Climate
Climate is the general weather pattern within a scenario in the RollerCoaster Tycoon series. Climate determines how hot or cold, and how wet or dry the scenario's weather will be. Climate can affect a scenario's success, and should not be taken lightly.
Roller Coaster Tycoon 1
Original Scenarios
The original scenarios in Roller Coaster Tycoon introduce 3 climates: Warm, Cool and Wet, and Hot and Dry.
Warm
The "Warm" climate is the most common of the 22 original scenarios. The Warm climate features comfortable temperatures, and moderate rainfall. The starting temperature for a scenario using the Warm climate is 62F (17C). The Warm climate made it's first appearance in the "Forest Frontiers" scenario, and is used in 13 of the 22 original scenarios.
Cool and Wet
The "Cool and Wet" climate is the next most common climate. It features more rainfall, and cooler temperatures than the Warm climate. The starting temperature for a scenario using the Cool and Wet climate is 55F (13C). This climate can sometimes hurt a park's success due to some guests refusing to ride outdoor rides while it is raining. It is suggested while playing in a park that has the Cool and Wet climate, to try to build more indoor rides outdoors, and to build custom rides at least 40% underground(that way they count as an indoor ride so guests will go on them in the rain). The Cool and Wet climate made it's first appearance in the "Katie's Dreamland" scenario, and is used in 5 of the 22 original scenarios.
Hot and Dry
The "Hot and Dry" climate is the least common climate. It features less rainfall, and hotter temperatures than the other two climates. The starting temperature for a scenario using the Hot and Dry climate is 62F (17C). It is suggested while playing in a park that has the Hot and Dry climate, try to build more water rides, as guests want to ride water rides even more than usual. The Hot and Dry climate made it's first appearance in the "Dynamite Dunes" scenario. It only appears 3 times in the original game, all of which are the desert themed parks.
Each Scenario's Climate
Here is every original scenario from RCT 1 and its respective climate.
| Scenario | Climate Used |
|---|---|
| Forest Frontiers | Warm |
| Dynamite Dunes | Hot and Dry |
| Leafy Lake | Warm |
| Diamond Heights | Warm |
| Evergreen Gardens | Warm |
| Bumbly Beach | Warm |
| Trinity Islands | Warm |
| Katie's Dreamland | Cool and Wet |
| Pokey Park | Warm |
| White Water Park | Warm |
| Millennium Mines | Cool and Wet |
| Karts & Coasters | Warm |
| Mel's World | Warm |
| Mystic Mountain | Cool and Wet |
| Pacific Pyramids | Hot and Dry |
| Crumbly Woods | Warm |
| Paradise Pier | Warm |
| Lightning Peaks | Cool and Wet |
| Ivory Towers | Cool and Wet |
| Rainbow Valley | Warm |
| Thunder Rock | Hot and Dry |
| Mega Park |
Warm |
Added Attractions Scenarios
The same 3 climates appear in the Added Attractions expansion pack for RCT1. All scenarios except Future World, Thunderstorm Park, and Utopia Park use the "Warm" climate. Future World and Utopia Park use the "Hot and Dry" climate, while Thunderstorm Park uses the "Cool and Wet" climate (hence the name).
Loopy Landscapes Scenarios
Cold
The 3 original climates return in the Loopy Landscapes expansion pack for RCT1 along with a new climate called the "Cold" climate. The cold climate is much like the warm climate except that the temperatures are significantly lower. The starting temperature for a scenario that uses the cold climate is 48F (9C). The cold climate only appears 3 times in the Loopy Landscapes scenarios, and all 3 scenarios are Snow/Ice themed scenarios.
Each Scenario's Climate
Here is every scenario within the Loopy Landscapes expansion pack and its respective climate.
