more 4D's are coming including launched!
Sorry, I thought you were suggesting it would have been stupid for arrow to build a huge ride with a corkscrew chassis early on.
ecd
2) Capacity issues hasn't stopped a dozen other Boomerangs from being built, nor suspended versions, besides, the next 4D won't appear in a park with a huge loyal attendance anyway, the way it was meant to be from the start.
3) X is *one* extra-large version of a prototype design that has since been modified and scaled down, so it hardly makes sense to compare the two, especially when you haven't even seen the work done by Arrow/S&S in the two years since.. Only a few lucky people have been able to ;)
4) X has vallied once, and so has every other coaster I can think of. This hardly qualifies as an issue. It was during testing when techs slowed the lift to a crawl to test where the ride might stop in cold conditions. But next time X has a hang nail, I'll let you know.
5)If you don't like the ride, don't like Arrow, fine. But if your *really* interested in what has gone into this ride, do some honest research like I have and stop believing everything you read on the net. I case you haven't figured it out, I have an obssession with the 4D, and have talked with people who helped create it, and who work on it daily.
DWeaver: I never said X won't ever run three trains. What I said was that it *isn't* happening right now, so obviously the coaster is *not* functioning perfectly (ie: how it was designed to work). If I were a park, I wouldn't buy the ride until it could at least function how it is meant to.
A 4-D is hardly a boomerang. It's a bigger investment, and when you build a full-circuit coaster, you expect it to operate at a decent capacity. Until that happens, you can rule out the Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks.
Whe I spoke of X's valleying issues, what I meant was that SF obviously has a reason for concern. You don't spend tons of money to install valley floors "just in case" if you don't have a reason to think it's going to valley (you don't see any valley floors on B&M inverteds, for example). Clearly, there's a reason for the park to think the ride may have a tendancy to valley.
If you don't think I've done any "honest research" or taken a lot of what is said about the ride with a grain of salt, then you're mistaken. I may not like Arrow, and that may be a bias, but obviously you have quite a bias too.
-Nate
*** This post was edited by one sided soldier 2/20/2003 11:41:03 PM ***
Hardly. My "bias" is strickly towards the 4D, which I and *many* others feel is the best and most complicated design perhaps of all time. As for capacity issues, I don't disagree the X's is disappointing to say the least, mainly because of the unnessesary rotations inside the station. Once again, these issues have been worked out for the next installation.
"A 4-D is hardly a boomerang".
And yet you'll find one in many large SF and CF parks.
"It's a bigger investment, and when you build a full-circuit coaster, you expect it"...snip
Absolutely. But SF didn't just buy a full circuit "coaster". They bought a full circuit "prototype"(def-never attempted before). Big difference.
*** This post was edited by DWeaver 2/21/2003 5:12:52 AM ***
ecd
This isn't even what I'd call a "standard prototype". For instance, look at Stealth, Xcelerator, Hypersonic, etc. The one thing most prototypes have in common is that they are the "compact version" of the full-size coaster. Dodonpa wasn't built before H:XLC, nor was TTD built before Xcel. The reason: with new technologies, you generally want to make sure they work as intended by making a smaller version, THEN expand after all systems are PROVEN. With X, those guidelines were thrown out the window. BIG risks were taken (as PKI did with Sonny).
Some people will say that Arrow shouldn't have built it that big, others will say SFMM made a mistake in asking for the BIG version first. Fact of the matter is that X is here, it's BIG, and it's staying. Sometime soon, whenever and wherever it may be, there WILL be more....it's THAT good. And then, a lot of the naysayers with a brand new 4-D in their homepark WILL be saying "it's the greatest ride ever". I'm no Nostradamus, but I *do* know what this ride is...;)
DWeaver said:
4) X has vallied once, and so has every other coaster I can think of. This hardly qualifies as an issue. It was during testing when techs slowed the lift to a crawl to test where the ride might stop in cold conditions. But next time X has a hang nail, I'll let you know.
You seem to forget that X vallied on Sunday morning, January 19'th 2003, just about a month ago. Oh yeah, and it vallied in one of the spots where they DIDN'T put in an evacuation platform, right before the last raven turn. I watched it happen with my own eyes, and at no point was it ever slowed down on the lift.
ecd
Dodonpa was the first from-scratch ThrustAir.
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"Outside of a dog, a man's best friend is a book. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read." - Groucho Marx
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Debeers - ...she'll almost have to...
I hope to see a 4D on the east coast soon, as my plans for Cali keep failing. I'm gonna get to ride XLC on opening day this year, since it was closed when I went last year(I went Monday, they opened it Thursday, darn them).
Though it's a bit off topic, why does Dodonpa have such a different support structer than XLC, anybody know? Is it just because of a newer gen. type thing, or they just wanted to try something different. The Hills on both coasters look so different, and Dodonpa looks like it is wider.
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Mmmmmmmm...Chocolate!
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- "I used to be in the audio/visual club, but I was kicked out because of my views on Vietnam........and I was stealing projectors" - Homer Simpson
Bring on a launched 4d! Bring on a smaller 4d thats not launched,and bring it right to my homepark of kings dominion :)
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