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What developments will happen after 2018?

I think galactica fits fine into the area. Its definitely not a perfect fit and you do need external thoughts to imagine it. FV is like a test site basically. Galactica is the new test project. its much more pristine than the other rides in there.

For it to fit a little better, they do need to industrialize the rest of the area a little more, maybe some like metal rusted walls on the buildings ect.

What i wish galactica did was either paint the pale blue a light grey, or the blue which the portal is, that would of sectioned it off a little more and do something with the tunnel, a mist fall as you enter and come out would be visually great for the people watching, as for the VR, I do not think technology is strong enough right now for it to be on rollercoasters. Theres issues they need to resolve, like sound and quality, but they need developed alot in technology, which alton most probably cannot. Once they resolved the issues i think it will be a great ride, the actual concept is great and it works well with the layout of galactica. I dont have a huge issue with it and its probably the only ride in the UK i dont mind VR being added to, mainly because of the double station.
 
So to move the discussion away from the SW8 thread I would like to see a Ghostbusters retheme on Duel, they would be able to keep the existing props and guns as they are quiet 'Ghostbusters-y' and add a proper story to Duel as it is a bit mish mash mosh at the moment. Basically like a partial retheme like they did with Rita and Spinball in 2010. As when I went on Duel today there were no other guests in the warehouse at all! Ghostbusters would definitely bring popularity back to the attraction. Oh and the sets definitely need to be redress or the lighting redone as most of the ride is LED's and bare walls.

One of the worst dark ride's I've done!* :cool:

*I'm not a traditional ghost train ride person though, I like theatrical rides.
 
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Bert2theSpark said:
So to move the discussion away from the SW8 thread I would like to see a Ghostbusters retheme on Duel, they would be able to keep the existing props and guns as they are quiet 'Ghostbusters-y' and add a proper story to Duel as it is a bit mish mash mosh at the moment. Basically like a partial retheme like they did with Rita and Spinball in 2010. As when I went on Duel today there were no other guests in the warehouse at all! Ghostbusters would definitely bring popularity back to the attraction. Oh and the sets definitely need to be redress or the lighting redone as most of the ride is LED's and bare walls.

One of the worst dark ride's I've done!* :cool:

*I'm not a traditional ghost train ride person though, I like theatrical rides.
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This is a possibility with Ghostbusters 5D at Heide Park this year. I've not been on Duel in over year but can imagine it's in a bit of a state and could do with a refurbishment or a rebrand.
 
I would really like to see a new heavily themed area with a thrill ride a family ride and something suitable for the younger kids. Doubt it would happen - CCL is the ideal area though as it is in desperate need of redevelopment.
 
I keep hearing noise about the park turning its attention to dark rides in the near future. Revolving around a Charlie re-theme and also a complete overhaul/re-theme of Duel, which would go with the rumour that SW8 is going to be part of Gloomy Wood and the whole area will be updated. Duel is in a bit of a state and the UK is seriously lacking decent dark rides, we don't have anything even close to Disney/Universal level when it comes to dark ride.

I kept hearing there were plans for a very large new dark ride in 2019, but they seem to be getting quieter. Duel is a very large unit, so that could be what that was referring to.

Hoping Alton Towers do something really ground breaking with the platform. Even the new Gruffalo ride at CWOA is a bit crap, nothing special in there really.
 
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Gruffalo is weak, with sound being awful in particular. It needs serious work.
 
UK dark rides are just rubbish. But it's because we don't really have any dedicated groups like Disney or Sally Corp who are amazing at building animatronics and rides of this style. UK dark rides seem to have static elements with very basic animatronics that just look rubbish. We need Sally Corp or some US firm to come over and make something really special.

I still think the Crypt on Th13rteen should have had some sort of show element inside it, for a quick spook before you leave the area.
 
Its not like Tussauds/Merlin owns a waxwork model making business or anything who should be good at making life like models.

All they then need is some help to make the models animatronic.
 
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Jared said:
I keep hearing noise about the park turning its attention to dark rides in the near future. Revolving around a Charlie re-theme and also a complete overhaul/re-theme of Duel, which would go with the rumour that SW8 is going to be part of Gloomy Wood and the whole area will be updated. Duel is in a bit of a state and the UK is seriously lacking decent dark rides, we don't have anything even close to Disney/Universal level when it comes to dark ride.

I kept hearing there were plans for a very large new dark ride in 2019, but they seem to be getting quieter. Duel is a very large unit, so that could be what that was referring to.

Hoping Alton Towers do something really ground breaking with the platform. Even the new Gruffalo ride at CWOA is a bit crap, nothing special in there really.
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I would love to see a massive overhaul of Duel. I would personally keep the queue and the front of the building. Personally, I think a few screens and a bit of projection mapping would be great as long as there are still new physical sets. Maybe they could add in some fire effects fans etc to make the ride come to life.
If they did try to go with the Ghostbusters theme I would love to see a pre-show as that works really well on Hex. I think they should use both the Ghostbusters theme tune and some ambient music. I reckon we could see some great static theming and animatronics. Maybe we could see a cityscape on some of the background walls. They could quite easily make an amazing ride and that building is massive! it's just a case of having a budget and putting some time and effort into it.
 
Screens are like VR, an unnecessary fad that hopefully dies off as quickly as it became established.

Take the Grufallo for example, it's ok, but it's got far too many screen in, as a result it's an ok ride, but it has no magic to it, animatronics have magic to them because you know someone has created it, and somewhere inside there is clever stuff doing the business and it hasn't not just rendered as a video loop on a computer that virtually anybody with a computer can do themselves in their bedroom.

Grufallo also has great big sections with nothing in other than painted grass on the wall.
 
IanSR said:
Screens are like VR, an unnecessary fad that hopefully dies off as quickly as it became established.

Take the Grufallo for example, it's ok, but it's got far too many screen in, as a result it's an ok ride, but it has no magic to it, animatronics have magic to them because you know someone has created it, and somewhere inside there is clever stuff doing the business and it hasn't not just rendered as a video loop on a computer that virtually anybody with a computer can do themselves in their bedroom.

Grufallo also has great big sections with nothing in other than painted grass on the wall.
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I disagree because screens that accompany physical theming and animatronics in my mind improves the magic of the ride. That's how I would design a ride. At the end of the generally public don't care about screens. And the theming on the Gruffalo is great. The ride isn't full of screens anyway it's not like a universal ride. Due to the way the ride is made/laid out they couldn't have lots of physical theming for example up the lift hill.
 
Grufallo has entire rooms where the only bit of theming is grass painted on the wall, if you consider that great theaming then I dread to think what you would consider lacking..
 
IanSR said:
Grufallo has entire rooms where the only bit of theming is grass painted on the wall, if you consider that great theaming then I dread to think what you would consider lacking..
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I would say that it is significantly better than the other dark rides merlin had built recently. What you have to keep in mind is that the budget of the Gruffalo is vastly different to they of Disney or other attractions worldwide. I personally thought the quality of the Gruffalo was very good when compared to the state of the Bubbleworks in its final years and the other datkrides produced in the uk aimed at this target audience.
 
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Can't disagree with you there, I've never experienced any Disney/Paramount dark ride yet though so my only comparison is Burps and Bubbleworks.
 
The thing is Disney and Universal spend tens of millions on dark rides and we can't expect Merlin to spend this much that's why their rides cannot be the same quality.
 
The theme park geek said:
The thing is Disney and Universal spend tens of millions on dark rides and we can't expect Merlin to spend this much that's why their rides cannot be the same quality.
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Derren Brown's Ghost Train says hello (quality is debatable, but it's only really the VR that's sketchy).
 
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