Real World in the Game

[Aptz]

Hi all - First let me apologize if this has been asked so often people are tired of talking about it. I did try to find the topic in a search, but I'm not always the greatest at sleuthing. Also, happy if a moderator wants to move this to a different forum. I'm mostly on sandbox mode and like to model realistically (not exactly like any one actual park, but similar to them). I was wondering which coasters, rides, etc. do you think are necessary for a good, balanced park? For example, how many coasters/flats/track rides does a park need and what (if any specific types). Of course, I know some folk would say if there' s a speck of space you should put up another coaster. But, I'm thinking along more along the lines of a nice, balanced park folk could have a great time at for the day and be able to go home without a sense of "not having enough" or "it was nice, but there wasn't much there." Also, what types of coasters do you think make the best headliners for a park?

Really curious to get your thoughts, thank you.

 

[laggless01]

Well, it depends on what crowd you're getting. In sandbox, it's pretty much all 33% of each, so you should choose rides/coasters with that in mind.

Secondly, it depends on what kind of park you're running (free entry or free rides). Based on that, you can make decisions on how far you spread out those rides (you want them to buy lots of stuff or you want them to ride many things). If you charge for your rides, for example, that will be your main source of income, so putting rides for specific groups closer together (e.g. Bakasura, Degen and thrill rides mainly attract teenagers and adults) is a good Idea. Coasters can especially land you big bucks, as they usually have higher prestige and larger capacity than rides, but adjusting the latter's sequences can change that.

To have some balanced flow of guests, I suggest to spread high-prestige rides (1200 or higher) throughout the park, rather than close to another. Be extra prepared if a ride goes over 1800 prestige, as that affects congestion excessively, especially if you charge money for your rides (since peeps don't quite know how to use a ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎ ATM).

When it comes to Park Balance (stat in rating), well...I'm not really sure how to optimize that. I'm not sure how it exactly works in the first place, sooo...someone else should fill you in.

 

[Aptz]

Thank you laggless for the ideas. A couple of questions come to mind from your thoughts.

1) Given in sandbox the mix of guests is about 33-33-33 is ti better to try to have rides for each group at each section of the park or segregate park sections between the three groups and have specialized park sections? Or does it matter.

2) How many park sections do you try to build? I know the game has 6 groups of scenery, but I was wondering if 6 is too many park areas?

To tell the truth I've been on the for quite a few months, not quite since it first came out but close, and I play nearly daily since then. But, I've never gotten past building up the front gate (most of the time with rides and not just shops). [redface] So I;m curious how I coulid build different park areas, but haven't gotten there yet. Oh well maybe some day.

 

[seeker939]

Why should the demographic of sandbox matter? In the real world there are all different kinds of parks, small parks, huge parks, heavily themed parks, parks with hardly any theming. Some focus on families, some more on teens and adults, some offer something for everyone.

If you want to build a (semi-) realistic park it's totally up to you who you build the park for. Once you decide what kind of park you want to make your questions will answer themselves. To answer your questions in the OP that's where I would start. For example, for a Disney style park 6 or more differently themed areas are common, other parks might have individual rides themed but that's it. It all depends on what kind of park YOU want to make.

You seem to be playing a lot, so I'm wondering why is it you never built more than an entrance and some rides?

 

[mechanikos]

In my experience, it is more efficient to have a (small) neutral area near the entrance, and separate high and low intensityareas away from the entrance. Charge for entrance and rides. Guests go to their preferred area right away, or after visiting a popular ride near the entrance. Connect the far areas with transports only, no paths. Charge a bit at the entrancestations. (I charge 6) Guests take the trains to preffered rides within the high/low area, without to much distance to walk, so less time wasted by walking guests. They pay for rides they like and for foods etc. untill out of money. When guests find they cant afford any rides here anymore they take the train to the a popular ride in the entrancearea. Ofcourse the returntrip to the parkentrance/exit must be free of charge. They now go home right out of the trains, or to another ride, wich the cant afford, and then home because they are trapped near the exit by their own wallet. Average guests stays in the park for about 1 hour this way, instead of 1.5. Teens a bit shorter, families a bit longer. 100% happy guests, max guest refreshment for your parkpennies.

