I loved riding on Lumber Pile! (Wish it was longer... but I always think that about wooden coasters.)

Edited July 6, 20241 yr by JB

Really like your brick entrance area! Just a suggestion, as Wagi mentioned adding eaves, you might consider employing the alternate color on the bricks. Making that other color dark grey can really break up those large expanses of brick.

Love Lumber Pile!

Nice section and love the classic tornado style wooden coaster

Looking good! Not sure if this is a secret park if you are announcing it 😉.

Haha yea, I guess the secret is out now 🤣 Looking good so far Sticky!

But of course, to complete the area, you need to add a giant SSE right in the middle of your park right?

  

On 7/5/2024 at 10:39 PM, JB said:

I loved riding on Lumber Pile! (Wish it was longer... but I always think that about wooden coasters.)

Thanks! I forgot to say it in the post, but I'm actually really proud of how well the layout came out. I feel like it's hard to maintain that "out-of-control" feeling on these coasters, and I feel like Lumber Pile really hits that mark nicely. Pretty happy with it! 😁

 

On 7/6/2024 at 10:20 AM, citytrader said:

Really like your brick entrance area! Just a suggestion, as Wagi mentioned adding eaves, you might consider employing the alternate color on the bricks. Making that other color dark grey can really break up those large expanses of brick.

Love Lumber Pile!

Thank you kindly for the suggestion and the compliment! I'll have to play around with the bricks soon, I got hyper-focused on the Backwoods again 😅 I did get those eaves in, and wow did it make a huge difference on the train station especially; look for it below, I really love how it turned out! Great suggestions all around, keep them coming!

 

On 7/6/2024 at 1:09 PM, Wowman said:

Nice section and love the classic tornado style wooden coaster

Thanks! I grew up with a great GCI in my backyard, the Ozark Wildcat at Celebration City.  It was my first proper wooden coaster that I got to ride, and let me tell you I was spoiled rotten on that thing. GCI's are so damn smooth, and I've always loved every one that I've ridden. So the smoothness of a GCI was a huge inspiration for Lumber Pile!

 

On 7/6/2024 at 2:56 PM, Cody said:

Looking good! Not sure if this is a secret park if you are announcing it 😉.

In my defense, it's more of a "I've been on and off working on this park since 2018" kind of secret, and also I don't have a name for the park so.... 😂

 

6 hours ago, wolfpaw said:

Haha yea, I guess the secret is out now 🤣 Looking good so far Sticky!

But of course, to complete the area, you need to add a giant SSE right in the middle of your park right?

jesus christ no more collabs for you, banned, blocked

 

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Today's update is focused again on the Backwoods area, but before we go back there...a quick update on Apparition Manor. It seems that the assets that I used to use for the changing portraits are gone (of course), so for now until I have a better option, I've got the portraits hung with targets to shoot. They don't do anything at the moment, and they might not ever do anything unless I find a replacement. What used to happen was that, when triggered, the portrait would change to the "corrupted" version of the picture, but I can't make that happen without the asset. So for now, static pictures it is.

 

Anyway, back to the Backwoods! I've taken a lot of your comments to heart, and they've been extremely handy! I've been adding in some greenery and whatnot to the area, and it's truly making it come alive. Wagi's suggestion of the eaves was also a massive help to the train station especially, and to the rest of the buildings as well. This area is really starting to get some character with these trees and rocks and shrubs in. I also decided to give the little food shack a deck, which I'm very proud of. It will soon feature some outdoor seating and trash bins.

 

Of course, I've also spruced up the rapids attraction! Lots of terrain painting here (mainly adding rock texture), but I also made a decision to try and cover up all of the steel walls of the waterway. Sections that go near or through terrain were pretty easy, just extrude the rocks to cover the flume walls. But naturally not every flume wall is close to raised terrain, so I ended up using the 2x4 deck pieces to make a wall around those sections that can't be eaten up by terrain. I'm actually super thrilled with how good it looks too! Not yet sure what the back looks like coming up to the lift and the drop, but I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually. There's also a station building now, and a waterfall that the rafts travel through. You will definitely get wet on this ride.

