I have a few suggestions that I hope to someday see implemented into Planet Coaster
One big one would be allowing you to scale an item. Even if it has set scaling limits. Like 1x, 2x, 3x, so it can stay within grid spaces if necessary. Like take an item, 1x is a single grid space. 2x, a 2x2 grid space and so on. Having it free sizable and then being able to place on the grid anywhere would be fantastic, but I’m realistic I guess.
My biggest wants would be within the HOAX ride itself. I find I’m drawn to that ride more and more. A few things I would like to see and do…
MORE TRIGGERED PROPS!!! More Animatronics, Animal animatronics, more haunted house type gags. It’s just a suggestion but I can make do with what we already have.
Since this can’t have single cars, allow me to space the three cars closer or farther apart so they are almost a train or act as single cars where the triggered items are concerned. This will help with the triggers resetting or closing on the 2nd or 3rd car all the time. Make them so close so they ALL see the same trigger or allow them to be much farther apart that they almost appear to be single cars so there is time for each car to see the trigger.
Allow triggers to have a start time and a forced reset time. We get to say when it starts and how long it plays, but even the default of zero makes the reset take forever so things like doors closing on cars and stuff like that happen all the time. So, I guess allowing us to say when it starts, how long it plays, and when it needs to be reset would be a great option and allow for authentic dark ride props. Especially when you are trying to build a replica of an actual real attraction.
Allow triggered items defaults to be reversed. Like rather then something is off by default, let the default to be optionally set to be on or off. I’m trying to make a replica of a Haunted House in an amusement park I worked for many years. In the ride, there is a waterfall you go under but turns off just in time for you to not get wet. So, in the game, I would like the ability to put in water sprayers that are on by default, and the trigger turns them OFF.
Allow better control of the audio. You can play ambient audio or audio by the trigger for the props. Allowing volume control on audio props would be fantastic. Right now, each one drowns out the next.
I think that’s it for now. It's the few things I would like to see improved or allowed. They would actually make a world of difference in the rides when it comes to triggers and props.
And finally, whatever happened to the possibility of being able to make custom skins and custom content? I would LOVE to see what the insanely talented users could do with taking a standard ride or prop and completely skinning it into something else completely. The possibilities would be endless AND amazing!!! Is this all dead and only resides in suggestions that will never come to pass?
I’ve been here since the very first days of the alpha. I’ve watched this game evolve over the months and how the developers were really into listening to their players. It was nothing to see the DEVS pop up in conversations and threads all the time. A real sense that they were listening and engaged in what was being said and suggested by the testers. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I guess they have moved on to bigger and better and this game gets a skeleton crew if that and seems more of an afterthought than anything else now. That’s kind of sad because this game has always had and still has so much awesomeness in it, but I guess time marches on and they need to pay the bills.
I look forward to each and every update and post about what is to come. They seem to be getting sparser and sparser. I just hope you continue to give this awesome piece of programming the attention it deserves.
Thanks for reading...
Gjonlue [wink]
One big one would be allowing you to scale an item. Even if it has set scaling limits. Like 1x, 2x, 3x, so it can stay within grid spaces if necessary. Like take an item, 1x is a single grid space. 2x, a 2x2 grid space and so on. Having it free sizable and then being able to place on the grid anywhere would be fantastic, but I’m realistic I guess.
My biggest wants would be within the HOAX ride itself. I find I’m drawn to that ride more and more. A few things I would like to see and do…
MORE TRIGGERED PROPS!!! More Animatronics, Animal animatronics, more haunted house type gags. It’s just a suggestion but I can make do with what we already have.
Since this can’t have single cars, allow me to space the three cars closer or farther apart so they are almost a train or act as single cars where the triggered items are concerned. This will help with the triggers resetting or closing on the 2nd or 3rd car all the time. Make them so close so they ALL see the same trigger or allow them to be much farther apart that they almost appear to be single cars so there is time for each car to see the trigger.
Allow triggers to have a start time and a forced reset time. We get to say when it starts and how long it plays, but even the default of zero makes the reset take forever so things like doors closing on cars and stuff like that happen all the time. So, I guess allowing us to say when it starts, how long it plays, and when it needs to be reset would be a great option and allow for authentic dark ride props. Especially when you are trying to build a replica of an actual real attraction.
Allow triggered items defaults to be reversed. Like rather then something is off by default, let the default to be optionally set to be on or off. I’m trying to make a replica of a Haunted House in an amusement park I worked for many years. In the ride, there is a waterfall you go under but turns off just in time for you to not get wet. So, in the game, I would like the ability to put in water sprayers that are on by default, and the trigger turns them OFF.
Allow better control of the audio. You can play ambient audio or audio by the trigger for the props. Allowing volume control on audio props would be fantastic. Right now, each one drowns out the next.
I think that’s it for now. It's the few things I would like to see improved or allowed. They would actually make a world of difference in the rides when it comes to triggers and props.
