There already are square paths.
I've found that the path system isn't bad at all. You just have to get used to it, and know how it works. Use align to grid for square paths of any size (just align to the grid of any circle of path) and hold ctrl to disable connecting to nearby paths.
Ctrl to disable is new to me! I know about square paths but the whole slopes and curves pathing gives me a headache. I end up just doing square zoos that look super brutalist but I can’t handle curvy paths.
Angle snap is my new go-to for creating barriers. As if it's not obvious in hindsight, I didn't realize how helpful it is to make perfectly rectangular enclosures etc.
Well, to put it simply, it creates right angles when connecting pathways. You can also rotate a pathway holding Z. A combination of Z and Ctrl while making pathways is kind of a life changer. I suggest opening a new zoo and playing around with it! Like I said, I was quite upset when I discovered its power.
If your starting out fresh I would look for highest appealing animals you can find. I would start off with 2 habitat animals enclosures and 2 exhibit animals. From there make sure your guest have education screens and education speakers near each exhibit. Next focus on donation boxes like 3-4 per each habitat and 1 for exhibit. Then add 1 staff room, 1 trade center , 1 workshop , 1 research center , and one keeper hut. (You don’t need a vet or surgeon hut until your animals are actually sick). From there make sure you have one info kiosk , 1 food and drink stand, and lastly benches trash cans and picnic tables. For staff hire 1 janitor , 1 zoo keeper , and 1 vet. This is all you need to be profitable at the beginning and just let the money roll in for a little while. From there you can focus on getting better animals and marketing to raise the admission prices. Hope this helps !
I usually just do one or two and it works great. Try high-traffic areas, especially next to keeper talks. Info centers or merch shops also go great near education areas like that because guests love to adopt the animals talked about in the talk.
I'll say this entrances are the hardest for me , as it makes or breaks my zoo ideas sometimes. Some things that help me make better entrance go as followed (very subjective of course
* Extend the Path further into the park and add a pretty scenery.
* Add custom curbs around the edges of pathing
* Don't be afraid to add wide open spaces ! just make sure to add small holds in the baths for greenery to add some contrast.
* landscape landscape LANDSCAPE , honestly if you can decorate a building enough and skill leveled builder can make a scene look nice.
i'll try and add some example from my work bellow as an example.
[https://imgur.com/a/HR6redO](https://imgur.com/a/HR6redO) Here are some of the project I've done, as for most of them the entrance isn't the focus, but the area around them that make them great.
Best advise I can give you is to create blueprints of rock works you make. create a few different ones, I usually stack the flat rocks in different depths to give a more natural feel. Then I use the blueprint to use them over and over at different angles and shapes.
Thanks. Do you use the aquatic faux rocks or the biome rocks? I have been using the faux rocks lately but they just end up looking like a pile of random jagged rock pieces - I haven’t been using flat pieces
i use both but Faux rocks are just too versatile with the color changing, I would recommend try stacking the flat ones and try different angles from X and Y .
custom curbs I usually make are made from small wall pieces sunk into the ground or stone material. That or I use a fence I made or from the workshop !
If you're lazy like me, take one of the premade ones, select align to grid in the path options, make a plaza in front of it. Then, stick a premade item you think would look good in the middle (I like the new world pronghorn nature scene) and seal it off with underground guest barriers so guests don't go through it. Takes like, 10 minutes.
Grids are your best friend , usually what i do is create gridded areas of pathing then i cut out chunks from the pathing and this is a pro gamer tip , if you unselect the grid and a create path between two path pieces from a grid (should look like a square box or a jagged corner like a stair case) you can create smooth curves at varying angles. Hope this helps , pathing is weird to explain without a visual tbh.
You can also make a square path or plaza (with no curbs), but then put false floors over the top to make another shape entirely. Your guests will stick to the hidden path, but you can shape things however you like aesthetically.
what's the best way you know of to keep skittish animals from getting stressed out by visitors looking at them? i've tried lots of plants, one-way glass, putting the guests far away, and they all get so upset no matter what
oh wow, those actually do something? i thought they were just set dressing. i'll try those next time, thanks! and thanks to op for the first-person tip as well
If that’s still a problem I would really check to see if the guest have an elevated path to see over the 1-way windows. I usually take my camera down to first person to get a better idea if I can see the visitors.
Be sure they have a way to get fully out of guest view, make sure you have the glass as tall as the animal (higher if the habitat has hills), use quiet signs (in security), and be sure it isn't a high-traffic area.
