Myers Sunshine Happiness Zoo :(

[CharleboisM]

Is anyone else having the most difficult time with this zoo? I have restarted it at least half a dozen times and I cannot seem to get out of debt. I have followed all the tips. Bring the the staff happiness up, add two staff rooms and get your exhibits breeding right away. Plus do not take the loan. I sold around $40,000 of exhibit animals but still ended up about $50,000 in the hole. What am i doing wrong?!?!?! HELP!

[XrystalBelle]

Make sure your animals are happy and your guests are happy. The two go together to increase your donations. If your donations are less than 50% of your income something is wrong. Delay raising the food quality until its the last thing you need to do or your money will drop down. Also, try not to train your staff too soon for the same reason.

[Dreagon]

- Place more donation boxes and education stuff.
- Keep researching the animals because happier animals = more donations.
- Don't buy animals until later in the game. I personally only bought a second wild dog and second specimens of the exhibit animals. In hindsight the second wild dog wasn't required because they only had one pup before they died.
- Don't forget to increase prices in your shops and keep an eye your zoo entrance prices. And maybe add a shop or two two fill specific needs.
- Expand the habitats for the zebra and tiger to keep them happier.
- Place cameras when you can. I believe there are quite a few pickpockets in that scenario which will result in ticket refunds.

These are pretty much what I did to get gold. Once I started making some decent profits I started working on a large habitat for two zebras and a giraffe. I put a lion in the zebra habitat and build a saltwater crocodile habitat behind that one. The african wild dogs were dead so that turned into a camel habitat. Just remember to keep checking for a second orangutan (which isn't a big problem) and a second cheetah and buy them when you can. I forgot to get a second one and I had three cheetahs die before I could find a mate for them. That is quite annoying if literally the only objective you have left is to breed a cheetah.

[Caileak]

Sorry for opening such an old thread. However, that's exactly my issue. I'm playing on the highest difficulty and can't resolve this park's mess. I somehow managed to carry my zoo until I could build a wind generator to get rid of the expensive generator, but I then dropped to about 100 guests. Probably because I haven't changed anything to the zoo other then selling stuff.

I also tried selling the tiger and adding some chapter animals to save food costs. I have 3 research facilities for quick research, sold everything that could be sold, and stopped employee training at the very beginning. I also followed the tips from above.

I'm at my 4th or 5th attempt now.

Am I missing something? When this thread was opened, Planet Zoo didn't have the difficulty settings, correct? When I was watching Youtube videos of this scenario, they played almost as if it was a sandbox level.

[grampers62]

Okay, begin by opening the finance tab and see where cash is going. Work on those right away.
Do get rid of the carnivores and do get some small high appeal species.
Fire the over trained staff and start over with them.
Put education items at all habitats including signs and speakers.
Spam donation bins especially near habitats
Check the heatmap to see where guests need food,drink and toilets and add them. Close the ones that are not used at all.
If you need cash don't be afraid to do the loan. Getting more habitats is crucial to getting more guests which means more income.
Check guests thoughts as they enter the zoo and raise ticket prices till they say the price is fair.
These are actually basic rule of thumb concepts that players should use for all their zoos. Note that finance is set to be intentionally more difficult in that scenario so expect a bit of a grind at first.

[Caileak]

Originally posted by grampers62:

Okay, begin by opening the finance tab and see where cash is going. Work on those right away.
Do get rid of the carnivores and do get some small high appeal species.
Fire the over trained staff and start over with them.
Put education items at all habitats including signs and speakers.
Spam donation bins especially near habitats
Check the heatmap to see where guests need food,drink and toilets and add them. Close the ones that are not used at all.
If you need cash don't be afraid to do the loan. Getting more habitats is crucial to getting more guests which means more income.
Check guests thoughts as they enter the zoo and raise ticket prices till they say the price is fair.
These are actually basic rule of thumb concepts that players should use for all their zoos. Note that finance is set to be intentionally more difficult in that scenario so expect a bit of a grind at first.

Thanks! However, I can't fire employees in this zoo. You start with 3 vets, 5 caretaker, 5 keeper, 16 vendors, and 1 (!) security guard. That's the challenge in this scenario as they are very expensive and eventhough they threaten me to quit their job, they don't. And for an absolutely unknown reason, the pickpocketing is also high in this zoo. I wonder who's responsible for this. Certainly not my employees... Right? RIGHT?

Maybe that's my issue, though. Maybe I need to add more habitats, and pay whatever makes these emplyoees happy.

