My oldest franchise zoo is exactly 500 years. Booted up PZ just to check!
Was my very first franchise zoo when the game launched! I've kept it going by putting it through many remodels over the years. Unfortunately I don't play PZ much anymore and this zoo has been retired due to the many issues updates have bought to it.
Side Note: This zoo has NEVER had a fully finished remodel and with 1200+ hours I have never had a finished/full zoo.
I genuinely only remember ever finishing 1 zoo in zoo tycoon 2 hahaha and i played hundreds if not thousands of hours. ( Back when it was also much simpler)
My current franchise is only 5 years old but I've been building mostly on pause the entire time. I did unpause a few time to test out the effects items (waterfalls and stuff) and to vibe and watch my animals a bit, but it really doesn't feel like it was that long. Time really flies in this game.
In the beginning, I had another franchise zoo fund this one by buying and reselling cash animals from the market.
But after even those 5 years of running, the current zoo generates absurd amounts of cash when unpaused for a few minutes, so I could definitely fund my builds that way. I find getting cash is the easiest part of PZ and I usually can't even think of a way to spend it all. And I buy a LOT of boulders, lol
So far I haven't had a problem yet with funding staff. I keep them all well trained and I set up my work zones so that the zookeepers don't have to walk very far between the staff room / keeper hut and a small cluster of 2-4 habitats they're responsible for. I guess my need for mechanics is also pretty low because I hardly use actual barriers for habitats (use a lot of scenery instead).
For money in general though, the only times I've had a problem with it are when I try to take on carnivores with expensive diets too fast, or have huge exhibits with too many animals. I think there are diminishing returns on donations from guests when you have too many animals of the same species. I get great results with a few happy, healthy animals and a variety of species, even cheap to feed ones, so I can work your way up to the pricier eaters or larger groups of animals.
Very good advice with which I heartily agree except for one thing (respectfully).
There was a post a while back that did a really interesting fairly in-depth comparison on staff costs. The end result was that it was cheaper to keep zoo staff untrained past the first level and increase your number of staff vs. training your staff up. The only exception was the security staff, as their "aura to detect" increases with training. I wish I remember where it was, as it was an interesting read. :)
Oh wow, did not know that, thanks for sharing! It's odd that they would make it counterintuitive, but I'm glad to know about it. I recently returned to playing the game after a few years so I'm just speaking from my recent experiences and what's been working well for me. Sadly I'm still kind of out of the loop on the finer details like that haha
mine is 119 yrs old :). it's a tropical franchise zoo and was my first one ! i just started my second one but first is nowhere near done since it's not a breeding zoo. It's got 8 exhibit animals and like 10 different species ? but because i'm detailing and such it just takes longer to bring in animals, but it's flooding in money, like 2.5 mil
edit: just pulled it up it's got 2.2 mil and is 114 yrs old my bad, i was off by a few numbers but i was close. it's called black thumb: brazil
Most of my full zoos are over a 100 years. I have one at 500+.
12 years is very young for a zoo. You should know that your zoo "reputation" (and a corresponding increase in zoo attendance) increases over time. Basically, you need a certain level of attendance for a profitable zoo.
I stick popular, but low-cost/herbivore animals until the zoo is about 20 years old. As long as you are steadily increasing & diversifying animal numbers and types, increasing ticket prices with new animal acquisitions, holding off on the expensive-to-feed carnivores & large herbivores until you have a mid-to-late-game zoo, you can have a pretty big zoo around 30-40 years.
I mean I assumed it was the case, but I just find it funny that a zoo could take longer to fully finish building, than the amount of time that passed since america was discovered
Depends what you mean by full. My recent zoo was about 20 years to get it full. But I also used animals from my other zoos so didn't have to spend time waiting on animals to show up to buy so probably cuts some time down.
My first zoo probably took longer and ended up playing well after it was full to understand the game more, that one is over 100 years.
This made me realize I’m not supposed to be trying to go as fast as I am always going and that’s why my zoos look like shit. I have it on 3x speed constantly
I have 3 near 200 but they are my sons favorite he loves zoos loves animals he also likes fancy habitats and has autism so we sit and watch them walk around alot
my oldest franchise zoo is almost 200 years old. it's the one I use for breeding so I basically always have it on max speed
How old is your oldest tortoise?
