H2H7 / [H2H7 Round 4 Match 1] - The Rat Pack vs Robber Barons

Eh, I read them quickly before I opened them but regardless, I shouldn't need to read something to have a park explained to me. If it doesn't make sense just by looking at it then why build it? You're relying on reading text for something that's completely visual. I suppose I could even go as far to answer my own question and just interpret them as I see it since it's fantastical, but if my initial reaction is to be confused despite the context, then it's probably confusing.

To say a park shouldn't need additional context doesn't mean it can't have it. In many cases the people who most enjoy an art medium are those whose own curiosity leads them to research and find out more about it. For Opera audiences, it is considered traditional that the viewer read and know what's going to happen before it starts, to give context and allow the performances themselves to be the main attraction. In this case, both parks aren't saying "you must read the readme," they are saying "you will benefit from it." I believe the context clues for the majority of the decisions made in both parks are available in their stories, to see them, however, simply requires a curiosity to further understand the parks.

Yeah, it's only fair to the builders that you at least read the readmes, especially for a match like this where both parks are quite unique.

I read them, but they didn't stay fresh enough in my mind I guess? I dunno, once I read them and waited for the parks to download the objects and what not I wasn't about to go back to refresh my memory. I dunno, clearly I'm in the minority and that's fine and I'm not trying to penalize the parks with this discussion because they are great with or without the accompanying text. I will say though you made some good points FK, thank you. I guess I just looked at it as like going into a museum or something and seeing a painting for the first time. There's no explanation for what it is, it's just there.

Two very weird parks for me, I'm not the biggest fan of fantasy like this but I'll try to do my most fair review for the builders.

 

Archelaus:

 

Architecture was good, colorful but too simple, as was the park as a whole.  The path and such felt very bare and empty, even ugly at some point compared to the buildings.  Coaster layouts were ok, I liked the invert much more than the launched floorless coaster.  Although, when you have a coaster that's simply floating in the air layouts dont really matter much to me.  Plus being a fantasy park, the laws for B&M dont apply so anything goes.  I probably liked the boats here more than in the other parks with boats simply due to their color and uniqueness, although at this point I dont really know why every park needs boats, would much rather see something else in a park.   Unnamed staff kind of disappointing me, kind of shows that time was an issue here, or at least there wasn't a lot of time to polish the park per say. Favorite area was probably near Crystal Grinder and the Cyan ship, the different levels and details here really stood out.  Overall a good park, definitely different, but again, I dont really know how to score fantasy parks especially of this abstract nature.

 

Arcanis Mineralis:

 

Definitely a very impressive park from a first impression, lots of layers, cool use to toon supports and glass objects, dont know if I have ever seen something like that before in a park.  Definitely made the theme more evident and looked cool as well.  Not going to really comment on the coasters, although the stats on the woodie were a little out of control, not sure if I really liked the flyer hanging off the edge of the park like that either but dont really have a problem with it either.  Shame the park didn't have peeps, again seem like time was an issue with this park (obviously) so somewhat of a bummer there.  My favorite part of the park was definitely the station for the flyer and surroundings area, loved the cave/crystals under the station, very cool idea.  Again, good architecture in the park, but the bare path next to it really stood out to me, would of liked to see more benched or lamps, just things to break up the giant areas of path.  Overall another good park, but again, dont really know how to score it or rate it so I'm going to refrain from doing so in this review.

 

Kind of Ironic that both these parks had a similar theme in crystal mining or trade, also interesting that the two most "fantasy" parks were matched up against each other.  A pretty close vote for me, probably going to need a few days to chose.  But overall nice job to both teams and all the builders for two unique and interesting parks.

one of these parks is clearly better but i'm a bit annoyed about how good it could have been 

Come on NE... Review the hell out these parks so we can see Match 3!!!!!!!

It's almost painful how obvious two of the builders are. In the future, please work together you two. Dreams can come true.

 

Don't have time for a long in dept review, but I'll just leave some quick words here.

 

Arcanis Mineralis;

I really loved the general look and it was filled with great ideas. Unfortunately it felt a bit unfinished. Peeps would make this a whole lot better.

7,5/100

 

Archelaus;

Loved the concept and also loved how this was also filled with great ideas. Don't really have something wrong with the park

8/10

 

This matchup is so rad. Two awesome and creative fantasy parks. I'm probably going to vote for Archelaus because I liked it in general better. Although I liked exploring Arcanis a bit better. Tough one.

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I echo Cocoa's thoughts almost to the letter.

 

In recent times I've kind of strayed away from fantasy and preferred more realistic parks but this matchup is so close to pushing the boundaries of fantasy in my opinion. The floating crystals are truly works of art, such gorgeous colour and form despite the combination of objects and trackitecture that so often leads to messiness. Unfortunately, the Rat Pack's park did feel a little 'dead' without peeps although I'm not sure that the Robber Barons was really that much better. Whilst the idea behind the 'edge of the Earth' falling away into the sky was quite interesting, only having the snow land texture in combination with a few wispy objects here and there left much of the park looking quite 'dead' also. However, I adored the use of colour! I felt that the Robber Barons nailed colour and texture, but suffered from relatively weak coaster layouts in my opinion. Alternatively, the Rat Pack was very earthy in colour [and perhaps that contributed to the blander feel of the park] but had better coasters [I particularly liked the flyer].

