Zoo Tycoon Community Download Directory

I'm looking to increase the in-game shelters to a large capacity (i.e. Rock Cave to, say, 20 animal capacity) and I was wondering which files I would need to open and manipulate in order to do so...if it's even possible? Multiple Shelters in an exhibit look ugly when I try to make something realistic.

Also, how can I increase the max guest potential in order to have more than 1,000 guests in the zoo? I know that Zoo Tycoon isn't "stable" after 1,001 guests, but I have full faith in my PC to pull it off (if PC power has anything to do with it, it should EASILY work because my RCT3 has had 8,000 guests at one time, and their AI is INCREDIBLY volatile).

Edited by Jay to remove what the forum software censor did not like.

So I found the directory that has the references to all of the shelter capacities (Zoo Tycoon/scenery/buildings/(whatever .ai file is for said shelter)) and whenever I try to modify the file (I created backups), my computer will not let me save to that directory. I have given my user account unparalleled control over every file in the computer as system administrator, so what keeps locking me out?

Quote from: Thunder on December 10, 2016, 05:36:06 PM
So I found the directory that has the references to all of the shelter capacities (Zoo Tycoon/scenery/buildings/(whatever .ai file is for said shelter)) and whenever I try to modify the file (I created backups), my computer will not let me save to that directory. I have given my user account unparalleled control over every file in the computer as system administrator, so what keeps locking me out?

I use PeaZip for all of my file extractions, so I changed the "scenery" folder to a ZIP archive and moved it from the Zoo Tycoon directory to the desktop. From here, I extracted "scenery.zip" to the desktop, and NOW I am going in to modify the  AI files. It seems to be saving them now, so when I'm finished I will re-zip "scenery" and move it back to the directory where I will change it back into a .ztd file.

Here goes!

Quote from: Thunder on December 10, 2016, 04:52:03 PM

Edited by Jay to remove what the forum software censor did not like.

Thank you Jay, I didn't realize that phrase was forbidden.  

Update: It WORKED. (Well, mostly.)

Rock Cave, Stable, and Large Stable for some reason have their capacities remained unchanged. I can see that whoever made the "Double Capacity Shelter Hack" in the past also fell victim to that. I've got all the large shelters to be able to hold anywhere between 15-50 animals, depending on my tastes. I can post a guide if anyone wants me to.

Also, I noticed the Rock Cave ans Snowy Rock Cave each were found under the "other" folder instead of the "buildings" folder. Was that just a mistake by the developers?

Update 2: Rock Cave's AI file can be found under the scenery7.ztd in "Updates", as that file was updated for the Endangered Species pack to include Bigfoot's information. I have that modified and working now!

Update 3: Found the Sunken Ship and Seafloor Cave in scenery6.ztd in the "XPACK2" folder in the directory. Found the Dino Cave under scenery5.ztd in the "dupdate" folder, BUT THAT IS NOT THE CORRECT DINO CAVE AI FILE. The real one must have been updated further and is located in a different .ztd file.

Quotehow can I increase the max guest potential in order to have more than 1,000 guests in the zoo? I know that Zoo Tycoon isn't "stable" after 1,001 guests, but I have full faith in my PC to pull it off (if PC power has anything to do with it, it should EASILY work because my RCT3 has had 8,000 guests at one time, and their AI is INCREDIBLY volatile).

I have not done that myself. Someone once posted at ZKL that it can be done by adding the following 2 lines before the [scenario] line in the zoo.ini file:

[ai]
maxGuests=XXXX

Where XXXX is the guest limit you want to have, such as 1500.

Although "[ai]" was given, I suspect it should be "[AI]" based on what was in the ZT beta. A copy of the zoo.ini file should be made before changing the zoo.ini file. A few reasons were given for not changing the guest limit. ZT was not tested with a higher guest limit. So something unexpected might happen if it is increased, since there have been mistakes found in ZT before. Also, having more guests will cause the computer to do more processing. Most likely that is not a concern with today's computers. But in some ways ZT needs more computer power than the RCT games. For the RCT games, basically something moves or it does not move. But with ZT, how something moves is changing frequently. For example, a guest might stand while watching an animal, or they might jump up and down, or they might take a picture, etc.. An animal might be walking, it might be running, it might be jumping, it might be eating, it might be growling, etc.. Another concern given for increasing the guest limit is that there could be more "Animal X is feeling crowded by too many guests" messages, causing the animals to be less happy.

