Getting 5 Stars

[wolfclan4515]

I usually don't use a strategy.  All I do is keep building exhibets and food courts and I get 5 stars

[Zoo_Master]

I find it farily easy actually.  It takes time; but I can do it.  Right now my best zoo is 5 stars, I only have around $30,000, and I have only filled up half of the zoo space.  You just have to do things as they come up.  If it says the guests need more bathrooms then look at your overview map.  Likely you will see that many are in one area.  Just add some more around the zoo.  Do this with all the needs that arise.  Also; you don't have to have the exact foliage.  My crocs are in a savannah exhibit and are fine.  And my Asian Elephants were in a rainforest exhibit before I decided to make it scrub.  (that was really stupid.  It is true that Asian Elephants live in the scrub areas of India; but they are more common in rainforests.  Atleast they should have made rainforest the 2nd best; but it really isn't.)

[puppylover000]

:sad 4 da panda scenario i can't get2 five stars. its soooooooooo anoying!!!!!

[Friend]

i think the real strategy is to conserve money by building really budget exhibits :happy thats what i did :happy would anybody like me to post a pic of an example??  

[Snowstalker]

I got 5 stars with about 15 exhibits.

[horsegirl]

Hey friend, I'd like you to post a screenshot! I'd help me a lot!

[Megaraptor]

I was playing a freeform and i wasn't paying attention to the star-rateing, after about 12 exhibits, and about 14 species, i realized i had five-stars.  I guess the way it happened is that i released alot of my endangered species to the wild, and that must have raised it.

[caro_caribou]

Some budgeting suggestions:
1) Use as little fencing as possible and create cliffs for the sides and backs of your exhibits.  Also use the cheapest fences - chainlink is probably the most versatile.  I've tried moats/ditches, but the animals get stuck in them and the keepers sometimes too.
2) Only buy cheap animals in pairs. Buy singles of the expensive ones.
3) Make one large savannah exhibit and stick all savannah creatures in it - giraffes, zebras, gazelles, ostrich, etc.  
4) Get a gift shop ASAP.
5) Add trees to exhibits after you change the biomes, not with the biome tool.
To help with educational numbers, build observation areas into your exhibits - little T-shaped bits where they can get a closer look.  Place toys and food/water near these.  Suitable plants and shelters are a must.
I started off having money problems, but after using almost all cliff fencing and getting a gift cart money started coming in nicely.  Best of luck!

[dwarfgouramis]

my zoos never get 5 stars, my comp can't handle it, it gets to 4.5 and then is gets really slow... so I haven't tryed... :sad

[Zeta Missy: Purple Turtle]

I never have any problems getting to 5 stars... It's quite annoying actually :>< , because once you get to 5 stars, it's like, "now what?" so I sit there monitering my zoo and knitting or something... Here's some tips:

1.) Try releasing ALOT of animals
2.) Rare animal births increase your fame (I think), so try having mostly rare-animal exhibits (hmm... The expansion pack should be useful for this!)
3.) Guests have favortie animals. Use the geust list sorted by favorite animals, and try building ehibits with their favorite animals (mine always seem to be beavers and crocs)

Maybe that will help everyone get to 5-stars.  Trust me, though, it's boring at the top!

[Eagle One]

Originally posted by Ges@Apr 30 2005, 07:58 PM
Thanks for the link Eagle One! I've been searching for that kind of extensive information for a while, big help!  :lol

I am glad it was able to help i should update it with the new animals microsoft has for download

[Tatalp]

For me, 5 stars is easy. It takes about 2 hours to get a sandbox zoo to 5 stars
Get a ton of different species
If you don't mind prey animals occasionally getting killed(it pretty much only happens if animals get really hungy) build a really big exhibit for each biome type, but first see which biomes go together. For example, you can have animals from the savannah, the desert, the wetlands and the scrub all together(I put them all in a savannah biome) and they'll be happy. You can also put all the forests together(Tropical, Temperate, and Boreal) and Alpine and Tundra. This makes the educational exhibit rating shoot up.
Also, in sandbox mode, just buy a bunch of animals and immedaitley release them. You'll get credited with releasing them to the wild.

[Zoo_Master]

I just got 5 stars with a zoo I had.  Played it, in total, maybe 2 days.  Not 2 actually days but putting them all the time together.  It's not hard for me at all.  Just add new species every now and then.  Also; babies are very very good.  One thing I have tried is checking for when an animal is about to give birth.  When the sign is in red place the mother right next to the fence near a bunch of people for them to see.  She will give birth there and everyone will be extremely happy.  Also make sure you monitor the amount of animals in an exhibit.  If you start to get too many try to release the oldest animals while still keeping a male, female, and babies.  And campaigns are really good.  Make sure you try to do as many as possible.

[Peacenote]

Originally posted by Eagle One@Apr 27 2005, 04:34 PM
Check out the animal stragity guide at http://eagleonenet.com/ztempire/index.php?...y_view&iden=138 it will help you to make the best possible animal exhibit

This link keeps taking me to download a "Forest Zoo Beginner."  Is the guide zipped up with the zoo?  I also searched for strategy and information on the site but nothing came up.  I'm confused... :crazy

[dwarfgouramis]

I finally have gotten a 5 star zoo, yipee!!! :w00t  and it only took me not even a day to do it and it was just October of year one in the game.  all I did was make animal exibits that I really liked and made a food court and every time an exibit got to crowded I just realesed the animals to the wild. I didn't know it was that easy, lol :lol

[kiwibuddy]

When I played the Mysterious Panda Campaign, here was my strategy to get a five star zoo:

