RCT Discussion / FUNDAMENTAL FOREST! Youtube series for beginners!

Haven't had the time really to watch all the way through all of these but what I've seen is really good, I've already l got some good inspiration from it and I actually know how to do the sloped fence without cheats trick now (Thanks for that!)

And I'm already seeing people building stuff from this (The really cool park with glass elements above and a park on DKMP) so I'd say it working well. The park you're building looks great too, hope you'll have the time to keep this up.

Just catching up after a busy week - 

 

Looking great helmsdeepstate, loving the direction you've taken with that decorative lake, the carousel on the water looks very iconic! that schwarzy looks cool too, reminds me of something like mindbender!

 

But here's the headline; as usual i uploaded a vid on saturday! the schedule as it stands right now is every saturday at 7pm british time

 

 

In this episode I do some live building which has gone down well in the comments I am glad to hear! Thanks to users like Faas and everyone else who gave feedback about that! 

 

https://youtu.be/Zb0_YHRYPow

 

as always, likes and comments go a huge way to spreading the word of our lil community, so they are always greatly appreciated!

 

Crumbs! things have been up in the air recently and i have not been doing a good job of keeping everything up to speed - but I have managed to upload every week! thats pretty cool! and it is also the thing that counts most.

 

Three episodes to update you on today - in episode 6, we begin laying down the groundworks for the pirate area, watch here:

https://youtu.be/fn0EF9QToJQ 

 

 

In episode 7, we give an in-context tutorial for foliage! not to mention the sick vekoma flyer we build! watch here: https://youtu.be/o05kPeNKdmk

 

 

And in the most recent episode, episode 8, we flesh out the pirate area and work on a surprisingly convincing no hack pirate ship! some cool tricks in here that i never realised were possible! watch here: https://youtu.be/LkczLO42n4k

 

 

thank you all so much for all of your likes and comments, as well as subscribing to make sure you catch it each week. all of these small acts helps youtube learn to show the video to people like you and me, people who would appreciate being part of our community.

I've really been enjoying the new episodes, SSSammy, and I've been working on my park a bit more. I've been traveling and working a bit more than usual, so haven't had much time myself to post. But here's to fixing that!

 

 

I've been focusing on two areas in my park. The first section is based off of that Schwarzkopf I built earlier. I thought it would be interesting if this is an older part of the park that has more flat rides and cheaper coasters and other tracked rides. I'm mostly just goofing around with the theming and would love some feedback or ideas particularly on that part.

 

 

The second area was initially based on the glass idea I was using around the entrance. One thing I love about zoos is when they enclose part of a water habitat with glass and you can go down and see manatees or dolphins or whatever swimming underwater. I thought it might fun to imitate that with the submarine ride, and then I thought it'd be fun to have a coaster that appears to go underwater, as well.

 

 

 

After watching SSSammy's great interview with Steve, I think the thing I'm struggling with the most is macro. So, I sat down to plan a bit more, and I realized that, because I've never done something like this before, I don't know what I like and what I don't like. Seeing more examples in this series, in the parks from the Steve interview, and in other parks around New Element, I'm starting to get a better idea. I think I'm at peace with the idea that the macro (and other things) for this first park might just suck a lot but the act of doing it will help me better understand what I need to do differently next time.

 

As always, I warmly welcome any positive or negative feedback!

Glad to see this. I think you have more macro going on than you think. You've clearly crafted ideas for rides, terrain, water and path to interact with and enable one another. You also don't use straight lines and have an instinct for organic layouting. So you think of life instead of trying to execute rules, like we would see with people relying on symmetry and straight visual organisation. So you already have very good fundamentals not all new members bring. The lack of experience you mention can be worked on like you said, and as you explore design options more and more, you'll automatically hone those skills along the way.

am i going crazy? i swear i wrote a whole essay and posted it in here earlier. i guess im writing it again!

 

i'll begin by echoing what posix said. the advice from the goat should never be underestimated.

 

I am really liking the macro elements in what you have built so far! i love the way you have used water and landscaping to heighten the presentation of your rides. the blue diver is very cool, love to see a cool fantasy layout.

