Drakes Amusement's (Let there be light!) [RCT3]

[89James89]

OOC:

 

An introduction and Explanation

 

Welcome all to my new park thread. Now, I feel a bit of an explanation as to why I'm starting a new park (which is going to seem extremely similar to my last park) is needed. Unfortunately I had a Immanent hard drive failure before Christmas. Now at the time RCT3 was one of the last things on my mind so when I sent the laptop into PC World for them to fix it up, I didn't get a back up or copy of any of my old RCT3 work. This of course means that when I received the laptop back (all working again thankfully) I had no way of getting the old parks back.

Now, besides that the reason I haven't posted anything for so long is that after getting the laptop back I found that I'd lost the Wild disk and my drive to play the game disappeared. Still I occasionally visited the forums still and basically it made me want to get back into it. So I got the deluxe version for Christmas and have since been tinkering with it.

 

A word about the style of the park

Now this park won't appeal to everyone but it's how I enjoy playing the game so it's what I've chosen to do. Basically some of you will have seen the idea before in one of my earlier parks and that is that I'm gong to attempt to actually build a park while playing the game. On top of this I wanted to make it a small time park as this would allow me time to spend on real life (girlfriend, work etc.) and on my other hobby (miniature painting and other computer games).

This has led to the scenario that this park will take place in. Firstly it's going to be no CS. Now it's not that I don't like the CS you guys make but I just like playing the game as it is. Secondly I'm going to start out small, real small. I've given myself a fully landscaped farmland map and no money, with a £5,000 loan limit, to start off with. The idea will be to take a small fairground style park all the way through to a small family amusement park. Coupled with this will be a hopefully realistic storyline with views of growth and, although I'm not attaching a timeline to the park, I would imagine it starting out some time around the 70's. Add in the rules below and were all hopefully set.

 

 

*One year in updates terms is 3 in game years (this is due to how fast the game goes meaning that I would never make enough to change things and keep it fresh each year until the park had grown quite a bit)

*Charge per ride but under these guidelines:

Gentle Rides/Transport Rides: £0.50 - £1

Small Thrill Rides: £1.00 - £1.50

Large Thrill Rides/Small Rollercoaster's: £1.50 - £2.50

Large Rollercoaster's: £2.50 - £4.00

Food and Drink/Gifts: Varies

(these may seem a bit cheap but I want to steadily advance not zoom ahead by charging the maximum price)

*No building above 90ft (THIS PARK ONLY NOT GENERAL RULE)

*Can't alter local woodland though can remove hedges and trees in fields (THIS PARK ONLY NOT GERNERAL RULE)

 

 

IC:

 

Update One:

 

Hello all, Simon Drake and welcome to my journal on my new business venture. Now I've been into theme parks and rollercoaster's all my life and have always wanted to try my hand at running one myself. Now obviously I realised that this was probably a rather lofty and unattainable goal due to not really having any money and the amount of work needed but I'd still always thought about it.

Now I'd always worked the family farm along with my father but lately things haven't been running as smoothly. Due to more crops being brought into the country it meant that my father was struggling to get good prices for his produce and the business was slowly leaking profits. This is when my father decided to diversify and expand his hobby of cider making into a full grown business and has since slowly been changing his farmland into apple orchards slowly improving the business again.

Now I can see you all sat there thinking what has any of this go tot do with an amusement park. Well as my father has been slowly changing his farmland into Orchards certain smaller plots have been left un worked due to money being put elsewhere in the business. It was then on my 30th birthday that my father surprised me with the ownership deed to one of the small plots of land. Now he'd known about my passion and since he'd managed to make his dream a reality had decided to let me have a go at mine.

Below you can see a aerial view of the farmland. The field that's mine is the one in the middle along the bottom with the tree in it.

 

Along with the plot of land and my father running as guaranty in case the business venture fell through I was able to secure a small loan from the bank (£5,000) and with some further hunting a small selection of rides to start up a permanent fair. Why a fair? Well the local one that came around here once a year always proved popular so this was a smaller risk that going straight for a permanent amusement park. I mean the rides can be easily sold and land cleared and everything.

While were at it, it would probably help to tell you all that were situated along the south coast of England in the county of Devon. Anyway with that out of the way and the small selection of rides all set up here's a picture of my father (the bloke in the brown) and the parks cleaner and mechanic (I wasn't available that day unfortunately so my father stood in for me), for the local newspaper announcing the opening of the park. Here you can see most of our rides.

 

 

Now here's the photo's that have been taken over the last week since we first opened for you all.

 

This is the ticket booth where you can purchase your tickets for the rides (although you can purchase them on the ride but this is faster) and behind the ball toss stall our Carrousel.

 

This shows that we were really busy at times during the opening week with the queue lines bursting. Hopefully a good sign.

 

Now this isn't so good although we managed to get a dart game up and running the coconut shy we'd planned has yet to up. Hopefully it'll arrive soon time soon.

 

Along with the above problem night time operations are a bit dangerous as we haven't been able to afford the lights. This is top of the priority list. My fathers also wandering around with a clipboard though no idea why

 

Lastly here's a nice shot of Fireball our Lee Eyerly Roll-O-Plane lighting up the nights sky (unlike the rest of the fair).

