Why the Heartline Coaster is so Terrible

The Heartline Twister Coaster has by the far the worst stats in the game, making it one of the worst coaster types. In this video we find out how this came to be.

Outro music by Panorrrama:

[MarcelVos]

I have gotten quite some comments about trying to win scenarios with only heartline coasters and similar challenges. The problem with this is that those challenges aren't particularly super difficult because the Heartline coaster is still a rollercoaster, and rollercoasters are by default really good rides. The heartline is bad for a rollercoaster, but it's still miles better than a go-karts or spiral slide.

[ThomasSumner]

Chris Sawyer answered a question recently about the Heartline's terrible stats! "Many rollercoaster types I’d never ridden myself before they made it into the game, in fact I’ve still not ridden a Heartline Twister style ride in real life to this day. So the ratings in the game were based on what I’d read from other riders, most of whom weren’t very complimentary about their experiences, hence the poor ratings in the game!"

[eier]

My guess is that Chris Sawyer programmed the Heartline Twister, and to a lesser extent the Standup Coaster, this way, because they were both made by a Japanese company called Togo. Their rides in Japan are usually rated very exciting and are good in shape, but when Togo entered the US market with their Ultra-Twister (the Heartline), the rides were not well built and maintained, which lead to a very rough and unpleasant ride experience. Togo also built Windjammer Surfracers at Knott's Berry Farm, which had *huge* maintenance problems, and after KBF sued Togo US essentially went bankrupt, and all of their rides in the US – except one – were dismantled shortly after.

[spamwise]

Spent so much of my time building increasingly elaborate versions of these thinking "this'll be the one that's good" and was always disappointed. Both sad and encouraging to learn just how bad it really is.

[tsm]

From what I understand, John Wardley worked as a technical advisor on the game to some degree and was part of the team that developed Nemesis at Alton Towers. At some point while planning for the site where Nemesis now sits, John Wardley was able to ride the Arrow Dynamics prototype pipeline coaster and came away from the experience thoroughly unimpressed. My guess is that John Wardley relayed his negative experience to Chris Sawyer at some point in the game's development, and the opinion found it's way into the game's code.

[BrumBrum]

That is dedication to destroying the Heartline Coaster to give it lower stats in every way lol. Gotta admire Sawyers commitment.

[RickRaptor]

2:45 of course the right coaster has a higher excitement rating, who wouldn't be hyped to ride a coaster with completely invisible track sections

[lemonbread]

I think a mod with custom track pieces and rebalanced stats for the heartline twister would be cool. Vertical lifts like the ones in japan, a turntable and dive loop piece, that sort of thing.

[sabretooth]

I do kind of get why the scenery and synchronization bonuses are reduced. You're sitting more or less inside a cage, inside a tube. Your interactions with and visibility of other elements of the park are therefore understandably reduced. Same goes for interaction with other rides, especially considering that as the only truly "linear" ride (excluding the chairlift and shuttle-mode transport rides), there really isn't much opportunity for meaningful interaction anyway. Plus, you're in a cage in a tube.

The real insult would be if, say, you built a looping coaster around a heartline, and the excitement bonus given to the looping coaster due to the heartline was less than it would be from any other type, say for example, a corkscrew or another looping.

[TheLuchaBear]

For me the Heartline Coaster is THE guilty pleasure coaster to put in your park. Yes, it has terrible stats. Yes, it doesn't have that many special track pieces. Yes, it kinda is one dimensional... but heck, I'm still gonna use it when it's an option, because its unique look alone makes it worth it for me.

[cranapple]

The balance change I'd make is to make it attract more guests to the park. It's a unique coaster type, so it being a way to bring lots of people in would make sense. Maybe the first Heartline should have some insane contribution to the soft guest cap like 200 or something.

[CentralJerseyRailfan]

Might be just me but the real world Togo Ultra Twisters (especially the dive loop one at Rusutsu Resort) appear way more exciting than the game makes it seem.

[magicalwizard]

Marcel, I have an idea for a video -- I'm not sure if the idea is substantial enough for a whole video but the idea is: "how far will a guest go for a free food voucher?" You would buy the free food advertisement for an item like 'hotdogs' and then you'd put one single hotdog stand in the back of the park between a gauntlet of paths to see how far guests will go for their free dog. I'm not sure if guests who come into the park for the free food voucher are coded to actually seek out the specific food stand, but maybe it's worth looking into.

[princesscadance]

The sheer level of pure malice this guy has for the Heartline Twist is impressive.

[gfrewqpoiu]

This has actually been changed in OpenRCT 0.4.0.
The base excitement is now 3.00 instead of 1.40 and the Ride Bonus Value was increased to 70 from 35.

[rikschaaf]

I also disliked building with it. Both the fact that it didn't have turns and the fact that it loses all momentum when reversing directions made it very unsatisfactory to build with.

[asterash]

I went into this thinking "hey, maybe the heartline is so bad because of some kind of glitch, or an overlooked effect or something"

But no, it seems Chris Sawyer really did just get bullied by a heartline twister coaster as a child and decided to take vengeance in this game.

[jordanbradford]

This made me think of some future challenges you could try:
* winning scenarios using only heartline coasters
* winning scenarios by building coasters that don't have any of the ride features the coaster types are named for, such as corkscrew coasters with no corkscrews, looping coasters with no loops, etc.

[AlexanderWilithinIII]

My theory for why the Heartline gets such low bonuses from scenery, surrounding coasters, and synchronized stations is that from a realistic standpoint, I don't think guests would be able to see all that much while on it. Each car is just surrounded by hundreds of metal pipes, really limiting visibility.

[sinom_]

I always use Heartlines and leave em in test mode or assign more handymen around it. They just look so cool.