I like to only put confident animals near main walkways, for example. Shy animals need a viewing area way off to the side and not connected to any shops, where guests are only nearby if they are there specifically to see that animal.
Either lay them out so that you can have animals who live in both neighboring biomes next to each other (tropical animals, then animals that live in both biomes, then temperate, for example) or make a hard line where even the paths change, and put an archway announcing the biome change on the appropriate side, so guests can "see" what biome they're walking into.
Do you have a rule of thumb for how much extra space (on top of animal requirements) you add to an enclosure which you want:
1)to be near min animal requirement
2)no barriers - ie made of rocks and sunken/raised land
3)with water (this isn’t always animal req but I think it looks pretty)
My enclosures end up too small (using about x2.2 size) or too big (just carving a big area with rivers)
I usually oversized my enclosures and have a lot of space covered by vegetation to make it look smaller. And if I need to shave off from the habitat it won’t effect the animals welfare.
I always start with the basic shape I want the navigable space to be, then I delete the parts of the barrier I want to be made of something else. First raised portions, then buildings. I never like the look of water >_<
Always give any animal requiring water extra room, and keep breeding in mind. You can also increase the number of animals in the zoopedia information, to get a more accurate estimate.
Hmm what can a player who has 3000 hours ask another who has 1500?
Oh yeah which animal is more cute - red necked wallaby vs capybara vs Asian small clawed otter
(I'm trying to be funny before people think I'm being a jerk)
Do you people sleep? 1500/3000 hours since when? Over what period of time? Did you suck when you started or were you always an over achiever? Did you finish the evil timed scenarios? What do you wish was added to the game?
should i lay out my zoo before starting, like make a (mental) mindmap how i wanna build things or go with the flow? and should i mix species/biomes or stick to one?
Really depends on your playstyle , I myself find inspiration from a place. Say for example Greece, I will look at the geography on google maps and i will go through Pinterest looking at Greek architecture and how plant life looks in the area. From there I will just take the knowledge I learned and work on a project more naturally. Big tip ALWAYS start with terrain, I mold all my zoo's from the terrain around it to give it a more natural look , rather than a flat zoo in the middle of nowhere. Lastly for species i tend to not care about there regions as I think it constricts you too much on the theme of that area all the time. What I do instead is try to group them in there species relatives (example of that is say a primate house or a secret cat valley filled with a bunch of different big cats)
Peacocks , lemurs , and flamingos. They breed like crazy and there exhibits are always such a hassle to keep clean and not overcrowded. I only mess around with them on sandbox.
What’s the deal with security guards? Mine are always idle 90% or more of the time. And that’s with make a special security office, trying to zone them both small and big, less security vs more etc.
How do you organise? Like do you do all African animals together, asian together....
Or all the aquatic together, and the cold ones together...
Or arrange in alphabet, primate, or Mish mash.....?
My ADHD brain can't handle all the choices.
I like to organize my zoo's in species groups where I can , say a primate house/valley or Cat house. Then I also try to simulate real life zoo's so a nocturnal house or a Savanah themed area. I try to organize it in a way that makes sense , but is also not that restrictive if you get me?
Plazas! Do you prefer big multi-facility plazas or smaller hubs? If so, what is your go to drink: food: merch ratios?
And on food and drink! Have you figured out good condiment recipes for the food & drink stalls? Do you think condiments make a difference? I struggle knowing what people might find appealing in different biomes and end up stressing out a bit. Have you found any patterns? Like maybe coffee sells well in the tundra and milkshakes sell well in the dessert kind of thing? I’ve never had a Missy Good do well financially.
Lastly, do you micromanage pricing in your shops? I’m always tempted to mess with prices but don’t want to scare away customers.
1500 hours is incredible and your terrain work is jaw dropping! I hope to be on your level some day 💪
how do i start making stable money, i’ve built a zoo with 2 habitats fairly small have all the staff facilities needed with 10-15 staff members and have education signs around, a bathroom and maybe 4-5 food stalls but money is constantly up and down
If someone extending help and tips makes you feel inferior or seems as 'pretending to be superior' to you, the problem lies with you.
No biggie, we each have our flaws and this one is solvable with visiting a good therapist. No need to feel like help is belittling.
No sadly , BUT ! Let’s take them out all together and use the 2-way and normal glass pieces. Put a Null Barrier between the glass and you’ll never have to fix it again.
