General Scenario Guide: Difference between revisions

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This general scenario guide provides a very generic walkthrough for most RollerCoaster Tycoon scenarios. Guides for specific scenarios can be found on this page.

Starting Out

Most RollerCoaster Tycoon scenarios automatically open the park details window, set to the scenario objectives tab, when you first load the scenario. You are also strongly advised to pause the game at this time so that you are not distracted by anything else happening in the park.

If this is your first time playing a scenario, read the objective to get an idea of what you must do in order to successfully complete the scenario as well as how much time you have to reach said objective and, if the scenario's author bothered to write a Chris Sawyer-ish park description, any scenario limitations in effect and/or specific details relevant only to this scenario, such as:

"...won't allow any landscape changes..."
"...badly in debt..."
"...can't build too high above the ground..."
"...land is cheap but loan interest is high..."

Next, scroll around the map to get a general overview of your park. Things you may wish to take note of at the start include existing rides in your park, its boundaries, the scenario's loan limit and interest rate, and the variety of rides already available for construction.

After that, identify any problems already existing in your park, such as excessive litter, lost guests or unsafe or broken down rides. Although you cannot clear litter with the game paused, you can hire and place handymen so that they will immediately start cleaning up any mess already existing in your park once the game is unpaused. Lost guests can be picked up by you and placed on footpaths close to the park entrance. Any existing ride in your park that you feel is unsafe can be reset by closing it twice. If there are already broken down rides in your park, hire 1 mechanic (if there isn't one already) and place them near a broken down ride—they will set about fixing any broken down rides once the game is unpaused.

If your park has any rides already running, hire 1 mechanic (if you haven't already done so in response to a broken down ride). For the time being, this mechanic does not need to be set a patrol path, since they are only a temporary measure to handle any (additional) ride breakdowns while you set up your park. You may also wish to take note of what kind of rides these are (i.e. transport, gentle, roller coaster, etc.) as well their statistics (such as their ride rating, admission fee and queue time) and, for tracked rides such as roller coasters or go-karts, their size. At this point, it may be necessary to unpause the game and modify some pre-built rides or their queue lines for more desirable ratings.

Finally, before unpausing the game, check the Research & Development window. Several scenarios give you a small selection of rides and stalls to work with, but you will often be missing something that may be important in the long-term (e.g. Information Kiosk, Toilets, more rides of a certain type), so you may wish to consider adjusting your research funding as well as priorities in order to get the rides/stalls you need faster or reduce the amount of money spent on research per month at the cost of researching new rides/stalls at a slower rate.

Building Rides

Unless certain conditions in a scenario create the circumstances, your park should have a mixture of low and high intensity rides to cater to as many guests as possible. A park that is starting out will generally have 1-3 gentle rides, 1-2 thrill rides and 1 roller coaster, so build the first new rides in your park accordingly. If the park's geography permits, build your first few rides on flat land, near the park entrance, with your least intense rides being placed closest to the park entrance. In addition, try to place the ride exit for your rides such that they connect directly to the main pathway from the park entrance. It may even be beneficial to relocate the ride entrance/exits of existing rides to facilitate guest movement around the park, while allowing a well-thought queue to hold as many guests off the main path grid without killing their hype.

Expansion

While you are expanding your park by building new rides, you may need to construct additional footpaths. Try not to construct long footpaths (about 5 tiles long or more) that lead to a dead-end or ride exit as guests are likely to get lost along these stretches. As a general rule of thumb to keep in mind, no path should be only connected to the park's entrance through a 180-turn. Avoid dead-ends at all if possible.

Reaching the Objective

Every once in a while, review your scenario objectives—it is very easy to lose track of what you are supposed to do during a scenario if you are busy managing and/or expanding your park. If the objective is to reach a high park value, consider building more rides to attract more guests; if the objective is to have a large number of guests, you can also consider taking out a marketing campaign or two if the scenario allows it. Keep an eye on the date as well ; the results of anything you do will only be seen after a period of time. For instance, if your objective has a deadline of 31 October, Year 3, constructing many rides or starting a marketing campaign on 26 October, Year 3, will not miraculously cause your park value or the number of guests in your park to skyrocket within a few days.

