Sephiroth

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• United States

Wow.

 

I don't mean to sound too... I don't know, ass-kissy, for lack of a better term. But to me, this really is some of the pinnacle of entertainment complex conceptualization and design. You really are the best-in-class in terms of vision, scale, and consistent delivery & execution. 

 

I remember back in the Project Aries days you would refer to yourself as one of the "old guys" around here, and how you built this in your free time after work, and what I assume was also after general life obligations were taken care of for the day. At the time, I was a high school and then college student, but now a decade later, I myself am now probably getting closer to that "old man" category you used to describe yourself back then, and I am wondering how TF you found time to build all of this! The main reason this comment/review is so late is due to life just being an endless barrage of one thing after another, lol. 

 

So what I'm saying is, the years since the initial releases of these maps has only built my appreciation for them more. I know now that the time it took to visualize, plan, and actually build all of this had to be fit in around so much IRL activity, and I am honestly beside myself at you pulling off what you have so far.

 

That brings up the topic of consistency. Not to call people out or throw them under the bus, but people like our beloved Posix somewhat famously (in my opinion) stated that they wanted to see you change some of the way you build, or your style, or just the overall look of some aspects of your park making to be more aesthetically pleasing in their eyes. Now, before you all lambast me for bringing that up, I will say I know Posix simply wants to see everyone build to the best of their ability and beyond, or rather, to the best of their potential he sees in them. Posix loves this community, this game, and this website, and so he is willing to push people to achieve the best that they can.

 

However, this is where we reach a rather stark difference in opinion, respectfully. I love this project because of that "consistent grain," as Sammy said. To me, it delivers a uniform brand, and feels truly "one." Also, I now konw that you keeping to your style was probably the only way any of this was ever going to be finished. Tying back to the comments about free time that I wrote at the beginning of this post, it just clicked in my mind when I was panning around this work of art. Like a lightbulb moment for me. Hats off to you for sticking to your guns to actually deliver this project. 

 

Talking about scope and scale, is there another project in the history of this website that ever got anywhere close, that actually released? Maybe a multi-map LL project, or the labor of love that was the finished release of the Master's Palette by Kai, but other than that... nothing really comes close to this, in my opinion. I know size is a sensitive topic in this community (that's what she said... wait... I mean... never mind), especially when it comes to the age-old debate around smaller-scale spotlight contenders. And more recently, The Big Little. I would argue that seeing everything together on one map here, even if a lot of the accolade panel didn't deem the individual parts spotlight-worthy upon initial release, come together to make what I believe is a spotlight-level, monumental release in the halls of NE history, or rather, RCT history. Exploring this map is like a dream come true. 

 

Some highlights of exploring this map:

- The monorails with stations at every major map point, honestly I have spent way too much of my life just watching the monorails roam the map.

- Picturing the views across the center lake. In fact, just sightlines in general, imagining myself anywhere in the map just looking around at this massive resort complex.

- The Disney World feel of the road and transportation system layout. Again, no other map in RCT history (or multi-map project) has achieved this. Such a special and unique feeling.

- The feel of you finally achieving what I imagine to be something much closer to your "completed vision" than any other release before this. Yes, I understand this is not complete yet and probably never will be, but I also imagine this is as close as it gets to how initially wanted the overall look and feel of the project to be back when you were first planning things out, even if the details have changed since then.

 

I have spent way too many hours in the file and will certainly spend many more. It is just RCT viewing bliss to picture yourself riding in the monorail looking out the window, or exploring the parks, or walking the paths, golfing, camping, watching a game, a race, a concert, or looking out the window high up in one of the hotels, or the view from a tower ride, or from a coaster seat ascending a lift hill, on and on and on.

 

I also noticed you are willing to adjust the maps quite a lot since release to improve. Notably, axing the Intamin drop tower in HOA and axing the entire resort in HNWA. Those items alone make me excited to see what is coming next because I know you're willing to change things around to deliver. Also, props to what I assume was CP6 returning to modernize some of the roller coasters to incorporate new track pieces and ride vehicles in the two parks. The new pieces fit right in, look great, and make the finished product look very clean.

 

Some observations you might find helpful, or ball up and toss in the garbage because you clearly know what you're doing and don't need any advice from this random internet stranger:

- A lot of text signs seem to be outright missing when I run the park. Not sure if it's something on my end or if they are actually missing in the save file. Thought I'd let you know. They are in HOA and missing everywhere else, at least I think.

- Actually, that's it. That's all I noticed.

 

Amusingly, my laptop doesn't like running this park, lol. Some entertaining facts:

- I had to remove all the peeps with the cheats menu for this file not to lag to about 5 fps when roaming around.

- Opening the ride menu takes several seconds, and trying to scroll in said menu will result in a several minute long unresponsive screen before the menu list doesn't budge and I regain control of my mouse cursor. Made me chuckle.

- A note for the OpenRCT2 devs, the monorail stats only show the track length and ride durations for the first 4 legs (I'm sure a holdover from the old 4 station limit), and the other 5 segments don't show. Again, made me chuckle.

 

So yeah. There you have it, my overly-long rant about how much I have loved this project, still love this project, and probably will always love this project.

 

Sure, this doesn't have the detail levels of some of the recent H2H trends. It doesn't break the grid with half-diagonals, and it has a lot of tarmac and "coldness." But's the best-executed American style resort complex any of have ever seen, and I noticed it's much easier on my eyes and brain to explore this map than the highly detailed, texturally noisy modern releases. It's... more relaxing to look at, if that makes sense. 

 

Don't ever change, RCTNW. You can be damn proud of this entire project, and while some people have voiced the desire for you to change over the years or said that seeing these massive structures more than once is "boring," I say hold you head high and your middle finger even higher.

 

Thank you for making one of my favorite maps of RCT, probably ever.

 

Looking forward to future phases in your same style.

Absolutely incredible. Clear Spotlight winner in my book. What a fantastic piece of RCT. Love the Pac and DKMP members teaming up to deliver this amazing piece of art.

Wish Prod would come back. So many of these hacks were very high effort prior to OpenRCT2, which would now be easier to achieve, I would imagine. I would love to see Prodigy return to the game since his last 2013 release, 12 years ago, and see what he could do with the new tools available.

Oh my god yes

YES. One of the best projects in the history of NE and RCT has returned!