Zoo Tycoon 1 Limits And Suggested Solutions

[Jay]

This lists some of the limits and suggested solutions for Zoo Tycoon 1. The first couple limits have been known for a while. The last couple are new.

The tests use the original Zoo Tycoon program with the 2002 patch. DD, MM, and CC might have different limits and different behaviors.

LIMIT: Total number of all ".ztd", ".Ztd", ".ZTD", and ".zip" files in all Zoo Tycoon folders.

Zoo Tycoon was able to use a total 508 ztd/Ztd/ZTD/zip files. This includes the ztd files in the Zoo Tycoon main folder and the loc folder. With DD, MM, and CC, these would include ztd files in other folders as well. In my case, I was able to have 381 files in the Updates folder. I do not know CC's layout. I suspect it adds ztd files in other folders, which might mean that the Updates folder would have to have even less than 381 files.

When the limit was exceeded, the game would load and get to the first menu. But then Zoo Tycoon would just sit there doing nothing after selecting Continue Saved Game, Load Saved Game (followed by picking a zoo), or Play Tutorial and Scenario Game (followed by picking a scenario and clicking Play). Zoo Tycoon would crash after selecting Play Freeform Game (followed by selecting a map and clicking Play).

SUGGESTED SOLUTION

Combine multiple user ".ztd" files into one or a few ".ztd" files. The topic at http://www.lunamanar.com/zklounge/viewtopic.php?t=846 gives various step by step instructions.

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LIMIT: Total number of lang/LANG/res types of ".dll" and ".DLL" files in the Zoo Tycoon folder.

Zoo Tycoon was able to use 62 lang/LANG/res types of dll/DLL files. The more expansion packs and the more MS downloads one has, the fewer user created dll files one can have.

When the dll limit was exceeded, Zoo Tycoon would not even start. (Clicking on the Zoo Tycoon program icon would cause a few seconds of disk and CD activity, but nothing after that.)

SUGGESTED SOLUTION

The Object Downloads section has a combined ".dll" file that contains the information from many ".dll" files from a number of ZT sites. There are also several other combined ".dll" files at other ZT sites that have additional messages.

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LIMIT: Total number of things in a single purchase menu.

Zoo Tycoon only allows up to 3000 things in any single purchase menu. It does not matter if these things are user created or ingame things.

When this menu limit is reached, the user things in the menu were blank and nothing in the menu could be selected.

SUGGESTED SOLUTION

Always put ".ztd" files in manually instead of from within Zoo Tycoon. Keep track of what was put into the game. If you have lots of downloads, only put in things that will be used for that zoo and move them out when done. An alternative is to have different folders containing the ".ztd" files. You can then have different zoo.ini files indicating which folders to use (on the "path=" line). Although it is faster to move different zoo.ini files than to move lots of ".ztd" files, it can also be more dangerous if you edit the zoo.ini incorrectly. Be sure you have backups of the zoo.ini file if you use this approach.

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INEFFICIENCY: Zoo Tycoon can freeze temporarily doing unlock checks while purchase menus are up.

There was also another Zoo Tycoon problem discovered during the above test. If a purchase menu is up when Zoo Tycoon did its check to see if it needed to unlock anything (first day of March, June, September, and December in the first game year), it took 1/3 of a second for each item in the menu. That is not long when the menu is small. But with 3000 things, that is 17 minutes with the game being frozen. This was on a computer with a 700 MHz processor. It would probably be faster on faster computers.

SUGGESTED SOLUTION

Either Pause the game when opening a large purchase menu or make sure the menu is closed before Zoo Tycoon does its unlock checks on the first day of March, June, September, and December in the first game year.

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LIMIT: Total number of user things that do not use ".dll" files.

Zoo Tycoon might have a limit of 3000 things that do not use ".dll" files. This is a more difficult one to check. It is not the number of user ".ztd" files. It is the total number of ".uca" and ".ucs" files in all of the user ".ztd" files. Although Zoo Tycoon might be overwriting internal messages after 3000 things, I do not know how much higher it has to go before it is noticeable while running Zoo Tycoon. I was able to go more than 3200 (split among different purchase menus) without noticing a problem.

SUGGESTED SOLUTION

The same ones as mentioned for the 3000 things in a single purchase menu limit.

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The above information may be copied to any web site. If there are any suggestions for changes, please post them at Zookeeper's Lounge. That is where this information will be kept up-to-date.

"Zoo Tycoon 1 Limits And Suggested Solutions" is in the Technical Support section at the Zookeeper's Lounge web site:
http://www.lunamanar.com/zklounge/index.php
- written by Jay

[Jay]

Fern has discovered another limit, but it is a different type than above. This is something to check if your game crashes when you try to load a saved zoo, continue a saved zoo, or start a new zoo. Look in the zoo.ini file inside your main Zoo Tycoon folder. You can use any text editor, such as Notepad. Search to see if there is an "unlockCount" line. If there is, look at the number after the "=". If the number is larger than 999, then the game will crash. If so, then change the number to 1, save the file, and try running the game again to see if it crashes. Hopefully it will not crash. If it still crashes, then there was some other problem in addition to the "unlockCount" problem. If you change zoo.ini, be careful not to change anything else except the "unlockCount" line. It is also okay if there is no "unlockCount" line.

Fern and I tried to determine what causes the "unlockCount" number to be increased. We know it is when certain zoos are loaded or continued. Most zoos do not cause the "unlockCount" number to be increased. Those that cause the increase will always cause the increase. But we cannot determine what is unusual about those zoos over others.