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+This '''general scenario guide''' provides a very generic walkthrough for most ''RollerCoaster Tycoon'' scenarios.
-This article lists many tips to keep a park running smoothly while dealing with common problems associated with operating an amusement park.
+Guides for specific scenarios can be found on [[:Category:Scenario Guide|this page]].
-==General==
+==Starting Out==
+Most ''RollerCoaster Tycoon'' scenarios automatically open the park details window, set to the scenario objectives tab, when you first load the scenario. You are also strongly advised to pause the game at this time so that you are not distracted by anything else happening in the park.
-===All Games===
-* Whenever you start a new park or scenario, the first thing you should do is pause the game. Besides being able to scroll around and get a general overview of the map, you can also set up your research & development, make changes to your finances and open/close/demolish rides while the game is paused.
-* Some parks already have a developed path network at the start; quite often, such parks have no rides, resulting in overdeveloped path networks that do not lead guests to rides, causing guests to often wander around aimlessly and get lost, while causing any staff you hire to potentially wander a great distance away from any paths or rides that they should be moving around. Pathways that lead to nowhere should be "disconnected" from the paths that you are using by removing one connecting path tile between them and the paths you are using; any guests or staff already in the disconnected paths should be picked up and placed onto the paths you are using. As you expand your park by building more rides, these disconnected paths can be reconnected if you need to use them, saving you the necessity of building new paths around your park.
-* [[Signs and Items for Footpaths|Benches and litter bins]] are more heavily used around food/drink stalls; placing lots of these path items around these stalls will reduce the amount of litter seen elsewhere in your park. In addition, guests who feel sick after exiting a ride are more likely to sit on the nearest available bench upon exiting the ride; giving such guests enough benches to sit at the exit of a nauseating ride will allow their nausea ratings to drop a little, extending the amount of time they are able to get to the nearest [[Bathroom]] or drink stall before they throw up.
-* You need enough [[Guests & Staff#Staff|Staff]] to keep a park in good condition.
-** Handymen should be assigned patrol areas if your path has a large and/or complicated path network. Each handyman is capable of keeping a 30-40-tile pathway clean, depending on the nausea rating of rides, presence of food/drink stalls and number of junctions on the path.
-** Mechanics do not need to be assigned patrol areas as the nearest mechanic to a broken down ride will usually be assigned to it. However, if your park's path network is large and/or complex, or if a short stretch of pathway has several rides along it, consider assigning patrol areas to some of your mechanics. One mechanic can manage 3-4 rides, inspecting them and fixing them as they break down.
-** Security guards are only required along stretches of path that constantly experience vandalism; their patrol areas should be set accordingly.
-** Entertainers help to increase and maintain the happiness of guests who see them, but are also useful in extending queue length times. Setting an Entertainer to patrol along a queue line path will lengthen the tolerance for guests to wait by about 2 minutes.
-* If a pathway is untidy, guests will start to [[Vandals|vandalize]] the path items along it. If your park is kept clean, you do not need to hire any security guards at all.
-* Bathrooms and drink stalls help to reduce the nausea rating of guests feeling sick; consider placing some of them near your most nauseating rides.
-* Place food stalls near less nauseating rides to prevent your guests from vomiting all over the area. Stalls with souvenirs should go to your most exciting rides, since happy guests are more inclined to buy balloons etc.
-* A higher [[Park Rating]] attracts more guests, so keep your park's Park Rating high by building and maintaining a variety of rides that are crash-free, ensuring its paths are clean and free of vandalized path items and keeping the number of guests who are lost to a minimum.
+If this is your first time playing a scenario, read the objective to get an idea of what you must do in order to successfully complete the scenario as well as how much time you have to reach said objective and, if the scenario's author bothered to write a Chris Sawyer-ish park description, any scenario limitations in effect and/or specific details relevant only to this scenario, such as:
-===RCT2 and Later===
+*"''...won't allow any landscape changes...''"
-* When starting a new scenario, check your park entrance fee and any rides already existing in the park to determine if the scenario is a "free park entry" or "free rides" scenario. The general strategy to play a "free park entry" scenario differs noticeably from the general strategy to play a "free rides" scenario.
