The Great Resurrection

[Colossus]

Okay so if you read my Showcase page you will see I have encountered another terminal issue that has killed another 2 coasters, so I got in a hump and nearly pulled out the disk and snapped it.
But I didn't, and today whilst I was at work I have been thinking about what I should do about this?
I thought about just giving up with it all and not playing it for a while, alternatively I do have a PoV of the woodie and Intamin, so I could just upload them, so as to give you at least something, but that's not how I do things, I have promised coasters, and coasters you will get.

So after calming down a bit whilst at work, I have been brainstorming and I have a plan.

We're going to go for something stupidly ambitious,

We're going to tie multiple missions together in one huge showcase,

The mission is to resurrect 5 coasters that have been completed and lost in the recent months, we will be recreating the woodie and Intamin lost in the park yesterday.

Completing the coaster for reddudes competition

Saving the Sultan project

Redoing Valkyrie (more on that later)

And another project I have been thinking about for a while, everybody is always moaning about how long coasters take to create, well, on the flip side how quickly can one be done? More to the point how quickly can 5 be done? I aim to get these 5 coasters up in record time, not only to try and get back the +100 hours lost as quickly as possible, but to just see how quickly you can mash up a ride?

What makes this achievable is that 4 of the 5 have their layouts saved and two of them have their support work saved, plus the use of other custom saved buildings and objects make this doable.
I'm giving myself one month from canvas to YouTube, so if I can get 5 done in that time then nobody can ever say "they don't have the time" again

So here's the five rides we will be resurrecting,

These two where pulled out from the first park that died so I could get them showcased, well they would appear to be dead again, perhaps I should rename these two "The Curse" and "Voodoo" or something.

We all know about this one and what happened to it, I have always wanted to do something like this, were I build the same coaster in a different park with a new theme and surrounding area, so that is what will be happening here.

This one is actually my own fault, I simply overwrite the save file whilst saving another (facepalm) I also don't have the layout save for this one, it will be a little different, but to be fair that's not necessarily a bad thing. But the changes will be minor, the coaster will be based the same.

The final one is the competition one which we wont go to much into at this time.

These rides may have less theming and my look slightly generic feel to them once done,they may also end up withing close distance to one another we will see?

So yeah that's the plan, I'm not going to mug everybody (including myself) off by letting this beat me.

Every update will have an hour of time connecting to it,

Right I think that's about it, time to get working.

 

[Colossus]

Update 1 - 6 Hours of Work

So after the first six hours we have completing an astounding amount of work, we have completed 2 coasters!!

Both the woodie and the Intamin have been completed for the 3rd and final time.

Because we have made these two 3 times now, its easy to get these constructed as you know what you want from them, both layouts where saved and the woodie had it's support work saved as a custom structure, so as far as that goes we have only had to do that for the Intamin, this took about an hour.

We have used some custom structures for the stations and we have layed down a couple of quick flats.

Some custom work on the woodie has been completed and all foliage has been done, incredibly these rides are pretty much both completed and ready to record, not that we will be doing this just yet, I have placed down the track for reddudes competition, but obviously you wont be seeing that

So I should get some time on the game tomorrow night, so I will probably do some work on the secret ride and perhaps get the Sultans Layout put down?

So for 6 hours of work we have completed a stupid amount, hopefully we can keep pace, the Sultan can be completed in probably about 2 hours as we have layout and supports saved and ready to go.

It's the other two that will take time, but for now I;m very very happy indeed, takes a bit of the sour taste from yesterday away anyway, you will pleased to know I have created a backup file of this park

Here's some piccy's

 

[reddude333]

Very happy to hear about the backup file. The redos are looking great and I am especially looking forward to the Intamin...or maybe the woodie (it could be an Intamin woodie from the looks of it). Anyway, both are exciting and I am so glad that you have bounced back so virulently. I am (selfishly) anxiously awaiting your contest entry...probably should set a due date for that? Anyway, best of luck to you!

