"How To" - Water Coaster (RCT2)

Well, I have had this done for a while, so long in fact I lost the test park I made showing the Water Coaster working during an RCT2 reboot. Thought I saved it but it turns out all I saved was the pictures. So anyway here is how you make a full capacity working Water Coaster in RCT2.

To build this ride you will need:

Dinghy Slide

Heartline Twister

Log Flume (optional)

Water scenery items of your choice

8cars Trainer

SOB Trainer (optional)

OK, here we go.

EDIT: There is also a "How To" for making a basic Water Slide that looks like what a water slide should look like HERE. It is full of good information and a great way to start any water park project. Topics covered are of invisible rides and their affect on paths and Error Trappers caused by doing the wrong thing at the wrong time with 8cars and several other issues that can come up while doing things in RCT2 that were never meant to be done. It is good practice for this "How To", so I would start with the basics first and it doesn't get much more basic than a simple water slide.

1)Start out with the end of the ride and build a lift to the height you will want the ride to start at. Build the station long enough to get at least 4 rafts.

If your not going to make a turn table type of layout skip ahead to the upper station part of this "How To" TOO.

2)Build a single straight section at the top of the lift and continue around till you run back into your single straight section. Now remove that section and build through where it was.

3)Continue through and make your upper station. Go back to your lift and get ready to replace that section of straight track you removed.

4)Exit to 8cars and 0 clearance absolute. Go back to the game and replace the straight section of track then exit out to 8cars again and restore clearances. This crossing of tracks in the order describes will cause the rafts to do a 90 degree turn at that point heading toward the upper station. If you build it wrong they will just go in a circle around the top.

5)At this point you need to finish your rides course. Keep in mind that on most (is not all) water coasters all curves are in tunnels and all straight sections (including on ride lifts) are not. Also keep in mind this type of ride is supposed to be fast but not so fast that a raft leaves the course and crashes.

6)Time to test your building skills, exit out to 8cars and find your ride in the edit rides menu. Once there set the lift speed to 15mph. It's a good speed to get the rafts back to the top quickly and also a good speed for the lifts that are on the ride themselves. Put it on test and let them run for a while.

7)You will notice that they do not use the curved section of track at the top if the hill, instead they make a sharp turn toward the station. If they are using the curved track you messed up and need to go back a few steps and try again.

8)Take a good look at your rafts speeds at various places on the ride, if you want to make any changes to the rides course now is the time to do so!

9)Once your happy with your track it is time to rebuild it above the one you already built (20 game feet). This will be the track you will see in the game, the original you built will be made invisible later in this HOW TOO. So start at your lower station and build a section of track going up the lift and then back across the station to where the ride ends. Leave at least one blank section in front of the exit building. I left 3 blank in the version I made. These blank areas will be filled in with scenery later.

10)At this point you will need to exit back to 8cars and 0 Clearance Absolute again. Go back the the game and follow your lift up the hill, when you get to the top go ahead and follow the curve around until you hit your track again.

11)Once you hit your track delete the straight section again and continue through. You will notice that I switched back to lift hill track once I got past the crossover, that is because a real one would still be on a conveyor until it reaches the loading station. It will look like the rafts are on the conveyor but in reality they will be just floating at that point because of the normal track under it. Go back an remove the curve section of track and the crossover. You will notice in the game picture it looks like both crossover tracks are missing, that is just glitch caused by 8cars, the lower one is there and it will be seen in later pictures, DO NOT REMOVE IT! You will also notice the white section of track that is the section where the rides entrance will be and needs to be removed.

12)Continue along (with 0 Clearances active) following your original rides path until you reach the end of the ride. Be sure to keep tunnels and lift areas where they should be because this is the track you will be seeing in game. If you look closely you will notice that in the areas where the rides lifts start and stop I left on the normal track sections for one extra piece. I did that for a reason, while I really want the lift to take the raft all the way from the bottom of the hill to the very top I do not want it to look like they are. So the lift sections you will see in game are missing the very bottom and very top sections replaced by normal UN-TUNNELED track. Really...look at it!

