Zoo Tycoon Designer Guild

Usually the configuration for an animal made for ZT includes a [cSuitableObjects] section. The [cSuitableObjects] section says what objects the animal likes and dislikes. This section can include object dll IDs, object internal names (APE IDs), and habitat IDs. In the case of internal names, one of the first 3 characters has to be a letter in order for ZT to recognize it as an internal name. The lines in the [cSuitableObjects] section are in pairs. For example, the first pair of lines in the [cSuitableObjects] section for the Bengal Tiger are:
v = 9410
v = -10

9410 is the habitat ID for "Non-habitat" objects, which includes the shelters that come with ZT. Since "-20" is a negative number, that means the tiger does not like any of ZT's shelters by default. But to see if a specific object is liked or tolerated, one has to look for 2 things in this section: the object's ID, and the object's habitat ID. As an example, the Bengal Tiger likes 7 of the shelters that come with ZT. Its favorite shelter is the Rock Cave, which has a dll ID of 8100 and a habitat ID of 9410. The [cSuitableObjects] section for the Bengal Tiger includes the following pair of lines:
v = 8100
v = 22

That means the Bengal Tiger likes the Rock Cave by 22, before taking the habitat into account. Since the Bengal Tiger dislikes the 9410 habitat ID by -10, ZT adds the 22 and -10 together, giving the total of 12. Since that total is greater than 0, the Bengal Tiger likes the Rock Cave. If the total is less than 0, the animal dislikes the object. If the total equals 0, the animal tolerates the object. The Tank Filter is an example of an object that the Bengal Tiger tolerates. The Tank Filter has a dll ID of 6471 and a habitat ID of 9414 ("Bad-habitat"). The [cSuitableObjects] section for the Bengal Tiger includes the following pairs of lines:
v = 9414
v = -100
...
v = 6471
v = 100

ZT adds the -100 and 100 together, giving a total of 0. Being that the total is 0, the Bengal Tiger tolerates the Tank Filter. As an example of something the Bengal Tiger dislikes, most animals are configured to dislike poo, which has a dll ID of 6062 and a habitat ID of 9412 ("Null Habitat"). 9412 is not in the [cSuitableObjects] section for the Bengal Tiger, so that is the same as being there with a value of 0. But 6062 is in the [cSuitableObjects] section:
v = 6062
v = -5

ZT adds 0 and -5 together, giving a total of -5. Being that the total is less than 0, the Bengal Tiger dislikes poo. As another example, we will look at whether or not the Bengal Tiger likes its preferred object. The configuration for the Bengal Tiger includes "cPrefIconID = 7014" (Mangrove Tree). The habitat of the Mangrove Tree is 9405 (Rainforest). 9405 and 7014 are in the [cSuitableObjects] section for the Bengal Tiger. These are the pairs of lines we see in the [cSuitableObjects] section for those:
v = 9405
v = 3
...
v = 7014
v = 7

Although it is obvious from the above that the animal likes both the Rainforest habitat and the Mangrove Tree, ZT will still add the values together. When we add 3 and 7 together, we get 10. Since 10 is greater than 0, the tiger likes the Mangrove Tree. Although an animal can like its preferred object just from the habitat ID, it is recommended to always include the preferred object ID in the [cSuitableObjects] section so it is obvious that the prefferred object is liked just by looking at the uca/ai file. For suitability purposes, ZT also takes the object's footprint into account. So if an animal likes a full tile foliage object by 5 and a quarter tile foliage object by 5, and they both have the same habitat ID, the quarter tile object is better for suitability, since four can fit in one tile.

