Developer Map Editor Hack

[Jay]

Developer Map Editor Hack

Designer's Guild

Click Site name to reach the download

Author : Jay

Category : Hack

Date Added : February 16, 2013

Updated: June 23, 2013 to get around a problem that MM and CC have that can cause them to make more in-game objects available sooner than expected.

Current ztd date: June 23, 2013

Size : 85 KB

Compatibility : All Game Versions

Overview : Allows deleting zoo entrances, which allows changing scenery outside of a zoo and allows deleting zoo walls and admission booths.

Description : By default, zoo entrances, zoo walls, and admission booths cannot be deleted, since that can cause Zoo Tycoon (ZT) to be confused about what is inside the zoo and what is outside the zoo. This hack allows those objects to be deleted and also adds icons for those objects in the Developer Menu. In order to allow adding those objects to zoos, the Developer Menu Hack must be used at the same time as this hack. These hacks will allow map makers to create new maps from existing maps. ZT will not allow zoo walls or objects outside of the zoo to be deleted right away. In order to do so, pause ZT, delete the zoo entrance, save the zoo, reload that saved zoo, and pause ZT again right away, so that zoo activity does not occur. To delete the zoo entrance in the expansion packs, you would click ZT's bulldozer icon and click the zoo entrance. But to delete the zoo entrance in the original ZT, you would click ZT's bulldozer icon and use its "drag" way of deleting to delete the zoo entrance (ie, click the bottom corner of the zoo entrance and, while continuing to press the mouse button, move the mouse far enough along the bottom of the zoo entrance to highlight the zoo entrance for deletion, then release the mouse button). When ZT loads a zoo, it looks for the position of the zoo entrance to determine what is inside the zoo and what is outside the zoo. When it does not find a zoo entrance, everything is considered inside the zoo, allowing the zoo walls and anything else to be deleted. With the zoo entrance deleted, zoo walls can be deleted and added wherever one wants, although there are some rules to follow. There should be zoo walls that go completely around what the zoo will be, excluding a 3 tile gap for the zoo entrance. For the zoo walls that go completely around the zoo, none of them must be on the edge of the map because there is a mistake in the expansion packs where that will eventually cause the expansion packs to crash when the map is used. The original ZT does not have this mistake. It is permitted to have zoo walls inside the zoo as well, and ZT comes with some maps that do so. But those zoo walls should not form any other loops, otherwise ZT will not know if they are inside or outside the main zoo. In addition to making adjustments to the zoo walls, one can also make adjustments to the objects and terrain that will be outside the zoo. It is recommended that no work is done for any exhibits or staff until after the zoo wall, admission booth, and zoo entrance work is complete. A zoo does not have to have admission booths and ZT comes with some maps that do not have them. They can probably be placed anywhere inside a zoo, although when ZT has them in maps, they are always relatively close to the zoo entrance, though they often are at different distances or different orientations. When all of the work is done for the zoo walls and what will be outside the zoo, add a zoo entrance to the 3 tile gap that was left in the outer zoo wall. The zoo entrance has to be oriented in the correct direction. The zoo entrance icons in the developer menu will help with that. Those zoo entrance icons show which side should be facing the outside of the zoo and which side should be facing inside the zoo. All of the map edges must be outside of the zoo for the expansion packs to work properly. There should be only 1 zoo entrance on the map. After adding the zoo entrance, you will usually want to click the zoo entrance and change the name of the zoo. Once the map entrance is in place, save the zoo, exit ZT, remove developerMapEditorHack.ztd from ZT's folders, restart ZT, and reload the zoo. You can now make any changes to the inside of the zoo, including using the Developer Menu if you want. It is theoretically possible to have user created zoo entrances, but they would have to use the same ID as ZT's zoo entrance and would have to be configured as a zoo entrance, including 2 different versions: 1 that allows it to be deleted by map makers and another that does not allow it to be deleted, which would be used by players using maps containing it. The Developer Map Editor does not allow placing food because ZT would not actually use those objects as food. Like any other saved game, any map created with the Developer Map Editor will know which version of ZT was used to create it. That means anyone using an earlier version of ZT will not be able to load that map. It is possible to change the version that is inside the ".zoo" file, but only do so if you are sure the map can be used in whatever version you set it to, and test well. To change the version, you also need to understand how to use hex or binary editors, since that is where the change would be made. The 5th byte in a ".zoo" file represents the version that created the ".zoo". The ZT beta uses a byte of 0; the original ZT uses the letter "F", DD uses the letter "R", MM and CC use the letter "j", and ZT made for computers other than PCs use lower case letters higher than "j". In order to see some of the messages for the Developer Map Editor, any version of lang999-override.dll is also needed.

This hack should be used with the Developer Menu Hack:
http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=5355.0

Although this hack will still work without the ZT Override dll File, in order to see the messages associated with this hack, also use the ZT Override dll File:
http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=5353.0

Where To Put The ztd: Extract developerMapEditorHack.ztd from developerMapEditorHack.zip. If your main ZT folder already has a mapmaker or mapmaker-unused folder, put developerMapEditorHack.ztd in that folder. Otherwise if your main ZT folder already has a hacks or hacks-unused folder, put developerMapEditorHack.ztd in that folder. Otherwise if your main ZT folder already has a dlupdate folder, put developerMapEditorHack.ztd in that dlupdate folder. Otherwise put developerMapEditorHack.ztd in the Updates folder.

