RollerCoaster Tycoon Wiki:Community Portal/Archive1

Let's Keep it the Same
From all articles from now on, can we please use the templates to keep the wiki the same. For more info see template. If we choose not to use a template, please let us know here so we can either improve on it, or delete it. --Matt 20 1 02:49, 20 June 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree, templates would help keep the pages consistent. The problem with that is most of the templates are tables. It's hard to put all of the information of a completed scenario page in the little boxes.


 * I think templates for big pages should be used for a quick summary, while the little details can be left in the main body of the article.
 * --Ezporsche 17:26, 7 August 2009 (UTC)

I noticed that the wiki likes to cover the game's designers and other important people (ex. Chris Sawyer), do you think that one of you guys could create a real-life template? Like something for the top of the page, so people know its not in-game and about the real world and a box template for the pic and other info (ex. something like the scenario one). --I Ross I 18:27, 7 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree, templates can be used to summarise information, and put alot of the info in the article. And I'll get to work on the real-life template. Also, what do you think about the awards. yes/no? --Matt 20 1 01:02, 8 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I think the awards are good, if we can get more people here, then it might be some kind of incentive to work hard, or at least just a token of our appreciation. --Ezporsche 04:55, 8 August 2009 (UTC)


 * The awards are excellent, really well put together. I love how you incorpated the games awards/pics into ours. I can think of no better way to improve them. =) Although, some editors worry that new people will begin to edit just for the awards and not really for the right reasons. I can't remember if you made any awards for a certain number of edits but try to steer clear of that. --I Ross I 17:17, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh, the Tycoonist awards was what I was thinking about. Just make sure to define a major contribution clearly, this way people will understand. In fact, you should probably do that for all of them. --I Ross I 17:21, 14 August 2009 (UTC)

About the ride templates again, I decided to kind of make a color coded system. I changed the background color of the template based on the type. This is what I've been doing:
 * Roller coasters = Red
 * Thrill rides = Orange
 * Gentle Rides and Transport Rides = Green
 * Water Rides = Blue

When making ride pages, could everyone do this too?

--Ezporsche 22:42, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

What is the basis for determining the "Size" of a ride, as found in the ride template? Rps eagleforChrist 20:39, 25 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I can't specify exactly what constitutes as a small/medium/large ride, but I think that small rides would be one of the ploppable gentle/thrill rides, medium would be a rather compact tracked ride, like a wild mouse coaster or a shuttle loop, and a large ride would be a sprawling coaster that takes a vast amount of space to build, or a transport ride that traverses a large park. --Ezporsche 20:46, 25 August 2009 (UTC)


 * the inital idea of 'size' was to state how many squares it occupies (whe applicable), eg. 3x3, or 4x4, etc. And I really like the colour coding idea--Matt 20 1 05:51, September 11, 2009 (UTC)

Popularity
I think it's safe to say that we have a very low-traffic wiki right now. We need to find a way to get more people to our site. There's a helpful article about raising your Google ranking at Wikia Help.

I've already submitted the site to Google for indexing, and I'm going to start discreetly adding links and content that point to us on other related wikis. --Ezporsche 17:26, 7 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I did a Google search for Roller Coaster Tycoon, and I couldn't find this wiki in the first five pages. I think we can all agree that we should get it up on the first few pages of returns, if possible, but I myself don't know how to do that. Rps eagleforChrist 02:16, September 10, 2009 (UTC)


 * I think that is a great idea, I did the same for another wiki, if you can follow that guide, you will find that it works. Just have to give it time. --I Ross I 17:49, 7 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Oh, just wanted to add, I had submitted our wiki as an external link on all related Wikipedia pages. So, if people are looking all the way down there they will see us. --I Ross I 17:22, 14 August 2009 (UTC)


 * I advertised the page quite nicely on my blog, hopefully some of my friends will join. I've also sifted through various gaming wikis, and added a few links to us. --Ezporsche 05:23, 16 August 2009 (UTC)

Hit counter
I've tried to add a good hit counter to our front page. It's from http://whos.amung.us/, and it's good because you don't need an account, anyone can view it, and very detailed data can be displayed if you click on it.

There's two versions of it, a Javascript and an html version, but the html doesn't work. It would be great if someone could get it to work. The code can be found at their site. --Ezporsche 05:58, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

Getting info from fan sites
RollerCoaster Tycoon is pretty old, and a lot of the fan sites are inactive/defunct. I think we should talk with the creators of the particularly information-rich sites, and see if we could take their articles and transplant them into our site. That way, people can look everything up by going here.

I was originally thinking of creating references, like on Wikipedia, but there is a lot of content on other sites that are very specific, and wouldn't fit well in the broad topics that we currently cover.

Does anyone else agree? --Ezporsche 19:08, 22 August 2009 (UTC)


 * As much as I like the idea, I predict it will be pretty hard to contact the site creators, since the sites have been abandoned and they probably have old contact information. It's worth a try though. Chozo01 20:09, 22 August 2009 (UTC)

New Categories
Should there be a category defined for all the scenario pages, like "Scenarios"? Rps eagleforChrist 00:54, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
 * I think so, yes. Though it may not be necessary as we have The Complete Scenario List. Chozo01 16:01, 27 August 2009 (UTC)
 * If there isn't a "Scenarios" category (but I think there should be), then each scenario page should consistently link back to The Complete Scenario List page.

