Zoo Tycoon Beta?

[Fern]

There is a dolphin ride ingame

39315 Long tooltip placeholder: CURBWDI used this when I released the curbed wood fence which is available at DG and uses the override dll I mentioned earlier.

[jbl89]

Can't believe I overlooked that one, but you're absolutely right.

 

 

tanks.cfg :

 

;initial salinity on creation (INT)
initialSalinity = 100

;initial temperature on creation (INT)
initialTemperature = 0

 

Temperature seems interesting. I can't remember it being used anywhere.
As for salinity, I also don't remember if we actually have that as a setting somewhere (except fresh vs salt)

[Fern]

From Jay:

 

"63060 the Tame Dolphin Ride" is the "the string" for the MM "8060 Swim with Dolphins". Probably the attraction was originally called "Tame Dolphin Ride" and got changed to "Swim with Dolphins", then BF changed the name message and tooltip message but forgot to change the "the string" message.

For the skipped dll file name numbers, I suspect BF intended to use them to make more official downloads, but changed their minds about creating those objects/scenarios, probably because they were too busy working on the various expansions.

Although the Yeti and US Flag use cNameID of 19000 and use ".uca" and ".ucs" file names similar to ones created by APE, they were not created with APE. APE adds garbage to ".uca" and ".ucs" files. APE also sorts the Characteristics sections. It is possible that BF created them to confirm ZT could handle a ".uca" and ".ucs" file. But BF may have originally created them as ".ai" files, then converted them.

ZT does not use the "the string" for animals. So some BF animals have a "the string" and some do not. For user created animals, there is always a "the string", although ZT will not use it. ZT does use the "the string" for buildings and other objects. If the building or object is put in an exhibit and the animal does not like the building or object, then the zookeeper recommendations will say the animal "does not like", followed by the object's "the string". If the building or object uses a ".dll" ID, you will not find the "the string" ID in any configuration, although it is in the ".dll". Instead, ZT automatically adds 55000 to the cNameID for the object, and looks for that number in the ".dll". Similarly, when a building or object uses a ".dll" ID and it is configured properly, you will not see the tooltip ID in any configuration, although it is in the ".dll". Instead, ZT automatically adds 30000 to the cHelpID (which should be the same as
cNameID) for the object, and looks for that number in the ".dll". That is why we have to be careful when selecting new IDs for new objects. We refer to these types of IDs as a "set of 3". We only want to use available "set of 3" IDs where a set of 3 is needed, and we do not want to use any ID from a "set of 3" IDs for something where a set of 3 is not needed, such as for building guest thoughts.

- Jay

[jbl89]

Minor information from the beta of ZT1:

In the guests.ai-file, there are references for education. It seems like that original idea was scrapped very soon in the process. There was also a check for "angry souvenir". Very surprising: there were also references to names of team members Adam and John! :)

[jbl89]

Some more stuff I've noticed: for staff, you can open up a window with their staff description, similar as for animals. It seems from very early on Blue Fang took into account diversity: one of the tour guides is black. For the maintenance workers, it's interesting to note that their staff description also lists 'servicing park trees'.

 

CTRL+D offers a developer menu, although it's unclear to me what one of the tiny crosses at the bottom is. You can easily alter cash, place zoo entrances etc. It's title is.... "Giant Panda".

 

Guests are also easily impressed: "Guests think your zoo is beautiful".

As for plants, a lot of "bushes" were present, but their names have been altered in the final version, also to make them more habitat-specific. As someone else already mentioned, several buildings have multiple entries/exits. This is useful in some situations, but might have caused head aches in others (what if you place a building next to a wall, or right next to an exhibit? Guests might leave the building by... crossing the bars and ending up in a lion exhibit?

 

And animal information was split into a few sections (general, compatible animals, social behavior...).

[Fern]

From Jay:

I knew about the developer menu not having proper messages and icons, and so I created a hack to make it easier to use in the released ZT:
http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=5355.0

- Jay

[spartanranger]

Which objects from Dinosaurs Digs were removed?

BTW: I found this pic 3 years ago in Rapan website, Rapan made the 3D models of animals in Blue Fang Games.

Herrerasarus have a different colour pattern and the sauropod is very similar to the Dino Burger building

[jbl89]

Thanks for sharing, Roland.

 

I didn't realize the animations came from Rapan for the original games.

 

Quotes from Rapan:

 

Blue Fang Games commissioned Rapan to develop the models, textures and animations for 26 animals in Zoo Tycoon. The animals are modeled in 3d, fully articulated and have a full range of motions to support the rich gameplay which Zoo Tycoon offers. You can also see some animation examples from this project in the 3d Animation section of the portfolio.

 

 

Blue Fang Games commissioned Rapan to develop the models, textures and animations for 52 dinosaurs in Zoo Tycoon. The dinosaurs are modeled in 3d, fully articulated and have a full range of motions to support the rich gameplay which Zoo Tycoon offers. You can also see some animation examples from this project in the 3d Animation section of the portfolio.

 

 

Blue Fang Games commissioned Rapan to develop the models, textures and animations for 52 marine animals for Zoo Tycoon: Marine Mania. The animals are modeled in 3d, fully articulated and have a full range of motions to support the rich gameplay which Zoo Tycoon offers. You can also see some animation examples from this project in the 3d Animation section of the portfolio.

 

 

 

 

 

The numbers surprised me. Could they be wrong? Or are there really that much animals? Or were animals scrapped (which ones?)
The animals for the original ZT-series have much more details here than I had expected. Obviously they still need to be scaled and there's the 256 colors-limit in .PAL-files.

[Fern]

There is a full list of released animals in the Index of the suitability guides. i will leave you to count them.

http://www.ztcdd.org/DD/index.php?topic=2537.0

[spartanranger]

Thanks for sharing, Roland.

 

I didn't realize the animations came from Rapan for the original games.

 

Quotes from Rapan:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The numbers surprised me. Could they be wrong? Or are there really that much animals? Or were animals scrapped (which ones?)

The animals for the original ZT-series have much more details here than I had expected. Obviously they still need to be scaled and there's the 256 colors-limit in .PAL-files.

I think the models are referring to some: Dinosaurs are actually 26 but if we multiply using the adult and baby model we have 52. The animals of the first game some are reskins like leopard or bears.