THE ALEX TROWERS GUIDE TO THEME PARK 

The following is a short list of the most basic and fundamental hints and tips to
playing Theme Park. As you become a more advanced player you will begin to
develop your own style and method of play along with a few sure-fire strategies for
creating the ultimate park. Everyone has different preferences and so everyone
develops varied techniques for dealing with the problems that they encounter.

GETTING STARTED.

My first piece of advice is aimed at those who are new to the game and those who
have dabbled occasionally without much success.

The Tutorial is there to aid the first time player. It introduces the basic elements of paths, queues, rides and shops gradually
before dropping you into the game with (hopefully) a fully functional Theme Park. The result of the tutorial park is actually a
very competent place to start expanding your empire.

BASIC ADVICE.

The little people are very fickle in that they are not easily pleased yet the smallest thing will make them unhappy very quickly.
To this end you must always listen to what they tell you. Keep an eye on the thought bubbles that appear above each little
person's head and react accordingly. If several people get hungry in the same area you should consider building a food stall of
some description nearby. Likewise if several people are upset about the cost or prizes of a stall then you should either lower
the price or raise the prize.

Don't try and build the most mammoth of parks on your first go. Start to build up from a small but well maintained base. That
way you won't suddenly find yourself out of your depth with everything going wrong at once; it will happen gradually. Don't be
afraid to remove rides that are placed incorrectly. It is far better to lose the money for buying this one ride than to distract your
valuable Mechanics from repairing your star attraction so that it blows up with people on it (Yeah!! Great!! Burn baby, burn!-
a Syndicate player.)

RIDES.

The park with the most rides tends to make the most money. More rides means more punters and more punters means more
money which, as we all know, makes the world go round, allows you to research better stuff and subsidises shopping trips by
the wife.

The little people tend to prefer a large variety of rides as opposed to loads of identical ones. This doesn't mean that you should
only have one of each ride in the park, you should just choose a different ride over an existing one.

As rides get older so they don't last as long as they should before needing repair. When this starts to happen, you should
consider selling the ride on and replacing it with an upgraded one. This will put less strain on your Mechanics and generally
make everyone happier.

SHOPS & STALLS.

One of the greatest source of income can be achieved with a well placed shop or stall. They provide welcome instant cash
returns and also serve to keep the little people happy. They do have two drawbacks however.

                            Litter is the major problem as nobody likes a messy park. If there is too much litter then
                            the little people will start to stay away from the park and you certainly won't win many
                            awards at the end of the year. Certain shops such as the Coffee Shop have litter bins inside
                            and so take care of their own litter although they are not quite as effective as Pokey Cola's
                            for quenching thirst. Whenever you buy a shop that produces litter you must make sure
                            that you have sufficient Handymen to combat the litter problem.

                            The other main problem is that of keeping them well stocked. A shop that has run out of
stock is no use to anyone. You should always keep an eye on your shops to ensure that they have sufficient stocks to last and if
they haven't you should order some more immediately. Try to learn how often you need to restock certain shops and get into
some form of rhythm so that you don't have to keep looking around the map at all of your shops. If the Advisor tells you that a
certain shop is running low and you haven' t already sent off an order for that shop then you should immediately order some
more to minimise the amount of time that the shop is closed. If you are playing in Sandbox mode then you don't have to worry
about this.

Stalls can be a very lucrative method of gaining some needed cash. They can also upset little people who feel that they are
being conned in some way. Try to match the cost of each game with the chance of winning and the prize if they do so. Don't try
to fleece the punters too much as they aren't daft and they will soon see through your attempts and stop coming. A small cost
and prize coupled with a moderate chance of winning provides a more reliable income than a risky high cost high prize lower
chance stall.

Stalls have the added bonus in that they entertain the people (although not as much as rides) and don't produce litter. They are
also smaller than rides and so can be slotted in several small places around the park. The little people tend not to have a go at
the same type of stall so, as with rides, variety is the key. Of course to have this variety you must research it...

FEATURES.

Features such as trees, fences and lakes should never be underestimated. A featureless park is a bland one and is unlikely to
win any awards. Features also impress the little people who are new to the park as well as making it look nice on the screen. In
addition it is a lot more exciting to scream around on a roller coaster that dives and twists through a dense forest, narrowly
missing the trees.

STAFF.

The amount and types of staff that you have employed at any one time can make or break your park. As soon as you start
placing Shops that leave litter you should start employing a Handyman. Likewise as soon as your first ride starts to break down
you should employ a Mechanic. Entertainers are very good especially in the times where most of your rides are being repaired
or it is raining. A slightly more detailed look at all of the staff types follows.

Handymen

     Handymen should be employed the instant litter starts appearing on the ground. Keep an eye on any new handymen that
     you employ as they might start getting confused by the layout of your paths and end up missing large areas of the park
     that need to be cleaned. If this is the case then you may want to control their movements using the waypoint navigation
     system on their icon bar. Mechanics should be hired as soon as your first ride starts to show signs of breaking down.
     They spend half of there life eating sandwiches and so you must keep a watchful eye on them. More often than not a
     Mechanic will get to a nearby damaged ride before it completely blows up but if there is more than one ride that is in
     trouble then you should direct the Mechanic to fix one immediately and either shut the other ride down or hire another
     Mechanic. A single Mechanic can usually maintain three to four rides successfully. This is just a rough guideline as it will
     vary with the quality of the rides, how often they are used and for how long.

