How many is enough restrooms? Where to put them?

Is anyone alive in RCT2 world? I just picked up the game again, it's been like 7 years since I last played.

Some of the scenarios seem tougher than I remember - how many bathrooms is enough? Someone told me once if you put bathrooms right next to each other, that will make people happier? A line of bathrooms? Or spread them out?

I like to set my drink prices really low, then charge to use the bathroom. :)

Other than that, I don't know a proper strategy on placement.

My basic shop strategy is this:

- Information stand as close to the entrance as possible, such that to do anything in the park, you *have* to walk past the info stand. Make maps free. Almost everyone will get one, and this goes a *long* way towards guests not getting lost.
- Food / Drink / Bathroom stalls should always be added together... meaning that if you build a drink stall, you should also build a food stall and a bathroom at the same time, and in a similar area. This might be overkill, but they're cheap and don't take up much space, and it goes a long way towards a good park rating.

As far as the game itself goes, my first concern is always to get the park making money ASAP by spending the minimum possible amount of money. Loans are bad. If you can help it, don't take out loans. They bleed money due to interest rates - so zero it as soon as possible.

Focus on building thrill rides right off the bat - they'll get lines and make money. Don't even bother researching anything else until you get a base of 3-5 thrill rides... and then shut off your research funding. Even if you don't have your favorite ride, you probably have enough rides at your disposal to make money. Why spend $500/month researching a ride when you can *build* a money producing ride for that same amount of money?

Anyway, then set up the options to wait for a full load, no minimum wait time, max wait time about 45 seconds. This is a reasonable cycle time, and makes sure that you're getting as much money as possible from each cycle, as well as reducing wait times by not sending rides out half-full.

Coasters make money faster, and you can charge more money to ride them, but are more expensive to build, so whether or not I even build one right off the bat depends on the scenario and how much $$ you start with. If it's enough to get your thrill ride base going *and* build a coaster, build a coaster. Otherwise, don't. Build a coaster that gets the best possible capacity for the minimum possible price. A short (a first drop with only one steep piece of track is ideal) woodie works wonders for this. I generally go for the old-school, hill - high turn - hill - high turn style to minimize footprint and extend the ride length without actually requiring too many track pieces, which is important, because more track pieces inflate the cost.

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If you've done all that successfully, you should basically be printing money at this point. Now your park can thrive and you can focus on expanding it with the knowledge that it's basically now impossible for it to fail.

In RCT2 it can still be tough because of time-sensitive goals - but that's part of the reason thrill rides are what you should start with. It takes maybe a day in RCT time to build a thrill ride, while a custom coaster can take a month or more. RCT3 is *much* less finicky, in large part because construction is allowed while the game is paused, and goals are never time-sensitive... come to think of it, I can't really even identify a situation in RCT3 where it's even possible to fail a scenario. So... you're probably doing the right thing by playing RCT2!

Wait. Where did this start? Bathrooms? Sorry about the novel.

I charge 10 cents to use the restroom. No one ever balks at the charge. I generally look at the map overlay and see where peeps are thinking "I need to use the restroom", and put one in the areas with the most traffic.

I also jack up the prices on everything until people complain. Look at the list of people thinking about your product and raise it until you get the first person saying he's not paying that much.

Free maps? I've never used that tactic. I combat the lost guest problem by making my midways a grid system. The peeps can always move in a direction that brings them closer to their destination. The loop method that is common in real parks doesn't seem to translate well in RCT2.

When you're playing scenarios, nothing is free. :)

Yeah and I've also jacked prices up on rides with a huge line. But be careful as people will quickly get out of line if you jack it up too high. I always put no entry signs at the beginning of an exit path to help them not get lost.

Are you charging a modest entry fee too?

Modest fees? Again, in scenario play, nothing is free...or cheap.

Towards the end of a scenario, a good park can score well over $50 at the gate and then a solid coaster another $8 or $10 per ride once the guest is inside. The key to scenario play is usually money. If you have money you can do whatever is needed to meet the goal. Get those peeps to hand it over.

The only upward limit I've ever encountered is with admission fees. At some point, peeps will not be able to pay the entry fee to get in. Of course, you can't put an ATM outside your park, so the price has to be something they can afford.

What I do is sample about twenty or so peeps to see how much cash peeps are bringing with them- find the minimum and charge that. Even though they will have no money left once they enter, at that point, they can go to an ATM to recharge.

I think $50 is a modest entrance fee :-).