Developer Menu Hack

[Jay]

Developer Menu Hack



Author : Jay

Category : Hack

Date Added : February 16, 2013

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

Updated : August 23, 2013 by Jay to include 7 DD rubble, although those can only be used if you have a ZT version that includes DD. An icon was also added that shows the message "DO NOT USE; CANNOT DELETE" for use by user made zoo entrances and user made zoo walls.

Current ztd date : August 23, 2013

Size : 369 KB

Compatibility : All Game Versions

Overview : Allows using ZT's developer objects, allows changing a zoo's available cash, and allows unlocking everything.

Description : When Blue Fang (BF) created Zoo Tycoon (ZT), they also created developer objects for their map makers to add to their maps. In addition, they created a developer menu to allow those developer objects to be selected. The developer menu also allowed a map maker to unlock everything and to change the currently available cash amount for a zoo. This hack turns that developer menu on, although in a slightly different way. BF's approach added a "X" at the top left of the ZT screen, while this hack adds a "Dev Menu" button at the top left of the ZT screen. When that "Dev Menu" button is clicked, the Developer Menu is shown. BF's version did not include a menu name, button tooltip, or icons for the various developer objects, while this version does. To change the available cash amount for a zoo, click the Zoo Cash amount shown in the Developer Menu and change it. It is recommended that the game be paused while doing this because, if you make a mistake and have the amount too low, the amount could go negative with zoo activity going on. To unlock all research, objects, and animals, including "easter eggs" and specials, click the "Unlock Everything" button in the Developer Menu. The unlocked objects and animals will be in the purchase menus where they are normally found. Although all research is unlocked, the research was not actually done. So when the zoo is saved and reloaded, those things will still need to be researched. But any researched object that was put in the zoo will continue to be in the zoo when the saved game is reloaded. When the Developer Menu is closed and reopened after clicking the "Unlock Everything" button, zoo walls, zoo entrances, and admission booths will also be available to add to zoos. However, they should not be used without the Developer Map Editor Hack because they cannot be deleted without a map editor hack and they can cause ZT to become confused if they are added to a zoo, especially for the zoo entrances. If you do not have a map editor hack, their icons in the Developer Menu will be a generic wall icon for the zoo walls and blank icons for the zoo entrances and admission booths. So they should be easy to avoid using. If you click ZT's bulldozer icon (for deleting things) while the Developer Menu is up, the bottom part of the Developer Menu will become blank. Clicking an icon in the Developer Menu or closing and reopening the Developer menu will cause the information in the bottom part of the Developer Menu to reappear. Being a hack, this hack cannot be used at the same time as any other "ui/main" or "ui/develop" hacks, although there might not be any others. In order to see some of the messages for the Developer Menu, lang999-override.dll is also needed. Among other things in lang999-override.dll, the tooltips for the DD and MM developer objects were changed to add "DD" and "MM" to their tooltips so one would know which ZT version added those particular developer objects. Some versions of the user made Garden Bench, McDonalds Picnic Table, McDonalds Bench, McDonalds Food Stand, 7up Machine, and Pepsi Machine used the same message IDs in their ".dll" files as were used by MM developer objects. But everyone should use only ZT supplied ".dll" files and user made combined ".dll" files, in which case those particular user made object messages will not override the MM developer object messages.

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 dated August 23, 2013 or newer:
http://www.ztcdd.org/DG/index.php?topic=5353.0

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

The preferred location for developerMenuHack.ztd is a hacks or hacks-unused folder to keep hacks separate from non-hacks. 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 "./hacks;" right after the "=". Although not necessary for the Developer Menu Hack, it would also be useful to have "./mapmaker;" before "./hacks;" in case you ever want to edit maps. 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: hacks

6. Put developerMenuHack.ztd in the hacks folder you created in step 5.

Once the above setup is done, if you ever want ZT not to see the files in the hacks folder, rename the hacks folder to hacks-unused. To have ZT see those files again, rename the hacks-unused folder back to hacks.

Example On How To Use : Start ZT. Start or load a zoo. Click the "Dev Menu" button. The above screenshot shows the "Dev Menu" button at the top left. Click on an object in the menu. Put the object in the zoo. Click the Pause button. Click the Zoo Cash amount shown in the Developer Menu and change it. Click the "Unlock Everything" button. Click the Animals purchase menu and note that all animals are there, including unicorns.

Additional Notes : I feel developerMenuHack.ztd can be kept in the hacks (or dlupdate or Updates) folder most of the time. People do not have to click on its icon, although it will be there when they want it. However, it should not be in any ZT folder (although it could be in a hacks-unused folder) at the same time that any developer object pack ".ztd" or the Zoo Admin map editor is in a ZT folder. All of those things use a different approach to how the developer objects are handled, especially for the icons. Of course, the developerMenuHack.ztd is the closest to how Blue Fang developers handled the developer objects.

Click here to download the zip containing this ztd

[Jay]

The Developer Menu Hack download was updated to include 7 DD rubble, although those can only be used if you have a ZT version that includes DD. An icon was also added that shows the message "DO NOT USE; CANNOT DELETE" for use by user made zoo entrances and user made zoo walls.