TrimoParks

On 11/8/2024 at 11:43 PM, Wabigbear said:

Ohhh!  Love the colorful buildings! Nice detailing and it has a real 'fiesta' feeling.  The peekaboo in the tunnel is a nice touch too!

Thank you :) Something with "fiesta" would be a cool name for a ride, maybe in the future, now you inspired me :D

On 11/9/2024 at 12:50 AM, JB said:

I agree, wonderful colors... on everything!  Each and every screenshot is beautiful. I want to spend time in this park!

Thank you JB, nice to hear :)

On 11/11/2024 at 4:47 PM, wolfpaw said:

This is all so beautiful, I don't even know what to comment on first 😅

Eldorado area is probably my favorite, love all the colors - everything is so dense and detailed!

Thank you! Haha... I'm also quite happy with it :)

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Re: Explorica
Post #6 - 07-05-2008

Hey everyone!

My visit to Explorica is now already three weeks ago, but I still have a lot to share. Let's continue in the Grand Gardens.

The actual Grand Gardens area is located on a hill in the north of the park, above the central "Balloon Plaza". This hub here is truly the center of Explorica, and here we learned a lot about the decision-finding process behind the overall layout of the park.

In the beginning, the creative heads were pondering whether the park should have a central signature structure - or not. After some discussions, one idea became the most popular one in the team: The one "thing" that should be the center of the park is the visitor. To symbolize this, they wanted to enable visitors to be exactly there - in the very center of the park. No structure, no lake, no ride should be "in the way" there. To highlight the exact spot, a windrose was placed right into the middle, so that visitors could walk or stand on it.

Behind the balloon, there are several ways (stairs or sloped paths) to get on top of the hill.

Up there, we have the Grand Carousel, but also the car ride "Scenic Drive", as well as beautiful pavilions with breathtaking views.

Some impressions:

 

 

North of the hill, there's another station of Explorica Railroad - the "Garden Station", located at the northernmost edge of the park.

Right next to the station building, there's this charming "Café Flora":

Coming from Café Flora, we get to see a little lake with a limestone cave, inspired by European landscape gardening of the romanticism era:

...and to the left, the path leads us away from Grand Gardens, right into the beating heart of the African themed area.

That's it for now. Grand Gardens is the smallest area in the park, so there were naturally less photos that i had to share, but I'll post more again when we get to Africa Adventure.

Loving this area! It's so much fun to let my eyes wander around these photos and discover all kinds of things.

And the shot from above in the last picture… it's all so complex, wow! 

Thank you, Wagi and JB :)

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Re: Explorica
Post #5 - 30-04-2008

Our guided tour around Explorica continued in the Latin American themed area, Eldorado.

 

Coming from Taboo Lagoon, the first thing you see of this area are these colorful houses.

To the right, there’s a flower shop, and to the left, we have „Las Trompetas“, a location that combines food and music performances.

Rehearsals were going on in Las Trompetas, so we could just take photos from the outside.

At the end of the part with the colorful facade, the main path continues further into Eldorado, but you can also choose to turn left, as did we.

It all seems so friendly and peaceful here… but not quite everything is….

if you have zoomed into the right part of the picture above, you probably already know what’s special about this corner of Eldorado…. but if you didn’t, now it should become clear:

Fog, white roses, more fog, and there always seems to be midnight in that monastery - it’s „Midnight in the Monastery“ - Explorica’s most scary ride!

This one was actually open for us, but I changed a setting on my camera by mistake, so my video of the ride turned out unusable. Maybe another time.

We continued to explore Eldorado, with Gold Fever, a mine train, in testing mode.

„Los Globos“, the balloons, are ready to do their rounds at the northern edge of the park:

Next to them: Agatha’s Arcades…

…and Café Balcón:

I guess you all already spotted the pirate ship La Tormenta:

 

We briefly walked into the tunnel that connects Eldorado with Taboo Lagoon, but only to be pointed to this window in the rock that offers a wonderful view upon Discoverytown.

Eldorado has its own vibe really.

One last look back…

…before we continued our guided tour with visiting the Grand Gardens.

That’s it for now!

Some first reactions:

The potential is incredible.

However, at this point, the interface is extremely confusing to use. The need to click "confirm" on so many things is one of the worst things about the UI.

I know it's designed with console in mind, but I doubt this complex game is really easy to use there either.

