NE Olympics '16 / June 23rd: Pentathlon

I'm not sure, but Arrowmania's park might be incompatible with vanilla. The game error traps every time I try and load it.

Did not attempt but it looks like they used openrct2's entrance hut hiding trick.

Early thoughts, the Roman themed park needed a bit more work to be prepped for viewing but damn it was enjoyable. Clear power theme, an amazing River Styx ride with lightning done well, a cinematic wooden coaster, and the amphitheater was very well done. Really though, how hard is it to clean up the pathways for peep use and fix your launch tower? Kingdom of Ni's park was basic, very classic rct2, hints of greatness in it though. the DC park had a great RMC layout on all accounts, and the amphitheater was easily top 2, but the dark ride could have used an open section. Then again, three days of work has rarely looked so good. The park on a cliff had an open section to their dark ride, a serviceable main route, a fantastic amphitheater location, but the coaster was not quite there. The theater and predrop were top notch, but the rest didn't match the dramatic setting you began with. And then we have CC&C, clearly with the dam you had some Lake Delton WI inspiration and the open segments on the dark ride were expertly assembled. The amphitheater didn't quite rock it, and the dam had no outspout for the water that it clearly was using to generate power, and the viewing angles of the mini golf and go karts were so poor that it may not have been there. 

Holy fuck Scoop; the RMC layout and dark ride façade are sweet!

why can't we see who voted on what?

1. CCC - Timbabwe
2. Thessaly - ][topia
3. Broadrock Village - Coaster Rica
4. DC - Doninican Republic
5. Fiesta Cliffs - Kingdom of NI
6. Arrowmania

Solid round, although I expected this to be bigger. Imagined this would see more H2H level parks.

I really liked CCC. Loved the natural amphitheatre. Thessaly needed some refining, but featured the most creative ideas. DC looks quite rushed and I really hated the look of the coaster, but all in all it's a solid entry with some good ideas.

As for our entry; I'm quite proud of what V1 put out. Between the self-complaining he really stuck himself to this project and it's worked out quite well.

I'll review as I go again

fiesta cliffs:

definitely a bit bare and unrefined. its not terrible, just nothing really excites me about it. sort of a general, nothing-y theme and awkward paths and foliage. the ampitheatre was reasonably well done though.

canyons cliffs and coasters:

go us! loved putting this together in multiplayer, had a blast. also, I just noticed that the drop tower is still called anti-geyser, from a bad joke I made (I wanted to call it geyser but tim said it was a drop tower so i renamed it...). oops

comics plaza:

fantastic work! loved the dark ride facade, would have been great to see inside though. rmc was solid and felt quite realistic (love that 3 years ago that would have sounded so dumb to say). the stunt show also was really well done. the water ride was a bit meh but overall felt like a nice little six flags section. solid all round

arrowmania:

not really much to say here, love that you guys are submitting entries and having fun though. 

thessaly:

also some fantastic work here. a lot of really good archy, atmosphere, etc. I wasn't a huge fan of the woodie or darkride layout but the statue of zeus and a lot of the surroundings were amazing. the entrance plaza was definitely the best bit in terms of composure and architecture.

broadrock village

hey, you should use custom scenery more often! definitely my favorite work from you yet. I think the woodie was pretty terrible tbh but the buildings were nice, especially the station. the dark ride and cliffs were a bit meh but overall a decent, middle-ground entry.

Broadrock Village: It's awesome you decided to be a part of this contest V1, this is some of your best work for sure. The castle station was pretty cool, towering over the edge of the cliff. And you did some really nice work on the village too, looks quaint! I hope you stick with rct, you have some great parks in you just waiting to be built!

Thessaly: Oh wow! What a fantastic entry. You guys created a nice little world here, the archy was very well done, besides some glitching going on. The buildings were small where they needed to be (in the town squares) and majestic where they needed to (towering over the park and the amphitheater). The wooden coaster was definitely unique, wasn't a fan of how slow it started off, but kudos for trying something different, but I personally loved the colors of the coaster. Pretty wild dark ride going on, plenty of atmosphere for the riders to take in. Well done all around! Next time, clean up the vomit before releasing.

