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2014: General Discussion

DARK FOREST:

Dull, dirty, uninspiring, dingy, dark, depressing.

In discussions recently with a member, the topic of just how boring this area is came up. It isn't intimidating. It isn't "eerie". The whole tone of the place is actually depressing and kind of zaps the energy out of you.

In the Rita queue this was, I just noticed how little real "energy" the place had. Ug Land spanked it's backside.

Dark Forest is a bit TOO "dark".

What easy changes can be made to either lighten the atmosphere, OR make it genuinely more intimidating - rather than at present, just depressing?

For me, I'd PAINT THE QUEUE FENCE for the rides, that's not a massive job, the audio needs changing on Rita make it more energetic, you're supposed to be escaping now but the music is so drab and dreary - think of some of the most intense music, it brings about a heightened intensity - make it dark and energetic.

Also, maybe change that stupid audio for Rita as well, there's no urgency about escaping, I don't mind the idea in theory, but you could do it so it had a bit more genuine fear rather than the guy almost sounding like he's asking you to fetch the newspaper.

It's been too long. It needs changing up. These are the kinds of refresh that a park needs.
 
Dark Forest's issues can be summed up in one word...

Rita...

Remove that, then the area could be made to be a lot more intimate, cut off and separate from the rest of the park, even continuing it as perhaps a lost/forgotten part of the Towers (which really should've been the original concept anyway)...

Rita ruined Ug Land, and the effects are still felt by it's cheap, quick and easy installation today... Thirteen should be the main ride of the area, instead there's a garish pile of crap in the way...
 
Dark Forest's issues can be summed up in one word...

Rita...

Remove that, then the area could be made to be a lot more intimate, cut off and separate from the rest of the park, even continuing it as perhaps a lost/forgotten part of the Towers (which really should've been the original concept anyway)...

Rita ruined Ug Land, and the effects are still felt by it's cheap, quick and easy installation today... Thirteen should be the main ride of the area, instead there's a garish pile of crap in the way...

But given Rita was there before Thirteen then maybe the Dark Forest theme should never have gone into this area? Thirteen is a great little coaster but the attempt to fit Rita into the same theme didn't work at all. At least with Rita was in Ug Land then a drag race in a desert area almost fitted.
 
But given Rita was there before Thirteen then maybe the Dark Forest theme should never have gone into this area? Thirteen is a great little coaster but the attempt to fit Rita into the same theme didn't work at all. At least with Rita was in Ug Land then a drag race in a desert area almost fitted.

Rita never fitted with Ug Land, it was literally plonked in with very little thought process put into it...

They COULD have made it fit with Ug Land, but they chose to follow the basic speed-racer theme in a pre-historic themed area... Wasn't even close to fitting in, let alone almost doing so...
 
Rita never fitted with Ug Land, it was literally plonked in with very little thought process put into it...

They COULD have made it fit with Ug Land, but they chose to follow the basic speed-racer theme in a pre-historic themed area... Wasn't even close to fitting in, let alone almost doing so...

It felt a closer fit than Rita in dark forest though......
 
Rita is also a very under rated coaster!

The amount of people I have whisper that in my ear almost has made me realise, it has like a little secret fan club.

I am not so secret, whether as a result of not riding it for a little while or other factors, the launch felt good again and I like the ride bar one or two obvious faults.

Rita isn't the problem for me. In fact, I'd say, it gives a bit of energy to the atmosphere if anything. Something it desperately needs more of.
 
Rita is also a very under rated coaster!

The amount of people I have whisper that in my ear almost has made me realise, it has like a little secret fan club.

I am not so secret, whether as a result of not riding it for a little while or other factors, the launch felt good again and I like the ride bar one or two obvious faults.

Rita isn't the problem for me. In fact, I'd say, it gives a bit of energy to the atmosphere if anything. Something it desperately needs more of.

It isn't underrated, at least not by anyone that's ridden more than one launch coaster. It's the second slowest Intamin accelerator, and even the slowest, Kanonen, has inversions and less hideous restraints to offset it. It has a boring layout, it's too short, the queue is one of the worst in existence and ultimately it's a white elephant in what is supposed to be an immersive themed environment.
 
Rita IS the problem. Its awful. Its totally themeless (vines and announcements don't count, Six Flags could do a better job for christ's sake), and its generally an awful coaster. Nothing about Rita is worth the wait. Hell, on my first visit, I queued ten minutes and felt disappointed!

It ruins one of the most uniquely themed areas in the park. Dark Forest would have a chance at being half decent if it wasn't for Rita. The section that passes over Thirteen's queue line completely ruins the feeling of abandonment and seclusion. I say ditch it, get some proper shops/facades etc for the area (i.e. not ones recycled from UG Land), get some flats and improve the area's layout.

Thirteen is a great little coaster in its own right. But it is constantly overshadowed by that poorly designed mess that shouldn't be one of the park's headlines attractions! In a way, I almost feel sorry for Thirteen, it has the same power to impress as many of the park's other coasters. Yet it always gets pulled down for being in the same area as that 'thing'.

Die Rita!
 
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Thirteen really should have gone in Gloomy Wood and a different thing done to Ug Land.

I would agree with TheMan, Rita is a good coaster, Stealth at Thorpe is faster and higher yet I get the same thrill from Rita. Yes it would be even better a little longer and without shoulder restraints but exactly the same can be said for Stealth!
 
At least Stealth has something to it though. There's the launch (which is faster) and then the top hat which at least does something.

Rita has a launch and then a dull layout that doesn't really do a lot. I'd like it a lot more if it at least tried to do something interesting... It's got a good launch, but little else.
 
Does no one else agree though that Dark Forest is just depressing? Never mind Rita, that could be themed quite well! How about for example the ride was ACTUALLY taken over rather than escaping only to come back, queue for another hour, and trying to escape again?
 
An amusing little update. If you were planning on booking a Hotel stay in the past hour you'll have to wait until tomorrow. It seems someone forgot to change the clocks on the phone system, and it has been telling us in the past hour that lines are closed, but are open Mon-Fri until 6 :p
 
That odd ian, i thought the phone system would be computer based. The works one change its time automatically
 
Could Thirteen not have been incorporated into Ug Land though? Maybe something like a pre-historic vehicle (like on The Flintstones) that has taken a diversion, goes through a forest, and then someone come up with something which could be the drop. :p
 
With Rita, the most frustrating thing that despite what people say on here and how it doesn't fit with either the Ug Land/Dark Forest theme, it could've fitted in with the Dark Forest theme if Merlin really had any ideas. Some things like, I don't know, paint the track green, some better theming (new station theme I'd like), get rid of that horrible queue line, maybe something of a new storyline, maybe have the net above be part of the theme too such as using large trees to cover the queue from above, thus giving us a forest theme!

If these changes had happened, I suppose we might've been ok with it and would've been a good indicator that the ride was here for the long haul, but alas, I really don't see it saying here for long within in the next 5 years. Hopefully if it did leave, it would be a fresh start to try and rework the area all over again and make it, well, a forest!
 
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