It's been a minute. Building a dark ride brought all of my pent up Frontier rage to the surface. This game is more broke than even I realized. But I'm sure I'll get over it, especially now that I get to do all my building outdoors for awhile.

This reminds me of the unbuilt WDW Western River Expedition as well as Knott's Timber Mountain Mine Ride...very well done! I also really like the facade...the mix of building styles really sets it off and masks a large building very well.

Edited December 19, 2025Dec 19 by Wabigbear
spelling

Great job! This is your best work to date, at least of what I've seen. I liked the kids trapped in the cage in the beginning. And I noticed the Bird Cage Theater from Knott's.

So what things did you find broken in the game, as I've avoided building any dark rides yet and don't want to waste my time if it's a nightmare getting things to work the way they should. Not that I expect much to get fixed in the future.

38 minutes ago, Wabigbear said:

This reminds me of the unbuilt WDW Western River Expedition as well as Knott's Timber Mountain Mine Ride...very well done!

I've researched both of those for separate attractions, wasn't trying to emulate Knotts with this one but I'll definitely take that comparison! Thanks Wagi!

7 minutes ago, shyguy said:

So what things did you find broken in the game, as I've avoided building any dark rides yet and don't want to waste my time if it's a nightmare getting things to work the way they should. Not that I expect much to get fixed in the future.

I mentioned the special effects issues in the video, we're also missing a few effects both visual and sound from PC1. This ride is a 3 story building (it is in real life too, both locations I think) and I had to build the track and building first and then try to theme from the inside. My lower level was underground and everytime you click the scaling button (amongst other times) the game kicks you backward about 20 feet, which in this case would kick me outside into the park and I'd have to navigate my way back in. Camera collisions are ridiculous; if all other collisions are turned off nothing should stop or slow down the camera but that's not how Frontier rolls. And of course the ginormous (and very lazy) hitboxes they put around everything made it impossible to ever select the piece I wanted. Several times I would click something and the game would select an aquatic rock clear across the park. The coaster I originally wanted to use inexplicably had a light on it which couldn't be turned off or color changed. There is no lighting in the rooms with the two lifthills in this ride; that is all light bleeding through the nearby walls despite how they used raytracing as a selling point for this disaster. As I griped at BN, natural water glows in the dark so I ended up using pools for both the bridge scene (always my intention) and the flooded mine (not at all my intention.) There's probably much more; the initial build on this was close to 3 weeks and then I spent another 3-4 weeks just putzing with it and waiting for Frontier to release their DLC (which was completely worthless) and a QOL update that broke ALL of the lighting that they fortunately fixed a week later, although I still had to manually reset all the lights associated with this ride. I still think that the lighting overall is vastly inferior to what we had before in both games. Combine all of that with the shitty UI that they haven't done one thing to improve since release, and I have been a very grumpy old man for the past few weeks. 😄

That was probably more than you asked for but I think I needed to vent and it was safer to do here than BN, and I know you have been much more realistic about the state of the game. As for the dark rides of yours I remember from Expo3k, I don't recall a lot of water/mist/dust/smoke or the like and there are many other effects that do work in the dark. Also the sci-fi set does seem to be one of the least botched and most complete that they've brought over, possibly because it didn't have as many textures for them to destroy. I did have some issues with the resolution quality of my dark scenes for the video but I think that's a separate issue from Frontier and most likely a "me" problem. I do think you will be able to build a decent first draft at the very least of any dark ride you want to build, which you might as well do just to get an idea of the space you'll need to earmark. And in the meantime who knows what Frontier will do along the way to fix or possibly break something else but I suppose overall they seem to have moved in the right direction, it's just taking way too long to do it. Speaking of which, all of those issues I experienced mean you should probably plan on a dark ride build taking longer than you think it will.

For anybody else reading this who hasn't been playing the game, you really can eventually get good results that look way better than what we could get in PC1. It just takes awhile to get them.

33 minutes ago, shyguy said:

Great job! This is your best work to date, at least of what I've seen. I liked the kids trapped in the cage in the beginning. And I noticed the Bird Cage Theater from Knott's.

Almost forgot to respond to this part of your comment -- Thank you! High praise as I know that over the years you have seen a lot of my crap (and some of my PC1 stuff didn't completely suck, I think.) Those poor kids went in there for a photo op and couldn't figure out how to get out again, even though the door is clearly wide open. I tried to make it look like they were dancing to the disco music but they probably just really need to find a bathroom.

I really enjoyed the ride! The upbeat western music sets the mood for a lighthearted, not-too-serious adventure, like some of the soundtrack from the 1973 movie "Westworld". (Tagline: Where nothing can possibly go worng.) (sic) Your dark ride is just like Pirates of the Caribbean! Except we've got western badguys instead of pirates... and they have six-shooters instead of flintlocks... and it takes place in the Old West instead of the Caribbean........ OK, it's not like Pirates of the Caribbean at all, BUT IT'S EXCITING AND FUN! I liked the combo of dark ride and roller coaster. I would've liked to move through the dark ride portions a little slower so we could see things better. But maybe slowing it down would spoil the lighthearted tempo of the ride? Nice job!