 

On 11/2/2024 at 7:58 PM, JB said:

I love the warm lighting in your photos; very inviting! And great camera angles that really show the beauty of the park. Love that double-decker entrance pavilion. My favorite photo so far is the 9th image, showing the close-up of the railroad/path bridge taken from an angle above the canal. I also like the festive, warm yellow and orange colors of the umbrellas in the last photo.

Thank you, JB :)

On 11/3/2024 at 5:35 PM, Wabigbear said:

VERY nice!  Love the varied facades, they really work well.  The bridge work and banks along the water are also really well done.  Kudos!

Thanks, Wagi :)

54 minutes ago, wolfpaw said:

These are all so GORGEOUS - love the colors you are using and that hot air balloon is just the icing on the cake in these photos. Very beautiful park so far!!

Thank you! Of course, the colors are partially influenced by my editing software. It took me a while to find the right setting for editing these screenshots, and now I just found that the setting I used so far doesn't work that well for the next area which is a lot greener, so I had to finetune a bit for this one.

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Re: Explorica
Post #4 - 23-04-2008

Back to Europe! Finally time to write my next post.

After our little coffee break, the tour continued in Taboo Lagoon, the Polynesian themed area. Its two major rides welcomed us with this view, with the station of Wailuku Cruise (log flume) in the center, and the lift hill of Tumu-Nui to the right:

Before we entered the main part of the area, we turned right to check out Tahiti Beach Bar:

This is going to be such a cool place to hang out on on warm evenings.

As a big fan of log flumes, I am so looking forward to ride Wailuku Cruise!

This is the heart of Taboo-Lagoon for me: Watching the boats splash into the lagoon, with the snack stalls of Polynesia Pleasures behind me.

Between Polynesia Pleasures and Waikiki Lodge (see the big buiilding in the next photo which looks almost like the station of Wailuku Cruise), there’s this nice corner with lots of shades to enjoy your drinks or ice cream, while watching the splash of the log flume. Also in the next photo: The only bit of Kanaloa (the octopus) that I captured with my camera - maybe you can spot it near the center.

This view really. Tumu-Nui lift hill to the left, then the station of Wailuku Cruise dominating the view, then to the right (under the tower of Discoverytown) there’s the Beach Boutique and Polynesia Pleasures.

Passing by the octopus (sadly missed to take proper photos of it), we’re in this part of the area, with one of the Explorica Railroad stations to the left, and the entrance of Tumu-Nui (the B&M inverter) to the right:

Lots to do for the staff, one day before opening…

Tumu-Nui over Explorica Railroad:

Eventually, we turned to the right and entered a tunnel through the mountain, to give us this view from the other side upon the Wailuku Cruise station, with cute huts over the water:

Back through the tunnel…

…and more impressions of Tumu-Nui…

…

…before we leave Taboo Lagoon and enter Eldorado.

More soon. :)

Yeah. I could write an endless post listing everything I have to say, and I nearly did.

But let's keep this one short for now: I am very, very disappointed. 

The lack of custom media is a big letdown, but especially the poor variety of classic flat and gentle rides make it impossible for me to start any of my planned park projects with PC2 as it stands.

I said I'd do a European timeline park from the 1960s onwards once PC2 is out, but within realism, it's just not possible considering what's available in terms of rides.

I hope for all things to get sorted eventually, hope for us getting heard, rides being added, problems getting fixed. I really hope.

Maybe we know more already in a few days.
 

Wow, really impressive.

Doing such complex and detailed structures is really a challenge in RCT3. Well done, and fingers crossed for your game performance!

Post #3 - 18-04-2008

What a day this has been! I don’t even know where to begin…

It's way past midnight and I’m finally back in my hotel room after an extended evening in the hotel bar. I am quite exhausted, but full of impressions from my first visit in Explorica.

There’s a lot to see, and a lot to walk in this park. Explorica is very spacious, in large parts very green (especially the center), but the balance between calm areas and rides, thrill and gentle rides, is still spot-on.

I took hundreds of photos, and selecting the best isn’t done that quickly, so today I’ll only be covering the entrance area and Discoverytown.

Here we go!

The first stop of the guided tour was the bus station, which gives us this view upon the park’s logo over the path towards the entrance gate. There’s no parking lot directly near the park, but frequent shuttle busses to the big one a bit further away.

The entrance area has several fountains, small lakes, ticket booths to the left and right of the gate, and a very inviting vibe.

Let’s go!