 

Next time, we'll take a look at The Plaza, which will complete our tour of the entrance area. The Plaza is home to one of the most (if not the most) popular attractions in the park, so I'm looking forward to sharing that with you on Friday!

- StickyGum32

Really like the wood walls around the outside of the flume...that really looks nice.  And the addition of foliage really upped the look of the entire ride!

On 7/8/2024 at 6:11 PM, Wabigbear said:

Really like the wood walls around the outside of the flume...that really looks nice.  And the addition of foliage really upped the look of the entire ride!

Thanks! I honestly didn't know if I'd like the walls of the flume covered up, but it's come out far better than I could've hoped for. Very glad I tried! I think the total piece count though for just the flume covers is like 550+ so ya know there are some drawbacks 😂

 

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Sorry I was absent Friday folks! Had a very busy day on my hands out of nowhere, which does happen from time to time. But we're back today with The Plaza, one of my favorites! Certainly one of my favorites sections, I love how the whole area works together. Unlike a lot of these other areas, it's not a meandering section but a very clearly plotted and planned development. The Plaza is home to two attractions, both of which are among the most popular in the park: Plaza Autos and Prototype. It's also home to the largest quick service location in the park, hosting 14 stalls in one food-court style building, and the parks first restaurant which...also doesn't have a name. Finally, there's also The Forest Inn, the park's flagship hotel that is available for guests to stay at.

 

Prototype is a launching coaster that has a very simple storyline. You board an inventor's new fancy schmancy transportation technology, it goes awry, you go on a wild ride. Every time the launch happens, the shack blows fire sky high and the windows burst! It's just as fun to watch as it is to ride. Like every good coaster, there's a cattle-pin queue and a priority line to skip it. Also, if you recall me saying that Lumber Pile was actually the second coaster to occupy that footprint up front, that's because Prototype was the ride originally in that spot. Of course, Prototype got relocated to The Plaza, making way for the wooden giant up front.

 

Plaza Autos...to be honest, I really didn't expect it to be popular at all. It's just a simple car ride. And then, when it opened, it quickly became the hottest ticket in the park. Beats me.

 

That's all for this time! Probably more Backwoods on the next one. Take care!

- StickyGum32

Hello again friends! Big ol' Backwoods update today, and boy have things boomed in this area. As I was sitting with this section of the park, the scale of the mine train coaster was still getting on my last nerve...so I deleted it, leveled it, and started completely over again. One of the things I really liked about the rapids attraction (still unnamed, send help) is that it's compact. I felt that the mine train was needlessly excessive in size, especially in comparison to the rapids footprint (like seriously, go back and look at that overview shot of the area with the two side by side, it's enormous). So, with compactness being a primary goal, I redesigned the mine train ride...again. And I'm telling you friends, we nailed it this time. I'm so very thrilled with how this turned out! It's not a very fast coaster, but it's cute, it's still terrain-hugging, and I really love its pacing. It can also run three trains at a time, giving it a capacity that most coasters would kill for.

With the mine train taking up far less space, there was now room to add a brand new eating establishment at the base of the mountain AND a new flat ride just beside the entrance to the coaster! The eating establishment is again a quick service (pretty much a duplicate of the restaurants in the other one by the rapids), and it brings back to life one of the things I was sad to lose: The Grub Hub is back baby. 😎 As for that flat ride? Well it's a drop tower, and keeping in theme it's called the Moonshine Moonshot. It's a fun time for sure, and it offers the tallest view of the park that you can get from any attraction. Super cool!

This also brings me to another point. Something I loathed about the old mountain and now love about this new one (and the Moonshot) is that the sight-lines from around the park have improved drastically. The old mountain was so bulky and huge that it could be seen from damn near everywhere, and in ways that weren't flattering. This new mountain only grabs your attention when you're nearing that corner of the park. Now the Moonshot of course can be seen from practically anywhere in the park, but it's far less imposing and distracting being a simple tower; especially from far away, the tower becomes thin and easy to ignore. You might be able to tell, but I'm far happier with this new mountain. 😅

Oh yes, also in this update, the rapids is completely finished! I failed to get a full shot of the last area coming into the lift, but you can get a good view of it on the overview that's below. Now enough yapping; bring me pictures!

