TL;DR: Re-use Event Trigger system to control Huntsman/Test Pilot/Re-Motion style vehicle rotation instead of controlling it by track pieces
The Problem
Let's be honest here, the way vehicle movement is handled on relevant rides (e.g. Huntsman or the new Re-Motion) is one of the worst systems in Planet Coaster. It's hidden away in that tiny little box in the lower right, controlled by equally tiny sliders, you have no visualisation of how the vehicle actually moves or how long it will take until you test the ride, and if you want to make any changes later you have no way of finding which track piece has controls without selecting each single piece in that area and searching manually.
1.6 and the Studios Pack only added to this. Parabolic screens are all only one track piece so you can't have any significant movement during those sections, and 'pause tracks' pause all vehicle movement entirely and not just forward movement.
It's an outdated hand-me-down from RCT2 that really needs to be replaced, especially if Frontier plans to add any more rides like these.
What could be done about it? Well, one answer is already mostly in-game.
A Possible Solution
The Trigger Sequence Editor is fantastically easy to use to program scenery and effects activating when a ride reaches a certain point on its track. Why not use most of this system to control the ride vehicles as well?
Here's a mockup of what I had in mind:
Simply, you'd drag Movement Triggers along the track the same way you would Event Triggers. Then instead of selecting scenery, you would pick which vehicle motion to control from a drop-down (in this example, Arm Pitch and Seat Spin). You'd then set the rotation value for these, but more importantly, set a Movement Time that controls how long it takes to move from the vehicle's initial rotation to the set rotation.
The duration of this would be shown on the track as a line (once again we can use something here, heatmaps already draw lines along tracks) allowing you to easily see where the vehicle finishes its movement and move the Movement Trigger as needed to line everything up just how you want it.
Not only would this be so SO much easier to work with than the current system, it also brings other benefits. By setting how long it takes to move as time rather than by distance, it would allow vehicles to make much faster and more frequent movements (e.g. bumping forwards and backwards to pretend the vehicle is going over stairs) and also allow the vehicle to continue rotating even while the vehicle's movement is paused.
You could also get rid of the 'pause track' pieces again and add pauses into the Movement Trigger system for more fine-tuning in that area too.
The Problem
Let's be honest here, the way vehicle movement is handled on relevant rides (e.g. Huntsman or the new Re-Motion) is one of the worst systems in Planet Coaster. It's hidden away in that tiny little box in the lower right, controlled by equally tiny sliders, you have no visualisation of how the vehicle actually moves or how long it will take until you test the ride, and if you want to make any changes later you have no way of finding which track piece has controls without selecting each single piece in that area and searching manually.
1.6 and the Studios Pack only added to this. Parabolic screens are all only one track piece so you can't have any significant movement during those sections, and 'pause tracks' pause all vehicle movement entirely and not just forward movement.
It's an outdated hand-me-down from RCT2 that really needs to be replaced, especially if Frontier plans to add any more rides like these.
What could be done about it? Well, one answer is already mostly in-game.
A Possible Solution
The Trigger Sequence Editor is fantastically easy to use to program scenery and effects activating when a ride reaches a certain point on its track. Why not use most of this system to control the ride vehicles as well?
Here's a mockup of what I had in mind:
Simply, you'd drag Movement Triggers along the track the same way you would Event Triggers. Then instead of selecting scenery, you would pick which vehicle motion to control from a drop-down (in this example, Arm Pitch and Seat Spin). You'd then set the rotation value for these, but more importantly, set a Movement Time that controls how long it takes to move from the vehicle's initial rotation to the set rotation.
The duration of this would be shown on the track as a line (once again we can use something here, heatmaps already draw lines along tracks) allowing you to easily see where the vehicle finishes its movement and move the Movement Trigger as needed to line everything up just how you want it.
Not only would this be so SO much easier to work with than the current system, it also brings other benefits. By setting how long it takes to move as time rather than by distance, it would allow vehicles to make much faster and more frequent movements (e.g. bumping forwards and backwards to pretend the vehicle is going over stairs) and also allow the vehicle to continue rotating even while the vehicle's movement is paused.
You could also get rid of the 'pause track' pieces again and add pauses into the Movement Trigger system for more fine-tuning in that area too.