 

your use of landscape and path to interact with your coaster there are already very developed, which can sometime be something people struggle to grasp even after many projects. so great work there. overall im very impressed with your macro. so if you're continuing to persue improvement with it, im very excited to see what you can do!

 

i think the constructive criticism I will give is that the section with the coasters over the black and white ground is missing that consideration you have given to the other sections. it becomes quite square in its presentation, with your coasters boxed off away from everything. there isnt necessarily a problem with that, as it can be quite realistic, we have to consider how we are going to heighten them to prevent them from being boring. that often means pulling other tricks out of your toolbox to bring them to life. also the corner with all of the queues next to eachother would be an absolute scrum. moving at least one of those rides somewhere else would do you an absolutel universe of good - negative space is often the key to all this!

Fundamental Forest episode 9 is here! find it at this link! https://youtu.be/FirIz1rU1Tc

 

In this episode we discuss something that can go a bit unspoken - what do we do when we aren't inspired?? the fact of the matter is that humans can't blast on all cylinders all of the time. so what do we do when we want to continue making progress? perhaps during a competition setting like H2H or a Deurklink contest? we talk a lil bit about it this week, check it out!

 

Another catch up post!

 

Watch Episode 10 here! https://youtu.be/NB0hw8mu_ho

 

In this episode we tackle a NEMESIS/INFERNO style Inverted coaster, take a trip down memory lane to be critical about my past projects, and we tackle a huge chunk of Haunted Harbour!

 

 

Watch Episode 11 here! https://youtu.be/hyXm4DcGdg0

 

We zero in on that elusive water ride for our pirate section, and we pilot a new segment, OFFICE HOURS, where I look at YOUR work and give you tips on what to improve!

 

 

Watch Episode 12 here! https://youtu.be/6Lw5BpuJnIE

 

In this episode we reflect on comments made about a screenshot I posted, and we make our splashboats look pretty!

 

 

Thanks again to everybody who continues to be so encouraging on discord, the site, and over on youtube. love ya!

Thank you for keeping this series going, SSSammy! I really liked the office hours and am grateful to therty for submitting their park and you for giving such insightful feedback on it.

 

And thanks to both you and posix for the valuable feedback on *my* park. I admit I was a bit stuck on how to incorporate it, and like magic, you posted an episode all about that. That got me unstuck, and here's my work so far on the wild mouse.

 

 

Still not sure what I'm going to do about the jumbled queue lines and the theming on the looping coaster, but I'm going to poke around the site here a bit and see if I can get some inspiration for those.

 

I've also started a kids area that has a junior coaster, a truck ride, a mini railroad, a couple flat rides, and a restaurant.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought the junior coaster would be fun to ride as it goes back and forth between the forest and the more open mushroom field. The truck ride starts with a "tutorial" before going on an adventure through some tough terrain, including a moment where you come around a blind corner and it would look like you're about to drive into the pond. Not exactly sure what I want to do with the rest of the area yet.

 

I'm really grateful for all the encouragement and constructive criticism so far! Happy to receive more of both!

It's so awesome to see you developing this park more and more helmsdeepstate! I think you are doing a great job having organic flowing footpaths. I don't know why but I love that train ride. it just looks very satisfying for some reason!

 

I think I would afford myself a little more space along the map edge to give it a little breathing room! fidwell's map resizer plugin could let you expand the map on the axis that works for you. (i need to do that in Fundamental Forest to be honest...)

Another catch up, but only two weeks this time!

 

 

 

In episode 13 we struggle with lack of time but still get progress made, along with look back on the genre-creating Kayte Ridge!

 

watch episode 13 here! https://youtu.be/pHX...Av0wcay0lo1DMQp

 

 

In episode 14 I work on the feedback I've been given by the community to improve the train station, the pirate plaza, and the haunted mansion ride!

 

watch episode 14 here! https://youtu.be/Kaa...z50YtJBjR6uwCsX

Thanks for the recommendation, SSSammy! Map size is something I'm getting curious about. It'd be awesome to see you touch on that in the series. How does one pick a map size, how much space should be left around the map edge, how does one setup a map of a particular size for contests that have map size rules, etc.

Good suggestion, I’ll talk about it next episode! Personally I’d let your creation dictate the map size. Start on big map and shrink it after your creation is finished!