CGM
TS Member
A few weeks ago, after months of resisting I finally folded and bought Planet Coaster. As a result, I now have no free time left.
I was never really a fan of RCT3. I thought that in stark contrast to RCT 1 & 2, it was quite an ugly game. The selection of scenery available was small and inflexible. Buildings took ages to build and the results were pretty unsatisfying. I didn't think the geometric grid-based building system translated well into the 3rd dimension at all, particularly when it came to coasters and other custom layout rides.
While there was / is obviously a huge community dedicated to creating and sharing custom scenery, I was never really interested in that. I didn't want to go through all the trouble of trawling through libraries and spending ages downloading things only to find something was corrupted, didn't look right or was in completely the wrong scale.
Plus it never ran properly on my computer, even on the lowest graphics settings. The whole thing was just more trouble than it was worth and I went back to playing RCT2.
Planet Coaster addresses almost all of the issues I had with RCT3. While not flawless, it allows so much more freedom to create what you want with the in-game scenery. Perhaps most importantly, everything looks gorgeous. The textures and lighting are brilliant. It feels like scenery is now central to the game rather than being an afterthought. The coasters, instead of being nightmarish Ron Toomer coat hanger creations can be made to look fairly realistic. The on-ride perspective is now actually bearable! It's not NoLimits but it's good enough.
To get to grips with PC, I started a park project: Hazelwood Gardens. The park is loosely based on a drawing I did of a hillside amusement park (Which can be seen here: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/cgms-sketchbook.1528/page-4 ). It's partly inspired by parks like Tivoli & Liseberg, classic amusement parks with a real sense of history. I've also been very interested lately in turn-of-the-century World Fairs and the architecture that was created for them.
So far, I've completed the entrance area and built one ride, a B&M hyper coaster.
An overview of the entrance area.
This is the entrance building - it was my first building in Planet Coaster so it's fairly low key. I may replace it with something a bit more grand at some stage but it's unlikely.
The hyper coaster swoops over the entrance Fury 325 style.
The Pavilion acts as the guest services building containing the Information and First Aid booths.
The Pavilion interior.
Across the plaza is the Hazelwood Theatre.
The theatre interior - To fit it inside the building, it had to be sunk into the ground. The dress circle is just above ground level and accessed through the front entrance. Access to the stalls is round the sides and down imaginary stairs which I didn't bother building.
I really like funicular railways. They bring me unreasonable levels of joy. As this park is on a hill, it simply had to have one. Unfortunately, funiculars are not in the game's fairly limited ride collection and I doubt they'll be added any time soon, so I had to create a static one from scenery items.
The lower station.
The Grand Arcade - This is where the park's main eateries are currently located.
The main concourse.
On the upper level seating is available.
The park at night.
An overview looking back towards the entrance.
Next I hope to start building up the hill and expanding the park's ride selection.
I was never really a fan of RCT3. I thought that in stark contrast to RCT 1 & 2, it was quite an ugly game. The selection of scenery available was small and inflexible. Buildings took ages to build and the results were pretty unsatisfying. I didn't think the geometric grid-based building system translated well into the 3rd dimension at all, particularly when it came to coasters and other custom layout rides.
While there was / is obviously a huge community dedicated to creating and sharing custom scenery, I was never really interested in that. I didn't want to go through all the trouble of trawling through libraries and spending ages downloading things only to find something was corrupted, didn't look right or was in completely the wrong scale.
Plus it never ran properly on my computer, even on the lowest graphics settings. The whole thing was just more trouble than it was worth and I went back to playing RCT2.
Planet Coaster addresses almost all of the issues I had with RCT3. While not flawless, it allows so much more freedom to create what you want with the in-game scenery. Perhaps most importantly, everything looks gorgeous. The textures and lighting are brilliant. It feels like scenery is now central to the game rather than being an afterthought. The coasters, instead of being nightmarish Ron Toomer coat hanger creations can be made to look fairly realistic. The on-ride perspective is now actually bearable! It's not NoLimits but it's good enough.
To get to grips with PC, I started a park project: Hazelwood Gardens. The park is loosely based on a drawing I did of a hillside amusement park (Which can be seen here: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/cgms-sketchbook.1528/page-4 ). It's partly inspired by parks like Tivoli & Liseberg, classic amusement parks with a real sense of history. I've also been very interested lately in turn-of-the-century World Fairs and the architecture that was created for them.
So far, I've completed the entrance area and built one ride, a B&M hyper coaster.
An overview of the entrance area.
This is the entrance building - it was my first building in Planet Coaster so it's fairly low key. I may replace it with something a bit more grand at some stage but it's unlikely.
The hyper coaster swoops over the entrance Fury 325 style.
The Pavilion acts as the guest services building containing the Information and First Aid booths.
The Pavilion interior.
Across the plaza is the Hazelwood Theatre.
The theatre interior - To fit it inside the building, it had to be sunk into the ground. The dress circle is just above ground level and accessed through the front entrance. Access to the stalls is round the sides and down imaginary stairs which I didn't bother building.
I really like funicular railways. They bring me unreasonable levels of joy. As this park is on a hill, it simply had to have one. Unfortunately, funiculars are not in the game's fairly limited ride collection and I doubt they'll be added any time soon, so I had to create a static one from scenery items.
The lower station.
The Grand Arcade - This is where the park's main eateries are currently located.
The main concourse.
On the upper level seating is available.
The park at night.
An overview looking back towards the entrance.
Next I hope to start building up the hill and expanding the park's ride selection.
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