Rollercoaster Tycoon 3 Water Park

[Osman Briseno]

Getready for an entirely new RollerCoaster Tycoon experience... it's wet, wild, and totally soaked! For the first time, run your own water park - and ride all the rides - with this expansion hit RollerCoaster Tycoon 3. Celebrate summer as hundreds of peeps (that's the RollerCoaster Tycoon talk for "guests") catch rays and waves with an amazing lineup of super splash flume rides, massive water slides, aquatic shows, beaches, and more. Make water fall from the skies, create new laser, water, and animal shows. Blast peeps with water cannons, build outrageous coasters, and wow 'em with this splashy summertime addition to one of the largest games of the year!

With RCT3: Soaked!, you can transform your theme parks into full-fledged water parks, complete with slides, lazy rivers, giant pools, and more. Plus, with an amazing array of completely new scenery, rides, shops, and coasters, you can take your theme park to the next level. Simply put: Get ready to be SOAKED!

First step here would be researching the Information Kiosk. This will be invaluable to guests, as they often get lost towards the back of the park (the River Rapids). The second valuable tip for this scenario would be to build a bridge from White Water Rapids towards White Water Boats, so the park's path layout is turned into a circle. It may be a good idea to research Ride Improvements as well, as you can unlock the Water Splash for the Wooden Roller Coaster fairly early in the scenario, turning the Wooden Coaster into a "water ride". The space on the other side of the lake also proves a solid point for it : a hill climb, a quick back turn and a steep fall into a couple Water Splashes down the lake, will replace the Splash Boats and Water Coaster from AA/CF all at once, and turn "White Water Coaster" into a solid quick buck machine. You should also connect a path across the lake from the exit to that ride to the area with the Boat Hire and fill the gap with some rides.

The Water Slide that has already been built may stall out at times, so it is best to leave it always waiting for a full load (uncheck the "Maximum Waiting Time" option in the ride options panel) or alter the ride slightly. It still might get stuck after a couple of breakdowns, preventing the dinghies from reaching back to the station and frustrating guests. If this happens, a solid tip would be to pause the game, click the close button of the ride twice so it resets, then reopen. There is no minor change to the ride to make this preventable.

After that, the only needed rides to build here would be the Merry-Go-Round and Haunted House because this scenario is fairly rainy. The hills near the Log Flumes are good for building an underground roller coaster. The park lacks stalls (like most parks with pre-built rides) so this is also an urgent move. Players should also make sure to add more benches and trash cans to the paths, as they are seriously lacking. Additional handymen and mechanics are needed, as well as ordering the pre-hired handyman to stop mowing lawns. Skilled players will achieve the 1,000 required guests long before Year 3.

White Water Park already has all the water rides built and opened, with good designs (though White Water Slide has a tendency to crash, covering the first sections after the biggest drop is a good idea). This only accounts to four ride types, and five rides, so this park needs some expansion (and little room for it).

This scenario is known as Aqua Park in the American version of the game, and is translated as Pure or Clear Water Park in the French version. Also, the rides in the American version don't have names.

There are some minor differences between the vanilla and RCT Classic version of this scenario. Walls and a roof have been added to the bridge at the park entrance. Wooden and tall wooden fences from the Jurassic Themeing have been built around the station of White Water Rapids. Furthermore, the list of available and researched rides is now upgraded.

To add water, select it from the menu and click inside an existing hole. To remove water, select "Remove water" from the menu and click the water you wish to remove. Water cannot be placed at park boundaries.

Rollercoasters, essentially, are a curious concept. We go to the little ticket box (or if its a pay-at-the-gate theme park, join a queue that disappears into the horizon and quite possibly crosses a few international time zones), pay an extortionate sum, stand in a queue, caged into columns like cattle, then eventually, you reach the station, dozens of people bundle off the train and disappear out of sight ("Exit the train to your right!"), and with a sense of joy and adventure we step onto the train, and anticipate what will follow.