When making a new animal for ZT, a designer has to decide what habitats and objects their animal will like, dislike, and tolerate. In order to help with that for objects that come with ZT, the rest of this topic shows the object's ID, habitat ID, and internal name for the objects that come with ZT or were available as official downloads. The lists also include a "SE Icon" column. When an object is used as an animal's preferred object, cPrefIconID is set to the object's ID in the [m/Characteristics/Integers], [f/Characteristics/Integers], and [y/Characteristics/Integers] sections in the animal configuration. cPrefIconID should be in all three of those sections so that the tooltip for the object can appear for males, females, and young. In addition to setting cPrefIconID, cPrefIcon in the animal configuration would be set to the corresponding setting that is in the "SE Icon" column of these lists. So when the Mangrove Tree is the preferred object, cPrefIconID is set to 7014 and cPrefIcon is set to objects/mangrove/SE/SE. The lists also have an "Any user ID" column. When something is in that column, only certain ZT animals can use that object and no user made animal can use it. That is especially useful for shelters. For example, the Rock Cave has something in that column. So a user made animal cannot go in ZT's Rock Cave, although a user made animal can like or tolerate ZT's Rock Cave. Because of that, if a user made animal is configured to need a shelter, the concrete shelters should be included in the [cSuitableObjects] section, since those can be used by any animal. Similarly, no toy or show toy can be used by a user made animal. For completeness, the following lists include developer objects, paths, fences, and uncategorized objects (called "unknown"), although I am not aware of any of those being in the [cSuitableObjects] section for any animal, other than poo and the tank filter.

Usually the configuration for an animal made for ZT includes a [cCompatibleAnimals] section. The [cCompatibleAnimals] section says what other animals this animal dislikes and what animals this animal tolerates. This section can include animal dll IDs, animal internal names (APE IDs), family IDs, and genus IDs. In the case of internal names, one of the first 3 characters has to be a letter in order for ZT to recognize it as an internal name. The lines in the [cCompatibleAnimals] section are in pairs. For example, the first pair of lines in the [cCompatibleAnimals] section for the Bengal Tiger are:
v = 5200
v = -20

5200 is the family ID for "Primitive Ungulate". Since "-20" is a negative number, that means the tiger does not like any animal in the "Primitive Ungulate" family. But to see if a specific animal is tolerated, one has to look for 3 things in this section: the animal's ID, the animal's family ID, and the animal's genus ID. As an example, we will look at whether or not the Bengal Tiger tolerates other tigers or itself. The configuration for the Bengal Tiger includes "cNameID = 5007" (Bengal Tiger), "cFamily = 5206"(Cat), and "cGenus = 5107" (Tiger). 5107 is not in the Bengal Tiger's [cCompatibleAnimals] section, but 5206 and 5007 are. These are the pairs of lines we see in the section for those:
v = 5206
v = -20
...
v = 5007
v = 20

The "-20" for 5206 says that the tiger does not like any cats by default. But the "20" cancels out the "-20". So, although the tiger does not like cats by default, it will not care one way or another if another Bengal Tiger is added to the exhibit. ZT might care about how many are in the exhibit, but it will not care based on this section. When APE and the original APExp are used to create an animal based on the tiger, these lines are copied into the new animal's configuration. But that makes the animal not like itself because the new animal no longer uses the 5007 ID. It uses an 8-character APE ID instead. The Uca Editing Guide talks about how to correct this, but what it says is not the correct way. The guide wants to have the animal like itself. But as can be seen above, the animal should not like or dislike itself. If an animal was made to like itself instead, that can cause ZT to give a smile when another is added to the exhibit, even when the Zookeeper Recommendations says there are too many animals in the exhibit. When I made APExp 3.2, I got around this by changing the 5007 in the above pair of lines to the 5107 genus ID. That way the tiger does not like other cats but will tolerate other tigers, including other user made tigers. I did not use that approach for every animal in APExp 3.2, though, because some animals have the genus ID in this section instead of the family ID. In that case, I had to remove the genus ID pair of lines and the cNameID pair of lines. So the outcome is still the same: the animal will not like nor dislike itself, as intended for any animal made for ZT.

