INSTALLING EXPANSION PACKS
ok. cleaned up the last one, here is the new revised one.
once you purchase MM:
1. Turn on P.C. (and monitor)
2. While waiting for boot up, open up MM package and let out a hearty *WOOOT!*
3. make sure you first go into c:program filesmicrosoft gameszoo tycoon and backup your screenshots folder, and your saved games folder if you choose. (*HOWEVER-- MM may NOT play your prevoisly saved games from BEFORE installing MM. you may come up with the error *file Currupt.. blah blah blah*.. its nothing YOU'VE done wrong.),
4. uninstall zoo tycoon.
5. once zoo tycoon is uninstalled, i suggest going back into c:program filesmicrosoft games, and just plainly delete the zoo tycoon folder.(saves YOU from any headaches in the future.)
6. now you reinstall zoo tycoon.
no patch is needed.
7. then you install MM. (for our friends outside of the U.S and Canada, you may need to install ZT, then DD, THEN MM.)
8. then, you can download any MS offcial downloads that you used to have.
...but i CAN'T stress this enough... when you DO go ahead an install Marina MAnia, PLEEEEEASE do the suggested upbove steps.
9. Once the game is working, feel free to browse the sites with objects that say MM compatible. ANYTHING user-created ANIMAL wise should work. (atleast, i can guarantee this above statement for user created animals from the lounge)
*NOTE* when downloading and adding anything to your updates folder, PUHLEEEEASE don't go an a download spree. you need to add 5 items at a time, so you aren't overwhelmed by *uh.. which one was it..* if it starts to crash.
also, when you DO install everything, don't fret, in your updates folder, there WILL be 3 items in there. this is normal
NOTE-- if you install things and are weary about how it will effect your game, just install the .ztd file, and do not run the patch overwrite.
*thanks also goes to Dj_Pluffs and Mak1027 and LadyofWolves, Zoogrammy, robbieb, dsnyfan2575, zoogirl, and rudynoname*
i melded their brains and posts together for the combined above statements.
COMBINING ZTD FILES
Combining .ZTD files
Let me preface this by saying...this is a lot easier than it sounds...this is the way I do it, there may be a better way, and if you have an easier way, feel free to post it.
Okay...in order to combine .ZTD files into one file, you first need to extract them, so you need winzip or a similar unzipping program (the one that comes with Windows XP is fine)
For Animals:
say you have 2 animals you want to combine...bluezebra.ztd(APE id# 12345678) & pinkzebra.ztd (APE id#ABCDEFGH) ( I recommend copying the files to your desktop...it makes them easier to work with and if you screw anything up, it's a copy....delete them and start over)
1)start by renaming the files by right-clicking on the file, choose rename, and change the extension from .ztd to .zip...you will now have 2 files bluezebra.zip & pinkzebra.zip
2) extract the files to folders...if you have winzip, right click on the .zip file and choose: winzip/extract to folder....if you are using built in windows unzipper, choose extract all to bring up the extraction wizard ( I also extract to the desktop)
3) now you should have 2 folders on your desktop ....pinkzebra & bluezebra....if you open these folders there will be a subfolder called "animals". Inside the animals folder is a subfolder named with the APE id# of the animal and a .uca file also named with the APE id #, so for the blue zebra you would have a folder called 12345678 and a file called 12345678.uca
4)Whichever animal you choose to work with first, say blue zebra, double click to open the folder and then click and drag the animals folder to your desktop
5) for the pink zebra, open the pinkzebra folder, open the animals folder, then click and drag the ABCDEFGH folder and the ABCDEFGH.uca file into the animals folder from the blue zebra that you dragged to the desktop in the previous step. So you should now have an animals folder with 2 subfolders and 2 .uca files.
6) next you need to create a new .zip file on your desktop by right clicking...if you have Widows unzipper choose new/compressed(zipped)folder...if you are using winzip, choose new WinZip folder...this puts an empty .zip folder on your desktop.
