Rollercoaster Tycoon World (RCTW) Discussion Thread

[Garet]

I think a code on G2A was $25.

[Midgetman82]

So I got it for the price on the link posted before, and found that the game isn't as "terrible" as I suspected it would be. I was right in that it would NOT be worth $50, but I was wrong in that it would be completely unplayable. It's playable for some few hours.

 

My main gripes with it (and I'll include the obvious ones):

-The lag in the game is awful! The moment I place my first ride, and start looking around, it immediately starts to lag harshly. Once I've actually built a small park, I can't look in certain directions without it occasionally freezing for 2-4 seconds, then coming back. If I was flying around with the camera, I can expect to overshoot wherever I was intending to look at.

-The animation in the game is still wonky. The Pendulum ride doesn't swing super fast anymore (it still spins super fast), but it rises to the top and stays upside down for however many cycles you tell it to; the default being 1.5 days in-game before coming down.

-I understand the humor behind your guests puking sometime after they've gotten off of a ride, but when you have to place a janitor stall at the exit of a roller coaster because Every. Single. Person. getting off feels the need to instantly puke, it's no longer funny, it's just a pain.

 

That said:

-The coaster builder isn't too horrific once you get the hang of it. They have straight pieces, they have freeform pieces. Once you've set the layout, you can easily go back and smooth out pieces by hand and it'll look just fine. The wooden coaster glitches a lot though.

-Once you've expanded your park, you've got lots of room for lots of coasters and rides and... stuff. But with what's in the game currently, you'd probably find it pretty darn hard to fill a completely expanded park.

 

I don't know, maybe I'm going too easy on it because I didn't have such high expectations (and didn't pay full price). But still, it's nowhere near great. All I can think of at this moment is that they're trying to compete against PC's Alpha release in an attempt to stay relevant too. On a last note, the game has different genres of music for the different types of themes available, but they're all variations of the game's theme song... which I've yet to get out of my head.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Midgetman82

[Risky]

^ You had no trouble with paths and shop/stall placement? All the videos I've seen feature a frustrated player trying to do basic things like that, but the game won't let you as well as won't tell you why the item is in an "invalid location".

[Midgetman82]

Sometimes it did that, and eventually I'm forced to settle on a wonky-shaped sidewalk instead of something much more simple and straightforward. Shop and stall placement wasn't too horrid once you use the "snap" method, they'll just plop onto the side of the sidewalk of choice (though some spots are restricted with no explanation). But the bathroom/medical/mechanic/janitor stalls are WAY too big, and need to be sized-down significantly. There's absolutely no logical reason for them to be as big as they are, especially since each building only holds three of each employee. It makes it hard to install any in your park without having to delete other stuff that might be of importance.

[Dante80]

Agreed, it feels to me (which is something subjective) like many of the buildings/shops are simply off, both in scale or in needed size.

[Risky]

This game is still a hot mess for it to have been released already. I thought NVizzio would've done well with it.

[Ape]

It's an early access game, of course there are going to be several issues. They will work on those issues and get it hopefully to a somewhat decent level by the full release. I am personally more intrigued by Planet Coaster.

[Risky]

Early access? More like early agony. lol The game is an eyesore. I find it funny and sad when I come across people who defend the game. It still has an "Early 2016" release date set and we're almost into the middle of the year.

[neil009]

Ok, there's a reason RCT had "coughing" sounds when people vomited, not actual retching sounds. That video of crowds of people all retching in unison was like something out of a bizarre prescription drug-induced nightmare.

 

This game is obviously some degree of a failure, but I don't like seeing people say mean things about the developers. Making games is not an easy thing to do and we should probably assume they cared and their intentions were good, the time, budget and overall vision just weren't there. Looks to me like a lot of people working on their own little aspects of the game without one person watching to make sure it all ties together into something charming and playable.

[Risky]

So why not call them out? It's an entire team of people being paid to produce a big pile of crap. There is no excuse. I have seen games made by one or two people that work better than RCTW could ever hope.

Even THIS game was more solid than RCTW.

It's 2016. Games are so much more demanding in terms of quality than they were in the early 2000's. Apparently Atari and NVizzio don't realize that, let alone the legacy of the RCT series.

[Dante80]

Apparently Atari and NVizzio don't realize that, let alone the legacy of the RCT series.

 

Two things happened.

 

1. Nvissio was rushed to bring a "feature complete" build forward instead of taking the time to work on each module and part of the feature set until it was good. You can see this with the feedback given in the beta, which was really not taken into account at all. The plan was apparently to keep on getting the features from the ATARI list in, instead of paying attention to each and every facet of the game. So, now we have a complete game (scenarios, campaign, management, sandbox, people, staff, economy, rides, scenery, UGC, shops, rollercoasters etc) but each and every part of the game feels rushed or tacked on.

 

I cannot really blame them for this btw, they are contractors and really have no creative and schedule freedom in this.

 

2. Performance problems. As you add more stuff and features to your game, your game gets heavier, performance wise. If you don't have the time to properly integrate the features, mesh them together, optimize the game and polish the end result (due to the first point I made above), the only way to present it as playable is to simply dial down anything and everything, until you get something that does not melt your computer. This is the reason that the game Beta looked a lot better, 5 months prior to this.

 

All in all, if you let this cook for six more months, I think that we will get a passable game. The actual bet now is whether ATARI will run away or put the money in to get the game out of EA.

[BCTom]

I spent time with Planet Coaster last weekend, and have played RCTW a bit now as well. Early reviews aside, $20 is cheap enough for me to take the plunge.

 

First off, the graphics. Planet Coaster looks great. RCTW looks like a game that should have been released a decade ago.

