A Topic Repeat... Kinda

[Chenelle]

I read on page 2 of this thread about the guests not being happy, and this is a problem I am seriously having.

I know it's not because I don't have enough stuff to do for the guests. I use all of the education houses (except the Dino Digs ones), the carosel, elephant ride, the kid's arcade, and well, just about everything. My average animal happiness is always around 93-98, so I know it's not because my animals are unhappy and making the guest unhappy. I use flowers everywhere for visual stimulation along with the 3 different ponds. I also use the themed decorative vases and statues where ever possible and the arches. My food "courts" are spaced about 30 blocks, or less, away from one another. I never have more than 8 people with drink needs at one time, no more than 3 with food needs and around 4 or so with bathroom needs.

Some of my guest's stats say they just got to the zoo with all of the status bars full, but yet they are unhappy and they don't even have any thoughts to view. I just don't understand it. My average guest happiness has been in the low 70's and as of recently my zoo rating has been in the high 70's and low 80's.

Now, does anyone have any clue what so ever why everything is so... blah? Only thing I could figure is something I DLed from here may have made something go wrong... But I don't know.  

[Black Panther]

There is a hack you can download that makes your guests happy no matter what. It could come in handy in your case.

[Komodo_342]

absolutely no clue, buddy. I assume it either has something to do with the guests either being tired or maybe there aren't enough maps in the zoo or I don't know what but the only thing I can think of that would make them unhappy is that they're being zapped by electric fences or you have a unicorn in your zoo. (they just stand there and stare at it... they'll stare at it untill they starve to death... it's all they do!) either that or the zoo is dirty. are there enough matinence workers hired? do you not have any trash cans? ...are there any red messages at the top of the screen? ever? Because usually when something's wrong the game will tell you what to fix...

or maybe it's just some weird twist of fate. sorry, that's all i can do.

[Tyto alba]

Well in answer too: "Some of my guest's stats say they just got to the zoo with all of the status bars full, but yet they are unhappy and they don't even have any thoughts to view." All guests enter with a happiness of 75.   As to the GH problem, i don't know exactly what's wrong, but I find in my zoos that overcrowding is a big issue with GH, so you may want to Alfred H some guests away, or let a tiger loose or something and raise the admission price.

[Chenelle]

I have a system fo each you asked about.
Trash Cans: 2 per bathroom, 2 per food stand/resturant, 2 per drink stand, 1 at each corner of the sitting areas near food stands.
Matinence Workers: 2 per food "court", 1 per resturant, 1 for every 2 exhibits.
Electric Fences: None, unless I am doing a Dino senario, even still, I keep the fence one block away from the observation area.
Unicorn: Not on senarios, and noramlly when I do have them, I never had that problem with the people - not that I noticed anyways.
Red Messages: I usually only get red messages for lack of funds or an animal can't find food.
Maps: That could be a problem... That's one thing I usually over look.  :whistle

All guests enter with a happiness of 75.

Yeah, but I mean they are down to no happiness at all and the rest of thier status bars are full. And the zoo isn't overcrowded. Not with 250-ish people for a large map senerio.

I don't know and I don't get it.
I just uninstalled ZT-CC, so I will see how it acts now.

[Komodo_342]

Oh. Well, sorry bud, that's all I can suggest. I hope you find a solution!

[Zookreeper]

There are several good articles on guest happiness on this site, read them all. I have found that generaly the design of a zoo has a lot to do with guest happiness. Guests like to see animals, lots of animals, as in variaty. As an experiment try the small grassy map, put your exibits right next to the entrance. Make them say 10 to 12 squares deep by 12 to 15 wide. Use double wide paths and put them right next to the exibit fences. Use restaraunts not food courts, 4 will do for a map of this size. Don`t bother with decorations, just pack everything in shoulder to shoulder. You should get a GH in the 90s. For inspiration try Firehawks`s show and tell thread. She uses this map a lot and has great zoo stats. Once you get a high stat zoo built you will be able to build others using techniques you like and develope a style all your own. Try looking at other builders threads in the show and tell section. I hope this helps you out some. As LadyZ would say "Keep Building"!

[mo15]

You could get rid of the elephant ride, guests don't like the smell.  The best thing to do would be to make sure your guests see lots of happy healthy animals.  I guess you never really know with those darn guests.

[icepengwyn]

I've never seen the problem with the Unicorns. Thankfully it never happened in the Unicorn Scenario.

Maybe you have too many trash cans? They are also a negative happiness value. The food stands are often a positive, so they may be cancelling each other out.

