How do I keep guests happy?

[Crystallyne]

I just picked up ZT2 a couple of days ago.  I was having a lot of fun at first, but I've been getting more and more frustrated with it.  I don't have any of the expansions, I should mention that.  I've been poking around for a place where I might get help with some of the issues I'm having, and thought I would try here.

The primary issue I'm having right now is no matter what I do my visitors are constantly demanding a place to rest, as well as demanding food, and drinks.  This has been aggravating beyond all belief, making me ready to scream in frustration.

I will have a bench in every 3rd square or less, and groupings of 4-10 picnic tables, and still they yell at me that there's no place to rest.  This has probably been my #1 aggravation.  Just what the heck do those guys need if my benches and picnic table aren't working?!  99% of the time the only people I even see USING the benches are the staff.  The visitors don't even try to use them.  I've had them facing the fences, because I thought that would be good so they could watch what was going on and rest at the same time.  The staff have no problem using them.  The visitors won't use them to save their lives.  I have tried to turn the benches around so the backs were to the fences, and they were completely open, and still the visitors don't seem to use them.  (My walkways are usually 3-4 spaces accross.)

As for the food and drinks, I have tried to create groupings of food vendors in strategic places all over the park.  They will use them, but I still am constantly getting harassed with messages that they are starving or thirsty.  How much space can there be between food vendors, drink vendors, and drinking fountains?!  How far will the visitors travel to get food and drinks?!

I have a couple more questions more of curiousity...  I read the manual front to back before starting to play, and it suggested grouping animals together from the same biome.  I tried this at first and didn't have any problem with animals chasing each other.  Then today I put a variety of wetland creatures together, and the beavers and flamingos were running around frantically, with the crocodiles stalking them.  Will the animals actually kill each other?  Can the animals actually even die?  I haven't had any die yet.  (I took the crocs out because at the very least I figured the poor beavers and flamingos would go crazy trying to stay away from them, and never get comfortable.)

Sorry for the long post and all the questions...  I've been trying to find these answers all over the place, and just can't seem to find what I need.  Either that or I just really don't want to spend 3 hours wading through 100s of pages of information trying to find the few factoids I'm looking for.

Any helpful response would be greatly appreciated.  Thank you.

[RedNotDead]

yes the animals will die the crocs will turn beavers and flamingos into carcasses and eat them LOL

as for the food and drink problem you will get a lot of that at the beginning as the guests are fussy over what they eat so they usually dont stop that until you have built at least 3 or 4 full food courts containing all the stands and carts and all the resturants.

the guests seem to not like sitting on a bench where the zookeepers are sitting down and they will complain if the benches to eat at are not close to the food.

if you are using the drinking fountain that can cause a lot of problems if you are running an unpatched game.  guests get stuck at the fountain then complain they are hungrey thirsty and have restroom needs.

[Crystallyne]

Thank you for the quick response, that was already extremely helpful.  I'll start planning in a lot more food courts and the like.

Should I have more food vendors scattered all over the place too?  Or can I just plan on several food courts and call it good?  For example if I'm using a Large map, if I have a good sized food court with all the vendors in each corner, and one large grouping in the middle as well, will that be enough?  Or should I have more food carts scattered around here and there?

I have run the patcher (I think) so that shouldn't be an issue.  I will double check.  As far as the staff using the benches, they only use 1 or 2, so there are still TONS of benches available for the visitors to use.  But they still don't seem to use them.

How far apart do you think I need to have drinking fountains?

Thanks again for the help.

[RedNotDead]

well i personally never use drinking fountains - stops guests buying drinks LOL

i usually have my zoo divided into themed areas and use a food court in each themed area like a safari theme with the safari buildings - jungle theme with jungle buildings etc and it seems to keep my guests happy enough - one difference from zt1 is that a resturant does not satisfy guests restrooms needs so make sure you include plenty of those as well (again i put them in the themed areas)

[Nique]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the guests (if I remember correctly, I'm a bit 'blond' sometimes! LOL) can only see 10 squares in front of them so if your ammenities are too far apart they aren't "smart" enough to think ahead... think of trying to keep a 3 year old happy... instant gratification... Good luck and don't give up!

[Crystallyne]

Thank you for the advice and help.

I haven't fully tested my new attempts at pleasing my guests.  I spent a long time planning out what I thought would be the perfect layout, only to get it started and get spammed with messages that my educators couldn't reach the podiums.  Even though I could clearly SEE the educators using the podiums.  I got so angry, aggravated, and frustrated, that I gave up.  At least temporarily.  (I tried everything I could to make the podiums easier to use, but the spam messages wouldn't quit.)

Sometimes I feel like it takes WAY too long for those messages to quit.  Like it gets stuck on messages and keeps repeating them non-stop, even after the problem is fixed.

[Cheeky Tutti]

I've actually learnt a thing or 2 from this topic, I don't play ZT2 very often - thanks guys! That's interesting about the food courts as I often have the same messages about hungry guests etc as Crystallyne. I will have to try this too!!!

[marapets]

Another thing to keep in mind is that the guests (if I remember correctly, I'm a bit 'blond' sometimes! LOL) can only see 10 squares in front of them so if your ammenities are too far apart they aren't "smart" enough to think ahead... think of trying to keep a 3 year old happy... instant gratification... Good luck and don't give up!

yeah i agree thats the way to do it