I think it's also part of the restructuring if the current system isn't working why not change it if s different one worksWhy would you see that as a sign? She is leaving for a better job, I don't think it has any indication of the future plans at the park.
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The Future of Dark Forest
Slugjc
TS Member
Back to subject.
It needs something. An injection of something new. A flat ride, scare maze. Whatever. Rita may now have had it's day. Both as a ride and as an idea.
Whatever is brought in, needs to be correct. A small tinkering with the theme wouldn't go a miss. I've always thought a slight connection to Hex would be ideal. You are restoring something. Connect.
It needs something. An injection of something new. A flat ride, scare maze. Whatever. Rita may now have had it's day. Both as a ride and as an idea.
Whatever is brought in, needs to be correct. A small tinkering with the theme wouldn't go a miss. I've always thought a slight connection to Hex would be ideal. You are restoring something. Connect.
QTXAdsy
TS Member
Simple...they didn't think it through like with many things.Why didn't they ever bother to connect Hex and the Chained Oak Tree to the backstory of the Dark Forest?
Hex is right around the corner too!
I know I keep banging on how Thirteen should have been built in GW but I have wonder with hindsight what if Haunted House in those early years been built in Festival Park in those days...could certainly see it soaking up queues from Thirteen and Rita with its monster capacity and likely would have been that area's MVP for sure.
Hell, any dark ride with a monster throughput in that area instead of a coaster would greatly help Dark Forest for capacity sake and certainly ease pressure off Thirteen and Rita as you could tell both are crying out for that support ride.
A semi enclosed flat on Ug Swinger’s graveyard would be a fitting addition. Breakdance 5 perhaps? I know I’ve said on this forum that a breakdance 5 would suit Enterprise’s site, but I think flats with height would be more aesthetically pleasing in X Sector somehow.Simple...they didn't think it through like with many things.
I know I keep banging on how Thirteen should have been built in GW but I have wonder with hindsight what if Haunted House in those early years been built in Festival Park in those days...could certainly see it soaking up queues from Thirteen and Rita with its monster capacity and likely would have been that area's MVP for sure.
Hell, any dark ride with a monster throughput in that area instead of a coaster would greatly help Dark Forest for capacity sake and certainly ease pressure off Thirteen and Rita as you could tell both are crying out for that support ride.
AltonLover123
TS Member
Why didn't they ever bother to connect Hex and the Chained Oak Tree to the backstory of the Dark Forest?
Hex is right around the corner too!
It’s honestly the perfect link.
Nature taking over? It’s the branch that was experimented on.
It’s a no brainer.
Jb85
TS Member
It’s honestly the perfect link.
Nature taking over? It’s the branch that was experimented on.
It’s a no brainer.
My only comment is they aren’t really able to. Yes the areas are side by side but there is a huge courtyard between the DF and Hex…
It’ll feel odd
Squiggs
TS Team
I think there wouldn't have been a direct way of linking the two without either fundamentally changing the theme of Dark Forest or undermining the story of Hex.
Wraiths and the forest coming alive are not the same as the local legend of a beggar woman cursing the local aristocracy.
Hex is already stretching that local legend to breaking point, so I'm not sure if they could afford to bend it much further without endangering the life of one of the Earl's family.
Wraiths and the forest coming alive are not the same as the local legend of a beggar woman cursing the local aristocracy.
Hex is already stretching that local legend to breaking point, so I'm not sure if they could afford to bend it much further without endangering the life of one of the Earl's family.
The problem as I see it is that the Festival Park/Ug Land area is somewhat isolated from the Towers by virtue of the bottleneck path that links them, not helped by the Skyride station and restaurant. The former is going nowhere but if the restaurant could be moved along with some of the old decaying Ug Land shacks, you could potentially extend the gothic aesthetic from the big wall adjacent to HeX over and around the whole area to tie it together.I think there wouldn't have been a direct way of linking the two without either fundamentally changing the theme of Dark Forest or undermining the story of Hex.
Wraiths and the forest coming alive are not the same as the local legend of a beggar woman cursing the local aristocracy.
Hex is already stretching that local legend to breaking point, so I'm not sure if they could afford to bend it much further without endangering the life of one of the Earl's family.
I guess I'm thinking a kind of family fun/olde worlde/Merrie England type area which plays off English legends, one of which being the chained oak curse.
Consign the wraiths to just Th13teen, or ditch them altogether.
DistortAMG
TS Member
There is a link, just not in the backstory. Thirteen is designed to look like the Towers.
Slugjc
TS Member
I have an idea. You can link both rides, without bothering to fill in the gaps between Hex's™ queue line and the start of Thirteen's™. I present three small that can be added.
At Thirteen.
Build a replica of the Chained Oak Tree® and have it visible from Thirteen's™ queue line near the start. A ghostly voice of a beggar woman to be heard near the tree. "Spare a penny........."
At Rita.
Bring back a version of Thunder Rock. Instead of tunes playing over the system. Two commentators discussing the disturbances that have been occuring in the area since renovations have started which has lead to the race weekend being abandoned due to drivers hearing voices and some disappearing. Team Rita, being the last team to leave, leaving the trucks behind and using the car itself.
At Hex.
What you do in Hex's™ queue line. A little board showing the start of a archaeological survey of a building near the old race track on the estate. Have a site survey map showing the path to Thirteen™, maybe even add some touches of ancient burial sites that shouldn't be disturbed.
Small little details that can link both areas, without the need to fill the gaps between Hex™ and the start of the Dark Forest ®. If you need a stop gap. You have Oak in Chains.
At Thirteen.
Build a replica of the Chained Oak Tree® and have it visible from Thirteen's™ queue line near the start. A ghostly voice of a beggar woman to be heard near the tree. "Spare a penny........."
At Rita.
Bring back a version of Thunder Rock. Instead of tunes playing over the system. Two commentators discussing the disturbances that have been occuring in the area since renovations have started which has lead to the race weekend being abandoned due to drivers hearing voices and some disappearing. Team Rita, being the last team to leave, leaving the trucks behind and using the car itself.
At Hex.
What you do in Hex's™ queue line. A little board showing the start of a archaeological survey of a building near the old race track on the estate. Have a site survey map showing the path to Thirteen™, maybe even add some touches of ancient burial sites that shouldn't be disturbed.
Small little details that can link both areas, without the need to fill the gaps between Hex™ and the start of the Dark Forest ®. If you need a stop gap. You have Oak in Chains.
DistortAMG
TS Member
I have an idea. You can link both rides, without bothering to fill in the gaps between Hex's™ queue line and the start of Thirteen's™. I present three small that can be added.
At Thirteen.
Build a replica of the Chained Oak Tree® and have it visible from Thirteen's™ queue line near the start. A ghostly voice of a beggar woman to be heard near the tree. "Spare a penny........."
At Rita.
Bring back a version of Thunder Rock. Instead of tunes playing over the system. Two commentators discussing the disturbances that have been occuring in the area since renovations have started which has lead to the race weekend being abandoned due to drivers hearing voices and some disappearing. Team Rita, being the last team to leave, leaving the trucks behind and using the car itself.
At Hex.
What you do in Hex's™ queue line. A little board showing the start of a archaeological survey of a building near the old race track on the estate. Have a site survey map showing the path to Thirteen™, maybe even add some touches of ancient burial sites that shouldn't be disturbed.
Small little details that can link both areas, without the need to fill the gaps between Hex™ and the start of the Dark Forest ®. If you need a stop gap. You have Oak in Chains.
Building a replica chained oak would be a bad idea. We literally have the real chained out a few miles away. Most guests do not see it, granted, but it is there and real.
Having a fake chained oak would undermine the legend I think.
Skyscraper
TS Member
Hex says hiHow about a flat ride with the Chained Oak as a centerpiece?


