Led Zeppelin - The Ride Simulation

^Exactly. Only coaster dorks are going to care about insignificant details like that.

Rob Ascough said:
If it's anything like Kraken, I'll go nuts. That is one of my favorite steel coasters...

Ooooh, me too!

(finding more common ground with Rob :) )

Hold on, I forgot Kumba. How I did that, I have no idea. But seriously, if you like looping coasters, what's not to like about a ride like Kraken? It's got a good variety of elements and IMHO a straight first drop is light years better than something that curves. The more I look at the renderings for this ride, the more I see rides like Kumba, Kraken and Hulk.

I wish I knew when it B&M coasters suddenly became lame. I guess Gonch and I missed that memo? ;)

Heh, I'm not denying they can approach lamedom - but I do appreciate Kraken.

At best B&M's are the 'everyguy' coaster. They look big and threatening, but offer a mild ride in comparison. There's nothing too surprising on B&M coasters.

That appeals to a wide audience. As an enthusiast, meh in general. If I were a park owner, they'd be first on my list.

coasterimage - lordgonchar

They make perfect sense. As you said, they look intimidating but are actually pretty mild. They hardly ever break down, and they never kill the riders. Sounds like a good product to me.

Maybe I'm just getting older but I don't need my steel coasters to assault me with punishing gravitational forces. I kinda like going upside-down a bunch of different ways and being able to get back in line and ride again and again and again (if I so choose). Besides, Kraken does have some forceful moments. The zero-G roll is the best of the best and there are some positive g's around the second loop near the end of the ride.

To this day the only park/coaster related shirt I've ever bought is a Kraken shirt. :)

coasterimage - lordgonchar

You mean I actually beat you in that category? I have never purchased a coaster shirt. Ever ;)

^, ^^, ^^^, ^^^^, ^^^^^, and ^^^^^^

Too bad you two didn't find each other until after Gonch moved out of the Lehigh Valley. You could have stood on opposite banks of the Delaware and waved at each other (sheesh, rolling eyes, and all that stuff). ;)

Anyway, we had this first with Behemoth, then with Fahrenheit, now with Led Zep. What a horrible simulation, the ride's gonna suck!

Maybe if I spent hundreds of hours on NL (instead of in here), it might be a bigger deal to me. But I'm really not expecting technical perfection from a ride simulation. I doubt that many GP-ers noticed any imperfections either, and let's admit it, they're the major portion of the audience this is intended for anyway.

As far as the layout, there are only so many ways to go somewhere, turn around and head back to where you came from-- at least right now. It will probably be plenty exciting for people who haven't ridden 100+ coasters. Who knows how it will turn out once it's constructed and themed? I wouldn't pass judgment too hastily on any new coasters until you actually ride them.

Man how crowded is this park going to be? This is going to be a traffic nightmare in the summer season. Well at least it's more coasters and only 6 hrs away. When will Va Beach wake up and do something?

B&M's to a coaster geek like me are pretty lame. Save for a few, like Kumba...

Coasters don't have to beat your brains in (Vekoma and Arrow) but too bad we can't have simple yet kick butt rides like Mindbender and Shockwave. The layouts are great, great big loops, and they feel like a 'rollercoaster'.

I'm a coaster geek and I have no problem with B&M's. :-P

That said, the part of Led Zep after the MCBR looks very uninspired - a slow helix, and a corkscrew? Reminds me of the pacing (or lack thereof) on Powder keg. And why put the MCBR in so close to the end of the ride? Are they really going to run three trains on this thing? And is the MCBR and 3rd train really going to save that much time per dispatch?

Hobbes: "What's the point of attaching a number to everything you do?"
Calvin: "If your numbers go up, it means you're having more fun."

RatherGoodBear said:
Anyway, we had this first with Behemoth, then with Fahrenheit, now with Led Zep. What a horrible simulation, the ride's gonna suck!

Actually to be technical RGB, people thought the Behemoth was up to usual VIP standards, but it was those pesky brakes that was causing many a person to dismiss the ride outright.

not to mention the "WTF?" seating arrangement on those trains!

^ Which begs the question, "Will KI 2009 have the same 'WTF' seating arrangement?". :)

I'm guessing yes.

ApolloAndy said:
I'm a coaster geek and I have no problem with B&M's. :-P
That said, the part of Led Zep after the MCBR looks very uninspired - a slow helix, and a corkscrew? Reminds me of the pacing (or lack thereof) on Powder keg. And why put the MCBR in so close to the end of the ride? Are they really going to run three trains on this thing? And is the MCBR and 3rd train really going to save that much time per dispatch?

Alright alright... bad statement. Myself, a coaster geek, I'm usually bored on B&M's.

'Pacing' on a coaster, I always thought, referred to the changes in speed. Pacing, Voyage style, is all-out. Pacing, B&M style, is - well, it's all positive G's. You never get to feel the pacing.

Mindbender, for example. You feel some damn pacing. You have great positive g's, negative g's, side g's, it's a real rollercoaster!

Of course the pacing is mostly about positive gs on a LOOPING coaster...duh! Go on Nitro or Apollo and the pacing is mostly about negative gs.

IMHO pacing is less about changes in direction but rather the timing at which each element hits you. Elements that are evenly spaced feels like 'graceful' pacing; elements that come at you faster and faster, like Voyage, feels like 'breathless' pacing; and so forth.

B&M's have plenty of pacing but because many fall into the gategory of 'graceful' some people feel they're tame or boring.

*** Edited 11/21/2007 7:25:46 PM UTC by Mamoosh***

ApolloAndy said:
And why put the MCBR in so close to the end of the ride?

This is something that I know is going to bother me. Of course it's always touchy to judge a ride before you've ridden it but for me many B&M's go from good rides to great rides depending on what happens after the MCBR and to me Zep and Behemoth's final runs still look like afterthoughts to me.

I'm sure it's just a practical decision, based on train timing and capacity stuff.

For me the real standout feature of Goliath oG (my favorite B&M) and Talon (my favorite B&M invert) is the lack of MCBR. I can't think of a ride with an MCBR which doesn't kill the pacing.

Hobbes: "What's the point of attaching a number to everything you do?"
Calvin: "If your numbers go up, it means you're having more fun."

Kumba and the Medusas have stellar endings in my opinion. But that is just three or four of many. Want a boring ending? See Incredible Hulk.

I dunno, I think that most B&Ms have good endings. Kumba, the Medusas, Kraken, Talon, Batman, Raptor... the only B&M coaster I can think of that lacks a good ending is Great Bear (which is an otherwise fine ride).

In my eyes, a steel coaster is supposed to do things that a wood coaster does not- inversions, fast helixes and graceful curves. B&M coasters do all those things quite well. I don't mind what they're not because I appreciate what they are.