Ask the Experts / Importance of hacking

This may be another dumb question, but how important is it to incorporate "hacks" into your park. Personally, I am "hack illiterate" at this point but would like to eventually learn. Is it possible to build a NE Spotlight park without any hack or using any trainers???

Well, I suppose it could be if everything else was amazing, but hacks should be used imo to expand the game, rather than to fuck around with it. Like some irl rides are only possible to recreate accurately with the help of trainers - an example would be Thorpe Park's collosus, that has different track styles on it, which need hacking together etc. If you're gonna rct2 hack, use 8 cars.

There are many different levels of hacking, but I don't think them 'necessary' to create a great park. I mostly use hacking to create more intricate architecture and looks that would not be possible without it. I don't think a coaster needs to be hacked to be great, but sometimes hacking is the only way to achieve the type of ride you want. I really hate when hacks are done just to show off hacking ability rather than to actually enhance the park.

I say it is possible to win spotlight with a park that has no hacks.
I really grew to hate hacks because in my opinion, they destroy the natural look of RCT and I consider naturalism as extremly important. So, I'm only using hacks if there's no other way.

Hacks are best when you dont notice them.

^ Yer makes everything look neater.

My opinion is that although hacking undoubtably adds a certain "edge" to the gaming experience, it is not vital in parks. I created the whole of Tula City (NE Runner Up) with only one hack, and i don't even think that that added much to the park.

Much more important in my opinion is a nice atmosphere and colour scheme.

I use it for many things... benches only facing one way, barrels standing in as stage lights, paths without the regular borders making the stage floor, chairlifts ridding me of supports, and fences closing that 7 x 9 area off... but I do it to get the look I want, not just because I can... when I finished it, it looked great.... but it's not like I *needed* it to look that way. It'd have been fine without.

So, really, hacking is control... and if you don't demand exact sublevel control of every barrel and tree and fence (sunk a few of those, too) - you'll be fine without.

Um, I've been hearing "sinking" a lot. What exactly is sinking a ride or scenery, and what exactly does that do in terms of aesthetic effect?

It's possible to :

- sink paths to create arches in land
- sink ride entrances/exits to have stationary coaster objects or for less intrusive stations
- it's possible to sink scenery underground to have underground themed rides


can't think of anything else off the top of my head...

Oh, I get it now. Now if only I could learn how to do all of this hacking stuff, my parks might actually start looking good...

Ok, so now that my first question has been answered, my next is to all those "expert hackers" out there (hacking in RCT, of course)......How did you learn to hack??...Is it just a matter of trial & error with a trainer?...Everytime I've played with 8cars, I get SO frustrated because its so easy to make the game crash...are there "best practices" or do's & dont's you follow to minimize game crashes???

I hardly hack at all because I don't enjoy doing it, there is no fun for me doing it. I like to use what there is there. And if I would like a new type of ride that's different I may ask another member who would enjoy doing it, to create it for me.

But overall I try to avoid it.

I'm with voodoo. I want to spend hours on a hack, blend it in so nobody can tell its hacked, and then have nobody notice that i spent the hours to hack it.

For example, the hedge maze in my upcoming protour entry...if i hadnt pointed it out, nobody would care. Others can enhance a park (ala zero clearances for rides going through falls, or trackless sections, and others can make new types with merging).

So hacking helps.

I agree with Mortician, because even if I could hack, I don't see the fun in hacking. I find it a lot more fun if you can make things look good with what you already have, and hacking to me seems pretty boring anyway. If I knew how, I might do one or two, maybe just a little track merging, but not full-scale mondo everything in the park hacking.

The problem some [turtleman] people run into with hacks is that they spend X amount of hours working on it then they expect everyone to love them because they came up with it.

The truth of the matter is that no one is going to care how long the fucking hack took, they just care about the end result of it, and most of the time it ruins the look of the park. I think that Posix was hitting on a very good point there. You need to keep RCT looking like RCT or it just fucks everything up.

It's like not using custom scenery.

Hacks aren't neccesary to make a great park. Posix is right that a park can win spotlight without hacking even now when hacking is so prevalent. Crafting a great park requires so many things and hacking is one tool that can help, but it can also be a negative thing. Hacking alone is worthless. Buster was the first truly great hacker but I never liked any of his parks because they all felt thrown together and messy to me. You have to have a plan of some kind.

Hacking has dominated LL because it allows you to create new themes. That's why I use it. First I come up with a theme idea and then I try to find hacks that will allow me to create that theme. Sometimes it works really well and sometimes it's just a mess. For years I built only realistic parks with no hacks in them and that is still the core of my parkmaking. The hacks are just window dressing really. I'd love to make a park with no hacks just to prove it can be done, but I don't really have time for anything like that. It's a shame though cause I really would enjoy that.

I do it....Like every park I build XD

Mainly because I can't even track merge.

I'm just wondering.. Does anybody have hack guide or somethin'? Or how not to crash your game when you hack? Just wondering.

~TID

Most hacks you can figure out yourself. The Beast/8 Cars are both pretty straight-forward with what they do. You only need guidance with Hex Editing, or you could really screw up. Oh yeah- save your game often and play around. You'll learn more without asking how to do everything.