Theme Park strategy
Park design
Slow the game speed down when designing the park. This will
allow more time to place rides and provide a small amount of lee-way
when playing the game.
People enjoy going on rides and winning on stalls; try to cut
down the amount of time that they spend walking between one attraction
and the next. One method of doing this is to have a straight path
with rides coming off either side of it. Each ride is butted up
against the side of the path with the entrance around the back
and the exit leading back onto the main path. A short queue should
link the path to the entrance. Try to stagger the rides on either
side so that anyone leaving one ride is pointed straight at the
queue entrance to the next one. In this method the visitors will
zig zag between the rides and the amount of time they spend just
walking and not being on a ride is minimal. The major disadvantage
with this method is that it does not leave much room for decorative
features that make the park look nice and this may put some people
off.
If the park has a complex path system with rides and stalls all
over, place signposts so that people know where they are heading.
If a person comes across a sign pointing towards a ride that they
want to visit then they will feel happier about walking towards
it as opposed to just wandering around aimlessly. Also, signposts
that point towards the exit allow annoyed people to leave quicker
and not wander around for hours getting more upset. Unhappy people
tend not to go on rides or buy things from shops and just clutter
up the park and reduce the average number of the happy people.
As a result of this, the park's reputation and popularity will
suffer.
Another method of park design is the one way method. The park
is designed in such a way that the people have no choice but to
walk around the park in an organized and orderly manner. This
has advantages in that you should be able calculate what any person
will be requiring at any one time and be ready for it. In addition,
the need for signposts is greatly reduced as there are fewer junctions
for people to navigate. A problem arises when too many people
enter the park. Queues fill up and so people are unable to go
on all of the rides. Due to the one way structure of the park,
they are unable to return to rides that they may have missed.
Sometimes attempting to place objects on long grass will leave
short grass that can cause placement difficulties. Demolishing
the short grass may fix the problem.
Place a Balloon Shop right near the entrance so that the visitors
will part with their money while they are still happy. This will
put them in a good mood for the rest of their stay unless something
bad happens.
Rides
When positioning rides allow for the fact that entrances and
exits may move at some point.
Place bigger rides and attractions towards the back of the park.
This will ensure the customers spend money on shops and stalls
on their way through the park.
Do not be afraid to remove rides that are placed incorrectly.
It is far better to lose the money for buying this one ride than
to distract valuable Mechanics from repairing the star attraction
so that it blows up with people on it.
The little people tend to prefer a large variety of rides as opposed
to lots of identical ones. If the park has more than one of the
same type of ride, try to position them quite far apart.
Build good rides two times and very good rides three times if
possible.
As rides get older so they do not last as long as they should
before needing repair. When this starts to happen, consider selling
the ride and replacing it with an upgraded one. This will put
less strain on the mechanics. When replacing rides, the old ride
first must be demolished. Demolishing the Roller Coaster or Big
Dipper entry will also demolish all connected track, so it is
a good idea to break the track manually first. A ride must be
replaced if the "your XXX ride has gotten so old you should
replace it" message appears. If the ride is not replaced,
it may blow up and leave immobile debris.
To keep rides busy, make sure the queue lanes and the exit joined
up to the path. Swapping the queue path and exit (for track rides)
may help. People cannot seem to walk across bridges that are part
of a path intersection; add in a section of path between the bridge
and the intersection.
Roller Coaster
Loops can only be placed on a flat, straight section of horizontal
track. Cork-screws can only be placed on a flat, straight section
of vertical track. Roller coasters may need to be longer than
a certain length before loops work. If the coaster car is going
fast enough to reach the top of the loop, modify the track to
make the car faster.
The coaster cannot be turned on if there is not enough room on
the track for the roller coaster to stop. The coaster may not
stop to let passengers on and off if there is not enough room
on the track for the roller coaster to stop. The coaster will
stop twice if the track passes right next to the ride entrance
on both sides.
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.
Shops
One of the greatest source of income can be achieved with
a well-placed shop or stall. They provide instant cash returns
and also keep the visitors happy. However, they have two drawbacks.
Litter is the major problem, as nobody likes a messy park. If
there is too much litter then the visitors will stay away from
the park. Certain shops such as the Coffee Shop have litter bins
inside to take care of their own litter although they are not
quite as effective as Pokey Cola's for quenching thirst. Whenever
a shop is bought that produces litter, make sure that there are
sufficient handymen to combat the litter problem.
The other main problem is that of keeping them well stocked. A
shop that has run out of stock is no use to anyone. Keep an eye
on the shops to ensure that they have sufficient stocks to last.
