This is very heavily Intamin inspired, so feel free to critique my shaping. I've tried to take inspiration from the shaping styles of Intamin's hypers and loopers, while combining that with my own influence, a preference for a very natural, flowing layout with smooth, continuous banking changes throughout the whole ride. Most of my layouts aspire to this, with the goal being a layout that feels natural, with no elements that feel forced in or unfitting. I also try to avoid "Newtony", snap-to-value banking changes, with the goal being a continuous, nonzero roll change curve (which you can see if you download the FVD++ file).
If there is anything about my shaping that seems wrong, please tell me, and I will either work to change it or give the reasoning behind it. This is a relatively large project, with the intention being that the hill behind the station is extended upward a further 50-100 feet, to produce a total drop of 150-200 feet down the hillside. The lift hill will then extend a further 200 feet up past that, to allow an extensive, multi-part layout, designed with the assistance of the analysis techniques developed by Jeremy Thompson at Roller Coaster Philosophy. The goal is a mix of Cheetah Hunt and the Voyage, taking the Intamin influences and gentler shaping from Cheetah Hunt, to contrast with the more intense, laterals/airtime heavy parts inspired by the voyage (but still with Intamin-inspired shaping) in order to accentuate both. For those who clicked the "analysis" link, the strategy I am using here is the "Dramatic" technique, with a bit of "A-B" mixed in. What you see here is just the prelift - or to take the dramatic writing analogy further, this is the small action scene at the beginning of a mystery book or a thriller movie where the villain is introduced, usually through some sort of crime or other suspenseful scene.
The plan is for the first part of the layout after the lift to be a relatively gentle, but high-speed section of track, similar to Cheetah Hunt, with a bit of looping thrown in, but nothing particularly intense (max Gs expected to be about +4/-0.3). This will be followed by an MCBR located on an elevated section of terrain, to produce the illusion that the ride has slowed down more than it actually has, followed by a small launch into a large, floaty looping section with extremely low forces (+3.5/-0.2) but huge, slow-rotating elements, such as a 150+ foot Norwegian Loop or a 120+ foot double zero-g roll. Following this section of track will be another MCBR, and then about 20 seconds of slow, low force/low banking/low speed meandering on top of the hill, and then finally descending the hill via a small downwards launch, into a fast paced, high speed/high force dash along the river, culminating in a element that combines all three of the ride experiences in previous parts of the ride - a huge, 200+ foot immelmann-like element, taking up 10+ seconds of ride time, that begins slowly rotating after about 110 degrees of pullup (with the forces simultaneously decreasing to approximately 0) but with the roll per second continuously increasing throughout 5-7 consecutive rotations, with the final rotation pointing down at the ground at about a 50 degree angle at about 200-250 degrees per second, and then pulling out into a upwards-curving, Full-Throttle-like brake run, leaving the coaster with just enough speed to curve back up the hillside and return to the original level of the station seen here.
Currently there are no plans for 3ds, as I am not adept with any modeling programs.
If there is anything about my shaping that seems wrong, please tell me, and I will either work to change it or give the reasoning behind it. This is a relatively large project, with the intention being that the hill behind the station is extended upward a further 50-100 feet, to produce a total drop of 150-200 feet down the hillside. The lift hill will then extend a further 200 feet up past that, to allow an extensive, multi-part layout, designed with the assistance of the analysis techniques developed by Jeremy Thompson at Roller Coaster Philosophy. The goal is a mix of Cheetah Hunt and the Voyage, taking the Intamin influences and gentler shaping from Cheetah Hunt, to contrast with the more intense, laterals/airtime heavy parts inspired by the voyage (but still with Intamin-inspired shaping) in order to accentuate both. For those who clicked the "analysis" link, the strategy I am using here is the "Dramatic" technique, with a bit of "A-B" mixed in. What you see here is just the prelift - or to take the dramatic writing analogy further, this is the small action scene at the beginning of a mystery book or a thriller movie where the villain is introduced, usually through some sort of crime or other suspenseful scene.
The plan is for the first part of the layout after the lift to be a relatively gentle, but high-speed section of track, similar to Cheetah Hunt, with a bit of looping thrown in, but nothing particularly intense (max Gs expected to be about +4/-0.3). This will be followed by an MCBR located on an elevated section of terrain, to produce the illusion that the ride has slowed down more than it actually has, followed by a small launch into a large, floaty looping section with extremely low forces (+3.5/-0.2) but huge, slow-rotating elements, such as a 150+ foot Norwegian Loop or a 120+ foot double zero-g roll. Following this section of track will be another MCBR, and then about 20 seconds of slow, low force/low banking/low speed meandering on top of the hill, and then finally descending the hill via a small downwards launch, into a fast paced, high speed/high force dash along the river, culminating in a element that combines all three of the ride experiences in previous parts of the ride - a huge, 200+ foot immelmann-like element, taking up 10+ seconds of ride time, that begins slowly rotating after about 110 degrees of pullup (with the forces simultaneously decreasing to approximately 0) but with the roll per second continuously increasing throughout 5-7 consecutive rotations, with the final rotation pointing down at the ground at about a 50 degree angle at about 200-250 degrees per second, and then pulling out into a upwards-curving, Full-Throttle-like brake run, leaving the coaster with just enough speed to curve back up the hillside and return to the original level of the station seen here.
Currently there are no plans for 3ds, as I am not adept with any modeling programs.
Here are some pictures of the ride in a semi-current state (anything past the prelift isn't shown - download the FVD++ file for that).
I'm working in FVD++ for this project. You can download the FVD file here: http://www.mediafire.com/download/lhev81014ik8tw3/ok.fvd
Reference 1 was a first draft, built with the wrong heartline, and Reference 2 had an alternate pre-lift that I wasn't very happy with the ending for.
The Current track and Reference 3 are the two frontrunners for final version - Reference 3 was originally the semi-final version, but I felt that the pacing over the large airtime hills was a bit fast, and the air was a bit strong (I wanted a more slowly paced style, reminiscent of older woodies and their large hills with slight positive Gs at the top), as I'm planning to slowly crescendo the intensity a bit during the "out" section of this out-and-back, and that'd be difficult with the air hills already hitting -1.2 G.
Any criticism and/or comments on my shaping, the layout plan, or anything about the ride whatsoever would be highly appreciated.