Park / Umbongo Congo

Park_1188 Umbongo Congo

1,433 Comments

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  • Kumba%s's Photo

    I've lost in this three times now,

    :lol: I know your pain, hang in their you still have one more shot but you'll need to hurry.

    btw Standings updated
  • John%s's Photo
    Hey, 'ris, on the first page it lists cBass as winning both the 10th and 11th rounds. I thought that was impossible. ;)
  • Pym Guy%s's Photo
    deano should have won.

    I'm sorry, but his was just amazing - coaster or not.
  • Jacko Shanty%s's Photo

    ^ what's your point? If you think I'm arrogant say it right out. I merely stated facts and my opinion. I don't want this to be a big deal... I lost, I'm dissapointed, I'll be back. End of story?

    This is obviously making you really bitter. I can see how it would too - but you don't have to go off saying bad things about all the other entries. Yeah, yeah.. I know it's YOUR opinion and all that - but you could have at least congratulated rwadams rather than get defensive over the reason you got 4th and slam everyone who placed higher. It's called manners.. and yes, you do come off as arrogant.

    On a side note, however.. I just checked out your entry and it WAS actually pretty good.. about equal to rwadams - just don't get cocky with it. ;)
  • deanosrs%s's Photo

    rwadams deserves to get through

    Well, I did say that...

    I'm obviously annoyed right now, so don't take anything I say too seriously... other than, next week, they'll be three people who've won on the fourth go.... :devil:
  • cBass%s's Photo
    I don't watch many movies, so I wasn't too surprised to see I hadn't seen a single one of the seven films represented in this Pro Tour round. That being said, I did enjoy touring these entries.

    Way to go, Roger!!! The Roman theming was a perfect match for your skills, and you did some wonderful things with it. The architecture and landscaping are simply gorgeous. Great use of the columns, arches and stairways. My only tip is that the coaster's last, slow corner had no business being banked. But the rest of the coaster is first-rate. I especially like the timing of the interlocking loops. Welcome to the Pro Tour!

    AP: The atmosphere of your Alcatraz Island is its greatest feature, IMO. The prison buildings are all quite realistic. And the little touches like the mechanic corner with the flames are very nice. The coaster didn't seem too thrilling, but it isn't really that kind of ride, I guess.

    Deano: As I mentioned, I haven't seen ROTK (probably the next movie I will see) so I probably didn't appreciate your entry as much as I would have otherwise. Regardless, it just seemed a little lacking. I think what most people refer to as "atmosphere" is really a park's ability to take the viewer to another place, to make you see the scene as much more than the sum of its parts. I didn't really get that from ROTK. I don't know if it's the barren landscape or what. It just didn't do it for me.

    ECC: I love the little helicoptors, but there's really not much else to go on in your entry.

    A side note: Am I the only one who doesn't see the appeal of the ride-crash-simulating-explosions things? It's kind of novel the first time you see it, I suppose, but eventually I just get sick of closing all the ride windows. The effect lost all of its belief-suspending ability for me a long time ago.
  • ECC%s's Photo
    Yeah, mine wasn't really much of a park, but I just wanted to see what people would think of it. I knew I wouldn't place good, but it's my first park so, yeah.

    Congrats everybody else, I'll take a look at them soon. :)
  • AustinPowers%s's Photo
    deanosrs

    I was dissapointed to lose to Austin Powers' entry as this coaster was also its weak point -look at the ratings.

    This wasn't build the best movie-themed "coaster".....it was build the best movie-themed "ride"....I did use a coaster for my ride but apparently you did not read my readme....where I stated it was built as a "ride" more than a coaster....
    panoramical

    I don't think Austin Powers should have come so high. You can hardly see the coaster, and the hacking really isn't good. Also, the ratings are poor. and it's a wooden wild mouse coaster! Imagine an advert on tv: coming soon... the wooden wild mouse coaster! You can't imagine it. And as for the theming, I really didn't capture it. And who's heard of the film, the Rock? Not saying it's bad or anything... just constructive criticism/

    I'm sorry but I'm not getting any constructive criticism in any of that. If you have never heard of the Rock or seen the movie, you would not understand the park. I even said that in my readme, which you must not have read. It was not a wild mouse coaster....it was a wild mine coaster which fits the movie perfectly, as anyone who has seen the movie would agree. Again, it was not a "coaster" contest but a "ride" contest; hence, the coaster "stats" mean relatively nothing in this entry. The theming was all based on the movie and there are tons of little details from the movie that are in the park. But again; if you didn't see the movie...you wouldn't get it...
    cbass

    A side note: Am I the only one who doesn't see the appeal of the ride-crash-simulating-explosions things? It's kind of novel the first time you see it, I suppose, but eventually I just get sick of closing all the ride windows. The effect lost all of its belief-suspending ability for me a long time ago.

