Ask the Experts / Any tips on making dueling coasters in RCT2?

Hello, NEdesign, long-time lurker here. Used to play RCT/LL waaay back in the day, and would constantly lurk danimation and such sites for awesome creations. I recently thought of this game and started playing again, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find a still thriving community of park builders (waiting for approval on a park I uploaded). Not only that, but the website design and functions is super sexy too!

Now, I have never successfully made a good dueling coaster, but I remember that back in the LL days I'd use Beast Trainer to change the mode to Launched Mode (or whatever it's called). That way I could continually test the tracks against each other without having to complete the circuit.

When I try this now, the trains don't want to leave the track together. Completing the circuit and then make adjustments can be really cumbersome.

So are there any advice on this, or any other ideas/advice on making dueling coasters?

Is there any way of making a dueling coaster without having them stand next to each other? Could for example Cenas tut on dummy stations work in this regard?

Also, another question (I'm full of them!), are there any custom scenery packs that are considered essential? I'm especially interested in a pack with terrain and "raisable" foliage, and foliage I can change colours on (I've seen all of these in the parks on this site). Any general tuts on how to handle custom scenery? Any way of adding new scenery to an existing save file?

Lastly: how do I change my flag? I'm not American, though I live in California.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

1: Try pausing the game, putting both into test mode, and then unpausing.
2: Yes, dummy stations would work...though they can be a bit tricky.
3: Hmm...try downloading the H2H5 workbench (available in the "Workbenches" section of the NE Database; it's the one with "geewhzz" as the author) as well as the geewhzz workbench. (somewhere around here, but needs a bit of searching as it hasn't been added to the DB yet) The scenery in those two workbenches should leave you pretty much set.
4: The flag pictured next to your username is determined by your computer's IP address. So...I guess the short answer would be that you can't.
Hope that helped (if only a little), and welcome to New Element!

As far as your question regarding dummy stations, don't listen to the answer of RCTMasta. All the things you need for a fully functional dummy station are in this thread. And it is tricky Goodluck with it.

Winhack / Hex Edit, Dual Stations



As far as benches, I would advise you to download;
- Standerd Geewhzz bench click
- H2H5 Bench: click
- Louis Bench: click

And several recent designs, such as Kumba & SoK, which include many usefull items. SoK&Kumba
Other items you want to edit in later, you can do that with Parkdat version 1.6.

If you want custom rides, I would recommand using the ones from Amazing Earl, which you can find here:
Amazing Earl Website

And the flag is there based on IP adress. Your choice if you want to change is to go threw an proxy, or move back to your original country.

Anyways, Welcome to NE and I Hope we see awesome parks of you in the future!

As far as your question regarding dummy stations, don't listen to the answer of Cena. He's talking about a dual station, not a dueling coaster. I think dummy stations will work just fine and you don't need any complex winhacking stuff. Just 8Cars trainer.

Well, best thing ofcourse would to have a dual station dueling coaster 4 stations, 2 tracks

dueling coaster I have a little system when making them, I make both station, and instantly put them on boat hire mode so you can test without having a completed track so you can test under construction to see if the duel moments are where you want them to be

hope that helps

Thats stupid since your ride and game would crash ...

Well like I said, I used to set it launched mode. Worked perfectly fine in RCT/LL, but I can't seem to make it work now. The trains refuse to leave at the same time.

Would be sweet to learn the dual station trick, though all that HEX editing makes my head spin.

I started using the Louis Bench, and I like it. Though I need to look into this Parkdat thing and learn how to import new scenery. I really want some gothic arches. Any recommendations for that? Also: I am confused about the entrance. I see there's one there, but pathways? Where do I connect my paths then? Never seen this before.

I noticed some people mention you shouldn't use Zero Clearance and track merging with Windows 7. Is this true? Are there any other general tips for running RCT2 on win7? Like a recommended setting in compatibility mode? Or am I forced to pick up an old harddrive and make a Win XP partition?

Thanks for all your helpful advice.

leaving at the same time?

pause, set to test both rides, unpause