User Guide

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your next step is to determine the way you want this attraction to be run
— the operating procedure. The features included under the various tabs
in the Ride window give you complete control over your new ride. (Note
that not all of the tabs listed here appear for every type of ride. You’ll see
only the relevant ones.)
The Vehicle Options tab is where you control the “cars” (a general
term that includes all ride vehicles) on the ride. What options you
have depends on the characteristics of the specific ride, but you’re likely to
be able to change the type of car on the ride (if you have more than one
option, that is), determine the number of cars or trains of cars, and set the
number of cars per train.
You determine exactly how the ride operates using the Operation
Options tab. What options and information are provided depends
on the type of ride you’ve built. Most of the functions are toggling check-
boxes with which you simply turn features on and off. Others are pull-
down boxes in which you make one selection from the available choices.
One of the most important options controls how often the track is to be
inspected.
The Color Scheme tab provides tools that let you customize the
colors of all the parts of the ride. As usual, the options depend on
the characteristics of the specific ride.
The Income and Costs tab is where you set the price of admission
to the ride and view important financial data such as income, oper-
ating costs, and overall profit or loss. Of course, some of this data is not
available until the ride has been open for a while.
♦ Click the green light (in the View tab of the Ride window) when you’re
ready to open the ride.
Characteristics of the Ride
After you’ve run a successful test of your ride, you can get a complete
report on the important characteristics of the experience. While most of
these statistics are fairly clear and self-explanatory, there are a few that
might seem a bit subjective. The ratings that need explication are among
those with the greatest effect on your guests’ decisions whether or not to
ride, so let’s get to them.
Excitement — The excitement factor of each ride is rated on a scale from
violation of the safety code to build intersections, so you cannot have the
track cross itself at the same level.
♦ With the exception of rides that have a shuttle mode (they go back and
forth between end stations on a single line), every track must form a
closed loop — the last section must connect to the first section. The height
marks visible on every section of track help you to line things up. (If
they’re not visible, use the Height Marks on Ride Tracks option on the
View Options menu to make them visible.)
Operations
When the design and con-
struction of your custom ride
are done, it’s time for the
moment of truth — the test
run. This “shakedown cruise”
serves two purposes. First of
all, it shows whether or not
the ride runs as it should.
This is not a foregone conclu-
sion for gravity rides; if you
don’t provide enough down-
hills to compensate for your
uphills, the train can stall part
of the way through. The other
purpose for testing is to determine the important characteristics of the
ride — excitement, intensity, and nausea factor. These are important clues
that can tell you that you need to modify the design or lead to a correct
price for admission to the attraction.
♦ When you’ve finished the track and placed all of the necessary
Entrances and Exits, the Ride window for your custom ride opens.
♦ Click the amber light to begin the ride test run.
Select the tab with the pocket watch to see the Measurements and
Test Data display.
At first, there is no information in this display. When the test run is com-
plete (assuming the train makes it), the missing data is filled in. If the
track design is functional and its running characteristics are reasonable,
Entrances and Exits
Once the track itself is complete, you must
position and build an Entrance and an Exit,
just as for any other ride. Unlike other
rides, however, only you can decide when a
custom design is finished. Therefore, the
Entrance button is not activated for
you as it is for placed rides.
Position the Entrance and Exit
adjacent to the Station Platform.
Remember that you must place both
an Entrance and an Exit — and their associ-
ated paths — at every station on the track.
Building a Custom RideBuilding a Custom Ride
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