Terraforming & Landscaping

[TRG86]

Alright, so another important aspect in the design of our parks is the landscape, it not only adds to the depth of our park, but also to its beauty and overall presentation.

Now, the landscape terraforming itself is nothing new to games of this style, but it has been done in many different ways. It gives us ways to create flowing hills, steep mountains and jagged cliffs, cut streams and rivers or completely level the surface if our hearts desire. I definitely think there should be and hope there is a terraforming engine in Planet Coaster, but would need to be a much improved version of RCT3's. I'm going back a bit, but the terraforming engine in SimCity 4 was actually pretty good for it's time, it had many options and was pretty fluid overall, I really enjoyed using it. Additionally, it could also be used to assist in ride theming, i.e. caves/cliffs for river rapids, flume rides and close-encounters/tunnel types on roller coasters. The possibilities are definitely deep with this one...

Also, lets talk scenery for a bit. Yes, specific types of theming are already being talked about on the forum, but the basic stuff is important too. All parks have natural scenery, i.e. trees, flowers, bushes, hedges, rock/mulch landscaping, etc. I hope there is a large selection of basic scenery that we can work with to landscape and bring beauty to our parks. Also, something like the spray paint tool in The Sims and Zoo Tycoon could be helpful for things like mulch, different grass/dirt types, sandy areas, etc. Also, a quick way to add dense areas of trees would be helpful as well, i.e. the 'God Mode' plop tool found in SimCity 4's engine to create dense forest area quicky.

What are you guys thinking? [up]

 

[RandyChimp]

Tree density is always tricky with single placement, as it never looks natural. Your spray idea is something I've wanted in a theme park game for a long time.

You mentioned a lot of stuff RE terraforming as well, including cliffs and rivers. Yes yes yes! Standing water is all well and good for 2004, but I'd love a river flowing through my park. Everything you've suggested is exactly what I'm hoping to see.

 

[Wobbly]

Alright, so another important aspect in the design of our parks is the landscape, it not only adds to the depth of our park, but also to its beauty and overall presentation.

Now, the landscape terraforming itself is nothing new to games of this style, but it has been done in many different ways. It gives us ways to create flowing hills, steep mountains and jagged cliffs, cut streams and rivers or completely level the surface if our hearts desire. I definitely think there should be and hope there is a terraforming engine in Planet Coaster, but would need to be a much improved version of RCT3's. I'm going back a bit, but the terraforming engine in SimCity 4 was actually pretty good for it's time, it had many options and was pretty fluid overall, I really enjoyed using it. Additionally, it could also be used to assist in ride theming, i.e. caves/cliffs for river rapids, flume rides and close-encounters/tunnel types on roller coasters. The possibilities are definitely deep with this one...

Also, lets talk scenery for a bit. Yes, specific types of theming are already being talked about on the forum, but the basic stuff is important too. All parks have natural scenery, i.e. trees, flowers, bushes, hedges, rock/mulch landscaping, etc. I hope there is a large selection of basic scenery that we can work with to landscape and bring beauty to our parks. Also, something like the spray paint tool in The Sims and Zoo Tycoon could be helpful for things like mulch, different grass/dirt types, sandy areas, etc. Also, a quick way to add dense areas of trees would be helpful as well, i.e. the 'God Mode' plop tool found in SimCity 4's engine to create dense forest area quicky.

What are you guys thinking? [up]

What I'd love see in designing hills, cliffs, if a way to build hollow things. So basically if you wanted to build bars and resturants into the bottom of the cliff, you can because the flat floor still exists, you've just technically built a cliff on top of it, a hollow one to fill how ever you want to.

You need be to able to design inside too, normally its just blackness with a few lights on the tracks, but If you wanted to build inside a cliff, then the walls inside needs to be the same as the outside

 

[KnoxVegas]

For trees, I kinda like the paint brush idea, or having a spot brush where as you click and drag you will be placing your tress and it can vary from 1 to many depending on how large the brush size is. Love your ideas above as well.

 

[TRG86]

For trees, I kinda like the paint brush idea, or having a spot brush where as you click and drag you will be placing your tress and it can vary from 1 to many depending on how large the brush size is. Love your ideas above as well.

That was exactly the idea I was referencing in my original post. [big grin] i.e. the spot brush tool in SimCity 4 for creating dense areas of trees.

 

[KnoxVegas]

That was exactly the idea I was referencing in my original post. [big grin] i.e. the spot brush tool in SimCity 4 for creating dense areas of trees.

