Planet Zoo

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Blackhawk
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Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

Has anyone else spent time with this? I know a few of you have, as I've seen your avatars showing up in my zoo.

I bought it a while back on sale, and I've been having a lot of fun with it. For those who don't know, it's by the same developer responsible for the Rollercoaster Tycoon series, the Zoo Tycoon series, the Jurassic World: Evolution, Planet Coaster, and... Elite Dangerous. It's a business management/building sim in the same vein as all of those other games (well, not Elite Dangerous.) It's built off of the Planet Coaster engine (which is, I believe, the same engine used for the Jurassic World games) and uses the same basic interface.

I won't beat around the bush here - it's complex, with tons of management and depth. It's easy to get lost and spend hour picking and poking at every little element, building, and planning. The building is incredibly detailed, with the ability to put together custom buildings, route paths, layout animal enclosures with fine control, sculpt the ground, and control all of the decoration. The business aspect has you managing employees, workload, assignments, training, and happiness. You'll manage marketing, buying and selling, and infrastructure. You can set the prices for everything from admission to balloons (although a significant amount of income comes from donation bins you set up by exhibits.) Like most tycoon games, you'll also be managing the guests, making sure they've got places to rest if you have a long walks, places to view the animals, places to get snacks, drinks, souvenirs, and access to bathrooms. Oh, and ATMs to get more money to spend on your junk, junk food, and, yes, bathrooms. Your zoo isn't just rated on happiness and marketing, though. You have to see that the guests are educated with audio tours, audio speakers, placards, and educators to walks around or give scheduled talks. And then you're rated on how well your zoo handles conservation issues, including education and releasing healthy animals back into the wild. Of course, you have to manage the animals' happiness as well. Give them the right amount of space, the right terrain, appropriate stimulation, cleanliness, the right number of animals with the right sex ratio, and so on.

Oh, and there is research - facility research, animal research, disease research. That takes employees, too.

I've mostly been playing career mode, which, after a few tutorial missions, drops you into zoos with problems, along with challenges. Some are near bankruptcy, with expensive staff and animals that you can't even begin to afford (sorry, Stampy), or are poorly laid out. Others are just tiny zoos that you're asked to grow into huge zoos. Many are themed - and the game does a great job of this. I've managed zoos in Canada, a simian zoo in Madagascar, a panda-centric zoo in China, a zoo in a volcanic crater in China, and now I'm starting work on a problem-laden zoo in Greece, spread out across the tops of a bunch of tiny islands. It has desert, tropical, temperate, taiga, and tundra, plus aquatic. And each one is fully developed, with everything from paths, to lights, to signage, to building pieces fitting the theme, and each one with its own flora and fauna - not to mention the challenges of making peafowl happy when it's constantly snowing. If you use the theming, every zoo will look completely different - it even separates North African theming from South African.

It also has sandbox, of course, and 'Franchise' mode, which is a... solo multiplayer mode? It's solo, but you can buy and sell animals with other players, each running their own zoos. And since the game tracks genetics (fertility, size, immunity, longevity), you can selectively breed your animals to get the best genetic profile while avoiding inbreeding by cycling certain animals in/out, selling off those with a weak genome, or releasing them back into the wild. Get a highly desired line with a great genome running and you can sell those for a significant profit on the shared market.

I don't think I've had quite this much fun with this style of game since the original Rollercoaster Tycoon.

Some peoples' zoos, built from scratch:

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Lordnine
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Lordnine »

I tried it a few weeks back when the whole bundle was on sale, but I ultimately refunded it. I’m sure it is a good game but not a good game for me. My favorite part of management sims is the management side of things; maximizing profits, expanding carefully, trying to make a giant park without going broke.

Making things pretty for the sake of making them pretty doesn’t matter to me if no one else is going to ever see them. Both Zoo and Park seemed more like an artistic toy than a management game. Both games felt like I could do the bare minimum and still turn a profit which meant most of my time was spent decorating and since visitors only care that decorations were there, not that they were placed logically, it killed the illusion for me.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Lordnine wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 4:45 pm I tried it a few weeks back when the whole bundle was on sale, but I ultimately refunded it. I’m sure it is a good game but not a good game for me. My favorite part of management sims is the management side of things; maximizing profits, expanding carefully, trying to make a giant park without going broke.

Making things pretty for the sake of making them pretty doesn’t matter to me if no one else is going to ever see them. Both Zoo and Park seemed more like an artistic toy than a management game. Both games felt like I could do the bare minimum and still turn a profit which meant most of my time was spent decorating and since visitors only care that decorations were there, not that they were placed logically, it killed the illusion for me.
Did we read a different post? :P I completely agree 100% with your taste in these kinds of games (much prefer the 'management' over the 'building' - especially roller coasters...yech) but BH's comments made me want to buy it for exactly that reason!

To wit:
it's complex, with tons of management and depth.
The business aspect has you managing employees, workload, assignments, training, and happiness.
You'll manage marketing, buying and selling, and infrastructure. You can set the prices for everything from admission to balloons (although a significant amount of income comes from donation bins you set up by exhibits.)
Oh, and there is research - facility research, animal research, disease research.
I've mostly been playing career mode, which, after a few tutorial missions, drops you into zoos with problems, along with challenges. Some are near bankruptcy, with expensive staff and animals that you can't even begin to afford (sorry, Stampy), or are poorly laid out. Others are just tiny zoos that you're asked to grow into huge zoos.

Also, I saw this go on some amazing sale in the past few months, but missed it I guess. Do you remember how much it was BH? I need to set up a price alert on Isthereanydeal or something.
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Blackhawk
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

My Greek islands zoo (seemingly based on the Cyclades) was more of a mess than I realize. There's the super-expensive 300-meter monorail (that's useful), the elephant whose diet is almost more than the profits, and the twenty vendors to staff ten shops. There are protesters everywhere, the animals are so crowded that they're fighting, the zebras are in a habitat about the size of a trash can. It's a mess, but I'm having a lot of fun digging through everything and finding all of the problems. I've been playing for a couple of hours and I've yet to take it off of pause for more than a minute or so (long enough to get certain changes to register.) I've just been adding missing facilities, fixing problems, adjusting prices, and firing a small army of vendors.
Carpet_pissr wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 5:56 pm Also, I saw this go on some amazing sale in the past few months, but missed it I guess. Do you remember how much it was BH? I need to set up a price alert on Isthereanydeal or something.
I picked it up on this month's Humble Choice.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

There's one other thing I've started doing that I'm really enjoying. First, I turned off the in-game music. Then, when I'm in a certain location, I open Spotify in the background and find a playlist of traditional music from that location to have on in the background while I play. African music for the African park, traditional Greek music now. I've really enjoyed it most of the time, although the Bryan Adams/Justin Bieber playlist for Canada left me wanting.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Interesting take from Gaming Nexus!

