NE 20th Anniversary / History of New Element - 2019
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24-June 22
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Xtreme97
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The History of NE
2019 started hot off the heels of one of New Element’s biggest contests to date, H2H8. With a number of game-changing developments in the RCT “meta”, from fresh colour palettes to a wealth of new custom vehicle types, all aided by continuous new features driving the development of OpenRCT2, this year would see that put to the test as the community rejuvenated its energy in the wake of H2H’s rocky finish and several members got to work on solo projects that would culminate in a banner year for releases.
The new year was kicked off with a splash of Belgian style, coming in the form of a reimagined take on the classic seaside scenario Bumbly Beach by resident railway enthusiast Jappy. Packed to the gills with charming vignettes and his signature style, the park featured a dense nest of rides that drew inspiration from Britain’s many seaside parks, centered on a reimagined version of the original scenario’s Big Dipper, and surrounded by scenes that would be familiar to any Brit. The park earned a Gold accolade with an admirable score of 77%, lower than his previous effort despite many considering it his best full scale work yet. But that wouldn't be enough to keep the old battleaxe down, and Jappy would continue to be present throughout the year's contests.
The traditional Awards season soon followed, and of course it’s not an Awards ceremony without a surprise in store, this year coming in the form of shogo’s fourth full scale park Coors East, cementing her status as one of the site's best parkmakers and a powerhouse of American realism. A sequel to Coors Park, this time shogo delved into a style reminiscent of a Busch or Hershey Park, displaying a prowess for composition and architecture, and taking her style a step further in pursuit of a more historical Americana feeling with a setting inspired by the North-Eastern parks of the US. Complementing the excellent architecture is a layout line-up to rival the best, featuring turns from Pacificoaster, schnupz and Scoop. Coors East earned shogo her third spotlight, and her highest scoring work to date.
Around the same time, a new toy was making a buzz (sorry for that wording) in NE’s official discord server. Saxman had developed a bot that, upon a user request such as “!randompark”, would spit out a link to a park from the database matching the criteria. What seemed a simple curiosity at first has since grown into a staple of the discord server, with its own channel to match, and developments such as the “!randomscreenshot”, “!randomh2h” and “!randomsteve” commands (actually scratch that last one..) to give bored NE members a fun excuse to procrastinate at work or avoid writing that Uni paper.
Now where were we? Awards season had just concluded and a shiny new park had graced the site. But that wasn’t all that had come out of the ceremony. In finest NE tradition, a second surprise was announced – a new contest! 5 years, 14 spotlights, two H2Hs (and a partridge in a pear tree) after the last iteration, the next Micro Madness had come, giving an opportunity for some plucky rising stars to battle it out against the all time greats on a 15x15 plot of virtual land. With over 60 signups, the contest was off to a roaring start. The format was simple: a bracket of 16 groups of 4-5 players each would face off in the first round with the top two of each going through. Subsequent rounds would see more micros pit against eachother and more players eliminated until a grand final four to decide the champion. Coming so soon after perhaps the site’s most innovative contest to date, this Micro Madness promised to be a breeding ground for new techniques, shocking surprises and more than enough crammed content.