[Hauw2x]

Originally posted by grampers62:

Do get rid of the carnivores and do get some small high appeal species.
Fire the over trained staff and start over with them.
Put education items at all habitats including signs and speakers.
Spam donation bins especially near habitats

Gramps, you can actually game this level, the staff will threaten to quit after 1 year of low pay. I found it accidentally that by increasing their pay until the thumbs down icon is gone they aren't going to leave.

Originally posted by Caileak:

Thanks! However, I can't fire employees in this zoo. You start with 3 vets, 5 caretaker, 5 keeper, 16 vendors, and 1 (!) security guard.

I fire literally no one. Security cams all over the place.
You were 100% correct to research wind power first. Get rid of the hidden transformer. Guests have unhappy opinion if there's a blizzard in your zoo (-10 degrees) so after you get wind power literally fill your entire zoo with heaters.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3231083531

[Hauw2x]

Originally posted by Caileak:

Maybe that's my issue, though. Maybe I need to add more habitats, and pay whatever makes these emplyoees happy.

Okay, so in order to achieve this :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3231084179

Zero loan, closed 1st year with 1500$ profit in the books

In addition to keeping people underpaid a bit longer before raising wages, there's only ONE thing you always need to follow religiously - it's a no brainer
This spreadsheet details the cost/effectiveness of each species

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZhRDG9nCRQ8WKcEZU7NYFxj-H9s7p5AdFT9mTZpYQ0s/edit

Higher appeal = good, because more guests, more donations, more spending on shops
Higher cost = bad

High appeal/low cost = literally hunt these animals and place them in your zoo. Look if you can't afford 100 dollars to feed every red panda tortoise something has been fundamentally wrong in your zoo, and nothing can fix that.
The red panda is for career 11.

Adopt aldabra tortoise? Yes.
Enclosure too small, make it bigger? Yes.
Enclosure still too small, make another one? Yes.
Tortoise is shy, so more tortoise means less shy tortoise, because people have more tortoise to see. You can't have enough tortoise in this level.

Also, it means not breeding your wolves until you started to make a profit. But cheetah is ok. Exhibit animals that breeds fast and sells for cash is also OK.

I made a saltwater crocodile habitat in that forgotten playground. But it used to be another tortoise habitat. I turned the abandoned supermarket into an orang utan habitat.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3231089942

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3231091839

I hope your career journey has a happy ending too like goodest boi!

Also gramps is right when he said to put staff facilities. There's only ONE staff room in that huge zoo and having everyone overworked, undermotivated, underpaid, and quitting, is a 100% lose scenario. I think I gradually put 4 more staff rooms, one near the zebra enclosure that I extend all the way, one at where the wolf statue was (I sold the statue), 1 above the enclosure I used to house the cheetah (works as shelter aswell) and last one behind the shops in the northernmost.

[grampers62]

Oops! I did forget we can't fire staff in that scenario. It's been soooo long since I played it. XD
But yeah getting the zoo to grow and draw more guests is a must. And don't forget to add staff incentives to the staff rooms. it does cost a little but it can be worth it.
The pick pocketing is related to zoo reputation which will improve as your guests become happier and the zoo grows.

[Caileak]

Originally posted by Hauw2x:

Originally posted by Caileak:

Maybe that's my issue, though. Maybe I need to add more habitats, and pay whatever makes these emplyoees happy.

Okay, so in order to achieve this :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3231084179

Zero loan, closed 1st year with 1500$ profit in the books

In addition to keeping people underpaid a bit longer before raising wages, there's only ONE thing you always need to follow religiously - it's a no brainer
This spreadsheet details the cost/effectiveness of each species

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZhRDG9nCRQ8WKcEZU7NYFxj-H9s7p5AdFT9mTZpYQ0s/edit

Higher appeal = good, because more guests, more donations, more spending on shops
Higher cost = bad

High appeal/low cost = literally hunt these animals and place them in your zoo. Look if you can't afford 100 dollars to feed every red panda tortoise something has been fundamentally wrong in your zoo, and nothing can fix that.
The red panda is for career 11.

Adopt aldabra tortoise? Yes.
Enclosure too small, make it bigger? Yes.
Enclosure still too small, make another one? Yes.
Tortoise is shy, so more tortoise means less shy tortoise, because people have more tortoise to see. You can't have enough tortoise in this level.

Also, it means not breeding your wolves until you started to make a profit. But cheetah is ok. Exhibit animals that breeds fast and sells for cash is also OK.

