18 replies to this topic

[Thx]

EDIT: Found it!  I'll have a look at it for you.

Cool!

You know what might boost that coaster's rating significantly would be to remove the lift hill at the end. I think the train will make it back without it and I can't really remember exactly why I put that there. lol

It should either be removed or we should put some additional ride track after it instead of going straight back to the station. 

Also, there is a straight section of track after the two helixes at the end that is straight and flat. We might make that straight section banked and pick up a bit of rating.
(I have a Rush Hour 2 planned that will be a very different animal than RH-1. It's called Rush Hour 2+2.)

edit. Tangle is sitting in NE's "Dump Place" thread in the "advertising" forum a couple pages from the end. I have it tweaked up to 8.75.






(They told me my coasters were old fashioned and hideous, lol.   )

(I think it was the glass balls... )

Thx   

Edited by Thx, 07 November 2010 - 01:57 PM.

[Woodpecker]

Okay, so I spent a few hours last night playing with your layout. The problem you had was that the train took too long after cresting the first lift to crest the second, and from the third lift (the one before the loop) to crest the fourth lift (the one right at the end). That was mainly due to the loss of speed through the helices following the loop, and the distance it had to cover before reaching the fourth lift. During testing the ride seemed to need another block between lifts 1 and 2, so I deleted the water splash and put it there. This isn't needed during normal operations, though. I also took the opportunity to 'tweak' the rest of the layout and make it more interesting, and the following changes were made:

> The train now navigates a curved drop out of the station and runs through the ride superstructure to reach lift hill 1.

> ALL the curves between lift hills 1 and 2 are now banked to reduce g-forces.

> I deleted the hill following lift 2 and inserted a high-speed double-down. The train drops 10 feet, and then 25 feet a moment later, giving two unexpected snaps of airtime. It also decreases the time taken to reach the third lift hill.

> The third lift was raised to increase speed through the final sections. I swapped the subsequent curve pieces around so the larger piece comes first rather than the smaller piece, lowering the lateral g-forces.

> The helices following the loop were deleted and replaced by a knot of track ending in a smooth upward helix at ground level. I inserted a small lift hill to act as a safety block.

> The final run to the brakes was re-routed between lift hill 3 and the double-down, forming a 'sandwich' of track. I inserted two five-foot bunny hops before a 10-foot rise into the brakerun.

> A second station and a 'shuttle' section follows. The riders get off, and then the train slowly navigates a few safety blocks before entering the loading station. This whole section from the brake run to the front of the loading station can hold six trains.

> Safety racks have been added to strategic hills.

> All the water splashes have been removed. Sorry. They pushed the intensity over the limit

> The trains have been changed to 22-seater Prior and Church articulated trains. Although it still runs fine with the PTC four-seater cars, the ride stats weren't as good, and the articulated trains look better when navigating the helices.


Overall the ride is a little bit more compact, it is more exciting, and all six trains run around the circuit without stopping or slowing anywhere they shouldn't. Oh, and the queue line in the photos? It's holding 191 people

Edited by Woodpecker, 09 November 2010 - 09:46 AM.

[Thx]

All right buddy! You have added a lot!

(Lol, I tried to "rotate" the view by pushing the browser's refresh key, lol)

Suu-weedtt!

I really like the sub-station exit. I have tried working out an idea about building coasters on hills and having an exit-only station at the bottom where the peeps get off at the bottom and an empty train rides the lift hill back to the top.

Like this...



I'll have to use that to boost the trains and for ease of loading from now on., thanks!

So... we still have just one block brake?

In reading your thread about block brakes I get the impression people are using more than just one at the end...

Personally, I think I would have a shorter que, but that one looks nice.

(edit: On second thought, that que only holds 191 peeps? It looks like it holds a thousand and 91! lol I guess it would cycle pretty quick with the 6 trains, we had 120 at once on the ride with 5 trains. Half the peeps would get right back on and keep the que pretty full.)