"The Dark Souls of zoo tycoon sims. Start slower than you'd like to, YouTube yet another tutorial, then watch Planet Zoo blossom before your eyes. This is a slow, mindful, niche of a sim that demands more patience and learning than you'd expect."
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by jztemple2 »

I've been dithering about getting this game since it came out. I have no creative talent whatsoever so I'd just be throwing down this and that any old where and trying to make some money doing it. Still, I liked Planet Coaster so maybe, someday, I'll get interested in this.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Just bought it. I hope it doesn't need the [checks calculator] $104 worth of DLC to be fun! That model turns me off sooooo much. Ugh.

Oooh, your zoo doesn't have a gorilla? That's sad. Pay a mere $9.99 for the gorilla DLC and your zoo will be happy and normal, because EVERY zoo needs a gorilla!

"Uh oh, looks like your park customers need to poo-poo! Your VERY basic zoo doesn't seem to have toilets! But no worries, for $9.99, you can get some beautiful, white porcelain, commercial standard toilets, which will be in high demand after eating hot dogs*, hamburgers** and french fries!***
(*Hot dog DLC sold separately. **Hamburger DLC sold separately. ***French fries DLC sold separately)
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

To be fair, most of the DLC is way, way more than that (and is frequently on sale.) Each one is built on a single theme ("Southeast Asia", "Europe", etc), has a number of animals, and has scenery based on the them. It seems to either be eight animals, or four/five animals plus a couple of hundred scenery items.

I still wouldn't get them for $10 each, but getting them on sale is about $50 for the lot, and given that I got the base game for under ten dollars (70+ animals, including the gorilla ;) ), that's not awful.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by baelthazar »

I need a good "how to build" tutorial. I am struggling mightily with the controls for building things. It is the same thing that made me drop Planet Coaster, despite loving the concept.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

baelthazar wrote: Wed Jun 08, 2022 12:57 pm I need a good "how to build" tutorial. I am struggling mightily with the controls for building things. It is the same thing that made me drop Planet Coaster, despite loving the concept.
These three helped me the most. The first is a general building tutoral, the second focuses on putting together structures, the last on handling the pathing (which is the weakest point of the building system.) The two authors of these tutorials have a lot of other ones that are great. Plus here is a set of two-minute tutorials on specific systems, and DeLadySigner has tons of how-tos and 'inspirational' videos.





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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

I'm not great at the building yet, but I'm improving. (Spoiler tags are just to reduce screen space - there are no actual spoilers.)

I'm still working on the Greek islands career mission. The existing (and non-removable) buildings were all themed in the style of architecture you'd see in the Cyclades Islands, so I tried to maintain that general style ("inspired by" might be more accurate.) This is my first build bigger than wrapping a shop in walls. It contains a medium staff room, a keeper hut, a generator, and a water purifier.
Spoiler:
Image
This is the one I just finished last night. I picked a midway point in the islands to build a full food court to let people rest (gotta keep that Happiness rating up, and energy is the biggest sapper of Happiness) and eat.

Before, with just the plaza and the shop cores in place:
Spoiler:
Image
After:
Spoiler:
Image
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

I'm still zooing along. I'm in the 'Hiring Freeze' mission right now that has you (mild spoilers) managing a zoo where your employees start off angry and miserable, where you are prohibited from hiring or firing any staff, and where there is a huge tax on land used for habitats. The zoo itself is butt-ugly. They're vague about where it is, although it's obviously in a cold clime. The aesthetic is... tacky industrial, I suppose would be good phrase. It looks like something you'd see in North Korea or a late cold war Soviet Union, with loud, gaudy decorations plastered on top of cold industrial buildings and 'concrete' as the primary building material. And flooring material. And path material. I've sort of leaned into the theme, though, as I try to do on all of the career mode zoos.
Spoiler:
Image

Image
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Carpet_pissr »

Ooooh, awesome, thanks for posting those videos, I will be checking those out.

In other news, given the considerable amount of DLC for this game, and the current Steam sale, apparently if you are only interested in ONE DLC, the one to get is the "Aquatic" animals.

Edit: I just checked Eneba and it's $4 FWIW.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by jztemple2 »

For those possibly interested in Planet Zoo, haven't gotten it and are Green Man Gaming users, GMG now stocks Frontier Development games, including Planet Zoo at 75% off.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Daehawk »

Nice deals. Wish I had a life. But things aren't coming together right now. Looks fun though. GL.Post some videos or screenshots I can see. Thanks.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by jztemple2 »

So I picked up Planet Zoo after putting it on and taking it off my wishlist a dozen times since it came out. I'm not creative at all and I wasn't sure that I'd enjoy it. I thought I'd be excited about Planet Coaster but I only played that about seventeen hours and that was four years ago. I'll post some pics after I get through the tutorials and campaigns and start making my own zoo.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Daehawk »

I was all up for Planet Coaster but they used different keybinds for the camera than Roller Coaster Tycoon and I couldn't rebind them. I finally gave up in a huff.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by jztemple2 »

So I've gone through two tutorial missions. It's a lot more complex than I was expecting, although that isn't a bad thing, makes the game interesting.

And just like what I remember from Planet Coaster, I'm confused on certain points, like how to put down enough open, elevated areas so I can place an exhibit. As you can tell from the below image, I've still not got the hang of it.

Enlarge Image
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

I'm still playing. I'm near the end of the campaign - I believe I'm on the final non-DLC mission.
Daehawk wrote: Sat Jul 16, 2022 10:06 pm Nice deals. Wish I had a life. But things aren't coming together right now. Looks fun though. GL.Post some videos or screenshots I can see. Thanks.
I have some videos I took the other day that I haven't edited together yet. I'll get that done.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Carpet_pissr »

I went through the first tutorial scenario enough to know I will really like this, so picked up the most recommended DLC during the Steam sale the other day. Now all I need is a graphics card that can run it decently without serious chop (remember that I can't play a game that's not almost maxed out in terms of the gfx settings...I assume it's some kind of clinical FOMO :P)

Interesting that this one immediately grabbed me where Planet Coaster did not (although that one was even more unplayable than this one for some reason?! Same graphics card. Head scratcher. The only change I've made was that I upgraded my monitor from 1900x1200 to 2560x1440 (but it has the sync tech, so I wonder if that is somehow allowing me to play a few games better than I could with the lower res monitor?)

In any case, I think I remember reading that PZ has a beefier "management" game than did PC, so that probably explains the instant like. I hated building coasters in the RCT games...always used the preset ones....I was all about setting the concession pricing perfectly, having enough ppl to clean the toilets, etc.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Daehawk »

Blackhawk wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:24 am I'm still playing. I'm near the end of the campaign - I believe I'm on the final non-DLC mission.
Daehawk wrote: Sat Jul 16, 2022 10:06 pm Nice deals. Wish I had a life. But things aren't coming together right now. Looks fun though. GL.Post some videos or screenshots I can see. Thanks.
I have some videos I took the other day that I haven't edited together yet. I'll get that done.
Thanks man.

