The Beta Update is Here (unofficially)

It is a beta version - be sure to read the little pop-up when you go to install.

Snag it here.

My question is still this......Does It Work.....is everything updated as they have stated? I have downloaded but I will not load uuntil I know it works!!

Well I installed the patch and tried a couple quick things. For one, I put two rides whose quese started off the same main path square and both got a line. Also I made a floorless coaster and was able to set it to powered launch. I was able to make the launch up to 44 miles/hour as oppossed to what they had before. (not enough from a gameplay standpoint, but its the realistic limit so i will give them that one.)

Plus i was able to make the floorless 10 cars longs. That all helps. Forgot to look for the peep thought window while i was in there though.

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Magic Man 33 said:

Forgot to look for the peep thought window while i was in there though.

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It's there at the bottom of the Park Management buttons. The tool tip says GUESTS.

Has anyone tested the ceiling limit? the chris wardley thing? the stratacoasters? just some of the basics.... :)

Sorry Gonch for the repeat!

Found the following problems...

* Guest says they won't pay "that much" for a ride, but the thought doesn't appear in the ride's thought window.
* VIP and guests loiter about the gate after "going home" but never leave. I let it run and eventually had hundreds going in circles outside of the gate. When they exit the park, all AI should be turned off and they should go to the insertion point to leave permanently.
* Build a LIM coaster in the back of Broom Lake, no one will ever ride it, regardless of stats, a free price, free maps at the gate. Peeps just won't go back there and hang out in the entrance plaza.
* Brakes on most rides are too weak. On the stratcoaster, for example, the real Top Thrill Dragster, prior to having some brakes removed in testing, could stop a train from 120 mph to a crawl in about 150 feet. No such luck in the game.
* An actual number for the speed in the graph window would be infinitely more useful than the graph.

Make sure to put in a bug report for any issues you find. It apppears that Frontier is working to make things right, and this patch goes a long way toward that goal. Even though their attitude may sometimes stink with comments like "you're just playing the game wrong" , they seem to really want to fix this thing.

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needless quotation removed. -J

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Dude, report your problems to the email listed in the readme. This is an OPEN BETA for testing purposes. *** Edited 11/4/2004 6:10:50 PM UTC by Jeff***

Shouldn't that be E-mail instead of email?

Dude, I did!

That's strike two...

The game is released Peep. Why should 'we', the customers, have to test their game? If this scenerio was going down months ago, we would all be tickled pink.

I agree, Neuski. when i buy a game, i expect it to work...

I gave in last night, FS, and bought the game. I didn't even waste my time without Patch #1.

May the force be w/you, Neuski!

Just sent this email to Frontier:

The following issues were encountered in RCT3, with the beta patch installed.

- Cheat codes (such as 'Frontier' for rides that never break down, and 'Andrew Thomas' to reduce ride friction) are rendered useless after a saved game is closed then reopened. The game should allow for these cheats to be applied permanently until the special names are removed.

- When the dune buggy cheat is applied, it is impossible to use the keyboard to adjust the view, as keyboard control has been set to control the buggy. Removing the 'James Hunt' name from the peep does not remove the vehicle or reset the controls.

- When exiting a game without saving, the game tried to exit completely instead of taking me back to the main menu. In addition, the game hung while returning to the Windows desktop, which could only be fixed by manually closing the game through the task manager. When saving a game then exiting, no problems were experienced.

- The friction on the game is ridiculously high. After passing through a chain acting as a booster section, the ride vehicle for the Inverting Mouse (Screaming Squirrel) stopped before making it to the next chain segment, which was only 3 straight track pieces away. Using the 'Andrew Thomas' cheat fixed this, but users should not have to use hidden cheats in order to make their coasters operate naturally.

Thanks,
[insert name here]

Ironic that the friction values are so high when the brake friction is uselessly low.

very true Jeff, I got the game, gave it a test, noticed some odd things, such as the brakes, I'm pretty sure its the block brakes malfunctioning, and the peeps don't seem to be happy with my firework show.

Not sure if I'm not noticing it or doing it differently, but I'm ok with the brakes in general now.

Regular brakes seem to work. Perhaps try a longer run? It seems to be less useful the harder you try to stop a train. Start your run with a brake just a hair slower than the train is moving, make the next brake two clicks slower (usually around 5mph) and continue down like that until you reach the speed you're trying to slow the train to. If it's a block run, make the block the same speed as the last regular brake.

I've been getting satisfacotry results with that approach in most situations.

As far as other little messed up things, anyone notice that on certain coaster types, your height can go out of alignment if you use different pullouts?

For example, on the flying coaster, you can do the flat directly to steep piece and get the flowing pullout or hilltop (parabolic hills) or you can do the old school "flat, slant, steep" pullout/hills. This used to be a good trick to get the same general look but different intenisties and heights. Now if you use the two different types, but in odd numbers (for example, 3 flat to steep and 1 flat,slant,steep) - sometimes the height gets thrown off by a fraction. I just did a flyer and stated the station at something like 23.47 feet up, but when I go back around to connect it I was at 23.41 feet - it won't connect like that!

I haven't diddled with all the details, but I also suspect the different overbanks used in conjunction can cause this too.

Still lots of little things, but the patch was a huge step in the right direction. At least it moved the game into the playable range.

For the most part, I'm okay with breaks now too, with the exception of the Rocket Coaster. But to me, the Rocket, like the TA2K has so many things left out, that I won't be using either unless they actually add more than horizontal, vertical, turn, tracks. Sure, the Strata has a few more pieces than that, but its still pretty usless, unless all you want is a TTD recreation.

I'd like parabollic hills on Strata, and overbanks, regular hills, etc on both, then I could actually use them in a game...