One thing... with all the improvements you put in it still only boosted the rating to 8.6. Maybe that's the most that can be gotten out of that basic layout, I imagine so.



I didn't want the lifts too high for this one, the tallest as you saw was only 95 ft. The thinking was to give them a long ride section that twists and turns both ways and builds velocity gradually.

The flat turns at top... (you make it sound like there were many, lol, just the two layers.) I like to use them at the very top after a lift hill when velocity is low.

I think of my own riding experiences in my youth and always hated those old creaky coasters that often had flat turns at great heights making you think it would tip over off the tracks.

But I know it will radically increase the lateral Gs and basically kill the coaster if they are used with too much velocity.

I really appreciate your work here, it has been fun and educational! 

Any chance of more screens or a download perhaps?

(And, I wouldn't release it anywhere as my coaster anymore, you have done a lot more than minor tweaking, so no way I would think of it as one of my own.)

Thanks for your help again guy! Let me know if you want a custom avvy or sigi or both...)

Here's a couple I made for friends at other forums...











(They shrink down of course in an avvy file.)

I have been trying to get Rush Hour 2+2 off the ground. If I can get it to work like I imagine it will be a pretty big bulky hunk of coaster with 4 coasters sharing one space and boosting each other's ratings just by being in close proximity.


I'll send you a PM with a screen if you want, but it's pretty much under wraps for the time being and we'll have to keep it our secret..       

Edited by Thx, 09 November 2010 - 04:34 PM.

[Woodpecker]

No, there isn't just the one square of "block brake" now, there are five! One at the end of the brake run and four between the two stations. Technically it only needs three between the stations but I added the fourth to improve the flow of the trains. Remember, though, that the game considers all anti rollbacks on the crests of hills as safety blocks, which means the total is about 14, not including the stations.

You said you wanted the ride to gradually gain pace rather than 'splurge', like my revised version does with the high-speed double dip in the middle. The thing is, your ride was a bit too slow for my liking, especially after the third lift. You said yourself that you thought it ought to be faster. Also, the train needed to clear all the blocks in time to prevent the trains behind getting stopped, so those are the reasons why I sped it up a bit. Oh, and I only raised the lift before the loop 10 feet anyway. Not a huge amount.

The queue doesn't have to be that long. It was necessary because of the angle at which the ride was placed in my test park, but it is possible to have a shorter one. I've included some more screenshots below, and one of them shows this shorter queue. They are rather big screenshots, so I've posted most of them as links.



In the picture below, I've added a tunnel going all the way from the station drop-out to the main lift hill, raising the excitement level to 8.92!

http://img812.images.../5213/scr20.png

This one shows how all six trains run smoothly: one on the first lift, one exiting the downard helix before lift 2, one on the third lift, one entering the final course of bunny hops, one between the two stations, and one arriving at the onload platform. Note that the one between the stations will sit ready to roll in as soon as the first train full of guests heads for the lift, maximising throughput.

http://img600.images.../1277/scr23.png

And finally, one showing a shorter queue line. The exit path runs under the upward curves and pops out from under the shuttle section.

http://img541.images.../1786/scr24.png

By the way, if you'd prefer that the onload station was on the same side as the first lift hill, I can do that fairly easily. It just made more sense to me to have most of the ride visible from the queueline, so the guests can see the trains in action.

Edited by Woodpecker, 11 November 2010 - 10:40 AM.

[Thx]

No, there isn't just the one square of "block brake" now, there are five!  One at the end of the brake run and four between the two stations.  Technically it only needs three between the stations but I added the fourth to improve the flow of the trains.  Remember, though, that the game considers all anti rollbacks on the crests of hills as safety blocks, which means the total is about 14, not including the stations.

You said you wanted the ride to gradually gain pace rather than 'splurge', like my revised version does with the high-speed double dip in the middle.  The thing is, your ride was a bit too slow for my liking, especially after the third lift.  You said yourself that you thought it ought to be faster.  Also, the train needed to clear all the blocks in time to prevent the trains behind getting stopped, so those are the reasons why I sped it up a bit.  Oh, and I only raised the lift before the loop 10 feet anyway.  Not a huge amount.