I meant in the dark forest to connect it to Hex.Hex says hi![]()
Also Hex is a dark ride.
Slugjc
TS Member
Building a replica chained oak would be a bad idea. We literally have the real chained out a few miles away. Most guests do not see it, granted, but it is there and real.
Having a fake chained oak would undermine the legend I think.
Have you seen the state of the actual one? Yes you have the real deal. But folk have destroyed it. We should preserve heritage.
I don't see the harm. It wouldn't undermine it at all, but it would help preserve the actual one. As you say, most don't see it anyway. Why wouldn't you?
AltonLover123
TS Member
Have you seen the state of the actual one? Yes you have the real deal. But folk have destroyed it. We should preserve heritage.
I don't see the harm. It wouldn't undermine it at all, but it would help preserve the actual one. As you say, most don't see it anyway. Why wouldn't you?
Now I am imagining a big chained oak replica within fountai square bridging the gap between hex and dark forest

QTXAdsy
TS Member
To go off topic a wee bit, I have been thinking about Dark Forest and the amount of dark themes that the park seems to heavily on favour with.
It got me thinking what if instead of X-Sector we got the Port Discovery theme as planned, certainly that theme would have not only been more family friendly but likely had more timeless value compared to X-Sector and even if Dark Forest had still been built and still ended up as it did, I don't think it's backlash would have been as bad as there would at least be somewhat of a balance of light and dark themed areas and we would never have gotten comments of Forbidden Valley being a clone of X-Sector for sure.
Does make you think of how attitudes could have changed if that happened.
It got me thinking what if instead of X-Sector we got the Port Discovery theme as planned, certainly that theme would have not only been more family friendly but likely had more timeless value compared to X-Sector and even if Dark Forest had still been built and still ended up as it did, I don't think it's backlash would have been as bad as there would at least be somewhat of a balance of light and dark themed areas and we would never have gotten comments of Forbidden Valley being a clone of X-Sector for sure.
Does make you think of how attitudes could have changed if that happened.
jon81uk
TS Member
I wouldn't directly go for chained oak but a chair-o-planes like a Whomping Willow (changed enough not to get the Harry Potter lawyers) would be a decent fit. Technically the ride already has the chains so fits with the chained oak too really.How about a flat ride with the Chained Oak as a centerpiece?
Co-pilot made it a bit too angry but this is the concept.

Alternativly I'd say bring back Boneshaker/Engergizer (Mondial Supernova) with a similar tree theme.