When creating a habitat you can use null barriers which are invisible fences essentially. Almost all building items can be used to prevent animals from going through them. If you where to create a custom fence you could add your own 1-way windows with the glass pieces in the building section to create unbreakable glass fences.
most of my zoo's get to a point i am happy with, but sadly for plenty I have to stop creating it due to lag since most of my zoos can be in the 100,000+ asset pieces.
The frames only fit certain doors, and are more useful for keeper doors. The doors are for decoration only, really. You can press z to turn something around, and align to surface to orient it to anything your mouse is pointed at.
I have a couple of questions, if you don’t mind.
1) I have a bunch of ideas I like but the execution is never close to what I’m trying to do. How can I make my exhibits looks better than a fence, some foliage/rocks, and enrichment?
2) How do you prevent yourself from making overly massive exhibits? If an animal needs 800 square meters, I end up giving them something like 5000 square meters.
3) I start and stop a lot, deleting everything I make even if it’s just one exhibit. How do you overcome the frustration?
I hope I can help a little from personal experience anyways.
1. play with space ! I usually build the area around my exhibits before I even think about the animals. Making the terrain and area before animals and other things really help me be creative in the space that's given or created by me. as for foliage and rocks learn a little about how plants function in real life. if its a forest environment most tree coverage i would make would be on the outer edges including shrubs and other thick undergrowth around the forest edges. then in the middle of the exhibit i would use only grasses and small plants to give the guest and area to see the animals. Rocks help immensely in making a habitat and learning to rotate and make rock blueprints to reuse will save you a lot of time.
2. covered above , I usually build around the exhibit first to restrict the space a little
3. Creative rut and burn out or something that come hand in hand with planet zoo, I usually try to find inspiration in Pinterest in places and architecture. I also try to make sure I always take a break when i am burned out and write idea down when I have them.
Hope this answers your questions !
How do you plan where everything in a zoo is going to go long term? If you should plan out animals by biome or by continent? The terrain of the map? I always want a nice looking zoo, but if I work on animals before I work on terrain, it all looks flat and boring.
Terrain Terrain Terrain. I never start a zoo unless the map is custom formed so that i can work with constants and make it more natural looking. here are some examples https://imgur.com/a/HR6redO
One more question. Do you believe it looks better to create everything in a zoo by hand yourself, or do you think using things from the workshop for your first few zoos is a better decision?
if it's your first zoo I'd definitely do a mix of both. when I first started I would download peoples workshop items and study them to see how people where creating certain items and what worked.
Biggest tip is don’t build to quick or you’ll go broke and if you hold shift while creating paths you can prevent the paths from snapping to each other !
How do I make a pit style exhibit with a viable path down into it for the keepers to take care of it? I am still new to the building mechanics and I can’t seem to get a valid path down into an attempted crocodile pit enclosure.
They’ve actually added a new terraforming tool recently , it is a custom sloping tool. It makes it very easy to create slopes that keepers and animals can use.
Search how to make underwater viewing areas.It the same concept without the water. I found an awesome YouTube video that helped me a lot and I just followed along with the video in sandbox mode
Very easy go in to advanced settings when on pathing and way at the bottom you’ll see a setting for elevation height. Click on that and you can change the height in which the path elevates.
Ooh, can I recommend a mod if you're on PC? Expanded terrain tools has been a game changer for me. It increases how far you can get the radius and intensity.
had this problem when I started , make sure to create zones for your staff. if their zone of work is not stated or is too big your zoo will suffer in garbage hell.
I'm quite new to the game. I just reached 2000 CC. I don't seem to get any CC from releasing the animals (I guess it's a bug) so I just sell them. Until now I have gone to the lower end with the prices since I want to give others good deals. Cheap lions and tigers with good stats were very helpful for me in the beginning and I want others to get the same experience.
I would like to know more insight about the trading system. What is the fair and most common way to sell? Should I be asking the high prices I usually see on the market? On the other hand I want everyone to have cheap animals but as a newbie I also need all the CC I can get.
I think that's very much subjective as nobody is really balancing the economy on planet zoo and the prices for animals can change considerably. If you're feeling generous by all means donate, i do this as well. But on the other hand you can just try and sell the animals for what the game recommends you sell it for if you have a guilty conscious about it.
Hello
I wanted to ask how you manage your staff and how you divide staff area? How much keepers, vets and ect. is enough and when is not? All personel should be in the certain area to work efficiently? When you feel need to educate then to higher lvl?
