I need help for the Yamaguchi zoo (Career mode)

[Bunnycotte]

I'm having a big issue with the Yamaguchi zoo in career mode (hard difficulty), I need to rise my education level because guests are unhappy with the education level of the zoo and I have to pay 20,000$ of refunds (they are happy on every other stat). My zoo is covered with cameras and I have 4 guards, so I don't think that it could be the cause of the refunds. I also need to rise my overall Zoo rating to 4.5 stars, but without the education rating I can't reach that goal, especially since I can't afford marketing (I'm currently stagnating around -8,000$ because of the ticket refunds).

My issue is that despite covering my entire zoo with education boards, speakers, and conservation boards, as well as selling tons of audio guides, my Education rating is still only at 1 star, and I don't understand why. Every board and speaker is powered and correctly linked to the animals, and they are placed at every single viewpoint in the zoo.
My animals have relatively low enrichment because I can't buy anything, but I doubt that this fact alone should drop the education rating to such a low level ? What else could cause my education rating to be so low ?

[Jaggid Edje]

You also need to research animals. The higher you have researched them, the better education rating speakers and boards give.

Another thing that can help get your star ratings up in several of the career scenarios is to close the zoo to empty it out once you have the right infrastructure in place, then re-open once most visitors are gone.
This clears out all the old visitors with lower stats from before you put everything in place. It can give you a massive star rating boost doing this.
Obviously not something you can do if you are already low on funds though, as you bleed cash for a few months while the zoo is closed and emptying out.

[Bunnycotte]

I did as much research as I could on various animals, but vets are painfully slow to research because I can't have many of them or train them very much.

[Green_A_21]

Education level sucks! It doesn't work properly!

[Just Kevin]

The guide says the speakers and boards only work if the animals are near by, but it does not say what it means by near by. But, if you click on guests looking at animals they are often moaning that they cannot get a good view of the animals. Perhaps that's what is meant by nearby when they think that? The problem is, the game also says build large habitats so the animals can show off their full natural habits. So, you build a habitat for something large, like a herd of hippos, or fill a habitat with trees and whatnot (and you need to to keep their welfare bars all green) and guests start moaning they don't get a good view of them. I suspect that when they are thinking that, they are not being educated. But it does amuse and annoy me when they are thinking that they cannot see a herd of elephants. It's those huge grey things over there.

BTW. Guest entrances generate free electric over a wide area, and you can now have as many entrances as you like, saving a lot of money, at least in the zoos you can actually modify.

[Bunnycotte]

I'm in career mode so I cannot add more entrances. The habitats are pre-built as well and I cannot edit them.

[Jaggid Edje]

THe only "nearby" aspect for speakers and boards is that they have to be within a short distance of the habitat. You get an alert when this condition is not met.
The animals themselves just need to be viewable from the visitor viewing area, distance to the animal itself isn't a factor for the education.

[Bunnycotte]

I usually put my boards and speakers right on the enclosure barrier or very close to it, and placed around guest viewpoints so they are easily accessible for guests. So I don't know why the education items don't rise the education rating of my zoo.

[Jaggid Edje]

Publicado originalmente por Cocotte:

I usually put my boards and speakers right on the enclosure barrier or very close to it, and placed around guest viewpoints so they are easily accessible for guests. So I don't know why the education items don't rise the education rating of my zoo.

I'm telling you, if you have them all placed correctly, it's because you need to research the animals more. Lack of research is the single biggest reason for a low education rating assuming you have speakers, education boards and conservation boards liberally throughout the zoo.

I remembered a few things about that scenario (been a long time since I completed it), but for your money issue a few tips:
- Make sure you have added enough donation bins. I remember it did NOT have them placed appropriately on existing habitats but also did not remind you that you should add them.
- Check your staff expenses. Did you over train too many keepers and vets? My rule of thumb is to never train keepers more than 3 stars (and even that only rarely, for larger multi-animal habitats) and only 1 or 2 vets above 1 or 2 stars (for research). Neither of those positions is cost efficient when trained up too high. I seem to recall that scenario may not have allowed new hiring...so this one requires a restart to correct if that is the case.
- Check your feed expenses on the Zoo-Animal-Food tab. You may have just one or two habitats which is just too expensive for where you are currently have your zoo at in terms of income. Get rid of that animal for the time being until your zoo is more profitable.
- Make sure you have gone through all the vendor drink/food shops and added "extras" and increased cost accordingly, to make them more appealing to guests and also more profitable. Also that you've turned them all on...I recall that scenario had a lot of them "off" due to power issues. Also, sell a few of them if your guests are overly satisfied on hunger/thirst. I also recall that scenario had more of them than was actually needed.
- Deleting flora and rocks on that map, as I recall, costs money (rather than adds money) so if you did a lot of that rather than just "move it somewhere else" as you set up new habitats, you spent a lot of money that you didn't need to.

