[WIP] Traumland auf der Nebelhöhle (I'm still new to Planet Coaster)

I am currently trying to get into Planet Coaster again, for the first time since 2016, so, I am still a total beginner. Coming from RCT3, it's still very difficult for me to use, but I hope I can develop some skills and create parks and show them on SGW in the future

I think I have never done any WIP thread on SGW before, always having presented my RCT3 parks as they were for the "public", but I am doing this as a WIP thread as I hope to learn from your comments as I continue to develop this park.

As said, this is not a "omg I need to show you my park" thread, it's more a "please help me learning how to do parks with this game" thread

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The background

Traumland auf der Nebelhöhle is inspired by the actually existing "Traumland auf der Bärenhöhle" in the Swabian Jura, Germany. The latter is a real (and tiny) park right next to the "bear cave". The Nebelhöhle ("fog cave") is also a real cave nearby, but without a theme park attached. So I thought, hey, my first park in Planet Coaster is going to be that, Traumland auf der Nebelhöhle ("Dreamland on the fog cave").

How convenient that Planco parks are naturally coming with a cave that people walk in and out of



As you can see in the photo above, this is a junction between the park, the cave entrance and the future parking lot. I will probably put some more plants, but for now I am quite happy with this place.



The park entrance... not very happy with these wooden beams yet, and I still should cover the floor of the park gate. I haven't set up any lights yet, either.



This is the area right behind the entrance. It comes with a train station, a service building, and restrooms. It took me ages to figure out how to do larger plazas with this paths system, but I finally I am quite happy with it. The train station and the service buildings will of course get roofs, and I'll add some more decoration.



This will be a restaurant with a terrace, and its interior gives me a bit of a headache due to the elevated paths and the non-rectangular parts. Not sure yet how I will solve this problem, but I hope I can fill the building with a nice interior seating area.
More plants will be added in the planters.



Here you have an overview on the whole park, it won't be much larger than that. I wanted to do something small for a start, and I placed it into the 1970s, like so many of my projects when I launch them.

Needless to say, all those gaps will be filled with trees, bushes and - not too much - scenery (it's going to be a small 1970s park in Germany).
The location of the merry-go-round isn't final. In this area, I will try to create a fairytale forest like those in many European parks, and I still plan to add a boat ride on the right edge.

I built this Wild Mouse earlier today:
 


Quite happy with that.

That's all I can show so far, and I know it's not a lot lol... but I hope to learn from this thread and your comments. Apart from the obvious that my buildings aren't finished and the lack of nature and scenery: Am I doing anything terribly wrong already at this stage?

As this is just a test park, I probably won't complete it anyway, but when I have more to show eventually, I will keep you updated about my own and Traumland's progress. 

I don't see you having much catching up to do.  I missed all of the RCT stuff but I've been working on PC nearly constantly for 2 years.  And you're already leaving all I've done in the dust

Cool that You are inspired by a park which is literally 30 minutes from my place! I would say good start. Especially your layout is already very good

Looks good so far. The big difference between PC and RCT3 is that in RCT3, it's much easier and quicker to build nice looking and highly detailed parks due to all the cs available. With PC, you literally have to make the "cs" yourself for nearly everything. So it takes so much longer to get the park in a finished state. The nice thing in PC is that it is so easy to add tons of details wherever you want, instead of objects being stuck on a grid as it is in RCT3. So you can add and add and add until your heart's content. You'll just need more patience and practice to learn all the tricks to help speed up the process.

I don't see you having much catching up to do.  I missed all of the RCT stuff but I've been working on PC nearly constantly for 2 years.  And you're already leaving all I've done in the dust

Thanks Bullethead...

Cool that You are inspired by a park which is literally 30 minutes from my place! I would say good start. Especially your layout is already very good

Haha no way    I've been to Bärenhöhle twice but never to the Traumland. I was always with people who weren't into parks 

Looks good so far. The big difference between PC and RCT3 is that in RCT3, it's much easier and quicker to build nice looking and highly detailed parks due to all the cs available. With PC, you literally have to make the "cs" yourself for nearly everything. So it takes so much longer to get the park in a finished state. The nice thing in PC is that it is so easy to add tons of details wherever you want, instead of objects being stuck on a grid as it is in RCT3. So you can add and add and add until your heart's content. You'll just need more patience and practice to learn all the tricks to help speed up the process.

Yeah, I feel that already, that it takes much longer to finish a very basic building even. However, correct me if I'm wrong, the fact that you have "undo" and a lot less likely to delete something by mistake (the horror in RCT3 when you see the red numbers flying around the screen and you have no clue what it was that you just accidentally deleted) compensates a lot. RCT takes much longer to load too, and a few more conveniences that PC has over RCT, and maybe under the line the difference is not that bad after all. But ask me again once I do a proper detailed theme park and not a basic low-key family countryside park like this one. I plan to work on something bigger and more sophisticated  soon, then I'll see what it really is like. I guess PC gives you a lot more individual creative output, and I'm looking forward to challenge myself with that.

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No new pics from the park at the moment, I just decided to not do the boat ride, because I am not happy with the way this ride is designed... it's too far away from what I had on my mind. I hope PC will still get a 4 rows a 4 seats smaller boat ride, with and without roof. I'm planning a picnic area instead, and move the oldtimers to the site where I planned the boat ride.

