Turkey Vulture by Sobek
T: The main problem with this track was the fact that it wasn't completed. The last half of the ride didn't have any supports at all, even prefabs probably would've resulted in at least 5th place. Other than that the track was a little pumpy, and the Gs were a tad uncontrolled. You had a few moments of 1.5 lats, and even one up to 1.8. I liked the no lead on the first drop, seemed authentic. Like most of the other contestants you did not have enough brake runs at the end of the ride, read further to see better explanations of this issue. The lift was curved slightly. The supports you had in place looked a bit odd, but got the job done imo.
A: Ok, actually didn't lose speed too bad towards the end and finished up with a reasonably intense curve. The big issue was that the second and third inversion really seemed forced, like there should have been no more than 100????????? of banking on those turns, yet you forced to 152????????? to satisfy the requirements of the contest. I did like the combination of elements you had in the ride, seemed classy
. Except maybe the dive loop after the MCBR, forced imo. I really liked the helix into the cork right before the MCBR, highlight material.
O/R: Well, realism is understandably low, after all, half you ride did not have supports. Originality was ok. The layout was pretty good overall, a mix of a lot of nifty ideas. Maybe the inversion around the lift wasn't the most original thing
. Other than that the supporting style of the ride seemed cool so far, but of course you didn't finish that off.
Bonus - Nothing. +0
T: 1.5 A: 6 O/R: 3 + 0 = 10.5/2 for unfinishedness = 5.25/30
Average - 1.75 Needed to be finished!
6th Place!
Oases by indi
T: Not so good. A lot of pumping and a fair amount of jerks. A huge tunnel test intrusion right at the beginning of the ride on the lift with the station. Lats got bad in the first roll after the MCBR, hitting 1.8 in the right seat. Supports weren't too great, definitely needed to be more supports on the ride. Also those that were there were a tad flimsy. The MCBR banked, a definite no-no. Also the the final brake was not straight. Like I said to some of the other contestants you needed more brake segments at the end, especially because this is a 3 train ride. Because there were too few segments at the end the train came to a stop on the MCBR. Like I said to many contestants, you have to watch your lateral forces. B&M keeps 0 throughout the ride, and so should you.
A: Ok, definitely a little slow toward the end though. I liked the first element off the lift, kinda reminded me of Buster's Tormentor. The next turn in the tunnel was good, and the pull up into the cobra was by far the best point of the ride. The rest of this element was pulled a tad slow, as was the rest of the ride really. Everything after the cobra roll really seemed a little stretched out. This feeling was enhanced by the nearly complete stop that happened on the MCBR. The rolls were ok, maybe a little bland, but ok. The tunnels were a bit odd, but they were neat with the only green rails on the track.
O/R: Realism wasn't so great, and originality was ok. The main issue with the realism was definitely the shaping of the track. It was much too simple to be considered a B&M track. The slow feeling the ride had in the second half was also pretty unrealistic. The layout wasn't too snappy as well, pretty bland in my opinion. It had its strong points especially right at the beginning with that dive, but it really just seemed to lose its strength towards the end. By the time the train had reached the brakes the ride really was just meandering. The tunnels I thought were a little forced. It just seemed like you threw them on right before you turned the ride in in an attempt to muster a few more points.
Bonus - Tunnels and some trees, 0.25
T: 2.75 A: 4 O/R: 3.5 + .25 = 10.5
Average - 3.5 Below Average!
5th Place - 100 Slappin' Points!
Esophagus by coreyml
T: Not so great. Fairly obvious pumping throughout most if not every elements. You have to try to smooth better if you desire a more favorable finish in contests. The other main issue was the prefab supports which led to a lot of support to wheel hits and tunnel failures. G-Forces were also a little bit out of control, this mostly due to the pumping. There was one spot right out of the 0g roll in the left seat in the front where I pulled 1.6 lats, and you hit 5 once, but no deduction for that. Watch those laterals, B&Ms tend to have 0 lats over the entire ride, and you really did not replicate that feeling very much. Also I would like to see a little more effort with the supports, even where you did custom support it, the supports did seem a little frail. In a lot of places you did not use the prefabs correctly and that caused the connector to intrude through the track and into the wheels. Also one more thing you might want to watch is the proximity of your track to the station. You really seemed to lock the station in on the right side. One more thing I would've done was add another brake segment onto the end of the ride. Generally it is standard practice to have a stopping brake and then a holding brake that would also hold the transfer transfer track.
