Scenario: Yamaguchi Prefecture Tranquillity Zoo

[Xrystal]

I'm running through the scenarios again ... because I like the task system they have.

The first time round I managed to complete all the scenarios within 3 attempts back in the first month of release. However, going through it again I have got stuck on this scenario, the others I completed first time through ( experience I guess ) . I've lost count how many times I have restarted but must be at least 10 times. I have tried a variety of ways to progress through this with varying degrees of success. Even the way I did it back in November isn't helping so I suspect a change in the updates may have affected the scenarios.

Has anyone managed to complete this scenario since the last patch ? And if so can you remember how you did it ?

Meanwhile .. back to the drawing board...

 

[Arrakai]

wich one in order is it? (I play in a different language so the names are different)

 

[Xrystal]

The second to last of the original scenarios. With the abandoned zoo in Japan.

 

[Jileha]

What are your main obstacles? Some more specific information might be helpful.

I just started this scenario. So far, everything is looking good, but it takes time to get the required money. I just splurged on fixing all the vandalized objects - thank you, Frontier, for the option to fix all items of a particular group at once! Otherwise, this step would have been a nightmare.

 

[Xrystal]

The main brunt is the money .. I've tried with a loan part way through, near the beginning ( I didn't get a loan the first time I completed this ). I've tried selling all the stores, some of the stores.

I don't recall it causing this much problem the first time I completed this .. but then maybe I took my time then, and this time I may be trying to complete it too fast.. based on the time taken over the previous scenarios the time frame before gold completion was longer each time. So in theory this one should take me 20+ years to finish gold. Because I am high in debt in year 3 just trying to add the animals provided I keep wondering if the game was affected by changes .. but maybe the problem is me rofl...

So, think I'll try the slow crawl, which I usually do, maybe this one can't be done in less than 5 or even 10 years rofl.

 

[Jileha]

I’ll try to give you some hints based on my approach while not giving too much away because I really enjoy coming up with solutions for the Career zoo problems myself. And as mentioned, I am currently still at the bronze level, but based on my initial approach, I (maybe naively) don’t anticipate any major issues. I anticipate just more of the same approach until the entire zoo is restored. Just enough patience to go as slowly as necessary. Maybe adding some exhibits in a bit for some extra income. But that is just like starting any other zoo.

The 2 main problems of this zoo are:

- It’s a large, all built up but empty zoo with lots of unused facilties raking up electricity costs. But don’t sell off things (except maybe some unnecessary decorative items and rocks, you lose money when deleting plants); you probably need them later. There is another solution. There is one generator too close to the guest path that you should delete/relocate.

- The zoo has two entrances, making it difficult - but not impossible - to prevent guests from going eveywhere in the zoo and seeing empty, damaged habitats and lots of vandalized objects and getting really unhappy. Restrict their access initially to a small area that you can afford to clean up and manage and where you can satisfy the guests’ initial needs. Look around to find the area (there might be more than one, I stopped looking after I found one) where you can make guests and animals happy initially while spending the least amount of money. Think of the animals already in the zoo and the first one you have to find a home for.

Hope that helps without killing your fun!

 

[Nioell]

I actually just finished this one in the middle of year 5 xD

The first thing I did was pause the game, then delete the staff buildings near the biggest habitat which'll net you about 35-40k. No need to get those back later either since the smaller building near the other entrance is more than enough. Then I replaced all the broken stuff, set up three work zones (keep all the shops and stuff) and completed the monorail track.

After I hired all the staff 2 keepers and caretakers for each work zone, one vet and mechanic each and all the vendors + enough so they can rotate (usually half of the number of shops in the work zone). If you train them up as more guests and animals come in you won't need more either. Once all that was done I completed the habitats as far as I was able: add food trays and water pumps to each one as well as shelters where needed.

From the money that was left I bought exhibit animals to breed like the scorpions and snails, they breed fast (remember to keep aging on 1 though or it won't be fast enough) and live quite long for exhibit animals. The last thing I did was raise the shop prices (you can almost double them if you set all the extras to "lots") and add education boards, speakers and donation boxes around the zoo.

