Hi all, long time no see to most of you all.

I've been away for a while, got burned out from RCT3 and turned to other games.
Now I'm trying to get back into it with RCTW looming around the corner.

So, there I went and opened RCT3 and build some stuff with the CS that I had downloaded to get used to them again. All went fine in that department.
Next, I wanted to start a new park, so I opened Sandbox mode and started working on my entrance.

After that, I just got a complete writer's block. I had no idea what to do or where to go. Do I want a Western Theme? Where would I want that? Do I start off with some terraforming? What atttractions do I want?

Basically these are some of the many many questions I ask myself before I'm overwhelmed by them. Then I look over the gigantic square that is my park and I'm just intimidated. I have to fill all of this up. Is the thought that runs through my head - however false it may be, I can't stop this thought.

So, I decided to make a grandiose return to the fabulous RCTgo community to ask you guys: How do you start building a park? Do you plan it out beforehand? What do you do with the gigantic plains that is laid before you? Do you just start building and don't care?

I'll be glad to hear about your experiences and thought processes.

-Loco

I do a little of both. For example, with the park I'm working on now, Funville. I start with a general idea in my head and try a few things out. However, it is different from when I first started. The entrance took me a long time to do. Now I'm moving on to the first attraction. I post screenshots as a work in progress (wip on a few different sites) to get feedback from other users. Sometimes I do sketches if I'm trying to get a certain look on a building. I've also watched many of Silvarrets videos on YouTube, I've learned a lot from his channel. I watch different videos to see what others have come up as motivation and inspiration but never copy. Like you, I also got burned out from RCT3 and had to take a break. I'm attempting to create my first completed custom scenery park. I really don't have a deadline so I'll be working on Funville for awhile. I also make back ups of my files just in case. Feel free to pm me if you have any other questions.

I literally just go on whim with these things lol. If I feel like it's a good idea I go ahead and try it, if it doesn't work out I can always reload before any changes. There are a few rules of thumb that I keep for each park I make though.
1. I ALWAYS have a carousel in the main square, I just feel like a park is missing something if it lacks the typical carousel.
2. I generally use Scenario Editor so that I can form the shape of the plot to my needs, rather then having to form my park to the plot.
3. If I have room to expand the park after a decent amount of construction I try to add a realistic looking parking lot.

This is what I do although 99% of what I build was while wing-ing-it, I hardly (if ever) make a plan with these things

Thanks both for the tips, I very much appreciate them! ^^

Aecrouch, Funville looks great - as everyone said, you've improved a lot since last I was here.
From the looks of the WIP thread, do you build all the buildings in a separate sandbox and save them, or do you build them in Funville right away?
I have very little artistic talent, so sadly drawing sketches of my ideas is a no-go.
But that said, the main issue is that I simply have no ideas.
Watching other people build and play sounds like a good idea, though. I'll get into that.
I've watched several of Silvarret's videos myself as well, mainly aimed at building coasters. They've helped me out a lot too.

Chris, do you end up having a comprehensive and organized park once it's nearly done? The times where I just randomly built anywhere my park was just chaos.

As for point one, I do that similarly. I always add a big ferris wheel to the entrance. But after I've built the entrance I want to start building themed areas and that's generally where I go wrong, since I don't really know how to divide up the sections.

Using Scenario Editor is a good idea, though. I should start getting into that, thank you!

-Loco

During construction I think I'm the only one that understands my parks lol, I tend to migrate between sections, half finish areas, and most people usually don't think much of it.

That being said the end result typically does work quite well, I mentally map what zones are currently in progress and which ones need to be revisited, most of the time if I postpone work on a portion of the park it is to give myself time to think of new ways to approach the theme or project.

I wasn't entirely correct when I said I 'wing-it' either. I don't keep physical record like most people do, I store it all in my head (part of the reason why most people can't make sense of it lol). Thinking back to previous parks I also notice that I work in counter-clockwise fashion typically, making my way to the right (eastern) sections of the park first, then back (northern), and finally the left (western) portion.

Another thing I do without realizing it as a part of my process is I generally decide where and what types of roller coasters I want in the park, I usually denote them by placing their station approximately where I will later want the station to be built.

Generally I decide on theming based on whatever I feel like building at that time. My current Let's Play will likely either have a Greco-Roman theme or a Steampunk theme, simply because I want to build both of those. The problem with this method is that if I get bored with the style I will not likely finish work on that area. To remedy that I usually have quite large parks with 3-4 different themed areas, this way I don't end up doing too much in one style and lessen the chances of getting myself bored with it.

Well that's how it used to go for me as well; I'd be building my park and it'd be chaos, but I had it all organized in my head. Except for me, the end result would still look like chaos.
How do you separate your zones?
Building the stations where you want future coasters to be built is a good idea, I'm taking that with me!

In lieu of Aecrouch's advice, would you mind PMing me the link to your Let's Play series?
I'm interested in seeing how you go about building your park.

I'm currently watching a Let's Play by Flabaliki. He's really good at terrain editing and I have picked up a lot from him.
Maybe you could pass on such knowledge to me as well

-Loco

To separate zones I usually paint the terrain colors to designate what goes where, it's usually random colors based on what I am feeling and I don't typically do this until I've already decided on where the coasters will go and how I want the main paths to flow.

As for my Let's Play I only have the first video uploaded and it is my first series EVER lol, so please bear with me. I plan to have the second video uploaded by this weekend but seeing as I have classes all week it may take until Saturday night.

Here's a link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAUu6se...K2A/videos

This'll bring you right to the video selection on my channel, I have two coasters uploaded if you want to take a look at them too. Ryu just won the last round of Build-It (207) and I just entered Bumble Bee in this round (208).

OK! I'll give Park Building another shot later tonight. I'm feeling some more motivated now!

I've taken a look at your Let's Play and left you a hopefully helpful comment.
Thanks for all your help.

Thanks m8, I appreciate it!

Hi again everyone,

Out of common courtesy I decided to update this post with the news that I finally managed to start off a park that I am - so far - satisfied of. Thanks to everyone that helped me.

If you're interested, I'll leave the links to my images ... here.

http://i.imgur.com/gmsKGIN.png

http://i.imgur.com/POlipDU.png

http://i.imgur.com/UWBIoDS.png

I'm liking the red/yellow theme-ing I have going on, so this will be the first (and main) section of the park - Little Asia. ^^

So again, thank you guys 'n girls. I'm glad I was able to get something done before I placed RCT3 back on the shelf.