A-Kid
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Posts posted by A-Kid
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I was sitting around the other day and I thought, what could I stick on X / Arena / Ranger Country's site that has good capacity, is really thrilling, provides green space, allows room for other attractions, makes Slammer fit in and is marketable? Of Course! An Intamin Blitz coaster. Came up with a layout scaled to the area and it didn't fit. My second layout did fit, but the capacity was ****. So... I came up with this. The third layout.
90 second ride. It starts with a LSM launch-lift at 19MPH, then a 90-95degree drop, tight turns, airtime hill, a unique (only 2 others in the world) Norwegian loop, followed by a stop for a 50MPH launch, furious baco style drop down into a tight turn followed by a double stengel dive kinda thing, floater airhill ready to twist around for the final brakes.You will partly duel with another train on the track. Like Maverick, 2 stations. (2 onloads) to make loading as if you have a 24 (12 + 12) train. There are 5, 12 person trains on the track. With a through-put of 1440pph MAX with a 45 second dispatch and 20 second period of moving 4 trains in the station area. Better than anything at the park currently, though realistic is about 1200pph.THEME:The theme is quite loose. It's a modern day take on an Old West theme to merge easily with the closer half of Canada and not to clash with Calypso drastically. You are the "Final Frontier". Each train represents a native american tribe, Choctaw, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Seminole & Muscogee.
It would have a tracklist for the area (BLUE) and a tracklist for the Queue (GREEN). The yellow is the music flooding in other areas.BLUE:The Good The Bad And The Ugly - Ennio MorriconeA few dollars more - Ennio MorriconeFarewell To Cheyenne - Ennio Morricone (Faster Tempo)The Big Country - The Ghost Rider OrchestraMagnificent Seven - The Ghost Rider OrchestraApache - The shadowsGREEN:Bluegrass - Paradise CityAmerica - Horse With No NameTaylor Swift - Forever & AlwaysTaylor Swift - ChangeDallasDenim & Demons - Marc daine and the Jazz CowboysBonanza - The Ghost Rider OrchestraBlues Brothers - Ghostriders in the SkyReindeer Games - Marc daine and the Jazz CowboysChris Ledoux & Charlie Daniels - Even Cowboys like a little rock 'n' rollRawhide - Frankie LaineTennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen TonsShania Twain - Man! I feel like a WomanTaylor Swift - White HorseEnnio Morricone - Aces HighCreedence Clearwater Revival - Green RiverSpiderbait - Black BettyMule Train - Frankie LaineTom Petty - Runnin' Down a DreamLynyrd Skynyrd - Free BirdFoghat - Slow RideJohnny Cash - ThirteenFor a badly edited loop of this for the shear hell of it: http://mfi.re/?iynnoj0mmzzhn3iQuite a variety of Country/Western/Rock there to make the queue...FUN! ;)Basically the black areas with coloured dots are compost/small plants. The bright grey is solid concrete to brighten up the place. Most other areas are tree covered or some sort of greenary. The brown is rock/ themeing in general. The queue house building would have 3 bass boxes in the roof to make an exciting musical atmosphere. The cheif rangers in now in octopus gardens in order to spread family rides around a bit, instead of being in one area. You may also notice X's ride area has become a new arena for a daily show/or other event action. This is in order to create a balance between rides and other attractions, also the family/thrill balance. There would be a sound barrier between Colossus and this due to close proximity.I'll post a video at some point of the ride, maybe. -
I think they should give up with the cannons if they arn't going to work. Get 3 of these to replace them:http://pro.bose.com/ProController?url=/pro/products/panaray/panaray502b.jsp
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^ It is quite nice up there. I was up at J&J last weekend at sunset. Noticed Jack has lost one of its blades!Went up ditchling beacon at about 3am for an event a few weeks ago too. So quiet and peacefull at night up there. Its nice. I live right below Chanctonbury Ring a few hills across, so I probally take that view for granted a bit too much probally!
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I was just appalled it was sprayed at the moving rides... Not fun getting sticky stuff in the face moving at speed, potentially getting it in someones eye, blinding them.With all the effort that is used to create and maintain the scenery around the park, I think its a tad disrespectful to the artists that have worked there arse off putting it all together, just for some penis to spray **** all over it.
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I think it should stay. Its great for 'young thrill seekers'. Its fun and its a nice change from the main thrill rides.
