RCT3: Make Sure You're Up-To-Date!

[Monorail Man]

Since RCT3's release back in 2004, there has been numerious updates to the RCT3 line, including patches to the 2 expansions (Wild! and Soaked!). All of the pre-Wild! updates make major changes to the game, and actually add some content and features from the later expansions, into these earlier versions of the game (such as Tunneling, Billboards, Waterfalls, Loudspeakers, and much more!).

To make sure your up to date:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Atari > RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 > Check For Updates.
2. Click "Update" (Note: You may have to 'unblock'/'allow access' the Patcher program from your firewall software.)
3. Wait a few seconds. If there is an update, you will receive a dialog box indicating that there is an update to download. Click "Start".
4. Wait for the Download to commence. Note that this process may take up to 60 minutes on a High Speed connection, depending on the patch. The program has not frozen, it just doesn't display any progress.
5. When the Download is done, click the "OK" button to patch. Then Click "Finish". You're set!

For some users, this process doesn't work. To manually check for your version.
1. Click Start > All Programs > Atari > RollerCoaster Tycoon 3
2. Now, right click on the RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 link (Panda Head Icon), and select Properties.
3. Click "Find Target" in the dialog box that pops up.
4. Now, right click the highlighted file (either RCT3.exe OR RCT3plus.exe), and select Properties.
5. Click on the "Version" tab.


6. Look at the "File Version", and compare it to the number below to download the correct update:

RCT3 Base (No Expansions):
3.0.12.38 - Retail to Update 3 - 111MB
3.0.12.58 - Update 1 to Update 3 - 108MB
3.0.12.73 - Update 2 to Update 3 - 108MB
Anything Higher than 3.0.12.73 - This is the latest version.

RCT3 Gold (Special Set Sold with RCT3+Soaked!):
There is only one update Available - Retail to Update 1 - 16MB

RCT3 Soaked! (no Wild!):
There is only one update Available - Retail to Update 1 - 44MB

RCT3 Wild! (With or Without Soaked!):
Any Version - Any Version to Update 2 - 17MB
After Patching to Update 2 - Update 2 to Update 3* - 17MB (Just extract the RCT3Plus.exe file to "C:\Program Files\Atari\RollerCoaster Tycoon 3")

7. Once the File is downloaded, close all programs, and run it. After it's done patching, you're set!

*This is a patch created by Frontier to address issues with slowing (caused by the copy protection) in Wild!. You may or may not see an increase in performance with this patch.

[fastpassmountain]

Sage advice! I'll 2nd that it's well worth the Download.

I updated a few weeks ago and have become addicted again. Without tunneling, RCT3 seems somewhat flat to me. The loudspeakers are a wonderful touch, too. I love to blast music everywhere in the park and the peeps sometimes rock out. There's no excuse now for someone with too much time on their hands to recreate an authentic Disneyland in sandbox mode.

[Lost Boy]

I sent a PM to Monorail Man about this update. I did it and the game runs slower than it did before, jerkier and I can only find billboards and some new ground tiling and some kind of gates. Nothing else is new. I can't tunnel, no waterfalls and no speakers that I can find. What am I doing wrong?

[Monorail Man]

There is a new tutorial in the Tutorials [teaches tunneling and waterfalls].

As for RCT3 running slower, it does take more time to start-up (due to the fact there are more objects). Also, click options, and the Auto-Detect button., to readjust the grpahics settings to better suit your hardware. You may also wish to uncheck "Enable Live Content" to speed things up a bit. (These are the automatic Ad billboard downloads).

[Lost Boy]

I went to the tutorial and saw the new stuff. That told me where things like Waterfalls and speakers and smoke etc are found. But when I open my game, those things are not there. The Billboards and new tiles/gates are the only new things that show up in the game. Are these only available somewhere else? but not in an actual park that has been built and is growing and being tweaked? I am very confused at this point. If the new items are only available in sandbox or scenario creator, then how can you work on an existing Park? I can use the waterfall option in the scenerio creator on an existing Park but actually I can't. No matter where or how I put the two required water surfaces it won't do it because it says rides in the area on water prevent it. There are no rides anywhere near it. I just don't get this new stuff at all. It all works fine in the tutorial but not in a real live game.

[ahecht]

Wow, they finally fixed the bug that wouldn't allow you to edit terrain under coasters! This is great!

[Monorail Man]

lost Boy,
Open your park in the scenario editor, and make sure that they are automatically given to you, and not have to be researched. Then save, and re-open.

