Coaster Hero

Just want to second this AND also say I am looking forward to the new flat rides. I have done the flying eagles equivalent at other parks and there is some good fun to be had with the "sail" in order to gain extra height. What some people forget about CW is how good a park it actually is compared to some in North America.....and how "blase" we can get just because it is there and we are used to it. I am originally from the UK...and have been to Alton Towers, Thorpe park and Blackpool pleasure beach. None of those have anything like Leviathan or Behemoth (Pepsi big one is the closest). When I get visitors from the UK one of our tourist things to do is take them to CW.....imagine a roller coaster newbie trying Leviathan for the first time...when the biggest thing they have done is something at the local funfair. There usually are some heavily soiled trousers after a ride! Some of the coaster community seem to forget they are not the only ones who go to theme parks or just because "we" have been on something numerous times or seen it numerous times...does not make it boring in general. My personal opinion at this time is the CF has done an EXCELLENT job with Wonderland, has turned it into a "returnable" park (I have a seasons pass), has two rides that scare British tourists (Leviathan and Behemoth), has added new attractions each year since purchasing from Paramount and overall seems to "care" about the general "fare" paying public. I think criticism at this point in time is not really comparable to the actual state of the park itself. Just my two cents. Well said. I agree that CF has done a wonderful job with this park. I went during the Paramount days, and it wasn't anywhere near where it is now. CF has added 2 WORLD CLASS coasters and made the park returnable as you said. I'm almost scared to think where this park would be now under Paramount. Obviously not even in the same stratosphere as it is now.

I know this may be too soon, but don't go into a restricted ride area to get them back (By the way I also know you got them back but I couldn't resist the opportunity lol )

I'm not sure what made Rob Decker and CF go to B&M for the last 2 gigas, but I know at I305's media day he said that they went with Intamin for I305 because they had experience with them building over 300ft (just as they do with B&M now) and because they like the Cable lift. I can link if necessary. I'd love to see another Intamin giga, but I'm really not sure if they'll do it. I'm curious to see if B&M could ever top Fury 325 though. They'd have to be really creative to pull it off.

What's the "KD Law?"

Hmmm... not saying I'm buying that fake photoshopped FullThrottle animation with the Total Meyhem plastered on, but the logo was blue and so is the above track, but the track could just be for something else and have been photoshopped to look blue. Plus, the logo was oval and so is the Batman logo which is mounted onto B:TR's support beams. I'm not buying it but It could certainly work... RMC does fabricate track for the free-spins so that's possible as well.

Thank you for this. That makes so much sense I'm stunned nobody brought that up earlier

I can only imagine what would have happened if this accident was any worse than it was. I'm sure the media would rip Alton apart, even more so than they're trying to do now. ^You're right, that is a positive aspect if there was one.

Getting stuck on the ride during a breakdown... it happens lol . It's happened to me 3 times on Kingda Ka this year

I tried it, and it only comes up the first time I visit the website. In order to get it again I had to close the browser and reload the website. For me it came up at the national homepage, not any particular park.

^Nope. It's the same at SFGadv. They're as thin as paper, and actually mine is bent/warped already

Where did you hear that? I've never heard this. And there are plenty of other coaster manufacturers that they could go to even if that was true. I thought that was a rumor and that exclusivity contracts don't exist. But in an interview with Kim Jent, a B&M Structural Engineer on Gatekeeper's media day, it was revealed that B&M really does do exclusivity contracts. He said the park will pay B&M not to build another coaster within a certain radius of the park for x amount of years. If that's true, it's possible Busch Gardens Williamsburg signed one of those, which would explain the surprising lack of B&M's in the area (other than relocated ones)

Not to derail the topic, but personally I disagree with that last part. I loved KK's animation, 3DVIP did an amazing job with it. The physics are perfect, the music is exciting, and overall it was done really well. TTD's animation was done subpar in terms of animating technique. You can tell the guy used keyframes to make the train move, which makes it unrealistic. I had to do a lot of digging to find this, but Keith (3DVIP) developed his own program within 3ds Max in Maxcode that calculates the physics just like No Limits would and the result is real coaster physics. Instead of manually changing the speed for each portion of the track, which doesn't usually yield great results, he just places the train and the program calculates the rest with precision. Interestingly, after doing a ton of digging on old websites that no longer exist and recovering corrupted files, I found out that he actually submitted an animation for TTD which used real physics and was far superior and light years more realistic than the official one, but for some reason CP chose the other one over his. I prefer it to the official one. Can you give a link to that animation. The official one is on youtube but the unofficial one is no longer online. I'll upload it somewhere. It's way before vip even existed so it's not as professional as later works . You may or may not find it better than the official one, but IMO it's far more realistic. Here's the link. It's an exclusive, because the website no longer exists! Anyway, back on topic, Stormrunner was pretty great because you're not expecting much from that launch at that speed but then it catches you by surprise when it has a really powerful launch. I love that ride, it's in my top 5 last time I checked. I was never exactly sure why KK has the OTSRS but TTD has lapbars. Actually, all of Intamin's latest coasters have had those. Perhaps it has something to do with the Ride of Steel incidents, or NJ just overreacting as usual.

