John's ZT1 Projects

[johnztmaster]

On 10/22/2022 at 4:07 AM, VNDragonV2 said:

Nice job dude. The green sawfish oddly reminds me of the Onchopristis I made for ZT2 haha.

Good to see you! That's neat.

 

The sawfish and Sand tiger may be complete besides polish, but I keep conflicting between making some habitat modification or leaving them compatible with the ingame sharks. Open to opinions/advice here.

 

I am focused on trying to fine-tune the primates, particularly the gibbon. This is a much more complex animal than I anticipated, but I am absolutely dedicated to making it perfect. I am still figuring out how to get the sexual dimorphism just right, although I made a big leap of progress tonight on that front, and I am also, with advice from jbl, trying to make them compatible with either the ingame orangutan toys or a similar swing toy.

 

Here is another primate complex I have made in my attempts to test with toys:

 

Thanks again to all of you for the advice and support! It is much appreciated.

[johnztmaster]

With much thanks to Jay, the gibbon can now use the rope swing! It will still need some tuning but most of the issues are done. I also have a new easier process for recoloring. :)

 

I hope to finish my small ape pack very soon.

 

[VNDragonV2]

On 12/17/2022 at 2:43 AM, johnztmaster said:

Good to see you! That's neat.

 

The sawfish and Sand tiger may be complete besides polish, but I keep conflicting between making some habitat modification or leaving them compatible with the ingame sharks. Open to opinions/advice here.

I was lucky to see both species cohabiting in the giant Toronto aquarium, so I'm 100% in favour of them being compatible with more species.

[johnztmaster]

Here are the current files for the Sumatran orangutan, White-cheeked gibbon, Red wolf, West African leopard, Sand tige shark, and Green sawfish. I have had most of these animals breed at least once ingame now with success.

 

The main things left to do are icons, plaques and text files. I have not done icons/plaques in ZT Studio before. I am also slightly unsure if the sand tiger and sawfish ucas are 'final'.

 

Looking for feedback.

jv_gsawfish.ZTD jv_stigersh.ZTD jv_waleopardremakex.ZTD jv_gibbontest4.ztd jv_redwolf.ztd jv_sumatran.ztd

[johnztmaster]

Real life has been busy so not much progress on the above works -- my designs always skid a little on the last hump before release, because I keep wanting to run more tests! ...and as I smooth the process of making and recoloring animals, I get more ambitious.

 

A quick project from the other day here... a Giraffe Pack!

 

In the AZA, there were at one point three giraffe programs: Reticulated giraffe, Baringo giraffe, and Masai giraffe. It was later found the Reticulated and Baringo giraffes had been hybridized and so they form the majority of giraffe in zoos here. The Masai giraffe has a separate program but does not breed as well; it is also included in Zoo Tycoon 2. I still wanted all three species represented ingame, so I made Baringo and Masai as new species. As far as I know, no designer has ever made a Masai giraffe before for this game.

 

After talking with a zt2 designer, Jorge Gabriel, I also made West African, Thorncroft's and Angolan giraffes.

 

Right now, all five giraffe types use the same stats. I intend to tweak them but I do need to research a little the best way to do so. I am open to ideas or suggestions.

[(Admin)Cricket]

Those giraffes look awesome!! 

[(Admin)Cricket]

On 1/18/2023 at 4:48 AM, johnztmaster said:

Sumatran orangutan, White-cheeked gibbon, Red wolf, West African leopard, Sand tige shark, and Green sawfish.

I hope to be able to test these this week.

[Goosifer]

They look great! What was your process to creating them? I always love to hear from designers what their workflow looks like. (because I want to learn :P)

 

Sorry, no suggestions from me. I wish I knew more about giraffes to help. :(

[johnztmaster]

On 6/12/2023 at 6:32 AM, Goosifer said:

They look great! What was your process to creating them? I always love to hear from designers what their workflow looks like. (because I want to learn :P)

 

Sorry, no suggestions from me. I wish I knew more about giraffes to help. :(

 

For a long time I hadn't figured out a reliable process but last year I finally perfected a good workflow after years of trying to figure out how to get around APE.

 

I have copies of all of the zt1 animals' files in a large folder as a library, including their ai and pal files. I can make a new animals folder and copy that information. I then rename the ai file to a new codename .uca using the same number of letters as the old animal (ie bgiraff) and sometimes make a few quick, easy edits, such as the location or cost. I also make sure the pal file and folders are renamed.

 

I use Jordan's Animal-Making Uber Tutorial as my first point of reference for any complex editing, although I also sometimes use the ais and ucas for other animals for reference, especially for habitat stats if I want compatibility.

 

If I am doing a recolor, I often swap the pal right away with an existing zt1 animal. I can tweak it later if this isn't satisfactory, but it makes for a good starting place. Some of the giraffes use .pals from the camel and wild horse, for example.

 

Once that initial uca coding is done, I use GrepWin to recode all of the internal files to point to the new .pal file. I check 'treat files as binary' so that when it edits the files that usually require hex editing nothing is messed up. This automates most of the coding process - it's a great program I highly recommend. I had no idea how much went into coding the .pal files beforehand since so many guides simply refer to APE.

 

I usually run my first tests at this stage, and later on use ZT Studio to tweak the .pal file if necessary and to try to replace the icons and plaques, although I am still getting the swing of that. I've always been pretty anal about icons especially. Once all graphics are done, I work directly out of the ztd file instead of a folder.

 

 

On 6/12/2023 at 5:22 AM, Cricket said:

I hope to be able to test these this week.

 

Thank you so much in advance! :)

[Goosifer]

15 hours ago, johnztmaster said:

Once that initial uca coding is done, I use GrepWin to recode all of the internal files to point to the new .pal file. I check 'treat files as binary' so that when it edits the files that usually require hex editing nothing is messed up. This automates most of the coding process - it's a great program I highly recommend. I had no idea how much went into coding the .pal files beforehand since so many guides simply refer to APE.

Grep! One of us 😤✊

 

Thanks for sharing! I'm working on an animal but I haven't really put any thought into what it takes to configure one. Sounds like hard work. I'll be referring back to this when I get done with the art.