 

In many ways, PC already feels like the more complete game. The ability to use decorations and building elements to build your own world is light years ahead of RCTW, which is strictly "place X ride here" in terms of design (coaster building aside).

 

In PC I built a sort-of dark ride pirate coaster. I used rocks and walls to build a themed queue. I placed a pirate ship, and then placed cannons on it that fire. I placed rocks around it and used them to cover up spotlights to give the scene character. I built a simple wooden house and used lights, torches, and cannon smoke to make it appear to be on fire. It was time consuming as heck, and is nothing compared to some of the creations we've seen posted, but it was gratifying to do.

 

Even placing paths in RCTW is tedious and frustrating. Good luck making your queue from an attraction to the walkway a straight line. Connecting things always seems to result in odd and unnatural angles. It seems that scenery such as trees don't auto delete if you place a ride. If it doesn't fit, you have to move the scenery manually and then try again.

 

Coaster building in both games seems okay. Planet Coaster however, feels more user friendly. It's clear as you build where to click to adjust height, curvature, angle, etc. With RCTW, you have to press a number key corresponding to what you want to change (i.e. angling your track sideways) and then adjust that piece. This may become intuitive over time when building many coasters, but it feels annoying right now.

[Risky]

If they couldn't do it right, they shouldn't have done it at all. I have no sympathy for NVizzio or Atari. 12 years is a long time to wait for a new PC installment for a series that is very beloved.

[neil009]

^Nobody is suggesting you have sympathy for Atari. As for NVizzio, how would you like it if you invested months and months of physical, mental, and emotional energy into creating something while having your employers give you impossible goals and deadlines, are finally forced to release something you KNOW is flawed and that you're not proud of, then have to pretend that you're happy with it anyway, only to have thousands of people call what you created a piece of shit and ridicule you for it? Can you just imagine for a second what that must feel like?

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Atari cut their losses and ran from this project as fast as they could, but so far they're not, they're putting in the money to release updates and fix problems. So at least give them a little credit for that.

[Midgetman82]

I can forgive Nvizzio for putting the time and effort into attempting to bring the franchise back to light, and I can only assume things look the way they are now because of ATARI's budget and deadline set on to them (plus the time lost in ditching the previous developers). I hope in time the game will improve, because the potential is still somewhat there.

[Risky]

^^

I know how it works between developers and publishers. Some of my favourite video games series (like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro) have undergone the same situations due to publishers like Universal Interactive and Activision, but the development teams still managed to pull through and make playable games. I think RCT and NVizzio is the worst I've seen. I know that Atari is the real villain here. I suppose it's technically not fair to be angry with NVizzio, but they're making RCTW what it is because of Atari, and I feel I should hate them for it because I love RCT so much. This has been a huge mess. If it does get better, that's great, but this game won't get any of my support or money.

[Kooky]

Here is my first onride of my PLC adventure-darkride:

 

 

edit: Sorry wrong thread... this was meant for the PLC-Thread

[Midgetman82]

I had not been keeping up with this game at all, but upon my usual browsing of YouTube I stumbled upon a video series focusing on updates the game had been doing. This video on Update #6 of the game was put out just a few days ago.

 

Here's a snippet from the full-detailed Update #6 devlog posted:

RCTW – EARLY ACCESS – DEV BLOG #9 – UPDATE #6 NOW LIVE!

...

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT:

GRAPHICS: Incredible new Skydome added to the game! Enjoy the new sunrises and sunsets now available across all maps.

SCENARIOS: Three New Scenarios have been unlocked for you to try out! Check out all new Scenarios 4, 5, and 6!

 

IMPROVEMENTS:

BUILDINGS: Assets will only appear as a ghost if they have not fully loaded yet

GRAPHICS: Improved the textures on the “Golden Entrance”

PATHS: Further improvements to path deletion and placement

PATHS: Improved the UI for choosing between Curved and Straight Paths

PATHS: Removed the green highlight around already-placed paths

PEEPS: Improved the algorithm associated with Peeps choosing a ride based on novelty

PEEPS: Improved the logic and balance for peeps when choosing what coaster to ride

PEEPS: Improved the Park Rating system and resolved a number of bugs/balance issues

PEEPS: Peeps now trigger specific thoughts when in the “ill” state

PEEPS: Removed the increase cap for in-game marketing and resolved a number of bugs/balance issues

PERFORMANCE: First pass of optimizations on environment

PERFORMANCE: Further optimizations to flatrides

PERFORMANCE: Sunrays are now disabled when not visible by the user

PERFORMANCE: Terrain will now have tessellation according to camera height

PERFROMANCE: Improved the Global Illumination algorithm to improve performance

SCENARIOS: Number of balance and other tweaks to scenarios 1,2, and 3

UGC: Added a “Subscribed Items Filter” to the UGC manager in-game

I'll open it again once I'm back at my desktop tomorrow. Had anyone here opened the game recently and noticed?

[AustinR]

this game and thread is dying as the Planet Coaster thread will eventually pass it in page numbers and quality.

Edited November 5, 2017 by AustinR

[Midgetman82]

RCT World had Nukazooka (same folks who made

) make a video for them. The actual contents of the video have nothing to do with the game, but it is a pretty fun video to watch!

 

As for recent gameplay trailers are concerned (and for those curious on its current state), here's one released for the European games and entertainment trade fair, Gamescom.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

I can some improvements they have made, I think. But this game still does not look good.

[Risky]

^^ Lol That trailer. Well, they tried.

[TheCoasterKid211]

This thread is turning into one huge cycle for me. It looks like it's improving, then it turns to crap, then a new trailer comes out.

 

 

Aaaand the cycle begins again.

[viking86]

Regardless of the quality of the game, anyone else think this Disko concept was pretty cool??

[TheJewelOfJool]

That's a neat concept, and the only good thing about the game.