     A slightly risky tactic is to slow the speed of a damaged ride right down while the Mechanic is fixing another ride.
     Hopefully the ride won't blow up (Hopefully!?! - the same Syndicate player) in the time it takes for the other ride to be
     fixed and the Mechanic can then fix the new one. The upside of all of this is that you only have one Mechanic employed
     and the little people always have at least one ride that they can go on as opposed to having two closed down ones to
     look at. If it works, it works well. If not then its disastrous.

Entertainers

     Entertainers should be placed near queues that have a particularly long wait time to ease
     the stress caused by waiting to get on the ride. In addition, at least one Entertainer
     should be placed somewhere near the park entrance. This will allow him to hand out
     umbrellas to people entering the park if it starts to rain.

Guards

     Guards only need to be hired if Thugs start appearing in the park. You will notice the Thugs when you start seeing
     beaten up Entertainers and rides start breaking down a lot faster than normal. When Thugs do appear you must deal
     with them immediately. Hire plenty of Guards and try to move your Entertainers away from trouble areas. Guards will
     only escort Thugs out of the park if they see them doing something nasty like kicking in an Entertainer or breaking a ride
     so you may have to move the Guards around quite a bit.

PARK LAYOUT.

When designing your park always try to think about what the little people will want at any one time and place things
accordingly. Place a Balloon Shop right near the entrance so that the people part with their money while they are still happy.
This will put them in a good mood for the rest of their stay unless something bad happens.

People get enjoyment out of going on rides and winning on stalls so try to cut down the amount of time that they spend walking
between one attraction and the next. One method of doing this is to have a straight path with rides coming off either side of it.
Each ride is butted up against the side of the path with the entrance around the back and the exit leading back onto the main
path. A short queue should link the path to the entrance. Try to stagger the rides on either side so that anyone leaving one ride
is pointed straight at the queue entrance to the next one. In this method the little people will zig zag between the rides and the
amount of time they spend just walking and not being on a ride is minimal. The major disadvantage with this method is that it
doesn't leave much room for decorative features which make the park look nice and this may put some people off.

If you start making a complex path system with rides and stalls all over the place then you will have to place signposts down so
that people know where they are heading. If a person comes across a sign pointing towards a ride that they quite want to visit
then they will feel happier about walking towards it as opposed to just wandering around aimlessly. Also, signposts that point
towards the exit allow annoyed people to leave quicker and not wander around for hours getting more upset. Unhappy people
tend not to go on rides or buy things from shops and so just clutter up the park and reduce the average of the happy people in
the park. As a result of this, your reputation and popularity suffer somewhat so they are best off out of the park and out of your
hair.

Another method of park design is the one way method. The park is organised in such a way that the people have no choice but
to walk around the park in an organised and orderly manner. This has advantages in that you should be able to work out
exactly what any person will be requiring at any one time and be ready for it. In addition, the need for signposts is greatly
reduced as there are less junctions for people to start worrying about. The problem arises when too many people enter the
park. Queues fill up and so people are unable to get a go on all of the rides. Due to the one way structure of the park, they are
unable to return to rides that they may have missed so they are not getting the full enjoyment factor out of your park.

AWARDS.

At the end of each year you will be presented with various charts on how well you
are doing. in addition there are also several awards that get handed out if you
happen to be doing particularly well in certain areas of your park. These awards
are great things to aim at as they not only improve your reputation but add a
substantial sum of money to your bank account. They are also a measure of how
well you are doing in relation to your opponents. If you are constantly winning the
'Good Technology' award then you must be more advanced than all of your
competitors.

Keep your park running smoothly and you should pick up a couple of neat awards.
If a ride blows up then it is unlikely that you will win the 'Ride Safety' award and
since there is no 'Most People Maimed Or Seriously Injured' award then you could be losing out.

If you concentrate on winning a single award at a time then the money that you gain from this will enable to do better at winning
the others.

GENERAL TIPS.

     Open your park immediately on starting the game. This allows one or two
     customers to appear even if most stay away.

     Slow the game speed down when designing the park. This will allow you
     more time to place rides and give you a small amount of lee-way when
     playing the game.

     New rides are very important and you should always have something in
     research for them. This will aid you in gaining the 'Most Advanced' park
     award.

     When positioning rides allow for the fact that you may wish to move the entrances and exits.

     Its always worthwhile buying up your own shares, not only to prevent yourself from being bought out but if you park
     does well, the value increases and can be used as extra cash later.

     Whenever you add a new ride to the park you should immediately increase your ticket price. The more rides you have,
     the more you can charge.

     Try to buy new rides as they become available.

     If you notice a large amount of litter building up then it may be a good time to increase the price of your food stalls. Don't
     forget to clean it all up afterwards however.

     Try to ensure that the queue lengths are long enough to support all of the people who may want to go on the ride. People
     won't join a full queue and so they will miss out on the ride.

     Make spare Handymen work exclusively outside shops.

     If you have more than one of the same type of ride you should try to position them quite far apart.

     Always have stock for your shops on order. You can always delay its arrival by re-ordering.

     Never leave your park unattended as there is always something you could be doing. This is especially true of the larger
     parks as they are harder to maintain.

     Large capacity rides need larger queuing areas as they take more people to fill up.

     To begin with, certainly try to have at least one of every ride in your park.