And don't forget...save early, and save often!

 

[scw55]

I have some tips which may or may not be helpful:

1) Obtaining a digital copy of the game (say from Steam) will prevent any long-term damage by rage-destruction of the disc. You may regret destroying the disc. So, with a digital copy bought for eternity (or in till you forget your steam account details), you can being in a mood for rage destruction without regret.

2) I can empathise how s****y it feels when your work is lost. And it makes you feel like ****.
But, anything you learnt during the creation is not lost. Progression-wise with regards to your abilities with Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 has not be lost. Only the physical object. In a way it's a comfort that Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 projects don't earn an income. Otherwise losing saved files would be even more devastating.

I find the Phoenix analogy is suitable for RCT3 file corruption. If you start again, you'll create something greater. I'm glad you had the strength to keep going after falling into your ditch. If you feel 'like you can't be bothered with the game' even after starting again, it's probably because you've played too intensely recently, and you need time away to 'detox' or time to seek inspiration.

I've always liked your unique "showcase" elements. Your (and The Swarmler) Wingrider fly-over was my inspiration for mine on Skylark.

 

[Coaster Hipster]

Illustration of Derek's advice :

First of all, I admire you for keeping up with your projects. I know you work really hard on your creations so it was really a pain to learn that your game had crashed. Starting again is brave and I needed to point this out. (Or maybe it's simply because RCT3 is too addictive haha)

Now to the coasters. Your Intamin's layout looks excellent and is indeed brilliantly supported. I can see many different elements (Overbanked turns, camelbacks, spirals) and they blend in an exciting and balanced order. Plus as I said before, the colours are great, they match the forest theme and the coaster's silhouette is quite harmonious.

The wooden looks impressive and displays realistic supports. I'm not too fond of its dark colour but it could suit very well an horror theme !


The following paragraphs are going to be rude but I'll try to be as constructive as I can. I hope you'll forgive me !

Your paths seem a bit too rectangular to me. Also, even though Planters v2 by shyguy is great, I would welcome a bit more variation in fences and path walls. Moby has released two very useful sets I recommend you : X-Railings and Curved Walls and Floors. Download Link

X-Railings

Curved Walls and Floors


I also suggest using in-game terrain textures for your paths. Here's a great example of using light rock ground texture for paths :

Source : Monte Vista - andreizsmart

I love how the paths looks so free-flowing, natural. Large curves and some diagonal contribute to this feel. Another cool pathwork :

Source : Adventure Starz - NGT

Very complicated to imitate indeed but it shows some ideas. Walking around in this park is never going to be dull ! Final example :

Source : Hazen Family Amusements - Tomes

Not in-game terrain textures this time, but Tomes utilises a very effective technique : using a "central" path and a pavement of a different texture, separated by a mini-wall. I think you already know this, but I show it anyway since it has a cool path layout without curves.


A final word about terraforming now. I can see you worked a bit here, with some good terrain texturing (rough grass, mud) and hills. Both coasters interact well with the mountain. However some hills are just too rough for me. Try using the "smooth" tool (not too much to leave some rock-like surface) for creating some cool slopes which will wonderfully enhance your forest's might. For bigger mountains, I suggest using a mix of snow+rock (1) and rock (2) textures :

Source : Terra It! Tutorial - matt9537
A very detailed terraforming. Rough grass surround the mountain's sharp slopes and many drops of different textures everywhere. You can find more terraforming tips here : Matt9537's website.

Smooth, small slopes have a tremendous impact on a landscape's beauty. For instance, mr.Sion blends greatly mud, sand and grass textures for a perfect natural ground look :

Sources : The Uninvited - mr.Sion and Picea - Silvarret

Hope this helps ! I think your park has a great potential as with all your creations, so keep it up


EDIT : Oh and for the trees, have a look at StationJimJr's Gardening and all of n7 sets ! They have low poly and thus cause less slowdown to your PC !
http://www.customscenerydepot.com/index ... ;down=1705 (StationJimJr)
http://www.shyguysworld.com/index.php?topic=8083.20 (n7)

 

[Colossus]

Very happy to hear about the backup file. The redos are looking great and I am especially looking forward to the Intamin...or maybe the woodie (it could be an Intamin woodie from the looks of it). Anyway, both are exciting and I am so glad that you have bounced back so virulently. I am (selfishly) anxiously awaiting your contest entry...probably should set a due date for that? Anyway, best of luck to you!

