Jul 7, 2020, 07:42 AM
Income, and attendance, will fluctuate normally, just like a real park; new construction seems to bring in more people for a while, bad weather keeps them away (I rarely use the Spooky weather because those incessant thunderstorms are so tiresome). Park ratings overall must be taken with the proverbial grain of salt, many apparently have a cap (never seen the ride rating above 284, nor happy guests above 500) so around 1200 seems the most you can get; I typically get 1000 in a 64x64 park that's only half finished, which is ridiculous. About the only things which negatively affect the ratings to a great degree are too many breakdowns, too much litter, or poorly maintained animals (if the latter gets too bad the helicopters come and remove the ill animals, a major blow to your park's reputation); not enough food or toilets also has an effect, but if you're playing that poorly it's time to start over.
If you have breeding animals you will constantly be releasing the surplus to the wild (which boosts your park's ratings for a while) or selling them (which gives a small, very small considering the cost of raising them, monetary reward); being insufferably lazy I use same sex animal displays, when the babies grow up I release them and adopt more babies. And unlike Zoo Tycoon your RCT3 animals will never die of old age.
I never use balloons, finding them as annoying as the ducks for constantly floating over the park (though when bored you can "shoot" them with your cursor to pop them), but checking the box for having all identical stalls use the same settings works for them also ...at least for me it does. FWIW, a guest with a balloon will release it when buying anything else or when going on a ride; and will become either sad or irritated if you pop it while he's holding it.
You mentioned having one coaster go over another; while absolutely illegal in RL (safety and insurance reasons) this works well in RCT3 - intertwining coasters, one coaster (or monorail) going through a large loop in another coaster, or even having a pedestrian path go through the loop, all makes the guests happy. As do the fireworks; they are fun, if tedious, to create (plenty are available for download), and the guests love them ...happy guests spend more money.
Some guests always complain (a realistic aspect of the game), "I want to go on something more thrilling...", "I'm not paying that much", "toilet 4 is too busy", etc.; for any particular ride just note the overall comments, if most say something is a good value you can raise the price, if most say they won't pay that much, lower the price, if the majority are "I enjoyed..." or "I want to go again", you have a good balance. (And as I mentioned previously, if many are complaining "I want to get off", the ride length is too long.)
If you use a pool (they are very popular) do not make it too big or it will siphon guests from the rest of the park; about 6x8 to 8x10 seems good for most parks, on average you will see 100-140 people in the pool. Note this is the size of the pool itself, not any connected water rides (Aquablaster, Lazy River, etc.), which can be as extensive as you like. And never place the pool near the entrance, its popularity means many guests will never venture into the rest of the park.
I often build a park in sandbox then transfer it to scenario to see if it is economically viable; some are, some aren't, but the latter are fun to figure out what is wrong and try to make them profitable.
If you have breeding animals you will constantly be releasing the surplus to the wild (which boosts your park's ratings for a while) or selling them (which gives a small, very small considering the cost of raising them, monetary reward); being insufferably lazy I use same sex animal displays, when the babies grow up I release them and adopt more babies. And unlike Zoo Tycoon your RCT3 animals will never die of old age.
I never use balloons, finding them as annoying as the ducks for constantly floating over the park (though when bored you can "shoot" them with your cursor to pop them), but checking the box for having all identical stalls use the same settings works for them also ...at least for me it does. FWIW, a guest with a balloon will release it when buying anything else or when going on a ride; and will become either sad or irritated if you pop it while he's holding it.
You mentioned having one coaster go over another; while absolutely illegal in RL (safety and insurance reasons) this works well in RCT3 - intertwining coasters, one coaster (or monorail) going through a large loop in another coaster, or even having a pedestrian path go through the loop, all makes the guests happy. As do the fireworks; they are fun, if tedious, to create (plenty are available for download), and the guests love them ...happy guests spend more money.
Some guests always complain (a realistic aspect of the game), "I want to go on something more thrilling...", "I'm not paying that much", "toilet 4 is too busy", etc.; for any particular ride just note the overall comments, if most say something is a good value you can raise the price, if most say they won't pay that much, lower the price, if the majority are "I enjoyed..." or "I want to go again", you have a good balance. (And as I mentioned previously, if many are complaining "I want to get off", the ride length is too long.)
If you use a pool (they are very popular) do not make it too big or it will siphon guests from the rest of the park; about 6x8 to 8x10 seems good for most parks, on average you will see 100-140 people in the pool. Note this is the size of the pool itself, not any connected water rides (Aquablaster, Lazy River, etc.), which can be as extensive as you like. And never place the pool near the entrance, its popularity means many guests will never venture into the rest of the park.
I often build a park in sandbox then transfer it to scenario to see if it is economically viable; some are, some aren't, but the latter are fun to figure out what is wrong and try to make them profitable.