The preferred location for developerMapEditorHack.ztd is a mapmaker or mapmaker-unused folder because it is easier to rename folders than to move files around. But this approach needs to be set up first in order to use. Here is how to set up for that approach, which only needs to be done 1 time:

1. The zoo.ini file in ZT's main folder needs to be edited. Just to be safe, copy that zoo.ini elsewhere to save as a backup. Depending on how your MS Windows is set up, you might not see the ".ini" part of that file name. If you see 2 files called "zoo", the smaller file is zoo.ini.

2. The zoo.ini file can be edited with any text editor, such as WordPad. The Notepad program can be used instead of WordPad, but WordPad is a little more powerful. To start WordPad in Windows XP, click start->All Programs->Accessories->WordPad. In WordPad, click File->Open. In the "Open" window, go to ZT's main folder. To do this on my computer, I clicked "My Computer", double-clicked "Local Disk (C:)", double-clicked "Program Files", double-clicked "Microsoft Games", double-clicked "Zoo Tycoon". I then changed the "Files of type:" setting to "All Documents (*.*)". I then clicked "zoo.ini" and clicked the Open button.

3. There is a line in zoo.ini that starts with "path=". The line is different, depending on the ZT version and whether you have edited the line before. If the line has not been edited before, it looks like this for CC:
path=./dlupdate;./updates;./xpack2/loc;./xpack2;./dupdate;./zupdate1;./xpack1/loc;./xpack1;./zupdate;./loc;.

No matter how the line looks, we want to add "./mapmaker;" right after the "=". Although not necessary for the Developer Map Editor Hack, it would also be useful to have "./hacks;" after "./mapmaker;" to allow for other hacks. So you would click right after the "=" and type: ./mapmaker;./hacks;
In my case, that line now looks like this:
path=./mapmaker;./hacks;./dlupdate;./updates;./xpack2/loc;./xpack2;./dupdate;./zupdate1;./xpack1/loc;./xpack1;./zupdate;./loc;.

4. Save the change inside the zoo.ini file. To do this in WordPad, click File->Save. Then close the WordPad window.

5. In ZT's main folder, create a new folder called: mapmaker-unused

6. Put developerMapEditorHack.ztd in the mapmaker-unused folder you created in step 5. Make sure that developerMapEditorHack.ztd and any other map editor are not in the ZT main folder, ZT's dlupdate folder, or ZT's Updates folder.

Once the above setup is done, only 1 step is needed to start making a new map that involves changing zoo entrances, changing zoo walls, changing admission booths, or changing things outside the zoo walls. That 1 step is to rename the mapmaker-unused folder to mapmaker. Once you are done changing zoo entrances, zoo walls, admission booths, and things outside the zoo walls, rename the mapmaker folder back to mapmaker-unused.

Additional Notes : Like other map editors, one has to be careful when making changes while using this hack. If one is not careful when using this hack or any other map editor, it is possible to create a zoo map that crashes ZT or causes ZT to get confused. And these crashes or confusion might not occur right away; they might only occur when someone tries to use the zoo or map in a certain way. So when using this hack or any other map editor, I recommend not trying to do anything unless a similar thing was done in a map that came with ZT. For example, I would not put outside the zoo walls anything that a guest can use, such as working benches, working trash bins, restaurants, etc.. Doing so might not cause a problem, but there is no way to know for sure. And since no map came with ZT like that, I recommend not doing so. Similarly, I would not recommend having more than 1 zoo entrance. ZT will only use the last zoo entrance that is put on a map. Again, doing so might not cause a problem, but there is no way to know for sure. And since no map came with ZT like that, I recommend not doing so. I also feel multiple entrances would confuse people using the zoos, since only 1 entrance would work. If a zoo is made to look like it has multiple entrances, I would prefer a new type of object being used for the other entrances, such as an entrance with a closed gate.

For developerMapEditorHack.ztd, it should not be in any ZT folder (although it could be in a mapmaker-unused folder) at the same time that the Zoo Admin map editor is in a ZT folder. In addition, for safety, neither of them should be in a ZT folder when a zoo has guests, staff, or animals. By having those map editors in ZT, it is too easy to delete the zoo entrance accidentally. ZT can get confused if a zoo entrance is missing or placed the wrong way. It is possible that ZT can stay confused if it has guests, staff, or animals in the zoo when a zoo entrance is deleted, even if the zoo entrance is later added correctly. Although I have not had game crashes when I was experimenting deleting zoo entrances with guests, staff, and animals, I have seen zoos from others crash when a guest got to a certain point, even though there was nothing wrong that could be seen with the zoo. So I cannot rule out that maybe ZT got confused for those zoos, possibly from map editing, and then saved that confusion inside the saved zoo, causing it to crash later.

[Jay]

The Developer Map Editor Hack was updated to get around a problem that MM and CC have that can cause them to make more in-game objects available sooner than expected.