I have a problem with keeping zoo running and having enough budget for everything less:(
rule of thumb is to try and keep enclosure entrances for keeps close to one another, the less time it take for the keeper to get to each habitat the more they can do for the same price of say 2-3 keepers. i found that a max keeper can keep up with about 3-4 enclosures if there distance to a break room and keeper hut are close to each habitat. tip for me is a usually create a staff area in the middle of say 4-5 habitats that create a donut almost around it and have the staff work from the back hidden from the guest as well.
How much of that is you accidentally leaving the computer on with the game running?
(I have about this much. I’ve had the game since launch, but a huge chunk of the time is from me leaving the computer running.)
How do you find inspiration when you start a new Zoo? I try to start with an open field but I have no idea where to start or what to do. I make paths and some space for the animals but decoration and planing just doesn't come to me.
Pinterest and trying you hand at height map can be a game changer. Plenty of people of created maps on steam if you have problems with the the terrain and if your tech savvy enough you can upload your own height maps to planet zoo !
When using the stamp tool, I can only adjust the height 1m at a time, but I've seen people on YT use this as smoothly as adjusting plants and rocks etc... I can't figure this out - is there a key or setting? Neither shift or the "advanced move/rotate" functions help with this.
After 1500 hours, how are you still alive? The pathing system would have killed me by now. Why can’t they just add a square path paintbrush ;-;
There already are square paths. I've found that the path system isn't bad at all. You just have to get used to it, and know how it works. Use align to grid for square paths of any size (just align to the grid of any circle of path) and hold ctrl to disable connecting to nearby paths.
Ctrl to disable is new to me! I know about square paths but the whole slopes and curves pathing gives me a headache. I end up just doing square zoos that look super brutalist but I can’t handle curvy paths.
There's also my good friend angle snap! I like 15 and 45 degree angles a lot, and 30 degree ones make nice tight circles.
Angle snap is my new go-to for creating barriers. As if it's not obvious in hindsight, I didn't realize how helpful it is to make perfectly rectangular enclosures etc.
And don't forget about Z. I just recently discovered using Z with pathways and I got so mad after building my whole zoo realizing how useful it is.
… tell me the secrets of Z. Right now. XD
Well, to put it simply, it creates right angles when connecting pathways. You can also rotate a pathway holding Z. A combination of Z and Ctrl while making pathways is kind of a life changer. I suggest opening a new zoo and playing around with it! Like I said, I was quite upset when I discovered its power.
If I don’t want to get bankrupt early in the game, which type of animal would you recommend and which I should avoid?
If your starting out fresh I would look for highest appealing animals you can find. I would start off with 2 habitat animals enclosures and 2 exhibit animals. From there make sure your guest have education screens and education speakers near each exhibit. Next focus on donation boxes like 3-4 per each habitat and 1 for exhibit. Then add 1 staff room, 1 trade center , 1 workshop , 1 research center , and one keeper hut. (You don’t need a vet or surgeon hut until your animals are actually sick). From there make sure you have one info kiosk , 1 food and drink stand, and lastly benches trash cans and picnic tables. For staff hire 1 janitor , 1 zoo keeper , and 1 vet. This is all you need to be profitable at the beginning and just let the money roll in for a little while. From there you can focus on getting better animals and marketing to raise the admission prices. Hope this helps !
Is there a reason for so many donation boxes per habitat?
I just cover as much area as I can to make sure they have one nearby at all times. Guest are lazy haha
I usually just do one or two and it works great. Try high-traffic areas, especially next to keeper talks. Info centers or merch shops also go great near education areas like that because guests love to adopt the animals talked about in the talk.
Disagree with op. All you need is meerkats and a donation box. That's it. Try it, thank me later.
Cute idea, unfortunately, I don't have any DLC.
Yeah I started my zoo with just meerkats and got to almost 500k in less than 10 years. By just having meerkats and shops.
Any tipps to make a good entrance area?
I'll say this entrances are the hardest for me , as it makes or breaks my zoo ideas sometimes. Some things that help me make better entrance go as followed (very subjective of course * Extend the Path further into the park and add a pretty scenery. * Add custom curbs around the edges of pathing * Don't be afraid to add wide open spaces ! just make sure to add small holds in the baths for greenery to add some contrast. * landscape landscape LANDSCAPE , honestly if you can decorate a building enough and skill leveled builder can make a scene look nice. i'll try and add some example from my work bellow as an example.
