Walls or Open Planning?????

[Capt.Jamesbloke]

Which do you find is better?? Do I really need to control the flow of traffic??

[ginandcats]

it depends on if you want to put up more security cameras for me, open planning can lead to more things getting stolen- otherwise the npcs typically just sort themselves out either way

[LurkinLikeAFlerken]

I like to use lots of decor around the exhibits, and so many are wall items, so i tend to do lots of little divider walls to decorate areas. My plant section is more open with little gardens of decor plants and using the archways and boxed flowers as little dividers here and there, but its mostly open there. It doesn't really seem to matter which way I use the space, the visitors do whatever and there's always people going the opposite way I expected. They look at things all out of order instead of looking at the next closest thing.

[Rags]

Both. It depends on the exhibit. Some exhibits, like Dino's, can be one-offs that work in a room well with 1-3. Others, like Botany, works well as an open garden.

Traffic Control:
Need to, not at all.

Can you, sorta but not really. At least not until you get one-way doors.
Nothing like making them go through the gift shop to come in and out of the museum. The AI will let them wonder about. It's much akin to herding cats.

[Jehsee Da Bunn]

I kind of use a mix. For some museums I'll use a broad hallway that has vending machines and entertainment in it where exhibits are in side alcoves that hold an average of four exhibits, others I'll make it a series of rooms with around six related exhibits in each that interconnect, so it's not simply "move room to room in a line", guests can still wander easily. It works out well in many ways, as the alcove design keeps people playing games and eating from getting stuck because of crowding (especially from tour groups), where the multi-room layout spreads people out very well and is really good for temperature and humidity control. Both layouts also make for very obvious placement points for cameras and guards so that (when it's working properly) you can maximize your coverage with minimal staff overlap.

The only museum I went with one huge room in one area on was the science museum and anomaly exhibits since splitting them up wouldn't have made any sense. But each of the alien races have their own rooms. Aquariums I also do large rooms on, but they are still set up on the layout to keep vending and entertainment in the center corridor and exhibit space off to the sides.

[Jaggid Edje]

I use a mix. Mostly my museums are semi-Open floor plans, but I also tend to have larger exhibit rooms off to the sides of the semi-Open area.

The only traffic flow control I generally use though is at the entrance and exit of the museum. I like to make those one-way so that everyone entering is coming through a specific door and everyone leaving is going out the same door(s).

Here's a quick screenshot of my Momento Mile museum so far, to show what I mean by semi-open:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3449415261

[Mac]

Open can be problematic for thieves though, they have a straight line to grab and get out quickly, corridors and walls can help to slow them down to give your guards time to catch up.

Though, this is entirely untested, i wonder if someone will make a youtube video testing this in the future, would be interesting to watch it.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Mac:

Open can be problematic for thieves though, they have a straight line to grab and get out quickly, corridors and walls can help to slow them down to give your guards time to catch up.

Though, this is entirely untested, i wonder if someone will make a youtube video testing this in the future, would be interesting to watch it.

I've never had a thief even get an exhibit in any museum other than the thief catching popup one. If a guard or camera reveals them before they get an exhibit, they flee immediately.

[alkalinecube]

I like to place security gates, followed immediately by one way gates, at my entrance. The rest of the museum is usually pretty open-plan, but the only way to leave is to go through the cafeteria (where you just might have some food and decide to stay a little longer) and then through the gift shop (where you get to spend the rest of your money). I use walls between exhibit types sparingly, usually for camera or wall-decor placement. The rest of the flow and separation is from those lower ropes, because they allow decor and stuff like that to pass through. I can have my "playplace" with the prehistoric jungle gym right next to a dinosaur skeleton exhibit, but still separated and looking nice. I can put my frozen skeleton with the rest of the skeletons, but because there's only a rope between it and the frozen exhibit area, the cold still reaches it and it stays intact. Works for the botany exhibits too, because I have gotten a carnivorous plant that inexplicably wants to be right next to my prehistoric playset SO many times, but I don't want to be constantly turning children into clowns.

In short:
1. Make them exit through the gift shop.
2. ROPES.

[Jaggid Edje]

Having guests exit through the gift shop doesn't really make any difference as far as I've been able to tell. If they don't want to buy something, they'll just walk right through and exit. If they do want to buy something, they'd go to the gift shop even if you didn't force them through it.

Given that there is a maximum visitor capacity for gift shops, forcing people that do not want to buy anything to pass through it seems like more of a downside than an upside.

[Capt.Jamesbloke]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Having guests exit through the gift shop doesn't really make any difference as far as I've been able to tell. If they don't want to buy something, they'll just walk right through and exit. If they do want to buy something, they'd go to the gift shop even if you didn't force them through it.

Given that there is a maximum visitor capacity for gift shops, forcing people that do not want to buy anything to pass through it seems like more of a downside than an upside.

Yes! This is a very good point! But maybe keep The shop near a exit to concentrate security etc???? Not sure!

[Jehsee Da Bunn]

Originally posted by Capt.Jamesbloke:

Yes! This is a very good point! But maybe keep The shop near a exit to concentrate security etc???? Not sure!

I usually put my gift shop toward the middle of the building with doors on either end, making it the only way guests can pass from one side of the museum building to the other. It does nothing to increase sales that I've seen, and I've never noticed anyone stealing from the gift shop, but it does make for a good funnel-point for security purposes.

[☠ Asasin ☠]

I don't have a 100% set style, but I do use wall partitions to at least create simple security checkpoints at entrances to buildings. I put my bathrooms at that entryway, too. Seems to help, though I still need some form of static security (either security chairs in an open room configuration, or cameras when using walls to create individualized exhibit displays) to help protect stuff.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Jehsee Da Bunn:

I usually put my gift shop toward the middle of the building with doors on either end, making it the only way guests can pass from one side of the museum building to the other. It does nothing to increase sales that I've seen, and I've never noticed anyone stealing from the gift shop, but it does make for a good funnel-point for security purposes.

That's what I do as well. Generally I put the gift shop near the smack-dab middle, doors on each side, sometimes I offset it a bit and put doors on 3 sides. The only difference is that I also put a walkway to the side of the gift shop so people who aren't interested in shopping can bypass it.

I like to do "Bathrooms"<->"Cafe"<->"Walkway"<->"Gift Shop"<->"Bathrooms" as a line of rooms down the middle, basically. Bathrooms on each side are purely for symmetry purposes (and because they aren't particularly large bathrooms". If I offset it slightly from the middle, as mentioned above, I skip the bathrooms on one of the sides and instead have a 3rd entrance that way from either the cafe or the gift shop.