European Dragon (Lindwurm)

[Wildgehege]

hello Zootek fam I've tried to do my first little modification and it has been quite fun but it's also giving me a headache,

 

I have done my best to create a classic European dragon based on Ghirin's Tundra Gold Wing.
I've recolored the sprites and made some minor adjustments regarding to habitat preferences.
So far it works in game however, it feels like I've reached a point where I can't really go any further on my own.
I've used Jordan's tutorial ...

... for dealing with the APE software and changed some stuff in the UCA file. 
I tried to change the offspring to look like Ghirin's African Green Gold Wing instead off looking like a komodo dragon but somehow changing the movement sprites in APA didn't do the job so effectively  my main question here is:
 

• How can I change how the dragon offspring looks?
   

Some other question regarding this project are:

• How can I make the dragon lay eggs and make it's offspring hatch from eggs?
• How can I change the shelter preference to Dino Cave (8128 )?
• How can I change the neccesary fencing for the habitat?

 

Please keep in mind that I'm new to this so if there's already a post answering one of those questions somewhere I might have missed it.
Also the Dragon is very much in a beta state and there's quite some work to be done before it's really ZT ready. For example I haven't written any text or even changed the name  so far. The changes I've made are mostly superficial.

 

Some cool things I'd like to see but are completely incapable of doing on my own regarding this project:

• A moveset / sprite so the dragon doesn't fly around all the time but can also sit and walk on the ground
• Sprites that make it seem like the dragon is spitting fire from time to time
• A custom Dragon Lair Cave as a shelter inspired by Fafnirs Cave from Nibelungenlied
• Possibly a custom tree type ideally having to be researched before one can use it
• Fine polishing the sprites (since there are some minor imperfections) with the adult and the baby version of the dragon

 

Cool creatures that go well with the european fantasy theme that I found on this site are

• European Unicorn by Ghirin
• Mythical Salamander by Ghirin
• Gryphon by Dragonriders
• Phoenix by Jordan
   

Heraldic and mythical beings that I searched for but that seemingly don't exist so far are:

• Cockatrice (basically a deadly snake-chicken with bat wings)
• Enfield (a fox with claws instead of front paws)
• Peryton (a stag-bird hybrid)
• Alphyn (wolf-lion with a knotted tail)
• Basilisk (snake with a deadly stare similiar to the cockatrice)
• Keythong (male wingless gryphon with spikes and horns)
• Musimon (Goat-ram hybrid)
• Manticore (man-scorpion-lion chimera)
• Melusine (two tailed mermaid)
• Hippocampus (water horse)

I might make a seperate inspiration thread about heraldic creatures with some nice illustrations for each one of them at some point.
Here is a good source for reference on this: https://abarothsworld.com/heraldry/mythological beasts.htm

 

Cheers

 

european dragon.ZTD

[Fern]

Which version of APE did you use?

In order to prevent ztd name conflicts you would be best to add either initials or "byWildgehege" to the ztd name. Genki used to use "gc" at the begining. I use "_fn" at the end.

The gryphon was by Dragon not the dragonriders. Someone needs to fix that heading.

[(Admin)Cricket]

2 minutes ago, Fern said:

The gryphon was by Dragon not the dragonriders. Someone needs to fix that heading.

The download was listed properly when it was uploaded :D

[Fern]

25 minutes ago, Cricket said:

The download was listed properly when it was uploaded :D

The file name is still wrong. I just checked: It downloads as Gryphon by Dragon Riders.zip

[(Admin)Cricket]

13 minutes ago, Fern said:

The file name is still wrong. I just checked: It downloads as Gryphon by Dragon Riders.zip

Well, at first you just mentioned the heading so that's what I checked. 

[Fern]

My bad for that but I last looked at it was a while ago and today was just going on memory.

[Fern]

You need to be using the latest version of APE which you can get here. http://www.ztcdd.org/DD/DownloadFiles/ZTABC/APExp3-2.zip

The checker Jay used is a new version about to be released. The current version is available at ZooKeepers Lounge I think.

