Stumped by star ratings
- Thread starter Roxxsmom
- Start date
It seems to be very closely tied to appeal. Despite everything that's been said about it being influenced by welfare and genetics, I find that all animals of a certain appeal level have an equal number of stars. But then, my welfare and genetics are pretty constant (95%+ welfare and mostly gold genetics.)
Having animals seen by a lot of people seems to help.
That said, I have walk-through lemur exhibits teeming with people and, on average, my red-ruffed aren't hitting three stars until between 13-15 years old, and my ring-tails are having a hard time making it before they get so old they need to be rehomed. There's a reason this challenge is only 3% complete so far
Having animals seen by a lot of people seems to help.
That said, I have walk-through lemur exhibits teeming with people and, on average, my red-ruffed aren't hitting three stars until between 13-15 years old, and my ring-tails are having a hard time making it before they get so old they need to be rehomed. There's a reason this challenge is only 3% complete so far
I've seen videos claiming the best way to "win" at the challenges that require a higher star rating is to create a franchise zoo with no actual guests (just go deeply into debt and let the game run on high speed in easy mode--evidently the game never actually closes your zoo and staff continue to be paid and animals fed, even if you are tens of thousands of monetary units in debt) and just have pens of the animals under "perfect" 100% welfare conditions. This implies that guest appeal isn't a factor in star ratings at all.
But I also have animals achieve different star ratings over a lifetime in the same enclosure that is at 100% welfare, so something besides age and welfare seems to influence it.
I have had animals with mediocre, or even poor genetics reach higher star ratings in their lifetimes than animals with better genes too. So if guest appeal is a thing, it's not just about genes.
I prefer to play in one of my own zoos and try to get some animals that way. But so far I've only had two lemurs reach that level.
As an aside, how do you do walk through lemur exhibits teeming with people without the welfare dropping due to stress? I've never been able to do this with lemurs, or even have elevated walkways next to their habitats. They seem to hate it if they know people are looking at them. Which is odd, because I've been to zoos where lemurs frisk in very exposed habitats where guests can walk around their enclosure, and the animals don't seem bothered.
But I also have animals achieve different star ratings over a lifetime in the same enclosure that is at 100% welfare, so something besides age and welfare seems to influence it.
I have had animals with mediocre, or even poor genetics reach higher star ratings in their lifetimes than animals with better genes too. So if guest appeal is a thing, it's not just about genes.
I prefer to play in one of my own zoos and try to get some animals that way. But so far I've only had two lemurs reach that level.
As an aside, how do you do walk through lemur exhibits teeming with people without the welfare dropping due to stress? I've never been able to do this with lemurs, or even have elevated walkways next to their habitats. They seem to hate it if they know people are looking at them. Which is odd, because I've been to zoos where lemurs frisk in very exposed habitats where guests can walk around their enclosure, and the animals don't seem bothered.
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Very large enclosures, "Do Not Disturb" signs and strategically-placed clumps of foliage.
I think I've released 24 lemurs so far.
The star ratings increase as time passes. The cavate is that if an animals stats start too low they might never gain many stars. The Red ruffed Lemur is an example of an animal that are difficult to get three stars and rarely go higher making them really hard on the challenges. Other species are easier though.
I've been studying the star system in game and have a few notes to share. The stars are indeed directly related to the animals' appeal rating. Happy animals do get a boost to stars but not really a big boost. Having high stats does indeed contribute to star rating. But wait, I just released a three star animal that had no ribbon status. It wasn't even up to bronze! So that leaves another factor that must be a larger part than either of the others. A random booster to base star rating that actually determines if an animal gets to three stars or better at a much younger age. So for those pesky lemurs age 8 to ten will be the point where one can tell if an animal's appeal rating is on that high star trend and would be a good breeding prospect.
I had a number of very happy lemurs with "gold ribbon" genes that only made it to three stars as, or even after, they became too old to release. It was maddening, as were the ones with "meh" genetics I'd purchased from the frontier zoo as starting stock that made it to three stars really quickly but would never be eligible for release.
Guest appeal does seem to be kind of random, as I sometimes see different gold ribbon animals with lower genetics that have higher appeal ratings than ones with higher ratings. Now if personality were a factor with the animals, this would make sense. Sometimes an individual who is bold, playful, or even just quirky in some ways, will be especially popular with guests.
But the guests themselves seem optional, as some people create franchise zoos that they went into debt to create as breeding mills and just chug along on fast speed making animals with whatever star rating the challenge requires. I prefer to do the challenges with a zoo I am actually working on and playing for other reasons too.
Come to think of it, I have trouble imagining that any captive breeding program would ever release an older animal to the wild, even if it were still fertile. And with the exception of fast breeding "superstar" species like lions, it's unlikely that any animal would get to a 3 star or better rating before they have been adults in the zoo for a number of game years and are at least middle aged. Frontier seems to love the "release animals of X star rating" challenges though. At least the challenge did succeed in the end, and it had the right level ofdifficulty, since it came down to the last day (so many challenges are either done in a day or fail entirely).
At least they didn't make one (yet) that requires fennec foxes to be three stars prior to release. They seem to have the shortest reproductive lifespan of any habitat species in the game, where I have one that is around five or so and still in the "green" that needs a mate, and by the time I find a suitable match and get it through quarantine, the original fox is sterile.
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Prairie dogs are even shorter- they are old at 6!
Another odd thing about this challenge- nowhere did it say how many animals we had to release to meet it! I wonder if they have new people working on the Challenges- last one was posted very late and this one is incomplete.