Gazza

The land owned by Village is literally the grey area on this map: http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&sou...033023&z=16

It's worth double checking if there isn't a time frame you have to make your first visit by after purchasing, only thing I can think of. And of course, this deal will most likely be offered for a short time only (I'd imagine it would be withdrawn right before the high season) But nope, not too good to be true, this discounting has been going on for a while. I reckon the only people who'd pay full price would be international tourists and people who turn up on the day and buy a ticket at the gate.

The way you get around it is by reassigning the key in the settings menu. Just to make sure, you have v 1.7 right? That was when video recording was introduced.

Yes, we do.

You can record videos directly from NL though, without fraps right? Just press zero on the number pad to start recording, and press it again to stop. (not the zero at the top of the keyboard)

^ Just trying to get my head around it

So how would both things be able to follow their own tracks without the supports for the track that carries the casing getting in the way of the track that carries the coaster car? Does anyone get what I'm imagining here? The space underneath a coaster car is taken up by the wheel assemblies and the track, and the track is connected to the ground via supports: http://www.rcdb.com/m/3631.htm?p=19385 I cant see how the casing would be able to get around the coaster car to lock onto it from both sides because everything else would be in the way.

I think in the past they quoted an average of $6-7 mil per year as being their viable figure. It doesn't mean they would only spend that amount per year, but rather if they say spent above this one year they might ease back in other years.

Captial investment = Any spending on new stuff for the park, from something as small as an ice cream cart, to something as big a roller coaster. Capital investment is separate to money spent on ongoing maintenance around the park. Upcharge attraction = Something at the park guests have to pay extra to use, eg V8 Redline, Flowrider, the rock climb wall, arcade games etc.

Once the cars shoots out, where does the 'casing' go?

Why's that?

^Architecture. Yeah, I know the name is bad....Its tough to come up with a mining themed name that is also suitable for a thrill ride without simultaneously sounding similar to existing rides like Mystery Mine.

More teenagers would visit WnW than SW....Just sayin. Do the general public view it that way though? Who knows, maybe the mere fact it is surfboard shaped makes it fit the park in their eyes? Yes, it's weird to us, but as DJ said it's been popular at WnW since day one, and it's not worth the visitor backlash that would result from its removal just to achieve some utopian vision of WnW strictly being wet rides because its 'pleasing' from an enthusiast standpoint.

Have you guys considered just doing the whole park as a Sketchup Model rather than in RCT. If you do it in RCT, you're still constrained by a grid, 90 degree angles and more lag.

Yes guys, If you do have actual pictures of finished stuff to show everyone then by all means post them, but if its just back and forth conversation between you two then use email/msn/private messages or whatever, no need to clog up the forums with crap.

Haha at listing Bert and Ernie's Big Dive as "Heege Tower".

Nah bugger it, you've caused me to procrastinate, so here's my idea. I didn't want to procrastinate for too long, so the drawings aint the prettiest. Eureka Mountain 2: The Forbidden Shaft. As the slogan goes "Toyota Yaris combines Toyotas big ideas into one small car". Well EM2:tFS combines Intamins big ideas into one (relativley) small coaster.....Mix Fahrenheit, Maverick, Piraten/Kawasemi and Th13teen and you've got some idea of where I'm going with this. I've also "negotiated the brief" a little bit , and used up the sites of the old Chairlift station and the currently unused Thunder River water lagoon (so to construct this ride, Goldrush would be closed for a few months, all water removed, and footings placed into the base of the lagoon) But the ride is still entirely within goldrush, so it's all legit IMO So here's an overview of how the front facade would look. Typical mine theming, with a new rocky facade and a bunch of mine buildings. You go in under a "Poppert head" and along some shed like buildings. Overhead there would be moving machinery like pulley wheels etc The main bit of the queue is in the show building, in an indoor cavern where mining is taking place. Stalagmites would protrude from the floor, and floor space would also be taken up by bits of mining paraphenalia. The queue therefore would wind its way randomly around everything. The roof would feature stalactites and small rocky bits covered with gold leaf (to give the impression of gold deposits) as well as hanging lanterns and rope pullies with hanging buckets of spoil. An interesting feature would be a section of track (between the final block brakes and the unload station) that would come out into this cavern overhead. So every now and then guests would see a trainload of recovering riders passing overhead. The queue would head upstairs and into the station. These spaces would be a bit more formalised, with squared off walls, with buttresses and timber cross planks. The trains would be the 3 car, 12 rider type, but a bit more blocky looking, with a timber texture and metal bracing to look like mine carts. So here is the layout: From the station you go down a small drop, straight into a surprise barrel roll, which is hidden by the darkness of the mine tunnel you are in. Immediately you round a U turn and hit a block brake. The lift then takes you up 90 degrees to a height of 30m. The lift would be fully enclosed by the tall building seen in the first illustration. At the top you go over the edge and down a "steeper than vertial" drop and exit the building at high speed (imagine the visual impact to bystanders of watching trains being spat out at high speed!) From there its straight into an immelmann, but on the pullout you whip around a helix. From there its straight into a corkscrew that goes over the gold rush footbridge. The track continues around an overbanked turn that goes slightly over the Big Brother Cafe (or whatever its called now) The pullout would be quite steep and this leads you into the next trick of the ride.... The track dives into a 'cut and cover' tunnel themed to look like a mine tunnel entrance, and this would contain an LSM booster launch. But here's the fun part. The tunnel would be pitch black when the train first goes in, yet filled with smoke . At the right moment a large explosion sound effect would be heard, and the entire tunnel would be illuminated from behind the position of the train with red and orange, in a sort of fake fire effect (Like on Valhalla at BPB) In addition the train would pass under a set of heated air curtains (like at the entrances to some buildings/shopping centers) which further enhances the explosion effect. From the launch its straight up into a cobra roll, and then the fun bit, a bunch of airtime hills ( ) At the end of this section you curve upwards and renter the show building and back into a 'mine tunnel'. In the darkness is a surprise bunny hop. You are then brought to a stop and reach a dead end . You hear the sound of the ground crumbling, and then just like Th13teen the track drops. The track would drop into a smoky area (to simulate the dust that would get thrown up as a result of a rock fall) and at this point the ride is over, and friction wheels advance you back to the station, passing through the aforementioned cavern space on the way. Here is a quick 3d sketch of how the ride layout looks, but without the show building. And that's it.