 

Anyway that's all for now. Hope you like the few shots we have. I'll be back a bit later when I can hopefully show you that we've managed to iron out some of the teething problems.

 

Till then

 

Simon Drake

Edited January 18, 2013 by 89James89

[ValleyfairFan]

I like the idea behind this one as well. Good luck and I look forward to future updates.

[89James89]

Replies:

 

ValleyFairFan: Thanks and I hope you continue to enjoy the updates.

 

 

Update Two: Let there be light!

 

Welcome back to this update to my fairs blog. As you'll see in the pictures below the fair has had both ups and downs in the first five months of operation. Firstly when I last left you I mentioned a lighting problem here at the fair in being that we didn't actually have any.

Anyway after about a month of only day time operations (we did try night time with no actual lights apart from the rides but it was a complete health hazard) we decided to invest in some. Now as you all know unless we wanted candlelight or naked flames these lights would require power. Enter Geoff the repairman and ride inspector. He had a brilliant idea and assured me that connecting the lights up to both Spin Out's and Fireballs personnel generators we could get the power needed without any further infrastructure.

Now this sounded brilliant and we hooked them up and had fault free power for all of two nights at which time Fireball suddenly lost power due to overstretching the power, leaving several guests stuck upside down while we disconnected the lights and got power back to the ride. Luckily free rides for several visits meant that they didn't go any further than muttering a few complaints and no real harm came to them. Unfortunately this proved that Geoff's amazing idea wasn't exactly amazing.. Further proof when Spin Out! had a power outage a week later meant that we had to find a new solution.

Luckily a local farmer and my father both had spare generators that we managed to get for cheap so now we had enough power for the lights and a spare power unit in case anything happened.

Now it's not all bad. Geoff has been sent on a refresher course to try and help with better ideas in the future and the park still seems to be busy. Money is steadily coming in and should hopefully leave us with several options at the end of the season including some food for our guests hopefully.

Oh and although the coconuts and equipment to run the stall has turned up were still looking for someone to run but hey food is more important at the moment. Now lets hope some of these issues are either solved or being solved the next time I get back to you.

 

Anyway here's the pictures that I know your dieing to see.

 

 

Fireball after the people were evacuated

 

Spin Out!

 

Spiral Slide (thankfully doesn't require electricity good old slide)

 

Oh coconuts its still not open!

 

These should solve our problems.

 

Till then

 

Simon Drake

[89James89]

Update Three: Season one close down.

 

Well here we are at the end of the first season and thankfully what a successful season it turned out to be. Now since the last update we've finally found someone to run the coconut shy so that's now finally up and running. The profits coming into the park since we've opened have also meant that we've been lucky enough to pick up another ride (used from another fair but hey its a new ride for us) to add to the four we have. This hopefully will mean that our guests return next year to ride it rather than going elsewhere due to the same old rides.

Unfortunately picking up this new ride has meant that were not sure if we'll have enough to invest in some food stalls like we'd hoped but were still looking around and contacting local food vans in an effort to get them to set up a semi permanent van here. Also we need to invest in some portable loos to hopefully stop guests either leaving the fair to go to the toilet or using the hedge.

Anyway we'll have to see if we can scrape anything together come the very end of the season to sort these points out but hey we have a new ride and that's a start. Anyway here's some photos for you and we hope to see you all again next season.

 

An attempt and getting the whole fair into a photo for you all.

 

The coconut shy finally up and running.

 

Finally the new trailer and area cleared behind Spin Out!.

 

Till then

 

Simon Drake

[sfgamguy]

I love parks like these! Keep the updates coming man.

[89James89]

Replies:

 

sfgamguy: Thanks and although its taken a little while here's the next update for you.

 

Update 4: Season 2 opening:

 

Well guys the off season is finally over and were ready to open up again this time with a couple of fun new additions. After last years crowds it would seem that the big earners were definitely the more thrilling rides so hopefully this one will fit right in here at the fair. Also contrary to what we believed nearing the end of last season we have been able to find a food vendor for the fair so now you can get something to eat here as well. Granted its only doughnuts but its a start.

The food vendor however, whilst solving one problem has created another. Namely the real need for toilets in the park. Turns out that certain areas are beginning to really show the signs of being used as relief points and guests are beginning to complain about the smell. Unfortunately at the moment we have no cash left to rectify this so hopefully our new ride will help quell the guests till we can afford some.

Speaking of the new ride it's probably time I introduced it properly. I'd like to present to you The Cage. This Frank Hurbetz Round Up is sure to bring excite the thrill seekers in the park which seeing as they are our main audience it seems, is a good idea. Well that's the plan anyway. We'll have to see if it works out. Anyway I've got to wrap it up here so here are some photos of the opening day for you.

 

View from the entrance. You can see several new things here.

 

Hold on tight for some centrifugal fun.

 

An attempt at a overview of the fair from the top of the slide. You can see everything but Fireball and the slide including our new Doughnut stand.

 

Till next time

 

Simon Drake

 

OOC: Sorry I've been so long for such a small update. I've been a bit distracted with other things but hopefully I'll be updating more regularly now.

 

Cheers

 

James