Michael Brookes
Game Director
I remember two things I saw when RCT3 was first shown:
There were sketches of peeps in different 'shapes' and sizes
And also on very early video shots there was a 'flying - peep-to-peep' camera. I always thought that was quite a neat thing - though I have never ever found it or heard anything mentioned about it
There were sketches of peeps in different 'shapes' and sizes
And also on very early video shots there was a 'flying - peep-to-peep' camera. I always thought that was quite a neat thing - though I have never ever found it or heard anything mentioned about it
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sebar said:Maybe if the game continues in the futurewe will see a alignment manager and path manager to go with it. Perhaps it will allow you both a grid and true 3d alignment on a switch.
One problem with a grid, once you allow building at 45 degrees, the gaps between paths are not whole units - so you get wierd problems, where rides have to be aligned with the path edge, not the grid (to avoid an ugly gap). Once you do this, you have dropped the grid anyway, as rides are existing in arbitrary positions - so you might as well take full advantage of it, as we are doing in Thrillville.
Certainly a 'snap to grid' type feature would be possible, but once you drop the adherance to a grid, you have the freedom for all sorts of other things, like curved paths and arbitrary angles.
stuk71 said:
We were originally thinking of doing overweight peeps, but there were so many sensitivities about this at the time, particularly in the US, that we decided against it - or rather spent the time on other things.
I'll get back to you on the peep to peep flying camera...
David B said:
Hopefully you'll get rid of the grid if you ever do an RCT4 then... hopefully...
David B said:
Good to hear!
David B said:
Yay! Does this mean that you are going to do another theme park game then? Even if it isn't RCT?
I would like for someone to explain to me the advantages of having a non-grid park game. Peeps of different sizes would have been really cool!
disneyland255 said:
The advantages would be that it gives the park a less linear and more realistic look. It'll allow more track variations and different shaped buildings, as well as curved and diagonal paths. Hopefully. The only problem will be that making a park will become much more complicated...
I see. Thank you Nuclear Fish. As much fun as that sounds, I already have a hard enough time building parks on a grid.
P.S. Does anyone play No-Limits Coaster PM me if you do, I need advice.
P.S. Does anyone play No-Limits Coaster PM me if you do, I need advice.
You're going to have a grid no matter what. Software is a digital format, and as such, you're going to have some coordinates. The primary concern is how big should the grid squares be? Large squares make building things easy, collision detection is simpler, less numbers to keep track of, etc. Smaller squares make building things more precise, but collision detection is much more difficult, and the precision on the coordinates must be much higher. I think we need to stick with a grid-base, but perhaps have a "grid precision" slider to make the precision larger or smaller - fine precision for tweaking/fine-tuning placement, loose precision for lining up objects and such.
The biggest difficulty with a spline/vector-based track system is aligning track pieces, and objects in general. A "snap to grid" option would make this much simpler.
The biggest difficulty with a spline/vector-based track system is aligning track pieces, and objects in general. A "snap to grid" option would make this much simpler.
Thanks David for the reply.
From my own personal vantage point. One thing that would be neat if Frontier were to publish and sell its own 3D roller coaster game would be that off-grid. Having a Path Manager, Alignment manager, and especially a Building Generator as I originally outlined would be great news.
Remember also that there are thousands of flat rides from thrill rides, to especially kiddie rides (which have been mainly absent in RCT3) and that while coasters are important, the flat rides are the real key.
Presuming if RCT3 is or becomes a dead product than what we would like to see is a new game and modeler too as many of us like to make parks and coasters as much as we like scenarios, that will incorporate all of these features. Also would a future game allow us to import and convert existing RCT3 tracks and perhaps even parks that used the original material as provided by Frontier, or maybe even custom materials?
By the way the tracked ride events, and many, not just a few half completed, but many fully stocked themed expansions with generic and themed ride variants as well are what is needed, and accuracy in operation of those rides.
Another flatride thing I'd like to see is a control panel for ride micro management like in the German made Virtual Rides. While it doesn't appeal to a great many people, there are those of us who could appreciate having fun playing ride operator. Well its just a thought. Roller coasters like in no limits, but with the ease of use of RCT3's method of building them as NL is rather difficult to do it in. Another great product but its a different mindset.
Here is another consideration (sure you guys don't wanna hire me??? Just kidding) People want to build their Disneyworlds and Disneyland sized parks without any lag on today's machines. Perhaps there will be a way to connect themed sections or even interconnect themed parks. I thought seriously about this and thought maybe as you get further away the graphics are converted to a distant image 2d only, and a database of basic stats until you zoom in closer. This would free up the processor perhaps to call from a hard disk file that was written too, rather than take up the cpu and memory. While I am not a programmer, perhaps this might work. Its just an idea. Cause right now RCT3's base engine doesn't do very well, as you guys pointed out originally, for larger than mid sized parks at best.