Note that I did all that while the game was paused so you don't lose money while working and all you have to do now is unpause and wait for the animals and palce them in the fitting habitats. Oh and you might wanna delete water that isn't covered by the water treatment system to prevent sick animals. I was able to make money quite fast this way and was only about 7k in the red right after I unpaused in the very beginning. In the end I had almost 200k in the bank since you start making money as soon as the zoo opens and guest come in, no need for a loan at all.

Hope this helps

 

[Xrystal]

Just to point out.. I have completed all scenarios at gold already. This is just my second time through using what I have learned in the 500+ hours I have played since the first run through .. I clearly forgot how exactly I managed this scenario the first time through, or it was just a fluke rofl.

Thanks for your input Jileha. I've played the game since beta so alot of what you said I already knew. But I may not have known, and it may help others in a similar bind and they are general pointers that will help them in most zoos. The challenge doesn't kill my fun, I just wanted to make sure that there wasn't something dodgy about it now that would mean I would be wasting time until it was fixed.

The first thing I did was pause the game, then delete the staff buildings near the biggest habitat which'll net you about 35-40k. No need to get those back later either since the smaller building near the other entrance is more than enough.

Thanks Nioell, that is one thing I haven't tried yet. Getting that quick injection of cash at the start has been the best course of action so far so I may try that on the next run through. And thanks for confirming that 5 year completion time frame.

Then I replaced all the broken stuff, set up three work zones (keep all the shops and stuff) and completed the monorail track.

Tried these in different combinations in every attempt so far.

From the money that was left I bought exhibit animals to breed like the scorpions and snails, they breed fast (remember to keep aging on 1 though or it won't be fast enough) and live quite long for exhibit animals. The last thing I did was raise the shop prices (you can almost double them if you set all the extras to "lots") and add education boards and speakers around the zoo.

Yeah, exhibit animals have been the first step on almost all attempts so far as the quick cash injection. I've never risen the shop prices though so that is something new that may ( on top of the staff building selling ) be all I need to complete using my regular work through. I remember the first time through having no issues placing education boards and donation bins around the zoo. But this time shrug.

Thanks again .. back to attempt number I've lost count rofl.

 

[Jileha]

I actually just finished this one in the middle of year 5 xD

The first thing I did was pause the game, then delete the staff buildings near the biggest habitat which'll net you about 35-40k. No need to get those back later either since the smaller building near the other entrance is more than enough. Then I replaced all the broken stuff, set up three work zones (keep all the shops and stuff) and completed the monorail track.

After I hired all the staff 2 keepers and caretakers for each work zone, one vet and mechanic each and all the vendors + enough so they can rotate (usually half of the number of shops in the work zone). If you train them up as more guests and animals come in you won't need more either. Once all that was done I completed the habitats as far as I was able: add food trays and water pumps to each one as well as shelters where needed.

From the money that was left I bought exhibit animals to breed like the scorpions and snails, they breed fast (remember to keep aging on 1 though or it won't be fast enough) and live quite long for exhibit animals. The last thing I did was raise the shop prices (you can almost double them if you set all the extras to "lots") and add education boards, speakers and donation boxes around the zoo.

Note that I did all that while the game was paused so you don't lose money while working and all you have to do now is unpause and wait for the animals and palce them in the fitting habitats. Oh and you might wanna delete water that isn't covered by the water treatment system to prevent sick animals. I was able to make money quite fast this way and was only about 7k in the red right after I unpaused in the very beginning. In the end I had almost 200k in the bank since you start making money as soon as the zoo opens and guest come in, no need for a loan at all.

Hope this helps

I guess that’ll work as well. But where’s the challenge in that? LOL!

 

[dinopilot]

I just beat this last night. I sold every shop in the zoo that I could for cash. Then stripped every decoration I could that wasn't locked down for cash. Ended up starting with 120k which gave me enough cash to get the zoo going quickly without any loans.

You don't need shops until you are over 1k visitors anyway.

 

[Xrystal]

I just beat this last night. I sold every shop in the zoo that I could for cash. Then stripped every decoration I could that wasn't locked down for cash. Ended up starting with 120k which gave me enough cash to get the zoo going quickly without any loans.

You don't need shops until you are over 1k visitors anyway.

I tried this avenue once .. but didn't put new shops down quick enough before the negative balance rolled into place... but it was one of the better attempts .. Unfortunately none of the shop shells are sellable so you end up with empty shells over the place rofl.