| Scenario | Climate Used |
|---|---|
| Iceberg Islands | Cold |
| Volcania | Warm |
| Arid Heights | Hot and Dry |
| Razor Rocks | Hot and Dry |
| Crater Lake | Warm |
| Vertigo Views | Warm |
| Paradise Pier 2 | Warm |
| Dragon's Cove | Warm |
| Good Knight Park | Warm |
| Wacky Warren | Warm |
| Grand Glacier | Cold |
| Crazy Craters | Hot and Dry |
| Dusty Desert | Hot and Dry |
| Woodworm Park | Cool and Wet |
| Icarus Park | Hot and Dry |
| Sunny Swamps | Warm |
| Frightmare Hills | Warm |
| Thunder Rocks | Hot and Dry |
| Octagon Park | Warm |
| Pleasure Island | Warm |
| Icicle Worlds | Cold |
| Southern Sands | Hot and Dry |
| Tiny Towers | Warm |
| Nevermore Park | Warm |
| Pacifica | Warm |
| Urban Jungle | Warm |
| Terror Town | Warm |
| Megaworld Park | Cool and Wet |
| Venus Ponds | Hot and Dry |
| Micro Park | Warm |
| Fort Anachronism | Warm |
| Alton Towers | Warm |
| Heide Park | Warm |
| Blackpool Pleasure Beach | Cool and Wet |
Roller Coaster Tycoon 2
The same four climates were brought back into RCT 2. When a player is creating a scenario, he/she can pick from one of the four climates for the scenario. The player can also change the climate of a scenario unlike in RCT1. The player must select the scenario they wish to change from the list of scenarios in the main menu screen. Once the scenario is open on screen, the player must go to the save game option, and save the game. Then the player must return to the main menu and click on the toolbox, and select the "Convert Saved Game to Scenario" option. Then the list of saved games will pop up, and the player needs to select the file they saved the game as. Once that is done, the player will be taken into a scenario editor mode where he/she can tweak certain options in a scenario, one of them being climate. If a player creates their own scenario, the temperature will always start at 62F (17C) regardless of the climate.
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3
More climates were introduced in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, but some of them are themed climates. There is a mountain climate, a spooky climate, a jungle climate, and more. This makes a scenario more unique.
Test results of an identical park with different weather zones. Tested period: 1. march - 31. october in the 1st year
Sunburn options: In test park guests can use each 1 sun cream and 1 information stall (umbrellas for rain/sun), maximum 60 peeps in park.
- Temperate
Random weather scenario
- Spooky
7,86% sun - 50,21% cloudy/bright - 16,29% rain - 8,29% heavy rain - 17,35% thunderstorm (41,93% total rain) ~5% sunburn
- Plains
46,88% sun - 53,12% cloudy/bright - ~5% sunburn no rain
- Martian
72,24% sun - 27,76% cloudy/bright - 25% sunburn (highest uv-radiation) no rain
- Winter
61,31% sun - 38,69% cloudy/bright - ~ 3% sunburn (sunburn counter in relation to sun largely disabled) no rain
- Desert
87,96% sun - 12,04% cloudy/bright - ~ 8% sunburn no rain
- Tropical Island
53,78% sun - 38,23% cloudy/bright - 7,99% rain - ~5% sunburn
- Mountain Range
35,58% sun - 34,23% cloudy/bright - 22,52% rain - 3,15% heavy rain - 4,52% thunderstorm (30,19% total rain) ~3% sunburn
- Alpine
39,83% sun - 52,11% cloudy/bright - 5,08% rain - 2,98% thunderstorm (8,06% total rain) ~5% sunburn
- Jungle
13,65% sun - 71,36% cloudy/bright - 2,64% rain - 12,35% heavy rain (14,99% total rain) ~5% sunburn
~sunburn = Estimated percentages on the bar
Effects on peeps
sun - sunburn counts up
cloudy/bright, rain, heavy rain and thunderstorm - sunburn counts slight down
rain, heavy rain - some peeps don`t visit attractions - mood counts slightly down
thunderstorm - many peeps don`t visit attractions - mood counts moderate down
Trivia
- In RCT1, the original pack contained more cool and wet scenarios than the expansion packs' scenarios combined, despite there only being 22 original scenarios and 64 expansion scenarios.
- All "Real Parks" scenarios RCT2 used the Warm climate.
- No matter what the climate is, the temperature will never go below 32F (0C), and never above 90F (32C). Each climate has its own boundaries, however.
- For some reason, Megaworld Park has the "Cool and Wet" climate while it's prequel, Mega Park, had the "Warm" climate.
- The Mega Park-Megaworld Park prequel-sequel is the only prequel-sequel to not have the same climate in both scenarios.
- The temperatures in the "Warm" and "Hot and Dry" climates both start at 62F(17C).
- The "far off worlds" scenarios most likely have the "Hot and Dry" climate because it does not rain on mars or other planets.