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Boatmurdered Zoo

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Headshoots Lunar Facility

2 (66.7%)

Hellcannon Gardens

1 (33.3%)

Bay12’s Jurassic Park.

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Total Members Voted: 3

[Enemy post]

The walkers were extremely expensive to buy and house, so not much else happened in this update despite the long time that passed.

Imperial walkers on the north ridge

Spoiler: Zoo map (click to show/hide)

June-early March, Year Two and Three

To start off, we scattered a pair of new restrooms and four new benches around the zoo. Hopefully that'll relieve some guest needs. After that, I mostly focused on earning the money we'll need for the walker enclosures and resolving our guest issues. Per Glass's old suggestion, I'll make the gaps between our sections into the walker enclosures. There's three usable gaps and three different models of walker, so that worked out nicely.

I'm really noticing dramatic improvements in the zoo every time I turn off the jellyfish show. Leaving it off now virtually erased our angry guest problem. If there are no objections, I'd like to finally get rid of it. It's seriously handicapping everything else we do. I'll keep the jellyfish themselves, but we'd be a lot better off without the show.

I didn't want to set us back too much by spending the $12,000 it would take to set up a breeding unicorn population, so we've temporarily repurposed their enclosure for a pair of cheap moose.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, I just wanted to mention a brief glitch I saw that resulted in a porpoise floating above its pool.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since we had AT-STs already in the Boatmurdered Zoo, and the gray stone of the Moon can be reused to simulate Hoth's rocks, we'll start with the AT-ATs. To begin, we reinforced the walls around one of the gaps. Thankfully we got it for about 50% off by selling the preexisting walls. We also made about $8,000 by selling off some of our lions and tigers that had become overcrowded by excessive breeding.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Finally, after eight months of construction and gathering donations, we were able to afford a breeding pair of AT-ATs.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I feel like we could really use some regular-sized combined exhibits for normal animals and aquatics after building that. Those and some more guest entertainment buildings would likely do a lot for our ratings, guest happiness, and (most importantly) donation income.

A majestic Imperial walker drinks from a pool.

[King Zultan]

What if we swap the jellyfish with dolphins.

[Naturegirl1999]

What if we swap the jellyfish with dolphins.

What about adding a dolphin exhibit and keeping the jellyfish?

[King Zultan]

I forgot the dolphins were in the last zoo, but yeah we give the jellyfish a new thing and put the dolphins in their old thing.

[mightymushroom]

How certain are you that it's the length of the jellyfish show that's causing problems? I would expect that a dolphin show, with more tricks, takes even more time. But also be more exciting to watch, so comes to a net positive. Mind you I don't know how fast/slow the jellyfish are, so maybe not.

Point is, can the jellyfish maybe be saved resurrected by driving the price even lower? A "good value" thought to replace the "Did you see that?" thought?

I say "resurrected" because if we're low on revenue then other projects are more important.

-----

I feel like we could really use some regular-sized combined exhibits for normal animals and aquatics after building that. Those and some more guest entertainment buildings would likely do a lot for our ratings, guest happiness, and (most importantly) donation income.

We already have plans for a big "safari savannah" similar to what we had set up in Boatmurdered. If that's not ready to go yet, it looks like a rainforest exhibit could support a fair amount of diversity. (Although I'm guessing we need to plant plenty of trees?) Giant anteater, Malayan tapir, and bongo are three inexpensive animal purchases to get us started but I don't know how easily they would work together.

I was going to suggest adding something to the moose exhibit, but there doesn't seem to be much for that biome that isn't a predator or reserved for the prehistoric section.

[Enemy post]

I forgot the dolphins were in the last zoo, but yeah we give the jellyfish a new thing and put the dolphins in their old thing.

Given the much greater depth that jellyfish require compared to dolphins, it might actually be cheaper to build two dolphin-sized exhibits than it would to build another jellyfish tank. Also, an ideal dolphin show will need props that the jellyfish show tank doesn’t have room for. I’ve had the idea of a massive, T-shaped collection of tanks. We can use the middle of the aquatic section to connect a single huge show tank to dolphin, great white shark, and orca tanks. Then we can have a whole bunch of grandstands above the “T” to allow potentially a couple hundred guests to watch the shows. Would there be interest in that?

