Education Issue

[danielw.au]

Hi Everyone,

I'm having an issue with my Guest Education Rating and I'm hoping someone can help.

My current Guest Education Rating in Zoo Reputation is 2.1 (ish) stars.

My current Average Guest Education level via the Zoo Overview > Guests page is 87%.

I have researched all animals, except two (2) new ones, which I have vets researching.

Out of my 16 Vets, I have just over half on Advanced Research.

I have education speakers and boards set up and none overlap.

I have heaps of education boards around my zoo.

Any suggestions? My guest numbers refuse to increase and I'm somehow thinking that my low education issue is to blame.

Thanks
Dan

[Wade]

That's strange... 87% is pretty high for me. The Average Guest Education level of my current zoo is only about 65% but the Guest Education Rating is already of 5 stars. Perhaps you are playing hard mode?

Did you try placing some animal talk? They have the highest effect on educating guests: every listener would be fully educated(100%) after the talk overs. Perhaps you could try place 3 or 4 animal talk for each habitat and assign one employer running it. It works fine on me franchise zoo.

[danielw.au]

Thanks, I have one talk per habitat, sometimes two. But I’ll try adding a few more and see why happens.

[Jaggid Edje]

The zoo education rating is determined by something like the aggregate of the last 100-150 visitors to leave your zoo. Select visitors as they are leaving and check out what each of them is at and look at the heat map for guest education.

Maybe you grew the zoo very quickly so the education rating hasn't caught up yet?

[Wade]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

The zoo education rating is determined by something like the aggregate of the last 100-150 visitors to leave your zoo. Select visitors as they are leaving and check out what each of them is at and look at the heat map for guest education.

Maybe you grew the zoo very quickly so the education rating hasn't caught up yet?

Wow that's something new for me. Thank you for the information!

[Nioell]

Also how many species do you have in your zoo?

The more species you have the higher the rating will get. So if you only have like 8 species on hard mode or something it probably won't be enough to get the education rating up to 5 stars even when your guests are educated about all of those.

[Jaggid Edje]

Originally posted by Nioell:

Also how many species do you have in your zoo?

The more species you have the higher the rating will get. So if you only have like 8 species on hard mode or something it probably won't be enough to get the education rating up to 5 stars even when your guests are educated about all of those.

Education rating is just a factor of the last ~150 visitors who have left your zoo, so while I agree that more animals helps because more animals drives up the total education interactions available for those visitors and the time they will spend in the zoo getting educated, in this case he has high visitor education ratings already.

I don't remember the exact number of "last visitors who have left your zoo" used to determine it, but if you open the game help menu and read the section on zoo ratings it actually tells you there.

[Nioell]

Originally posted by Jaggid Edje:

Education rating is just a factor of the last ~150 visitors who have left your zoo, so while I agree that more animals helps because more animals drives up the total education interactions available for those visitors and the time they will spend in the zoo getting educated, in this case he has high visitor education ratings already.

I don't remember the exact number of "last visitors who have left your zoo" used to determine it, but if you open the game help menu and read the section on zoo ratings it actually tells you there.

It is in fact not just a factor calculated by the last few visitors education level as is stated in that very help text and the education tab of the zoo management panels.

The more animals one has or had that are fully researched the higher the education rating. Meaning if there are only 10-15 species out of the 70+ available from the base game in the zoo or researched that rating won't go up much higher no matter how well the guests are educated about the species.

Here's a screen of the ingame help: https://i.imgur.com/1X48QQ1.jpg

Going by my new zoo challenge zoo on hard, which only has two species so far that are both fully research, you need at least about 15 species to reach a 100% guest education rating. But then I'd still be far from getting a 5 star zoo education rating because I'm nowhere near close to complete all there is to reseach the whole Zoopedia.

So again, my guess is you simply need to reseach even more species to get that other half of the calculation up as well, not just the visitor side of things.

[Jaggid Edje]

You're right, I completely forgot about the bonus for research....though I did know it at one point. It doesn't really require researching all that many animals to get it up past the number of stars he has though once your visitors are getting to 100% before they leave. If it did, the career and timed challenge scenarios with zoo education rating requirements would take significantly longer (and larger zoos) to complete.

[danielw.au]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you so much for all your input and ideas.

I have a total of 542 animals across 42 species. All but two have been fully researched and I'm actively researching the other two. I have 9 our of my 16 vets working on advanced research.

I've been monitoring guests leaving my zoo. Some are leaving with zero education, but they have also not visited any part of the zoo nor have they spent a dime.

As it stands my Guest Education Rating is 3.5 starts, average guest education level is 2 starts and research rating is 2.2 starts with 31% of Education Research complete - this doesn't make sense given I researched all animals 100% except two of them.

My zoo was making a ton of money to start with and now my guest numbers have decreased by around 2000 and I'm guessing its because of this.

Thanks again.

Dan

[Nioell]

Could you maybe post a screen of your zoo with the education heatmap on? It kinda sounds like there's not enough of the park covered by education sources, though it's hard to tell without seeing it.

As for the education research: It says it's about how much of the zoopedia is unlocked and depending on how many dlc you have there are way more than the 40 you've currently fully researched. Actually I think with all dlc animals it's probably around 110-120 by now. So if you're playing in a mode with unrestricted animal roster that would make 40 researched animals pretty much exactly the 31% you got right now. By now I'm starting to think you really do have to get and research ALL the animals available at some point to get this one to 100%.

[Jaggid Edje]

You can easily get 5 star zoo education ratings with only 40 researched animals even if you own all of the DLC. So I don't think that's the issue. It would certainly help to get more researched though.

Just as an aside, counting exhibit animals it's 122 total animals with all DLC.

[iloveyourzoos]

I find that education speakers pack a greater punch than the boards (though those are great too). I try to set up my speakers so they are covering every square inch of guest space (without overlapping, of course).

Two possible ways to boost it even more:
1. Conservation Boards. (Not sure if this is what you meant by education boards, but these are great for filling in any spaces that are too far from an animal. And also give a boost since they're educating about another thing).

2. Exhibit animals. (along with their education panel and speakers). A great (and quick) way to increase the number of animals, and the opportunities for education in a small space. I always place some right by the entrance so my guests get an education boost first thing.

If your guests are leaving with literally zero education though, and without seeing any animals or spending any money, I wonder if there may be something else that's causing that. Is the entrance price too high? Something wrong with the pathing that they can't get to the animals? Habitats too far away from the entrance for them to make the trip? Not enough ATM's for them to get more money and continue? Unhappy about some other thing that is causing them to leave?

[Wade]

Yes maybe you can post a screen shot of your zoo or directly upload your zoo on workshop if you wish.

It seems not a problem with insufficient educating device or species if there are guests leaving without seeing any habitat in a zoo with more than 40 species. I don't think more animal talk would solve this now. orz

In my zoo, when the distance between the entrance and the habitat is too far, all of my guests turned back before they see any habitat, not only just a part of them. But things could be different if you have multiple entrances with different position as only some of them are too far from the main part of your zoo.

The amount of guests should not be small by the information you gave, so there could be traffic jam at somewhere on the main road near the entrance. The guests could be held for too long by the crowd and get tired.

[microwaveovensrock]

Srry cant help i havent played Good luck tho. :)

[danielw.au]

Thanks everyone. I reported another issue to Frontier which they were able to replicate (not related to this issue) and they have asked that I re-install the game. I will give that ago and see what happens.

Really appreciate everyone's help so far.