 

[Xrystal]

Was looking good for a while there .. was making a profit but then stupidly decided to up the staff wages ... rather than buying new staff like I always do. Main issue at this point was litter in areas that had no bins .. so may have to start over and remember to place bins in guest areas that don't have any already, but will first try firing the trained up staff in favour of additional level 1 staff. And make sure caretakers patrol those paths. This was using the selling of the staff buildings in the northwest corner of the zoo ( based on original orientation ) to bolster the initial start up cash. And exhibit animals for instacash.

 

[Jileha]

I am currently at the silver level, only thing left is to place the three lions.

I still haven’t deleted anything major, usually only some rocks or things that get in the way, not as a money-making approach. For a while, I was losing money and was thinking I might have to take out a loan, but everything changed after giving guests one more drink shop and - probably the main reason - adding the chimpanses. The guests just love them and viewing them makes them extremely happy. My income went up very quickly after that.

One additional factor might be that their habitat filled an animal void that guests had to cross before seeing more animals. Now their happiness lasts them until the next habitat some distance away.

 

[Xrystal]

yeah when I added the monkeys and lemurs the money jumped up despite not having donation bins in that immediate area at the time. I also noticed that some of the shops weren't open but I think they close automatically when the power goes which happened .. I noticed a power and water facility that none of the repair men would repair. By the time I realised it was better to delete and rebuy I was rubber banding between negative 20k and negative 7k...

Edit: Now animals are dying of old age rofl.. rubber banding between negative 20k and negative 30k ... definitely non recoverable. Getting 30k of refunds a year due to the litter issue that can't be directly fixed unless I get that loan .. may have to revert back to an earlier good save and use that going forward and get the loan if necessary but put those rubbish bins down.

 

[Jileha]

Edit: Now animals are dying of old age rofl.. rubber banding between negative 20k and negative 30k ... definitely non recoverable. Getting 30k of refunds a year due to the litter issue that can't be directly fixed unless I get that loan .. may have to revert back to an earlier good save and use that going forward and get the loan if necessary but put those rubbish bins down.

30k in refunds? And I was starting to get worried at $1000...

That’s definitely a change introduced with the last update: We have to monitor guests and their complaints much more closely and take measures before things get out of hand. The new heatmap features really come in handy.

So far, I haven’t even seen that much income boost from the exhibits. Based on its remote location, particularly the four exhibits on the upper floor of one of the buildings cause more problems due to keeper neglect than what they are worth for me at the moment. Guests usually don’t find their way up there either, so no donation boost. I might get rid of them, save me the headache and salary for two keepers, and slow down animal aging to the max to keep the animal population as stable as possible.

 

[Nioell]

I guess that’ll work as well. But where’s the challenge in that? LOL!

Well, for me the fun and challenge while playing the carreer lies in looking at what I got to work with and then coming up with a plan to get the objectives done as fast as possible, and not in making it as hard as possible for myself to complete them

yeah when I added the monkeys and lemurs the money jumped up despite not having donation bins in that immediate area at the time. I also noticed that some of the shops weren't open but I think they close automatically when the power goes which happened .. I noticed a power and water facility that none of the repair men would repair. By the time I realised it was better to delete and rebuy I was rubber banding between negative 20k and negative 7k...

Edit: Now animals are dying of old age rofl.. rubber banding between negative 20k and negative 30k ... definitely non recoverable. Getting 30k of refunds a year due to the litter issue that can't be directly fixed unless I get that loan .. may have to revert back to an earlier good save and use that going forward and get the loan if necessary but put those rubbish bins down.

Yeah, I think I actually had to reopen all the shops in the beginning 'cause they were closed and the litter was annoying...especially since the caretakers liked to ignore one half of their work zone even though there was a staff room there as well or they all went to clean up the same thing and left everything else >.>

BTW, you probably already did this but make sure speakers aren't overlapping...like at all 'cause even a little red between two speakers can be a huge guest happiness killer and cause refunds.

 

[Jileha]

Well, for me the fun and challenge while playing the carreer lies in looking at what I got to work with and then coming up with a plan to get the objectives done as fast as possible, and not in making it as hard as possible for myself to complete them

I prefer to challenge my brain to find a solution that does not resort to the use of the “pickhammer method” - as we call it in German - of radical destruction. And my approach is definitely not “as hard as possible”. It doesn’t get much easier than simply removing a few path connections and getting a pair of red pandas to boost my income. Had I just let the game run a bit longer, the temporary monetary issue also could easily have been avoided. Faster - yes, your method is most likely a good deal faster, at least in the initial phase. I personally find my approach a much more satisfying solution than partially destroying a beautiful zoo. It’s different in some of the other scenarios where abandoned buildings or swimming pools inside a habitat can be used as sources of income.

