Seeking Advice

[jkreig]

It has been a few years since I have played Zoo Tycoon 1. Years ago I had gone through and completed all of the scenarios without much concern for the UCIs. The last time I played, I was using a lot of UCIs and gain a great amount of appreciation for them. Fast forward to a few days ago and now I have a ton of unorganized UCIs and my scenario progress has been erased. So, I am basically starting over from scratch.

So is it best to do the scenarios without the UCIs again? Or, is it better to organize the UCIs and use them in the scenarios? Either way, what is the best way to organize the UCIs? At this point, I am tempted to delete all the UCIs in the folder and redownload everything. Yet, I am afraid of doing this because Zoo Admin has disappeared and I don't want to lose the UCIs that I downloaded from that site.

I know there is probably no right answer to my questions and that is okay. Another thing I know for sure is that the members here have always been very helpful and some even have years of experience with this game.

Any and all advice is welcomed and will be greatly appreciated.

[(Designer)Z.Z.]

Its probably best to do the scenarios without ucis, especially animals, as some may have conflict issues that can crash your game, Im not sure how that would affect your scenario progress, but I wouldnt chance it myself.

 

As for uci organization, I have mine organized according to menu, there is a paths folder, fence folder, foliage folder, rock folder, buildings folder, scenery folder, animal folder and shelters folder.

 

Each folder can be further organized as well, for instance the Scenery folder can contain a Fountains folder, Statue Folder, Arches folder, Scenic Buildings folder, etc., and the Foliage folder can contain a Trees Folder, Plants folder, Flowers folder and so on, and the animals folder can have folders for each biome, Desert, Savannah, Grassland, etc.

 

You can also have a Holiday folder which could contain a Thanksgiving folder, Halloween folder, Christmas folder, etc., and a Seasons folder, for Spring, Summer Fall and Winter, so if youre doing a winter zoo, you have all your winter ucis in one place.

 

I also have an Essentials folder, it contains the items I simply cant live without, Sundances Cool Colors Flowerbeds, Brandis Flowers, the Invisible Fence, Genkis Grasses, stuff like that.

 

Another important thing I do is rename the ucis with a word and a number in front of the original name, Path1 means its a path and I love it, Statue3 means its a statue and its nice but not required, and so on.

That way when they are in my dlupdates folder I can easily find what Im looking for.

There are some ucis whose original names are not adequately descriptive, so I will add another word or two to help me remember what it is.

You always want to keep the original name on too though, that way you will know who made it and how to find it again if you need to redownload it.

 

You definitely do NOT want to toss all your ucis and start over.

I lost all my ucis when my computer died its grisly death, and there were some that I cant get back, so its much better to organize what you have first, then go through the new stuff here at Tek and Download Directory and get the new stuff you want to have.

 

I hope all this helps :D

 

Oh, I forgot some other information.

The dlupdates folder is the only one you should do anything with, it can hold a maximum of 300 ucis before it gets over loaded, and each menu can hold 3000 items, so its a good idea to keep track of how many items are in each combined uci if you plan on using a lot of them.

 

Other helpful game play information, restaurants satisfy guests hunger, thirst and bathroom needs without requiring trashcans and maintenance crew to clean up after them, so they may actually be cheaper than food and drink stands, and the Cherry Tree, Japanese Maple Tree, Pacific Dogwood Tree, and the Wild Olive Tree boost guest happiness a lot. I put one behind every bench ;)

[(Designer)Z.Z.]

On my desktop is the Zoo Tycoon shortcut icon which I double click to play the game, next to it is a shortcut icon for the Zoo Tycoon folder so I dont have to search for it every time I need to access it, and next to that is a folder named My ZT.

 

That contains several folders:

My ZT Documents which contains my spreadsheets, suitability lists, etc.

UCIs, which contains the folders described in the previous post.

My Zoos, which contains folders for the individual zoos Ive made, these folders contain the zoo map, screenshots and the ucis I used, this makes it possible to share the zoo and to reload it if I want to.

Contest Zoos, which contain the map, screens, ucis, information text document, and banner.

My ZT Creations, which contains the items that I make for ZT.

 

Thats how I organize it all, because if I dont I just go NUTS! ;D

[jkreig]

Z.Z.

THANK YOU for taking the time to write a greatly detailed and informative response to my question. I truly do appreciate it. Now that I am feeling greatly recharged and less frustrated due to the EXTREMELY WONDERFUL advice you gave me, I am off to organize my ucis like you described.

I am sorry to hear about your computer crashing and that you cannot get some of your downloads back - I know that is very frustrating.

[fountain]

ZZ, Your renaming favorites with a rating number is a terrific idea!

 

I need to tidy up my files.

 

I also have a Designers Folder where I keep many scenery files grouped by each large contributing designer. It is easier to choose files of similar visual styles of UCI together. I also try to have one screenshot of all a designer's scenery items and guest-use items in that same folder. I find it easier to coordinate a section of a zoo with different designers' items from viewing these screenshots.

[(Designer)Z.Z.]

Z.Z.

THANK YOU for taking the time to write a greatly detailed and informative response to my question. I truly do appreciate it. Now that I am feeling greatly recharged and less frustrated due to the EXTREMELY WONDERFUL advice you gave me, I am off to organize my ucis like you described.

I am sorry to hear about your computer crashing and that you cannot get some of your downloads back - I know that is very frustrating.

 

You are very welcome jkreig, I am happy to have energized you! :D

Yes, if I had been smart I would have saved them all on a cd, once you get all yours organized you may want to consider doing that. ;)

 

 

ZZ, Your renaming favorites with a rating number is a terrific idea!

 

I need to tidy up my files.

 

I also have a Designers Folder where I keep many scenery files grouped by each large contributing designer. It is easier to choose files of similar visual styles of UCI together. I also try to have one screenshot of all a designer's scenery items and guest-use items in that same folder. I find it easier to coordinate a section of a zoo with different designers' items from viewing these screenshots.

 

Thanks Fountain :)

I had to, it was just too frustrating trying to find a specific file.

"Now what was that statue called?" and "I know that path is in here somewhere."

;D