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Text File | 1994-12-12 | 17.4 KB | 501 lines

--------------------- THEMEPARK by Bullfrog --------------------- FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS LIST v0.1 Last Update: 18 November 1994 Maintained by: David Leadbetter <davidl@cs.uq.oz.au> Contributors: Peter Elfers <elfers.pad@sni.de> plus many others Introduction: ------------ Welcome (at long last) to an FAQ for Themepark. This file _attempts_ to answer many frequently asked questions relating to Themepark, concerned with game installation and game play. If any of the following apply: - your question is not addressed here; - the information contained here does not answer your question; - you have extra information to add to that already contained here; - you have corrections to the information contained here then any comments can be sent to the maintainer at the above address. This is only an early version of the FAQ. Don't expect it to cover anywhere near all the questions people have on Theme Park. The contents of this FAQ are questions and answers that have been collected from the news over the last few months. If you want this FAQ to get better, please contribute! Contents: -------- 0.0 Abbreviations 1.0 Installation FAQs 1.1 Hardware FAQs 1.2 Software FAQs 2.0 Gameplay FAQs 2.1 Game mechanics 2.2 Game simulation 3.0 Bugs 4.0 Play Reference 5.0 Play strategies 6.0 Park Design 7.0 Utils ----------------- 0.0 Abbreviations ----------------- This section explains and abbreviations used throughout this file. LMB - left mouse button RMB - right mouse button Each question in the FAQ sections is classified as follows: Q: Question/Problem A: Answer/Solution R: Related Point --------------------- 1.0 Installation FAQs --------------------- This section contains frequently asked questions related to installation and configuration of Themepark. 1.1 Hardware FAQs ----------------- Q: My mouse doesn't work A: Themepark has some serious problems with many mouse drivers. The solution that seems to work for most people is to use the MOUSE.COM that comes with Windows. Q: Problems running intro. A: A lot of people with CD-ROMs and/or sound cards have trouble running the intro. Try using the '-o' switch, or not run the intro at all (edit the Themepark batch file). Q: No mouse on the "Enter Nickname" screen A: Some people with CD-ROMs and soundcards don't get the pointer on the nickname screen. Apparently this is a memory problem, and the only solution is to free up more memory (or buy some more), or turn off sounds. Q: I can't get sounds to work with my soundcard A: To run low quality sounds you need to have 4M RAM A: To run high quality sounds you need to have 8M RAM NOTE: These are the minimum requirements. Even if you satisfy these, you may note get sounds unless you are running a minimal configuration. Q: How do I get SVGA mode to work A: Themepark uses the VESA video standard to run in high-res mode. If your video card does't have VESA support built in, you need to run a VESA TSR (usually supplied with the video card, or a 3rd party util like UNIVBE). 1.2 Software FAQs ----------------- Q: How much memory for sounds A: To run low quality sounds you need to have 4M RAM A: To run high quality sounds you need to have 8M RAM NOTE: These are the minimum requirements. Even if you satisfy these, you may note get sounds unless you are running a minimal configuration. Q: How do I get SVGA mode to work A: Themepark uses the VESA video standard to run in high-res mode. If your video card does't have VESA support built in, you need to run a VESA TSR (usually supplied with the video card, or a 3rd party util like UNIVBE). Q: It just won't work after installing! A: If you are running EMM386, try installing without EMM386 loaded. ----------------- 2.0 Gameplay FAQs ----------------- This section contains frequently asked questions related to gameplay. 2.1 Game Mechanics FAQs ----------------------- This sections deals with questions to do with building your park. Q: I am having trouble building loops. A: Loops can only be placed on a flat, straight section of horizontal track. Q: I am having trouble building cork-screws. A: Cork-screws can only be placed on a flat, straight section of vertical track. Q: I am having trouble getting loops to work. A: Someone has suggested that roller coasters must be longer than a certain length before loops work. A: The coaster car may not be going fast enough to reach the top of the loop -- modify the track to make the car faster. Q: I am unable to turn on the coaster. A: This may be caused by not leaving enough room on the track for the roller coaster to stop. Q: The coaster never stops to let passengers on and off. A: This may be caused by not leaving enough room on the track for the roller coaster to stop. R: The coaster will stop _twice_ if the track passes right next to the ride entrance on both sides. Q: Piece placement. A: The actual placement and apparent placement of some rides (especially the track ride entrances) can be very confusing. Often removing a few lengths of extra track at both ends will provide enough space to replace the object. Q: Rides not being used. A: Make sure you have queue lanes and the exit joined up to the path. A: Swap the queue path and exit around (for track rides). A: People can't seem to walk across bridges that are part of a path intersection -- add in a section of path between