Mod to remove snakes?

[Chalkstix]

While I like the game, and really want to play it, I suffer from severe Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) and I can't build exhibitions because if I want to adopt an exhibition animal, the list includes snakes (and for whatever reason, there's multiple types of snakes in the game...). So, how difficult would it be to make a mod that removes the snakes from the game?

[Speedy]

Why not use the drop down menu and use the filter option to tick only the animals/exhibits you want to see that way it won’t show you the snakes if you don’t tick them. If your unable to do this yourself couldn’t you ask a friend or family memebr to sit and do it for you. The filter will stay set until you change it or Change zoo etc

[MessiahofMelons]

Originally posted by Speedy:

Why not use the drop down menu and use the filter option to tick only the animals/exhibits you want to see that way it won’t show you the snakes if you don’t tick them. If your unable to do this yourself couldn’t you ask a friend or family memebr to sit and do it for you. The filter will stay set until you change it or Change zoo etc

Snakes would still appear before the filter

[Cordon_Bleu]

I suffer the same as you!!

I play in german and the boa contrictor (in german "Abgottschlange") is the first in alphabetical order, using the zoopedia is really annoying, I squint my eyes shut a little bit and click further helps....

[The Former]

Best I can suggest is Speedy's idea. Lean in close, place your hand just beneath your eyes. Like you know how you shield your eyes from the sun? Do that, but underneath your eyes. Try and keep everything but the filter beneath your eyes, then click the filter and filter out snakes. It's a pain in the rear and you'd have to do it every time you opened up the exhibit purchase tab but... Short of modding I have no better ideas, and unfortunately, Frontier's park games don't tend to be very moddable. Historically, most of their code has been packaged in a way that makes it impossible to mod.

Alternatively you could just not use exhibits. I know it's annoying because you're missing out on a feature, but... I've gone through several dozen hours of beta and release gameplay without once placing an exhibit, and I'm still having a ton of fun, so it might be worth it?

[Bruv]

You're playing a zoo game... what do you expect?

[Wh♂♂par]

Wouldn't that be a good training, though?
This is as harmless as it can get. You could slowly try to make progress. Looking at one each day, finding more and more times, when they aren't harmful to you, aren't doing anything to you and maybe after enough tries, you could overcome it!

I'm not playing the phobia down, but trying to turn this into something that you might benefit from instead!

[ThatGuyKhi]

Originally posted by Wh♂♂par:

Wouldn't that be a good training, though?
This is as harmless as it can get. You could slowly try to make progress. Looking at one each day, finding more and more times, when they aren't harmful to you, aren't doing anything to you and maybe after enough tries, you could overcome it!

I'm not playing the phobia down, but trying to turn this into something that you might benefit from instead!

Honestly this has helped alot with my fear as well. Those slithery demons are so unnatural to me lol.
Seeing them in motion is what makes me uneasy so the still photos allow me to ignore them. It does suck that now the models are so realistic compared to tube shaped blobs from older games, but times change.

If it helps, before you load up the game, get comfortable. ♥♥♥♥ grab a blanket and some snacks if you need to. Make sure you're relaxed and not anxious, these pixels could care less about us.

[gorba]

perhaps this can help you get over your fear. everything in nature is beautiful. :)

[The Former]

Originally posted by gorba:

perhaps this can help you get over your fear. everything in nature is beautiful. :)

Swords are beautiful, but they're still scary.

[Chalkstix]

I'm not in a time in my life where I'm ready to overcome my fear. It's usually not an issue since I live in a country that's more or less too cold for those reptiles, and if I go to a Zoo, I just stay away from the tropical exhibits.

While I appreciate the encouraging sentiments, all I'm really looking for is info to find out whether or not it's possible to make a mod that removes them from the game, and if anyone has experience with mods, maybe a pointer in a direction of how to go about making such a mod.

And yes, I'm playing a Zoo game, not a reptile sim.

[The Former]

Originally posted by Chalkstix:

I'm not in a time in my life where I'm ready to overcome my fear. It's usually not an issue since I live in a country that's more or less too cold for those reptiles, and if I go to a Zoo, I just stay away from the tropical exhibits.