Grab your park map, and…

…we’re in the park.

 

The plaza right behind the entrance gate offers wonderful views over Discoverytown.
Especially from this pavilion:

 

On the left edge (above photo), you can see a bit of the main station of Explorica Railroad. The bridge in the middle is used by the train and a path, I’ll show you more of that later.

Sky Explorer, the hot air balloon, is located in - almost! - the center of the park.

The white building to the right houses the park’s main gift store. Broad paths lead the visitors left and right of the canal, under the bridge, through Discoverytown, right towards the central hub.

There’s a lot to discover here!

 

The largest part of the park is situated at a lower elevation than the land surrounding Explorica, so you first have to get one floor lower.

You can take either the stairs next to the pavilion, or one of the barrier-free alternative routes.

Speaking of routes, Discoverytown isn’t just a basic main street. It has a really complex path system, including side streets, bridges, plazas etc., and left some of us in confusion.

Time to approach the first ride… can you guess which?

Here it is: Explorica Railroad’s Central Station - one of four stops on its circuit around the park.

 

After one of those confusing walks around house corners, alleys, vista points etc., we’ve made it to the central bridge across Discoverytown.

Here you can spot the entrance gate in the right third, and the dome of „Explorica Theater“ (which is not a theater!?) just left from the middle.

Don’t ask me how we got back to this spot, but, here I am looking back towards the (double decker) pavilion:

 

After we’ve passed the bridge, there’s a weird mix of facades popping up over the canal.

The east side, where we find a candy shop, churros and the Explorica Store:

The west side with Captain Clutter's Tavern and the Harbor Bakery:

 

Finally, at the end of the „Main Street“, which is in fact what feels like dozens of confusing paths, we’ve reached the central hub and take a look back.

There are two major restaurants at this central junction, „The Plaza“ on the left edge (service, fine dining, lots of style), and „Captain’s Happy Place“ to the right (burgers etc.). And that was our stop for a coffee or two, some needed three.

And finally: The central hub with the „Balloon Plaza“.

 

That’s it for now - one area covered, five more to go!

And obviously, I will return to the park for the actual (soft) opening tomorrow (or rather, today already), so that means even more photos in the pipeline. Of course, showing you all these impressions will take some time. Weeks? Months? I’ll keep you updated - bit by bit.

I’ll cover the next area, Taboo Lagoon, in a few days, once I’ve returned to Europe.

See ya!

16 hours ago, Wabigbear said:

Really nice work on the graphics for your presentation.  And that first screenshot is just plain GORGEOUS!  So is the last screen... Bravo!

 

(And here in Brazil we have an "Eldorado Mall", so their spelling works!  LOL!)

Thanks, Wagi! And that's good to know :)

 

12 hours ago, JB said:

I agree with Wagi, that sunrise photo is beautiful! We even get a gold-engraved invitation to welcome us. Excellent park map; clearly laid out and informative. Congratulations on completing a large park, Trimo (I still think of you as Elch. ) Looking forward to you giving us a tour of Explorica over the next few months(?). Wonderful presentation!

Thank you JB, and that's fine regarding my old SGW name :D 

Yeah, I don't know yet how the timing of my posts will work out in the end, but I certainly plan to keep this thread updated for a longer time, so yep, "months" should be correct. I will post more frequently now at the beginning, and then spacing it out a bit, especially once the thread is reaching the park's (soft) opening and we're getting going with its timeline. 

 

10 hours ago, Wowman said:

nice - looks so real. I also love a good map.

Thank you, Wowman!

 

10 hours ago, wolfpaw said:

I legitimately thought that park map was a photo from an actual park map in real life, haha - amazing work! The lighting is so beautiful in these images.

Hah, thanks wolfpaw.

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Re: Explorica
Post #2 - 17-04-2008

Hello from the park’s own press center! In just a few moments, we will all move to the main entrance, and then through the main entrance.

We, at least the fan representatives and the creative heads behind Explorica, are all very excited for this big day.

We just had the press conference, when I noticed I forgot to charge my camera battery over night, so I did exactly that while listening to the moderator and the folks from Trimontis. Some insights out of my memory coming further down, but first:

There were new files in the digital press kit, new concept artworks that weren’t released before - one for each area, so I'm going to post them here.

