[The Smiler] Construction Updates and Ride Speculation

[JB1985]

^Rob - I think the first image was always meant to look like this but AT didnt want to give the game away

 

[Meat Pie]

The more I look at the spider, the more I see it's inappropriateness and ill-design. It has all the aesthic qualities of some cheap sci-fi megadrive game, rather than the tense but subtle meanace of the original plans. It's now garish, over-the-top and for all of its many elements, it lacks any believable character. Big shame if it does turn out like this as it looked like a very promising bit of themeing, rather than this awful cartoony mess.

Completely and utterly disagree here, its now sinister but quirky which to me is an interesting idea rather than the industry style of the old plans.

Quirky doesn't have to be Tim Burtonesque (something I'm not universally opposed to, but it's not appropriate here) and absurd to the extreme. It was already quirky in the original plans anyway! A building shaped like a spider floating in midspace on 5 legs is quirky enough, but now it's awful decoration makes it as sinister as Dr. Robotnic. It's a cartoon, not a building.

It surpasses the level of absurd that you can just accept without feeling removed from the experience.

 

[Rob]

^Rob - I think the first image was always meant to look like this but AT didnt want to give the game away

Maybe! I personally think it was a late change in plans. The two do look quite different really. The original theme may have been an IP, something that was largely rumoured at first. This may have fallen through at the last minute causing a re-think of the theme. They would have to have kept the spider element as they had already got planning permission for it, but had to modify it for the new theme.

I am just speculating mind, they could have just been trying to hide it! It will be interesting to see if the other theming elements in the plans materialise, if they don't then I'd say there is a very good chance that the theme has changed since the plans were submitted.

 

[JB1985]

^Rob - I think the first image was always meant to look like this but AT didnt want to give the game away

Maybe! I personally think it was a late change in plans. The two do look quite different really. The original theme may have been an IP, something that was largely rumoured at first. This may have fallen through at the last minute causing a re-think of the theme. They would have to have kept the spider element as they had already got planning permission for it, but had to modify it for the new theme.

I am just speculating mind, they could have just been trying to hide it! It will be interesting to see if the other theming elements in the plans materialise, if they don't then I'd say there is a very good chance that the theme has changed since the plans were submitted.

I guess thats a different way of looking at t ;D

There will almost certainly be some behind the scenes tour when this opens a la Th13teen. I cant wait to here what Wardley has to say about this ride

 

[TheMan]

I love daft stuff, enjoy the faux happy/sinister aspect to the ride, but boy oh boy, do I ever prefer the first piece of theme to that garish mess of a contraption.

This may end up being "fun", making people giggle and laugh as it does it's random things.

Guess what though, then it isn't FAUX happy like The Sanctuary was.

I will not judge it on a picture, but if things like those car washers end up not interacting with the ride properly, and are just bolted on as a thing to miss - and I fail to comprehend how they can be anything but, then to me that is just utterly ridiculous.

By biggest concern was, would the Gerst track do the theme and effort justice - now my biggest concern is the biggest single piece of theme that exists in the ride.

Everyone appears to have conveniently forgotten that this was supposed to be sinister, wrapped up in a glaze of happy.

Damages the credibility, and what was actually very clever psychology of the theme.

Views may change of course, depending on how this settles in and interacts, first time since this ride was announced that anything has really disappointed me (except delays of course).

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

Looking at the before and after of the plan for the spider, the after is a HUGE improvement.

Not sure about having the words "tickler", "giggler" etc written up the legs though though but it could work.

 

[Wilsy]

I find the new design a lot more visually appealing and interesting, the old design for the spider (and the station building) was fairly generic.

It's good to see Merlin studios trying something a bit different.

 

[JB1985]

i love the spider, the theme and the ride, however one thing i cant see is how this is all going to be sinister a la the sanctuary

 

[Dar]

I think the new design is far more sinister than the old one that was just intimidating. Why is this big, imposing machine yellow? Why does it have elements called happy things like "Giggler" and "Tickler"?

I think this will fit in with the theme much better than the old design.

 

[TheMan]

i love the spider, the theme and the ride, however one thing i cant see is how this is all going to be sinister a la the sanctuary

You cannot bolt a car wash to it, call another element "The Flasher" and expect it to be treated with anything other than humour - which is fine, if you are going for humour.

This pays a complete disservice to the theme The Sanctuary was so brilliantly building up - I wasn't it's biggest fan in terms of it didn't feel complete (well discussed, opinions changed), but the concept was fantastic, sinister, creepy, whilst pretending to be all happy etc. This type of place actually exists in forms and has done for many years.

This though? That is not sinister, it is ludicrous.

By the way, my favourite symbol is the old Smiley face from the 80s rave scene. I have tons of the things I have collected down the years, with my love of psychology, and my interest in sinister things of the past that The Sanctuary was actually clearly based upon made this ride a real, real potentially phenomenal multi sensory experience.

It may well still be, but I cannot imagine how it will fit in to feel of The Sanctuary now.

I hope I am wrong because, boy, was I ever looking forward to this!

 

[rightbackgranty]

I completely agree that themeing V2 (Spider + Station Building) is much better than the original proposals. What was once bland, and lets face it, wonderfully Merlin generic has at least had some thought added to it.

I just think that sometimes less is more. The changes in colour are spot on and I feel the whole thing has a much more sinister edge in comparison to what looked like an edifice to a dormant / decaying institution.

