Im Tired Of Failing

people have always told me to take more time on my rides which i do but nothing much changes. i smooth things out i make sure my damn gs are in check which most of the time they dont go past yellow but i still cant get ratings past 3. i need a lot of help on shaping and dividing my work up in sections which even when i F****n do that my tracks are still poop and ive been using NL for 3 years now and not much has changed HELP ME!!!!


im tired of rates like this





Ok, you're probably gonna whine and cry about this rate but you need some serious practice.

T: first off, going into the yellow is perfectly normal for an old woody when it comes to LATERAL G's... Not positive G's. Please get your facts straight before you go making claims. you lost a ton of points for going into the yellow on the bottom of your drop. this is not realistic of "older" woodies at all no matter how much you say it is. Also, the "crook" in the lift was way to extreme... Secondly, if its really an old woody it wouldn't use a transport to get it out of the station. it would rely on gravity. Now, technically, this ride was SLIGHTLY better than your previous monstrosities. but not by much. shaping was horrible and g's were very inconsistent.

A: meh. if the shaping were better i could appreciate this ride a bit more. but i see where you were going with it. Improve your shaping and this type of ride would be really fun.

O: I'm guessing you expected originality points from the crook in your lift... sorry but i just cant do that. you're fishing for birds man... adding little details like this wont necessarily gain you anything unless you pull them off correctly. yours was too extreme. The layout was dull and boring as well. very anti-inspirational almost. a drop. some hills. a lame effortless turn around. some more dull hills... brakes. even older coasters weren't this boring...

Try harder man. you have the potential. take more time on your rides and make sure the shaping is good. Also, don't complain about this rate. just be happy that im not lying to you by saying "oh hell yeah this kicked major ass! you rock dude!"

[jayman]

first of all, dont try to make up for a poorly made ride by trying to pass it off as " classic style" deliberately making the lift crooked does not instantly make the rest of a crappy ride acceptable because it's supposed to be "old"
second, if for some reason you feel as if your ride needs a disclaimer regarding the quality of work either DONT post it, or be prepared to accept rates that reflect it's lack of quality.
third, (although you say you already do) take your time when you make a ride. that means REALLY taking your time, if you need to spend as much time on EACH element as you have been on whole rides..after you think you might have it open it in the sim in shuttle mode and check over and over and over and over again . if this is an example of you taking your time to make a quality ride then maybe you ought to try another hobby. maybe finger painting or something.
i cant say much more, the ride was pretty lousy. i tried to find something positive about it and i couldnt find anything

Like I said, no one cares about your ride, so you mind as well not rush to the release. Make it something people look forward to rating.

i could learn newton

yes you could. or you could improve your hand-building skills.

i could try to recreate an old out and back and if it doesnt look close enough to the real thing then i could upload it as somthing else but it still has to look good that way ill be focused on trying to perfect it. ill try to base it off the hershy park comet.

[jayman]

nah,
build something of your own, one little bit at a time. think about how you'd like a ride to be when you ride it. try really hard to build those things into it. dont be afraid to take a look at other rides to see how people do shaping. and after you finish an element you like check it from all angles and cars to see if it actually works. that part sounds like it could take alot of time, but in shuttle mode its way easier than it used to be and after awhile you'll get better at the things you have already figured out and good at the things you arent good at at all a. after that you'll start making consistently better rides.

One thing I have noticed about your rides, Topthrill123, is that you like to create elements off 2D planes. For instance, you create hills that require you to shape in 3 dimensions. If you are having difficulty getting a smooth and enjoyable track, work in 2 dimensions whenever possible. Your hills should be built in one view for now. Once you have gotten all the practice you need, then you can move to multiple views. (Food for thought)

ill do some practice practice making elements for a while

In addition, I would hold off on Newton for a little longer. I find a good handbuilding foundation can only help you in the future of NoLimits.

*But you do understand what I mean, right, Topthrill123?

yes what kind of elements should i practice anyway i can make lifts and drops well. and i do have to say that i have improved greatly since i started, but still not good. and thanks for the help i was practicing bunny hills for like half an hour and the bunny hills look better than they used to because i took my damn time

[jayman]

not really..
that would be the place to start.
start by making a proper first hill.

Originally posted by HZKoasters

In addition, I would hold off on Newton for a little longer. I find a good handbuilding foundation can only help you in the future of NoLimits.

While I completely agree, I am also of the opinion that one shouldn't wait too long before at least messing around with Newton. At least for me, Newton (more specifically, FVDs, as I started force-based design before newton was released) really helped me grasp proper shaping of things. It taught me things like why leading and lead outs are important, and what "real" heart lining looks like. Yes, my early FVD rides were complete poop, but they still taught me a lot about what smooth looks like.

