MFJorts

540 feet drop would still be insane. That's longer than the tallest drop on a roller coaster, it can't be right. I think the drop on this slide is probably 100ft, and the author of the article added a 0 and just went with it.

^ Could it be as simple as the coefficient of friction being lower when the steel and wheels are wet? I think the same concept applies to steel coasters too, no? I've had a fast ride like that on Magnum back in the day.

This belongs in one of those informercial "you're doing it wrong" segments, where they show people incapable of doing every day tasks. I want to see a re-enactment along these lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xQLGWTSag

^&^^ lol I add a ferris wheel complex sometimes when I need to boost my peep count to meet the scenario goals. As far as I can tell, they are the most cost and space effective ride for doing this.

One thing that has fascinated me with the RCT series is making rides that are super-efficient and can put through as many riders as possible. I recently was able to beat my previous mark by a good 40%, which made me wonder what the maximum capacity ride is. Anyone else ever ponder this? Obviously the type of ride matters. A 2-seat hoverbike coaster will not be able to keep up with a 36-seat Giga coaster. But there is also the load/unload factor: rides with more compressed seating fill up faster than those with elongated trains. I have had good success using Vertical Drop and Floorless Train coasters, though I'm sure there are a few others that work well, too. I'd like to open up a sort of informal competition to see who can design the highest capacity ride. I don't use any trainers or custom scenarios really, so as a starting point I would like to limit coaster and train configurations to those included in the base game and expansions. I could make an exception for settings that make rides more closely match real life (i.e. adding another car to a type of coaster so that it matches the longest train of that coaster type in real-life). Other settings such as Peep preferences I am fine with tweaking, I just want things to be fairly realistic overall. What are your highest customer per hour readings? I've attached my best result via screenshot, please include one with your entry if you can. 6972 customers per hour. I didn't even know that was possible!

I'm sure there are good reasons to skip Mantis these days, but this shouldn't be one of them. The trick to riding stand-up coasters is to have some bend in your legs, just enough to give some clearance above the seat but not too much where you don't have room for your shoulders... it's probably just an inch or two. If you find yourself trying to sit down or stand stiff-legged and upright then you'll indeed have problems. To imply that getting your nuggets crushed is inevitable is simply incorrect, it's not that hard to find the right riding position.

^Riddler's Revenge too @SFMM

This looks like a great coaster. Glad to see it finally topped off. Is the full run completed now?

^What you're referring to is called a red out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redout. It is the opposite of the gray out or black out that comes with positive Gs. This article explains how well people can tolerate G forces: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-force#Vertical_axis_g-force. Basically, we are much less suited to tolerate negative Gs than positive, which is why you see the most intense rides hitting 4.5+ positive Gs (some actually exceed 6 briefly), whereas the strongest negative ones are about -1.5 (I believe, certainly no higher than -2).

They already have the system up and running at CGA, it has music videos, commercials (they were really touting the meal plan at CGA), weather forecast for the day (hourly or every few hours ahead), and some trivia. I haven't spent a whole lot of time in lines, but I do remember them showing a Paramore video, so expect a youth-oriented music selection of recent pop songs.

Saying that you are trying not to bring it up is still bringing it up... Give it a rest, bud! Maybe take a break from the thread if you cannot stop yourself from mentioning the same thing time and time again.

I wonder if CF is keeping an eye on how Lightning Run is shaping up at Kentucky Kingdom? That size of coaster would be perfect for this park and it wouldn't break the bank. From the looks of construction and animated pov, the ride has a lot of potential to be really good...

Possible site of the polar coaster?

^For real... Canadas Wonderland had over 3 million people attend in 2007, the year before Behemoth was built: http://www.coastergrotto.com/theme-park-attendance.jsp Darien Lake does not announce their attendance numbers, but in 2008 it was estimated to be just above 1 million: "CNL Income Properties does not release annual attendance figures, but industry sources pegged Darien Lake's average annual attendance at slightly more than 1 million people." http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories/2008/04/14/newscolumn1.html?page=all The attendance numbers are probably down from that number, if anything, so let's just call it an even 1 million. It's a lot easier to come up with the capital to build a $25 million dollar coaster when you have over 3 million people coming through your gates... There is just not enough attendance to justify such a huge addition to the park, the two situations are vastly different.