How certain are you that it's the length of the jellyfish show that's causing problems? I would expect that a dolphin show, with more tricks, takes even more time. But also be more exciting to watch, so comes to a net positive. Mind you I don't know how fast/slow the jellyfish are, so maybe not.

Point is, can the jellyfish maybe be saved resurrected by driving the price even lower? A "good value" thought to replace the "Did you see that?" thought?

I say "resurrected" because if we're low on revenue then other projects are more important.

-----

I feel like we could really use some regular-sized combined exhibits for normal animals and aquatics after building that. Those and some more guest entertainment buildings would likely do a lot for our ratings, guest happiness, and (most importantly) donation income.

We already have plans for a big "safari savannah" similar to what we had set up in Boatmurdered. If that's not ready to go yet, it looks like a rainforest exhibit could support a fair amount of diversity. (Although I'm guessing we need to plant plenty of trees?) Giant anteater, Malayan tapir, and bongo are three inexpensive animal purchases to get us started but I don't know how easily they would work together.

I was going to suggest adding something to the moose exhibit, but there doesn't seem to be much for that biome that isn't a predator or reserved for the prehistoric section.

I can try it, but I don’t think the jellyfish show is really redeemable. It’s an Easter egg, not really something we’re meant to commit this much to. Best case scenario is still worse than just tearing the whole thing down and putting a crustacean house on the footprint.

The rainforest exhibit is a good idea, I’ll start on that later. Serows would probably fit together with the moose if you want to combine those.

*Also, should we return the admission fee to $18 from the current $22? I think we might see some benefits from the "entrance fee is a really good value" thought if we do, and admissions are a relatively minor part of our income.

[duckman]

I'd recommend against a single big show tank with multiple connections, since animals tend to wind up in the wrong exhibit tank at the end of the show.

[Enemy post]

I'd recommend against a single big show tank with multiple connections, since animals tend to wind up in the wrong exhibit tank at the end of the show.

I didn't know that, I guess we won't do it then.

Ups and downs

Spoiler: Zoo Map (click to show/hide)

March-August, Year Three

We don't really have the funds to start on the savanna enclosure, so we'll focus on building the rainforest and dolphin exhibits.

We've got our jellyfish show active again on the lowest possible settings, to give them one more chance to not cripple the zoo.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Notably, their young finally matured enough to perform alongside the original pair.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The guests seem to approve of the new show.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, I experimented with reducing the admission price to $18 and we got universally positive results. Our rating and guest happiness promptly bumped up a few points upon the price reduction, and the higher number of ticket sales meant we actually gained money with the reduced price. We were turning a decent profit at this point, so I hired a new marine specialist and began building the dolphin area.

Unfortunately, the guest problems started up again after letting the jellyfish show run again, resulting in an over 20% drop in guest happiness and nearly as much in ratings. I had a theory though that the problem is that the guests overwhelm the aquatic section's restaurant after the show, resulting in an overflow of hungry people. I built a second restaurant near the shows to test the theory after we recovered.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We quickly ended up about $3,000 dollars in debt when I overextended our spending at the same time that the jellyfish show crippled our donations again. At this point, I realized that the AT-ATs were getting angry and running aggressively around their enclosure. Thankfully, their walls were strong enough to keep them in for the moment as I worked to figure out what was wrong with them. It turned out that the overworked zookeeper assigned to their cage had let their poop accumulate too much and the smell was upsetting them. I ordered the keeper to clean up the poop and tweaked the enclosure a little to make them happier. That seems to have solved the issue. We also had issues with overcrowded tigers and lions, but that was resolved easily enough by selling a few.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The laser-spitting threat display of a stressed AT-AT.

We had a peak of about 80 angry guests before recovering from the jellyfish's trick. We're making enough money now that we were able to complete the dolphin show tank anyway. It's massive, but the extra size was needed to hold all the props so the dolphins could do every trick. The show's "happiness bonus" is +62. In comparison, a fully upgraded animal house might give +15. The jellyfish show provides +2.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The dolphin show went well. I'm thinking we could probably stand to raise the price, given that it's currently selling out the stands. Aside from the one stand with a bad view. That one was sold shortly after the first show. I experimented with $10 tickets and we're still selling out.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

After that, we built the rainforest exhibit Mightymushroom suggested. It was a bit difficult to get the three different species from as many different continents to live together, but I was able to get them to tolerate each other's company through using two different foliage bugs. We now have bongos, anteaters, and Malaysian tapirs. We hired a new zookeeper to manage the enclosure, and reworked the staff assignments in that chamber for greater efficiency.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Finally, we've achieved the silver trophy for Best Zoo for briefly hitting a rating of 90.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Our grizzly bear roars happily in its enclosure.

