'Cataclysm 2' - Prepare to Plunge! (UPDATE, 4/15)

Remember this?


Well, get ready for this!


That's right, everyone. It's time for my most famous coaster, Cataclysm, to get a complete re-designing. Because although I have always loved the theory behind this coaster, I realized that the original could have been so much better.

So, now I will be taking some advice from those who rated the original, and making an update to this monster.

UPGRADES:
-An even more insane first drop
-A more intense, but also more realistic, oversteep second drop.
-No sticking to the grid this time.
-A more compact and realistic layout with more twists.
-All the thrills of the first with less of the meandering and predictability.
-Some of the best airtime you'll find anywhere. Two oversteep drops, a 4-second perfect floater hill, and some sick Intamin-style ejector and megalite-style transition hills to cap it off.


As of now, it's about half done. Cataclysm 2... coming soon to a computer near you!


So, who wants to test ride? Only the first half up to the MCBR is done as of now, and still needs some re-shaping, but I'm definitely looking for some advice on how it is so far, and what everyone thinks I should do for the ending. If you would like to test, leave your e-mail address either here or in my PM box.

I'm a bit iffy about that lift point to the right. It has a really small crest compared to the steepness. Well it just looks kinda weird. Interesting though.

god i love your coasters....im almost in love with you, cjd.

^^ Its the classic lift and drop. It has to stay. ;)

Originally posted by Panther16

god i love your coasters....im almost in love with you, cjd.

Creepy much?

Originally posted by A113

I'm a bit iffy about that lift point to the right. It has a really small crest compared to the steepness. Well it just looks kinda weird. Interesting though.

I know you were probably just referring to the look, but I'll tell you that the drop is pumpless, and even with 7-car trains it only pulls -.5 g's in the front seat, and a brief -1.2 in the back.

[gouldy]

Loving the use of the truss support structure on the hill going over the top of the lift. I remember the first ride very well, I remember how much it blew my mind at the time, even though it might seem slightly crappy now. I'm sure this will be as mind blowing as the first one was in it's time!

OH! OH! Pick Me!!

Lol. I LOVED the first ride, so I would be very happy to test the second for ya.

cp-soad, I just sent it to you. Halo364, just give me an address to send it to.

You have a truss similar to the truss on my Senyo Kogyo coaster.

Bwahahahhahahahhahahahah

I'll just hope that everyone is laughing at cool5 and not at my coaster...

^ your coaster is fine. I like everything except the funky shaping but apparently it's legendary and is not changing.

Nah, it's not about any "legendary" thing. I was just going for more of a Maverick-style shape rather than, say, a MF or an Intimidator 305.

RaginFyre and Halo364, the track has been sent.

Not feelin' it dude...and I definitely question your reasoning for using 5 car trains. From what I can see in the screens, which I think is enough, the quality of shaping doesn't seem to be there at all. I hope you improve on that and definitely the layout you had before, because with a lot of love it could be really cool.

^I'm actually using 7-car trains now. Yes, you're right, the reasoning that I gave on the original coaster was crap, and was just a lame excuse to allow the coaster run faster because long trains meant lots of friction back then.

And shaping, on the one hand I have planned the whole ride and its shaping out long beforehand, and therefore am making sure that I don't let myself be a slave to tools and their limitations (many elements will be hand-shaped,) but on the other hand I decided to stop worrying about perfect company-specific shaping a while ago. I did try conforming to a company style for a while, but it just wasn't as fun for me. I'm an idea guy, and I have much more fun asking "why not?" than trying to perfect elements that have already been invented. So, yeah, this is an 'idea' coaster. If you're looking for perfectly-realistic Intamin shaping, you're not going to like it.

Take the second hill. I know for a fact that Intamin would never make a hill that looks like that. But I'm doing it to create a certain ride experience. It's uneven on purpose so that you get a better sensation of height going up, and a falling-off-the-edge feel on the other end.

The first drop, feel free to disagree with me about the ride experience. If you think it would have been better as a wider drop, feel free to dock me for it. But please don't say "Intamin wouldn't have done that," because I was never going for an Intamin feel in the first place. I was going for a feeling where it just feels like you're falling and falling forever, which I believe enhances the sensation of height.

So, yeah. I'm not promising company shaping. But I am promising that I will not limit myself to what a certain build technique is limited to if it doesn't match the vision in my head. This is pretty much how I have always designed except for a few coasters between 2004 and 2007 where I made myself a slave to the grid or to FVD. But not this one. It is in my traditional style of being a lot of ideas plus a wink and a nudge to the Intamin style, although not really conforming to it.

Well one thing I notice is each company has their own shaping to a certain degree...and it's generally clear to me how they shape their rides, and it's all intentional. I feel like you *might* fall into the trap where the designer says they're not conforming to a real style and are sloppy about their shaping because they have an excuse. If you're not gonna make it like Intamin, then have some very clear indications of well thought out shaping that you used to make yours unique and functional...and don't let those ideas come from what accidentally happened as they were shaping, as many people do.

UPDATE, 4/15/10:

So... Yeah, my computer completely crashed about 2 months ago, and I basically lost everything in my entire NL folder.

But... thankfully because of the generous support of all the people who test-rode this coaster a few months ago, this project was the sole survivor.

I just picked work back up this afternoon, and finished redesigning the very end of the coaster's first half. Now I'm moving on to the second half, and basically I'm really looking for some suggestions.

To see how the whole thing would look, I decided to do a quick rendering of the current design plan in MS Paint. So here is the tentative layout plan for the coaster's second half, with the already-built track colored dark blue and the not-yet-built part colored light blue.

Comments? Suggestions?

[A7]

Looking amazing man, very unique layout! Are you planning any extensive 3D work? I know I'm not the best here on CC when it comes to 3DS but I would be more than willing to help out with anything simple.

[gouldy]

It's impressive, that's for sure.

You're gonna get some nice support interaction between element 4 and element 10, just from looking at the picture. Although now looking back at the picture I see that you've already written "10. Ground turn through supports", so you'd obviously already identified that.

Keep it up, I'll be very interested to see how it ends up!

Originally posted by A7

Looking amazing man, very unique layout! Are you planning any extensive 3D work? I know I'm not the best here on CC when it comes to 3DS but I would be more than willing to help out with anything simple.

I do plan on making at least a station / queue line, but it will probably be more basic... just paths, signs, a building, and transfer track. I'm not a 3ds wizard like some of the people here. The 3ds on "Hydro Thunder" is about the best that I can manage.

Holy poop,this looks amazing!