darklingscribe

Giant Dipper at Belmont Park. (image courtesy of TPR park index)

Thanks, I will try it as soon as I'm able to find the time. Maybe I'm just slow in the way I build, but it takes me forever to get anything constructed in this game. Inevitably I spend much more time building a good believable station than I do creating the ride the station is for.

Is there a mod out there that will allow me to increase the hight limits on rides? Or maybe I'm just missing out on some built in option. I am trying to create a park around a deep Ravine, but have encountered a setback as I was building a train bridge across the gap. The game keeps telling me I cannot build the train tracks that far off the ground. I toyed with the idea of changing it to a mine train, but I really would prefer it just to be an old fashioned transport ride to fit with the themeing (the monorail and trams look too high tech).

^ I agree they do great themeing, but on that last one I wonder if it would be cheaper in the long run to use real bricks which could be pressure washed and won't need a new coat of paint every few years.

I really want to go, but I have no idea if I can. Trying to establish my career is a higher priority than pleasure, but I think I can attend barring an emergency meeting. Check me as attending, worse case senario I just have to take the tickets as a loss.

While Doing the Terraforming I was also building my first attraction so far dubbed Castle Crash. As I said before I am trying to use only the scenery that comes with the game to make the ride and park file easy to share, but as a result some sections of the ride feel bare. I imagine it to be a S&S El Loco style coaster, but it truly isn't. The closest stock coaster style the game has to that is a coaster called an Inverted Wild Mouse. The problem with this design is it cannot take wide turns, there is no banking available, and the only inversion I can use is a drop that keeps going past vertical. I wish I could have thrown in some barrel rolls as well as other trick elements. Also because the limits on ride type and scenery there are a lot of head choppers that are probably too close to be realistic and there are several parts where the rails make contact with the bricks of the walls. I can live with it for a first try. Here is a on ride video. Sorry, but there is no sound. All of my music files are on my other computer and I wasn't in the mood to find one that fit and port it over to my laptop. Also, in game the ride is much slower. For some reason uploading the video to youtube sped it up about 50%. Here is the layout without the scenery Here it it in full scenery. I am probably going to place this ride right on the piece of land in the middle of the ravine fork and will probably extend it's walls to make it seem like it was apart of a bigger structure that has succumbed to the erosion of the river below. The ride does peek out from the castle every now and then. One of my main reasons to go with the extensive theming is to get around the unrealistic ride supports which now can be explained away as being built into the structure itself. Here is the rear of the ride. I placed the the windmill there because I was bored and it won't be in the final design. Really I hope to make this the part building which is falling into the ravine.

I always have played RCT3 more for the career mode than the sandbox capabilities. That said I look forward to mountainous levels more while playing because they let me go wild with all kinds of terrain hugging coasters. Seeing that there are few parks out there on these boards that really have crazy terrain I thought I'd go wide and act out one of my fantasies of having a park situated right on a Grand Canyon like gorge. I want to go with more of a Transylvanian grey cliffs and abandoned mountain gorge feel more than the Arizona desert. So Far I'm thinking spooky scenery, but might tone it down to just a medieval feeling. My goal is to not use any of the custom scenery packs out there as I am curious as to how far I can push what the game gives me from the start. Here is the overview of the terraforming I've done so far. I wil get around to coloring the tiles one I get the look I want. The giant falls responsible for creating the ravine that will be the focal point of the park. They do look a little square and unnatural, but I'm still tweaking them to try to fix some of that. A better view of the left ravine. An overview of the skyline at dusk from the point of view of the curent location of the front gate.

Great video and pictures Hanno. I loved that little sigh of relief at the end of the video. Is it just me or does Wodan really seem like the closest GCI has come to the double out and back style of classic wooden coasters?

^ I got a kick out of Santa being a Russian guy with naughty and nice tattooed on his arms. I just got back from the Hunger Games, I pretty much saw it on a whim and enjoyed it for what it was. I would have liked the satire to be a bit sharper and they needed explain some of the points about the game better (like how the capitol uses the games to make the districts jealous of each other in an attempt to prevent another uprising.) Overall it is one of the best popular fiction adaptations done in a while, it even beats out a few of the Harry Potter films.

