[The Smiler] Construction Updates and Ride Speculation

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

The major problem with Th13teen seemed a balls up on Intamins end.

I'm pretty sure it was running to fast and this caused an issue with the second hill/ breaks, hitting them to fast. Can't remember the specifics. But it resulted in the heavily trimmed version we have today.

Essentially testing should be a breeze if nothing goes wrong. That was the same with Th13teen, unfortunately something did go wrong, hence the long testing time.

If something goes wrong testing on SW7, it will take a while. You just have to hope Gerstlauer knows what they are doing!

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Fredward said:

If something goes wrong testing on SW7, it will take a while. You just have to hope Gerstlauer knows what they are doing!

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Oh god, we're all doomed!!

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

The fact we don't appear to have a long testing time factored in to me indicates there isn't a complicated washing machine element...

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Well wasn't one of the biggest problems with Saw the dual shuttle system in the station? Something which you would think is fairly straight forward, given how Oblivion was doing it some 10 years earlier

As Fredward said, the issue with Th13teen was not actually the drop. That came later, though a few issues aside worked rather well! The problem was that someone got their sums wrong. When the trains hit lift 2 the computer checks the speed on the fly and adjusts it accordingly. However, on Th13teen the issue from what I can gather is that the computer would have a tantrum when a train went too fast, and would estop the whole ride.

It would do the same if the drop had not fully reset in time I believe. After some tinkering they managed to get the issue fixed. But as we all know, that came at the expense of installing the dreaded trim brakes.

Hopefully Gerst have got their sums right! Assuming there's nothing complicated inside it shouls in theory be a doddle to sort out... In theory

As for the 6 week track figure I was led to believe that it had come from Gerstlauer officially? It's been discussed as such at any rate, and I've no reason to doubt those who've come up with it

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

To be fair on Intamin's part, despite the problems with Th13teen they did brilliantly in rectifying the problems quickly and they worked greatly with Alton Towers. Hopefully with SW7 Gerst will be just as helpful as B&M and Intamin have been with previous SWs.

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

TT have put a new ground level photo of the progress so far, and by the looks of it, not much has happened since the official image was released.

The image is on their forums for members,but will be available on Facebook at 6pm

Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Well blivvy still hasn't been painted then... I bet this image was from a good while ago anyway tbh. But thanks all the same.

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

smudge said:

Well blivvy still hasn't been painted then... I bet this image was from a good while ago anyway tbh. But thanks all the same.

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Image was taken today.

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Even though it doesn't look like a lot has happened. There may have been some development over by the pit area. You can only make out all the ground level work there and a part of the upper section of the site.

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

So are we finally going to admit the ride is a) the same as the plans b) ridiculously late?

Unless the entire far side has miraculously sprung up, we're going into 2013 with the end of a hill, half a cobra roll and half a batwing, plus a bit of prelift. There's still no sign of the station building.

There's about 10 weeks to get the ride finished. That's not long at all.

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I know people have different opinions on the photo being took today or not, but in Alton today it has been all grey and muggy weather

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

That picture does not boast well for the ride and, unless there's a lot more track up that isn't visible and most of the footers are in place, I can't see the ride being ready.

Alton had plenty of time to start the groundwork but left it until the latest they could, which was, in hindsight, a very bad idea.

I just hope that there is some way of salvaging this ride!

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As much as it pains me to say and as much as I'm contradicting myself from my earlier posts, I now think this is behind schedule by quite a while

The lack of promotion from the park and the general state of the construction site from what we can see in the pictures available is what's pushing me towards this feeling. In particular it's the lack of promotion and marketing that's giving me this feeling most.

Much like #prayformuamba...#prayforSW7 :'( :'(

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

I do think this is obviously quite drastically behind schedule, but honestly, the lack of major or minor promo at this point really isn't that weird. It might be from an enthusiast perspective, sure, but not from the perspective of the marketing department in regards to public expectation.

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Yeah theres no way on this earth that Photograph was taken today. I've been told it was muddy and raining today so if you look in that picture its sunny! :

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You don't actually know that because you havn't seen it yourself, you and others are going off what you've heard but not actually experienced yourself..... Get over it.

Rob.... Great stuff mate, thanks a lot.

I really want to see the top end of the site now, I hope there's been some improvement up the hill.
To break the ridiculous discussion on how old the picture is.... Surely that whole section should be complete by now?? I might have to get a refund on my hotel booking for opening weekend

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Erm, people in their own right can speculate on when the photo was taken. No need to be so rude.

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But you yourself have just proven my point. We've been given a picture, it shows some progression and clues to what might be happening further around the site and yet some people on here are still trying to "speculate" on whether TT took the photo yesterday or not.

Rather than discussing that, try actually discussing the photo and what it means like Blaze and I have?

As a rough guess, if all the stops were pulled out, what are people's own thoughts on opening dates??

I think they are going to be hard pushed at this rate for a March opening!!!

Edited >> Sazzle >> spelling/grammar & removal of potential confrontational text

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

It's a forum, people on here can discuss what they like. That doesn't mean other members should say what being discussed is a load of rubbish, if you don't like what is being discussed then try changing the course of the topic. Just because you think it's rubbish doesn't mean it is, loads of things get discussed in topics.

Re: Secret Weapon 7 Discussion Continued

Anyway.... Looking at pictures is worrying me more...

Hope it will be ready in time.. Although I am not expecting a fully fleshed out theme... I can imagine the main bit to be in place, (Spider, Crush wall thing) but some things will be missing.. hopefully nothing to major and hopefully everything works alright on opening day (ha..) and we don't have a Sub Terra, running on one generator that only allows the main bits to work.