JoshC.

I believe that SW7 will feature a 100ft / 30m drop. Both the minisite and a press release from last year say 'Maximum Drop - 30m'. This can easily be achieved by digging, having the lift and drop on a slanted piece of land and so forth. I believe the maximum height of this is about the same height as Oblivion (so around 60ft I believe). Isn't Oblivion's drop something like 180ft as well, so I can't imagine it would be too difficult to achieve this slated 100ft drop.

I wouldn't say it's unlikely. The Swarm are an alien races that are attacking humans - they aren't going to stick to a tiny little island. They can spread, attack elsewhere. If X were to be rethemed to Swarm, it could easily be explained by a video. It could even be themed to a labratory that has captured a Swarm creature, but then it escapes, and you chase it or something. Just because they're not next to each other, it doesn't make it impossible. However, if X gets rethemed, I hope we don't get the typical 'scary dark ride'. I would much rather have a nice, fun upbeat theme - something which Thorpe lacks, and something which would suit the ride itself.

Whilst this entry may seem technically coaster related (and, in a way, is), the core idea about the blog isn't, so I'm giving this blog a bit more love... For my university course, one module I've had to take is Geometry and Motion, with the key element of the module being to learn about curves. Each week, we're given assignments (which count towards our final grade) which consists of multiple questions. In last week's assignment, the final question was this: Simply put, we were asked to sketch out a line representing a roller coaster, and give equations for the various segments. This had to be shown in 3D on the paper; basically show where the 'track' goes behind / in front of itself. There was no need for it to make mechanical sense / being realistic in any other way, as the point of the question was to have the roller coaster lines as an equation in terms of time (so that at any given time, it would show the 'coordinates' of where the track would be). Of course, this doesn't have to be wholly difficult. In theory, the question can be answered by giving the equation of a vertical loop (due to the need for the 'fun feature') and then a circle to join itself back to the beginning (which, in terms of what we have been taught, is straightforward). This wasn't the general case, with many that I spoke to going for the idea of a lift and drop, with a spiral or two, vertical loop and some general straight lines to join it all together. Others went for a much more basic layout, but instead focused on a variety of different 3D sketches. "But where's the fun in that?" I thought to myself, when I was thinking about the assignment. Being interested in coasters as I am, to be able to do something like this should be great fun. Only having a week to do this, along with the other questions on the assignment and general life, I didn't spend that a lengthy period of time in roller coaster terms (as in, you can spend multiple hours in creating coasters in RCT or No Limits), but I probably spent about 8-9 hours during the week on the question. In terms of how long I would spend on other questions (or even whole assignments!) that is extremely large. Like with any 'creative' project I would do, I jotted down ideas quickly as they came into my head. Rough layouts, fun features, anything where I thought 'Oh, that would be great', I would jot it down as quickly as possible, maybe even draw quick sketches of what I had in mind. When it came to actually doing it though, it seemed as though I had been hugely over-ambitious, with a lot of ideas I had thought out just being too difficult to achieve in the set time period. Many fun elements I had considered, such as a variety of different elements, 'beyond-vertical' drops and such were more complicated to create equations for than originally anticipated. One thing which was feasible, however, were interlocking loops, inspired by the roller coaster 'Loch Ness Monster' at Busch Gardens Williamsburg. However, I decided to put my own little twist on it, and instead combine a vertical loop with a helix (which, in this case, was basically a horizontal loop, to have different 'fun elements'). I don't know if a roller coaster(s) in the world features an element similar to that, but I wouldn't be surprised either way. So then, I had my fun element, which was pretty much the key feature to the ride and the design. Combine that with a lift hill (pretty standard), a vertical drop (because that's so much easier than anything else!), airtime hill / 'bunny hop' and a couple of other bits and bobs to connect it all together and I had my coaster...visualised in my head. A few sketches later and I worked out how exactly it would look, and when the track went in front / behind itself. Now came the fun part - actually working out the equations of the coaster. Following the hint from the question, I split the 'track' into several different sections, thirteen in fact, to make it easier to create equations. Owing to the need to plot it onto a '3D graph', I started the track at the origin, and went from there. The beginning was relatively straightforward, basically being combined of multiple straight lines / easy curves, and due to the easy numbers, it wasn't difficult to 'stick' the curves together so that they were continuous. The first real challenge came in the creation of the 'loop de loop', as it needed to be of suitable height and width to allow for the helix to easily go through it later on. After lots of thought, and playing about with the Maths program Matlab, I eventually got there. A screenshot of the 'vertical loop' produced using Matlab, including the equations of the curve and the 3D graph produced. One thing which may be worth noting here is how the loop is circular. Whenever you look at roller coasters, these loops are by no means circular - all such loop de loops are actually clothoid loops; basically meaning the radius increases as you get further to the top of the loop. Whilst I originally tried to recreate this, it was a bit too difficult to achieve in the time period (the usual reason..) After a bit more playing about with equations, it got to the stage of the helix. This was much more challenging than expected, due to the need for the track to be carefully positioned before it started to ensure the actual equation for the helix, which was already somewhat scary-looking, was not even more complicated. Generally, it took a lot of hard work and thought procedure, and when I ended up creating it, I realised that the helix was going upwards, not downwards, making it the most mechanically inaccurate section in my opinion. But, it was there, and the mechanical sense was not a necessity, so I decided to leave it. A long straight section follows, which in real terms would probably consist of a twist or something, but minute details such as that could be left out for the sake of the question, as it would have added extra complexity to the equations. Basically, what I just said is that it's a straight line, but pretend it isn't.. This was then pretty much the end of the circuit. The numbers were getting more and more complicated, so a quick and simple finish was required really. Basically I wanted to scrap the evil-looking numbers and get it over with. Had I taken more care with the numbers earlier on and thought about the equations' knock on effects to later ones, I could have added in a spiral or something as a 'big finale', but alas, an easy finish it ended up being. So, a few straight lines to act as drops and curves, and we were done. So then, that's pretty much the roller coaster I designed. This isn't actually the final design, as the submitted one had markings for each section, to correspond to the given equation, and the section between the turnaround on the far right hand side and the helix should only be diagonal line (I drew it incorrectly in this sketch..). Hopefully once I get my assignment back sometime in the next week, I can scan up to finished sketch and the equations for anyone interested. As you have probably got from this, I had a real feel of designing something which was as mechanically accurate as possible, in the sense that if you were to build this, the train would make its way around the track. I think that the final design would be possible (though maybe with a bit of help from a quick launch mid-way through), so that's a positive. In second year, there is 'Second Year Essay' that needs to be done, which basically is a project around a section of Maths that is of interest to the person. If it is allowed, I would most certainly be interested in extending this idea further, to simply just use geometry and equations to design, or recreate, a roller coaster, which is mechanically accurate, safe to ride, and has equations / expressions to find things such as the speed, force, acceleration and so forth at any given point during the roller coaster. Any questions or comments would be greatly appreciated!