    I agree with you there cbass, if the explosions don't really mean anything other than shock value....but had you seen the movie, The Rock, my explosions actually did mean something...as anyone who has seen the movie would know.

    Anyway, its all good. I am glad Coaster Ed 'got it'....I was concerned that if iris hadn't seen the movie...the park wouldn't have made much sense :yup: ...I am happy to have placed second. Good luck deanosrs on next weeks entry...I don't have time to enter again. I appreciate the comments, keep them coming...especially from those that have 'seen' the movie...and I congratulate rwadams on finally getting into the Pro Tour!

    I will post comments about all the other parks later.
  • Brent%s's Photo

    A side note: Am I the only one who doesn't see the appeal of the ride-crash-simulating-explosions things? It's kind of novel the first time you see it, I suppose, but eventually I just get sick of closing all the ride windows. The effect lost all of its belief-suspending ability for me a long time ago.

    Yes! I'm so sick of opening up parks like that... :@


    Anywho, congrats Rog on getting in the PT. I had an entry set up, but stopped once I found out you were in it. Meh, I only had like 30% of it done, I shall post it soon, or not.
  • deanosrs%s's Photo

    deanosrs
    This wasn't build the best movie-themed "coaster".....it was build the best movie-themed "ride"....I did use a coaster for my ride but apparently you did not read my readme....where I stated it was built as a "ride" more than a coaster....

    No, fair play, I didn't. But then few grasped the idea (albeit a pretty crap one in hindsight) of my coaster not being, well, a coaster, but a "storyline" as explained in the readme. I haven't seen the Rock anyway... I always thought it was some wrestling piece of shit... obviously far from it. Shows how much I know about films...
  • Panic%s's Photo
    RWAdams' entry was the best Roman-themed work I have ever seen in RCT.
  • Kumba%s's Photo
    If you have not seen "The Rock" you should its an awsome movie, made by the same guy who did: Gone in 60 seconds, Armageddon, Bad boys 2 and Con Air. plus AP recreated Alcatrz almost perfectly.
  • deanosrs%s's Photo
    ^ really? I've only seen gone in 60 seconds out of that lot but that's one of my all time favs...
  • Jacko Shanty%s's Photo
    Wow, AP.. I just checked out your entry and it was great.. I thought you should have won this one. It was very adventurous and innovative - I liked how the carts break through the fences.. and under the ridges and whatnot.. very cool. :yup:
  • mantis%s's Photo
    cBass - hold delete and that takes care of the windows that pop up.

    I'm d/ling and looking right now.
  • deanosrs%s's Photo
    Public Apology:

    Sorry for the coaster explosions in my entry. They weren't even done that well... they were supposed to contribute to the atmosphere but they just made it even worse.... ;)
  • Janus%s's Photo
    My opinions on the top four entries:

    Deanosrs - Sorry, but I think this was only decent. I don't really think you captured Gondor as it is described in the books or the movies, and that orc army bored me rather than scared me. As cBass said; it lacked atmosphere. The coaster, or should I say storyline was a bit meh. Very cool idea, but it actually ruined the park instead of enchancing it.

    darkfire - A bit dull in my opinion. The bridges between the buildings was cool, good use of ride pieces, neat details like that shuttle, and a overall nice idea. But it bored me. I don't quite know why, maybe it was all the grey, maybe the lack of naming or something.

    AP - Wow, realistic! I like the coaster because it didn't dominate the park, but it wasn't totally invisible either.
    It's impressive how you made those big, grey and blocky prison buildings look interesting.

    rwadams - Finally a win. And very well deserved too, this is maybe the best roman theming I've seen in RCT2. Some ugly custom scenery, but most of it was used well. Good job on the coaster too.
  • mantis%s's Photo
    ECC
    Hmmm. I liked the big symbol you made from coaster/scenery bits, but apart from that I wasn't inspired. Maybe I needed to have seen the film. The ride was a bit meandering and although it's meant to be a 'pine paradise'...well, 'pine paradise' doesn't sound too much fun now does it. Nice symbol though - I like rct art.

    Spiderman
    Not your best, dude, but some pretty cool things nonetheless. I liked the four sided tower made out of TA2K bits, and the moulding of the landscape to fit the coaster (or vice versa) was a plus point. Too many snow trees though and too little real theming/architecture.

    MightyMouse
    Dude you've got some pretty damn good LL skills - all your entries have been fun to look at. I think this one was cool, but a bit of a re-hash of Ozone's area in WB Hawaii...but I guess it's a good thing to draw inspiration from Ozone, so that's not too much of a negative. Would have been nice to have more going on with the ride to do with the film, but the overall atmosphere was there.