1. Adopt the most expensive animals available.
2. Use natural walls as fenicng. (e.g. Dig a big ol' pit and add fencing where your guests are to view your animals and so your guests don't fall in!)
3. Adopt ostriches, and kangaroos, they breed like crazy! (And you can either release them to the wild for zoo fame or put them up for adoption for money!)
4. When building an exhibit for, oh lets say... a musk ox. Then you'll say, "Ok, there will be 3 musk oxen in this exhibit." So whenever you have a baby/babies, wait for them to grow up, once you do. Release one of your musk ox into the wild so you have three musk ox again and to raise zoo fame! (For example, say you have one baby male musk ox, when it grows up, release your oldest male musk ox into the wild! You can't loose zoo fame you gain by releasing animals into the wild!)
5. Place plenty of food and drink stands, bathrooms, ATMs, gift shops near popular exhibits, and dessert carts. (Don't forget trash cans and picnic tables and gazebos, arches, fountains, etc.)
6. Here is a list of popular animals:

>Grizzly Bear
>American Beaver
>Okapi (A must have! Only $5,500!)
>Chimpanzee
>Mountain Gorilla
>Polar Bear
>Snow Leopard
> African Elephant
>Red Panda
>Giant Panda

If you forget these animals, click on the gift shop and view the gifts it has, you'll see all of these animals there!

7. Build a compost in a deserted area in you zoo. It's a big money maker!
8. Zoo fame is based on:

Guest Happiness
Animal Happiness
Educational Habitats
Entertaining Animals
Number of Species
Number of Animals Total
Releases into the Wild (You can't lose zoo fame you gain from this!)
Goals Completed (Beating challenges n' stuff, more of something you'd do in a challenge game, can't lose zoo fame you gain from this!)

9. Exhibits housing mutiple animals (e.g. Savannah exhibit with common zebras, Thomson's gazelles, African elephants, reticulated giraffes, black rhinoceroses, and ostriches.) These type of exhibits will make them more educational, or entertaining or something like that.

Sorry for having such a LOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGG post, but I just wanted to help!    (P.S. My Sandbox zoo is a five star zoo, I only have 8 different species but that's because they are the eight animals I listed on tip # 6.!)

[AdamfromCanada]

I found with the panda zoo, that it is helpful to replace your peacocks (I replace with red pandas), moose (replaced with Grizzly bears), etc. with animals that you can't get till later fame.  Since your challenge score is zero, you need to raise your entertaining animals score to compensate.  While adding elephants and tigers and such helps, sending away the animals that are lowering your score also help.  I don't like doing this much, as if it's just a zoo that I was building, I'd keep all my animals, but with the scenario, I'm not going to keep playing it anyhow after I win, so the faster it can be finished the better.  

There are also certain animals which I"ve started to avoid in scenario games, because they're too much maintenance, such as the flamingos.  They tend to die off very quickly, and sometimes need to be replaced because they'll have a string of babies of one gender (I really think all the animals both breed and die too quickly, but that is a topic for another thread) and they have over-active bowels, which really tasks the zookeepers and often upsets the guests who don't like to see dirty exhibits.

[Peacenote]

Originally posted by AdamfromCanada@Aug 15 2005, 01:47 AM
I found with the panda zoo, that it is helpful to replace your peacocks (I replace with red pandas), moose (replaced with Grizzly bears), etc. with animals that you can't get till later fame. Since your challenge score is zero, you need to raise your entertaining animals score to compensate. While adding elephants and tigers and such helps, sending away the animals that are lowering your score also help. I don't like doing this much, as if it's just a zoo that I was building, I'd keep all my animals, but with the scenario, I'm not going to keep playing it anyhow after I win, so the faster it can be finished the better.

Wait, wait, wait!  You mean there are animals that LOWER your entertainment score?  Huh.  That definitely changes things.  I totally assumed that some were just worth less than others.  Say, you need to get to 100, peacocks would be 1, grizzly bears would be 20, or something.  That seems kind of unfair, as all animals are at least mildly entertaining (to the guests I mean, of course I love them all), and most likely they are someone's favorite animal!  Do we know what each animal is worth?

I've also had a problem getting my educational score up, is that the same kind of thing?  Are there certain mixed exhibits or something that lower your score?  Like if you mix animals from different continents in the same biome?  Or are certain animals more educational because they have more interactive objects?  Or does you educational rating go up if you have all the biomes?

This is very interesting........   :shocked

[AdamfromCanada]

Originally posted by Peacenote1@Aug 15 2005, 08:44 PM

Wait, wait, wait!  You mean there are animals that LOWER your entertainment score?  Huh.  That definitely changes things.  I totally assumed that some were just worth less than others.  Say, you need to get to 100, peacocks would be 1, grizzly bears would be 20, or something.  That seems kind of unfair, as all animals are at least mildly entertaining (to the guests I mean, of course I love them all), and most likely they are someone's favorite animal!  Do we know what each animal is worth?

I've also had a problem getting my educational score up, is that the same kind of thing?  Are there certain mixed exhibits or something that lower your score?  Like if you mix animals from different continents in the same biome?  Or are certain animals more educational because they have more interactive objects?  Or does you educational rating go up if you have all the biomes?

This is very interesting........   :shocked

I'm not certain on this, but it seemed to fit.  When I traded up, the entertaining score went up.  And even in the zoos where i"ve had every animal, I've never had my entertaining score full.  From that, I hypothesized that the score somehow averages the animals entertainment values.  I've yet to fill the educational score too, and I'm not sure why that is.  Potentially, they may require different amounts of trees, rocks etc. But you'd have to tinker so much, I don't know that it would be worth the time.

[Zoo]

Cool, i'll try some of these ideas later.  :lol  :huh