JZ did you see my video card video post in the 2022 video cared thread in hardware? Some amazing prices with more to come it seems.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

Daehawk wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:37 am
Blackhawk wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:24 am I'm still playing. I'm near the end of the campaign - I believe I'm on the final non-DLC mission.
Daehawk wrote: Sat Jul 16, 2022 10:06 pm Nice deals. Wish I had a life. But things aren't coming together right now. Looks fun though. GL.Post some videos or screenshots I can see. Thanks.
I have some videos I took the other day that I haven't edited together yet. I'll get that done.
Thanks man.

JZ did you see my video card video post in the 2022 video cared thread in hardware? Some amazing prices with more to come it seems.
*cough*

I don't need a video card.

Anymore.

:oops: :D
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

Here it is. Location spoiler for career mode mission #10 (although the end result will be completely different for everyone.)

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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

jztemple2 wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 12:29 am So I've gone through two tutorial missions. It's a lot more complex than I was expecting, although that isn't a bad thing, makes the game interesting.

And just like what I remember from Planet Coaster, I'm confused on certain points, like how to put down enough open, elevated areas so I can place an exhibit. As you can tell from the below image, I've still not got the hang of it.

Enlarge Image
First off, the pathing tool is a pain in the ass. A few tips:

For large walkable areas, you want to use one of two techniques. The first is a plaza. It uses a couple of tricks using paths, and I'll link it below. The second is the Align to Grid option in the pathing tool. Build up to the height where you want your 'platform' to be, then select 'align to grid' and select one square of the path you just laid down. Then the game will give you a grid and let you lay down squares. It's still finicky, by the way. I will give videos for both techniques below.

If you watch the video I just uploaded, you can see where I've used both techniques. The exhibit area near the beginning (one minute mark), the first food court (1:17), and the large platform over the African animals (1:25, with the seating for animal talks) all use the 'align to grid' section. The eating area with all of the bushes in it (2:30) uses the 'plaza' technique. Here are tutorials on those techniques. The first one covers most of the basic pathing techniques (including both of these), and is a must. The second one is more detail on the plaza technique. That one is for Planet Coaster, but the pathing tools are identical.

I'm putting linked videos into spoiler tags just to make the post neater:
Spoiler:


Now, facilities that are designed to connect to paths (exhibits, shops, staff facilities, etc) can't be place on paths. They have to have a path to connect with, and if they're directly on a path, they can't do that. Normally, if I'm going to build a raised platform with facilities on it (I've done food courts this way), I'll build the platform 'align to grid' style, then place the facilities around the edge, placing posts under them for aesthetics so they don't look like they're flying. For what you were trying to do there (a raised platform with exhibits), I'd go a different route completely: I'd go into the Construction menu at the bottom. Build a floor, using the shift key to get it to the right height, then build your platform out of floors. After that, you can place the exhibits directly on the floor, then use 'align to grid' to select one of the exhibits and build a path to cover the floor/platform. Again, you can go into the Construction menu and find posts/pillars to put underneath. Here's a very basic building tutorial that, again, is a must:
Spoiler:

You don't have to go to the lengths that I do (I enjoy the process itself), but you should know the basics, and the two videos I listed as 'must watch' cover that pretty well.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by jztemple2 »

Thanks Blackhawk, those videos and the tips about the Construction menu are a great help.
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Re: Planet Zoo

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I'm working on some tips in a separate post that'll be up shortly.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by jztemple2 »

Carpet_pissr wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:30 am In any case, I think I remember reading that PZ has a beefier "management" game than did PC, so that probably explains the instant like. I hated building coasters in the RCT games...always used the preset ones....I was all about setting the concession pricing perfectly, having enough ppl to clean the toilets, etc.
Oddly, in Planet Coaster I liked building the coasters, but didn't care about the management of the park that much. I think why I quit putting time into it was that once you had the park up and running there was little to do except tweak the concessions and the staff. In Planet Zoo I see myself actually having to manage my animals on the long term, which will keep me more drawn in.

By the way, somewhat off topic, but for those looking for a Planet Zoo-like experience that isn't as graphically taxing I can recommend Megaquarium. I put in a number of hours on this game and found it quite a lot of fun. It is systematically like Zoo Tycoon or Planet Zoo, where you build habitats, hire staff, install maintenance equipment and finally add animals to your aquarium and make it interesting and appealing enough to the masses so you can keep making a profit.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Daehawk »

All in my orbit and wish list. Mooooooonies.
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

I thought I'd post some 'before you play' tips for career mode. This turned out quite a bit longer than I'd planned. You probably won't retain much if you read it all through - browse if you like, maybe come back to it later. The last section might be good first reading.

Spoiler-free.

Note that these don't all apply equally to Franchise Mode, which I haven't really played. Most do - like the economy stuff, but some things like research, income, conservation points, trading, etc, work a little differently there.

I may come back tomorrow and add some quick hints (in spoiler tags) for some of the scenarios I've played. I'm currently on the next-to-last with 170 hours played over the last couple of months.

