28th December - Hiring Freeze Scenario

[purplenub_]

I cannot for the life of me turn a profit over in this zoo, I can achieve the other 2 first requirements for a bronze star but no matter how I tackle this scenario i fall into debt I can't get out of. Has anyone achieved this scenario since the ticket refund patch has been put in? I need help!

[Psyringe]

If refunds are the problem, then check your guest happiness - why are they unhappy?

[purplenub_]

It's not a huge chunk I just can't keep up with the staff wages, but can't fire staff, and lowering their wages will go against one of the credits i need

[XrystalBelle]

Psst .. Top Secret ... Look at your exhibit animals and make sure that you have pairs ... let them breed and sell them off .. uber money increase .. I just completed that zoo to Gold in 21 game years with over 100k money. It can be done but the knack is to identify when to up their wages ... wait until you have a good positive income .. similarly, don't up the animals food level until you need that 90% welfare to complete gold.

What I did ( from memory ).
Build extra staff rooms at the back of the far staff area. And make sure their wages are on par with their level. That will keep them moderately happy for the moment. Don't try to figure out the work zones yet until you can see what habitats you have or will have to distribute them amongst.
Look at all your exhibit animals and make sure their heating/moisture levels are set correctly and give them mates. Seeing as you will need a zoo keeper for these animals to keep them happy enough to breed you can set that work zone up with 1 keeper and link him to the nearest hut and staff room. Then let that money come in... Just remember to always keep a single pair in there to keep them happy and breeding.

Now look at your habitat animals and make sure their habitats are suitable for them. Some of them will have stuff in that you can delete and will give you additional money. Including over elaborate shelters which could be replaced with simpler ones that do just as much to shelter them. If you can give the animals a mate to keep them happy and make sure they have any enrichments you can currently give them. Just remember to not expand too far into an open area as there are a few more habitats you will need to build and they will be needed in these open areas.

Bronze should be pretty simple to get with silver close behind at this point. Try to plan ahead otherwise just watch and see what you can do .. while you wait you can work on security levels as that is one thing you will need to do and make sure you start researching those animals as this will help raise their welfare. If your animal welfare is close to 90 when the visit is a few months away try to tick it over some more as it may tip below 90 when they inspector arrives and even a second below 90 during the visit will be classed as a fail... so maybe hold back an enrichment item or two until near to that visit and place them down when you have a month or two before the visit to ensure the enrichment boost is still at its max interest ... and if this is the last thing you need then push as many as you can into level 2 or 3 food to boost their welfare on their next feed.

Once all the habitats have been set up right I then identified work zones with 1 zoo keeper in each with 2 to 4 habitats in the same general area, for the most part I found only allocating the zoo keepers into work zones were needed with everyone else in a non work zone system but I will leave that choice to you.

As to the staff training / wage increase .. once they have had their initial wages raised in line with their level and had their work zone set up ( if needed ) then wait for a good yearly return before starting to send them training. I never bothered with the vendors. Just made sure that they had plenty of staff room space ( I had 2 allocated to them alone ) and let them work or rest as they needed. I only really raised the levels of the zoo keeper and mechanics as they are the most important workers in this scenario with vets next ( due to their research speed ). But of course these are the most expensive staff members. I opted to raise those that had a heavy workload to make them more efficient and left the ones with a low work load alone .. ( maybe it will encourage them to work harder knowing they may get a pay raise/training rofl ).

Here are some screenshots from my completion ( for a second time ) yesterday.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1949918029
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1949918171

The costs going out are made up of 50k refunds, 25k staff, 25k food and then a scattering of other smaller costs the numbers being estimates from memory at time of screenshot.
The income coming in are made up of entrance fees and donations and some shop profits numbers not recalled at time of screenshot.

Once you have got everything else set up you will only need an aquatic and desert animal ... I chose the croc and camel and they are in that open space that was at the bottom near the water.

As you can see I did add some other buildings such as additional zoo keeper huts to make their work easier ( always helps ). And a closer staff room is another good thing to do to keep the staff happy.

Speaking of staffrooms. The first time round on this I set their bonuses to help the staff get happy sooner .. this second time round I didn't bother with this and just made sure their work load wasn't too high and their staff room not too far away.

Good Luck.

[Iced Tea Blizzard]

If you're a patient person, there's lots of money to be found in scenery. Don't sell trees - those actually COST you money to sell. Sell rocks (hundreds of them), lights, fences, and anything else not nailed down. If you're having trouble finding rocks, allow the camera to pan under ground (there's a setting for it) and you can easily pick the rocks from underground. All that scenery is worth about 15,000 before Day 1 ends.

You can also sell off most of the shops, especially the souvenir ones. You can buy them back later as needed. But this gives you a solid nest egg to set up your park the way you need it. Such as adding recycle bins, education panels, exhibit animals (mentioned above), stuff of the sort.

Also, for the love of god, don't promote anyone unless it's vital. If your vendors are threatening to quit, let them. It'll save you money. You have plenty. And every new shop you buy (see the first point about selling shops, note that CTRL-D duplicating a shop doesn't give you a free vendor. buy it from the catalog) comes with a new vendor at 100% happiness. You can exploit this to get fresh vendors with 100% happiness by repeatedly buying then immediately selling a shop repeatedly. Let the whiners quit. Caretakers, Vets, Mechanics, and Keepers can be promoted *as needed* but not before.

Keep lots of saves, annotated with what was going on when you saved. I had to roll back to a previous save twice on that map (once due to stupidly promoting all my vendors at once).

Put a bridge over the river (delete the water itself if you want, no one is using it anyway) and move that damn Keeper's Hut and Staff Center near the park entrance to above the river. If you position it right, you can avoid the 'bad scenery' penalty. Those things are in the stupidest position. I know I had another keeper hut/staff center combo across from the tortoises by the food vendors.

Foot traffic = money. Animals are dirt cheap. A fence, a food bowl, some water, a toy or two, and few $200 animals off the market is worth +150 to your guest count. Make use of all those empty habitats and extra space. Your keepers can handle it. They have to, because later on you'll need an extra 4-5 habitats.

[purplenub_]

Thanks guys,
restarting the scenario following the tips, just took things slow and focused on getting the $$ before anything else, i'm now at gold with the only thing I need left is to breed cheetahs and get the 90% welfare but i'm sitting on 90k, just researching now and waiting for some bloody cheetahs to spawn in the animal market since mine died of old age.

[XrystalBelle]

Nguyên văn bởi purplenub_:

Thanks guys,
restarting the scenario following the tips, just took things slow and focused on getting the $$ before anything else, i'm now at gold with the only thing I need left is to breed cheetahs and get the 90% welfare but i'm sitting on 90k, just researching now and waiting for some bloody cheetahs to spawn in the animal market since mine died of old age.

yep, I had the same problem .. you will get there though .. they'll spawn again at some point.