Coaster & Ride Building

Before we dive into the process of building rides in Planet Coaster 2, it’s important to understand how exactly rides work and what you need to do to keep your guests happy and entertained.

Excitement, Fear & Nausea

Excitement, Fear, and Nausea are three key values that determine a ride’s prestige.

• Excitement – generated by g-forces on your coaster, adding direction, inversions or speed changes, or by making trains pass close by underneath track parts in a “head chopper” moment.
• Fear – generated by pushing the coaster to extremes in g-forces. As g-forces approach and exceed a threshold, they contribute to a greater amount of Fear. A Fear rating of 5 is juuuuust right, as any higher becomes uncomfortable for your guests and lowers ride prestige.
• Nausea – generated through inversions and excessive and prolonged g-forces. Brief inversions will provide a positive boost to Excitement and Fear, with a little Nausea, but longer inversions will ramp-up the Nausea gain. Lateral g-forces can also cause nausea to increase especially fast.

All these values reduce over time while riding the coaster if there are no g-forces or variations in g-forces being experienced, so a coaster should be designed to consistently re-engage your guests by creating a variety of sources of Excitement, Fear and Nausea.

All guests will have their own preferences for the levels of Excitement, Fear and Nausea they want to experience on a ride. Building a variety of rides offering different experiences is a great way to ensure that there is something in your park for everyone.

G-Forces

G-Forces are experienced on any ride. G-Forces are needed to generate excitement and fear, but excessive g-forces can cause rapid nausea and fear to build-up.

Lateral forces push guests sideways, vertical forces push them upwards or downwards, and longitudinal forces push them forwards and backwards.

G-Forces can be viewed in real-time in the ride's info panel, or through heatmaps in the Ride Testing Tab.

Ride Prestige

Prestige is the appeal and value of an attraction to guests. Simply put, guests will pay more for attractions with a higher Prestige.

The Prestige of a ride is calculated using the Ride Experience, a reflection of the ride’s Excitement, Fear and Nausea scores, along with the Scenery Bonus provided by attached scenery items.

The higher the Prestige of an attraction, the greater number of guests that will be attracted to it and the more they’ll be willing to pay to ride.

Ride Reputation

The grand opening to any new ride is a thrilling moment for any Park Manager, and guests will be just as excited to go on the latest and greatest rides.
Over time though, rides will become dated and guests will be less interested in buying a ticket.

But you can't keep a good coaster down for long. If your ride is great enough, it will become a Classic and guests will come from far and wide to ride a part of coaster history, happily paying more to ride.

Rollercoasters are the highlight of any theme park and can be a centrepiece attraction for your guests to enjoy.

Coasters tend to be pricey, so make sure you have enough money before building one. A beloved rollercoaster can become a fixture and attract more guests to your park, so they can be well worth the investment in the long run.

To function, a rollercoaster must have a supply of power from a nearby Distributor, be connected to a path and have an assigned Ride Attendant.

Coasters can be placed quicky and easily with Pre-built Blueprints, or by creating a Custom Coaster.

Learn more about using Blueprints in our Blueprints guide.

Coaster Components

Constructing a rollercoaster in Planet Coaster 2 requires the use of a variety of different components which all perform their own functions.

Stations and Trains

All rollercoasters need a Station for guests to board and exit the ride.

The size of the Station can be modified to allow for more coaster cars or to save space. But make sure you leave enough room for a large queue so that plenty of guests can give it a go. You can also change which side of the Station the entrance and exit gates are placed on.

The speed at which coaster trains can exit and enter the Station can also be modified, for a brisker start or a gentle ending.

The number of trains on a coaster and their operational mode can also be modified. This directly affects the throughput of the coaster i.e. how many guests can ride the coaster over a period of time.

Chain Lifts and Momentum

There’s no thrill like gravity and rollercoasters need a source of momentum to begin the excitement. 

Some coasters use chain lifts to lift the coaster up a hill in the track, before releasing it. The higher the chain lift goes, the bigger the drop can be and the more speed the train can pick up. The more speed your train picks up, the greater the g-forces it can generate as it changes direction.

Other coasters use different launch mechanisms, like hydraulics or electromagnets to propel the coaster train forwards. These launch mechanisms remove the need to have a hill at the start of the track.

Generally, after the launch system has given the train its initial boost, momentum carries it around the track. If your train fails to make it to the station, increase the size of the first drop, the speed of the launch system, the speed of the chain lift or reduce the coaster's overall length.

