DinosaurDig's Non-Dino Animal Projects

[DinosaurDigs]

just because you asked for it... :risitas6ba0:

JORDAN

 

Ok, right, on to buisness...

 

I made a Dalek (from the Doctor Who TV program) on request from my little brother and sister, as a Zoo Tycoon animal. Every single other animal I make works awesome in-game, and I follow your tutorial every time to the letter and that other one here >>> http://www.lunamanar.com/zklounge/index.php?showtopic=116 <<< which is also very useful but this time something just went wrong. If I place the animal, it's an unhappy face. If I pick up the animal, unhappy face. It's NEVER happy... and not only that, but it doesn't even make a sound at all in the game! It's just a silent Dalek. I've also set it to be social and like being with other members of it's group but, lo, it just makes an unhappy face every time I put a new Dalek in with it. And then makes a happy face when I take it away before promptly telling me that it would like more of the same species in it's exibit.

 

PLEASE HELP! This is the first time I've ever got it wrong with APE and I'm truly confused! :P

Screenshot of the Daleks in-game is included below, along with the .ztd file for the Dalek! :)

 

Thanks

DinosaurDigs

 

 

- The .ztd

 

- and a screenshot of my little bro letting three of them escape! ^_^

[Fern]

Since I am old enough to remember the very first series of Dr Who and the salt and pepper pots otherwise known as the Daleks I decided to just have a quick look. :nessie2:

You have not followed the guides very well. I suspect you have skimmed many instructions which you cannot do if you want a well made animal that will be accepted by the sites for downloading. Use the ZKL one and go through each section thoroughly.

The LCID should be 1033 so it does not crash the games of others.

The paths for the sound files are incorrect which is why you hear no sound.

There are 0 value lines in [cCompatibleAnimals] Section and [cSuitableObjects] Section and [cCompatibleTerrain] Section that could be deleted.

It is always nice to include the source of the material in the text file too. Most designers do.

 

For the unhappiness I have sent it to Jay as we recently discovered another cause that the ordinary methods will not fix. Found it with one of the Zoo Kingdom animals I was repairing and nothing made that happy either. Just depends how busy he is as to when I will get a reply. Jordan, moondawg or genki might also have something to say. They are all well versed in animal creation.

[Fern]

From Jay:

The animal needs a lot of work. It has a number of errors and warnings. Being that the sounds are new, I do not believe they need full paths. But only the first one is used in the behavior sets and it should have a placesound and pickupsound. The ".uca" is based on the komodo dragon. However, it looks like the animations in the ".ztd" are based on some other animal. So only 5 of the animations in the ".ztd" match those in the ".uca". I believe that is the actual cause for no sound. All of the lines containing sounds also contain actions that do not have animations in the ".ztd". Since ZT does not find the animation, it probably ignores the entire line, including the sound. As for the unhappiness, it dislikes its cFamily and cGenus. Its cFamily is 5217 and its cGenus is 5184. 5217 and 5184 are both in the [cCompatibleAnimals] section with a value of -20, which is why it dislikes its own kind. Since Daleks dislike everything but themselves (and sometimes even themselves), I would leave those lines in there. Then I would add AE1D4207 to that section with a value of 40 to counteract those other values. That will have the Daleks tolerate one another (not be happy nor unhappy when another is added). Here are the results from the checker:

 

***** Error: cSwims setting is not 0 but water_idle is not defined.

***** Error: cSwims is not 0 but there is no [AmbientAnimsWater] section.

*** Warning: cHabitat does not have max [cSuitableObjects] habitat value.

*** Warning: cDeathChance setting is less than 0.

*** Warning: cSickChance setting is less than 0.

***** Error: LCID is set to 5129 but [5129] section does not exist.

*** Warning: Terrain sum does not equal 100.

*** Warning: Sum of family, genus, and animal id/type values are < 0.

*** Warning: cPrefIconID 9411 is not in [cSuitableObjects] with value > 0.

*** Warning: BehaviorSet sections contain duplicate lines.

Dalek description:

The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants from the British

science fiction television series Doctor Who. Daleks are organisms from the

planet Skaro, integrated within a tank-like mechanical casing. The resulting

creatures are a powerful race bent on universal conquest and domination,

utterly without pity, compassion or remorse (as all of their emotions were

removed except hate). They are collectively the greatest extraterrestrial

enemies of the Time Lord known as the Doctor. Their most famous catchphrase is

"Exterminate!", with each syllable individually screeched in a frantic

electronic voice.