A: Ok. Some intense and interesting moments along the course, but overall a little lackluster. The main issue was that it seemed to drag through a lot of the elements, especially the immelman and last corkscrew. I did like the batwing and the helix that followed the 0g roll, but if they were taken a bit faster they would benefit a lot. The layout for the most part was decent, but it would've been better if it was tighter. The main problem was that immelman, it just lagged and ended up with hangtime. The terrain added a fair amount, even if it was a little unrealistic.
O/R: Not so great on the realism side, but decent on the originality side. The main problem with realism was the shaping of the track. On top of all the pumping you really did not control the laterals at all and the track seemed a little to stretched out to be a B&M design. Also the terrain was anything but realistic, and the prefabs really didn't go over too well. The layout was good like I said before. Fairly original with some shining moments, espicially that helix, it was beautiful. I would've liked to see some foliage however.
Bonus - Nothing. + 0
T: 3.5 A: 6 O: 5.5 + 0 = 15/30
Average - 5 Average!
4th Place - 500 Slappin' Points!
El Blanco by dj-dj
T: Ok. The main issue was the pretty severe amount of pumping along the course of the ride. It really seemed to be present in every single element in one way or another, and this really detracted from the experience. Other than that there really didn't seem to be much wrong with the track. The supports looked great, except maybe a little wide on the lift and the ride passed e-stop. I did however find problems with the Gs. The lats got pretty high in some instances and the verts were spiking all over the place, obviously a consequence of all the pumping. Also one big issue was the blocking and brakes on the ride. Generally speaking, all 3 train coasters have 3 brake runs at the end of their course, the main brake which is slanted downwards to allow the train to slide off if for some reason it stops, the first holding brake, which usually has wheels and is flat, and then the second holding brake which is the same as the first but leads into the station. Your ride only had one brake at the end so there was a train that started on the MCBR. This also caused timing issues because eventually a train would have to stop on the MCBR. Also the lift was not straight, neither was the last brake run nor the MCBR.
A: This was good up until the dive loop. At that point, the ride just really dropped off and dragged along. You probably could've prevented much of this by just not trimming the train on the MCBR. The first few elements were very nice, with pretty strong Gs that did fluctuate because of all the pumping, not a good thing. I appreciated the random air hill as something that broke up all the positives of the ride, even if it did seem out of place. The train lagged through the dive loop however, as it did the rest of the ride. The corks had hang-time which is very unrealistic, especially for B&M corks which generally are taken quite quickly. I did like the helix that followed the corks, it was one of the strongest points of the ride, imo, however the roll that followed was taken too slowly for my tastes. The scenery did add a lot to the ride, a very good scene imo.
O/R: Not the most realistic track, but decently original with a pretty realistic layout. You lost points in realism mostly for the corkscrews and the general pace of the ending which was much too slow. I really liked the layout though, definitely seems like something that B&M could do. The scenery was wonderful, it seemed very real, and a lot like Anaconda @ Gold Reef.
Bonus - Good Stuff, but a little simple. +.75
T: 7 A: 7.25 O: 8 + .75 = 23/30
Average - 7.66 Ok!
