StickyGum32

Hey folks! I'm back on the ocean again, which means I'm also back to fiddling with my parks! So let's catch up on some serious changes that have happened since we last talked, shall we? First off, let's check in at Pirate Cove, as this area has finally found its footing since I last left the ocean. The big B&M, Kraken, has been repainted and has a proper sign now. Oh yeah, and of course it has a huge monster (you know the one). This area has also now seen added to it a quirky little woodie, The Plank, for all of you adventurous treasure hunters out there. I'll get a POV of The Plank up soon for you all. Throw in a Galleon and a Whirly Rig and ouila, Pirate Cove starts to come alive. Next up, let's talk about the very first attraction you all saw from this project: Apparition Manor. My beloved Haunted Mansion knock-off. It uhh....well it had a big problem: capacity. It's riders per hour was atrocious, and regularly had guests queuing for 70+ minutes (real world minutes) for this 4-seater shooty attraction. So to help with the lines I made two adjustments. First, I took out some unnecessary queue space in the front yard and just inside the manor itself. Secondly, I meticulously re-built the attraction as a different ride type (dark ride) to increase the cars capacity from 4 to 6. These simple changes have sliced the wait times down to 40+ minutes, a vast improvement over the original 70+ wait times. There have also been MAJOR changes at The Plaza....but we'll look at all of that next time 😉 - StickyGum32

Absolutely incredible! I'm just as amazed today by the details and craftsmanship as I was the first time I saw them [REDACTED] years ago. Endless thanks for sharing these again sir! I've always been such a huge fan of this model, and I'm so glad to have it back on the web. - StickyGum32

Hey folks! Big update on both attractions today! I've been chipping away at the interiors, and adding some sweet, juicy in-show exit paths. I'm pretty stoked with how these are turning out so far! Side note, if you've got any name suggestions, throw them my way. First up, the Temple Boats. The first area temple has been decorated to a point that I'm happy with, and the second temple (notably a different style entirely) is also fairly nice. The final bit of the show building has yet to be themed, but two-thirds ain't bad! I've also got some sneaky pictures of the in-show exits. There are two in the first temple scene, by exiting through the paths on-set. The second path (the one to the right of the new statues) leads to a shared exit with the second temple scene. The shared exit from the second temple scene is accessed through the on-set red door, and is the only unmarked exit as a ride attendant would be there to guide you. Far less important than all of this, one minor change to the food court: it's now open-top! Next up is the Hidden Temple Coaster. This sucker has gained some coaster nets out front, and a safety fence just before the entrance cave for protection. The station is also in a place that I think I'm happy with. It's a bit minimal and hap-hazard, but I think that's why I like it? It looks a little hasty and janky on purpose. Anyway, the temple itself has earned a new golden statue treasure and a fire pit to keep it warm. This also helps hide the in-show exit in that room! There's also a new interaction at the top of the lift with a snake sculpture that spits fire at you as you pass by; all the more reason to get out of there pronto. There's also some pics here of the in-show exit at the base of the lift hill, and the exit that's in the shack on the outside of the mountain (immediately after the lift). That last exit is my favorite currently because you get to walk across the roof of the show building to exit! Super cool. That's all for now! Feel free to throw some ideas my way, I'm open to anything and everything. Especially if you see things that would strengthen the feel of the park, I'm here for it! - StickyGum32

Having watched Silvarett's videos, I can't say I'm not excited about PC2. I definitely wanna get my hands on it, but I'm also gonna need it to go on sale first. 😅 Thanks for the compliments! I've really felt a lot more comfortable with the terra tools after the mine train on my last park, and I'm glad to find an excuse to use those tools again here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While the inside of the show building still eludes me a bit on the coaster, I decided to start giving some thought as to what its neighbors might be...and voilà, we have a new ride! A boat dark ride! Where the mine train is a turbulent ride through an excavation of temples long forgotten, the boat ride is a meandering, relaxing exploration of the temples that lie buried in these mysterious caves. A gentle companion to the coaster next door, it also houses within its station temple building a small selection of counter-service eating establishments for guests to enjoy. Much like the mine train, it has a show building for most of the ride. Inside will be the various temple structures. For now, only the opening scene has begun taking shape. The rest is uhhh.....yet to be discovered. Yeah, let's go with that. And there ya have it! A new attraction enters the park, a high-capacity dark ride. More to come! - StickyGum32

It's PC1. I haven't snagged PC2 yet, though I'm keeping my eye on it. I've never been on the pre-order train, but it does look like a solid successor thus far! - StickyGum32