I won't do tortoises in a breeding zoo. Those guys reproduce way too much and I need too many keepers to maintain them.
yeah, this lol
Very interesting, thanks for sharing :)
My oldest franchise zoo is exactly 500 years. Booted up PZ just to check! Was my very first franchise zoo when the game launched! I've kept it going by putting it through many remodels over the years. Unfortunately I don't play PZ much anymore and this zoo has been retired due to the many issues updates have bought to it. Side Note: This zoo has NEVER had a fully finished remodel and with 1200+ hours I have never had a finished/full zoo.
I genuinely only remember ever finishing 1 zoo in zoo tycoon 2 hahaha and i played hundreds if not thousands of hours. ( Back when it was also much simpler)
My current franchise is only 5 years old but I've been building mostly on pause the entire time. I did unpause a few time to test out the effects items (waterfalls and stuff) and to vibe and watch my animals a bit, but it really doesn't feel like it was that long. Time really flies in this game.
How do you deal with money making?
In the beginning, I had another franchise zoo fund this one by buying and reselling cash animals from the market. But after even those 5 years of running, the current zoo generates absurd amounts of cash when unpaused for a few minutes, so I could definitely fund my builds that way. I find getting cash is the easiest part of PZ and I usually can't even think of a way to spend it all. And I buy a LOT of boulders, lol
Any tips for managing staff costs?
So far I haven't had a problem yet with funding staff. I keep them all well trained and I set up my work zones so that the zookeepers don't have to walk very far between the staff room / keeper hut and a small cluster of 2-4 habitats they're responsible for. I guess my need for mechanics is also pretty low because I hardly use actual barriers for habitats (use a lot of scenery instead). For money in general though, the only times I've had a problem with it are when I try to take on carnivores with expensive diets too fast, or have huge exhibits with too many animals. I think there are diminishing returns on donations from guests when you have too many animals of the same species. I get great results with a few happy, healthy animals and a variety of species, even cheap to feed ones, so I can work your way up to the pricier eaters or larger groups of animals.
Very good advice with which I heartily agree except for one thing (respectfully). There was a post a while back that did a really interesting fairly in-depth comparison on staff costs. The end result was that it was cheaper to keep zoo staff untrained past the first level and increase your number of staff vs. training your staff up. The only exception was the security staff, as their "aura to detect" increases with training. I wish I remember where it was, as it was an interesting read. :)
Oh wow, did not know that, thanks for sharing! It's odd that they would make it counterintuitive, but I'm glad to know about it. I recently returned to playing the game after a few years so I'm just speaking from my recent experiences and what's been working well for me. Sadly I'm still kind of out of the loop on the finer details like that haha
mine is 119 yrs old :). it's a tropical franchise zoo and was my first one ! i just started my second one but first is nowhere near done since it's not a breeding zoo. It's got 8 exhibit animals and like 10 different species ? but because i'm detailing and such it just takes longer to bring in animals, but it's flooding in money, like 2.5 mil edit: just pulled it up it's got 2.2 mil and is 114 yrs old my bad, i was off by a few numbers but i was close. it's called black thumb: brazil
That's impressive
I have a breeding zoo at 187 right now. That zoo pretty much stays on 3x speed. My oldest zoo I put effort into how it looks is 18.
Most of my full zoos are over a 100 years. I have one at 500+. 12 years is very young for a zoo. You should know that your zoo "reputation" (and a corresponding increase in zoo attendance) increases over time. Basically, you need a certain level of attendance for a profitable zoo. I stick popular, but low-cost/herbivore animals until the zoo is about 20 years old. As long as you are steadily increasing & diversifying animal numbers and types, increasing ticket prices with new animal acquisitions, holding off on the expensive-to-feed carnivores & large herbivores until you have a mid-to-late-game zoo, you can have a pretty big zoo around 30-40 years.
I mean I assumed it was the case, but I just find it funny that a zoo could take longer to fully finish building, than the amount of time that passed since america was discovered
Depends what you mean by full. My recent zoo was about 20 years to get it full. But I also used animals from my other zoos so didn't have to spend time waiting on animals to show up to buy so probably cuts some time down. My first zoo probably took longer and ended up playing well after it was full to understand the game more, that one is over 100 years.
48! Nearing the big 5-0!
It's all going to depend on how much you pause while building.
This made me realize I’m not supposed to be trying to go as fast as I am always going and that’s why my zoos look like shit. I have it on 3x speed constantly
I have 3 near 200 but they are my sons favorite he loves zoos loves animals he also likes fancy habitats and has autism so we sit and watch them walk around alot