"My time at the habitat was okay"

[Werewolfmack]

Right to the point: What are the factors for people enjoying a habitat and exhibit? I have over a dozen animals for guests to visit, both habitat and exhibit critters. The tortoise hab, right by the zoo entrance, is the only one that gets consistently great reviews from guests. That is, guests always say "I had a great time viewing the Herby Fully Tortoise habitat!" and it's in the green, while every other hab and exhibit is in the neutral yellow and everyone thinks it was simply "okay". I've checked around and guests seem generally pleased with the views, lots of green thoughts on animal views in the other exhibits, and education rating for the zoo is high.

My theories:
-Decoration and scenery outside the exhibit
-Properly spaced education boards and speakers
-Animals are close to the viewing windows
-Guests aren't too hot or cold when they're at the viewing zone
-Only one viewing zone per enclosure? I heard this mentioned on a thread on reddit.
-Animals must be healthy and happy?

I am not sure about these because my guests enjoy the tortoise habitat even though the tort's plant happiness is close to 0 (since my mod broke that let me fill all habitats with infinite plants). Guests will think "there are too many plants in this enclosure" but still walk away thinking they had a great time with the tortoises.

Edit: Just found a guest who had a negative/red view of a monkey but actually had a green/positive time visiting the monkey habitat. Hm.

 

[Dezessete]

It's even more confusing with the exhibtis. I have a big tropical house with a lot of exhibits. All have the same setup with a scenery rating of 100% and education signs close by. Still the guests enjoy the exhibit for the yellow anaconda but the exhibit for the poisen dart frog is just mediocre.

 

[Hanged_Stan]

I've been curious about this too. In my franchise zoo, the most consistently well-received enclosure has been my walkthrough peafowl habitat of all things. On the other hand the habitats that let you get within petting distance of a giraffe and see into an African wild dog den are only okay. I have a feeling that this new feature may be a tiny bit screwy.

 

[Nioell]

Well, this might also have something to do with the fact that visitors tend to stand 5m away from the brickwall side of the habitat to "view" the animals and then complain that they can't see them...well you actually might be able to see them if you walked around to the actual viewing area instead of trying to look through a brickwall

 

[Dienstbier]

Hi,
I also noticed the behavior of the guests that they are not really satisfied.

I suspect it is because the animal where you are watching is far away, even if its companion is dancing around in front of the visitor's nose.

At least I saw this with the hippos. I don't know what it's like after the update. But at least it was a few weeks ago.

Have a nice day
Gabi

 

[NZFanatic]

My hippo habitat has an underwater viewing window and a raised viewing platform. Guests use both, but I have noticed that they head to the underwater viewing window to see the hippos on land because the hippos are technically 'closer' to that area, even though they aren't in the water. Guests then of course complain about a poor viewing experience. I can't speak for why guests try and look through solid objects, such as brick walls, building pieces, or rocks, but they are always drawn to the spot where the animal is closest, because their programming tells them that it's their best chance at seeing the animal close up.

In practice this doesn't always work, unfortunately.

 

[Wistala]

I always try and provide my guests with multiply location where they can watch the same animals, yet they always seem to pick the location where the animals are not current at, and then complain about the view. I'm like "How about you move to where they are at then? How is this my fault?" XD

 

[Dezessete]

I don't think visibility plays that much of a role here. I just noticed that one of my guests had a great view at the Tigers but his time at the Tiger habitat was still just mediocre.

 

[Nioell]

I always try and provide my guests with multiply location where they can watch the same animals, yet they always seem to pick the location where the animals are not current at, and then complain about the view. I'm like "How about you move to where they are at then? How is this my fault?" XD

You mean like this very intelligent specimen I just found in my zoo? Yeah man, I'm sure the indoor stable viewing area is the best place to watch the Giraffe that is currently all the way over there, at the other end of the outdoor habitat...

I don't think visibility plays that much of a role here. I just noticed that one of my guests had a great view at the Tigers but his time at the Tiger habitat was still just mediocre.

I think it's a combination of severyl things and the visibility certainly plays a part in it as well, can't have a great time if you can't see the animals after all. But stuff like education, scenery etc. goes into it as well.

 

[Wistala]

You mean like this very intelligent specimen I just found in my zoo? Yeah man, I'm sure the indoor stable viewing area is the best place to watch the Giraffe that is currently all the way over there, at the other end of the outdoor habitat...

View attachment 172231



I think it's a combination of severyl things and the visibility certainly plays a part in it as well, can't have a great time if you can't see the animals after all. But stuff like education, scenery etc. goes into it as well.

Oh don't get me started, they do it way too often. Shame you can't drop them straight in front of the animals.
"How's the view now?"

 

[Dezessete]

I think it's a combination of severyl things and the visibility certainly plays a part in it as well, can't have a great time if you can't see the animals after all. But stuff like education, scenery etc. goes into it as well.

It's funny that this guest history was supposed to make the guest thoughts more comprehensible but it actually gives even more questions. When I look at the game it seems that the guest thoughts and the guest history contradict each other quite often.

Also how do you determine the scenery of a habitat? Is it just the buildings around the habitat since those have a scenery rating? What if you don't have additional buildings close to a habitat? Does that mean that the time spend at the habitat is always just okay?

 

[NZFanatic]

It's funny that this guest history was supposed to make the guest thoughts more comprehensible but it actually gives even more questions. When I look at the game it seems that the guest thoughts and the guest history contradict each other quite often.

Also how do you determine the scenery of a habitat? Is it just the buildings around the habitat since those have a scenery rating? What if you don't have additional buildings close to a habitat? Does that mean that the time spend at the habitat is always just okay?

