Difficulty of Original RCT1 Parks

Difficulty of Original RCT1 Parks

Below is a table of all scenario's of rct1 and my percieved difficulty rating with the meaning:

Very easy: Waiting for it to be completed was the only challenge

Easy: The goal was reached in just 1/3 of the total time. By the end i had at least twice the guestcount/park value that is required in that time.

Moderate: I failed to get the goal in 1/3 of the total time (usually October year 1), but usually just barely. More common with parks with high guest requirements (900-1200 by year 3)

Hard: Because of park size/elevation/other restrictions, the amount of guests I got was noticeable fewer than i would expect, or the name of the scenario is rainbow valley.

very easy	Forest Frontiers		719*
easy	Dynamite Dunes		1581
very easy	Leafy Lake		1605
easy	Diamond Heights		1822
easy	Evergreen gardens		2088*
easy	Bumbly Beach		1439*
moderate	Trinity islands		1498
easy	Katie dreamland		1766
hard	Pokey Park		1123*
easy	White Water Park		1874
moderate	Millenium mines		1771
moderate	Karts & Coasters		1823
moderate	Mel's World		1972
hard	Mystic Mountain		1377
easy	Pacific Pyramids		2233*
moderate	Crumbly Woods		2228
easy	Big Pier		1316*
hard	Lightning Peaks		1480
moderate	Ivory Towers		1850
hard	Rainbow Valley		2034*
easy	Thunder Rock		1985*

*= This scenario's goal deadline was not October year 3.

Below is a graph of the 3 year parks with the guests amount at march 1, year 4, and the difficulty rating I gave it. The main influence for the guests at the end was:

- Earlier parks had fewer guests than later ones

- Except that harder parks had fewer than easier one (mostly notable on Trinity island, Mystic Mountain and Lightning Peaks)

RCT 1 - Thunder Rock

Thunder Rock

The very last scenario, not counting Megapark. This one is strangely easy. The guests amount is less than Rainbow Valley in a much easier situation. It’s just a(n almost rainless) desert with a huge rock in it. You can see this park as consisting in three parts: On the rock, next to the rock and in the rock. While the park size is disappointedly small, you can use some of the space twice due to constructing both on and in the rock.

After researching the information kiosk, I started researching roller coasters (as almost always) and started building the gentle and thrill riders that are initially available in front of the rock next to the entrance (that space is occupied rather quickly). Then I started filling the top with more coasters, starting the cheaper kinds. As most of area on top was occupied once the cheaper brands were used, the more expensive ones, like the vertical drop coasters (or the more annoying to build like the bobsled) were build inside the rock.

After running out of rollercoasters to research, it was time to research thrill rides. As RCT1 doesn’t let you build these underground, they were built all around the rock (and occasionally on top if I found some space). Some tracked gentle rides and water rides were also build inside the rock. Luckily there were still an abundance of 1x1 spaces next to paths to build stalls. Except for the ease of running out of space near the very end, this is a really easy park and way easier than most of the last parks.

And a second pic with the land removed, revealing what is built underground:

Objective: 900 guests in 4 years

Difficulty: Easy

Final guests: 1.985

Park Value: €51.000

Company Value:  €175.000

RCT 1 - Rainbow Valley

Rainbow Valley

This is a notorious one. It has a unique restriction among original scenario: you are not allowed to remove any trees or change the landscape in any way. It’s also not as if they were merciful in placement of trees or tree density either. It’s so full of trees that finding a 3x3 space to build flat rides already takes some time and finding enough treeless squares in a single row for a rollercoaster lift hill is challenging as well. It’s not even remotely flat either, so some amount of foresight is involved in placing pretty much everything in this scenario.

This scenario is a valley with a river in the middle. This is actually rather fortunate, as there are no trees on the wall, making the river the ideal place to build pretty much everything. So, a lot of my pathing is right next to the river. With most of the attractions concentrated on and near the water. The upper edges of the valley much more loosely filled with parts of rollercoasters and the occasional water ride.

Because the pathing involves a lot of tree dodging and uneven terrain, most of the paths don’t run on the ground but are built up in the air. So, placing stalls of all kinds was also challenging. Stall placement is another thing to keep in mind while constructing/planning the pathway system. This is also the only park where everything is researched by the time it takes to complete the scenario, that has not happened in any other level.