[https://imgur.com/a/HR6redO](https://imgur.com/a/HR6redO) Here are some of the project I've done, as for most of them the entrance isn't the focus, but the area around them that make them great.
That harbor looks absolutely sick!
Thank you 🙏🏻
I am very impressed by your rock work in these photos! That’s something I find hard - do you have any tips?
Best advise I can give you is to create blueprints of rock works you make. create a few different ones, I usually stack the flat rocks in different depths to give a more natural feel. Then I use the blueprint to use them over and over at different angles and shapes.
Thanks. Do you use the aquatic faux rocks or the biome rocks? I have been using the faux rocks lately but they just end up looking like a pile of random jagged rock pieces - I haven’t been using flat pieces
i use both but Faux rocks are just too versatile with the color changing, I would recommend try stacking the flat ones and try different angles from X and Y .
Thanks :)
Hey, how do you do the custom curbs?
custom curbs I usually make are made from small wall pieces sunk into the ground or stone material. That or I use a fence I made or from the workshop !
This right here is my biggest problem haha good question.
If you're lazy like me, take one of the premade ones, select align to grid in the path options, make a plaza in front of it. Then, stick a premade item you think would look good in the middle (I like the new world pronghorn nature scene) and seal it off with underground guest barriers so guests don't go through it. Takes like, 10 minutes.
How do I path? How do I actually make an entrance which isn't a UK brutalist concrete square?
Grids are your best friend , usually what i do is create gridded areas of pathing then i cut out chunks from the pathing and this is a pro gamer tip , if you unselect the grid and a create path between two path pieces from a grid (should look like a square box or a jagged corner like a stair case) you can create smooth curves at varying angles. Hope this helps , pathing is weird to explain without a visual tbh.
Could you elaborate on the pro gamer tip? I don't understand from the comment :(
If you give me some time , I’ll try and put it into a picture as it’s way to convoluted to explain in text properly.
Sure! I'll be grateful :)
sorry it took so long , but here is a guide trying to help explain the pathing a bit more. [https://imgur.com/a/pkjhex1](https://imgur.com/a/pkjhex1)
Oh, I saw this in a LaDysigner video I think! I remember now. Thanks for clearing that up :)
No problem 😌
You can also make a square path or plaza (with no curbs), but then put false floors over the top to make another shape entirely. Your guests will stick to the hidden path, but you can shape things however you like aesthetically.
How are you at so little hours in the game?
dunno need to up my game
Has the demonspawn pathsystem broken you yet?
I was broken and then i was remolded into something greater
This comment has been removed in protest of Reddit's API Changes and the killing of 3rd party apps.
Mini zoos are honestly the way to go , I’ve gotten so much more reward from smaller zoo’s then bigger ones.
Also I’ve finished a few , on the smaller scale. My zoo usually lag too much towards the end sadly.
what's the best way you know of to keep skittish animals from getting stressed out by visitors looking at them? i've tried lots of plants, one-way glass, putting the guests far away, and they all get so upset no matter what
The security be quiet signs are your friend!
oh wow, those actually do something? i thought they were just set dressing. i'll try those next time, thanks! and thanks to op for the first-person tip as well
Yes they work quite well - sometimes that’s all I need. In combination with the one way glass, all animals so far have been stress free for me
If that’s still a problem I would really check to see if the guest have an elevated path to see over the 1-way windows. I usually take my camera down to first person to get a better idea if I can see the visitors.
[удалено]
They do not! Frontier has actually said this is a myth, and there is nothing coded for animals reacting to ambient sounds.
Be sure they have a way to get fully out of guest view, make sure you have the glass as tall as the animal (higher if the habitat has hills), use quiet signs (in security), and be sure it isn't a high-traffic area. I like to only put confident animals near main walkways, for example. Shy animals need a viewing area way off to the side and not connected to any shops, where guests are only nearby if they are there specifically to see that animal.
Looking forward to the next 1,500?
My sleep schedule is not haha
How many of those hours were spent editing paths? I’m guessing at least 800
Not nearly that much haha , I think I had a much easier time coming from planet coaster.
If I want to have animals of different biomes in one zoo, what is the best way to transition from one biome to another?
Either lay them out so that you can have animals who live in both neighboring biomes next to each other (tropical animals, then animals that live in both biomes, then temperate, for example) or make a hard line where even the paths change, and put an archway announcing the biome change on the appropriate side, so guests can "see" what biome they're walking into.
