SFOGdude25

From the photos, the first part of the batwing looks just as big if not bigger than the first dive loop! Is it April yet?

Definitely going with The Voyage. The way it's first two hills ride off into the woods just looks mesmerizing. I compare it to rolling waves in the ocean. Just beautiful.

Well, I usually hate ranking coasters, but this time around I decided to submit a ballot for the first time. Here's my list. LOCATION IN NEXT LINE (Please LEAVE THIS LINE IN BALLOT) ~"Nashville, TN" NAME IN NEXT LINE (Please LEAVE THIS LINE IN THE BALLOT) ~"Jamin Craig" RANK THE FOLLOWING RIDING SENSATIONS <-LEAVE Out of Control Feeling/Directional Changes_,y,y,1 Sensation of Speed_________________________,y,y,2 Abrupt Airtime_____________________________,y,y,3 Floating Airtime___________________________,y,y,4 Lateral Forces_____________________________,y,y,5 Positive G's/Loops_________________________,y,y,6 COASTER NAME PARK LOC <-LEAVE My Favorite Steel Anypark Anywhere **,y,y,1 The Voyage Holiday World IN,y,y,2 The Beast Kings Island OH,y,y,3 Phoenix Knoebel's PA,y,n,4 Thunderhead Dollywood TN,y,n,5 Raven Holiday World IN,y,y,6 Lightning Racer - L Hersheypark PA,y,n,7 Lightning Racer - T Hersheypark PA,y,n,8 The Legend Holiday World IN,y,y,9 GhostRider Knott's Berry Farm CA,y,y,10 Grt Am Scrm Mach SFoG GA,y,y,11 Blue Streak Cedar Point OH,y,y,12 Twister Knoebel's PA,y,n,13 Thunder Run (SBNO) Kentucky Kingdom KY,y,n,14 Georgia Cyclone SFoG GA,y,y,15 Comet Hersheypark PA,y,n,16 Thunder Road Carowinds NC,y,n,17 Racer Kings Island OH,y,y,18 Wildcat Hersheypark PA,y,n,19 Twisted Twins-S (S) Kentucky Kingdom KY,y,n,20 Twisted Twins-L (S) Kentucky Kingdom KY,y,n,21 Thunderhawk Dorney Park PA,y,n,22 Judge Roy Scream SFoT TX,y,n,23 Mean Streak Cedar Point OH,y,y,24 Hurler Carowinds NC,y,n,25 Gwazi-Tiger Busch Gardens-Tampa FL,y,n,26 Gwazi-Lion Busch Gardens-Tampa FL,y,n,27 A few things to note. I got to ride Voyage on three separate visits this year: Mid-May, Holiwood Nights, and in October. On the first two visits Voyage was running really great. In October it was pretty rough, but it still remains my favorite overall because I love everything else about it: the speed, the airtime, the intensity, and the variety of elements. Even despite its recent roughness problems, nothing has been able to top it yet. The Beast is very high on my list because there's just something about hurtling through the woods at breakneck speeds that really gets my juices flowing. The whole experience just feels so epic to me, sort of like watching an adventure film that captures you and doesn't let go until the credits roll. Plus, it was running really smooth and fast this year. The most surprising position in my list is Ghostrider. I don't know what super terrible ride you guys seem to be talking about, but the Ghostrider that I rode this year was really fun! The airtime was decent, and the roughness only felt average. The only thing that dropped it a few spots was the "slow-to-a-dead-stop" trim break that killed the pace of the second half, but as of now it's my third favorite coaster at Knotts behind Xcelerator and Montezooma's Revenge. Again, I'm not the biggest fan of ranking coasters. Everything outside of the top 10 and bottom 5 really just run together as "average" in my mind.

Pretty much every Dinn/Summers woodie ever made haha.

Lots of snow dumped on Kings Island last night and this morning. Here's a look at the batwing construction progress at ground level from KI's Twitter! Hopefully Banshee will be flying through here!

Yay! A date!! So excited!

^Mantis's trim break on the first drop has been tuned down a lot to where it barely grabs at all. It used to grab pretty hard, and that's when it rode terribly. I hated it back then, but after visiting CP this past season I actually enjoyed my rides on Mantis a little bit. Other than Mantis, I've done Georgia Scorcher, Vortex at Carowinds, and Chang (now Green Lantern). Of all of those, Scorcher is definitely the best. Stand-ups have never really bothered me once I learned how to ride them (standing straight, legs slightly bent, and supporting your weight on your feet, NOT your crotch. That's what causes the leg pain). However, they can get pretty rough. In my eyes, they are nothing more than an experimental gimmick, and they shouldn't be built again.