Objective: 1000 guests in 4 years

Difficulty: Hard

Final guests: 2.034

Park Value: €47.000

Company Value:  €202.000

RCT 1 - Ivory Towers

Ivory Towers

Entering the final three, this mess of a park is next. You start with four space-gorging attractions (okay the canoes aren’t that bad), there is much junk on the street than you see on a festival and pretty much every bank, lamp and thrash bin has been vandalized. Invigorating this park shouldn’t take more than two in-game months and it plays like a normal park otherwise. Albeit a bit more rainy than average then Millennium Mines and Lightning Peaks.

Putting a new breath of life into this park isn’t very hard. Hire a handyman, set it patrol area to about 8 4X4 squares, repeat until all paths are covered. Search for really angry guests and put them near the exit so that they leave. Set guests to invisible and repair the vandalized ornament (Do this last or it will be destroyed once more by angry guests). Remember to have a mechanic if anything breaks. There are no stalls either, so putting them down may also be a good idea. All this is possible to do in the first two months. Play the rest of the scenario as you otherwise would.

Objective: 1000 guests in 3 years

Difficulty: Moderate

Final guests: 1.850

Park Value: €47.000

Company Value:  €152.000

RCT 1 - Lightning Peaks

Lightning Peaks

One of the last parks. The guests count required isn’t very high. You start with two attractions (both chairlifts). It is possible to get every attraction, which is always a nice possibility to have. There are two problems with this park. It rains quite often and the landscape is absolutely atrocious.

If you look around this park you will notice almost no flat land. The land is not a bit uneven but it consists of four huge mountains and very large altitude difference. There Is no way to fix it with the landscape tool, that would be prohibitively expensive. The only option is to build roller coasters that follow the landscape a bit and plan your paths and stores very well.

At first I moved the path on the narrow corridor on the initial ascent near the entrance to one side and put the other side as full as possible with attractions. Then at the first peak I put down many thrill rides and gentle rides as the connectivity between exits/entrances and the pathway is slightly easier. The valley between the four peaks is to be filled with roller coasters. As the original pathway was an “u”-shape, I also completed the circle to prevent guests from getting lost as easy.

Despite having a very high park value (55.000) I got one of the lowest guests total I ever got (only 1.480). I don’t know how that happened.

Objective: 900 guests in 3 years

Difficulty: Hard

Final guests: 1.480

Park Value: €55.000

Company Value:  €91.000

RCT 1 - Paradise Pier

Paradise Pier/Big Pier

A park without any land. Nothing. Only some water and construction rides. A small spot inside the sea, smaller than mystic mountain, is all you the place where you can build. Luckily you don’t need that much guests and the park doesn’t last very long, as I completely filled it in the available 2 years.

Some people move the paths to have more space, but I think the straight lines that are prebuilt are good enough. They won’t cause any lost guests and removing them would cause (more) crowding issues.

As always, I first researched all necessary stalls (there was no information kiosk available) then roller coasters and finally thrill rides.

Objective: 600 guests in 2 years

Difficulty: Easy

Final guests: 1.316

Park Value: €35.000

Company Value:  €81.000

RCT 1 - Crumbly Woods

Crumbly Woods

The 1200 guest goal of Mel’s World is back. But you already have half of those guests in the park. So, getting the guest amount isn’t that difficult. There is, however, a different hidden obstacle in this park. If you check the ages of the rides, they are quite old. This causes two problems. First, they break down a lot. Secondly, guests don’t pay a lot for them. That wooden coaster that could easily have an entrance price of €6 if new, won’t attract any guests at all when €3 is asked.

The old flat rates, like the haunted house and carrousel, were replaced immediately. Whiplash, the corkscrew coasters, was just removed and replaced with a different dual corkscrew coaster. I also deleted the car ride as it is just way to long causing guests to complain about the length both for waiting and for being inside the ride, so I replaced it with a go karts track (which due to race mode still causes long waiting times, sorry guests). I also saved the wild mouse track and replaced it without the underground section. The wooden coaster was kept because it would take too much effort to replace and it’s a rather good coaster that I don’t want to delete.

