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Towers Loving Care

smudge said:
I'd love it to be turned into a 'haunted' house again. The setting, area and facade is perfect and I think the building would be big enough for something decent. A new transit system, possibly. A scaled down gringots please :)
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I'd love a much-scaled down version of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey! Was blown away by that ride when I went on it in 2013.
 
I would be happy if they fixed the lighting, audio and gun problems in Duel with a few bits of redressed scenery. I want to able to clearly see where the zombies are and shoot them.

It sounds simple sitting here and typing but I'd imagine it would be quite a hard task to accomplish. But we have all seem the standards Towers broke with the Hex refurb.
 
Bert2theSpark said:
It sounds simple sitting here and typing but I'd imagine it would be quite a hard task to accomplish. But we have all seem the standards Towers broke with the Hex refurb.
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All it would take is for Merlin to grant the necessary budget, to bring in a professional ride lighting designer, sound designer and animations engineer (who all exist in the UK and have great professional skills) to properly refurbish the ride. It is packed full of potential but has suffered years of poor maintenance and fiddling about. It wouldnt be hard at all if the money was given.

Duel's situation is also very different to Hex, Duel/Haunted House actually had much of its tech pulled out over the years and whole scenes no longer play out the way they were intended, because they're so broken now. The laser guns need a total system replacement too, if they are to be kept. Whereas all Hex needed was for existing tech to be fixed and worn out props replenished.

However we all know the proper money will not be granted. It's not as if its an unaffordable or unjustifiable sum, and it would make the ride fantastic again for families I believe. However Merlin simply do not grant proper money on existing rides. They will more likely grant a menial budget, which Alton Towers' own team will have to put to as good use as they can in their own time (at least Alton Towers are much better at this than, say, Chessington - just look at Tomb Blaster's "upgrade" recently)

To be blunt, as much as I would love even the slightest attention given to Duel, the ride has had plenty of low-budget, in house efforts in the past and these will only ever 'polish a turd' as they say.

They used the money very strategically with Hex, and it was largely back to how it used to be, but the DIY in house nature of the project still gives very different results to a proper refurbishment. The day we see professional budgets and standards for maintaining existing attractions in the UK will be a great achievement, and will really make the difference for every guest. We won't have medicore, has-been attractions being squeezed for whatever little is left, like Duel sadly is now.

smudge said:
I'd love it to be turned into a 'haunted' house again. The setting, area and facade is perfect and I think the building would be big enough for something decent. A new transit system, possibly. A scaled down gringots please :)
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Would be ripe for this kind of thing! And a great successor to the original Haunted House before all the fiddling, and something that everyone would be entertained by.
 
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The blasters were just adding to the on board electronics, wouldnt have affected the transit system but to be honest the transit is quite dated feeling now. Mack could do something much more dynamic in there today, to really give oomph to the acceleration parts and send cars very quick & smoothly around the twisting chase scenes.
 
Plus guests end up so preoccupied on the shooting, and getting a high score they don't actually notice anything else going on around them. Which was always sad when Duel came around as it was/is a well themed ride.

Perhaps it does guests a favour to be distracted these days given the state of the ride.
 
Noticed a bit of Towers Loving Care today taking place at Extraordinary Golf. Heres a before and after shot! (Before taken about 10, After taken about 3pm)

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Looks pretty nice, it's the small things I guess :D
 
What do you think will take place in terms of TLC this closed season. Will any rides reopen/close?

I think minor duel improvements
Nemesis station phase 3
Overall park upkeeping
 
Agree with Duel, I would be very surprised if it doesnt get some work doing to it next year.

Nemesis station repaint to continue hopefully.

Gardens should be restored back to their glory with the work currently underway.

Would like to see some TLC on the towers however, maybe opening up some more areas which have been until now off limits to the public perhaps?
 
They confirmed on the AltonTLC twitter that Duel would be getting TLC this off season. I think the zombie outside duel will probably be cleaned up as well

I think general park maintenance and power spraying will be done.

I assume we will also see boarding being put up around CCL. As well as a general clean up around mutiny bay so it looks good for SW8
 
What about Duel though - what would you do to it if you were in charge of the TLC?

Get rid of the zombies? Return it back to the Haunted House? Its a tricky one. On the one hand the Haunted House was great due to the effects it used, however, as the general public want more and more, and the park becomes more family orientated, little kids like the fun of shooting laser guns at targets.

Personally, I like the first section of Duel. Granted the tunnel needs fixing. However its the zombie scene towards the end I really dont like. Get rid of the industrial theme, as it just doesnt fit within a "Haunted House". If was themed more of lets say a graveyard, with zombies rising from the ground, appearing behind trees, coming out of coffins etc, that may work better.

Oh and the lighting, particularly around the heads that fly over yours, needs to be addressed, as you can clearly see all the workings of the mechanism now.
 
To be honest, Apart from a few tweaks and UV painting, I don't know how they'll refurb Duel, Earlier this year I would of said, turn down the lighting and fix the blasters but when I went in September those things had been fixed and the ride was actually really fun! I'll be interested how far they refurb Duel, The Monorail and The Skyride (And Sub-Terra?) as yes they might have the occasional blip such as a few scratches but they don't need as much TLC as Hex received in my opinion.
 
Duel was in the worst state I’ve ever seen it last weekend. The lighting has slowly deteriorated to an appalling standard. It is now very very amateurish and nowhere close to its intended design. It desperately needs PROFESSIONAL help - I’m not sure if that’s TLC or something more.
 
I can't imagine they will be able to do much to Duel under TLC. Lighting is a major issue and needs addressing, that's all I would expect them to do at a minimum. Really it needs a complete overhaul, which won't happen under TLC as it's unlikely to outlive Hex (which had more thorough work done to it).

The Smiler is another area in desperate need of some TLC, complete powerwash of the concrete would be great, and doing something with the optical procedure room. Would love to see smoke return for the first drop too (all you need is heat detectors instead), can't see that ever happening though.

Oh and cut out the vinyls covering the Monorail train windows! It's an easy job to do, make it happen Towers!

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When jet-washing the park is considered specialised "TLC"... Christ, how did we get to this point.

At this stage I think attempting to refresh Duel is a waste of money, the ride is fundamentally dated and beyond saving unless a substantial amount of money is invested into refreshing it (which won't be the case). Straight-up turning it back into The Haunted House would do nothing but get a few fans excited - the ride has been there for 25 years and it's time for something exciting for the next generation to arrive. Unfortunately, under current management, whatever replaces it will either be nowhere near as advanced or detailed for its time as The Haunted House was for its own, or a cookie-cutter IP, or both.

If it were me, the money would be better spent on or contributed towards any of the following "TLC":
  • Refreshing all of Oblivion's surrounding theming and, dare I say it, actually restoring the walls of its buildings rather than cladding them in that horrendous plastic sheeting they added to it years back
  • Fixing Nemesis' filtering problem and restoring the blood waterfalls - they've said it's "in their long-term interests", so it's clearly possible
  • Clean up Congo River Rapids and restore the station roof and theming properly
  • Clean up and/or repaint Runaway Mine Train
  • Repaint the buildings in Dark Forest - some of the Ug Land paint work has been fairly visible for a while now
  • General touch-ups to rides (e.g. adding more superficial wear to Nemesis' track and restoring The Blade's painted details)
I haven't been in the younger children's areas of the park for a while, so I can't comment on how they're faring, and I'd mention The Smiler and Sub-Terra if their state wasn't a result of their poor construction quality. Ideally I'd be all for adding flat rides and entertainment instead, but with the poor state of much of the park, priorities need to be made.
 
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