THE SWARM: Speculation & Theories

[Valentez]

Anty eyre is now saying that apparantely the helicopter has been cut, yet he doesn't provide a source. But he mentions it's going to be replaced by something else (as if). So it is safe to say the helicopter will be on the island.

I agree, at this stage if we were going to see anything else placed in that area would we not have already seen some sort of revised planning documentation? Hopefully with a fresh batch of updates sometime next week we can finally close this chapter

[TPGG]

THE SWARM - Developers Diary There has been a SPECIAL DELIVERY to THE SWARM site today....can you guess what it is?! Updates to follow later today....OOOH EXCITING, should be the trains so I can't wait until they reveal it later today :PAlso, with school breaking up on the 29th March and opening weekend being the 17th March, would it be a good idea to visit midweek from the 19th March? (a Monday)

[Mark9]

A crate load of bees. It's the Swarm!

[Benin]

Also, with school breaking up on the 29th March

The local schools break up a week after I do? WINNING! <3 Bring on the hour long trip on the 23rd!

[TPGG]

A crate load of bees. It's the Swarm!

Is that a yes then?

[pluk]

....can you guess what it is?!

A big box of trim breaks?

Also, with school breaking up on the 29th March and opening weekend being the 17th March, would it be a good idea to visit midweek from the 19th March? (a Monday)

This is what I do every year - visit on the first non school holiday weekday. It is an excellent plan!

[Valentez]

THE SWARM - Developers Diary There has been a SPECIAL DELIVERY to THE SWARM site today....can you guess what it is?! Updates to follow later today....OOOH EXCITING, should be the trains so I can't wait until they reveal it later today :PAlso, with school breaking up on the 29th March and opening weekend being the 17th March, would it be a good idea to visit midweek from the 19th March? (a Monday)

Lovely , I had a positive feeling about today and something nice to look forward to after work!January seem to be flying past, it'll be March before you know it

[Wburgess]

We have trains people!Edit: and more importantly, I see test dummies in the trains.

[Cornflakes]

On the topic of the rides music, something like this could be good:

The way it kind of sounds like an alien would just work great with The Swarm, My opinion.

[Graeme]

Here's one to throw in the mix (although I bet totally wrong) but has anyone noticed how the first inversion at the top of the ride is similar to how the Incredible Hulk starts off? Launched lifthill? (just sayin)

[Benin]

The lift hill will NOT be launched. At all. Ever.

[Sidders]

Well, maybe not launched; propelled via LIM/LSM, maybe, but definitely not for a B&M in general or The Swarm in particular. However, the jury's out on whether this is going to appear on SW7 and I feel I'll agree with Benin somewhat and say it'll never happen on this ride.EDIT: I get the feeling Graeme may have posted in the wrong topic? People really need to pay attention to where they're posting tonight. It's getting annoying now.

[Graeme]

I'm pretty sure it is the right topic??Is it not speculation?? Or a theory then?? I just think the lift hill will go at quite a rate to make that first inversion.

[JoshC.]

I don't think we'll being seeing any sort of launch on the lift hill at all. I get the feeling that the point of the first inversion is to go through it slowly and steadily, create suspense and tension; build up the scare factor if you will.After all, loads of rides can through inversions quickly, but few can go through them slowly and use it as a form of suspense.

[Sidders]

It really won't, Graeme - it's a standard chain lift. Intamin have recently deviated from this design with the LSM launch (á la Maverick,) cable-car lift (á la Millennium Force), but B&M have stuck rigidly to their original methods of lift-hill apparatus. They may have mimicked Intamin's support structure and may have plans to introduce their own ways of speeding up lift-hill duration but that technology certainly won't be used on The Swarm.

[JackR]

True they are quite similar in the sense that they are both a roll of some sort, but looking at them in a bit more detail you will see that the first inversion on The Swarm is very different to the one on The Incredible Hulk. As you can see, the first inversion on The Hulk is very fluent, and follows on from the launched incline. It almost looks like a Zero G in a way. The Swarm's first inversion is more of a 'in line twist' as it's called on RCT3 if I'm remembering correctly? You can see the lift hill levels out, and even though it is not clear on the above picture, there is also a small downwards gradient to pick up a bit more momentum before the plummet.I can see where your coming from, but the inversion on The Hulk is a lot more flowing and doesn't level out before the descent. I'm pretty sure there was also a picture from the peak of the lift hill with the POV of looking down towards the station in which you could see the anti roll-backs on the hill (at least that's what I thought they were...) I'll see if I can dig it up.EDIT: After finding the picture, I relaised you couldn't actually see the ridges I was going on about. You can on this one though: Of course, this may not mean anything because as far as I'm concerned, most roller coaster inclines have these launched or not. You tend to see them on B&Ms all the time though, and apart from The Hulk none of them are launched.

[Graeme]

I appreciate the above the posts, just seems that I can't get my own head around how it'll make it through the first inversion, doesn't seem to be enough of a drop. I'll get it on opening day I'm sure

[Benin]

It'll probs really CRAWL through it. Like Hydra at Dorney Park, kind of a similar thing (though the tyre drives in the station will help somewhat).It won't launch though, B&M don't do launches. Hulk is the exception and that was created by Universal's team rather than any B&M involvement.

