BotanicalStig

Good enough for me, I'd like a last row ride but I'm not crying over it. I'll be driving up there tomorrow and staying until Friday... God I hope it stays open. I've been putting this trip off all summer but this week is our last chance.

I mean, nobody is going to argue with you on that... The Hurlers have a completely useless design from the beginning. Four straight lines connected with a couple right turns. RMC could make a better ride out of it utilizing those straight lines (ie 0g stalls and better airtime). The point is, the layout couldn't be turned into something twisty/interesting with the current support structure.

^I believe at 16 guests per dispatch, every 40 seconds, adds up to 1,440 guests per hour.

^This is great news, I haven't built a coaster since I saw the update, will have to play with it. Had a couple hours today to begin theming a coaster I built recently. This game sure is pretty!

Honestly, that PC is pretty bad deal. But if you can't build your own and can't move on your budget, it should work. The game wont run very well. I have a $500 video card in my PC, and the game lags after a few coasters or a few flat rides go in. That computer has a $60 video card in it... if that tells you anything. PLC isn't really well optimized, at this point, though. You could always swap the video card in the future, but I wouldn't waste the money on bad hardware. Spend a little more on the computer.

^^Your inversions look great! I've been playing around with custom inversions on a few different coasters yesterday. The result has been pretty great, I just wish there was an easier way to build them.... That said, I guess I'm glad Frontier hasn't patched the bug that allows this. After finally getting some hours in with PC, I've gotten more used to the coaster builder... and It's pretty great. It's just so easy to get a smooth track- it's ridiculous. I would like longer segments at times, and I still have to complain about the inversion thing... But overall they've done a great job with it. Here's a dive machine I built. I'm going to have to build more, I want to design one with a longer layout, but I was running out of momentum with this one. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

They've released an update to "alpha 2" (0.2.1) which brings a huge improvement to the coaster builder. We now have an optional heartline feature, and a really, really good smoothing function. The coaster builder has gotten so much better with this update. The fatal flaw being that vertical track, custom inversions, and banking beyond 90 degrees are still not possible. The builder is good otherwise, but unless these limits are removed, PC will never be a good fit for coaster builders. Looking at the nolimits and tps projects I've done over the years, most of them would not be possible using the PC editor. They've done great things with this update... I just don't understand why they think we need limits to how we bend our tracks. Hopefully they choose to resolve this. Here is a coaster I put together very quickly to test the smoothing capabilities. I should have done a before and after pov- the smoothing is seriously handy. The only parts of the ride that are not good are the prebuilt inversions... because you can't fix them or make your own... you just have to deal with it. [youtu_be] [/youtu_be]

Impressive! You must work quickly, that's a lot to do in just a days time. They say they're still working on the coaster designer, hopefully they can give us more freedom and smoother transitions. Did you see the new heartline feature? I forget what they call it, banking height offset, or something. Pretty nifty!

I've had bad service at harmony hall on many occasions. Probably every time I've gone. The employee's always have a hard time checking people at the registers, like they've never done it before. Maybe their registers are just hard to use. My wife and I have tried food at all of the stations in harmony hall. At this point, we mostly go for the steak burgers. But the only bad food was really the pizza. The pizza at both harmony hall and Papa loogie, is nasty. Otherwise the food has always been good IMO. If you really want to experience bad service, try chickie and petes. You'll be there from opening to closing waiting on that stupid sandwich and French fries. Kind of worth it though.

I really can not believe they've chosen "blue hawk". What a stupid name. The name certainly doesn't make or break a ride, but just saying, "hey, let's go ride BLUE HAWK next" makes me feel like an idiot. We've almost made it to, "Rolly McCoast Face" at this point. Maybe that's an accomplishment. I don't even know.

Just pm'd a mod about this. Don't click the link, it has "themeparkreview" in it, but it is not tpr.

The trims and MCBR seem to be working (you can hear them, and you might be able to tell visually). It would seem odd that B&M would run with the brakes off, or seriously reduced force for the sake of testing. What are they afraid of, the train stalling? They've already done the math on this. The ride is designed to finish the circuit from a complete stop at the MCBR. Why would they send the train through at those speeds unless that was how they intend to run the ride? I could be wrong, we all know how slowly B&M's can crawl through their courses (as designed and intended). But I've never seen an instance where they've run so much faster during testing. I don't know why they would start this now after building so many successful coasters. Fingers crossed that I'm right

Man that thing is flying! Really exciting to see, I really hope they don't slow it down. That mid course has the potential to ruin the ride (the airtime trim seems acceptable, like Fury, it's maybe not a total buzz-kill). As is, it looks like a blast. I've never been to SWO, but I'll probably stop by next time I'm in Orlando.

