Is a 27-30 Habitat Zoo too large?

[MidnightMist]

I am looking for a zoo with about 5 animals per biome, (an average, not exact). Evens out to about 30 habitats all together, and I am wondering if this is TOO large? Concerns are the intense micromanaging this game has, and how hard of a hit my FPS is going to take. Currently I have 50-60 FPS and about 60 animals, 14 exhibits.

[grampers62]

Simply put, the more things in one's zoo the bigger the impact on performance. Likewise the management aspect goes way up in terms of user input.
The five animals per biome is not that big and should be quite manageable. But if you mean five species per habitat with 30 habitats that gets to be a lot.

[nicole.edwards95]

The thing that defo effects my performance more is the number of guests and scenery rather than number of animals. Limit those and I don't think you will have too many problems

[Snelle1984]

Make sure to change the aging of the animals to the slowest, this gives you more time.

[Varick]

And remember the time appropriate contraceptives or you will be micromanaging the babies.

As to FPS, since terrain is not added to the map, the more you use it for walls, decorations, etc. the less you have to have other things. A well painted terrain wall with some scenery accent rocks will cost you less in per item than a wall made of all scenery rocks.

[MidnightMist]

Originally posted by grampers62:

Simply put, the more things in one's zoo the bigger the impact on performance. Likewise the management aspect goes way up in terms of user input.
The five animals per biome is not that big and should be quite manageable. But if you mean five species per habitat with 30 habitats that gets to be a lot.

Definitely not 5 species per habitat, I am not even sure that's possible haha. It would be 27-30 species.

[SallinDaemon]

If you're working in Sandbox mode, you can put it on the 'creative preset' settings and essentially freeze aging/remove pooping/disease/breeding etc, which might help if you don't want to be too caught up in micromanaging!

Otherwise: you can limit the number of species that are breeding by using more contraceptives, bachelor groups or single animals where appropriate, and that helps a lot.

[MidnightMist]

I am playing in Franchise mode because I wanted a challenge, but I get 120 frames in a "fresh" zoo and 50 in my current one. I assume this is only going to get *much* worse considering I intend on doubling the size down the line. Might have to switch to Sandbox.

[audiolady]

Just watch out! I think I saw my cat go towards the sandbox.

[Savahnya]

I had done a couple of zoos in sandbox mode and wanted a challenge. So, I planned for a zoo with 30-ish habitats to see if it was possible to manage at all. Since it was a challenge I decided it should be in franchise mode. I also wanted the reputation to be 5 stars, just to make sure I put some efforts into the zoo.

Currently the zoo has 32 habitats (288 animals), 25 exhibits (69 animals), 9.199 visitors, a lot of scenery and the reputation is at 4,6. Is it playable? Definitely. But you really – really – need patience. I have it on normal speed and if the game runs 1 minute I need to pause it for 5 minutes while managing everything that has happened during that time with offspring, deaths, new animals, changing contraceptives, staff etc. Building while the game runs is not possible. Even with the game paused I get 1-2 sec lag spikes now and then while building.

I’m never ever going to make any zoo this big again. That said, I’m very happy with it and I’m planning a remake of the areas in the zoo that I’m not satisfied with. And maybe I need to check my sanity…

[MidnightMist]

Originally posted by Savahnya:

I had done a couple of zoos in sandbox mode and wanted a challenge. So, I planned for a zoo with 30-ish habitats to see if it was possible to manage at all. Since it was a challenge I decided it should be in franchise mode. I also wanted the reputation to be 5 stars, just to make sure I put some efforts into the zoo.

Currently the zoo has 32 habitats (288 animals), 25 exhibits (69 animals), 9.199 visitors, a lot of scenery and the reputation is at 4,6. Is it playable? Definitely. But you really – really – need patience. I have it on normal speed and if the game runs 1 minute I need to pause it for 5 minutes while managing everything that has happened during that time with offspring, deaths, new animals, changing contraceptives, staff etc. Building while the game runs is not possible. Even with the game paused I get 1-2 sec lag spikes now and then while building.

I’m never ever going to make any zoo this big again. That said, I’m very happy with it and I’m planning a remake of the areas in the zoo that I’m not satisfied with. And maybe I need to check my sanity…

How are your frames?

[Savahnya]

I don't usually have any FPS-counter on but I activated Steam's overlay and had the game running for appx 10 min. In reality that is about 1-2 min gametime on normal speed and 8-9 min on pause for management... Steams FPS-counter runs around 10-15, up to 25.

[MidnightMist]

Yeah, it's a shame frames just *die* in large zoos, that is my biggest concern over difficulty. I currently have 13 habitats, 2 exhibits, and around 63 animals. I estimate I'll have around 200 once I get every "dream animal" on my list. Any advice on how to cap guests? I know they are a HUGE CPU drain but I am not sure what the tradeoff is between capping guests vs losing money and where the middleground lies.

[nicole.edwards95]

I started losing money when I had 40 plus habitats and over 300 animals. The staff and food bills were more than I could make with 3500 guests. But i noticed it was mainly my big predators like lions causing the money loss so I would say it depends on what animals you put in and how much food they need

[audiolady]

Check your sanity at the door.
Most of us already have. Right, grampers62?

[grampers62]

yup...