For animations each set eg: charge should have the same amount of frames per each view. Same for animation speeds should be the same per set.

 

From Jay:
"european dragon.ZTD" is currently using 2 APE IDs: 43d52026 from TundraGoldWingDragonGh_2007.ztd and b9dce125 from AfricanGreenGoldWingedDragonGh_2007.ztd. So the european dragon will currently conflict with those. If there was only 1 APE ID, APExp can be used to change to a new APE ID, followed by changing the ".uca". But I do not know what APExp does when there are 2 APE IDs. I believe once the problem is fixed concerning the young, then only 1 APE ID will be needed. There are multiple reasons that the young komodo is being shown in ZT instead of the young european dragon. The ".uca" has "y = animals/b9dce125/y". But looking at which files have new dates, it looks like that should be "y = animals/43d52026/y". Then the various animals/43d52026/y ".ani" have to be changed. For example, animals/43d52026/y/stand/stand.ani should have "dir1=43d52026" instead of "dir1 = komodo" and "dir2=y" instead of "dir2 = m". But maybe it is better to start over using APExp 3.2 and basing the animal off an egg-laying dinosaur so that the appropriate lines are put in the ".uca". That can also be done by adding the lines to the ".uca" manually, but it is a number of lines. For egg-laying dinosaurs, there are cEatsEggs, cEggIconZoom, cLaysEggs, cEggFootprintX, cEggFootprintY, cEggFootprintZ, cTimeToHatch, cKeeper, egg_break, egg_hatch, egg_idle, and hatch lines, and [BehaviorSet\bCaughtEgg], [BehaviorSet\bEatenEgg], and [y\BehaviorSet\bHatch] sections.

It wasn't stated what type of fencing was desired. Again, using APExp 3.2 and basing the animal off of a similar dinosaur would get the appropriate lines in the ".uca". Doing it manually could involve cBabiesAttack, cBashStrength, cCrushesFences, cHeliRecovery, cMaxHits, cMinHits, cMinTestFenceChance, cPctHits, cPreattack, cPrey, cRampageChance, cRampageThreshold, cRampageTimeMax, cRampageTimeMin, cResetPreyPosition, cTall, cTestFenceChance, cTestFenceChanceDrop, cZapHappinessChange, test_fence, and zap lines, and [BehaviorSet\bEscapedRampage], [BehaviorSet\bHabitatRampage], [BehaviorSet\bPreattack], [BehaviorSet\bDefense], and [BehaviorSet\bTestFence] sections.

Setting the shelter preference do the Dino Cave would not let the european dragon use the Dino Cave unless one of the Dino Cave hacks is used, since the Dino Cave is configured to allow only certain ZT animals to use it. But it is possible to have a user made animal like the Dino Cave even if they do not use it. Again, using APExp 3.2 and basing the animal off of an appropriate dinosaur would get the lines in the ".uca". As an example, the following 2 lines in the [cSuitableObjects] section of ZT's Allosaurus make the Allosaurus like the Dino Cave.
v = 8128
v = 20

As stated, the european dragon is in the early stages of development. But for reference, this is what the checkers currently show for it:

