Park / Skylands National Park

24 Comments

  • Comment System%s's Photo
    comment below
  • Version1%s's Photo

    Great park. I'm not really an expert on foliage or landscaping, but I did enjoy both of these aspects very much. But, most importantly, it took me back to actually walking around in american national parks, and that's what it's supposed to do, right? Great park.

  • G Force%s's Photo

    Great landscape and architecture, probably one of the better we have seen in this category.  TBH I almost like this better than wasteland.  Hope you build a real park next, you have a great style and potential.

     

    I think this is more bronze/silver due to the size and content level than gold though.  88% for a Pro Tour sized map with just landscape and some buildings is a little insane.

  • bigshootergill%s's Photo

    Yes, this definitely shows some awesome skills. Almost every screenshot you released got NE excited! I'd agree with G-Force and say it's in the low silver range as well. Really nice work!

     

    Have you ever built rct parks with rides before?

  • Louis!%s's Photo

    Beautiful. Massive fan.

  • Steve%s's Photo

    This is excellent. A great idea executed incredibly well. Your landscaping is probably second only to RRP.

     

    I think this park is deserving of some sort of accolade, yes. However, I think this park's biggest flaw is it's missed opportunities -- mostly opportunities to add some LIFE to this thing. Peeps would help tremendously. I also thought it would have been cool to include shops in the buildings, even if they had signs on them on not. Maybe even some horses in the field where the little barn is? Then you could have made a horse back trail using the steeple chase ride. Maybe even a bike shop would have been cool and you could have had a bike trail and used the cycles ride. Just little things like that really could have brought this to the next level.

     

    Still, a great park. Had a great time exploring the landscape and following all the little trails and platforms and such. Can't wait to see a full blown amusement park from you.

  • mykeiscool%s's Photo


    Yes, this definitely shows some awesome skills. Almost every screenshot you released got NE excited! I'd agree with G-Force and say it's in the low silver range as well. Really nice work!

     

    Have you ever built rct parks with rides before?

    Oh yeah I have made plenty, but I never have the motivation to finish them. I always get really into the game for a month and then stop for 6 months. I posted a screen of a wooden coaster I was working on,a while back, that will probably be my next project.

  • Kumba%s's Photo
    Got to echo what Steve said about a lack of life in the park. 0 peeps, 0 staff, 0 cars and even 0 rides/shops. They can add a lot to a park and it was a chance you missed here.
     
    In your project description you say:
     
    "I am not basing this off of any particular park but rather it will hopefully feel like a "greatest hits" collection of features from all the American and Canadian parks I have visited"
     
    Sorry, while I don't know exactly what parks you have been to, I just don't think you did it. It's a great park, but has no true standout landmarks. Yellowstone has Old Faithful, Yosemite has El Capitan and of course Niagara Falls National Park is self-explanatory. If you had something like that, this park would slap people with a lot more wow-factor.
     
    Also, underwater hacking will glitch if it's not shallow, like 3-4 water tiles down at most.
     
    While I feel you could have done those things much better, this is still outstanding work. The small detail on your buildings is fantastic. Your landscaping is clearly amazing and I love that you did all of this with none of my damn 1K Ruins that people use to death these days. I love the waterfalls and guess they would be the main draw the park has to offer. That tractor... so great. That's the type of thing I love to see. This park is very well thought-out and that's a great realistic touch that most people might never think to include.
     
    Really looking forward to whatever you do next! :kumbasgreen:
  • Stoksy%s's Photo

    Beautiful landscape/setting but these kind of creations don't really appeal to me unfortunately. Same feeling as with Wasteland, no idea how to vote on this.

  • Liampie%s's Photo
    I voted 90%, but it may as well have been 95%... This thing is almost perfect. The landscaping is so well done. There have been more parks and designs with similarly good foliage, but never in this quantity. And quantity is also a quality: a thousand well placed trees are much more powerful than a dozen sandwiched by themepark features. No single tree or rock looks out of place, and there is enough variation in foliage mix, land elevation, density and other features to give each section of the map a sense of identity. I'm sure Bob Ross could fill a bookshelf with stories about all the plants and rocks in this landscape. There is, however, one thing missing from the equation: life. To continue the Bob Ross thing, it feels too much like I'm looking at a painting. Other than the waterfalls and a duck if you're lucky there is no movement or sound at all. It would have been great to have a handfull of peeps on this map, or maybe a single cyclist. Wildlife like fish in the water, a deer in the woods or whatever you can think of are missed opportunities for unexpected 'wow'-moments actually quite similar to wildlife encounters in the real world. Oh, and parked cars. Make it look like there are people in this world, even if you don't see them directly on the map. Personally I'd even add some littering in the park as well, for realism. The lack of life (which didn't bother me) and the glitches in the lake are literally the only downsides to this... Solid gold, man. I'm impressed.
  • posix%s's Photo
    Tastefully created. Really quite shows how flexible the game is. I enjoyed looking at this. It seemed to be built on healthy real life inspiration. Beautiful and intricate architecture.
     
