Why bother with flatrides ... no one will use them anyway.

[PAvanHooijdonk]

I've counted the visitors of the attractions in my park for a period of 3 in-game years,
The results are quite shocking.

My park has a visitors-limitation of 10.000, so what do these peeps visit:
The transport rides are hugely popular, they get to transport 7000 to 14000 peeps per year.
Next in line are the Coasters. I've got 10 different coasters in my park, and they yearly entertain 500 to 1000 peeps, with exception of the Rival coaster, who only gets a bit more than 200 visits/year.
The Tracked rides are not doing so bad either, with 400 to 700 peeps/year, only the Karts lag behind (due to the long waiting times) with just under 200/year.
All of these are still WAY better than the best Flat-rides. Only two of my 11 flat-rides show numbers that can be seen in the overall graph attached, the others hardly ever get visited
varying from 7 to 48 visits/year. They are completely empty most of the time. I can understand that Coasters are more popular, but this seems quite a bit unbalanced to me.
Is there anything I can do to attract more peeps to the flat-rides ?

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

You need to change/add ride sequences to flat rides to increase their prestige rating which is what makes a ride attractive. It's not unbalanced. It's a management system that is largely ignored.

 

[PAvanHooijdonk]

Well ... that is new to me (and I've been playing since the early alpha's) . Never realised that there's something to manage for flat rides. I will look up this subject (hope there's some instruction vids) as I don't understand what sequences are there to be managed ... Thanks for the tip though.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

There is a ride sequence tab in the ride's menu. It gives you options as to how the ride operates for each ride. Make it longer and more exciting.... higher prestige... higher attraction... higher ticket price.

 

[KickAir8p]

There is a ride sequence tab in the ride's menu. It gives you options as to how the ride operates for each ride. Make it longer and more exciting.... higher prestige... higher attraction... higher ticket price.

If figuring out the best setups yourself isn't your idea of fun then take a look at Infinity's Guide to Ride Setup. [up]

 

[lilibat]

If figuring out the best setups yourself isn't your idea of fun then take a look at Infinity's Guide to Ride Setup. [up]

Since I started using this my flat rides are generally quite popular. Some more than others. I usually have a couple different themed versions for Tri Storm, for example, and the queues for all of them stay full. Hellion Ring does well too. Though to be fair I do decorate the crap out of everything and that also helps.

 

[PAvanHooijdonk]

Thanks guys, These tips are really useful. And Infinity has really put some effort in these tables.
I did some experiments yesterday and was able to raise the rating of one of the rides to 440 (from 250).
However some other ride (the simple Whirly Rig) is hard to get over 200, and then the sequence takes way too much time.
I'll see what the settings from Infinity's list can alter. Sofar haven't seen any peeps rushing toward the enhanced rides.

 

[Zeptis]

There's a great guide on the steam community page for planet coaster that lists the most efficient and profitable ride sequence configurations for most flat rides. I don't believe it has been updated for the anniversary update patch rides, but the rest are on here. It also lists the predicted prestige amount these sequences will get as well as recommends a ticket price

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=877268657

EDIT: someone already posted it in here That's what I get for not reading anyone's replies!

 

[WingardiumLevicoaster]

Moving to How Do I and FAQ. Some very useful info here.

 

[PAvanHooijdonk]

The info proved to be VERY useful indeed. Some rides are now so popular that they draw huge crowds, even draw them away from the coasters and completely filling the -not very short- waiting lines. Especially the Aeronauts ride skyrocketed to a massive rating of over 1700 !! I had to reduce that as it could not handle so many guests. The Venetian Carousel easily got a rating of over 1100 ! Same thing for the Teacups. The lines of the Teacups ride used to be empty most of the time but now are completely filled up (plus loads of disappointed guests that couldn't queue). So it works wonders for these rides, even have to tune them down a bit.
although the rating of all rides can be increased, for some rides it doesn't work as well, e.g. the Rocktopus is very hard to get over 500 rating and when doing so the ride-time is very long. But wow. this tip really is a game-changer. Thanks again.

 

[Ser_Optimus]

If figuring out the best setups yourself isn't your idea of fun then take a look at Infinity's Guide to Ride Setup. [up]

Whoop! Yes, exactly what I needed. Using this guide feels almost like cheating [big grin]

 

[cerealfruitcakes]

The info proved to be VERY useful indeed. Some rides are now so popular that they draw huge crowds, even draw them away from the coasters and completely filling the -not very short- waiting lines. Especially the Aeronauts ride skyrocketed to a massive rating of over 1700 !! I had to reduce that as it could not handle so many guests. The Venetian Carousel easily got a rating of over 1100 ! Same thing for the Teacups. The lines of the Teacups ride used to be empty most of the time but now are completely filled up (plus loads of disappointed guests that couldn't queue). So it works wonders for these rides, even have to tune them down a bit.
although the rating of all rides can be increased, for some rides it doesn't work as well, e.g. the Rocktopus is very hard to get over 500 rating and when doing so the ride-time is very long. But wow. this tip really is a game-changer. Thanks again.

Ride sequence editor is great! Experiment with it, you'll likely get better results than the list posted. I typically keep rides between 2-3 minutes long. If you can get a high prestige with less than 2 minutes a ride that's a golden area for profit. Some high capacity rides like the ferris wheel can safely go past 3 minutes.