Kicking off the contest for good was the bracket draft, where players ranked by skill were sorted into their groups of 4 or 5. Returning from the last Micro Madness were a slew of players, not least of which was the reigning champion inthemanual, fighting to retain his title and live up to his impressive last run. Runner-up Stoksy was also back and out for blood, alongside returning faces such as Liampie, Camcorder, Faas, Maverix, Sulakke, Lotte and JimmyLaessig among others. The playing field was also filled in with some familiar NE names that had missed the previous edition such as Cocoa, Steve, AVC, Tolsimir, dr dirt, Leon, Josh, Jaguar, and more, who no doubt wanted to prove their micro skills on the big stage. Rounding out the signups was a string of relative no-names, for whom this was their first major solo contest and an ample opportunity to display their hidden talents and provide an upset or two.Just a few short weeks later and Round 1 started with a bang, eliminating any doubt in viewers’ minds that this contest might be a quiet reprieve from the action packed RCT of H2H8. Inthemanual lived up to expectations and provided an artistic look into the fiercely argumentative side of NE with A Petty Squabble featuring legendary enemies Bick and Bock. Stoksy came back with a vengeance and wound up 2nd in his group with a rare realism entry inspired by Australian mall outlets, Westfield Marion, beat out by an aesthetic night time piece by Jappy, Club Psyke. But the biggest surprises this round came from the fresh faces – I myself produced a fantastical Asian themed plot complete with an enormous portal, titled Ascension, and hoobaroo came out swinging with his trippy gravity-defying Atlas Bulwark, promising a new fantasy mainstay at NE. Meanwhile, Cocoa made a beautiful sawmill themed interpretation of Forest Frontiers (not the last we’d see of original scenario names this contest), Liampie created an apocalyptic tapestry of alien pyramids, laserbeams and chaos with Nibiru Periapsis, Tolsimir pushed the stratospheric height limits of the game with the enormous Zuphiro Weather Forecast & Research, AVC gave us the gorgeous French love duet Moulin Rouge, and Steve went back to his naturalistic roots with the excessively named Audbon yada yada yada… All things considered, Round 1 proved that Micro Madness was no small contest, and had yet more excellent RCT to give.
Faas wrote: Fuck. With the victors through to the Quarter Final it was time to prove themselves further, with a smaller field of competitors and a few “groups of death”. This round saw 8 groups battle it out in some close matches between memorable micros: Cocoa continued his winning streak with a medieval rapids ride in The Green Plague, as did Leon with one of his signature condensed launch layouts set in the beautiful Turkish Cappadocia. Inthemanual, dr dirt and Maverix fought in the closest match of the round, with ITM’s ode to childhood dreams, Where The Sidewalk Ends, snatching the win and dirt’s mystical Blood Moon bagging him a spot in the Semi Final, while Maverix’s The Dawg Pound sadly missed out. Stoksy again plucked for a realism build, recreating an area of his home town Adelaide with Moseley Square, followed in second by Camcorder’s deconstructed crunchwrap supreme Frango Folliculus. AVC’s scaled up jewellery box All The King’s Jewels won his round, with Ottersalad’s space station Dry Dock 14J bringing up second place. I gained a second win with my claustrophic steampunk map Ever Upward, with Jaguar’s mid-century modern looking Woodland House of Tomorrow placing second. Hoobaroo also proved he wasn’t a one trick pony and surpassed himself with the spectacular Sky Midas, with Faas returning from his first-round loss to clinch second place with A Day in Drumnadrochit. Last but not least, Tolsimir grabbed a win with the referential 1K Museum, and Liam slipped into the Semi Final for a second time with Writer’s Block.
The Semi Finals rolled around faster than we could have expected, and there was all to play for. The harshest round of the contest, this would see just one player per group proceed to the Grand Final, meaning the elimination of some stellar parks despite their best efforts. Time commitments forced myself, Leon and dr dirt to forfeit, but the rest of the qualifiers produced a brilliant selection of entries. Hoobaroo worked his magic and continued an impressive string of first releases with the enigmatic Dreamcatcher, winning his spot in the final four. Against Hoobaroo, Tolsimir’s astronomy themed The Orrery wasn’t enough, but remained a favourite among many. The next group over, Josh’s Alien styled Xenomorph came second, losing out to ITM’s Mordecai’s Mechanical Marvels. Cocoa’s entry focused on the RCT thematic music styles with a configurable system of magnetic tapes in Behind The Music, giving him a win and propelling him to the finals ahead of Stoksy, Liampie and Faas. Finally, AVC won out his match in dramatic fashion with the satanic Summoning Of Mephisto to become the fourth finalist.