Zoo Rating:89/95 needed for Best Zoo.

[Kilojoule Proton]

Maybe, and this could just be me, but maybe it's a bad idea to force guests to watch jellyfishes drifting up and down?

As for actual suggestions, maybe something prehistoric to go with the rainforest exhibit?

[CABL]

Y'know that everything's better with some PINGUINI!? How about we add a PINGUINI exhibit somewhere?

[King Zultan]

Y'know that everything's better with some PINGUINI!? How about we add a PINGUINI exhibit somewhere?

Ah yes The Penguin my favorite Batman villain, letting him build a base of operations in the zoo should allow us to get even more money, and as an added bonus we can get an occasional visit from Batman.


Also dinosaurs sound like the thing to start adding.

[mightymushroom]

I give up, I don't think we can save the jellyfish show. _{And I thought it was really cute, too.}

[duckman]

Y'know that everything's better with some PINGUINI!? How about we add a PINGUINI exhibit somewhere?

With Marine Mania, we can sub out the water with a tank so we can actually watch them swim too. Might need to set up a reverse-side fence or pit for some animals though. Found out that any animal that needed a tall fence could get out of a ground level tank when I was 11.

[Enemy post]

Why not elevate the penguins’ land section and include ramps to view them there? That way, guests can watch them swimming around above them from the main path.

[Enemy post]

Life finds a way

Spoiler: Zoo Map (click to show/hide)

August-December, Year Three

Before we begin on the penguins and opening the dinosaur chamber, I'd like to do some experiments on the dolphin show. I feel like there's quite a bit of money left there that we haven't tapped into yet. I started by drastically increasing the number of seats available.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

While waiting for the show to end so I could adjust the ticket prices to the maximum of $12 and remove a couple weaker tricks that made the show a bit too long, I finally dismantled the jellyfish show. Sorry to their fans, but it finally had to go. If anyone wants a new marine animal, we've got an underworked marine specialist and a good spot for a tank.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

During the next show, we finally won the Highest Customer Satisfaction award. This gave us a $25,000 prize, perfect for funding our new chamber.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The new grandstands didn't manage to sell out, but we more than doubled the profit from the show with the changes. I'll tweak it a bit more, but we're now making abut $1600 a show.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Before breaking ground on the dinosaur chamber, we built the penguin exhibit that CABL, King Zultan, and Duckman requested.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Since there were no specific dinosaur requests, I went with personal preference and chose an Allosaurus. I also went with cobblestone paths, a rainforest restaurant, a dinosaur gift shop, and a central large volcano. I can show you all that later, since we have to discuss something else at the moment.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Houston, we have a two-ton problem.

Immediately upon hatching, our baby Allosaurus decided he didn't like his enclosure. What's worse, he also near-instantly discovered that the cage walls weren't actually strong enough to contain him. The Allosaurus broke free.

We had to move some plans around to afford it, but we immediately brought in a DRT chopper to contain the problem.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Thankfully, nobody was nearby at the time, the helicopter was close by, and the Allosaurus chose to break free on the side of the cage facing away from the expensive constructions. The breakout was handled with no serious property damage or injuries.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Once the dinosaur was safely tranquilized, his keeper loaded him into a crate to await the reconstruction of his pen.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We did take a serious financial hit from the incident, however. Donation income dropped for that month, we had to pay $2,000 for the helicopter, and we effectively had to build the exhibit twice. Our rating also plummeted for the moment, but we easily recovered without any ongoing crises. I sold all the rocks in our inner gaps where the AT-TE and AT-ST exhibits are eventually planned to go to compensate for the losses. We would have had to get rid of most of them eventually anyway when we move the walkers in.

With the money from the sold Moon rocks and the dolphin show, we rebuilt the fence with stronger electrified chain link. Iron bars would be stronger, but more expensive. We could upgrade later, but the Allosaurus is happy for now. The picket layer is there to protect tourists from touching the electric fence.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Prehistoric Chamber, open for business.

Zoo rating:91/95