EPISODE 1
Bullethead staggered into the conference area at one end of the engineering cube farm in BSI's main headquarters. He had a half-full bottle of rum in 1 hand, a roll of maps and building plans in the other, and was smoking a big cigar. Hammering the conference table with the rum bottle, he called all hands on deck for an important meeting. Pale, drawn, and sweat-streaked boffin faces popped up over the rims of their cubicals. They saw it was The Boss and came scurrying over to take their places around the table as Bullethead began unrolling the plans.
Bullethead exhaled a huge cloud of cigar smoke and announced, "Gentlemen, we have our next project! I've just returned from the People's Republic of Nicotina. It's a pestilential tropical hellhole with a despotic government and no economy to speak of. However, its dictator has squirreled away insane amounts of money and wants to make more via tourism, which is now possible with the recent easing of international sanctions. So he will pay us handsomely to build him a theme park on a small island just offshore, which used to be a dumping ground for all those with horrible diseases, mental illnesses, and substance abuse problems. This is easy money, gentlemen. We can use a lot of existing buildings. Plus, all the rum we can drink and superb cigars!"
"Excuse me, sir," said one of the bolder boffins, holding up his smartphone, "but according to Google, that island is still in use. If not for its original purposes, then as a detention camp for political prisoners. It's on all the hate lists of philanthropic organizations."
"Excellent observation," replied Bullethead. "That's all part of the marketing plan. Shows a changing of the country's ways, leading to more easing of sanctions. If the US can turn Alcatraz into a tourist destination, we can do the same for this place. The dictator assures me that all the inmates will be gone by the time we break ground."
"What if we dig up their shallow graves when we break ground?"
"Then we rebury them with respect under the dark ride we'll be making. Should add to the fear and excitement ratings."
An aged boffin then spoke up. "In my youth, sir, I worked on the Panama Canal. Untold thousands of laborers died there due to the endemic diseases."
"Right you are," Bullethead responded, "which is why we're using local labor. The natives should be immune and if not, they're not our problem. Nicotina has like 60% unemployment so both BSI and the dictator look good by providing jobs, and there's no shortage of workers."
"Any more questions? No? OK, then let's get on it. Look at the map. I want to proceed as follows....."
======================================================
And thus was born Quarantine Island, the beginning of which is shown below at dawn, as is only right and proper.
Tourists enter across the old swinging bridge, which could be cut quickly should any uprising get through the portcullises in the guardhouse. BSI decided to leave the original signage in place, not only here but throughout the park where it still seemed appropriate.
Eventually, the customers will come to the complex's old adminstrative building, repurposed to be the park entrance and "main street" shop cluster. This building alone has about 1700 parts, mostly in the dome and the custom columns both outside and in the foyer. So yeah, the "existing buildings" are all being custom-built to a tropical colonial asylum theme. This is my 1st exploration of getting a bit more adventurous with custom building components. Misfit Toyland had was essentially just stock parts.
Once through the entrance, customers will see the fountain dedicated to St. Pestula (know has Tia Maladie in local voodoo circles). "Our Lady of Miserable Suffering" was the original matron saint of the colonial-era hospital.
Off the main plaza are the bungalows of the institution's staff, now being repurposed into bunkhouses for the park staff (construction workers live in a tent city on the mainland). The huts are surrounded by banana gardens, a primary source of food for the staff back in the day and certain to be so again in the future.
The 1st ride is "Blind Staggers", a Scizzer located in a barn in the canefields. There's a still behind the barn, as is only right and proper, to make the rum which has historically been the main drink on the island. The name "Blind Staggers" might refer to the effects of the rum, but it's actually the name of a tick-borne disease of livestock which killed the mules that used to pull the cane wagons.
The reason for the popularity of the dubious rum is the aptly named "Bad Water", built on the site of the compound's water well. This same water, of course, goes into the rum, but the germs are mostly killed by the distillation process and the resulting alcohol. And this water gives this rum a unique character that is beginning to find popularity in the outside world, now that sanctions are easing. Thus, the well is still running and is more profitable, all things considered, than if it was pumping oil.
Customers can sample the rum at the duty-free bar built onto the back of St. Pestula's chapel, most of which was gutted to make room for the queue of the "Bed Spins" coaster. This coaster runs 4 cars so is rather large, an expedient used to inflate its prestige to more than what it deserves.
All this used "existing" buildings so construction went "quickly" (as in for the better part of a month, starting with building a bunch of coasters). There were only a few minor problems, such as when the crew got a bad batch of rum and started seeing strange things:
Anyway, the general plan is that the center of the island will have a dark ride based in the old hospital / mental asylum, with a number of areas around the periphery. I've got 5 more coasters ready to go for the latter but I think I'll do the dark ride next so I can then space everything else out around it, then carve the final shoreline. That's the plan, at least.
Tune in next time for when I get the dark ride done. That'll probably be a while as it will take a lot of creativity I don't really have. So in the meantime, you can look at Quarantine Island in its current form here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873306759
Any and all feedback is appreciated.