I think the whole thing would look better with just needles, strobes and the water vapour machines though. Make the near misses both be against threatening objects and replace a spinning thing with more of the "giggling gas". Keeps the threat levels up and the room for badly placed themes down.

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

Just ditch the disks and the car wash and tone down the yellow a bit and it would be near enough perfection.

I hope we see smoke effects and some cool lighting because that would be the cherry on top, water spraying effects should be avoided though.

 

[Rob]

Don't forget that The Sanctuary was meant to be a facility from 50 years ago. Plus it was a scare maze, so it had to be rather dark and whatnot. The Smiler is the MOJ's new facility. What they were doing before wasn't working. I personally think that it does still look sinister. It is also rather crazy, which fits in with the MOJ and Dr Kelman in particular.

It should also be remembered that although linked The Sanctuary and The Smiler are different things and one is not necessarily based directly on the other. The Sanctuary was almost just creating some context really, it wasn't setting out exactly how The Smiler would be. That's how I saw it anyway.

 

[Deleted member 583]

I think it will all depend how it translates into reality.

I love the idea of this huge mechanism. That's just all what X-Sector is about. Experimentation of us mere subjects. So it fits perfectly. More of a literal contraption than Oblivion but heck...love it.

It SCREAMS for people to stand and watch the carts flying in between the legs and past the various devices. Brilliant.

 

[Fredward]

Been thinking, This looks almost more appropriate for a forbidden valley theme, it looks like some post apocalyptic industrial machinery, with some sort of scrap bolted onto it for a make shift purpose if the yellow was brown. Put the model next to ripsaw, or even Nemesis it would fit perfectly!

 

[aru]

I think this looks original and will be an impressive addition! I disagree with the 'tacky' comments, as long as it is pulled off with quality materials and real interaction with the ride it will impress the public. This is much more interesting and visually disorientating than the original plans - which to be fair were quite bleak. I am quite excited about seeing this in action. It reminds me of the original Ripsaw concept art. ;D ;D

 

[Ian]

It may well still be, but I cannot imagine how it will fit in to feel of The Sanctuary now.

But maybe that's the reason? While the concept is in a similar vein as The Sanctuary I don't think anyone ever said it would be exactly the same, nor should it if you ask me.

My interpretation is that it's meant to be a new style of experiment they've created, following on from The Sanctuary in some form. Therefore it doesn't need to be exactly the same. As the story has unfolded over the past weeks, and the theme progressed I think it's become clear that they are moving to something a bit different.

I think the fact they've used humerus names and a rather crazy appearance can be made to fit the theme idea well. I see it in a slightly ironic light, and I think it fits with what we've seen so far. The music and appearance can fit the theme well.

Bare in mind as well that what we've seen so far is only a fraction of the ride experience. None of us know what we'll see in the queueline. That could be the main tying point for all the pieces we've seen so far.

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With regards to how much this has changed from the plans I've always gotten the impression that back when Towers began taking down the tent they still didn't know exactly what they were building. That's why we saw the plain, generic plans, and the vague marketing. Since then we've seen some radical changes to ride in terms of theme and appearance, as if they've finally finished and perfected the concept.

 

[TheMan]

Just ditch the disks and the car wash and tone down the yellow a bit and it would be near enough perfection.

I can agree with this, I think The Smiler is meant to be a bit bonkers, which is kool I like that too, but that picture is just way OTT.

Theme is like what a top chef does with a 3 Michelin Star meal. They add things you can eat, and you never waste anything, nothing is frivolous, and it all must add to the flavour and compliment the dish - ANY art is like this.

If you throw everything at it for the sake that you can, it looses the impact and actually begins to deplete the effect of the overall "dish".

Hard to judge from a picture of course, I do reserve my judgement but my opinions right now are ones of immense disappointed of a ruined opportunity, to create something truly epic and let's be honest, for once, a little bit "cult".

 

[Rob]

It may well still be, but I cannot imagine how it will fit in to feel of The Sanctuary now.

But maybe that's the reason? While the concept is in a similar vein as The Sanctuary I don't think anyone ever said it would be exactly the same, nor should it if you ask me.

My interpretation is that it's meant to be a new style of experiment they've created, following on from The Sanctuary in some form. Therefore it doesn't need to be exactly the same. As the story has unfolded over the past weeks, and the theme progressed I think it's become clear that they are moving to something a bit different.

I think the fact they've used humerus names and a rather crazy appearance can be made to fit the theme idea well. I see it in a slightly ironic light, and I think it fits with what we've seen so far. The music and appearance can fit the theme well.

Bare in mind as well that what we've seen so far is only a fraction of the ride experience. None of us know what we'll see in the queueline. That could be the main tying point for all the pieces we've seen so far.

---

With regards to how much this has changed from the plans I've always gotten the impression that back when Towers began taking down the tent they still didn't know exactly what they were building. That's why we saw the plain, generic plans, and the vague marketing. Since then we've seen some radical changes to ride in terms of theme and appearance, as if they've finally finished and perfected the concept.

---

I couldn't agree with this more, I think you're spot on with everything there Ian! The point about the queue is very good one. The pre-ride experience is not only going to be very interesting but also likely to be important to setting the story and context specifically for the ride. Come opening, it will probably be the final piece of the jigsaw for us as it were.

 

[CoasterCrazyChris]

If this thing does turn out anything like this concept, then it really is going to make the rest of X-Sector look pretty poor thematically!

Seeing the cars dive in and out of the legs with all the effects will certainly provide some good competition to Oblivion's drop as the most visually spectacular feature in X-Sector!