Research

Under the research tab, players can choose between different types of rides, shops/stalls, special track elements or scenery, that they want to get developed for use in their park, and how much money they want to spend on researching these additional things.

Funding

RollerCoaster Tycoon 1 & 2

Players can choose out of 4 different fundings. The more money you spend on research, the faster new things will be researched.

Maximum funding

Cost: $400 a month.
Additional things for your park will be developed every 30 days.

Normal funding

Cost: $200 a month.
Additional things for your park will be developed every 45 days.

Minimal funding

Cost: $100 a month.
Additional things for your park will be developed every 60 days.

No funding

No additional things for your park will be developed.

RollerCoaster Tycoon 3

Instead of having four options of payment, players can raise and lower their research in increments of $10. The maximum amount is $500.

What can be chosen to be researched

Players can allow or not allow six different categories of ride research. If no category is selected, or if all selected categories are fully researched, research will occur in all remaining categories instead.

• Roller Coasters - New Roller Coasters will be developed for use in the particular scenario.
• Thrill Rides - New Thrill Rides will be developed for use in the particular scenario. This includes water rides, including the Water Coaster, except for Boat Hire and Jet Skis.
• Gentle Rides - New Gentle Rides will be developed for use in the particular scenario. This includes all of the transport rides.
• Shops/Stalls - New Shops/Stalls will be developed for use in the particular scenario.
• Scenery/Theming - New scenery themes or certain scenery items will be developed for use in the particular scenario.
• Ride Improvements - Only appears in RCT1 - Ride improvements will be developed for use in the particular scenario. This includes additional special track elements, additional vehicles, etc. Note that if the next Ride Improvement to be researched is for a ride type that hasn't been researched yet, research will instead be conducted for all categories until the necessary ride type is researched.

Other Notes

Sometimes in RCT 1 & 2, one of the categories will be yellow, and the box next to this category can't be clicked anymore. This means that every single thing that could be researched in that category, that's available in that particular scenario, has been developed. When all categories are yellow, everything that is available in this scenario has been developed, and nothing new will be researched. The player should then put funding on "no funding", to avoid unnecessary expenses. Note that in RCT3, the player is not told when there is nothing left to research.