Dear Tycoons,

After much development, testing, and feedback following our last blog (please keep it coming), we are happy to release update #3!

For this update we really focused on improving our coasters. Based on your feedback, we made adjustments to our physics system, stats and pre-made coasters. First you will notice that our pre-made coasters are new and improved! They have been updated to look and behave more realistically. For those of you who have a pre-made coaster in your park currently, you may need to replace it with one of our updated versions to ensure it works properly.

We also made an update to our physics system. Your coasters will now react more realistically to your track designs. As a result of these updates, some of your previous designs may need to be tweaked a bit.

For those longtime RCT fans, you will also notice we have added a new feature called “Grease Your Tracks.” When you check this box it will ease the friction and the physics will be a bit looser. Test it out, and see how you like it!

Additionally, we’re launching new highly requested features, including an RGB color picker for your coaster tracks. We are going to call this particular feature at “Alpha Stage”, because it is the very first step to a larger system, and we plan to spend more time fixing bugs associated with it. That said, it’s just too cool not to release today!

On the art side, we are currently developing new content such as this new Gold Mine Scenery Centerpiece (released today). This scenery item will allow you to build coasters and paths through its tunnels, giving a unique look and feel to your park. Take a look:

Check out the awesome new Gold Mine scenery centerpiece! It has tunnels big enough to fit a coaster through. The two mountains connected by the bridge are all one piece.

Water is important to us and with the feedback received, we wanted to refine the water and address some feedback for this update. We added dynamic real-time reflections and also tweaked some of the water shaders for increased realism. Check it out:

This image shows the difference in water from before to now.

Lastly, we spent a considerable amount of time improving existing features and, of course, fixing bugs! In particular, we wanted to mention we made a number of bug-fixes associated with UGC downloading issues.

See below for the full list of what’s contained in this update and to get a peek at what we are working on next!

NEW FEATURES AND CONTENT

• Coasters: Added an RGB color chooser for tracks! *NOTE – this feature is still in Alpha and will be expanded and improved upon in the future.
• Coasters: Grease your tracks option added to the coaster tool! Want to keep your coaster physics similar to what they were prior to this update? Simply check off the “Grease your Tracks” option in the coaster builder.
• Content: Added spotlights to your Décor scenery. Cool new ways to light up your park and rides at night!
• Content: Added new Western Gold Mine scenery to Centerpieces. This new scenery item is a beautiful big centerpiece that has mineshafts and tunnels through which you can run your coasters and paths!
• Graphics: Added real-time reflections to water. The water now accurately and beautifully reflects the environment and objects around it.
• UGC: Added a button/ranking system to In-Game Hubs. Players can now vote on their favorite UGC items via the in-game hubs. Those rankings will now be displayed in both the Steam Workshop and In-Game.

IMPROVEMENTS

• AI: Janitors and Mechanics are much more effective reducing overall urine/puke in the park.
• Animations: Improved animation for children peeps on Helter Skelter and Hay Rides.
• Animations: Improved animation for mechanics and medics.
• Animations: Numerous general animation improvements.
• Coasters:
  • Physics: Friction on coasters should now be much closer to real world values.
    • Note: This means you may need to tweak prior coaster designs to ensure they still run properly. If you want to ease the friction and physics simply check off the “Grease Your Tracks” option in the coaster builder.
    • Note 2: We are still working on Coaster Physics and Stats but we wanted to release this incremental update not only to show progress but also to ensure we are headed in the right direction. Please give us feedback!
  • Pre-Made Coasters: We have updated many of the pre-made coasters to make them work with the new physics. They now have the new friction system in mind, better stats, and also reflect higher levels of realism. This process however is still on-going.
  • Stats: Banking curves now reduces the lateral G’s generated further than before.
  • Stats: Coaster stats should be easier to keep below 12 intensity – watch your lateral G’s though!
• Graphics: We have done our “First” pass on sci-fi textures. We are in the process of revamping all of the sci-fi textures to make them better and more realistic. Let us know what you think!
• UGC: Manual Refresh Button added. We have added a manual refresh button to the in-game UGC tools to allow you to manually refresh your content.
• UGC: Paging System Added. Just like on the Steam Workshop you now have the option to page through content in-game to make it easier to find improving the user experience.
• UX/UI: Park expansion button moved into the main HUD so it’s more visible.

BUG FIXES
The team has been hard at work fixing bugs! Below is a partial list of some of the more notable ones. NOTE – There are additional fixes not included in this list.