Bullethead staggered into the conference area at one end of the engineering cube farm in BSI's main headquarters. He had a half-full bottle of rum in 1 hand, a roll of maps and building plans in the other, and was smoking a big cigar. Hammering the conference table with the rum bottle, he called all hands on deck for an important meeting. Pale, drawn, and sweat-streaked boffin faces popped up over the rims of their cubicals. They saw it was The Boss and came scurrying over to take their places around the table as Bullethead began unrolling the plans.
Bullethead exhaled a huge cloud of cigar smoke and announced, "Gentlemen, we have our next project! I've just returned from the People's Republic of Nicotina. It's a pestilential tropical hellhole with a despotic government and no economy to speak of. However, its dictator has squirreled away insane amounts of money and wants to make more via tourism, which is now possible with the recent easing of international sanctions. So he will pay us handsomely to build him a theme park on a small island just offshore, which used to be a dumping ground for all those with horrible diseases, mental illnesses, and substance abuse problems. This is easy money, gentlemen. We can use a lot of existing buildings. Plus, all the rum we can drink and superb cigars!"
"Excuse me, sir," said one of the bolder boffins, holding up his smartphone, "but according to Google, that island is still in use. If not for its original purposes, then as a detention camp for political prisoners. It's on all the hate lists of philanthropic organizations."
"Excellent observation," replied Bullethead. "That's all part of the marketing plan. Shows a changing of the country's ways, leading to more easing of sanctions. If the US can turn Alcatraz into a tourist destination, we can do the same for this place. The dictator assures me that all the inmates will be gone by the time we break ground."
"What if we dig up their shallow graves when we break ground?"
"Then we rebury them with respect under the dark ride we'll be making. Should add to the fear and excitement ratings."
An aged boffin then spoke up. "In my youth, sir, I worked on the Panama Canal. Untold thousands of laborers died there due to the endemic diseases."
"Right you are," Bullethead responded, "which is why we're using local labor. The natives should be immune and if not, they're not our problem. Nicotina has like 60% unemployment so both BSI and the dictator look good by providing jobs, and there's no shortage of workers."
"Any more questions? No? OK, then let's get on it. Look at the map. I want to proceed as follows....."
======================================================
And thus was born Quarantine Island, the beginning of which is shown below at dawn, as is only right and proper.
Tourists enter across the old swinging bridge, which could be cut quickly should any uprising get through the portcullises in the guardhouse. BSI decided to leave the original signage in place, not only here but throughout the park where it still seemed appropriate.
Eventually, the customers will come to the complex's old adminstrative building, repurposed to be the park entrance and "main street" shop cluster. This building alone has about 1700 parts, mostly in the dome and the custom columns both outside and in the foyer. So yeah, the "existing buildings" are all being custom-built to a tropical colonial asylum theme. This is my 1st exploration of getting a bit more adventurous with custom building components. Misfit Toyland had was essentially just stock parts.
Once through the entrance, customers will see the fountain dedicated to St. Pestula (know has Tia Maladie in local voodoo circles). "Our Lady of Miserable Suffering" was the original matron saint of the colonial-era hospital.
Off the main plaza are the bungalows of the institution's staff, now being repurposed into bunkhouses for the park staff (construction workers live in a tent city on the mainland). The huts are surrounded by banana gardens, a primary source of food for the staff back in the day and certain to be so again in the future.
The 1st ride is "Blind Staggers", a Scizzer located in a barn in the canefields. There's a still behind the barn, as is only right and proper, to make the rum which has historically been the main drink on the island. The name "Blind Staggers" might refer to the effects of the rum, but it's actually the name of a tick-borne disease of livestock which killed the mules that used to pull the cane wagons.
The reason for the popularity of the dubious rum is the aptly named "Bad Water", built on the site of the compound's water well. This same water, of course, goes into the rum, but the germs are mostly killed by the distillation process and the resulting alcohol. And this water gives this rum a unique character that is beginning to find popularity in the outside world, now that sanctions are easing. Thus, the well is still running and is more profitable, all things considered, than if it was pumping oil.
Customers can sample the rum at the duty-free bar built onto the back of St. Pestula's chapel, most of which was gutted to make room for the queue of the "Bed Spins" coaster. This coaster runs 4 cars so is rather large, an expedient used to inflate its prestige to more than what it deserves.
All this used "existing" buildings so construction went "quickly" (as in for the better part of a month, starting with building a bunch of coasters). There were only a few minor problems, such as when the crew got a bad batch of rum and started seeing strange things:
Anyway, the general plan is that the center of the island will have a dark ride based in the old hospital / mental asylum, with a number of areas around the periphery. I've got 5 more coasters ready to go for the latter but I think I'll do the dark ride next so I can then space everything else out around it, then carve the final shoreline. That's the plan, at least.
Tune in next time for when I get the dark ride done. That'll probably be a while as it will take a lot of creativity I don't really have. So in the meantime, you can look at Quarantine Island in its current form here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=873306759
Any and all feedback is appreciated.