This made me a bit more disappointed with PC, as it was already hard enough to compose rides for a small 1970s park, and I guess this will be my last PC park of that "genre" unless we get a lot more classic rides. I have plans for another small park, where the boat ride fits better. But will work on TadN for now, and hope to get a lot done this month.

Just out of curiosity, have you purchased the Vintage Pack? It contains 5 small flat rides that would all be suitable for a 70s park.

shyguy, yes, I did. Two things though... 4 out of these 5 vintage rides are too thrilly and too unusual for European 1970s family parks. As a kid of the late 70s and early 80s, I have never seen these rides. The Round-Up is the only one that I saw on a local fairground, but never in the parks I visited either (Phantasialand, Holiday-Park, Europa-Park). A plane ride without going upside down would have worked really well, but "Test Flight" isn't that. "Loopings" in general were mostly a red flag for family parks here, up until the 2000s, with a very few exceptions. For the 3 above mentioned parks altogether, I can remember a total of 5 rides between 1970 and 2010 in which people would been taken upside down, 3 of these being rollercoasters. The other two are a TopSpin and a Fabbri Crazy Dance, both in Phantasialand, and not at the same time. Looping flatrides just didn't happen in most classic European parks, up until today, looping flatrides are very very rare in our parks. Please anyone correct me if I'm wrong.

I guess there's just a regional difference between America, UK, Scandinavia and Europe mainland. A typical 1970s park in America and UK is surely not what a typical 1970s park looked like in Germany or the Netherlands. I know that old Liseberg in Sweden had more thrill rides, too. We had a much larger focus on gentle rides (and we would have never considered the Enterprise or even the Tea Cups as "gentle").

Hope that all doesn't come across as too harsh or too picky, but when you look at the history books, you'd probably find that Planet Coaster doesn't really leave you a lot of options for realistic old European parks. Like Cola tastes different on both sides of the ocean, there are notable differences in theme parks too, and I wish PC would offer more for parks like vintage Efteling, Europa-Park, Phantasialand, Gardaland, etc.

Time for more pics!

I have played a lot with Planet Coaster in the past days, and think I'm getting on well with it.
There are a few things I hate (lack of rides, colour management), but a lot of things I love (the realistic feel, the creative freedom) and oh... the music!... that's my favourite game soundtrack like, ever.

Enough talking, here's what happened in Traumland in the early 1970s the meantime:



I built the entrance to the cave. I mixed the inspiration from the real Nebelhöhle entrance and what was necessary / possible for Planet Coaster. Also I kept it rather simple, because this is just a first test park... but plans for an upcoming bigger park project have already taken off.



Here's the entrance area from above, with the cave entrance to the left. That broad path down there will lead to the parking lot. As you can see, I moved the oldtimer ride away from its original site, and replaced it by a picnic / campfire area.

In the park, I completed the restaurant building:





It's massive considered it's just a small park, and it's a good lesson for future planning phases, but for now I kept it as large as it is.
Needless to say, it has a lot of empty space inside.





...but I actually like this part of it. I think I captured the vibe of the 1970s quite well.





I added a few simple stands for the "Rummelmeile" (fairground mile), I yet have to attach some signs. I used 3 game-stands and 2 custom ones...



sweets:



and the can toss game:



That one gave me a bit of a headache. I wanted to have some kind of game in this spot, but my imagination failed here after several approaches, so I ended up with the can toss. As everything in PC is oversized, I eventually ended up with sunflowers and a teddy bear (snowman) as prize.

I'm more content with my snack trailer, inspired by a popular German TV show of the 1970s.



Next to the Wild Mouse, here are the toilets and drink shops, still without signs:



And finally, another view from above. The oldtimers were relocated to the lower right corner, the site that was originally reserved for the now discarded boat ride. If PC ever adds a suitable boat ride, I will resume my work here.



That's it for now - more updates coming soon.

I like the colorful row of stands; each one different than the others and yet, they all go well together. In the screenshot with the snack trailer, the Wild Mouse looks especially real from that angle and with that lighting.

The interior seating are reminded me very much of the one in Phantasialand in the Mexican Themed Area

Very good job so far

Hey Elch, new into Planet Coaster and already doing great interiors. Also love the idea and execution so far, haven't been to the real Traumland but some family lives nearby, so it'll happen. As far as I know and can see, you're already getting a good grasp of the game, how's the pathing system working out for you?

I have not mastered the art of Planet Coaster, but I do enjoy seeing how everyone develops. This park is looking a lot better than anything I have made in Planet Coaster. I cannot wait to see more!

In the park, I completed the restaurant building:

It's massive considered it's just a small park, and it's a good lesson for future planning phases, but for now I kept it as large as it is.
Needless to say, it has a lot of empty space inside.

One of the more difficult things to do in Planet Coaster is to get things the right scale. The objects available to use range from oversize to super oversize. I think we all struggle with scale in the beginning, but for the most part, I think you're doing pretty well so far. You could always close off part of the restaurant to the public and make part of it an administration building or employee cafeteria.

It is a wonderful start for a beginner PC player! You can see the design experience already and there are a lot of little cool touches, I personally like the little trailer selling words that I can't pronounce!!!

I really like it! Can't wait to see how it looks as you grow! It certainly helps to have reference material in PC lol

Wow! You have a really awesome start & I'm very excited to see how your park progresses! I absolutely love your terrace & mobile snack trailer

Also, I agree with Shyguy.. Scale is super tough in planet coaster but you're scaling looks really good!