Interesting Screen

Forgive me if this has been posted before, but I was glancing at some RCT3 screens and came across this one:http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/rollercoastertycoon3/screens.html?page=191

Normal screen right? I don't know if this is a mistake or something, but look at the high point on that wild mouse. To the left of it, there are a bunch of supports with no track on it.

Here is a magnified version: http://home.austin.rr.com/viewpt/coaster.jpg

Thoughts? Comments?

It looks like it is un an-finished coaster....

1ej

I doubt it, but maybe you can design a coaster in the coaster designer, then drop it in the park, and watch it getting built, instead of it just appearing.

Just look at the first coaster in the series that main picture's from - it's a shot of a half-built wooden coaster. Is there any question?

Yes there is question. Half-built coasters in RCT and RCT 2 didn't have supports without track on them. Looks like we may actually 'wait' for a coaster to be built rather than it just magically appearing.

Thats something I've always wanted to see.

That raises another question.

Do you design the coaster elsewhere?

or

Do you design it "in the game" and then it just builds itself?

If so, then what happens when you only create half of the coaster? Will it start building or wait till you complete a circuit? Perhaps there is a "build" button.

So many questions...

Or could it be just another screen of an unfinished game or of a 'glitch' that will be ironed out before it goes gold?

(kind of like the shots of peeps without legs and with restraints going through them)

I always wanted a "watch it be built" feature.

You can also see the same thing in this pic: http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2004/reviews/919973_20040823_screen001.jpg

Notice only a part of the woddie is tracked, and in one spot, no supports are placed.

^But in this picture there seems to be a train sitting on the unfinished hill!
It looks like a still out of "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" :)

Nope... that is a copy of a complete and finished wild mouse: Opening in 2005... "Shock Trauma: The Ride"

*** Edited 8/24/2004 1:34:50 PM UTC by SLFAKE***

Ahhh, the shot Beeman pointed out in addition to the original make me thing we're seeing shots from an unfinished game.

At least I'm hoping. I simply hate the idea of coasters taking time to build. That'd be a fundamental change in gameplay and it would suck...hard.

The game plays just about perfectly already. Don't change a thing on that end. They can add all the eye candy and effects they want, but once they start messing with gameplay, they're toying with the very thing that makes the game fun.

/me toys with Gonch for fun

Perhaps its something you could turn on/off, gonch. The pics of the Woodie look as if it is being built. And the 'mouse' in question, is that a mouse, or a Bob Sled type coaster since it is mouse like, but looks to have banked turns? Please tell me they added another new coaster type for me to fool with:).

It has been mentioned on another board that the odd picture we see there with that woodie, is most likely a draw distance problem. It could be that when the pic was snapped the map was also scrolling which in many 3-D games results in things "turning off" until the scrolling stops.

That might be the case here.

In Beeman's pic i noticed that the flat ride also has no ride structure, just cars. This leads me to believe that is a shot from the unfinished game.

Also interesting that there are shadows of non-existent trees and track. I think there were graphical issues in this (presumably old) version of the game. I've seen a video of the building of a rollercoaster in RCT3 and I believe it's basically the same as the rest of the series.

This is something I was wondering before I even saw the screens. It ought to be interesting to see how this works during the game.

Maybe they freeze time during construction and once you are done building (and maybe testing it) time continues but the ride disappears and simulated construction starts on it. I've always wanted to see rides in the midst of construction to see their progress.

No no. That's NOT the way it works. Video has been shown of coasters being built. It's a lot like RCT1&2.

Again, the glich you see is either due to the unfinished nature of the game at this point, or a draw distance issue that some video cards have that will be present even in the final game. Sim City 4 has this issue too as do other games. It's the downside of 3D.