Bugs in Zoo tycoon 2

[fishtankbabe]

I had a really strange bug happen in one of my zoos. I had built a waterfall with some foliage around it. It was fine when I saved the game. When I went back to it later there was a flat square of dirt in the top pool of the waterfall, and when I moused over it, it said "Family Restroom 1". Now, I'm fairly certain that I did NOT put a restroom on top of the waterfall. The label only appeared that first time I noticed it, but it doesn't do it anymore. I tried deleting it, but of course there's nothing there to delete. But the terrain editor acts as if there is a building there, it won't let me fix the waterfall and put water back in. Has anyone else experienced anything like this?  

[said]

Is it a bug that when I click on staff, I can only hire new people? that it doesn't give me an icon for each person I have hired already?

[fishtankbabe]

Originally posted by said@Jan 27 2005, 01:19 PM
Is it a bug that when I click on staff, I can only hire new people? that it doesn't give me an icon for each person I have hired already?

If you're talking about the big round button next to the landscape and adopt animal buttons, then no. That button is only to hire staff. To see the staff you already have, you have to go into the zoo stats panel (It's one of the smaller, square buttons below the adopt animals button. I can't remember what it has on it... a graph line or something.) Anyway, when you click on it, it will bring up a menu that will show you all the stats in the game (animals, staff, buildings, guests, etc.) You will have to click on the staff tab to see your current staff members. Hope this helps.

[said]

Yah that's the 'managing list' i was referring to.. its kind of a pain to have to go through that menu, and then you have to close the pop-up window (it turns a shade of gray), before you can actually do anything wtih your staff member even. I swear in ZT1 there was just a quick icon that let you toggle to your staff members quickly... am i crazy?

[WhitePanda]

I find that if I have issues with animals like they are always unhappy with their exhibit and always getting dirty, I just try again later and it normally works fine.

[mo15]

I have the occasional glitch, with the zookeepers and stuff, but not enough to bother me.  everyone is complaining and my game seems perfectly fine :wacko:

[cheech]

I had some problems with the Tundra pack fences. When I used  Tundra fence and the Tundra Window fence my musk ox escaped.
The I used the same fencing on another exhibit and that animal also escaped. I thought at first it was the gate staying open too long but I had forgotten to put a door in the second exhibt. I had applied the patch before I downloaded the Tundra pack too.

[melskunk]

I too have the 'unamed' poo problem. In my case, clicking on the name leads me outside the zoo to some spot in the parking lot. I can only call that a true bug.
All my animlas definatly have names!
It might be related with it, but I also had my chimps complain of a dirty exhibit, but no poo was to be found! I also found later in the same game I couldn't interact with anything in zooguest mode anymore.
This has all started since I downloaded that @$&$ update  <_<

[melskunk]

I too have the 'unamed' poo problem. In my case, clicking on the name leads me outside the zoo to some spot in the parking lot. I can only call that a true bug.
All my animals definatly have names!
It might be related with it, but I also had my chimps complain of a dirty exhibit, but no poo was to be found! I also found later in the same game I couldn't interact with anything in zooguest mode anymore.
This has all started since I downloaded that @$&$ update  <_<

[owlcage]

Regarding "unnamed":

I was playing a challenge game last night and I accepted the challenge where you swap a bunch of your animals for animals from another zoo. When I went to the front gate there were four crated kangaroos, and one uncrated. The uncrated kangaroo was called "unnamed," but all the rest were named normally ("Red Kangaroo 1," "Red Kangaroo 2," etc.). I have to assume this was a bug because all the animals should have been crated as well as named. The unnamed kangaroo behaved perfectly normally, though, and caused no other problems.

[melskunk]

Originally posted by owlcage@Feb 2 2005, 11:59 PM
Regarding "unnamed":

I was playing a challenge game last night and I accepted the challenge where you swap a bunch of your animals for animals from another zoo. When I went to the front gate there were four crated kangaroos, and one uncrated. The uncrated kangaroo was called "unnamed," but all the rest were named normally ("Red Kangaroo 1," "Red Kangaroo 2," etc.). I have to assume this was a bug because all the animals should have been crated as well as named. The unnamed kangaroo behaved perfectly normally, though, and caused no other problems.