I made a saltwater crocodile habitat in that forgotten playground. But it used to be another tortoise habitat. I turned the abandoned supermarket into an orang utan habitat.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3231089942

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3231091839

I hope your career journey has a happy ending too like goodest boi!

Also gramps is right when he said to put staff facilities. There's only ONE staff room in that huge zoo and having everyone overworked, undermotivated, underpaid, and quitting, is a 100% lose scenario. I think I gradually put 4 more staff rooms, one near the zebra enclosure that I extend all the way, one at where the wolf statue was (I sold the statue), 1 above the enclosure I used to house the cheetah (works as shelter aswell) and last one behind the shops in the northernmost.

Thank you so much for the time you spent to put all these tips together! I will consider all of them at my next attempt. And most importantly, I will test that tip about spamming heaters! Maybe that's the reason why my zoo is empty!

[Hauw2x]

Originally posted by Caileak:

Thank you so much for the time you spent to put all these tips together! I will consider all of them at my next attempt. And most importantly, I will test that tip about spamming heaters! Maybe that's the reason why my zoo is empty!

You're welcome! The heaters aren't there to attract people (the animals cough cough tortoises) are, but the heater gets rid of ":( it's freezing" opinion. Happier guests spend more. In case you might have noticed, I booked 80k yearly profit during a blizzard. It would've been drastically different if I don't put heaters all around!

[Caileak]

Originally posted by Hauw2x:

Originally posted by Caileak:

Thank you so much for the time you spent to put all these tips together! I will consider all of them at my next attempt. And most importantly, I will test that tip about spamming heaters! Maybe that's the reason why my zoo is empty!

You're welcome! The heaters aren't there to attract people (the animals cough cough tortoises) are, but the heater gets rid of ":( it's freezing" opinion. Happier guests spend more. In case you might have noticed, I booked 80k yearly profit during a blizzard. It would've been drastically different if I don't put heaters all around!

That's exactly what my problem was! As soon as I've spammed heaters everywhere, the scenario started to become a cakewalk. BLANKETS FOR EVERYONE, I SAY!

[Just Kevin]

A frozen/over heated guest is an unhappy guest. What a shame there are no kiosks that sell PZ coats. But you do have to wonder why guests go to a zoo in a cold climate wearing summer gear, and vice versa. The problem I find with the heaters and coolers is they do not cover a great area and often 100s are needed. But if you place a cold one in a habitat that needs them, they overflow on to the paths. Ditto with heaters in medium hot places. It's a shame they do not clip out at the barriers and at the path widths.

[Tiddalik]

From memory I set myself up nicely in hard mode by deleting a huge amount of this map for funds. I deleted all water and smoothed terrain near tiger to extend their pen, boxed all animals to plan it better, sold a couple of animals, sold all decor and rocks which boosted my $ by a fair bit (all fencing decor for example, there are a fair chunk of it), deleted all unnecessary habitat fencing (all around entrance), deleted a lot of path to streamline guests to control the flow (so many little loops and double bridges etc, they don't need so many paths) and then deleted lights in non guest path zones (also changed some paths to staff only paths), deleted all empty exhibits, delete a fair amount of outdoor seating too (they don't need so many to be happy). I could then extend some pens in the delete path areas, plonk the right amount of staff areas in optimal places and created zones for staff. Then plonked the right type of fencing and heaters (make sure some overlap guest paths and habitat zone) and it sort of worked from there. Key isn't to rush it at all, first get the extra funds by deleting all unnecessary items, sort staff areas, sort the animals you have, wait to get funds, then work on the next step etc etc. From memory I created some combination pens and moved animals around a fair bit when they were a safe match to live together. I created a giant herbivore area which saved money and time too. Do the combo of speak/screen/donation box and have recycling bins everywhere, buy the missing gender in the active exhibits you are given and set auto manage to sell oldest for credits.

It takes time to remove the unneeded decor/paths/lights/fencing etc to begin with but you really do end up with a good starting fund, just don't delete any plants, zero, just the rocks. Oh most of the plants already there are the right type for all the habitats except the orangutans so just use what's there, no need to buy extra, plenty of grass and trees to make the animals happy.

Edit: for deleting paths don't forget the one that goes nowhere right out the front of the entire zoo, it's so dumb, it just goes nowhere and ends in a place you can't even build, same with fencing used for decorating, it loops around buildings guests don't even go near, delete it all for more $.