Custom Scenery Exchange / Custom Rides by X7123M3-256

I'd keep the remap 3 as restraints just for constancy with all the other steel coaster trains in RCT.

Yeah, I was thinking that might be desirable. Would you color the entire restraint or just the lap bar itself? (the supporting metal rod is usually unpainted, but if I make it gray it will barely show up because there's already a lot of gray on this train). Choosing a color scheme that works well across the board is difficult, but I need to get it right because the train doesn't look that great with the current choice.

Its probably not an issue if the support bar is hard to see, as many of the other trains are like this as well.

I don't know. I'll probably have to see how it looks in game. The restraint models are nearly completed now, so I'll can start testing different colors. I don't really like parts of the ride to be hard to see - having enough contrast between different components seems to be the key to making it look good. I just wanted to see what people thought about it. I think I will leave the restraints remappable - it would be strange to be unable to color them, but I might reuse the same remap color somewhere else (I did that on the RMC and it was really awkward and made it hard to choose good colors. I also did it on the dive machine and it worked well there. I think if the restraint color is reused elsewhere then it has to be on small details).

Mack train models are now completed:
 


The color scheme is not final yet, that's the next task.

Looks great. What is the max number of cars available per train?

Not set yet, but I'll probably pick 6 or 7. Most rides of this type run a 5 car train, but I like to leave the max a little longer to account for the possibility of longer trains being used on future rides.

Amazing, you're an incredible asset to this community.

Here's what it looks like testing on Lagom's Helix recreation.There's a bug which causes the left and right riders to always have the same shirt color - I haven't fixed this yet. Also still can't decide on the color scheme - black bases look better in some ways, but they also look wrong. I'm now considering whether the lighting is off or the renderer needs anti-aliasing (if it is ever going to be used for scenery, it definitely does. Even the simplest textures alias badly when rendered at this scale).

Colors seem a bit too saturated on the train body itself, the texture is also quite flat, but I'm not sure if you're able to change that.

 

Also, what is the friction level on these trains?  Your last few have had extremely high friction making it difficult to have longer layouts with them.  If you want a baseline I would look at the Intamin Giga trains or the "ja227" giga looper trains.

I am looking into better ways of judging what friction should be. I have had a number of people tell me the friction is too high, but in my experience it has to be or the trains won't lose energy fast enough and come flying through the second half of the layout at 60mph.

I am still trying to fix the sprites - I'm not satisfied with how they look, but I'm not sure how to make them look better.

Could the people who think friction is too high (for any of my rides), possibly give an example of a layout that should make it but doesn't? It's hard to get this right because I don't have time to make accurate recreations of existing layouts (that would take almost as long as the ride itself), so I settle for pretty rough approximations. It is entirely possible that the friction was set too high, and I'm considering changing it since several people have now said they think it's too high.

To make it easier, I would set up a test layout (probably just a launch and a large spike) and compare the new trains to some equivalent in game.  For example, test these Mack Trains against the Giga Coaster Trains or B&M Looper trains possibly.  For the RMC, possibly test next to the wooden trains and make they slightly faster.  Since the default trains make up the majority of what we have, I think it would be best to base the new trains off of that, for consistency sake.

 

It's, in my opinion, to just have an actual layout and base your friction off of that.  Since every layout is different it might not be a good baseline to just have a specific layout.

 

When in doubt, you can always make it a bit high though, as its much easier to slow them down than to speed them up in the back half of a layout.

Quick request, if you opt to change the friction on something you already released can you do it as a new file with a different name? That way anyone with a layout with the old friction wouldn't have to re-do it because the pacing is off.

Not sure if this is your intention or if you're just a referring to this ride but I figured I'd ask.

The thing is, that RCT friction needs to be somewhat lower as the real friction, at least for looping based coasters. The reason is pretty simple to explain: There are only 2 different heights for Loopings in RCT. Your B&M Wingrider for example can't make a big loop, into a zero-G into an Immelman, which could be considered as a thing that a B&M looping train should be able to do.

Is it possible to create a new train with negative friction? Otherwise I would love to see a frictionless train to play around with.

GForce: I do have test layouts, and usually more than one. They are usually very crude recreations of existing rides. I also make another layout to use for screenshots. I am reluctant to simply copy values from the default trains because I don't trust that they're accurate - I am pretty sure the default dive machine trains have the friction set too low.

 

The RMC friction definitely won't be changed - I found a diagram with the elevations of every element on Outlaw run, and the speed that the train should have at several points on the layout. The test in game matched this exactly. Any other ride, though, will probably have the friction reduced if I release an update for it (but I probably won't release an update just to change friction values. I have other stuff I want to fix, like the Intamin wing coaster needs inversion sprites).

 

Coasterbill: I could release it as a seperate file but would be unlikely to do so, simply because the updated version is intended to replace the original. However, updating to a new version of the file will not change the friction values of rides built with the old version. That's because a copy of the friction value is saved in the SV6 file when you build the ride - and that's what the game uses. If you close and reopen the ride, it will update to the new value though. What I might do is release a tool that allows you to directly change the friction on a per-ride basis (as well as some other stuff like max train length).

 

Version1: I sort of see what you're saying. I tried building a loop/zero g/immelmann though, and it does make it. It was a bit slow through the immelmann, but the drop was only 110ft - I'd expect a coaster with that element sequence to be a bit larger. I don't often build larger than 100ft in RCT2, because of the limited elements available at that size, so it certainly wasn't well tested on longer layouts, but there was a Gatekeeper sort-of-recreation built during testing. That one actually ran a bit fast.

 

Liampie:

 

Negative or zero friction is not possible. The friction values are a bit strange in that the higher the friction value is set, the lower the friction will be. The friction values for each car are added up to get the friction value for the train (and since higher means less friction, longer trains will be more efficient). However, the game imposes an upper limit on how high the values can get - if you reach this limit, the game will not let you make the train any longer no matter what the max train length is set to. A car with the minimum possible friction is still almost frictionless though. If you're interested I can do that for you to have a look at.

That sucks, do you need to double close and re-set the ride or just close it once? I find it surprising that that would make a difference. I really hope I don't have to re-do this B&M wing coaster. lol

To make the friction values update, you need to do something that will take the existing vehicles off the circuit. Double closing it alone isn't actually enough (I thought it was, but I just tested it and it's not) - closing a ride doesn't remove the existing trains. You need to go into construction mode, change train length, or change operating mode.

 

You shouldn't have to re-do any rides - you can change the friction values used for a ride independently of what's in the .DAT file. That change will persist in a savegame, but as I mentioned, construction mode will reset it, so it's best done on a ride that's already completed.

The Mack mega coaster trains are now complete and on the website. Anybody who had an earlier version of the ride (I think it's just Lagom), will want to download the final version as I did make some small changes to the sound effects between completing this ride and releasing it.