13)OK, restore clearances and this should be your finished product, once again look at the on-ride lift areas (not the main lift) and notice how normal UN-tunneled sections were added to the bottom and top of each lift. You will also notice in this picture that the original track crossover at the top of the main lift is back, see I told you it was still there.

14)It's time to build the turntable, once again if you are not using a turntable you can skip ahead a few steps. We are going to build this in reverse, but make sure the track sections are going in the direction the ride will travel. Line up the turntable section with the secondary track (the blue one in the pictures) heading toward the upper station.

15)Build it up and around till you are right over the first turntable and build another one.

16)Remove all sections of the Log Flume except for the 2 turn tables. The one on top should be floating in space just about the other one (20 game feet).

17)Now comes the fun part and the part that will eat up a lot of the available rides/stalls for any game. For each section of track that is not curved you need to build a Heartline Twister coaster and since these coaster can't do curves you have to build a NEW one for each section. Start with the first one at the top of the ride. Build it only one section long, you only need the track piece that is transitioning from flat to down or from flat to up depending on if your heading up or down. DO NOT attempt to complete the sections at this time. EDIT: Read the post below this "How To" by Goliath513 to avoid having to use so many Heartline Twister coasters.

18)Keep placing a new Heartline Twister at each location in the direction the real ride will be traveling. Just do what the picture shows, only ONE section for right now.

19)Once you have all of them in place head out to 8cars and 0 Clearance Absolute and go back to the game. Since you have a clearances all messed up you CANNOT just click on any Heartline Twists you want. It's like they are not there so go to the parks ride list and pick the first one and hit construct. Follow the rides path from tunnel to tunnel. Rinse & Repeat for each of the other Heartlines till you have them all done.

20)Your new Water Coaster should look like this now. A big mess of tracks stacked on top of each other.

21)If you remember my Water Slide "How To" an issue was demonstrated about paths crossing the course of invisible ride tracks and all the work involved with fixing the problem. Well we are all smarter now and we know we need to build the paths NOW not LATER! So at this point you need to get your paths in. I went with a compact design that required a tone of 0 Clearance Absolutes to get it down to the bottom, while it is quite time consuming to do it this way is sure does take up a lot less space than a non 0 Clearance path wood and I highly recommend it. Don't forget about the exit stations path and any paths you think will go under or near the slide.

22)It's use 8cars like crazy time, first we need to exit to the trainer, next we need to find the ORIGANAL Dinghy Slide in the Edit Rides menu. Once you find it you need to change the Track Type to CROOKED HOUSE, the Operating Mode to BOAT HIRE and put a check mark in the Make Rides Invisible box. Hit Apply. Go back the game and it should look like this. Every part of the origanl ride should be invisible expect the entrance and exit.

23)Time to lower the track onto the invisible one to make it so the rafts look like they are on a course and not floating in the air. Exit back to 8cars and find the 2ND Dinghy Slide you built in the Edit Rides menu. Once you have found it all you need to do is lower it. So Put a check mark in Raise or Lower box adjust the movement to -2 (negative two) Main Color Scheme and hit apply. Now go back to the game and test it. The rafts should now be on the the track. You will notice that rafts 2-4 are stuck together, this is a side effect of the Boat Hire Mode and is not an issue, they will space out when you set the dispatch times. If for some reason the track is too high or too low you will need to go back to 8cars and make the necessary up or down adjustments, the example I used was based on the second slide being only 20 game feet above the original slide.

24)The turntable is next, color the one on TOP a different color...

25)Exit out to 8 cars and find the Log Flume in the Edit Rides menu, once there check the Raise or Lower box and set the Height Offset to -2 (negative two) Color Scheme Alternate 1 (one) and hit apply. This action should lower the top one onto the lower one.

This is the final result if everything worked out. If not you will need to go back and make the necessary adjustments up or down to get it to look like this.

