OpenRCT2 v0.4.27 Is Out - New Title Sequence, Reverting Pricing Algorithm to Use Vanilla Game's Algorithm

Published 1 month, 4 weeks ago by Demonxz95

OpenRCT2 version 0.4.27 is now out, and while it's not a super substantial update for the most part, it does one extremely major change that single-handedly makes it one of the most impactful updates towards the game in recent memory. To give a brief overview of the update:

New title sequence
Frozen guests no longer finish eating/drinking a food/drink item that are holding if you use a plug-in to freeze them.
The LIM Launched Coaster now defaults to a powered launch without passing through the station again as it did in the vanilla game.
The land tool will now take sloped ride track and paths when trying to alter the landscape.
Pre-made ride/track designs can now be shifted underground.
Lightning and thunder now occur less frequently during blizzards (which is only possible using cheats).
The game's pricing algorithm now uses the vanilla RCT2 algorithm to determine optimal pricing.

Let's skip right to that last one for the moment.

Price Change Algorithm

Ever since the beginning of OpenRCT2, it has always used a different algorithm that calculates the ride's optimal pricing and its park value contribution. For the most part, it works the same, but had one major change, which was the way rides with an age of 13 months or less were calculated.

Down below is a visualization of the vanilla RCT2 pricing algorithm and the pricing algorithm found in all versions of OpenRCT2 prior to this one.

I won't explain precisely how the pricing algorithm works in this article, but the long and short of it is that all of the rating's ratings, and the ride's specific value multiplier assigned to each of those ratings. This calculation algorithm is always exactly the same for every ride, whether it's a measly Merry-Go-Round or a giant steel Giga Coaster. This resulted in a quirk where the prices of giant roller coasters would follow a logical smooth scaling as the ride aged and would have very little effect by the different algorithms, but it resulted in flat rides like the Merry-Go-Round receiving a huge spike in potential pricing for the first 13 months before dropping down dramatically.

For example, on the Wooden Roller Coaster pre-built Whiteout, the pricing algorithm would result in a maximum price of $19.40 in OpenRCT2 and $19.00 in vanilla RCT2 while the ride is less than 5 months old. Once the ride is 14 months old, the optimal price will always stay the same across both versions, but the difference is never larger than $0.60. As a result, this price discrepancy is practically negligible.

This is not quite the case on a tiny ride like the Merry-Go-Round. Because the ride has much lower stats, and lower stat value multipliers, it results in predictably a lower ticket price, but because of the way the vanilla game handles the prices for the first two age brackets, this results in a period of time where the Merry-Go-Round can be charged for as much as $7.00 in vanilla RCT2, before drastically dropping to $3.00 once the ride is 5 months old, and then again to $1.00 where both versions match the whole way through. In OpenRCT2, the values of $7.00 and $3.00 would be $1.40 and $1.20 instead due to the different pricing algorithm.

The change to the pricing algorithm was most likely intended specifically to address these rides and the weird, seemingly unrealistic price drop they receive so quickly to instead follow a much smoother drop by setting their default prices when new to be closer to what they will inevitably become in 14 months. As of this version of the game now, OpenRCT2 has now reverted back to the original vanilla RCT2 pricing algorithm meaning that this Merry-Go-Round can once again be charged for $7.00 before its huge drop in only 5 months, regardless of how unrealistic this may be.

Some smaller changes include the ability to ability to alter the land underneath sloped paths and tracks. Previously, you would need to delete the path/track piece to alter the land below it, and then place that piece back again. On rides, this meant that you needed to close the ride as well. As of this patch, this is no longer necessary.

Additionally, the LIM Launched Coaster now defaults to having the train no longer fly through the station when it travels backwards on the track, which was the default option in vanilla RCT2, though the option for it to fly through the station on its return trip still remains. This change ultimately does not do much, although if you tended to build LIM Launched Coasters without a spike before the back end of the station, your muscle memory will no longer result in a ride that will crash. It does also bring OpenRCT2 back to the spirit of the original game.

Additionally, building a block brake on the ride will now automatically change the ride's operating mode to "Powered launch block sectioned mode".

