Still don't understand how to raise facility rating

[Catratio]

I'm trying to get 5 stars across the islands and the second one, Muerta, is giving me a hard time. The food, drink, fun, and shopping ratings are lingering at 50%. I don't know if I need to build more stores/food, less, raise or lower the item price, offer more expensive items or keep them at the cheap ones. Some of the things are virtually empty (12 people) and others are packed full. I have enough hotels I think. I also don't understand what the gifts from each division do, like the science and security centers. They have no customer tab and generate some income but I don't know what they DO. What category of tourism do they fall under?

Also ran into a weird situation with my monorail. It has 4 stops going from one end of the island to the other and the monorail is running but it says transport is at 0%.

[aztec for president]

If you click the eye icon, you can sort through the different needs. The areas shaded in red require said facility the most. As for food and drink rating, you need to space cafes and restaurants out around the park generously. It also helps tremendously to up the amount of staff in your facilities. You can do this by selecting said structure and adding more staff members to the facility. The amount of staff you have in the structure will increase the amount of guests it can facilitate for.

The Science and Security centres simply give you more income based on your reputation with said division. If you have a high reputation with the Security division, the higher your income will be from the Security centre(s) in your park - if you catch my drift there.

The monorail situation is strange, perhaps the visitor count dipped dramatically when you checked, therefore putting your ratings down. I got the same problem alot of the time where the visitor count would dip and the ratings would take an odd, awkward hit.

[Catratio]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1717664419

Well like what do I do in this situation? There are two buildings with moderate to high demand for food, there is a fast food place between the two of them, plenty of staff to support over 200 more customers, and they're not walking over to use it. How lazy are these people? I don't understand why this area is not covered, so do I need to offer more expensive, better quality food or what?

[optimus.primus89]

What I learned is that the people are petty so its best that you have wider paths going too your attractions, food/shops and the monorails. and have the shops near the monorail entrances and hotels. Kind of like a little hub that way theyre all in one area. You have to play around with it and you get better as you get to different islands. Watch vids how some people do it and integrate it to your own way of designing your park.

[Netharon]

Originally posted by Catratio:

I'm trying to get 5 stars across the islands and the second one, Muerta, is giving me a hard time. The food, drink, fun, and shopping ratings are lingering at 50%. I don't know if I need to build more stores/food, less, raise or lower the item price, offer more expensive items or keep them at the cheap ones. Some of the things are virtually empty (12 people) and others are packed full. I have enough hotels I think. I also don't understand what the gifts from each division do, like the science and security centers. They have no customer tab and generate some income but I don't know what they DO. What category of tourism do they fall under?

Also ran into a weird situation with my monorail. It has 4 stops going from one end of the island to the other and the monorail is running but it says transport is at 0%.

At the time of writing this, I have put in close to 60 hours, and I have a 5 star rating (5 star for both ratings per island) on all 5 islands. Once I figured out how to do this, the game became way too easy. You are thinking about this a little too hard. I can post screenshots of each island I have if needed. I have not tried any challenges, but that is next so I can have 100% achievements.

1. Just because people are not walking in and out of the business when you zoom in doesn't mean people are not going there.

2. Wide paths and small paths make no (big) difference. It's mostly cosmetic.
(I can do this just as easy without wide pathing)

3. Normal paths and fancy paths will make no difference. It's cosmetic.

4. If your rating suddenly drops a huge amount, and / or your transport rating instantly hits zero, there is a bug, or a problem with something you did, or have not done yet. I have seen this multiple times and I am always able to find the problem and resolve it. If you need further help on this, add me as a friend and we can figure it out.

5. Optimus is correct, hubs are best. Even on Pena.

6. Innovation, Security, and Science centers will generate additional income based on your reputation with the given division. Clicking it shows how much it is generating.
Example: Completing security contracts and increasing security reputation gives you income from your security center. It should be noted that these centers will have visitors, so they will also need food, water, shopping, and fun.

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I should probably make a video, but here is the plan when I start a new island:

1. You can do one of two things on this first step.
Delete everything and get more starting money (including selling existing dinos)
This will also put a halt on any running costs from the power station.
Click the arrival point and close the park. Now you can plan carefully on the layout.
OR
Deactivate the power station and close the park, while keeping what is already there.

Once I had some major upgrades unlocked and researched, I always went with Option 1.
Clear out all of the trees, water, etc up to the boundary line so you can see what you have to plan with. Use the terrain smoothing feature and level everything off.