the bridge and the intersection. Q: How do you use direction signs. A: Click on the attraction you wish to point to point to with the sign tool, then place the sign where you want it. Rotate the sign (if necessary) by click the RMB on the sign with the sign tool. Q: I can't replace a ride. A: You have to demolish the old ride first. To do this click on the old ride with the RMB. However you have to click in a certain spot. Change into "tiny" mode to see where to click. Q: Piece placement difficulties - trouble placing ride tracks, rides, shops, etc... A: Unfortunately this is one of the annoying bugs you will probably come across eventually. It may be linked to a bad game state (e.g. rides exist that need repair _really_ badly). A: Sometimes it just requires a few persistent clicks to place objects (sometimes a LOT of clicks!). A: Sometimes attempting to place objects on long grass will leave short grass that can cause placement difficulties. Demolishing the short grass (i.e. click with RMB) may fix the problem. 2.2 Game Simulation FAQs ------------------------ This section deals with questions to do with running your park. Q: My game gets really slow. A: The game slows down as the number of people in the park increases. A: If you have a bad game state, the game might slow down (e.g. rides exist that need repair _really_ badly) A: Running in SVGA mode slows the game down. Q: How to get the satisfaction levels up. A: Turn on the fireworks display. Q: "Due to your bad park planning... has gotten stuck". A: The places people usually get stuck are in queue lines, under attractions, and sometimes on the bus stop (!!) Identify stuck people that are walking but stay in the same place. People stuck in queue lines can get freed by emptying the line (e.g. turn the ride off) People stuck under rides (because you built the ride on them) can only be freed by destroying the ride. [Anyone know how to help people that get stuck on the bus stop?] A: If you can't find the stuck person (and it really bothers you), empty the park of people by closing the park for a short while. Q: "Your XXX ride has gotten so old you should replace it". A: Unless you want the ride to blow up (leaving unmovable debris), you need to locate the old ride and replace it. You can make it easier to find a ride by renaming each ride when you build it. Q: Black arrows over handymen. A: This means that the handyman has a route assigned Q: My mechanics get stuck A: Sometimes mechanics like to have lunch in comfortable places they can't get out of. When they are called to repair a ride they get stuck continually answering their radio. Simply pick them up with your "tweezers" and put them somewhere else. Q: My handymen get stuck in "turbo mode". A: Picking them up with your "tweezers" should also fix up this problem. Q: Visitors get stuck in ride queues. A: The should get unstuck when the queue moves, or when the queue is emptied (do this by turning the ride off and on) Q: Visitors don't follow queues, paths, etc... A: Naughty aren't they ;-) Q: Bikers in the park. A: Bikers are thought to be attracted by two things: litter and fast rides. Q: Everyone left my park. A: Chances are you accidentally pressed 'O' and closed the park. -------- 3.0 Bugs -------- This section is intended to include a list of the bugs in Theme Park. If you hit a problem, this is a useful place to check to see if you've become a bug victim. > Does anyone out there have a comprehensive list of bugs? ------------------ 4.0 Play Reference ------------------ This section is meant to supplement the manual. Any poorly described sections of the manual should be enhanced here. > What bits do people think need explaining? ------------------- 5.0 Play Strategies ------------------- This section contains (edited) strategies that I have seen posted to the news (mainly the c.s.i.p.g.s newsgroup). If you are having trouble doing well in the game following one of these strategies may prove beneficial. NOTE: Some of these strategies are included WITHOUT permission of the person who posted the strategy. Credit has been given wherever possible. Strategy 1: General Method ----------- This general strategy was desribed by: Edward Kenworthy <ekenworthy@cix.compulink.co.uk> I've had no problems - I've never had to take out a loan even. (This is playing in full sim, medium hard). My strategy: 1) Build all the rides that are available asap. (build good rides two times and really good rides three times if you can afford it) 2) Build shops, but not too many if it's not a rich country. 3) ALWAYS increase the price of the things your shops sell by 20-50% of the default. 4) Research the maximum possible, spread between all areas, but particularly the new rides and better rides. 5) When you have enough money, buy all your own shares - and then as many of the others as you can afford. 6) Hire a mechanic when you find rides breaking down - and no sooner - and hire an extra one each time you find rides breaking down and all the mechanics are busy. 7) Hire cleaners as soon as rubbish appears (and assign them cleaning routes). 8) When you build toilets hire a cleaner just to clean them - nothing clears the park quicker than chain vomiting ! (By the way the number of people in the park bears little relation to the number of little people running around it ! - you have to look at the graphs for the true picture!) 