QuoteSo I found the directory that has the references to all of the shelter capacities (Zoo Tycoon/scenery/buildings/(whatever .ai file is for said shelter)) and whenever I try to modify the file (I created backups), my computer will not let me save to that directory. I have given my user account unparalleled control over every file in the computer as system administrator, so what keeps locking me out?
...
I use PeaZip for all of my file extractions, so I changed the "scenery" folder to a ZIP archive and moved it from the Zoo Tycoon directory to the desktop. From here, I extracted "scenery.zip" to the desktop, and NOW I am going in to modify the  AI files. It seems to be saving them now, so when I'm finished I will re-zip "scenery" and move it back to the directory where I will change it back into a .ztd file.

scenery.ztd is a file rather than a folder. I use the free and open source program 7-zip to test, extract, and make ".ztd" files. There is a topic at ZKL explaining how to get and use 7-zip for ".ztd" files. PeaZip uses the 7-zip program, but it is better to use 7-zip directly. PeaZip looks at the file extension to decide what to do. When PeaZip sees the ".zip" extension, it knows to use 7-zip. But PeaZip does not understand ".ztd" file extensions. 7-zip does not rely on the file extension to decide what to do. Instead, 7-zip looks inside the file to see what type of file it is. So when 7-zip looks inside a ".ztd" file, 7-zip knows to treat the ".ztd" file like a ".zip" file.

QuoteI noticed the Rock Cave ans Snowy Rock Cave each were found under the "other" folder instead of the "buildings" folder. Was that just a mistake by the developers?

The Rock Cave, Snowy Rock Cave, Small Stable, and Small Lean-to were in the ZT beta. A lot of design changes were made after the ZT beta, including putting new shelters in the "buildings" directory. But Blue Fang left those 4 original shelters in the "other" directory. If Blue Fang changed the configuration files for those original shelters, that could affect saved zoos. So Blue Fang probably felt it was safer to leave those as they were.

QuoteI'm looking to increase the in-game shelters to a large capacity (i.e. Rock Cave to, say, 20 animal capacity) and I was wondering which files I would need to open and manipulate in order to do so...if it's even possible? Multiple Shelters in an exhibit look ugly when I try to make something realistic.

As you found, the animal capacity can be changed. However, ZT is not very smart when it tries to figure out the "There are more shelters than necessary in this exhibit" and "There are not enough shelters in this exhibit" messages in the Zookeeper's Recommendations. So sometimes you might have a shelter capacity that should work, but ZT will complain. And sometimes there is no choice but to have multiple shelters in an exhibit in order to avoid the messages. But some people don't care about those messages and use user made shelters that have higher capacities.

QuoteFound the Dino Cave under scenery5.ztd in the "dupdate" folder, BUT THAT IS NOT THE CORRECT DINO CAVE AI FILE. The real one must have been updated further and is located in a different .ztd file.

The most recent version of scenery/building/dinocave.ai is in Updates\megathrm.ztd.

So that brings us to the approach. It is never a good idea to change a ".ztd" file that comes with ZT. As was seen, some ZT files were changed in the expansion packs and override earlier versions. So instead of changing a ".ztd" file that comes with ZT, it is better to put any change in a new ".ztd" file and then put that new ".ztd" in the dlupdate folder (or hacks folder, if one was set up). For example, scenery/building/dinocave.ai could be extracted from megathrm.ztd, the cCapacity and capacity lines can be changed in the extracted scenery/building/dinocave.ai, and the updated scenery/building/dinocave.ai can be put into a new DinosaurCaveWithHigherCapacityHack.ztd. But even better than a hack would be to create a new shelter using the existing graphics. That way the in-game version and new version could be used at the same time. So instead of using "dinocave.ai", it could be named "dica12th.ucb". The "di" stands for "Dinosaur", "ca" stands for "Cave", 12 would be whatever capacity is used, and "th" stands for "Thunder", to avoid conflicts with other designers. The "ucb" tells ZT that a ".cfg" file is not needed. scenery/building/dica12th.ucb would look like this (with a higher purchase price to tell it is different than the in-game one and allowing for all animals so that it can be used for user made animals [ID 2930, which is in LANG--ZTCDD.dll]):

Quote[dica12th]

[Icon]
Icon = objects/dinocave/SE/SE
Icon = objects/dinocave/SW/SW
Icon = objects/dinocave/NW/NW
Icon = objects/dinocave/NE/NE