CCC: Right off the bat, I love the idea with the mini-golf, creating your own holes. I love me some go-karts too, I don't really get why you had some much different track, but it was creative for sure. A beautiful atmosphere and setting here, love the integration of the buildings with landscape. Enjoyable coaster layout too. I thought Expedition: Ice Age was out of place and was minimally themed to the ice age, should have been more imo. Overall, a great entry!

DC Comics Plaza: Man, that Joker is one crazy coaster! Looks like a bit of a headache to build supports for . In the end if paid off, good work. Great angle to bring in the amphitheater too, stunt drivers I assume. The buildings etc would good for sure. I kind of feel like what you built left me wanting a bit more refinement and perhaps a bit more content to push it over the top.

Fiesta Cliffs: It's great to see you guys getting parks out there for releases. Personally I've found the biggest key to growing as a player is pushing through to get parks released, which you've done here for sure. You've laid a nice basis for growing as a player. Keep these parks coming!

Arrowmania: With a bit more time you could have pulled out a finished entry.

My top 2 are Thessaly and CCC, not 100% sure which order yet.

I'm not sure, but Arrowmania's park might be incompatible with vanilla. The game error traps every time I try and load it.

Every entry has been tested in both games. 

 

Arrowmania: With a bit more time you could have pulled out a finished entry.

 

Running out of time was our biggest issue.  Sucks when life gets in the way of having fun! lol

^ Well our team hasn't submitted anything yet, so you're doing better than us

Hey we talked about submitting something, gave it the old college try lol

^ That we did Matt, and your idea was brilliant actually. Too bad we didn't execute it... or even start it.

][topia 

I like the Greek theme you guys went with, we don't see it often enough. The wooden coaster is good. I don't like the kinda slow unbanked turns but for the rest the coaster is fine. The Zeus statue is sick. The log flume inside is very nice, but I don't get the name (which is nitpicking, I know). River Styx would have been way more logical! Archy is very nice, a bit too much of 1/8th blocks on the roofs for my liking but oh well. What I do dislike about this park is the cliffs. Yes, there are cliffs but there are like hidden away. They don't take a prominent role in the park which was one of the tasks in this challenge. And I think they could be executed better.

Arrowmania 

I'm sorry to say but this is the worst park of this challenge. The coaster layout is bad, why you want to place a wooden coaster in front of the waterfall? It blocks the view... The cliffs are just raised land with no detail to it. Foliage is repetitive and not thought out. The archy present in the station and theater are poor. Further on, where is the power? Where is the darkride? 

Coaster Rica

Overall very nice entry. I like the GCI very much, the drop out of the station on the cliffs must be pure awesomeness to ride! The coaster itself is that GCI style which makes me want to ride it. The amphitheater has a great location, view must be incredible. Original way to use a powered coaster for a darkride, and that outbanking into the cliffs is genius! I do miss a thing about power, however you could call the woodie a powerfull ride. And one point of critique: if I didn't read the readme I would have thought it was a German village! Archy was not bad but didn't seem British to me. Cliffs are executed very well and add to the parka lot. You've stepped your game up Version1.

Doninican Republic

I really was wondering why I didn't see any (launched) RMC's yet. Glad to see one. I like the coaster and its layout. Station is well executed technically but could be larger for such a ride imo. A bit of a pity the entrance huts of the spill water where visible. I like the theater too and the facade of the darkride. But kinda a shame the darkride is completely roofed an not themed inside. You kinda forgot the cliffs...

Kingdom of Ni

Well the coaster looks impressive from far, but from a closer look... Don't like the layout, the height differences between the bunny hops are too high. The cliffs are a mess and not appealing. Archy looks boring: too blocky, too weird shapes, not so great color choices. It's also a shame the darkride is completely roofed without theming. I didn't like the theater, it seems rushed and lazy. And why is there a backside road crossing a park path without any fences? Seems extremely weird. I liked the idea of the power surge towers tough, to give at least one good point.

Timbabwe

Don't know where to look first. The coaster to start with. Layout looks good, and respect for custom supporting that. I wouldn't be able to do that! It has a great location. I like the implementation of the go carts very well, and sublime use of that Lotr rock. Landscaping and foliage is extremely good, up to phenomenal. Normally I hate outskirts and sure in a 50x50 map I suggest to not waste space on it... but here it works. I like the dam very much and it helps the atmosphere. Darkride looks simple yet very affective. The theater seems a bit crushed in but oh well. My favorite park from the competition so far.

