January 2006 Unofficial NL Contest

**Erik Leppen** · #1 01-01-2006, 04:40 AM

A new year has started, and many parks want to welcome their guests with a new little coaster when the season starts in April. They have only three months left, and in January the design is chosen out of those of enthousiasts all over ThrillNetwork. Therefore they hold a contest. The participants are free in what they design, but there are a few constraints.

Vertical G's between -1.5 and +5.
Lateral G's between -1.5 and 1.5.
You can choose any track type, steel or wood.
Exactly one station.
Either exactly one lift, or exactly one launch.
Maximum length 2,500 ft = 762 m.
There is no height limit.
The blue print (top view) of the coaster must fit in a rectangle of which the longest side is 328 ft = 100m. "Blue print" includes supports, all track spines and rails, Footers and Nodes. The Heartline does NOT have to stay within the given limits.
Minimum total capacity (trains x cars/train x seats/car) 32 riders.
Must pass E-stop.
Terrain is not allowed.
Trees are allowed, but will not be judged.
3ds are allowed, but will not be judged and the ride should work without them (i.e. not depend on 3ds for supporting).

The parks will judge the ride on

Building Technique such as G-forces, smoothness, blocking, supports, track shaping.
How fun the ride is.
Original or unique ideas.

This is an unofficial contest, there is no prize.
The deadline is January 31, 11:59 Eastern Time (US). Let your creativity flow and make something of it. In the first week of February, we hope to get decided which of the coasters will be the ultimate design for the parks to build, and which came close.

Use this thread for questions.

Nightmare500 · #2 01-03-2006, 12:55 PM

wow, isn't it interesting that at coastersims they are having one of their hardest contest, and here it is a free build.

Looks like I'll just build coasters all month and pick which one does the best at Coastersims...count me in.

walibi world · #3 01-05-2006, 12:14 PM

where should i post my coaster for this unofficial contest? also on speedzone?

**Erik Leppen** · #4 01-05-2006, 01:27 PM

To join the contest, make a coaster, and upload it to SpeedZone. When uploading and having selected NoLimits for the "game", a box appears saying "check this to upload for this month's NL contest". Check this box. Then click upload. That's it.

dukeandPCfan · #5 01-09-2006, 04:20 PM

^ i drew a small support box to make sure i'm within the rectangle..

should i leave it on there to make it clear, or remove it b/c its 'not realistic..'

Thanks..

oh yeah one more question -

the box, which the coaster must fit in - is that the track and supports or just the track?? Can a few footers be over the edge or are they part of the blueprint?? thanks

**Erik Leppen** · #6 01-11-2006, 12:45 PM

You can leave the rectangle in the file, it doesn't matter. But for aesthetics, you might want to remove it.

Lets say in the Top View of the Editor, everything must be inside the rectangle. That is, supports, track (all spines and rails), footers, Nodes. The Heartline does not have to stay in the rectangle, but you will only need this on inverteds.

There is one extra rule, that is that when you enter the contest, please leave a message with link in this thread. Thank you.

Nightmare500 · #7 01-21-2006, 11:28 PM

Either this contest is very small, or people are being secretive and not posting...lol

Zingoman · #8 01-21-2006, 11:34 PM

Sneaky sneaky.

pipesdrums · #9 01-22-2006, 03:39 AM

What do you mean by minimum capacity? Is that number (32) the total for both trains?

**Erik Leppen** · #10 01-22-2006, 04:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erik Leppen

[list][*]Minimum total capacity (trains x cars/train x seats/car) 32 riders.
Use this thread for questions.

It is the number of trains multiplied by the number of cars per train, multiplied by the number of seats per car, So, for example, if you run two trains of five cars, and use a corkscrew coaster style, you have 2 x 5 x 4 = 40 seats, which is allowed.

**Erik Leppen** · #11 01-30-2006, 02:13 PM

Ladies and gentlemen,

The last day of the contest is tomorrow. If you want to upload your track, then finish it off quickly and enter it.

ElBlufer · #12 01-30-2006, 02:24 PM

I wish I would have seen this earlier...I guess I'll have to wait for next month.

**Erik Leppen** · #13 02-12-2006, 09:22 AM

I'm sorry guys, I thought there were no entries, I went through the Speedzone uploads list. If I knew there were entries, I would have done this earlier.

Blaster
This track scores high on originality, I liked the layout and elements, it reminded me of Flashback. Pretty smooth, nice speeds throught the elements (not fast through the twists, but that was cool). Supports are good. However, the maximum blue print size rule was not followed by this ride. The ride wouldn't fit in any 100 x 100 m square, not even diagonal to the coordinate axes. And those colors...yuck.

Tiger
Pretty smooth coaster, nice spread layout, not sure if the tunnel was allowed but it's ok. Supports are okay, nothing spectacular though. However, terrain was not allowed and this track didn't follow the maximum blue print size rule either.

That makes for only one winner.
Demon
I see you used tools to create the track. I couldn't detect bad transitions, good job on that. Lift hill looks a bit odd. Nice selection of elements, nice layout. I like the dive loop, it was unpredictable thus nice. Decent supports.

vekoma freak · #14 02-14-2006, 11:51 PM

thank u i worked hard on this ride and i can see y i won it is smooth i hope i win the (feb) contest to ..lol...