How Do I.....

[Jay]

searain79 posted Feb 18 2003, 06:22 PM

This will be posted here.. as well as the strategy guide area.
Things will be added to the best that we can.
This is for everyone's benefit, so please enjoy.

How do i...

...get all of my animals available from day 1? I notice they all aren't there in the beginning!
a freeform unlock is what you seek!
it is located either on this site (look under cheats) or this site (look for freeform unlock)

..How do i speed up game play?

first off, we all experience that. here are some tips..
even if you have a 550 mHz, that doesn't mean the amount of memory you have. memory comes in (MB-s megabytes) you can
find how much you have, by right clicking on your MY COMPUTER icon, clicking properties, and then on that general tab,
it shows you at the bottom how much ram (memory) you have.. (could be anywhere form 32 mb of ram to...
64.. ..128.. 256.. 512 and more) upping your ram amount, is ALWAYS a nice thing
you can also turn off blending terrain. it may look a little less natural, but it surely run loads faster.
defragging is great, once and a while. i do that about once every 3 months or so. since ZT is mainly all i use,
defragging doesn't really speed up my gaming. but persay, im sure others swear by it i recommend no more then once a month.
lets move on to video.
your video card also has memory in it. the requirements ask for a 4mb (or was it 8?)
you can find this out, by clicking on your MY COMPUTER icon, clicking properties, and clicking the device manger tab,
(if you run XP, click the hardware tab, then DM) here, click the + sign infront of Display adapters.. this lists
your vide card.
a 32 mb or 64 mb card would do you well, especially if you like zoos with losts of exhibits.
upgrading might be in your stars

...How do i get rid of Double menu items?

Their are several reasons this could happen. Either the person who created your animal forgot to change the icon info or
there is more than one .uca files in one of your animals. If you click on the double icons...say you have 2 tigers showing
up...if you click on one tiger you should get the tiger that came with the game, if you click on the other and get say a
pink tiger, then the person simply forgot to change the animation for the icon of the animal they created. If,
lets say you add a pink tiger to your game and you end up with a pink tiger icon, as well as now having 2 regular
tiger icons...then the pink tiger you added has 2 .ucs files. The way to figure it out is to 1)remove each animal
and put them back one at a time and pay attention to what icons show up OR 2) you can open animals in APE to see if 2 animals were saved in one .ztd file. - THX MAK.

... How do i do the research and conservation ?
when you open the research and conservation panel, there should be a couple tabs to the right of the panel. by clicking on these, you will see things that are checked. uncheck them to your liking. Here are links to screen shots showing some of these panels:

http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~princess/research1.JPG
http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~princess/research2.JPG
http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~princess/research3.JPG
http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~princess/research4.JPG
http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~princess/research.JPG

by using the toggle tabs, if you choose Dino Digs, then unchk everything, then toggle it to Zoo Tycoon, and unchk everything, that leaves you with MM research only.

... How do i get over 1000 guest max count?
In order to have more then 1000 Guests in your zoo at any time, you need to add these lines before the [scenarios] section::

[ai]
maxGuests=XXXX

Where XXXX is the guest limit you want to have, (i.e. 5000)

NOTE: There are reasons why a guest limit of 1000 was set up in Zoo Tycoon:
1. Game testing was done with a maximum of 1000 guests, the more people you have in a zoo,
the more is required of your computer to play the game.
If your computer starts to have trouble or the game runs slow when you have more then 1000 guests,
you should remove these .INI lines.
2. Most Animals are pretty much guaranteed to be affected by more then 1000 guests and will complain
"Animal X is feeling crowded by too many guests." You need to put up solid fences or find other ways
to add more privacy to make the animal happy, but on the other hand not being able to see animals is
the #1 reason for Guest unhappiness.... - MANY THANKYOU'S TO jasonp

...How do i remove items i have downloaded?
go into your updates folder ...if you installed to the default directory the path is
C:/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Zoo Tycoon/Updates
right click on the file you want to get rid of and choose delete-- THX MAK AND snowleopard55

....How do i find the UPDATES FOLDER?
locate c:/Program Files/Microsoft Games/Zoo Tycoon. it's there.


...How do I open a zip file?
check out http://www.winzip.com (its free!)
download and install. this way, you can open any .zip file. you can also go to http://www.rarlabs.com and download winrar. this program also opens .zip and .ztd files

..what I do with .ace files
an ace file is basically a .zip file, but it uses winace instead of winzip ...just another compression program...you can download winace here: http://www.winace.com/ (THX MAK)

...How do i make a combo exhibit??
PLEASE do the tutorial in the game. that is why it is provided.


Marina Mania


How do i get to my Show scheduling window

okay...assuming you are clicking on the feeding platform of the show tank...if that isn't working try this.....
click on the exhibit list...the tree icon on the bottom of screen....show tanks should show up Blue on the list...
click on the show tank in the list and it should bring up the show menu. Here is a link to a screen shot showing the Show Script window:

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/mak1027/show.JPG

if no go, you may need to reinstall.-- THX MAK

...How do i make a GOOD show?

