Ge-Ride

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• United States

I'll do my best to explain my entry. I'll start with one of the faults. There was no way to give names to the guests and guide them to go to one place or another. If I knew how, I would have made half the names Soviet sounding. If I knew a way to do so, I would have had the guests mostly go to the stands and eat the food while some other specialized guests rode the trains, guests with Soviet names on the red side and more Western names on the blue side.

Since my entry was a bit rushed and low on detail I can forgive people for not understanding it. I chose the ride after quite a bit of testing. I wanted something with a slight element of danger. I think I overdid it. FredD criticized it for not having a launch. I tried to make it launch but no matter what I did, if I made the speed to high, it would not adjust from steep to shallow slopes and would just blow up. I started out with empty trains and later added the peeps. When I added the peeps though, it created more momentum and I had to adjust the chain lift/propulsion to very low levels which meant a lackluster initial 'launch'. I don't have much of an explanation for how the space trains actually function which was another flaw so I didn't know how to give the launch stations a proper design.

For the rest, there's a bit of stadium style seating for the onlookers, put a safe distance away from the launch site. For them, there is two patriotic symbols to look at. There are food and restrooms for onlookers on both sides and souvenirs. Between the two sides of the seating, there is a TV camera observing the whole event. For the respective racing sides, there's mobile mission control buildings carried in by the cargo ship docked at the nearby port. Perhaps I should have labeled them better so people knew what they are. The blue and red land just shows the path used to drag it in from the cargo ship. Each side also has radio towers to message people elsewhere on Earth for whatever reason. And the Soviet side has a training simulator to practice since they're in a climate that they're less used to. The space station was based off of Mir as it was the easiest to build and most compact. The flowers were added to give some foliage but something more replaceable and resilient considering the surrounding environment. I just decided to put the whole thing in the Gulf of Mexico which may not have been a good choice. It's an artificial landmass, hence the strange green look. I can see why the purple map might not have been a good idea but I was worried that making the rest of the map black might have counted to the tile limit. Oh well.

That leaves the race. I left the track, though not the supports in place just so the park's viewers would have a point of reference. That and I was worried that if I changed the ride's function that it might affect the two ride's performance somehow.

Well, that's the end of my overexplaining. The only thing left to remark on is that I saw some of the other games within games people were doing in RCT and I wanted to try it for myself. I didn't have many options for how the coasters would race, and I could have themed it better if I had another couple days but I at least made it. Just a silly idea I came up with one night. Could have turned out better if I'd had some help but I did as well as I could under the circumstances and now it's a strange dream realized.

It was pretty fun and lays a good foundation for future work from you. But naturally, I have some critiques. It's aesthetically very coherent and well assembled but all the buildings, while nice enough, are basically one tile huts. And the coasters, while they interact with the landscape well, could use some spicing up as far as the elements go. The wooden coaster could use airtime hills and helixes. The airtime hill after the first hill is rather short and goes right into a banked curve. If you just had it go into a curve by itself I wouldn't critique it but doing both makes it seem to me that the ride lacks a bit of vision. The wild mouse going over the edge is a creative idea, but the long straight stretches make the ride a little boring. I know that I did something similar in Moonrace Alpha with the Soviet racing train so feel free to call me a hypocrite but in general, it's a good idea to not have too much straight track.

As for the foliage, it's pretty sparse, like desert sparse which I don't think is what you were aiming for. A couple more trees together surrounded by some climatically appropriate bushes would make it much better. The landscaping is quite good for such a new builder so congrats on that.

So, good aesthetic sense, good landscaping, some interesting ideas. But could use some bigger buildings, more interesting coaster layouts, and better foliage. Good for a first park and welcome to NE!

Good entries. I hadn't said anything because I was sort of blah about the objectives forcing people to include one of the seven wonders and thus limiting the creative options. Still, I appreciate the hard work of those who did enter so I'll weigh in before the next round is submitted.

Indoor Egypt. I like the creative spin on how you brought an ancient theme into modern times. It was a very good entry quality-wise and a good way to excuse the roller coasters being present in the setting. The entry didn't quite make the top of my list on either objective but it's a solid entry, especially for being a one person work.

Ptolemy II's Alexandria: 250 BC. This was the standout entry for me quality-wise and almost objective-wise. It is large and immersive and it really feels like the time period. I like the scenic ride and the splash boats. And a very good representation of the Lighthouse of Alexandria.

Ancient Light. This was frankly, just a lot of fun to view. Good coasters, good theming. It brought back the old school RCT vibes. The invert was an interesting compact take that was a bit different from the norm. It didn't fulfill the objectives the best but quality-wise, this was the other one of my two votes.

The Seven Wonders Selection Survey at Sidon. This was good for the brief time it took to build it. Liampie pulls off another last minute solid contest entry, this time with Gustav Goblin's assistance. I like the theming but I wish that you'd bent the realism a bit and made the grounds lower so that you could squeeze in a boat ride. That's the downside, but the upside is that you included every one of the seven ancient wonders which gives this one of my votes for fulfilling the round's objective.

Pyramids. Not sure what to say here. Everything is adequately done but it gets caught up as another pyramid entry. The riverbank is nice and the architecture is too. The rides are well integrated. It just needed more of a thematic angle to separate it from the pack. It isn't the best and isn't the worst. It's good though, a fine effort, just could be a little more distinct. I like it enough to be interested in what you make next.

The Ancient World. It's slick and the coaster is nice. The pyramid has some nice marbling effect. But it's a little low on content compared to the others, without other major supporting rides and more standout architecture. It's in a similar boat to Pyramids in that it gets caught up in a commonly used theme and doesn't quite have the angle to break the mould. Good work though and hope to see more in the future.

The Construction of Giza. I voted for this too for fulfilling the round objective the best. It took a modern ride and made it surprisingly believable in a specific ancient context, building a pyramid. It was a bit on the small side which keeps it from getting a quality vote from me but it's a well made work and knows what it wants to do.

I don't have much of a way with words but I hope this expresses my general view on the entries. I wonder what we'll see in round 2?

You can put me down for a possible entry. I'm going to be focusing on TTA Round 2 but if I have time afterwards I'll try and squeeze in one.

I hate to spoil my idea but being quiet about it won't get me any takers so here it is: My idea is a race between the USA and USSR where you race as the USA by adjusting the speed of the invisible tracked coaster to go out of the Earth's atmosphere and around the moon and back. If anybody is interested I could use a large amount of help theming it while I work out the mechanics of the race. I know it's a bold idea but if I get a partner in a day or two there might be just enough time to pull it off. I'll be gone for a couple days around Thanksgiving but should have fairly good availability for the rest of the time period.