If they do not, order some more immediately. Learn how often certain
shops are restocked to develop a rhythm so that you do not have
to keep looking around the map at all of the shops. It is worth
spending some time getting the prices just right. You can delay
the arrival of stock by re-ordering.
If the Advisor states that a certain shop is running low and you
have not already sent off an order for that shop, immediately
order some more to minimize the amount of time that the shop is
closed. If the game is in Sandbox mode then this should not be
a concern.
Catch customers early by placing shops at the entrance to the
park.
The best way to set the prices is to watch the visitors. Start
by adjusting the prices in large steps, and note what the visitors
say as they go by. If they are hungry but it is too expensive
they will say so, if not, they will buy something. Once the price
is roughly correct, it can be fine tuned.
Stalls
Stalls can be a very lucrative method of gaining cash. They
can also upset visitors who feel that they are being conned in
some way. Try to match the cost of each game with the chance of
winning and the prize if they do so. Do not try to fool the visitors
too much as they are not stupid will soon see through your attempts
and stop coming. A small cost and prize coupled with a moderate
chance of winning provides a more reliable income than a risky
high cost high prize lower chance stall.
Stalls have the added bonus in that they entertain the visitors
(although not as much as rides) and do not produce litter. They
are also smaller than rides and so can be slotted in several small
places around the park. The visitors tend not to keep visiting
the same type of stall so, as with rides, variety is the key.
Research is needed to have this variety
Getting the satisfaction levels up
Turn on the fireworks display. Put in more exciting rides.
Lower the gate fee. Place trees down next to every path.
Freeing stuck people
The places people usually become 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 should get unstuck when the queue moves, or when
the queue is emptied (by turning the ride off and on). People
stuck under rides (because the ride was built on top of them)
can only be freed by destroying the ride. If the stuck person
can not be found, empty the park of people by closing for a short
while.
Hungry visitors
Visitors may not be able to find the shops. Use signposts
to advertise their position. Shop prices that are too high for
the average visitor may need to be lowered. Selling balloons,
etc. to the visitors helps them forget how hungry and thirsty
they are.
Handymen
Once a few items are set up in your park and some visitors
are wandering around, rubbish (and other things) will appear on
the ground spoiling your park. Handymen should be employed the
instant litter starts appearing on the ground. Keep an eye on
any new handymen as they might start becoming confused by the
layout of the paths and end up missing large areas of the park
that need to be cleaned. Sometimes, handymen left on their own
will quickly disappear to happily mow the lawns forever, while
the park turns into a waste refuge! To keep each handyman on track,
use the zoning functions to assign them cleaning routes.
A few things to keep in mind with handymen zoning are: the route
is a loop that passes through all control points (reachable from
the handyman's current position); the route can only follow the
park paths and ride queues; any route that covers disjoint sections
of path will only be patrolled in the sections that the handyman
can reach without leaving the park paths (when in the zone editing
mode, only those sections of the route "reachable" by
the handyman will be shown)
Handyman zones are assigned as follows: select the handyman whose
zone you want to work on (place the handyman on a path with the
"tweezers" if necessary); select the zoning button.
This will toggle the handyman zoning mode. In this mode two extra
buttons are available: "erase zone" and "add control
point". Select the "add control point" button.
Select the path in the places through which the zone should pass.
As new control points are added the zone route (shown with black
shading) is extended to include the new control points. Note:
only eight control points can be present in a zone. Select the
zoning button when zone assignment has been completed to exit
the handyman zoning mode.
The handyman will now obediently patrol his zoned route picking
up the litter as he passes by. Black arrows over handymen indicate
that the handyman has a route assigned.
After toilets are built, hire a handyman just to clean them. Nothing
clears the park quicker than chain vomiting.
If the handymen become stuck in "turbo mode", picking
them up with the "tweezers" should also fix up this
problem.
Make spare handymen work exclusively outside shops.
Mechanics
Mechanics should be hired when a ride first starts to show
signs of breaking down. Keep an eye on them since they spend half
their time eating lunch. Sometimes mechanics like to have lunch
in comfortable places from which they can not leave. When they
are called to repair a ride they become stuck, continually answering
their radio. Simply pick them up with the "tweezers"
and put them somewhere else.
When a ride breaks down, do not wait for a mechanic; tell him
to fix the ride by questioning him, selecting the wrench, and
selecting the broken ride.