    RWAdams
    Really nice architecture (as always), but I really didn't like the coaster. It kinda swamped the buildings - I ended up deleting it to see the buildings properly. After the Ritz-Carlton and Silver Streak, this was a bit of a let down. But i'm really chuffed for you cos now you're in the PT and you can kick ass with your architecture skills - you're not the only one in this round that had wonderful theming/buildings but an out of place coaster. The effort finally paid off though - congratulations dude.

    Darkfire
    Woah. MA would be proud. The buildings are immense, the 'er...?' things are just brilliant and the colours are the icing on the cake. Great ride, but really who cares about the ride when the whole damn thing is made out of coasters. Really great stuff - now finish that solo so we can see what it's like!

    Deanosrs
    Woah dude, really nice! I'm gonna go straight for the 'eh' factor though - that coaster sucked. It'd have been better if you'd left it as Minas Tirith with just the Gandalf ride lol. The structure is phenomenal and the ship/armies/grond/catapult attacks really enhanced it (i LIKE explosions). I could see where you were going with the coaster but it went on TOO LONG. I don't think the 'brake before drop' was a good idea for Denethor's suicide - he runs straight off the end. The bit where it just dipped and dived through the city was unnecessary, as was the excessive meander over the orc armies. If you'd have kept it short and sweet, with some well sculpted curves and nice straight bits through the city I think this would have won. Really wonderful architecture though - fantasmic.

    Austin Powers
    My pick for this round cos of the accuracy, the real movie theme and the kickass detail. The mine cart careering down the walls and through tunnels, past the fire great thing (love the banners) and the way the whole island LOOKS like The Rock. The best ride to fit the demands of the brief IMO and some really good touches around the coastline. Nice work - Babylon was brilliant too. Looking forward to some more Innovation stuff!


    Great work people - PT really is shaping up to be a great showcase of the talent at NE. It's a pity there's only one more weekly contest left! :(
  • Toon%s's Photo
    Mantis, as always your assessment is great. I've only looked at the top 3 RCT2 parks so far, but here are my thoughts on those

    JC - I loved Rog's Roman architecture...it by far captures Rome better than anything I have ever seen. I always question a few of your scenery choices tho. One or two really out of place looking objects can really ruin the atmosphere imo. That goes back to the Silver Streak where I thought the excessive use of certain dead trees just killed the entry for me. Unfortunately with the glut of custom scenery availabe a parkmaker will now be judged both on parkmaking skills and scenery selection. That said, you may be the best architect in the game right now. Your Rome and Miami beach areas are perfect architecturally imo. Lastly about the coaster...I too did not like it much, but mostly because it just seemed in the way. It didn't have the best layout imo, but mostly found it just looked to messy amongst the beautiful clean architecture. Congrats and I'm glad you made it. I still think you should have won the hotel round so I guess justice is served.

    The Rock - I loved this entry! More than the other two, the ride captured the movie rather than just seeming like it was thrown because a ride was required. The alactraz recreation was wonderfully rendered. I really don't have much negative to say. I think the only thing I really would have changed is the vegetation. I probably would have left it out entirely or maybe just had some scattered brush amongst the rocks to create a more barren and stark look for the island.

    ROTK - The architecture at times was inspiring and the scale of the entry was awesome. I loved the catapults, I loved the city, but I too hated the coaster/ride. I meandered, got in the way and was generally not well designed. I understand the ride was to tell a story, but it could have done that and still have been well designed. Also the orc armys did nothing for me personally. Still there were many incredible things here. I think that you have incredible potential in the game and if you can eliminate what I would consider some major flaws in your ride designs, you could quickly ascend into great parkmaker status.

    I would love to see a couple of more qualification rounds added to the competition as we are really seeing a rapid development of rct2 with the qualifiers. I think there are more than a few parkmakers who deserve to be on the ProTour who have yet to qualify so it would be nice to see them have a chance to make it. That said, It would be fantastic to see the ProTour get underway as well. I'm curious how the main event is going to be set up and can't wait to test my skills against some of the up and comers! God knows they've already inspired me to raise my game.
  • deanosrs%s's Photo
    I'd like to see some more rounds as well. Or perhaps wild card entries based on the best runner ups or highest non-qualifiers on "the list"... the possiblities are definitely there to make this even better.

    Thanks for everyone's comments on my entry. I admit to playing the game first and foremost for architecture, but my enthusiasm for coasters was what got me into it and it still exists. The coaster design of my next entry (yeh sorry Iris, you gotta put up with another of my parks yet) is much better. For starters, it got built on the map first rather than last... a costly mistake I doubt I'll ever repeat again. But I guess it's just generally impossible to build coasters into minas tirith... the game already imposes limits that leads to opinions like that of DarkJanus (and on that subject I'd be delighted to see a better attempt at the city... trust me, it is near impossible to get even a resemblance). And Mantis... thanks for the comments on the "storyline" ( ;) ), they're definite things I could have improved on. I just wish I'd been around for the dark ride contest... a coaster inside minas tirith would have been a challenging entry...