Jun 19, 2020, 12:33 AM
That is a good layout, particularly with a train or monorail looping around the outer points.
BTW, the name of that utility is "Peep Factory" not "Peep Generator", sorry (encroaching senility).
The overall number of people in the park is a factor in profits, but must be balanced against length of paths, guest happiness, etc. There can be 3000 people in a park but if, due to path lengths and design, 2500 of them are "heading for..." something at any given time, they are not spending money; better to have 2000 people in a smaller park with only 1000 milling around. This also figures in with charging admission or not; in small parks an admission fee might net you more - people pay up front, ride a few rides, buy some food, and leave, so more come in; but in larger parks, even with a higher entrance fee, you'll have lower relative profits because there isn't as much turnover - people pay to get in then stay all day going on ride after ride for that one fee. It's all a balancing act between how many people are in the park and how many of them are actually spending money on rides and vendors. (Randomly check different guests periodically just to see what they are doing. Too many commenting, "I've spent all my money" usually means you should add more ATMs. Also check the guest list for those angry red faces, there will always be a few, but look for common complaints - hungry? more food stalls, tired? more benches, sunburn? more sun cream stalls, lost? put him back on a path (lol, it happens).)
I've never had a problem with mechanics, train them to lvl 3, give them a patrol zone 2-3 times that of an average janitor, and leave them alone (always have one mechanic free roaming). Janitors are more troublesome; those with patrol zones i only train to lvl 2, free roaming janitors are trained to lvl 3; and always uncheck the "water plants" option, plants are static and need no attention, the little bit of added realism from their watering animations merely wastes computer resources and detracts from the time they could be cleaning the park. (Training staff is an odious repetitious task which I hate, especially when having to add 20 keepers to an animal enclosure; there is a mod which eliminates this irritation - all staff come fully trained, at a cost equivalent to the training.)
Also, rides break down more often the longer the ride time so adjust mechanics patrol zones accordingly. Two minutes seems about the longest a ride will go before guests are complaining "I want to get off"; this does not apply to "transport" rides with several stations, as long as no individual leg runs more than about 1 minute. For most rides 60-90 seconds seems optimum, the higher the intensity the shorter the ride should be (I have some popular coasters for which guests pay $9.50 for a 20 second ride). I once built a large wooden coaster with a four minute ride time, it was popular though half the guests complained and it was lucky to do one full circuit without breaking down, even with a mechanic assigned just to it. Some low excitement flat rides can be given a noticeable boost by setting them to 2 or even 3 circuits, basically doubling or tripling the ride time; and with the go-karts three laps around a short track is more exciting than one lap around a longer track, even though overall time is the same. This multi-lap boost also works for coasters; wondering what to do with that small empty lot? pick a coaster with a block brake, use enough cars for 6-10 people and a station no larger than necessary for that, build a short track with a couple of hills, maybe an ess curve, a loop ...whatever works in the space you have, use just enough block brake boost for one smooth lap, and set the ride to 3 circuits; guests will love it (one caveat - there must be at least one section of track between the station and the block brake, otherwise the coaster will creep out of the station and take 30 seconds to launch).
When using events on a ride, do not adjust the trigger point, even if the animation doesn't start til the ride has passed; moving it to start the animation at another point invariably lowers the excitement boost. And the volcano event is broken, apparently just eye candy, it adds no excitement to any ride and takes up a large amount of real estate; in fact I see no evidence the guests or the park are even aware of its presence.
One of my complaints with RCT3 is the events, or rather with their lack of variety - most do not fit visually in most parks and are too large to easily "camoflage". The two smaller ones - tyrannosaurus and shark - can be hidden; decide where you want it, hold down the shift key and lower the event into the ground til the trigger highlight disappears, raise til the highlight reappears and click to place it, then build an appropriate themed structure over it; the shark has a 1x6 footprint on the surface, buried you only need a 1x4 building; the tyrannosaurus has a 2x6 footprint always and needs a three level high structure on the surface, often only a 1-2/3 high when buried. Oddly, events also work on the golf course and go-kart rides, though only the two smaller ones seem appropriate; the animations do not trigger on the golf course but the excitement boost is there.
