Blueprint Mode

I believe that this has already been discussed somewhat in the "Construction animation" thread, but I'd like to go into detail about it.

Now, obviously, in a real park in real life, rollercoasters are not built on a whim, with the design being made up as they go along. If the theme park is safe they begin by using CAD (Computer-Aided Design) tools to build and simulate the coaster as a 3D model, complete with physics tests to ensure that nobody on it is going to have their brain melt and end up in their feet.

So how about a blueprint mode for Planet Coaster? It'd be an entirely optional feature - you can either click blueprint mode in the menu, then select the ride you want, or just build it immediately.

Of course, because it's a blueprint mode, it's not going to cost you anything to place down pieces. That way you can properly get the design of the track down without worrying if you're going to run out of money half way through.

Here's how I think blueprint mode should work. You can build basically anything that you can in normal, proper building mode, including paths, flat rides, queues, modular buildings, perhaps even terrain alterations. The only difference between building something in blueprint mode and normal immediate build mode is that when placing things down, they are instead a white, semi transparent model of whatever it is you've placed down. Visible, but clearly indicating it's not actually there. The "ghosts" can either disappear when blueprint mode is exited or remain.

You should be able to build as much as you want in blueprint mode, and then either individually confirm the construction by clicking on certain things (perhaps modular buildings will detect when things are attached to each other and allow the confirmation and construction of all of the connected pieces?) or go to a specific menu in blueprint mode and click "build all current blueprints" (both options would have to show you how much they cost).

Edit: Forgot an important detail.
When building coasters in blueprint mode, you should have the option to test them. They should only show you the max g-forces the ride experiences, unless intensity, excitement and nausea are things they can test for in a simulation.

Obviously, you don't want people making blueprints and then making something real through the middle of a coaster, then being able to confirm the coaster and whatever that real thing was now has coaster track embedded in it. In that case, anything that has an invalid location (due to moving terrain after placing blueprints, the aforementioned building new objects) should show up with a slightly red tint to it - although only on the part that's going to collide with whatever you placed down. You can still confirm the blueprints, but red tinted ones just won't build. Perhaps it should warn you before you confirm, "Part of your blueprints are in an invalid location. Any ghost with a red tint will not be constructed. Are you sure you want to continue?" with a yes/no box.

I'm not sure if there was more I wanted to say about blueprints, but if there is hopefully I will remember.
Please, let me know what you think.

Thats just smart! Frontier, read this! [squeeeeee]

i cannot see this working. a ride is far more than just placing ghost pieces. it is far more like a construction project. terrain adjustments, scenery, buildings, etc. will it all be inactive ghosts? that would get unmanageable very quickly.

i like the idea, but i cannot figure how to make it playable.

I love blueprints! +1 [up]

jamesviago said:

i cannot see this working. a ride is far more than just placing ghost pieces. it is far more like a construction project. terrain adjustments, scenery, buildings, etc. will it all be inactive ghosts? that would get unmanageable very quickly.

i like the idea, but i cannot figure how to make it playable.

Click to expand...

If you decide to plunge your coaster into a mountain, the ghost would indicate that. It could show you what's going to be dug out with wireframe edges where the tunnel will be so you still have access to fine tuning your coaster inside the tunnel.

I just feel that blueprint mode is very important. It wouldn't cost you any money, you could test it to see if it actually works, if not, no cost of adjusting pieces or anything like that. And then, if you don't have the money to build the coaster right now, you can just toggle off blueprint mode and boom, everything you built in it disappears. But when you click the button again, everything is back, ready to be edited or built.

FelixActually said:

If you decide to plunge your coaster into a mountain, the ghost would indicate that. It could show you what's going to be dug out with wireframe edges where the tunnel will be so you still have access to fine tuning your coaster inside the tunnel.

I just feel that blueprint mode is very important. It wouldn't cost you any money, you could test it to see if it actually works, if not, no cost of adjusting pieces or anything like that. And then, if you don't have the money to build the coaster right now, you can just toggle off blueprint mode and boom, everything you built in it disappears. But when you click the button again, everything is back, ready to be edited or built.

Click to expand...

To be clear, i love the idea. it annoys the hell out of me in rct3 to have to build a ride, terrain adjustments and all, inside an established park, only to find that it doesn't fit or look good in the space i thought it would.
So i agree with you and would like this.