I like the creativity that went into the analysis, but I don't know that you can just rotate the barrel sideways and span it directly across the tracks like that and end up with an accurate measurement. Looks to me like the tracks are at an angle to the camera, and so the barrel is not perpendicular to the tracks. You would need to skew the barrrel at an angle and somehow keep the "depth" of the barrel the same so it does not grow or shrink due to being brought closer or further in the foreground of the image.

Again, I will tell you that "gimmicks" don't impress me. It's very rare that I get excited over the worlds ..est, ..est, ..est, ANYTHING... How often is it that something that tries to break records ends up being the world's best in a category? "Gimmick" to me suggests that is all the ride has going for it--like Son of Beast. But a well-designed RMC with those features would be game changing and also a good ride, so that was my logic at least. Glad to hear your input though, helps to refine our speculation!

I'm going to guess it is the worlds tallest, fastest, and longest wooden roller coaster, to be built by RMC. It may have multiple inversions as well and claim some sort of inversion record, either most for a wooden coaster, or even most overall for any coaster. I'm dreaming BIG~!

Well said. The indicator on the train only tells the operators that the lap bar is down past a certain position, it cannot tell whether the lap bar is actually against the rider's lap. Imagine a child who is just tall enough to ride sits down and barely pulls the lap bar down, leaving several inches of space above his or her thighs. As long as the lap bar is at or below the maximum height, it will give the green signal even though the rider is obviously not properly restrained. The ride operator needs to visually make sure the lap bar is actually down on the riders lap. The woman who fell off the ride had the lap bar on her stomach and not her lap, and that is something the ride operators needed to catch. If it wasn't part of their training previous to the incident, you can bet it is part of their training now.

^Cool, thanks for the info. I like the name Alabama Adventure way better than Visionland, which conjures thoughts of embarking on a vision quest and doesn't really bring to mind an amusement park!

The other side of this is that you will never be able to enjoy a fast, intense coaster that has quick directional changes by pulling a "rag doll" posture. I suppose if you had the B&M suffocating vests or the new-style Vekoma rubber vest restraints you might be able to still rag doll it, but other than that you just gotta man up and lean into the turns on a coaster like this. Edit: Or I suppose the I-305 style restraints would work out better too, though I haven't tried them and so can't really say one way or the other.

Great pictures! Have they mentioned what the angle of the track in the overbank is? Looks well beyond 90° to my eyes.

I'm excited to see the Koch family members who were ousted from Holiday World getting a chance to build out a new park now. This is actually a great opportunity for them to start with a blank slate and lay out the dry side of the park just the way they want. Given their track record at HW, I have all the confidence they will get Alabama Adventure up and running better than it ever was before. Have they announced whether they are keeping the Alabama Adventure name? I almost had a chance to ride Rampage a couple of summers ago, but that was the year they closed the dry side (again) to only operate as a water park. We decided to visit to Lake Winnie that day instead. Ended up going from Dollywood to Lake Winnie, then SFOG and finally Carowinds. Overall a fun trip, but still hurt missing out on Rampage. Hopefully I will make it back through the area again and be able to see Alabama Adventure in its glory and ride a refurbished Rampage. Best of luck to the Koch family on this venture!

RE: Green Fire concept: Funny how they show it as a red-tracked coaster! I guess it is so the track layout is more visible against the hillside, but still, a bit of incongruity there. I agree with what people have said about Helix being a much better fit for Liseberg. I can't imagine what the hillside would look like with all those supports everywhere. One thing I noticed is it looks like the first drop sort of spirals down midway through. Or is it just a turn in the middle of the drop? I do like the overall layout of the thing and think it would be an exceptional ride in the right setting and park.

I agree with everyone that is saying Viper is still a good ride. I have been impressed with it the past couple times I've visited SFMM, decently intense and fairly smooth, especially given its age. It is much better designed than Vortex at KI, which has some of the most coat-hanger-y transitions I've seen on an arrow. I hope they keep it running for years to come. Although part of me has to laugh at how they kept the same loop sizes and just raised them up super-high in the air. Tennessee Tornado shows that they finally figured things out (Alan Schlike did, at least) but it was too little too late.

I agree, the track really makes the transitions looks more awkward than they probably are. Given their track record with Phantom's Revenge, I think we can give Chance Morgan the benefit of the doubt and anticipate smooth transitions and good tracking by the trains.