I wonder if that's why it happened... Maybe I had a animal show up outside the zoo walls (since beside the gates was packed and there wasn't much room for crates). Because it only happened AFTER I did an animal trade in challenge.

[dreamguardian1]

A bog i noticed is that one minute i will have an animal contained in his own exhibit then not two minutes later he is in another exhibit even with high walls.

[Spiderghost]

I'm having problems with guest ending up in exhibits when the party starts for the first babies born in a zoo. I've done four zoos now, and in each a guest or two ended up in the exhibits running around like freshmen at the first day of high school.

[mo15]

Originally posted by Spiderghost@Feb 7 2005, 12:57 AM
I'm having problems with guest ending up in exhibits when the party starts for the first babies born in a zoo. I've done four zoos now, and in each a guest or two ended up in the exhibits running around like freshmen at the first day of high school.

do you use pit exhibits?  sometimes they fall in.

i know, things always seem to end up where they are not supposed to

[cheech]

mo15: I had the same problem yesterday too. This time it was a moose with the tall slat fence surrounding his exhibit and surprise he's running loose. Last time it was the musk ox and the tundra fence.  This really seems like a bug to me. I switched the slat fence to the wooden rail fence it stopped the escaping moose.

[WhitePanda]

I hate those bugs, especially with moose, they're always getting free. Something else I noticed is that some animals walk into deep water, then they stand there for a few seconds and then they are suddenly half-submerged and paddling about with ripples.

Something else I found is that the zookeepers are slower when they're tired. I build no exhibit gates and I just place a bench in the exhibit so they have a place to sit and then can run off. Plus a red panda rubbing against a bench looks v amusing, lol

[Rotipher]

Re. the high rate of poop production by birds: it's physiology, not a glitch.  Birds IRL excrete their nitrogenous wastes in a near-solid form that mixes with their fecal matter, not as a distinguishable liquid.  So whenever a mammal in the game would pee on dirt, a bird deposits more poop instead.

[Pegasus]

I have only had one animal escape but a couple of things I found to be annoying are the animals getting stuck somewhere in their exhibit, some down on a steep slope that they can't get off of and on one occasion I had two Okapis in an exhibit and they both went into a small pool and got stuck cause they couldn't swim.  I realize that they can't swim but I'm pretty sure that in the wild they are smart enough not to go in. :o)

Also annoying are the constant messages about the zookeeper not being able to reach "_______________" when there are several gates into an exhibit and nothing blocking their way. Oh! and also starving guest when there a tons of food stands.

Just thought I would vent. I really do love the game and can't wait to see what they come out with next.  

Pegasus

[Sypke]

Hi there, I have cleaners that are grooming without a groom,....
Nobody else has seen that??
My animals escape even if I make the highest cliff possible. They just run righ over it, vertically!

[crayzee3]

This game has SOOO many glitches and bugs it's not even funny!  No one could have tested this game before it was released because they are impossible to miss. I'm sick of animals escaping secure enclosures, hearing "zookeeper can't this and zookeeper can't that", and people mysteriously getting into secure enclosures. I found that the game was a lot better BEFORE getting the patch. I'm just really p*ssed off right now because I completely wasted my time in the final scenerio. Stupid Ming Ching has her baby and the "Scenerio Won" screen crashes the game and I need to send an error report. I sure as **** am not playing that scenerio again and I've tried everything I can to see what's making it crash, including deleting everything in the zoo and closing it. If someone else has had this problem and overcame it with a solution I'm not sure of, PLEASE let me know because this game is about to go in the garbage I'm so angry. It has so many problems to the point where is stresses you out and it's not fun to play. I just wanted to get these campaigns done with and move on but the end of the very last scenerio doesn't work. No one can say that that isn't frustrating. Don't get me wrong, I love the game, just not it's MANY MANY issues that I hope are resolved in the near future. I don't know who they paid to test this game but that person or persons needs to be fired. Thank you for putting up with me as I really needed to get that off my chest.  <_<

[karlhall39]

I havent completed the last senario but i do have a problem with zookeeper cart reach this and that even if there right next to it. but haventhad problems with animals have you look in the fences menu (the zookeeper face) that tells you the fences they can be kept in.