Since the freshen-up of my old park has turned out successful, I've been sitting on the idea to start from scratch and build a new park, something that would allow me to employ the new skills and tricks I've picked up from the beginning of a park. And so, just how that old park began, we're beginning again with one ride, and from there we will grow. So welcome, to a new project of undefined magnitude and complication, of new experiences and new troubles and headaches for me. Let's begin... ...with a mine cart coaster! This lovely beast is the result of a style of coaster I've wanted to try for a long time. Basically, adventuring gone wrong. We found some shit in there and we really shouldn't have touched it or entered in the first place. This lil guy has a compact footprint, with dark-ride elements which take place inside the show building in the back. It's also a fairly tame coaster, reaching a top speed of 29mph. It's stats aren't brilliant because of it, but It's going to have so much theming that it's certain to be a must-do! One of the elements that I'm trying to include in this park is some more realism, and we'll see just how much I can stomach to stretch for (but feel free to add suggestions). For now, I've begun by planning one (1) emergency exit. 😃 ...more of them to come I'm sure. At the moment, only the left third of the show building is really themed; that's the side that is housing the temple and the lift hill (shrouded by the mountain). Truth be told, the station and the end of the ride...I have no idea what they're gonna be yet. But I keep fiddling with it during my downtime, so progress is to come! In the meantime, enjoy a POV at the end of this post. See you on the next one! - StickyGum32

Oh nooo I've got to go hide before he finds me again... "It's looking really good" is what I would say if I were here and not hiding, but I'm hiding and not here, so I shan't say anything at all. - StickyGum32

Hey friends! It's been a very busy few weeks on the ship, and I actually get to come home on Monday the 9th! So life's about to get really weird with me basically changing everything I do all over again (living, working, etc), but even in the midst of all this chaos I've found some spare moments to get in-game, and I have some new things to show you! So I think I'm leaning a bit into this "pirate port" kind of idea, though I'm not entirely certain that's how it's going to end. What I do know is that I have a train station for the area and a top-notch, B&M floorless ready to roll. The station of course if pretty themed, but it could be easily rebuilt to fit any other theme that comes up. Taking a nod of inspiration from Wagi's ideas (thanks again!), I have to entrance to this area passing through the fort/train station, but there's also another addition: you have to walk downhill as well! This entire area is sunk down at least 6m below the standard park level. The floorless is a very typical B&M, though not a typical layout. Given the terrain, it makes use of the nearby elevated area of land that holds the train, and (in my current idea) will be forested, meaning that the B&M will be popping in and out of these caves into dense forest, and sometimes over top of the forest too! It also ties the dive coaster over in the Backwoods for the fastest coaster in the park, both reaching a max of 60mph, though the dive coaster takes the prize of tallest drop at 35m, where this one is 32m. Overall, this is what the area looks like now with the train and the B&M installed. Still not sure what the final result will be, and definitely not sure that pirates will take the theme, but it's a good start! Per usual, feel free to give your feedback and suggestions! - StickyGum32

Ohhhhh I really like this! I particularly like the Fort idea, particularly that it's a sprawling Fort. I think what I'd do is let the building of the Fort "sprawl" around the south of the bay to help house a dark ride and/or food venues, etc. It also perhaps opens up space even further south from the outlined area to do even more expansion, because the train station in its current place will have to be moved and redesigned, and having the Fort sprawl around the south will help divide the two areas and allow path to be constructed from one to the other. ...I'm gonna have to go play with this. Thanks for the incredible suggestion, and the drawing! -StickyGum32

Thanks! It took a couple of tries to get the look right for this forested type town, but I think it turned out pretty nice! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, so I want some opinions here. This is the only possible expansion opportunity I can find in the park, and I want to see what you all think of it before I try anything. There's a lot happening in this picture, so let me breakdown what would have to change. The smartest entrance position to me for this new potential area would be straight through where the Aeronauts and the food area behind it is, so all of the items in red would be demolished. The train station would move to become a part of the area, and the track would be re-routed to compliment the new area. The maintenance shed for Cascade would also have to be relocate, and the track slightly extended to make a proper amount of space for the entrance walkway. The eating establishment that's currently there would be replaced by something more thematically appropriate to the new area (and obviously in a different location). I think something pirate-esque or adventure themed would work well here, but I'm not sold on what that would be. I do think there would have to be another coaster or dark ride (or both) to draw crowds to this far corner of the park. River Journey actually has a huge appeal to the peeps, so it will be doing some heavy lifting on its own, but getting people deeper into this new area would require an attraction with high enough prestige to draw them there naturally. What do you all think? This is the only weak spot in my opinion when looking at the park as a whole. Do you think that it's worth the expansion? Do you think those theming suggestions would be cohesive with the rest of the park? Do you have a better idea of what to put back here? Give me some opinions! - StickyGum32

Thanks! I felt like it was the best way to let everyone experience the park in a more natural way. It's also nice cause I can show off some of the interiors a little easier. 😅 Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today...go-karts. I've finished the decor around the track, including a small western town scene that you get to speed through. And of course, plenty of forest all the way round the track. Truth be told, I really don't know what's happening next? This place is feeling pretty....finished? There are some touch up spots for sure, but if you all have any suggestions for areas of the park, feel free to suggest them! For real though, let me know of any ideas you have to improve or expand the park! Cause I'm fresh out! - StickyGum32