And don't forget...save early, and save often!

Haha Cheers man, I weren't as if I weren't saving, I always save regularly but what can you do when the game decides to crash mid save? haha.


:arrow:

I have some tips which may or may not be helpful:

1) Obtaining a digital copy of the game (say from Steam) will prevent any long-term damage by rage-destruction of the disc. You may regret destroying the disc. So, with a digital copy bought for eternity (or in till you forget your steam account details), you can being in a mood for rage destruction without regret.

2) I can empathise how s****y it feels when your work is lost. And it makes you feel like ****.
But, anything you learnt during the creation is not lost. Progression-wise with regards to your abilities with Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 has not be lost. Only the physical object. In a way it's a comfort that Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 projects don't earn an income. Otherwise losing saved files would be even more devastating.

I find the Phoenix analogy is suitable for RCT3 file corruption. If you start again, you'll create something greater. I'm glad you had the strength to keep going after falling into your ditch. If you feel 'like you can't be bothered with the game' even after starting again, it's probably because you've played too intensely recently, and you need time away to 'detox' or time to seek inspiration.

I've always liked your unique "showcase" elements. Your (and The Swarmler) Wingrider fly-over was my inspiration for mine on Skylark.

I love Steam, I use it for all my TS2013 bits and bobs, no need to get RCT 3 though as I didn't break the disk, I just thought about it haha.
Yeah I know exactly what you mean, a game save is a game save, it can be lost, but the skills required are never lost, re-do's can be achieved with ease as long as you stick to your game plan and use your skills that you will never leave you, whilst as you say, making small tweaks to improve.

I also know what you mean about intense play, I will admit whilst doing the first few coasters here I have definitely been "playing angry" for me personally this does work with type of project, because creativity and inspiration are minimally required, because all I'm really doing is re creating something from previous inspiration. Playing angry has done me well, it makes me really focus on what I need to do to get back to where I was if that makes sense? Once the first couple are out the way I will start slowing down and using a bit more creativity, once I'm satisfied I'm in a place place.
Glad to have given you some inspiration

Illustration of Derek's advice :

First of all, I admire you for keeping up with your projects. I know you work really hard on your creations so it was really a pain to learn that your game had crashed. Starting again is brave and I needed to point this out. (Or maybe it's simply because RCT3 is too addictive haha)

Hey porte, good to hear from you as always, firstly let me say, you know I take no offence, constructive criticism from somebody how knows what they're talking about is always more than welcome.

I have to mention one really crucial aspect about this whole project and park it is in.

This is not about having everything absolutely perfect, this whole project is about getting the rides pumped out as quickly as possible, of course I will not be sacrificing my normal attention to detail, I will still be producing high quality presentations that are definitely "Colossus Coasters", but the speed aspect in mind, this is not really the time to be trying out new sets and styles.

But, half the problem is time wise I have is searching for new sets, I can spend hours and hours looking through websites looking for sets and not finding anything specific, for a project like this, that is time I can be working.
That said, now that is not a problem because you have delivered some cool sets there, like Santa Claus, I have downloaded the Mobys Rails, (may I just say, where are the walls? The rails are in my buildings section, but I cant locate their matching walls?)

And the trees, THANK YOU!! I have been looking for new trees for a ridiculous amount of time, I have the n7 jungle set, I got that the other day haha. But the other set will be more than useful also, so thanks for that again.