2. Put down a monorail station beside the park entrance (close to the existing monorail)
I like to put a hotel here, shops, the three entertainment divisions, a storm defense station, a substation, and an emergency shelter, but you don't have to.

3. Plan one area to only have your operations buildings. Power stations, ranger station, ACU center, fossil center, research center, expedition center, etc. Run a road path to this operations hub so it is all "connected". You can use a monorail station instead if you want, but visitors have no need to be in this area so I just run a road to it. Start running expeditions asap to make some income while you build. Upgrade your expedition center with some "dig yield" upgrades. If you need to make more money, turn the power station back on and run expeditions while you plan the visitor hubs.

4. Put down a second monorail station where you plan to make your first "visitor hub". Try your best to conserve space ALWAYS and place it close the boundary line. Keep in mind to leave room for your monorail tracks to run and bend with the boundary line, and run it to your original station at the entrance.

5. You just started your first hub, and now you have no need for road paths to your first visitor hub station. This is because of the monorail track. You should only have paths AT each hub station for all of your buildings.

6. You will need to be creative going forward here. Again, I can provide screenshots if needed. In general, make some paths, make the middle spot in all of those paths the area to fit in an emergency shelter, a storm defense station, and a large substation. That alone (along with your entrance setup) has provided you with 100% transport rating, full storm defense, full safety, and full power coverage. Run the power line from that substation along with your monorail track as best as you can and break off where its needed to make it to your power station. Do this from the power station back to your park entrance substation as well.

7. Go back to your first visitor hub station with the monorail. Place a restaurant (because it's max food rating), a clothes shop (because its max shopping rating), and any building that provides "fun". Shopping already provides a couple stars of fun, so put down whatever fun building you have to makeup the difference. Put down a hotel here as well. Don't worry about the dino visibility the hotel provides. Your goal here is to make all of this fit within your substation power range. It's super easy after you unlock the large substation, but its still doable with the small substation.

8. Now you get to put down the hammond center. The first one should be for your herbivores so we can get some stress free income going instead of relying on your expedition center yields for money. Fill the rest of your entire planned area with the fence you want to use, running along the boundary line if needed. Don't waste space you can be using. Put a gate on each side of the dino pen, with one side being the easiest access point from your ranger station. Add a small forest in it, a small pond, and a feeder. Adjust for dino requirements.

9. Click the park entrance and open the park. Activate your power stations if you havnt already.
Start making the best herbivores you can afford with the highest ratings you can successfully hatch so visitors fill your two hotels. Stay away from herbivores that have high social requirements, so you can have a better variety in your first dino pen. Make a couple Triceratops to start, then you should have a meager income instead of a loss.

10. You should have 95%-100% ratings on all facility targets, with a 5 star facility rating (not 5 star island rating yet).
I can do this in about 10 minutes from the moment I start the island. It doesnt take long once you get the hang of it.

11. Keep filling this dino pen up with variety until you get close to the population tolerance on your least tolerable dinosaur. Put a viewing gallery or two up.

It's up to you from here. Once your dino pen is filled (population tolerances reached), then find a new spot on the map for a carnivore pen and build another visitor hub. Remember no road path is needed to a new hub. Just place a monorail station, run the track, and repeat the process. Your first visitor hub WILL have you at 5 star facility rating if you did it correctly, but your dino rating will only be about half because they are lower rated than carnivores. Plus you need even more variety. If you maintain that build strategy, you will never lose your 5 star facility rating. Maxing the island rating will only be dependent on your dino ratings combined.

**If you have followed this, but your facility ratings begin to drop as you grow, then you need to increase staffing at shops. If your staffing is maxed and it continues to drop, you will need more shops. As visitors pile in, you have to support needs that your original hub buildings cannot provide. Your 1st herbivore dino pen probably wont change. A pen with a 5000 rated t-rex fighting an indoraptor and spinosaurus is going to attract a lot of people so you will need more shops and shop capacity around that hub. Always always click your island rating and watch your numbers. If they drop, check your management view. You will get better building and planning as you master the "hub strategy". This will include knowing how far a building can be from a shop before it starts to suffer. You have a restaurant in your pic, and your viewing gallery is starving. People won't walk that far to it. This is why building tight little hubs is best.

