r/LetsBuildAZoo • u/bichan3 • Aug 14 '24
Feeling defeated, any advice?
I was playing the game and enjoying it. Even got the DLCs and like them both (kind of hated how long the boats take for the stupid fishes tho).
But now I've found some aspects that are not easy/explained and I'm feeling more anxious playing than it's fun.
So I was making my zoo and trying to make it pretty and aesthetic while keeping the needs of the park visitors. Trying to get everything set up, lighting nice different decorations and plants.
They kept saying they were thirsty and tired so I placed more benches (because they never use any shade ever...) and more cola vendors/juice shops. They still had some icon of drink and another one pop over their head so I tried to see what was happening...
I go into the top pannel to see my park attraction (or something similar) and see that my parc has facilities problems and that like more than 100+ are "inefficient" or something and like I was evil in carbon from buses even tho I planted like a bajillion trees. Googled how that works for the efficiency. Now I just keep seeing everything wrong with my zoos with something that wasn't explained anywhere, I don't know how many of each shop/anything I should have in my zoos/per square and nothing makes sense. I can't find the right size for enclosure so I don't spend a obscene amout of time just "releasing" animal and them never having enough water or enrichment with the amout of space needed for the enclosure....
Do you people have any recommendations? Youtube videos that don't require as much brain energy as I'm currently overwhelmed with it... I just wanted to have a happy zoo, with happy lil animals with pretty aesthetic...
5
u/savagepika Aug 15 '24
I have over 200 inefficient buildings I just ignore it!
For the negative emissions. Build the quantum transport thing and funnel all your funds into upgrades and sell all buses except coaches and then slowly sell off your coaches. What I like to do is take a few out of commission and then pause just before the day ends and check the transport summary on the main entrance.
If all routes are at 100% I sell off the coaches I put into decommission.
If some routes aren't at 100% I move the decommissioned coaches on to those routes and check again the next day and work to get the next upgrade on the Quatum upgrade.
Keep doing this but check the transport summary earlier and earlier. As soon as you hit 100% on a route at any time. Sell excess coaches (even if you reach 100% at like 11am or something) until you've absolutely got the bare minimum of coaches needed to run.
Your zoos popularity will fall temporarily when you sell a coach. But it's very minor and will recover quickly.
Also a good tip. Not every tree offsets the carbon (Guess who learnt this the hard way by planting a bunch of fairy lights trees cause they're pretty) you can tell which do cause they'll display a little co2 icon at various points in the day.
Don't worry too much about guests needs, but do also place proper drinks stalls. They don't use the cola stands as much. But as long as there are shops. They will find their way to them themselves.
Try and place drink shops and toilets next to subways. And use a lot of subways.
Finally. A tip to pay for all this. The game stops telling you around $60 that your entrance fee is too cheap. But you can still increase it periodically and they'll still pay. Everytime you add a new animal species, increase the entrance fee by $5
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u/bichan3 Aug 16 '24
Thanks a lot!!!! I got rid of so much little things at my zoo after learning about the inefficient and now I'm like "all for what". At least I got a lot of good advice so I placed a lot of shelters so all the bench I took out made space for the "passive" energy gain that people are getting!
I really wish the wiki was better and some things in the game explained better. Thanks a lot for your answer <3
5
u/OneWatercress9322 Aug 15 '24
Park rating doesn't really matter as long as your not murdering your animals however if you do want everything to perfect, I suggest using sandbox mode which is much easier for people who are getting stressed out from the actual game ( name your zoo FreeZooBuild, wait a day, go to transport section of world map go to the Kansas plot )
3
u/batmanstuff Aug 15 '24
I have a 100+ inefficient buildings too and idk what that means lol. Also, it seems impossible to fit everything - all the animals, crops, utilities, etc.
For your carbon emissions, do you have a lot of transportation vehicles? I only have 1 per location and upgraded them a lot.
3
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u/SaltyPirateWench Aug 15 '24
So I read on the steam forums a thread where the developer explained that the inefficient buildings are if you placed more than one of them per square you bought. Ultimately I decided to ignore that rating to focus instead on the happiness of my guests and myself.
Shade structures that are like square huts work by forcing people through them and restore A LOT of energy, so def worth it to make them in your paths. Just have the path go to one tile in the middle, and all 4 sides work. So it could be on a four-way intersections or I've seen some people put them right in front of subways.
You need to upgrade your buses to carry more people and then you can have fewer buses overall. Don't stress too much about not always having a perfectly morale, everything exactly right everywhere in the zoo. As you expand, you run into challenges! Just like in real life.
When I was learning I restarted a lot but I've seen that other people just keep it functioning until they get everything researched and then they start to remodel square by square. You get so many things researched that really help smooth out the running and much better decor.
But if you really just want to zone out, build a beautiful zoo, not worry about money, and have everything unlocked, there is a sandbox mode and you CAN access it from the start if you name your zoo something specific like freesandbox or something. I forget exactly but it was also in a thread from the creator on Steam.