Decorate the 3 areas any way you like.

 

[Aptz]

Thanks mechanikos for the great ideas. If I get you right you prefer to divide out the level of intensity, similar to many real parks. Like having a kiddie section and an high action section. I like the idea use a transport ride w/out a path. I never thought of that.

Seeker I'm thinking of going right now (I change my mind a lot) with a balanced park with stuff for all audiences. To answer your question why I never get past the entrance, which is more than just shops (more like a section of the interior park) is exactly what I said I change my mind a lot and just find it very easy to delete everything and start over again and again and again [ugh] One thing I'd like to see that would perhaps help some would be a way to save blueprints without putting them up on steam. I just don't feel comfortable exposing half baked ideas/rides with the whole world. As it is I find it easier to use the erase block and start over once again. As it is I don't even save the autosaves. Guess I'm just a bit looney that way, but I am having fun. [wacky] Still it would be fun to use more than 10% of the map.

 

[laggless01]

Thanks mechanikos for the great ideas. If I get you right you prefer to divide out the level of intensity, similar to many real parks. Like having a kiddie section and an high action section. I like the idea use a transport ride w/out a path. I never thought of that.

Seeker I'm thinking of going right now (I change my mind a lot) with a balanced park with stuff for all audiences. To answer your question why I never get past the entrance, which is more than just shops (more like a section of the interior park) is exactly what I said I change my mind a lot and just find it very easy to delete everything and start over again and again and again [ugh] One thing I'd like to see that would perhaps help some would be a way to save blueprints without putting them up on steam. I just don't feel comfortable exposing half baked ideas/rides with the whole world. As it is I find it easier to use the erase block and start over once again. As it is I don't even save the autosaves. Guess I'm just a bit looney that way, but I am having fun. [wacky] Still it would be fun to use more than 10% of the map.

If you have trouble making up your mind, maybe start with (a) small pre-made park(s) (and build further from there)? Perhaps that way you get a better idea of what you want your fully self-made park (or entrance) to look like. There should be plenty here on the forums to draw inspiration from.

As for why care about the demographics in sandbox, as far as I know we can't tweak those number ourselves (not by marketing nor presets), and if you want to be 'realistic', wouldn't it be fairly 'unrealistic' to overcater to one part of your demographic at the cost of undercatering to another? (result might be problems with park rating and lowered happiness, but it depends on whether you care about that in sandbox, just as the previous part. There are already plenty of messages, adding those just annoys me more.) It just depends on what you consider 'realistic'*.
Plus, you don't want to overcongest your 10m-wide paths. It is possible, and ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎ hard/impossible to solve. With constant vandalism pop-ups as consequence. So if you build only few of kid-attractions and there's a lot in between them, well good luck.

(*i.e. if you consider positive money-flow in this game (semi-)realistic, you want to make sure everyone spends as much as possible, instead of having a demographic sitting on its money because no catering.)

It would be nice to have a bit more creative control, like a scenario-maker as in RCT3. That way, we also have more control over the path to the entrance (which now always is a tunnel). Even in that game it was sometimes a tool to make park more realistic than in sandbox. Might also solve some difficulty issues and alleviate work from the dev team in making career parks.

 

[caterpillar]

One thing I'd like to see that would perhaps help some would be a way to save blueprints without putting them up on steam. I just don't feel comfortable exposing half baked ideas/rides with the whole world.

Hi Aptz,

When you create a blueprint it is actually like you want it to be: for your eyes only. It is not shared on steam unless you look up that blueprint in your 'my blueprints' list afterwards, and then choose to upload it to the workshop (with the blue icon).

ps: when you have modified it: select it, choose make a blueprint again, and then you can choose to save it as a new blueprint or you can select the previous version in the list of pictures you see to overwrite that older version.