• Audio Sound of the game is audible even if the game is minimized by using Alt+Tab.
• Audio Sounds of Peeps needing to go to the bathroom shouldn’t be heard in rides
• Buildings Building cannot be rotated while the grid is active
• Buildings Building who cannot be attached to paths
• Buildings Drop Zone – Previous and Next button of ride camera is not working for the ride Drop Zone.
• Buildings Entry path gets detached when placing the restaurant building ‘Log Cabin Restaurant’ rotating 90 degrees.
• Buildings Flat ride – Incomplete description is given in the preview window of the ‘Pendulum’ ride.
• Buildings Spacewars flatride goes into ride cam when selecting it to build.
• Buildings Tornado – Ride cars illuminate during day and night if user zooms in and out the camera.
• Coasters A twisted track appears at the end of ‘Specialty Pieces’.
• Coasters An incorrect game tip regarding the Queue and Path lines is displayed after placing a coaster into the park.
• Coasters Coaster builder segment mode get locked once you use freeform
• Coasters Mechanism value not rounded when switching between chain lift speed and other mechanisms strength value.
• Coasters Ride Sign’ placed over the queue path attached to a completed coaster (Track loop closed) displays ‘Testing’ on the sign board, even though the coaster is closed.
• Coasters Spinning coaster supports are detached from the coaster track.
• Coasters Test Results & Ride Stats – Speed tab automatically gets selected even if the user has selected any other tab in the Test Results & Ride Stats.
• Coasters The blue coaster node for ‘Auto complete?’ becomes un-intractable, if user slightly twists the last track node after completing the coaster track.
• Coasters The red color appears on the track of the spinning coaster if user apply the mechanism ‘Friction Break’ to the tracks.
• Coasters User is unable to close coaster editor toolbar by clicking on the cross button.
• General Save Load not working.
• General Camera stuck outside of the park while building a roller coaster with very low framerate.
• General Campaign – Objective set #6 second objective cannot be completed stuck at 20%
• General Incorrect game tip regarding Medic staff patrol time is observed on loading screen.
• General Loading Screen – Game tips – Incorrect game tip regarding Mechanics petrol time is observed on loading screen.
• General Sandbox flatland open does not work
• General Save System – Terrain does not change from one instance to another
• General Saved Games – Entrance path ghost is broken at first boot
• General Scenario 1 boot at max speed en if the UI shows minimum speed
• General Scenario work flow fix
• Graphics Distant trees outside the park have wrong shader.
• Graphics If the user proceeds into the map for the first time, a white patch appears on the ‘Warning’ message box near ‘Ok’ button.
• Peeps Fix the teen peeps skins
• Peeps Medics freeze on large paths.
• Peeps Mechanics flickering at the building entrance
• Peeps One of the female peep dressed in a orange dress appears to be sited on the ground rather on chair.
• Peeps Peep get stuck at ride exits.
• Peeps Peep thoughts are disappearing.
• Peeps Peep will clip through the seat of the ‘Wild Tycoon Wings’.
• Peeps Peeps are not visible on flat rides or coasters.
• Peeps Peeps clip with the car of the ride ‘Zipper’.
• Peeps Peeps never attempt to grab handles of the harness in ‘Pendulum’ ride.
• Peeps Sometimes the medic staff gets stuck at one place in a walking animation.
• Peeps Staff – Tool Box of mechanic clips with the body.
• Peeps Staff can be seen sliding on path
• Peeps Staff do not enter their buildings.
• Peeps Stretching peeps can be seen everywhere
• Peeps Texture issue with Peep
• Peeps The way adults sit and children sit is not properly differentiating
• UGC Some users cannot download UGC
• UI/UX Cannot change game speed with mouse left clicking.
• UI/UX Cannot select the park entrance on 2 maps.
• UI/UX Finances – On hovering the cursor over the last tab of the Finances only Loans appears as the tooltip.
• UI/UX Luminous Isle – Modify Terrain – ‘Grass texture D’ is displayed in the description of the paint theme ‘Grass Texture A’.
• UI/UX Objective tab is a bit out of the screen
• UI/UX Objective text does not show up in Scenario 2.
• UI/UX Theme icons for some of the fences overlaps with their preview images.

KNOWN ISSUES
We are still working on a number of bugs, tweaks, and other fixes. In particular, we’re focusing on the 57% loading bug. While we work to resolve this and other issues with future updates, we wanted to call out an excellent guide made by a member of our community that, in the interim, has helped resolve a number of issues for users experiencing the 57% bug, blackscreen issues, or similar problems. Please check it out!

Additionally, it’s super important for you to continue to give us feedback, suggest improvements, and report bugs! We are reading it all and prioritizing our work based on what you tell us.

WHAT’S NEXT
With our first major pass on coaster physics now done our team is shifting its focus to all things AI for our next big update. We want to make sure that the staff functions more efficiently, your peeps are smarter, and that in general your park feels more responsive to what you are building and doing. Of course we will also continue to iterate on what we have released and improved thus far!

A side note on paths – we are aware of the frustrations people are experiencing with paths. We have read your feedback and are working on the overall path system. While the fixes won’t be included in our next update, know that we are working hard on these improvements.

In terms of peeps and their animation – We have read your comments and are working hard on improving our animation system as well as our peeps quality – we will have more news on this once we progress further on this effort.

The whole team is feeling inspired and we hope you find time to share some of the great stuff you are making in our new Creativity Forum! Also be sure to check out our Forums and Social Media pages as our community team will be featuring more and more user-made creations and parks!

Here’s a sneak peek at a park by fan “Deathtome” which we will be featuring this week:

This park by fan “Deathtome” will be featured this week on Social Media so be sure to check it out!

Thank you for all the support, the incredible feedback, and the awesome creations we are seeing.

Team RCTW

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