I find the current way coaster station are operating lacking. It does not look realistic and misses management aspects.
What currently happens :
-Peeps fill up the pre-boarding queues in order from front to back (not realistic)
-The rear row is often partially empty (or completely empty) because groups don't want to break up (loosing money)
-Previous peeps disembark by teleporting out of the train all on the platform at the same time and walk slowly towards the exit (looks bad)
-Wait until the last person has fully exited the station building and the player shouts at his computer (frustrating as ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎ and feels like I'm loosing money)
-New peeps board the train (they also teleport in but they do it one by one when they touch the train so it's visually less shocking)
-Safety restraints all close simultaneously and automatically (not realistic)
-Train immediately departs the station (no safety checks ?)
-Station operator stands at his/her control panel and does nothing but smile (Why do I pay them ???)
Here is my wish list of what I would like to see improved :
The operator :
- Add Operator identity, thoughts, wage and training
- Add themed uniforms
- Add tasks to the operator (see below)
Pre-boarding :
- The front row is the most popular on any rollercoaster, but the next most popular is the rear row. These seats should fill up before the middle of the train. (front row has the best view and the wind, rear row has more intense airtime)
- The best seat is in the middle of the row. If nobody has pre-boarded with them, guests should choose the middle seats, and leave the outer seats empty.
- Add row management. The coaster evaluation needs to take this into account : the front and rear rows need an individual ride experience calculation to determine how much extra people are willing to wait or pay for the premium rows. The mine train coaster has a big and bulky decorative locomotive at the front : the front row on this coaster should not benefit from the view/wind extra attractiveness but still be affected by the different speed and G forces.
- Add single passenger queue jumping : either through optional extra entrance customization (a bit complicated to use), or through the ability to hire an extra operator at the station entrance to manage groups.
In the current design, stations have extra space at the front if the unboarding is performed on the other side, You could use this vacant area to make an optional special front-row sub-queue
Passenger/Train interaction :
- Boarding and unboarding need animations (people walking into the train and sitting, standing up and walking out of the train)
- If this is too much work and you prefer to keep the teleportation, you should at least have a fraction of a second between letting out the peeps in the same row.
- Boarding should start as soon as the last previous peep has left the platform, not the entire building.
- If using a station where peeps exit on the opposite side, boarding could be start as soon as the train is empty.
Safety please ?
- The passengers should close the safety restraints / lap bars individually (with some variability depending on their enthusiasm and age)
- The operator should leave his control panel to check the safety harnesses / lap bars. This operation takes time !
(this should be the most important thing to determine how much time the trains needs for boarding, not the current stupid wait for passengers to slowly walk out of the building)
- The operator animation needs to walk along the entire length of the train, check each passenger, close the restraint of empty seats and return to his control panel.
- Be able to hire extra operators (up to 2 per station) to speed up the safety restraints checks
Station design :
- The current way to add station length is very poorly implemented. It needs to be redone. And I want to be able to determine the train length the first time I plop the station down, I should not have to quit construction mode to do it.
- Add the ability to build specialized stations for boarding and unboarding
- Add the ability to use long stations as multi-block (one block to board, one block to unboard)
- How about some multi-track station designs ?
-> Simultaneous synchronized departures for duelling coasters
-> Sequential departures with track switch for extra high capacity coasters (very popular at Disneyland, for example Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain Paris)
What currently happens :
-Peeps fill up the pre-boarding queues in order from front to back (not realistic)
-The rear row is often partially empty (or completely empty) because groups don't want to break up (loosing money)
-Previous peeps disembark by teleporting out of the train all on the platform at the same time and walk slowly towards the exit (looks bad)
-Wait until the last person has fully exited the station building and the player shouts at his computer (frustrating as ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎ and feels like I'm loosing money)
-New peeps board the train (they also teleport in but they do it one by one when they touch the train so it's visually less shocking)
-Safety restraints all close simultaneously and automatically (not realistic)
-Train immediately departs the station (no safety checks ?)
-Station operator stands at his/her control panel and does nothing but smile (Why do I pay them ???)
Here is my wish list of what I would like to see improved :
The operator :
- Add Operator identity, thoughts, wage and training
- Add themed uniforms
- Add tasks to the operator (see below)
Pre-boarding :
- The front row is the most popular on any rollercoaster, but the next most popular is the rear row. These seats should fill up before the middle of the train. (front row has the best view and the wind, rear row has more intense airtime)
- The best seat is in the middle of the row. If nobody has pre-boarded with them, guests should choose the middle seats, and leave the outer seats empty.
- Add row management. The coaster evaluation needs to take this into account : the front and rear rows need an individual ride experience calculation to determine how much extra people are willing to wait or pay for the premium rows. The mine train coaster has a big and bulky decorative locomotive at the front : the front row on this coaster should not benefit from the view/wind extra attractiveness but still be affected by the different speed and G forces.
- Add single passenger queue jumping : either through optional extra entrance customization (a bit complicated to use), or through the ability to hire an extra operator at the station entrance to manage groups.
In the current design, stations have extra space at the front if the unboarding is performed on the other side, You could use this vacant area to make an optional special front-row sub-queue
Passenger/Train interaction :
- Boarding and unboarding need animations (people walking into the train and sitting, standing up and walking out of the train)
- If this is too much work and you prefer to keep the teleportation, you should at least have a fraction of a second between letting out the peeps in the same row.
- Boarding should start as soon as the last previous peep has left the platform, not the entire building.
- If using a station where peeps exit on the opposite side, boarding could be start as soon as the train is empty.
Safety please ?
- The passengers should close the safety restraints / lap bars individually (with some variability depending on their enthusiasm and age)
- The operator should leave his control panel to check the safety harnesses / lap bars. This operation takes time !
(this should be the most important thing to determine how much time the trains needs for boarding, not the current stupid wait for passengers to slowly walk out of the building)
- The operator animation needs to walk along the entire length of the train, check each passenger, close the restraint of empty seats and return to his control panel.
- Be able to hire extra operators (up to 2 per station) to speed up the safety restraints checks
Station design :
- The current way to add station length is very poorly implemented. It needs to be redone. And I want to be able to determine the train length the first time I plop the station down, I should not have to quit construction mode to do it.
- Add the ability to build specialized stations for boarding and unboarding
- Add the ability to use long stations as multi-block (one block to board, one block to unboard)
- How about some multi-track station designs ?
-> Simultaneous synchronized departures for duelling coasters
-> Sequential departures with track switch for extra high capacity coasters (very popular at Disneyland, for example Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain Paris)
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