27)Now lets lower all the Heartline Twisters into position. Exit out to 8cars and find the first Heartline Twister. Put a check in the Raise or Lower box, set the Height Offset to -4 (negative four) Main Color Scheme and hit apply. Go back to the game and check if it lowered correctly. If it did exit back to 8cars and once again Rinse & Repeat for all the Heartline Twisters. When your done it should look like this. Once again if your off up or down you will need to adjust each one. The -4 (negative four) was based off of the track being placed 20 game feet off the track below it, and of course once the track below was lowered that distance doubled to 40 game feet.

28)Scenery time! Exit back out to 8cars and 0 Clearance Absolute. Now build your Water Coasters splash down area however you want.

29)This is the hardest part of this project, while still at 0 Clearances you have to build the start of your Water Coaster. It takes some time but once you get ONE item where you want it you can use that to help place the others using the control key.

30)The turntable will more than likely need some attention also and don't forget to color all the different rides it took to make this one attraction.

ALL DONE! Now set your times based on how long the ride is and how many rafts you have and your good to go. If you want to adjust to rides ratings (I would recommend it) to something a bit more realistic compared to what RCT2 gave it use the SOB trainer and make it as exciting as it should be.

Wow, awesome! I was actually about to ask someone how to do this! This will be very helpful for Arcadia..

No kidding about the heartlines killing Ride space.

It looks simple, but very much time consuming.

let's hope my 8 cars does not crash as much as it has been!

And thank you for the tutorial, dmaxsba2408!

You don't need to use a bunch of heartline coasters. Just use a regular coaster (I use a wooden coaster) and just change the track type in 8cars to "{Standard/Reversed} Heartline Twister Roller Coaster" when you've lined it up with the parts you want covered. Be sure to delete all turns first, otherwise an error trapper will result. You get all the ride netting with only one ride space used.

^ that is a GREAT idea, never thought of that.

I put a note in the area of the "How To" for everyone to see your post.

I'm having an issue with the raising and lowering of the heartline twister track. It seems no matter WHAT I do, they simply will not lower. I got the first two sections done, but the rest just won't. Any suggestions?

Yep, sometimes the trainers and the game just will not play well together. I have had it happen with other projects. There are several things you can try;

...make sure you are selecting the right color scheme each time.

...the raise/lower box is checked each time.

...close everything out and start it all up again.

...switch to a different version of 8cars

...remove the tracks that will not do what you want and rebuild them.

If non of those work please PM me your park and let me have a look at the problem.

2 Basic Water Items.zip

In this zip are 2 basic water items that can be used with all water slides AWWC is a 0 clearance 1/2 quarter white water tile and LVWATER1 is a quarter tile slope water fall.

Ok, I got everything lowered properly, and the ride works fine, until the last part where it should go into the splashdown and the invisible station. The ride reaches the end of "Dinghy Slide 2" then bounces off as if there was a wall, (See screenshot) and goes in circles.

SCR152.BMP

Note: The section of dinghy slide track you see in the splashdown was added after the same problem occured once. I thought it would help, and it didn't.

It's looking like you do not have a complete circuit. Since the rafts are in Boat Hire Mode they are getting to the end of the ride and going in circles like they would out in open water. I am going to assume that a section of invisible track is not connected at the end of your ride.

OK, here is what you need to do...

1) NEVER work on an invisible track or a track that is lowered on top of an invisible track, it can ERROR TRAP.

2) Raise the visible (fake) track back up 2 notches, by that I mean go into 8cars and change the number to +2 instead of -2, select the color and put a check in the box for Raise or Lower. Don't worry about the Heartline Twisters, just leave them alone.

3) Make the invisible track visible again, you can do this by changing the ride back to it's original properties. Which would be Continuous Circuit Mode, and Dinghy Slide, un-check make rides invisible and hit apply. Now the ride should be visible again.

Look at the end of your track and see if your missing any sections if so build them back. After you done, test the ride as it is. Just leave the other track above it. It should make a complete circuit. If it did...

1) Go back to 8cars and make it invisible again by putting check in the Make Rides Invisible box and changing the rides properties back to Boat Hire Mode and Crooked House, then apply.

2) Test it again. Now the rafts should be called buildings again and be floating in the air under the raised track.