General
  • As soon as a mission starts, pause and make a hard save in a new slot. Annotate it with 'Start' (IE - 'Hawk's Happy Zoo Land - Start'.) I'd recommend making a new, separate save each time you reach a major mission step (not to be confused with goals.) I'll touch on that more in a sec.
  • There is a 'camera' button in the lower UI. It lets you choose several different camera modes, including a 'walking' cam that lets you walk around your zoo in first person (and yes, you can do this paused.)
  • The "H" key is your friend. It is the overlay - learn what each item in that menu does. It's how you'll troubleshoot problems, especially things like unhappy visitors, keepers unable to feed animals, and escaping animals.
  • Go to the main zoo panel (F1, I think - I do some rebinding) first vertical tab, and click on 'Guests'. Do this regularly. If you see a bunch of guests with negatived thoughts, address it (ie - litter, vandalism, facilities too close to a path, etc.) The overlay is your friend here ("Negative Impact on Guests".)
  • The other thing to do regularly is to go to the main zoo panel, hit the 'Animals' vertical tab, and sort by 'Welfare.' This will show you where you have problems, like overcrowding (babies born), dirty habitat (stupid peafowl), temperature problems (when it snows and you suddenly have half of your zoo freezing), etc.
  • Crime is a thing. People will break things - signs, benches, trash cans, etc. People will pick pockets. If you go to the 'crime' tab in the zoo panel (top vertical), you can see any crimes, and you can repair anything automatically. If you turn on the Overlay and turn on 'Security and Crime', it'll show you, in blue, the areas where you have security. You can place cameras on structures, or buy more expensive camera poles, and provide coverage that reduces crime. Security guards, on the other hand, both deter crime, and catch perpetrators - removing them from your zoo and returning valuables (removing/reducing the negative impact of the initial crime.)
  • Lots of recycling bins. Everywhere. Don't let a guest finish their snack without a recycle bin within a few steps.
  • There are a couple of good marketing tools that are not obvious. The first is the Habitat Web Camera. Put one in each habitat, and you'll get a small amount of marketing for free (assume that people at home are watching in their spare time.) The second is the Vista Point. Put it down, point it at something cool. What this does is causes the guests to stop and take a photo - which they then (presumably) upload to social media for more free advertising. The Vista Point also results in other guests coming in to visit that exact same spot - so use that as another way to draw guests deeper into the park (more on that later.)
  • Items in the menus with padlocks over them are items with some component that you haven't researched yet. So if you build a New World themed shop shell, and put on an item from the African scenery theme, you won't be able to build it in another zoo until you research both the New World and African themes in that zoo.
  • Don't spread out your zoo too much just because you can. I did this on an early mission, and I paid for it. My guests were exhausted, my staff was having to run uphill both ways to get to their duties - it was a mess. Plan around efficient 'clusters' of facilities and animals.
  • Rides aren't great money makers until later in the game. They can make some money, but they require a big investment in money, time, and space to get there. They're more of a hassle than anything on most career maps. But once you have the resources, they can serve to get the guests into distant parts of the zoo that they might skip if they were on foot. Think of them as transportation rather than entertainment, and use them as such (including having multiple stations in strategic spots - a loop-style amusement ride is a waste here.)

    Construction
  • Sandbox mode is a great way to practice things, as there are no limits and no consequences. It's also a great place to build shells (or whatever) and save them as blueprints, as the blueprints will still be available in the other modes.
  • Shop shells are empty shops - the walls, ceiling, and decorations for a shop, minus the actual shop. You place one down, double-click the shell (of select it and choose the 'edit' icon in the menu) so that you're editing it, and then place the shop inside of the shell. It allows you to build one shell, save it as a blueprint (a pre-built structure), and then place a shop of your choice inside of it for pre-built, pre-decorated shops across an entire zoo. (Personally, I started each mission by designing an appropriately themed shop shell for that setting, then saving it - and I never had to decorate the plain shops again.)
  • Check out the Steam Workshop. What you'll find aren't mods that alter the game, they're pre-constructed pieces using the in-game assets. Shop shells, pre-decorated staff buildings, pre-built exhibits, pre-built decor, etc. You can also download other peoples' saved zoos, and check out how some of the best designers do their tricks by literally going in and being able to see the pieces built - and edit them. DO NOTE that you should exclude any DLC you don't own by hitting the 'minus' on the filter (ignore that I hovered over 'challenge' for the example, btw):
    Spoiler:
    Image
  • When laying down 'main' paths through the zoo, go with 6m or 8m, especially if you're going to have exhibits directly on that path. If you use 4m paths, you'll get people stopping to look at things along the path, as well as people walking both ways. Instant traffic jam.
  • Likewise, if you're going to place an animal talk along the path, try to add an extra 'row' to the path using the 'align to grid' technique, or widen it a bit where the talk will be held.
  • Note the modifier keys in that building video I linked earlier. Shift, control, Z, the X key to fine tune placement, CTRL-X with something selected, etc. Learning half a dozen of them will come in extremely handy.
  • If it's dark, the L key turns on a light on your camera for you.
  • Note that a 'habitat' is an area completely enclosed with barriers, combined with a gate. Barriers with no gates aren't habitats, and gates in barriers that aren't fully enclosed aren't valid.
  • Note that solid walls - like cliffs, etc, do not count as barriers. They animal may not be able to get over them, but the game only takes barriers into account, not accessible area. To use a cliff or a river, you need to use a Null Barrier (an invisible, free barrier that you can run behind a cliff/on the other side of deep water, etc that tells the game where the habitat officially starts and stops.)
  • Tip: One great way to make exhibits visible are to sink the entire exhibit - lay a path, then use the terrain tool to push down an area where you want the exhibit to be, the use the 'flatten to floor' terrain tool to flatten it out at that depth. If it's deep enough that the animal can't climb out, you don't need physical barriers.
  • A second way to make them visible is to build them, then use a raised pathway across the center of the exhibit - let the guests watch from above instead of the side. Bonus: The pathway usually counts as hard shelter.
  • Caves are a very, very space-efficient way to build hard shelter. The push tool is your friend, as is the flatten to floor tool. You can even put a cave under other structures. Just beware that anything inside a Null Barrier counts as in the exhibit - I had a cave under a food court once, and discovered that all of the vegetation I used for decoration in the food court was counted as in the exhibit, which made the animals grumpy.
  • The H key toggles the overlay off even when placing an item. That can be helpful when trying to place something like a transformer, allowing you to see the actual terrain once you've figured out where to put it.
  • Power - transformers are cheap, but have regular costs and really make people unhappy when near them (H key, 'Negative Impact on Guests".) Wind power is more expensive and needs more maintenance, doesn't have a negative effect on guests from as far away, but it has a smaller effective radius. It is more expensive to buy, but has no running costs. Solar has zero negative effect on guests and no running costs, but it's the most expensive to buy initially, needs more regular maintenance, and has the smallest effective radius.
  • Facilities that have a negative impact on guests do so in a radius. Overlay, Negative Effects on Guests. Placing scenery around those facilities - including walls, vegetation, etc - reduces that radius by up to half. If you click the facility, it'll have a 'Scenery Rating' section that gives you the details for the currently selected facility.
  • Right clicking with the pathing tool deletes path sections.
  • The pathing tool has an option, "Tunneling". It is very powerful. Go up to a cliff. Turn on path tunneling. Lay your path straight into the cliff. Now put in side paths off of it, every few meters. Now, delete all of those paths. Guess what? You'd just built a huge, flat cave that you can put multiple staff buildings or facilities into (including non-renewable power.) It's great for working on maps without much space.



