RCT Discussion / Landmark parks

What are some? In terms of how NE's way of playing the game has developed, which parks have been important in steering that course? Not necessarily the best parks but ones which have set new standards.

For example I was looking at Gila http://www.nedesigns.../park/807/gila/ . From reading the comment thread it seems the park was important in introducing 1/4 tile building blocks and marking a move away from an LL approach to architecture in RCT2.

I've also heard CP6's Watkins Wood mentioned as a breakthrough in terms of realistic parkmaking. What are the reasons for that? Which realism tropes did it introduce?

I'd love to know more about the earlier developement of NE parkmaking too. Who decided to first start using path/track as roof for example? Ghost trains for windows? Different terrain under paths?

Interesting discussion topic.

 

Not sure I was around before the release of Watkins Woods but my understanding of its importance was that it was one of the first (after SFWoE from memory) to really take a truly realism standpoint. Much of the earlier RCT2 releases were more of the traditional "four corners" such as much of Turtle/X250/artist's work (which was I believe originally shaped by RoB). Features such as backlots, non-park features etc. weren't really an important aesthetic feature before its release as far as I can remember. Perhaps it was present in things like European parkmaking (eg Paulism), but I can't recall any of them really being overly prominent at NE.

 

Fundamentally it was the most iconic foray into the realism-heavy approach and I think shaped how people like rob and pac began to build which subsequently influenced the 'modern' NE style. Other people had built realistic parks of course but much like how earlier works are relatively forgotten there is always that one park/builder that people point to as being "the one."

 

I wouldn't be surprised if people using different terrain under paths was done from the first few builders in RCT, the same could likely be said for path/track for roofs. The scenery limits of the original RCT are quite prominent, so it would be a relatively obvious progression to move towards using everything on offer to try and create what you envisaged (of course this may be more obvious in hindsight).

 

As much as rob likes to remind us about how bad SFSF was, I think that both that and SFC furthered the influence of Watkins Woods to the more 'modern' style of today. It basically took the ideas further and applied modern techniques (detailed scenery, more complex hacking etc.) which allowed for the realism-trend to continue today culminating in Starpointe.

 

Unfortunately, being a relatively recent member (with a hiatus in the middle) my perspective on changing trends and therefore landmark parks is probably limited to more recent developments such as Watkins Woods. Hopefully some of the longer standing members could provide greater insight.

I also think watkins woods was more of the point where we realized realism was going to be a thing. There were definitely realistic parks before (a celebrated one was a h2h park by cp6 whose name escapes me... something with a k? And also that gold tassauds park ). Its not that people hadnt included those features before but more like the extremely positive reaction to and hype of wwap sort of highlighted the realistic park as a new direction for ne (although it had been going that way already, if you get my meaning). In fact, i think parks like Busch gardens lichfield, while probably not being recognizable as hardcore realism to someone used to sfsc, definitely represents a similar idea/movement in ll. And el encierro was really a huge deal when it came out, although has probably aged a bit.

Obviously toons stuff is important, like check out jkays design for the first ever use of b&m supports.

There were definitely realistic parks before (a celebrated one was a h2h park by cp6 whose name escapes me... something with a k?

 

 

Kayte Ridge?

I personally see Kayte Ridge as the start of modern hyper-realism, though of course there were parks like that before (SF:WoE). Watkins Woods was similar in style, but in my opinion much more clever in how it was put together. As much as I dislike the style now, I remember that Watkins Woods totally blew me away, it was unlike anything else I've seen. Details like the splash guard, the ladder game and the hacked transfer tracks...

After that, I'd say El Encierro was the next milestone. Just a masterpiece full of original ideas again, and the first time we saw gee's true potential. Then came Gee's H2H5 streak, with Belmont being the most prominent park of the bunch. SWS was equally groundbreaking, but I'd say Belmont was more influential.

Post-H2H5, Kumba needs to be mentioned. Apart from being an unusually accurate recreation, it revolutionised our object selections. Almost every bench contains multiple objects that were introduced in Kumba.

The last real milestone I can identify is Disney's American Waterfront. No groundbreaking content, but it popularised clean and colourful parkmaking which seems to be the dominant stream in realism nowadays,

If it were finished, I think Project Toucan would make this list. RCTFAN was so much ahead of his time. The things he showed on screenshots in 2007 wouldn't have looked out of place in H2H7. A shame everything is lost.

Lastly, regarding the Dutch community, I'd say Paul's Duinenzicht deserves a mention. It was Paul's first masterpiece and it resulted in a whole generation of Paul imitators.

I think Project Toucan would make this list. RCTFAN was so much ahead of his time. The things he showed on screenshots in 2007 wouldn't have looked out of place in H2H7.

Is there any chance to see his screenshots again?

It's always so difficult to analyze the progression of the game, because almost all the spotlights have added something new or innovative, in addition to the groundbreaking releases in H2H and even designs like El Encierro. But there's a few that have been mentioned already that are considered by many to be milestones.