For goodness sake Alton Towers, stop doing such good marketing so regularly with this project! I am constantly on the edge of my seat over this project!!

Let's give this a try.. Huzzah - thanks Marc.

I believe that image is fake. It has a Facebook url, but does not appear on AT's Facebook page, nor on any of the 'major' AT fansites FB pages (by which I mean, Towers Street, Towers Nerd, and Towers Times). Would still like to know where it came from, nonetheless.

That is the point though, I believe. The introduction of these faces everywhere isn't meant to be seemingly linked with the park, or a ride, or anything. The point of this 'stage' of advertising is to put that logo out there, make people recognise the logo and such. A bit like subliminal messaging. Even if you don't take particular note of it, if you see it enough, you will recognise it when AT eventually link themselves to it. People not knowing about it is the beauty and cleverness of this. One thing which I saw on another which I really like the idea of is if the park set up a site / updated to minisite to be a webpage for The Ministry of Joy. Further create depth to the experience, as well as set up a back story and such, and it could all be done without necessarily being traced to AT. I could see that going down a treat.

I seem to pretty much not be able to post images at the moment? Particular culprits recently have been ones from Twitter. Any help?

This was posted on Alton Tower's Twitter page earlier. The logo at Covent Gardens (posted by TST member 'rightbackgranty') The logo at London Waterloo (posted by TST member 'CoasterDan'). IT. IS. EVERYWHERE. EDIT: Pictures sorted.

