Micro Madness 2014 / [MM2014 R3] 5dave vs. inthemanual vs. JJayMForce

It's forbidden. You must choose one or the other. That is the way of Rct.

He chooses fantasy! +1! Now there's like 5 of us!

This won it for me:

 

 loopknight.jpg (14.49KB)
downloads: 28

 

Could have been a much better entry, but overall it was just a little above the rest in a close 3-way race.

 

JJay was my second vote because I love how creative the idea was and how well he pulled it off. That one back angle is just insane and like nothing I have seen in RCT before. Still, you could have done WAY more with a Where's Waldo theme and that huge smoke stack seems to deify the laws of gravity.

 

I loved the base, portal and the station in Dave's entry, but the rest looked rushed and the peeps walking on invisible path everywhere almost ruined it for me. The above ground area was pretty weak. A lot more could have been done with it.

 

Looks like ITM and Dave will advance. All Dave needs to do is put a bush on a 15x15 bench and he'll win tho

3. Where's Waldo Disaster.

 

It was a tough decision to place this one third, as it was neck and neck between this and 5dave's entry. A very bold piece, and it's great to see the entire area being used to create a sculpture/vehicle. Nice uses of trackitecture, especially the banked/curved track pieces, to create the details, but I did get a bit lost with what was going on under the front of the ship. I also think there was opportunity here for an operational dinghy slide ride, perhaps with boats slipping down the tilted deck, as I feel movement would've added greatly to this entry. The music was a good choice though. I've never really noticed how calmingly haunting the "gentle" track is... The idea of searching for Waldo made me laugh! I can just imagine the outrage of a harmless Waldo book containing this scene, along with other disasters of history

 

2. Heart of Darkness.

 

Incidentally, this entry reminded me more of portals than FK's entry - with the shaft in the middle of nowhere, leading down to a hidden lab. While this in itself was a good idea, I felt that you could've given the area a lot more identity. Given that the majority of the walls are of land, I thought it a shame that you didn't decorate the blank white walls more. Even with chaotic pipes and steelwork lining them, I feel this would've added some interest. I understand the cold, steely, clinical feel that you've created, but in my opinion it came across as a bit too bland. I did like what you did with the coaster though, with the open patches for viewing it, and the glass walls used to create the dark illusion, that was clever. The twist out of the hole was great too, as though the train has been flung back out.  A good entry, but too plain for me to enjoy more.

 

1. Sacrifice.

 

Stunning work. I don't think I've seen a chess theme done outside of wonderland fantasy before, and this was a highly classy, sophisticated homage to the game and its history. The two castles looks great, with the black breaking aggressively through the rock, and the white resting gently against the cliff and the shore. Excellent knight sculpture! Normally, a lack of movement deters me, but the stillness of this somehow worked. Just like the pauses in a real chess game, where a decisive move is about to be made - I felt this captured that moment well, with just the trickling of the water to show time passing. Amazing stuff, and my 1st place vote.

It's forbidden. You must choose one or the other. That is the way of Rct.

fuck no.

 

fuck the boundaries of Fantasy and Realism, that's how RCT should be.

 

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JJayMforce's entry is damn catchy btw. love the stuff like this.

5dave (#1) - Heart of Darkness
Awesome work 5Dave! The concept was fun and well done. The entry looked cool as a whole, but also delivered on micro level. My favourite detailing was the elevator shaft, somehow that looked great. Good idea to actually show the elevator shaft instead of putting it inside a building! The coaster was pretty cool, but honestly a bit more interaction would've been nice. Also I don't really know what the vertical land pieces were doing there. Another problem I have with this micro is the floating peeps. I enjoyed this micro more when I made the peeps invisible... But all in all great work again, and my favourite micro from this match!

inthemanual (#4) - Sacrifice
I love how you come up with original concepts. First it was tea, and now chess. Sadly I didn't like this entry as much as Earl Grey... Where are the rides? Nothing is moving! Whereas your equally lifeless Oasis had technically perfect execution, I think the architecture was lacking a bit here... Yes there were some amazing details like the knight, but as a whole I think the castles were messy. You should've done more with this concept or should've done a whole other theme. Sacrifice is definitely likable, but in my opinion not enough to warrant a place in the final.

JJayMForce (#3) - Wheres Waldo Disaster
Another micro withour rides or movement!? Why!? But let's talk about what the map actually has: an insanely ambitious sculpture. JJay, you have massive balls for even trying this concept! Frankly I think it should've been better. The trackitecture was a bit messy, but whatever. What was really disappointing was how glitchy the deck was. Surely it could've been cleaner? I don't know why you incorporated the Waldo thing, doesn't really seem related to the Titanic Disaster. I found Waldo within seconds... The Waldo idea was actually a great missed opportunity you missed, in my opinion. If the search was actually hard, you could've used it to motivate the viewer to explore all the details your ship could've offered. The details that were here were mostly technical details (tricks), which were impressive but not really fun. Tl;dr: insane idea, disappointing but still cool execution, confusing Waldo theme.

Picking a second favourite was pretty hard... Two great concepts with lacking execution. I went with JJay because of the insanity of his micro. Also with the second round in mind JJay has been more consistent with his work than inthemanual. Inthemanual never lived up to the expectations after Earl Grey and got really lucky even making it into the third round.

Voting Closed
 
Joint Winners: 5dave and inthemanual with 27.5 points
 
3rd Place: JJayMForce with 14 points
 
5dave & inthemanual go through to the Final

(Joint winners are due to the incorrect poll findings. As 2 missing second place points occurred, only one could be confirmed as going to inthemanual, thus creating a tie. Wherever the other second place vote went it wouldn't matter to the outcome of who goes forward, thus having joint winners is the fairest option in this case anyway. Apologies for this inconvenience)

Congrats Itm and 5dave.   Good luck in the final, dudes.

 

Itm-Sacrifice
   In last years awards voting, you were my pick for most promising member, and here you are!
I can't tell if you were playing it a little safe this round though, because I thought the parks theme was a bit of a letdown.  However, I think it was cool how you connected the park to real life events and people.  The archy was fairly basic in my opinion, but the completeness of it all I think gave you the win.  Of course there wasn't movement, but who am I to fault you for that lol.  Solid round from you, and I look forward to seeing your absolute best in the finals!
 

5Dave-Heart of Darkness
Another well rounded entry from you,  although I think I liked your themes from the previous rounds a bit more.  The coaster was sweet, and the fact you could see it all, with it being fully supported, was nice.  I liked the entry into darkness, along with all the other little details as well.  Let's see if you get that 3 time solo comp record.  Good luck, dude, can't wait to see what you bring into the finals.

Remarks on my park below:

 

Yeah, I had two ideas left that I wanted to do for MM, and decided to throw the least promising one in for round 3, in hopes that it would be enough, and because I didn't have as much time as I wanted for the other idea. I thought that it would be better to save my best idea for the finals in case I made it, instead of having another strong entry followed by a weaker one, as was the case with my first two weeks. It was complete, but unfinished in that it was missing much of what I had originally planned, including details like staff and a ritual inside the black castle where the queen once stood, and bigger things, like dueling coasters and a storm picking up behind the black castle.