Congratulations to the builders. I was kinda expecting a rmc in every park but only one. And not even a launched one :p  For me Timbabwe is the clear winner of this challenge. My second favorite is Coaster Rica. []Topia and Doninican Republic's parks were also good. Arrowmania and Kingdom of Ni's parks were kinda a bit disappointing. 

I did not forget the cliff's The water ride is called big cliff falls.

I did not forget the cliff's The water ride is called big cliff falls.

Naming a ride 'cliff' is not including cliffs in my opinion. 

I think it is, but in literally the laziest way possible. I think with the discipline's objective in mind Doninican Republic actually has the weakest entry, although there is good content on the map of course.

I'll try to review all the parks before the voting is over!

Coaster Rica

Original way to use a powered coaster for a darkride. I do miss a thing about power.

Got me there  

Thessaly: This was my favourite. Best mix of quality/ideas/fun. Well composed and you tied all the objectives together neatly. Zeus sculpture was excellent. Architecture was great for the most part. A few too many grey buildings that could have been pastel colours. Lanscaping/foliage was a bit overdone and chaotic, particularly all the 1k ruins but I liked the mostly olive green palette.  Bit of a failure on the peep front.. not nearly busy enough and all the paths were covered in puke.  Finally, the coaster looked great and won my over.. I like how it had the element of suspense with the slow section after the lift and I love how you made such a feature of the main drop. Also.. ][RCT2 strikes again!

CCC: Pretty fun overall but a little too chaotic in some spots and a little bare in others. The golf course/go-karts area was particularly dense and it was difficult to see what’s going on. That said, I can’t fault any of the architecture or theming, I just wish some spots were given some more breathing space. Woodie layout was great.. simple yet beautiful and flowing and it used the landscape well.

DC Comics Plaza: Very nice RMC layout.. probably one of the better ones we’ve seen so far. Wasn’t sold on the purple track, I would have gone with brown spine, purple rails and made the cars bright green. Other than the coaster I don’t think this entry really came together. The dark ride front was beautiful but the building was enormous and lacked any cutaways. And the ride was called ‘ghost train 1’… The theatre/set was nice but a little dull and under-detailed. ‘Big cliff falls’ was underthemed and had a shit name. This entry had loads of potential for great theming and details but it looks like you rushed it or ran out of time (better than no entry I suppose). Still, really nice coaster.

Broadrock Village: I liked the setting and this probably had my favourite amphitheatre. Solid archy however the colours didn’t quite work for me.. I think it’s the combination of the whites with the pastel and dull colours. The castle coaster station was good. Could have been improved with some asymmetry - one of the towers being taller perhaps? The coaster wasn’t great.. lacked focus and had too many of the upward/downward turn pieces. Dark ride was ok but I would have sacrificed the backstage stuff in favour of showing some interiors and theming. Market stall and fountain area was really charming. Good stuff overall.. I hope you stop moaning about your work now!

Fiesta Cliffs: Not a bad start.. with more refined architecture and foliage this could be decent.

Arrowmania: Difficult finding things to say about this… Using the waterwheel to power the coaster and stage was a nice idea but could have been executed better.

Ni - Fiesta Cliffs
This seems like a step down from the Game of Thrones screen you posted a while ago, Iron Rattler. But it's still nice work, and a good debut release. The park combines classic scenario-esque atmosphere with raw unrefined creative play that NE revolves about. And I stress that this park had atmosphere! It's unrefined, but not without attention to detail and character. For example, the water bouncing off the roof under the waterfall is the proof that you're thinking about what you're building. Despite this park being less good as your screen, I still think you're a promising player and I hope to see more! (35%)