As for using terrain as paths that is again something I have planned to do for the Sultan re fit, purposely to save time and to look more natural and different, plus I like how you can bend the terrain more naturally with gradient change and corners, so yeah don't worry I have planned that for a while, The only problem I have with this style of paving is this

Do you know of any sets or ways of eradicating this issue, because this problem is causing my burn time as setting it up to have the terrain as path is taking way too much time and it looks crap? If there's not a quick fix I will have to resort to using paths, thanks if you or anybody else know of any magic to conquer this burden.

As for the hills, you know I know all about my texturing and smoothness of my hills, the terraforming you can see there took literally 1 minute to do the lot, I always do a rough terraform first then a final more detailed effort at the end. So what you're seeing on that front is not the finished article.

You will notice this a lot in this thread, because not every picture will be a stunning finished art piece, some of them will be incomplete and quite raw, they may appear as a mess in the pictures, but all rides go through a rigorous realism test of my eagle eye before they're recorded and presented fully.

In conclusion, I thank you for these new valuable sets (especially the trees) I will try and mix it up where possible, because even I get bored of doing the same paths and using the same trees, but this is all about pace, so in future projects expect to see some really new things

Oh and wear are the X-Rail walls and can you help with my path issues?

Small Update - 10 hours of work total

So that story I said yesterday about the Sultan only taking 2 hours, well that was a lot of bull I have been working on it for 4 hours and I have the layout and supports down, some path work done and a bit of terraforming, what has gobbled up all of the time is the tedious job of recoloring all the supports, boring, but done at least.
There are no pictures as I will keep it hidden until its complete and I can sort out this issue with the paths. But I can ensure you, she looks stunning in her new colour scheme.

This will probably be the conclusion of work for the week now, I have a busy weekend ahead, so probably wont be able to get on the game until Monday night, although I have Tuesday off work, so I plan to smash it that day and at least get the third ride done.

So for the weekend I shall probably have a little detox, maybe just touch up a few things on the first 2 and get the povs done, we will see?

Expect the next update Tuesday night.

 

[Coaster Hipster]

I believe your Moby CSO happened to me before. Both Moby's Curved Walls AND X-Railings are to be found in the "Walls" folder. Have you tried downloading again and/or trying another link ?

For the terrain textures issue, it is either caused by : pathcovers and/or slightly disjoint terrain. If it is the latter cast, try flattening the ground/making it homogenous (circled in blue) :

(Credits : Matt9537, as usual)

 

[Colossus]

Thanks for that porte, I will give these ideas go when I get a chance, for now I have changed the paving to normal paving, it is at least less New York

Update - 17 hours of work

Production has slowed up slightly now that the first two are complete, this is due to the need more creativity with the next two, but we're still moving at real nice pace.

So we have actually completed the coaster for Derek's competition, this is where most of my time has gone, and you will understand this when you see it, I have also done 80% of the recording for this one, so its very nearly done with. Unfortunately, there will be no pictures at this time for obvious reasons, the due date fir the competition is one months time, so I plan to have this whole project finished by then, so this ride will remain under wraps until then and released with the rest. I believe it's well worth waiting for though.

As for The Sultan, he is no more, the resurrection of the ride is going well, so well in fact that we're dropping the previous name and given her a new one, Kaato, we have re-themed it to a tiger and giving it a jungle setting, she looks very nice actually, I think it's looking better than it's original setting?
Any construction on that is about 80% complete, all we need to do is to continue finishing the surrounding area so s to get decent shots for the recording, and just generally check everything and and make final adjustments, polishing up ready for recording.

Once this is done, which will hopefully be in the next couple of days, then we will start the irritating job of recording 4 coasters back to back, well 3 really as one is almost done, the reason we're doing this is because at the moment we have almost 4 coasters with their surrounding areas complete, and the game is running and recording perfectly, so it makes sense to get the footage recorded before the construction of Valkyrie, just in case we encounter any issues, we wont lose all our work.

More to come soon.

 

[scw55]

Kaato looks very industrial for its setting of "a tiger in a jungle".

