Particle's Projects

[(Designer)Particle]

26 minutes ago, HeatherL said:

Peacocks wandering around would be cool.

Yeah that is what my concept is Heather, I was thinking of things like cats, cows, birds, squirrels, things like that.  Zoo tycoon has "ambient" units, but they usually just go across the screen in one direction.  I want critters that wander the whole zoo.  Peacocks is a perfect suggestion for that.  Also if I can pull it off, then I would try to make an actual petting zoo, or something like it.  But there is a lot to figure out still, I only played with it for a couple hours, and that was just to get an idea of what happens when you configure things like scenery as animals, and animals as scenery.  I also created a new unit type, but I didn't really try that part of it out yet.  So, can scenery walk around?  And if not, can I make an animal that doesn't obey the rules of the animal?  Also if none of that works, maybe I can make them guests?  There is a lot to test still.

[(Designer)Particle]

Woven basket with 4 views:

bottom row is default basket from the game,

middle row is colorswap version closest match,

top row is colorswap version random colors.

 

Cherry tree with 4 views:

bottom row is default tree from the game,

middle row is colorswap version closest match,

top row is colorswap version random colors.

 

This tree is configured as a building, but it still works fine in exhibits, animals just think of it as a cherry tree.

 

 

[(Designer)Z.Z.]

Wandering peacocks, I like that idea!

Not sure how it could be done though....

Maybe a 1x4 animated scenery object where the peacock walks around the area?

 

Oh I love the tree!

[(Designer)VeganCannibalism]

The trees look beautiful! :D And ambient critters just cruising about the zoo sounds really fun. It'd also be cool to see more animated trees with ambient critters hanging out in the branches, like crows or vultures sitting in a dead tree, or a squirrel scurrying up and down a trunk.

 

The work you've already shown us has me blown away, so thinking about the possibilities is really exciting! :D

[Hawkkeye666]

I think wandering peacocks could be done. Something like zokeepers, just with different graphics and without anything to do, just walking around zoo by some script.

[(Admin)Cricket]

8 hours ago, Particle said:

Woven basket with 4 views:

bottom row is default basket from the game,

middle row is colorswap version closest match,

top row is colorswap version random colors.

 

Love the color combos for these!  So much more exciting than default.

 

 

8 hours ago, Particle said:

Cherry tree with 4 views:

bottom row is default tree from the game,

middle row is colorswap version closest match,

top row is colorswap version random colors.

 

This tree is configured as a building, but it still works fine in exhibits, animals just think of it as a cherry tree.

 

Dig those purple-ish cherry trees!  And the green one :D 

 

Think of the possibilities when we have a contest that needs specific colors.  We could have black and orange trees for Halloween!

[(Designer)Particle]

 

6 hours ago, Z.Z. said:

Maybe a 1x4 animated scenery object where the peacock walks around the area?

That would work, and I know I can do that, but it isn't really what I'm hoping to do...  I would really rather see the "critter" behave like an animal, BUT not have to be in an exhibit, and also not have to have the zookeeper shoot them and put them in a box.  So far, I actually did get this working as an animal that doesn't freak out and run around when it escapes an exhibit, and I had some success also with the zookeeper not tranquilizing them, and the little moose was wandering around and acting like a normal moose, but the one hang up that I just could not figure out was when you go to put them in the zoo, the message pops up saying they have to be in an exhibit.  So basically like I said, I got pretty close yesterday, but not exactly what I wanted.  In case you're curious how I got that set up... the animal was configured as an animal, but in the global section at the top of the config, where it normally says this:

 

Class = animal

 

I instead set it to:

 

Class = ztunit

 

And that made it so the animal didn't care if it escaped or not.  ztunit is a class that is already in the game, so I don't want to make changes to the ztunit class, but what I did try was making my own class, and that did work, but at that point I realized I needed to figure out what my next step would be.

 

You see in the animal class you have various values like this for example:

 

cCaptivityCheck = 20            
cOtherCheck = 40            
cKeeperCheck = 30
cSocialCheck = 30                
cHungerCheck = 30            
cHealthCheck = 30                
cEnergyCheck = 30
cEscapedCheck = 2
cReproductionCheck = 20            
cHabitatCheck = 20
cBuildingUseCheck = 20
cBoredCheck = 30
cWaterCheck = 40

 

So if I make a custom class, I can have different default values for some of these things... which of course can be overridden in the actual animals ai but if you do it in the class ai then you have some control over your whole class by doing things this way.  So eventually the line will look like this:

 

Class = critter

 

But is there anything that I can do to make it so an animal does NOT need to be placed in an exhibit?   That I don't know.  I'm looking through the code for something that helps me with that.  In the meantime I had the idea to make the crtiters scenery, because scenery can be placed anywhere.  But that means I need to figure out how to have an ambient animation script for scenery, and there is no example of that in the game that I know of (only in animals), so I don't even know if that is possible, but just to play with it, I did set up one version that (as I said) was a moose that didn't walk around, so sort of like an animated moose statue I guess.  That will work as a compromise, but that wasn't my goal, my next step towards my goal would be to try to get the statue to walk around.  So also, like hawkeye suggested, it could be a guest or a staff too, but I haven't tried configuring stuff as a guest or staff yet, and then seeing if you can put them in the scenery menu.  If that actually works, that could lead to a few other fun ideas for sure, so that is something I want to try, but just haven't got to yet.  These kind of experiments take me hours, not because it is hard to do, but because my method is to try EVERYTHING even if I think it won't work, because sometimes I'm just wrong.  So basically I give everything a very thorough poking, and see what happens.

 

So what I learned didn't get me all the way to having critters, but it gave me a better idea of how to go about it.  Sometimes just playing with these things will give you unintended consequences, or happy accidents as I like to call them, which lead to other ideas.... theorizing about what works only gets you so far, sometimes you just need to try it.  On the other hand, I'm now at a point where the experimenting won't get me very far, but theorizing about possible ideas will, and also, looking through the game files for clues of how to pull this off will help.

 

Sorry for the long answer, but some of you might actually be curious about my methods.  Today I'm just going to do some easy flower beds...

 

 

[(Designer)Particle]

2 hours ago, VeganCannibalism said:

It'd also be cool to see more animated trees with ambient critters hanging out in the branches, like crows or vultures sitting in a dead tree, or a squirrel scurrying up and down a trunk.

Yeah animated trees with critters would be amazing!  That is a great idea.  I actually played around with making the cherry tree animated, but I decided in the end, it would be better to just get a version done with colorswapping, and then go from there.  But, as a side note, I know someone who is working on some animated trees right now.  Stay tuned for that!

[(Designer)Particle]

1 hour ago, Cricket said:

Think of the possibilities when we have a contest that needs specific colors.  We could have black and orange trees for Halloween!

 

 

[(Designer)Z.Z.]

I like the idea of making the wandering animals from zookeepers, if thats possible. Maintenance people would be even better, that way the wandering animals can fix fences too ;D
And their fix fence/repair filter/pic up trash scan will send them all over the zoo, just like the maintenance people!

Of course they would have to be located in the personnel tab, but thats no problem.

 

I have made animated scenery items using APE, it doesnt require a script, just the animation frames, so if you were to make a 1x4 wandering peacock scenery item, it would just require how ever many frames you need to move it from one end and back again so it loops.
The only thing I would suggest is placing a small rock or grass in the corners so the area is marked for placement.