Ask the Experts / What should I do?

I made a great coaster that looks amazing from one angle, but from all 3 others it looks bad... what should I do?

leave it

Pic? File? You need to be more discriptive than that...

leave it

You can't make it good looking from every angle, and if, then it's just going to be one cheap coaster.
Good woodies like Loco Toro have this "problem" too and many people say it's the best woody ever. The looks aren't what you should have an eye on anyway when making a coaster (well, a bit maybe).

Well, I got rid of it...

I'll post pics when more theming is done...

I always make my coasters from one angle.....because I assume that the people looking at the park will automatically look at it from that angle.

It makes sense, really.

Yeah, they might see the good angle, but they might not either...

I replaced it with a coaster with 3 good angles lol...

When I look at parks I usually look at iot from all angles. Sometimes you do make a good coaster that looks good only fom the angle you built it in, but that's okay. With the limitations of RCT you can't make everything look good. The coaster isn't everything either. Themeing and landscaping can automatically make a coaster look better no matter what angle it's at.

Yep,
Hevydevy

Ok, here is what I got rid of...

Only the top right screen is any good...

Well, have you seen Generations by Joe Holland?

The hyper in that park has a strange figure of 8 section that looks dreadful from the natural angle (with the corner of the map at the top of the screen) but looks great from another.

I go to a lot of trouble with angles myself, assuming that other people will naturally look for the good angle while looking at the park. Yannos looks awful from 3 angles and great from the natural angle.

I think the coaster looks great. Everyone has problems with diffrent angles, but that shouldn't stop you. The ride itself looks great.

Yep,
Hevydevy

interesting topic.

If i'da seen any of the bottom 2 or top left screens, i would say "WTF, get me out of this gay noob topic."

Looking at the top right pic makes me say "looks cool creative layout"

Funny tho, i never get that problem. Maybe i just dont care.

Designing the weird helices in Pharaoh's Realms suspended i did, so i changed them to actually be interlocked swirlimabobs.

Now this is an interesting topic. I'm always concerned about this when I make coasters and I'd say that most of my coasters really only look good from one angle. Or more commonly, parts of the coaster look good from certain angles so when I watch it, I naturally rotate the map to see everything from the right angle. I can't expect everyone else to do the same though so it's always a great concern to me.

I'm from the John Allen school of coaster design which says that a coaster must be at least as fun to look at as it is to ride. There's two reasons for this. Firstly is that a coaster is a spectacle. The cornerstones of every amusement park are it's rollercoasters as they tower over and above everything else. The better they look, the better the park will look. Disney knows this fact but Six Flags hasn't learned it yet. The second reason is anticipation. Good drama (and all entertainment is drama in some form or another) requires a build up and a release. Riding the coaster is of course the release and waiting in line is the build up. How long do most theme park patrons spend waiting in line? Several hours. At least 60-70% of the day is spent waiting in lines with the average length of any coaster being about 1 and a half minutes (some of which is spent on the lift hill which is the highest point of the suspense). Therefore, to build up anticipation you have to consider how your coaster looks from the ground and from the lift hill.

Anyway, that's the reason why coasters have to look good. It's tricky to make coasters look good in RCT. I've gradually come to believe that the curving drops are the best looking coasters pieces in RCT. There's two problems with this. Firstly, in LL they aren't banked which means you have to be careful with the forces. Secondly, they only look good from two angles and they look shitty from the other two. This really limits how you can use them but the best steel coasters are the ones that use them well. I made this one coaster called Chimera in Cedar Creek that looks great from one angle and shitty from the other three. Lately I've been trying to make coaster that at least look decent from every angle. El Ranchero is probably the best I've done with that but even that coaster definately has certain angles which look better. This to me is the biggest reason for posting screenshots. You get people to see your coaster in the best possible way because you control the angle. Hopefully if people get used to seeing the coaster from the good angles they'll find those angles when they see the fiished park.

I don't think it's so important to make the whole coaster look great from all angles as it is for certain parts of it to look great from one angle...I see a coaster as a series of set pieces flowing together, and each of those set pieces should have its own 'stunning' angle...

I tend to assume that someone viewing the coaster will have the knowledge to (or just naturally) rotate to the right angle so they can see it in all its glory.

Maybe i'm too trusting.

i usually tend to look at coasters i build from several angles. tho admittedly, i have created some coasters that look good only in a couple (or atleast "better") i think it´s important to make stuff look good from all 4 angles tho.

It looks fine you just gotta add theming at every angle then it should look fine.

Angles, they only really screw with the look on diagonal pieces and like Ed said the curving drops, but they can really mess up some cool elements. My general rule of thumb is to try to avoid it if possible, but if not make sure the coaster looks good from the natural angle, where everyone will most likely view it from. If it doesnt work from the natural angle, you can almost force someone to view it from the angle you want them to. Put in some theming or landscaping to partially obstruct the view of it from the natural angle, and most people will flip the angle to get a better view. Thats useful when you need the element to be in a spot to get the layout to work. and thus cant get it looking good from the natural angle.