Rps eagleforChrist 02:02, September 6, 2009 (UTC)

Monthly Poll
Do we have plans to change the "monthly" poll tomorrow? Rps eagleforChrist 14:48, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Sitenotice/ MediaWiki:Anonnotice
Hey, I just noticed that we don't make use of the sitenotice. For those that don't know, the job of the sitenotice is to alert users of wiki news and other important things to remember. The sitenotice is the space located between the tool bar (edit this page, history, etc.) and the article title. There are two site notices: A user (logged in) and an IP (logged out). The IP one is typically used to encourage anons to join the wiki by creating an account. Only admins can change the sitenotices. I really think we should take advantage of this great feature. --I Ross I 18:53, September 13, 2009 (UTC)


 * I just was looking for them, and I found out they were both deleted for the reason "No longer needed". I am going to restore them so that we can use them. I am going to go ahead and add information to the Anonnotice. We can edit it to our needs later, just remember to change the MediaWiki:Sitenotice ID if you change the user one (logged in), the Anon doesn't have one. --I Ross I 19:01, September 13, 2009 (UTC)

Cheating?
I'm sure this wiki has had this discussion before but I want to bring it up anyway. Should we post cheat codes on the wiki and where should we place them? I think we should make a policy on this. What do you guys think? --I Ross I 21:48, September 18, 2009 (UTC)


 * I think that cheats and like information should be here. As a matter of fact, some cheats are already posted.  Search for cheats.  Rps eagleforChrist 21:56, September 18, 2009 (UTC)


 * There are cheats already on the Wiki. --Matt 20 1 00:06, September 19, 2009 (UTC)


 * lol I know there are already cheats on the wiki. I was just wondering what you guys think we should do about them. Where should they be placed? Should they get their own article? Should we keep them on the site? I know that guests and staff article has some cheats and I think there is a RCT 3 cheats page but I think there should be a uniform look. I was thinking we should make a page entitled "RollerCoaster Tycoon cheats" and do the same for the rest of the games. What do you all think? --I Ross I 20:35, September 20, 2009 (UTC)


 * Sounds good.--Matt 20 1 06:41, September 21, 2009 (UTC)


 * That sounds fine. Chozo01 18:41, September 21, 2009 (UTC)


 * I'd say just do whatever you think is best. Rps eagleforChrist 21:16, September 21, 2009 (UTC)


 * I think I'm a little late to the party, but I've implemented the changes suggested by you guys. All cheats can be found in RollerCoaster Tycoon Cheats. --Ezporsche 02:19, October 11, 2009 (UTC)

Uploading Files
Although not neccessarily beneficial to the wiki at this point, I was wondering do any of you know what the RCT games saves parks and custom ride tracks as? (i.e. file type), because depending on it, we may be able to make a request to the Wikia staff to give the option to upload those types of files on the wiki.--Matt 20 1 00:31, December 4, 2009 (UTC)


 * I know that the RCT1 track designs are stored as .td4 files, and that the RCT3 track designs are stored as .trk files. I'm not sure of the RCT2 track design file, because I don't have the game. Also, the .td4 files and the RCT2 track design files are compatible with RCT3; there's an import ride design button in the game. --Ezporsche 00:49, December 4, 2009 (UTC)


 * The RCT2 track designs are .td6, and .td4 files can be placed directly into the "Tracks" folder of RCT2's install directory and they will work in-game. Scenario files are stored as .sc4 and .sc6 for RCT and RCT2 respectively, and saved games are .sv4 and .sv6. Chozo01 06:34, December 8, 2009 (UTC)

Handy Hints and Tips
Does anyone have handy hints that they've picked up while playing the RCT games? (P.S. I didn't know where else to put this).

Here's one I know: The default prices for Ride tickets are often much lower than what guests are willing to pay. Of course, if you charge too much, they will refuse to pay. Theway to find out the mst you can charge is by looking at the excitement rating of the ride. Whatever that is, you can charge tat much, and guests are willing to pay. For example, if the excitement rating for a ride is 7.18, then you can charge $7.10 and guests will quite happil pay (always round down). Of course, if you're a skilled Roller Coaster maker, and you use this method, you can rake in quite a profit.--Matt 20 1 02:59, December 8, 2009 (UTC)


 * I've noticed that in some scenarios, like Vertigo Views, it's easiest to demolish a large roller coaster (if it's the only attraction) and start the park from scratch, with the money you get from selling the roller coaster. In Vertigo Views, it was a lot easier to get the park up and running because of the extra ~$15,000 I got. --Ezporsche 03:34, December 8, 2009 (UTC)


 * In parks with a lot of pathways, like Evergreen Gardens, I usually delete most of the pathways to give myself some starting cash and keep guests from getting lost. Plus, I would rarely follow the path anyway. Rps eagleforChrist 00:35, January 17, 2010 (UTC)

Better Template
I wanted to edit the ride template to make it an info box rather than a table (like the scenario template), but I'm afaid of what it'll do to what we already have. Will it delete the information on the pages using the template or not? Should I risk it, or just leave it as a table?--Matt 20 1 11:03, December 8, 2009 (UTC)
 * Try experimenting in the sandbox (if we have one). Make some miscellaneous template, do something in a sandbox with the template, and then change the template. --Ezporsche 01:50, December 9, 2009 (UTC)