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MTDP
in The Future
The shaping of there basic drawing just to cover the space is just lol.ftp://planning.runnymede.gov.uk/planning_applications/Plan_apps_wk26_2010/RU10-0579.DCELEVXXX.001.pdfAnyway, the noise assesment was done on Inferno and Stealth if that suggests anything like scale/type. So I guess that makes a Beemer a likely choice for one coaster, being that it would have a similar noise impact to Inferno ... if its anything to go by.
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^^ Thats the main reason I think they could combine a tracklist (NOT todays chart list) with theme music. I believe it will give the park a new atmosphere that its desperate for. Canada is just a tracklist of country songs, Amity is a tracklist (with inserts, ads obviously) of 50's and 60's songs and you could argue that these areas have the best atmosphere's on the park. Pathways will need the theme tunes to set the feel and theme up on approach. Its not crutial that its anymore than ambient because the guest isn't static and is on a journey to wherever on park. It does have to have an impact though, like Colossus'. But the queue music in a park like Thorpe just needs to be as entertaining as possible where guests are static and bored stiff, waiting. At the end of the day, barly anyone in that queue gives a toss about setting a mood. They just want to get on the ride. They want the time to pass as quickly as possible because queues arn't very fun. Tbh, I hate the way most of the themes are geared to be intimidating. It makes the atmosphere overall dam well depressing. I think thats why Amity/CC work well. They are family friendly areas, that are not intimidating. They are kind of touge-in-cheek cheesy and have a 'feel good' factor to them. Even if the park is a thrill park, your audience is still partly family's with the intent on riding thrill rides. A family 'feel good' factor park wide would be by far better. My main concerns with music is that part on the front side of Pizza Hut. Its a dead area full of guest noise. Something needs to cover there. That old central area theme tune could work. Something tropical. I'd love Dets theme to be back to the old one where it blasted out and was awesome. It was more cheesy than a cillit bang advert, but yeah awesome! It used to fill the area nicely too. Entering Ranger Country from Amity is like a giant dead spot. The first section of Canada by the toilet is dead too.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0IqNAfF4uoYeah the video is crap quality, but the audio is reasonable. Watch from about 2 mins in. I really wish the ambient theme was back in the building and they would make use of those bass speakers to their full potential again. It was actually a little creepy back then :PBtw you can clearly tell from this video its not the outside track being heard from inside. The jigsaw ann. at about 3 mins cuts it out.
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In its first few weeks (last year) they had a version of the outside queue ambient theme in the internal queue, just without the random radio calls. I remember it well as it was the time where all the audio was so loud, you could hear it clearly from the car park. Jigsaws voice was rather powerful. I don't think I've heard it so grand ever since that time. I actually don't remember hearing it after the audio was turned down...Its nice to hear the blades are back up then.
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For a ride thats one year old I'd expect everything to be working. The blades have been dead for a few of my visits now. The audio in the internal Saw queue is nothing like it was in its first month. The ambient theme is gone from there which originally had a major effect on the feel of that tin walkway and the ride audio is out of sync. The cop car lights are dead. OK that was caused by something out of their control, but still. The sign lights are off. I became an enthusiast in the great years of Tussauds. The time we had Hex, Amity and Colossus as the new set of attractions. Was also the time where nearly everything at Thorpe looked grand (yeah once upon a time...). Quality has died right off and its noticable. Its all about profits now. Absolutley no quality. Ok its an organisation/ industry built around money making, but we have lost the experience of a theme park somewhere along the line. I feel the balance between revenue and experience have tipped. Which is a shame because now we can just watch every other park in the world take a great leap infront of the UK. Th13teen and Saw are both half arsed rides with no real quality thought it feels. Really. Both rides and theme's done on the cheapest method possible. Saw, a cheap and nasty eurofighter with a brand, so it was easy. Th13teen a cheap family mine train with a pretty building. Both worth around 6 million for the ride system (by itself). I can appreciate the fact that the SW6 project tryed something new. But, a mine train? Come on. Its not designed to do what you are trying. It had design flaws obviously with the first half and thus trims were added. And you can't rely on Marketing entirely to pull a thrill out the project. It will not have the value of say Nemesis (a quality product) down the line as a favourite ride. A Eurofighter is a family coaster. It isn't really designed to do everything a 13 mill B&M/Intamin would do ether. And its full of design faults. Those rides are evidence that they are trying to cut drastic corners, thinking they can do the same quality experince with the cheaper option. And nether have worked worked because they have problems afterwards. The buy-out by Merlin would have only effected the budgets and the finantial side of things. Possibly the mission of the company aswell. Its still mostly the same people as Tussauds. Merlin want to be a world leading entertainments company. They are going to need to open their wallets, stop being tight arses, and spend out on quality attractions if they want to top Disney. People in the UK almost expect our parks to be crap compared to say Disney or Universal from what I have heard listerning in on conversations. Heres the question Merlin. Why don't you take advantage of that attitude? We just typically find anything the UK do as "oh it will be crap because this is britain". It would take less messing about trying to shoe-horn a family ride as a thril ride. If you 'wow' people they will return and you will get good press naturally. WTF have I just blurted out again...
