I don't know if this has been suggested but I was reading an article on Giant Bomb that was critical of PC's placement system and argued the older RCT ones were better (arguing if it is or not is not the point though.) This made me think why not just have two global grids you can always snap to? One grid that is parallel and another that is 45 degree angle to the world. The best in game example I can think of is building and road placement in Tropico 5 which uses two grids and all construction snaps to those two grids.
I think the biggest advantage for such a system added would be easy alignment with buildings and scenery. Things like dark rides need to do a lot in a tiny amount of space and would benefit greatly from such a system. Indoor lines would be much easier to build as well.
So for the first example, paths. So say there are two toggles below the select grid button. Align world one and Align world two. And you press one of those toggles and now the path piece is always snapping to that specific grid. You build that path to that grid and get everything nice and aligned. Then you could go back to curved paths later and use them to make the paths more interesting in certain spots.
The second example would be for rides. So say instead of angle snap, there is a world grid snap. So the next piece of track you would place would automatically be aligned to that grid. Maybe you can only build 90 degree turns with the toggle on but it would allow for an easy rigidness you that might be a great help on certain coasters. It would be way easier to align track pieces to be parallel to each other. (I have my own system for that but it takes a while.)
The main reason for me that I would like to see these features is because I am already 150 hours in my current park and nowhere near ready to really show anything. I've got two wooden coasters with extremely compact layouts and I rebuilt one like 7 times. There is a segment where the track is parallel to itself 5 times over. It looks really cool but it was annoying to build. Being able to just build the coaster on a grid early in the process would have saved me a ton of time.
Second, is that I like to build interiors to my shops. Luckily I can align to the grid of the shop. But often the transitions between shops and the surrounding paths can be hard. If I have pieces that can align to a world grid, I know those path pieces will connect.
Finally, I have two stacked dark rides in my park. They have compact layouts and I am making the most of the space I have. Sometimes, the track needs to fit through a very tight space and it takes a lot of nudging sometimes to get the track in alignment with the building's grid. If I had a world grid option, I would have just built the ride and building to that grid and I would have probably saved a lot of time in the process.
I am still chugging away at my park but I think I will not be done until I am 500 hours into the park. It would be nice to remove a zero from that.
I think the biggest advantage for such a system added would be easy alignment with buildings and scenery. Things like dark rides need to do a lot in a tiny amount of space and would benefit greatly from such a system. Indoor lines would be much easier to build as well.
So for the first example, paths. So say there are two toggles below the select grid button. Align world one and Align world two. And you press one of those toggles and now the path piece is always snapping to that specific grid. You build that path to that grid and get everything nice and aligned. Then you could go back to curved paths later and use them to make the paths more interesting in certain spots.
The second example would be for rides. So say instead of angle snap, there is a world grid snap. So the next piece of track you would place would automatically be aligned to that grid. Maybe you can only build 90 degree turns with the toggle on but it would allow for an easy rigidness you that might be a great help on certain coasters. It would be way easier to align track pieces to be parallel to each other. (I have my own system for that but it takes a while.)
The main reason for me that I would like to see these features is because I am already 150 hours in my current park and nowhere near ready to really show anything. I've got two wooden coasters with extremely compact layouts and I rebuilt one like 7 times. There is a segment where the track is parallel to itself 5 times over. It looks really cool but it was annoying to build. Being able to just build the coaster on a grid early in the process would have saved me a ton of time.
Second, is that I like to build interiors to my shops. Luckily I can align to the grid of the shop. But often the transitions between shops and the surrounding paths can be hard. If I have pieces that can align to a world grid, I know those path pieces will connect.
Finally, I have two stacked dark rides in my park. They have compact layouts and I am making the most of the space I have. Sometimes, the track needs to fit through a very tight space and it takes a lot of nudging sometimes to get the track in alignment with the building's grid. If I had a world grid option, I would have just built the ride and building to that grid and I would have probably saved a lot of time in the process.
I am still chugging away at my park but I think I will not be done until I am 500 hours into the park. It would be nice to remove a zero from that.
