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How To: Rate Tracks on the Exchange

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Post March 12th, 2014, 7:04 pm
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This guide should help you have a clear understanding on how the rating system works on the site and will help explain why you think the numbers don't quite add up.

September 2015 Update:
As of September 2015, we have modified the rating system a bit. The current system will stay in place, but in addition to that, we are offering a new way to rate. The current numbers system doesn't add up to this new way, but we trust that the users will be able to set the numbers in a way that they will be able to award numbers to the uploader that they think the uploader deserves!

Anyway here's how the secondary rating system works. It needs to be 3-4 sentences long and include the following...
  • Something you like or don't like
  • A comment giving advice or ideas
  • An additional comment about the track or creator


On the site we have 4 rating categories:
  • Realistic
  • Fantasy
  • Recreation
  • Park
Below I describe what you should take note in each of the criteria and are also in the rating page, below where you write the rating to help guide you in writing your rating. Of course, you can put any comments down but breaking it up into the sections helps as well in case you feel short on words.
Here we go,

Realistic:
  • Realism- How real does the track feel to be. How believable is it that this track can be built in
    real life.
  • Technique- Did the designer use good building and creative technique when designing the
    track?
  • Adrenaline- Was it fun? Did it get your heart pumping as it was intended? Did it provide with
    you thrills?
  • Uniqueness- In comparison to other realistic tracks, how unique is it? If it felt like you had
    ridden something like this before, then perhaps it wasn't unique enough. If it had a lot of "stuff"
    you didn't expect, then it most likely was quite unique.
  • Rider Value- Do you think this track provides good value to you, the person riding it? If it was a
    real ride, would you have been satisfied to have paid to ride it? Consider the fee to enter your
    local theme park, would you go to your local theme park to ride it?

The math for Realistic. When calculation the Average rating, this is the math:

(Realism + Technique + Adrenaline + Uniqueness + Rider Value) / 5 = Average Rating

We use a 5 because they rated it on 5 rating criteria.



Fantasy:
  • Technique- Self Explanatory
  • Adrenaline- Self Explanatory
  • Originality- Does it feel like all the other fantasy tracks? Was there something in it that made it
    stand out?

The math for Fantasy. When calculation the Average rating, this is the math:

(Technique + Adrenaline + Originality) / 3 = Average Rating

We use a 3 because they rated it on 3 rating criteria.



Recreation:
  • Trackwork Accuracy Was the trackwork exactly as it is in real life?
  • Pacing Accuracy Did it feel like the real ride would feel? Does the ride look as if it is going much
    faster/slower than in a video you've watched of it?
  • Scenery Accuracy Is the terrain editing accurate? Is the car texture accurate? Is the placement
    of objects accurate?
  • Attention To Detail Was there enough attention paid to the smaller details such as catwalks,
    walkways, queue line setup, etc.
  • Degree of Difficulty Here we let the person rating the track decide for themselves how difficult
    it would have been for them to recreate this track. This category will for as a multipler where a
    score of 10 is a multiplier of 1 and a score of 1 is a multiple or .1

The math for Recreations. When calculation the Average rating, this is the math:

((Trackwork Acc. + Pacing Acc. + Scenerey Acc. + Attention to Detail) / 4) * Degree of Difficulty = Average
Rating

We use a 4 because they rated it on 4 rating criteria and we multiply that result with the Degree of
Difficulty multiplier. That way if someone decides to recreate a roller coaster that is super easy to
recreate with no scenery and it is a perfect recreation and the ratings are 10-10-10 they don't up beating
out a track that is immensely more difficult to recreate but scored lower, even though it was a lot more
work to recreate. This should create some sort of balance between easy and hard recreations.



Park:
  • Attraction Placement How well are the rides placed with one another? Is one section of the
    park overcrowded with 10 rides while another section is rather abandoned with only 1 ride?
  • Overall Quality of Rides Is the quality of rides in the park good?
  • Theme Is there a good theme throughout the park? Was the use of 3d objects use well enough
    to enhance the experience in the theme park or were they redundant and didn't add much
    value? Is there good terrain editing to enhance the experience? Is there good sectioning of the
    various themes in the park.
  • Accessibility Was there well planning when playing the tracks around the park. Did the
    designer think about getting from the exit of Track A to the entrance of Track B? Are the
    walkways well planned out?
  • Use of Space Given the amount of space used for the park, did they use that space widely or
    could they have done better? This doesn't mean putting the most amount of coasters in the
    smallest footprint but rather it means did the designer, given the space used, make the most of
    it?

