Ask the Experts / Gigas are hard to make look good in RCT2

Argh. any advice? Gigas are hard to make look good in RCT2.

Pesonally, I find that you can't just make a coaster "look good." Try hacking a different coaster train on it, or make it interact with the surrounding scenery more. Or if that doesn't work, just pick a different coaster. Unless you absolutely need a giga in your park...

Since I am working on an Intamin style coaster for an NE Design (200 RCT2 feet) I may be able to help. If you can figure out how to hack a type of lift hill with a 60-degree lift and a vertical first drop, like the gigas in RCT1, that looks vastly better than a standard lift hill so high. I stuck to the standard because I don't know hacking, but maybe you do. However, NEVER do a 60-degree lift hill and 60-degree first drop on the same hill. It looks terrible and nothing like a giga-coaster.

Now overbanked turns are an issue I run into a lot. They are the reason why Millennium Force is virtually impossible to recreate in RCT. The taller it is, the wider it has to be. You have to do the whole thing with shallow-sloped track, or else it looks like shit. It's hard to explain exactly how I make them. One tip though. From the time that you first bank the track before the turn going up, never unbank it until you get past the turn going down.

ya, i know about the overbanks...and keeping banking throughout.

Well, my problem is the first one you said. The lift hill looks SOOO unnatural. I don't have enough room to have it be regular and big, so i need the cable lift 60 degree kind. And I can't hack it vertical...well, I could hack it onto steel twister but that kinda looks unnatural as well...and since you cant make it invisible if it has vertical track, you cant replace it with impulse or anything clever like that.

Really, both options suck, and I agree about the 60 degree up 60 degree down looking shitty.

Well, just make it shorter. It doesn't have to be a full 300 feet high to make it tower over everything impressively. 150 feet is fine, 200 plenty. If that still doesn't work for you, do a banked turn at the bottom of the first drop, perhaps in an underground tunnel. If still no go, take the station back further, or make it perpendicular to the lift hill and have a turn before the coaster climbs the lift. Because I think you're gonna have to deal with the 30-degree lift and 60-degree first drop.

EDIT: Just one last-resort crazy idea. Get Toon to make you a 1/4 centered box-track block that looks exactly like Giga Coaster track. Then stack them to meet the first drop and hack the track onto them.

Or send it to me.

EDIT: Just one last-resort crazy idea. Get Toon to make you a 1/4 centered box-track block that looks exactly like Giga Coaster track. Then stack them to meet the first drop and hack the track onto them.

Or send it to me.

erm, you cant hack a coaster onto scenery. And you cant make vertical track invisible.

Yeah, I e-mailed you about this, but I'll post it here.

put the lift hill or the initial drop in a building to hide it--be creative with it.

I delt with the problem by using "vertical drop coaster" track for the entire lift and drop for the Giga in Waters Of Civilization. It looks pretty good and functions okay. Really there is no "perfect" solution to this...

ride6

Personally I think 'Rush' in Six Frags' Sparkly Paradise is the best that can be hoped for - and it looks pretty damn good. Just sacrifice height for looks and everything falls into place.

It's not like anyone cares that it's not 200ft anyway...is it?

It's not like anyone cares that it's not 200ft anyway...is it?

I don't care if its not 200 ft., I care if it isn't 300 ft. because that's what a giga is. If it doesn't top 300, it by definition isn't a giga even though those definitions are stupid anyway. A giga isn't just a non-looping coaster that has a steeper cable lift with a very steep drop; if you don't make it above at least 250 ft, there's no need for those things even though there's only 2 coasters in the world that have those.

So...does that mean that Superman at SFNE isn't a giga coaster?

Ah, who cares, it won some kinda award anyway so it doesn't matter, really. It's still fucking awesome.

I don't care if its not 200 ft., I care if it isn't 300 ft. because that's what a giga is.  If it doesn't top 300, it by definition isn't a giga even though those definitions are stupid anyway.  A giga isn't just a non-looping coaster that has a steeper cable lift with a very steep drop; if you don't make it above at least 250 ft, there's no need for those things even though there's only 2 coasters in the world that have those.

But surely you realise that the values in RCT are too messed up to deal with that?

So in RCT it's better to go by the speed than the height, and also by the look. Because to say a giga coaster can only be used in RCT when it goes over 300ft is completely eliminating it from the frame. And that's a shame.

Ya, I solved my problems. I have a design I like. I was trying to make it too compact, when the things look best when they are given tons of room.

Supports, especially on the diagonal sections, are of course another story.

But surely you realise that the values in RCT are too messed up to deal with that?

So in RCT it's better to go by the speed than the height, and also by the look. Because to say a giga coaster can only be used in RCT when it goes over 300ft is completely eliminating it from the frame. And that's a shame.

They aren't as innacurate as eveybody thinks though, but I do agree with you that speed is a better standard to go by. When the train goes 90, you know you're in the ball park. In the original RCT, the max height mark, 60 or 61 (I can't remember exactly) would be about the right height. What I was trying to say in my previous post was that a giga is not characterized by a steep lift and steeper drop, which seems to have gotten to be the philosophy around here. There's no reason not to call it a hyper or even a strata, even though I do believe that we should all just throw away all these classification terms because in the end, they are all coasters.

Steve, SROS at SFNE, probably the best steel coaster in the world, is not a giga and is classified as a hyper because of its height. RCT2 calls intamin tri-rail track giga because there are copyright things involved to my understanding and the game is also meant for people who have never been to an amusement park in their lives, meaning its not suited to people who would know what the difference between a hyper and giga for example.

Of course, if this whole thread was about Intamin tri-rail track and not what I had been talking about, I must apoligize for I thought we were talking about real gigas.

I have no idea about real coasters so you're the expert there - but I assume that the rct definition of a 'giga' has stuck simply because of Nevis's MF recreation (that's a giga in real life isn't it?)

^ Yes. And I've ridden it 15 times. 5 in one day once. EXTREMILY great ride. There are only two coasters that I can imagine topping Millennium Force; Expedition GeForce in Germany and S-ROS @ SFNE. Oh yeah.

I believe the RCT definition would be something along the lines of a large coaster without any invertions that uses a steep lift and vertical first drop.

I think...

ride6

Bump. I got an idea when looking at SFWoE.

Hack the giga track onto Inverted Impulse track for the first drop.

But impulse coasters ride on the other side of the track. Would that work? I suppose you could always hack another track through it.

rct3d.

Couldn't you always hack it with the vertical track. Make the vertical track invisible then have Toon make a track scenary that would look like its riding on the scenary but it isnt?