The Elevator Bug: Causes and Fixes?

[Traveller]

One of the most annoying and persisting bugs in RCT3 directly affecting all known versions of the game, is nothing short of being totally perplexing and weird.

This is of course the bug, where peeps get stuck inside the elevator, while the elevator still runs perfectly normally, doors open, paths are available, but the peeps don't even seem to want to leave! (heh-heee...Maybe it's my standard elevator music "Theme From Summer Place"? ) Another weird thing that can happen is sometimes only one of the peeps is stuck in the elevator - hungry, thirsty and needs a toilet, but won't budge!

I've tried practically everything thinkable and unthinkable trying to find some sort of fix or a work-around for it. What I have discovered is that while it seemingly appears completely at random, and rarely effecting more than one elevator at a time. I have one park file, where I have two elevators, one being on a lower level than the other, but the bug happens only in the shorter one, no matter if I have completely deleted both elevators, saved the file, cleaned the dat -file from elevator, rebuilt the elevators, it still sooner or later appears in the shorter one. I have tried changing heights, entrance and exit directions, mechanics check the elevator every 10 minutes without finding anything, because for the game it is not broken. So far nothing has helped preventing the bug reappearing. The bug can even appear in parks with only one elevator as well in parks with as many as 10 elevators.

So, I'm wondering if anyone has more info what might trigger the bug to appear in the first place - or is it really just random? And if so, is there ANY known workaround or a fix for this super annoying bug? Or anything to prevent it from happening? (Other than not building an elevator!) - One thing I haven't tried is using Vodhin's vendors... anyone know if that has prevented this bug?

I do have one theory, which might be one of the reasons, but I haven't been able to replicate this constantly, so it remains unproven. I speculate that this may have something to do with groups, where one or more of the members in the peep group is/are not inside the elevator....

-Any ideas and thoughts are most welcome! No matter how crazy or inconceivable they might sound!

 

 

"G** d****it! I would piss on a sparkplug, if it would do any good!

-General Beringer in "WarGames" (1983)-

[JB]

While I don't know how to prevent the elevator bug from happening, there IS a way to get rid of it, at least for the current playing session: Pause the game. 'Double close' the elevator (click on the 'close' button twice). This will force any peeps out of the elevator. Open the elevator again. Unpause the game. Wallah! As far as I know, this will keep the bug from occurring for the remainder of the session. I automatically do this every time I boot up a game with an elevator. It's annoying, but it works.

[Traveller]

1 hour ago, JB said:

While I don't know how to prevent the elevator bug from happening, there IS a way to get rid of it, at least for the current playing session: Pause the game. 'Double close' the elevator (click on the 'close' button twice). This will force any peeps out of the elevator. Open the elevator again. Unpause the game. Wallah! As far as I know, this will keep the bug from occurring for the remainder of the session. I automatically do this every time I boot up a game with an elevator. It's annoying, but it works.

Hey! That's a great tip! Many thanks for that! This is the first time someone has found at least some sort of a work-around - it's not perfect, butt still better than torturing poor peeps indefinitely.  I will definitely give this a go, and I still want to keep on checking for what causes this bug in the first place.  I have spent most of yesterday testing different things with elevators, and I am becoming more and more convinced it does have something to do with groups, where one single member has a status "Wating for group" while the rest of the group are "On elevator X ride" - or vice versa, where group waits for single person in elevator ride.

[JB]

I hadn't thought of the "split group" theory before, but it sounds very plausible. You may be on to something.   If I remember correctly, the elevator bug sometimes manifests itself in the train and monorail rides (and maybe a couple of the flat rides?) as well. The same method that I described above works for them too.

[Traveller]

Small update: I think I discovered something new! -As I am still convinced people separated from groups is one of the main reasons for the elevator bug to appear, I started paying detailed attention to all groups in the park and their behavior, when they become "lost" and how long they keep still on spot while either waiting or lost, and what happens when a peep or peeps are separated from the group, for example when part of the group are on a ride, and others are waiting. If a peep or peeps take enough time in a ride, while others are waiting, occasionally the peep or peeps riding a ride - any ride, not just elevators - can sometimes become lost immediately when exiting the ride, if the group waiting is not immediately around the exit, and the peep or peeps won't therefore move - until meeting withe the rest of the group. I am now in process of creating a small test park, and filling it with custom created peep groups of different sizes, ages etc. and see what happens. (well... as I needed an excuse for making a new park, this is good excuse as any! )

[JB]

Ha! You're more ambitious than I am; making all those peep groups and keeping an eye on them. I get panicky just thinking about it.    I wish you luck! (and perseverance)

[wolfpaw]

As a pyro person I wasn't even aware this bug existed since I never work with elevators but this is good information to know! Thanks both for sharing!

[Traveller]

4 hours ago, wolfpaw said:

As a pyro person I wasn't even aware this bug existed since I never work with elevators but this is good information to know!

I remember there was some discussion about this on the Atari's RCT3 forum, long, long time ago, but as I remember it, no one had any solutions back then either. The same goes for the other annoying bug, the customized colors for the in-game balloon stall, where first ticking "Synchronize stalls of this type", then creating a number of custom colors and prices for the balloons - then placing the next balloon stall, the number of the balloons and the prices for the balloons are copied OK, but the colors are not copied, leaving all the same default color, blue, leaving you having to do the color selection all over again.

-I'm still amazed, that none of the well known game play bugs were not fixed in the Complete Edition. And there are more than a dozen of bugs in RCT3 game play, but the elevator bug, the customized balloon bug and the bug where peep or peeps wind inside animal closures without any understandable reason are the most annoying ones. I mean really... at least they could have made the game so, that the lion would eat the peep or peeps - like they do with herbivore animals, if they are placed in the same closure with carnivores.