Thank you for the non-timed Scenario

[Jaggid Edje]

I always play the scenarios and have been vocal in the past about how much I hate the 'timed' ones. I play them once, get them done as quickly as I can, and hate every minute of it....doing it only for the reward statues.

The standard career scenarios, on the other hand, I have a blast with and play through them multiple times, trying different approaches, and taking the time to build a zoo that both meets the goals AND looks nice, something you cannot do in a timed scenario. So, Thank you, Frontier, for finally listening to those of us who have asked for more of the standard career scenarios. This new one in the Twilight DLC is, perhaps, my favorite one so far. I'm on my third time playing it through so far, and may do another when I finish this one.

Also, give whomever designed the base zoo for the scenario a raise, they did some amazing work. Someone who doesn't take the time to deconstruct the existing buildings might not even recognize just how intricately a lot of the things were built. Some real tedious, time consuming, careful work went into each structure.

 

[Pinguin]

How you beat it 3 times? I cant beat it on medium even once. I just lose cash all the time and people are unhappy because they go down the mountain forever making them very unhappy and with low needs.

 

[Jaggid Edje]

How you beat it 3 times? I cant beat it on medium even once. I just lose cash all the time and people are unhappy because they go down the mountain forever making them very unhappy and with low needs.

I played on hard all 3 times so that problem was actually exacerbated by the difficulty setting. A few key things have to be recognized to get over that hump in the scenario.

Start by building a small zoo at the top of the mountain. There's a LOT of space up there, off to the opposite side of the entrance as the path down the mountain. Use a Barrier to block visitors from even thinking of going down the mountain at the start. Put in some habitats and exhibits, and slowly build up that mountain top zoo, and work on animal research, etc. to get a profitable small zoo that is generating some visitor education and happiness as well. You need both to get them down the mountain without tanking your zoo's happiness, at least on Hard.
You'll want food, drink and toilets up there in that small zoo at the mountain top too, so that visitors don't start going down with their needs already in the red. I moved all of the vendor stalls that were pre-built in the scenario at the very start, up to the top, building a small food court around the tower that is just ahead as visitors walk through the ticketing booth. And I put two exhibits inside the tower, using the two 'open' faces of the tower as the viewing points.

In my first two playthroughs I only built one habitat up there, but it was a mixed-species habitat with 4 species in it, but in my 3rd playthrough I had 3 habitats and 6 total species up there. The third playthrough went the smoothest. In all 3 cases though I also had 3 exhibits up there; 2 inside the 'tower' as mentioned already, and one inside the 'gatehouse' that visitors walk through to go down the mountain path. (I did move half of the habitat species down to the lower zoo on that 3rd playthrough, once the zoo was more established.)

Once that mountain top zoo is established and doing well, then you are ready to remove the barrier and let visitors down the mountain. It's still a long trek though, so a few things that help are:

• Build rest areas where visitors can sit down as they go down. I built two such areas, as elevated path 'scenic overlooks' at 2 of the switch back points. As my zoo got larger, I even built a restaurant at one of the overlooks. It's very popular and profitable.
• Place conservation boards spaced out along the path all the way down the mountain. Visitor happiness gradually declines as a passive happiness loss, no matter how happy they are and how satisfied their needs are, when they aren't viewing animals or otherwise gaining happiness. Gaining education pauses this loss for just a little bit though. So, conservation boards help preserve their happiness during the walk.
• As animals die in the zoo, build memorials along the pathway down. You can make these a little scenic too. Scenery and viewing memorials give visitors happiness.