 

And the Backwoods is off and kicking! I've got a dark-ride/coaster idea that I'm playing around with right now to fill in the remaining space in the back, but I'm going to have to build a lot of it to see if it actually works or not, so that might take a minute. But for now, that's where we are! All of the attractions you see above here are ready for guests, with the exception of the mine train needing some foliage around it. Next time, I'm going to show you all the last remaining section of the existing park that has yet to be talked about, and is fittingly the neighbor to the Backwoods. Next time, we'll take a look at the park's intricate water-coaster: Cascade.

- StickyGum32

I agree, the mountain looks much better.  You still get the feeling of height, but without it being overwhelming.  Nice job!

On 7/19/2024 at 6:38 PM, Wabigbear said:

I agree, the mountain looks much better.  You still get the feeling of height, but without it being overwhelming.  Nice job!

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 😅

 

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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

I like the swooping layout of Cascade. I have never used that coaster type in my builds, but now want to.

Cascade looks like such a fun ride, I'd love to ride that in real life, great job Sticky!

On 7/23/2024 at 8:31 AM, Wowman said:

I like the swooping layout of Cascade. I have never used that coaster type in my builds, but now want to.

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.

 

On 7/24/2024 at 12:08 PM, wolfpaw said:

Cascade looks like such a fun ride, I'd love to ride that in real life, great job Sticky!

Thanks! Getting all the facades in was a real bitch, but I really love the finished product. Glad y'all like it too 😁

 

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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

personally, I like the way the coaster looks with the hills in the background.

I am in LOVE with the coasters you have made so far!! The level of detail, smoothness and creativity put into them are amazing! I’d have to agree, Cascade and Prototype are my favorite! 

I like the smaller profile of the dive coaster. It really works with the hills as @Wowman mentioned. For the Backwoods, I could see kind of a more intense dark ride (horror/monsters/etc.) to tie in the environment if you want to continue working with the landscape. Possibly a Haunted Mansion attraction of sorts or something similar to the Monsters area at Epic Universe. I could probably go all day on possible ideas 😉

On 7/26/2024 at 6:15 PM, Wowman said:

personally, I like the way the coaster looks with the hills in the background.

Thanks! I think you're gonna like how it looks now 🙂

 

On 7/27/2024 at 6:54 PM, jaronimo.mov said:

I am in LOVE with the coasters you have made so far!! The level of detail, smoothness and creativity put into them are amazing! I’d have to agree, Cascade and Prototype are my favorite! 

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. 😅

 

On 7/27/2024 at 8:36 PM, Cody said:

I like the smaller profile of the dive coaster. It really works with the hills as @Wowman mentioned. For the Backwoods, I could see kind of a more intense dark ride (horror/monsters/etc.) to tie in the environment if you want to continue working with the landscape. Possibly a Haunted Mansion attraction of sorts or something similar to the Monsters area at Epic Universe. I could probably go all day on possible ideas 😉

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!

 

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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

I think go-karts is an excellent way to fill up that space! They're a rarely used ride.

On 8/2/2024 at 5:59 PM, JB said:

I think go-karts is an excellent way to fill up that space! They're a rarely used ride.

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.

 

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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

I LOVE these walk-thrus! Exciting and relaxing at the same time. And we get a real feel for the park. And I learned something: The vendors dive over the counter when coming and going! I don't have the game, so I like seeing little details like that. Thanks for the videos!

The park is looking really good.

  

On 8/5/2024 at 11:33 PM, JB said:

I LOVE these walk-thrus! Exciting and relaxing at the same time. And we get a real feel for the park. And I learned something: The vendors dive over the counter when coming and going! I don't have the game, so I like seeing little details like that. Thanks for the videos!

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. 😅

 

On 8/7/2024 at 10:56 AM, Wowman said:

The park is looking really good.

Thank you!

 

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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

like the track going through the western town

On 8/9/2024 at 6:17 PM, Wowman said:

like the track going through the western town

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!

 

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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

 

Edited November 26, 2024Nov 26 by StickyGum32