By Fossil

I've been using Oblivion's "Son of Beast Trainer" for a few hours, I will relate my very limited experience. I have the U.S. version of RCT2; I can't comment on how this trainer works with other versions.

What I find peculiar about this package is that a great deal of effort went into it, yet there are user interface anomalies in this released version of the program that could be fixed in literally minutes. The Help system that comes with it refers to Loopy Landscapes. It apparently has not been updated. It is misleading in several areas. The whole facility for stacking scenery is completely unnecessary in RCT2, yet remains in this program.

That said, the program offers quite a few attractive features. Scenario players have a wide range of options that can turn any scenario into a no-brainer. Park builders will like that they can own all the land on a map, make their rides new, and reset the date to March 1, Year 1. Parks that take many years to build can then be presented in brand-new condition. This is a great feature.

The user interface is somewhat odd, also misleading, but not difficult. Many operations require two or more steps. First you press alt+tab to bring up the trainer. You perform the first step in the trainer, which initiates some action. You alt+tab back to RCT2, and wait until you see a message confirming that the action has been initiated. Sometimes you may have to wait longer than you would expect to get the message - you might initially think that nothing happened. Be patient. You then alt+tab back to the trainer and make another menu choice which executes the action. Again, alt+tab back to RCT2 and wait for the confirming message. For the special build mode, found under landscaping, a third round trip between applications is required: the three steps are "begin-execute-end."

The menu choice Peeps/Modify Guest Options... is documented as following the above convention. It calls up a dialog box to set options. There is a menu choice Peeps/Modify Guests which purportedly executes the options you set. However, the peep modifications are performed upon clicking "Modify" in the dialog box that sets options. The user interface is inconsistent, and the help file is wrong.

I will describe the features in the trainer that I have tried so far, and that I think are useful, or at least interesting.

Park

The Park menu permits changing a number of attributes of the park. Under "Park options" you can mow grass, water gardens and empty trash cans. Check your selections, then from the main menu, choose "Modify Park".

The Park Settings/Renew Park data option performs several tasks: the date is reset to March 1, Year 1; all rides are made new; all messages are cleared from the message history; resets the number of guests; resets the number of admissions and cash from admissions.

You can freeze cash, time, advertisements and weather. You might find these useful. A gimmicky feature is setting the weather to night time. This is similar to the darkness that occurs with a thunderstorm, but there is no rain. Now that I've tried that feature once, I'm done with it.

Peeps

Use the Peep Menu to modify peep attributes. You can only improve your peeps - the trainer won't let you make them worse. The one exception is found not here, but under the "Special" menu options - "Lunch time" makes them hungry.

You can also specify "fast staff" to make your employees really earn their money. They run like track stars if you choose this option.

Rides

I haven't tested the ride options yet. You have a "make rides new" option here, as well as under the menu choice Park/Park Settings/Renew Park Data. You can change ride statistics, but that doesn't interest me.

It appears that the trainer removes the restriction on pay-per-ride and pay-for-admission - they are no longer mutually exclusive. I haven't tested that yet.

More interesting are the abilities to change ride characteristics such as lift hill speed, number of circuits, and operating mode. I'm curious to try some of the different operating modes on varios coasters. There selection list gives a wide range of choices - I wonder what something like "Space Rings Mode" would do to a coaster? Crash it, I would guess.

Hacking rides - using tracks of different coaster types together, or putting a car style from one coaster on another coaster's track - is not supported as far as I can determine.

Landscaping

For many players, the landscaping options will represent the heart of this this trainer. The options that assist in operating a park are nice, but don't change the game all that much. Some of the options found here do.

For instance, you can set the size of the land tool to be up to 128 tiles. This allows pushing around a huge amount of land in a hurry.

Removing the property boundary (the white fence at the edge of the park) and owning all land are features that many players will welcome.

The "Special Build Mode" has nine menu features, but only three of them are implemented in this version, per the documenation. These are:

• Execute build-through
• Execute stack scenery
• Execute build roads

In RCT2, only the first choice adds anything new. It can be put to very creative and useful purposes, and also some "Stupid RCT tricks".

Well, why would you want to "build through" something? If the picture below doesn't convince you, don't worry. It wouldn't convince me either.

The right way to build two tracks through each other. Build one ride, then demolish only the tracks that will be used for build-through. Build the other ride, then also demolish its tracks that that will be built-through. In this case two tracks from the mouse and two tracks from the looping coaster have been demolished. Perform the three-step build-through operation on one ride. Then perform the three-step build-through operation on the other ride.

Son of Beast trainer is available here.

Home