+*"''...badly in debt...''"
-* Place [[First Aid Room]]s near the exits of rides with high nausea ratings to encourage guests who feel sick after leaving the ride to enter the room and deplete their nausea rating before they throw up on the path. First Aid Rooms serve no purpose in other parts of your park.
+*"''...can't build too high above the ground...''"
+*"''...land is cheap but loan interest is high...''"
+Next, scroll around the map to get a general overview of your park. Things you may wish to take note of at the start include existing rides in your park, its boundaries, the scenario's loan limit and interest rate, and the variety of rides already available for construction.
-===RCT3 and Later===
-* In addition to what you can do in ''RCT1'' and ''RCT2'', you can now also perform construction works and purchase land while the game is paused.
+After that, identify any problems already existing in your park, such as excessive litter, lost guests or unsafe or broken down rides. Although you cannot clear litter with the game paused, you can hire and place handymen so that they will immediately start cleaning up any mess already existing in your park once the game is unpaused. Lost guests can be picked up by you and placed on footpaths close to the park entrance. Any existing ride in your park that you feel is unsafe can be reset by closing it twice. If there are already broken down rides in your park, hire 1 mechanic (if there isn't one already) and place them near a broken down ride&mdash;they will set about fixing any broken down rides once the game is unpaused.
-==Research & Development==
-===All Games===
-* You can set up your research & development options even when the game is paused.
-* Increasing research funding speeds up the rate which you get new rides. If you are given a small variety of rides at the start of a scenario, considering increasing research funding to get new rides; you can reduce funding at a later time when you feel that you have enough park elements to work with.
+If your park has any rides already running, hire 1 mechanic (if you haven't already done so in response to a broken down ride). For the time being, this mechanic does ''not'' need to be set a patrol path, since they are only a temporary measure to handle any (additional) ride breakdowns while you set up your park. You may also wish to take note of what kind of rides these are (i.e. transport, gentle, roller coaster, etc.) as well their statistics (such as their ride rating, admission fee and queue time) and, for tracked rides such as roller coasters or go-karts, their size. At this point, it may be necessary to unpause the game and modify some pre-built rides or their queue lines for more desirable ratings.
-===RCT1===
-* Some saved track designs use special track pieces or cars that may not be available at the same time the ride type is researched or for that particular scenario. These track designs will remain unavailable unless the track pieces or cars they use are available through researching Ride Improvements.
+Finally, before unpausing the game, check the Research & Development window. Several scenarios give you a small selection of rides and stalls to work with, but you will often be missing something that may be important in the long-term (e.g. Information Kiosk, Toilets, more rides of a certain type), so you may wish to consider adjusting your research funding as well as priorities in order to get the rides/stalls you need faster or reduce the amount of money spent on research per month at the cost of researching new rides/stalls at a slower rate.
-===RCT1 and RCT2===
-* You can choose which research categories to focus on in the Research Funding window by ticking the categories you want to research. Research & devlopment will then prioritise the categories you choose over the other categories until all items in your chosen categories have been researched. Unless research is set to No Funding, unticking every category is the same as ticking every category.
-* A greyed out, unclickable research category means that everything in that category has been researched, or there is nothing in that category to research. Once all research categories are greyed out, set research funding to No Funding as you will no longer receive anything from sinking funds into research & development.
-===RCT3===
+==Building Rides==
+Unless certain conditions in a scenario create the circumstances, your park should have a mixture of low and high intensity rides to cater to as many guests as possible. A park that is starting out will generally have 1-3 gentle rides, 1-2 thrill rides and 1 roller coaster, so build the first new rides in your park accordingly. If the park's geography permits, build your first few rides on flat land, near the park entrance, with your least intense rides being placed closest to the park entrance. In addition, try to place the ride exit for your rides such that they connect directly to the main pathway from the park entrance. It may even be beneficial to relocate the ride entrance/exits of existing rides to facilitate guest movement around the park, while allowing a well-thought queue to hold as many guests off the main path grid without killing their hype.