When making a new animal for ZT, a designer has to decide what other animals their animal will dislike and what other animals their animal will tolerate. In order to help with that for the animals that come with ZT, the rest of this topic shows the animal's ID, habitat, family ID, genus ID, and internal name for the animals that come with ZT or were available as official downloads. When referencing the Yeti in a [cCompatibleAnimals] section, one would use the internal name rather than the 19000 name ID, since nearly all user made animals have a 19000 name ID. But when possible, it is better to use genus IDs and family IDs in a [cCompatibleAnimals] section instead of name IDs and internal names, since that will work for new animals made in the future as well.

Ice Blue Bench



Author: fern

Keywords: working bench

Release date: January 4, 2021

Current ztd date: August 9, 2020

Zip size: 12.8 KB

Compatibility: CC or MM

Description: This is a working bench by fern. Guests can use it to rest or eat takeaway food they get from food stands.

This uses the same messages as ZT's Large Bench. So if one selects this ice blue bench in the purchase menu and then rotates the icons in the purchase menu, that will cause the purchase menu highlight to go to ZT's Large Bench instead. Therefore, after rotating the icons, it is always good to select the desired icon again. There are other times when the highlight can move in the purchase menu: when the menu is closed and reopened, when the menu is switched to a different one and then back to the scenery purchase menu, and when ZT goes through its unlocking logic that occurs at the beginning of some game months. So it is good to check which icon is highlighted after any of those as well. We live with this in order not to use up IDs too quickly.

IMPORTANT NOTE: All working benches and tables need a guest hack to work. To make this bench work, the Combined Guest Hack For ZT Community is required. If that hack is not used, guests will get stuck at this bench. The Combined Guest Hack For ZT Community can be downloaded at ZTCDD:

http://www.ztcdd.org/DD/index.php?topic=11622.0


Click here to download IceBlueBench_fn.zip

Coloured Snowmen



Author: Fern

Keywords: winter, snowman

Release date: 10 December 2020
Current ztd dates:
     - AquaTintSnowmand_fn.ztd: December 10, 2020
     - BlueSnowman_fn.ztd: December 10, 2020
     - BlueTintSnowman_fn.ztd: December 10, 2020
     - PinkSnowman_fn.ztd: December 11, 2020
     - PinkTintSnowman_fn.ztd: December 11, 2020
     - PurpleSnowman_fn.ztd: February 12, 2009
     - PurpleTintSnowman_fn.ztd: February 12, 2009
     - RedSnowman_fn.ztd: December 9, 2020
     - SootyHalloweenSnowman_fn.ztd: December 9, 2020
     - SunsetSnowman_fn.ztd: December 9, 2020

File Size: 137 kb

Compatibility: All Game Versions

Description: A few snowmen I recoloured some time ago and have finally put together.

Download Coloured Snowmen

Fun House



Author: Toodlepops
Graphics by Toodlepops, configuring etc by Jay

Keywords: attraction, fun fairs, theme parks

Release date: 26 October 2020
Current ztd date: October 6, 2016

File Size: 433 kb

Compatibility: All Game Versions

Description: Here is a Fun House by toodlepops, which is an attraction for a fee. It uses messages that already exist in LANG--ZKL.dll and langZA01.dll. So either or both of those ".dll" files can be used. The sound used in the Fun House is a snippet of Disney's original Electrical Parade, which is played when the building is used by guests. The Fun House is slightly animated when the building is used by guests. There is a light that goes around the center of the building and the clown's nose at the entrance will change. But the type of change will depend on the Video Quality setting in your ZT. If that setting is set to High, then the clown's nose will blink. When that setting is set to Low, ZT only shows every other frame in an animation. So with the Low setting, the clown's nose will be yellow instead of blinking and the light going around the building will jump a larger distance. The back of the Fun House has an emergency exit, which will not be used.

A note for any developer that might want to look at the used graphics for this. I used a similar technique that is used by in-game animated buildings, where the frames only have the parts that change. That made the ".ztd" one-fourth the size it would have been otherwise. So if you look at the used graphics in Zoot, you will only see the changing parts and you will not see the non-changing parts. Also, I used a ".ucb" file for the configuration. So this cannot be loaded in APE or APExp because those only look for ".ucs", ".ai", and ".uca" files.

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