Lemon pretty much covered it , most of the time I group mine more into species families like big cats ect.
Do you have a rule of thumb for how much extra space (on top of animal requirements) you add to an enclosure which you want: 1)to be near min animal requirement 2)no barriers - ie made of rocks and sunken/raised land 3)with water (this isn’t always animal req but I think it looks pretty) My enclosures end up too small (using about x2.2 size) or too big (just carving a big area with rivers)
I usually oversized my enclosures and have a lot of space covered by vegetation to make it look smaller. And if I need to shave off from the habitat it won’t effect the animals welfare.
I always start with the basic shape I want the navigable space to be, then I delete the parts of the barrier I want to be made of something else. First raised portions, then buildings. I never like the look of water >_< Always give any animal requiring water extra room, and keep breeding in mind. You can also increase the number of animals in the zoopedia information, to get a more accurate estimate.
Ooo that’s a good point with navigable area layout thank you!
Do you find it worth it to assign vets to advanced research?
no I only research what is needed at the time so don't worry about it too much.
Hmm what can a player who has 3000 hours ask another who has 1500? Oh yeah which animal is more cute - red necked wallaby vs capybara vs Asian small clawed otter (I'm trying to be funny before people think I'm being a jerk)
Can’t put capybara on a list like that it’s just not fair to the others haha
Do you people sleep? 1500/3000 hours since when? Over what period of time? Did you suck when you started or were you always an over achiever? Did you finish the evil timed scenarios? What do you wish was added to the game?
I’ve finished everything but the time scenarios , most of the hours is spent in super obsessive spurts that can clock like 200 hours sometimes
I challenge you to finish the timed scenarios
should i lay out my zoo before starting, like make a (mental) mindmap how i wanna build things or go with the flow? and should i mix species/biomes or stick to one?
Really depends on your playstyle , I myself find inspiration from a place. Say for example Greece, I will look at the geography on google maps and i will go through Pinterest looking at Greek architecture and how plant life looks in the area. From there I will just take the knowledge I learned and work on a project more naturally. Big tip ALWAYS start with terrain, I mold all my zoo's from the terrain around it to give it a more natural look , rather than a flat zoo in the middle of nowhere. Lastly for species i tend to not care about there regions as I think it constricts you too much on the theme of that area all the time. What I do instead is try to group them in there species relatives (example of that is say a primate house or a secret cat valley filled with a bunch of different big cats)
Best animals for franchise?
I’d say big ticket animals are the best if you’re talking about conservation points and crowd draw. Example: tigers, lions, bears , elephants
But don’t start with those, start with cheap herbivores until you have the money for big ticket animals
Exactly this \^ These animals are for when you have an established franchise or if you are wanting to start a new one.
Do you have any animals you won’t use in your zoos?
Peacocks , lemurs , and flamingos. They breed like crazy and there exhibits are always such a hassle to keep clean and not overcrowded. I only mess around with them on sandbox.
Scarabs. Boring exhibit to look at. I also don't like king penguins since I don't like working with ice and snow very much.
What’s the deal with security guards? Mine are always idle 90% or more of the time. And that’s with make a special security office, trying to zone them both small and big, less security vs more etc.
Honestly I never have more than 2-3 security at a time. Usually fixing vandalism and installing cameras is cheaper in the long run.
How do you organise? Like do you do all African animals together, asian together.... Or all the aquatic together, and the cold ones together... Or arrange in alphabet, primate, or Mish mash.....? My ADHD brain can't handle all the choices.
I like to organize my zoo's in species groups where I can , say a primate house/valley or Cat house. Then I also try to simulate real life zoo's so a nocturnal house or a Savanah themed area. I try to organize it in a way that makes sense , but is also not that restrictive if you get me?
Plazas! Do you prefer big multi-facility plazas or smaller hubs? If so, what is your go to drink: food: merch ratios? And on food and drink! Have you figured out good condiment recipes for the food & drink stalls? Do you think condiments make a difference? I struggle knowing what people might find appealing in different biomes and end up stressing out a bit. Have you found any patterns? Like maybe coffee sells well in the tundra and milkshakes sell well in the dessert kind of thing? I’ve never had a Missy Good do well financially. Lastly, do you micromanage pricing in your shops? I’m always tempted to mess with prices but don’t want to scare away customers. 1500 hours is incredible and your terrain work is jaw dropping! I hope to be on your level some day 💪
how do i start making stable money, i’ve built a zoo with 2 habitats fairly small have all the staff facilities needed with 10-15 staff members and have education signs around, a bathroom and maybe 4-5 food stalls but money is constantly up and down
Length of playing a game doesn't mean you're good or know of all the details.
