Borg Assimilator seat position lock fails in test run

^I wanted to say that but I was biting my tongue, glad you took care of it.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/11308720/detail.html

I call BS.

Seconded. I don't see how that would even be possible with the train on the course of the ride. Riders can't even unbuckle the shoulder pads without the train being in the station (I tried to on the brake run one day while we'd been sitting there for 5 minutes and the blood was rushing to my head). There's no way the operator in the station could unlock the seats during the course of the ride.

^Look at I-Fan's post Travio referring to what's reffered to as an "E-box".

Using the E-box maintenance can unlock the train regardless of where it is on the circuit,I've seen them do it on Batwing's life quite a few times & once in the station when the seats didn't come up.

They'd unlock the lap bars & then the riders had to wiggle their way out from under the vest because the buckle can only unlock in the station.

Yes, I know that there's a way to unlock it on the course, in the event of an emergency, but I figured it'd be a manual release sort of thing, and not some button that an employee can bump while the ride is running to unlock it, because that would make no sense at all.

Well Nate, first of all as I've had to remind many people, No Limits is not a game in any traditional sense. It's a simulator and that's the big difference. There are no people to kill, no points or objects to collect, no score, you don't have three-lives etc.

Regardless of the price, the program is amazing (I've been told Oleg didn't design it for the money), and not exactly the easiest program I've ever used either. It's incredibly complex to design your own coaster. But it never fails to amaze me how quickly the program renders the wireframe into a 3-D version--about 30-seconds or less.

I fail to see in this web-based kind of world where the price of software has anything to do with how it performs. There is loads of software out there that may never hit a physical shelf and doesn't require thousands or even million-dollars of marketing money. I have quite a bit of free plug-ins people have designed for use in Logic for the Mac, and they're great.

There's a guy who designed one of the most sophisticated and complex software-synths called Crystal (available in multiple formats) that I use and you how much it was? Nothing. The guy did it for the love of it. In a poll taken several years ago in Future Music U.K., Crystal was voted by readers as one of the top ten soft-synths, and it was up against some soft-synths from major manufactures that costed hundreds of dollars more.

So, was I really expecting the train to stop when I hit the e-stop? No, not really. I just wanted to see what might happen, as I hadn't fully explored the Flying Dutchman model. But I know that the e-stop works quite well with any coaster with lifts and block-brakes. If your trains aren't making it to certain points on the ride at specific times, all the trains will come to a stop.

So then you ask the question about officially-licensed and what that means? First of all, it means that No Limits can actually use Vekoma and Gerstlauer's names. They don't have to use alternative names for a style of coaster. Second, it means that the manufacture had more input into the design of the trains, tracks, and graphics. For example, the Typhoon track was the actual demo shown to the public.

Normally I don't double-post, but Travio I just caught your comment about biting your tongue. Like they say at magic shows "We've never met before, right?" So what exactly were you afraid of?

So now I'll call you on something you said earlier. How in the world did you think you were going to get your vest off when you were stuck in the brakes? The seatbelt that clips together is electronically locked. It's not designed to be opened by riders until they get back to the station.

Expecting No Limits to accurately predict the way a ride would operate under certain circumstances is like walking up to a stranger on the street, handing that person a flower, and expecting a make out session because it happened that way in the Sims. A game is a game. Intamin Fan, meet real life.

You really expect that every feature of the Vekoma Flying Dutchman trains is included in that game AND operates exactly the same way it would in the real world just because Vekoma licesened the use of their name to the product? That's ridiculous on so many levels, not the least of which is that the Flying Dutchman control system is infinitely more complex than the one in the game.

Again, I say laughable.

-Nate

Exactly. That's like me saying that I know exactly how a race car is going to handle in certain circumstances because I've played Gran Turismo. If you think that by using a video game as your basis you could win a credible argument, I'd say that you're sorely mistaken.

Looks like they found out what happend to make the ride stop.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/11308720/detail.html

To those who say it is impossible to unlock dutchman restraints during the ride- it has happened before. I know of multiple times employees have found ways to get around the electronic locking systems.

However I have never heard of anyone figuring out how to unlock the entire coach from its locked position during the ride. I'm sure it is possible but entirely too difficult.

I'm glad it was only human error, but I can't imagine why an employee would have been doing anything like that in the first place, although disabling the button during a run is probably a good call. Good to know it should be up and running soon.*** This post was edited by Willh51 3/21/2007 2:23:59 PM ***

I worked at GL on XF off and on for its first 5 seasons in operation at that park and I will again say there is no onboard breaking mechanism for the trains. Agreeing with other folks it most likely comes down to either physics or something jamming in the wheels to cause the valley.

Also, if you know what you're doing, it is possible to unlock the vests outside of the station. GL had to fire a few employees for doing this. Since I know some people who read these forums are the type of folks who would try it, I am not going to explain how. (Of course this modification was made to XFs trains by GL maintenence, i do not know if it was made to all vekoma flying dutchman trains)

We have to remember it wasn't the vests that were unlocked, it was the locking pin responsible for the chassis. This whole story is very fishy...

Note to coasterdud318 and Travio, I didn't say that I expected the brake to work, I just wanted to experiment. As for your arguments about video games (again, No Limits is not a video game in any traditional sense of the word), do you think the Navy just hands over a two-billion dollar airplane to a potential pilot and says "Have fun, I'm sure you'll figure it out."

No, there's hundreds of hours of training using video-simulation, and a simulated cockpit. Did the simulation software cost anywhere near what the airplane did? No, of course not. Does that make it any less effective? No.

Laugh all you want, but No Limits is based on real-life physics. If I want to make my own "coaster," (which I do) I have to design the wire-frame, I have to make the adjustments to control the g-forces, I have to either pick-out supports or design them by hand. If I want terrain and trees/water etc., I have to build that by hand as well. In other words, I have to design the "ride" from scratch.

And I didn't say that every feature works exactly as does in real-life because Vekoma allowed the use of their name, it's because Vekoma actually designed it in No Limits, as did Gerstluaer with Typhoon (Eurofighter). Does it include every safety feature? Of course not. I worked at SFA and saw the control panel of Batwing every night when I would get my work slip signed-off on by my supervisor. There is a huge touch-screen and multiple-buttons and switches.

But, does the Flying Dutchman track duplicate its counterpart Batwing--Yes. I've ridden it easily a hundred times, and I can tell you that with two-train operation, that occasionally if the operators are fast enough that the train dispatches from the station as soon as the other train passes over the lifthill and it happens in No Limits as well. There's an algorithm that randomly selects how long it takes "people" to load people onto the "ride," so occassionaly this happens too.

The dispute had nothing to do with the realism of the game's physics or ride design or any of the things you just mentioned. I am well aware of the realism of those points, but the game does not compensate for abnormal, emergency situations like the one being reported on and discussed in this thread, which makes any argument trying to use the game as evidence baseless.

Well, obviously when we started this disagreement, we weren't aware that that someone pressed a button on the panel either. I still find that explanation fishy. Why would you have a button that someone could accidently press while the ride is in motion? Usually those kind of features are only available to maintenance personal with special keys or passcodes.

Well It Happened Again To Another Dutchman Coaster

X Flight Did That Last Year The Ride Is One Of My Favorites I Rode It 5000 Times During The Five Seasons It was There It Was A Great Ride! Then It Had Those Problems That All Flying Dutchman Coasters Have Seating And Mechanical Issues Came But It Was A Great Ride. I Hope It runs Better At Kings Island