Arde's guide to making randomly generated scenarios.

[Ardebitis]

First, let me say that I'm overjoyed that OpenRCT2's scenario editor has a terrain generator. This entire guide wouldn't be possible without it. Unfortunately, that option led me to want a function to generate entire scenarios. Since there isn't a scenario generator in-game yet, I've decided to devise one out-of-game.

This is a guide that will allow people to manually make random scenarios in OpenRCT2. I say "manually" because it involves about an hour of work on the user's part for each scenario. But if you're willing to put in that work, this guide should suffice until OpenRCT2 allows for full scenario generation (if that time ever comes).

**What you'll need:**
-
- OpenRCT2 (of course)
- Internet access to the site random.org
- A raw text file containing a list of every ride and attraction in RCT2. (I made one for you here.)
- A similar raw text file of Scenery Groups), and optionally, Park Entrances).
- About an hour of free time.

**Generation Guide**
-
- Step 1: In the Scenario Editor's Object Selection, uncheck every ride and attraction, and uncheck the current park entrance.
- Step 2: Go to https://www.random.org/lists/ and paste the entirety of the Rides and Attractions text file, then hit "Randomize". This shall produce a numbered list of the attractions in a random order.
- Step 3: Pick or randomly generate a number between 50 and 128, then begin checking the attractions on your numbered list in order, from top to bottom, until you reach the chosen number. If you end up without a Restroom at the end of the generation, manually add one, if desired.
- Step 4: Repeat Step 2 and 3 with the Scenery Groups, but instead of picking a number, keep going down the list until you get a red warning message saying too many objects are selected. Uncheck the group that caused the warning.
- Step 5: (OPTIONAL) Repeat Step 2 and 3  with the Park Entrances, but only check the first entrance on the list.
- Step 6: Go to the Landscape Editor, and generate a new terrain. The specifics of said terrain are up to you. Once you're satisfied, fill the entire map with owned land, and create a Park Entrance/Path/Peep Starting Position on the edge of the map.
- Step 7: Go to the Invention List, and remove everything from the top list (except perhaps one food stall, one drink stall, and one restroom). Shuffle the bottom list a few times with the "Random Shuffle" button, and drag the first 15-50 items from the bottom list onto the top.
- Step 8: If you want your scenario to have money, the default settings on the next window should be fine, but you can always use random.org to make these random as well.
- Step 9: Pick or generate a number between 2 and 7. This is your Objective from the first drop-down box. For example, a 5 is "Park value at a given date". Pick or generate a number between 1 and 4 for the climate. Name and describe your scenario and save.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Ardebitis

[Ardebitis]

As a bit of a bonus: I just now put together a guide for quantifying a scenario's difficulty as a number. Note that this guide only applies to "start from scratch" scenarios as of now.

 

Determining difficulty of a from-scratch scenario.
Difficulty starts at 3.
No cleared land (flat, without trees): +1
Small amount of owned land: +3
No purchasable land: +2
No starting food/drink/restrooms: +3 for each.

No money: -1
Initial cash: +1 for every 2k below default (rounded up), -1 for every 2k above default (rounded down).
Initial loan: -1 for every 5k below default, +1 for every 5k above default (both rounded down). (+/-3 instead if goal includes Repay Loan)
Maximum loan: +1 for every 10k below default, -1 for every 10k above default (both rounded down).
Annual interest rate: -1 for every 10% below default, +1 for every 10% above default (both rounded down).
Forbid marketing campaigns: +1

Average cash per guest: +1 for every 10 below default, -1 for every 10 above default (both rounded down).
Initial happiness/hunger/thirst: +1 for every 10% below default, -1 for every 10% above default (both rounded down).

Purchasable land/rights: +1 if more expensive than default, -1 if cheaper than default.
Forbid tree removal: +2 (+5 if no cleared land).
Forbid landscape changes: +2 (+5 if no cleared land).
Forbid high construction: +2 (+3 if map is mostly water).
Park rating higher difficult level: +3 (+5 if number of quests in park)
Guest generation higher difficult level: +2 (+5 if guest-in-park goal or number of guests in park)

Guest-in-park goal ratio is 250 guests per year of time.
If only 1 year of time is given, increase difficulty by 1, and further increase the difficulty by 2 for every 50 guests over the ratio.
Otherwise, increase the difficulty by 1 for every 100 guests over the ratio, rounded up.

Monthly profit from food/merchandise: -1 for default, +1 for every 500 higher

Repay loan and achieve park value: +1 for default, -1 for every 10k lower, +1 for every 10k higher

Park value goal ratio is 10k for 1 Year, +20k for every additional year.
+1 for every 10k above ratio, -1 for every 10k below ratio.

Number of guests in park: +1 for default, -1 for every 250 lower, +1 for every 250 higher.

Build 10 roller coasters: +1 (-5 if no money).

Edited December 7, 2015 by Ardebitis

[JJ_Whelan]

If you want random numbers, I suggest http://www.fourmilab.ch/hotbits/generate.html.

[imlegos]

random.org has a number gen on the home page.

[YoloSweggLord]

Why use hotbits? Random.org has a lot more features.

[JJ_Whelan]

I use hotbits because it just generates lists of random numbers. I don't need the random.org features and dislike having to use the internet every time I want a random number. A text file of previously obtained hotbits can be consulted for however many numbers I want, whenever i want. I also do most of my random number use inside programs and scripts, not wanting to bother with a manual internet interface. I can see the use of random.org for the use Ardebitis suggests but for me, hotbits is the place to go for step9.

 

[Broxzier]

I like how you approach randomly generating scenarios by hand. I haven't tried it out myself, but while reading the points it feels a bit unbalanced at the moment. No cleared land only gives +1 while having starting food/drink/restrooms: gives +3 each, while in my opinion a rough landscape is much more challenging to play with, and restrooms and stalls can be built within a few minutes. It's hard to get right of course, it will involve a lot of trial and error before it's working well.

random.org seems a lot more user friendly than hotbits. I don't see how hotbits would be better than random.org for step 9 either, because it doesn't have a way to generate a single number within a given range.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Broxzier