And, while not events, I was disappointed to discover the waterfalls, nice as they are, are apparently mere resource hungry eye candy; they seem to have no effect on park ratings, guests do not seem to notice them, and they definitely have no effect on rides passing by them, over them, or behind them.
On an entirely personal note, as stated I prefer to play as the game was designed - going for ride ratings, guest opinions, and park ratings (though the latter are too simple), rather than just eye candy. So I question many of the mods available for this game. I have downloaded and used some very impressive construction sets - a couple of Japanese themed sets, with pagodas and bridges and gardens that are beautiful; a couple of sci-fi themed sets, with flying saucers firing ray guns, radar dishes and strange weapons scanning the horizon, odd machinery with pipes and panels and grids and animated lights .... and apparently none of this registers to the game as scenery. Build a coaster, build a default structure over the station and queue line, notice the excitement boost; now, over the same coaster, build a structure with one of these custom sets ...no effect. I can only assume mod developers have not deciphered what in a scenery file controls this. (Perhaps this is also why the broken volcano has not been fixed, nor the coasters with ludicrously low stats no matter what speeds and G-forces you give them ...even at 100mph and pulling 6 Gs laterally the Towering Coaster has ratings of 4.5/4.5/4.5.) Guests will comment on the default fountains, install some of the nice custom fountains and the guests don't even notice them. This eventually led me, on my old gaming rig, to have two installs of the game; one for playing, one for building eye candy.
A favorite design of mine is a large lake in the center of the map, the injection point about three levels underground near it, steps bring guests up to ground level where the path circles the lake with an average of three tiles between path and water (seem to make the guests happy to see water frequently). There are custom spaces in the lake for a dolphin/orca show and submarine ride (not always used), vendors, toilets, etc. go to the inside of the path, flat rides to the outside with space between them for paths to larger rides and coasters beyond (plan ahead, that four spaces of scenery works equally well for a queue line on each side of it); 3-5 monorail stations built directly above straight path sections, with the track looping out near the edge, past events, and back; a pool complex, if used, on the side opposite the entrance. A variation of this is a desert locale with a large mesa instead of the lake and the injection point inside the mesa, the top of the mesa is a great place for the pool complex, with a couple of staircases and elevators for access.
And should anyone ever decide to update this game .... KILL THE DUCKS!
BTW, the name of that utility is "Peep Factory" not "Peep Generator", sorry (encroaching senility).
The overall number of people in the park is a factor in profits, but must be balanced against length of paths, guest happiness, etc. There can be 3000 people in a park but if, due to path lengths and design, 2500 of them are "heading for..." something at any given time, they are not spending money; better to have 2000 people in a smaller park with only 1000 milling around. This also figures in with charging admission or not; in small parks an admission fee might net you more - people pay up front, ride a few rides, buy some food, and leave, so more come in; but in larger parks, even with a higher entrance fee, you'll have lower relative profits because there isn't as much turnover - people pay to get in then stay all day going on ride after ride for that one fee. It's all a balancing act between how many people are in the park and how many of them are actually spending money on rides and vendors. (Randomly check different guests periodically just to see what they are doing. Too many commenting, "I've spent all my money" usually means you should add more ATMs. Also check the guest list for those angry red faces, there will always be a few, but look for common complaints - hungry? more food stalls, tired? more benches, sunburn? more sun cream stalls, lost? put him back on a path (lol, it happens).)
I've never had a problem with mechanics, train them to lvl 3, give them a patrol zone 2-3 times that of an average janitor, and leave them alone (always have one mechanic free roaming). Janitors are more troublesome; those with patrol zones i only train to lvl 2, free roaming janitors are trained to lvl 3; and always uncheck the "water plants" option, plants are static and need no attention, the little bit of added realism from their watering animations merely wastes computer resources and detracts from the time they could be cleaning the park. (Training staff is an odious repetitious task which I hate, especially when having to add 20 keepers to an animal enclosure; there is a mod which eliminates this irritation - all staff come fully trained, at a cost equivalent to the training.)
