Animal Project Editor (APE)

Introduction
Welcome to the Animal Project Editor! With this tool, you can make new animals and objects for Zoo Tycoon, complete with sounds and animations. You can also share these new creations with other Zoo Tycoon players.
The easiest way to make a new object is to alter an existing object. This documentation will walk you through this process. This documentation uses the snowman object for its object examples and the African Buffalo for its animal examples.
This documentation starts with instructions on creating new items then describes editing objects and then describes editing animals.

Creating New Items
Creating a new item is done by altering an existing animal or object.
To create a new item
1. From the main menu, click Create a new project
2. Click the New button on the upper left of the Main Menu
3. Double-click the Animals folder if you want to create a new animal, or double-click the Scenery folder if you want to create a new object.
4. Change the existing animal to the new animal you prefer.
Any new objects or animals you make will not interfere with the regular animals that are in the game.
Also, you cannot alter existing animals in Zoo Tycoon. For example, you could make a new lion, but it would appear in addition to the lion in Zoo Tycoon, not instead of it.
Main Menu
From this screen, you can manage your projects.



Create a new project will create a new object or animal from scratch.
Open an existing project allows you to change an object or animal youve already created.
Import an existing project allows you to incorporate multiple objects and/or animals into one project.
Save the current project saves the object or animal youre working on into a file that Zoo Tycoon can recognize.
Manage displays the main menu.
X deletes the selected object.


Click the Create a new project button and the following screen appears.



Double-click Scenery, then scroll down and select the Snowman. When it appears on the left side of the screen, select it again.




The General Characteristics screen appears, which displays the general characteristics of the object.


Cost is how much the object costs to buy in the zoo.
Member of dictates which panel the object will appear in.
Width is the width of the object in tiles. Adjust the slider to the left to decrease and right to increase the objects width.
Length is the length of the object in tiles. Adjust the slider to the left to decrease and right to increase the objects length.
Aesthetic bonus represents how much the object contributes to the overall beauty of the zoo. The four categories of guest (women, men, girls, and boys) can all react differently to aesthetics. For example, by default, boys and girls enjoy snowmen more than men and women. For each type of guest, adjust the sliders to the left to decrease and right to increase the guests appreciation of the object.


The Icons and Images button displays the icons used in the Zoo Tycoon in-game panels and the image of the object when its placed in the zoo.

New objects require eight different images, divided into the four Zoo Tycoon display angles (noted by the compass point direction notation above each image).
Icons are the images for menu icons (the icon that appears in panels used to buy the object).
Game Images are in-game images (how the object appears when placed in the zoo).
IMPORTANT NOTE:
Create the images in a bitmap image editing program such as Paint. Icons should measure 44 by 35 pixels. The image of the object in the game can be as large as 255 by 255 pixels.
To replace the image of the snowman with your object, select the image you want to replace, then click the file folder button and select your new image.

The Animations button displays the objects animations, if any.


There are seven buttons along the top center of the screen.
The file folder icon displays a dialog box allowing you to pick an image to add to the animation sequence.
The floppy disk icon allows you to save a frame of animation as a separate image file.
The X deletes a selected frame from the animation.
The left arrow and right arrow allow you to change the order in which frames appear in the animation sequence. To change the order, select the frame you want to move, then click the left or right arrows to move that frame forward or backward in the animation sequence.
The curled arrows rotate the image, letting you view the object from the four angles from which it is viewed in the game. You can also select the angle from the pulldown menu on the right edge of the screen.
The letters between the two arrows indicate the compass point the object is oriented to.
Animation speed controls the speed of the objects animation when its placed in the zoo.
Underneath the animation window, there are four buttons. They are, from left to right:
rewind to the beginning
pause
ping-pong (play the animation back and forth continuously)
fast forward to the end.


Descriptive Text allows you to edit the items description that appears in the game.


Name is the name of the object.
Phrase is the name the object has in the Zoo Tycoon program.
Tooltip is the text that is displayed when the in-game cursor hovers over the object.
Description is text that you can enter to describe the object.
When youre done making changes to your object, click Manage, then click Save the current project. This allows you to save your object to a folder of your choice.
To use your new object, run Zoo Tycoon and choose Get New Zoo Tycoon Items from the main menu, click Check Locally, then select the file you saved.


Editing Animals
Click the Create a new project button and the following screen appears.



Double-click Animals, then select an animal to alter. When it appears on the left side of the screen, select it again.


The General Characteristics screen appears.

General displays the general characteristics of the animal.
Cost shows how much the animal costs to buy.
Family assigns the animal to a group of animals. Each group has special rules in Zoo Tycoon.
Abilities are behaviors that you can assign to the animal. For example, selecting swims indicates that during the animals normal behavior, it will occasionally swim.
Reproduction controls a variety of factors involved in the animals reproduction:
Reproduction chance is how likely the animal is going to reproduce. Slide the tab to the right to make it more likely that the animal will try to reproduce.
Reproduction interval is how often the game will check to see whether the animal will reproduce. Slide the tab to the right to make it more likely that the animal will try to reproduce.
Baby to adult time is how long in game time the animal takes to develop into an adult. Slide the tab to the right to increase the time it takes for the animal to grow up.
Happy threshold generally controls the animals tolerance to unsuitable exhibits. The further the tab is moved to the right, the more the animal will tolerate an unsuitable exhibit.
Offspring controls how many babies are produced when the animal reproduces. Slide the tab to the right to increase the number of babies.
Social animal allows you to select whether the animal is comfortable in an exhibit with animals other than its own kind. If this box is not checked, then the animal will not tolerate any other type of animal in its exhibit.
Needs a shelter dictates whether the animal requires a shelter in its exhibit or not. If the box is checked, the animal requires a shelter.
Icon is the image that appears in panels used to buy the animal. To load a image, click the folder then browse to the image file you want to load.
Plaque is the image of the animal that appears when the info button is selected. To load an image youve made yourself, click the folder then browse to the image file you want to load.
NOTE:
Create the images in a bitmap image editing program such as Paint. Icons should measure 44 by 35 pixels. Plaque images should measure 179 by 194 pixels. The image of the object in the game can be as large as desired.