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Yeah thats normal. Its been doing that more this year with the new pistons. Well the engineer said it had new pistons to improve the reliability anyway. I think what you're seeing is just the compressed air. It tends to look more like steam under pressure.
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Love the 80's disco hall idea :unsure:I had a thought similar where the queue grid could have underfloor multi coloured lights with disco lights in the roof also. Have the pounding 80's tunes aswell obviously
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Theme music adds absolutely NOTHING to the queues with this style of park.The atmosphere is by far better when they have a tracklist at Thorpe. Its suits its modern day amusment park atmosphere. BUT its got to be the right songs, not a general top 10. Theming is only styling at Thorpe. Its not ment to be immersive. You have Amity, but that was back in the themed times. Modern rides like Saw, Slammer or Rush only have a brief and basic element of theming. It should no longer be classed as a "Theme" park. It should be classed as an american style 'amusment' park where the rides are the dominant features and the theme is just to make it look pretty. The queues would be better off with pounding loud tracklists that is slightly towards the theme and have the theme music in the areas and pathways and stations. They really need to chose there route in the future tbh. Go on fully with whatever style park they want to be, otherwise it will be like the wierd mish-mash that they have now, but forever onwards. Atmosphere is the main thing Thorpe struggles with.
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One of the ceiling fans were letting in alot of light yesturday. Right above the rolling ball in the picture above.
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I suppose I should stick this in here as it was originally a Thorpe trip that turned into a merge in of Chessie aswell.Stealth x1 (1F)Inferno x2 (1F)Loggers x1Slammer x1Colossus x1Saw x1Saw Alive x1Rush x1Lorikeets x1New African area x1Dragons Fury x1Rattlesnake x1Mine Train x1Buccy x1Vampire x1Tomb Blaster x117 attractions. Both parks were wildly busy. I can't enjoy a busy Thorpe as we will always end up on Fish or wandering aimlessly. So 15 min journey east ;)Most queues ranging from 30 - 90 mins (Vamps with a 130min at one point on the sign? haha) in both parks it seemed. Suprisingly managed to have a good day. I like the new lights in Vampire, though they are going to take a while to get used to as I've always known it with the green and purple feel. The red dominates the room a bit, but the blue helps fix that I suppose. Music was really loud. The DJ outside Stealth was a bit crap though. Didn't merge tracks perfectly and 4 speakers dosen't really cover the area very well. But a nice change in tunes for the summer feel. Was a bit annoyed that someone left the inside ride area door on Saw open.... You could see everything which was wierd as it looks like X\: in the light. Weired seeing that concrete hole you fall into! No swinging blades ether. Good side was that I had a fairly smooth run on it for once this year. Nice to see some familiar faces aswell!
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My problem with the theming is its completely uninvolved with the queue untill the station. The ride is barely involved with any theming ether. The ride is rather confusing. Its great having a crypt (or a old building, as you don't actually see the crypt!), but they gave it no meaning, so therefore you will not be nervous nor happy or show any emotion when greeted by it. You see the wraiths. Are they evil? Are they angels? Monks? Dead/Ghosts? Are they saving you from something or trying to kill you? Etc. They need to put each feature into context. Oh and you can see the shed out the back! A big grey box poping out the back of a themed front... yeah ok. Fine. Oh and also the evacuation point signs? Haha. Full-on Theme Parks are ment to be like walking into a film set. I don't expect to see a lighting rig or a studio poping into shot. I expect the plot/story to be explained in some sort of convention. It doesn't need to be blared in your face, but with suttle hints or objects. I personally feel this ride would of worked better if you had the crypt first. You would of instantly felt as if you were in danger falling into the crypt. By itself, seeing the wraiths there and then may inply that they are dangerous after the anticipation and fear created by the drop. Riders would of been more aware and have the expectation that something would make them jump. You finish the backward section, but would still be inside a building in a show room (while the transfers change). The wraiths could suround you. The riders have a kind of "cry wolf" sense now. They are expecting something to happen due to the wraiths being around. The girl could then appear to help you escape. You would then fly faward in attempt to escape (following the girl), into the woods. You are swooping about all over the place in order to loose the "villans". You arrive in the brake run, back up in the ride station with a quick message from the girl saying "well done, we escaped, untill next time...bye". The guest would then have left the ride with the satisfaction of succeeding a mission/scary event. I made that up off the top of my head and it already sounded like a better ride, purely based on peoples general reactions.
