Tolsimir

• Offline
• Germany

Wow I wasn't expecting that. The moment I saw the Jerks' park I thought we were doomed. Such a fresh and clean aestethic. Great accomplishment, guys.

Of course super happy about the reception of our park. Kudos to everybody on my team, especially to Leon for showing great leadership.

Last but not least huge thank you to the admins for the everlasting professionalism in the presentation and running of the contest. You know how greatly appreciated all your efforts are by the whole community. One might say you actually surpass yourselves every season.

It may be that you have bugged landtextures installed on your PC. In order to avoid glitching, please download these and update them by putting them into your object folder:

https://www.nedesigns.com/topic/38234/tolsimirs-custom-scenery/?p=789634

 

And then by a happy coincidence in our opponents park The Royal Institute of Extraordinary Biota (I had shared with Steve before h2h):

 

[attachment=41431:awning_2.png]

 

 

I also used that object for the round isle, it works perfectly in grass color!

LHC:

 

Very pleasent park. The division in two parts was an interesting choice. Landscaping was throughout well done apart from the toblerone like peaks that have been mentioned by my predecessors. As they mentioned too, the total scaling feels a bit off on the whole map. On the land edge I'm neutral, I appreciate trying out something new but I can't say if it is such a success after all mainly due to the 1 dimensionality of the layer cake rocks. It's giving me too much of a blocky unnatural feel.

From the two sides I enjoyed the natural one a lot more. The overall vibe and atmosphere is outstanding. The foliage plays a role here as does the nice composition. I disagree on the choice of the green for the trees, though. I can understand why you want them to be visibly distinct from the low ground foliage but I'm sure there could have been another solution than the super contrasty saturated green. The temple/castle on the mountain side was surely my favourite building on the whole map, nailed it. For the yaks I think it could have been better if you lowered the maximum velocity of them such that they look less like on speed I reckon (very minor issue lol). Overall, I really enjoyed the serenity of this part, big decision to dedicate such a huge portion of the map to something this tranquil.

The second half I found couldn't live up to the standards set from the first one. The archy was somewhat blocky and there were bits that felt like not 100% polished, it's hard to describe, it just couldn't catch me as much as would have liked. Of course there were also stellar highlights like the rock pillar next to the loop of the coaster or the brick building close to the corner. But for example the corner with the tomb (I guess that's what it is?) doesn't feel like it carries the same visual strengths other parts of the map do. For instance the wooden pathways are somewhat clunky and not as slick as the ones in the mountain side.

Please don't get me wrong if I sound overly critical, I think this park is still very beautiful and some of the previously mentioned points also fall under the category nitpicks. My biggest problem, and what probably made me vote for Cirque in the end, is that I kinda felt this park was very beatifully crafted, good fundamentals in landscaping and composition but there was nothing that wowed me or tried me to suck me into the premise of the park (which after Jens' post I surely did not get). Stuff that could have served for that purpose like storytelling scenes felt partially random or distracting to me (the cutouts on the map edge). For a winner map the little twist was probably missing.

 

Ah regarding the plugin: Imo it didn't add a lot to the park since the revealing effect was not showing something overwhelming probably that made you gaze at it. It moreso was annoying a bit cause it made my game crash twice when I tried to use the scenery picker tool.

LHC:

 

This park is pretty much a big brother to my orrery micro. Hence the theme is right up my alley as someone who has a degree in astronomy (kind of). The eclipse was an awesome effect and worked smoothly, good job on that. All the astronomy related gadgets and structures are well done, maybe random at times but they look good and sell the vibe. Also a bit of a pity that you reused some of those props several times on the map. My problem was more the arrangement of them on the map. For example the navigator thing (the one made from the swinger). It looks super cool with all the movement and then it's put there on the edge with nothing around and apart from the name I don't see what in universe it's purpose is. While we are there, the abundant use of the curved stairs in that floaty manner was not a success in my opinion. The main building is wonderful, I'm a big fan of those painted walls in the windows! The interiors were very, especially the library (good new objects too!), although just having rectangular cut outs without respecting the rest of the architectural structure always puts me off a bit. Apart from the observation tower nothing else of the architecture particularly stood out and I agree with AVC that the macro was rather strange/unbalanced. My personal nitpick is that one strangely saturated brown that always sticks out like a sore thumb.

Overall great park, a compelling theme with a successful presentation with the plugin.

 

Jerks:

I'm sorry to say but I didn't enjoy viewing this park. You could say it succeeded in its premise making it hell for the viewer lol. I felt like I had to turn off the music, the contrasty palette is hard on the eyes. Of course this doesn't mean that there isn't anything on map I liked. For starters, the macro is awesome. Love the bridges radiating outwards. Also the bridges itself, especially the half diagonal ones are very well done. Good design on these. The chains all around are very cool, too. They create a nice visual guidance and were one of the few things in the park not super contrasty. I think the archy/buildings are a bit messy with too much different textures and trimwork while the structures themselves fit the theme well. Probably my favourite detail is the spine look of the coaster, good useage of the invisible color!

In total for sure good craftsmanship showcased but absolutely not my cup of tea, sorry!