Thunder Road [NL]

[KDCOASTERFAN]

Here's my second NL creation,Thunder Road.

 

The layout is of the out & back variety with a helix finale & this time I spent quite a bit of time working on the overall smoothness of the ride making sure the G's weren't too excessive when compared to my last project,Behemoth.

 

Enjoy the ride on Thunder Road & I await your comments.

Thunder Road.nltrack

[Goliath513]

I await your comments.

I await your ride pictures.

[paintballer]

http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=47124

[Sasquatch]

...90% of that ride is pre-fab track.

 

You can't really post something here that you claim to be your own when almost all of it is just inserted elements that come with NL!

 

Apart from that, the 100ft or so of track that YOU designed seemed to be just thrown together in about 5 minutes. Have you ever looked at the forces in the simulator, or used the smoother before?

[KDCOASTERFAN]

...90% of that ride is pre-fab track.

 

You can't really post something here that you claim to be your own when almost all of it is just inserted elements that come with NL!

 

Apart from that, the 100ft or so of track that YOU designed seemed to be just thrown together in about 5 minutes. Have you ever looked at the forces in the simulator, or used the smoother before?

 

I ran the ride several times in the sim during construction to check the G loads & while it spiked yellow & red a few times it wasn't nearly as bad as on Behemoth...it's hard enough designing the ride using pre-fab elements let alone freehand & this is only my 2nd major coaster in the game after all.

 

How do you resize the pics so the file size won't exceed posting limits? I didn't post pics of this ride because I had trouble trying to post the Behemoth pics in the other thread even though those were 600x800 pixels.

[paintballer]

I use Picresize, usally cut NL's down too 800- i forgot.

 

If you have XP Microsoft makes a tool specificly for the resizing.

[MrX8991]

I have an honest question: How much time do you put into your coasters? I think you may be thinking that No Limits is like Roller Coaster Tycoon in that you can crank out a good coaster in 10 minutes. No Limits is nothing like that. It takes hours/days to make a decent coaster in No Limits.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

I have an honest question: How much time do you put into your coasters? I think you may be thinking that No Limits is like Roller Coaster Tycoon in that you can crank out a good coaster in 10 minutes. No Limits is nothing like that. It takes hours/days to make a decent coaster in No Limits.

 

I spent quite a few days working on this project & it wasn't exactly easy....especially making the turn at the far end along with the crossover exiting the helix.

 

I'm using XP but can't seem to find any utilities built in to adjust the file size for the pics.

[rollerboy]

I think you're all forgetting this is his second coaster. Nolimits is extremely hard to get used to, especially when you're new to the game.

 

The ride:

 

A great improvement from your first coaster. Remember to try and make your brake runs straight. You can do this by highlighting the segment and pressing "I".

 

Also, I find it easier to split the lift hill segment into three; one sloping in, one perfectly straight and one leading into the drop.

 

Just remember to use the smooth tool (highlight the segment and press "Ctrl" and "G" at the same time) effectively.

 

Last tip: Try making elements yourself. After all, practise makes perfect.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

I think you're all forgetting this is his second coaster. Nolimits is extremely hard to get used to, especially when you're new to the game.

 

The ride:

 

A great improvement from your first coaster. Remember to try and make your brake runs straight. You can do this by highlighting the segment and pressing "I".

 

Also, I find it easier to split the lift hill segment into three; one sloping in, one perfectly straight and one leading into the drop.

 

Just remember to use the smooth tool (highlight the segment and press "Ctrl" and "G" at the same time) effectively.

 

Last tip: Try making elements yourself. After all, practise makes perfect.

 

Yeah,I spent more than enough time going over the ride trying to smoothen & straighten out the elements & I also switched from the MF trains to PTC 2 bench trains to help lower the G's in a couple spots.

 

What's so wrong with using the pre-fab elements to design most,if not the entire coaster? so long as the layout is made interesting then there shouldn't be any problems especially on loopers because I'll be using the pre-fab elements on those for sure.

[Jds03]

That was a decent second attempt. It's good that you're keeping your projects small and realistic for starters.

 

I realized that the hills were all prefabricated, and that’s fine, but also focus on making your own unique twist. If I were you I would highlight your own transitions and press ctrl+g to smoothen it, and also select continuous rolling under the vertex panel for almost all the nodes with an angle. Hope that helps!

[KDCOASTERFAN]

That was a decent second attempt. It's good that you're keeping your projects small and realistic for starters.

 

I realized that the hills were all prefabricated, and that’s fine, but also focus on making your own unique twist. If I were you I would highlight your own transitions and press ctrl+g to smoothen it, and also select continuous rolling under the vertex panel for almost all the nodes with an angle. Hope that helps!

 

Keeping the projects small definitely helps to conserve hard drive space & I did use the smooth & make straight options for most sections on this project,as well as adjusting the roll on the verticies.

[The Cheat]

I spent about 10 minutes smoothing it out. Here's what it looks like now.

 

Is it still perfect, no. But it's better.

 

KDCOASTERFAN: I hope you dont take offense to me fixing your track and can use it to learn off of. I'm by no means amazing at NL but I have been doing it for a few years. When you're coming out of a hill and into a turn it shouldn't start banking while going down the hill, it's really awkward.

thunder_road_113.nltrack

[KDCOASTERFAN]

So instead of putting the curve at the base of a drop I should try curving the drop itself?I know that the angled hill just before the helix does look a little RCT-ish after all.

[The Cheat]

No, have it bank after the drop. One the one before the helix it was banked while going down and it was awkward. Don't bank the bottom vertex of the hill, do it on the one after.

[KDCOASTERFAN]

No, have it bank after the drop. One the one before the helix it was banked while going down and it was awkward. Don't bank the bottom vertex of the hill, do it on the one after.

 

I noticed the difference on the far turnaround & hill before the helix....perhaps you wouldn't mind smoothening out my other tracks ,as well as future tracks that I've uploaded?

[cycamps]

Not too shabby for your second attempt. I will say that after the smoothing it was a lot better, but don't have much else to say other than make sure you try to smooth out those red spots!

[KDCOASTERFAN]

Not too shabby for your second attempt. I will say that after the smoothing it was a lot better, but don't have much else to say other than make sure you try to smooth out those red spots!

 

I could put a few trims on the hills just before the high G spikes.

[dr.gumbo]

^ IMO you should 'never' need to do that to control the G's. Just keep working on the track and eventually you'll be able to control the G's more. Of course, it helps if the track is substantial smoother first.