Guests and Staff
Guests
The whole purpose of Roller Coaster Tycoon is to cause pleasure by satisfying the simple desires of your tiny "guests". 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. 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.
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.
Easter Eggs
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.
RCT3
???
Staff
RCT1 & 2
Handymen
Cost = $35 per month
Uniform = (Red) Color can be changed
Assignable Tasks = Sweep Footpaths, Water Gardens, Empty Litter Bins, Mow Grass
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
Note that a mechanic must have access to the EXIT of a ride to make inspections/repairs.
It is a good idea to assign one mechanic to each ride and set the rides maintenance schedule 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
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
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.
- Secret
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)
RCT3
Same staff as in other games plus:
Park Inspector: He is a senior citizen who will inspect all rides, shops, and vista. He even rides rides!
Cost: Free, and comes with each park, and he is unfirable!
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.
Server: Basically, he is a decoration with animation. All he does is give the guests their items with a simple hand motion.
Cost: Free
- Note: You can change his color. This person is also unfirable.