do not place your show tanks close to eachother (If you have an ocra show tank, and a sealion show tank, make sure they are FAR away from eachother.)
do not go overboard with tricks. this will anger the animals, and angry animals... bad show.
do not keep the show on continueous. makes animals sick, mad, hungry, etc. --
they NEED their own natural habitat to do their personal thing. (like eating and doing fish stuff!)
AND, the guests will always be hungry/tired because they go to the shows first (like a fly is to poop) and forget about being hungry and such.
do not make a big show tank if you are low on cash. maintanance is expensive, the bigger the show tank.
have enough for all the specific toys, and the advanced trick area, IF YOU WANT.
guests will boo your show for a couple reasons... if an animal is suddenly ill, and you need to take it out of the tank for it to be cured, the show then is stopped, and the guests will boo. if an animal is hungry and can't find food, the animals happiness quickly diminshes. if an animal is angry, the guests will hate the show.
if an animals dies in a show.. (hah! my sealions always do that!) then the guests will boo!
if an animal show is over priced with not alot of tricks, the guests will boo.
i had a dolphin show that the guests hated because of lack of tricks. if the guests can't see the tricks, then the guests will boo.
what would cause it? a screen shot i think would help here.. cause im not too good at explaining when i have a tired cat on my wrists. basically, if the BASE is too high, they can't see it. Here is a link to a screen shot showing this:

http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~princess/...it/badshow1.JPG

or, if your grandstands are on one side of the screen, and the toys are on the other side. Here is a link to a screen shot showing this:

http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~princess/...it/badshow2.JPG

or, if they are just too far away from the tank. Here is a link to a screen shot showing this:

http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~princess/...it/badshow3.JPG

.. How do i successfully make the Swim With Dolphins Ride?

Here is a link to a screen shot showing a Swim Shack in Zoo Tycoon:

http://sanctuary.damnserver.com/~prince ... lphins.JPG

make SURE there is lots of water available. also make sure it is NOT backwards.
you do not need to attempt to put this in the dolphin tank, or trying to put a dolphin IN the thing.

....How do I change salt water to fresh water
click on the tank platform to bring up the exhibit info...you will see a button that says drain tank...
drain it, then you will have the option of fresh or salt water to refill it.


morningglory posted Apr 22 2003, 09:12 AM

i know this waz already posted sumwhere. . . .i just cant find where!
how do you make your MM screen the size of this screen?
i went to the bottom choice in the tech stuff last night, and my screen blackedout!
now it won't let me in. my screen goes black when i turn it on, but i can hearthe game going. i am alwayz forced to hit ctrl+alt+del or my compooter crashes.
HELP!


searain79 posted Apr 22 2003, 10:18 AM

change screen size? (you mean like 800X600, or 1024X768?)

hope thats what you mean...

locate your zoo.ini file, in c:program filesmicorosoft gameszoo tycoon

open it up with notepad, and look for the following string:

[user]
fullscreen=1
screenwidth=800
screenheight=600

the screenwidth and the screenheight is what you need to change, if it says different on your .ini file.. (make sure it says 800 and 600) lettme know how it goes


morningglory posted Apr 22 2003, 10:39 AM

open it up w/notepad?


searain79 posted Apr 22 2003, 10:51 AM

yeah, open it with notepad or wordpad, by right clicking on the zoo.ini and chooseing *open with* and then selecting wordpad, or notepad from the list.
if you have win 98, you need to click on the zoo.ini, then holddown the shift key, THEN right click on the item and choose *open with*


morningglory posted Apr 22 2003, 11:05 AM

thnx, now what do i change it to?


searain79 posted Apr 22 2003, 11:20 AM

does it say 800 and 600? or something different?


morningglory posted Apr 22 2003, 11:44 AM

it said 1860 and 1024, but i changed that to 800 and 600.


searain79 posted Apr 22 2003, 12:10 PM

ahh good!
so just save the changes, and see if the game opens up for you.

[Bluetterfly]

Hello !

Thanks for this informative topic,

I just got back on Zoo tycoon, as I downloaded the game from a torrent, working pretty well,

Therefore, I can't figure out where to put the ai limit to 5000 or more for example,

May you help me to find out where to insert it ? Thanks,

https://ibb.co/0hcy4Ck
https://ibb.co/pZKK3LK

[Jay]

Welcome to Zookeeper's Lounge.

I do not use the maxGuests setting. But it is useful to know how to change the zoo.ini file for other reasons. In your list, the smaller "zoo" entry is the zoo.ini file. It is the second "zoo" in your list, and has the 2019 date. On my computer, I have Microsoft Windows show the ".ini", but it is not necessary to see the ".ini". The zoo.ini file is what would be edited. Just to be safe, copy that zoo.ini elsewhere to save as a backup.

The zoo.ini file can be edited with any text editor, such as WordPad, which comes with Microsoft Windows. The Notepad program can be used instead of WordPad, but WordPad is a little more powerful. I cannot say the location of WordPad because different versions of Microsoft Windows work differently. I have an older version of Microsoft Windows. In my version, I click start->All Programs->Accessories->WordPad. In WordPad, I click File->Open. In the "Open" window, I go to ZT's main folder. To do this on my computer, I click "My Computer", double-click "Local Disk (C:)", double-click "Program Files", double-click "Microsoft Games", and double-click "Zoo Tycoon". I then change the "Files of type:" setting to "All Documents (*.*)". I then click "zoo.ini" and click the Open button.

Your zoo.ini file can look different than mine, since it depends on what settings you have set and what scenarios you have done. In my case, the end of the zoo.ini file looks like this:


startedAquaTutorial=1

[scenario]
tutorial=0


If I wanted to set the maximum number of guests to 5000, I would add 3 lines before [scenario], making the end of my zoo.ini file look like this:


startedAquaTutorial=1

[ai]
maxGuests=5000

[scenario]
tutorial=0


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

Good luck and Happy Zoo Tycooning.

[Bluetterfly]

That's a kind of answer I find really useful and revelant,

Much thanks for your time & the quality time,

I am now going to try on the new setting and let's see how it goes ^^

Happy end of the year to you and my bless for your health,

Blue.