Set of suggestions - Background, Underdeveloped Coasters, and UI tweaks

[Nat]

Hi Y'all!

As a foreword, I checked through the suggestions for these and didn't see them suggested, but I may have missed a thread or two. Anyway, what follows are some suggestions for the game.

Background:
-The current background is always the black 'void' color. It would be nice to have an option to change that color- say, to grass green, or sky blue, in the scenario editor. Even better would be an option for textured backgrounds, so that you could have the actual land textures, or image backgrounds, so that you could add entire rct landscapes around the build.
-Adding an option in the scenario to make a scenario 'snowy' beyond 'cool and wet' in the climate selector would be nice. This should change the rain particles to white and have them fall slower so that it looks like snow. It might also have a bit of an effect on the efficacy of some stalls- increasing efficacy of things like coffee and soup stalls and decreasing the rate for things like fruity ices or ice cream, similar to the inverse effect that exists for hot climates.

Underdeveloped rides:
-Several rides and rollercoasters in RCT2 appear to be a bit underdeveloped. I'd like to suggest the following inclusions:

• Add the In-Line Twist to the Inverted Impulse Coaster, so that it can twist on both axes
• Add sloped turns to the Multi-Dimension Coaster
• Add steep hills to the Mine Ride Coaster, option to increase train acceleration
• Vertical Lift Hill and vertical track for the Heartline Coaster
• Rapids track for the Log Flume (Sloped rapids would be my suggestion if that were possible, tall drops look odd with this ride type)
• Vertical lift hill for the Mini Helicopters (they should be able to fly up!)
• Manual Brake mode from the Alpine Coaster as an option for the side-friction (since that's close to how they originally worked)
• Pneumatic Boosters and sloped banked turns for the Hypercoaster

I don't know which of these would be feasible, unfortunately I'm not particularly well-versed in how this game is set up, but I think these could allow for more exciting and interesting parks with the (mostly) underused rides on this list. I do understand that some of these, especially for the Multi-Dimension Coaster, would be difficult due to the number of extra sprites needed, but I still think they would be worth adding to make a more complete experience.

Finally, I'd like to suggest the following UI improvements:

• Default Chain Lift. Enables the chain lift button for the first track after the station. This is a New Player Experience feature, as it shows new players what the chain lift does and allows them to successfully build their first coaster without necessarily knowing all the parts of the coaster builder. Option to disable in the options menu.
• Search Bars. Add a name search to the object selector menu, inventions list, scenery builder and the ride builder menus in-game, which would help when there are many objects selected now that you can select functionally infinite rides and scenery.
• Custom Start-menu video UI. Add a UI which allows people to create custom start-menu videos, with a recording option that records the screen sans text boxes and a button on individual rides to save video of a train traversing the ride that can be added to the startup screen video.
• 'Randomize train color' and 'randomize track color' options. When 'different colors per train' is selected, show a button that allows you to randomize the color of the trains. A similar button should exist for the track colors, so that you can get random non-standard color combinations for the track.
• Multicolor support for signs and ride entrances. Using a trigger phrase and adding a color code should let you change the color of the text on these objects, similar to how it's done in other games. something like "#GREEN# Leap The Dips" changing the color of the text on the entrance to the ride to green. This could also affect their look in the ride options menu and the ride summary window.
• Crash sprite on derailment point. For rides that can derail, adding a crash smoke texture on the slope/turn where the ride began 'crashing' when the ride flies off the rails would save a lot of headache debugging the coaster. Sometimes a side-friction coaster on the other side of the park crashes and you have to kind of guess which hill was the issue.

I think all of these things would be nice additions to the game as it is now, but I would be interested to hear what the thoughts are on the other side of this. Thanks!!

[X7123M3-256]

19 hours ago, Nat said:

Adding an option in the scenario to make a scenario 'snowy' beyond 'cool and wet' in the climate selector would be nice. This should change the rain particles to white and have them fall slower so that it looks like snow.