Above these artworks, I'm also adding the highlights of each area that were mentioned in the presentation:

 

Discoverytown

Highlights in this area: 
Explorica Railroad - Central Station

 

Grand Gardens

Highlights in this area:
Scenic Drive (Oldtimers)
Sky Explorer (Balloon)
Explorica Railroad - Garden Station

 

Shangri-La

Highlights in this area:
Karma (Launch coaster)
Bengali Nights (Boat dark ride)
The Lotus (Show venue)
Everest Inn (Restaurant)

 

Africa Adventure

Highlights in this area:
Voodoo - Fear of the Jungle (Ride type not revealed yet!)
Zambezi Cruise (Gentle boat ride)

 

Eldorado

Highlights in this area:
Midnight In The Monastery (Ghost dark ride)
Gold Fever (Mine train coaster)

 

Taboo Lagoon

Highlights in this area:
Tumu-Nui (Inverted coaster)
Wailuku Cruise (Log flume)

 

Before we go, here are the promised quick insights from the press conference, out of my memory:

• The park has a total of 18 rides, including at least 3 coasters.
• The hot air balloon isn't counted here, you also have to book a ride in advance.
• Future additions to the park are a possibility, but nothing specific is planned yet 
• Christine Metzger, previously head of the German Trimontis parks, who we all know from our last fan meetup in Tauber-Park, Germany, is now the project manager of Explorica
• Trimontis is now introducing several subsidiary companies, such as Trimo Logistics, Trimo Creations, etc., but most notably:
• The actual Trimontis theme parks (like Three Mountains Park, Tauber-Park, and now Explorica) now all run under the brand „Trimo Parks“
• The guided tour around the park will take the whole day - that means you’ll hear from me after my return to the hotel. I'm not going to carry my laptop around the park.
• We are encouraged to take photos, however, most rides will remain closed or in testing mode
• There will be two exclusive ride times, one on „Midnight In The Monastery“, the other on „Karma“. No information yet whether it's allowed to film these, I will find out later.

That’s all for now.

I won’t be able to post before the end of the day, and I plan to split up all my photos into different posts - probably one post for each themed area.

Excited. Gotta go.

See you later!

This Falls Overlook is looking gorgeous! Loving the plants next to the path there. But that frog juice... anyway, looking forward to find out what's behind that gate in the last picture :) Or do I really? 😬

Before I get started with the story... a personal note at the beginning:

It was early 2019, when I began to imagine this park. Ever since the heyday of SGW, which was already long ago back then, I’ve always wanted to create a park that was big already on opening day (or thread launch), instead of always growing parks over the decades, but hardly ever finishing. After a few discarded ideas during the 2010s, I eventually had a concept that kept me motivated, so construction began in the second half of 2019. I had to take breaks along the way, I did lose motivation a few times, but I always felt I should do this park.

Over all these years, the prospect of presenting this to you guys - one day - kept me aiming for getting my park ready, and ready for this thread.
However, the forum became a different one than expected, as 2023 showed... but whether it's SGW or ParkCrafters, we’re still a creative crowd and share our passion and our works with each other, and that big park on opening day, I finally made it. And here it is.

For this thread, I'm shapeshifting into the fictive storyteller of this story, which is written in the perspective of a theme park forum member. For simplicity’s sake, he’s German as well, so if either of us gets our English wrong, or mixes up American and British English, please bear with us ;)

And now… I am happy to finally say these words:

Welcome to Explorica.

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2008

Subforum: International theme park news

Thread posted by: thombrun86
Topic: Explorica
Post #1 - 16-04-2008

Hi guys, as you have read in countless theme park related threads around the internet, Explorica is finally opening in two days. You all know the concept artworks, the plans, the construction site photos… now it’s time to get ready for actual opening day!

I’m very thankful to have received an invitation for tomorrow’s Media Event, along with many other bloggers, fan club representatives and proper journalists. So I’ve travelled all the way from Europe to the United States, and now I’m here in Florida to blog from tomorrow’s Explorica Media Event, which will also have a guided tour around the park.

 

For those of you who don’t know anything about Explorica yet (hard to believe that’s even possible):
Explorica is a new major theme park with a focus on the spirit of discovery and adventure.

The four main areas are themed after different parts of the world:

• Taboo Lagoon (Polynesia)

• Eldorado (Latin America)

• Africa Adventure (Africa) and

• Shangri-La (Asia).

Two more areas make the park complete:

• Grand Gardens (a romantically landscaped garden) and

• Discoverytown (the main street, which is inspired by the architecture of different European cultures).