1 hour ago, JB said:

I really enjoyed the ride! The upbeat western music sets the mood for a lighthearted, not-too-serious adventure, like some of the soundtrack from the 1973 movie "Westworld". (Tagline: Where nothing can possibly go worng.) (sic) Your dark ride is just like Pirates of the Caribbean! Except we've got western badguys instead of pirates... and they have six-shooters instead of flintlocks... and it takes place in the Old West instead of the Caribbean........ OK, it's not like Pirates of the Caribbean at all, BUT IT'S EXCITING AND FUN! I liked the combo of dark ride and roller coaster. I would've liked to move through the dark ride portions a little slower so we could see things better. But maybe slowing it down would spoil the lighthearted tempo of the ride? Nice job!

Haha, thank you - was the original Westworld a comedy? I need to go digging for that now. I agree that the pacing (which I liked) did mean missing out on some details. I tried to compensate by steering the camera to the important stuff but even then the signs went by too fast. (I just checked and they are almost all legible by pausing, but I guess that's not an option actual park guests would have.) The ride does speed up after the trainwreck for that quick curve to help distract you before the oncoming "train." The signs on that curve are barely legible, but similar to the first version there are arrows pointing to Pigeon Forge and Branson, where the main inspirations are, and then I threw in "Albuquerque" as a Bugs Benny reference, for the hell of it. Seemed appropriate next to a fake train tunnel on the wall. 😉

Edited December 20, 2025Dec 20 by JPTV

No, Westworld was not a comedy. It may start out light-hearted, but turns dark very quickly with the theme park animatronics attacking the guests (that does sound like a comedy, doesn't it). I thoroughly recommend it, as dated as it is.

So thanks for the long rant, er, explanation of the problems you had. It sounds like nothing I haven't already encountered, so I actually feel more confident to press forward. I had heard some people having issues with all the triggers they spend hours setting up, getting jumbled up and nothing working correctly. But I agree you can do some really great things with the game, as long as you're prepared to be a masochist and put up with the ordeal of creating anything remotely complex. Frontier is a company with some great artists and animators, but they absolutely suck at game design. The bugs that are still in the game, and there are still so many, are not there because the devs just haven't gotten to fixing them yet, but because the devs are incompetent and simply don't know how to fix them. At least that's my belief, anyway.

And don't expect "that" big dark ride coming any time soon from me. I have so much I need to do first before I get to it, and I haven't decided whether it is going to be a recreation, or something different with a completely new story line. Maybe I'll do a recreation of the original RCT3 version. 🤪 Check it out on my Youtube channel if you want a laugh and see my very first, absolutely horrible, attempt at an indoor roller coaster.

Edited December 20, 2025Dec 20 by shyguy

7 hours ago, shyguy said:

And don't expect "that" big dark ride coming any time soon from me. I have so much I need to do first before I get to it, and I haven't decided whether it is going to be a recreation, or something different with a completely new story line. Maybe I'll do a recreation of the original RCT3 version. 🤪 Check it out on my Youtube channel if you want a laugh and see my very first, absolutely horrible, attempt at an indoor roller coaster.

Are you talking about Space Port or War of the Worlds? I just watched them both and the rides themselves are quite well done for RCT3. I will say that seeing those graphics and remembering what it took to build that stuff with the limitations of that game does make me a little less bitter about the current state of PC2.

1 hour ago, JPTV said:

Are you talking about Space Port or War of the Worlds? I just watched them both and the rides themselves are quite well done for RCT3.

Space Port.

Did you watch the Original version? (not the updated version)

11 minutes ago, shyguy said:

Space Port.

Did you watch the Original version? (not the updated version)

Yeah, original. It was the first video on the channel. Now that I know about the update I'll go watch that too.

It's cool you've still got your YT content back to RCT3, somehow I ended up with 2 YT accounts and lost track of the one that had my RCT3 stuff. Perhaps that is for the better.

1 hour ago, JPTV said:

Yeah, original. It was the first video on the channel.

Well then, you've convinced me. I'm recreating the original! 😉

1 hour ago, JPTV said:

It's cool you've still got your YT content back to RCT3, somehow I ended up with 2 YT accounts and lost track of the one that had my RCT3 stuff. Perhaps that is for the better.

I have/had 4 YT accounts. I recently pulled all the content off the others and added them to my current one.

Really nice ride. Lots of detail and fun. Would love this ride in real life.

Thanks Wowman!

I like the darkride rollercoaster. Itßs very detailed and you create a very spooky atmosphere.

Thanks Daniel! You should see me when I'm actually trying to be spooky (and when we have a game that gives us spooky things to work with) 😁

I still struggle with making these but I kind of feel like this is the best I've done so far in this series

Love Gnomeland...especially the two gnomes riding on the boat! That's a really nicely done area, and it blends well with the Western areas. Nicely done video too.

Gnomeland Idol at the end was cute.