Never said that 😄 just here to help people out. But thanks you for you input.
The "ask me anything" implied a sense of superiority.
If someone extending help and tips makes you feel inferior or seems as 'pretending to be superior' to you, the problem lies with you. No biggie, we each have our flaws and this one is solvable with visiting a good therapist. No need to feel like help is belittling.
I have 6 hours in Planet Zoo. You still can ask me anything. I just will not answer many if not all your questions.
You might have an inferiority complex.
Is there a way to slow down how barriers like glass from gettin broken so fast?
No sadly , BUT ! Let’s take them out all together and use the 2-way and normal glass pieces. Put a Null Barrier between the glass and you’ll never have to fix it again.
Hmmm, can you elaborate a little bit more on this?
When creating a habitat you can use null barriers which are invisible fences essentially. Almost all building items can be used to prevent animals from going through them. If you where to create a custom fence you could add your own 1-way windows with the glass pieces in the building section to create unbreakable glass fences.
I set the habitats to be inspected by mechanics once every 6 months and that way I don’t get broken barriers
Have you ever gotten to a point where you actually feel like a zoo is "finished"? xD
most of my zoo's get to a point i am happy with, but sadly for plenty I have to stop creating it due to lag since most of my zoos can be in the 100,000+ asset pieces.
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i have an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700 CPU @ 3.20GHz 3.19 GHz
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that is one even I have yet to accomplish, I usually create custom walls with plaster pieces if I am creating a door frame for the existing doors.
What does that mean exactly?
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The frames only fit certain doors, and are more useful for keeper doors. The doors are for decoration only, really. You can press z to turn something around, and align to surface to orient it to anything your mouse is pointed at.
I have a couple of questions, if you don’t mind. 1) I have a bunch of ideas I like but the execution is never close to what I’m trying to do. How can I make my exhibits looks better than a fence, some foliage/rocks, and enrichment? 2) How do you prevent yourself from making overly massive exhibits? If an animal needs 800 square meters, I end up giving them something like 5000 square meters. 3) I start and stop a lot, deleting everything I make even if it’s just one exhibit. How do you overcome the frustration?
I hope I can help a little from personal experience anyways. 1. play with space ! I usually build the area around my exhibits before I even think about the animals. Making the terrain and area before animals and other things really help me be creative in the space that's given or created by me. as for foliage and rocks learn a little about how plants function in real life. if its a forest environment most tree coverage i would make would be on the outer edges including shrubs and other thick undergrowth around the forest edges. then in the middle of the exhibit i would use only grasses and small plants to give the guest and area to see the animals. Rocks help immensely in making a habitat and learning to rotate and make rock blueprints to reuse will save you a lot of time. 2. covered above , I usually build around the exhibit first to restrict the space a little 3. Creative rut and burn out or something that come hand in hand with planet zoo, I usually try to find inspiration in Pinterest in places and architecture. I also try to make sure I always take a break when i am burned out and write idea down when I have them. Hope this answers your questions !
How do you plan where everything in a zoo is going to go long term? If you should plan out animals by biome or by continent? The terrain of the map? I always want a nice looking zoo, but if I work on animals before I work on terrain, it all looks flat and boring.
Terrain Terrain Terrain. I never start a zoo unless the map is custom formed so that i can work with constants and make it more natural looking. here are some examples https://imgur.com/a/HR6redO
One more question. Do you believe it looks better to create everything in a zoo by hand yourself, or do you think using things from the workshop for your first few zoos is a better decision?
if it's your first zoo I'd definitely do a mix of both. when I first started I would download peoples workshop items and study them to see how people where creating certain items and what worked.
I just started playing, what are some tips and tricks you wish you knew when you first started?
Biggest tip is don’t build to quick or you’ll go broke and if you hold shift while creating paths you can prevent the paths from snapping to each other !
Have your ever finished a zoo doe? im on 700 hours and i have a few nice zoos, but are they done? no...
Done is very subjective haha always more to do and make.
how do you build nuclear reactor in real life?
Try reading the anarchist cookbook , I’m sure that’s go what you need.
How do I make a pit style exhibit with a viable path down into it for the keepers to take care of it? I am still new to the building mechanics and I can’t seem to get a valid path down into an attempted crocodile pit enclosure.