Yesterday turned out to be a good day to go. Crowds were pretty light (due to the miserable weather) but like ejot mentioned Fury didn't open until after 7. We got there as soon as we could after seeing it run, but we were in line for about an hour before getting on. By the time we got on, the queue was full. It ran great last night, but the park was only running two trains. We never saw this last year, hopefully this doesn't become a habit. Plants VS Zombies wasn't very good. They did a good job with theming (we really liked the paint job on the hot sauce guns) but the gameplay was kind of lame. The theater was pretty quiet (no music or anything while playing), just the sound of zombies going "uuhg" or "blaaah" when you shoot them. The park advertised this as "the first interactive ride where you play against another team". This just isn't true. You do not play against the other team. Both teams are shooting at wandering plants or zombies, not each other. Scores are compared at the end, but that is a lame "first ever" when every other interactive ride does this (including boo blasters just down the pathway). Also, it was really hard to tell where you were shooting. That said, having another way to escape the heat this summer will be greatly appreciated. On to the food. Chickie's and Pete's was a nightmare, just like last year and the year before. Such a shame, the food is so good, but you're always left to wait 40 minutes for a sandwich and fries. I don't understand why they still can't get it together over there. Oh well. Harmony hall was excellent, as always. One last thought on the restaurants, why isn't a drink included in the dining plan? Taste of the Carolinas, we didn't try a whole lot. Here is what we did get. Upstate South Carolina Region Jalapeno Pimento Cranberry Cheese Balls Lexington Barbecue Region Beer Basted Pulled Pork Sliders Charleston Region Shrimp and Grits The "cheese balls" was a nacho-ish cheese dip with three crackers. It was delicious (and only 2 tokens) but not really "balls". We did find their naming choices to be a bit odd throughout the day. I got the pulled pork slider, it was excellent, so was the slaw that came with it. 4 tokens, worth it. My wife got the shrimp and grits. It was two pieces of deep fried shrimp with tartar sauce. When asked why it had no grits, the lady said it wasn't actually supposed to come with grits. She said they just called it that. This was stupid. 4 tokens, and not really worth it. My slider was better, and much more food. I also tried a beer, "White Zombie". I'm partial to wheat beer, and this was a pretty good one. 4 tokens well spent. Taste of the Carolinas was pretty good, again. Not amazing, and pretty expensive considering the amount of food you get. I like that they are continuing this event, there is plenty to try.

This really shouldn't be so complicated, but let me explain on the OP's behalf. Thunder Road was no amazing coaster by any means, but it WAS (arguably) the only good wooden coaster in the park. It had a (nearly) full re-tracking a few years ago, and it road great. Smooth, airtime, raced most cycles, etc. It was the kind of old school woodie that kept you out of your seat. It was just a FUN coaster. Losing Thunder Road was upsetting to people who would prefer roller coasters to water slides. Fury is irrelevant, it was last years addition and it had nothing to do with Thunder Road's closure. They chose to demolish Thunder Road and use the space to revitalize the waterpark. That's all good and well, and for those of you who are into that, great, enjoy it! But it isn't a crime to prefer the old woodie to a waterpark expansion. The statement "they replaced a coaster I liked with something I'm not into, but the new food sounds good" shouldn't have been so upsetting. I've never been to the water park, and I probably wont go this year, either. Curious about Plants VS. Zombies (haven't been (m)any reviews on here?). I'll share my thoughts on that and the food this weekend, should be fun, haven't been since closing weekend

Taste of the Carolinas is back starting this Saturday (April 9th) running to May 1st. I'll be there this weekend to check it out, here is the menu. https://www.carowinds.com/taste

Beautiful screenshot, my favorite yet! I did see the bug which allows you to build steep drops. I tried it, but still could not get a realistic drop with smooth transitions. Maybe I didn't try hard enough, I will try again. Regardless, this method is stupid and janky. The bug needs to be fixed, and steep drops with auto smoothing needs to be a feature. I was able to explore a bit more today, I really like the built in scenery items. I like how custom buildings are handled as well. I'm still no good at them, but the concept is good. I'm far from finished with this scene, but here's something I just started.

