Sunday, October 21, 2007

Bottlenose dolphins

One animal you absolutely must have in your zoo is the bottlenose dolphin. The guests always love it, and if they do tricks, they will pay you to see them! As long as the dolphins are happy, the guests will be happy. Here's some things to remember when building exhibits and show tanks for dolphins:


  • Dolphins like kelp, and they won't be happy without it. Always include lots of kelp in their tank.
  • Make sure you have at least four dolphins in the same tank. They like to be in pods.
  • Include a show tank next to the dolphin exhibit. The guests will go crazy for it.

In one sentence: Always include bottlenose dolphins in your zoo, and follow the instructions above for keeping them (and your guests) happy.

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Restaurants


Guests seem to always be hungry, thirsty, tired, or (whatever the adjective for "needing to go to the restroom" is), but you can never seem to take of them all at once. The solution is to build a restaurant. It serves food, serves drinks, provides seating, and has restrooms, all of which guests need. Although restaurants might not be available when you start the game, they will eventually, and once they're available, use them. Do not buy any snack stands, drink stands, food stands, or restrooms, once you have a restaurant. Also, putting a restaurant near the entrance of the zoo will give you hundreds of dollars a month, and putting two near the entrance will make you rich in ZT dollars! In Zoo Tycoon Complete Collection, there are four different restaurants to choose from: Restaurant, Lobby's Restaurant, Prairie Dog Cafe, and the Rainforest Restaurant. Which is the best restaurant to choose? Well, let's see.


  • The Restaurant is just right. They serve soda, hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza.

  • The Lobby's Restaurant's food is the most expensive, but the guests love it. They serve soda, submarine sandwiches, fish and chips(es?), and hot dogs.

  • The Prairie Dog Cafe is cheap, and it is the least appealing to the adults (probably because of the goofy-looking prairie dog on top lol), but guests still will visit it. They serve soda, hamburgers, nachos, and hot dogs.

  • The Rainforest Restaurant is the least expensive of all, and it "sure does look cool!" They serve soda, hamburgers, hot dogs, and pizza.

All restaurants come with seating and restrooms, which is an extra bonus. The best restaurant to get is the Rainforest Restaurant, and it will give you about $50,000 a year, if you have plenty of happy guests.


In one sentence: Use restaurants in place of food and drink stands, and the Rainforest Restaurant sure does look cool!

Giant Pandas


Pandas are quite difficult to take care of. Here are some tips for keeping them happy.


  • Pandas are very shy, but they are also very popular. Make their exhibit out of rock wall, and include up to five rock wall window fence units next to paths. That way, the pandas can feel comfortable, but the guests get to see them.

  • Always include two pandas: a male and a female.

  • Use the Chicago method.

  • Use the panda rock cave, because it is their favorite shelter.

  • Include one or two squares of snow in their exhibit. It may seem useless, but they like it a little if there's a little bit.

  • Pandas love the highland rock formation.

  • They also like bamboo.

  • If you have money to waste, don't waste it just yet. Hire a special zookeeper and assign it to only the panda exhibit. (I like to name him "Da Panda Man" lol)

In one sentence: Follow the instructions above for happy pandas.

Wide paths


Sometimes, in Zoo Tycoon, guests form crowds. All those crowds can make them unhappy, and can even slow down your computer. The cause of this is most likely that the paths they are walking on are too narrow. In your zoo, make sure that the paths are two spaces wide. That way, there will not be so many crowds. However, sometimes you don't need all that path because that part of the zoo isn't as popular. So, here's what to do:

When you start your zoo, make all the paths one space wide, but leave one space on each side of the path, leaving room for wider path. Do this for about six months in the game. By the end of six months, there will most likely be plenty of guests. Notice where the crowds are in your zoo, and in those areas, make the path one or two spaces thicker. That should help the crowds. For low traffic, you can always make the paths one space wide. The biggest crowds are usually by the entrance, endangered animal exhibits, and anywhere where they can hork down food.

In one sentence: If there are crowds in your zoo, make the paths they walk on wider.

Decorations


One way to keep guests happy is to add decorations (scenery) and stuff to your zoo. This is a great way to get them happier, and the guests definitely notice them, but sometimes the scenery becomes cluttered. Here are some decorations that guests love:


  • Fountains

  • Statues

  • Torches

  • Geysers

The guests always like decorations, but don't put too many in. Guests like to see happy animals more than they like to see decorations.


In one sentence: To make guests happier try using happy animals instead of lots of scenery.

Chicago Method


Having trouble with the bighorns' cliffs and hills? Here is an easy way to fix this. Build them skyscrapers. It's really easy. Just take the cliff-making tool, and lower it to one square. Then take a piece of land in the exhibit, and make a skyscraper with the cliff tool. The Chicago method works great with bighorns, pandas, and yetis. One thing to remember: Don't put any food or animals on top of the skyscraper, because the animals can't get up it or down it.
In one sentence: Building skyscrapers for cliff-loving animals with the cliff tool works great and makes them very happy.

"Taking care" of angry guests

Do you ever have guests that look like this? Everything is taken care of for them, and for some reason, they are still angry? Well, if this happens, that means they are idiots. To "take care" of this, you can either get rid of the guest, or try to make it happier. The easiest way to "take care" of the situation is to get rid of the guest. To do this, you can either kick the guest out of the zoo, or kill it. I always try to kick them out first (I'm not an evil person ;-). To do this, move the guest to the zoo entrance. Most likely, they will leave, but if they are even bigger idiots, they will go back into the zoo, lowering your average guest happiness. If this happens, you can try to make them happier. If you have a large piece of land that is unused, you can move the guest into the middle of nowhere. By the time it gets back to the active part of the zoo, the guest will be much happier. If this still doesn't work, then you can either deal with it, or kill the guest. I always try to avoid killing the guest, so I usually just deal with it. Dealing with it will usually either give the guest time to get out of the zoo, or stay in the zoo and become happier. But if everything fails, you might just have to kill the guest. You can do this two ways; by drowning it or feeding it to a hungry dinosaur. Drowning the guest is much easier than feeding it to a dinosaur, since dinosaurs only eat guests when the dinosaur has escaped, which is not good. To drown a guest, put lots of decorative fencing in one area (the middle of nowhere would be nice), and fill the area inside the fencing with water. Then move the guest into the "pool" you've set up, and it will eventully drown. However, there are some guests who are pure Houdinis, and they can escape from the "pool". But if you have enough fencing, this will not happen.

In one sentence: If a guest is angry for no reason at all, first try escorting it out of the zoo, then try moving him into the middle of nowhere, then try dealing with it, before trying to kill the guest.