Timbabwe - Canyons, Carts, and Coasters
I think the park name is a poor decision, as it sets the viewer up for disappointment. I hoped to see more carts and coasters. But aside from that, and some unrefined bits here and there, this thing is pretty awesome. The dam is well done. Parking and other non-park stuff was good. The coaster was pretty cool (I'm a sucker for double drops) although I was confused why you added custom supports, seems like a waste of time although admittedly it looked good on the turnaround. Architecture was alternating between messy and good. I liked the canyons motif. The dark ride had a cool premise but disappointing interior. Good atmosphere. Glass roof for the dodgems is a cool decision. Speaking of roofs: STEEL EVERYWHERE. Landscaping and foliage were great wherever they were most refined. Cool amphitheatre, its simplicity pays off. Lastly: lovely mini golf. (65%)

Doninican Republic - DC Comics Plaza
Very cool theatre, and a very cool original dark ride facade. Coaster was pretty nice (I like the first inversion a lot, half barrel roll hald corkscrew rarely looks this good) but not great looking. For the rest it's servicable. The dark ride lacks a name and an interior but I forgive you for that because this is a contest with time constraints and all.

It's obvious that you're a student of G Force, but you're not as good yet. I think you need to do your own thing more, with your own ideas and techniques rather than imitate someone else's mindlessly. When I say mindlessly I mean for example that you took the mowed grass trick G Force came up with and used it in the most unlikely and obscure places. As a result it looked confusing and and messy. You need at least one big grass field to 'anchor' that idea, to my mind, but even with such an anchor I still think you should've done away with half of the mowed grass patches you made. Enough about grass. Let's talk about power and cliffs! I can't find the former and the latter is incredibly lazy. Doesn't diminish the quality of this park on itself but it greatly harms this park as a Pentathlon entry. The lack of power makes me wonder if this park should be disqualified. Nice effort all in all, but not too good. (50%)

Arrowmania
Unlike Fred I actually like the interaction between the waterfall and the wooden coaster, even though the coaster blocks the view for the non-riding peeps. Should be a pretty spectacular drop! The water wheel was also a nice touch. Sadly the positive things pretty much end there. It's obvious that this park was very rushed, with the trees all pointing in the same direction/not being rotated, the stalls being unnamed and the coaster layout being pretty crappy. But hey, you submitted something, and thereby you surpassed at least three teams in the ranking! I hope this isn't the last we've seen of Arrowmania. (20%)

][topia - Thessaly
I didn't like how much you borrowed from my Empire screen at first, but thankfully you deviated from that later on in the process and added some cool new content. Hercules is the best coaster in the competition so far, loved it! Unbanked turns are underrated. The temple is awesome, and the statue is incredble and very memorable. Dark ride was unrefined, but is still the most interesting dark ride in the Pentathlon. Amphitheatre, again, is the best in the Pentathlon, beautiful. Landscape too is unrefined in places, but often that is disguised by fitting foliage and rock work. Yes, I think the 1k ruin spam along the cliff face worked! However, and this goes for more entries, why don't you rotate your trees!? I liked the small touches in the rest of the park: the wrestlers (another proof that the 'fucking peeps' object I once made is actually more useful than it should be), the bubbling fountain, what looks like a spear throwing game, and more. Lastly, on a more negative note: why does the park have more puke than peeps? Couldn't you dedicate fifteen minutes to make this park release-ready? Shame because the park really deserves it. Despite the rough edges this is my clear favourite and the first park so far that has a H2H-feel to it. Well done guys! (65%)

Coaster Rica - Broadrock Village
First of all, the park does not remotely justify such a lengthy readme, describing every single tree (family tree included) and path and coaster element. I'm sure however it's nice for blind people that they can experience RCT in this detail for once. Anyway, the park itself is pretty nice. I liked the coaster, nothing spectacular but fun and compact. The cliff is blocky and awkwardly layered, but not bad. Good theatre, in both execution and setting. I like the powered coaster, it's a clever twist on 'power' (the kind of out-of-the-box interpretation I hoped to see more of in this round) and unlike most entries this one actually had a bit of interior. The architecture would look better in black and white (maybe the whole park would have; nice experiment, try it). Every building having only two colours and those colours changing with each building just looks awful and isn't realistic. At least you could've kept the roofs consistent. This doesn't work. Ignoring the colours the buildings were basic, but not bad at all! The dark ride facade also looked pretty cool where the dark ride exit path is. All in all: nice work. Not great, but nothing to apologise for. So please stop apologising, you're not quite terrible. (50%)

Power = super powered beings