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When consciousness returned, he heard piercing sirens in the distance followed by the blurry glare of flashing red lights through the haze. One minute, he was in complete control. The next moment, the world spun around him as he lurched, churned, twirled, then settled to rest after what seemed an eternity. In those fading moments, one tragic regret replayed itself over and over in his mind as the attendant helped him from his perceived predicament. "Rats. I should have gotten the all day pass."

Sim Theme Park demands two elements more precious than oxygen and water: fun and excitement. Consider these resources, and don't get caught up in them yourself (fun is serious business, after all). "Fun" is pretty obvious, but think of excitement more as "contained fear." Park dwellers love to be scared up to the point where fear bleeds into terror. Maximize the fun factor of your park (which adds value in your customers' minds), tune your attractions to be almost terrifying, and you'll catapult yourself towards completing all four park themes with optimal results. Along the way, the following tips should help create the proper mindset for Theme Park development.

Free toaster with the purchase of a coaster

...EXCEPT bathrooms, which keep "accidents" to a minimum
The Few attractions granted at the start of each theme park generate modest traffic, but won't push your park over the edge of grandeur. Put utmost priority into researching the roller coaster for all worlds first. An early entrance of the Temple of Gloom or the Caterpillar Coaster promises a noticeable bump in traffic, bringing in greater funds for improving other sections of the park

The Proud roller coaster rolls off the assembly line, waiting for the handiwork of a craftsman such as you to transform it from girder and steel to magical carpet ride for the masses. In the heat of the moment, remember to not overshoot the fiscal objective. Often, the impulse to create a sprawling, multi-tiered, several-mile-long monstrosity overwhelms you. Focus on creating the shortest roller coaster with the highest excitement level short of terror. Upgrading the coaster allows for loops, which boost excitement level without extending track length. Shorter rides push through higher traffic, and since a ride's excitement level is the primary characteristic by which its value is judged, sprawling tracks offer little additional value for their cost.

Use elevation to overlap rides. Takes less space, adds excitement, looks cool!
The Marines, or in this case the guards, at first play a bit part in most parks. While vandalism does occur, particularly in latter stages of park development, often the acts themselves annoy rather than destroy. For example, cleaners can readily dispose of stink bombs, and balloon popping tends to disappear on its own, even when left unchecked. Unlike cleaners, the purchase of guards can be postponed until needed, all with minimal effect on your park's fiscal health.

Go ahead, make my pay(roll)

The Good rides available in all park themes should be upgraded rapidly. Skimping on research pays somber dividends as rides lose their luster rather quickly over time. Initial rides, like the Belly Bounce in Jurassic Park or the Flower Power in the Wonder Park, act as mere stop gaps for better rides, so upgrading these rides falls in the optional category. Position the starring attractions as distant bait in the further reaches of the park, lining lesser attractions along pathways leading to them.

Side shows near the entrance are somewhat risky. Place them on paths leading to big attractions
The Bad taste in your patrons' mouths isn't just an invitation to open a breath mint shop, it's the sweet gesture of successfully morphing the park to achieve specific objectives and gain golden tickets and keys. To categorize the objectives, expect to be challenged with sell-through, pure profit, build or upgrade, traffic throughput, and upkeep/opinion objectives. Over 50 percent of the objectives involve building a ride or an upgrade within a set time limit. Close behind is the goal of selling a prescribed item to customers. Oddly, only a scant couple of tasks relate to achieving raw profit. A well-designed and operating park ensures that objectives are achievable at any phase of your park's life. By far the most difficult challenges relate to increasing the happiness of fickle kids. Drastic measures are often required, like slashing entrance fees to the minimum, adjusting side shows to spit out prizes for every sucker… err, customer, providing maximum quality ingredients in food shops, and constantly monitoring park sections for uncleanliness. Attempt to earn many of the Golden Ticket requirements in parallel with Challenges, since they often require similar adjustments to your park.

The Ugly folks wandering around the park aren't heavy, they're employees! Almost as fickle as the customers, expect to nurture, guide, and finally bludgeon into action your work force. They comprise a primary slice of your attention pie, and often a primary slice of your angst pie when obvious detriments to your park go unnoticed.

