Park / Project Phoenix - Phase 1 Release
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03-March 25
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Description
Welcome to Project Phoenix.
Disclaimer - The project consists of a multi-phased release plan, and Phase 1 (this release) consists of getting all the various maps stitched together and the infrastructures in place. No significant updates to the existing/previously released maps were completed during this phase. Although there are no significant changes in phase 1, we plan to update each of the various maps/areas in future updates/releases over time. If we waited to make all the updates we wanted, this would never be released.
Approximately 16 years ago, we started a new project called Project Aries to create twenty-five 200x200 maps that would line up in a mega-resort complex once each map was completed. This would be reflected in a large aerial that would line up the 25 maps. Ultimately 13 of the 25 maps were released before retiring from RCT2 shortly after the release of Hyatt's Northwest Adventures.
Over the past few years, I had been in the shadows, watching to see what new tools were being developed. Even with the release of OpenRCT2 significantly improving object limits and map sizes, significant roadblocks still prevented me from jumping back into building again. Recently with the release of Scenery Manager and the WorldPainter plugins along with a video from SSSammy, presented the possibility of bringing over existing maps from Project Aries in a proof of concept. Once the PoC was successful, construction began to take some of the finished maps and place them into a 999x999 map. This work resulted in a rebranding of the project to Project Phoenix as it had risen from the dead and was reborn.
We have already started the work for Phase 2 and will announce those plans shortly. That said, I want to thank CP6 for his continued support in being our primary coaster designer/consultant for the project. I honestly could not have done this project without his help. Finally, I want to thank everyone on Discord and the site for all the help and encouragement thus far. It has been appreciated and a contributing factor in getting the project off the ground and ready to be released.
RCTNorthwest (James) -
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I am so perplexed that I don't even know what words to use. You are very intelligent and skillful. Your brain has an absurd capacity to have this kind of vision and to be able to use objects and transform everything I am seeing into this. I need several days to appreciate everything calmly. You have an incredible perception of space, size and colors. Your architecture is fantastic. Sorry, I am so amazed that I can't even make a better comment. (My brain needs to absorb everything I'm seeing) hehe. super congratulations.
^what he said yeah
Amazing to finally see this after so long.
This is awesome, nothing like seeing a full size park, scrolling across a map's worth of distance and landing in another park. And seeing all the infrastructure come together is impressive itself.
Probably the best golf course in OpenRCT2 currently. The map is so big that I'm getting lost in it!
Overall the park("s") aged relatively well, some parts can probably use some refinement when we compare them to more recent parks. I find that the hotels could also use some guests to make them less abandoned.
There is probably something to be done with the empty race track i.e. a hacked shoelace ride with racing cars. Peeps could also swim in the swimming pools of the hotels. You can also make cars travel the multiple roads around the park. There are more examples like these throughout the park to bring some activity to the other sections of the map.
Although this is only the first phase, it's really great to see such a massive map done!
i think the thing that makes this feel timeless is the constent grain across the whole map. although the meta has naturally inbetween the parks' release and today, the interconnected areas are faithful to the original vision and create a consistent experience.
just remarkable to see it in reality, and i am very excited to see the next phases! my one request is a biplane flying through the hotels with the holes in them
You absolute madlad... I have never felt this overwhelmed by a RCT2 park before but then again, very few parks are multiple square miles in size. I could easily spend many hours looking at this, even zoomed out.
I was always intrigued by multi-map projects... it was very memorable seeing that huge aerial of Project Aries in the ad district, but it existing only in image form left a lot to the imagination. I would have never expected, more than a decade later, for something similar to be released, all on one map, and in such a short period of time.
The planning of this is perfect... it's very convincing for a location that could exist in real life and doesn't feel disjointed at all, almost looks like something you'd find on Google maps.
It's interesting that, though this has that late 2000s/early 2010s realism style, it's timeless as SSSammy described. One observation that's neither a positive or negative: the parks have plenty of activity, given that they have the combined populations of a small town. The hotels/golf course/etc. on the other hand are empty, but peaceful, and feel very liminal. I'm not sure which I like better.
Overall, this is one of the most impressive releases in a long, long time, and even with many of the sections being built years ago, I don't think it will be topped anytime soon.
Thanks, and glad you liked it. As for your specific comment, I plan to "try" and add peeps to the various areas as I update them (such as Lake Scarlett Resort in phase 2) but I have a problem with the peeps and the amount of distance between the various parks/resort areas.
One of the biggest problems is I will have a peep in HOA who wants to ride a coaster in HNWA, walk to the closest point, and then get stuck. I then have to create an underground/underwater path to get them to that park. I currently have a soft cap of around 6000 peeps, but a very large portion of them are walking underground and then the parks look somewhat empty in comparison. If I add in the resorts, it will just dilute the park populations even more. Im going to bring this up in Discord, but not sure what the solution is.
All that said, glad you enjoyed the map.
I remember coming across this project many many years ago and I was always entranced by the idea of building a multi-file mega park and of course, I was a fan of the parks as standalones....
Let me tell you, it is absolutely mind-blowing to see that vision become reality with the freedom of OpenRCT2. Such an amazing mixture of 2000s RCT realism mixed in with the X7's new coaster types, and he fact that this is only the first phase tells me that this will 100% be Spotlight material once this is all done.