(plus 3 other paragraphs)

Cannot be used in original Zoo Tycoon: cKeeperFoodType (6) is not 0 to 5.

This animal does not breed.

Liked foliage:

Bamboo

Liked rock:

Large Rock, Small Rock - Medium, Small Rock - Small

Animal can climb cliffs.

Number of animals allowed per exhibit: 1-100 with 20 squares each.

A suitable exhibit for 2 of this animal has 40 squares containing terrain of:

15 Gravel, 8 Dirt, 8 Gray Stone, 9 Sand

using no foliage

and using 3 Small Rock - Small most liked rock.

Of the 40 squares, 1 nonadjacent squares should be elevated.

 

- Jay

[DinosaurDigs]

I knew I'd screwed it up somewhere along the line... and everything else works that I've done, too! :laugh:

 

You have not followed the guides very well. I suspect you have skimmed many instructions which you cannot do if you want a well made animal that will be accepted by the sites for downloading. Use the ZKL one and go through each section thoroughly.

But I followed it word for word... ah well, accept defeat with grace and move on.

 

The LCID should be 1033 so it does not crash the games of others.

The paths for the sound files are incorrect which is why you hear no sound.

There are 0 value lines in [cCompatibleAnimals] Section and [cSuitableObjects] Section and [cCompatibleTerrain] Section that could be deleted.

It is always nice to include the source of the material in the text file too. Most designers do.

Ok, willdo. Thanks for the fixes, by the way, I'll get down to those.

 

The animal needs a lot of work. It has a number of errors and warnings. Being that the sounds are new, I do not believe they need full paths. But only the first one is used in the behavior sets and it should have a placesound and pickupsound. The ".uca" is based on the komodo dragon. However, it looks like the animations in the ".ztd" are based on some other animal. So only 5 of the animations in the ".ztd" match those in the ".uca". I believe that is the actual cause for no sound. All of the lines containing sounds also contain actions that do not have animations in the ".ztd". Since ZT does not find the animation, it probably ignores the entire line, including the sound. As for the unhappiness, it dislikes its cFamily and cGenus. Its cFamily is 5217 and its cGenus is 5184. 5217 and 5184 are both in the [cCompatibleAnimals]section with a value of -20, which is why it dislikes its own kind. Since Daleks dislike everything but themselves (and sometimes even themselves), I would leave those lines in there. Then I would add AE1D4207 to that section with a value of 40 to counteract those other values. That will have the Daleks tolerate one another (not be happy nor unhappy when another is added). Here are the results from the checker:

Indeed, the intention was for the Daleks to hate everything but themselves. The animations in the .ztd are the Dalek ones, I think... I'm gonna need a couple more details as to how the sounds work though before I can get around to fixing them. If there's a way to just get the Daleks to tolerate one another then I'm happy with that!

 

***** Error: cSwims setting is not 0 but water_idle is not defined.

***** Error: cSwims is not 0 but there is no [AmbientAnimsWater]section.

*** Warning: cHabitat does not have max [cSuitableObjects] habitat value.

*** Warning: cDeathChance setting is less than 0.

*** Warning: cSickChance setting is less than 0.

***** Error: LCID is set to 5129 but [5129] section does not exist.

*** Warning: Terrain sum does not equal 100.

*** Warning: Sum of family, genus, and animal id/type values are < 0.

*** Warning: cPrefIconID 9411 is not in [cSuitableObjects] with value > 0.

*** Warning: BehaviorSet sections contain duplicate lines.

Cannot be used in original Zoo Tycoon: cKeeperFoodType (6) is not 0 to 5.