 

 

*Same applies for my comments on the first matchup regarding a full review - as soon as IRL is less busy I'll get around to full reviews of all parks that I haven't done one for. Apologies to the participants for this!

While I understand the lack of peeps may affect the feel of the park, I don't think it should be as strong a determining factor when we have literally dozens of spotlights with no peeps whatsoever.

While I understand the lack of peeps may affect the feel of the park, I don't think it should be as strong a determining factor when we have literally dozens of spotlights with no peeps whatsoever.

It's not 2009 anymore bro.

These parks were both so hard to review for me because they are both just so fantasy. Like I don't really know how to critique them lol. 

 

The Rob park just had fairly basic architecture and I just did'nt care for the boats really. The colors throughout were a bit ghastly. 

 

As a whole I preferred Roomies teams park. It just felt more cohesive and as a whole more impressive. There is so much variation of terrain and whatnot. The crystals themselves were more interesting and the massive architecture was pretty cool. I much prefer this park. The lack of peeps was a big letdown though, I'm not sure if you've already used an extension or not, but they would have been nice to see. So big props to rob team for getting them in.

 

So yeh,interesting round. Cool to see the fantasy parks go head to head like that. 

Both parks are very well built and quite impressive. I've never been a big fantasy person myself, but I'll give my thoughts.

 

Archelaus- After reading the Read-me I was very curious as to whether there would be a highly ingrained backstory throughout this park. Upon opening, I was interested to see all the details and nods to the general story, but the story didn't feel continued in the park, which was a bit of a shame. Nevertheless, the park itself was quite pretty to look at. The bright colors and crowded walkways made this feel like a bustling community on the edge of the world. I was quite a fan of the architecture in many places, even if not as massive as Arcanis, it still fit the theme and looked very good in the setting. I thought that the flying boats were really cool also, but lost their glamour a bit at all the other boats this season. However, it was still a very enjoyable park to look at.

 

Arcanis Mineralis- The read-me here provided me the idea of a resort town/academy area situated around a mining facility, an odd picture to say the least. However, I think you guys actually pulled it off pretty well. The first thing I noticed was obviously the colossal architecture, and, while striking, it didn't wow me. (Mind you, it was good architecture, huge buildings aren't really my thing) I thought the hot springs were a cool idea, if a little messy, and the massive crystals around were clever and very pretty. The staff placement was also really clever as well. That being said, I think my biggest problem with this park was that it was so dark. All the life seemed to be sucked out of it, and the lack of peeps only contributed to it. In some cases it made the park hard to enjoy. Nonetheless, it is still a very well built park.

 

Overall I preferred Archelaus over Arcanis Mineralis. For me it was a more enjoyable and fun park to look at. Props to all the builders for making spectacular fantasy parks and a great matchup.

It's not 2009 anymore bro.

And yet the classics stay amazing despite no peeps. But yes I get what you are saying.

I love the colors in Archelaus, and the flying sharks are awesome haha.

Can't vote in this match, but it's very disappointing to see the complete lack of response from members.

I explored Arcanis Mineralis for a really long time; the height variation hid lots of things at every angle and most of it was extremely interesting.  I really loved how well you blended track with scenery in creating the crystals, they looked really nice and made some shapes I haven't seen before.  The macro is probably the best all season, the colors are on point and the map shape is just so interesting.  That's really the main thing I felt looking around: I keep thinking about how original your use of objects was and how different from the norm things were, and I really enjoy that.  

 

This park could easily have been the best of the season if it had a vibrant peepable environment.  As it stands, it's good but not great, with the potential to be epic given a bit more time. 

I really liked Arcanis Mineralis because of just how grand the scale is. It just feel really big. There's so much to see and discover on the map and it's really overwhelming. Loved those massive crystals around the flyer, they were really nicely executed. I liked the flyer layout and how it floated outside the map; really cool. The whole idea was just really awesome and it was filled with rides and content, and that's what won it for me.

 

Archelaus was cool, interesting idea. I really liked the layout of Cutlass. The whole area with the flying sharks and massive drops was really unique. The architecture was nice in some places. It was a good idea however there's wasn't too much to see and that's why it didn't win for me.

Archelaus:

 

Well, from the initial overview I was impressed.. really magnificent looking.. good colors.. the architecture was really nice. While there was a lot of nice details, I wasn't too sure on the theme. If it was in the readme, I apologize, word docs don't work on my old crappy computer anymore

The layouts were good, but I was confused on the rock thingys holding up the lift on Cutlass.. they seemed unrefined? I dunno.

The boats were well done, except the sails.. The see-through/mesh sails were annoying me. Overall, I really enjoyed the park. Tons of nice details in the archy. The layouts were good. And, the addition of flying sharks was funny.

I'm so surprised by how the voting is going so far. Despite my underwhelming response I still thought the baron's was clearly the better put together park here. At the very least it should be closer!