And finally, whatever happened to the possibility of being able to make custom skins and custom content? I would LOVE to see what the insanely talented users could do with taking a standard ride or prop and completely skinning it into something else completely. The possibilities would be endless AND amazing!!! Is this all dead and only resides in suggestions that will never come to pass?
I’ve been here since the very first days of the alpha. I’ve watched this game evolve over the months and how the developers were really into listening to their players. It was nothing to see the DEVS pop up in conversations and threads all the time. A real sense that they were listening and engaged in what was being said and suggested by the testers. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I guess they have moved on to bigger and better and this game gets a skeleton crew if that and seems more of an afterthought than anything else now. That’s kind of sad because this game has always had and still has so much awesomeness in it, but I guess time marches on and they need to pay the bills.
I look forward to each and every update and post about what is to come. They seem to be getting sparser and sparser. I just hope you continue to give this awesome piece of programming the attention it deserves.
Thanks for reading...
Gjonlue [wink]
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But I have to say one thing. Buddy and Knoebel, although at times were frustrating, I just a gigantic amount of respect for them and still do. And I'll tell you why quick. I was there almost 10 years. From ride operation to ride supervisor. And the first year Is started there, I was a lowly ride operator. One day while I was running a ride, Buddy Knoebel, one of the OWNERS of the park, was walking by and noticed someone had knocked down a trash can and it was all over the place. Knoebels has people to clean up everything in their park. That's why it's so well kept. But he knew even if he called someone, it would still be noticed by his guests for a while. So he stooped down and with his bare hands picked up the can and garbage so his guests would not see the mess. Then walked over and washed his hands and kept on going to where he needed to be. That changed my view of the brothers completely that day. He loved his park and his guests so much that even the lowly task of picking up a knocked over garbage can was not beneath him. THAT'S what earned my continued respect for them. Not what they paid me, or how fun it is to work in that park or anything else. But a simple gesture that he wants his guests to be happy and that meant doing anything he had to do to make that happen. His generation is a dying breed and I'm so sad for that. I hope that's instilled in their sons and daughters. Sorry for the Side Track there... I do that often. Anyway, back to the task at hand... I have two versions of it designed already. One with the hoax cars that are disappointing me a lot because of the way the cars are treated for triggers and so on. And the other with those big single cars that can move and turn, kind of like the Disney Doom buggies only not in a train. They do not look like the pretzel cars, but the only benefit of using them is that triggers are more properly working since they are single cars. I spent all last week with YouTube videos of people going through the Haunted Mansion and recording audio of all the props that I could. To get a good recording it always depends on how busy they were. Less busy and prop sounds were clearer and not overlapped. While working there for almost 10 seasons, (still the best job I've ever had) I was friends with Dave Winn and John Fetterman who used to take care of the ride and it's electronics, but I haven't been there for at least 17 years (last year was the year they started to build the twister coaster, 2001 I think.) so trying to obtain actual copies of the audio would be pretty much impossible since I truly doubt they would remember me enough to help with that task. So in some places of my creation, you will actually hear the real prop noises, and in other places, I'm taking artistic license and putting in something similar. Same goes for props. Complete artistic license because I have no props like the ones in the real Knoebels Haunted Mansion. But most of my requests above in the original of this post was based on what I'm having issues with designing this ride. Between being able to scale something, having the cars being able to be spaced further apart, more control over the triggers, allowing the trigger to be on or off by default, being able to adjust the volume of individual props , and then also be able to skin the items in the game, those requests are all based on me designing this ride. If those things were all real, it would be easy to make this ride look much closer to the original ride. God, I love running that ride. Plus running it you get to know all the secret trap doors and all inner goings-on to get from one section of the ride to the other as quickly as possible. But to this day I still have bad nightmares of when the ride would shut down. It only happened once in a while, and generally in the old skull room where people would stand up and try to reach out and grab a bobbing skull and then tip their car off the track. (Not many people know this but those skulls were solid plaster an were HEAVEY!!! So if someone grabbed one of them, and pulled it and swung it, it would easily smash mirrors or if it swung back around at you, would clock someone in the head and knock them out!!! We watched that room the most!) Anyway, it would short the track and shut the whole car ride down. But all the props and gags in the house are on a different switch in the coffin out front, so even if the track shut down, the props and sounds would all continue to function. So sometimes when the track shut down, the cars would come to a stop in some of the worst places. And many times in your hurry to find the problem and see if everyone was safe, you would forget to shut down the props and gags in the ride. It was no big deal except for one area. The Waterfall you go under at the end. It was set on a timer, and once the time was up, the drip catcher would move away and the water will turn back on soaking the car and it's occupants underneath it if it was unlucky enough to have stopped there. You would generally make it about halfway through the ride trying to find the problem when you would hear a guest screaming that they were getting soaked! Ugh... Sometimes you just had to laugh your way through your day!!!