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What makes a favorite coaster for you?

For me, it's a mixture of experience and memory. Lightning Rod really has both of those down since I rode it during the legendary US Live night rides. Not only that though, I really do think it's a coaster that hits all the best marks of a coaster. It's a fantastic combination of insane and weird airtime moments (the wave turn, off angle hill, and quad down all feel so distinctly different) and great positive Gs as well as that environment and terrain. I love a coaster that uses terrain to its advantage, and that quad down is likely the best terrain moment (and just in general moment) on any coaster I've ridden. I could see Steel Vengeance possibly taking the top spot since I do have a love for long, airtime filled rides. However, I also just love how Lightning Rod wastes no time. You truly hit that brake run breathless, think WTF JUST HAPPENED. That feeling always makes a coaster more memorable for me. It's the same feeling I have with X2 and Skyrush, my other top contenders. My favorite coaster has to be something I personally love though, and, man, Lightning Rod is hard to beat.

#quaddownforlife
 
Really difficult question, I've been trying to choose 3 but that's really not happening, the only one I'm 100% sure on is airtime.
Everything else totally depends on the ride itself, but there's no real obvious choice, Taron has face melting acceleration and transitions, Skyrush and Toro have killer drops, others have amazing inversions, or perfect pacing, or surprise elements you always forget about, positive G's like the Nemesis Helix etc.

The comments around "WTF" at the brakes is the key thing really, most of my fave rides strike me dumb on the brake run, and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter how it did that, but if the collective experience has my tongue lolling out then it's got what I like.
 
DelPiero said:
The comments around "WTF" at the brakes is the key thing really, most of my fave rides strike me dumb on the brake run, and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter how it did that, but if the collective experience has my tongue lolling out then it's got what I like.
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The "WTF" moment is a very unique moment for me personally and I agree, the best of the best will leave you like that. My top 4 all did that for me (moreso speechless THEN WTF, but you know what I mean). The only coasters not in my Top 4 with that experience was Millennium Force and TTD, which both came in their respective opening seasons.
 
DelPiero said:
The comments around "WTF" at the brakes is the key thing really, most of my fave rides strike me dumb on the brake run, and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter how it did that, but if the collective experience has my tongue lolling out then it's got what I like.
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^this. All of my top 8 coasters are the ones that I just hit the brakes feeling a "wow" sensation and feeling like the ride was complete with nothing left missing. Sometimes the sensation is different, Skyrush it was the shock as to the insane intensity, Time Traveler it was just the all around fun and unique experience, and for Boulder Dash and Maverick it was the non-stop action and pure fun throughout the whole ride.
At the end of the day, even if a coaster doesn't have the criteria that I mentioned in my earlier comment, it really comes down to the feeling I experience on the brake run that becomes the main reasoning of my final ranking. The criteria I mentioned before however seem to be the elements that most contribute to the speechless feeling at the end of the ride.
 
Edward M said:
You truly hit that brake run breathless, think WTF JUST HAPPENED. That feeling always makes a coaster more memorable for me.
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DelPiero said:
The comments around "WTF" at the brakes is the key thing really, most of my fave rides strike me dumb on the brake run, and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter how it did that.
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Snoo said:
The "WTF" moment is a very unique moment for me personally and I agree, the best of the best will leave you like that. My top 4 all did that for me (moreso speechless THEN WTF, but you know what I mean).
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TMCoasters said:
^this. All of my top 8 coasters are the ones that I just hit the brakes feeling a wow sensation.
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And yet... AND YET!! When I apply this to Kingda Ka (or the big, green penis, as you call it) everyone slaps me down and calls me nasty names. :(
Y'all are mean.
 
You know what, people talking about gut reactions... if my laughter is best described as "screeching", the coaster's amazing!
 
Howie said:
And yet... AND YET!! When I apply this to Kingda Ka (or the big, green penis, as you call it) everyone slaps me down and calls me nasty names. :(
Y'all are mean.
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If it makes you feel any better, I'm one of the 7 fans of Kingda Ka on the site. It's not Top Thrill Dragster, but that front seat makes for one hell of a launch and top hat. Also, I prefer the term "Hulk penis" thank you very much.
 
