Always Consider ...

Park Maps

As in a real park guests will only know about the rides in their immediate vicinity so, depending on the layout of our park, without having a map guests may not know where some or most of our rides are. As soon as they receive one our guests become aware of all the rides in our park.

Ride Access

We might choose to build our paths and queues so that the exit of one ride delivers guests into the same area in which we've started the queue to another. Do also consider that in new parks, rides are visited more when their queues are accessed directly off a busy path. If we're planning on operating our park for several seasons we can pretty much put our queues and exit paths wherever we wish.

Ride Intensity

Whether a custom designed ride or an in-game one, ride intensities approaching ten or more suggest to guests that they'd need to "experience" an element of danger while riding which will be a turn-off to all but the wildest guests. A high nausea rating alone will seldom turn guests away from a track but a high nausea rating in addition to a high intensity rating will have guests worrying the track will make them unbearably sick. To reduce the intensity of our track, these tips will be helpful.

Ride Prices

The excitement rating is king when deciding how to price our rides. Regardless of how beautifully we've balanced its EI&N rating, notwithstanding the £10 upper limit on ride & track ticket prices there is an upper limit to the amount that can be charged for any attraction. Guests may enter the queue for them but they won't pay to board rides that are too expensive. Attractions with outrageously high prices will result in abandoned queues. Our method of getting the best prices for our rides can be seen here.

We should aim to earn as much as is reasonable on any ride because a price that is too low will increase the amount of time it will take for that ride to make our park the same amount of profit as a higher admission price would have done - provided that our park guests continue to ride at those higher prices. However, even after taking the time to determine any ride's ideal ticket price, sometimes a few of the rides in our new park won't start out making our park a profit, a situation that usually remedies itself after our park has been operated for a few seasons.

Transport Rides

Guests see all tracks as rides and this includes the transport rides. Our park visitors won't use shuttle trains and elevators the same way we'd use them in real life.

One should always include paths and not rely on transport rides alone to get guests from one part of our park to another because the guests who choose not to ride the transport ride in such parks will remain isolated in that area of the park in which they find themselves.

Ride Distribution

In new parks, RCT3 guest AI responds pretty well to park layouts where the big ‘star’ rides of the park are further into it and with gentler rides near the entrance. Whichever way we've arranged it our guests will eventually get a feel for our individual park layout so this becomes less of an issue the longer our park is in operation.

Negative Path Throughflow

When guests spend time walking the wrong way up exit paths, this is considered to be negative throughflow. Fossil's tutorial shows why this happens. To remedy this we may either place one or more no entry signs along the offending exit path, or demolish and then re-build the exit path in another direction.

Another example of negative path throughflow is a throughway path that isn't being used. If we've added a beautifully scenic area in our park within which there are no stalls or attractions, and it happens that this area is not on the way to any stall or attraction elsewhere in our park. Guest AI prevents our guests walking through our scenic area if there are other more direct routes to the stalls and attractions they need. To get guests to access the seclusion of our scenic area we'd need to place a few stalls and attractions thereabouts. If we feel that adding stalls and attractions to our secluded area defeats the purpose of seclusion we may alternatively use no entry signs to give the appearance that guests are walking through our quiet area so they may enjoy the view there.

Adjusting Cul de Sacs

If we've settled on an particular arrangement of building paths and then later change the location of our park entrance, in line with Fossil's tutorial we will then need to reconsider the direction in which each of our offset paths turn left or right in relation to the new position of the park entrance. Our slideshow here illustrates this. Making such adjustments will probably be inconvenient in a park in which we've already placed some of the rides and attractions so early on in creating your park's layout do make sure your park entrance is where you need it to be.

Additional Considerations

Negative Cash Outflow

Simply put, guests who have no cash aren't carrying any to spend in our parks. They'll soon go home if they've run out of cash and can't conveniently access ATM's so they can withdraw more. It is better to have ATM's about the park that are seldom used than to have guests needing ATM's that aren't there or which have been placed insufficiently about the park. Guests who can access ATM's will extend their park visit rather than terminate it early because they've spent all their money.