I think the vertical supports on the lift-hill is, well, too vertical. I think an angled vertical support will soften the sharp angles of the lifthill's support frames.

It feels like the foliage isn't dense enough as well.

Otherwise lookin' great.

 

[Colossus]

Kaato looks very industrial for its setting of "a tiger in a jungle".

I think the vertical supports on the lift-hill is, well, too vertical. I think an angled vertical support will soften the sharp angles of the lifthill's support frames.

Unfortunately I can't do that, and I have 3 reasons on why,

1, I don't agree, it doesn't look industrial at all, given it is a bit odd looking, but that's part of it' s charm, to me industrial is cold colours like grays and whites, and concrete everywhere, this puppy has a wooden station, it's covered by trees and is bright orange, so there's no worry it will look industrial.

2 - The lifthill is at an 45 deree angle and therefore, the H12 angle piece as too angled, so it would be the other extreme of sticking out too much, if the lifthill was straight then the H12 piece would be perfect.

3 - This is the most important, the back story of this ride is that it was saved from a stricken park where it was known as the Sultan, the park fell into disrepair and hence the ride was broken down and re sold and re themed at Kaato, so the supports on this Must remain the same as the ones on The Sultan, for that story to be more accurate.

That being said you're correct with regards to the trees, we definitely need to get some trees lower to the ground to give a more dense jungle look.

 

[BBH]

Portemine, that meme was simply too good. Have to use it as my avatar.

Best of luck in your endeavors! It's a big project and I see you're making fantastic progress, which is great. I admire your persistence, and wish I had the same kind of dedication as you do.

 

[Colossus]

Just a small update, I finally finished touching up the first two rides and have recorded their PoV's, also I have planted a ton more trees around Kaato, now it looks much more forest like.

I have a very small amount of surrounding work to do then that too will be complete, I hope to record the PoV for this tomorrow, and on Tuesday I hope to get as much footage of the three rides as is humanly possible.

 

[Colossus]

Just another quick update, the woodie is finally finished with, she is filmed and uploaded

That's two officially 100% complete, hoping to get the other two that are finished recorded to morrow.

 

[Colossus]

Greetings, sorry there's been no updates lately but I have been away from my PC for a few weeks as we have been house sitting and I couldn't e arsed to take it as it's too much of a pain in the butt to move.

Anyway, we're back now and we have some good news and some bad news, the bad news is, Valkyrie will not be completed now before I go on holiday, being away for so long has ended all hope of completing that one as I have to start it all from scratch and I want to make a few small amendments to the original.
It will be done, and I will start it before I go to the US in 9 days, but there's no chance it will be finished by then.

However, the good news is very good news indeed, remember how we had a double release a few months back? well we're gong to double that double release,that's right we're having a quadruple unail,and 's og t happen, right now!!

So lets not mess about anymore, all 3 of the custom layouts are rides that were lost in the Winston Valley park, the first two were done again and lost again, so they are on there third time around, the other is the competition entry, and we have Saved the Sultan!

Coaster 1 - Viper

This is an over-sized Intamin Mega-Lite that packs a lot of punch into a reasonably small footprint, the ride twists and snakes around itself, giving it it's name, although there is not much of a theme, I don't think it really needs one.
The ride was originally blue with white supports in it's original form (it's view-able briefly in The Sultan's video)
It's second form was seen in my main topic in its current colour scheme, the ride was to have a mild dragon theme, but that was scrapped when the ride was layered out for the third time.

Ride Stats

Height - 93 ft
Speed - 50 mph
Inversions - 0
Ride Duration - 1:22
Capacity - 20 (10 rows of 2)
Trains - 3

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YaqxHWFZxs[/youtube]



Coaster 2 - Excalibur

This is a huge monkey off my back, I have finally made a woodie, it is something I have been wanting to do now for so long and I keep messing the layout up or I get frustrated with the support work, so when I made this back in the 1st park I was really happy, but I never got around to recording and it was lost, fortunately I had saved the layout and the support work, so I was happy to just lay it down again, only for that too to crash, I was thinking this ride must be cursed or something, so much so that I nearly named it Voodoo! Well I put it down again and repainted it black, although it's not perfect by any means, it is a great marker for me to work with in the future, and it proves to myself that I can do a wooden coaster. There simply are not words available to me right now to describe how happy I'am to release these too, they really have been a pain up the backside and it has taken a ton of patience and resiliency to finally get these done!

