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Gemini78
11-23-2008, 02:52 AM
After almost two years of not doing much at all in RCT2 I've decided to pick the game back and once again try my hand at park making. About a year ago I started working on a landscape that I had codenamed River Bend, and decided that finishing that would be a good place to pick back up. Earlier this week I finished work in the scenario editor and have moved into game mode, and I am very pleased with how the park looks so far. With this park I decided I would venture out of my usual focus on rides and into beautiful landscaping with a variety of flower beds and trees. You'll quickly notice this new focus as soon as you start looking through the screens.

River Bend Park originally opened as a horticultural park in the late 1800s, and with the advent of the roller coaster, the city owned park decided to invest in a sprawling twister that would go through the woods on the right side of the park entrance. Named the Timberline and built in 1920, this coaster helped keep interest in the park throughout the depression and into the 50s. The park was soon abandoned in the late 60s as interest had dropped, and the city was lacking the funds to maintain the park. In 1978 it was discovered that the abandoned land had been the subject of negotiations between the city and a private real estate investment firm that wanted to turn the former garden park into a housing and retail development. Some young local enthusiasts had recently stumbled into the abandoned park and discovered the Timberline, now being overtaken by the forest. This discovery and subsequent inquiry into the history of the ride sparked a desire to save the park and the roller coaster once they heard of the negotiations with the investment firm. Together with the help of local historians as well as the elderly and their children who had fond memories of the long forgotten park they put enough pressure on the city to stop negotiations and to search for someone who would help invest in restoring the park to its former glory. In a hopeful turn of events, the same real estate investment firm came in to take the bid on restoring the park and the roller coaster, so long as they could receive any profits from the roller coaster operation. The city agreed and the restoration project started. It ended up taking almost five years to reclaim the gardens and the Timberline, but by 1985 the park reopened to a wave of enthusiasm and renewed interest, even drawing visitors from surrounding cities as much as 3 hours away, becoming a tourists attraction for those staying multiple days for conferences or sporting events. In 1996 the investment firm that helped to restore the park took full ownership of the park with plans to add more amusements while preserving the classic gardens and forests.

There's a brief history on the park, and the screen shots are below. The entrance plaza style probably will look very familiar if you saw my last project, Idlewood. This is really my first attempt at landscaping to level that I'm attempting here, so forgive me if it isn't as amazing as I think it is. Hope you enjoy the first look at my reentry into the world of RCT2 park making, River Bend Park.

thedeadfrog
11-23-2008, 04:43 AM
Some of your roof tiles are missing, and it looks unapealing when it's just a sea of grey.

Also not every wall should be a window IMO.

Otherwise, the landscaping is pretty awesome, that woodie looks amazing, and this is a nice start.

Gemini78
11-23-2008, 03:01 PM
I think you're seeing the different levels of the roofing as missing roof tiles, because I went around in every angle to make sure there are none missing.

Brandon
11-23-2008, 03:46 PM
The layout of the park is nice, the landscaping stunning, and the wooden coaster is making me want more. However, after being spoiled by custom scenery, your fences and buildings look, bland. Don't get me wrong, it still looks nice, it just will take some getting used to.

The woodie is very intresting, although the station and queue look a bit bland. The biggest thing missing is a station building. I am assuming you are going to build one? Second, theres no landscaping near the queue area. Some trees and shrubs would spruce that area up.

This project looks to have some great potential, I look forward to more progress!

Sam
11-23-2008, 04:13 PM
I love the Boulder Dash inspired Timberline. :)

Gemini78
11-23-2008, 04:49 PM
I'm still trying to come up with an idea for how I want to do the station for Timberline, as I'm doing this on my Windows partition on my MBP, and I didn't get all of my custom rides and scenery transferred over from my home PC. I'm working with a very minimal amount of custom scenery, like one or two packs, so I'm trying to find ways to keep it from being too repetitive, which is really giving me design issues.

rollercoasterfreak91
11-23-2008, 04:51 PM
Looking really good so far, the only suggestion I have to make is to add more trees; land near rivers is usually filled with trees, and it seems unnatural to me to have it so bare.

Norcal Twists
11-23-2008, 10:30 PM
Please just own all the land and remove the fences.

Then make your buildings less blocky and your set.