Guests and Staff

Guests
The premise of RollerCoaster Tycoon is to keep guests in your amusement park happy by building rides, shops, and facilities. The guests have several different factors that contribute to satisfaction, including happiness, nausea, hunger, thirst, and the need to use the bathroom.

In RCT and RCT 2, each guest looks like a young adult male wearing a randomly colored shirt and pants. His machine given name is a consecutive number based on his appearance order on the entrance path to your amusement park. This name may be edited, and there are certain cheat codes which may alter certain aspects of the game. Each guest is also randomly endowed with a fixed Intensity Preference, Nausea Susceptibility rating, and wad of money, which helps to make each guest a unique individual. Guests are not invulnerable, and will die if they fall in water or are caught in a ride accident (drowning guests can be saved if you react quick enough with the "pincers"). Although the game limits the number of guests that you can have in a park, a poorly designed park with attractions too close together will still cause the guests to complain about crowding.

In RCT 3, guests are male or female, and a child, teenager, or adult. Groups/families may be made; these will appear in each scenario you play, though, like all guests, they may leave. The guests in RCT 3 also vary in the coloration of the shirt and pants.

Guests can also carry non-consumable items such as maps, photographs, umbrellas, hats, etc.. With the exception of Balloons, guest will never lose a non-consumable item. Guests can only carry one item of each type (when presented with the opportunity to acquire more they will often make a comment about already having one). If a shop can color an item, then the guest who acquires the item from that shop will be seen carrying an item of that specific color.

Handymen
Cost = $35 per month

Uniform = (Red) Color can be changed

Assignable Tasks = Sweep Footpaths, Water Gardens, Empty Litter Bins, Mow Grass

Handymen are the essential members of your staff. They are responsible for cleaning up for the messes that your guests constantly make. They also perform maintenance on your landscapes, by mowing grass and watering flowers.

Note that any Handyman that does not mow grass (mowed grass makes no difference to guests over un-mowed grass) will almost always stay on paths like guests. Be careful however if you use paths as roofing tiles. If these roofing tiles fall within the Handymans patrol area, the Handyman may jump up on the roof and get stuck there (you have to use your pincers to put them back on the real path, or the real path will never get cleaned)!

If the Handyman is given lots of work (lots of gardens to water, trash to sweep, or vomit to clean), keep the patrol area very small.

It appears that vandalism and vomit do not occur in tunnels, so these areas may not have to be patrolled as much (remember that chance of vandalism is directly related to the concentration of litter/vomit on the ground).

Mechanics
Cost = $55 per month

Uniform = (Blue) Color can be changed

Assignable Tasks = Inspect Rides, Fix Rides

Mechanics also are very important in keeping your park running. They make sure that rides continue to run, and fix them if they break down. If a ride requires inspection or fixing, the mechanic enters through the exit of the ride, so it is important that mechanics can access that area.

Since Roller Coasters are susceptible to catastrophic station brakes failures, it is a good idea to assign a mechanic to each Roller Coaster, and set the Roller Coaster's inspection time to 10 minutes.

Mechanics should have access to every station on a multi-station ride.

Mechanics are never required for Miniature Golf.

Security Guards
Cost = $45 per month

Uniform = (Yellow) Color can be changed

Security guards are a more passive unit than the other staff members. They prevent path items in their vicinity from being vandalized. Usually, security guards are not necessary if handymen are keeping the areas around the path items clean.

Note that the 'Safest Park' award refers to ride maintenance and reliability, not security.

Entertainers
Cost = $40 per month

Normal Costume = Panda, Tiger, Elephant

Theme Costume = Roman, Gorilla, Snowman, Knight, Astronaut, Sheriff, Bandit

Entertainers boost the happiness of guests in their vicinity, making them useful in crowded spaces such as queue lines.

Have Entertainers patrol the end section of long queue lines (lines over 9 minutes) to keep guests from complaining about the wait and to increase the time before guests leave a long queue in disgust. Also have Entertainers patrol long walkways without rides and areas of high trash/vomit potential to divert guests from making negative comments.

The Bandit costume makes the entertainer wearing it do something highly humourus. First, he stands still and moves his head left, then right. He then looks down and moves one of his hands to his pocket, and pretends to pull the trigger to a nonexistent "gun". Nothing happens. Assuming it fell out, the entertainer shakes the pocket with his foot. Suddenly, a white line appears for a split second from his pocket to his foot. He then jumps up and down, as if he "shot" his foot! (RCT2 ONLY)
 * Secret

RCT3
Same staff as in other games plus:

-Staff can be trained and have their wages changed, on a case-by-case basis. They will be more productive if their wages are higher, and may go on strike if their wages are too low. Training makes a staff member more effective.

Park Inspector
The Park Inspector is a senior citizen that provides updates about situations in the park. He will alert you about long lines, prices, and scenery.

Cost: Free, and comes with each park, and he is unfirable! Given that beings in RCT3 cannot die, you cannot kill him, which in some cases is unfortunate.

Note: This only tells default tasks without expansion packs.

Assignable Tasks:
 * Check rides: He rides them for unknown reasons. Check this to allow him to perform this task.
 * Check shops: This allows the Park Inspector to check shops and tell you their price. However, there is a gimmick! He will also tell you if the shop matches scenery and will complain until you fix it! (UGH!)
 * Check Vista: He will evaluate scenery at Photographic Spots, and tell you whether the guests, or "peeps", like or dislike it.

Getting rid of him: He may be unfireable, but you can make him "unhireable".


 * You can be rid of him. But this has to be done at the start of each sandbox mode game or you can save the sandbox after performing this, and make it the scenario to open that has the inspector "banned" forever.


 * The very moment the game starts, pause the game, (shortcut key "P"). Delete the gray path that projects into the park, right up to the gate. With no path for the inspector to apppear on, the inspector will never show up. Unpause the game and wait a few moments. You can then replace the path if you wish.

Cashier
The cashier is present at all ride entrances, shops, and stalls. They perform tasks such as taking the guests' money, serving food and drinks, and handing the guests their purchased items.

Cost: Free


 * Note: You can change his color. This person is also unfirable.

RCT1 & 2
You can change the name of a guest to something other than the default name assigned by the game. The limitation is that you can not name two guests with the exact same name (However, please note that you can change the capitilization of the code to use it on multiple guests, such as Mr. Bean and MR. Bean). The game also includes "easter eggs" which are activated when you rename a guest as one of the following:

Chris Sawyer: Frequently stops and takes flash photographs

Damon Hill: Drives Go Karts at approximately 2 times normal speed.

John Wardley: Thinks "Wow!" while riding on a ride.

Katie Brayshaw: Frequently stops and waves.

Melanie Warn: Remains constantly happy and energetic.

Michael Schumacher: Drives Go Karts at approximately 1½ times normal speed.

Mr. Bean: Drives super slow on Go Karts.

Simon Foster: Frequently stops and paints pictures.

E=MC2: Some said that renaming guests 1 and 2 "E=MC2" and "E=MC3" would create a research bonus, although it has been disproven.

RCT3
See RCT3 Cheats