9) Hire a *few* entertainers. The general rule is, don't buy anything or hire anyone unless you need them. Anddon't forget to keep the wharehouse stocked. Additions described by: Brad Bishop <bbishop@austin.ibm.com> I have also found that if your workers strike (and, I don't particulary care for unions, myself) you can click on the worker and then (for lack of a better term) user the 'pinchers' to pick them up off the picket like and set them back to work. Seems to work, they seem to happily go about their chores. I don't know how this affects the rest of the game, though. One thing I would change from the recommendations above... Don't just buy as much stock as you possibly can. You can build up quite a bit of cash by buying low and selling high rather than just buying everything. I have found that sometimes other parks stock will slip below 100/share so that it costs you virutally nothing to buy all of their stock. Usually, the next year that same stock is worth over 10,000/share so that you make quite a nice little profit. One other thing, make sure that your concessions are constantly stocked, the majority of the cash you will make will not be from tickets but from Ice Cream, Soda, Fries, Toys, Balloons, etc... This is where the cash flow is for your park. Once you have everything stablized (at least for me) your park will make you a little money but most of your cash will come from the stock market (relatively speaking - what I mean is that your park will do fine on its own once you really have it going, and will supply you with a nice income, but there is a lot of money to be made with stocks). Strategy 2: Something different ----------- This short strategy was described by: Peter Elfers <elfers.pad@sni.de> As an alternative to developing your park year after year, a different approach is to develop a park just to sell it (if you can) at the end of the year. There is an auction where you can wait until the price is very high, then use that money to build a new park (even in the same country). Strategy 3: Beginners Tips ----------- This strategy was described by: Mike Wallis <mike.wallis@3do.com> 1. Make sure you listen to your advisor -- especially when he talks about the admission prices. 2. When just starting out, don't open your park until you've laid out a few rides, bathrooms, food and drink stands, and merchandise shops. You don't want your first guests to enter a park that has been poorly laid out, because they'll be dissatisfied and word of mouth will hurt future attendance levels. 3. Research the following first: 1) ride upgrades; 2) ride technology; 3) shops/attractions/games. 1) The ride upgrades will allow higher guest capacities, as well as more reliability. 2) The ride technology will, obviously, give you access to better and more exciting rides. 3) The shops/games will give you a wider selection of food/drink, merchandise, and game units to place. These will generate profits for you. 4. Don't pump too much money into research, as the research expenses are incurred PER MONTH. One important thing to note is that admission prices alone will not provide enough revenue for your park to operate. That's where food/merchandise/game units come into the picture. Combined with front gate admission prices, the revenue that food/merchandise/game units generate should bring your park into the black... --------------- 6.0 Park Design --------------- This section is intended to provide some opinions on useful park designs. Your themepark can be designed with a number of factors in mind. Things you may want to consider in designing the park layout: - park asthetics (i.e. making it nice to look at - both for the player and the little people) - clutter control (i.e. keeping the rides nicely spaced out) - crowd control (i.e. getting the little people distributed around the park) - facility layout (i.e. what facilities work best grouped together) - host climate (i.e. the conditions: climatic and financial, of the country your park is in 6.1 Park Asthetics ------------------ Use nickname "DEMO" when starting Theme Park to check out a demo park. 6.2 Clutter Control ------------------- 6.3 Crowd Control ----------------- Here are a few idea of spreading out the crowd in the park: - use arrows on the path to lead the crowd to the inner park (where the better rides are -- right?) - use a wide entrance area to avoid conjestion at the park entrance 6.4 Facility Layout ------------------- 6.5 Host Climate ---------------- 6.6 Interesting Things To Try ----------------------------- Here's some interesting ideas to try that you may not have considered before: - build a roller coaster "chain": i.e. an entrance ... some track ... another entrance ... more track ... ... more track ... the first entrance. - do the same with the bumper cars, or the tube ride (the mono rail's not the only to get around the park ;-) ). --------- 7.0 Utils --------- This section covers any utils for use with Themepark. (Any cheats etc) Theme Park Cheats: ------------------ At least one money cheat utility exists for Theme Park. > Anyone know a reliable place to get it? Theme Park Demo: ---------------- A demo version of Theme Park does exist. > Anyone know a reliable place to get it? VESA TSRs: ---------- If you don't have a VESA TSR for your video card there are plenty available by ftp. One fairly general VESA TSR program is UNIVBE, available at any SimTel mirror: e.g. OAK.Oakland.Edu : SimTel/msdos/graphics/univbe50.zip [THE END]