Animal Population Scanner

Animal Population Scanner

This scanner will read your animal population file and show what's in it. The file is opened read-only, so the population is not changed. It is still a good idea to back up your save game files regularly.

Some things you should probably know:

Installation

This is a stand-alone utility. It does not modify the game and doesn't require the game to run. Extract the whole folder (not just the exe) to wherever you like and start the app.

Note1: You need to have an archive tool installed like 7zip.

Note2: Do extract it to you local drive. Don't run the app from inside the 7zip explorer window!

Where can I find the population files?

For most users they should be located in the save game folder:

C:\Users\\Documents\Avalanche Studios\COTW\Saves\\

For some users it is in their OneDrive folder.

Difficulty Rating

The difficulty rating is based on the animals weight. I used the data available on the internet to map the weight to the difficulty rating as good as possible, but there will be mismatches. Please report those mismatches to help improve this software.

Trophy Rating

The trophy rating stored in the population file is used to predict the medal. However, for animals with TruRACS this value is slightly randomized when the TruRACS is generated. This can result in incorrect medal predictions for animals that are close to the threshold. This goes both ways, a predicted diamond might end up as Gold, but a Gold with a high TR can still turn out as a Diamond.

Anyway, for the vast majority of cases, the prediction is correct.

The map displays your already discovered need zones for the selected species using colored spots. It will even display need zones that are no longer visible in-game due to 'stacking'.

In live mode, the map will also display your current position. In addition, need zones that are active at the current time will be displayed with icons of the species. There is a filter available to display only specific species.

RePopulation List

The list labeled 'RePopulation' is used by the game to store killed animals until they re-spawn.

(It was quite bugged in the past but it seems that has been fixed in a recent game update.)

What do those green entries mean?

The green entries are:

• []Animals that spawned in the current session (when live mode is active) and/or

  []Animals spawned since a previous session (when you are comparing with an older population file).

You get a summary of those when you click on the "Spawned" label in the bottom left corner of the scanner.

A big thank you to Rick Gibbed for sharing his work on the Just Cause 3 tools. It's been a tremendous help in understanding the ADF format.

Shout-out to u/Wingged whose post inspired me to start this project.

Kudos to 0xSthSth1337 for cracking the fur type algorithm.