Hints and Tips: Difference between revisions
m
→General Rules of Thumb: added info about replacing old rides
(→Shops and Stalls: added first aid room tip.) |
m (→General Rules of Thumb: added info about replacing old rides) |
||
| (9 intermediate revisions by 6 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
This article lists many '''hints and tips''' available for players to keep
==General Tips==
*
**If there are any pre-built rides/attractions in the scenario, now is a good time to check their status and pricing information.
**In already established parks,
*
**In vanilla [[RollerCoaster Tycoon]] it is the player’s choice, but from [[
*Before taking on large and costly projects (such as building a new roller coaster),
**While roller coasters are the big money makers, it’s far better to have a few small rides turning a monthly profit (or
**Most of the flat rides allow very little change in their entrance fee: it's often much better to leave the entrance price as-is, and put effort into rollercoasters and other tracked rides, when comes the time to make a profit.
*In most cases, players will start with little to no-profit, forcing them to take a large loan, then slowly but steadily recover their finances as their parks get more and more profitable. As such, it is advised to take great care of the scenario's loan interest (in the Finances screen near the loan options) before setting on a loan strategy.
**This means that the first important direction to take when building a park, is to set on operating several high-profit rides with great guest capacity and excitement ratings: ally shuttle rollercoasters and well decorated tracked rides. This allows the player to either make a direct profit (in pay-per-ride parks), or to charge a large entrance fee (in pay-per-entrance parks) at the gates and draw lots of guests into the park's shops and stalls for an indirect profit scheme.
**Scenarios with a loan interest of 10% or higher, are much better dealt with by quickly repaying the loan instead of letting the loan run and drain the park's finances. Usually, the best rule of thumb here is to check directly in the finances screen the amount of loan interest paid every month. If it's above $120 per month, then it's wiser to repay the loan quickly.
*Hiring an Entertainer and having them patrol the area right by the park gate will cause guests to leave in a better mood, which will attract more guests after they leave the map.
==General Rules of Thumb==
===='''for Scenario play'''====
*The ideal number of required staff per job can be determined by the number of each job's "ideal patrol areas" it would take to cover the whole "used surface" (the surface effectively used by both rides & guests) of a park. Said ideal patrol areas' size differs from each job :
*'''Handymen''' need around 5 or 6 patrol tiles of land to cover (gardens & lawns included if applicable).
*'''Mechanics''' can have larger patrol areas, but need to cover around 4 ride exits located as close as possible for maximum efficiency.
*'''Security guards''' need the smallest possible patrol areas for maximum vandalism prevention. Around 3 or 4 tiles of "vandal-bait" paths
*'''Entertainers''' have no particular needs in regards to their patrol areas, but tend to prove most efficient in crowded zones : park entrance, queue lines & food courts. As such, one should be set to patrol in each, without any ideal dimension for their patrol areas.
: <u>Hiring as many staff as the park needs to cover each "used space" section of the park</u> according to above guidelines, will ensure the clever player maximum efficiency & minimum staff-related problems.
*Players should <u>always set their shops & stalls' prices so that they make at least $1 profit out of any article they sell.</u> Some products can be charged more according to the weather, but as a general rule of thumb there's no exception below that margin. Any article sold for less than that, is given away.
*Wise park builders would always make sure their park's entrance way has at least one [[Toilets]] Slab, one [[Information Kiosk|Info Kiosk]], one [[Cash Machine]] and one [[Souvenirs Stall]] according to the availability of said shops. The wisest park builders would also, to these stalls, add one food & one drinks stall, as well as a couple of flat rides set to free admission (so that these retain some guests for a little longer) and set an entertainer there. Those guests will leave the park happier with, than without.
*<u>Toilets should always be charged to $0.20.</u> At that price, they not only cover their own functioning costs, but also turn a helping profit.
*Speaking of Toilets, a solid rule of thumb would have the wise player <u>build a new Toilets slab as soon as at least 50 guests think they need to take a leak.</u> Using the "Grouped Thoughts" panel, said player would click the map button to see if there's some sort of "concentration" of guests sharing this thought somewhere in their park, and if there is, would build a new Toilets there on the spot. At $0.20 the leak, it's better to have too many Toilets rather than not enough.
*A general rule regarding pay-per-ride parks allows the player to <u>charge tracked rides (especially rollercoasters) up to the price of their [[excitement]] rating (rounding down).</u>
**This means that every scenery/pathing/layout addition or twirk that boosts a ride's excitement rating up (intertwining tracks, interlocking loops, queues and pathes over the ride, extra scenery, elevation of terrain over the track, etc) becomes important, since it allows the wise builder to charge more for his rides, and therefore make huge profits.
**On the bad side though, this tends to drain the guests' wallets dry faster. Counting on a faster guest turnover (in RCT1), or having Cash Machines nearby (in RCT2) will be necessary. However, this tip brings money in faster, which allows a quicker re-investment.
**As rides age, they become less desirable and often force the player to drop the ticket prices for some older attractions despite the Excitement Rating. For example, a player can charge at most around $7 for a Merry-Go-Round that is 5 months old or less. After 13 months, this price would have dropped to around $3.