The First Drop

The first drop on your coaster creates longitudinal g-force, which pushes the riders backwards as the train speeds downwards. That drop builds a lot of momentum to manage.

Make sure the track exits the first drop smoothly and manage positive vertical g-forces. Be wary of adding sharp turns near the end of the first drop, as these will cause lots of g-forces that raise Fear and Nausea rapidly!

Turning and Banking

You need to be careful when making turns in your track as too many can lead to unpleasant amounts of lateral g-force. To prevent that, you can twist the track into a turn, called Banking, to transform those lateral g-forces into less uncomfortable vertical g-forces.

Bank into the turn so that the g-force vertically pushes riders into their seats. Banking outwards turns the g-force into a strong negative vertical force that your guests probably won't enjoy very much. The tighter the turn, the more g-forces that you need to manage.

To lower g-forces in a turn, you can make it wider in addition to banking them. To automatically soften sharp changes in track direction or banking angle, you can use the Smooth tools.

Hills and Airtime

Experiment with hills to generate moments of airtime. Airtime is when the vertical positive g-force is at zero. In other words, your guests feel like they're floating! The faster the train is travelling, the smaller the hill you need to achieve airtime.

Hills that descend steeply for long periods generate lots of momentum and g-force at the end of the drop that you'll need to manage to avoid making your guests uncomfortable.

Hills are also good for slowly reducing speed as your coaster's train climbs them. 

Brakes

A coaster train needs enough momentum to make it around the track and back to the station. Too much momentum when approaching the station will cause sudden braking, extreme g-forces, and a bad time for your guests.

Reducing the coaster's first drop will lower the amount of momentum and avoid that harsh stop, or track brakes can slow the train down gradually. Brakes are especially useful if you need to reduce speed in a short run of track.

Special Tracks

Special track pieces allow you to create iconic coaster moments lickety-split, like loops and corkscrews!

Special track pieces can significantly boost Excitement, Fear, and Nausea, so use them carefully or you might overwhelm your guests. A good tip is to make sure that the ride is gentler for a bit afterwards to allow Fear and Nausea levels to reduce.

Some special track pieces feature inversions that turn the rider upside down. This gives a big boost to Excitement and Fear, with only a small increase to Nausea. Inversions that last too long quickly increase Nausea though, so it's important to keep the duration short and spaced out.

Track Rides share a lot of similarities with rollercoasters, but with less extremes in movement. Track Rides will go at a constant speed around the track, but you can change that speed in the Operations menu.

Track Rides are also built similarly to coasters but are more restricted in their track angles and in the pieces available. Because of this, Track Rides tend to be much gentle experiences than coasters.

To function, a Track Ride must have a supply of power from a nearby Distributor, be connected to a path and have an assigned Ride Attendant.

Track Rides come in many shapes and sizes, including rides incorporating water. While a rollercoaster can be the height of thrill, a Track Ride is more about creating a gentle, themed experience for your guests to enjoy.

Transport Rides are a great way to help guests get around your park. These rides are more focused on getting your guests from A to B, rather than creating a thrilling experience.

Each Transport Ride can support multiple Stations where guests can get on and off. You can open or close individual Stations however you'd like if you want to direct your guests to a specific spot. It's a good idea to build Stations at key locations around your park that guests might want to visit.

To function, a Transport Ride must have a supply of power from a nearby Distributor, be connected to a path and have an assigned Ride Attendant.

Transport Rides have high power costs, but they can help guests recover Energy, spending less time walking and more time buying things at your park.

Flat Rides are a staple of many a good theme park!

Flat Rides have set Excitement, Fear and Nausea values, but can be fully customised and styled with scenery to increase their ride attraction score. Many flat rides can also be customised to adjust the sequence and movements performed by the ride. Learn more about Ride Customisation here.

To function, a Flat Ride must have a supply of power from a nearby Distributor, be connected to a path and have an assigned Ride Attendant.

Like other attractions, Flat Rides can be placed by choosing a Pre-built Blueprint that contains scenery, or by selecting Create Custom and placing a basic undecorated ride.

Flumes and Slides are new to Planet Coaster 2, bringing their own requirements and construction tools for you to master. Learn more in our dedicated, Building Flumes and Pools guide.

Planet Coaster 2 features powerful creative and customisation tools which allow you to make your rides truly unique. There’s so much to cover, that we’ve created a dedicated guide on Ride Customisation.