Animal Life Spans

[maximum411]

Does anybody know which animals are the longest-lived? I remember reading that there are only a few different life spans in game, and that each animal just has one of these few options. Is this true, or is there really a longest-lived animal in ZT?

[Fern]

From Jay

Although those making animals might have used other settings, the animals that come with ZT use one of eight settings, ranging from 4320 to 17280. That probably represents 1 game year to 4 game years. The highest setting includes the African Elephant, African Wild Dog, American Bighorn Sheep, Asian Elephant, Bengal Tiger, Bigfoot, Black Rhinoceros, Caudipteryx, Chimpanzee, Coelophysis, Japanese Serow, Javan Rhinoceros, Lowland Gorilla, Gray Wolf, Grizzly Bear, Magnet, Malaysian Tapir, Mexican Gray Wolf, Orangutan, Polar Bear, Siberian Tiger, Triceratops, Wooly Rhino, and Yeti. But when animals reach this setting, that does not mean they die immediately. Once that setting is reached, ZT starts using a "chance of death" setting to see if it is time for the animal to die of old age or to continue living for a little longer. Also, there are research programs that, when complete, cause dinos and aquatic animals to live 25% longer.

[maximum411]

From Jay

 

 

Ah yes- that was what I had read before. I am wondering about the marine mammals... like the Bowhead Whale. In real life, the Bowhead Whale is the longest-lived known mammal (known because of a very old harpoon tip recovered from a live whale), and I am wondering where its life span fits in in Zoo Tycoon.

[Fern]

The cTimeDeath setting for the bowhead whale is 12960, which is probably about 3 game years.

[maximum411]

The cTimeDeath setting for the bowhead whale is 12960, which is probably about 3 game years.

 

 

Interesting- so it doesn't really match real life in that case. I'd be interested to take a look at the life spans of some of the other animals.

[maximum411]

Actually, where do you find ZTD files for in-game animals like the Bowhead Whale?

[Fern]

The problem with Blue Fang is they put things in different places

The graphics are in animals9 in the XPACK2 folder. The MM animal ".ai" files are in XPACK2/animalsa.ztd.

[maximum411]

The problem with Blue Fang is they put things in different places

The graphics are in animals9 in the XPACK2 folder. The MM animal ".ai" files are in XPACK2/animalsa.ztd.

 

Ah thanks- I was looking through the XPACK2 and XPACK1 folders and didn't come across it. They didn't organize their files very well! I guess they never expected that we would be looking through them later :24:

[Fern]

It actually makes sense for them to do it that way as most animals were updated for each expansion. Just the ai part for preditor/prey info so it was easier having all the ai files in one place. When MM came out some animals were graphically changed to use tanks.

[maximum411]

It actually makes sense for them to do it that way as most animals were updated for each expansion. Just the ai part for preditor/prey info so it was easier having all the ai files in one place. When MM came out some animals were graphically changed to use tanks.

 

Do you remember what the file name for the bowhead whale is? I don't see it in the animalsa ztd- I see humpback and a bunch of other marine mammals, but no bowhead.