Previously, it was not possible to shift-drag saved track designs to be built underground. Long story short, now you can do that:

The remaining changes are very minimal. There is a new title sequence, and thunderstorms now occur less frequently during blizzard storms (which could only happen by using cheats to force them to occur, since no weather pattern coded into the game naturally featured them). If you use plug-ins to freeze a guest in an animation, they no longer continue to consume any food or drink items they were holding, although as this change requires a plug-in to be utilized, it's very likely that many players will be entirely unaffected by this.

Full blog post down below:

Quote From Tulio Laeo (Tupaschoal)

It's october and as such we have a duck, a cat and a new version lizard! Oh, and a new title sequence too! We want to thank everyone that submitted to the contest with great parks and if you can't wait to see it in-game, check the video below:

Here is the complete changelog:

Feature: [#25218] `sprite exportobject` command, which allows extracting images from an object.

Feature: [#25274] New title sequence (see https://github.com/OpenRCT2/title-sequences/releases/tag/v0.4.26 for credits).

Improved: [#2296, #2307] The land tool now takes sloped track and paths into account when modifying land.

Change: [#25111] Frozen guests no longer finish consuming any food or drink they are carrying.

Change: [#25161] Revert to the ‘fair ride price’ calculation of vanilla RCT2.

Change: [#25201] Ride List: put unknown popularity and satisfaction last when sorting.

Change: [#25228] [Plugin] The available staff costumes array is now ordered alphabetically by name.

Change: [#25240] The LIM Launched Coaster now defaults to powered launch without passing station again (as it did in vanilla RCT2).

Change: [#25248] Revert Crooked House & Circus default prices to vanilla values.

Change: [#25266] Lightning and thunder have less chance of occurring during blizzards.

Removed: [#25225] `sprite exportalldat`, replaced with `sprite exportobject`.

Fix: [#24513] Ride/track designs can now be shifted underground as well.

Fix: [#24682] The scenery window isn't high enough to accommodate all tool buttons when there are multiple rows of groups/tabs.

Fix: [#24882] Guests are shown with hats and umbrellas whilst clapping.

Fix: [#24998] Some custom small scenery objects do not load.

Fix: [#25131] The Reverse Freefall Coaster On-ride photo section track has incorrectly coloured ties.

Fix: [#25132] Crash when trying to use simulate on incomplete ride.

Fix: [#25134] Vehicles visually glitch on diagonal steep slopes.

Fix: [#25146] The support clearance height of the diagonal brakes for the Junior, inverted Flying and inverted Lay-down Roller Coasters is too high.

Fix: [#25147] The wooden support clearance heights for steep Log Flume track pieces are too low.

Fix: [#25159] One of the tiles on the Hybrid Coaster diagonal flat track does not block metal or wooden supports correctly.

Fix: [#25160] The Go-Karts steep to flat track piece has incorrect wooden support clearance heights.

Fix: [#25163] Some of the Junior Roller Coaster flat to steep track wooden support clearance heights are different to RCT1.

Fix: [#25173] Desync when placing a park entrance in multiplayer.

Fix: [#25179] The LIM Launched Roller Coaster inline twists have incorrect wooden support clearance heights (original bug).

Fix: [#25201] Ride list sort order can be unstable when sorted in descending order.

Fix: [#25207] Building a block brake on an LIM coaster does not automatically switch it to powered launch block sectioned mode.

Fix: [#25238] The chance of thunder and lightning effects happening is lower than vanilla.

Fix: [#25288] Water ride “chain” sound does not loop.

Our great friend, Deurklink, has again helped on making a video with the notable changes for this release:

Download

Download release
v0.4.27 — Windows — 74.8 MiB — Signed

We would like to thank everyone who contributed with code, testing, translations, bug reports and everything else. We would also like to thank our sponsors:

Digital Ocean, for hosting the multiplayer master server and our infrastructure

Backtrace, for handling our automated crash reports

JetBrains, for providing us with development software

Github, for handling our development and issue tracker

SignPath, for providing a free certificate to sign our builds

If you're interested in contributing to OpenRCT2, feel free to join us on Discord.

You can also sponsor OpenRCT2 team members:

https://github.com/sponsors/IntelOrca

https://github.com/sponsors/janisozaur

https://github.com/sponsors/broxzier

https://github.com/sponsors/Gymnasiast

On behalf of the OpenRCT2 team: happy building!

~Tupaschoal