    Economy
  • The economy game is all about balance. You have to add more stuff, which costs more money to maintain, and you have to give your guests what they want. But if you expand too fast, you will spiral into a negative balance very quickly. At the same time, if you don't push it a little, you won't have enough guests to make a profit.
  • Marketing is a big deal. As soon as you can afford it, get at least the cheapest ($1000) marketing campaign. You need the guests. When you've got a steady enough income that you aren't too worried about running low, but your guest numbers are stagnant, upgrade your marketing.
  • A huge, huge portion of your income is from donation bins. Have one anywhere people are likely to be standing. Exhibits? I have one on each of the opposite corners. Double exhibits? One on each corner. Multiples along viewing areas. And pay attention to where the AI has people stopping to look - it may not be where you intended. Either block the view there, or put in donation bins.
  • Be the greedy asshole - immediately set ATMs to have $1.00 fee, and toilets to a 25-cent fee. It'll keep you from taking a loss, and the guests don't care at those prices.
  • The more you train your employees, the more their salaries cost, but the more efficient they are. There is a 'sweet spot' where having better trained employees is actually cheaper then hiring new ones. For most zoos, I find that sweet spot is right about three stars in the mid game. I slowly edge them up to that point as I can afford it. Toward the end of the missions, I leave the caretakers and vendors at three stars and bump the others up to four.
  • Exception: I always hire an extra vet and an extra mechanic and push them to three stars ASAP, then bump them all the way up to five as I can afford it. I change their first names to "Dr.", and they're my designated researchers. Don't put them in a work zone.
  • The game will tell you when your entrance fee is too low (or high.) I usually raise them by five bucks at a time, setting kids to $2 below adults.
  • If drinks are in high demand, I will usually note the current profit for each item, then add a few condiments (which lowers profit), then raise them so that the profit is 25 cents higher than it started at (for cheap items) or more (for expensive items - $20 meals might go up a couple of bucks.)
  • The more impressive animals draw in more visitors, but take more space and cost much, much more money to feed. Short guide: Small vegetarians cost the least, large vegetarians more, carnivores even more, and big carnivores a crap-ton. Take this into account. Don't start with tigers!
  • Good early-game plan for your economy: Start with one or two small habitats (small herbivores), and multiple exhibits (four if you can afford it), plus a bathroom and drinks. The exhibits are cheap, and will bring the guests in.
  • Early game money saving tip: If you're really short, don't delete trees or rocks. That costs. Just move them somewhere else (select them, use the 'M' key.) You can even use them for free decorations along paths/around buildings.

    Conservation Credits
  • These are the 'leaf' currency. They're very important. Some of the best animals in the game are only available via conservation credits. Plan for earning them from the start. You earn them by:
  • Educating your guests
  • Releasing animals back into the wild. The more endangered the animal, the more points they're worth.
  • Replacing transformers with renewable energy.
  • Instead of trashcans, use 'Recycling Bins'. This will give you a constant trickle.
  • Early on, exhibits are your friend. Having a couple of fast reproducing animals (most bugs qualify) and releasing all but two (one male, one female with the best genes and age - more later), you can earn quite a few credits from the beginning while you're still establishing the rest.
  • Research! The more you research, the more credits you earn.

    Staff Management
  • Don't make staff walk too far. Have staff facilities near where they work, or they'll end up exhausted, and spend more time traveling than doing their jobs.
  • Staff rooms are where staff rests, but there is a 'staff room perk' that you can turn on for a very small cost that is almost always worth it.
  • My perk advice: early on, choose Staff Healthcare. It'll keep your staff from getting overworked as quickly before you can afford to train them or hire more. Later on when that's no longer an issue (three star training, all the work is getting done), switch to "PR Course" to improve guest happiness.
  • Learn to create work zones. It is a must. With no work zones, staff will look for 'necessary work' anywhere in the park. Every keeper will visit every exhibit, vendors will wander from shop to shop, some habits will never get checked, etc. With work zones, each worker is assigned a specific set of tasks, and specific staff buildings to work from. It makes sure everything gets done. It makes the workers more efficient. And if you have stuff not getting done and the staff pane shows the workers in that zone as 'high work load', you know where you may need to add staff.
  • I do leave my researchers work zone free, as it allows them to fill in where necessary.
  • My usual method is to divide the zoo up into logical sections based on the layout and size, (Entrance/Central/Lake Area) or (Entrance/Rear/Islands/East Side.) Each one then gets a work zone for each worker type: All staff get assigned to a staff room.
  • Keepers get a physically close set of exhibits and habitats, the animal buildings (Trade Center, Quarantine, Vet Surgery, Keeper Hut.) Try to keep each keeper work zone balanced (don't give one zone 7 exhibits and other 3.) Try to pay attention to where gates are, not the majority of the fence - if the gate for a big central habitat right next to the eastern area, you might be better off assigning it to the eastern work zone.
  • If one habitat is huge and has a ton of animals (or is constantly dirty), I might create a keeper zone just for that one habitat. Note the 'Safari' work zone in the image, later.
  • Mechanics get assigned to the structures they repair. Important: Every one of them needs to have at least one mechanic assigned. Habitats, power facilities, water facilities, vending machines, and, I think, ATMs.
  • Mechanics will also repair any damaged/vandalized objects they find, but unless you're rolling in the dough, don't bother with this. You'd have to keep them wandering all over the map, and they have too much to do. If you are rolling in the dough and are too lazy to click the 'Crime' tab and do it yourself, then feel free to assign engineers
  • Vendors get a cluster of shops near each other, not shops spread all over. Have one vendor for every stall, plus an extra vendor for every four (so if you have six shops in a work zone, have seven vendors assigned.) The extra is so that the 'spare' vendor will hop into an empty booth when one of the others gets tired and goes on break. You're losing a fortune when a shop is closed due to no vendor inside.
  • Vets - In a small zoo, I don't put them in work zones. They have a relatively light work load, so they can wander freely. In a larger zoo, usually once I have to hire multiple vets to keep up, I just assign them to the Keeper work zones.
  • Caretakers are tricky. Other than the staff room, they don't need to be assigned specific destinations with the sole exception of bathrooms. What you want them to do is walk everywhere - they will clean up litter and empty trash cans as they see them. I'll usually send them to a variety of locations within their 'sector' - multiple vendors in a food court, ATMs, bathrooms, animal talks, habitats, exhibits, facilities - whatever I need to ensure that they wander all of the paths as they make their rounds.
  • Security. Early on when crime is minimal and you zoo is small, just assign them to the Caretaker routes. Later on, if you can afford it and have space, stick in one central staff room with the 'Security Office' perk that boosts their effectiveness. Base them all there, and I usually have no problem just giving them a route that covers the entire zoo from that central office, using a similar approach as with caretakers (although less exhaustive.) Make sure you hit the high-money and high-guest areas - ATMs, vendor areas, observation areas, etc.
  • Educators need to go from location to location. They're similar to Keepers, but you don't want to give them so many locations that they can't keep up. It doesn't matter if some animals don't have educators assigned. They can also be assigned Animal Talk Points. I'll discuss them more in the guests section.
  • Make sure that every habitat and every exhibit has at least one keeper zone, and one mechanic zone assigned to it.
  • Here is what my work zones were at the end of the Nevada Eco-Zoo scenario I uploaded the video of today. Note that this evolved after hours on that map - it started with just four or five, then expanded as I did.
    Spoiler:
    Image
  • Early on, hire minimal staff. Unless there is a good reason, hire one caretaker, one vendor for each stall, plus an extra for every four, two mechanics (one just for research), and two vets (one just for research.) If money is really, really tight, hold off on one of the researchers. The vet is the more important, but the vet's salary is the highest. You don't need security until you start to see vandalism/people complaining, and you don't need educators until things are up and running. Get them later.

