[NL2] Shinobi - B&M Floorless

Hello! Here are a few progress pictures of my latest project: Shinobi.
This 50m tall B&M floorless coaster emulates a hybrid between Medusa and Dominator, for the most part, while bringing a unique layout. Featuring a vertical loop, dive loop, zero-g roll, serpent roll, and interlocking corkscrews coming to 7 inversions. Shinobi aims to deliver a wild and intense ride, and finishes off with a strong 4+ vertical g-force entrenched helix before the final brakes.

I would like to replace the station horn with a gong sound to help fit the theme a little better. How might I go about doing that, if it's possible?

I think your transitions need to be tighter.

In general for this ride I think I would disagree, but could you be more specific?

Just from what I've shown so far, Kraken, Medusa, and Krypton Coaster (to name a few) have similar sections of slow transitions, usually into brakes, but sometimes into helices and corkscrews. I have been diligent here, as I've spent the majority of my time with this ride in FVD continuously tweaking the shaping; exporting as I go after every element and after most tweaks to check things in sim. As such, the track shaping is kinda done. I churned out my best attempt, and now it's time to dress it up.

Planted some trees today! Mostly just the outline of forestry so far, as I do plan to add more bushes, flowers, and rocks around the areas viewable from the ride. Supports are nearing completion as well.

Hey! I was going to comment earlier, but something came up. Anyway, I do agree, the shaping actually looks really good. I forgot about how drawn out Kraken is, it's been a while since I rode it. And of course Krypton's section before the corkscrews, I think, it's been a while. Really, I was just looking at the transition into the MCBR. Being a west coaster, my mind immediately goes to Medusa SFDK which is very snappy throughout.

It seems like most Floorless I've ridden except Kraken is pretty snappy throughout. It seems like the more drawn out parts are done more so fore layout, such as Dominator's section into the MCBR and Kraken's second half. I think Kraken being so drawn out at the end has to do with theming/scenery/landscape/layout, although I could be wrong.

I've ridden Batman - The Dark Knight, Kraken, Medusa, Scream!, and Superman Krypton. I can clearly say that Kraken is way, way more drawn out than the others by far.


Anyway, I still think it looks really good. It looks like you've got the shaping on the sea serpent pretty on point. They don't ride at all like a cobra roll, as I'm sure you know. The trenches and box spine as close to the ground as possible all look really nice, as does the shaping on the drop.

Thanks for the faith in my serpent roll! I think that's the element I'm least confident in as I've never ridden (the only) one. From videos, and especially a backseat pov I found, it seems to have three distinct rolls; almost like if you mangled a really nice and smooth cobra roll into rolling the other way, hah. It seems a bit haphazard, but every video of it is accompanied by giggling throughout that element, so I think it just might be fun.

B&M does make some odd choices sometimes with pacing in their turns, be it for layout or theming reasons. I've tried to incorporate some of that, but without going overboard. The main slow one there before the MCBR needed to go wide enough to not run into the serpent roll but also be parallel-ish to it.
In contrast to the slower transitions, my turn out of the MCBR is pretty snappy; tried for something closer to Medusa there but ended up with something closer to Krypton, which I'm fine with. The exit of the helix had the restriction of 45 degrees away from the station/storage track line considering the transfer track, so the extended entrance and exit feel a bit more natural there. And the long entrance to the last helix really drives home how hard it actually pulls. Well, that's what I'm going for, hopefully it's effective.

Anyhoot, it's not perfect, but I think it's purdy darn good. Definitely something I'm proud of and am excited to share. Hopefully within a week I'll have all of the minor details polished and ready to submit.

I think it looks really great man!

I have a feeling that Medusa's sea serpent rides much differently than the others. The others seem to be a more uniform shape, like the vekomas, which are fairly standard and geometrically. Medusa's has the highest point of force about 2/3 through the 'roll' section of the element.

The force actually goes:

??? Standard half loop
??? Very tight top of loop. High force in the front.
??? Moderate hard force
??? Less force during the middle section. Normally, on a cobra roll, this part would have the most force during the 'roll/cobra' section of the element.
??? Highest positive G force
??? Top of half loop, very tight with hangtime in the back rows

During this entire 'roll' part of the element, the actual roll degrees per second changes a lot too. It's very dynamic, much more so than a cobra, and so all of this together creates a really awesome element!


Anyway, it's Medusa is my favorite Floorless for so many reasons, with the sea serpent being one of them. Krypton is number 2.

Seems pretty close to your description to me!

Since FVD treats the ride as a point mass and the sim does not, the middle section actually turns out more like you are describing, with heavier g's in the front seats.
I've also tried making that segment that is highlighted a quartic section of -1 ish g's, getting the lowest point of vertical g's to around 1. Ultimately I went with constant g's through the middle part because it gave the middle roll less room to happen, meaning it happened a bit faster.

Pictures and words can only go so far, though. Should be able to ride it by next week.

Oh, and I know plenty of other companies have done their own version of the serpent roll, but Medusa is the only B&M with one, right? And not just floorless either, but any type?

Shinobi began testing today, and I was able to snag some good shots, sneaking into areas I shouldn't have a couple of times, but I think it was worth it.

I got my first talkin' to at this point. Said, "RiDeS nOt OpEn YeT" or something.

At this point I got kicked out of the park for having a camera on a ride, but there are no signs saying otherwise.

They didn't refund me.