Park / Merlinwood Express

Park_218 Merlinwood Express

16 Comments

This park shares comments with 1 other park(View Park)
  • Corkscrewed%s's Photo
    Posted Image

    Posted Image

    Our little IAAPA journey continues with another pair of similar designs. This time, the common theme is beauty in simplicity. Both slob's Solaris and Turtle's Merlinwood Express have elegantly composed exciting thrill coasters in a setting of beautiful serenity. You don't always have to jam 58 scenery pieces onto one building. Indeed, these entries show off what great results you can get if you build almost negatively... carving out spaces rather than cramming objects in.

    And if these are the last works from Jem and Matt, well, they're certainly great ways to go out in style. So congratulations, you two!

    Commence drooling.
  • Corkscrewed%s's Photo
    BTW, artist, if you made an IAAPA thing, you gotta send it to me... or if anyone has a map w/ artist's stuff, erm... send it to me. :D


    Also, Adix, I honestly liked the original skin of the front page news posts better. It was simple but very nicely in contrast to the rest of the site. Plus it's easier to read the titles on flat gray than on a gradient that fades to black. :angel:
  • sloB%s's Photo
    thanks so much for everything corkscrewed, logo looks absolutely fantastic (as usual).

    and i'm out...
  • Panic%s's Photo
    Cork, I'm a bit confused as to why parkmakers seem to get the benefit of the doubt on designs whereas the ball falls to the other side of the net for non-parkmakers. I haven't even looked at Slob's yet and already know it's going to be one of the most masterful layouts I've ever seen, but I'm confused as to how Turtle's submission gets here whereas others such as tracidEdge's don't. And I know the latter is not the best contrast. But the first thing I thought when looking at ME, honestly, was "nice Death Match entry." The thing has solid theming, albeit what looks like three days' worth of it, surrounding a layout that in my opinion falls way short of the normal standard of coaster layouts for both Designs and parkmakers. The diagonal section essentially kills the coaster alone. I know that Turtle has the capability to build great layouts, as is shown by the absolutely magnificent Macaw and the woodie in Bijou as well, but you know, I can see why he might have been disappointed by his effort here and I doubt it deserved to pass the toll gate with such flying colors.

    I suppose what gets me is that the description paragraph seemingly tries to squeeze every last drop of juice out of the design in order to justify its being here. Mainly the point that it is a good example of the rationale behind minimalistic building, and that the general lack of quantity and the rushed-looking spots in places are justified because it somehow proves that minimalism is cool. Whereas, allow me, the use of plain grass in Dioxide, which is a ten times better example of minimalism that works, is ignored.

    Oh well. I don't mean to offend Turtle with any of this. I have immense admiration for the guy and I just view this as a bit of a lapse in quality. As indeed he might, as you theorized.

    Edited by Panic, 18 November 2005 - 09:26 PM.

  • tracidEdge%s's Photo
    dioxide had too much grass.
  • JBruckner%s's Photo
    solaris' logo was amazing.
  • RCTCA%s's Photo
    They were both very amazing. The layouts were top notch too. Also great job on logos. ;) Great job both of you. I hope to see more designs from you two and maybe even a spotlight. :p Congrats! :party:

    -Parkmaker-
  • Kumba%s's Photo
    Merlinwood - You made this in like 3 or 4 hours right?! Damn thats awsome for that timespan, I really don't have anything bad to say, overall it was very charming, loved that layout.

    Solaris - The coaster colors were worse then anything I could ever dream up, the layout was great in parts, bad in others, a pretty choppy design, not as good as your H2H3 work. The best part imo was the Q line, amazing line, I loved that.

    Really nice work guys, that was our map too, now Genus:Carcharodon, Solaris, and Merlinwood are all designs, nice that we came the nearest to finishing :)
  • artist%s's Photo
    both really amazing entries. Umm cork titan or iris has it as i have a new computer and i dont have the file on it.
  • Evil WME%s's Photo
    Chill the fuck out panic.