3) Now you need to lower the raised track back down. Once it's back down you should be done.

If this did not solve the problem please PM the park to me and let me look at it in person.

Hope these little set backs have not deterred you from this project, I promise once you do it a few times it really is easy and these kinds of problems are just part of learning "How To" do things. Before you know it you will be doing it without even thinking about it and it will work every time.

It's looking like you do not have a complete circuit. Since the rafts are in Boat Hire Mode they are getting to the end of the ride and going in circles like they would out in open water. I am going to assume that a section of invisible track is not connected at the end of your ride.

 

OK, here is what you need to do...

1) NEVER work on an invisible track or a track that is lowered on top of an invisible track, it can ERROR TRAP.

2) Raise the visible (fake) track back up 2 notches, by that I mean go into 8cars and change the number to +2 instead of -2, select the color and put a check in the box for Raise or Lower. Don't worry about the Heartline Twisters, just leave them alone.

3) Make the invisible track visible again, you can do this by changing the ride back to it's original properties. Which would be Continuous Circuit Mode, and Dinghy Slide, un-check make rides invisible and hit apply. Now the ride should be visible again.

 

Look at the end of your track and see if your missing any sections if so build them back. After you done, test the ride as it is. Just leave the other track above it. It should make a complete circuit. If it did...

 

1) Go back to 8cars and make it invisible again by putting check in the Make Rides Invisible box and changing the rides properties back to Boat Hire Mode and Crooked House, then apply.

2) Test it again. Now the rafts should be called buildings again and be floating in the air under the raised track.

3) Now you need to lower the raised track back down. Once it's back down you should be done.

 

If this did not solve the problem please PM the park to me and let me look at it in person.

 

Hope these little set backs have not deterred you from this project, I promise once you do it a few times it really is easy and these kinds of problems are just part of learning "How To" do things. Before you know it you will be doing it without even thinking about it and it will work every time.

Not deterred at all!

I figured out the problem by raising and making the original track visible. I had too many station sections overlapping. Such a simple mistake making such a large problem!

I also managed to bypass the raising/lowering of the heartline track by doing exactly what goliath said, BUT, zero-clearancing and essentially building the dinghy slide in reverse with wooden track, then changing to HT track.

Thanks so much for the assistance with not only this, but the other "How to" for making working waterslides!

No problem, I can't wait to see what you come up with for your park.

I'm just testing out the whole heartline "cage" thing and for some reason, the track refuses to lower. Maybe I'm doing something wrong but I don't know. If I were just wanted to lower the track of the heartline onto the track of the other ride, how would I do that?

Build your track, then build the Heartline on top. By default the game should place the Heartline 10 game feet about the track under it. Example: the bottom track is at 5ft., you build the Heartline above it. Unless you raised it yourself the game would place it at 15ft. In the 8cars trainer that would mean you need to lower it -2 (=10 game ft.)

Open 8cars ride menu find your Heartline Coaster track.

Put a check in the box for raise or lower.

Select the color scheme for the action - main, alternative 1, 2 or 3 (whatever the track is)

Move the raise/lower selector to -2 and hit apply.

When you go back to the game it should have lowered the Heartline 10ft right on top of the other track.

If that doesn't work, I would like to know what version of 8cars you are using, version of RCT2 you have installed and what operation system you are using.

Build your track, then build the Heartline on top. By default the game should place the Heartline 10 game feet about the track under it. Example: the bottom track is at 5ft., you build the Heartline above it. Unless you raised it yourself the game would place it at 15ft. In the 8cars trainer that would mean you need to lower it -2 (=10 game ft.)

 

Open 8cars ride menu find your Heartline Coaster track.

Put a check in the box for raise or lower.

Select the color scheme for the action - main, alternative 1, 2 or 3 (whatever the track is)

Move the raise/lower selector to -2 and hit apply.

 

When you go back to the game it should have lowered the Heartline 10ft right on top of the other track.

 

If that doesn't work, I would like to know what version of 8cars you are using, version of RCT2 you have installed and what operation system you are using.

Ok NOW it worked. Everytime I tried it would give me an error trapper.