The Animations button displays the animals animations. In the following screen, you can alter or create entirely new animations for your animal. You can create the individual frames of animations in a separate program, such as Paint, or alter existing frames using Paint or a similar program.

There are eight buttons along the top of the screen.
The first filmstrip button (upper right of the screen) saves the animation as a separate file.
The second filmstrip button (upper right of the screen) deletes an animation file.
The file folder (middle top of the screen) produces a dialog box allowing you to pick an image to add to the animation sequence.
The floppy disk allows you to save a frame of animation as a separate image file.
The X deletes a selected frame from the animation.
The left arrow and right arrow allows you to change the order in which frames appear in the animation sequence. To change the order, select the frame you want to move, then click the left or right arrows to move that frame forward or backward in the animation sequence.
The curled arrows rotate the image, letting you view the object from the four angles from which it is viewed in the game. You can also select the angle from the pulldown menu on the right edge of the screen.
The letters between the two arrows indicate the compass point the animal is being displayed at.
Animaition speed controls the speed of the objects animation when its placed in the zoo.
Underneath the animation window, there are four buttons. They are, from left to right:
rewind to the beginning
pause the animation
ping-pong (play the animation back and forth continuously)
fast forward to the end


Food controls how your animal handles food in the zoo.

Hunger level dictates how hungry the animal is when it first enters the zoo after being adopted.
Hunger increment is the rate at which the animal becomes hungry.
Needed food is the amount of food the animal requires.
Keeper food eaten is how much of the food the animal eats when the zookeeper puts food in the exhibit.


Descriptions allows you to edit the animals description that appears in the game.

Name is the name of the animal.
Phrase is the name the animal will have in Zoo Tycoon.
Tooltip is the text that is displayed when the in-game cursor hovers over the animal.
Description is text that you can enter to describe the animal when the player selects the animal then clicks the Info button.



Compatibility controls how well the animal likes certain terrain, other animals, foliage, and exhibits.

To change the animals preferences, select the terrain, animal, foliage, or exhibit in the list on the left, then adjust the slider bars on the right. Moving a tab to the right makes the animal like the item more; moving it to the left makes the animal dislike the item more.
Prey
If you select an animal, you also have an opportunity to declare whether the selected animal is prey for the animal youre editing. If it is, click the meat icon. If the animal youre editing encounters an animal youve designated as prey, your animal will chase and eat it.
Sounds allows you to add new sounds to the animal.

The list of sounds on the left are the sounds currently associated with the animal.
The list of sounds on the right are built-in Zoo Tycoon sounds that you can associate with your animal.
You can create new sounds for your animal. You will have to create new sounds on your own and save them in .WAV format then load them with the APE tool:
First, click the folder button then browse to the .WAV files you would like to associate with your new animal. Once all the sounds are in the list, click the floppy disc button to save them. The X button deletes sounds from the list and the speaker button plays the selected sound.
Delay (in ms) this variable is not documented.



Behaviors allows you to modify the animals behavior in the zoo.


Modifying animal behavior is an especially complicated process, and this documentation cannot fully encompass all the variables associated with animal behavior. However, a guide to animal behavior follows.
Every animal has a default behavior depending on the state theyre in. For example, when an animal is happy, there are a number of behaviors it could exhibit (such as rolling around and purring). Each behavior has a chance, expressed as a percentage, of being active at any one time. In addition, each behavior has a list of actions associated with that behavior (rolling, purring, playing with a toy, etc.).
You can alter the list of behaviors the animal has to choose from as well as the percentage chance of each behavior occurring.
The list on the left displays the total list of states to choose from. Not all animals have a behavior associated with a particular state (the African Buffalo does not play with toys, for example).
The list on the right displays the behaviors the animal will exhibit in the order they will be exhibited.
The bottom portion has a number of pulldown menus for altering behavior.
Function is the name of the state the animal is in.
Behavior set is the behavior the animal will exhibit when the animal is in the state listed under Function.
Percent is the percentage chance of that behavior being engaged by the animal.
Not all states have multiple behaviors to choose from. You will have to experiment to understand what each behavior means and how it affects the animal in the zoo.
Behavior Modification Example
The first state listed for the African Buffalo is bHappy. When the African Buffalo is happy, it has one set of behaviors to choose from (fPlaySetProb) that it will perform continuously as long as the buffalo is happy. The behavior fPlaySetProb has three functions: fPlaySetProb, bHappy1, and bHappy2. The buffalo will exhibit bHappy1 behavior 50% of the time, bHappy2 30%, and fPlaySetProb 20% of the time the animal is happy.
There is also room to add up to two other functions. If you wanted the buffalo to have a chance to exhibit angry behavior when it is happy, you could set a new, fourth, function by selecting bAngry1 in the pop-up menu, then assigning a percent of 25 to each function.
Make sure that the percent you assign to all the functions adds up to 100.

The Properties 1 and Properties 2 screens control a wide variety of variables associated with your animal.

The properties are grouped for easy reference only. Adjust each slider bar to the right to increase the variable, left to decrease it.
Not all of the properties are documented here; you will have to rely on the label for each variable and experimentation to determine how each variable affects the animal in the game. Experiment and have fun!