A nice aspect of crumbly woods is that every ride is available for research. So, I got a lot of roller coasters by the end of it. All the important stalls are initially available as well (information kiosk, food stall, drink stall and restroom) as well as the balloon stall that I like to have when finishing the scenario. The combination of not needing to research any stalls plus the possibility to have every ride means that I could build more here than in every other park and get a record park value. ^^

Objective: 1200 guests in 3 years

Difficulty: Moderate

Final guests: 2.227

Park Value: €64.000

Company Value:  €152.000

RCT 1 - Done - All Screenshots - Part 2

Collection of All screenshots - Part 2

Download saved games on 31th October

Karts & Coasters

Mel's World

Mystic Mountain/Mothball Mountain

Pacific Pyramids

Crumbly Woods

Big Pier/Paradise Pier

Lightning Peaks

Ivory Towers

Rainbow Valley

Thunder Rock

Thunder Rock underground

The first half of the screenshots

RCT 1 - Done - All Screenshots - Part 1

Collection of All screenshots part 1

Forest Frontiers

Dynamite Dunes

Leafy Lake

Diamond Heights

Evergreen gardens

Bumbly Beach

Trinity Islands

Katie's Dreamworld/Katie's World

Pokey Park/Dinky Park

Aqua Park/White Water Park

Millenium Mines

The Other Half of the screenshots

RCT 1 - Pacific Pyramids

Pacific Pyramids

Same goal as evergreen gardens, but the park is four times smaller. It’s pretty flat and the original decorations and pathing gives some starting loanless cash. It’s in a desert, so it doesn’t rain often. which is good for ride entrance profit and, seeing as I never charge park entrance, rather important.

If you made it this far and completed Pokey Park, Millenium Mines, Mel’s World and Mystic Mountains, this park shouldn’t be much of a challenge. I completed it with a company value and the most guests I ever got.

Objective: 1000 guests in 4 years

Difficulty: Easy

Final guests: 2.2333

Park Value: €57.000

Company Value:  €198.000

RCT 1 - Mystic Mountain

Mystic Mountain / Mothball Mountain

This scenario has a bit of a “reputation”. While it requires less guests than mel’s world, it’s small and except for a small flat plateau near the entrance, it’s really hilly. It also contains a small lake in the middle for if you want some rowing boats. Extra land can be purchased at exorbitant prices for bad quality (as in, not flat at all). As an additional surprise, it’s really rainy.

Building in this park is all about efficient placement of rides, roads and stalls. Queue’s should be short, ride placement dense and coasters should be compact. Despite the small space, I still researched roller coasters first as they are the main money makers. Thankfully, this park has a lot of coasters that can be built rather compact, such as wild mouses, vertical coasters and launched coasters (= corkscrew, steel coaster, inverted coaster). Though some are rather unwieldly, like the bobsled that I built anyway.

After three years, this park is so full I don’t think I could add much. Maybe a coaster with a good height limit above the other attractions, like I did with the inverted coasters, but apart from that it’s full. The ~1350 guests I managed to get in is the lowest I ever got on a park that lasts for three years.

Objective: 800 guests in 3 years

Difficulty: Hard

Final guests: 1.377

Park Value: €39.000

Company Value:  €150.000

RCT 1 - Mel's World

Mel’s World

One of my favorite parks. Large, a bit treeless, all rides available and you start with an awesome attraction selection. Only park in the original series where you start with either the inverted coaster, the top spin or the launched freefall.

Not very difficult, but it’s objective has the highest guest count in the original game at 1200 guests by the end of October year 3. Because of the high goal, I did not get it in the goal in the first year. But this park gives a nice start, 200 guests and 4 attractions, and it Is possible to expand the park very quickly. the 1100 guests in year 1 I got here is definitely my record. The Company value will also be hard to beat in 3 years.

Objective: 1200 guests in 3 years

Difficulty: Moderate

Final guests: 1.972 (new record, 98 more than in White Water park)

Park Value: €54.000 (new record, 1.000 more than in Millenium Mines)

Company Value:  €199.000 (new record, 22.000 more than in White Water Park)

RCT 1 - Karts & Coasters

Karts & Coasters

You start with two wooden coasters and two go karts tracks. All have very high excitement (a good thing). The Go kart waiting lines are very long and guests complain about waiting there for ages. As the track is very long and the winner can do it once more causing the ride to take a really long time. It might be wise to either shorten the waiting queue or shorten the track itself. One of the two go karts is set to 2 laps, which should be changed to one.

