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Nick's NL Coaster Thread

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Ha! I actually did it! I finished a coaster! Here's the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7UKskMCy2g#ws

Apologies for the noobish quality- I think the video doesn't like the misty environment- and also for the lack of a name, but I don't think it deserves a name, to be honest. The track-work is alright, although nothing to shout about.

I just felt like I had to put one coaster into the world in my life, even if it wasn't my best effort.

So enjoy! Or not.
 
As my exams are now finished, I've got loads of time to play NL. ;D

So, on one my projects over the next few weeks will be this Gravity Group coaster, my first finished layout in FVD. The finished coaster will, hopefully- I'm not making any promises- feature three Voyage-esque tunnels, modified supports, transfer track, queue-line and entrance area and a station. Most of these will be done with supports in the NL editor.

Included in the layout are 15 points of air-time, two 90 degree banked turns and two double-downs all in a thrilling layout of 4429 feet. And, hopefully, the track resembles something that Gravity Group would design and make. :p

Onto some pictures:

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A first drop that resembles that of Wooden Coaster-Fireball at Happy Valley.

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90 degree banked turn no.1.

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Double-down!

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My favourite part of the ride, a combination of air-time and wild lats going into a turn, with a head-chopper.

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TWISTY!!

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Arty shot of the second overbank, with some of the ride in the background.

Thanks for reading. :)
 
It's been a very long while.

Basically, over the past few months I've been planning a coaster that can only work in NL2. So far I've pretty much completed the layout, apart from the ending, and have got what scenery I want in my mind. So, onto some (very WIP) pics:

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If you've got no idea what these are about, my plan is to do a modern re-make of Matterhorn Bobsleds, using the Gerstlauer Bobsled coaster in doing so. So, what you can see in the first picture is, at least near the top of the ride, the initial section of the ride- which will be heavily influenced by the original Matterhorn Bobsleds. It will feature a lot of sharp turns, interaction with scenery and the occasional meeting between the two tracks together. However, as a re-make, it will be much smoother and modern. Therefore, it will have more speed in this section, and will feature more significant drops. The next picture shows the drops which will signify the middle of the ride. The drops take inspiration from Expedition Everest and Splash Mountain, and will dive beneath a path, before taking a low to the ground turnaround and going back into the mountain. After this, the layout isn't quite finalised. It will like a more modern version of Matterhorn Bobsled's ending- ie. it will go around the edge of the mountain- but possibly with more air-time and, like before, more speed. The coaster will then finish in separate stations, like those on Matterhorn Bobsleds.

What you see in the next few pictures is a test- and possibly the most important one that has to work- to see whether I could recreate the type of track used on Matterhorn Bobsleds. I reckon (although it doesn't look fantastic on the turn) that it turned out pretty well. The only potential problem is that the track is too wide for the Bobsled trains. The gap between the rails can be changed, but I'm not sure about the gap between the cross ties. I'll have to do some more experimentation to see if I can narrow them, but I'm not quite short. If not, I may have to use a different train, which would be a shame, but it would still work fine.

So, the other things that I'll try and do in NL2 (and possible ideas how to do it):

The track-work will be hand built in NL2. This will take a long time, I reckon, I'm too much a perfectionist to do a bad job.

The mountain will be made using the terraformer in NL2. Here we have, potentially, the biggest problem. I need tunnels to be able to go within one another (so, if the two tracks are together, then there won't be anything between them). If someone with NL2 could quickly check, it would be appreciated. I will also use more invisible track to dig more into the mountain. For example, I'll use invisible track to create more tunnels, that will be able to clear out a section of the mountain, so riders can see it, if that makes any sense. Again, this is dependent on tunnels being able to go inside one another. I'm a bit wary of this, though, as it doesn't work in NL1. I hope that by using the tunnels that just make holes in to the ground that it'll work.

The track will be made using the Construction Kit, as tested above. The actual track in NL2 will be invisible. However, I'm not sure if you can change the texture on the object. I'll have to test this out.

In terms of scenery (such as the stations and paths) I'll either use SketchUp, if I can get good enough at it, or supports. Either way, I'm not making anything too complicated, so they should both work fine, although using supports would take much longer.

I'll attempt to create maybe one or two waterfalls, using scripting. Obviously I'll need to work out how to do this first, though.

I'm not sure if I want to have the splash-downs or not. If so, it probably won't be too difficult- considering there's an example done in one of the NL2 example track.

I'm afraid there will probably no Abominable Snowman, due to the complexity in making it. I will, however, try and have glowing eyes.

If all of these are possible, then this project will, hopefully, be able to be completed. And of course I'm being very, very ambitious, but I reckon I can at least try and pull it off.

So now just to wait until NL2 is released on Mac...

Thanks for reading. :)
 
Nearly 18 months since my last post, and many of them have been spent trying to make a GCI coaster that I actually like. At the moment I'm about 90% of the way there:



Please beware, this is not really close to being finished- I'll probably redo the last two thirds of the track before continuing with supports etc.- but I thought I might show what I've got to. However, I really do like the layout, and it won't see many changes from its current form.
 
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