This is what insanity looks like, holy shit! I mean it in a good way. I know some of your old parks, but seeing them together on one map is quite something else. From the screens you don't really get how insanely big this map is, there are 2 full size solo parks in there which just take up a little bit of space on this whole map.
We've come so far with OpenRCT. We're blessed to see this, love it. Curious how this project will go on.
Overwhelming. I dreamed of seeing this happen for years and I can't believe you're making it a reality. Every time I feel like I've seen all there is, a whole new area opens up and its scale takes me back every single time. This new era of RCTNW is such a gift and I'm so glad I'm here for it
Hi Members, Consider this:
Forgive me if my understanding is wrong. I want to understand why this incredibly elaborate Park with a very nice architecture and layout only has 5 votes? I don't understand. I know, yes, it needs more life, movement, etc... But just for the work itself, which is the 1st phase, it is already incredible and impressive. I speak freely and spontaneously that a work of this size deserves at least Silver for the great effort of the player. Where are my fellow members of this community to vote? (forgive me again, I am outraged that a work of this size deserves to have so many more votes, I think it is fair).
I chose to submit it as a non competitive submission for several reasons. It was my choice. I appreciate the concern though
I love this project RCTNW! The scale is just insane, in a good way. Never seen anything like it yet. I'm a big time fan of giant hotels and resorts, so this is right up my alley. Looking forward to see where you'll take this in the next phase.
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.
Where to begin. First, many thanks for the very kind words. It does this old man's heart good to hear from those who truly understand the project. It's also fun to hear from those who were teenagers/young adults back then and are now at my age when I picked up the game much later in life. RCT brings a new perspective as you get older.
Building in Project Aeries back then was always a form of relaxation for me, except for the final 5% of the build (getting it ready for submission), only to hear I needed to evolve/change my style if I wanted to achieve Spotlight from those I HIGHLY admired back then and still do today. To put in that final 5%, to me, a very tedious effort with no enjoyment, only to come up short was tough for me. The reason I didn’t evolve my style back then was not to keep continuity with the maps but it was about my comfort level and maintaining my form of relaxation. A way to escape reality for a short period of time when I opened the game. Once I accepted the fact that I'm not going to get Spotlight, for a time, I was fine building for just myself; however, real-life events pulled my attention away from the game.
That brings us to today. I was a lurker on the site and discord for many years after my "retirement", in amazement at what you all were doing with the game and the levels you all had achieved. Honestly, it was overwhelming and hindered me from coming back, knowing I would not be able to do ANYTHING like all of you had advanced, and my style would seem even more out of place. Only the ability to bring all the maps together made me feel the time was right to make my return. The benefit of not changing my style was the fact that, as you said, I stood my ground on staying consistent with all of those maps.
I do disagree with your comment regarding your rather stark difference in opinion. Nearly everyone NOW is fully behind the need to not make any style changes to the project, almost to the point of protecting the project from myself. It’s a very fine balance and one I need to remind myself from time to time to not get too far down the rabbit hole. There are a couple of things I plan to do but im trying to keep the bigger focus in check.
As for your highlights, monorails have ALWAYS been a significant aspect of my park building. I'm a HUGE fan of the Disney Monorails and have always tried to incorporate them in my parks. Like you, I have spent hours “riding” along the monorail and Im glad you and others have found that enjoyment.
You might be the first to realize the HNWA resort is indeed missing. I was never really happy with that resort due to the space limitations of the original map, and since I knew I had some flexibility to replace it, there was no reason to keep it. I just made sure I had enough room as part of the HNWA expansion to build it properly.
As for the missing signs, both HNWA and HOA are missing nearly all of them, as I thought there was a hard glitch that I had maxed out the signs, so I went in and removed them and was going to go back in and replace them as part of each park's phased release. HOA will get all new signage as part of Phase 2 and HNWA will get them in Phase 3.
This brings me to my final thought and why I doubt this will ever be submitted for spotlight consideration. 1 – I don’t want to have to go through the map of this size with a fine-tooth comb for all those finishing details a spotlight requires. It would take forever, and with the bar for spotlight being so much higher now, even as significant as this project is to me and perhaps others, I no longer feel that it meets that spotlight level, and I really don't want to go through that disappointment again. 2- This project will never be fully finished. Phase 1 was easy and quick to build. The tools made it easy to finish phase 1 in a couple of months. Future phases are all about new content; as we all know, that is where the rear time is taken up. That and the summer months are very busy for me so I have little time to build until October.
One last thing, change your drawing engine to “Software” vs OpenGL or the other software option when looking at this park, it may be a bit glitchy (missing track pieces, etc) sometimes, but it does seem to run smoother when peeps are present on the map when you zoom out a bit more and not lag as bad
Again, many thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on the park. I hope the future phases don’t disappoint.
There's no way that this isn't worthy of a spotlight. Fine detail for such an impactful map like this feels irrelevant. Many of us literally grew up with your parks, and these phases are such a treat for us all. I can't think of anything more deserving of a "spotlight" title than the project that truly feels like the pinnacle of large rct passion projects.
So glad you're around again!