Any chance of making the comp more 'ad hoc'? Perhaps make it so anyone can compete over the 10 weeks in any particular round, and then asses across the 10 entries This could perhaps even the results and make things a bit more rounded (Eg someone on here might be a gun at designing a live show and would enjoy doing the challenge, but if they were eliminated before that round happened then the community would miss out on seeing something cool produced) Having to commit every week is a bit hard (Design takes a long time!), especially since my 'real' design portfolio for uni is due in 10 days time, which precludes me from doing anything in the first round, and hence the whole comp Will it always be based on a real world situation at our existing parks (Eg Eureka replacement)? Or will there be hypothetical stuff? (Eg "a major new theme park is opening in Melbourne, design a large scale dark ride") Just my $0.02

It Beats Having Them Hidden Away Out Of View.

^The ride going in at Six Flags is a clone of Insane at Grona Lund in Stockholm. Their version cost 50 Mil Kronor....or about 7.6 Mil AUD.

Hey if anyone could build me a whole WBMW recreation, 100% custom stuff etc, and then send it to me in a nice finished package let me know. Hope I'm not expecting too much.

Really? Why not?

The thing with Orlando is that if you skip any of the major parks, you are missing out, basically. All of them are at the top of the game, and all have particular star attractions that are worth the admission price alone. I'd put IOA as the #1 park to visit....Spiderman, Hulk, Dragon Challenge (And by the sounds of it, HP & the Forbidden Journey) are amazing, but all the secondary attractions are up there too. Universal Studios....Hmmm well I didn't spend that long in this park due to time restrictions, so I only rode Mummy, ET and MiB (lol). What did you think of USH? How badly do you want to ride rip ride rockit, Jaws etc? Busch Gardens is definitely worth it for it's collection of B&Ms, plus Cheetah Hunt is opening next year (Maverick style Intamin Launcher) Sea World....Have you been to the one in San Diego? If not then definitely go. If you have been to the one in San Diego, how interested are you in riding a new Flying and Floorless coasters? As for Disneyworld....I'd Say EPCOT and Animal Kingdom would be the two definite unmissables, due to the unique stuff at each (Test Track, Mission Space, Sum of All Thrills, Soarin' at EPCOT, Expedition Everest, the Safari, Dinosaur at AK) Magic Kingdom I didn't think was as good as Disneyland (No Indy D: ), nor did I think Disney's Hollywood Studios was as good as DCA. It's all relative of course, since we're talking Disney. The only water park I did was Typhoon Lagoon...The ride collection isn't that big, and for the most part its pretty tame, but Crush n Gusher and the Wave Pool are cool, but you go there for the lush theming. I stayed at Hotel 6 since it was a short walk from Universal, so don't take my advice

The really old blue lagoon ones are mine, so feel free to use them.

I guess the criticism was implied given you brought up the idea of the cancer link, rather than just simply starting a topic saying "DW are leasing land for a phone tower near Tiger Island". The upgrade is welcome, but yeah I would actually agree that it was a bit of an excuse to avoid a proper new thrill ride....Claw was what?....How many years ago now? Anyway, yeah the cancer link is not worth considering (Plus how do we know how it would affect non human species) There are so many everyday things in the industrialised world that present a slight cancer risk that avoiding one or two of them is going to have little net effect. In other news, Tiger Island is to be renamed Optus Zoo.