    Guest Management
  • When guests are happy when they leave your park, they will come back, and they'll spread word-of-mouth.
  • Get the guests moving - don't put the coolest stuff by the entrance, or they'll never 'engage' with the rest of your park. Put the cool stuff further back and use it to draw them deeper. As they walk past everything else, they will stop to look, learn, and spend.
  • Don't let guests get tired. Walking a long ways makes guests' energy go way down, and with it, their happiness. So put benches anywhere that the guests have to walk.
  • Likewise, acknowledge their other needs, mostly food, drink, and bathrooms. It's a good idea to put down clusters of these (my food courts, see my video) in areas so that guests don't have to walk too far. It's far more efficient for vendors and caretakers if such places are close to each other. Don't get ahead of yourself and build a food court before you can afford to run it, though!
  • Another reason to make food courts - picnic tables give guests much bigger boosts than benches (so don't put benches in your food courts!)
  • In hot areas, drinks are far more in demand.
  • If people are unhappy because of thirst/hunger, but you can't afford to build more shops, you can place down vending machines. They require a lot of maintenance, and tend to operate at a loss, but they keep the guests from storming off and ruining your rating. Just replace them with food courts as soon as you can manage.
  • You can put out habitat heaters/coolers to keep guest areas more comfortable in extreme environments to make them happier (there is also a 'Restaurant heater' that does the same, with a bigger radius, but a much higher cost.)


    Guest Education
  • Guest education is a big deal. It's a big part of your zoo's rating (which brings people in - or keeps them away), and it earns you Conservation Credits.
  • Each guest can learn about each animal, but only once. Once they've learned all there is to learn about that animal, further education on it is pointless. So put up a variety of different education options rather than trying to saturate an entire area with facts about the Baird's tapir.
  • Make sure that every habitat has habitat info boards nearby, that they're powered, and that you have them linked to the proper animal (if you can see the animal's picture, it's linked.) Likewise, make sure every exhibit has the exhibit version - exhibits get the ones that look like pedestals. Put one on every side that the guests can get to.
  • Likewise, make sure that the guests spend as much time as possible walking through active educational speakers (electronic speakers, that is.) Again, these need to be linked to a nearby animal. They have a slider that determines their range. Place them strategically, and crank 'em!
  • But note that educational speaker areas that overlap (or are very close together) in guest areas can cause problems. If a guest can hear multiple speakers simultaneously, they find it unpleasant and happiness drops. It doesn't matter if they overlap in areas guests can't get to - staff areas, scenery, habitats, etc.
  • Later on, hire educators and assign them a variety of habitats and exhibits (via work zones.) When they're not doing a planned speech, they'll wander between those exhibits chatting and answering guest questions.
  • Use Animal Talk Points. These are locations where educators literally give talks. They have to be near an animal, linked to the animal, and assigned to a work zone with an educator. When the educators aren't giving a talk, they walk between the other locations in their work zone and spread the joy, so I like to limit talks to two per educator to make sure they have time to mingle.
  • Alternatively, have one educator per work zone assigned to give talks all over the place, and other whose job it is to wander.
  • Remember, the guests will stand in the path to listen, so make sure the path is wide enough where you place the talk points.
  • When you feel it's worth it, you can build Animal Talk Seating (basically bleachers) and link them to a nearby Talk Point to increase how many people can participate (and avoid traffic snarls.)
  • There are also Conservation Education Boards you can place. They have to be powered, and you have to choose a topic. Put them where there are a lot of guests, but be careful not to put them where guests reading will block paths (I put them along wide paths and in food courts, plus wherever I see an opportunity.) I assume that topics work like animals - guests can only learn about each topic once, so mix 'em up.
  • There is a research level for each animal - two or three levels in, usually, that gives a 50% education bonus. Make that a research priority.