Ride Stats

Height - 122 ft
Speed - 57 mph
Inversions - 0
Ride Duration - 1:35
Capacity - 24 (12 rows of 2)
Trains - 2

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW0sPUwRSD4[/youtube]


Coaster 3 - Kaato (The Sultan)

So this is a project that I had originally planned to undertake for a few reasons, firstly I would obviously be quite a cool and quirky to simulate the demise of a park and the removal, relocation and re theme f a ride, little did I know I would end up having to do 4, sort of takes the novelty away a bit, but hay-ho.
Also I liked The Sultan, something told me it could be better, we could utilize the layout better.
I had planned to paint it red and white and just having it in a park area, but as it is, it's got Viper almost right in front f it and that's red, so I thought it would look cool if I painted it orange and black and themed it to a tiger in the forest, my girlfriend came up with the name (heavens knows were she came up with it ) So Sorry we couldn't do this with as much of a story as I would have liked too, but it just made sense to get this out of the way at the same time as the rest.

Ride Stats

Height - 91 ft
Speed -48 mph
Inversions - 5
Ride Duration - 1:33
Capacity - 32 (8 rows of 4)
Trains - 2



In Her Prime

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRI4J0afNo[/youtube]

Demise

These shots are pretty graphical and are quite sad to see, after all my work creating and recording, only to have to destroy it was a real shame, the picture above you can see Viper n it's first form and VelociRaptor in the distance

Excalibur in its first form.

Rebirth

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vSjKpADM18[/youtube]


Coaster 4 - Jurassic Park - The Ride

This is my entry for the competition hosted by reddude, the layout is not mine, the task is to theme the ride and it's surrounding area, which we have done quite heavily, I'm very happy with it, there's not much really to say about it, I will post more on this ride in the competition page.

Ride Stats

Height - 93 ft
Speed - 55 mph
Inversions - 5
Ride Duration - 1:29
Capacity - 24 (6 rows of 4)
Trains - 4

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cW2QxZV71U[/youtube]

So that concludes most of the resurrecting, I hope you guys like what we have here, before anybody starts nit-picking at them, I'm fully aware there may be one or two floors here, the idea was to get done quickly, so I can hope you guys will atleast appreciate what has been achieved here in an extremely short amount of time.

Like I said Valkyrie will be coming, but for now I think I'm going to go have a lay down haha.

 

[scw55]

I like the effect the trees have in Kaato. They help create a feeling of flight and suspension during 'twisting' elements such as corkscrews. Especially with the Cobra Roll.

 

[CoasterCrazy]

Wow!Wasn't anticipating a quadruple upload! Great job! :--D
Okay, so on with the coasters.

Viper - Is practically perfect as a generic Intamin. The layout is well paced, extremely twisted, airtime filled and strangely compact. Maybe you could've themed it more, but a ride of that caliber doesn't need any to be brilliant.

Excalibur - I don't know why you're complaining about your woodie-making skills as this ride was great! I wasn't a fan of the colour scheme initially, but it's grown on me and your pacing and utilisation of terrain was, as always excellent. A few issues though. If the train had less speed, not banking would be acceptable, but it doesn't quite look painless. I'm not sure about the poles on the lift either, but that's just me being picky. The drop might look a little better if it was slightly angled maybe?

Kaato - Just as good, if not better than the sultan ever was. Except from the sharp brake run, it is honestly a perfect invert layout and I'm a real fan of the relocation idea.

I'll refrain form posting about the entry until the conclusion of the comp.

What's next :--D
Can you post some Valkyrie pictures maybe?