Directing Traffic

[Gaterade]

Directing Traffic

Getting your guests where you need them, the age-old question of how. If you’re like me and you ignore the guests lack of AI and go ahead and build the elevated platforms and mountains with a view you have had this problem. Or on the other hand your building your zoo and you find that guests are cutting corners walking all over your entire zoo plan. That’s where directing traffic comes in handy. The idea of directing traffic comes back to the old science experiment of the mouse the cheese and the maze. If you put the cheese at the end of the maze and the mouse at the other end eventually the mouse will get to the cheese because it wants it. This is also true for guests if you want them to go and view from your platform you will need something to draw there attention first to get them up there. Guests are notorious for being lazy and will not go up a hill to look at some exhibit because you think it looks good, even if it does look good.

Observation Towers
   I my self love these towers where guests can come up the elevated path and view the animals from a reasonable height. Early on in my platform-creating career I came upon a problem no guests would come up and view my animals. I myself thought if I was a guest I would want to go up there and view the animals but sadly Blue Fang did not concentrate on artificial intelligence for there guests. So I set out to find a way to direct my traffic flow to not only my platform but also other areas guest where determined to miss all together in their visit to my zoo. As I looked restlessly for days for my answer my father asked “why not put something they need or want u there” and then it hit me the mouse, cheese, and maze experiment played in my mind and I had found my answer. I soon discovered the objects set in the game that would attract guest at all cost. That explained to me why quest would cut corners. So for my first test I put a bighorn statue at the top of my observation platform, some benches, and an exhibit sign. In a matter of minutes my platform was flooded with guests and the exhibit was getting more donations by the second. Below are a list of items I have discovered over the years that help direct your traffic flow.

Statues
Endangered animals
Black Leopard
White Bengal Tiger
Arches
Fountains
Large Fountains (See lancy’s guide)
Flowers
Dinosaurs
Eateries
Other non necessity buildings such as animatronics  

Really anything that is worth while the guests will go and look at, also some user content can really help as the likeness to guests is set really high.

Paths
   I then thought what about paths would the guests like different paths well tested it first with a straight dirt and a straight brick path going to a black leopard exhibit, they choose the brick path. I then made a straight dirt path and a zigzag shaped brick oath that was twice as long and they still chouse the brick path. So remember any chance you get build brick instead of dirt or any other combo that works like this combo.

Have fun

[Firehawke]

I sometimes do some temporary traffic directing (I like that!) by placing some decorative fencing (usually the rope fencing) across a path that I see a lot of guests heading towards to get them to go in the direction that I want them to go.  It works sometimes, but not all of the time.
Thanks for the tips!