Parkitect early build available

Some coaster block observations.

First off, it seems the number of trains allowed is based on some combo of station/train length rather than available coaster blocks. That's cool for casual play, but for a more simulated experience it's off.

I built a simple oval with three blocks. This should allow two train operation. In this shot you can see that is the case with longer trains:

But if I shorten the train length it allows me more and more trains:

So that's an issue. If coaster operation is meant to be realistic, the number of trains needs to be based on the number of blocks, not the length of the trains. (although, like I said, I suspect it's more that length of trains is based on length of station and it just divides from there - for example, four 3-car trains is the equivalent of two 6-car trains.

But once operations begin the blocks aren't acting correctly either. Here you can see the train was allowed to clear the lift before the block ahead was clear and the train entered the station before it was clear, etc. Probably because at this point it's running three trains on three blocks - which you don't do in real life:

So I added a block brake bringing the blocks to four and now three trains can run safely. But as you can see in the next screenshot, there's still overlapping into the station. At five second intervals the trains are moving too quickly to see how the block would behave if tested beyond that station double up:

So I up the interval to 20 seconds. It still doubles up into the station, but at least holds the third train back. What we should see here is one train in the station, one on the block just outside the station and one on the block just before the bend:

What should happen the first train would leave the station, the second would move in to load and the third would slide up the the final block to allow the first to leave the lift hill. But once the first train leaves, the others just double up in the station.

Now that I'm typing this, I wish I had moved to four trains to see if I could get both blocks to hold while the station doubled up. From playing around the last week or so with the game, it seems that the final block is always the issue. I've seen trains hold up midcourse if the block ahead is occupied, but the last block - regardless of location along the track) always allows the train through to double up in the station.

If this is a known issue and something to still be ironed out, then I've wasted my breath (errr, keystrokes), but I did want to point out the weirdness in both train options and actual ride operations in regards to blocks.

RCMAC said:

Do your wife and kids know who you are anymore?

He's just trying to win another pinball machine (if they offer one), that's all.

~Rob

I got rid of the pinball machine a couple years ago.

And you didn't offer to sell it to me? Bastard!

I (and probably several other people here) had the same thought.

If it makes anyone feel any better it still resides within the enthusiast community.

Why would that make me feel better? It's not in my man cave, dammit.

Which makes me think of this: (WARNING - innuendo ahead)

I think I might need this instead:

I really appreciate the photos Gonch but I'm finding that I really hate the art style. Is it going to look so simplistic in the final build? I mean it's basically just colored polygons. I really hope texture will be added. The trees are especially awful to look at.

I feel similarly about the graphic style. Reading the feature list and description for the game I want to like it, but seeing pictures just completely turns me off to the game. The coaster models actually don't look that bad, but the flat rides take a step down, and then everything else just is not an appealing style for me at all. Obviously a personal preference, but for something I would hope and expect to spend a lot of time playing, it's a major part of the decision.

EDIT: I may still give this game a shot, and I don't mean to knock on the developers over a style choice. I've been able to look past graphics before if the gameplay is that compelling, so I'm hoping that's the case with this game.

Interesting. I find it comparable to RCT2. Different, but comparable.

Somehow this style (and I always felt this with RCT2 as well) feels more like playing with a model to me. Kind of like a game about model train sets as opposed to a game about running trains, for example.

When I mess with this style (and I think this is why I enjoyed RCT3 and No Limits so little in comparison) it doesn't feel so 'real' and that's some of the appeal. It's a like a model come to life. Like seeing the imagination play out.

Update 57

Continuing to move forward. Pretty excited to see a new build soon, it'll give some incentive to keep playing around.

Like the additions in 1.2 and seeing less weirdness. But I ran into a weird issue with the Suspended Monorail. I had built a small monorail and was running it. Decided I didn't like it and hit delete without shutting it down. The track, stations and stuff disappeared, but the car just stayed there. I supposed it might be a neat piece of scenery, but...

Also, does the monrail have to be a complete loop? I'm assuming it does as my attempts at messing around seemed to verify this. A mode where you build two stations at either end and the monorail travels back and forth between the two transporting guests would be pretty nice to have.

Still having the issue with workers not doing anything. Here you can see the game has been waiting for an available worker for over 10 minutes. If I go to the worker tab I have a dozen workers just wandering around.

Digital Millennials. Just kidding.

Ha! Right? Maybe it's not a bug, it's a feature.

The realism in this game is in-sane!

Lord Gonchar said:

Still having the issue with workers not doing anything.

Yeah, wasn't able to reproduce it so far unfortunately :(

Had your savegame running for half a day or so without having it happen, so it looks like it only happens if there's some specific user interaction. Added some automatic error reporting to this version though, maybe that'll give me the information I need. Saving & reloading should work as a workaround until then.

I like your screenshots a lot :) Makes me excited to see what'll be possible once there's more content.

Yeah, block sections need more work for sure.

Is it going to look so simplistic in the final build? I mean it's basically just colored polygons.

Yes, we're going mostly textureless. It's a bit of a forced choice: texturing is the most time-consuming task and with only one artist we just couldn't get enough content done if we had to texture it all. I don't think it's necessarily a problem though. There are some really beautiful textureless games, especially in the last couple years.
So I don't think it'll change radically, but there's surely improvements to be made. E.g. compare it with the best screenshot we had about a year ago:

Cool. Thanks.

Maybe Gonch is a taskmaster and his workers are on strike?

Try raising their pay to $15 an hour.