Park / Mount Sinister
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05-October 02
- Views 14,998
- Downloads 3,463
- Fans 5
- Comments 77
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While it's true that realism has often been a restrictive force on ride and park design, it certainly doesn't have to be. Realism to me does not mean building coasters only the way real designers would have built them or basing architecture entirely on realf life designs. Actually, these elements of real design are used as inspiration for discovering new ideas.
I still argue that true realism is harder and more time consuming than true fantasy design. While certainly leaving an area blank requires very little effort, seemingly simple design may in fact require a great deal of planning. For example, if you wanted a mountain you could flip to the raise land tool and click like mad creating the hugest mound of dirt you can make. Then you can cover every square of that mountain with trees and bushes and bits of theming. Or, if you wanted to create something real and beautiful you would vary the land in a more pleasing manner often resorting to terraforming one corner at a time (I practice which has cost me far more hours of my life than I'd care to mention). Then when the land is just right, you would begin adding trees one variety at a time selecting an appropriate mixture for the look you want. Then you might leave some areas blank and fill them in with bushes, flowers, and occasional dead trees. You wouldn't cover every square because it looks more beautiful to leave empty space. The art is in varying the theming and empty space in an appropriate manner. My point is, as a parkmaker when I'm presented with an empty space I could choose to fill it with trees or I could put trees only where they are needed varying the terrain and the theming to create something truly unique. While the first option may use more objects in the space, the second option is the more time consuming and to me, the more beautiful as well because it reflects decision and planning.
I've always appreciated a certain level of restraint in park design. My first parks were absolutely packed with rollercoasters and rides and theming. So packed in fact that you could hardly see what was going on. Over time I've learned to spend more time planning and arranging theming in a much more focused manner. The challenge is to use enough theming to convey the idea without bludgeoning your audience. This is why realistic parks are so much more beautiful to me than fantasy parks. It isn't that fantasy is wrong, in fact I embrace a certain degree of fantasy. Pure realism does indeed become monotonous and restricted. Arbitrary rules like how many coasters you can place in one park and how many inversions you can have on one coaster are useless to me. The rules that are important are the rules of aesthetics and the rules of plausibility. If fantasy parks looked good I wouldn't give a damn about insane rides and ridiculously over the top theming but they just look ugly to me and then what's the point? What do Islands of Adventure, Disneyland, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg have in common? Aside from the fact that they are all picked as top parks year after year, they all look great.
Anyway the short of it is that fantasy is easy to do in RCT because the game is designed for fantasy. This is why so many 'noob parks' (I use the term only for identification purposes, not to be derogatory) are put into the category of fantasy parks. The natural reaction of most when first playing RCT is to build the longest, fastest, most viscious coaster they can. Reality is much more difficult because you must invent ways to build things that aren't built into the game. It's not that Mala and other fantasy parkmakers aren't inventive, but I'll bet the typical realistic park has more hacks in it than the typical fantasy park - - they're just harder to notice. Realism is a skill that must be developed with effort and work. It's knowing how to vary your buildings with symmetry and assymmetry to keep them interesting. It is knowing when to place bushes and trees and when to leave space blank. It is knowing how many coasters you can put into a space before it becomes too distracting. Fantasy parks are often apprecated for the grandness of their scale but realistic parks to me are more impressive for the details and planning that are often harder to appreciate. I don't know how many parkmakers think about these things when building their parks, but some do and the extra effort shows in the finished work.
I don't know how much of this was coherent, I certainly didn't present a very logical or ordered argument but hopefully you can pick something out of here which expresses why I like realistic parks so much. Like I said before, I welcome anyone's opinion so feel free to take oppostion to anything I've said but also be prepared for me to reply because I wouldn't have said any of this if I didn't believe it and I'm prepared to defend my beliefs to the end.
EDIT: Perhaps I should get a new title: "He of the Insanely Long Posts" or "Parkmaking Philosopher" or perhaps just "Insomniac".
Most "Realism" is a series of dull buildings thrown together over, and around, dull pathways, adorned with dull rides. Most "Fantasy" is absolute crap; a series of endless rides thrown together. However, when you discover the good fantasy, and the good realism, well, you realise both are equally difficult, and equally wonderful, in there own ways. So just hush up you sad, sad, fools!
i have seen good realism, and its good.
i have a feeling ed has some what of a mental block, that all fantasy parks are simply packed with rides that hit the top height mark, someone went wild with the raise land tool, and then "tree"d it... this is not the case with good fantasy obviously.
on a whole, i find good fanatasy not better, but more interesting than good realism. They both require the amount of planning and restraint that our fellow ed mentioned. One difference, is coasters in fantasy parks dont have set sections of rides, where you have beginning elements, and a mid brake, followed by more cautious elements, and then a break run... Not many realism parks break that, and those that do i do infact admire... this is just one reason though, that adheres to what ive already said:"realism is the force that restricts"
"thats just my opinion, i could be wrong"--Dennis Miller
The coasters! The themeing! The architecture! The attention to detail!
Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!