^It's only noticeable on certain trains. C train has been particularly rough at least for me, but B train has been glass smooth.

Not to derail the topic, but personally I disagree with that last part. I loved KK's animation, 3DVIP did an amazing job with it. The physics are perfect, the music is exciting, and overall it was done really well. TTD's animation was done subpar in terms of animating technique. You can tell the guy used keyframes to make the train move, which makes it unrealistic. I had to do a lot of digging to find this, but Keith (3DVIP) developed his own program within 3ds Max in Maxcode that calculates the physics just like No Limits would and the result is real coaster physics. Instead of manually changing the speed for each portion of the track, which doesn't usually yield great results, he just places the train and the program calculates the rest with precision. Interestingly, after doing a ton of digging on old websites that no longer exist and recovering corrupted files, I found out that he actually submitted an animation for TTD which used real physics and was far superior and light years more realistic than the official one, but for some reason CP chose the other one over his. I prefer it to the official one.

Yeah SF hires 3DVIP for the major flat rides and obviously all of their coasters. They've been doing it since Kingda Ka's promo vid. For WC they released the full POV a couple days after the announcement but for TC all we had was b-roll footage until months later when they finally released the full POV. I can't wait to see what kind of monster Alan is going to turn this thing into

I've heard the other Zacspins are 1000x better than GL could ever wish to be

Kingda Ka has become unacceptably rough. I agree with Password121, I always wait for the front because it's the only tolerable part of the train. Plus, the restraints they replaced are much lower on your shoulders than before so the pullup can be brutal if you're tall. And yes, for some reason KK's launch isn't perfectly constant. It has that initial acceleration feeling, stops for a split second right near the camera (which is why my on ride pictures are normal lately ) and then jerks you forward again. I personally like it, just when you think you're done accelerating it feels like it starts over. I'm just spitballing here and ignoring reality, but some extensive rehab would do the trick for me, maybe get the new Maverick/I305 restraints, replace the wheels, perhaps get more aerodynamic trains, rehab the whole launch system, replace the pullup track... then it would be perfect in my book. I haven't ridden TTD but I might get the chance in a few years so I can compare the 2.

^^It's running again. It was E-Stopped/Lift Stopped because someone reportedly hopped one of the fences to retrieve a basketball . People don't learn

I think that could become an actual term. Poor CP

I found out you can export .stl files from Blender which I believe can be 3D printed. If that's true, since Blender can basically act as a converter for any 3D model file, you can use whatever 3D modelling program you want to 3D print! I can't wait to try this on the 3D Printer at my school, I'll definitely post pictures when I have something done

I heard from someone who went that someone almost got Raptor'ed at SFGAdv 3 days ago. Apparently he threw a basketball over the fence by accident (they're annoying as hell anyway) and he climbed the fence to retrieve it. The ride was reportedly E-Stopped or lift-stopped and he got lucky. Good thing too, because I can only imagine what would potentially happen if the same accident happened twice in the same week. Apparently, some people are stupid enough to (maybe) hear about the Raptor accident and still be dumb enough to enter a restricted ride area. (considering this was DAYS after what happened at CP and it was #1 trending on FB for 2 days)

The drop in the back seat of Skull Mountain gets me every time. Even though the drop is short and shallow, you still get dragged down and it's actually a lot of fun. Underrated for sure

^ Is that the term now for going into a restricted area? Anyway, this is a great addition for KD, and is a fantastic fit in the area. These are one of my favorite flats, and I'm glad another one is being built at KD

Wait a second... Do people at KD really whine about getting Dominator?!?! Because if so, that's crazy! I mean, whining about Thunderhawk at MiA is one thing, because at best, it's an "okay" coaster. But Dominator is an awesome coaster! I'd have a season pass for MiA if they'd have received that instead of Thunderhawk! I don't think any KD folks have been complaining about getting Dominator. At least, I never have and welcomed it with open arms. Edit--Just noticed that we're on page 1305 of this thread and of course that reminded me of a certain sumpthin sumpthin that resides in Doswell. Oh yeah, I just noticed that! [Page] 1305 for the win

The drop tower is clearly getting RMC'd RMC is *almost always the answer