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Round 2 - The Space Race
Results

 

America may have eventually won the Space Race, but it's time to see who won the second round of Through The Ages. Out of the 8 entries received, it was Steve and Xtreme97 who came out victorious with 45 points with their fantastic entry Disney's Kennedy Space Center, and become our second to make it to the Grand Final! Congratulations!

 

Find the full results table below. Total score is calculated by adding the number of votes for the entry in the Objectives and Quality questions.

 

Total = Objectives votes + Quality votes

 

	Entry	Objective	Quality	Total
#1	Disney's Kennedy Space Center by Steve (50%) and Xtreme97 (50%)	14	31	45
#2	[REDACTED] - Rumble in the Red Rocks by MorganFan (80%) and mamarillas (20%)	22	16	38
#3	McCarthy Air Force Base by hypnopompia (50%) and deanosrs (50%)	22	15	37
#4	Secrets in the Snow by AJ	10	5	15
#5	Race to the Moon by InError	5	1	6
#6	The Men Who Stare at Oats by Narc (85%) and RWE (15%)	3	0	3
#7	The Cosmodrome by GigaG	2	0	2
#8	Moonrace Alpha by Ge-Ride	0	0	0

 

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explore Next stop: Round 3 - The Age Of Exploration (due December 28th)! explore

 

palette Also ongoing: Round 5 - The Renaissance (due February 22nd) palette

Secrets in the Snow - I was really glad someone tackled this from a heavily soviet perspective. Although for many the object selection is probably off-putting (and, usually, would be for me) somehow it works because it creates a nice contrast with the standard CSO object sets used in the american parks. The void tress around the map is my favourite moment of Through the Ages so far. I love the idea of this isolated russian forest with this huge base hidden in the darkness. The splash boats disrupted the theme for me a little bit: as cold as the rest of the scene looks, something which I associate with much warmer weather feels out of place. Objectives hit for sure, and a park I really enjoyed viewing.

 

Kennedy Space Center  - I feel like both you guys have been building up to this. You've already done some great parks together, and then Xtreme's use of circles in Lostilieth (crucial in making the 1/2 diags work here IMO) and Steve's 1/2 diag work in Macaw culminate together in this amazing macro. I think what's really nice about it is it just screws with your mind: when I saw the entrance to New Moon Bakery, my first though was, "how did they get so much detail on a 1/2 diag?" that's how disoriented the boldness of the macro had made me. The shapes in the path are a key part of the macro too. And let's not forget all the lovely details like the NASA globe, ticket desks, entrance gates (a real wow moment), rocket garden, mission apollo signage, etc. For the most part, the SV slope vehicles work great - I don't think the railing vehicles quite pass though, and it would have been good to see the coaster themed, but then I remember you did all this in 4 weeks which is amazing.

 

Race to the Moon - this was a lovely surprise. The scale of everything is so bold, and I love that in RCT. The chocolate bar pathing and super dense foliage felt like a mismatch to the scale of everything else, but there is so much to like here. The rolling platforms holding the rockets, the rockets themselves, the dude painting the flag, it's all a lot of fun. Really enjoyed this one.

 

Moonrace Alpha  - I think leaving all the purple around the map spoils the setting a lot. I see the hammer and sickle sculpture, but beyond that I can't say I'm sure what I'm looking at. I just don't really understand what the park is I guess. I felt the same with your NEDC entry. A more cohesive vision, consistent scale and other aspects of storytelling would really help to contextualize what your parks are and help guide the viewer as to what they are looking at. I think it would help you a ton to do some off-map work first to scenery manager in later, so you could first develop some visual ideas that will later define the map as you work on a macro, rides etc.

 

[ REDACTED ]  - this is again a lot of fun and exactly the kind of thing I like in RCT parks. No shame at all in conceding my motel is out-moteled by this wonderful effort over in the corner. There's lovely crunch across the map. It's a 4 week timer and especially with an 80% share for Morgan they'll always be something that was a time save and for me it's the big kryptonian rocks. I think the tolsimir rocks mix in well with them, but the fisch rock arch over the top feels like one texture too far. I love all the great details along the road, the gas station, fireworks store, and radio tower all over so much and really bring the map to life. The base itself is great. I especially liked the wind tunnel and freefall - the glass around them really gave a lab/training vibe that just works. That glass accent is just perfect. The tunnel into the base by the tank is a great little touch too.
 

The Cosmodrome - great to see returning members! It was fun seeing you refine this on the discord. in the end I think 4 weeks is just not a lot of time to catch up with the meta and get a full park done but there's a lot to like here. The soviet apartment buildings were especially on point.

 

The Men Who Stare at Oats - your parkmarking is really coming along Narc, the execution here is really good and really clean. I think I was just missing some super clear ties to specifically the time period, architecturally or with more rockets etc. But there is so much promise in your work and this is a big step up from round 1. Keep going - I look forward to seeing future entries from you!

 

Another month, another spectacular Babar park, at least that's what it feels like! 

I have mad respect for how you just build what you want, at the pace you enjoy the most.

 

Overall, I just have so much praise for this style. Your use of half diagonal is something far above my own skill level; whenever you've got me slowly dismantling your park to figure out exactly how it's all done that's as good as form of praise as I know!

 

Some things I really liked about each area:

- Malfoy manor. The green in the windows really pops.

- Hogwarts roofing: such a good variety of textures and shapes, it really gives the map this one central focus for viewing.
- Backstage areas throughout: really good context, level of detail and really sells the universal vibes of the park
- the colors in rivendell: the orange eaves and olive foliage shouldn't go together, but they do: it's all really appealing and instantly sells what you're looking at.
- the pathing in the shire - the cobbles with mud trails over are perfect. Just everything feels just right again for the theme.
 

 

The Minas Tirith area looked more like Osgiliath to me, which I guess is no bad thing. They are very similar - it's just the lack of the dramatic landscaping which defines Minas Tirith.

 

I think Hogwarts has the same problem, a little bit. I know at IOA it's not close to a 1:1 scale building, but from the path, the verticality of the castle above the guests is super clear. As it is, the color and vertical positioning of the castle makes it feel too flat and not distinct enough from the rocks, for me.

 

The star wars area feels a little color washed too. Just some more pops I think would go a long way.

 

I'm nitpicking; I just wanted to write a little about why I dropped down to 80% on this although I feel a little harsh doing this because I love your build style so much.

 

Congratulations on another gold, Babar. It's well deserved and your parks landing in the release queue will always be nothing short of a delight for me.

This is really promising stuff, even the volcano rocks are well integrated into the landscape and don't stick out like a sore thumb; coming from me that's a big compliment lol!

 

The macro has a really lovely balance to it. The size and layout of the buildings seems perfect. There's such a good eye here for what looks good in-game, it's tough to pick out specifics because everything just seems so well composed.

A really neat idea, executed basically perfectly. Only limited by its scope given it's a supported layout. But sometimes minimalism really works and this is a really good example. There's lots of details here that it would be easy to overlook too; having the whole layout on a diagonal including the station is great.