Points for length of ride, demerits for excessive length of ride
Cleaners: Just because you need to scoop up every cleaner available in the queue doesn't mean you're promised instant quality work. Still, the most consistent, ever-present dilemma of park management involves cleanliness. From the start, set patrol zones to cover the major areas of the park, and double up the workforce at heavily trafficked hot spots. In every patrol zone place a staff room. Seems extreme, I know, but lessening the walking distance to the break room minimizes downtime for the already prone-to-idleness employees. Unless you adore each cleaner's given name, a great trick for quickly viewing a cleaner's patrol area is to rename them after their appointed section. So, "Mr. Bob" becomes "Mr. Upper Left Of Park" and "Ms. Jillian" becomes "Ms. Food Court Area." Suddenly, scanning the staff list not only tells you the current status of staff, but also pinpoints which park sections are unmanned due to staff breaks or idleness.

Mechanics: Since upkeep isn't in their vocabulary, it's often better to station a few mechanics in known locations while scanning the park for failing rides yourself. While necessary for upgrading rides and on-demand servicing, there's little need to scoop up a lot of mechanics (in contrast to cleaners). Manage a few with occasional direction, and most parks will be fine.

Each kid has undetermined needs. Everything little thing you do affects their attitude
Guards: A few guards seem as capable as many given the scant benefits they provide under normal daily operations. Rarely do guards nab their culprits, but it's highly enteraining when they do. Station them in central areas or "paratroop" them into noted trouble spots.

Scientists: Buy them all. Every last one. Cost matters little, because scientists are the gates to the future of your park. Each one contributes to quickly obtaining new, exciting rides. Check the queues constantly, adding new scientists to your park (anywhere you plant them is fine. Their location in the park has no bearing on their research ability). When researching, focusing on one or two major objectives far outweighs applying research effort equally across the different attractions.

Entertainers: Long queues, lengthy stretches of sidewalks devoid of attraction, and temporarily out-of-service rides make perfect haunts for entertainers. Buy only when contextually sensible to do so, though their paltry cost makes employing them easy to justify.

The Endless barrage of sights and sounds in Sim Theme Park tends to distract you from maintaining the proper mindset. Never forget that behind every creative action or individual in your park is a number that impacts the other "numbers" around it:

Never lower your park entrance fee below $20 (patrons gladly pay this under any circumstance). Remember to increment the asking price a few dollars after investing in new rides or attractions.
Capitalize on the popularity of new rides, since they remain so for a mere seven days of operation (and gain a new ride bonus for that time period).
From the time kids step through the entrance with hundreds of dollars in their wallets, their moods and purchasing penchants undergo bombardment by every negative and positive influence around them. From entrance fee to shopping spree, everything modifies impression.
Realize that one in every twenty children harbors mischievous intentions. Of those kids, anticipate a 25 percent chance they'll raise a big stink(bomb) somewhere in the park.
Patrons have intrinsic preferences for desired excitement level. This makes pleasing everyone impossible. Rides rated at 35, for example, bore 900f the patrons. On the other hand, a ride with a 90 rating surpasses every possible kid's excitement threshold. To be safe, maintain rides of various excitement levels between 50 and 80.
Staff training shouldn't be underestimated. Untrained workers spend half of their shifts idle. In comparison, fully trained cleaners spend 950f their workday in motion, recuperate from fatigue and unhappiness over twice as fast, and detect trouble spots within the park from two and a half times further away.
Everything has a radius. Employees require training to detect problems further away. Unfortunately, untraining patrons won't stifle their detection capabilities as an inverse solution. Toilets detrimentally affect happiness three times further than a puddle of puke—call for service quickly when the flusher turns gusher. Security cameras detect hoodlums over six times further than guards can. If problems truly do develop, marry many cameras with few guards for best results.
Above all, have fun and don't fear the need for drastic change in order to address new objectives. Remember also that online parks found on the hosted Theme Park World often discard many of these basic rules to bring unusual, bizarre, and comical parks for the amusement of many. Just don't get sick on all that cotton candy.

mmorphon00@yahoo.com

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Page Updated Mon Feb 28, 2000 8:25pm EST