The queue doesn't have to be that long.  It was necessary because of the angle at which the ride was placed in my test park, but it is possible to have a shorter one.  I've included some more screenshots below, and one of them shows this shorter queue.  They are rather big screenshots, so I've posted most of them as links.



In the picture below, I've added a tunnel going all the way from the station drop-out to the main lift hill, raising the excitement level to 8.92!

http://img812.images.../5213/scr20.png

This one shows how all six trains run smoothly: one on the first lift, one exiting the downard helix before lift 2, one on the third lift, one entering the final course of bunny hops, one between the two stations, and one arriving at the onload platform.  Note that the one between the stations will sit ready to roll in as soon as the first train full of guests heads for the lift, maximising throughput.

http://img600.images.../1277/scr23.png

And finally, one showing a shorter queue line.  The exit path runs under the upward curves and pops out from  under the shuttle section.

http://img541.images.../1786/scr24.png

By the way, if you'd prefer that the onload station was on the same side as the first lift hill, I can do that fairly easily.  It just made more sense to me to have most of the ride visible from the queueline, so the guests can see the trains in action.

I like the station, but one thing is that this coaster was made to fit into one of those coaster "bays" I mentioned, so it would have to be altered somewhat to fit.

I did have the second hill higher originally, but I think it was a bit too radical so I took some off.

So you added a tunnel and boosted the rating by 3 tenths +, cool.

I wonder if the removal of the splash cost us a bit. Originally I had a couple, but they slowed the train down too much.

Thanks again for your help and improvements!

Here is a pic of that 2+2 coaster...



(Just kidding about the secret stuff, nobody would want this anyway, lol.)

There are 4 coasters here, each the same.

I haven't been able to get what I'm looking for yet. Each coaster gets a rating of about 6, but by putting 4 together it boosts them up to 7.4.

Still not enough, I am tring to get the basic coaster to about 7.4 to combine up in the high 8s...

I'm still working on it.
The latest version is different than depicted. I really like the grand look of the wooden coaster's supports, I had some heavy scenery planned for it, but I am going to try something like this in a twister. I think the launch hills will lend themselves better to this unorthodox build.

Thx



 

Edited by Thx, 11 November 2010 - 02:20 PM.

[COA]

Thanks for the tips!


btw COA... I ran Rush Hour for 6 years @ $14.50 with 105K profit before I had to change the price.

Thx

Congratulations, Thx! You have (aparently) made a magic roller coaster! I haven't seen a roller coaster that great for price in years!

[Thx]

Congratulations, Thx! You have (aparently) made a magic roller coaster! I haven't seen a roller coaster that great for price in years!

Well, I can see I'm going to be doubted on everything I say around here...


I don't have a screen at 100K, the last one I took was at 70K...



But I imagine if I said 70K I would have been doubted too.

Thx 

[COA]

Well, I can see I'm going to be doubted on everything I say around here...


I don't have a screen at 100K, the last one I took was at 70K...

But I imagine if I said 70K I would have been doubted too.

Thx

Wow, that's cool! and they still pay $14.50 for it? Amazing!


Goodness, you have been playing that park for 23 hours!

[Thx]

Wow, that's cool! and they still pay $14.50 for it? Amazing!
Goodness, you have been playing that park for 23 hours!

It ran at $14.50 for about six years and then had to be adjusted down to about $9.50, ran for another year and came down to $8.20 with 119K profit. I could have run it for a few more years but wanted to move on to another coaster.

The most I think a coaster has brought was around 175K. (one station.)

I remember an elaborate river rapids with two full stations that brought $155K.

Those pics are from my test version of Central Park. That's why It's 23 years old.

I always open a test version of an elaborate park to check scenery and to build custom fit coasters.

There are just a couple small coasters and thrill rides set up near the entrances to keep the cash flowing while I build new coasters.

Thx

Edited by Thx, 17 November 2010 - 12:19 AM.