7) click and drag the combined animals folder from step #5 into this new .zip folder, then rename it with whatever name you want and change the extension from .zip to .ztd...so for this case I would name it coloredzebras.ztd...put this file in your updates folder and delete the individual pinkzebra.ztd and bluezebra.ztd
For Objects
the steps are basically the same, just the subfolders in the .ztd file are different...take the objects you wish to combine and extract them like you did for animals, inside you will see 2 subfolders, "objects" & "scenery"
so for example if you want to combine blueflowers.ztd and pinkflower.ztd...follow all steps from above for extracting to folders
then:
1)open the blueflowers folder and drag the "objects" folder to your desktop.....open the blueflowers/scenery folder and there will be yet another subfolder called "other"...drag the other folder to your desktop
2)next open the pinkflowers folder.....open the pinkflowers/objects folder and there will be a subfolder with the APE id# as its name....drag this folder to the "objects" folder you dragged to the desktop in step 1......open the pinkflower/scenery/other folders and you will see the .uca file, drag the .uca file to the "other" folder you dragged to the desktop in step 1
3) right click on the desktop and choose new/folder...name this new folder "scenery" and drag the "other" folder that is on your desktop into the "scenery" folder...you should now have 2 folders again, "objects" & "scenery"
4) just as described above in step #6 for animals, create a new zip folder, and drag the "objects" and "scenery" folders into it. rename it and change the extension to .ztd...for example flowers.ztd
**1 note/hint to add on to this. Dont! go adding in 50 large animals into 1 ztd, this really adds to the loading time, both while starting and ingame. Be sure to spread things out equally. - THX Spin
** original post made by Mak1027
also- here is another way to combine things.
1. Extract all the files that your going to combine into one new folder. Let's say your going to do the bluezebra.ztd and pinkzebra.ztd. Extract both files into the same, new, folder.
2. Zip the whole folder into a new .zip file
3. Rename the .zip file into .ztd with whatever name. In this case we'll name it Zebra_Pack.ztd.
4. Test it in the game to make sure everything is there and works properly. (would the author of this new step please PM me so i can give credit where credit is due)
ADDING UPDATES FOLDERS
If you want to add separate folders for your updates, breaking them down into animals,objects,buildings, pink animals,whatever you want to do...go into you main ZT folder and right click on an empty space, choose new...and then folder .....do this for as many new folders as you want to create. I named all mine starting wth updates, but I don't know if that matters,
Next you need to open your zoo.ini file ( also in the main ZT folder) and look for the section where it says [resource], and add ./nameofnewfolder; for each folder you added. So if you added an updatesobjects and an updatestest folder your resource path would look something like this:
[resource]
path=./updates;./updateobjects;./updatetest;./xpack3/loc;./xpack2/loc;./xpack1/loc;./loc;./zupdate;./xpack3;./xpack2;./xpack1;
it may be slightly different depending on what expansion packs you have.
**to give credit where credit is due, this information was taught to me by Lowenfrau
**original post made by Mak1027
COMPLETE DLL LIST
i posted a little bit of this somewhere else, but i dunno where it is.. anyhow, here are links to the lists of those handy .dll's in your game on fresh installs, and then, *to date* the .dll's as result of all official downloads, located in your main zoo tycoon folder. C: Program Files\ Microsoft Games \ Zoo Tycoon. enjoyeth.
http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~prince ... /mmdll.JPG
http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~princess/...ad/bonusdll.GIF
sheila77 posted Aug 30 2003, 01:14 AM
How do you know when it is time to add an updates folder? Is it better to do it just so you can keep your stuff organized, or do you need to do it at a certain point to keep the game running smoothly? I am wondering because I heard that your updates folder can get full and cause problems with the game, but how do you know when that happens? Will you receive a message to that effect? And if you just keep one updates folder does that affect game performance at all? Do I ask too many questions?
searain79 posted Aug 30 2003, 03:48 PM
from what i know, the max for .ztd's is between 390 and 426, along that number. it wont so much decrease performance, just cause game crashes, because there are too many things trying to load... i think..
Jay posted Sep 4 2003, 11:41 PM
Adding an updates folder does not help avoid any Zoo Tycoon limits. It merely is a convenience for a user to find things more easily. There might be a limit on the size of the path line in the zoo.ini file. I haven't used that technique myself because I like my computer to look just as disorganized as my mind.
The combining of ztd files, however, I do use. This avoids one of Zoo Tycoon's limits.
I ran a test using the original Zoo Tycoon program with the 2002 patch. Here are the limits and results that I found. DD, MM, and CC might have different limits.
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).
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.)