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Well a Saturday approaching the summer season has the potential to be very busy. I would say that Colossus/Saw will have plus 1 hour queues by lunchtime.To make the most of the day I suggest you do Saw last thing and queue for it after hours (get to it about 15mins before closing) because that queue will have the biggest impact on the day. Get Inferno, Stealth and Det out the way early. There queues are always minimal in the morning (depending if they open on time). Then get to Loggers and Slammer to avoid their annoying queue lengths.
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Haha, it actually still hurts slightly. Theres like a small inprint of the post cap on my leg!
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I was with Benin and a few others today.Was a fantastic day. I didn't find it busy at all concidering its a saturday and baking hot. I don't think we really waited more than 15 - 20mins for anything. Full of good stuff, just like having a photo with two meerkats at the begining! Me walking into a bollard, castrating myself and cracking my kneecap. At the end though a ride op fell over badly at Fury, and my mother stopped to help her (we were on the ride at the time) and stayed with her untill a St Johns person came. He insisted on getting my mother another go on Fury, but she didn't feel like it, so he got us an extra spin on fury after the queue was finished. So I'd like to thank him again for that. Yeah, Tomb Blasters batching was rediculous and slowed the queue dramatically. Thats my only moan for today. Lorikeets were a bit anti-people today, but theres nothing you can do about that really. Staff were generally fantastic today, full of energy, hyping the rides up. So credit to them. RC:Fury x4Vampire x2Kobra x1Lorikeets x1Rammy x1Tomb x1RattleSnake x1Runaway train x1Spike and the Missing Griffin Show - 1 Buccy x1Bubbles x1Thanks to those who came.
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Gerstlauer were obviously high on crack when they formed Saw's trackwork. Its like they beat it with a hammer to form corners. There are so many flat spots in the 'curves' of the track its rediculous, which in turn causes a bounce effect. Add 4 or so G's on that and a car going about 55mph and you get a horrible brain shaker. It isn't going to age very well being near that lake ether. The last ride I had on it was on my own. Now the first time I rode a car to myself, it was very smooth. Now it rattles like hell.
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You have to go into the village and access via the place in the pic below:
Or the other end... but I don't know that route. -
If I had my way with Vamps, I'd:- Re-route the queue back through the original entrance. Much more grand and welcoming. - Get the track/support/steelwork colours back to its good old self. Its not so much for theme purposes, more presentation. - Re-colour the trains to something dark. Purple contrasts greatly. - Add rockary instead of queue fences, slightly burried into the ground for the last section of the queue. Maybe even put some of it in tunnels. Bats live in caves or dark places, so I would like to add some of that darkness to the experince. - SFX? Vampire doesn't have an area/queue theme although it manages to generate a reasonable atmosphere without it. Through the graveyard section at the beginning you could have ambient cricket/bat sounds. Maybe windchimes in the trees. You go past it quickly, so it can't be tedious of boring to hear (like Saw's queue theme). - Place a few more pines arond the station warehouse to hide it a tad more. I think that would do it. Probally a big ask though for little gain.
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I don't get why people won't ride at the back. Its smoother than the middle of the train where you get shuffles. At the very front or near back, you miss the major shuffle. You get much smoother rides in rows, 1, 3, 11, 13 (front of cars). Avoiding wheel/back of car seats. For all Intamins with snappy transitions, move your head in the direction the track moves and put your arms up and you can limit headbanging/neck chopping you may get. Thats my tip anyway, that seems to work.
Park Theming & Effects
in General Discussion
Posted