H2H7 / [H2H7 Round 2 Match 2] - The Rat Pack vs Heaven's Atlas

first off, why the hate on those lotr rocks? I think they're great, and they definitely match the atmosphere they're going for here.

 

I promised a review of new elementia, so here it is

 

This park is good. Good! Just not great. There are spots here and there of brilliance. The airships in the center are obviously perfect, as are the 2 destroyers. The paddleship is also really awesome. But the two town/halves feel sort of... dead. Sure there's a lot of really hackedy stuff, but there's no atmosphere or life. I think the land/cave hack you guys did is really neat, probably took a million years to do, but it left too much brown land (I understand how hard it is to build on top of that). So I would have recommended less/more sporadic caves so you can put more buildings and stuff on top. I would have loved if the city had been more full and atmospheric, a bit more like city of dreams. So essentially the gist of this park- there's a lot of really cool things and its maybe the most hackedy LL park I've seen. Which I can appreciate, 100%. Damn it must've taken hours and hours to do the stuff like the taller buildings out of rapids. Respect. But I don't think all of it looked so good- anyways, I'm always a bigger fan of atmospheric LL than unnecessarily overly hacked stuff. also, the readme was fucking hilarious, loved it. concept was solid too, on the whole scale.

 

so- great matchup, but I think its obvious I have a favorite

Alright, apparently I already had LL on my computer with the original RCT. I downloaded it from GOG awhile ago, but the last time I tried to open it, it wouldn't work. It opened this time, so that's great! Anyway the patches won't install, so perhaps a little nudge in the right direction for anyone wanting to open Rat Pack's park. Thanks.

http://www.nedesigns...ll-v12-126x126/

 

for most ll problems

Yeah, tried that already. The patches don't install on my computer. 

Where did you download it from? I downloaded mine from GOG and I have the patch working,
 
 
http://www.reddit.co...s_reuploaded_1/
Download the RCT file from GOG, do not open RCT, download this (see attached),

 
Extract the rar file
Run Setup 1
Run Setup 2
 
Download the drexler patch,
Install the patch, 
Run RCTLL normally and tada.
PM me if you have issues.

Thank you, finally someone explained exactly how to do it. Gonna try it on my computer once I have access to it.

i think anyone who complains about LL in a contest about rctLL + 2 on a website founded on LL needs to have a little think or ask their carer how to have a little think.

Alright, apparently I already had LL on my computer with the original RCT. I downloaded it from GOG awhile ago, but the last time I tried to open it, it wouldn't work. It opened this time, so that's great! Anyway the patches won't install, so perhaps a little nudge in the right direction for anyone wanting to open Rat Pack's park. Thanks.

See my post. Exactly what you should do. If you already opened RCT, uninstall it and install it again (Make sure you have the installation file first). 

Heaven's Atlas' park was the best thing I have seen in a long time. Great job! 

Holy shit Heaven's Atlas that's amazing on so many levels. Perfect concept execution.

Holy shit HA. I think this might be this season's Le Reve. Sorry I can't say much but I'm still going through it. There's so much to look at. There was plenty to look at in Battle for NE especially with the names and frozen staff and such, and it could easily have taken down a lesser opponent. These rounds are ridiculously good.

You know what bothers me? And before i say anything not bashing on the builders or team but people will download patches, do anything to open a save and they should because it deserves to be looked at in depth but opening and closing a ride in another park is too much work?

Bye i've seen enough ofthis...

Btw both parks look stupendously good will comment if i get the chance

I'm not seeing what everyone else is seeing in the Indian park. There's some great work in there, but there's a lot of other stuff that's just not standing out to me as much. The park seems to start out with a great concept, with the voyage to India executed fairly well and that port space having some decent architecture. The map layout was a great way to tell the story without having to add much else in terms of narrative devices, so props to that. However, the bulk of the main content for the park was very hit-or-miss for me. There's some strengths in the Varanasi area, with the architecture, invert, and supporting rides and details all combining together. However, the water coaster area, and even the woodie area to a lesser extent, were eyesores; the water coaster's colors came off as default and then the archy was so blindingly white that nothing about it was overly comprehensible. The woodie coaster area was better, but it all still felt piled on. Additionally, the landscaping felt overrun with the LOTR mountain pieces, and it came off as messy and haphazard. Overall, the architecture felt very similar to a certain builder's normal work but with a couple details and colors altered.

 

To compare this to Le Reve is a big misreading, I'd say. It  has some detailed architecture, and moments of brilliance in terms of atmosphere, but Le Reve is such a master work in terms of defining a narrative and hammering the point down from the rides to the archy down to the smallest details; Le Reve is a whole new world with a thorough story. This park doesn't stand up to that same narrative strength and completeness. 

 

It's really not a bad park, but I'm struggling to see how it's anything more extraordinary than the stronger parks in this season, let alone the best RCT park in NE history. Granted, looking at my round's  score, maybe my perception of what's good and isn't is pretty off

POLL IS NOW LIVE AND WILL REMAIN OPEN FOR ROUGHLY 72 HOURS.