I suspect it's supposed to be determined by items such as statues and props, or ambient speakers, as well as foliage; basically anything you would consider decorative. The more you have, the better the overall 'scenery'. I haven't tested this myself but that would be my guess.

 

[Dezessete]

I suspect it's supposed to be determined by items such as statues and props, or ambient speakers, as well as foliage; basically anything you would consider decorative. The more you have, the better the overall 'scenery'. I haven't tested this myself but that would be my guess.

The thing is, I have this all around my habitats. My exhibits all have a scenary rating of 100% but the time spend there is still just mediocre.

I also have a guess that the animal genes and rating also play a huge role. That's the only explanation I have for the exhibits.

 

[NZFanatic]

The thing is, I have this all around my habitats. My exhibits all have a scenary rating of 100% but the time spend there is still just mediocre.

I also have a guess that the animal genes and rating also play a huge role. That's the only explanation I have for the exhibits.

Maybe it's determined by 100% welfare? I honestly have no clue, I'm spitballing. Frankly I play the game with welfare turned off in order to build as realistically as possible (which also means not entirely worrying about guest reactions - the majority of zoo visitors go to see animals; sure, the scenic stuff and theming is fun to look at and immerse yourself in, but really you're there for the animals; a good enough view should be enough to keep people happy), so I'm no expert on guest mechanics.

 

[marcnesiumHH]

Hello @Chante Goodman, could you be so kind to ask your colleagues how to get a 'green' rating for the 'time at the habitat'? A lot of testing by different users did not reveal a pattern here and the game (help) itself does not tell something about it? Would be much appreciated!

 

[marcnesiumHH]

seems like that devs gonna keep this secret for themselves, unfortunately.

 

[Chante Goodman]

Hayo! Just reviving this thread with the purpose of providing an official response (as I know people also like to search things on the forums, this could prove helpful in the future too)!

So, guest thoughts are snapshots in time, while the guest opinion of a habitat accumulates over time. Since a guest may take in an animal over multiple separate views of a habitat, it puts out multiple thoughts which start off low or medium, then progress to high.
Planet Zoo does not collate the recent thought feed for the guests, but it does provide you their overall thoughts on animals in the history tab. We definitely recommend checking out the history tab for a better understanding of your guests opinions!
This isn't something we are expecting to change, as we aren’t sure of how we might approach a change for this without affecting, or even giving the appearance of causing bugs within the economy.

 

[Dezessete]

Hayo! Just reviving this thread with the purpose of providing an official response (as I know people also like to search things on the forums, this could prove helpful in the future too)!

So, guest thoughts are snapshots in time, while the guest opinion of a habitat accumulates over time. Since a guest may take in an animal over multiple separate views of a habitat, it puts out multiple thoughts which start off low or medium, then progress to high.
Planet Zoo does not collate the recent thought feed for the guests, but it does provide you their overall thoughts on animals in the history tab. We definitely recommend checking out the history tab for a better understanding of your guests opinions!
This isn't something we are expecting to change, as we aren’t sure of how we might approach a change for this without affecting, or even giving the appearance of causing bugs within the economy.

And how is the value determined? Right now it sounds like it increases with time, because it starts low and get's higher. Is that right? So the longer a guest stays the better the opinion? If yes, what makes a guest stay? Is it just visibility or are there other factors also playing a role?
If it's just visibility, why do exhibits have different values. Shouldn't they all provide good visibility, given that you can pretty much see every animal from every angle, especially with bigger groups / larger animals?
Is there a way to determine the visibility? How close has an animal to be for an great/mediocre/bad view? What does obstruct those views? Fences? Rocks? Plants? All of them? Just some of them? Is it the visible part like the acual the tree trunk, or rather the entire hitbox that obstructs a view?
The reason I'm asking this is that I noticed that some of my animals get stressed even though there in a densly planted part of the habitat. So it doesn't seem that plants help the animals with hiding. Or are those two systems completely independent from each other?
Is there a way that the game could give us some clues about how the system works?

 

[Cocolori]

I've noticed that my habitats which have opportunities for the guests to be 'in the habitat' either on a walkway or a tunnel or as a walkthrough tend to get green reviews more than the others which makes sense given what Chante has said as guests spend more time 'exploring' them.

 

[Sclurp]

Hayo! Just reviving this thread with the purpose of providing an official response (as I know people also like to search things on the forums, this could prove helpful in the future too)!

So, guest thoughts are snapshots in time, while the guest opinion of a habitat accumulates over time. Since a guest may take in an animal over multiple separate views of a habitat, it puts out multiple thoughts which start off low or medium, then progress to high.
Planet Zoo does not collate the recent thought feed for the guests, but it does provide you their overall thoughts on animals in the history tab. We definitely recommend checking out the history tab for a better understanding of your guests opinions!
This isn't something we are expecting to change, as we aren’t sure of how we might approach a change for this without affecting, or even giving the appearance of causing bugs within the economy.

I actually had no idea that there was a sort of backstage scoring system for guests. I thought it was a one-and-done situation. So this is definitely going to take some frustration out of this. Is there anything that can be added to the UI to help us understand this aspect of the guests' journey? I don't know what...a bar that gets filled for each habitat? A drop down menu of chronologically ordered thoughts of the habitat?
As I said, I didn't even know that's what happened and what the game conveys, I guess unintentionally, is that the guest will have that negative thought of an animal they can hardly see and that's that - off they go to try their luck at the next habitat.

Chris