[Member]
shelters
dinosaur

[Characteristics/Integers]
cPurchaseCost = 1812
cNameID = 2930
cHelpID = 2930
cHabitat = 9411
cLocation = 9618
cFootprintX = 10
cFootprintY = 10
cShelter = 1
cCommerce = 0
cSelectable = 0
cHideUser = 1
cHideBuilding = 0
cUserStaysOutside = 0
cTimeInside = 10
cHeight = 3
cUseNumbersInName=0
cRubbleable = 0
cCapacity = 12
cAdultChange = 20
cChildChange = 20
cEnergyChange = 75

[Characteristics/Strings]
cInfoImageName = scenery/building/inbldg/inbldg

[Animations]
idle =  objects/dinocave/idle/idle.ani
used =  objects/dinocave/idle/idle.ani

[Global]
Type = dica12th

[Satisfies]
building
animalrest
animalsex

[slots]
name=slot

[slot]
slotpos=0
slotpos=0
entrpos=0
entrpos=176
exitpos=0
exitpos=176
capacity=12
facing=0

An unlock file would also be needed to make it available at the start of the game. Since this is using ID 2930 and message "Shelter For All Animals", the unlock file would be called freeform/unlockshelterforallanimals.scn with the contents:

Quote[goals]
goal=DEFAULT_ITEMS

[DEFAULT_ITEMS]
rulea=7
ruleb=2
value=0
text=17700
trulea=7
truleb=0
targa=1000
hidden=0
sticky=0

[1000]
id=2930

scenery/building/dica12th.ucb and freeform/unlockshelterforallanimals.scn would be put in a new DinosaurCaveForAllAnimalsWithCapacityOf12ByThunder.ztd (or similar).

Quote from: Jay

Quotehow can I increase the max guest potential in order to have more than 1,000 guests in the zoo?

Someone once posted at ZKL that it can be done by adding the following 2 lines before the [scenario] line in the zoo.ini file:

[ai]
maxGuests=XXXX

Where XXXX is the guest limit you want to have, such as 1500.

Although "[ai]" was given, I suspect it should be "[AI]" based on what was in the ZT beta.

I did some testing setting maxGuests to 3 so that I could see the results right away. Although upper case letters versus lower case letters often matters in ZT, in this case, either "[ai]" or "[AI]" can be used.

Quote from: Jay on December 11, 2016, 02:31:34 AM


scenery.ztd is a file rather than a folder. I use the free and open source program 7-zip to test, extract, and make ".ztd" files. There is a topic at ZKL explaining how to get and use 7-zip for ".ztd" files. PeaZip uses the 7-zip program, but it is better to use 7-zip directly. PeaZip looks at the file extension to decide what to do. When PeaZip sees the ".zip" extension, it knows to use 7-zip. But PeaZip does not understand ".ztd" file extensions. 7-zip does not rely on the file extension to decide what to do. Instead, 7-zip looks inside the file to see what type of file it is. So when 7-zip looks inside a ".ztd" file, 7-zip knows to treat the ".ztd" file like a ".zip" file.


As you found, the animal capacity can be changed. However, ZT is not very smart when it tries to figure out the "There are more shelters than necessary in this exhibit" and "There are not enough shelters in this exhibit" messages in the Zookeeper's Recommendations. So sometimes you might have a shelter capacity that should work, but ZT will complain. And sometimes there is no choice but to have multiple shelters in an exhibit in order to avoid the messages. But some people don't care about those messages and use user made shelters that have higher capacities.

Yeah, I just changed the .ztd extension to a .zip and opened it through PeaZip. That's how I got into those files. Being the pleb that I am, it took me a little while to figure that out.

Ok. I have two directories installed, one through my C: drive for tampering basically, and one through my F: flash drive for vanilla use. If I have issues, I can restore the originals from the flash drive. I haven't run into any problems as of now with Zoo Tycoon complaining about the shelters, but I'll bring it up if I do.

It looks pretty sweet having a 30 Zebra exhibit with one shelter. It just feels right LOL

Also, I haven't had any luck with the [ai] section. Might give it another go, just to see if because I loaded a preexisting zoo to test it is the reason it did not work.

Thanks, Jay.

EDIT: This shelter modification would go great with the easy animals hack, but Zoo Admin has disappeared into the aether :(     Anyone got a spare copy of it?

Quote from: Jay on December 11, 2016, 04:40:56 PM
Someone once posted at ZKL that it can be done by adding the following 2 lines before the [scenario] line in the zoo.ini file:

[ai]
maxGuests=XXXX

Where XXXX is the guest limit you want to have, such as 1500.