Well those are tonight's ideas, and thanks again David for your previous response. I look forward to your thoughts and Mr. Brookes too.
From my own personal vantage point. One thing that would be neat if Frontier were to publish and sell its own 3D roller coaster game would be that off-grid. Having a Path Manager, Alignment manager, and especially a Building Generator as I originally outlined would be great news.
Remember also that there are thousands of flat rides from thrill rides, to especially kiddie rides (which have been mainly absent in RCT3) and that while coasters are important, the flat rides are the real key.
Presuming if RCT3 is or becomes a dead product than what we would like to see is a new game and modeler too as many of us like to make parks and coasters as much as we like scenarios, that will incorporate all of these features. Also would a future game allow us to import and convert existing RCT3 tracks and perhaps even parks that used the original material as provided by Frontier, or maybe even custom materials?
By the way the tracked ride events, and many, not just a few half completed, but many fully stocked themed expansions with generic and themed ride variants as well are what is needed, and accuracy in operation of those rides.
Another flatride thing I'd like to see is a control panel for ride micro management like in the German made Virtual Rides. While it doesn't appeal to a great many people, there are those of us who could appreciate having fun playing ride operator. Well its just a thought. Roller coasters like in no limits, but with the ease of use of RCT3's method of building them as NL is rather difficult to do it in. Another great product but its a different mindset.
Here is another consideration (sure you guys don't wanna hire me???
Just kidding) People want to build their Disneyworlds and Disneyland sized parks without any lag on today's machines. Perhaps there will be a way to connect themed sections or even interconnect themed parks. I thought seriously about this and thought maybe as you get further away the graphics are converted to a distant image 2d only, and a database of basic stats until you zoom in closer. This would free up the processor perhaps to call from a hard disk file that was written too, rather than take up the cpu and memory. While I am not a programmer, perhaps this might work. Its just an idea. Cause right now RCT3's base engine doesn't do very well, as you guys pointed out originally, for larger than mid sized parks at best.Well those are tonight's ideas, and thanks again David for your previous response. I look forward to your thoughts and Mr. Brookes too.
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Michael Brookes
Game Director
as long as its not just design am happy the one thing i don't like about this game, seriously its just gone down to one except for the dynamic shadows which arent really dynamic, when the Giant Wheel and other rides spin or are in motion the shadows dont change to match the ride :S. Anyway the one thing i dont like is the fact that after i've built the park there is nothing to keep me wanting to carry on playing in that park. Imo i would like something that makes me want to keep playing like having some extra managerial features which will keep me occupied more after i've finished. Like operating the rides/coasters. Carparks etc. my ideas are quite thin on this though
the one thing i don't like about this game, seriously its just gone down to one except for the dynamic shadows which arent really dynamic, when the Giant Wheel and other rides spin or are in motion the shadows dont change to match the ride :S. Anyway the one thing i dont like is the fact that after i've built the park there is nothing to keep me wanting to carry on playing in that park. Imo i would like something that makes me want to keep playing like having some extra managerial features which will keep me occupied more after i've finished. Like operating the rides/coasters. Carparks etc. my ideas are quite thin on this though Michael Brookes
Game Director
The shadows are dynamic in that they are calculated in real time according to the time of day. It would definetly be nice to have real time shadows on the animated objects, however the calculations for this are very expensive. With newer video cards and the next gen consoles this may be possible for the future.
Michael
Michael
Dear Guys at Frontier,
I would like to see a RCT4 or a game like that!
What i like at the RCT series is, that it is a realistic theme park game.
I'm thinking in that cruel "Theme Park" kiddie game...
If you get RCT from Atari or create your own one, it should be based closely to RCT.
And if you're thinking about that you should make some polls in front of releasing it...
to know what stuff is really needed and what big features are a have must in the game (e.g. the gridless while builing paths and other stuff)!
Uwe
I would like to see a RCT4 or a game like that!
What i like at the RCT series is, that it is a realistic theme park game.
I'm thinking in that cruel "Theme Park" kiddie game...
If you get RCT from Atari or create your own one, it should be based closely to RCT.
And if you're thinking about that you should make some polls in front of releasing it...
to know what stuff is really needed and what big features are a have must in the game (e.g. the gridless while builing paths and other stuff)!
Uwe
Goner said:Anyway the one thing i dont like is the fact that after i've built the park there is nothing to keep me wanting to carry on playing in that park. Imo i would like something that makes me want to keep playing like having some extra managerial features which will keep me occupied more after i've finished. Like operating the rides/coasters. Carparks
RCT3 reminds me of Lego, as the most fun part is actually building it. There should be extra things to do afterwards. Of course, you could always start another park... but I've never actually got thaat far as I never get round to finishing any of my parks... oh well...
From what I heard, no matter how large the park is RCT 3 generates every single piece on the map, even those you can’t see. I think it was Phil who suggested blanking out parts of the map while not using them, cutting down on resources.