Ask the Experts / Park Upload Etiquette

Hi All,

 

I noticed in the comments made on the recently uploaded Glacier Cove Waterpark a lot of members appreciate the effort SRF put in the presentation of his park. There was also voiced some critisism that a lot of players don't put in the same effort when uploading their parks. Though some may make a concious decision to do so, I think a lot of members do this because they simply don't think of the 'little things' before uploading or don't know about some of the 'unwritten mores and manners' of NE. I know I'm one of those. 

 

So it got me thinking; can't we use the collective knowledge of NE to make a sort of (check)list of things to think about before uploading your finished park on NE. 

 

As a start I've copied some input from the comments on Glacier Cove (from Liampie) and added one from my own experience:

 

- Have you named your staff?

- Have you given your shops and stalls a proper name (not something generic)?

- Are there any peep jams?

- Have you watered plants and fixed vandalism?

- Have you fixed the weather settings? (btw how do you get them to stay that way :S?)

- Have you checked for glitches that need more work? (Tile-inspector)

- Have you thought of a logo? (or asked someone to help you with one)

- Did you think of a readme?

- Did you name your file correctly? (so the park name and your membername)

- Did you ask someone to do a final check? (so you don't discover your rollercoasters are going mental speeds for example ) 

 

I bet there are way more 'little things' (newer) members often forget to think about before uploading there parks. 

 

I'll add on to make sure there are no broken down rides, and also to open the save that you intend to send and let it run for a little while to make sure peep jams and weather issues won't crop up too soon after opening. Also check that the park has music enabled on the rides and that there isn't too much chaotic overlap of the music as well.

There are a few things that make release prep smoother for us as well!

 

- Running the "remove_unused_objects" command in the console (~) is a step we commonly take to reduce file size. Essentially just making sure your save file doesn't include any objects that are not used in the park.

- Don't go overboard on blacktile-type object use to hide things. Unless you REALLY can't stand seeing guests walking in from the side of the park, it can make for a lot of work to fix up for an aerial. Best practice would be to avoid forcing yourself to have to do that by having your guest entry point as close to the actual content as possible, but in cases where it isn't possible (which can be many), background object spam can become quite the headache at times when it comes to aerial making.

 

There's obviously no requirement to do any of these things, but I know I can appreciate some thought put into some of these things, and I absolutely appreciate people making my job easier.

One thing I'd like to add is to do a check if objects didn't become glitchy while finishing the park.

I doubt weather settings can be made to stay a certain way unless you're using that plugin which saves cheat settings so you can save the weather to be freezed, but that's something the viewer does, not the creator.

On that though, bad climate settings can be annoying, and usually stems from using a workbench that has Cool and Wet. Warm is seen as ideal here I'd say. Hoping for Cold to be useful in the future when the snow feature is implemented into OpenRCT2.
 

Couple more I can think of, but they're mostly just neat inclusions people wouldn't bother with but which make me happy:

 

- Park descriptions: while not a necessity, I appreciate when it is there especially when the park releases without a readme; leaving it as "No details yet" is boring

 

- Including a non-custom music version of the map; as well as URL links to any custom music the creator added/thinks you should listen to including the two RCT2 allows. It's weird when you re-visit the highly rated busy beach city with a concert going on, but it's playing "In the Hall of the Mountain King".

A bit forgotten since OpenRCT barely supports it, but custom messages should otherwise always be the last step in prepping your map for submission. It does a lot for the presentation in my experience.

 

Another thing I'd like to say is that stuff like mowing grass, cleaning litter and repairing vandalism isn't always something you want. Personally, I like my parks to be fully functional and self-regulating - peepable without needing any bandaid cheats or regular manual intervention. If there is excessive litter or vandalism, the park isn't self-regulating enough. A normal amount of litter and maybe vandalism is a feature, not a bug. Real parks have litter and vomit too. Don't clean it up. It's part of the presentation and may help your park feel lived-in. Same with mowed grass. Every tile being mowed feels more unrealistic than grown out grass. Especially since OpenRCT mows every single tile, including the ones that have trees on them. I don't think 8cars did that. It feels artificial. Be conscious about what you actually want the park to look like when you press that button!

A bit forgotten since OpenRCT barely supports it, but custom messages should otherwise always be the last step in prepping your map for submission. It does a lot for the presentation in my experience.

 

 

For the ones who are asking, you can add them in Openrct2 by typing in the console:

add_news_item

A text will appear with more information on how to add it.

You can also watch the following Deurklink tutorial:

https://www.youtube....eature=youtu.be

It's weird when you re-visit the highly rated busy beach city with a concert going on, but it's playing "In the Hall of the Mountain King".

 

 

I'm glad we're on the exact same page about what was the last park music we updated. So much Hall of the Mountain King in my game right now

I would say competition parks and normal NE submissions are slightly different here. Last park I built on in competition (forget that 2 hour micro...) I "forgot" to add the custom rides to my file and received instant flak for not being able to open it.

This is from the pre-OpenRCT2 days, but usually you don’t have to worry too much about missing a block brake glitch (trains that won’t dispatch thinking the block ahead is occupied when it isn’t). Most of the time, viewers will simply double-close the ride to re-spawn the trains, which fixes the glitch.

Unless it’s H2H7 and they’re viewing World’s Fair. Then they’ll bitch like little toddlers and say your whole section of the park doesn’t even count because somehow they magically forgot how to re-spawn trains, even though the wooden roller coaster in RoB has the same glitch.