Edited January 19Jan 19 by Wabigbear

Amazing! So detailed, and thoughtfully so. As far as peeps not riding the boat/coaster ride, you could try making part of the ride go inside a mountain or something, where it is hidden from view. Then have it go fast, go down a steep hill, maybe a corkscrew, etc. to boost the excitement and intensity so at least some of the peeps will go on it. I know you said you're gonna remove Gnomeland from Copper Creek, maybe try this trick for another ride? I don't have any of the Planet Coaster games so I'm not sure if the above trick would work here. I used to do this in RCT3.

Did you make/animate the bus at the beginning and end of your video? Or is that something present in the game?

4 hours ago, Wabigbear said:

Love Gnomeland...especially the two gnomes riding on the boat! That's a really nicely done area, and it blends well with the Western areas. Nicely done video too.

Gnomeland Idol at the end was cute.

Thank you for mentioning my ZZTop gnomes, the YouTube comments seem to be all about the boat gnomes. It's funny what turns into gold sometimes 😄

4 hours ago, JB said:

Amazing! So detailed, and thoughtfully so. As far as peeps not riding the boat/coaster ride, you could try making part of the ride go inside a mountain or something, where it is hidden from view. Then have it go fast, go down a steep hill, maybe a corkscrew, etc. to boost the excitement and intensity so at least some of the peeps will go on it. I know you said you're gonna remove Gnomeland from Copper Creek, maybe try this trick for another ride? I don't have any of the Planet Coaster games so I'm not sure if the above trick would work here. I used to do this in RCT3.

Did you make/animate the bus at the beginning and end of your video? Or is that something present in the game?

Thanks JB. There's def a few things I would do differently with the area, mostly with that boat ride. The track is WAY too long (hence no boring POV's in this one.) I should have stuck with the Disney Storybook boats layout like I did with the train, which would have eliminated the whole "moat" thing and even open up some more room for other stuff. I did toy with trying to put a quick lift hill/drop section but even that ended up taking way too much space. Now that I'm playing with mods more there may yet be a solution that gets peeps to ride this, or maybe Frontier will just give us the boats we want (that at least 3 major Disneyland attractions have.)

Hope I didn't convey that I'm removing Gnomeland, I just meant that little children's theater at the end because I want to put a large restaurant on that space. I spent way too much time lining paths and water with those rock pieces to redo any of that, another reason why I didn't change the track of the boat ride.

That bus is an actual transportation ride from the base game. Unfortunately it is plastered with Frontier characters on the outside that were difficult to hide. It's a good thing this game lets us attach scenery to rides.

I love the rockwork and that path that goes through the canyon rocks, it all looks so natural. Great work on this and I'm excited to see what future additions you'll add!

So you're ready to take the plunge to use the scaling mod. I haven't done that yet, as I keep hoping maybe Frontier will give us more robust scaling instead of making us rely on mods. I also don't like using mods early in a game's development, as I'm afraid an update might break them and possibly render my save files unloadable. And maybe the biggest reason is if I started using that mod, I expect my builds would get twice as detailed, take twice as long to build, and further lower the odds that I'll ever finish Wonder World. 😉

Just be careful with the scaling mod, and make sure the .ini file is set to no higher than .05 instead of the default of .10, as this will cause any of the art objects that you may have scaled lower than 10% to scale back up to 10%. (I'm not sure what the latest version is set to)

1 hour ago, shyguy said:

So you're ready to take the plunge to use the scaling mod. I haven't done that yet, as I keep hoping maybe Frontier will give us more robust scaling instead of making us rely on mods. I also don't like using mods early in a game's development, as I'm afraid an update might break them and possibly render my save files unloadable. And maybe the biggest reason is if I started using that mod, I expect my builds would get twice as detailed, take twice as long to build, and further lower the odds that I'll ever finish Wonder World. 😉

Just be careful with the scaling mod, and make sure the .ini file is set to no higher than .05 instead of the default of .10, as this will cause any of the art objects that you may have scaled lower than 10% to scale back up to 10%. (I'm not sure what the latest version is set to)

I agree with you on all the reasons not to use that mod, and I am nervous. That's kind of why I put this version on the workshop, so that I can say I shared one version of the park before I corrupted the whole thing and gave up. I guess I wouldn't be the first person to start a YT series for a park build, and certainly not a forum thread that ended up being abandoned before completion. But I'll try and remain optimistic that I'll finish this since I feel like the end is somewhat close.

I didn't know that about the ini file, I will change that immediately. Thanks!

Love gnomeland! I do want to check out the file.

Haven't really done much with PC2, but I'm really impressed with what you've created!

Thanks CT, go for it! I'm still getting a pretty good framerate on my machine and it's probably going on 3 years old now. I've seen your parks so I know your rig can handle this :)

Wow the park and the video is so immersive. The whole landscape looks just fantastic. I enjoyed the video a lot and feel like I am in your park. I could feel the warm atmosphere of the park. Did you use reshade for the video? I think you did some post producing on the video but I like it.