Although "[ai]" was given, I suspect it should be "[AI]" based on what was in the ZT beta.

I did some testing setting maxGuests to 3 so that I could see the results right away. Although upper case letters versus lower case letters often matters in ZT, in this case, either "[ai]" or "[AI]" can be used.

Hmm...I'm getting no results trying to get anything. I'll do the 3 guest trick myself to see if it will work.

This is rather perplexing.

Edit: I'm getting no results. Can someone show me exactly where in the .ini those lines are supposed to go? Something tells me it's in the wrong location.

Or is this right?



[debug]
logCutoff=15
sendLogfile=0
sendDebugger=1
deltaLog1=0
deltaLog0=0
drawfps=0
drawfpsx=720
drawfpsy=20

[mgr]
aimgr=ZTAIMgr
worldmgr=ZTWorldMgr
gamemgr=BFGameMgr
scenariomgr=ZTScenarioMgr
scriptmgr=BFScriptMgr
soundmgr=BFSoundMgr
terrainmgr=ZTAdvTerrainMgr

[language]
lang=9
sublang=1

[lib]
res=res0.dll
lang=lang0.dll

[resource]
path=./dlupdate;./updates;./xpack2/loc;./xpack2;./dupdate;./zupdate1;./xpack1/loc;./xpack1;./zupdate;./loc;.

[user]
fullscreen=1
screenwidth=800
screenheight=600
UpdateRate=15
DrawRate=60
lastfile=

[advanced]
; 0 eTotalQuality
; 1 eQuality
; 2 eBalance
; 3 eSpeed
; 4 ePaused
drag=3
click=1
normal=2
loadHalfAnims=0
use8BitSound=0
level=2

[Map]
mapX=75
mapY=75

[UI]

; set this to 0 instead of 1 if you want to try color cursors
; if you get a flickering or disappearing cursor, set back to 1
useAlternateCursors=1

tooltipDelay=1
tooltipDuration=6000
MessageDisplay=1
mouseScrollThreshold=1
mouseScrollDelay=1
mouseScrollX=32
mouseScrollY=32
keyScrollX=64
keyScrollY=64
minimumMessageInterval=60
defaultEditCharLimit=22
noMenuMusic=0
menuMusic=sounds/mainmenu.wav
menuMusicAttenuation=-1000
userAttenuation=0
helpType=1
playMovie=1
; volume for first movie. value from -10000 to 0
movievolume1=-1000
playSecondMovie=1
; volume for second movie. value from -10000 to 0
movievolume2=-1000
maxShortTooltipWidth=200
maxLongTooltipWidth=400
progressLeft=231
progressTop=420
progressRight=581
progressBottom=435
progressRed=255
progressGreen=184
progressBlue=43
progressShadowXOffset=-3
progressShadowYOffset=3
progressShadowRed=32
progressShadowGreen=32
progressShadowBlue=32
completedExhibitAttenuation=100
MSStartingCash =7500000
MSCashIncrement = 25000
MSMinCash = 50000
MSMaxCash = 10000000
startedFirstTutorial=1
progresscalls=1255
startedDinoTutorial=1
startedAquaTutorial=1

[ai]
maxGuests=5

[scenario]
tutorial=0
aa=1
ab=1
ac=1
ad=1
ae=1
af=1
ag=1

That is the correct location for the two lines. So that zoo.ini should work to have no more than 5 guests in the zoo. It is possible that line only works for new zoos. When I did my test setting the line to 3, I added the two lines to the zoo.ini file, started ZT, and started a new zoo using the freeform "Basic Grass Map (Small)" map. That test was using Windows XP. With newer versions of MS Windows, I don't know if that zoo.ini file is copied elsewhere.

Quote from: Jay on December 30, 2016, 01:09:25 PM
That is the correct location for the two lines. So that zoo.ini should work to have no more than 5 guests in the zoo. It is possible that line only works for new zoos. When I did my test setting the line to 3, I added the two lines to the zoo.ini file, started ZT, and started a new zoo using the freeform "Basic Grass Map (Small)" map. That test was using Windows XP. With newer versions of MS Windows, I don't know if that zoo.ini file is copied elsewhere.

I found the zoo.ini that the game reads. It was in an appdata/.... folder, in the same place I found my Indo Chinese Tiger that I tried to create using APE, and could never find! LOL

The .ini is working now. It's strange that the game has more than one of the same .ini files.

Thanks for tipping me off that it might be located in a different directory. I scanned my C: drive and found 3 copies of zoo.ini! I've got the correct one going though. Thanks!