[BlazeD]

The people in your park want the latest-greatest. If you have a new building for the customers THAT is what they want. Put one down someplace. If you have Fast Food and your food rating is still low they want a Restaurant. If your fun is low around your arcade, they want a bowling alley too.

[Netharon]

Originally posted by BlazeD:

The people in your park want the latest-greatest. If you have a new building for the customers THAT is what they want. Put one down someplace. If you have Fast Food and your food rating is still low they want a Restaurant. If your fun is low around your arcade, they want a bowling alley too.

No. The visitors dont want special buildings specifically. They dont have a certain need for a building to be "new". They dont care if its the latest and greatest. Im not sure where you get this or why you post it when its not true. The only thing the game recognizes is that they have a food need, drink need, shopping need, fun need, transport need, safety need, etc. You need 4 stars of each to be full (shops). Each building in the visitors tab (shops) shows the star rating on what that building provides. Add them up to make sure you have 4 stars within a medium radius of where the attractions are and increase employee numbers until they can support the demand. It is that simple. They are not real humans here and its not that complicated.

[Catratio]

Thank you everyone for your help, especially Netharon with that incredibly detailed explanation.

I have spent all day on this (3 hours alone on just re-designing Meurta) and I now have finished 5 stars on all the islands except Pena :)

The idea of making clusters around the monorail points really does make it easy. Though it makes sense, it was a little counter-intuitive to me. I was spacing my restaurants and stores out before, thinking if people were hungry they wouldn't want to walk all the way back to a main area and could just grab a snack in the more isolated areas. But it really does kind of make more sense this way, have everything together for convenience and just make little expeditions to see each dinosaur. Here's part of my Meurta layout, I did similar things with the other islands. I'll try the same on Pena though it'll be more cramped.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1719105169
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1719105180

[Marlowe-33]

Some good tips in this thread.

[Canniballistic]

Use the management overlays and Island Rating screen to see whats holding your rating back.

Generally the game will literally tell you what you need like "we need more hotels" popping up in the top right or on the Island summary screen a red highlighted summary like "Capacity".

The only real trick in with the stores. You want to be selling the most expensive good for just enough to make a profit because the quality of the product effects the rating and charging too much will drive away customers, lowering rating as well.

Another tip is that you only need to use the Arcade, Restaurant and Clothes Shop.

[Catratio]

Just got 5 star on Pena, it was surprisingly easy. Just two central hubs and throw in some indoraptors and you're done. It was kind of funny though, I was at like 4.8 and a tornado came in and set me back to 1 star. Quickly recovered though. I didn't even need to make the full 8 dinos, just 7 with high enough star ratings to qualify. Think I had an indo, an indo rex, 2 toros, a triceratops, gallimiums and huyanasaur, and an allosaur.

I found people really like the Fossil Center too. That thing is always jam packed on every island I build it on.

[Netharon]

Originally posted by Canniballistic:

Use the management overlays and Island Rating screen to see whats holding your rating back.

Generally the game will literally tell you what you need like "we need more hotels" popping up in the top right or on the Island summary screen a red highlighted summary like "Capacity".

The only real trick in with the stores. You want to be selling the most expensive good for just enough to make a profit because the quality of the product effects the rating and charging too much will drive away customers, lowering rating as well.

Another tip is that you only need to use the Arcade, Restaurant and Clothes Shop.

I agree with everything you have stated here, except the "selling the most expensive good" and "quality of the product affects the rating".

This is not true. We cannot relate real life consumerism and human behavior to a video game that was not programmed for such a thing. The product you choose to sell here is to fine tune your profits and provide variety. I have even tested this after seeing your post to make absolutely sure. You can sell dino slop, dino bites, and every other product that is the cheapest to purchase, but as long as you have the capacity for demand without an outrageous price (and i mean outrageous), then your rating does not change. I changed every shop in my park to sell the cheapest item and nothing changed. Everything else you said is true though.

For Catratio:

Congrats on 5 star islands and getting it figured out.
Some shops have a 4 star which is the max on a need rating.
If you have a Restaraunt (4 Star food), a Clothes Shop (4 Star shopping), and an Arcade (4 Star fun), then you have everything they need. However, the game can only scale just so much of each depending on your visitor capacity / demand. If you have gyrospheres, you likely wont even need an arcade, because the fun comes from gyrospheres. If some people dont have access to the gyrosphere, then put an arcade nearby. This strategy works for any demand you dont have at 100%.