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Galactica: General Discussion

I prefer the general area, soundtrack, theming etc of Galactica. It's much better than Air in my opinion, as a brand. (Not as successful however) but it would be better if they removed the VR.
 
I love the Galactica brand. The name, the logos, the imagery and music are really good, but I would agree that Air was much stronger. Original is alway best, not the here today gone tomorrow gimmicks which Galactica falls in to.

Ideal scenario - we get Air back and Galactica gets it's own ride - a simulator going in to outer space (I'm looking at you Star Tours).

Never gonna happen.
 
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Blast that VR, that's what seems to be the problem. If only there was some way of being able to ride without it, you know, like not putting on a head set or something and it being almost exactly the same coaster as before.......
 
matthewgcole said:
Blast that VR, that's what seems to be the problem. If only there was some way of being able to ride without it, you know, like not putting on a head set or something and it being almost exactly the same coaster as before.......
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Just with a one hour queue instead of a 10 minute queue! ;)
 
Rob said:
Just with a one hour queue instead of a 10 minute queue! ;)
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The VR has put throughputs down to unacceptable levels, but there's a way round that too. Get over to Forbidden Valley first thing in the morning and you can get as many rides on Air and Nemesis as you like in the first hour with minimum queues.

I would imagine that throughputs will increase over time as more and more of the headsets break without replacement anyway.
 
I still believe the money spent on the VR and rebranding would have been better spent sorting out new themeing around Air - waterfalls, something in the tunnel, such as a large screen on the floor showing clouds or the ground below as you swoop out of the station etc. The VR has been nothing but a complete waste of money.
 
GaryH said:
I still believe the money spent on the VR and rebranding would have been better spent sorting out new themeing around Air - waterfalls, something in the tunnel, such as a large screen on the floor showing clouds or the ground below as you swoop out of the station etc. The VR has been nothing but a complete waste of money.
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That would have been the best thing they could have done, and it would have been nice to see the concepts finally realised. I do wonder though, what the problem is with water features these days at Towers? They seem incapable of maintaining old ponds and water features, and completely incapable of building new ones. I've not once seen the streams and waterfalls on Extraordinary Golf working. Not once. Looked like it was never finished.

As far as Galactica goes, they should build a simulator ride in the Air car park (I really want to see a simulator ride at Towers as said in another topic). Keep all the branding, give it a subtitle called Mission 2 or whatever. Would be nice to have 3D glasses in a simulator too I think.

Revert back to Air and update the branding and theming so it's kinda like a pre-Galactica flight training machine.
 
PeteB said:
I've not once seen the streams and waterfalls on Extraordinary Golf working. Not once. Looked like it was never finished.
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The streams looked great when it opened, but then filled up with leaves and the water didn't flow so the stagnant water went green. I think they just didn't have anyone clear the leaves out at the pump end properly and the pumps stopped.
 
Yes, the VR has been running for a couple of weeks now. The quality of the VR is not quite as good this season however it is supposedly a more reliable system.

:)
 
Rob said:
Yes, the VR has been running for a couple of weeks now. The quality of the VR is not quite as good this season however it is supposedly a more reliable system.

:)
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I rode on Saturday and Sunday and I agree, same video as others have said but the animation isn't as smooth. Not too noticeable once off the lift hill going fast but it is quite bad leaving the station and climbing the hill.

The headsets themselves are different, I found them lighter and with a different straps they are more comfortable when on. Tightening the straps are done by pulling on them where they are attached to the headset itself - they 'lock' like straps on a rucksack. So no more fiddling with Velcro round the back or sides of your head. And the focus wheel actually works this time too! When tight on your face, it's almost impossible to see out of the headset by looking down which helps the overall experience. The biggest let down for me was the audio - was too quiet and could hear too much of the lift hill and general noise of the coaster when moving

The control boxes between the seats are different too - no more screens and options, just a blue/green LED and a button per seat.

All weekend there was a tech from Figment there helping out with the ride ops putting headsets on etc.

Anyone know what make the headset housing is? I could see it was bright orange inside the carry case but seemed to have a black cover over it all, then that inside the carry case.

I see its now on Kraken at Seaworld Orlando - over 2½ mins of VR! Don't know if that would be too much. Imagine if that got out of sync and you had 2 mins of feeling sick!

 
I'll be keen to give Kraken a go in October but overall this VR fad is just a load of nonsense and the quicker it goes away the better. I mean the graphics are not even a match for consoles these days and this is supposed to be a high end experiece at a theme park.

Figment need to stop investing in bad ideas and just forget this.
 
Well the quality of the VR looks fairly superior to Galactica. However it looks as though it could quite easily get out of sync with the MCBR. Anyway definitely ready for this VR fad to go away


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Went on Galactica with the new headsets today and I have to say I think they are worse than before! Audio did not work very well at all and the image quality was terrible. Extremely slow dispatches too. Very disappointed.
 