But had Frontier wanted to discourage your approach, they surely would have made all buildings undeletable, not just some of them. It’s good that there are always several ways to reach the goal.

 

[Xrystal]

30k in refunds? And I was starting to get worried at $1000...
That’s definitely a change introduced with the last update: We have to monitor guests and their complaints much more closely and take measures before things get out of hand. The new heatmap features really come in handy.

Yep, found the save I made that had me making a profit at partial silver completion and quickly placed atms and bins around the guest pathing that didn't have any and it helped considerably .. and then my monkeys died due to starvation.. I guess the other habitats were taking the keepers attention away from the monkeys... I tried to save it quickly by hiring a new keeper but not quickly enough... resulted in a high refund situation .. At the same time the central water and power facilities broke down again .. I fixed the pathing ( which had stopped the mechanic going there before ) and simply hired a new mechanic who fixed it .. but the water had been tainted already and I had a quick influx of ill animals .. not good.

so .. deduction .. litter = refund situation, animals suffering = refund situation .. as you can see I went from 10k a year due to litter problems .. the bottom right spattering of pink is now the only litter issue ( I forgot about that area ) with a 20k+ increase once the monkeys died and some of the other animals got sick due to the water problem. I've usually been able to ignore the refunds in previous ready made zoo scenarios but not this time rofl.

Hahaaha ... and now an escaped animal ( thankfully not dangerous ) that the vets can't get to and I don't have the money to use the emergency vet yet rofl. Unfortunately, the protestors are protesting about her .. doubt I will come back from this .. another 25k refund year and already 15k in Jul of the current year .. not looking good at all.

 

[Xrystal]

Well, for me the fun and challenge while playing the carreer lies in looking at what I got to work with and then coming up with a plan to get the objectives done as fast as possible, and not in making it as hard as possible for myself to complete them

I prefer to challenge my brain to find a solution that does not resort to the use of the “pickhammer method” - as we call it in German - of radical destruction. And my approach is definitely not “as hard as possible”. It doesn’t get much easier than simply removing a few path connections and getting a pair of red pandas to boost my income. Had I just let the game run a bit longer, the temporary monetary issue also could easily have been avoided. Faster - yes, your method is most likely a good deal faster, at least in the initial phase. I personally find my approach a much more satisfying solution than partially destroying a beautiful zoo. It’s different in some of the other scenarios where abandoned buildings or swimming pools inside a habitat can be used as sources of income.

But had Frontier wanted to discourage your approach, they surely would have made all buildings undeletable, not just some of them. It’s good that there are always several ways to reach the goal.

We all have our different ways to resolve things... we are after all, all unique. In my case .. with ready made zoos like in the scenarios I try to keep as much as possible of the existing buildings .. I hate empty shells. So the fact that the shell with the staff buildings in the top left allow you to delete the whole thing .. its worth it. I replaced it with a power/water combo to fill a gap in that part of the zoo. With an empty shell... I work to my ideas.

 

[Xrystal]

Yaay finally completed .. year 14 with 230k+ in balance.

Solution for me was as follows:
1. Quick injection of start up cash ( sell the staff building area off in the top left area ) - space can be used for power/water facilities
2. Quick injection of semi regular cash ( exhibit animals - may be worth getting more pairs - space and time permitting )
3. Make sure every guest path way has a combination of ATM, donation bins, rubbish bins and benches.
4. Make sure that every water/power facility is accessible by the mechanics .. while you have the funds to replace path/item as needed.
5. Have the ATM machines guide the security officers, caretakers and mechanics to the areas where their skills will be needed the most.
6. Add extras to shop items and raise their prices to keep a reasonable profit and keep sales up but queues down.
7. Place the chimps and lemurs as soon as you can in the center area to boost the donation rate.
8. Speed up vet research by placing 2 or more research buildings so that multiple animals can be researched at once without them having to take turns in the building.

The rest is as per normal .. place animals, keep them fed and happy.