Also, rides break down more often the longer the ride time so adjust mechanics patrol zones accordingly. Two minutes seems about the longest a ride will go before guests are complaining "I want to get off"; this does not apply to "transport" rides with several stations, as long as no individual leg runs more than about 1 minute. For most rides 60-90 seconds seems optimum, the higher the intensity the shorter the ride should be (I have some popular coasters for which guests pay $9.50 for a 20 second ride). I once built a large wooden coaster with a four minute ride time, it was popular though half the guests complained and it was lucky to do one full circuit without breaking down, even with a mechanic assigned just to it. Some low excitement flat rides can be given a noticeable boost by setting them to 2 or even 3 circuits, basically doubling or tripling the ride time; and with the go-karts three laps around a short track is more exciting than one lap around a longer track, even though overall time is the same. This multi-lap boost also works for coasters; wondering what to do with that small empty lot? pick a coaster with a block brake, use enough cars for 6-10 people and a station no larger than necessary for that, build a short track with a couple of hills, maybe an ess curve, a loop ...whatever works in the space you have, use just enough block brake boost for one smooth lap, and set the ride to 3 circuits; guests will love it (one caveat - there must be at least one section of track between the station and the block brake, otherwise the coaster will creep out of the station and take 30 seconds to launch).
When using events on a ride, do not adjust the trigger point, even if the animation doesn't start til the ride has passed; moving it to start the animation at another point invariably lowers the excitement boost. And the volcano event is broken, apparently just eye candy, it adds no excitement to any ride and takes up a large amount of real estate; in fact I see no evidence the guests or the park are even aware of its presence.
One of my complaints with RCT3 is the events, or rather with their lack of variety - most do not fit visually in most parks and are too large to easily "camoflage". The two smaller ones - tyrannosaurus and shark - can be hidden; decide where you want it, hold down the shift key and lower the event into the ground til the trigger highlight disappears, raise til the highlight reappears and click to place it, then build an appropriate themed structure over it; the shark has a 1x6 footprint on the surface, buried you only need a 1x4 building; the tyrannosaurus has a 2x6 footprint always and needs a three level high structure on the surface, often only a 1-2/3 high when buried. Oddly, events also work on the golf course and go-kart rides, though only the two smaller ones seem appropriate; the animations do not trigger on the golf course but the excitement boost is there.
And, while not events, I was disappointed to discover the waterfalls, nice as they are, are apparently mere resource hungry eye candy; they seem to have no effect on park ratings, guests do not seem to notice them, and they definitely have no effect on rides passing by them, over them, or behind them.
On an entirely personal note, as stated I prefer to play as the game was designed - going for ride ratings, guest opinions, and park ratings (though the latter are too simple), rather than just eye candy. So I question many of the mods available for this game. I have downloaded and used some very impressive construction sets - a couple of Japanese themed sets, with pagodas and bridges and gardens that are beautiful; a couple of sci-fi themed sets, with flying saucers firing ray guns, radar dishes and strange weapons scanning the horizon, odd machinery with pipes and panels and grids and animated lights .... and apparently none of this registers to the game as scenery. Build a coaster, build a default structure over the station and queue line, notice the excitement boost; now, over the same coaster, build a structure with one of these custom sets ...no effect. I can only assume mod developers have not deciphered what in a scenery file controls this. (Perhaps this is also why the broken volcano has not been fixed, nor the coasters with ludicrously low stats no matter what speeds and G-forces you give them ...even at 100mph and pulling 6 Gs laterally the Towering Coaster has ratings of 4.5/4.5/4.5.) Guests will comment on the default fountains, install some of the nice custom fountains and the guests don't even notice them. This eventually led me, on my old gaming rig, to have two installs of the game; one for playing, one for building eye candy.
A favorite design of mine is a large lake in the center of the map, the injection point about three levels underground near it, steps bring guests up to ground level where the path circles the lake with an average of three tiles between path and water (seem to make the guests happy to see water frequently). There are custom spaces in the lake for a dolphin/orca show and submarine ride (not always used), vendors, toilets, etc. go to the inside of the path, flat rides to the outside with space between them for paths to larger rides and coasters beyond (plan ahead, that four spaces of scenery works equally well for a queue line on each side of it); 3-5 monorail stations built directly above straight path sections, with the track looping out near the edge, past events, and back; a pool complex, if used, on the side opposite the entrance. A variation of this is a desert locale with a large mesa instead of the lake and the injection point inside the mesa, the top of the mesa is a great place for the pool complex, with a couple of staircases and elevators for access.
And should anyone ever decide to update this game .... KILL THE DUCKS!