Just a question, How is Galactica's video resolution lower on a supposedly higher resolution headset?! :confused:
I mean surely it must be the same quality video as there's no point in re-rendering the same video.

Hopefully though this whole 'the headset is lower quality' false when I get to ride it next week.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
Just a question, How is Galactica's video resolution lower on a supposedly higher resolution headset?! :confused:
I mean surely it must be the same quality video as there's no point in re-rendering the same video.

Hopefully though this whole 'the headset is lower quality' false when I get to ride it next week.
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They're Chinese.

Anybody whose ever experienced Banggood knows their idea of HD makes betamax look like UHD.
 
RE: The whole Air vs. Galactica discussion, I was impartial towards Galactica until I thought more about the two themes. I wrote a section on Air in my dissertation recently which basically sums up why I think it's the superior theme:
In discussing the elements surrounding a ride (e.g. story, design etc.), it is easy to overlook the experience of the ride itself, what sensations it has to offer, and how it might be contextualised to convey emotions beyond fundamental physical sensations. Alton Towers is a great case study for this aspect, with one of its roller coasters in particular defying the traditional marketing and narrative conventions of the ride type – Air.

In the creation of Air, John Wardley wished to follow an unusual path for its underlying and explicit themes. Forbidden Valley, since the arrival of Nemesis in 1994, has been an area focussed upon the threatening and destructive, through intimidating thrill roller coasters such as Thunder Looper (Alton Towers, 1990) and decaying and twisted machinery such as Ripsaw (Alton Towers, 1997). Concept artwork for Air indicates that a similar theme was briefly considered (TowersStreet, 2012b), but Wardley explains that “it was decided that the new ride would instead be the "hero". It enabled you to do something you always wanted to do: fly” (2013, p.146). It was clearly always in his mind to create a roller coaster that not only fulfilled humanity’s dream to fly, but was “there to make you feel good” (Younger, 2016, p.97).

As a result, Air stood as something of an oasis at the far end of Forbidden Valley, blending rocky outcrops, a teal colour scheme, sleek futuristic architecture, a streamlined logo and a chilled musical theme to create optimism at the edge of desolation, and to break the roller coaster loose from its attached image of violent exhilaration (Wardley, 2014). The ride design itself then emphasised these goals to an admirable extent, with Air’s ride vehicles being noticeably comfortable and secure. The bulky over-shoulder restraints and spacious ankle restraints expressed the enormous concern for safety in their design (Wardley, 2013, p.145) (quite the opposite of one’s free-hanging feet on Nemesis and similar coasters), while the extensive foam jacket ensured that leaning one’s body weight upon the locked restraint was distinctly comfortable. The ride layout then evoked the feeling of flight rather, than emphasising visceral thrills, through long dives and rises, sweeping turns, glides over area walkways and hugs to the ground, with the rider’s completely horizontal perspective never embellishing their proximity to danger (as with the close calls in Nemesis between the rider’s visible feet and the rockwork beneath the train). Unlike the threats made by Nemesis’ signage and station announcements, Air encouraged the rider – a whispery voiceover upon the train’s dispatch from the station incited riders to “Assume the position”, thus inspiring riders to outstretch their arms freely, as is commonly seen in photographs and videos of the ride. If Air neglected to comply with Forbidden Valley’s aesthetic, it triumphed in complementing the area’s stalwart with an experience which, as John Wardley set out to do, provides the ultimate villain with a direct counterpart in the benevolent hero (Younger, 2016, p.97). Air’s retheme Galactica (Alton Towers, 2016) has now undone this to some extent (though the ride’s hardware remains fundamentally the same), emphasising a sci-fi space travel agency theme over the pure feeling of flight, and implementing virtual reality headsets that replace the visual perspective of the rider with a hazardous journey through outer space. Nevertheless, Wardley has identified his pursuit of “taking away the intimidation of a roller coaster, and making it fun for the whole family, whilst still being able to give thrills” (2014), and Air was exemplary of this.
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Apologies if some of it seems underdeveloped/exaggerative (I was working with a comparatively low word count), but hopefully it conveys how I feel that Air was a unique (and successful) execution of a high-concept idea, whilst Galactica comes across as a far more generic and uninspiring redeco.
 
Right, had a discussion about staffing today and the ride start to finish (Entrance to Shop) had 1 Entrance Host, 1 on merge, 7 floor staff per station, 2 ops, 2 on upstairs photos and 2 staff in shop so a total of 22 staff.

Elsewhere in the Valley Nemesis had 6 staff, Blade had 1, Edge 1, Quencher station 1, Nemices 1 (I think) BK 4 counter staff plus potentially 4 out of sight, at a guess the coffee shop had 3, Sweep had 1 and the HB stands had 2 so a total of 24 staff at an estimate. So nearly half an entire areas staff is on one ride, how is this sustainable?

The Big Six staffing: Nemesis 6, 13 had 9, Smiler had 14 at a guess, Oblivion was on one station so 6? Rita had 5 I think? So 40 there, then Galactica adds another 22
 
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