This park is Trimontis’ attempt to expand to the United States - on a large scale, all or nothing. There are rumours that they even plan to develop a bigger resort here.

 

So yes, I am already here, Hotel Magellan, Explorica’s own hotel.
I arrived yesterday late in the evening, so I couldn’t take any photos then.

However, today I went for a morning run around the park entrance before breakfast, and was thankful to have had my camera with me…

 

And when I returned to the laptop in my room, I found a new file in the digital press kit:

The park map!

 

So cool to get these delivered digitally, no scanner needed.

Anyway, as you can see, the park did NOT count the central hub as its own land, or „world“ as they say here, so these rumours were obviously wrong. Whether it belongs to Discoverytown or Grand Gardens remains unclear, or whether it’s completely unassigned. I guess the latter is the case, looking at how the paths in all the areas are coloured differently.

Other observations:

• Only five rides classified as „thrill rides“

• For the Latin American world, they went for the spelling „Eldorado“, not „ElDorado“ and not „El Dorado“.

• The massive building we know as „Project V“ (in the African area) hosts a shop and two attractions (one of them is a thrill ride… a coaster?)

• The tunnel in Taboo Lagoon isn’t visualized on the map

• We all didn’t expect that there’s actually another dark ride: „Bengali Nights“ in the Asian area

… and now it’s time for some more photos!

The first two pics are taken from the shuttle bus that goes around the park.

Here you can see the park’s own gardening facility, lots of trees (the park turned out very green), and more importantly: Rides! As you can see, the park is running last tests before the soft opening kicks off in two days.

 

That building in the next photo, nicknamed Project V (apparently V for „Voodoo“) looks massive in reality. Can’t wait to find out what kind of ride is hidden inside of it, they’ve been really secretive about it.

Next up: My hotel room. I even got a view on the looping of Tumu-Nui, the B&M Inverted Coaster.
Also, I got Explorica TV on my tv, showing Zambezi Cruise here - obviously during the publicity shoot with models on board.

Up on the hotel’s roof there’s a nice pool, but my focus was elsewhere. What a view!

Walking past the park entrance, I got a glimpse on Shangri-La with its strikingly coloured Karma:

 

And that’s (nearly) all. I better go to bed soon, to get a good sleep before tomorrow’s Media Event. I'm really looking forward to the tour around the park, and even with most rides remaining closed or in testing mode, I will surely get enough opportunities to take pictures of the park for you.

But first, I have to share at least one more photo of the park’s entrance (I took over a hundred). Took this one in the late afternoon.

 

I better sleep now.

Stay tuned for more of my blogging from Explorica.

 

Cheers, Thomas

Well, it's about time that I continue my thread here! 

But before, let me type this overdue answer:

On 10/14/2023 at 4:05 AM, JB said:

I think I would enjoy the Icelandic section of the park best, especially Snæfell. Journey To The Center Of The Earth is one of my favorite Verne stories and films (1959. The 2008 version with Brendan Fraser is OK too.)

Is the park entrance sign ("Three Mountains Park") custom scenery? It looks great! I've never seen it before. 🏔️🏔️🏔️

Oh yes, I think we share the fascination about that story, as I loved both, the Jules Verne book as well as the classic film from 1959. Didn't watch the modern version yet. :)

But to answer your question finally: Yep, I made my own CSO of the logo, just for myself for this park, it wasn't released on the CS Depot. And yay for the three mountains emojis :)

 

And now, let's jump right into...

 

Tauber-Park

 

This park is neither my biggest, nor my most detailed, but for some reason, it has a very special place in my heart. Maybe someone here will remember it from SGW. 

Tauber-Park is a small park, located in a valley in the German countryside. I have to assume that the exact story has disappeared together with SGW, but if I remember correctly, the park was founded in the 1970s.

An early postcard: 

 

The originally family-owned Tauber-Park ran into big financial problems in the 1980s, had to close in a very sad state, and was finally purchased in 1992 by the Trimontis group, which emerged from above described Three Mountains Park.

The now internationally established company put a lot of love into the park and reopened it in 1993.

Some impressions...

just behind the park entrance:

Looking over large parts of the small and cosy park... (this photo was apparently from a time before the chair lift to the upper area came to the park):

 

In 1995, the most iconic ride in the park's history opened: Grotto Cruise. 

Grotto Cruise is a rapid river with large parts inside a rock massif, and mixed scary and fantastic elements:

The area with Grotto Cruise and the log flume from above:

A few more shots of the park from above...