    Of course the concept is clear, but you can't help but miss rides. I also felt the majority of all those quarter land blocks were both superfluous and creating unnecessary discomposure.
     
    Looking forward to new projects of yours.
  • Xeccah%s's Photo

    I'm not personally put off by the lack of movement that everyone else is, as I feel that is part of the intent. I think that critique in general is rather normative. That being said, your landscaping is up to par with RRP's, and your architecture is really tasteful. I love the use of the stone deco objects to make new and better textures. I will agree with Liam on the fact that the beauty of nature sometimes derives from the "unexpected moments of wildlife".

     

    I also have to disagree with Kumba in the fact that the lack of landmarks actually makes this more special. More parks achieve better results with nuance than they do with brute-force wow factor. How well thought-out this is, alone, makes this deserve gold.

  • Chocotopian%s's Photo

    A truly beautiful piece of work. As others have said, the landscaping is excellent, and I liked the way certain areas became subtly more prominent as I viewed them, such as the marsh-like area.

     

    I'm unsure where I stand with regards to bringing life to this though. While I think cycles would've looked good dotted around, or perhaps a single boat travelling round the lake, there was something attractive about the stillness, with just the waterfalls and occasional ducks bringing natural movement to the scene. It was like looking at a moving picture. The silence only added to this, but when the rain started, it really brought something special to the scene. Incidentally though, I feel that you could've used sounds to your advantage, and placed a couple of hidden rides to play custom music. Just pond noises (ducks splashing, fish swimming at the surface, water trickling etc.) or general forest ambience would've gone down really well, I feel.

  • nin%s's Photo

    Forefront contender for #BestLandscaping2k16

  • Coasterbill%s's Photo

    This is absolutely stunning!

  • Cocoa%s's Photo

    wow, this is beautiful work. hard to sort an accolade to, but just beautiful anyway. You've done an amazing job with the landscaping, that looks like a lot of effort! There are tons of realistic trails and small details that really make this feel like a real park to me (I like the sunken boat!) So many beautiful waterfalls and little bridges, I'd love to come here in real life. And the scarce buildings are wonderfully done and just balance out the nature very well.

     

    now do this with a whole theme park please!

  • phann%s's Photo

    I do like the foilage and landscaping. The buildings that are there are good. But I do think Wastelands is better. Ofcourse they are different, but they both go about landscaping and foilage. And here I was finished in 10 minutes. While Wasteland took me alot of time to explore.

     

    The waterfalls were great, but the overuse of 1k landblocks everywhere is unneeded in my eyes.

     

    Good job.

     

    Also, I agree with G Force.

  • Ling%s's Photo

    So much good stuff coming out recently. I have to say though, I'm very surprised something like this made gold. It's great work, totally my thing, and I love it, but I feel like this fits more with the old, now-defunct Concept Creations than a full-blown park.

  • mintliqueur%s's Photo

    I don't really have anything to add to what others have said. I think Chocotopian had some good points about details like a lone boat and working with sounds.

     

    As for accolade, it's certainly Gold standard in my opinion, but to think slightly outside the box for a bit, why not Design? It goes well with the wording in the Design accolade's description :

     

    Designs usually focus on one main attraction instead of an entire park. Typically these attractions are roller coasters, but they do not have to be

    The landscape of course being the main attraction here (it's also easy to imagine this as just a small part of a larger park). Extending the Design accolade in this way eliminates the need to bring back the Concept Creation category.

  • Liampie%s's Photo
    I'm a bit surprised at some of the scores, I can't imagine that many people think this landscape could've been much better. If you don't judge this park for things that it isn't, how can it end up barely halfway past the accolade scale? On the other hand, I'm usually very pleased to see a wide vote range. That has become more and more rare in recent years. It's just this time that I happen to end up at the high end of it. :p Not calling anyone out, just expressing my surprise.

    It got gold though, which is a good fit in my opinion. Mintliqueur makes an interesting point about the design category, but I think allowing parks like these into the design category the lines between the two accolade types starts to blend too much.

    Anyway, congratulations mykeiscool! Excellent debut. I hope we see much more of you.