To me, that basically confirms the back two rows of Swarm going backwards. Looks like they can market it as 'You may have survived the initial assault, but any rebels who remain can feel the sting of the Swarm's tail as you ride it backwards!!' etc. It does seem as though the 3 clues have pointed towards Swarm, and nothing mentioned about X in my opinion.

I believe I remember someone saying it in Chat a while ago? Not too hard to believe when you think about it. It's what, £9 for an over 12 at the moment? When you consider how much a £9 pizza would cost at an ordinary Pizza Hut, and how much people would eat whilst there (no doubt people would eat less), and how it is constantly rammed in there, it seems plausible.

Then Mark and I are pretty much on the same page?! Though I wouldn't say that, whilt on the bridge, Storm Surge particularly ruins the view.. And also, it's not just being a student that's preventing me from visiting new parks, home or abroad. so yeah..

I don't particularly see what you're saying there as being blunt. Unfortunately, it is, at this stage difficult for me to go to new parks, for a variety of reasons, as you can appreciate. However, I do think you've missed my point a little here. My point focused solely on the bridge as a setting. You go through the turnstiles and then you're greeted by a bridge, with a huge dome structure in front of you, and rides just past that and to the side of you. As you cross that bridge and approach the island of rides, it is like entering somewhere completely different; the chance to be away from reality. The setting of the bridge is just purely fantastic and in my it is the best you can have. The points you made are slightly different. The gravel car park and ridiculous plaza area before the bridge, I totally agree, are not great. They don't set any tone and don't bring any excitement. However, as said, my point was focused on the bridge, as opposed to the entire entrance; likely me being a bit unclear there. As for what they've done with the bridge, with the selling of photopasses and drink capsules and such (in my personal experience though, I have only see those selling photopasses in recent years, with the drink capsules sellers more being around the dome), that is a good point you raise. It detracts from the rides, the experience, and isn't the greatest. Whilst I agree with what you're saying, I still don't think that takes anything away from what I was trying to say - the bridge helps create one of the best entrances you can have to a theme park. Unfortunately, what the park are doing with it is taking away from that. Maybe the fact I haven't visited many parks means that my opinion on the entrance is skewed somewhat. However, the setting of the park means that the necessary inclusion of a bridge has, quite possibly inadvertenly given the park one of the best types of entrances to a theme park you can have. With a spruce up of the entrance plaza and car park (in particular) as well as the dome, I think it would do the park wonders, and helps the entrance bridge reach its full potential.

If this is happening, I'd be interested to know if this was in Thorpe's grand scheme of things (seeinghow they always like riding high on their new coaster for two years), or if it is a quick panic job. I still don't get why this would happen though? If they've always wanted this to happen, then okay, fair enough - but I still don't quite know why they would think 'Oh, okay, let's reverse the direction of 2 rows of the train after a season, market it as a new twist..'. If it was to be a more 'panic move', I think that's even worse. Yeah, okay, last season wasn't great for Thorpe. But there could be a variety of reasons for this - the wet summer, the Olympics, double-dip recessions, etc. are all a variety of plausible possible reasons. Maybe restricting their target to young adults has started to catch up with them? Whatever the reason, it seems perculiar to think 'Well, we had a bad year, let's put it down to our new ride and add a new gimmick to it to make people come back'. That just seems desparate of them. With the Crash Pad, they seem to be expanded out to target 'up for it families', so maybe they are taking note that at the moment, solely targetting young adults isn't the best step forward yet. By the sounds of it, this back row job seems likely to be happening. Whilst I no doubt would ride it backwards if it were to happen (don't lie now - many people will think to themselves 'Oh, how different / better / worse would that ride be if it was facing the opposite direction?'), I'd still be perplexed as to why it would happen, or why they would even consider it.

