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A Rant/Debate On the use Of Custom Scenery/CFRs/CTRs In RCT3


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I do not intend on offeneding anyone in the RCT3 community by writing this. It's a veiw I've been wishing to express over the past few months. So I present to you:

 

A Rant/Debate On the use Of Custom Scenery/CFRs/CTRs In RCT3

 

Chances are, if you have RCT3, and you are an active forum or YouTube user and serious RCT3 player who posts their work, you use custom scenery actively.

 

In a recent observation of three seperate RCT3 forums, I found myself to be the only normally active member, out of hundreds, that uses JUST the in game scenery all the time to create my rides and attractions. While this didn't use to be true, the number of players solely using the in game scenery has dramatically dropped.

 

While NCS is still popular in RCT2, it's very rare in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3.

 

Why is this you may ask?

 

When RCT3 took that big leap from Isometeric 2.5-D graphics to full on 3-D graphics, many details and scenery items used heavily in RCT2 were lost, presumably because of the obscene poly count it would take to create them. RCT3 sacrificed many details RCT2 had for the amazing possibilities of 3D Graphics which revolutionized the RCT franchise as a whole.

 

The first few custom scenery sets emerged in 2006, the most popular of which being Pumper's SteelWorx, which allowed users to replace in-game supports with ones that looked better, along with the ability to have tunnels and catwalks etc.

 

This completely changed the mindset of the RCT3 community, who immeaditely jumped on the CS bandwagon, which has been rolling on ever since, picking up more and more members as it moves along. Now, go on to any RCT3 site and you'll see incredibly detailed, rich environments filled to the brim with gobs and gobs of custom scenery, and no in-game scenery in site.

 

There was also the invention of the CTR, or "custom tracked ride" as well as the CFR, or "custom flat ride" which brought the game into a new age of user created content and endless possibilities for RCT3, the only limitation being the poly count the game could handle, as well as the power of your computer. I've seen a good majority of parks fall victim to the poly limit.

 

Take CD5's Six Flags Over South Carolina for example. This was a fantastic park, but suffered in it's final days from lagging and crashing and eventually being split into 4 seperate areas and no park download available. This was due to the amount of CS put into the park.

 

Unfortunately, there has also been a quite noticable effect from CS on many RCT3 parks. They suffer from what I call: "Generic Syndrome".

 

With so many members using all the same CS sets (Shy Guy's extremely overused MainStreet Set for example) and same CTRs (Revolutionary Ride's Jr. Boomerang for example) many parks (not all) have begun to have a very generic look to them.

 

With all the parks using the same CS heavily, much creativity is taken out as members tend to do similar style creations using a specific set thus creating very similar parks, despite all being created by different users.

 

 

 

As a result of CS/CTRs/CFRs/CTs, NCS (No Custom Scenery) Users have begun to be looked down upon often as being bad or not as good, simply because they are not using Custom Scenery like a good majority of the community is. Users have become biased towards users of CS and have forgotten that just because it's the scenery the game provided, doesn't mean it's bad and you can't so anything with it.

 

People have forgotten to get really creative and try and use the game's scenery in new and different ways to create an even bettter park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So I leave the forum with this question:

 

 

 

Do you think CS/CTRs/CFRs/CTs have had any kind of a negative impact on RCT3 as a whole? Discuss.

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The reason I don't care too much for rct3 is because parks in it seem so similar, which is odd in a game with more dimensions than its predecessors. Maybe it's unoriginally (especially with the story in lots of timeline parks, but some are good), or something, but whatever.

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Heres my take on the issue. CS is a GREAT tool if you know how to use it well. For example, I am new to the RCT3 realm... I still like playing 2 quite a bit, but I see myself playing 3 more and more often, and as said with 2 I will wait til I get better before I go insane. In 2 I hardly hack, and I believe I would be considered more of a NCSO player rather than a CS player.

 

THAT BEING SAID IF YOU ARE GOOD ENOUGH BY ALL MEANS USE CS! Look at Liams work if you haven't already!

themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=59053

This is CS usage at it's best and simply couldn't be achieved with CS. The only way to get truly great at these games is to build and build and build... thats it. I remember a year or two ago thinking I was using "advanced concepts" and it makes me laugh at myself even when I look at how much I have improved over the last year. You need to build and practice with different sets, CS or NCS, but experiment until you find something you like and develop a style.

 

For example, Socal is a good NCSO designer and he tends to build relatively realistic parks... that is his style. At the same time someone who builds a crazy elaborate dark ride has a different style... he's just using whatever he can to make the most impressive things. At the end of the day CS and NCSO are just pieces of scenery... and IMO it's not the individual pieces of scenery that is important... what is important is what they become when put together.

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The best thing about using custom scenery in RCT3 is that most of the custom scenery created does not have collision detection. This gives players more freedom in creating themes and structures.

