The Flying Saucers is a Gentle Ride added in RCT1's Corkscrew Follies DLC and all future installments.

The ride is based on the “Flying Saucers” ride that used an air valve system underneath the ride to create “cushions” of air that the vehicles would “float” on top of. It ran in Disneyland from 1961 to 1966 before being closed due to being expensive to operate, difficult to maintain, and frequently breaking down. In 2012, Disney California Adventure created a spiritual successor to the ride named “Luigi’s Flying Tires”, which closed in 2015 due to suffering the same problems that also plagued the original ride.

(Flying Saucers in a custom-built Rocky Rambles)

“Guests ride in hovercraft vehicles that they freely control.” - In-game description

Table of Contents

Technical Information

Stats

  • Base Excitement Rating: 2.40
  • Base Intensity Rating: 0.55
  • Base Nausea Rating: 0.39

Stat Contribution Values

  • Excitement Rating Value Multiplier: 50
  • Intensity Rating Value Mulitiplier: 25
  • Nausea Rating Value Multiplier: 0
  • Soft Guest Cap Contribution: 35

Building Information

  • Size: 4x4
  • Base Cost: $560.00
  • Cost of Supports (per unit per tile): $2.00
  • Support Height Limit (ft/m/height units): 30ft/9m/+6

Other Information

  • Maximum Guest Capacity: 12
  • Sheltered?: No

Building Flying Saucers

The Flying Saucers function almost identically to the Bumper Cars, and its building properties are no exception. The Flying Saucers has the same exact size, path clearance, and support height limit as the Bumper Cars, as a 4x4 ride with a path clearance of 3 tiles and a support height limit of 6 height units.

The Flying Saucers is the most expensive Gentle flat ride with a base cost of $560.00. Additionally, it's the only Gentle flat ride with a support cost other than $1.00, as that cost is $2.00 on the Flying Saucers. With a total of 16 tiles, this means that raising the entire ride 1 height unit above flat ground will increase the ride's cost by $32.00, whereas on the Bumper Cars, the cost would go up by only $16.00. In the grand scheme of things, this isn't really a big deal since as its highest, it will still only cost $752.00 to build.

As the ride functions as a Bumper Cars variant, it has all of the same customization options as that ride. You can change the number of cars on the ride to any number between 1 and 12, and its running time from anywhere between 20 seconds and 3 minutes, in intervals of 10 seconds. It has the same default settings as the Bumper Cars, of running at 12 cars for 1 minute.

The Flying Saucers has 5 different vehicle types: The standard Flying Saucer cars from RCT1's Corkscrew Follies DLC, the Chinese Dragonhead and Snowmobile Bumper Cars from RCT2's Wacky Worlds DLC, and the Cyclops and Flower Power Bumps Cars from RCT2's Time Twister DLC.


1. Standard Flying Saucers
2. Chinese Dragonhead Bumper Cars
3. Snowmobile Bumper Cars
4. Cyclops Bumper Cars
5. Flower Power Bumper Cars

Despite their names, they are not available for the Bumper Cars. Unlike the Bumper Cars, the different vehicle types do actually have differences other than their appearance.

This is not so much for the case for the standard, Chinese Dragonhead, Snowmobile, or Cyclops cars as those truly are all the same. The Flower Power Bumper Cars however one of the highest total stat bonuses of any ride vehicle in the game. It has the highest Excitement bonus of any vehicle in the game at 75%, as well as a 40% Intensity bonus and a 10% Nausea bonus.

Because the Flying Saucers copies everything from the Bumper Cars, it to comes with its own default music track, "Rock style". Just like the Bumper Cars music, this music has no effect on the guests or the ride, but it will have an effect on you the player, because it... rocks!

Stats

Sounding like a broken record, the stat calculations on Flying Saucers works exactly like the Bumper Cars.

It has higher base stats at 2.40 Excitement, 0.55 Intensity, and 0.39 Nausea. Not only is its Excitement higher, but its Excitement value multiplier is also higher at 50 instead of 40. So this means that the stats are higher, AND each stat is also worth more.

The Flying Saucers keeps the same stat calculations from the Bumpers Cars for the vehicle count and time that it gains 0.80 Excitement if the ride has at least 4 cars on it, and then gains an extra 0.10 Excitement Excitement and 0.05 Nausea for every 10 seconds the ride runs for. In its default configuration of 12 cars and running for 1 minute, the base stats of the Flying Saucers with the standard cars (or Chinese Dragonhead, Snowmobile, or Cyclops cars) is 3.80 Excitement, 0.85 Intensity, and 0.39 Nausea, which is the highest natural stats of all Gentle rides in the game. The Flower Power Cars make a huge bonus to the stats, raising the Excitement Rating all the way up to 6.02. Not only is this by far the highest Excitement Rating of all of the Gentle Rides in the game, but it even passes most Thrill Rides, and can rival the stats of a small roller coaster

The bonus from the Flower Power Cars are applied after the ride time and vehicle count variables are accounted for, meaning that they too will also be affected by the 75% Excitement bonus on the ride. Below is a spreadsheet of the Excitement and Intensity Ratings of all vehicle count and ride time combinations. the Nausea Rating is not shown since it makes such a tiny difference. The fuchsia cells represent the ride's default configuration

The stats on the Bumper Cars were already quite good for a Gentle flat ride, but the Flying Saucers absolutely crushes it with the Flower Power Cars.

Throughput and Profit

Given that the ride works the same as the Bumper Cars, calculating these calculations are quite easy to do. With higher base stats and a higher Excitement and Intensity value multiplier, it will have a higher maximum ticket price than the Bumper Cars. Indeed that is the case for the Flying Saucers, as it has the highest ticket price of any Gentle flat ride in the game. Assuming the ride runs in its default configuration of 12 cars at 1 minute, these are the values we can charge the ride:

The Flying Saucers has the largest maximum ticket price of any Gentle flat ride in the game. It is also the only one that can ALWAYS be charged more than $0.00 no matter how old it is.

Because the ride functions just like the Bumper Cars, we can use its throughput. We determined that the Bumper Cars in its default configuration could process about 700 guests per year. Using the 5-13 months old price, this means that the ride would make about $3,200.00 with the standard cars and $5,030.00 with the Flower Power Cars. This does factor into account the ride's higher running cost of a little under $150.00 per hour. These are absolutely insane profit values, and it makes the Flying Saucers the best Gentle flat ride in the game.

The one big downside of the Flying Saucers is that it's not sheltered, unlike the Bumper Cars which guests will happily enjoy during a rainstorm.

Even in Cool and Wet parks where it rains very frequently, the amount of extra money made from the ride will generally make up for its extra downtime. In parks where guests don't pay for the rides however, the big advantages of the Flying Saucers are pretty much nullified putting it on even playing fields with the Bumper Cars. If the park is Cool and Wet, and the guests don't pay for the rides, the Bumper Cars will become the better ride overall.

Verdict

The Flying Saucers is the best Gentle flat ride in the game. It has an extremely high ticket price, and if you use the Flower Power Cars, it becomes even higher. It will be a very good money maker for the price you spent to put it into the park. If you charge for the rides, the Flying Saucers is dramatically better than the Bumper Cars, which is already one of the better Gentle flat rides in the game.

Other Gentle Rides

[to come soon]