    Animal Management
  • Animal genetics matter. If you're planning long-term, try not to get any traits under 50%. Absolutely avoid low immunity unless you want disease breakouts all the time, and avoid low longevity unless you want to replace them all the time.
  • Animals have a rating - none, bronze, silver, gold. It's a rough guideline for how good their genetics are at a glance, but isn't a guarantee. I've seen animals with silver that had three great genes - and a 15% longevity or immunity.
  • Habitat animals will inbreed, which is bad. It lowers their genes. Exhibit animals will not inbreed.
  • The 'contraception' toggle is your friend. Use it to limit breeding to animals with the best genetics and to eliminate inbreeding.
  • If you get an alert about "[Animal] is about to inbreed!", pause. Go to the immoral animals in question, and immediately box both of them, then use the 'move' option to move them to different locations. They'll be so confused that they lose interest in incest for a while.
  • Because exhibit animals won't inbreed, constantly cycle them - whenever a new birth happens, check all of their genetics. Keep the best male and best female, and release the rest (but make sure that they don't have a fertility of zero!)
  • Because genetics replicate within a range, it is possible, if you pay attention, to breed improved genetics over time. I've had two bronze snakes pop out a silver baby. If there aren't any dings, you can use this to gradually improve them to gold, but it takes a long, long time.
  • In general, for exhibits, insects breed quickly but don't bring in many guests, while reptiles breed more slowly and have a much higher appeal. Balance these as you need to.
  • I mentioned earlier that insects tend to breed very quickly, and are a good source of conservation credits early on. Just be careful - when you don't have a lot of other animals, they eventually become very micro-management intensive. At that point, I usually release them all and replace them with reptiles.
  • Pay very close attention to animal age, especially in exhibits (some animals die after a year or two.) When selecting who to keep and who to release, take their age into account.
  • The Zoopedia entries for each animal lists its maximum age and whether they become sterile before death. Note, first off all that maximum age is dependent on the longevity gene. Anyway, to keep track of what's what, I usually append the names of my breeding animals (those not to be traded to put on birth control) with their age. So, "Chinua" the camel becomes "Chinua 40y". It lets me know at a glance when I need to start looking at the market and trying to find a good replacement. The earlier you start looking, the more likely you are to find a nice gold-rated replacement before they croak.
  • "Animal is stressed!" messages are a pain until you figure out the factors. Check the Zoopedia. "Relation with Humans" is what you're looking for - if it says "Shy", they'll be subject to this. The solutions: 1. use opaque barriers around them at 2+ meters (so they can't see the humans.) 2. Let the humans see them with two-way glass barriers or two-way glass windows in opaque barriers. 3. Use the "Do Not Disturb" signs in the Facilities tab to cause the pesky humans to make less noise. If none of that is possible, make sure they have lots of places to hide.
  • Anything that acts like a roof is 'hard shelter', as long as the animal can fit into it. The game is very forgiving in this regard. Piles of rocks with a flat rock on top - shelter. Elevated path they can walk under - shelter. Actual roof - shelter. Cave - shelter.
  • Pay attention to your overlay. The Habitat overlay section is invaluable. Depending on which filter you choose, it will show where a specific animal can get to (including ways they can get out), what counts as shelter for a specific animal, and where staff can get to (they need to be able to get to any food.)
  • Animal needs are really important. Most can be handled cheaply or for free. Terrain painting, adding a few trees or rocks (or removing some), making sure they have food and water. Social usually means having the right number of individuals in the right sex ratio (check the Zoopedia.)
  • Using the 'snow' terrain paint brush doesn't actually add snow, which is why it vanished as soon as you paint it. Rather, it designates where snow will form if it is cold enough. If an animal needs snow, you have to paint the snow areas, and then (if it isn't naturally cold), and then add enough habitat coolers set low enough for snow to form.
  • If an animals says it has too much snow (usually an animal from a warm climate placed in a cold region), or if you get 'not in ideal temperature' alerts during a cold snap, you need to do the opposite - check the Zoopedia entry, find that animals ideal temperature, and place habitat heaters.
  • Enrichment requires vet research. It's a priority to get enough researched to find appropriate items for your animals - both food and toy enrichment. Check again periodically - two animals with 100% enrichment who later have three grown children won't be at 100% anymore - they're having to share.
  • Note that with a few food enrichment items, regular feeding trays become unnecessary and can be removed. If they still need them, you'll eventually get 'animal is hungry' messages.
  • Keepers need to be able to get to food enrichment items to replenish them.
  • When you have an animal selected and can see its needs, make sure you go to the environment tab and scroll all they way down. It'll show you all of the plants in their habitat, and highlight the ones that aren't appropriate in red. You can click the 'x' in the corner of each plant's listing to highlight and remove all of them. Just makes sure you check the highlights first - remember the cave I had under a decorated food court with null barriers? Deleting the inappropriate plants deleted the food court decorations.
  • If you get welfare high enough with the other factors, you can leave a few plants in place - again, this was the solution to the food court problem.
  • The Zoopedia gives every animals 'interspecies bonus'. This is a bonus to welfare that comes from having the animal species listed in the same habitat with them.
  • Important point! The interspecies bonus does not mean that those are the only animals that can share a habitat with them - just that those are the only ones to provide a bonus. You can combine more species than give bonuses. Just make sure that predators aren't with prey, and that the habitat needs are similar (an animal that needs 'Africa' and 'Grassland' environment can be housed with others with the same needs, for instance.) See the links at the bottom.

    Career Mode Missions (I'm keeping these as general as possible, but I will be pointing out a few 'gotchas' that they hit you with so you know what to look for - but not referring to specific missions doing so.)
  • The first few career mode missions are really easy, but they do ramp up. Use those easy missions to learn the basics and what all of the different factors in running a zoo are. It'll help you once they start twisting things around.
  • Most missions have a 'trick', a challenge they're putting you into. Maybe you have a big, open space - and very little money. Maybe you're given very limited space and need to figure out what to do about it. Maybe you're given serious restrictions (like not being able to hire or fire any staff.) Sometimes the zoos you're given have been been horribly mismanaged (especially in the middle part of the game.) These can really screw you if you just start building without taking some time to really study the zoo and figure out what's going on. Do this with the game paused, starting about ten seconds after you are given control (give it that ten seconds for all of the animals needs to be calculated.) I'll list some things to watch out for.
  • If you start with animals already in place, check them - all of them, exhibits and habitats alike. Double check their needs in the info tab (checking one animal of each type in a single habitat is fine - they share the same needs.) Check the Zoopedia for each. Pay special attention to barrier needs, such as height and grade, as well as space. Some missions will have animals cramped into too little space, while others will have the wrong barriers ("Dangerous animal has escaped!"), or have way too much space devoted to an animal (allowing you to either have multiple animals in one habitat, or to divide a habitat into two.)
  • Count your shops, count your staff. You may not have enough staff, or you may have too many and will need to fire some. Or you may have way too many shops - close some. Hell, you may have three of the same shop within 30 feet of each other - selling is a good option here. You may not be able to edit the shell, but you can manually slide a different shop in there later.
  • Pay attention to your briefing. Sometimes they drop hints that can be very troublesome and frustrating later if you don't catch it.
  • Don't rush. It's too easy to get overwhelmed by 'stuff to do' if you keep pushing the objectives. Sometimes it's better to stay on the bronze level for extra time to get more research done, get the initial setup running efficiently, and so on before you start adding a bunch of other stuff.
  • If you're having economy problems or animal problems, don't be afraid to turn off expensive shops that aren't being use, and don't be afraid to send animals to the Trade Center. Remember, animals in the trade center don't eat food and don't age. One mission gave me an extremely expensive to feed animal early on that would have sunk my economy, so I dumped him into the trade center and moved him back later on when I could afford him. Another gave me an extremely expensive to buy animal - but only one, from a species that required two for their welfare. I dumped that one in the trade center until I could afford another (and their food.)
  • Many career mode missions have specific animals you're required to use (usually 'place the adopted animals' type objectives), and many have pre-built structures that you can't edit or delete. You can still close the facilities, though, and you can sometimes delete them - just not always the structure they're in.
  • My usual first staff management step is to delete all of the pre-made work zones and build a set that makes more sense.
  • There are huge benefits to having renewable energy sources (wind, solar.) But they take a long time to research, and it is a pain to build with transformers and then switch later, as the power radius is much smaller. If you have free reign (like in some missions), start off with the free, zero-impact, zero cost power source every zoo starts with: The zoo entrance. Build everything within that radius (overlay, 'Power') until you have a solid economy and the renewables are researched. Then you can build with renewables right off the bat. It's great being able to put a solar panel right next to a guest path instead of trying to find a place to hide and disguise a transformer!


And a handy link. Planet Zoopedia is your friend.

This page gives you the needs of every animal. And if they're clickable, they'll give you a list of every animal that can share their habitat - bonus or not! That's great on space-limited zoos.

