I’m here to let you in on a little secret about the Planet Zoo guest entrance. If you’re new to Planet Zoo or have been playing for a while, you may be getting frustrated seeing guests say “I suppose the view of the Indian Peafowl is okay from here”, when their faces are literally pressed up against the glass.
The best way of keeping the guests happy is to build a guest gate and let guests into the enclosures to get up close and personal with the animals. Of course, don’t let them in with the lions or other dangerous animals.
Things have progressed Massively since Frontier’s Zoo Tycoon, which let’s face it, while it was fun at times, was a little too basic.
How To Build a Guest Gate
One of the main issues people face with building guest gates is placing their walls too close to the enclosure. It’s worth noting if there’s not enough room between the enclosure and the nearest path, it won’t let you build the gate.
As you can see from the video above, not only do you need to ensure you have enough room, but you also need to make sure you build a path going through the enclosure, as the exit gate needs a path to snap to.
This is one of the biggest issues I have seen people getting stumped with, they build the enclosure, without paths, and the guest gates don’t work properly.
Building a guest gate that looks good takes a little practice, but getting it right can be rewarding and ends up making it much easier to not only get donations but also route guest traffic around the park, making it easier to manage crowded areas.
Just make sure you are building guest gates on animals that won’t eat your guests, there are a few animals that are safe around your guests, other animals, such as lions, not so much.
Why Use Guest Gates in Planet Zoo?
Guest gates have a couple of uses, the main focus is on letting your guests get close to the animals, but they can also be useful for bringing in more donations, housing exhibits inside of enclosures, and even as I mentioned above, offering more routes around your park.
One of the hardest parts of Planet Zoo is keeping your guests happy, but one of the most common guest complaints is not being able to see the animals well enough. Having a guest gate completely removes any issues with animal visibility. Well, in most cases it does, some shy animals might need more hiding spaces, which still makes them hard to see, even with a guest gate.
“It’s amazing to be in the same habitat as these Indian Peafowl”, is just one example of the praise you can expect to see once you have built your walk-through enclosures.
When you’ve built your guest gates, and have your enclosure complete, don’t forget to add some bins, and maybe even some benches, with a donation box next to them. Guests will happily sit down and enjoy the view, and make donations, but they will also throw litter in the enclosure, which is going to make other guests unhappy.
Don’t forget, the whole point of building the walk-through enclosure is to keep guests happy, but also don’t forget about the effect this might have on your animals, it’s all about balance.
Not only can you build guest gates through an enclosure, but you can place multiple enclosures attached to each other, with multiple guest gates connecting them. This can not only help visibility with multiple animals in your zoo, but can also be a great way to save space and make themed areas more connected.
Increasing Visibility
While making a guest gate might help with visibility, animals tend to hide, even virtual ones. So make sure to have some other spots in your enclosure to ensure maximum visibility.
One way to do this is by reducing the size of your walls, of course, you need to make sure the walls are high enough so the creatures can’t escape, but for small animals, having smaller walls gives guests passing by a good view, and another reason to donate.
Another trick to consider, especially for bigger animals, is two-way glass, this will not only give your guests a better view of your animals, but it will also help to keep your animal’s stress levels down. Building a den, or shelter for your animals and having a two-way glass wall for your guests is a great way to keep everyone happy.