Untidy, Unsafe Surroundings

Our park staff are our front-line defense in preventing our park guests from feeling uncertain about their safety in a littered, messy, unreliably maintained environment. We should ensure from the start that our parks are amply provided with staff so that our visitors don't experience a carelessly managed park visit. Our park staff will ensure that our park guests have a fun visit in our fun park.

Sufficient Stalls And Facilities

When guests won't ride our rides or otherwise use our RCT3 park as we'd like it's usually due to our parks not providing the basics for our guests which results in hordes of guests roving our parks trying to fulfil needs that can't be met, e.g., guests are hungry & thirsty but the park lacks or has insufficient food & drink stalls. Such guests will continue to ignore our rides until they are fed and watered.

Our parks benefit when tired or nauseous guests can easily access benches. Guests comfort and happiness is aided when sufficient sun crème stalls are placed about in bright, sunny parks. Well fed guests who are not thirsty will be the result of placing enough food & drink stalls, and it's always a good strategy to place plenty of toilets throughout our park.

The Importance Of Being Satisfied

The last type of guest we want in our park is one who is hungry, thirsty, tired, nauseous, sunburned, feels unsafe, is offended at the state of our paths, is moaning about the lack of rides, encounters expensive rides, waits too long in queues, is queuing in the rain because umbrellas are too expensive, is desperate for a pee, is out of money, and is experiencing this all at the same time. The potential is always there for each of our guests to end up having this sort of park visit so we need to prevent this by doing our very best to ensure that their needs are met.

About 30 guests will feel adequately served and catered to by each stall in our park. If we find there are 30 or more guests all heading for the same stall, or observe that more than a few of those guests are complaining about how busy a particular stall is, it’s a good idea to increase the capacity for that stall type in that area of our park. If we expect up to 1,000 guests in our park, so that those park guests may feel adequately attended to we should have a minimum of 30 stalls placed about that park.

It is easy to build a park in which guests are adequately fed while at the same time it remains a mystery as to why they're always thirsty. Many gamers are unaware that the ideal proportion of drinks stalls to food stalls is two to one. Therefore, to make up the 30 stall minimum required in our park for our 1,000 guests we'd want to place at least 10 food stalls and 20 drink stalls.

Do remember that from the guest's viewpoint tracks and rides are a pleasure and stalls & facilities are a necessity so our park guests will prioritize finding stalls & facilities. Insufficient tracks & rides will result in guest comments about the lack of rides and in guests who leave our park earlier than they might otherwise have. Inflated admission prices in addition to insufficient tracks & rides being built will result in our park being levied a "Worst Value" fine if the number of tracks and rides in our park isn't accurately reflected in the amount we've charged to get our guests through the park gate.

Attraction Access

Because guest AI isn't good at making decisions, each queue entrance, stall, and facility should be placed on its own path tile. Two queues beginning off the same path tile will result in both attractions being ignored while two stalls accessing the same path tile will get our guests glitched up in an endless loop of walking from one stall to the other. We demonstrate the method used to stack several stalls in the same spot here.

If your guest decides he's going to queue for a ride that's across the park, chained intersections en route will make it less likely that he'll actually reach that attraction without being distracted by something else in your park.

Too Little Too Late

When a guest or group of guests decides it is time to leave our park, their decision is final and will not change. They will head for the exit and will no longer look for rides & tracks or stalls & facilities even if we place these items along the path they that are walking along to exit our park.

Likewise, if we close our park, change our mind about closing it, and then re-open our park, our guests will continue to go home as if the park is still closed.

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To design our parks effectively we need to consider our path layouts & set up our attractions in ways that operate productively and profitably. Following these park design basics will put us well on our way towards managing a successful park that's thoroughly enjoyed by our park visitors in addition to giving us pride as park builders and managers.