Often, a mechanic will get to a nearby damaged ride before it
completely blows up. If there is more than one ride that is in
trouble, direct the mechanic to fix one ride immediately and either
shut the other ride down, or hire another mechanic. A single mechanic
can usually maintain three to four rides successfully, varying
with the quality of the rides, how often they are used and for
how long.
A slightly risky tactic is to slow down the speed of a damaged
ride while the mechanic is fixing another ride. With luck, the
ride will not blow up in the time it takes for the other ride
to be fixed. The benefit to this strategy is only having one mechanic
employed and giving the visitors at least one ride as opposed
to having two rides closed down.
Entertainers
Entertainers should be placed near rides that have a particularly
long wait time. At least one entertainer should be placed somewhere
near the park entrance to hand out umbrellas if it starts to rain.
Guards
Guards only need to be hired if bikers start appearing in
the park. Bikers are attracted by two things: litter and fast
rides. Bikers will become noticeable when entertainers begin to
get beat-up and rides start breaking down a lot faster than normal.
Deal with them immediately by hiring plenty of guards and moving
the entertainers away from trouble areas. Guards will only escort
bikers out of the park if they see them doing something like kicking
in an entertainer or breaking a ride.
Using signposts
Signposts are useful things for guiding the visitors around
the park. When the visitors pass a signpost and see something
they like, they will walk in the direction the signpost points.
Each signpost can point to: one ride (white sign), one shop (red
sign), or the exit (blue sign).
To place a sign: select the signpost tool. Select the object to
point to (choosing a ride selects a white sign pointing to that
ride; choosing a shop selects a red sign pointing to that shop;
choosing the exit selects a blue sign pointing to the exit). Select
the path to place the sign. When placing a new sign, the sign
will be placed so that it points "towards" the selected
object. Adjust the sign (if necessary) by selecting the sign with
the signpost tool to rotate the sign. Selecting an existing signpost
only rotates the sign whose color matches the current color of
the signpost tool.
Caution: Close signposts should generally point away from each
other. Close signposts that point towards each other might trap
visitors between them who are interested in the objects of both
signposts.
Awards
At the end of each year a presentation will be made with various
charts showing on how well your park is doing. In addition, there
are also several awards that are presented if something particularly
well is being done in certain areas of the park. These awards
not only improve the park's reputation but add a substantial sum
of money to the bank account. They are also a measure of how well
the park is doing in relation to your opponents. If your park
is constantly winning the "Good Technology" award, then
it must be more advanced than all of the competition. Concentrate
on winning a single award at a time, then use the money gained
to do better at winning the other awards.
Strategic hints
Listen to the Advisor, especially when he talks about the
admission prices. Every time a new ride is built, increase the
admission price. Visitors do not pay to get on rides. Their only
function is to make people pay more to enter the park. Admission
prices alone will not provide enough revenue for the park to operate.
Combined with front gate admission prices, the revenue that food/merchandise/game
units generate should bring the park into the black.
When starting, do not open the park until a few rides, bathrooms,
food and drink stands, and merchandise shops have been built.
Do not let the first guests enter a park that has been poorly
laid out, because they will be dissatisfied and word of mouth
will hurt future attendance levels.
The visitors are very fickle in that they are not easily pleased
yet the smallest thing will make them unhappy very quickly. Always
listen to what they say. Keep an eye on the thought bubbles that
appear above each little person's head and react accordingly.
If several people get hungry in the same area, consider building
a food stall of some type nearby. Likewise, if several people
are upset about the cost or prizes of a stall, then either lower
the price or raise the prize.
Research the following items first: ride upgrades; ride technology;
shops/attractions/games. The ride upgrades will allow higher guest
capacities, as well as more reliability. The ride technology will
allow access to better and more exciting rides. The shops/games
will create a wider selection of food/drink, merchandise, and
game units to place. These will generate profits the park. Do
not pump too much money into research, as the research expenses
are incurred per month.
If the workers strike, select the workers and pick them up off
the picket line and set them back to work.
Do not just buy as much stock as possible. Build up cash by buying
low and selling high rather than just buying everything. Sometimes
other parks stock will slip below 100/share so that it costs virtually
nothing to buy all of their stock. Usually the next year that
same stock is worth over 10,000/share allowing a nice little profit.
It's always worthwhile to buy up your own shares. This will prevent
a buy out, and, if the park does well, may be used as extra cash
later.
Control the crowd of visitors by spreading them out in the park.
Use arrows on the path to lead them to the inner sections of the
park. Use a wide entrance area to avoid congestion at the park
entrance
Build a roller coaster "chain" by creating an entrance,
some track, another entrance, more track, the first entrance.
