Great/Poor layouts

[Kebab]

Not sure if this has been discussed here before.

What coasters do you think have the best or most effective layouts, and which ones do you think have the worst or dullest layouts?

I'll start off with two familiar examples.

Great - Nemesis = Unique layout, ferocious pacing, unpredictable, vertical loop as the 3rd inversion.
Poor - RITA = Dull, short, rushed, uneventful, just a collection of banked turns.

 

[TTDfan52]

Great: Maverick- Lots of twists and turns with good senery.

Poor: Superman: Ultimate Flight- There's nothing thrilling about it besides the pretzel loop.

The Beast also has a good layout.

 

[marc]

Great layout = Nemesis. Its already been covered.

Bad layout = Shockwave Drayton Manor. It simply does nothing at all.

 

[Snoo]

Best: I really enjoyed Afterburn at Carowinds.
Worst: Manhattan Express.. no flow.. fun.. or anything worthwhile from that ride.

There really are a lot for both category but those were the first that came to mind for both.

 

[Rush]

Cheetah Hunt has a really good layout which is let down by the fact it doesn't go fast enough around it. I really liked the canyon section though I felt it would have been more snappy and wild if it had gone a little faster.

Ghostrider at Knott's has a pretty decent layout as well which is ruined by its roughness.

Mountain Flyer's looks pretty epic as well.


As for poor layouts, I've never been a fan of B&M Megas, whilst they may provide a decent ride, a lot of them mostly consist of airtime hills. I'd say the same with some woodies as well such as Colossos at Heide Park, it may be a fantastic ride but the layout looks bland and predictable. I like it when you unexpectedly get a pop of airtime instead of knowing you're going to get some at the top of each hill.

I don't like layouts which have long stretches of doing nothing either. I'm looking at you Shockwave and that hideous looking Superman with the concrete pillars.

Also I don't like good layouts which then end craply and up meandering pointlessly as they need to find a way back to the station. [strike]Dueling Dragons[/strike] eurgh, Dragon Challenge and Great Bear are the first I can think of which fall under that category.

 

[tomahawk]

Great: Prowler, Voyage, Tatsu, Beast
Poor: Apocalypse, Mamba, Gemini

 

[Colossus]

Great Layouts - Nemesis - aldready mentioned
- Odyssey - Its a mish mash of mental going in all directions

Poor Layouts - Millennium (FI) - quite a bland layout not much after the 2nd loop
- Th13teen - the area from the lft hill to the drop is dull

 

[unlimitedcoaster]

Great: Nemesis, Hydra, Maverick, Afterburn, Flight Deck.
Bad: Great Bear, Superman: Ultimate Flight.

 

[mouse]

Great: Millenium Force, the new Asterix invert (so far), The Ultimate.
Poor: Rita (needs an airtime hill).

 

[dropthefloor93]

Great: Mean Streak (**** ride) Maverick, Magnum, BOSS, and my favorite, Dragon Mountain.

Worst: Millenium Force... wtf its just a huge drop and then some big turns... big deal...

 

[Kebab]

What do you guys think of Colossus' layout (Thorpe Park)?

I honestly think it has such a promising first half (for what it is), then it loses everything when it hits the heartline section. It always seems to me that Intamin gave up on the layout and filled the last half with continuous heartline rolls to score a cheap 'most inversions on a rollercoaster' record.

While it works fairly well (gets repetetive after a couple of rides), it's generally to fill in the last stretch of the layout.

So what do you think of the whole gimmick, does it work? And also what do you think about gimmicky layouts in general? (Oblivion, RingRacer, Irn-Bru Revolution)

 

[furie]

If you look at Dragon Khan, which is only 2 inversions short of Colossus, then you realise how poor it is. I'm with you in that I enjoy the first half of the ride (well, to a degree :lol: ). However, B&M could have easily snook in two more barrel rolls on Khan, taken the title and sold their souls. You'd come off the ride thinking "that's was brilliant until the end which ruined it - just to get the title" - which is Colossus only you only talk about half the ride.

For "gimmick" layouts, I'm happy if the ride does the job it's meant to. I'm a real fan of both Oblivion and Revolution. They both provide a short, sharp, fun thrill. They don't promise anything else and deliver exactly what you'd expect. I don't mind it in context, as long as the bit you get is good fun while it lasts.

 

[Nic]

Poor: Nemesis Inferno. The vertical loop should be later on (as with Nemesis) to break it up as bit. As it is, the Zero G/Corkscrews are too samey all one after the other.

 

[tks]

Bad: Black Mamba. Finishing an invert with a bunch of corners... </3

 

[spicy]

The worst layout I have seen in a long time is the new spinner at Rainbow Magicland. Just what on earth were they thinking?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmxiPpsrNeg[/youtube]

If anyone that has ridden it enlighten me on what it does in that building as I am assuming something must happen to make up for the poor layout?

Best- Dragon Khans layout is brilliant, the best B&M sitdown layout. Nemesis as has been mentioned and the best Invert layout in such a tight space. BTMR at Paris has a really good layout aswell in my opinion.

 

[Martyn B]

Shockwave, Rita and Stealth all have uninspired layouts, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad coasters.

 

[caffeine_demon]

Great: that area in grona lund with the 3 intertwining coasters - twister, jetline and vilda musen..

bad: Oblivion, not that that makes it a bad ride!

 

[andrus]

Best
Goliath (Walibi): A really great way of executing a mega coaster! A lot of surprices (like the stengel dive and final s-turn), lot's of airtime, low to the ground high speed turns and an overall very varied layout. Yes it could've been taller, but for what it is it's an extremely well thought-out layout!
Black Mamba: I don't agree with you who say it has a dull layout. It's a coaster with an extremely small footprint, that barely goes above ground, and still manages to be very thrilling (my current #2)! The final helixes are really awesome too and I definitely think more inverts should end in such a forceful way!
Dragon Khan: The best of the B&M looping layouts imo! The brake run goes under the cobra roll, the zero-g goes inside the loop and the layout is overall really compact and makes for an disorientateing ride!

Worst
Colossus (Thorpe): Way too repetitive! They could've done a much better job with this ride..
Furius Baco: Just a lot of turns and a singel inversion. Intamin relied solely on the rides launch and speed instead of making an interesting layout with some airtime and a couple of more inversions.
Balder: Repetetive is a keyword yet again. If it would've had the speed and powerful airtime of Colossos it would've been great. But as it is now it's just weak airtime hill, forcless turn, weak airtime hill forceless turn, weak airtime hill, forceless turn..

 

[FaceYourNemesis]

Great: Nemesis at Alton Towers.

Bad: Shockwave at Drayton Manor. OK, so it does feature four good inversions, but what on earth is with that straight section of track? :shock:

 

[Kebab]

bad: Oblivion, not that that makes it a bad ride!

I wouldn't say it's a bad layout, it does what it does and executes it great. It's just rollercoasters with pointless and unnecesary sections that really suck. Like what FaceYourNemesis said about Shockwave, they could've used that straight piece of track for something more interesting.