiler: Prison camp V2

 

[LN]

okay so i am doing some kind of arctic adventureland but because its cold (duh) everything is in big indoor areas who are connected with hallways. i got a few pictures for you.

the building so far took me about 5 hours. and its running for about 2 ingame years now with just minor changes needed regarding animal feeding, as the turtles are just too slow to reach their food... :-/

Question:

How are the framerates with all that glass?
I heard glass can be quite taxing on the CPU/GPU.

Besides that, looks great, and nice idea!

 

[Averalorax]

I don't know how you define successful. My zoo isn't anything to look at, no themes or anthing fancy. Just a main path with habitats on either side, then a t intersection with more habitats. but it is successful. Raking in money and enough animals so that I can make some CC, not a lot, but some. Most of my habitats are zoned with 2 (or 3) keepers per zone, and no more than 3 habitats/exhibits.

I just started SLOW with 2 habitats, until I needed the tigers for the community challenge and then built that as the 3rd. Yes, I was losing money to start, but took a small loan and watched every penny until that loan was paid off and I started making a profit.

Now that I have the financial stability, I still have a low number of habitats14(?) and 2 exhibits, but I currently haven't been having time to really play with my zoo other than a quick check in (1/2 hr or so) each night.

 

[TheGaijin87]

Question:

How are the framerates with all that glass?
I heard glass can be quite taxing on the CPU/GPU.

Besides that, looks great, and nice idea!

im running between 40 and 70 fps depending on where i look.
i got a rtx2060 gpu and play on 1440p with ultra settings. sometimes the framerutter stutters a bit for a second but thats ok. mostly when im turning into areas with many guests

 

[PixelFlorist]

@TheGaijin87 That's incredible! How did you get it up to that size, and that many guests, financially? Did you plan out the entire zoo at once, or did you add on as you went?

@aberdonian That's a good tip about the ATM's, I'll have to see if that works for me. I usually put 2 donation boxes per enclosure- should I add more?

@Kai my zoos look pretty much like that too. I'm definitely trying to figure out how to make pretty + Successful happen-I think Gaijin pulled it off pretty well! I haven't even gone into sandbox yet to dabble with just making something look nice- It might help me plan something a bit nicer.

Thank you all for your feedback! I definitely need to practice building some more, and am thinking I might start outlining my zoo plans with the terrain paints or something, to make sure everything actually works together. I'll start paying closer attention to guests, and try yo max out my star rating, too.

 

[TheGaijin87]

@TheGaijin87 That's incredible! How did you get it up to that size, and that many guests, financially? Did you plan out the entire zoo at once, or did you add on as you went?

@aberdonian That's a good tip about the ATM's, I'll have to see if that works for me. I usually put 2 donation boxes per enclosure- should I add more?

@Kai my zoos look pretty much like that too. I'm definitely trying to figure out how to make pretty + Successful happen-I think Gaijin pulled it off pretty well! I haven't even gone into sandbox yet to dabble with just making something look nice- It might help me plan something a bit nicer.

Thank you all for your feedback! I definitely need to practice building some more, and am thinking I might start outlining my zoo plans with the terrain paints or something, to make sure everything actually works together. I'll start paying closer attention to guests, and try yo max out my star rating, too.

i did make a small 4 habitat zoo for earning money and cc and then fast forward because franchise mode is rubbish mode and you cant take research over to a new zoo. so thats basically the start for every zoo i do. and then wait 50 to 100 years until you got a bit of money and all research done. then delete everything and then start over building how you want your zoo to look like.
yes its ty but thats how frontier wants us to do it.
and now i got a nice looking zoo but guess what... i cant play it and admire its beauty or even think about expanding, although i only have used up maybe 1/8th of the available space because i have to play on pause mode. then i can unpause for 30 seconds up to 2 minutes and then i have to pause again for 5 to 10 minutes, checking why some stupid animal is hungry again or thirsty (it usually is because it needs 2 years to run up to his food or water even when standing right besides it) or to get rid of dead animals and sell the dozens of newborn exhibit animals or matured habitat animals.
the thing is the building was fun. but playing is not. thats what this game is. a bad piece of crap and the dev doesnt give a single fk about it.

to the money aspect: i have about 30 vendors, 4 security guards, 12 caretakers, 3 vets and 16 keepers and all are 5 star and im still making money. at the start i made more as the guests where only looking at animals and spending for donations but after a few years (lol) they got hungry and checked out the dining area and im making less money as they spend less on food etc than on donations. still slightly positive though