[TN Jonny]

Fire effects?

[JoshC.]

With the trains looking almost exactly like that concept art, I think some people who were saying that 'Swarm won't have fire effects just because the concept art says so' might be reconsidering their views now..

[alexander]

Yes Valentez, the original plan was to have the helicopter in a pond that was connected to Manor Lake, though possibilities of water contamination made the council reject those plans, so Thorpe revised them with an SuDS for the helicopter. I'd check the date you found that information from, Alex, if it exists at all.

Just to clear a few things up, the heliopter rumour has come from Facebook, on the Swarm's Developer Diary. Anty Eyre (the person who posted the Swarm's track being fabricated), confirmed that it had been cut.However, after a little more digging, this person also said that the trains are for certain not on-site yet- they are! Also he's very close to a certain person who was convinved that sw6 was B&M, awkward. Just take it with a pinch of salt. I'll be upset if it's been cut though!

Thank you! Sorry for my excessive amount of punctuation in my original post, it was a moment of distraught and panic. It's just what I was reading and being the fool I am to not even looking into it, I just saw the post had several likes and I believed it. Thank god for that! I was getting worried, thank you for clearing that up!

With the trains looking almost exactly like that concept art, I think some people who were saying that 'Swarm won't have fire effects just because the concept art says so' might be reconsidering their views now..

This is getting me so excited now! I didn't think the trains would be literally identical to the concept art, I'm ecstatic for March!

[JackR]

I appreciate the above the posts, just seems that I can't get my own head around how it'll make it through the first inversion, doesn't seem to be enough of a drop. I'll get it on opening day I'm sure

Sorry to bring this back up again, but here is what I think will happen. I would imagine the lift hill is roughly the same speed as most B&M's, and if Inferno is anything to go by then it could be pretty speedy. The first car of the train will depart the lift hill and be pushed forward with support from the chain (which is pushing the back of the carriage forwards as it is). By the time the back car is off the lift hill and has gained a bit of momentum from the small slope leading towards the inline, the front of the train should be fully inverted or maybe even ready to descend. The force of gravity on the front few carriages will be much stronger than the weight of the back few carriages, thus the front part of the train will pull the back part through the inversion and down the drop. It's pretty hard to explain, and I'm not engineer or B&M genius, but that is how I would imagine the carriage will make it to the descent without the need of a abnormally fast lift hill. This first inversion is supposed to be very tense and, controversially it may even be the climax of the ride experience so maybe a slow pull through will do the ride justice.

[AdamY]

I think the entire train will be off the chain before the front is any way down the drop at all, but logically the slight down gradient of the half twist should be enough to sustain at least the speed of the train on the lift, and increase it slightly as more of the train crests the top. It should be very noticeable from the rear row I would imagine, as the weight of the front 6 rows moves down towards the end of the twist. After this point I think what you said will apply Jack, the first few rows moving onto the drop itself will cause very rapid acceleration and should provide a nice snap through the twist for the back couple of rows.

[Benin]

Sorry to bring this back up again, but here is what I think will happen. I would imagine the lift hill is roughly the same speed as most B&M's, and if Inferno is anything to go by then it could be pretty speedy. The first car of the train will depart the lift hill and be pushed forward with support from the chain (which is pushing the back of the carriage forwards as it is). By the time the back car is off the lift hill and has gained a bit of momentum from the small slope leading towards the inline, the front of the train should be fully inverted or maybe even ready to descend. The force of gravity on the front few carriages will be much stronger than the weight of the back few carriages, thus the front part of the train will pull the back part through the inversion and down the drop. It's pretty hard to explain, and I'm not engineer or B&M genius, but that is how I would imagine the carriage will make it to the descent without the need of a abnormally fast lift hill. This first inversion is supposed to be very tense and, controversially it may even be the climax of the ride experience so maybe a slow pull through will do the ride justice.

Can you start posting like this more often please?This is quite right: The front of the train having gained kinetic energy regardless of how little it may appear (these trains are MUCH heavier than Inferno's or Colossus' let's not forget), then it will probably gain a surprising amount of speed necessary to both complete the inversion slowly but with the right amount of build-up and anticipation. Then of course the more weight off the lift hill means the more speed being built up and (insert engineering babble here).Then the back row will get whipped around and descend upon the rest of the course relatively furiously, as per any ride's back row to be honest, Raptor's back row was a particular highlight of the ride on that first drop, with a bout of airtime rarely seen in a B&M.This is going to have such re-ride factor on a ride which already has that due to the seating style.

[Mark9]

Air time on a B&M, surely you jest Benin?!*As for Swarm, that bit of track between the lift hill and the inline is on a very shallow downwards gradient anyway and the train will get quite a kick from coming of the lift hill. Like B&M would ever design a ride where getting stuck hundreds of feet in the air is common. *God, such perfection can be only a few feet away from utter dross. Beggars belief.