-* If you have the [[Soaked!]] or [[Wild!]] expansion packs installed, the 18 scenarios included with the base ''RCT3'' game will have their research trees updated to incorporate elements from any installed expansion pack.
-==Finances==
+==Expansion==
+While you are expanding your park by building new rides, you may need to construct additional footpaths. Try not to construct long footpaths (about 5 tiles long or more) that lead to a dead-end or ride exit as guests are likely to get lost along these stretches. As a general rule of thumb to keep in mind, no path should be only connected to the park's entrance through a 180-turn. Avoid dead-ends at all if possible.
-Money isn't usually that much of a problem in RCT, but still there are some common guidelines which help being successful on a scenario.
-* As soon as you have ''any'' park entrance fee, even $1, your guests will pay less for your rides. The higher the park entrance fee, the less you can charge for your rides. Be sure to adapt to that and lower the prices of rides which have empty queues.
-* Charging 10 cents for each bathroom in your park will help to reduce their monthly running cost.
-* [[Guest Thoughts|A guest thinking]] "... is really good value" means you can increase the price of the ride if you want to, but can also help you getting the Best-Value-[[Awards|Award]].
-* As a rule of thumb, you can raise the price for coasters up until their excitement rating, rounded down. For non-coaster tracked rides, the standard fee is usually okay.
-* Your rides will get stale over time; if you are running a pay-per-ride park, you will have to drop the ride fees continually to keep their popularity ratings high. You might even have to offer a ride for free after some time or have to replace it completely. Some rides get stale quicker than others, like the [[Twister]] or [[3D Cinema]].
-** This effect is much smaller in RCT3, and price adjustments are seldom needed if a reasonable cost is chosen initially, e.g. $0.40 multiplied by the sum of the intensity and excitement ratings.
-* A good way to judge the price of your rides is satisfaction, so regularly check your ride list. You should aim for about 75%.
-* The amount of money guests have can vary between scenarios, so keep an eye on that. In a scenario, this amount also varies by $30. Make sure that even the most poor guests can afford your park entrance fee and still ride some rides afterwards, otherwise they will leave very unhappy.
-* As soon as a guest is out of money, he will usually leave your park, unless you provide free rides, food, drinks and bathrooms for him. If you need a high number of guests, earning as much money as possible can contradict to the scenario goal.
-* Where applicable, note the loan interest rate for the scenario you are playing. Some scenarios have high loan interest rates to dissuade you from borrowing any money from the bank. It is possible to actually lose a huge chunk of your monthly earnings to loan interest if the interest rate is high enough. As a rule of thumb, you should exercise caution when borrowing money from the bank if the loan interest rate exceeds 10%.
-* If you are running a park where guests pay an entrance fee, but ride the rides for free, the most important thing to note is that guests will potentially pay the most at the park entrance; once they enter the park, the only way for you to get money from them is through food and drinks, merchandise and services, but not rides. The amount that they will usually pay during their time in your park is almost never higher than what they will potentially pay at the park entrance. This can present a cash flow problem as guests are unlikely to leave your park if you were to run it like a park where guests pay for each ride. To counter this, you need to ensure that there is always a steady flow of guests entering the park. As the number of guests in your park is largely determined by the number of rides you have in your park, this can be achieved by any of the following methods:
-*# Continuously building new rides;
-*# Closing the park for a brief period of time so that most of your older guests leave before re-opening the park to allow guests in again;
-*# Not having any food and drink stalls, toilets or cash machines/A.T.Ms in your park, which will force guests to leave your park once they are hungry, thirsty, need to go to the toilet and/or run out of cash buying merchandise.
-* Before starting larger projects, you should provide a basic park with a few rides already running, this will help to defray the construction and/or landscaping costs for the project.
-==Creating good rides==
+==Reaching the Objective==
+Every once in a while, review your scenario objectives&mdash;it is very easy to lose track of what you are supposed to do during a scenario if you are busy managing and/or expanding your park. If the objective is to reach a high park value, consider building more rides to attract more guests; if the objective is to have a large number of guests, you can also consider taking out a marketing campaign or two if the scenario allows it. Keep an eye on the date as well ; the results of anything you do will only be seen after a period of time. For instance, if your objective has a deadline of 31 October, Year 3, constructing many rides or starting a marketing campaign on 26 October, Year 3, will not miraculously cause your park value or the number of guests in your park to skyrocket within a few days.
