RCT1 - Thinking of Expansions or RCT2

I'm so addicted to RCT1. I've been rushing through the scenarios to try to get to some oreo cookie at the end, which I hope will be a huge megapark I can play without restrictions or time limits, and play it all over the map, save for a small section outside the map for people to enter the park. I only have RCT1 with no expansions, and my cash to spend is so limited that right now I must either decide whether I want to go out and get RCT1 with all the expansions included, or just go out and get RCT2. I think both are the same price, so here are a few annoyances I have with RCT1, and I'm basically wanting to know if I could expect to see any change in RCT2 in these aspects:

1. Are there any "eating areas" that come prepackaged with RCT2? Like some kind of food court/dining area I can place for people to go sit and eat? In RCT1, I just clear out areas and make a kind of "tic-tac-toe" area out of pathways so I can put lots of benches and trash cans, then I assign one handyman to only sweep and empty trash cans in that tic-tac-toe pattern. It works pretty well, but just isn't very elegant.

2. I want to build coasters, not be a lumberjack. I love trees in the park, but I hate getting messages saying a tree is in the way. I want to remove only the necessary trees, but find myself instead clearcutting the whole area (one tree at a time, of course), and then I try to place the track, then find "too high for supports" flashing me in the face, but I see no clues as to where I should raise or lower land to make the track fit with the least amount of landscaping possible. I'd like to just be able to decide where I want a track and just place it, having all necessary trees cleared away without me having to try to remember the grid layout and imagine its position as I click to clear away trees. Is that kind of thing the same in RCT2? As for land heights, I'd like to see the "problem areas" on the track turn red or something showing where I could adjust land heights to make the track and the land fit together. Even better would be some kind of "ghost layout" I could place for "future/planned development" to make sure I don't use the space for something else. For me, part of the fun of the game is trying to stuff a ride into a cramped corner, even if I have to use tunnels and crazy pathways to make it work. Even when I go to real theme parks, part of the fun is navigating the hills, twists, and turns. If it was all laid out in straight paths with no hills or curves, going to the park wouldn't be nearly as much fun. I have the same view when building it.

3. Patrol areas for handymen, security, mechanics and entertainers - I like the idea of patrol routes, but sometimes the arbitrary 4x4 patrol grids can be more of a curse than a blessing. If I set a patrol area for a handyman, sometimes an area he's supposed to be patrolling becomes a streaming river of vomit and I find the handyman wandering up and down a queuing line for a ride over and over. Seems like I could prevent the handyman getting lost if I had finer control of his patrol routes, like single squares instead of 4x4s. Does RCT2 have a map that will highlight all the positions for handymen, mechanics, entertainers and security guards? I figure handymen might wander randomly, but if I check the map and see they're all in one corner, or something, I'd want to pick a few up and drop them on the River Puke.

4. Zoom Depth - I can't zoom in close enough to suit myself in RCT1. One more "zoom in" level would be nice. Does RCT2 have a closer zoom level?

I've read plenty about RCT2 being more of an RCT1.5 than a true sequel, but I'm loving RCT1 well enough to find the same satisfaction in RCT2 as long as nothing has been removed. Even with all the minor annoyances above, RCT2 would still be fun. I've also read enough about RCT3 to know I don't want to mess with it.

Lastly, the only minor annoyance I have with RCT1 is with the four views available. I know that RCT2 has the same limitations on view angles, but sometimes completed pathways just look odd when you've got pathways crisscrossing over and under each other on a hillside just to get it all crammed into a tight space. Having a fluid method of adjusting the view angle would at least train my brain on how to perceive it correctly instead of assuming everything is as it appears to be on the screen.

Here's an example of what I mean, four angles of the same shot in RCT1. A few extra textual details are above the four images:

http://home.earthlink.net/~phanes7/rct1.html

Thanks,
Phanes

RCT2 is good, since it automatically gets rid of trees while placing track segments. You get more coaster types and better banking options. However river puke won't be cured, neither will your need for eating areas. Try making a bit of a larger Tic Tac Toe area with the scenery on RCT2 if you get it. There is a lot of scenery and you also get supports for your woodies!

Much of the later RCT1 expansions do not feature heavily wooded scenarios, though I haven't finished all of them yet. If you like scenario completion, go for loopy landscapes (don't know how you could buy one, you may have to get the deluxe/gold/whatever edition of RCT if it's still around) but if you'd rather just build for the sake of building, RCT2 is much better for that. As mentioned, RCT2 also has automatic scenery removal and also has a tool for removing large areas of scenery. However, the mountain tool is restricted to the scenario editor unless you use a (hard to find) trainer.

At this point, Just buy RCT2 triple thrill pack.

^agreed, after playing RCT2 i found RCT to be a pain to work with and a lot less fun.

Originally posted by coasteragent99

Much of the later RCT1 expansions do not feature heavily wooded scenarios, though I haven't finished all of them yet. If you like scenario completion, go for loopy landscapes (don't know how you could buy one, you may have to get the deluxe/gold/whatever edition of RCT if it's still around) but if you'd rather just build for the sake of building, RCT2 is much better for that. As mentioned, RCT2 also has automatic scenery removal and also has a tool for removing large areas of scenery. However, the mountain tool is restricted to the scenario editor unless you use a (hard to find) trainer.