The other links on the main page (above) let you plug in the details of a habitat and see exactly what animals are suited to it - again, perfect for figuring out what to do with a habitat you already have built.
(˙pǝsɹǝʌǝɹ uǝǝq sɐɥ ʎʇıʌɐɹƃ ʃɐuosɹǝd ʎW)
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Daehawk
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Daehawk »

Theres a wall!!! Theres some letters!! And it forms a text!....Its massive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. :D

And Pink Floyd thought THEY had a wall.
Look at it! Just LOOK AT IT!
*throws hands up into the air and runs away zigzagging*
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I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
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jztemple2
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by jztemple2 »

Should I be able to sell my animals? I've got baby bison and I can use the money.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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Daehawk
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Daehawk »

jztemple2 wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 9:22 pm Should I be able to sell my animals? I've got baby bison and I can use the money.
You dont eat those?
--------------------------------------------
I am Dyslexic of Borg, prepare to have your ass laminated.
I guess Ray Butts has ate his last pancake.
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"Has high IQ. Refuses to apply it"
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Blackhawk
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

jztemple2 wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 9:22 pm Should I be able to sell my animals? I've got baby bison and I can use the money.
Yes, but not if they're immature, pregnant, or diseased, and not if they're specified as 'necessary' by the scenario.

If it's life-or-death, do the quick trade for cash (and there were a couple of missions where it was all that saved me from disaster, say, -$1000 and a problem that had to be solved immediately to avoid protestors. If you can at all get by without it, release them to the wild for the credits, which are much harder to build up a supply of in the first half of each mission.
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jztemple2
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by jztemple2 »

Blackhawk wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:14 pm
jztemple2 wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 9:22 pm Should I be able to sell my animals? I've got baby bison and I can use the money.
Yes, but not if they're immature, pregnant, or diseased, and not if they're specified as 'necessary' by the scenario.

If it's life-or-death, do the quick trade for cash (and there were a couple of missions where it was all that saved me from disaster, say, -$1000 and a problem that had to be solved immediately to avoid protestors. If you can at all get by without it, release them to the wild for the credits, which are much harder to build up a supply of in the first half of each mission.
Thanks, I was wondering why I couldn't do a sale. Now I know! :D. Protesters showed up to complain about one animal, so I sold it :roll:

Here's my American Bison (well, I call them buffalo :wink:) habitat. I'm having a problem there, my bison are thirsty all the time. I have a half-dozen water bowls and three keepers assigned to the work zone to try to keep them full. However, they seem to be empty all the time and the bison remain thirsty. Any suggestions?
Enlarge Image

By the way, this is way more complex a game than I thought. Again, not necessarily a bad thing :D
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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Blackhawk
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

jztemple2 wrote: Sun Jul 17, 2022 10:24 pm Here's my American Bison (well, I call them buffalo :wink:) habitat. I'm having a problem there, my bison are thirsty all the time. I have a half-dozen water bowls and three keepers assigned to the work zone to try to keep them full. However, they seem to be empty all the time and the bison remain thirsty. Any suggestions?
Enlarge Image
Looks like Maple Leaf, so you can't dig yourself a pond yet. Ok, several suggestions.

1. For something that big, try the Water Trough Large rather than bowls.
2. Alternatively, try the Water Pipe. It never needs refilled.
3. If I were replaying Maple Leaf now, I'd build as many of my habitats as possible against the lake, with the barrier partway out to include water in the habitat. Alternately, I'd leave the entire bottom plain alone and just build around the first plateau with the smaller lake. First, it eliminates the need for water. Second, it supports species that need water. Third, as long as you can place a purifier with it's radius touching any part of a body of water, the entire body is purified.

Note the area you have available on the map - the boundaries are a dashed white line. You could (if you really wanted to) build all the way up and over the mountains on the other side of the lake. That doesn't mean you want to build that big - it's too far for guests to walk unless you have rides or a second entrance (which you can't do that early in the game), but it's good to know that it's all there if you need it.

That was the map where I spread things out too far, by the way. I had exhibits near the entrance, some on the middle plateau by the small lake, and some at the very top. I was exhausting my guests and making my staff commute to each location! I realized that before I finished, then ended up dropping the last few things to hit the gold objectives and walking away rather than trying to fix it all.

A shot of my final Maple Leaf. Potential location/animal spoilers, of course.
Spoiler:
Image
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jztemple2
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by jztemple2 »

Again, Blackhawk, thanks for the help! I finally solved my water issue using the Water Pipe.

Right now I have a bison habitat and a tortoise one as well. I am obsessing over the genetics of my bison, trying to avoid inbreeding and also trying for better genetics. It's practically a game in itself. As usual my park is ugly as sin, but it is functional. I have healthy animals and habitats and now I'm trying to increase their education rating.
My father said that anything is interesting if you bother to read about it - Michael C. Harrold
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Carpet_pissr
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Carpet_pissr »

There are spoilers in this game?! :think:

Also adding thanks to BH as well...I haven't gotten into it enough to use the tips above, but I will and will come back here and read (and read, and read and read....:P)
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Blackhawk
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by Blackhawk »

jztemple2 wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 1:40 am Right now I have a bison habitat and a tortoise one as well. I am obsessing over the genetics of my bison, trying to avoid inbreeding and also trying for better genetics. It's practically a game in itself. As usual my park is ugly as sin, but it is functional. I have healthy animals and habitats and now I'm trying to increase their education rating.
One thing that really helps for the species where it is practical is to have multiples of each sex - say, three males, three females. It tends to mix the genome better and leads to less interbreeding. And if I'm forced to keep potential inbreeders together, I simply turn on contraception for those with the weakest DNA.

In franchise mode, where animals are much more long-term (ie - you don't 'finish' the scenarios), people go to great lengths. They'll have multiple habitats for important species - one for males, one for females, one for designated breeding pairs, and one for young, and then they'll cycle who breeds. FYI, grandchildren don't count as related, only parents/offspring and siblings.
Carpet_pissr wrote: Mon Jul 18, 2022 8:05 am There are spoilers in this game?! :think:
Some people find seeing unrevealed locations to be a spoiler. They look forward to that reveal when they unlock a new area - seeing the intro flyover and discovering where they get to go next. That doesn't bother me too much. But when it comes to tips on the scenarios, some people would prefer to figure it out for themselves. A tip of "On scenario #4, Arctic Aquatic Gardens, fix the following problems - zebras are in an aquatic habitat, all 84 penguins are female, you have 15 vets at $2500 salary each, lions are housed with ostriches" would ruin the fun of figuring those things out themselves. Tips like, "Check the habitat for appropriateness, check the populations, check for unnecessary staff", not referring to specific maps, on the other hand, point people in the right direction without taking away their chance to figure things out themselves.

And my rule is "When in doubt, it's better to spoiler something than to detract from someone else's experience."
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naednek
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Re: Planet Zoo

Post by naednek »

i think jztemple is probably the OOer most responsible on getting me to buy games. I saw his post about the sale, and I picked it for about $13.

I'm on the 2nd tutorial. Quite a jump from Planet coaster so far. A bit overwhelming. Will be looking at BH's post between work duties today.

Thanks BH for the writeup

JZ, send me money
hepcat - "I agree with Naednek"
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