Topthrill, I think you're at about that point right now. Go check out Newton2, mess around with it, but don't go for a perfect ride. Go for something that shows off different shapes, and that has a good amount of turns in it so that you'll know what those should look like. After one or two of those, go back to hand building for a while. You'll be VASTLY improved over what you were before Newton, because you'll know what "smooth" looks like and what is "right". That's my "quick fix". It won't get you perfect, but it's definitely a start.

One thing about breaking the n00b barrier: don't add gimmicky things to your rides. If some "detail" that you add to your ride to make it more "realistic" isn't realistic in itself, it won't work. And it's even worse when you advertise it. If it's cool and special, the rider (and rater) will figure it out on their own. This is what happened on your Leap The Dips; if I hadn't read your spiel on the exchange, the little kink in the lift probably would have been a "oh that's pretty cool. Not very well executed, but at least he tried" type of thing, but since you said (and I paraphrase...poorly) "hey guyz go cheek out my kool lift thingy i put inn 2 make it moar realisticccc!!!!111!!!one!!!1", I saw it and said (again, paraphrasing), "oh. That was it? Poorly executed attempt at realism. -2." Perhaps this is unfair, but it's what happens. I'm sure I'm not alone in this sentiment, either.

What a perfect segue into my next point: DON'T HALF-ASS ANYTHING!!! If you're going to add some small details into your ride, please go the extra mile to make sure they're perfect. Don't do lateral bracing on some of the turns and leave others unsupported. Don't make a station without a plausible entrance and exit. Obviously, this means to take your time. And by the way, "spending a half hour" on a bunny hill isn't enough. It may seem like forever at the time, but it's really not long enough (unless, of course, you're a really badass hand builder). There was one element on my last hand-built coaster that took me literally a week to get close to right, and then I continually tweaked it as I built the rest of my layout. The longest I've spent perfecting an element I made in Newton? About 8 or 9 hours of hard work. Note that that's one single element: not an arbitrary .nlelem "element" but a single cobra roll. If you notice, there isn't a single cobra roll in any of my Newton coasters. That's because they're hard as love and I couldn't get one I was proud enough of to upload.

Which brings me to my next point. Don't upload a ride because you're tired of it and want to get it out of the way (think back: no half-assery). I've got probably 15 or 20 rides lying around on my hard drive that are about 80% finished that I'll never finish because I'm a lazy love. They're never going to be uploaded. They'll likely never even be opened again. Some of them took a month or more of my time. Don't worry about that if that happens to you; that's normal. Don't upload every ride you start. Most of them will be of low quality. Only upload the rides that you're genuinely proud to call yours. This doesn't mean expect to get dcs221 or A113 quality out of every ride. That sort of quality comes only with a hell of a lot of practice. Simply strive for a level of quality that you're proud of. Nothing more, nothing less. Don't sell yourself short, of course; that is, don't aim too low. Aim for something just above your current skill set because, if you do it properly, the practice you'll have while working on that ride will get you there [:)] For example, if you can build perfect, Magnum-shaped hills (circle, straight, circle, straight), make your goal to build them so they're not only shaped right, but they're scaled right so they provide realistic, fun G's. If you can build a nice, smooth flat turn, go for a 3D helix. Think you're good at loops? Try making two completely different styles of loop (maybe one Schwarzkopf and one B&M invert?). Have you mastered Maverick's quick transitions? No you haven't. Stop lying [;)] In all seriousness, though, just push yourself a little bit beyond what you think you're capable of. This also applies everywhere else in life (hey look, you just learned a valuable life lesson from an internet forum - bet that doesn't happen very often, now does it?), from school to band to sports to your job and all the way back around to your hobby.

Alright, one last thing then I'll shut the hell up. Don't give up (again, a valuable life lesson [:)]). Don't get discouraged when people tell you your rides suck. It's happened to all of us. Not a single one of us started out designing at the level we are now. we all started out like you did. We all have our complete poop that we thought at the the time was good. But we all got past it, and look where we are now! Just keep trying, and I promise you'll get better. it may not seem like it for a while, but it'll happen.

Ok, I lied. This is the one last thing. In all honesty, you're right on track for where you should be at 3 years of ownership. It might seem like you've had it forever, but I've been using NoLimits since 7th grade. That makes it 8 years come this fall. Nearly 3 times as long as you. Your skill level will increase exponentially as you own NL for a while longer. I bet already you're improving faster than you were when you first got it.

Well, that's my 2 cents. Take it or leave it. But please do read it. That took me as long to write as it took you to make your bunny hill.

---

P.S. If you've got an element in the works, I'd be more than happy to look it over for you and tell you what you need to do to fix it or make it better or to make it realistic. I'll PM my email if you'd like. Right now, it's the middle of summer and I've got nothing better to do most of the time. Don't even have a ride of my own to worry about.

^ yeah topthrill123, today was my last day of summer class so i have plenty of time to revise stuff for you. i can't guarantee i can offer a hand as helpful as boneplaya, but i can try . keep your chin up kid, you'll get it.

thanks guys im practicing right now