Totally agree. I've always thought "forceless" was a very inaccurate term. Pacing is what really separates the good coasters from the great coasters. Yes, Banshee's elements are quite large, which could translate to slow pacing, but at the same time, this will be the fastest inverted coaster in the world at 68 mph, and that speed won't even be reached until the bottom of the batwing. If nothing else, the speed alone will probably give a nice thrill and will hopefully help with the pacing of the ride. Personally, the new restraints don't bother me that much (tightening issue aside). I'm not a stickler for having that little bit of wiggle room that most of us here seem to want. Most of the time I can feel airtime whether I'm actually moving around in the seat or not. As a long-time visitor of Kings Island (I'm practically a local there), I'm VERY much looking forward to having Banshee regardless since now Kings Island will finally have a quality B&M invert that I can ride over and over.

How easily customizable will car textures be in NL2? Will you be able to, for example, change the color of the stripe that runs down the length of the corkscrew coaster train, or color each individual shape on the body of any of the B&M trains without having to go into Paint and design your own texture? Doing this in NL1 is a big hassle.

The batwing is rising, and it looks HUGE.

On the topic of support beams, will NL2 offer a larger selection of sizes for steel beams and wood beams? The selection of sizes was pretty limited before.

Banshee at Kings Island is the first brand new B&M invert to be built in the US in 8 years. The last new invert was Patriot at Worlds of Fun which opened in 2006.

First coaster-Little Rock-n-Roller Coaster-Opryland USA First steel coaster- Same as above First Woodie- Woodstock Express (then Beastie)-Kings Island First 100 ft coaster- Great American Scream Machine-SFOG First 200 ft coaster-Magnum XL-200-Cedar Point First looping coaster-Mind Bender-SFOG First B&M-either Batman or Georgia Scorcher-SFOG First Intamin- Millennium Force-Cedar Point First GCI-Thunderhead-Dollywood First BM invert-Batman-SFOG First Launched coaster-Viper-SFOG First Standup-Georgia Scorcher-SFOG First Flyer-Superman-SFOG

As a video editor, this is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves. Post-stabilization is really made to correct small camera bumps/vibrations, so when it's applied to a horribly shaky POV video, the editor usually crops the video by like 40 to 50% so the picture is not even usable. It's like a bad toupee or comb-over. It just covers the obvious. Embrace what you have!

Pretty much every tool that I've dreamed of having has been added into this new editor. The work flow looks so much more efficient! Excellent, excellent job, guys!

I enjoy the super forceful coasters AND the "forceless" ones. I just don't want to be beaten to within an inch of my life on a super rough coaster.

I've only ridden GateKeeper, and I'll be riding X-Flight this coming summer. I did enjoy GateKeeper, though. It certainly is a unique experience being out there on the side of the track. The front seat is especially fun visually since there's basically nothing around you. The only thing that kept me from fully enjoying the ride were the restraints as they were digging into my collarbone, and I couldn't breathe by the end of the ride, but since those have apparently been fixed, I'll have to try it again to fully form an opinion on it. As others have said, wing coasters may not be the best rides, but they are far from being truly bad.

I gotta hand it to B&M, though. They are one of the most loved and respected companies in the industry because of their super-reliable track record, and they stand out among competitors for that very reason. The fact is that the GP love their coasters because they are so smooth and comfortable to ride. In my mind, I've never ridden a truly bad B&M. Their recent coasters may not have the "spunk" their old designs had, but I still find them to be very enjoyable.

Not gonna lie. I agree with you. Lightning Run will probably be the sleeper hit of 2014. It's got everything that I love in a good ride: lots of airtime, sharp twists and turns, and great pacing. This might be a stretch, but I wouldn't be surprised if Lightning Run actually cracks some enthusiasts top 10 lists.

I had a dream last night that No Limits 2 was released, and I was about to click the buy and download button only to wake up to reality. At least we know that NL2 is supposed to be released by the end of this year. Ideally, it could be released on Christmas Eve! To all who are on the Dev team, THANK YOU for working so hard on this awesome software for so long. I cannot wait to buy it!

Going with burgers. I love burritos as well, but a good burger and fries basket is one of my favorite meals ever.

^Santa's Lodge sort of acts as Holiday World's hotel. I personally couldn't picture Holiday World building a full scale hotel/resort. Everything around the town of Santa Claus is so quaint and charming that a big hotel would kind of look out of place.

Incredible Hulk's trains have always been a favorite of mine. They are so sleek and well-themed!

I can't say how it would run on Parallels or VMWare Fusion etc., but I currently run No Limits on Windows using BootCamp, which comes with your mac free! Because Windows runs natively this way, it is VERY stable. NL1 actually runs better on my Windows partition than on my mac! So if you don't mind restarting your computer every time you want to run Windows, you can just use BootCamp to install it on your computer. However, keep in mind you'll need to split your hard drive for that.

Drop towers get me pretty good, but Skycoasters are the worst for me. Being hoisted up to the top with nothing but a cable and harness holding you in is terrifying, and of course for that reason, I love them! It's worth it just for that initial moment of freefall when you pull the ripcord, and the swinging back and forth is pure bliss. It feels like I'm really flying!