Ultimately you may just need to start the scenario over and be much more careful about how you spend money early on and more deliberate/slow in building it up so that you never get into your current money issue in the first place.
I remember having to restart that scenario over to get gold (back then the only difficulty was hard mode). My first attempt was just a failure that I couldn't dig back out of. Which may be where you are at.

[Just Kevin]

Publicado originalmente por Jaggid Edje:

THe only "nearby" aspect for speakers and boards is that they have to be within a short distance of the habitat. You get an alert when this condition is not met.
The animals themselves just need to be viewable from the visitor viewing area, distance to the animal itself isn't a factor for the education.

It actually says the animal needs to be nearby for education boards to be effective. It says it via one of those tips while the game is loading. And as I say, if you click on a guest looking in to a habitat, it will say if they have a good view of the animal or not. When they are thinking their view is not good, their education bar does not move.

[Just Kevin]

Publicado originalmente por Jaggid Edje:

Publicado originalmente por Cocotte:

I usually put my boards and speakers right on the enclosure barrier or very close to it, and placed around guest viewpoints so they are easily accessible for guests. So I don't know why the education items don't rise the education rating of my zoo.

I'm telling you, if you have them all placed correctly, it's because you need to research the animals more. Lack of research is the single biggest reason for a low education rating assuming you have speakers, education boards and conservation boards liberally throughout the zoo.

R: I play in the Sandbox, and Research is full in that, but that does not help increase education, due to the reasons I suggested.

I remembered a few things about that scenario (been a long time since I completed it), but for your money issue a few tips:
- Make sure you have added enough donation bins. I remember it did NOT have them placed appropriately on existing habitats but also did not remind you that you should add them.

R: Indeed. In some of the Challenges and Career modes, there are none. I would also suggest you replace all the bins with the recycling bin, because that gives you green points.

- Check your staff expenses. Did you over train too many keepers and vets? My rule of thumb is to never train keepers more than 3 stars (and even that only rarely, for larger multi-animal habitats) and only 1 or 2 vets above 1 or 2 stars (for research). Neither of those positions is cost efficient when trained up too high. I seem to recall that scenario may not have allowed new hiring...so this one requires a restart to correct if that is the case.

R: you do need a lot of staff at the start, and it does help to fully train them a bit at a time. That makes them more efficient and often means that you can even sack some, to save money. Click on staff and see what they actually do. Some just wander around!

- Check your feed expenses on the Zoo-Animal-Food tab. You may have just one or two habitats which is just too expensive for where you are currently have your zoo at in terms of income. Get rid of that animal for the time being until your zoo is more profitable.

R: Yes. And very often, strangely, the cheaper to buy and to feed animals are the most popular and get a lot of donations, especially if they have babies to look at. Peafowls and tortoises for example. Some of the animals already in those zoos cost a fortune to feed. There are hippos in one are there not? And the one with 5 free elephants? The saying a White Elephant comes from India, were a white elephant would be gifted by one king to another, knowing full well that the expected upkeep of the precious gift could break them. Don't home those until you are loaded.

- Make sure you have gone through all the vendor drink/food shops and added "extras" and increased cost accordingly, to make them more appealing to guests and also more profitable.

R: I often do that, but have not noticed it make people use them any more than usual. They become busier the more people there are in the zoo. Watch the Qs. Big Qs often means you can increase the prices a bit at a time. You can click on every shop to looks at its stats.

Also that you've turned them all on...I recall that scenario had a lot of them "off" due to power issues. Also, sell a few of them if your guests are overly satisfied on hunger/thirst. I also recall that scenario had more of them than was actually needed.

R: Are too many even possible? The guests seem obsessed with food and drink. My zones are often of no more than 5 habitats each (in the sandbox) and I usually have to include at least two guest needs set ups in each zone. I recall one of the premade zoos having dozens of vendors, no other staff, and no zones. It was a mess. The Map will show you the guests' needs.

Ultimately you may just need to start the scenario over and be much more careful about how you spend money early on and more deliberate/slow in building it up so that you never get into your current money issue in the first place.
I remember having to restart that scenario over to get gold (back then the only difficulty was hard mode). My first attempt was just a failure that I couldn't dig back out of. Which may be where you are at.

R: There are times there's no choice but to take out loans, but pay them off ASAP. I think those zoo scenarios expect you to take them out.