Spot on, sorry I have a bad head cold and I'm not comprehending everything I'm reading!! hahaha

 

[TRG86]

No worries, I wasn't yelling at you! Lol, Just restating for further understanding of the feature idea.

 

[KnoxVegas]

Yeah for sure, I know you weren't! Just saying, but I do like that idea for sure, much better than a single placement like we both said above haha.

 

[TRG86]

Definitely. Although, I definitely still want single placement for fine tuning areas of landscaping, or for areas where you don't want a bunch of density.

 

[RCTAngel1]

Tree density is always tricky with single placement, as it never looks natural. Your spray idea is something I've wanted in a theme park game for a long time.

You mentioned a lot of stuff RE terraforming as well, including cliffs and rivers. Yes yes yes! Standing water is all well and good for 2004, but I'd love a river flowing through my park. Everything you've suggested is exactly what I'm hoping to see.

I couldn't agree more with this. I'd really like to be able to do a lot with water, from small streams to wild raging rivers, waterfalls, etc.

 

[Palaber1984]

Tree density is always tricky with single placement, as it never looks natural. Your spray idea is something I've wanted in a theme park game for a long time.

Spraying for forests could be really good. Different trees, densities.
And one thing. If we spray forests. The ground texture should be changed a little bit. Forests got most of the time dirty grounds from falling parts of the trees. And the ground should get little deformation by trees roots(depending on tree sizes).

For water I hope they build as realistic as possible.

Maybe draw a hole in the ground and then you fill it up with water however it needed. For example you got 1000 liters in there. If you know change the hole by drawing it bigger or smaller, the water should still be 1000liters and it should fit realistic to the new environment like cities skylines but more faster. In cities water seems to moving slow. Maybe because viewing from the top.

In this case I think playing with water should look and feel realistic to the player viewing from the top, then just for the visitor.

 

[danplayer01]

I like terraforming but i think a good addition to terraforming it be able to create fake mountains and rocks. So have a tool maybe similar to terraforming but it would make fake rocks like in Disney or other theme parks. The fake rocks would be hollow and you can build inside it.

 

[Coastin' Dave]

Vegetation is very important and so is terraforming. This video shows me that the developers have both under control and well in-progress.

[video=youtube;yyK0aIuflZ0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyK0aIuflZ0[/video]
I would like to suggest the ability to make fake vegetation and terrain for indoor attractions both lit and dark. The difference would be that the fake vegetation is a bit more static and the fake terrain would have re-barb and metal meshes inside since the terrain and or fake rock work would be molded concrete.
Here is an image showing fake rock-work that is partially complete so you can see what the rocks look like to the guests and what the underlying frame is that you would see if you were either inside maintenance areas or outside that section of the park.

 

[Crowdpleaser]

I don't know if you have to make a difference between fake and real Vegetation and Rockwork. The goal of the Fake stuff is to look like the real thing. I have no problem in having "real" Rock instead of "fake Rock. In an ideal Scenario it would look identical. And in essence less work for the Artists and Programmers having to differenciate in the Game and Code.

Here is what good fake Rock can look like:

 

[jamesviago]

I couldn't agree more with this. I'd really like to be able to do a lot with water, from small streams to wild raging rivers, waterfalls, etc.

yes please +1

 

[Coasterbuff]

I think at the end of the day, Frontier are going to provide evertyhing to create mountain scenery, flowing water/waterfalls and all that goes with it. They managed this with RCT3 so they are not going to leave these features out of the game. With the latest technology since those days, I think the landscaping abilities will certainly be improved on. The game is still in early development and to think what they have given us so far is pretty mind blowing, I'm sure by the time the games reaches final release, we are going to see many more improvements, and at each stage of development we will be able to update the Early Bird game, up until final release. All credit to Frontier, they are listening and viewing all suggestions that we put forward and I am sure they will deliver what's possible. These guys are dedicated to this game as much as we are.

 

[Diabo44]

I think at the end of the day, Frontier are going to provide evertyhing to create mountain scenery, flowing water/waterfalls and all that goes with it. They managed this with RCT3 so they are not going to leave these features out of the game. With the latest technology since those days, I think the landscaping abilities will certainly be improved on. The game is still in early development and to think what they have given us so far is pretty mind blowing, I'm sure by the time the games reaches final release, we are going to see many more improvements, and at each stage of development we will be able to update the Early Bird game, up until final release. All credit to Frontier, they are listening and viewing all suggestions that we put forward and I am sure they will deliver what's possible. These guys are dedicated to this game as much as we are.

[up][big grin]