3rd Place - 1,000 Slappin' Points
Durrrrr by CoasterkidMWM
T: Good. Main problem I saw was a fair amount of small pumps throughout the ride. One other big thing was the bush underneath the loop. I won't DQ you for this because honestly, a little bush isn't big enough a deal for me to DQ a pretty decent ride. Also imo you feet would be the only thing to hit that and it probably wouldn't be that big a issue, different from say smacking an arm off of a concrete wall or support beam. The tech on this was definitely classic Vekoma however. Weird transitions all the way. Also I love the no lead turns around the station, so realistically painful. I just remember riding on Kong and hearing everyone holler in pain after the turn into the station. Not much else to say. The lats were well controlled, and the Gs were fine. Supports also looked great very realistic.
A: This track had the classic Vekoma style, which might not have been the way to go because of this category. It's not that the ride wasn't intense and thrilling, it was just that it didn't shine in the shadow of Mikado's ride. I did however love the layout. Very very realistic Vekoma style layout. I liked the corks around the lift, but they could've used a little bit more bite. Same thing with the cobra roll. After that the layout was actually very good. I loved the turns that followed the ending, a classic touch. It ended a little early imo, but that's true to the Vekoma style.
O/R: Very realistic, not very original. This ride had vekoma written all over it. I loved the corks around the lift and the general simplicity of the layout. It seemed to just get the job done and not waste any time doing it. There wasn't really anything in terms of extras, but I did like the terraforming you presented.
Bonus - Nothing there really, so no points really, + .25
T: 7.75 A: 9 O: 8.25 + .25 = 25/30
Average - 8.33, Good!
Second Place - 10,000 Slappin' Points
Apache by Mikado
T: Overall the tech on this was pretty good, only a couple things brought it down. The main part of the track was silky smooth, great work with the FVDs. You did a very good job of stitching normal geometry elements with the FVD created ones, something I'm going through a little bit of trouble with. Your track unfortunately hit 1.3 lats in the first cork on the far left seat. Other than that you controlled the lats pretty well, with the exception being in the outside seats on a couple of the turns, but this is generally excusable as the middle seats generally did not exceed 0.4. Supports look fine imo. One other thing that got points taken off were the final brakes and the station. They weren't straight, a downer on such a great track. One other thing I'd like to say is the last couple turns didn't have leads and were a little pumpy. I've never actually seen a B&M with lead less turns, just something to think about. Also, the fog in the first tunnel was only visible in one direction, a little unrealistic
.
A: Great, this is where the track really shined. The pacing of the ride was pretty insane, not too insane imo though, you had some slow moments which are actually realistic as most real rides do contain them in strategic locations, as did you track. The track had a lot of very strong forces, definitely a plus. I loved the inversions as well, great variety and really good sequencing. Only thing I thought that really needed improvement was the turn right before the loop. It just seemed weird to be coming up into a loop. I loved the little pop of air right before the turn into the corks, it was a nice surprise even if it was a little sudden. Also I have to add that I loved the ending, the little back flip after the cork was a very nice touch, and quite thrilling. I also loved the overbank that followed it, it felt really weird but in some way realistic. Obviously the tunnels added a lot to this ride, and were well done. The first drop was great, especially in the back seat on the right where it gave a nice little pop of -0.1 air, very similar to Raptor's.
O/R: A very original layout imo, and decently realistic. The turn into the loop and the 0g roll were the only things that I really couldn't imagine B&M ever doing. The objects weren't terribly original but they were a nice touch and generally well done. Only one thing to say about them, there were a couple spots where the 3Ds terrain didn't intersect with the NL terrain and there was a huge gap. I did however LOVE the layout. The sequence was great and that first big cork was a very nice touch.
Bonus - .75, Objects were good for the most part, but nothing too too outstanding. Those little quality hits brought this down a little. Also the theme seemed kind of random.
T: 8.5 A: 9.5 O: 8.5 + .75 Overall: 27.25/30
Average: 9.08 - Great!
1st Place - 100,000 Slappin' Points
Congrats to all the contestants who finished! Sorry I was a little slow with the rates, it's so easy to complain about slowness, but it really is taxing to get all the rates done with fair detail.
As for the point winners, I shall try to get the points to you as soon as possible, this relies partly on the Slapster coming back to life and handing the points off to me.