 

The whole park from above, including the upper area on the top of the hill to the left, which featured a family coaster and a dinosaur dark ride.

Here you can also see the boat ride on the lake.

And finally, one of the main characters in my Trimontis / Trimo Parks universe must not be missing:

Here's Christine Metzger, head of the German parks from 1995 onwards, proudly presenting the new coaster in Tauber-Park (in the background), at some point in the early 2000s, if I remember correctly.

Hint: Christine will later play a certain role in another park, coming to ParkCrafters very soon. 

 

Welcome to ParkCrafters! 

In a time long before RCT, I was playing Theme Park. And when RCT1 was eventually released, I was so excited that now, finally, one can build ultra realistic theme parks! Fast forward a few years, and I remember how everyone could barely believe that RCT3 was bringing actual 3D into our beautiful worlds.

When RCT3 arrived, I was in the middle of my time in university. One day I found the Atari forums, where I shared my first park online (Festival Park), and eventually I found the legendary place that was shyguysworld. At first I hesitated about installing custom scenery, but eventually I did, and so RCT3 became the one theme park game that I spent the most time with. Finding other theme park creators was the best thing about it all, I was so amazed by so many projects by talented artists that were presented on SGW, that it inspired me to work hard to improve my own theme park designing, presenting and storytelling.

After my many growing timeline park projects in RCT3 (especially Three Mountains Park, Tauber-Park, Jolly Hills, and later Alpen-Park), which I shared on SGW, I was set to finally build a park that would already be a big one on opening day, but all my attempts to do so eventually failed, and activity on SGW was already on the decline around 10 years ago. And then Planet Coaster came. I wasn't a big fan of it at the beginning, and it took me some time to do the switch. I finally moved to PC around 2019 and - once again - I started to work on a new big park project (and btw, I'm actually in the last few steps to finish it, as I type this). The undo button in Planet Coaster was of course a big help, but building things took so much longer, so that I had to take longer breaks from my park-building in between, but this time I really wanted to finish a massive project for once, so I took my time. And eventually, SGW was just... gone. And it's a big and very sad loss.

But now I'm supper happy and grateful that Park Crafters is here to reunite us with our passion, no matter which game we're creating our parks with.

And since RCT3 is the topic of the thread, let me get back to the one game that formed our community like no other: 

After many years, I revisited RCT3 and some of my parks a few days ago. I totally struggle with the camera navigation now, but the game really had one thing that Planet Coaster never had: Charm. Whether it's the peeps, the weather, the dated graphics or the lack of an undo button, RCT3 just had a more cosy feel to it than Planet Coaster had.

Of course, now I am also very curious about how Planet Coaster 2 will turn out, and what we will do with it. But first, before my Central European clock hits midnight:

Happy Anniversary, RCT3!

Incredible. That looks like a lot, a lot of work. I certainly remember the times when the original plans for the park were discussed in the theme park forums. So good to see this coming to life after all! 

Great job, guys. 

What a beautiful park!

I really love the concept with the river ride and the car ride right next to it, as well as the riverwalk. Great vibe there!

My other favs are the wooden coaster (loving that layout), and Retroville. That area looks so cool and fun at night.

Great project! 😃

Hi fellow park crafters! 

A topic that I've thought about a lot in the past days is the way how we present our parks on the internet, especially in forums like ours. There are many ways to do so.

Some of us post WIP threads which are very valuable for learning. Some of us write a story around our park and update our threads as the timeline progresses. I remember a thread on SGW long time ago where the park itself was kinda okay, but nothing breathtaking, but the storyline around it was what made the thread so special and entertaining, and it kept going for many pages and for a long time. 

Sure, the online world was a different one, when forums were a bigger thing, the most of us had a bigger and more engaging audience. Now, many of us put their parks on the workshop (Planet Coaster) and / or post their content on their own social channels. It's another way to present one's ideas, and it's awesome that we can do that, but obviously means less buzz in forums like this one. 

And since we're a forum here, a community, I thought it's worth asking around:

How do you prefer to get to know other people's parks?

Do you have any preference regarding fictional storylines vs. WIP threads? Do you prefer watching videos or reading written text? Do you prefer to just download a park and experience it yourself? 

And how do you prefer to present your own work? 

Which format or mix of formats suits your needs best? Do you usually release your park files to the public?

