Is Using MicroCoasters Cheating?

To me, “how to play the game” should be to create a park that could exist in real life… 20 micro coasters side to side is not realistic. 2 is and I don’t mind it.

I do feel like it is a bit cheating or at least over powered to make a coaster that is 4-5 tiles pieces and charge that amount of money. In my personal opinion, a launched coaster that just goes up the corkscrew (or loop or hill) and immediately returns are the real offence. A micro coaster that does at least one lap, for me, doesn't seem as bad. That said, I really don't care. You play the way you like and like you said, it enables you to build the bigger cooler rides. The cool thing in my opinion is that RCT has the ability to do your own self imposed challenges and the micro coaster is a tool to get you there. Obviously it isn't going to get nerfed so instead you buff the goal. I do agree, there isn't much reward to beating a standard scenario abusing micro coasters if you can't do it without them.

Me personally, I play RCT in a way where I build what I would do as an actual guest. If there was a micro coaster i wouldnt go on it cuz its a waste of time. If there were multiple <thrill ride here> i would only ride one of them and wonder why a 2nd and 3rd were within 200 ft. Therefore a lot of my coasters end up being long cuz why would I wait in line for a 14 second ride? that kinda thing

"Micro Coasters are cheating" (Proceeds to place 5 Shuttle Loops in every park, a prebuilt microcoaster)

This is cheese, not cheating. There are no cheats being used here, there are no modifications of game memory. This is just a use of game mechanics.

I think they're fine, especially when you set them up in a cool rainbow pattern etc. It does add a lot to the aesthetic of the park. But just spamming the same one over and over until the entire park is filled isn't really fun to watch, or play. It's just to see how crazy it can get.

I think people think it's cheating because you copy and paste same roller coaster a lot in one park. It's too unrealistic.
But it's ok. It's your way to achieve senario. You found one of way to complete the game.
Also, you don't do this just for fun like kiddos and we all know your skill of making rollercoaster is wonderful.

Advertising is calculated in the game design, which is why it costs are relativily high compared to its effects. Building super cheap but objectively lame coasters in a large amount for the purpose of getting more money, guests or value is a completely different story. Is it cheating? It depends, what you use it for. Building a few of these coasters totally fine i.m.o.

I very rarely if ever use micro coasters, because there is no accomplishment to beating the scenario. The way to play rct(1 or 2)is building varied rides, pre-built or custom. I think you can use them, but only 1 per park, per type. If you spam them just to quickly beat scenarios, then what is the point of playing the game in the first place?

at the end of the day, play the damn game however you want

A respectable take. For me it comes down to “would a real park build this?” In regards to spirit of the game. Real parks advertise. Real parks don’t build the same Vekoma corkscrew coaster 9 times in a single square with no shade and balloon stands everywhere

I liked the microcoasters you put in the let's play! it was just a couple, plus you decorated it so it wasn't boring to look at. I think you should keep them, especially since they increase the amount of cash you get and stuff you can build

I think the microcoasters are very satisfying to look at and build, though a mix of different designs or coaster types would probably have more fans. most of these designs remind me of quaint little town fair rides and i love the throughput and usefulness of them too. I think the guest cap system isnt as well thought out as the rest of the game for sure and that is the reason these exist at all. a massive super fast roller coaster would obviously bring in more guests in real life but this game is old and relatively simple and thats why its great.

The spamming is the main issue for me. I feel like if there are maybe 5 (in order to give some flexibility with racing coasters) or more builds of the same type, it should continuously divide the excitement rating by 2 for all of them.
Also guest cap increase should be directly affected by the stats, mostly excitement again.

I think the purpose of the game is lost if you build these kinds of things in your park.

I use micro coasters to beat parks i dont want to actually play, so that i unlock scenarios that i do want to play in the 'normal' way.

If I went to a park with a cool microcoaster and there was loads of them that'd be great for me! No waiting in line!

I would say no, it's not cheating.
It's a ride that can be built by the logic of the game, so from a gameplay perspective, it's allowed.
Park attraction is per ride, so more rides are clearly better. The game is designed in a way that encourages many small rides.
Guests will ride on them, so there is demand for the coasters.
Not cheating, but abusing intended mechanics in a super calculated, and somewhat boring way.

You're a socialist, yes? Yet, here you are "exploiting" park guests out of $7 for a rinky short ride with long wait times in a capitalism simulator. Maybe you should play like a socialist.

Another question should be if cheating is a problem. In some games, yes, but in some games, no.
I would say that spamming micro coasters for normal play is cheating, but isn't a problem. In a game like Rollercoaster Tycoon, deciding how you want to play, even if that means cheating or cheesy strategies, is all a part of the experience.