I never said that TPS will be better, I explained what it does better. Of course that could all change in the future, but right now TPS is much more flexible. I can understand if you don't like the art style of TPS, but the only reason you think it's so limited is because you haven't tried it. You can build CS from right within the game, import any 3d object with the click of two buttons, you can design/import your own flat rides, design/import your own coaster trains, and the advanced coaster editor will allow you to do anything you want. I've built everything from RMC coasters, Gigas, portable B&Ms, to a Splash Battle with custom trains rigged with working, user controlled water cannons. Besides these, the game also allows you to host your park for everyone to visit and chat. Live Parks are really cool, probably the biggest feature of TPS. That said, the park atmosphere in planet coaster is totally different. Guests are beautifully animated, park mascots are jolly and interact with guests, the included animatronics are unreal. PLC triggers the nostalgia factor of playing RCT as a kid. It has a lot of charm. You can't help but smile when you see the pirate band start playing, or you hear the Coaster Kings' muffled voice as he skips around the park. I haven't had much time to play, and wont in the coming weeks, but I really like what they've done with it so far. I hope development continues on the right path. There is much room for improvement in the realm of custom content and the coaster designer. One last thought, who came up with Chief Beef? I mean... c'mon... they deserve a raise.

Gee, I never would have known the game was in alpha if you hadn't highlighted my own post. As far as rctw, I don't know. Never tried it. Doesn't really matter what the developer calls it, either, neither game is complete. Regardless, I think your point is irrelevant. I don't understand why you felt the need to bring this up? My overview of the game was actually quite positive. I'm sorry I offended you. As someone who has been working for an indie developer with a game on early access- I've been saying this for years, the devs won't know what we want unless we tell them. In fact, that is the entire point of having an open beta. I think I did just that, I was not unfair in any way.

I really wasn't planning on pre ordering this game but I caved last night and bought the alpha edition, I only had about an hour with it after visiting the pre installed parks. Really impressed with the art style, audio, guests, particles, and animatronics. Coasters really aren't there yet, but considering how bare bones (and unfortunately, limited) the editor is- it's not that bad. But it wont be replacing NL or TPS for coaster nerds. Also, there are only a handful of flats and scenery options. No biggie, this is normal for "early access" games, but worth mentioning. That said, there's no reason why I shouldn't be able to import my objects from max, and no reason why I shouldn't be able to load custom textures for paths, walls, etc. Also, there is no object scaling. Some problems I have with coasters.. You can not scale prebuilt elements (loops, corks etc.). You can not modify pitch beyond +/- 75 degrees, and forgive me if I'm wrong, but I couldn't figure out how to modify earlier pieces/nodes without deleting newer track. The first coaster I ever tried in PLC was a B&M hyper, came out OK, almost buttery smooth without effort. My TPS coasters are better, but my custom pieces required less effort in PLC. I wish I could have built the drop steeper, I'm not sure why they thought there needed to be limitations. You really couldn't build much taller than mine, and even this coaster is pushing it. You just don't see loooong straight drops on real coasters (modern ones anyway) After my hyper, I tried to build a floorless, but couldn't. The pre installed loops are much too old-arrow style. You can not resize them, and you can not build your own (due to the pitch limitations I mentioned before). The first drop was beautiful, but if I had finished it, the coaster would have looked ridiculous. Here are a couple screens of my first coaster.

I don't think any of my all time favorite coasters have inversions. Not because I don't like inversions, but because building a ride around the novelty of going upside down generally doesn't lend itself to a great experience. I enjoy a huge vertical loop or a slow roll/corkscrew that brings you out of your seat or gives you a cool view of the world beneath you. But the others just don't do anything for me. Cobra rolls aren't interesting (just visually appealing to bystanders), zero g rolls never really offer a zero g experience (which, I would probably enjoy) etc . But more times than not, I'd rather have a weird turn or, even just an airtime hill.

YouTube is the only one I use. I will occasionally open a twitter page to follow something interesting (ie tprs iaapa coverage has been a favorite the past few years ) . Only a hand full of occasions a year will I look at twitter. I'm on YouTube daily, I subscribe to a lot of channels. I rarely comment or "like" anything. I'm on forums more than anything, but I keep up with YouTube channels that are relevant to my interests.

The second round of pictures for the next update was released today. Can't wait for these to release! Check out the announcement,

I think my favorite from this set has to be the bumper boats. This was a total surprise, they look excellent! Love the idea of interactive rides in TPS.

This will be a great addition. I like seeing parks add in good flat rides. I've never been on a top scan, but it looks like a similar ride experience to a chaos, which is one of my all time favorites.