While I appreciate the encouraging sentiments, all I'm really looking for is info to find out whether or not it's possible to make a mod that removes them from the game, and if anyone has experience with mods, maybe a pointer in a direction of how to go about making such a mod.

And yes, I'm playing a Zoo game, not a reptile sim.

Well, in that case, my answer remains "most likely not" given the way Frontier's games tend to be packaged. In theory, anything's possible, but let's just say it... wouldn't be a "standard" modding job, unfortunately. It'd require some specialized software and, most likely, cursory knowledge of whatever programming language they coded in.

[Chalkstix]

Originally posted by Sheriff of Nothingham:

Originally posted by Chalkstix:

I'm not in a time in my life where I'm ready to overcome my fear. It's usually not an issue since I live in a country that's more or less too cold for those reptiles, and if I go to a Zoo, I just stay away from the tropical exhibits.

While I appreciate the encouraging sentiments, all I'm really looking for is info to find out whether or not it's possible to make a mod that removes them from the game, and if anyone has experience with mods, maybe a pointer in a direction of how to go about making such a mod.

And yes, I'm playing a Zoo game, not a reptile sim.

Well, in that case, my answer remains "most likely not" given the way Frontier's games tend to be packaged. In theory, anything's possible, but let's just say it... wouldn't be a "standard" modding job, unfortunately. It'd require some specialized software and, most likely, cursory knowledge of whatever programming language they coded in.

Ah, I see... Well, I appreciate the answer :D

[The Former]

Hmm, actually... There's some stuff exposed in the directory that I didn't expect to be. You could, in theory, delete the Snakes directory in the steamapps/common/Planet Zoo/win64/ovldata/animals folder, but... I strongly advise against this as I have no idea what it'd to do the game, and it's almost surely not something Frontier would suggest doing.

You could attempt to cut it to desktop temporarily and see how it works if you wanted to, and paste it back in if something breaks. If it breaks too horribly, you could always just reinstall fresh. My GUESS is that it'll crash to desktop whenever the game tries to read snakes, but there's a slim chance the game will just "???" and throw up empty assets, as well.

[Chalkstix]

Originally posted by Sheriff of Nothingham:

Hmm, actually... There's some stuff exposed in the directory that I didn't expect to be. You could, in theory, delete the Snakes directory in the steamapps/common/Planet Zoo/win64/ovldata/animals folder, but... I strongly advise against this as I have no idea what it'd to do the game, and it's almost surely not something Frontier would suggest doing.

You could attempt to cut it to desktop temporarily and see how it works if you wanted to, and paste it back in if something breaks. If it breaks too horribly, you could always just reinstall fresh. My GUESS is that it'll crash to desktop whenever the game tries to read snakes, but there's a slim chance the game will just "???" and throw up empty assets, as well.

As for something along those lines, do you think it would be possible to find all the snake images and animations, and simply replace them with one of the other exhibition animals?

[The Former]

Originally posted by Chalkstix:

Originally posted by Sheriff of Nothingham:

Hmm, actually... There's some stuff exposed in the directory that I didn't expect to be. You could, in theory, delete the Snakes directory in the steamapps/common/Planet Zoo/win64/ovldata/animals folder, but... I strongly advise against this as I have no idea what it'd to do the game, and it's almost surely not something Frontier would suggest doing.

You could attempt to cut it to desktop temporarily and see how it works if you wanted to, and paste it back in if something breaks. If it breaks too horribly, you could always just reinstall fresh. My GUESS is that it'll crash to desktop whenever the game tries to read snakes, but there's a slim chance the game will just "???" and throw up empty assets, as well.

As for something along those lines, do you think it would be possible to find all the snake images and animations, and simply replace them with one of the other exhibition animals?

In theory, though I'm not sure where those assets are. Within the Snakes folder are species folders, and within that I see two files: <species>.ovl and <species>.ovs. I've never seen these file types before, so it's possible these are package files with image assets cooked in. I wonder if there's a known way to unzip these...?