[Lost Boy]

I created this Park in the Scenario Editor and saved the scenerio several times as Park 1. Then I saved the finished (or so I thought it would be) Park in Save Game. I then opened the Park as a custom scenario and made updates to the game. For some reason now, the game version is game 5 and the scenario editor version is still park 1. The upates I made to the game are not refelcted in the scenario. The added stuff is not showing up in the "Game" but is there in the Scenario version, but the Parks are now totally different for some reason.

And even in the Scenario Version, I can't make a waterfall in existing water areas. I have a moat around the Caslte with has one boat ride at the front of the Castle. There are no more rides and I tried to creat a waterfall at the back of the castle, and it says I can't because of an existing ride in the area. That just is not fair. Does this mean that if you creat a body of water on the lower lever, and a higher water lever and connect them with a waterfall, you can't but any rides in the water?

[Monorail Man]

Lost Boy,

Let me explain this better:

Pre exisitng parks do not 'automatically' get the new features. You have to research them, or add them to the "items available from the start of game" (in the scenario editor in order to see them for the park/scenario.

To do this:
1. In the scenario editor load your park, and then click on "Setup Inventions".
2. Look at the "Items to invent during game" column. This lists all the new stuff.
3. click the first one in the list, press and hold shift, and then select the bottom one. This will select all of them.
4. Click the green arrow next to "Move selected items to this column", under "Items available from the start of game".



Close the dialog, and then save the park. Now, re-open the park, you will have all the extra goodies.

As for the waterfalls, they are tricky indeed. If you remove any swan/boat rides on the water (save their track layout first), then place the waterfalls. Then when you go to place the ride, it will say that it will delete the waterfall. Don't click OK, but click "Cancel" instead. It will still place the ride, and the waterfall will remain intact.

[Lost Boy]

Thanks and I did finally figure it out. But, you have to rename the Park when you save the scenario again, and then Start The Game instead of play the game using the new name, then everything was there and it worked fine. When I saved the game I had to make sure the new name was in the name line and it was, so that was cool. Thanks again and now I am a happy camper again. The frame rate on making movies is also faster like you said it should be. All the items are there now that I moved them as you suggested. I forgot abou that, and I changed the weather to Spooky and the background to Spooky and it fits the Harry Potter theme.

[Monorail Man]

Really, unless you specifically need some of the expansion content (Prehistoric/Paradise Island/Atlantis), and want the waterparks or animals, there's no reason to buy the expansions. All the code is now in the base game, and so are all the goodies. However, if you want lasers/fountains in MixMaster shows, you gotta buy Soaked!.

[Lost Boy]

I have noticed some things that are pretty strange while I have been getting back into the patched game. The animated gargoyles no longer breath fire (or whatever it was) and the janitors don't stay in their fixed areas. Some parts of the Park are really filled with trash, but I have janitors all over the place and the little bue squares are there that they are supposed to stay within, but they don't and the trash keeps builing up. All the special stuff is working fine and I have made lots of movie clips. I like the name and CTL U to get rid of the menus. That makes for some nice movies and photos. I tried the billboard with movie clips, but it doesn't really work all that well. Kind of a series of still images from the trailer I put up, and really too dark to see much of anything. But overall, I have gotten back into fixing up the Harry Potter Park again and it's fun trying out things and getting interested in the game again. The other thing I noticed is that when I quit the game, it used to put pictures up of the Park I was working on, and it isn't doing that anymore. On the start up, it shows past picrtues, but on the quit the circle that usually has the pictures in it, it white. I wonder why?

[Monorail Man]

Patrol Areas now depend on Training. If a Janitor/anything else is not trained well (You can do this either in the Staff panel, or by clicking each staff member) , they have a habit of wandering. As for it used to displaying the park when you quit, that was a bug (the alpha channel on the menu was clear). However, any pictures that you take with F10 (or in in the My Pictures\RCT3 folder), will rotate through the menu with the other ones.

[Lost Boy]

I won an award for best trained staff. I don't know how I did that, but a lot of the stuff in this park seems to be done automatically.

What about the animated gargoyles no longer breathing fire? The lean forward and open their mouths and move their head from side to side, like before, but nothing comes out like the breath of fire did before.

[Monorail Man]

What about the animated gargoyles no longer breathing fire? The lean forward and open their mouths and move their head from side to side, like before, but nothing comes out like the breath of fire did before.

It's on the Bugtracker for Update 3, so it should be fixed in the next update. (No one knows when, or if, that will happen).