It's shaping up to be quite the ride, I just hope they take better care of these video screens than the ones in Journey to Atlantis's elevator.

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned before, but I think the perfect ride for the spot is a Maurer Söhne launched X-car. I'm thinking something similar to Formule X at Drievliet in the Netherlands. Its a very fun ride that doesn't go very high and has a small footprint. Going by the space available it is a little big, Hurricane is 170ft x 50ft and Formule X is 164ft x164ft. I wonder if they could extend the supports out over the boardwalk or have a custom one built that dives down over by the ticket booth or over boardwalk (though It might be difficult with the chairlift in the way). Looking at the area in google maps it seems that the rooftop space taken by Hurricane is about 60% of the total area. which makes the space very roughly 90ft by 170ft. So a direct clone probably wouldn't work.

Those middle school days aren't that bad either because all of them have leave the park by 2 or 2:30 for the bus back.

I alway put this effect down to the back seats of each car being directly over the wheels. The front seats of any car are usually directly in the middle of the car's chassis and I think because of this the chassis acts as a shock absorber as is flexes during the ride, but if you are riding directly above the wheels then the car absorbs less and you are more or less feeling what the wheels are doing directly. I can think of another possible explanation, but my physics vocabulary is sorely lacking. This is how I'm visualizing it in my head. If you hand a video camera and tell a guy to run with it you'll get a shaky image, but if you strap the camera to the middle of a 2x4 and then have two guys run with it, each holding opposite ends of the 2x4, the image will appear to have a lot less shake in it. I don't know what this effect is called, but it probably has to do with leverage and how certain movements coming down the 2x4 to the camera cancel each other out as they meet. I also think this effect might also explain why the front seat of a coaster car feels a little bit smoother than the seat right above the wheels. Sometimes I really wish I took engineering in college.

Heck, It's been awhile since I've done one of these so here it goes. I'm house sitting for my Mother in San Diego and decided today to ride my bike to SeaWorld and check out the progress on Manta myself because I always have a hard time figuring out the layout of a ride unless I see it for myself. (But really it was because I had an annual pass and a new camera to try out.) A panorama of the park's skyline from the bike path to SeaWorld. It really shows how well hidden Manta is. By the way if you want to save a few bucks on parking I highly recommend that you bring a bike and park in one of the many free all day parking lots on Mission Bay Drive off of I5 before the SeaWorld exit. You only have to bike about a mile and the entire area is beautiful. Here is a height guide for all the parents out there wondering if their kid's can ride Manta when it opens on May 26th Right at the front of the park they have one of the cars on display. I know it's been posted before, but I think it's worth reposting because it really is a cool open design. A bumper photo for all the coaster geeks out there. Don't you wish the park's promotional images were true to what the ride will actually be? I for one would love to ride a B&M through a tropical sea cliff setting. Before I took a picture of Manta I noticed that the cone of lights on the Sky tower had been removed. Is it just a seasonal thing or did they take them down for the construction? There it is, the full glory of Manta's layout. with only one gap left in the track. Also it looks as if they are starting to build the themeing. Just a quick blurry and heavily enhanced photo of the only woody in San Diego as seen from the observation tower. I really need to get out to Belmont park and ride it again. After the Sky tower I was trying to get a photo of the construction of the themeing around Manta, but the fence was too tall even for my 6 ft. 2 frame. Is that a hole in the fence? Awesome, just big enough to take a peek. Just out of curiosity, how many rapids are there that use the "large screw" method of pumping water? As I was walking around Manta I noticed that their new self-stacking turtle exhibit was going well. Another gap in the fence to exploit. This is Manta's final element before returning to the station. And finally a view from the Sky Tram once again showing how well hidden Manta is from outside the park.

