RCT Discussion / The Direction of RCT

Not sure how well this may fare, but that's not really the point of it. With the current "influential players" topic I began thinking more of the modern-day RCT and the direction that it's heading, so I wanted to hear peoples thoughts.

First off, obviously people will be building parks, coasters, adventure rides, and that the persistent battles of RCT2 v. LL and realism v. fantasy will forever be fought, but I'm going for something a bit different. What direction(s) do you want the game to take, what you think people will be doing with the game in the coming years, what sorts of ideas and such you think will [finally] spawn, etc.

Coming off of a viewing of 2001: A Space Odyssey, I'm kinda wanting to see people branch out from the normal theme park build, and enter into less materialistic themes, settings, etc. Somewhat like what ivo was doing, I guess, where he's trying to convey a particular message through his work rather than just build some cool rides and shit. Obviously that won't ever appeal to everyone, but that's alright. I'm not even meaning straight up "RCT art" (ARcT?), but just sorts of ways that people could use the game to convey ideas instead of just a standard theme park. Say, a full story told by viewing a park, or something of the sort. This could then spawn sequels, or create an entire universe in some sort of story or setting.

On a more grounded level, I think the hyper-detailing days of RCT are limited, as more and more people either get frustrated with the intense level of detailing or quit all together due to their frustration. I fall victim to this. When will it come to the point we're people just stop putting out work?" I predict that in the coming years, we'll revert a bit back to the lesser detailed days, say H2H4-esque. Maybe not THAT far back, but you get me. I'm a huge fan of the works from that era so I fall prey to loving that sort of look. That might sound crazy to some, but by viewing the sort of evolution of parks over the past few years, one could easily see that the sizes of the maps shrink as the detailing goes up, but I don't think people will forever settle for that. Detail ends the want for huge parks, and I simply don't want a future full of pretty designs and no large theme parks to explore.

I don't know, somewhat lost my point there, but hopefully for those who've actually read you see what I'm going for. For those that skipped to the bottom, here's the question:

What direction do you see the game going in the years to come?

I think "RCT Art", as you called it, is the future. Parks are becoming increasingly time consuming to build. Not only that, but the membership here, which was once made up of mostly kids playing the game, have long since graduated high school/college, and are splitting this with actual real life commitments. Screen shots, however, don't take very long, as you only have to make something look good from one angle. I think that is the future. It's all in the presentation.

The game will die

I hope you are right on both topics.

I like to see RCT as an art medium. Most of the time I make theme parks, which is what got me into this hobby, but I also use RCT to do things unrelated to theme parks. Brediuskwartier is an example; it's a recording of memories, more like a painting or a photograph. Legacies Theme Park and the upcoming Escapist Experience do have some background themes as well. I like to put thought into my works and break away from norms. More people should do it.

I think there is room for hyper-detailing in the community, but people shouldn't do it all the time. I consider it a genre. People have been connecting me with retro-building and terms like that for a while, but the truth is I am still a part of the hyper-detailing movement. Lijiang is hyper-detailed, and my upcoming design is. It's a genre, just like NCSO and pre-codex LL is. It's great to build in several genres at the same time. When one is bored with hyper-detailing and suffers a burnout, just switch to a lighter genre. I switch from hyper-detailed RCT2 to LL all the time, every few weeks. It keeps me productive and it's a great way to learn new things. More people should do it.

Say, a full story told by viewing a park, or something of the sort.

Here!

That's closer, but in my mind I was picturing something like a RCT depiction of The Odyssey, or something of the sort (which is not bad idea, anyone). I'd say some of the older H2H parks were really pushing into different territories though.

I proposed the Odyssey last H2H. It would be a park shaped like a line rather than a square, so the story could be told linear. Anyone feel free to take that idea.

^I actually had the same idea when nin said "tell a story". I might attempt it when I can establish myself with custom scenery. Why don't we just do all the epics of Western literature while we're at it?

I've been creating RCT stuff in the forms of vignette's for some time now haha.
This is quite popular nowadays.

After colorflood, i'm looking at continuing this style of work with alittle more refinement (and more time, of course). It's as RCT Art as i think we will get.

FK

It'd be a shame if RCT as a simulation/modelling tool, a la RRP/Gee/CP6/myself, started to head out. There'd be little reason for me to stay; I get enough left-field art-wankery in school, thank you very much.

Hey guys I heard there was some cool left-field art-wankery going on i-

oh.