However, what invariably does follow is between 30 seconds and 3 minutes of being hurtled around corners and loops of varying intensity, and if you aren't the exact height of 5'11", you will find your head and back being battered off the various lumps on the seat. Then you jerk to a stop back at the station where you arrived, step off feeling jaded and slightly cheated, and feel obliged, nay, forced to part with 3.99 for a Souvenir Photo and/or key-ring from the little shed next door, becase it's a "once in a lifetime oppurtunity.".

To give me my own chance to create the next RattleSnake or Space Mountain beater, something that the customers would love so much that they would offer themselves up to my park to be slaves, or at least to purchase an "I went to Nacho Land and all I got was this stupid mug" collector's souvenir. Joy!

The game is a fantastic piece of work. Several non-coaster rides are available, including old favourites like merry-go-rounds, haunted houses, and swinging ships, as well as more modern rides such as the Launched Ascent Ride (more commonly known as the PlayStation Ride if you've been to Blackpool). Then there are water-based rides such as slides and rapids, and go-karts and mini-cars, and so many other rides I can't be bothered listing them all...

You have the freedom to tailor these rides to levels of detail that border on the trivial, such as the colours of the rails and the maximum waiting time at the station. But some of these options prove very important. For example, on some varieties of rollercoasters (and yes, there are different kinds - inverted metal, wooden wildmouse, steel mini etc), there are different launch methods, including the traditional "kick-start", the powered launch (up to 60mph at the start, combine it with a sheer drop for an extremely intense ride!), and the intimidatingly named but frankly useless "Reverse-Incline Powered Launch Mode".

And you can actually "theme" your park. For example, in the second mission, Dynamite Dunes, I produced a park with three zones, using Roman, Egyptian and USA Mining scenery and objects. These can be researched and placed all over your park, along with trees, fountains, statues, benches, lamps and litter bins.

You see, when I first got the game, I spent around 10 minutes building a steel coaster, and itching to see the little people hurtling round on it. I opened the ride and the park just to see what happened. Big mistake. I had produced a hump near the middle of the circuit, but unfortunately the train wasn't going fast enough at the time to clear it, so it simply rolled back down the hill. Into the path of the next oncoming train. An explosion followed, and several people saw their vital organs splattering off in the other direction, as they flew through the air. Not good...

Of course, as well as making a really thriling coaster, you must make sure the people aren't too scared to board it. There are three main coaster ratings - Nausea, Excitement, and Intensity. You have to ensure your intensity remains between 4 and 6, the Nausea around 2 to 4, and the excitement as high as you can get it!

And lots of things contribute to this, not just loops and corners. For example, a coaster over water is more exciting than a coaster over ground. Coasters going over and under other riders will prove exciting too. And, of course, speed, duration and turns contribute, as well as the complex lateral and vertical G-force.

The shops and staff are the most disappointing aspect of this otehrwise superb game. The staff system is near-identical to the one employed in Theme Park, including Handymen, Mechanics, Security Guards and Entertainers.

The main difference is that you can assign jobs to people now. Handymen in Theme Park, no matter what the state your paths were in, tended to walk on to the grass and begin mowing. Thankfully, in Rollercoaster Tycoon you can turn this option off on individual Handymen, as well as being able to assign "beats" to all of the staff, ensuring every area is well covered.

Little thought has been given to the shops either, despite the fact that they are integral to your park's progress. The usual spiel of placing food and drink, toilets, and souvenir stalls is in place here, like in Theme Park. However, Information Desks are an original idea, selling maps, pointing out directions, and providing umbrellas if it rains.

Your guests are fickle folk too, who on occaision don't spend anything in your park and leave after a scant look around, although if you have placed rides and buildings well, they should look after themselves. You can follow their thoughts and spending, and even lift them up and move them to new locations! I tend to punish angry guests by making a pit in the middle of a lake with the superb landscaper tool, and dropping them in. [Um .. is that legal? - Ed]

And when you have finished with the original game, why not check out the website which, especially for a non-multiplayer game, is extremely good. You can download new track designs for every kind of coaster and track ride, made by the game's creator, Chris Sawyer, and even upload and download custom rides made by other people. Fantastic.

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