Gracious me... oh dear. That's going to take a lot of fixing. Don't even know how to fix a couple of those things but I'll go back to the tutorials.

 

Thanks very much Fern and Jay! You're both absolute heroes. :)

DinosaurDigs

[Fern]

LOL Don't worry, I think moondawg got a similar message in his early days. And look how good he is now. Most of the suitability guides I have done at ZTCDD on his animals show no errors or warnings. Jordan is the same. Everyone starts somewhere. I mostly don't do animals, just fix them. So I will now leave you to the tender mercies of moondawg, genki and Jordan. Once you get used to them you will not find it so daunting.

Everyone starts off badly, so to speak.

By source I meant the information in the text file about the daleks. A lot of people use info from Prof Paul's area or wikipedia or other places for the animal info. It is nice to know where.

The guides here and at zkl will tell you how to make all the needed changes to the uca. Start at the top of the uca and work your way down using the guides from both sites.

 

From memory sounds are in two places the [sounds] area and the behaviour sets.

Most of the warnings are easy fixes once you find then line concerned.

"errors" are game crashers and need fixing.

The guides are not an easy read and it is easy to miss things. My comment was simply that the LCID rule is in both guides, so are the other things I listed. If in doubt, ask.

 

Have fun and you will get there.

[DinosaurDigs]

Thanks :) I got all my info from Wikipedia, so I'll include that in the text file. I only just realised about an hour back that that's what you meant by 'the source of the material'!

 

I'll keep fighting and work on the UCA as best I can, I will admit the tutorials on here are fantastic for beginners! :bruce:

DinosaurDigs

 

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEARS, EVERYONE! :cheer-girls-group-3x2-green: :yahoo: :party: :cheerlie: :vishenka_34: :glitter_happy: :th_hapydancsmil: :Nessie:

[(Trustee)genkicoll]

We were overtaking Jordan's project thread, so I've made a new topic for this No worries, Jordan will still see your request - he does a search for his name when he comes on the board :wink:

[(Trustee)Jordan]

hello there, DinosaurDigs!

 

Sorry about the delay, I don't get on as much as I used to. Anyway, I'm glad you've had success with my tutorial in the past, and I'm happy to look over the Dalek for you. I am a bit of a Doctor Who fan myself even though it takes ages to get new episodes here in America.

 

I'll post back later with what I can figure out.

[moondawg]

I will look at it to DD and see what i can find :D

[DinosaurDigs]

We were overtaking Jordan's project thread, so I've made a new topic for this No worries, Jordan will still see your request - he does a search for his name when he comes on the board

Thanks Genki! Better to have a topic of it's own for this as opposed to clogging everything else up elsewhere. :)

 

hello there, DinosaurDigs!

 

Sorry about the delay, I don't get on as much as I used to. Anyway, I'm glad you've had success with my tutorial in the past, and I'm happy to look over the Dalek for you. I am a bit of a Doctor Who fan myself even though it takes ages to get new episodes here in America.

 

I'll post back later with what I can figure out.

Thanks! Don't worry about any delays, I understand that you've got a lot of projects to complete. I myself have been trying to make the Killer Penguin's .uca pretty much all last night... no problems with that one though, as it uses pretty near everything that the Emperor Penguin does and has no new sounds.

 

I heard about America getting it later then everyone else... in New Zealand, we're still watching all the episodes from 2007! No matter though because I have all of them on DVD, 1960's to now! (It's a massive collection! :D)

 

EDIT!

 

I will look at it to DD and see what i can find :D

Thanks Moondawg! I'm still lost with the Dalek's .uca, I'm going to need all the help I can get to get it fixed. :)

 

DinosaurDigs