Well, looks like I'm going against the general opinion, and say that this is perfect for the Crash Pad. First of all, lets think about the entrance bridge. It is one of the best entrances to a theme park you can have - you're going over water onto an island of rides, taking you away from reality, and you can see a good number of rides. You then have the Dome; a huge domineering structure which is again a great feature. As it is, those two things are perfect in my opinion. The bridge is basic so, in a way, it doesn't draw attention to itself - it is not meant to be a key focus. So, for the 'boardwalk' we are getting for the Crash Pad, what do you want? Do you want something amazing looking that draws attention to itself (ie - have a good sense of theming to it)? No, because then it makes people look at the bridge, and then the Crash Pad (and of course, we want as little attention on the Crash Pad as possible). So, you want something plain and simple, that blends in, and tries to disturb as little as possible. In other words, we want a nice quick bridge, that is the same style as the main entrance bridge, and we want it to blend in and feel as natural as possible. The way I see it, that's exactly what is going to happen. Granted, this will inevitably take away from the entrance a bit, and nothing of this project is ideal, but when push comes to shove, this is the best we could ever get from this project in my opinion.

You see, I was expecting something similar (well, the current Africa land being expanded into Forbidden Knigdom at least), and joining with Zufari to create a large African land. However, on Chessington's website, they class 'Zufari' as its own land. Will be interesting to see how the lands develop over the next few years though. As for the next major investment, 2016 looks likely. But then, that's what's rumoured for AT's next major development, and even Thorpe's. I dunno how exactly costs work at Merlin, but having 3 huge investments into those 3 parks (don't have a clue when Lego's is - isn't the next one 2014?), surely 2016 is going to be one expensive year for them..? Whenever Chessie's net major investment is though, I just hope we see something good added in the years between them..

If they turn part of the train backwards, they can just add backwards near misses! Simple! I just don't know what to think. This latest clue seems to point to the back 2 rows turning backwards. But then how on earth is that going to work out logisitically when queueing? Front row queue is a bit of a mess as it is, and that's all about queueing for a special row. SRQ was scrapped as well due to the complicated issues it could have. Maybe they'll get rid of the front row queue and sort it out like that? Maybe there could be an additional charge? Goodness knows. No matter how much thought gets put into this, I fear for how the queue system could work. Then there's the more sensible / logical idea that it just won't turn backwards and the park can just add extra theming, spruce up the park and market themselves as a place where you can get a variety of high quality experiences. That would help draw in the crowds.

I'd expect that the overall investment of Saw Alive, however, is greater than Storm Surge. Saw Alive - theming, repainting / redesign of a boat and actors = expensive. Storm Surge - Removal of OG. Moved from America to England = quite cheap. I'd be interested to know why you think Storm Surge was the 'medium investment' and Alive the 'small investment' though (not that either of them are particularly large..)

Think you're slightly confused there. The MTDP stated that between 2010-2016, they'd install up to 5 round rides, where there are a possible 9 locations. One of the rides was Storm Surge, so it's likely they'll install at most 4 more, though I wouldn't be surprised if we only see another two (at most) between now and 2016.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BAr1Y1FCUAADcy5.jpg:large (From CF's Twitter - not allowed to post it for some reason?) Just look at it!

I'd love to see it spread to adverts for Youtube videos. Is it possibe to have just have one which is just 5 seconds with a face with spinning eyes saying 'It's coming #getcorrected' or something similar - that would be a great online campaign. Would love to see it on buses as well though! Cannot wait to see where this leads. Geniunely looking forward to it!

I like the idea and think it is fairer. This transitional period means that people will have to even wait a little bit longer till they get their cup, or just buy one which lasts a few months, rather than 12 (and when you think about it, due to the way the parks are open, unless you use it loads at Warwick Castle, it's only really used March-November in the old system in a way anyways...). After that, like Fred says, this system is fine, and a lot better. I'm annoyed they haven't changed the design of the cups though. I had no end of problems with my last year... ¬¬

Don't be silly Benin - they're only changing the back two rows on one of the trains; just in case people want to ride the back row facing forward! But in all seriousness, that should dis-spell that rumour now...I hope. On a different note, doesn't Swarm look lovely in the snow.

I voted for the 23rd and 30th. Sundays I won't be able to make, the 16th I move back home from uni, and the 6th is my birthday, and already have plans. I'll definitely be able to do the 30th, but not too sure on the 23rd. I *should* be able to make it, but it depends on a few things - will know nearer the time.

TST member Stevie recently posted these quotes from AT's staff newsletter; 'The Pulse': Mod's note: Please be aware this information may give away some of the surprises of the SW7 attraction. Sounds great! EDIT: I assumed that this was okay to post seeinghow it had been posted earlier on TST with no issues. If it would be better to remove it or something, do say and I can delete the post.