Thanks! It was modular enough that it filled this awkward shape, could be themed well to fit the area, and draws a crowd. It has a high appeal to the guests, so it's drawing a lot of them to this very back corner, which of course is always good for business. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Today's update is actually a pretty simple one. Since we've now seen all the park has to offer (thus far), I thought it would be cool to provide an areal photo view of the entire park! This way you can see better how all of these areas interact with each other. I also mass-selected the entire park and included the screenshot of the scenery count and everything. It's a little insane how much is in this park right now! But as I was thinking about that idea, "see how all of these areas interact with each other", I thought of a new idea, something I don't think I've seen yet: a walk. Yes, I've recorded three walks around the park utilizing our good friend tegidcam. One of these walks is all around the Backwoods, another takes us through the Entrance and into The Plaza, and the final walk takes us around half the park, from the Backwoods all the way over to the station by Apparition Manor. I thought these would be a fun way to show all of you just how dynamic the park can be from the guest perspective, so let me know what you think about this idea! - StickyGum32

Thanks! I think you're gonna like how it looks now 🙂 Thank you!!! I especially appreciate the smoothness comment, as I refuse to do the 4m track building technique. I just...don't have that kind of patience. 😅 Well I've already built a Haunted Mansion type attraction with Apparition Manor across the park, but I've taken a swing at the intense ride suggestion below, so we'll see how that pans out! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A few updates on this post! First up, I've finished most of the theming for the mine train! It's fully forested now, and there's some more props and sheds around the attraction as well. There may be a couple of additions in the future, but it will be subtle theming elements. Secondly, I've fully committed to the Dive Coaster, and it now has a full blown station building, landscaping, and forest. It looks so good! I've also included an updated POV below because it truly does feel so different now that it's fully done. Now the big one. I've now also taken a swing at what's going to fill the hole in the back: go-karts. Yes, race through the hills and caverns of the Backwoods on this exciting go-karts track! Check it out below and let me know what you think about it! - StickyGum32

Thanks! Something I really love about this coaster type is that it absolutely requires no smoothing! I did no smoothing on this track whatsoever and it rides flawlessly. In my opinion, it's one of the best in the game as far as smooth tracking goes. Thanks! Getting all the facades in was a real bitch, but I really love the finished product. Glad y'all like it too 😁 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Okay, let's talk about this back area of the Backwoods. My first intention was to put a dark ride back there because it would easily fill the space with a show building. However, this idea originated at the time that I thought the mine train coaster was going to have a lot more pull than what it currently has. The stats on that cute little ride are disappointing unfortunately, and the guests really aren't interested in a low-thrills attraction. Now a dark ride would most certainly keep their attention yes, especially with all the theming, but the biggest issue with a dark ride having huge pull is that capacity on most of the in-game dark rides is uhmmm not good. Not at all. It takes an eternity for a guest to get through the entire queue for Apparition Manor if it's full, so if something else is going in here, it needs to have the capability of high capacity. So my first iteration of an idea was to turn a coaster into a dark ride! I used the wooden coaster with the 6-seat cars, set the trains to have 2 cars each, and then littered the track with block breaks so that I could run 8 trains at a time. That gave me the capacity of a coaster for a dark ride in a heartbeat, with 96 guests on at any given time, and a new unload/load cycle happening every 10-20 seconds. Where this plan fell apart was with the game's calculation of the Excitement/Fear/Nausea values (and thus, the appeal) of the ride. Because it's a coaster, having the majority of the ride do absolutely nothing but flat track travel made for a very bad score, even though the finale of the ride included a short coaster section. So this idea quickly bit the dust, because I sure as hell wasn't about to go all out on this dark ride/coaster concept only for it to be completely ignored by guests. And of course by this point I also had the results from the mine train, and had even opened the park to see how popular it was; plot twist, it wasn't popular. At all. So now the issue is that I have this huge hole in the back of the Backwoods, and whatever fills it needs to have such a massive appeal that it draws a crowd back there so that guests will also spill over into the mine train and the Moonshine Moonshot. Enter....the dive coaster. Now I'm not sold on this whatsoever, so feel free to give your thoughts, but this is where we are at the moment. I have a working layout, caverns galore, but no idea if it's going to stay or not. So let me know if you think this is the right move, or if there's a tracked ride/dark ride type attraction that I'm overlooking that would light this area up. - StickyGum32

Thank you! The thing that I think helped is that the first time I built the mountain before the coaster, and the second time I built the coaster first. That made a huge difference 😅 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Two things for you today: a look at Cascade and three (yes 3) POV's for your viewing pleasure! First up, the final area yet to be looked at in the park: Cascade. This water coaster again traverses a non-descript village type area, meandering through buildings, bell towers, and caverns before plunging into the lagoon below. It's not much more simple than that! It's also one of the last attractions that got some nighttime love...before I gave up on nighttime lighting 😂 Cascade also hosts a small food court just off the exit, which includes a gift shop. It also has a beautiful overlook at the level of the final drop just before the big splash, giving an exciting view with any snack you choose to enjoy! And now, onto the three POV's! One of Cascade of course, but also one for the unnamed mine train and rapids from the Backwoods. If you have any ideas for ride names for those two, feel free to chime in! Eagle-eyed viewers may notice a big blue baddie in the mine train POV filling in the space of the Backwoods, and uhhhhh I think we'll chat about that next time 😇 - StickyGum32