For whirley rig, I have its prestige at 489 with 8 "Clockwise" sequences that runs for 137seconds. That's the highest I've been able to get it and I can charge $8-$10 for it. I have Rocktopus at 505 with; Wave, Bounce, Spin, Bounce, Wave, Bounce, Wave, Spin. That runs for 140 seconds at $8-$10. (these are classic status btw)

 

[PAvanHooijdonk]

Ride sequence editor is great! Experiment with it, you'll likely get better results than the list posted. I typically keep rides between 2-3 minutes long. If you can get a high prestige with less than 2 minutes a ride that's a golden area for profit. Some high capacity rides like the ferris wheel can safely go past 3 minutes.

For whirley rig, I have its prestige at 489 with 8 "Clockwise" sequences that runs for 137seconds. That's the highest I've been able to get it and I can charge $8-$10 for it. I have Rocktopus at 505 with; Wave, Bounce, Spin, Bounce, Wave, Bounce, Wave, Spin. That runs for 140 seconds at $8-$10. (these are classic status btw)

Yes, I have a 505 rating too for the Roctopus, funny thing is even adding a lot of special smoke/fog effects triggered by the sequences, there was no change in the rating. Pitty. 505 is good enough though. It doesn't get the queue filled up completely, but it is not empty anymore, and that's what I like to see.

 

[Citytrader]

I'm sure this has been discussed before as well, but nearness to a park entrance or a transport ride increases popularity as well. I have a Whirly Rig near my entrance with the default sequence, and the queue is never empty. I have a second one near the back of the park with the modified sequence, half the ticket price, yet is nearly always empty.

 

[HeatherG]

for me, people use them a heck of a lot more than coasters.

 

[PAvanHooijdonk]

This is the situation after another 3 in-game years: (The dark column represent the first period results, the brighter columns are the new results) :



The change of the Aeronauts stands out, as does the venetian Carousel. Several other flat rides show huge improvement as well.
Also the newly added Weisshorn, Bumpin' Derby, Chair-o-Plane and Big wheel are doing o.k.
As a result of the increased popularity of certain flat rides, some of the coasters show a drop in visitor numbers, but this improves the overall balance.
The only Flat-ride with even less visitors than in the first 3-year period is the Whirly Rig, but that's ok.

 

[LN]

for me, people use them a heck of a lot more than coasters.

Then your coasters are not that interesting....

 

[Bullethead]

As a result of the increased popularity of certain flat rides, some of the coasters show a drop in visitor numbers, but this improves the overall balance.

This thread is a FAQ so I hope necro-ing it in order to keep the info on track is OK....

Anyway, I'm thinking 2 things happened here to explain the change from pre-tweak to post-tweak:

1. Improved Flat Ride Prestige
Peeps decide to go on rides based mostly on 2 things: the peep's own fear tolerance compared to the ride's fear rating, and the ride's prestige. If the ride's fear rating is > peep's max fear tolerance, the peep will never go on it no matter how prestigious it is. If the ride's fear rating is < the peep's minimum fear tolerance, the peep will still go on it if it's prestigious enough. If there are 2 rides with equal fear rating but one has rather more prestige than the other, the peeps will usually go on the ride with higher prestige. There seems to be a critical prestige value of about 500-600. Below that, the ride is really unattractive compared to anything with more prestige. Above 500-600, it competes will with rides up to about 1100 prestige. It's relatively easy to make a coaster have 1000+ prestige but it's often hard to get a flat ride over 500 without using Infinity's sequence chart.

So, but upping the flat rides' prestige, you made them more attractive to all demographics. Thus, yes, some of the adults and teens who were riding non-kid-capable coasters are now riding flats. But more importantly, the families are too. Before the tweaks, the families were be concentrating on the kid-capable coasters due to their significantly higher prestige. After the tweaks, the families had more equally attractive choices so spread out more than the adult and teen groups.

2. Changing Park Demographics
Normally, a park's peep population increases as park rating increases. Increasing the prestige of the flats increased the park rating, so more peeps should have entered. However, you have the population capped. Once the park reaches capacity, new peeps can only enter when old peeps leave. Thus, it's a question of which demographic the new peeps will be. This is a function of how attractive the park is overall to each demographic. By increasing the prestige of the flat rides, you made the park more attractive to families, which increase the chance of the next group of spawning peeps being a family, at the expense of the other demographics.

As a result, over time, you had fewer and fewer customers in the park to ride the more extreme coasters. By "more extreme", I mean both those that never allow kids on them at all (launched, inverted, wing, etc.), and also those (like woodies and hybrids) that do allow kids but which can be built with a fear rating > 4.0, which is more than the max tolerance of about 80% of families. This explains most of the shifts in coaster popularity before and after the tweaks, but there are some questions, such as the decline in the Canyon Runner's popularity. I'm guessing this ride must not have that much prestige, or is in a bad location, and that the Iron Fury probably has a fear rating > 4.0 or is in a bad location.

If you did not have the population capped, then you'd have had more peeps in the park so the demographic shift would not have been as significant. IOW, you'd still have attracted more families, but that would not have been at the expense of adults and teens. Thus, the flat ride popularity would still have increased, both from more families in the park and because the flats are now more attractive to the others, but the coasters wouldn't have lost as much business because you'd still have had the same number of teens and adults coming in for the "big boy" rides as before.

 

[HeatherG]

i have no problems getting people to ride them.

 

[PAvanHooijdonk]

@ Bullethead: Yes I have capped the maximum number of peeps in the park to 10.500, (and that is already beyond what my system can handle), so it is logical that some numbers will drop as others rise.