RCT Discussion / Planning a Park?

Some of these parks I am seeing are absolutly amazing. I dropped off of RCT for awhile and with the announcement of 3 I am getting back into it. My question is to what degree of pre-planning do you do to creat parks like Rivers of Babylon, Sea World Atlanta, etc.

Do you map it out on paper? Do you just open it up and start building what feels right? Do you lay out al your terrain first? Do you build your rides around scenery or do you build the scenery around the rides?

My only advice is to do what feels right. Start to mess around themes and scenery and architecture, and when you find a look that you like, start to build from that.

A lot of times I will get an idea for a theme in my head, then I lay out my park, then I start building. If I dont like what I see, I will keep working at it until I can find something that I like.

I hope that helps.



PS. Shouldn't this be in Ask the Experts?

I just jot down some rough sketches and idea on a piece of paper. Then set a decent workbench with all the neccassary scenery and start building. It depends what type of park it is, if it is planned you usually have poorer results- well that is in my case anyway. I usually just free-build, build whatever comes into my head at the time. If it looks good, i keep it. If it is of poor quality- out comes the bulldozer.

I always use a flat workbench and add landscapage whilst building the park. For rollercoasters i usually build a small seqeunce of track pieces, theme them and add scenery/land etc... And then do that until the ride is finished...

-X-

Why is this in the Ad district...

Thanks for the advice and I apologize for posting this in the wrong forum. See the text under my avatar for clarification.

You don't really have to do an awful lot of preplanning, though the more the better, of course. What's definitely key, however, is getting the general layout of your park down. You don't want to sprawl. You need a distinct circulation pattern for guests, and it'll also help organize your lands to work well with each other. Generall, the main three types are the IOA type (big lake, circle around it), the Disney formula (hub branches out), or what I tend to call the "traditional" method, which would be like a Six Flags or Cedar Point sort of look, where you have stuff like two circles or whatever... a front and a back.

It's also generally nice to have an idea of what your themed areas are, and if you really want to get down to it, what rides and shops and stalls are in it. For example, before I started on DisneySEA Spain, I had every ride, show, shop, and restaurant and themed area planned out and identified. That made building things VERY fast.

I plan out the themes and styles I want then I build in ever direction within one theme first. Most of the time the area's main attraction (coaster or water ride) will go in first, from there I build the layout and landscaping and then complete the theming. The coaster will generally have parts torn out and rebuilt differently to help it fit better into the theming as well.

That's pretty much my system. I plan out alot in my head but nothing goes down on paper, even though it probably should.

ride6

My best ideas always come at the most inopportune times like when I'm in the process of building another park. So before I forget anything, I take a sheet of paper and list down the themed areas. Under each area I write some ideas for naming (something I can't do worth anything), coaster or ride types, and obscure scenery I need to remember. That way I can come back whenever and build it through. And always experiment in the game. Hardly anything I make the first time stays as-is. It really all comes down to what works best for you. Just remember to experiment and don't be afraid to bulldoze and start again.

I most often get inspired, then starts building what I feel like. I don't usually plan very much, then my inspiration fades sometimes I like to plan however, like what areas the park will have, theme(s), rides and stalls. One time I drew my thoughts on a paper and it sucked. I think you get too strict then, like you Have to build an exact copy of your scetch. For my last project, a design called Legend, I just thought of the word "legend" and next second I had all buildings, rides, landscape etc in my head. I'm glad that happened, a very comfortable way of building a park. This is the way of n00bs. The great way. The way of splitvision.

SV

lets see...

first off, I take the land tool
then
i set it at biggest setting...
then
I cover my eyes and click and move and drag like crazy for about 20 minutes.

then i go to work.

i dont od much planning. i just open the park and start building. for rollercoasters, i build the whole thing and then theme it after, that case i can make sure it still has good stats and a good layout instead of theming the whole thing and realizing its way too extreme or doesnt make it around the whole course. i also rarely have flat parks. when in the scenario editor or just in the early stages of the park, i just put the land editor at something big like 7 or 8 and then raise pieces of land at various hights. then when i build the park and i get to those raised lands, i blend them into the park to make it look good.

Sketch it when you feel so inspired and when you lose inspiration when you're building you'll be inspired by the sketches. Probably.

I plan as I go along on parks. It helps if before you start to get inspired by something or have goals that'll make you detemined to go on. Always have an idea of what you building before you start your park. It'll give you a better idea of what your doing when you build so you not completely lost while building or run out of ideas. Also draw rough scetches of an overview of the park (resort) map. List all the rides you like ideas of, then narrow it down to your favorites or what goes according to the theme. Also before you start the park get an idea of the theme and the atmosphere of the park. Just some advice.


R.A.S.

use a bench, build what comes to mind! u will get sum crap, but after u do that for awhile, u get koolio stuff, then u can put the goodstuff togetjher in another park! i'm no an expert, but thats how i do it!LOL!

use a bench, build what comes to mind! u will get sum crap, but after u do that for awhile, u get koolio stuff, then u can put the goodstuff togetjher in another park! i'm no an expert, but thats how i do it!LOL!

Yes. Lol.

I just brainstorm then i narrow it down and then i build..i dont do much of planning,...my parks are mostly just wingit parks..

I usually...*fast forward to Landscaping Editor*...take the land tool, set it to its largest point, set the land type to some wierd theme-specific one, make big squares where I want the areas to go, make the entrance building, and make paths going into the areas. Then I let my ideas loose on the park when I build it.