My zookeepers are so lazy :(

[natizzle]

My favorite way to play ZT1 is to play freeform, using shift + 4 cheat, so I can have a bazillion dollars to use anyway I want. Yesterday I had this giant, awesome zoo.. with about 15 - 20 exhibits and over like 50 zookeepers in each one to take care of the animals. I put water in front of all exhibit entrances so that the zookeepers couldn't leave and they would have to stay inside and clean up poo and feed the animals. Even though I had soooo many zookeepers in each pin.. the animals would keep getting really unhappy because they were really hungry and couldn't find food and there was so much poo. I'd have to add a new zookeeper every time this happened to each exhibit.. and only then would the animals be fed. They still wouldn't clean up all of the poo though. So.. what am I doing wrong? I know I kept them 'trapped' inside of the exhibits.. but there's not like a 'staff breakroom' or something in the game like there are in other games so I didn't think it mattered. Does it matter if they can get in or out? I had like 20 million so they got all of the training possible and stuff. Any tips/hints/cheats you guys know of? Thanks! :]

[legomannate]

welcome natizzle and I too HATE my workers, and so far I have found no remedy for thier stupidity so far and you can blow out steam hereif you want too.

[Seraphii]

Haha, i have learned that if you block off the zookeepers in zt1, they wont clean up poo unless you place them directly on it.

[alloy61]

You could try being sneaky and move the gate to a neighbouring exhibit, then assign the keepers to the two joining exhibits
It won't let you build one purposefully, but if you put the gate to one side and then build the neighbouring exhibit around it you can still trap the keepers in

[yinyangwolf]

Here's what I do: just create a tiny 1x2 exhibit and put a bench in it. Put a staff gate where the two connect. It's annoying when geusts try to go over there and sit on them. See if it works.

[Agent Froggy]

It might just be a small temporary bug or something, but I've noticed sometimes that my workers (including maintenance workers) don't do their job No matter what!!!

[Firehawke]

I have this trouble sometimes.  Sometimes, I block off 1 square outside the exhibit so that the zookeepers could leave the exhibit but not go far.  My maintainence workers often go to a back corner of the zoo and just wonder around until I relocate them.  Good luck!

[rustedgranny]

I've found that simply firing the lot of them and hiring new seems to work quite well!

[mikek21]

It has been awhile since I played ZT1, but back in the days when we were all playing it, there were lots of discussions about lazy keepers. And I thought we had determined that you had to let keepers "reset". If you kept them entirely trapped in an exhibit, they eventually stop working, or at least do a very poor job.

Keepers "reset" by coming out and then going back into an exhibit. To keep them from wandering away, I would create enclosed areas next to an exhibit that would allow the keeper to come out but not wander away. For example, I might create two or three exhibits in a row, and have one keeper assigned to care for them. Behind the exhibits I would create an enclosed alley that would allow the keeper to come out of one exhibit and enter into another. Going to and from exhibits seemed to work well.

Sounds like you have 2 or 3 keepers per exhibit that are not working, you then hire a new keeper and place him in the exhibit and the new keeper will start feeding and cleaning poo. That is because he is brand new to the exhibit, but because he also can not "reset", he eventually stops working as well.

That's my thoughts on it anyway.

[ellie248]

I agree. They do have to "reset". Which I only found out after I trapped them in an exhibit. When I finally gave up and let them out, they did a much better job. (Or, you could download the hack that lets you clean up the poo.)

[clockworkgirl21]

I hate the maitenence(excuse my spelling) workers that walk way out in the middle of nowhere when there are fences to be fixed. :wacko:

[LadyZookeeperNY]

The zookeepers and maintenance workers in ZT 1 had a programming glitch in the AI files when the game first debuted. However, that was fixed with a patch, then was reprogrammed with the releases of DD/MM/CC.

Zookeepers in ZT 1 cannot be contained in small exhibits. If they are not allowed to wander a bit in the zoo, they will not "reset" to go back and do another task. The same is true of the maintenance workers. You also need to do the research to allow the 'keepers and workers to get advanced "training" so they will do more of the job better. Don't assign more than 2 zookeepers per exhibit. Make sure your maintenance workers are assigned to specific tasks-some to just empty trash and sweep, some to do just fence repairs, some to do just filter repairs, etc. Don't combine their jobs or else they will just get lazier and slower.

I hope this helps!