***This can be circumvented by replacing rides every few years. Simply delete the ride and rebuild the same ride in the exact same spot. This allows you to keep ride prices high, and, in turn, keep turning a profit.
==Paths==
===How paths work===
''See Also: [[Paths]]''
*In most cases, [[guests]] will wander
**Junctions are created by paths meeting, shops/stalls, ride entrances/exits, and the entrance to a queue line. If a guest has interacted with a path item (bench or bin), then this also acts as a junction, since it's the moment when guests "decide" to interact with an item (sitting on a bench or throwing an item in a bin... or even destroying an object).
**“Walking” guests will make a random decision at each junction (however, they are slightly more likely to continue straight).
***As a quirk of this system, a ride entrance/queue joined at a 90 degree angle (or “T” intersection) to a path is less likely to attract guests than those joined straight on.
*Guests who have a destination will make the decision at each junction to choose the direction (north, south, east or west) that leads them directly to their target tile. This means that guests don’t use path finding, but rather make a
**For rides, the target tiles are the first tiles of the ride's queue line (the one with the panel on top of it), where their behavior changes from wandering around to queuing.
**Complex path systems with a lot of dead ends (Tree systems) should be avoided as often as possible. Grid systems are the most efficient way to prevent
*Guests cannot turn around on a straight single section:
*Park maps allow guests to take them out and pick a destination to go to.
**This means that Information Kiosks selling maps will not prevent guests from getting lost because of a poorly laid out path system. Rather, it only prevents random decision making at junctions. However, guests do not gain pathfindings - they still make decisions based on the distance between two points.
===Path tips===
*Many scenarios include pre-existing path networks. When this is the case, it is a good idea to “disconnect” long sections of paths that lead nowhere to prevent guests from getting lost and stop
**The "No-Entry" Signs from ''Added Attractions'' onwards, aren't always enough to close dead-end paths : staff still crosses them.
**Rather than deleting entire sections of path, simply deleting one path tile at an intersection is enough to “disconnect” it. As
**In extreme cases, it may be wise to completely demolish an existing path
*
**From [[RollerCoaster Tycoon 2|RCT2]] onward, paths that are 2 tiles wide can be used without confusing the guests, but 3 tiles wide and above still should be avoided. This problem is slowly getting fixed in [[OpenRCT2]].
*
▲*Untidy sections of path are more likely to be vandalised, so ensuring you have enough handymen to keep your paths clean will minimise the chance of vandalism in your park.
==Rides==
*Rides with covered cars, or that have at least 40% of their track constructed underground will
*Tracked rides that have a ride time of 5 minutes or longer will have a negative impact as guests will want to get off the ride, and so should be avoided above all costs. This also affects the ride’s excitement rating.▼
**Broken down rides also aggravate this issue so it is important
*
▲*Rides with covered cars, or that have at least 40% of their track constructed underground will attract guests even when it is raining.
**This means that the "Shuttle Loop" coaster from RCT1, with a rear-incline, can still work well in RCT2 and draw lots of guests, for lots of money in pay-per-ride parks. This makes such a coaster a powerful tool when beginning a scenario.
▲*Tracked rides that have a ride time of 5 minutes or longer will have a negative impact as guests will want to get off the ride, and so should be avoided. This also affects the ride’s excitement rating.
**For long [[Go Karts]] tracks it
▲**Broken down rides also aggravate this issue so it is important to ensure you have enough mechanics employed.
*[[Spiral Slide]], [[Space Rings]], [[Maze]], [[Bumper Cars]] and [[Flying Saucers]] are the only rides that <u>do not require</u> a queue path to work efficiently. The [[Ferris Wheel]] only requires one square of queue path to work perfectly, even if a longer queue never really is wrong : it's just not necessary. In ''vanilla RCT1'', rollercoasters that load only 2 guests per dispatch, such as the [[Wooden Wild Mouse]], could also function well with a single tile queue line despite the sheer drawing power roller coasters all exert on guests.
▲*Take advantage of the different operating modes of rides. “Powered Launch Mode” on some Roller Coasters can be used to make relatively cheap and compact “shuttle” rides that still draw a decent crowd.
*Queue lines should at least be long enough to hold enough guests for one car/train but
▲**For long [[Go Karts]] tracks it may benefit you to change the number of laps, or even change from race mode to continuous circuit mode. In race mode, the winner gets a victory lap and so the next race can’t begin until the winner completes it. The drop in excitement rating from continuous circuit mode is generally offset by the increased capacity of the ride.
**This can be worked around in ''RCT2/OpenRCT2'' thanks to the block brake system, by allowing multiple trains for increased capacity.
**Any guest that meets a patrolling entertainer while queuing for a ride, will wait up to 11 minutes and 59 seconds (instead of 10 minutes 59s) before leaving the ride's line unhappy. This means setting an entertainer to patrol on a very demanded roller coaster, indeed has an effect on the game's mechanics.
▲*Queue lines should at least be long enough to hold enough guests for one car/train but not exceed a length of 7 minutes wait time (as any longer than this will displease your guests and affect your park rating).