My own feelings on this topic:

I love reading and posting timeline threads, with a good amount of pictures (but not too many), maybe a few videos, and a bit of a story around the park. It became harder to post and follow in my opinion, but I'm always happy to see new projects popping up. However, the one thing I do only very very rarely is downloading a park. Maybe I should do this more often, but I guess I prefer the group experience of forum threads.

My hope for the future is that Planet Coaster 2 brings new energy into forums like ours, and personally, I'm looking forward to see and follow lots of new parks (and their stories). 🙂

Oh wow, now I really have to hurry up to finish my PC1 park. 😁 

Oh, I like the urban feeling in this one, the concrete and all. The theming of "The Rack" surely adds to the chaotic feeling of the ride, loving the mess 😀

Another musician here! Synthesizers, piano, anything with and related to keys.

Other interests include traveling, art history and photography.

On 10/4/2023 at 12:15 AM, JB said:

Hey, TrimoParks (I still think of you as Elch 🙃). I'm familiar with your Planet Coaster creations, but I don't think I was at SGW when you posted these early parks. So I'm glad to see them now!

Hey @JB! No problem 🙂 Yeah, it's been a while since I have posted my RCT3 parks. Glad you like it 😀

On 10/4/2023 at 4:41 PM, wolfpaw said:

That plaza came out awesome in your Alpendorf section, the diagonal buildings add so much instead of just staying on that dreaded RCT3 grid. Also that Quetzal coaster of yours looks seriously cool, love how it looks next to that lagoon. These are some gorgeous shots!

@wolfpaw, thank you so much! Yeah, the grid in RCT3 was probably the one of the biggest downsides of the game compared to Planet Coaster. I nearly forgot about this lol

On 10/5/2023 at 4:04 PM, jaronimo.mov said:

Wow!! I love the attention to detail that you have with your parks. I can’t wait for more!

@jaronimo.movthanks, I hope I can deliver! 😀

On 10/7/2023 at 3:40 AM, Cody said:

Good to see some of the old SGW projects return in some form, even if it is just an introduction to your work. Makes me excited for more and happy to see another member of the SGW community posting.

Hey @Cody! Thanks for your comment. I am also very happy that some familiar names from SGW have found this place, and hopefully more will do so in the future. 🙂
 

On 10/11/2023 at 6:55 PM, Kablary said:

Some of those pictures are so crispy and fantasically themed - I thought I was looking at a PlanCo topic for a second! I think my favorite from that post is this one:

@Kablary, thank you, I appreciate it a lot, especially because Maharaja Mine was my own favourite ride from the whole park, this means a lot for me. Maybe I will recreate it in a future Planet Coaster project.

 

Thanks to everyone once again!

So, in the meantime, I actually got back to work on my big Planet Coaster project, after a three years break. I really hope to be able to post new projects in the future, but we'll see. Btw, sorry for the different picture sizes here. I know it's not ideal.

And now let's get back to…

 

 

Three Mountains Park

Part 2: 1995-2011

 

The mid 90s saw the addition of a few flat rides. And in 1999, the park's new highlight was the wooden coaster King of the Mountains.

 

 

Together with the frisbee Storm and the Lone Pine Lodge (a restaurant):

 

The Lone Pine Lodge from outside…

 

 

... and inside:

 

A few years later, the next major coaster arrived at the northern edge of the park. The teaser was all about a highly venomous snake coming to Three Mountains Park.. the Boomslang, name giver to the ride. Here is a shot together with the Batoka River Rapids (a river rapids ride from 1991)  below.

 

Iceland came to the park in the mid 2000s. The highlight was the water coaster Snæfell, inspired by Journey to the Center of the Earth. After the lifthill, the boats dropped through the name giving volcano, passed by the famous giant mushrooms and dinosaurs, and finally splashed into the water.

 

Some more Iceland impressions…

 

 

Remember Hotel Marina Star from the beginning? The hotel finally closed in August 2008. Large parts of the structure were kept and now used for the main entrance, a monorail station, shops, restaurants, and more. The pond got transformed into a big plaza for the new main entrance:

 

The Park Explorer, the new monorail, also had a second stop next to the north entrance of the park:

 

In 2010, the anniversary year, a new fun coaster came to Three Mountains Park: The Unbelievable Journey of Lord Cannonfort, or just "Cannonfort" - to make things easier.

 

In 2011, when the park finally reached real time, a final small flat ride was added, and I believe this was the end of the thread back then. 

