Child Coasters

[MrHappy]

Is it me or are the coasters for kids in this game a bit broken?

I mean...

The trains are pretty much as long as they might be on a wooden coaster. So you do need a lift hill that is 20m to 30m tall and for a kids coaster this never happens, the thing is, if you make it any shorter you simply do not have enough speed (even slow speed for kids) to make more than a 10 second ride. Really tricky. In order to make a ride that is say 30 seconds long your lift hill needs to be massive and on kids coasters the lift hill angle doesn't go up very high so this also leaves a huge footprint for the coaster because to get the height your lift hill is really 'long', sometimes bigger than a grown ups coaster.

So prey tell............. How do you build a realistic childrens coaster when the game physics seems to make them require the same heights and speeds as grown-up coasters?

[KickAir8P]

I'm not much of a coaster builder, so hopefully those with more experience will weigh in -- and this is for playing on Windows, I don't know about Mac or console. I believe what you're referring to is the Wendigo, Dragon, and (for those with the Ghostbusters DLC) RollerGhoster -- those are the Junior coasters, but there are others that children will ride, please say if there are others you're considering.

Starting with initially-allowed techniques: some coaster cars are interchangeable, if you want a Dragon with loading gates on the station, or a Wendigo without them, use the coaster with the station style you want and swap the cars. In the coaster's Edit Track mode, Utility Settings (three bulleted line "hamburger" symbol) the lift hill has a Wheel Lift speed, you can set it to the maximum of 8 -- the Station has an Entry and Exit speed max 22, but to reduce wear'n'tear they should be set the train's speed on entry-exit (if your lift hill is set to 8 and it starts directly out of the station, then the station's Exit speed should be set to 8.

Also, the lift-hill will turn up to 90°, a spiraling lift hill appears shorter.

Getting into general Settings (upper right Gear symbol > Settings button), in the Game tab > Coaster Friction Controls checkbox, checkmark it, and you'll be able to make your coaster faster by reducing friction (which reduces needed lift-hill height, but can cause other issues, like increased Fear and shortened ride-time). Unchecking Disable Coaster Collision (and all the other Collision boxes) will allow for more versatility in track placement, although for realism you might want to use scenery pieces to check clearance, after unchecking those the game will no longer do it for you. At the bottom is Disable Track Limits, checkmark that -- although you won't be able to able to get your lift hill greater than 30°, it allows other track pieces greater range, such as steeper drops.

If any of these settings aren't accessible (some Career and Challenge parks restrict them) then build your coaster in the Scenario Editor and save to your Blueprints, if the coaster itself is allowed in your park and you have the money then it'll place from your Blueprints even if built more extreme than that park's settings will allow.

[MrHappy]

Howdy, yes it was specifically those junior coasters rather than making a very tame grown up coaster that kids will like.

I had also completely forgotten that you can spiral the lift hill. That is very useful of course.

I had also heard something previously that swapping the trains around to a different type really does have a different effect so I will have to give that a try.

Prefer to leave the friction settings alone as much as possible as it does tend to lead to a more realistic ride. Might experiment with it though. Good idea.

You mentioned not being much of a coaster builder. I would definitely donate some for your parks since I tend to get too impatient on big projects so they rarely get finished.

Thanks KickAir, great ideas!

[Tymere1979]

You can adjust the length of the trains

[A Fat, Angry Serval]

Originally posted by 76561198966901580:

Prefer to leave the friction settings alone as much as possible as it does tend to lead to a more realistic ride.

I've actually found that this heavily depends on the ride. I've built replicas of real life coasters that had to be run at .9 or even .8 friction to run at IRL speeds when built exactly to IRL specifications.

[KickAir8P]

Originally posted by VestedGamr:

Originally posted by 76561198966901580:

Prefer to leave the friction settings alone as much as possible as it does tend to lead to a more realistic ride.

I've actually found that this heavily depends on the ride. I've built replicas of real life coasters that had to be run at .9 or even .8 friction to run at IRL speeds when built exactly to IRL specifications.

In RCT3P they called it something like "high-tech lubricant", which is a real thing. It's not that the Planco coaster default's more realistic than any of the later "features" (read "fixes") -- those later improvements didn't just make playing easier, they often improved ride realism.

[DasaKamov]

Originally posted by VestedGamr:

when built exactly to IRL specifications.

Note that this is video game was never intended to be an ultra-realistic "Roller Coaster Construction Sim", and that it is flat-out impossible to built anything in this game to "exact RL specifications". The best we will ever be able to come up with is somewhat similar-looking approximations or real-world rides.

That doesn't make the game any less fun, fortuntely. ;)

[A Fat, Angry Serval]

Originally posted by DasaKamov:

Originally posted by VestedGamr:

when built exactly to IRL specifications.

Note that this is video game was never intended to be an ultra-realistic "Roller Coaster Construction Sim", and that it is flat-out impossible to built anything in this game to "exact RL specifications". The best we will ever be able to come up with is somewhat similar-looking approximations or real-world rides.

That doesn't make the game any less fun, fortuntely. ;)

By real world specs, I simply mean as close to the exact track length, lift and drop angles, and heights of each hill as possible, and with accurate trim positions and settings. Obviously you can't specify everything perfectly.

But the inaccuracies are to the point where a recreation of Hurler at Carowinds built to those specs can't clear the uphill banked turn under the predrop turnaround without dropping to 0.9 friction or adding at least 10 feet to the lift hill and drop. It's not a problem with the game, it's just a limitation.

The game also handles excitement in a somewhat unrealistic manner. Despite being one of the most beloved wooden coasters ever built IRL, my accurate El Toro replica has mediocre stats simply because of the long pre-drop section and brake run. Having realistic "utility" elements on a ride gets unfairly punished. This is a bit more of a problem but I'd still put it in the "limitation" category.

[MrHappy]

^ Yeah that's sort of what I meant as well. The heights and lengths requirements do seem to be the same as with adult coasters.