RCT Discussion / The perfect piece of RCT

Hello everyone. Been watching lots of Video game speed run history videos lately on the youtubes lately. Had me thinking of what would constitute to a universally agreed upon "Perfect" project / piece of RCT as obviously we cant speed run or anything.

 

So we'd be left to the judges. Maybe having an anonymous submission system to remove any bias, what do people think would have the best chance at scoring say 100% across the board? A recreation? A fantasy project? Or just something realistic done well?

 

Lemme know your thoughts. 
 

son of ghoul

I think it's possible to have a perfect 100% park but it's unlikely to be some sort of crazy fantasy park as those are much too subjective to get predictable results. This is because fantasy tends to be more conceptual and a judge has to 'get' the park and envision its theme similarly to the creator in order to vote a perfect. The quality for realism is much less ambiguous... good quality realism is much less 'controversial' for lack of a better term.

 

Either way, the perfect park is technically just a park without any flaws... which in mechanical terms is objective if it neatly and completely follows the creator's vision. Otherwise, perfection is subjective

Most people call DAW the perfect park, however its score is only 85%, which is interesting. 

If I have to choose one, it's obviously Kumba. Belmont Shores is close call.

I think perfection hasn't been achieved yet, some of the named things are almost there though.

IMHO, playing RCT perfectly means completing the scenarios in as short a timeframe as possible. Similarly to Minecraft, where the speedrunning scene consists of runs with clearly measurable criterea (all Achievements, time until mining diamond, time from start to finishing off the ender dragon), but the sandbox portion of the game is open to complete subjectivism - much in the way that RCT is. I think RCT can be played to perfect one's own subjective mastery of the game as a tool to manifest one's ideas. But an objective perfection is by definition not attainable.

 

The only exception to that would be for me to 'perfectly' recreate something from real life -meaning compositionally, architecturally, where every last stone and bolt placement could be compared. Which of course can become rather difficult in isometric games like RCT. But I see that aspect more in Planet Coaster, anyway.

Perfection when it comes to something like RCT is pointless, though, since it's entirely too subjective. If you have been watching speedruns, wouldn't a better question be: what's the fastest time anyone has completed the stock scenarios in RCT/LL/RCT2? And what rules would be imposed on such a run? Do you measure in-game time or do you measure IRL time? What kind of categories? 

Most of the scenarios are time based anyway, so it's just the few that aren't that you'd speedrun

Rivers of Babylon. Or anything by alex.

Like in real life you can never please everyone so that 100% is impossible 😙😙

I find this quite an interesting idea. Of course you have to agree on what to judge. When looking at scenario play, do you look at the pure game part of RCT, like financial, rating, loans, happiness and that sort of stuff, or more the aesthetic part? I'd say the game part is more important here, although I rather see a good looking park than an ugly one of course. But even measurable things like the ratings and guest satisfaction aren't perfect categories to decide if a park is 100% perfect since there are unmeasurable ways to achieve it. Some people pop down hunderds of motion simulators, others multiple shuttle loops, but the results are the same: a park in which the peeps enjoy themselves. So while the 100% park is achievable, there's no way everyone will be happy because the ways to reach that goal are too different.

 

Now if we're talking 100% perfection for NE-style parks, I can be pretty short: this is impossible. Everyone will always have an opinion, and tastes are influenced by culture and what people are used to. Some people prefer realism, some prefer fantasy. Some want to see perfectly executed coasters built in perfectly fitting environments, some like to be a bit more loose. That's why even a technically nearly perfect park like DAW will never get 100%. 

When I actually play the game these days, I mostly play through the scenarios as intended (this concerns the original game btw, never liked the RCT2 scenarios...), focusing on the finances, happiness etc. That doesn't always make for a good-looking park though I try to make things as pretty as I can given the financial limitations etc., and I often go back and re-do things to make them look better once the scenario is done, profits are high and loan is paid back... These days I find this "original" playing style more rewarding for myself than trying to make art. Sometimes a completed scenario turns out so nice I continue playing it and I guess that sort of makes it a "perfect" piece of RCT for me personally.

 

On the other hand, speaking about the ultimate masterpieces of NE RCT, see my post above. 

Bump to add my silly thoughts.

You may find that in music (speaking very simply), classical in particular, notes, chords, and the scale used, can interact in a perfect way. Notes themselves (in themes, motifs, ect.) and the notes in the chords, adhere to the given scale, perform in a certain order, and if there’s dissonance (unfitting or disagreeable notes), then the dissonance comes to be resolved. Chord’s themselves are fitting types to the scale, also going in a certain order, and so on. So perfection here is simply correct notation. You can go on to available options and also to parts of themes (cadences, etc.) and further to other elements, but I’m only trying to articulate my idea that perfection is in barest simplicity, where things are ‘correct’ and follow universal rules to constitute absolute perfection without debate.

Creatively, one would move on to things like instrument choice, ornaments, mix, and onwards, themetizing the piece and giving it’s character. Here is something that I believe leaves the discussion of ‘perfection’ and on to taste, style...

So imo the perfect piece of RCT, (isometric form) in a similar way, and even before genre, or theme, or even park or other, or any such thing to define it, is perhaps only the use of scale and space to where all elements fit together in an absolute correctness: mathematical while viewing no zoom, angle or tile unnecessary (even with both positive and negative space), and without resulting in disagreement or unpleasantness, if I’m at all explaining myself well... everything after that is adding flavor.

So, in short, my idea of isometric RCT perfection is that it’s only achieved in it’s barest simplicity.