Paths and elevations

After all the information we have had so far I am a little surprised we haven't seen or heard much about the paths system and specifically how this works with terrain elevation. As someone who loves natural looking area's I have always been a bit dissappointed with the fact that for paths to go up elevation in RCT3 you always need to make staircases. However in my own real life experience with theme parks there are hardly any staircases on paths, instead the pavement generally just curves smoothly up and down in a natural way as the ground underneath hills up and caves down.

I am really hoping that the path system will allow for this more natural look instead of having to use staircases everytime we want to send a path up a hill side. It's pretty much the only improvement that I haven't seen confirmed thus far.

What does everyone else think about this?


Example of real life park with a path running smoothly up and down a hill with no staircases:

Agree [up]

I believe paths work with terrain, BUT. With the way the editor works you must create the terrain BEFORE you place your path in.

+1!!! [up]
Just because you used an image of the Efteling. [big grin][big grin]

You could recreate this scene in RCT3. The paths did conform to the terrain. There were also ramps as well as stairs. It wasn't easy though. The path system in RCT3 was difficult to use and many times the paths wouldn't match up because the terrain wasn't flat. I would love to be able to recreate this scene in just a few minutes instead of fifteen to twenty. I do find it weird that they haven't shown much on the path system. The first alpha should have the path system in it so maybe it is so awesome that they want to surprise us with how amazing it is. [big grin]

I want both and full control of which type. I would also want to be able to use stairs on shallow slopes too, with "deep" paved "stairs" edged with stones.

Helena said:

I want both and full control of which type. I would also want to be able to use stairs on shallow slopes too, with "deep" paved "stairs" edged with stones.

Click to expand...

^ Exactly. I always try to design with wheelchairs and buggies in mind even though no game has featured them. It just looks more realistic. However, even if rides main queues are accessed by stairs, they normally have an alternative wheelchair access . So, as well as terrain conforming paths, I would like slopes and stairs too. I just think the more alternatives we have, the more creative we can get. And again, after the no stairs RCTW Beta backlash, it'll be another chance for Frontier to get one over Atari.