Karts 1 Coasters is a somewhat big park, however it’s also very forested making construction a tad more difficult. There’s also a prebuilt extensive pathing system (not as extensive as evergreen gardens), so you could consider removing some paths.

When playing this park, I started researching roller coasters and noticed one small problem: All coasters I got could only be built in a continuous circuit except for the steel mini coaster. So, no compact shuttle loop variants were possible. After quite some time, the corkscrew coaster became researched, enabling a shuttle corkscrew build. The inverted coaster could also be launched but the steel coaster never became available.

The guest requirement for this park is the same as Evergreen Gardens while having one year fewer. For a beginner that might be a “holy crap” -moment. I did not get the full 1000 guests in the first year =(. It’s getting difficult to achieve the guest goals in the first year.

Objective: 1000 guests in 3 years

Difficulty: Moderate

Final guests: 1.823

Park Value: €52.000

Company Value:  €155.000

RCT 1 - Millenium Mines

Millenium Mines

An (almost) abandoned mine is the next challenge. You need 100 guests less than in the previous scenario but you start with only a ridiculously long railway and nothing else. At the start, only two stalls are available (fries stall and restroom), so you first need to devote some research to get drinks and information kiosk. The landscape is also a bit uneven with some small cliffs, it’s not the easiest to plan around.

Despite an easier goal and a larger park, millennium mines is a bit more difficult than the previous scenario, White Water Park. For the first time in a while, I failed to get the goal in the first year (last happened in Trinity Islands). Just like in Katie’s Dreamland, it rains more often here. I consider this a bit of a cumbersome park.

Objective: 800 guests in 3 years

Difficulty: Moderate

Final guests: 1.771

Park Value: €53.000 (new record, 1.000 more than in White Water Park)

Company Value:  €138.000

RCT 1 - White Water Park

Aqua Park/ White Water Park

The next scenario, named because all water rides are both available and prebuilt. The dinghy slide is quite fishy though and it will crash sooner or later. A nice aspect of this park is that all rides are researchable. As I have the tendency to build each attraction only once (barring synschronized rides), that means that I build a record amount of roller coasters here and got a record company value out of it.

Except for the crash-prone dinghy slide, the pathing system takes a u-shape, which will make it more difficult for guests to leave the park when they want to, causing them to get lost, so I completed the path to make a full turn around the park. There aren’t any other obvious difficulties to this park. I got 900 guests in the first year and more than twice the required guests in three.

Objective: 900 guests in year 3

Difficulty: Easy

Final guests: 1.874 (new record, 52 more than Diamond Heights)

Park Value: €52.000 (new record, 5.000 more than Katie’s Dreamland)

Company Value:  €177.000 (new record, 42.000 more than Diamond Heights)

RCT 1 - Pokey Park

Pokey Park

The third Park value objective. Again 5.000 less than the previous one, but you only get 2 years. And the park is tiny, One screen “large” tiny. This is the first scenario where you must really plan forward to complete it. While this scenario allows you to buy extra land, in the end, I didn’t do it because none of the coasters required it and I don’t like buying lots of land.

First, I moved the carousel, the twist, the spiral slide and the Ferris wheel and moved exit/entrance of all of them. The paths were redrawn to save some space. All attractions were moved to the sides and corners.

As this is a scenario where you start with food, drinks and kiosk, I started researching roller coasters. I got the Steel roller coasters and the wild mouse while starting with the steel mini coaster. Steel mini coaster allow the Reversed-Incline launched shuttle mode and curved life hill while allowing quick steep drops, which allows compact design. The station was also build underground. The steel mini coaster were compact shuttle loops built above the path-system. The wild mouse in the screenshot was added late into the scenario above all other attractions.

After that I started researching thrill rides as there is not much space for coasters. Now it becomes an exercise in cramped design. Flat rides on the bottom and all tracked rides (partially) underground (there is a river ride completely underground) or completely above it (like the Go Karts and the wild mouse). all queues were very short or underground bellow the path-system. To have room for stalls, usually land had to be raised as I still wanted at least four different color of balloons in addition to restrooms, food, drinks and information kiosk.

