Not my most wanted coaster by any means, but it's something. The previous devnotes promised a Mine Train coaster too, so there's that to look forward to as well. I've not loaded it up for ages, so I don't now if that's something they've added now? I want rules and structure, not a sandbox (though that's contrary to what I usually want). One that slowly teaches the game and design mechanics. What I'd probably like is a nice, gently enveloping campaign. I think it's because I spent too long on the first 3 RCT games and this doesn't do enough different to draw me in. So I find myself just arsing about with stuff, but never with any real kind of purpose.
#MOD PARKITECT FULL#
RCT3 was always my tool for that and this doesn't offer the RCT3ness I liked (I want full zoom and 3D, not isometric). I don't care if they operate or not, or what the game thinks the coaster intensity is - I just want to produce a pretty park.
![mod parkitect mod parkitect](https://i.redd.it/s82nmilftv311.png)
My problem is that I tend to want to build parks that look attractive. I kind of like it, but haven't had enough time to sit down with it. I got it ages ago just off the website, forgot I'd got it and then bought it again in a Steam sale Yeah, I accidentally bought this twice LOL Try it out, I think it's still fairly cheap! In time, I think this will be a very fine park game. The developers have said that they aim to tweak the coaster stats in the coming update, so I'm not worried despite the little rant above.
#MOD PARKITECT UPDATE#
The game is still in Alpha, with an update every month. I've seen guests pay to enter the park, buy a balloon and 4 soft drinks, then leave without riding anything. Why they even went there in the first place remains a mystery. Unless you hit an intensity sweet spot, guests are likely to ignore the coaster, and instead walk around the park complaining that it is boring (this means junior coasters are vastly underpowered - guests don't seem to have differing tastes). This problem is exacerbated in coasters, since their construction and maintenance costs are far higher than that of other rides, and intensity is harder to fine tune. Most of the attractions have never been filled up, and were actually losing money. Disregarding the Star Shape, there were 380 guests of which 90 were riding the 10 attractions, and 32 were in a queue. When the park had exactly 500 guests in it, I paused the game and did a quick count: Roughly 125 guests were on rides, and 120 were queueing. In my current park, two rides (out of 11) seem to account for 80 % of all ridership. Guests spend far too much time dicking around at random, and rarely seek out rides unless they have the right intensity (the excitement rating doesn't seem to draw guests at all).
![mod parkitect mod parkitect](https://i.imgur.com/YqJoe5k.jpg)
My first and biggest gripe with the game at this stage, is that the guest AI is still lacking. If you want a 50 meter corkscrew, you can build it with ease.
#MOD PARKITECT FREE#
It's based on track pieces like RCT, with the difference being that you're free to chose banking on every node, and the track pieces can be scaled up and down in size. Parkitect's coaster tool is very flexible. I haven't quite gotten the hang of building coasters yet, but looking back at my RCT2/3 creations, I've never really had it. Building a huge flat roof in RCT is a major pain in the rear. Just the fact that walls and objects don't reset their build height to ground level after you plonk one down makes a huge difference. It still lacks some parts to work well (I miss pillars on grid lines and more roof slopes in particular), but it's so much easier to build stuff than in RCT that the latter feels inflexible, slow and unwieldy by comparison. Speaking of buildings, the construction tool is really awesome and user-friendly. In RCT, I hardly bothered with buildings other than ride stations and restaurants, but in Parkitect I use them all the time to camouflage the back stage. This encourages the use of "back stage" areas with depots, staff break rooms and staff-only pathways, supporting a cluster of shops and stalls.
![mod parkitect mod parkitect](https://missionstart.nl/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/cydonia_hills-768x432.jpg)
You can't just plonk shops down willy-nilly, but you must use a depot and haulers to support them. This adds a completely new depth to your park planning. Unlike the RCT series, shops and stalls in Parkitect have to be restocked with supplies. Not quite RCT2 yet, but definitely getting there. It's still not complete, but you can see the vision of the developers, and it's possible to have a good game experience with what we've got so far. I'm going to draw a lot of parallels to RCT2 since the games have a lot of similarities, and because from the looks of things, most people in here are familiar with how RCT works. Sorry for double posting, but after half a year or so, I feel like it's safe to follow up my initial thoughts.