[crayzee3]

Yup they all have their recommended fencing. I'm possitive it's a glitch because it doesn't say they escaped... it just saying the animals really hungy or thirsty and I click on it and sure enough it will be out of it's cage. I haven't had any problems with the other campaigns. Just the VERY last one at the VERY last possible second... the scenerio won screen crashes the game. Don't ask me why. It must just be **** because all the other screens worked absolutely fine.

[owlcage]

Yes, there are definitely fence and enclosure glitches. In zoos where I don't have much money I make sunken exhibits with cheap fencing, and I actually saw a guest slide right off the path, through the fence, and down into the enclosure. (The exact reason you have to have fences for sunken exhibits in the first place, so guests don't fall in.) Also one time a crocodile somehow made it from the bottom of its sunken exhibit all the way up the ENORMOUS cliff I had separating it from the rest of the zoo. I've just learned to live with it.

The "zookeeper/worker can't get to..." or "educator can't get to podium" messages for me are the worst. In a big zoo they pop up literally every three or four seconds, as some worker will ALWAYS be temporarily blocked by a guest or animal. They really need to fix this so that if the problem persists for more than, say, 15 seconds, then and only then do you get a message. When I first started playing I would tear over to where the problem was, only to find the guest or animal had moved and the worker was now doing his job. I've learned to ignore them but they are still irritating.

(And the problem with ignoring is that sometimes there really is a problem. Either because of bad zoo design on my part or the fence glitch, I have had zookeepers get out of their enclosures where I often keep them, and then can't get in and start with the "zookeeper can't get to..." messages. Only when I went to the exhibit and found it full of poo and lacking in food or water did I realize what had happened.)

I guess it's just about your patience for the glitches. Mine is pretty high but probably not infinite.

[crayzee3]

Mine's very high. I put up with the problems all the way to the very end. I lost all that patience when I realized I can't finish the last scenerio and do I really want to risk starting the hardest scenerio over again and having the same thing happen? Not really. I shouldn't have had to pay money for a game I can't even finish playing. I spent hours and days trying to get to the end and because of these problems the end doesn't even exist. Seems almost like a crule joke. All I can do is move on and say I finished all the scenerios (because I did, just can't get "scenerio won" screen) and wait until they come up with a fix. I sent enough error reports to last a year trying different things to get the game to stop crashing so they better give me a fix or all show them! Lol  

[owlcage]

Originally posted by crayzee3@Feb 12 2005, 12:56 PM
I lost all that patience when I realized I can't finish the last scenerio

Sorry, I didn't mean to seem as if I were "scolding" you for your feelings. There's a post or two around here from other people who have had trouble with their scenario crashing RIGHT as it was supposed to win. That must be incredibly frustrating and you're right, don't know if I'd try such a long and difficult scenario again. I would definitely email Microsoft, though. I emailed them when I had what I thought was a bug in the second-generation animals game keeping me from winning (turns out it was a "hidden condition" problem). I'm sorry I don't have their address at hand but if you check MS's games website you should find something. The person who contacted me was pretty helpful and detailed about things to try. I can save you the first step by saying they'll probably tell you to do a clean reinstall of your system software and then the game. Whether or not you want to bother with all that is definitely your call.

I also read about a ZT file that can be edited in order to change the condition of the scenario to "win." Unfortunately I can't remember where that is but if you hunt you might find it (might have been on another forum though). I wouldn't consider that cheating since you DID win the scenario!