    This was a project and this is how they're released, there's no passing with flying colors involved whatsoever.

    Anyways, i didn't like turtle's diagonal bit on the coaster, the rest was ok. The flowers seemed a bit off but it's all good..

    Slob, yours was beautiful. The coaster flowed, the theming was spot on with the coaster! One of the more memorable times i watched a coaster go through its circuit. Lovely throughout!
  • X250%s's Photo
    Solaris
    Candidate for best NE design i think, whilst there was no obvious theme, the coaster layout was fantastic. Everything about it was ultra-realistic, the storage units, maintenance paths, all of it- just awesome. The thing i liked most about this apart from the layout, was the coaster colours. Those shades of blue and yellow really compliment each other- you seem to have a nack for colour schemes, and perfection. I am beginning to see why Posix thinks so highly of you now- its because of the thought you put into your work- everything has a purpose for being there. Congrats, sad to see you go.

    Merlinwood
    4 hours? Nice work lol. It was very pleasant, the pacing and overall layout was sculpted very well, you can imagine this being a popular coaster to ride if it were real, the little bunny hops towards the end, swooping around the lake and of course, the ferocious drops at the start- the coaster had everything that makes a wooden coaster good. It would be nice if it were a bit more finished, however.

    -X-
  • Phatage%s's Photo
    Solaris would have been a great woodie, meaning that I thought it was only an average mega. These were definitely not the best desgins I've seen, but I guess that's what you get when work is made manditory.
  • posix%s's Photo
    it's a sad day.
    i mean honestly, slob (metalface) was easily the best rct player of the modern age.
    i had wanted at least one solo from him before he left :'(

    really, i'm sad.
    but solaris' pacing had it's problems you know :p

    jem, what a fantastic coaster layout. i'm a huge fan of it.
    the style and park design though, compared to solaris, was rather wannabe.

    Kumba, i thought you blacked out?
  • Steve%s's Photo
    Hm, I liked them, but neither really had any substance to them. They were pretty, though.
  • Turtle%s's Photo
    I'm not going to address anyone directly, because I don't want to start anything.

    I personally believe that what I made was good for four hours. I personally don't believe it should have been made a design, indeed, I voiced this to Cork, but the response I got was this was how they were going to do this. I think the layout is one of my best ever, and I really hope that I can return to RCT someday and continue playing. Probably not, though.

    The one comment I will address is Phatage's, because I think he has hit the nail on the head. When it becomes "work", something has gone wrong.
  • Kumba%s's Photo
    But I think iris was right to "make" us do this, he had a point, if you can't make one design when asked to, how active can you be? and why sould you be a parkmaker?
  • Ride6%s's Photo
    Tis a sad thing. This release my well be the last we see from either of these rct geniouses. :(

    Solaris- Suprising I didn't like the coaster as much as I expected and I loved the theming a lot more than I thought I would. The coaster simply wasn't fast enough towards the end of be a convincing Intamin Mega coaster since all of those haul major ass into the brakes. Another 15-20 feet in the lift would've done it. Add 10 feet to some of the major hills towards the beginning to keep it in scale and BAM! There it is. But no... That would be a speed crazy like me who'd do that. ;) The theming though was pleasent to an extent that I may never understand and the landscaping is so subtle and yet it's effects are felt throughout. Best Q line in forever, maybe since RoB even. :p

    Merlinwood Express- Of course I'm going to say that the layout was a bit slow towards the end, but I say this for good reason, all (great) coasters really seem to fly right at the end, where even though much speed is lost the tightness of the elements makes up for it, I didn't see that here (of course it's hard with only a few turn sizes). Very nice layout and custom support job, really made the ride count. The station and Q area showed the frantic pace though, since they seem thrown it because their nessisary, rather than because of "love". :p

    Good luck to both of you in whatever the future holds.

    ride6