So, RCTW early access launched at some point recently and I DL'd it - comfortably short download surprisingly - last night to give it the once over. Since it's early access it's still got quite a few rough edges but it is FAR improved in numerous ways than was last seen;
Namely: Roller Coaster builder HAS THE CLASSIC MODULAR TRACK BUILDER AGAIN! It's not perfect - even the tutorial doesn't really explain how you are supposed to add in lift hills (as far as I can tell you have to click on the track piece you just laid, go into the "mechanics" tab, and select chain lift - brakes and block brakes appear to be the same deal) but as those in-track mechanisms are also enabled on the custom laid pieces in the spline editor I suspect it might be for the sake of the non-modular bits having less to deal with due to how powerful this spline editor is. It should also be noted Coasters are now a single menu option and not in with "rides" anymore.
It was late so I only got maybe halfway through the first "tutorial" campaign map (was going to do sandbox outright, but the game helpfully reminded me this is not RCT3 and suggested I do the tutorial mission in campaign - glad I took that advice), but other things I've been able to observe:
- Employee management currently is SERIOUSLY stripped down. Instead of hiring individual workers (who you could customize uniforms, names, pay, and in RCT3 the level of training), you have to construct buildings through which you select how many employees of that type (1-3, haven't gotten the larger employee buildings yet) it will be the hub for...or something. The actual individual employees are barely even selectible, but you can't control anything about them - no footpathing, specific duties, and infuriatingly the entertainers will be RANDOM in which costumes they are wearing and you can not change what they spawn as. One of the pre-order early access perks was getting that goddamn panda suit, so finding out I have to rely on RNG to actually have a guy in that suit is not pleasing.
- Area clearing tools suck. I was trying to create a prebuilt coaster design in a certain area and the game was flipping out because of a few cacti and a rock. Shouldn't have been that big a deal, but you can't just click and drag the delete tool like in previous games - you have to INDIVIDUALLY SELECT every single thing you want gone, and for some reason the game STILL wouldn't let me build the ride without raising it.
- I'm willing to cut some slack, given this game is still relatively new, but there is a DISTINCT lack of variety when it comes to the coasters. Somehow, the three flatride types (Thrill, Family, Junior, most of them redesigned versions of rides from RCT3) have decent enough variety, but there's only eight coaster types. You also can't repaint the trains, but you CAN modify the individual count of cars and the TYPE of each car in a train, which might be the angle they're going for (haven't found any trace of my beloved Mine Train track, though, not happy about that). On the flip side, no more annoying wait times for research to stop giving you annoying and useless scenery corner pieces you're never going to use and finally unlock a new ride - as you progress through a campaign level, you unlock more ride types.
Wood coaster prebuilts not including Woodchip is shocking, though - that thing is nostalgic for veterans of the first game!
- I'm a little less forgiving on the shops, though. You got the usual drink, burger, balloon, and somewhat the info kiosk (the latter is now considered a "staff" building despite doing the same exact thing in the previous games), but the majority of shop options are literally just those same basic shops in differently styled buildings for the "theme" aspect as opposed to ACTUAL unique theme buildings ala 'spooky shakes' or 'rocket blast cantina'.
- Land expansion is simultaneously much simpler and yet more restrictive. In the tutorial mission, you have a pathetically small amount of real estate to work with, but you of course can expand outward by buying land. Only instead of that annoying as hell bullshit of the previous games where you had to buy individual goddamn grid squares, the entire maximum possible area is divided into a 3x3 grid of squares - the tutorial starts off with only the bottom center square, but any adjacent grid square is purchasable and they're ALL the same size as the starting plot of land.
I haven't gotten far enough in the tutorial to get access to the scenery, path lighting, and probably some other third new thing I'm not recalling at the moment, but so far it's feeling like progress is on the right track. Far from perfect, unquestionably, but tinkering with the new spline editor and getting a coaster to work felt like the first time I built a coaster waaaaaay back in RCT1. Except better because this time I have block brakes.