*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/buck/buck.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/headgrnd/headgrnd.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/headshou/headshou.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/jerk/jerk.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/liedown/liedown.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/lieidle/lieidle.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/lieside/lieside.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/standup/standup.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/lookl/lookl.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/lookr/lookr.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/rearup/rearup.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/rub/rub.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/scuff/scuff.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/shake/shake.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/flyshoo/flyshoo.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/buck/buck.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/headgrnd/headgrnd.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/headshou/headshou.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/jerk/jerk.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/liedown/liedown.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/lieidle/lieidle.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/lieside/lieside.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/standup/standup.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/lookl/lookl.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/lookr/lookr.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/rearup/rearup.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/rub/rub.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/scuff/scuff.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/shake/shake.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/m/flyshoo/flyshoo.ani is not in ztd.
*** Warning: animals/43d52026/texts/1031.txt is not in ztd.
***** Error: animals/komodo/komodo.pal is not in ztd.
* Efficiency: animals/43d52026/iczebra/iczebra.pal not used, so not needed.
* Efficiency: animals/43d52026/lsmzebra/lsmzebra.pal not used, so not needed.
* Efficiency: animals/43d52026/plzebra/plzebra.pal not used, so not needed.
*** Warning: Frame count 20 for animals/43d52026/m/charge/n does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Speed 83 for animals/43d52026/m/charge/n does not match first animation speed of 66
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/charge/ne does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Speed 83 for animals/43d52026/m/charge/ne does not match first animation speed of 66
*** Warning: Frame count 15 for animals/43d52026/m/charge/s does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Speed 83 for animals/43d52026/m/charge/s does not match first animation speed of 66
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/charge/se does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Speed 83 for animals/43d52026/m/charge/se does not match first animation speed of 66
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/eat/se does not match first frame count of 17
*** Warning: Frame count 15 for animals/43d52026/m/highjump/n does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/highjump/ne does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 15 for animals/43d52026/m/highjump/s does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/highjump/se does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 20 for animals/43d52026/m/prance/n does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/prance/ne does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 15 for animals/43d52026/m/prance/s does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/prance/se does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 20 for animals/43d52026/m/run/n does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/run/ne does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 15 for animals/43d52026/m/run/s does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/run/se does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 19 for animals/43d52026/m/stand/n does not match first frame count of 18
*** Warning: Frame count 16 for animals/43d52026/m/stand/ne does not match first frame count of 18
*** Warning: Frame count 17 for animals/43d52026/m/stand/s does not match first frame count of 18
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/trot/ne does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 15 for animals/43d52026/m/trot/s does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/trot/se does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 20 for animals/43d52026/m/walk/n does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/walk/ne does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 15 for animals/43d52026/m/walk/s does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 18 for animals/43d52026/m/walk/se does not match first frame count of 19
*** Warning: Frame count 19 for animals/43d52026/y/eat/s does not match first frame count of 20
*** Warning: Frame count 19 for animals/43d52026/y/stand/s does not match first frame count of 20
NOTE: There were 33 Warnings for ZT image files.

Results From Configuration Checking (2022-04-26 checker version):

43d52026.uca date: Sat Apr 30 18:37:22 2022
* Efficiency: The [] section is unnecessary and could be removed.
*** Warning: No cPrefIconID in [y/Characteristics/Integers] section.
*** Warning: cHabitat does not have max [cSuitableObjects] habitat value.
*** Warning: cElevationPref in non-DefaultSubtype '/Characteristics/Integers]'.
*** Warning: cHappyReproduceThreshold in non-Default Characteristics/Integers].
*** Warning: cNoMateChange in non-DefaultSubtype '/Characteristics/Integers]'.
*** Warning: cOffspring in non-DefaultSubtype '/Characteristics/Integers]'.
*** Warning: cReproductionChance in non-Default '/Characteristics/Integers]'.
*** Warning: cReproductionInterval in non-Default '/Characteristics/Integers]'.
*** Warning: cRockPref in non-DefaultSubtype '/Characteristics/Integers]'.
*** Warning: cTreePref in non-DefaultSubtype '/Characteristics/Integers]'.
*** Warning: cName has ' <- User added'.
*** Warning: Sum of family, genus, and animal id/type values are < 0.
*** Warning: cPrefIconID 7097 is not in [cSuitableObjects] with value > 0.
*** Warning: uca/ai file contains the word 'Undefined'.
*** Warning: BehaviorSet sections contain duplicate lines.
* Efficiency: Line pair with 2nd being 'v=0' not needed in [cSuitableObjects].
* Efficiency: Line pair with 2nd being 'v=0' not needed in cCompatibleTerrain.
* Efficiency: [f/Animations] section can be removed; it matches DefaultSubtype.
* Efficiency: [y/Animations] section can be removed; it matches DefaultSubtype.
* Efficiency: iCharacteristics/Integers] sections are unused + can be removed.