Changing an Animal's Prefered Biome

[Methane]

A short disclaimer:

You should always create backup files of ANY game file before you edit it.
If you somehow mess up, it's not my fault. The directions here are acurate and valid.
I DO NOT have any expansion packs for ZT2. These directions were written for and from the origional ZT2, and things may have been changed around for expansions.
I am not advocating cheating on the game. This is merely a guide, and what you do with it is your own decison.
You need an archiver like WinRAR to edit your game files.



This is my fourth guide in two days. I wonder if I'll get in trouble for this?

Anyway, for this one, I would like to say:

I have never actually changed the biome for an official animal. Therefore, although the directions in this guide are acurate, I have no idea if the guests will think the animal is in the wrong biome or not if you change it. Please PM me if you have any information regarding this.

So, like in the past three guides, you have to go to your entities.z2f file. And I'm real sorry, guys, but this time you get copy-and-pasted directions about how to get to your entities file from the last guide. As always, the real editing part starts when you see some blue.


What you need to do is open up this file in My Computer:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Zoo Tycoon 2

Then click on the file named entities.z2f. If a little message comes up saying that Windows cannot open this file, choose to select a program on the list, and open it with WinRAR (or whatever program you use).

Now, inside the entities folder there will be five folders (not counting the readme).
Click on the files in this order:

Units > Animals > Ai

The real file editing starts here. I HIGHLY sugest you make a backup file for this one, even if you usually don't.


Click on any animal's MAIN file. Each animal has around seven files. For example, if you are changing the Camel, you want to click on the file that says CamelDromedary.xml, not CamelDromdary_Young_M.xml, or any other Camel file.


Sort of in the middle, there will be this block of text (as copied from the Camel file):

     
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
     

As you can see, the Camel obviously likes the Desert the best, as the Sensitivity is 10 and it has 'primary="true"' right next to it. And it really hates the Tundra, because the sensitivity is -10.

So if you wanted the Camel to like Tropical Forests, and ONLY Tropical Rainforests, you would change the code to look like this:

     
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
         
     

As you can see, near the top it now says rainforest_northafrica instead of desert_northafrica. This is to completely identify the Camel with rainforests.

[COLOR="Red]Do NOT change the sensitivity to anything below -10 or above 10. Anyone who has edited animals in the past knows that this is a very delicate part of a file to edit. If a random space or backslash is in the wrong place, the animal will mess entirely up.[/COLOR]

Just save your file and load your game. Your Camels will now love the rainforest but hate any other biome.

I don't see why you would want to use this, unless you think something in the game is unrealistic, or you think Savannah animals should also like Scrub, or something like that.

PM me with any questions, and I'll help the best I can.

PLEASE NOTE: THESE GUIDES INVOLVE EDITIING YOUR GAME FILES.  IF YOU DECIDE TO DO THIS MAKE SURE YOU BACK UP THE ORIGINAL GAME FILES. WE ARE NOT HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY PROBLEMS YOU MAY ENOUCONTER FROM FOLLOWING THESE GUIDES.  RND - FORUMS ADMIN