The problem is not really the number of new sprites that are needed -  the problem is the difficulty of creating sprites which match the existing ones. This has been done successfully for a few tracks so far, but it's difficult which means only the most heavily used track types are likely to get this sort of extension anytime soon. It would happen faster if there were more people working on it.

The other problem is that even if the track pieces are added that doesn't mean the trains have the right sprites for them. The multidimension coaster trains will glitch badly if put on sloped banked turns. I think that adding new sprites to an existing train is probably almost impossible - or at least, I have no intention of ever attempting that and I don't know of anyone who has tried. So far, most of the new pieces that have been added only work properly with custom trains that have the sprites to support them, and this will probably remain the case until OpenGraphics becomes a thing.

The heartline twister coaster trains can handle verticals and half loops, one of the few ride types that could have new pieces added that the existing trains could use. But it's such a niche (and widely disliked) ride type that I don't think it's likely to get this soon, although it's definitely feasible.

 

18 hours ago, Nat said:

Manual Brake mode from the Alpine Coaster as an option for the side-friction (since that's close to how they originally worked)

The brake mode from the alpine coaster wouldn't work at all. With the alpine coaster, riders control the brakes and choose how fast they go - on the alpine coaster you cannot build uphill slopes without a chain lift because if you do, slow guests will get stuck (even a 5ft incline will cause the slowest guests to get stuck). On side friction coasters with a brakeman, they will only actuate the brakes when needed to prevent the train derailing - these coasters can and do still have hills.

There has been some discussion about how this could work in game - one option suggested was to let you set a speed limit on each track piece. This would likely be a feature if a scenic railway ride type were added (the side friction coaster in game is based on Leap the Dips, which does not and never did have a brakeman).
 

19 hours ago, Nat said:

Vertical lift hill for the Mini Helicopters (they should be able to fly up!)

Assuming you're referring to an elevator lift, this is likely one of the hardest track pieces to try and implement, I really have no idea how it would work.
 

19 hours ago, Nat said:

Pneumatic Boosters and sloped banked turns for the Hypercoaster

This is a weird suggestion. For one thing, pneumatic boosters aren't really a thing. Sure, some S&S coasters have a pneumatic launch, but they don't work like the booster pieces - the train must stop, engage the catch car, and then launch. Also, I know that a lot of ride types have recieved boosters that shouldn't really have them, but I would point out that the hypercoaster never had any kind of launch, and if you're going to add boosters they should really be LIM/LSM like the others.
 

19 hours ago, Nat said:

Search Bars. Add a name search to the object selector menu, inventions list, scenery builder and the ride builder menus in-game, which would help when there are many objects selected now that you can select functionally infinite rides and scenery.

There's already a search feature in the object selection and I think the scenery window as well now (can't check ATM). I doubt the other windows really need it but it could be added.
 

19 hours ago, Nat said:

Custom Start-menu video UI. Add a UI which allows people to create custom start-menu videos, with a recording option that records the screen sans text boxes and a button on individual rides to save video of a train traversing the ride that can be added to the startup screen video.

Has existed for years. Used to be a built in feature but has now been moved to a plugin.
 

19 hours ago, Nat said:

Multicolor support for signs and ride entrances. Using a trigger phrase and adding a color code should let you change the color of the text on these objects, similar to how it's done in other games. something like "#GREEN# Leap The Dips" changing the color of the text on the entrance to the ride to green. This could also affect their look in the ride options menu and the ride summary window.

Already exists for the ride and staff names. Making it work for signs is maybe feasible, I'm not entirely sure.
 

19 hours ago, Nat said:

Adding an option in the scenario to make a scenario 'snowy' beyond 'cool and wet' in the climate selector would be nice. This should change the rain particles to white and have them fall slower so that it looks like snow.

Snow has actually been implemented already for quite a while. But there is no snowy climate - the "change weather" cheat is the only way to actually make it snow  right now - and it has no effect on gameplay. I think this would be a good thing to see implemented properly.