Because this park alters game-play so much, I would consider this a hard scenario.

Goal: 10.000 Park Value by year 2

Difficulty: Hard

Final guests: 1.123

Park Value: €26.000

Company Value:  €68.000

RCT 1 - Katie's Dreamworld

Katie’s Dreamworld

The second scenario that requires a park value objective instead of guests. Strangely, it requires a lower target than the previous park value scenario, diamond heights. This park is a bit smaller than Diamond Heights and you start with fewer attractions, but this park still can’t be considered more difficulty than diamond heights, which is not a challenging park to begin with once you understand park value.

One nasty surprise about this scenario is the weather. When you start this scenario, it’s 13°C/55°F instead of the regular 17°C/62°F, according to the RCT wiki, that means it rains more often. And guests don’t ride attractions in the rain except for underground/covered ones (and most aren’t.). Which might hit your finances.

You start with no food stall, like in diamond heights, so that needs to be researched first.then , As usual, I started researching roller coasters and then thrill rides. I also like to have balloons to sell to my guests to fill the sky with balloons of different color when the scenario is won, so I always find some time to research some more stalls. After I have a balloon stall and all rollercoasters and thrill rides, I researched (boring) gentle rides till the end.

Like in Forest Frontiers, Dynamite Dunes andLeafy Lake, you can buy some extra land here. I did buy a few extra lands to finalize a coaster, just like I had to in Leafy Lake(not that I mentioned that in the Leaft Lake post) but I don’t like buying lots of lands, so I try to not buy more than necessary. I kept all attractions except the miniature railway, as it blocked acces way to often. (The storm didn’t crash). This park is based on Lightwater Valley.

Goal: 15.000 Park Value by year 3

Difficulty: Easy

Final guests: 1766

Park Value: €47.000 (new record, 2.000 more than in Diamond Heights)

Company Value:  €124.000

Beauty of The Week - Emilie Nereng

Beauty of The week

Emilie Nereng

This is what a 12 looks like (11 without make-up).

Sadly she deleted her blog, but her photos are eternalized on reddit Here.

RCT 1 - Trinity Islands

Trinity Islands

So, this is the first scenario that says “let’s get serious”. Narrow winding hilly islands with just a few squares off the coast owned makes for difficult planning and construction. Like in evergreen gardens, the paths to the second and third island should be deleted to prevent guests getting lost. The second and third island are as hilly as Diamond Heights. The park is as small as dynamite dunes, but it rains more often.

This is the first 3-year park where I failed in getting the goal within the first year as well as the first where I didn’t at least double it (should have gotten 2 more L). Building on the first island was a struggle do the narrowness. The second and third, however, where even worse as they were just rocks with (almost) no flat land. I did reroute the paths between the islands to have more straight paths, as otherwise guests would have trouble leaving the park from the third island, lowering the park rating.

When all coasters were researched, there was no corkscrew coaster or standing coaster. Both can perform a launched start enabling compact, simple and profitable design, not having them hurt quite a bit. At least I got an inverted coaster for the second time (the only previous park with the inverted coaster was Diamond Heights).

Guests: 750 guests in 3 years

Difficulty: Moderate

Final guests: 1498

Park Value: €42.000

Company Value:  €96.000

RCT 1 - Bumbly Beach

Bumble beach

The first unlocked scenario. It’s a bit reminiscent of Forest Frontiers, being treeless and almost flat. It also comes with prebuilt attractions, including one roller coaster, and “prebuilt” debt. Deleting the coaster gives more money than you have debt to begin with, if you want that option.

This the first scenario that must be done in 2 years. As this scenario requires most guests than dynamite dunes while having less time, it’s a rather hard scenario if all you did was forest frontiers (, it’s still easy if you know the game). It’s obviously harder than the first three and more in line with diamond heights and Evergreen Gardens.

The objective can be easily achieved by just researching coasters and thrill rides (preferably in that order) as they are the main money makers. I wanted to keep the pre-constructed wooden coaster and pay off the debt the intended way (by playing it.) however, it crashed somewhere in the second year (station brake failure, I hate failing brakes) and therefore deleted and replaced it.

Objective: 750 guests in 2 year.

Difficulty: Easy

Final guests: 1439

Park Value: €38.000

Company Value:  €72.000