 

If you cannot vote, please use the 'null vote' option underneath the poll which will enable you to view the results like everyone else.

This was a hard choice to me, but I had to go with the park that seemed more unique in my eyes.  I enjoyed both parks, especially the little things with ride names and such.  Figuring out the parks through those names was also something that was enjoyable.  I'd do a more in depth review but I think all that can be said has been said and said much better than I could at that.

Rat Pack -

 

There was some solid codex work in here in trackitecture and architecture. I enjoyed the opening fight scene, went on just a tad bit too long in my opinion though. The ships and air vehicles were executed extremely well especially that hot air balloon, I'm sure it took many tries to get that balloon shape in which I can appreciate. The dockside was done well, I liked all the hidden details in there. I also loved the support structure for the bridge over the frozen river. The coal mines surprised me, at first I couldn't figure out what you used for the coals, I thought it was executed quite brillantly and did represent piles of coals really well. I just want to know what poor SOB had to do the hacking for that because it sure does look like a lot of work for that alone. Loved the conveyor belt, that was one of the highlight or so I thought.

Overall, there was a lot of good hacking and codex work that I can appreciate in here, but the landscape is a bit sparse. I thought more could be added to the landscape to make it work. 

 

 

Atlas -

 

When I opened this park, I definitely was not ready for what I was about to see. The more I saw, the more I enjoyed it. After taking a look of the whole park. I thought Venice was a little too small for what the park was. I thought you could've taken one coaster away from India and gave Venice a single coaster to expand Venice. I was left wanting to see Venice canals or some details like that but I didn't. The architecture details here were solid, so I can't critique that except for the lack of canals. Horn of Africa was also done well, the coaster flowed well and the suspended coaster train was the right choice for the type. I can understand the smallness of this landmass, you saved it all for India and thats understandable, nothing really stood out for me that wanted to spend more time viewing the horn. India was hands down the best area in this park and is the focus of this park. The Venetian ship was immaculate and done extremely well. I enjoyed Varanasi especially the half loop part of the ride, that was themed extremely well. I also enjoyed how it transitioned between the poor of India to the jungle and back again while not even touching the more wealthy areas of india as it would be unrealstic to do so, it was a nice touch. The person picture mosiac made by squares was a nice surprise and theming. The ride naming was done well too such as the "Caste System" elevator ride symbolizing the rise and fall of castes in India. Maharaja was a very nice wooden coaster with excellent theming around the ride. If Maharaja wasn't here, I don't think the area would've suffered any major loss, the area stands by itself and without the coaster, perhaps you could've included this in Venice. I loved all the waterfalls flowing from this area as well I thought it was executed just right. The white palace district was nice. A bit small, but I think it worked. If you reused these tiles for Venice, perhaps that would've been the better choice but no major loss either way.

Overall I loved the representation of the trade route from Venice to India. India was represented extremely well and executed almost flawlessly. This is perhaps the best India I've seen in RCT2. The LOTR rocks didn't distract me and I thought they worked for the park and not against.


I'm voting for Heavens Atlas because I think they told the better story, had the better theming and brilliant map layout use on telling their story. Great job on both parks again. The parks in this year H2H has been elevated to a whole new level and I'm loving it so far and am looking forward to see whats to come in future rounds!

Venice, Horn of Africa? What park did you download?

Thanks for the reviews so far! Was about time they were coming. I'll wait with my reviews until after the voting.

Is Carreira da India by any chance inspired by my PT4 Prelim? Like Vasco da Gama, Portuguese Colony, Goa/Kerala...

Pity I cannot vote on this.

Liam - I thought the park represented Venice as they used the Venetian gondola boats (Or so I felt and got the impression of), and I got my cape's wrong, Cape of Good Hope and not Cape Horn

Holy shit HA. I think this might be this season's Le Reve. Sorry I can't say much but I'm still going through it. There's so much to look at. There was plenty to look at in Battle for NE especially with the names and frozen staff and such, and it could easily have taken down a lesser opponent. These rounds are ridiculously good.

You have to see what's in store if you think HA's park is this season's Le Reve. ;P

I've got to say I'm with Rob on this. It's going to sound Baised as I'm on the opposing team but I really don't get the love for Carreira da Índia either. It's nice but its not anywhere near the same class as La Reve. 

 

I agree the map shape set up for storytelling is a nice touch and the entrance area is really really good. But apart from that it was a bit of an eyesore. The architecture falls into the same trap as the Hurricanes W1 park for me. It's so overly detailed it becomes ugly and a distraction. 

 

The invert is actually really nice and one of the best coasters in H2H7 so far. But the water coaster, suspended and the woodie are all mediocre. 

 

I also strugle to get on with a park that requires hidden underground walkways to work. But with this it was kind of unavoidable to set up the story.

 

Gets a 6/10 for me.