With the Semis concluded, the Grand Final was now upon us. Reigning champion inthemanual had thus far proven that he hadn’t lost his touch, producing 3 superb micros that rightfully secured him a spot among the finalists. Cocoa and AVC had both lived up to the hype their names bring and powered through their rounds with consistent first place finishes. And fresh face Hoobaroo was wowing the community every round with an eye for imaginative dreamscapes that promised greatness outside the competition. The stage was all set for a showstopping finale that would no doubt go down in the history books, as evidenced by my writing this paragraph. Real life time crunch unfortunately led inthemanual to submit an unfinished but adventurous map, The (Not So) Secret Place. An admirable end and still backed up by an impressive earlier lineup, it sadly wouldn’t be enough to secure victory and defend the title. Hoobaroo created an intricately themed clocktower (Genesis) with a ride that seems to transform as it scales the length and traverses the different layers. His final showing was certainly up to par and together with his previous micros showed an ambitious mind full of ideas, becoming the breakout name of the contest. AVC cooked up another fantastical piece, Airhaven, here venturing into the steampunk genre with an enormous complex of balloons adorned with colourful structures and a unique blend of objects. But beating out even those tough competitors was Cocoa’s biggest surprise yet, Dynamite Dunes. Returning to the RCT-inspired scenario names, Dynamite Dunes was literally explosive, featuring a timed detonation of dozens of blocks to reveal a cavernous adventure ride. With it, Cocoa secured the win and took home the Micro Madness trophy, fittingly ending the contest with a bang!
In the wake of the monumental final round of Micro Madness the site entered something of a release slump as builders got back to building their parks and designs. It would be broken quite soon however, as WhosLeon released his strongest design yet in the following month: Fujin. Set in a wintery Japanese cityscape with snow-topped trees and an icy river, the centerpiece of the design is a compact but flowing Gerstlauer layout that weaves around the mini park. The rest of the map features some excellent architectural touches that bring a strong believability to the design and a bustling city atmosphere with details in every corner. Having grown into a superb player over the course of H2H8 and Micro Madness, it was no surprise to see Leon achieve Parkmaker status with a panel score of 82.00% and cement his status among the site’s best players.
In the midst of Micro Madness, a new player had emerged from seemingly nowhere: Korean member Secondrun919. His submissions were pretty much all scenario parks, not something that is seen very often at NE due to the wider community’s taste for more sandbox building. However, these scenarios were inventive and skillfully made, with often a unique setting or theme that set them apart from the usual RCT-inspired types. Secondrun would continue to produce and submit these throughout the year and into 2020, with maps ranging from Ghibli recreations to Disney films to a tapestry of world history.
2019 also saw a small rejuvenation in interest in multiplayer maps, though not as big as the period dominated by Riverland and Mirage Islands, largely in thanks to two projects started by dr dirt. In September, he proposed a mini-contest to make clever use of the multiplayer format – Empire Conquest, spanning two editions. The contest featured players being given an area of the multiplayer map on which to build a small city in a style of their choosing, expanding it each round with objectives to build specific structures and a poll to rank the best. The use of Builder Cards also introduced a competitive edge by allowing players to sabotage another player’s plot or improve their own. RWE, Jaguar, Josh, Lily, CC9 and MK98 took part in the first edition, with CC9 edging out the win in the final poll. The second edition in October saw an expanded number of players and a slightly different ruleset, and four factions based on geographical areas with a common thematic style: Asia, Americas, Europe, and Africa.
As well as the Empire Conquest mini contest, a map that had been started several years ago finally saw a push to completion and release: the “dirty American realism” stylings of Scarlet Oak Amusement Park. Despite some friction in its building process, the final map resembled something of a pastiche of a brand of realism that was kicked off all the way back in 2013 with Starpointe. With a mix of both American and European contributions, the park featured some pleasant layouts and captured the aesthetic and heart of American amusement parks quite well.