I personally save my #1 spot for my favorite overall coaster/experience rather than the "best" coaster I have ridden. Taron is my current favorite because of the theming, atmosphere, forces, and incredible restraints. Taron is one of the only rides to consistently leave me surprised and I was never bored of it. I can't wait to go on it again!

Also Kingda Ka is garbage dont @ me
 
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@Howie & @Edward M I was just thinking the other day that I really need to try Kingda Ka again on the front row (nowhere else). If it's true that it is much smoother up there then maybe I could actually like it. I'm willing to give it another chance.

I rode it once toward in the middle or towards the back and it was just too shaky and ruined the ride. It's somehow the complete opposite of Top Thrill Dragster, which is actually very smooth and I adore it.
 
Front row - night ride Ka is fine, but it's still nowhere near as good as Dragster, which means it's just a big green penis.
Middle of the day middle of the train Ka is crap.

However, I can understand the "wow" feeling on the brake run for it, but I put that down to it being extremely fast and high and over in a heartbeat, all of that happening inside 20 seconds will absolutely get the adrenaline pumping.



It's still **** tho.
 
This question may or may not have cause me to go on a statistical regression and assessment binge over the last week...

As some of you know, I began a Google Sheets document a year ago to not only plot out my rankings of roller coasters, but their respective statistics, manufacturers, designers, etc. The original reason for this exercise was to add up how many miles, inversions, etc. I had travelled while riding roller coasters. But I realized, having all these data points, it could be possible to create a statistical regression to see which statistics are most closely correlated to my ranking. In other words - are there certain statistics, such as height, speed, length, that I find most appealing in a roller coaster?

So, while I am still working on generating the statistical regression and showing what factors would have most statistical significance, I give you a preview of findings! The tables that follow are scatter plots of a roller coaster's ranking, and their respective statistic. You'll notice a trendline projected through these data points - this trendline has been logged, to help account for randomness in the data (otherwise known as heteroskedasticity) and smooth out the trend. I've also attached an r-squared value to the trendlines, which is a statistical tool that helps paint a picture on how closely two statistics are linked (in this case, how closely linked are coaster ranking to the individual statistic). In this case, the higher the r-squared value, the better; as it indicates a closer linkage of the two stats.

1.jpg 2.jpg 3.jpg 4.jpg 7.jpg 6.jpg 5.jpg​

As you can see, the correlations (in order of greatest to least) are:
  • Top Speed - 0.368
  • Max Vertical Angle - 0.312
  • Height - 0.278
  • Cost - 0.258
  • Length - 0.238
  • Inversions - 0.052
  • Duration - 0.021

I'll continue tinkering, and report back to the group as I keep building out the regression model. If there's anything to take away from this assessment at this point, it is:
  1. Statistics alone are a very difficult indicator of how much you will like a roller coaster.
  2. Low R-Squared values (ideally, you look for R-Squared values in the 0.5-0.6 range and up for modeling) means there are a lot of other factors, such as aesthetic, airtime, etc. that are difficult to quantify, which have bearing on how much you like a ride.

Those of you who are stat wonks, would also appreciate your input on how more I can build out this model and better capture correlation. :)
 
MouseAT said:
The more I think about this one, the harder I find this to answer, at least in terms of box ticking.

See, there's a whole bunch of different elements that I really like, and all of my favourites seem to combine a mixture of different elements in ways that somehow make the whole experience more than just the sum of its parts. For example, like most enthusiasts, I really like long, sustained ejector airtime, yet I'd still take Nemesis with it's insane positive Gs, relentless feeling of speed, and awesome location over some of the pure airtime machines that just somehow feel like they're going through the motions.