I don't think that the modeling side of the game will ever die, but I wouldn't mind if more people steered away from it.

I think that this ultra-realistic style will always be here. People's fascination with what's going on in the industry and the quest to replicate it will always be there. I take pride in being able to create a model of what could be placed into a park. It's like concept art. I think that's even one of the reasons why I find myself enjoying building designs more than full parks because of this concept idea.

I agree that the further detailing goes, the more time consuming and therefore the longer it takes to produce a release and then people possbily just give up due to frustration. However if people start applying a minimalistic approach to their builds they wont hit this problem. You can build minimalistic and still apply a large amount of realistic detail and acchieve high scoring releases, you'll see that when Goliath get's released.

I know our membership is dropping off, people are leaving due to real-life commitments, a lack of time now to play the game and there's no new young players to take their place as LL and RCT2 are games that I guess have had their time in the world.

However a community is still a community no matter how large or small it is, and I'd like to think that there will still be members here in ten years time, even if only a handful, reminiscing about a game and a website that they spent a lot of their time on, if not still building rct.

I agree with Robbie.
To me RCT will always be a modeling tool for theme parks. Like imagineering without having drawing skills.
The thing that limits the game too much for me is the ride selection and their possibilities. If RCT one day will be open source it could solve this problem, so people can add hardcoded elements (all track types with all elements with all trains).

"MFG"

I agree with Robbie.
To me RCT will always be a modeling tool for theme parks. Like imagineering without having drawing skills.
The thing that limits the game too much for me is the ride selection and their possibilities. If RCT one day will be open source it could solve this problem, so people can add hardcoded elements (all track types with all elements with all trains).

"MFG"

This is my favorite aspect of RCT as well. I can't draw for crap, CAD modeling takes far too long and is too technical, and RCT is the most conducive program for atmospheres and entire sections of park. For these reasons, RCT will probably always be the go-to program for theme park modeling.

We should petition Chris Sawyer to release the source! JK, I'm sure there's a legal entanglement with Infogrames that prevents it. Ahh well, we can dream, can't we? I always wonder if he knows about NE though, and that people are still innovating with his game 14 years later.

This is my favorite aspect of RCT as well. I can't draw for crap, CAD modeling takes far too long and is too technical, and RCT is the most conducive program for atmospheres and entire sections of park. For these reasons, RCT will probably always be the go-to program for theme park modeling.

We should petition Chris Sawyer to release the source! JK, I'm sure there's a legal entanglement with Infogrames that prevents it. Ahh well, we can dream, can't we? I always wonder if he knows about NE though, and that people are still innovating with his game 14 years later.

There's an OpenTTD, I hope oneday we can have an OpenRCT.

For years I've had a vague storyline in the back of my head of a fictional sci-fi/futuristic universe that I could try to convey through a series of industrial rct maps. It's not really a story, more the setting of a story.

Martian Waterworks was just one of many of a series I've wanted to do that follows this line. My micro Phobos Military Testing Center (and Gamma Gamma to some degree) was also a part of this series. Some more micros/peepable small maps might be a good revival rather than a static solo size map.


But I like theme parks as much as the next man.

We should petition Chris Sawyer to release the source! JK, I'm sure there's a legal entanglement with Infogrames that prevents it.

Infogrames is Atari. Atari is currently going through the bankruptcy process, so it could be that Atari disolves, and possibly then we can hope. But I don't know whether it's Sawyer that owns the rights or Atari, if it's Sawyer then there's no hope really.

Plus is there anyone out there who has the cabability to make RCT open source? I mean it took OpenTTD years, and they've got an incredibly large following, our community is tiny in comparison.

Infogrames is Atari. Atari is currently going through the bankruptcy process, so it could be that Atari disolves, and possibly then we can hope. But I don't know whether it's Sawyer that owns the rights or Atari, if it's Sawyer then there's no hope really.

Plus is there anyone out there who has the cabability to make RCT open source? I mean it took OpenTTD years, and they've got an incredibly large following, our community is tiny in comparison.

Was just looking that up, makes sense now. But yeah I couldn't find who would own the rights to the code either. I remember reading about it a long time ago, what's the reason he doesn't want to release it, again?

On the second note, I'm definitely inclined to think that nobody really does. I'm curious about the market for it though, since I see tons of stuff on the official RCT page on facebook about how people really liked RCT2 and the isometric view.

Maybe with this Atari thing, something will finally happen. I'm probably just being too hopeful though.