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The best thing about using custom scenery in RCT3 is that most of the custom scenery created does not have collision detection. This gives players more freedom in creating themes and structures.

And the CS makes the parks so more realistic than those ugly ingame Scenery. Therefore much more enjoyable. Take NGT's park for example.

Link

It's one of my favourite Parks on the Boards at the moment. And why? It takes your breath away looking at it.

Picture from the thread...

 

 

If that had no Custom Content it wouldn't be what it is today.

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Custom scenery forces the community to be ever changing, and ever improving, something I believe is beneficial. This is in part to 'generic syndrome.' Once a good project comes out, there are many that imitate it, forcing the most talented creators to do something totally different and unique. I don't know about you, but I'll take one fantastic project and 10 not so good ones that I can ignore, than 20 average ones. Much of the custom scenery being created now is improved upon versions of older sets, lots of path sets, wall sets etc.. They are all of a better 'quality' than their predecessors. It allows more creativity to flow since the ideas in peoples heads can now be fully realized with all the custom scenery.

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The fact that so many parks now use so much custom content, to the point downloads aren't available, I just can't get in the game because I want to see a live park, not just lifeless pictures. No custom content also seems to have that lifeless feel as well. for some reason, it's ancestor's seem to have so much "life" in them despite being much more simplistic; they are a lot more user friendly, and easy to manipulate.

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The fact that so many parks now use so much custom content, to the point downloads aren't available, I just can't get in the game because I want to see a live park, not just lifeless pictures. No custom content also seems to have that lifeless feel as well. for some reason, it's ancestor's seem to have so much "life" in them despite being much more simplistic; they are a lot more user friendly, and easy to manipulate.

 

That's one of my problems too, and 8it's a reason why I hardly ever download an RCT3 park, because it has some much custom content that wouldn't load because the file had CTRs and CFRs in it.

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The biggest problem with RCT3 and custom stuff is that the game is not build for it. RCT2 can handle CS much better then RCT3. It isn't a problem for RCT3 to handle some CS, but when you want to build huge parks with CS it crashes/lags so much that after some time you just give up. I played RCT3 a lot and a few years ago I posted the parks here on TPR, the good old days that thelegendarymatthew and SteffenDK also posted amazing parks. But the lagging and the crashing made me hate the game that I actually loved more then RCT2.

 

That parks looking "generic" is because of the game being 3D and cartoony style, while RCT2 is looking more realistic (especcialy the rides).With RCT3 you also have the same background (sky etc.) while with RCT2 you only see whats on the ground.

 

Some CS (shyguys, vodhins etc.) are being used way to much because they really are the best. But while they are the best, they do look a like. The use of colours also have to do with the fact that most parks look a like. You just can't choose from a lot of colours.

 

Another difference between RCT2 and RCT3 cs is that in RCT2 most people use Scenery (custom or not) for something that it isn't intended for. Like using woodenrollercoastertracks as roofs, walls as supports etc. etc. Because RCT2 has Isometric Graphics this can be achieved much more then with the 3D graphics from RCT3. Mostly because it looks good from above, but not from the ground etc. And last is the problem that there aren't really alot of colourcombination you can use.

 

That being sad, I used CS a lot.. making just 1 park (River Forrest click here) without any CS. Although it worked pretty well, the CS makes it all look a lot better and way more realistic, even though most CS look the same. I posted some pictures of my CS use on how it looks more realistic then ingame scenery

 

2.jpg.c807a1b7be60d5b5ecda056ed2cbbdca.jpg

My own made double carrousel, can't be done without CS

15.jpg.f48e6b95bf9a97e291ad5abbf99d8909.jpg

Tea Cups (CTR) and a CS-made playground in the back. Looking way better then the ingame tea cups (hersheys) and something that you can't make without CS

11.jpg.4d801990bc227e8fa7c3a12dbd702ceb.jpg

My biggest Custom Supports project. Woody entirely made by hand. Al these 3 pics are from a park I made, but that kept on crashing because of the size of the savegame. The game just couldn't handle it anymore. (there are more pics of it in the preview thread on page 171)

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Your argument is completely valid. Like I said, most RCT3 custom content does not have collision detection - you couldn't make that double carousel if the custom scenery had collision detection.

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The biggest thing I can personally say about CS vs NonCS is the poly count.

 

I created an entirely NCS park for a competition, Trials of Atlantis, and had MASSIVE amounts of lag before I tried to custom support it. And my machine isn't exactly something to scoff at either:

 

2.5ghz intel quad core i5 processor

GTX 460 GFX card

8GB DDR3 RAM

 

I'm currently tweaking around with some CS, and from my experience I'm getting the same amount of lag from CS vs NCS parks.

 

As for creativity, to each their own.

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