Most important is Rule #1. Happy Animals = Happy Guests. Try to get the suitability over 95% as much as possible. Don't let poo build up. Maps, other scenery, attractions, are not that important. There are zoos in the show & tell with NO buildings other than restaurants, and happiness is in the high 90's!

Rule #2 Can the guests SEE the animals? The path can be no further than 1 square between it and the fence. Can the fence walls be seen through or over?

I usually use a 2 wide path for the main areas so they are not too crowded, single for the branches. I have them 1 square away from the fence, but I just prefer the look - more open. I doubt it matters to the little electronic guest brains. Guests can also ONLY see 10 squares into the exhibit.

Keep plugging - my first zoos were patterend after real zoo layouts - lots of open space. Didn't work. :angry

[Chenelle]

I just started having problems with the guest happiness since I put in ZT-CC. With my ZT/Marine Mania upgrade I never had these kind of problems. I always had a guest happiness of 80+ but now... Today was 52 on the Seaside Zoo Senario and 85's on the Shark Zoo Senario (the beginner levels). I Alfred H'ed some people out (thanks, by the way - my new way to torture/get rid of the unhappy guests!). I never had these problems getting past the begginer level senarios on the other game!

Is 2 trash cans per resturant to much? I am sure I can make the restrooms only have one without a trash problem. I also cut all of  the trash cans in the sitting area out. All of my animals are happy... Average animal happiness is 96-99 and my suitability on the exhibits are always 96-99. If I find an animal that isn't in that range, I sell them and start over with another species (unless I am combining specie types in one exhibit). I also pick animals I know are attention getters (White Bengal Tiger, Malaysian Tapir, Hippo and Flamingos, African Elephants, ect.). I keep the fence 2 blocks away from the fence, except the 6-8 blocks long observation area (since animals like the Unicorns always feel crowded by the guests), which are right by the fence. My observation areas are 2 blocks wide. My walking areas are 3-5 blocks wide in heavy trafffic areas and 2-3 blocks wide in less traveled areas. One thing I have changed since getting ZT-CC was the observation areas. I never had them before and just kept the walk ways 1 block from the fence and made the walking areas a little wider. I also follow a 1 Zoo Keeper per 2-3 Exhibit rule - is that efficient?

I try to use an equal amount of money making attractions and free conservation type guest stuff. Lately I have been using more and more free things, so hopefully people will enjoy the zoo more. I don't think it's helping any.

Thanks for the help so far!!  :happy

[Zookreeper]

Chenelle, I believe you are leaving too much space between the paths and the exibits. Do not worry about crowding, 2 tiles wide and the problem is solved. Anything more just keeps the guests away from the exibits. I also have ZTCC, running on Windows XP2. Let me know how you make out.

[Chenelle]

Okay, I stopped making observation areas and just kept the walk area 1 block away from the exhibits again. I am also making the walk ways no wider than 2 wide for the branches and 3 wide in the center strip. I am only putting in one resturant, one bathroom, one gift shop, one attraction and the adoption center in the middle of 12 or so exhibits (10 wide and however many deep I can make it - usually 12-15). Seasideville's Senario is finally completed with a zoo rating of 86, average animal happiness of 98 and average guest happiness of 90-91 doing it that way. Before I wasn't getting anything over 69 in guest happiness.

I used the same basic principle on the dolphin show senario. It didn't work so well. I had manta rays, turtles, the show tank and dolphin exhibit connected, whale sharks, bowhead whales, polar bears, sea lions, belugas, hammerhead sharks, tiger sharks, bluefin tuna, blue marlins, manatees and baraccudas. I was playing around with the tank in the exhibits for the sea lions and polar bears... The senario didn't go very well. I wasn't getting over 62 guest happiness, but had a 98-99 animal happiness the whole time. I had to Alfred H all but 18 of the guests off to finally get the 70 average guest happiness to complete the senario. None of the guests needed anything when I checked them either, so the park wasn't lacking in food/restrooms. I don't get it.  :erm

Zookreeper, I am using ZT-CC and I have XP Pro.  I am having computer problems, but I don't think it's effecting the game. I spiked a strip of RAM and I am pretty sure it took some of my processor. I am just waiting for the thing to permantly crash now. Anyways, things move alittle slower on the game and I can't do a full large map either without the screen pausing for long period of times (doesn't help that I am working off of only 128KB RAM, either  :><). Other than that, nothing else has been effected.

[icepengwyn]

Is 2 trash cans per resturant to much?

If you have any food court buildings, you should only need one trash can per restaurant (there's always some guest that has trash after using a restaurant - I don't know why). If you have NO food court buildings, then no trsh cans are needed. But I don't think that's your problem.

