User Guide

Land
It’s inevitable; you will need to adjust land formations to better suit the rides
and attractions you want to build. The tools in the Land box allow you to do just
that–modify both the height and slope of the land in your park.
When you’re using the land adjustment features, the mouse cursor becomes a
source of information.
When you see the shovel
cursor, you’re able to raise
and lower areas of land.
If you hold the cursor near the centre of the area you want to modify,
the entire border of the square is highlighted. When this is the case,
you can click and hold the mouse button down while you move the
mouse up to raise or down to lower the entire area. Release the
mouse button when you’re done.
When you’re working with a single land square, you can adjust each
corner of the land separately. (This is how you affect slope.) If you
position the mouse pointer near a corner of the square, that corner is
highlighted. At this point, you can click and hold the mouse button
down while you move the mouse up to raise or down to lower only
that corner of the land. The slope of the square changes to adapt to
your modification. Release the mouse button when you’re done.
Digging Costs
Keep in mind that adjusting the land, especially large-scale projects, can
become costly very quickly. This is especially true because (unlike
footpaths), you do not receive money back for returning land to its original
form! You always pay for any alteration to the land, no matter what the
situation. Plan ahead before you start digging.
If you tire of adjusting land squares one at a time, you can use the Area of Effect
controls at the top of the Land box to enlarge the area of land you’re working
with. The size you’re presently working with is indicated by the span of the grid
in this little window. The buttons in the corners change this area, and the grid
adjusts to keep track.
Click the Plus button to increase the
size of the land area you’re adjusting.
You can enlarge the scope of your changes
to a 5x5 (25 squares) area.
The Minus button decreases the area you’re
working with. There’s one exception; if you click this button to
decrease the size below the default one-grid square, you get a
5x5 dotted grid with a highlighted square at its centre. This
special feature allows you to create sloped land formations.
Note that when you raise or lower a large area, the lowest parcels
rise (and the highest drop) first, until every square is on the same
level. Then, the area moves as a whole. Also keep in mind that
when you’re working with more than one land square at a time, you
cannot adjust corners.
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The Slope Feature
You can grab a single land square, raise it or lower it, and drag all the adjoining land along
with it. This is how you create sloped land formations–otherwise known as hills and valleys.
• When the Land box is open, click the Minus button to decrease the area of land you’re
working with one step smaller than the default single square.
• Position the mouse cursor to choose a square, just as usual.
• Click and drag to raise or lower that square, as usual.
• As you change the height of that centre square, the surrounding land is pulled along with it.
Remember that when you create a slope in this way, you are not only adjusting the height of
the selected land square. You pay for the change in all of the land you’re moving. This can
be extremely expensive if you’re not careful!
There are two groups of buttons in the Land box. You use these to change the appearance of the
top surfaces and exposed vertical edges of the land formations you select. Each of these buttons
toggles on and off, but they are exclusive within each group–you can only activate one at a time
for each group. If none of the appearance buttons is selected, whatever land you select and modify
retains the appearance it has; there is no change other than any height adjustment you make.
The upper group controls the appearance of the land surface. Whichever of these textures you
have active is the “default” texture as long as the Land box remains open. Whenever you click
on an area of land, you resurface it with the active texture. This occurs whether or not you
change the height of the land.
Grass has your workmen place grassy sod on the selected land.
Sand orders the land covered with light sand.
Dirt leaves the dark brown dirt beneath the land showing.
Rock covers the surface with low, irregular, grey rock formations.
The lower group changes the appearance of the exposed vertical edges of land formations–the
places where the slope of the land does not meet the surrounding ground. These function in the
same way as the surface texture buttons.
Rock Edges produce chiselled brown rock bulwarks.
Brick Edge covers the gaps with brick-like dry stone barriers.
Rusty Iron Edge edges resemble aged iron breast-wall.
Wooden Edge builds wooden retaining walls.
The vertical edge buttons are also useful for changing the vertical
edge textures around pools of water.
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