User Guide

Most mild rides do not involve custom design, and they tend to take up less space than the more
intense attractions. They rarely make guests sick, so you can build them near food service stalls
without worry.
Design Tips
• Elevated rides allow your guests to see other rides and areas of the park, which can spark
interest in visiting them.
• Covered rides are more popular when it’s raining.
• Rides that provide music often add to the atmosphere of the park, cheering nearby guests.
Roller Coasters
It will come as no surprise to you that the roller coasters are the primary
attraction in most parks. Coasters come in many types, starting with the old-
style wooden tracks and progressing through steel to the newer inverted,
hanging, standing, corkscrew, single rail, and many other bizarre
permutations. What all of them have in common is that they strive to provide
a hair-raising experience, but also walk that fine line between exhilaration
and discomfort (or terror). A ride that is too intense gets no riders.
For every different type of roller coaster, there is at least one standard design. You can also,
of course, create a custom coaster. (Please refer to the Building a Custom Ride section for
the details on constructing one of these.) Whichever you choose, be prepared to use quite a
lot of space and spend a significant amount of your funds constructing the track. Each roller
coaster is a big draw and will likely bring you profit in time, but you pay up front for the
opportunity to add it to your park. When using a standard design, you can watch the information
in the Construction window as you position the ride; the price of construction is constantly updated
to reflect the cost of building the coaster exactly where the footprint marker stands. (If there is
no price listed, you cannot build the ride at the present location.)
Coaster Design Previews
For all of the standard designs, you can take a look at what the completed roller coaster will
look like–before you build it. In the roller coaster Design Selection window, select one of the
standard designs, then click on the Show Track button (the camera) to see the preview.
Even though you can save your roller coaster designs, these saved construction plans do not have
preview pictures associated with them.
Because roller coasters are such popular rides, you should be prepared for crowds–especially
when you first open a new track. Build a longer queuing line than you would for a less thrilling
ride; it will fill up faster than you think.
Roller coasters are also complex pieces of machinery, and the more complex a ride is, the more
often it will break down. Make sure that you have Mechanics in your employ to inspect and repair
your coasters. If a ride begins to break down more often than you
like, you can schedule inspections more frequently. That usually
prevents problems, but as a roller coaster ages, it will deteriorate
gradually until it is no longer safe to operate.
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Design Tips
• Roller coasters are very expensive, but provide good profit over a long period. Price them
high when new, then gradually decrease the admission over time to keep the ride
reasonably popular and profitable.
• Coasters are high-intensity, sometimes nausea-inducing rides. It’s not wise to build them
too near the food stalls, and providing benches and bathrooms near the Exit is always a
good idea.
• Riding less intense rides near a coaster can often help guests get up the nerve to ride the
more extreme attraction. Consider surrounding a roller coaster with less exciting rides.
• Scenery and theme items placed near the track can add to the intensity of a ride,
especially when you create the illusion of an impending collision. Tracks that cross over
or under other parts of your park–footpaths, terrain, other rides, and such–are also
more exciting.
• Dropped food is not the only threat to the tidiness of your park. Handymen also deal with
the after-effects of ride-induced nausea. Keep enough on staff, or your park paths could
become quite disgusting.
• Most roller coasters are not popular when it’s raining.
Thrill Rides
In the excitement department, this is next step up from mild rides. Despite
their name, “thrill” rides are generally far less intense than even the tamest
roller coasters. Still, these attractions offer a good medium
point–exhilarating enough for most guests without being extreme enough to
scare them.
Thrill rides generally do not involve custom design, and most of them take up relatively little space in
your park. On the down side, many thrill rides seem to lose their novelty more quickly than other types.
Design Tips
• Guests sometimes need to sit down somewhere after an exciting ride. Consider providing
benches on the path near the Exit from a thrill ride.
• Some of these rides have a significant nausea factor. Take that into consideration when
placing food stalls and toilets.
• When a ride loses its novelty and ceases to make a profit, try lowering the price or
advertising for the ride. If that doesn’t work (or seems too expensive to be worth the effort),
think about demolishing the ride. If you then build a similar ride in a different area of the
park, you can sometimes regain the interest of your guests.
Water Rides
The thrill of riding on fast moving water
predates even the earliest amusement parks.
Confined and controlled, rushing water can
provide your guests with a spine tingling, yet
totally safe experience. In hot weather, they also
get a welcome chance to cool off.
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