How to Control Pesky Zoo Keepers...

[Nettie]

Well zoo keepers aren't the smartest of the staff members, and they tend to travel everywhere they shouldn't.  guests will not sit next to keepers on benches and they take up precious bench space.  plus trying to find a keeper when you need one is a pain when they blend in with the guests.... Besides giving them specific exhibits to keep after, here's a little helpful trick...

keep them seperate from the guest population!  

I like to build little enclosures for my zoo keepers within the exhibits themselves.  I give em benches to sit on and if you creativly use the hill flatten tools, it's not expensive either.

Along the zoo walls, i make channels along the backs of the exhibits. For each exhibit, I flatten the hill around the channel put a zoo gate in.  In between the exhibits I make an area at least two squares by two squares so there's room for a bench.

Here are some pictures to help explain:

http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/3497/zookeeper25jr.jpg

http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/7421/zookeeper0bm.jpg


For the exhibits in the middle of the zoo, I do the same but without the channels.  That way one keeper can go between four exhibits wthout ever going into the guest areas....
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6369/fourexhibits4vh.jpg

of course you can experiment with exactly how the channels and keeper areas work.  Sometimes i make a channel all the way around a zoo...  I also use cheap fences temporaily to help make my hills straight.  them i take them out when i'm done.  I personally like the natural look of the hills without the fences....

You don't have to use the hills either...  If your in free form, you can use any fence (but tall solid fences work the best) to make the channels too.

[mikaboshi]

Interesting idea! I think I would just use fences to make "channels" though...but still, its an excellent idea!

[penguinman]

Very good idea! I have done varations on this, but I think yours is better because it keeps keepers out of guest areas completely! Glad to see the amazing Nettie isn't gone completely

[heppes]

kool way to do that!
I would just do channels like that with fences, but then allow them to go out into the guest areas. lol

but then they would start doing weird things. and annoying little things would pop up like so and so can't reach elephant poop. lol

[africanwilddog]

Wow awesome idea! That's one major keeper problem solved - now the guests can use the becnhes and now keepers can reach exhibits!

Does anyone have any solutions to this keeper problem that I have all the time-
I try to make my exhibits natural and realistic by not putting dishes with water but just making natural water bodies like lakes and rivers. My animals are in fact happier with natural water sources. But then the stupid keeper arrives, brings a food dish with water, places it, and runs off. Suddenly all my animals stop drinking the natural water. Once the dish is over, they all start getting thirsty. Stupid keeper doesn't come to fill it up again. So the keeper spoils my exhibit, wastes my money, irritates me, and worst of all makes my animals unhappy:angry: ! *Mutters curses to ZT2 keepers, too horrid to type out* Anyone has a solution, other than stopping keepers permanently?

[Budgielover101]

Wow awesome idea! That's one major keeper problem solved - now the guests can use the becnhes and now keepers can reach exhibits!

Does anyone have any solutions to this keeper problem that I have all the time-
I try to make my exhibits natural and realistic by not putting dishes with water but just making natural water bodies like lakes and rivers. My animals are in fact happier with natural water sources. But then the stupid keeper arrives, brings a food dish with water, places it, and runs off. Suddenly all my animals stop drinking the natural water. Once the dish is over, they all start getting thirsty. Stupid keeper doesn't come to fill it up again. So the keeper spoils my exhibit, wastes my money, irritates me, and worst of all makes my animals unhappy:angry: ! *Mutters curses to ZT2 keepers, too horrid to type out* Anyone has a solution, other than stopping keepers permanently?

You could put no gates on the exhibits. But then they wouldn't fill up food : :

But Nettie that is a great idea! I would also just use cheap fences instead of hills but it still looks cool!

[Shenzu Shikiru]

I did this with fencing in one zoo; I took a city map(Large) and lined it with solid brick wall(The wall-theme I chose). As I built the exibits, I extended the chnnels along through two-four different exibits in groups, and eventually put in staff centers in three places around my zoo(A total of six).
For the island exibits, I opened up the channel with a cate near the one exibit, but kept the rest accesable only from the other side, so the keepers would stay in the pathed channels.
And having 18 keepers was hardly enough! I had several assighned to two or more exibits! But the zoo came out really clean, I included all the animals I had at the time(All ZT2 animals +King Cheetah), And had five stars, in less than a year.
Unfourtunatly, when I installed ES and AA, something happened to where I could no longer load old saved games...

[Nettie]

Well thanks guys. hopefully it helps out the gamers!  Yeah, penguinman, I've been around.  I've been checking in and reading up but i haven't posted in awhile.  Things have been busy and hectic since i graduated from college, you know finding a job and being a real adult, (well, almost, not quite, hehe).  

as for the food dishes, I'm not sure.  I hate that as well....  I also found that if you put in say one small food dish and then your animals reproduce (esp with breeding frenzy animals like zebras gazelles and bufflos) the keeper will put in more dishes.  then when you put in a water trough they'll complain they are thirsty even if you put them right by the water source...  who knows....

[Crimson_Fox_79]

Thanks for posting this tip! It will prove to be very useful, I know that!
Zookeepers are so annoying. I wish they'd make a download file that improves their AI.
Every time I am busy trying to design a new enclosure I see text pop-up with something like 'Zookeeper can't reach ungulate poop!" and I click it to go check things out, and I see the zookeeper 2" away from the poop and not making any attempt to walk closer to it :rolls eyes: So I'll pick up the keeper and place him next to the poop... and he'll walk away from it and the message will come up again AGH!
Or 'zookeeper can't reach camel 3' and he's standing right by the camel...

[africanwilddog]

I agree with CF71, they really need an AI Update.

The poop one's the worst, once I had a keeper that I placed in my hippo exhibit, across the river from a pile of poop. So the message kept popping up that Keeper cannot reach Large Poop or watever. I continued building the rest of my zoo, but the keeper just refused to go through the river. Then I put a gate on the other side and put a bench outside it. Stupid keeper suddenly learnt how to swim!! Lazy is all I can say. f you can swim for a bench why cant you do it to do your job! Keepers, I tell you.

Another time the keeper went and got himself stuck in between the fence and the elephant house. Now a 6 tonne elephant went in there to eat the hay or something, and got out perfectly, but this skinny keeper standing there couldnt get out.

Actually I like taking revenge on the keepers. Like y'know, make an exhibit and put millions of keepers in it, then flood the whole thing and leave just one small bit of land and watch them all scramble to get on it!! Then I put a gate on the fence and put a bench outside it, and have a land bridge connecting that land patch to the gate. The keepers all run for the gate, but just when they're reaching it, I recycle the bench and flood them again. Back they go to that old land!!! Then add crocodiles in the water, and put a carcass in between the keepers!!:badgnome:
Watch the crocodiles enter the keeper mob to eat!!!