The same can be done with the bumper cars or the tube ride. The
monorail is not the only way to get around the park.
Use the grassy area out the front of the park to create a street
fair. It is only three squares wide, but a decent selection of
shops and scenery will fit in that space. With careful planning,
some of the track rides may be set up in this area.
An alternative strategy would be to build a park and develop it
massively, optimizing for profit. Crowd the rides in and do not
bother with aesthetics. Eventually money will start to accumulate
(e.g., 500 people in the park with a gate fee of zero will earn
income of around $90,000 per month). Build up at least $5M this
way, then sell the park. By this time, the park will be number
one in four or five areas. After the park is sold, the game resets
your character and the competition. Use your cash to maximize
research. Design and setup an amazing park before the competition.
On the second park, lay out things more carefully.
Another alternative strategy to developing your park year after
year is to develop a park just to sell it (if possible) at the
end of the year. There is an auction where your character can
wait until the price is very high. Use that money to build a new
park (even in the same country).
Attractions
| Name | Area |
Extra | Full | Typ
| Cap | Excite |
Reliability |
| Race Car Ride | 2x1 | Track
| Y | GT | 25 |
Very Good | Quite Good |
| Rubber Tubing | 2x1 | Track
| Y | GT | 25 |
Excellent | Quite Good |
| Big Dipper | 5x1 | Track
| N | RT | 4 |
Superb | Okay |
| Monorail | 5x2 | Track
| N | RT | 2 |
Bad | Top Notch |
| Roller Coaster | 5x2 | Track
| N | RT | 4 |
Top Notch | Okay |
| Loop The Loop | 5x1 | n/a
| Y | TE | 0 |
Top Notch | Okay |
| Water Splash | 5x1 | n/a
| Y | TE | 0 |
Superb | Okay |
| Cork Screw | 1x6 | n/a
| Y | TE | 0 |
Excellent | Okay |
| Big Wheel | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 6 |
Good | Excellent |
| Bouncy Castle | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 4 |
Okay | Very Bad |
| Flight Sim | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 5 |
Superb | Poor |
| Ghost House | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 5 |
Okay | Very Good |
| Haunted House | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 14 |
Excellent | Very Good |
| Maze | 4x4 | Ent/Ext
| Y | SR | 16 |
Very Bad | Very Good |
| Merry-Go-Round | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 4 |
Bad | Poor |
| Observation Tower | 4x4 |
Ent | Y | SR | 20
| Bad | Okay |
| Observatory | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 30 |
Okay | Superb |
| Parasol Chairs | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 6 |
Quite Good | Poor |
| Pirate Boat | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 8 |
Excellent | Very Good |
| Plane Flyer | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 4 |
Quite Good | Very Good |
| Planet Rocket | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 10 |
Bad | Poor |
| Snakes And Ladders | 4x4 |
Ent | Y | SR | 1
| Poor | Very Bad |
| Space Shuttle | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 6 |
Very Good | Very Good |
| Super Spinner | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 20 |
Quite Good | Very Good |
| Tree House | 4x4 | Ent
| Y | SR | 1 |
Poor | Very Good |
| Clown Acts | 6x5 | n/a
| N | LS | 24 |
Okay | Superb |
| Cowboy Acts | 6x5 | n/a
| N | LS | 24 |
Good | Superb |
| Dolphin Acts | 6x5 | n/a
| N | LS | 24 |
Quite Good | Superb |
| Medieval Acts | 6x5 | n/a
| N | LS | 24 |
Very Good | Superb |
Key
- Area: The minimum bounding area required to build the object.
- Extra: Additional Space outside the minimum bounding area
required for the rides track, entrance, or exit.
- Full: Indicates whether or not the minimum bounding area is
filled by the object.
- Cap: The ride capacity (or for raised track rides, the capacity
per car on the ride).
- Excite: The ride excitement level.
- Reliable: The ride reliability.
- Typ: The ride type: RT (raised track, paths can be placed
underneath), GT (ground track, requires dedicated space), TE (track
extras, requires flat, straight track to go on), LS (live show),
SR (standard ride).
All track ride entrances can be oriented in four ways: facing
down (normal), facing up, facing left, or facing right. The area
required to place the ride entrance varies according to the orientation
of the entrance (raised track ride entrances are manually oriented,
ground track rides are automatically oriented).