 

The first is obviously Rivers of Babylon. Considered to this day by some to be the greatest RCT2 park of all time. I wish I could say this park captivated me the way it has for others; but clearly it was pivotal. Butter had released Euroscape earlier that year; it's definitely not aged as well but it was the second RCT2 spotlight and showed that 2 was capable of achieving the same standard as LL. ROB came next and pretty much blew everyone away, and set the standard for RCT2 parks for several years. 

 

While Gila was important, as Toon's release of new objects showed the potential of the game, these objects weren't really implemented into pivotal works until a little later. The influence of ROB is evident in the work of Turtle, Artist, and x250, who began implementing Toon's new quarter tile objects in the ROB style, leading to what I consider the golden age of RCT2. Maybe it's because I got into the game at that time but parks like Bijou Magique, Busch Gardens Europe, Ports of Magia, and culminating in Isole Calabria represent the first major phase of RCT2's meta development. 

 

The next phase was the move to realism. Toon's supports were released and Watkins Woods, Magic Realms, and Zippo's were hugely influential in furthering the progression towards pure realism. Gee's designs around this time were also major impacts to the community (see Salga etc.) Phatage laid the foundation with SFWOE, but it wasn't until later(and the necessary objects had been made) that the community clearly began moving in that direction. This phase to me culminates in the parks released late 2010/early 2011: SFC, Dreamport, and SFSF. Both Six Flags parks were stunning to the community, showing the potential for quarter tile and smaller objects to create micro-detailed parks; while JK showed the potential for the objects to be used in heavily themed semi-realistic environments. Kumba's Kumba also helped the transition to the next phase; adding necessary objects and showing the potential for realistic and aesthetic environments.

 

The most recent milestone to me is DAW (edit: and really also Rob's work as well around the same time). The impact that park had on the community is immense. The fact that Pac built it solo for H2H probably helped, but it's undeniable that the park brought the community to the hyper-micro detailed realism we see today. For some time, it was considered the best thing every created in RCT2. To me, Starpointe does not even surpass it. While SP is obviously a stunning park, the community had already begun moving in that direction. It's DAW that has guided the creation of nearly every park on NE in the past 3 years. IMO, still the best RCT2 park of all time; which is so interesting considering its lack of major coasters. 

 

 

Anyways that's my thoughts. There are so many pieces to the puzzle, so I've mainly stuck to spotlights to assess what I think are the 3 main phases. Really, there are so many innovations made by so many community members that have created the metagame we see today; that it'd be close to impossible to give every one due credit in a single post.

- Universal's Island Xtreme (2002) by Nevis kicked off the launch of NE and the "NE style"

- Gila (2003) by Toon showed what can be done with even a few new custom objects.

- Euroscape (2003) by Butterfinger was the first RCT2 park to hit the object limit and #1 ranked when released. It started a kinda annoying 2x2 building style in RCT2.

- Rivers of Babylon (2003) by sacoasterfreak was a epic park due to the way it was built at the time and amount of quaility that went into it compared to other RCT2 parks.

- Unfriendly Invader (2003) by Phatage was the first park released at NE with the cooked house mode hack used for track invisibility and prompted a lot of "holy shit!" reactions.

- Busch Gardens San Simeon (2005) by Fatha' showed that LL also has an object limit and was the crowning achievement of arguably the best parkmaker in the history of NE.

- DisneyAir (2006) by Xcoaster was one of the most outside the box parks released at NE and took in-game creativity to another level.

- Bule Thunder (2006) by JKay released Toon's B&M support set objects.

- Watkins Woods (2007) by CedarPoint6 kick-started modern realistic parkmaking. 

- Kumba (2010) showed how custom objects in RCT2 can translate into real life recreations and it set AP records.

- Heaven's Kitchen in H2H6 (2012) showed just how well a group of players can pull together to churn out great parks. 

 

I think the greatest landmark parkmaker in RCT has been cBass. Wisconsin, Escher and BOMB are all epic landmark parks.

 

There are a lot more things I considered adding (mainly Son of Kumba for sheer horror), but this is the main stuff that sticks out to me after 13 years as a member of the site. Also I find work by Coaster Ed and Pierrot to be truly amazing, but don't think it quite falls into the landmark category.

Google the 10 year anniversary history write-ups we did for the site. They have a lot of links to important parks.

^ it's so nostalgic, I just looked up the 10 year anniversary stuff. I barely remember doing that writeup on 2005 yet it feels like yesterday. And the stuff being written about felt like ancient history even then... now it's practically pre history.

 

As always, when I look back and see all the names that have drifted away from the community over the years, some never to return, I feel bittersweet. NE and rct was a huge part of my childhood and early adulthood and it's interesting to have laid out in text form chronologically. 

 

I still fondly remember having AIM conversations with Blitz and Coaster Ed on AIM on a bootleg dial-up connection and old IBM Thinkpad. And this was a couple years after they had peaked in the community...

I'm with you Milo. Or Ole?

 

The old times were special.

and it set AP records.

Kumba being Kumba here.