The summer wasn’t over however, and the stretch into Autumn would see a slate of full scale parks in the realism genre, each providing a different feeling and two going on to win Spotlight. The first of these in August was Stoksy’s long awaited solo effort LunaPark Adelaide. Inspired by its counterpart in Melbourne, this seaside map was Stoksy’s most refined work in realistic parkmaking and combined a deep knowledge and love for his home city of Adelaide with his penchant for thoughtful detailing and skillful architecture. The park also pushed the standards for non-park content even further, with its well-designed surroundings giving the map a sense of placement that would be sorely missed without it. This continued the trend that has been set with parks like Riverland and Grona Lund, one that would reach a natural conclusion in the coming months with a different release. LunaPark earned Spotlight with an accolade score of 87.00%, giving Stoksy a well deserved upgrade to Elite Parkmaker.
Meanwhile, JimmyLaessig came out of the woodwork in August with a tantalising new screen showing the entrance of a new realism park. Shortly thereafter he released the accompanying map in something of a surprise to the community, a reimagining of Wiener Prater in his home country of Austria. Featuring a lineup of classic city fairground rides, haunted houses and portable coasters, it was living proof that Eurorealism was alive and kicking. It also earned Jimmy a solid 80.50% gold and Parkmaker spot, the third new Parkmaker of the year so far.
The release train chugged along full steam ahead into October with the release of Southwinds by G Force. His fourth full sized solo, the park followed the cardinal naming convention set by Westwinds, and continued to define his style as a distinct entry in the American realism genre, complete with his trademark mowed grass. The coasters were the standout here, with excellent layouts throughout and the brilliant Megalodon earning Best Steel Coaster at the next awards, all capped off by some gorgeous understated architecture. The park was not without its detractors however, with some feeling the Cedar Fair genre was getting stale, but it just managed to earn G Force his second spotlight with a score of 83.00%, marking arguably the end of the Cedar Fair era.
Posix wrote: What a truly refreshing park to see. In some moments bringing back the strength RCT can have visually if people let go and dive into their imagination … It would be an understatement to call this concept driven. It's nature is simply all concept. 2019 had also featured the return of an old face, KaiBueno, who had taken to micro madness quickly and brought a unique playful style that didn’t sacrifice his classic roots. Along with that he brought with him a passion to see one of the old RCT Masters multi-map projects completed, which we saw with the release of The Masters Palette featuring work by Kai, the late Mama Bear, rwadams, cBass, Toon, and many more - cBass would later show up with an under-the-radar release called Arthropoda, built entirely on mobile. The Master Palette consisted of four maps, each acting as a palette on which a number of artists within a shared “genre” could be represented. Standouts included areas inspired by Escher, Van Gogh, Frank Lloyd Wright and Bosch, among plenty of others.
After a short while, as the cold weather rolled around and players crept back indoors, two new parks surfaced in quick succession just a few weeks after Southwinds, and both earned Spotlight to cap off the year with a total of five! The first of these was a park many years in the making, one that had grown its own legend within the community - Coasterbill had finally completed Emerald Pointe. An enormous map spanning a colossal 256 tiles in width and reaching the object limit well before its completion, the park featured a lineup of almost every coaster type imaginable - RMC, B&M, Intamin, Mack. You name it, it’s there. Probably. With such an enormous scale comes the hefty task of circumventing the dreaded object limit (remember the object limit? fun times), and Coasterbill deftly waved his magic wand to conjure up a ridiculous number of increasingly specific multi-tile scenery pieces to fill in the gaps and achieve his dream megapark. The sprawling park earned Spotlight with a whopping 89.00%, shooting Coasterbill into the ranks of Elite Parkmaker.
Less than a week after the formidable Emerald Pointe, a new park in a starkly different style was released: Pacific Ocean Park Vespucci Beach by Royr. The park had been advertised in the months leading up via some very well produced time lapse videos on his youtube channel, promising a Grand Theft Auto themed map with little focus on traditional RCT rides, and a greater vision for a fully realised cityscape complete with police chases, dirt bike runs, beach parties, nightclub soirees and plenty more to discover. With eye-catching scenes in every corner and all sorts of moving things dominating the landscape, the park was abuzz with activity, all sandwiched between gorgeous city street architecture and a strong sense of personal style. The park to some was revolutionary - a map that transcended the game’s purpose, relegating its token theme park elements (excellent though they are) to one edge of the map and filling in the rest with idea-driven spectacle. Pacific Ocean Park was warmly greeted by the panel and earned 90.50%, becoming the highest scoring release of the year and giving Royr the rare status of Legendary Parkmaker.