Speaking of Green Lantern...what is the point of the ride? I finally got the credit, and didn't get a single flip! Which made the ride uncomfortable, as it is clearly designed to flip over the turns. Definitely near my bottom 10 coasters. Well, according to Tim Burkhart, "You don't want it to flip that much!" I dunno, I rode Insane at Grona Lund when it flipped 6 to 8 times during the ride and it's easily one of my top 20 steel coasters in the world. I rode Green Lantern and it didn't flip at all, and I found it boring, uncomfortable, and kinda pointless. The ride isn't called a "Zac Spin" because it's not supposed to spin. The only "spin" I see here is how the park keeps trying to convince everyone how it's not supposed to spin very much. --Robb "Some rides just shouldn't be in America..." Alvey I was thinking the same thing when listening to the presentation by Tim and Neal at the West Coast Bash. Tim really should have left on a few of those weights he strapped to the bottom of the train for Media Day. It sounded like thats what the ride needed to really spin well.

Thanks Robb and Elissa for organizing a magnificent bash once again. I had a blast meeting up with old friends and made some new friends as well (Go team 408). As usual everyone from TPR was awesome and I was really impressed by what Knotts brought to the table this year. I do agree that Magic Mountain didn't match their efforts of the previous Bashes, but I still had a great time and will probably head back to the park to check out Lex Luther later this year if time permits. Speaking of Knotts, did anyone else take advantage of their insane deal on season passes? I showed them my Bash ticket stub and only had to pay $2 more to get a pass for this year.

Hey, After talking a break from the forums for a bit (life got busy), I'm back and hope to become a more active member as I was before. It was really fun seeing all the old faces at this year's west coast bash and got me longing for the camaraderie of the boards once more. So, hi.

This is an epic photo report thread jedimaster1227. You really are putting as much detail into capturing Disney's new attractions, as they put into building them. On a side note: I always thought that Cars was Pixar's biggest success outside of Toy Story when it comes to merchandising. That reason alone is enough to keep the brand alive. Also Cars 2 looks promising story wise. Pixar seems to be making it into a Secret Agent/James Bond type adventure.

I have a question about season passes. I know when I attended the WCB back in 2009 we were given the opportunity to pay $30 more at guest services to get a season pass. I was unable to attend 2010's bash because I was right in the middle of a move. Does anyone who attended the Knotts portion of WCB 2010 know if Knotts extended the same courtesy. I'm asking this because I want to purchase a Knotts season pass and am wondering if it would be cheaper to pay non season pass price for WCB and upgrade at Knotts, or get a season pass before hand and pay the season pass price for the event.

I look forward to watching the DVD and reliving all the memories from the trip. And I also must add as man and the perpetrator of the ball shot, we must all be vigilant and try to prevent further groin hits. Next time I find my self being spun at an insane speed on a rotating tire seesaw I'll tie my laces to the bar in order to prevent further casualties, should I loose my footing. Also as a believer in Karma, I wait in dread for that day to rebound on myself.

Hey Robb, I'm going into the Steadicam business and my business partner and I would like to know what you use as a recording deck. We're looking for a deck with a playback screen we can use as a quick reference when practicing running the Steadicam on a RED or other high end digital or 35mm cameras. I'm thinking something along the lines of a HD camcorder with a video in would be fine, what do you use right now?

I would love to come to WCB 2011, I only hope that my moving to a new apartment doesn't interfere like it did last year. Someday I hope to find a place in LA which doesn't have people leaving broken sofa beds out on the street.

^ Don't you mean she?

I'll give it to you. It is the camera body of the camera that made the Cinema Verite movement possible. The camera is called the Eclair NPR, NPR is an acronym for Noiseless Portable Reflex. It was the first portable 16mm motion picture camera that ran quiet enough on it's own to record sync sound without camera noise. All portable 16mm cameras before then ran too loud to record sound at the same time. (Yes there were 16mm sync sound cameras before the NPR, but those required heavy covers called barneys which muffled the camera noise. The NPR was the first not to require a barney.) The picture I posted is just the camera's body, both the film magazine and the lens was removed. Here is a photo of an Eclair NPR with the lens and magazine attached: And if you are interested in the Cinema Verite movement here is a Wiki on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_verite

You went from one end of the spectrum to the other. Here is another clue. This piece of equipment was a boon to the 60's documentary movement.