A thought about path system and "GodMode"
Hi everyone.
I think that paths are a really big deal when talking about theme park design. And I think many, if not all the current and upcoming theme park games, including our very own Planet Coaster, handle them wrong.
DUN DUN DUN /dramatic music
First, let's see how these games do their paths. There are a few differents systems:
- The RCT/Parkitect way : Plop down your tiles on a grid, make straight paths or add them to form a plaza or avenue, etc.
- The NL2 method : Paint the terrain or do 3Ds. No limitations, but no AI neither.
- The Planet Coaster/RCTW/TPS system : Spline-based paths with various pre-determined width.
Sorry for the later, but I think this is the worst and least realistic way to do that. Or at least it can cover some of the real cases scenarii, but in itself it's not sufficient to acheive the very look of a theme park. And that's a pity in my opinion.
The main issue, I think, is that they took the problem backward. They give you a zone of nothing, and then you add paths where guest can walk. In real life, and as seen in the image below, it's the opposite: Everything is a path, unless you have obstacles such as rides, buildings, fences, planters or unwalkable surface (water, mud, steep slope... lava).
This is an exemple among many, but you can look by youself searching parks on Google Earth.
Now the question is, how to implement that in a game? Though question, and I don't really know. But I think paths would be better if they were under a terrain tool. Basically it's a terraforming thing : You can put down grass, sand, etc... or pavement, concrete, bricks... Though you'd have to design tools aimed for that exact purpose, unlike NoLimits where it's a bit wobbly (the merging of textures, you can't really rotate the shapes...)
I think if you keep a spline-based method, it would be better to shape the sides of a walkable aera (path, plaza, etc) rather than its direction.
-
Queue lines are also an important part of a park design, and once again most theme park games failed to deliver their true spirit.
Yes, sometimes queue lines are a lonely narrow path, meandering through a field of grass (as seen in Planet Coaster videos). But that's usually the last part of a queue, where it's themed and more spread-out.
Though a queue usually starts, for capacity reasons, like this :
The infamous switchbacks!
It's, in most cases, a big walkable area, with light fences in straight line and U-turns at the ends.
There are also many interesting mechanism in queue lines that I won't explain here but are worth investigating (Fast Pass, single riders, shortcuts between differents "zones", etc.).
-
In the topic title, I'm refering to what I'd call a GodMod. That would be an option for advanced users to optimize their parks to be "peep friendly" - to borrow an idiom from RCT3.
Basically, Artificial intelligence, even the best of them, can't be as smart as real-world theme park guests (cough, cough...). That tool would have an interface where the player could determine by hand the walkable zones, like with a brush or something.
It could also serve to mark down employee-only area or exit only paths, without having to plop down a specified item.
-
I think I'll stop here, I'd have ton of more suggestions about various topics, but I feel like these devs really know where they are heading - except maybe for paths, thus this discussion.
I'd love them to rethink the path system just like they redid the terraforming (height map vs. voxel)! [happy]
Thanks for reading through!
Hi everyone.
I think that paths are a really big deal when talking about theme park design. And I think many, if not all the current and upcoming theme park games, including our very own Planet Coaster, handle them wrong.
DUN DUN DUN /dramatic music
First, let's see how these games do their paths. There are a few differents systems:
- The RCT/Parkitect way : Plop down your tiles on a grid, make straight paths or add them to form a plaza or avenue, etc.
- The NL2 method : Paint the terrain or do 3Ds. No limitations, but no AI neither.
- The Planet Coaster/RCTW/TPS system : Spline-based paths with various pre-determined width.
Sorry for the later, but I think this is the worst and least realistic way to do that. Or at least it can cover some of the real cases scenarii, but in itself it's not sufficient to acheive the very look of a theme park. And that's a pity in my opinion.
The main issue, I think, is that they took the problem backward. They give you a zone of nothing, and then you add paths where guest can walk. In real life, and as seen in the image below, it's the opposite: Everything is a path, unless you have obstacles such as rides, buildings, fences, planters or unwalkable surface (water, mud, steep slope... lava).
This is an exemple among many, but you can look by youself searching parks on Google Earth.
Now the question is, how to implement that in a game? Though question, and I don't really know. But I think paths would be better if they were under a terrain tool. Basically it's a terraforming thing : You can put down grass, sand, etc... or pavement, concrete, bricks... Though you'd have to design tools aimed for that exact purpose, unlike NoLimits where it's a bit wobbly (the merging of textures, you can't really rotate the shapes...)
I think if you keep a spline-based method, it would be better to shape the sides of a walkable aera (path, plaza, etc) rather than its direction.
-
Queue lines are also an important part of a park design, and once again most theme park games failed to deliver their true spirit.
Yes, sometimes queue lines are a lonely narrow path, meandering through a field of grass (as seen in Planet Coaster videos). But that's usually the last part of a queue, where it's themed and more spread-out.
Though a queue usually starts, for capacity reasons, like this :
The infamous switchbacks!
It's, in most cases, a big walkable area, with light fences in straight line and U-turns at the ends.
There are also many interesting mechanism in queue lines that I won't explain here but are worth investigating (Fast Pass, single riders, shortcuts between differents "zones", etc.).
-
In the topic title, I'm refering to what I'd call a GodMod. That would be an option for advanced users to optimize their parks to be "peep friendly" - to borrow an idiom from RCT3.
Basically, Artificial intelligence, even the best of them, can't be as smart as real-world theme park guests (cough, cough...). That tool would have an interface where the player could determine by hand the walkable zones, like with a brush or something.
It could also serve to mark down employee-only area or exit only paths, without having to plop down a specified item.
-
I think I'll stop here, I'd have ton of more suggestions about various topics, but I feel like these devs really know where they are heading - except maybe for paths, thus this discussion.
I'd love them to rethink the path system just like they redid the terraforming (height map vs. voxel)! [happy]
Thanks for reading through!
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