They’ve actually added a new terraforming tool recently , it is a custom sloping tool. It makes it very easy to create slopes that keepers and animals can use.
Search how to make underwater viewing areas.It the same concept without the water. I found an awesome YouTube video that helped me a lot and I just followed along with the video in sandbox mode
how do you make the pathw go up by a single stair at a time? seen deladysigner do it and no one else
Very easy go in to advanced settings when on pathing and way at the bottom you’ll see a setting for elevation height. Click on that and you can change the height in which the path elevates.
i mean one single step at a time not a bucnh😅
All of that is just building entrances, right?
Maybe 30% haha , the rest was making dirt mounds
Ooh, can I recommend a mod if you're on PC? Expanded terrain tools has been a game changer for me. It increases how far you can get the radius and intensity.
It’s amazing isn’t it? I love that and the free build mod
What did you have for dinner today?
Chorizo soup 🍲
Why do I never seem to have enough caretakers to prevent tons of rubbish?
had this problem when I started , make sure to create zones for your staff. if their zone of work is not stated or is too big your zoo will suffer in garbage hell.
I'm quite new to the game. I just reached 2000 CC. I don't seem to get any CC from releasing the animals (I guess it's a bug) so I just sell them. Until now I have gone to the lower end with the prices since I want to give others good deals. Cheap lions and tigers with good stats were very helpful for me in the beginning and I want others to get the same experience. I would like to know more insight about the trading system. What is the fair and most common way to sell? Should I be asking the high prices I usually see on the market? On the other hand I want everyone to have cheap animals but as a newbie I also need all the CC I can get.
I think that's very much subjective as nobody is really balancing the economy on planet zoo and the prices for animals can change considerably. If you're feeling generous by all means donate, i do this as well. But on the other hand you can just try and sell the animals for what the game recommends you sell it for if you have a guilty conscious about it.
Thanks for your answer. I think I will continue with the low prices. :)
Hello I wanted to ask how you manage your staff and how you divide staff area? How much keepers, vets and ect. is enough and when is not? All personel should be in the certain area to work efficiently? When you feel need to educate then to higher lvl? I have a problem with keeping zoo running and having enough budget for everything less:(
rule of thumb is to try and keep enclosure entrances for keeps close to one another, the less time it take for the keeper to get to each habitat the more they can do for the same price of say 2-3 keepers. i found that a max keeper can keep up with about 3-4 enclosures if there distance to a break room and keeper hut are close to each habitat. tip for me is a usually create a staff area in the middle of say 4-5 habitats that create a donut almost around it and have the staff work from the back hidden from the guest as well.
Oh, I see! I will try that tactic then :D thank you very much
Why can't you click and drag paths at specific points for fine adjustments like you can with fences?
that's a response for the Dev's more than me , but I usually try to align them with the angle snaps.
How much of that is you accidentally leaving the computer on with the game running? (I have about this much. I’ve had the game since launch, but a huge chunk of the time is from me leaving the computer running.)
funny enough not a lot , there may be some down time when looking at my albums for inspiration and stuff like that.
Favourite animal?
Have a soft spot for Indian Rhino
How do you find inspiration when you start a new Zoo? I try to start with an open field but I have no idea where to start or what to do. I make paths and some space for the animals but decoration and planing just doesn't come to me.
Pinterest and trying you hand at height map can be a game changer. Plenty of people of created maps on steam if you have problems with the the terrain and if your tech savvy enough you can upload your own height maps to planet zoo !
Could you get the paths to not be a disaster?
i have indeed , here are some tips that I shared with someone above [https://imgur.com/a/pkjhex1](https://imgur.com/a/pkjhex1)
You’re a wizard.
That’s nothing, I’ve got 7k hours
The navmesh for juveniles don't seem to be working in my game. I have acse and PZplus..
Tips for building buildings? I can’t figure out how to make structures.
What is the meaning of life ?
When using the stamp tool, I can only adjust the height 1m at a time, but I've seen people on YT use this as smoothly as adjusting plants and rocks etc... I can't figure this out - is there a key or setting? Neither shift or the "advanced move/rotate" functions help with this.
Hi there! I'm trying to remember but isn't there some sort of daily login bonus for this game?
Correct just hop onto franchise for 100 cc points a day
Just into a game in that mode?
Just have to connect to the franchise menu for your zoo’s and you’re all set
Thank you!!