Halloween is rarely celebrated at New Element, but this year had a fresh release befitting the holiday with the drop of the creepily themed secret LL group park Land of Shadows. Started in 2003 by iris and initially featuring the talents of natelox and Ozone, the park hit road bumps of inactivity and various players added their mark over the years in an attempt to bring it to the finish line. It eventually did so in 2019, with the final map bearing contributions by alex, Cocoa, Loopy, Roomie and Liampie. A companion park to the legendary City of Dreams, Land of Shadows represented the inverse of that utopian concept, soaked in atmosphere and dark, horror-influenced themes and featuring a rare example of LL’s orange water palette. The timescale of its building process certainly shows in how distinct the areas are, but the park was received well and earned a Gold with a score of 81.88% and 4 yes votes.
After several months of high profile releases and 4 new spotlights since Micro Madness, the admins felt the time was right to return to a familiar contest format, announcing the start of the fifth edition of the New Element Design Challenge in October. Players were given an excellent suspended coaster layout designed by Robbie92 and tasked with decorating it and turning it into a Design. A total of 10 submissions were received, all of them being great pieces of work and 8 scoring above the 65% threshold to win the Design accolade. The top flight included Tolsimir’s landscape-heavy, high concept (literally) Beyond the Canopy, CC9’s norse themed Nokken and Josh’s artistic MS Paint inspired design B I T M A P, which earned him a parkmaker spot, just creeping under the wire with 80.00%. Elsewhere on the board saw some early cso work by Mamarillas in Javan Tiger, and upcoming member BarnNID’s fourth piece of work this year, Paradise Palms. But in first place and taking home the NEDC trophy was a player who had just stopped short of winning in the last edition: Steve! His entry Ririku evoked elements of his spotlight winning park Veteris Shores with the use of a more classic object palette, but elevated that style to a higher level with elegant structures and a gorgeous landscaping. Not to mention one of the best queue lines I’ve ever seen! All in all NEDC5 was a success. Fewer entries than the previous edition perhaps but the quality was still strong and proved the format a continued source of excellent RCT.
With that, the year was ready to close out. But not before two more parks were released on Christmas Day. First up, H2H8 breakout star Saxman1089 presented his second full scale release Bethlehem Steelworks. Set in a defunct Pennsylvania steel factory, the park utilised the industrial structures for some great theming and included a great atmosphere. Alongside this, BelgianGuy released the expansive Terra Fantasia, featuring a variety of fairytale themes coexisting and peppered with a strong lineup of layouts.
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Gustav Goblin
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Micro Madness is a bittersweet memory for me. Came in as a no-name and my focus drifting elsewhere meant I left with even less of a name. It was a fantastic contest to watch though, and seeing you and Hoob coming out of nowhere with some of the best ideas and executions in a while was inspiring. Still waiting with bated breath for the next one to see what I- we have to offer with the new meta.
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Cocoa
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really lovely writeup, and a fun year for me. I use "2019 RCT world champion" as a fun fact about myself sometimes lol... only slightly untrue.
the battleboy mrtycooncoaster 'duel' is still the funniest thing I have seen here. I think about girlservers all the time
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Lurker
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2019 was when I was really only playing scenarios, although I'd stop by NE and download some of the parks. I remember Micro Madness though, because in early 2019 I decided to build a park "Sandbox Style" and really try to make something look good for the first time in years.
I followed some tutorials I'd found on youtube, spent a few hours building a little micro map and was decently happy with how it looked... Then I decided to check NE and see what was on here, not realizing that MM was ongoing. I looked at the mind-blowing stuff people were building, and my park just looked so bad compared to those awesome builds that I totally gave up on the idea, it wasn't until a year later that I started trying again on MP servers.
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