Cheating and going against the spirit of the game are two separate things. Micro coasters to me come across as exploiting knowledge of the game mechanics to increase performance at the cost of immersion and does go against the spirit of the game.
But it's not cheating. It's in the game, and it doesn't require opening any sort of special menu or doing a secret combination to flip a switch.

Building the biggest underground log flume possible!!!! Rise the ground level and build it like a coaster then plummet that bad boy as far down as possible! Quick money

I feel like cheating every time I place the same attraction twice on one map, unless they really belong there. The good question to ask yourself, when you don't know if placing a coaster is cheating, is -Would I ride it?

Personally, the micro corkscrews feel a bit cheesy only because I learned about them from these videos. I have no qualms about using tiny coasters that I designed myself. Maximizing profit and space is a huge part of the game, so you should be rewarded for finding an effective design.

Although I personally also beat RCT1 normally back in the day, I quite liked to learn the inner workings of RCT in general from you. I imagine you'd do well in Factorio.

I would always take prebuilt loopers like the bumble bee and make it into a boosted start. It would make it a lot faster and a bit more exciting. I would make it a banked turn all the way to the top of that chain lift area then the rest was the same as usual.

Haha "P E N I S" on the ride sign in the thumbnail. I can tell you put some effort into that screenshot given the perfect positioning of the lettering 👏

I never use them personally. It's just not fun for me. I enjoy making a nice looking fun park. I never worry about min maxing.

Honestly who cares. It's a single player game, it's not affecting anyone but yourself, play how you wanna

I have never understood people who accuse other people of "cheating" at non-competitive single player games.... there is nobody to gain an advantage over so there is no cheating.

I definitely lean towards more immersion and "realistic" parks. The closest I'll ever get to microcoaster spam is a pair of synced shuttle loops.

In the end i feel like people need to remind themselves that this is a game, let people play how they like.

I'v started to use some Micro Coasters recently but i hate looking at them since they look silly and unrealistic imo(Shuttle Loop being an exception if its only 1-3) but you can just hide them underground in this case ^^

I mean, it is a single player game. And it's your single player game. If you enjoy using microcoasters, your enjoyment is what matters. I'm not a fan of it, so I'm not going to build any microcoasters for my parks anytime soon, but I'm also not going to call microcoasters cheating either. Different strokes for different folks 🤷

Microcoasters aren't cheating, they're cheesing, it's different.

It may not be a "cheat" but it's definitely an exploit. "Optimizing the fun out of the game." so to speak.

Do u have a how to build these micro coasters cause i cant figure out how to build them at all. Lol

It's called cheesing not cheating. You are exploiting game mechanics in an immersion breaking way. There is nothing wrong with it, but it is an exploit that highlights the limitations of the game. Cheesing the game!

for me, I don't like using them because when I play I try to make it seem like a park people would go to IRL, micro coasters are absolutely not something people would go on IRL, as they only work in game due to exploiting the guests very simple AI

Micro Coasters are not cheating. This is in the game and nothing extra is needed to do. No codes, no mods, nothing. The problem is players always Optimize the fun out of the game. This problem is usually not a big issue in live service games. RTC is very old and not a live service and isin't updated.. It was only a matter of time until the mechanic over sites where found.

Microcoasters, the amazon warehouse of rollercoasters.

Micro coasters are fine. As long as they aren’t used too much.

Parks where you have dozens and dozens of the same small cheap ride are lame. But a hand full is fine.

If it's included in the base game, then no it's not cheating.

I’ve recently started watching your channel, and pretty quickly had to come to terms with my own opinion about micro coasters. Since you asked, here you go:

It’s a game. Anything that exploits game mechanics in a clever and novel fashion is not a cheat. It shows a level of knowledge about the game that I find impressive.

Also, it’s extremely realistic from a purely capitalist perspective. Companies will literally do anything that maximizes profit and minimizes cost. Microcoasters are basically the American junk food of RCT2. Maybe but the most impressive things to experience, but extremely effective at what they do.

Cheating, not at all. But outside the intended spirit of RCT? Yeah, I'd say so.

I always told my friends, if you can't beat RCT the "frontal assault" way, just use the cheesing. If you still can't beat it, use cheats.
They're now playing Planet Coaster and now they're the one who exploits Grand Carousel and Big Screen Tour hundreds of times than I do.

I think the best way to patch microcoasters would be to have the duration of the ride have an effect on max ticket price. The reason microcoasters are not realistic is because guests are paying way too much for what is obviously an extremely short and uneventful ride, so duration being a bigger factor would solve that and also balance throughput.