Shops
| Name | Area |
Full | Type | Addictiveness
|
| Balloon World | 5x2 | N
| Toy | n/a |
| Coffee Shop | 3x3 | Y
| Drink | n/a |
| Coconut Shy | 3x2 | Y
| Sideshow | Very Good |
| Duck Shoot | 3x2 | Y
| Sideshow | Poor |
| Gunshoot | 3x2 | Y
| Sideshow | Quite Good |
| Mr. Whippy Ices | 3x2 | Y
| Sweet | n/a |
| Novelty Shop | 3x2 | Y
| Novelty | n/a |
| Saloon | 3x2 | Y
| Drink | n/a |
| Tincan Alley | 3x2 | Y
| Sideshow | Good |
| Arcade | 3x1 | Y
| Sideshow | Top Notch |
| Big Time Fries | 3x1 | Y
| Fast Food | n/a |
| Big Time Burger | 3x1 | Y
| Fast Food | n/a |
| Gift Shop | 3x1 | Y
| Gift | n/a |
| Pokey Cola | 3x1 | Y
| Drink | n/a |
| Race Track | 3x1 | Y
| Sideshow | Very Good |
| Steak Restaurant | 3x1 | Y
| Savory | n/a |
| Toyland | 3x1 | Y
| Toy | n/a |
Key
- Area: The minimum bounding area required to build the object.
- Full: Indicates whether or not the minimum bounding area is
filled by the object.
- Type: For Refreshment shops the food type sold, for Souvenir
shops the object sold, for Sideshows note the Addictiveness column
It is possible to reclaim the area under the shop for other objects
(except the square directly under the shop - see this in tiny
mode). Reclaim this area by erasing the ground under the shop.
This will change the grass from short "used" grass to
normal "usable" grass. This also can be done to the
square directly under the shop (choose "No" when prompted
to confirm the delete operation), but the only thing that can
be placed is a path. This method can be used to pack much more
into the park (the space requirement for each shop is effectively
reduced to a single square!). However, it looks messy.
Scenery
| Name | Area |
Type |
| Lamp Post | 1x1 | Other
|
| Tree Stump Fence | 1x1 | Fence
|
| Birch Tree | 1x1 | Plant/Tree
|
| White Fence | 1x1 | Fence
|
| Castle Wall | 1x1 | Fence
|
| Orange Tree | 1x1 | Plant/Tree
|
| Apple Tree | 1x1 | Plant/Tree
|
| Privet Hedge | 1x1 | Fence
|
| Rose Bush | 1x1 | Plant/Tree
|
| Tropical Bush | 1x1 | Plant/Tree
|
| Weeping Tree | 1x1 | Plant/Tree
|
| Palm Tree | 1x1 | Plant/Tree
|
| Oak Tree | 1x1 | Plant/Tree
|
| Spooky Tree | 1x1 | Plant/Tree
|
| Outhouse | 1x1 | Toilet/Latrine
|
| Boggy Crapper | 1x1 | Toilet/Latrine
|
| Lake* | 3x3 | Water feature
|
| Super Toilet | 1x1 | Toilet/Latrine
|
| Center Fountain | 3x2 | Water feature
|
* A Lake piece must be placed in a 3x3 area, but can be reduced
to take up only a 2x2 area (and can of course be made much larger)
Key
- Area: The minimum bounding area required to build the object.
Price/Profit Ratios
Big Time Fries
Buying at: 35; Computer suggested mark up: 45
| Price | Cont |
Margin | Sales |
Profit |
| 45 | 10 | 29% |
36 | 360 |
| 50 | 15 | 43% |
30 | 450 |
| 52 | 17 | 49% |
25 | 425 |
| 54 | 19 | 54% |
20 | 380 |
| 55 | 20 | 57% |
28 | 560 |
| 56 | 21 | 60% |
20 | 420 |
| 58 | 23 | 66% |
19 | 437 |
| 60 | 25 | 71% |
10 | 250 |
| 65 | 30 | 86% |
10 | 300 |
| 75 | 40 | 114%
| 4 | 160 |
| 85 | 50 | 143%
| 0 | 0 |
Balloon World
Buying at: 10; Computer suggested mark up: 12
| Price | Cont |
Margin | Sales |
Profit |
| 10 | 0 | 0% |
29 | 0 |
| 12 | 2 | 20% |
26 | 52 |
| 14 | 4 | 40% |
27 | 108 |
| 16 | 6 | 60% |
23 | 138 |
| 18 | 8 | 80% |
24 | 192 |
| 20 | 10 | 100%
| 21 | 210 |
| 22 | 12 | 120%
| 21 | 252 |
| 30 | 20 | 200%
| 0 | 0 |
Key
Copyright © 1995 Al
Amaloo. All rights reserved.
|