-Roller Coasters are the bread and butter of any park, so [[Building A Ride|building good coasters and other custom rides]] is very important. The [[Ride_Ratings|Ride Ratings]] show how well you designed a ride.
-*While most scenarios are about squeezing your rides in ungentle terrain, consider preparing some compact rides and save the track design to use in scenarios. You will usually find a spot for those rides and it gives you a head start in scenarios. Consider checking the [[RollerCoaster_Tycoon:Ride_Exchange|Ride Exchange]] for track designs you can use.
-*Rely on [[Powered Launch]] to create cheap, compact coasters with a high capacity. The most efficient rides are steel roller coaster with a steel hill that leads to a loop. Power the coaster just right so the train goes halfway up the loop , then down again. Even though the excitement won't be too high (about 4) , the coasters extremely low ride time (< 10s) would allow the coaster to be vastly more profitable than normal continuous circuit coasters. The coasters are also very cheap,less than $1000, and it is possible to abuse this system to get a very high number of guests and earn a lot of money in a very short time.
-*[[Queue_Lines|Queue Lines]] shouldn't be too long or too short. Guests will start complaining after a while and will finally leave after about 11 minutes in a queue. Entertainers can help with that, but consider also that waiting guests don't spend money. On the other hand, the line should be long enough to fill at least a complete train/all seats on a flat ride, otherwise the boarding process might take too long.
-*Try to interlock your queue line with the ride to increase its excitement rating.
-*[[The_Complete_Scenery_List#Roller_Coaster_Tycoon|Scenery]] increases the excitement of your rides when placed 5 tiles around the "yellow arrow", this also counts for tracked rides (for multi-station rides, this works only on station 1).
-*Consider building underground when possible. Tunnels increase the excitement of any tracked ride, for some more than for others. Note that the number of tunnel entrances/exits counts for excitement and not the length of a tunnel. Any tracked ride which is more than 40% underground counts as indoor. Having some [[Indoor_Ride|Indoor Rides]] is generally a good idea, so your guests can hide from the rain. Finally, you can conserve space by building underground.
-*Your guests have different needs you need to cater, so consider building rides with mixed intensity ratings.
-*If a ride offers more than one operation mode (like [[3D Cinema]], [[Whoa Belly/Launched Freefall|Whoa Belly]] or [[Gravitron]]), you can build multiple versions of this ride and have them operate differently. Your guests won't get bored of this.
-*To prevent a [[Crash]] from station brake failure, have the cars of a roller coaster enter the station at no more than 45 km/h (28 mp/h). Note that the brakes on track can also break down, so keeping a mechanic close every potentially dangerous roller coaster is advised.
+==See Also==
-==Attracting and keeping more guests==
+* [[Hints and Tips]]
-If you are missing guests for the scenario objective, there are several measures you should consider using:
-*Marketing helps a lot and you should consider doing that from the 2nd to the last year. This will bring in more guests and depending on if they can afford being in your park that long, they will stay until the end of the scenario. Always select the "Coupons for free entry to the park" rather than "Advertising Campaign For the Park" which is hideously expensive and not worth it if money is an issue (at $1200 , that can easily exceed your profit margins . per month)
-*Lowering [[Admission|admission and ride fees]] increases the time guests can spend in your park before running out of money. With enough free rides and free stalls, guests might even not leave at all if your park can keep them happy. Also lower ride fees increase the satisfaction with your rides. Altogether, pricing can have a drastic effect on your guest count.
-*Building new rides makes people curious to visit your park.
-*Having a high [[Park_Rating|park rating]] raises mouth-to-mouth propaganda for your park, that is basically free marketing. The happier your guests leave your park, the better the word they will spread.
-*Getting [[The_Complete_Awards_List|awards]] also attracts new guests and some of them are quite easy to get. Consider putting additional effort in getting awards and prevent getting bad awards.
-*As a last measure you can block the exit with a sign or by removing a path tile. Note that your park rating will drop very fast if guests are trapped in your park! Still this can help if it gets tight at the end of a scenario.
 [[Category:Cheats and Hints]]
+[[Category:Scenario Guide]]
 [[Category:Strategy Guides]]
 [[Category:Descriptions]]