I suppose it's all about trade offs. If a ride does only one or two things, it had better pull them off incredibly well, otherwise it'll be eclipsed by rides that manage to bring together many awesome elements in a manner that completely blows me away.
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I'm going to bring this back up, because I just experienced a textbook case of what I was talking about over the bank holiday weekend with Icon. It's an imperfect ride that, on paper, should be a fair way down my rankings, because I've ridden some absolute monsters over the year that, again on paper, should easily out rank it. However, Icon manages to get a few, important things right, and manages to be enormous fun, and has somehow left me very confused as to how I'm supposed to place it in my rankings.

It's somehow fighting it out with technically superior rides in my mind, and I'm having real difficulty trying to objectively understand how that's possible. It's another interesting example of how there's a few specific elements that I enjoy when it comes to roller coasters, yet something can pull together a really good experience from a different set of elements that I'm not usually so enthused about and somehow become far more than the sum of its parts.
 
Sense of speed, airtime, flow, pacing, intensity. Comfort/re-rideability. That's not in any order nor are they all necessities (in fact it may be near impossible to have all in one) but those are what I like and need some combo of for a top ride. Mforce lacks in the airtime/intensity departments but it just so mcuh fun and as re rideable as there is. Wicked Cyclone and Storm Chaser both lack the speed, but have great layouts I love their flow and pacing and obviously airtime max. Storm Chaser however was a bit tough on the legs after some rides. Voyage perhaps is closest to having them all but that's a tough one to Marathon. So really I have no concrete formulaic answer lol I like speed, airtime, flow/pacing most, and tend to go with more intensity rather than not
 
Hyde that is beautiful. As a stats nerd that legit makes me wanna cry with you. Well done! Sadly I've gotten rusty since my break from school. Last year I flopped in my attempt to come up with a new Mitch Hawked type poll, ideally one based off ELO type rankings (someone here had the idea). It looks sound though thus far and it's always good when stats back up what we kinda know in our gut right? Stats are not necessarily a great indicator of enjoyment, and your numbers bear that out :)
 
@Hyde that's actually so fab.

For me it's kind of like what @Lofty described. It's a feeling of being blown away when you get off, of laughing the whole way through, and immediately wanting to have another ride. So I really think my desire to reride is a big one for my rankings alongside probably airtime. The rest is just a feeling of having had a really great time.
 
JJLehto said:
Hyde that is beautiful. As a stats nerd that legit makes me wanna cry with you. Well done! Sadly I've gotten rusty since my break from school. Last year I flopped in my attempt to come up with a new Mitch Hawked type poll, ideally one based off ELO type rankings (someone here had the idea). It looks sound though thus far and it's always good when stats back up what we kinda know in our gut right? Stats are not necessarily a great indicator of enjoyment, and your numbers bear that out :)
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Haha glad you like it. Definitely needs refinement, which I've been tweaking in my spare time.

To @LiveForTheLaunch and @Lofty's point, my whole effort in doing the stats regression is to show that yes, some stats can be indicators; but there are also those qualitative factors you can never account for. A night ride, a close-call helix, background aesthetics can be a huge difference maker that never make it into the numbers!
 
LiveForTheLaunch said:
@Hyde that's actually so fab.

For me it's kind of like what @Lofty described. It's a feeling of being blown away when you get off, of laughing the whole way through, and immediately wanting to have another ride. So I really think my desire to reride is a big one for my rankings alongside probably airtime. The rest is just a feeling of having had a really great time.
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Well, you basically just avoided the question, but of course I agree with you. That perfectly describes why I’ve ranked my current top three as my top three. To a T.
 
Great choice of topic

I think that a little while back it would have been easy, a big drop, high speed and some good air time but over the last year or so having ridden a couple of GCI's I would have to say the quick transitions in those rides and the smoothness makes them outstanding. If I had to pick 3 I would look at my favourite coaster 'moments' to decide

Big Drop- The first drop on Leviathan is phenomenal and every time I rode it just got better

Air Time- The hills on behemoth and diamondback, bouncing you up and down are brilliant and there's even one on Leviathan where you are out of your seat

Transitions- The back part of mystic timbers where it just seems to whip from side to side was just so good and made it the first woodie I thoroughly enjoyed
 
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