I also found this map based on a screenshot from above, with some of the major rides mapped:

 

And this was - in very short - the history of Three Mountains Park, name giver to the imaginary "Trimontis" park corporation, later renamed to Trimo Parks - and that's how I chose my (new) user name. 🙂

Coming soon: The history of Tauber-Park

I really hope we're getting a new version of the game soon. 

Ok, then this is my wishlisht:

1. The base game needs to be already more complete than Planet Coaster in its current state with all its DLCs. 
2. More flatrides, standard park rides from the 70s, 80s and 90s, also more European classics, to help build realistic smaller / lower-budget parks 
3. more basic designs instead of pre-themed rides
4. more useful scenery objects. We have dozens of oversized christmas tree decoration and giant sausages, while some really useful decently scaled theme park essentials are missing
5. more realistic (= less realistic!) animatronics
6. ability to remove staff and those cylinders from the queue entrance, + those weird premium pass arrows
7. weather, seasons, real time mode
8. more realistic light behaviour (especially indoor)
9. better tools for rockwork
10. long-term commitment to the game, DLCs for years. and support for more community content and mods, similar to Cities Skylines, so that the community will be alive and buzzing again, like in the best days of RCT3 (that must have been around 2010-2014)

Welcome Hedgelord! Happy to see more and more familiar names from SGW finding this place.

Hey ParkCrafters! 😀

So, I thought I'd introduce you to the park projects that I shared on SGW a while ago, and I finally had some time to find the pictures, and picked a selection for you. Unfortunately some are smaller than the others. I'm also not sure if all pics were actually shown back then on SGW, so there might be exclusive "new" stuff in there. :)

In my years on SGW, I have presented more parks than the ones that I will show here, but these three were my favourite projects that I'm going to show:

• Three Mountains Park (on SGW around 2011-2012)
• Tauber-Park (on SGW around 2013)
• Jolly Hills (on SGW around 2014-2015)

I will split my presentation into four posts, which I hope to publish throughout the upcoming weeks. Two for Three Mountains Park because it was such a big project, and then one for each, Tauber-Park and Jolly Hills. There's also another park that I wanna show which I did with Planet Coaster, I guess I will share this one in the Planco forum after I'm done with this thread.

So let's begin… with:

 

Three Mountains Park

Part 1: 1970-1994

 

I usually present my projects in chronological order of the park's fictional timeline, and Three Mountains Park was no different. The park began in 1970 as a small amusement and wildlife park in the countryside, located around and within three mountains.

One of my biggest passions around presenting my parks is doing so with maps and flyers, so we're beginning with the one of the opening year:
 

 

 

There was a big hotel at the entrance, Hotel Marina Star, located right at a big pond. 

One of the oldest highlights was the Flume Ride:

A few smaller rides were added to the park in the mid 1970s, and in 1978, the first themed area of the park opened its gates: The "Alpendorf" (Alpine Village), featuring a roller coaster and a swing ride.

In 1983, the first coaster with inversions came to the park: Quetzal, a corkscrew coaster. Those with less desire for thrill could take a relaxing time on the rowing boats on the neighbouring lake.

As usually, the park added a few smaller rides and attractions in between the highlights. The next big thing was the iconic dark ride of the park: The Fate of the Stranded Strangers - a very scary ride, which arrived in 1987!

The themed area "Mayaland", with the corkscrew Quetzal, got the Condor in 1988, and was completed with the water ride Tikal in 1989.

In 1990, the African themed area opened with a Topspin, followed by the Batoka River Rapids in 1991. I'll share a picture of these in the second part soon.

The biggest highlight of the last century however was the iconic Maharaja Mine, which replaced the old Wild Mine in 1992…

 

 

…and this completed the Oriental Valley. Here it's in its full glory by night, ca. mid 1990s:

To be continued. 🙂
 

Hi @Wabigbear, hi @JB!

It's good to see you both here. 

JB, let's hope for the best, regarding both of our motivation :)

I was halfway done with my most sophisticated park so far, but then I couldn't solve problems with the construction of an indoor roller coaster, so I kinda gave up about 3 years ago, also because it happened in a time when my real life changed completely.

So, this new forum might get me motivated enough to look into the game (PC) again, and maybe I can figure out a way to overcome my hurdles with my project. It would be nice to share it here eventually, but even if, it will take a lot of time to complete it.

But I feel similar. Maybe I can do something again. :)