Hacks for ZT1

[Guest ShenTirag]

Apologies in advance if this is posted in the wrong place - I wasn't quite sure where to post it as all the design related topics seemed to be about creating new animals/objects than hacking :)

 

I'm really interested in an "easy animals" hack for ZT1 that makes the animals a lot less fussy over terrain/rock/plant levels. I know that there was one available at ZooAdmin, but obviously it's still down. If there is one available anywhere else, can someone please point me in the correct direction? :)

 

Failing that, I'd like to give it a go myself! Now I'm a designer for ZT2, and I get the basic principles, and I think I've worked out where in the animal .ai files you need to edit to tweak the terrain preferences :) However, the plants and rock levels are giving me a bit more of a problem.

 

Also, I am guessing this section of the .ai file refers to animal space requirements (using the penguin files for an example):

 

cSocial = 1

cHabitatSize = 100

cNumberAnimalsMin = 2

cNumberAnimalsMax = 16

cAnimalDensity = 15

 

Is 15 the number of grid squares per animal? Presumably the lower the HabitatSize number is, the smaller the exhibit needs to be?

 

If someone could point me in the right direction I'd be very happy! :)

[ZooDragon]

I been trying to find another place as well for the hack. It can come in handy for those more tricky animals or even when trying to replicate other zoos or snactuaries.

[(Trustee)genkicoll]

From what I've read in Sundance's (at ZKL) and Jordan's (here at Tek) animal-making tutorials, the cHabitatSize should never be touched. I'm thinking that the cHabitatSize links in with the preferred terrain settings, as well, for when you make an animal, the total of the different terrains has to be 100 (ie. 80 grass, 15 dirt, 5 water). You are correct that the cAnimal Density is the number of squares required for each animal, so in theory, you wouldn't have to adjust the habitat size, anyway, since you could set the number of squares needed for each animal to 1, and then you could have an exhibit that's 1x1 if you so wish (although there'd be no room for a zookeeper to come in and place food, etc ).

 

The rock and foliage numbers are easy - the value is the number of squares the animal wants filled with each. For instance, cTreePref = 8 means that they want 8 grid squares (in a 10x10 exhibit) filled with foliage. cRockPref = 2 means that they want two squares filled with rocks.

 

If you're going to start making (or adjusting) animals, you'll want to get the .uca checker... I think it's a ZKL and/or the Design Guild. It sounds more like you're making a hack, but you may get interested and start making animals, you never know :elkgrin:

 

Here's something great I learned whilst making animals: You can set the animals you create to like neutral habitat (9411) items, and even Bad Habitat (9414) items by adjusting the levels in the [cSuitableObjects] section! You have to be sure that you don't increase these levels too much, for it can't exceed the animal's cHabitat setting. For instance, you have a grassland animal, and its cHabitat setting is 9401. Down in the [cSuitableObjects], you have

v = 9401

v = 20

You can't have the neutral or bad habitat settings at 20 or above, or else you cause a conflict. Even a slightly positive reading on these will make the animal like the items, so even a value of 1 will work.

v = 9411

v = 1

would do the trick ^__^

 

None of this may make sense right now, but if you look over the tutorials (see the links in the first paragraph), it should help.

[Guest ShenTirag]

Thanks Genkicoll, and especially for the links! :) Yeah I am mostly interested in hacking....although you never know ^_^

 

From the sounds of it, if I change this:

 

"cHabitatPreference

This represents how suitable the exhibit must be for the suitability indicator to be green. For example, if cHabitatPreference is set to 70, the exhibit suitability must reach at least 70 for the indicator to turn green and for the animal to consider the exhibit to be suitable."

 

To a much lower number, the animals would be happy with much lower requirements, right?

 

If I change the rock and tree preferences, animals will complain if you add too many of the rocks and stuff, right? Is there any way to make them simply not care at all? :P I'm guessing by making sure that all items (rocks/plants) have a positive value in the cSuitableObjects section?

 

I'm guessing that the answers to most of my questions will be revealed when I try some stuff out in game, but better to be prepared than sorry? :D

 

Thanks for your help! :)

[Fern]

Shen, your best bet is run it by Jay. While he does not like hacks he does know what things do ingame.

Do not change cHabitatSize = 100 That not set to 100 does get a warning from the checker Genki was talking about.

Yellowrose can give you the hack as she would have it.

[(Trustee)genkicoll]

To a much lower number, the animals would be happy with much lower requirements, right?

 

Yep, that's right :elkgrin: So if it was set to 50, then a 50% suitability would make the animal happy (green).

[Guest ShenTirag]

Hm, do hacks not work the same way as in ZT2 then? I cannot make a .ztd file with the hack information that can be easily added and removed? :(

 

Edit: Some progress - thanks for all of your help so far everyone :) Particularly the tip about getting animals to accept bad/neutral habitat objects! :) Currently my penguins are now sitting in tiny cages (only to test the space thing worked - I promise! :P) and are happy even though their exhibit is full of gravel :P It seems that I was able to do this through a .ztd I made and put in the updates folder as well, which means there is no permenant overwriting :)

[(Trustee)genkicoll]

*nods* I don't know much about hacks, but I do know that Jordan's Super Hack is a ztd that you can put in and out of the Updates (or dlupdate) folder.

[Yellowrose]

Shen When I find the cd it's on I'll email you the Easy Animals hack and you can take a look at it to see how it was edited. Just be warry of using them in ZT 1 though they do funny things to the game and can cause the game to crash sometimes.

[Guest ShenTirag]

Hehe no worries :) I've been having fun poking around in the files, getting a feel for it. I'm almost tempted to start making stuff for ZT1 XD