2 wide for the branches and 3 wide in the center strip.

3 wide is asking for trouble. Guests walking in the center path can not see into any exhibit, unless the fences are right next to the 2 outer path spaces.

If you use a single path:  
[fence][path][fence] OR
[fence][clear][path][clear][fence] the guest can look into either exhibit.

For a double path:
[fence][path][path][fence] OR
[fence][clear][path][path][clear][fence] the guest will always have one exhibit to look into.

I couldn't find the one zoo I was thinking of on this site. So here's a quick zoo I did using no user items or hacks, animals are not in any pattern or grouping, only the dirt path, and no scenery at all! Two restaurants are the only buildings. Ratings are 93-98-98.
Zoo file - use right click save If the link doesn't work properly, click on my user name and pop me an email and I will email it to you. If you like, email me the zoo you're having trouble with and I can take a look.

[Chenelle]

Icepengwyn, that's a small map, right? Wow! Twenty-six exhibits... Okay, question - For marine animals, how big of an exhibit is suitable, normally? I make mine as deep as I can make them, and much bigger than yours where - alot bigger (12 x 15+ blocks). As I posted before, I only put 14 exhibits on the dolphin show senario, and took up all of the map.

I have been using the "[fence][clear][path][path][clear][fence]" around the exhibits in the last 2 senarios and only one trash can for the whole map. I will be doing another senario today, the surf and turf senario, so I will see how it goes this time around and let you know. I have some work to do on a car first though (body work, exhust and headlight).  

In the mean time, this is a screenshot of the Seasideville senario I posted the ratings for above.

[icepengwyn]

Each animal has a "density" - this is how many squares of space it needs to feel comfortable. Some can be 5, others 50 or more. So if you want to make an exhibit for 10 of an animnal that has a density of 10, you will need an exhibit of 100 squares minimum.  Each marine animal also has a depth need. This ranges from 2 to 13.

There are some good suitability guides out there. Wisco's is a good site to start. Click on Animal Center. There may still be a couple of errors in the downloadable version. It's a many-page file - I have it slightly condensed will try to post it later. Also I did up a MM foliage compatibility chart - will set it up later.

[Spiderghost]

As long as you have one food booth you will need trashcans in many places. Many of the peeps will wander carrying the trash and not be able to find a spot to throw the trash away. The peeps are set up to like animals most of all and everything else takes away fromtheir happiness. I never, well almost never , make an area without an exhibit on one side of the path. if you are making areas with buildings, flowers etc. on both sides of the path this can lead to your guest getting unhappy. I tend to make my food courts facing towards an exhibit with tables and benches to the side of the booths rather than in front of the booths. This can help gain some happiness. another method is to make sure your exhibts are never deeper than 10 spaces as the guest will not be able to see the animals. as a general rule i make my exhibits longer and narrower to facilitate the peeps seeing the animals and observation areas actually help with this so by all means continue to make observation areas. I've got dozens of other little things that can help but usually it is these factors that come into play with guest happiness woes. If you continue to have some problems maybe you can send me one of your zoos and I'll be more than happy to look it over and check it out for you.

[Chenelle]

Thanks everyone!

Wisco's really helped me with the exhibit sizes so I could get more animals in. I did 2 more senarios, both with guest happiness in the high 90's. Now, I need to get my Zoo ratings up over 88!  :w00t

[Firehawke]

My way of ensuring that guests are happy is to have many exhibits without a lot of gaps in between them, few animal houses, and I use restaurants instead of food courts most of the time.  And tour guides help, too.  Guests also enjoy fountains and decorative foliage.  That stuff can also help with your ZR!  Good luck!

[Spiderghost]

Originally posted by Chenelle@Aug 19 2005, 01:12 PM
Thanks everyone!

Wisco's really helped me with the exhibit sizes so I could get more animals in. I did 2 more senarios, both with guest happiness in the high 90's. Now, I need to get my Zoo ratings up over 88!  :w00t

I am so happy to hear that and most of all that you went to Wisco's site. :cool  Wisco along with Quivaz and a few others were like the gurus of ZT when I first began playing. (along with Aussie Koala, Eagle One and Loewenfrau :approve .) There isn't a major topic you could mention that isn't addressed at this site.

[Zoo]

Your guests are too carleless at times. :><

[Tigeress_10]

This happened to me I had to get the happy guests hack. They were just netural to everything even though all thier needs were forfiled. They just kept gettingrangry. :>< The zoo is in the link in my sig--go to page four for the final overviews.
Yes, they were unhappy with THAT. :rolleyes