I am really enjoying the enthusiastic response to Mount Sinister, Thanks! I started Mount Sinister about a year ago after finishing the Venezia section of the RCT World’s Fair. Iris had contacted me about contributing to the IAAPA and I took the offer. Soul Harvester was created for the IAAPA. Although I had sent Iris my contribution, I was unable to stop carving out areas on the map that I had envisioned while building Soul Harvester. The town of Birchwood with its cheery inviting atmosphere bordering on the strange and terrifying environment of the Isle of Souls. The classic town with a secret in the nearby woods. The Light/The Dark concept emerged from exactly that. I knew the giant mountainous region that would eventually become the park’s namesake would house a dueler based on the two forces concept which would launch out of a lab complex at the mountains top. The Samhain…A.I. line of launched inverts would be evolving into a ferocious terrain dueler. I knew I wanted this thing to run up and down a jagged mountain trail so fast and so close to passing and underlying terrain that just processing the visuals while riding the coaster would be a paramount experience. The Dark side offers this unique thrill. When exploring the park I wanted it to be an adventure of a different sort whichever route was chosen to get to the top of Mount Sinister. By taking the safe road through the Levee District which would be home to many adventures of its own including the ivy laden hyperwoodie -Thunderstruck-. (I was inspired to have the ivy creep up the wooden lattice after viewing photos of the now demolished Thunderbolt at Astroland at Coney Island with its dilapidated, collapsing structure with ivy engulfing large portions of it. It is a haunting image that moved me.) RCDB
Peeps can also reach the mountain by way of Sinister Valley and its cave system, which leads out to the back area of the Levee District that has access to the looming mountain. A third route would take travelers by way of the Majestic Lagoon. I always love the classic idea of a lagoon surrounded by a plethora of majestic amusement attractions so I wanted to anchor down the lofty atmosphere of the emerging theme park with some classic amusements such as a double deck carousel and of course a Ferris wheel and a theater. A long majestic walkway leading from Birchwood out into the lagoon soon emerged. I imagined a night mode and being able to light up the walkway and the amusements with thousands of carnival lights reflecting into the lagoon. Anyway, The lagoon area would also function as another access point for the west side of the mountain. A Kauai Coaster inspired funicular would ascend the mountains steep and dangerous cliff face. I knew as the park came together that I would want to release it one day. Months after sending Iris Soul Harvester, I emailed him to find out how far along the IAAPA project was. I knew peeps would not be happy to see my addition to the IAAPA also appear in a future release but what could I do aside from not include Soul Harvester in the park which didn’t make sense because it inspired the park. Iris replied and said that the map I worked on was pretty much not going to be released for various reasons that I don’t remember. Now what would have ordinarily made me mad, made me quite glad. Iris promised to put Soul Harvester in the vault and lock it. RCT fate had played a role I guess. So in a way, Iris was sort of instrumental in getting the wheels turning for Mount Sinister. Thanks!
Thanks again to all for the great response. I am watching that download counter keep going on the download page. Thanks to whomever did the Mount Sinister logo I totally dig it! Oh so scary…
I am eagerly awaiting the release of RCT2 as I am sure everyone here is. I want to express my appreciation for Beast Trainer 2.3 and Dragon’s trainer. I used the Beast for an infinite array of stacks and build throughs. Also, I had quite a hoot exploring Mount Sinister with RCTGL m5. Standing on the loading platform for Soul Harvester and looking up at that evil twisting vertical first drop really got my heart pounding. RCTGL is only in its early form and I cannot wait to see where it goes. It is a necessity and a treat to any parkmaker.
It has been fun, and let us all be proud and thankful for this wonderful little website we call NE.
More later,
Mala
Awesome park.
'Nuff said.
You sure like your coasters fast, Mala.
No offence of course, I'm really just not much of a fan of your style.
~The Persnickety Platypus~
Mala, I'm sorry I don't like your park man. But I'm sure my meager opinion matters little to an RCT legend such as yourself. For what it's worth, I appreciate the ideas you were trying to convey. It's great that you can build images in your head to help you design parks which are vivid and different but I just don't like the style with which you convey your ideas in RCT. I suppose it's my loss if anything.
Just as a final comment, it would help me a great deal if somebody could tell me the names of some of these "great fantasy parks" that obviously everybody but my ignorant self knows about. Then perhaps I can judge for myself whether I am mistaken or not.
in anycase, it seems its always the peeps who dont frequent forums that have their heads on straight... hmmmmm...
Just look at the End Of Times trilogy by LAA. They're three of the greatest fantasy parks ever made.
Anyways, Harakiri is right, we should get back to the topic of Mala's park. Yes. Mount Sinister Roxors! Yeah, yup, etc.
the park is pure nastalgia, of his older parks yet better than Cydonia i thought.
and yeah... what's up with the nazi screamin "stay on topic!"?
convo flows bro!
Fatha' Offline
Just wanted to give this park some love, because its really one of the big inspirations that helped me to create BGSS. Just thought id give the park its love before BGSS got released.
Great work Mala.
posix, do you realize just how much better your English has become?
And gosh, I'd say one of you are n00bs, but I know neither of you are.
Edited by laz0rz, 23 December 2005 - 03:56 PM.