The math for Park. When calculation the Average rating, this is the math:

(Attraction Placement + Overall Quality of Rides + Theme + Accessibility + Use of Space) / 5 = Average
Rating

We use a 5 because they rated it on 5 rating criteria.

Important Information!

Rates must be at least 50 characters in length or else the rate will not be accepted.

Rates that only say "good job man, I liked it a lot" and provide a numerical rate will be deleted or numbers will be removed as there is no explanation why you gave the scores you gave.

If you would like to write a rate that helps the builder out the most, we would recommend 2+ sentences per category of rate. To be more specific, for a Fantasy Park, you would have 2+ sentences on Technique, 2+ sentences on Adrenaline, and 2+ sentences on Technique. This would be the most ideal rate and would get you the most thumbs up!

This rating criteria format was designed and agreed upon, by a majority, by the members of the website. So don't go knocking down Admins or Moderators because of it.
Last edited by TTD03 on April 25th, 2014, 9:24 pm, edited 4 times in total.

Post March 12th, 2014, 7:54 pm

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I think the "rider value" category is a terrible idea as it introduces a ton of subjectivity into the rating, something that's definitely not needed as ratings are often already too subjective. I'll use the same example as before...you can make an perfect Raven style coaster and someone might not care because they prefer Millennium Force style coasters. Conversely, I might want to make a large B&M hyper, but, for example, Freddie might not find a lot of value in it because he prefers smaller wooden coasters. It's impossible to win because of all the subjectivity. You'd get hurt on the ratings just because of the ride type you chose. I wouldn't want to have to destroy a cool5 jet coaster rating just because I don't care at all about that kind of ride. For me, the value of a jet coaster is a 1. His ride quality means he doesn't deserve to have really low ratings just because I don't personally care about the coaster style. If I were to rate one of his rides, I'd want to rate in relation to the style he chose, but I'd be forced by the system to give a rating I deem unfair. It almost makes me not want to rate coasters or upload them.

As I noted before (and as was already seen in practice) the difficulty multiplier in recreations also carries wayyy too much weight, especially for another relatively subjective category.

Just my opinion, though.

Post April 25th, 2014, 9:24 pm
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I agree with DCS, it's impossible to give give constructive criticism in the rider value category which I really dislike because I write rates cause i want to show the designer where I felt they did well and where there could improve.
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Post July 28th, 2014, 6:22 pm

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there's no option to comment without rating anymore? Just went to leave a comment on a practice B&M and there was no option to just leave a comment. I hate feeling forced to judge others work, especially when it's clear thatt it wasn't mean't to be judged in such a way to begin with. I HATE this about the community and don't even sign up for others sites over this. Not everyone is comfortable rating tracks, and not everyone who POSTS tracks is receptive to feedback. Forcing people isn't a way to solve anything in life ever. It just drives people away

Post July 28th, 2014, 6:26 pm
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check mark the comment button and it removed the rating sliders see attached pic
this-button.JPG
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Post July 28th, 2014, 6:34 pm
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God Dammit Oscar, you beat me to it >.<
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Post July 28th, 2014, 6:42 pm

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Image

Image

not always an option. Some just say rate or comment only.

Metazoanhaddock wrote:
God Dammit Oscar, you beat me to it >.<



you can still reply first here lol

Post July 28th, 2014, 6:59 pm
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link us to the track in question
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Post July 28th, 2014, 7:26 pm

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Post August 18th, 2014, 2:56 pm

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what is the legacy category for?

I think all my tracks should be legacy 8-)
Plantoris

Post August 18th, 2014, 3:50 pm
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plantoris wrote:
what is the legacy category for?

I think all my tracks should be legacy 8-)

Legacy shouldn't be visible at all. The coder has not fixed that, idk where he is :\
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Post August 18th, 2014, 4:03 pm

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Post August 18th, 2014, 10:00 pm
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Post August 28th, 2018, 7:40 am

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Just a question: some of my numerical values of my ratings have disappeared, how is this possible?
*Likes Taron, Untamed, Troy and Colorado Adventure a lot*

Post September 2nd, 2018, 3:53 am
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If they don't meet the criteria then then the numbers get removed.

It's most likely that they didn't write three statements - that's the most common problem with rates.

This rule may get more lenient in the future but at the moment we have to abide by the above :)
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