I'm struggling to imagine how an entire coaster, with all the necessary edits, could be 'ghosted in', while playing.
While paused, maybe.
If PC can figure it out, that would be epic.
My only available method in rct3 was to save the game, try to build the coaster, and reload if the build isn't to my liking.

Maybe a solution lies in that idea. In reality, you would have to plan all that (terrain, shops etc) in order to fully design a ride (especially if it interacts with terrain as park of the experience). The issue is selective undo, isn't it? The problem with even the 'save as' option, is you cannot say 'put this back how it was before'.

Maybe THAT's the compromise that would get the effect you're suggesting. We could highlight a region (volume) of the park, mark as 'under design' and the game pauses and makes regular savepoints of that volume as you do the design. As you're editing away, then you can restore any sub-volume back to any savepoint. When the design is ready, tell the game it's now an 'under construction' area, the simulation runs, the guest vacate, and when they are out of harm's way the designed volume is copied in. Then the guests are allowed back in.

Thoughts?

jamesviago said:

To be clear, i love the idea. it annoys the hell out of me in rct3 to have to build a ride, terrain adjustments and all, inside an established park, only to find that it doesn't fit or look good in the space i thought it would.
So i agree with you and would like this.

I'm struggling to imagine how an entire coaster, with all the necessary edits, could be 'ghosted in', while playing.
While paused, maybe.
If PC can figure it out, that would be epic.
My only available method in rct3 was to save the game, try to build the coaster, and reload if the build isn't to my liking.

Maybe a solution lies in that idea. In reality, you would have to plan all that (terrain, shops etc) in order to fully design a ride (especially if it interacts with terrain as park of the experience). The issue is selective undo, isn't it? The problem with even the 'save as' option, is you cannot say 'put this back how it was before'.

Maybe THAT's the compromise that would get the effect you're suggesting. We could highlight a region (volume) of the park, mark as 'under design' and the game pauses and makes regular savepoints of that volume as you do the design. As you're editing away, then you can restore any sub-volume back to any savepoint. When the design is ready, tell the game it's now an 'under construction' area, the simulation runs, the guest vacate, and when they are out of harm's way the designed volume is copied in. Then the guests are allowed back in.

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Not sure about that, it seems like overcomplicating things, I'm fairly certain a blueprint mode wouldn't be very difficult to do as long as it can understand when something real is colliding with a ghost that ghost can't be constructed.

FelixActually said:

Not sure about that, it seems like overcomplicating things, I'm fairly certain a blueprint mode wouldn't be very difficult to do as long as it can understand when something real is colliding with a ghost that ghost can't be constructed.

Click to expand...

you're asking the game to distinguish between a pre-change state and a post-change (ghost) state, in real time, at 50 frames per second, while providing full editing capability without actually editing anything. Sounds easy? Maybe you know more about development challenges than i do.
However. we agree on the effect, so it's up to Frontier how to deliver it. maybe the graphics engines and game engine can already do it

i think there should just be blueprint mode for rides, expecially rollercoasters. just make it looking a little invisible and if you have the money it will appear, and if not u can delete it and all the terrain and things will het back as they where.. if u already put all the scenery and stuff you should plan to really build it, as a real park, they will star with building the road to the coaster and stuff and many many coasters add their theme after the construction for the coaster itself, sometimes the theming finishes after one yeat after opening the coaster itself, so i dont know, maybe you should just plan yourself what you build when the coaster is still in blueprint and what not... [haha]

as u pointed out this is a very needed feature in order to have realtime construction animations at some day.

so i hope we will get this at least for coasters

You got my support, really want this! +1

+1 for this.

Supported +1000

This could also work for those who want to have their park running just fine without loosing money, and also come up with the next coaster or ride area for their park!

I really like this idea. I think you should also be able to construct a blueprint coaster while your park is in operation then is the winter months there would be an off season with no guests in the park so your coaster can be built.

+1 for this!
Another addition to this is showing the costs for blueprint build before pressing the "build" button.

I think this would be really cool and a good way to implement it would be to essentially pause gameplay and remove all peeps while in that mode. This might be getting a little too crazy, but it would be really cool if the game first moved or deleted any collision items, then moved the terrain, then added scenery, then built the coaster. This would be enough time to get a realistic publicity boost and increased guests in the park for "opening day". I know I'm dreaming here but...I'd love that.

This is a neat idea.