RCT Discussion / A Mind-Boggling RCT2 Discovery/Problem

Okay, so here's how this goes down.

I built a very compact ride, footprint-wise, in Roller Coaster Designer. I save this design.

Its statistics are quite good and I achieved the look and objective I was going for, which was the important thing. I want it to still be usable and ridable in a standard scenario park though. Just as a test, I go to build a copy of it. I look in the saved track design window and the estimated statistics gives me these numbers:

Excitement: 7.50
Intensity: 9.70
Nausea: 5.30
Top Speed: 74 mph
Avg. Speed: 33 mph

At this point the problem will begin to emerge. I open up a workbench scenario, and eagerly plop the ride down. Figuring that I would bump the excitement up a bit, I move the entrance/exits around to the other side of the station and build queue line and exit paths, which go around the mess of tangled track; I did this so I could save these paths as part of the track design also. I test the ride again. Without changing a single piece of track, the ratings have drastically changed. They now look like this:

Excitement: 6.15
Intensity: 10.21
Nausea: 6.34
Top Speed: 74 mph
Avg Speed: 35 mph

I have not changed a single piece of track. I have only placed some entry/exit pathways, as well as changed the location of the entrance/exits.

I am aghast.

I quickly demolish this ride and attempt to figure out why this problem has occurred. I take a few steps to figure this out.

1. I place an exact copy of the ride just off to the side. This one runs just as it was designed to.
2. I place another exact copy of the ride, this time changing the entrance/exit to the other side of the station. This one runs perfectly as well.
3. Without destroying the previously placed pathways, I place another copy of the ride so as to utilize these pathways. This one comes up with the anomaly in the intensity rating.

So from 1, 2, and 3, I can logically say that somehow, building queue lines and paths are somehow increasing the intensity and average speed of my ride. This seems really strange to me. I have recently been getting back into RCT2 after not playing for maybe three years, and I've never seen this happen. This didn't happen in RCT1 way back in the fifth grade and it didn't happen when I first got RCT2. Can anyone explain this for me?

tl;dr - Paths around coasters somehow raise intensity wtf

Edited by hxzero, 12 February 2008 - 03:36 AM.

Is the first set of ratings from the window where you choose your coaster? Because they're always off because it's an estimate.

If it's from the actual coaster then that's a bit weird.

I have seen this happen many times (I think even in RCT1, but that is an old memory, might not recall so well anymore! LOL) Alot of things raise intensity, including as you mentioned, paths, and scenery (is there any scenery in your park when you place your coaster?), and also placing the pre-built coaster at different heights, (and probably a few other things my old mind is forgetting! LOL).

These things also raise excitement even more, EXCEPT when you go over 10.00 intensity, then the excitement goes down alot. So if your coaster's intensity was only, say, 8.70 instead of 9.70 (which is too high in the first place, unless this is a Togo stand-up or other challenging type), then you wouldn't have this problem happening, you would see the intensity go up but the excitement go up more.

like R_e said this isn't really a discovery cause its know already .

One of the old tricks for excitement boosting is building path underneath the coaster sation or lift - the placement of walkways in relation to the track affects ratings.

^But the average speed changes? Maybe, one is on test mode and one is on open mode, and the open mode one would spend longer going at 0 mph in the station so it drops the average speed?

Both of them are in test mode, and I didn't know that paths raise intensity 0.4 points.

It's super intense because it is not like a realistic coaster at all. I don't know how it would hold itself up if it were to actually be built. I just built it because I had this vision of a tangled tower of track that is taller than it is wide, with twisting inversions and crazy track elements.

The average speed DOES change.

This is the strangest part. The g's are sometimes different as well, but only by hundredths of a G, so it's hardly noticeable.

This is it in coaster designer. (sorry for bad picture quality, didn't realize it was that bad when I was trying to keep filesize down)

Edited by hxzero, 12 February 2008 - 06:41 PM.

g-forces do occasionally change by a few decimal points, and speeds by a few mph, thats normal.

Your concept of a "tangled tower of track that is taller than it is wide, with twisting inversions and crazy track elements" is great, but your execution is poor, as shown by your super high g-forces, although i needed to get out my high-powered magnifying lense to see them LOL.

Bottom line is this coaster needs some major "tweeking". Pos verts should be below 4.00, negative verts below 1.5 and lats below 2.0. You can make a coaster that meets these criteria and is still a "tangled tower of track that is taller than it is wide, with twisting inversions and crazy track elements", trust me, i've done it, but you will need to work on the layout for a few hours to "tweek" it.

If you cant get the g's down im sure I can, just send me a PM if you want my help.

It feels like when I reduce the G's, I am sacrificing the spirit of the ride I originally created. I think what I just want to be able to do with this is put some paths winding through it (ha) and plop it in a park for peeps to get thrashed on.