RollerCoaster Tycoon®: Deluxe – Scenarios – Hints and Tricks

by Falagar / Articles, Misc. Guides / 20 May 2019

The first thing to do when starting a new scenario is to pause the game. Now, take stock of your situation.

What rides are currently built?

What rides are available to be built?

What types of rides are not available to be built?

What is the state of the park?

Where is the entrance and what is the starting path system like?

Open the Research and Development Information Menu, switch the funding tab, and set funding to Maximum. Money shouldn’t be an issue when you get some good rides out and you want to get new rides as fast as possible. Disable the Scenery and Themeing and Ride Improvements options. More ride options is more important than extra scenery or improvements to the existing ones at the beginning.

Next, you want to disable any ride-type options that you already have a decent supply of. If you don’t have a stall to sell drinks, for example, you’ll want to research one to keep guests happy.

Some scenarios have a complicated path system at the start. You want to bar access to this path as guests’ pathfinding AI is terrible. Never make a 2x tile path. Guests will walk around in circles and your park rating will tank. Keep the path system simple and avoid dead ends as this can cause the guests to get lost as well. You can delete one tile of the path or can drop a sign on the path with the ‘No Entry’ option selected. This will prevent guests from walking down the path. Make note of any vandalism and if paths have garbage bins and benches yet.

Building Your First Rides

Start off simple. Drop your gentle rides and thrill rides first. They’re quick and easy to make and don’t take up much space. Open your park up and adjust the park entrance as required. The entrance fee can be set in the vanilla game but is free in the expansions.

Next you’ll want to build something that will really bring in the guests and fill your bottom line. My personal suggestions (if they’re available):

Any of the wild mouse coasters – they’re cheap, compact, and can easily get high excitement ratings

Steel Mini Roller Coaster – excitement rating tends to be meh for me but it’s fairly cheap to make

Any coaster with powered launch or reverse inclined modes – extremely cheap to make, compact, excitement ratings are stupidly high, huge turnover; they make so much money that it’s pretty much cheese

Log flume – very popular, brings in good money but has mediocre capacity

Build a food court and drop your stalls. Fill up your paths with improvements. You’ll want seats so guests can recover, bins so they can toss out their garbage and lights to improve security.

Hire some staff. You’ll want 2x handyman and 2x mechanics. Make sure you disable mow grass on the handyman. Set inspection time on the big money rides to 10 mins, leave the other rides at default.

Financial Information

From this menu you can take out loans, review your park’s profit and complete advertising campaigns.

Loans are an extremely powerful tool in Roller Coaster Tycoon. Interest is very minimal and you can use the extra money to build a number of profit-generating rides to attract new guests and bring in extra profit.

Using Advertising is almost cheesing the game (especially in the vanilla game). Advertising campaigns will attract a considerable number of extra guests. In the vanilla you can set an entrance fee. The new guests pay to get in giving you more money which you use for the next campaign.

Using View Options

Click this tab to get an option to change your viewing options. The underground view is useful for seeing rides under the ground. See-through Rides / Scenery and invisible supports/people will make it easier to see things unobstructed. For example, select all four and you’ll be able to see your path network and check for vandalism.

Entrance and Ride Costs

Entrance fee is only applicable to the vanilla game. In the expansions, you’re expected to make all money from rides. Entrance fee should be high enough that you make enough money to finance your new rides but not high enough that rides no longer have enough money to spend on stuff in your park.

The amount you can charge for your rides is determined by their excitement and how old they are. The more exciting, the more you can charge. The older they are, the less you can charge. Almost all your profit will come from coasters, water rides (excluding boat hire) and a handful of choice thrill rides. The other rides are there to get people into the park, keep them happy and boost your park rating and value.

To easily to see if a ride is popular or not click the ‘Rides and Attractions in Park’ menu. Then click the drop-down and select popularity. Sort and find all rides with <5% popularity. Adjust the price until people come back. NOTE: Outdoor rides’ popularity will plummet if it’s raining, preferably do this when the weather is good.

Keeping Your Park Rating Up

Most missions require you to keep your park rating up. Many things can affect park ratings. You can generally boost your rating by having more ride variety, having a large number of rides and having highly exciting rides. Awards can give you a further boost. The maximum park rating is 999 and you should be close to this or at it unless they’re is an issue in your park.

Lack of facilities will hurt your rating. Make sure you have enough shops and stalls to keep everybody happy. Overcharging can hurt your park rating. Vomit on paths and stuffed bins will lower your rating if you have a problem hire more handymen. Vandalism will lower your rating. Inspect your entire path network and replace anything that is broken. Then hire security guards. A ride crash can severely affect your rating for a time.

Lost guests indicate serious issues with your path network. If one guest gets lost then others will also get lost. Lost guests are unhappy. Unhappy guests will tank your rating. Check where the lost guests are getting stuck and try to adjust your path network. Remember to avoid 2x tiles and dead ends as this can confuse the AI.

Falagar

He is the founder and editor of Magic Game World. He loved gaming from the moment he got a PlayStation 1 with Gran Turismo on his 7th birthday.
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