Forest Frontiers, part 3

Eventually every game of RollerCoaster Tycoon becomes about saving money so you can build something big. I played Forest Frontiers from Year 1 to somewhere around Year 7 before I really had access to money and it was somewhere around Year 9 when I was earning faster than I was spending. My plan all along was to buy all of the available land but that's an expensive thing to do. I kicked the land-buying can down the road a few times. While I was doing that I decorated and improved the land I already owned, including adding a small lake.

The lake I made

The lake I didn't make

I planned to make a stream that connected my watering hole to the one on the hillside that I intended to buy. Once I started buying and occupying the land that leads to the hillside lake I felt like the park was done. The land constricts up that way. If I bought the lake I wanted to keep it open and attractive, not cover it with a ride. As things unfolded my paths that lead to the lake felt like they logically concluded. I have the money to buy the lake, but it feels like it'll be forced to build around it. I decided to not purchase that land and call my park done without it. I stopped playing towards the end of Year 11.

The main entrance, looking left

The main entrance, looking right

The back of the park

The entire park

Forest Frontiers, part 2

Forest Frontiers begins as a blank canvas. It's so blank that it stymies imagination, pushing the player to complete the scenario and then move on as quickly as possible. I needed some sort of inspiration so I started working out pathways around the park. I first planned to make a very wide path that went from the entrance to the back of the park, but I scrapped that. I started working out plans to have a loop around the front half of the park and another for the back half. I knew early that I wanted a large and open entryway. My solution was to place a few attractions and work around them. I planned to buy all available land so I had the path along the right side of the screenshot below go right alongside of the park's current border. I also planned to have the path that crosses the back of the park line up with the lake that can be bought.

The paths that I used to dictate the park's layout

As soon as you open Forest Frontiers to customers they crowd the place. I'm not a fan of overly long queues so my solution to taming the crowd was to make all paths double-wide. I had planned on making them double-wide regardless, but the complaints about crowding forced me to handle it earlier than expected. It didn't solve the problem. I really needed a tool, like a train or chairlift, to move people past a choke point but I didn't want to build one. I simply tolerated the complaints. The junior roller coaster in the middle of the park is "Little Ladybird" designed by NieSch. I downloaded it from RCTgo at this link. The wooden coaster in the back is Tinder, which comes pre-built in RCT Classic.

Crowded double-wide paths

Once I had my basic pathways laid I spent time working on the entrance plaza. I ran through a few iterations before landing on its final shape. Pretty much I knew that I wanted a wide open space and I wanted to feature the two large objects from Mine Themeing. Once that was settled I started playing the game like I normally would: saving cash then installing rides.

As new rides became available to me I would open them in the Ride Designer and add theme elements. I've never been very good at designing scenery in RollerCoaster Tycoon so I looked to Google Images for inspiration. I found the Renegade Mining Co on the Theme Park Review forums (link to post). There was this one particular screenshot, below, that guided many of the decisions that I made.

The Renegade Mining Co mine train by cb0688

To be continued.

Forest Frontiers, part 1

It only takes a few attractions to lure 250 guests into Forest Frontiers.

Forest Frontiers is the very first scenario you're expected to play in RollerCoaster Tycoon. In the original PC version of the game it was used as something of a tutorial scenario and is nigh impossible to fail. You play for less than an hour, complete the goal, and then never revisit Forest Frontiers again. There's really no incentive to play past October 31, Year 1. The park itself is a flat, open, boring space that doesn't inspire any creativity if all you want to do is pass the scenario and unlock harder scenarios. When I installed RCT Classic on my tablet recently I zipped through Forest Frontiers without a thought. I finished a few scenarios at a rapid pace before deciding that I'd like to paint each park like a canvas. I've beaten the game before and this time I’d like to savor it.

Starting size: 16,100m²; Maximum size: 30,470m²

It's curious that they only offer these five.

I reluctantly started Forest Frontiers anew. It's still flat. It's still open. It's still bor… hmm. There's a couple of interesting things to notice. The first is that the park has a lot of real estate to buy; its size can be nearly doubled. Zooming out on the map I see that there are some local hills and a body of water that can be claimed. Going by the name "Forest Frontiers" and seeing that the park is in a forested valley formed by foothills gives me a bit of flavor for design ideas. It's supposed to be woodsy. The second interesting thing is that there are a few items from the Mining Theme available as decorations. This underscores the idea that the park should be woodsy, maybe like an old timey logging camp. Then there's the juxtaposition of the entry way; the main path is paved and lined with topiary squirrels. I can sort of work the squirrels into a rustic forest setting, but the sidewalk and city street lights just don't fly. I'll do some subtraction to the park before I start my additions. I'm going to spend some time planning the major rides and paths before I actually start playing the scenario. I'll do all of ride research with the game clock at top speed, just to know which attractions need space allocated, and then I'll start over at Day 1. To be continued.