Oh, I don't actually care about scenarios. I actually hate them while trying to achieve the objective. I can get a park up to its goal pretty quickly. I then spend most of the rest of my time just waiting for the the end of year 2, 3 or 4 to come around so the scenario can be regarded as complete and I can open other scenario files. The one and only reason I'm even doing the scenarios is RCT1 is to unlock all the maps to find one that has all the land available to buy. I'd rather just start with an empty map with no pathways, a starter patch of land already owned by the park, with extra land available to buy as I need to expand, but I want all the land to be available for purchase, not just a certain amount. If I'm going to play this thing, I want to play the full map, not just a part of it. That's the only reason I'm even bothering with the scenarios. I see no way to start just a blank map with no goals or limitations, but I have read on some "cheat" sites that if you complete all the scenarios, you finally get a full megapark map with all rides and attractions available for research. That's what I want.

So far it sounds like I'd like RCT2, so I'll probably go with that, especially for the large-scale removal of scenery. If that's the only improvement, as long as nothing has been removed, I think I'll be happy.

One thing I'm EXTREMELY happy with in RCT1 is that it has never crashed or frozen up on me. I can't say the same for SimCity Societies, and The Nations. Both of those games either freeze or send me to the desktop within ten minutes of play time. The Nations only crashes after I place a certain crucial element having to do either with ore mines or the facility that turns the ores into usable building materials. SimCity Societies just crashes, and if I can manage to play it long enough to enjoy it, I eventually start getting graphical glitches. That's a widely-experienced problem. I like Dungeon Keeper 2, but it scrolls so fast and so sensitively on my system that it's unenjoyable. The first Dungeon Keeper plays at normal speed, but does freeze occasionally. So I'm not only enjoying RCT1's gameplay, but its rock-solid stability, as well.

Phanes

I ordered RCT2 Saturday night from the Atari website. Got it for 50% off, making the game $9.97 with both expansions, plus shipping. Ended up almost $17. Anyway, now I'm so sick and tired of doing scenarios in RCT1 that I wonder if I'll be able to enjoy RCT2 when it comes in. All I wanted was to start out with a big map on which all available land was available for purchase, and now that I've got all but the last RCT1 scenario unlocked, I've just got a headache.

I hope RCT2 doesn't require me to go through a bunch of scenarios just to have some fun. I don't think I could stomach a whole run through another whole set of scenarios without burning out as I almost have in RCT1...without ever getting to the megapark.

I have a chain of Six Flags parks I build on RCT2 (using both expansions) and thats what I use RCT2 for...I don't play the scenarios....I just pick a scenario that has massive land...edit it the way I want it in the "Scenario Editor" (clear trees, buy all the land, choose where the entrance will be, choose how big I want the land to be or how small) then, you can choose what rides, shops and scenery will be available for this particular park that you are creating....once done, you choose the "no money" feature so you can just build til your fingers fall off (won't have to worry about money shortage....though your park automatically stay open with this option) Name the scenario something cool..save and exit to the main menu. Go to the scenarios and find the one you just created...open it up and now you have your custom park.

Check out my "Six Flags Monicobay" park.....Is that the kind of massive space you were talking about?!

Naturally, I want it all available in one park. lol.

When I play SimCity 4, I typically want a completely flat landscape to work with. It just makes all the layout easier, but boring in a way, too. No tunnels, no hills, no routes to get around obstacles, etc.... I sort of feel the same way in RCT1, but in that game, since it costs money to clear trees and adjust the height of land, I would always get irritated when I'd have to spend a fortune adjusting the land to get a rollercoaster to fit, while having no idea what specific adjustments were necessary to get the ride to fit. I was talking about premade coasters, not custom ones. But even reusing a custom track would present the same "too high for supports" message.

I have trouble, too, in RCT1 working with underground paths. I can't seem to actually target underground paths, even in the underground view. If an above-ground path is in the way of an underground path, the above-ground path hogs the attempts to target. Plus, I can't seem to find a way to raise or lower land I know the height of, because I can't target it without lowering the land around it first. These are things I hope are fixed in RCT2. From what I've read from others about liking RCT2 so much more than RCT1, and wondering how they ever got stuff built in RCT1 with some of its complications, I'm betting RCT2 will be more pleasant to play.

Phanes

About two hours (two game years) before I finished the last RCT1 scenario, Thunder Rock, I got RCT2 off the front doorstep.

So far I haven't really found anything I dislike except one thing (so far). In the secnario editor, you can either choose to charge at the gate, or charge per ride, but you can't do both. When I saw that in RCT1, I wouldn't have ever imagined it would be something they would remove. I had gotten to where I could charge a gate fee, then I'd charge 20 cents per ride on most rides to keep them losing money, and no more than 50 cents per rollercoaster. I figured, too, that if I charged a /little/ something per ride, it would slowly drain people of their money and they'd have to leave to be replaced by someone else. Can't do that in RCT2, it seems, not even in premade scenarios. Of all the things they messed with, I wish they could have left that alone.

The scenario editor, itself, is "usable". I was kind of disappointed in the tool to raise and lower land, as it was JUST raise and lower. I was hoping for some kind of auto-terrain generator for its contours with some kind of height variance setting. Like, make a generally even, but random landscape with heights from 0 to 3 or 4. That way I can have /some/ hills, but not have to worry about contending with seven or eight height increments in a row that make a straight hillside.

I was looking through some existing scenarios thinking I might just see if there's a 256x256 map with a good landscape, but which I could erase all the existing stuff from. Unfortunately there seems to be no "erase all" tool that just erases everything. There is for scenery, but not for rides, fences, paths, etc... paths have to be deleted one square at a time.

Phanes