===Tips for building tracked rides===
*[[Roller Coaster]]s and other track rides with multiple fast moving cars/trains are more susceptible to [[crash]] if they enter the station at a speed greater than 28mph (45km/h).
**Brakes can be used to
*Understanding how [[G-forces]] work is
**Try to keep the maximum positive vertical G
**
**
**
***[[OpenRCT2]] has a feature that allows said graph to automatically highlight these problematic G-Forces in red, for easy scanning & fixing. By keeping both the first train of a rollercoaster and the graph tab in check, any player can see at a glance where the G-Forces are too high for human bodies, and fixing problematic elements easily. Good players often end up developing an "instinct" of what to do and what not to do when designing a custom roller coaster.
**Consider examples of real-life coasters of said type as references, for easier understanding when building roller coaster layouts.
*Most Roller coasters have "key-elements" and concepts that help any player designing efficient custom layouts :
**[[Wooden Roller Coaster]]s require fast speed and high hills set so that the trains do offer "air-times" on top of each hill.
**[[Wild Mouse|Wild Mouse Roller Coasters]] (any kind) require multiple tight turns taken at (not too) high speeds so that guests feel like their car will dislodge and fall off the track at any curve. As such, aiming for (not too) high lateral G-Forces is a must.
***[[Spinning Wild Mouse]] has a key-element called "Spinning Control Toggle Track", that switches the behavior of the train passing it, between "Free-spinning at curves" and "No-Spinning at curves" modes. Making a clever use of these notions is the key factor for success when designing a custom layout with this coaster.
**[[Looping Roller Coaster|Steel Looping Coaster]] needs — as its name implies — loopings. Interlocking them with other tracks, other parts of itself, queue lines or regular paths, will boost the Coaster's Excitement rating to the roof, with the best option being interlocking loops through other loops for massive high-drawing rollercoasters that will draw guests into any park by the hundreds, if not by thousands.
**[[Suspended Swinging Coaster]]s and [[Bobsled Roller Coaster|Bobsled Coasters]] rely on helices much more than drops for high excitement ratings.
**[[Corkscrew Roller Coaster|Corkscrew]],[[Inverted Roller Coaster| Inverted]], [[Steel Twister Roller Coaster|Steel Twister]], [[LIM Launched Roller Coaster|LIM]] and [[Air Powered Vertical Coaster|Air-Powered]] Coasters require careful planning regarding inversions and hilltops, so that each one of them is taken at <s>the slowest possible</s> reasonable speeds on their top.
**[[Hypercoaster|Hyper]], [[Giga Coaster|Giga]] & [[Hyper-Twister Roller Coaster|Hyper-Twister]] Coasters are evolutions of the Wooden Coaster in principle, and as such require massive (very tall) drops and high speeds with reasonable G-Forces. Due to the sheer drawing power these scream machines have on guests, they also require high guest capacity, therefore very long stations (in ''RCT1'') or an extensive use of Block Brakes (in ''RCT2'') as well as long queues to function at full capacity and therefore bring the biggest buck in.
*Building Tracked rides underground (or partially underground) usually adds a boost to the Excitement rating.
**This rule doesn't apply to [[Go-Karts]], where driving under the ground has a negative impact on the Excitement Rating instead of a positive one.
==Shops and Stalls==
*[[Information Kiosk]]s should be built close to the park entrance. This ensures as many guests as possible have access to a park map which will give them destinations to go to (instead of wandering aimlessly).
*In RCT1 and RCT2 Information Kiosks ([[Toilets]], [[Cash Machine|ATM machines]] and [[First Aid Room]]s in RCT3) can be accessed by guests from all 4 directions,
*Using the ''umbrella cheat'' is always interesting for quick income, and especially in pay-per-entry parks, where they constitute a "second entrance ticket" when rain joins the party.
*By accessing the Guests tab and selecting both the "Group" tab and "Guest's Thought's" options, wise players can see what the most common complaints about the park are. Checking these complaints and where the guests making the complaints are at regular intervals can help them determine when and where more Shops & Stalls are needed.
*Guests will only carry one food or drink item at a time, and
*Food items such as [[Popcorn Stall|Popcorn]], [[Chips Stall|Fries]], and [[Pretzel Stall|Pretzels]] increase the guest's
*Merchandise stalls (such as the [[Souvenir Stall]] or [[Hat Stall]]) should be built near the exit of the park's most exciting rides as happier guests are more inclined to buy merchandise.
*In RCT3, food stalls are operated by a shop vendor. They are only capable of serving a certain number of peeps at a time, and will walk away from the shop if overwhelmed.
Line 70 ⟶ 105:
==Finances==
*The amount of money guests spawn with varies across scenarios, and within each one the amount varies between individual guests by $30 (as an example, in a scenario guests will have between $60 and $80).
**It is important to keep this number in mind when charging an entrance fee, as
*If guests are commenting that a particular ride
**Another viable strategy is to try and get the Best Value park award by keeping
*Park awards aren’t just passive
**It is extremely important to constantly check the thoughts of
*Advertising campaigns are great ways to temporarily boost the number of guests
*
*Where applicable,
**In particular, if interest rates are 10% or higher,
==See Also==
| |||