RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 vs RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 - Part 3: More Park Construction

[Alolan_Apples]

Yesterday, I went over the details on rides and shops in both games, comparing RCT3 to RCT2 and vice versa. Even if RCT3 is bigger, RCT2 has a few features that were better. Either way, neither is perfect, as I seek to separate exhibits and shows to attractions with no waiting lines, create restaurants and gift shops, and organize the rides better than what either game had.

Today's entry is more about the other aspects of park construction, which are paths, scenery, and terrain. In terms of terrain and paths, RCT3 is clearly more superior. But when it comes to the scenery, RCT2 barely beats RCT3.

What RCT3 did better:

Like rides and shops, RCT3 is more organized and interesting when it comes to scenery, paths, and terrain. Here are the points RCT3 is the lead:

• Terrain Freedom - this is no contest. RCT2 only had slopes at an angle of 30°, snap increments of half-walls, and (except for scenario editor), cliff building. RCT3 has free elevation of terrain, snap increments of 1/4-walls, freedom of slope steepness, and larger maximum areas of terrain modification. You can even build premade mountains and troughs, and smoothen terrain. It's not just limited to sculpting. You also have more terrain textures, easier brushing of terrain, the waterfall feature, and a more improved water feature.
• Theme Organization - although I do not like rides and shops being part of this system, RCT3 has much larger themes than RCT2, and more interesting organization. Without the expansion packs, there are the Generic Theme, the Western Theme, the Spooky Theme, the Sci-Fi Theme, and the Adventure Theme. The Atlantis Theme, Paradise Island Theme, Safari Theme, and Prehistoric Theme are part of the expansion packs. All themes have their own wall sets, objects, path scenery, and plants. RCT2 has too many themes, too small themes, and weird mapping of themes. Oh, and did I forget to mention, it's not possible for all themes to appear in one scenario in RCT2? I don't think having 20 themes is bad, but RCT2 has way more than that.
• Object Organization - another thing RCT3 did right is the organization of themed objects. RCT2 may have six generic themes for stuff like walls, plants, and path scenery, but RCT3 separated them well. They put the plants into one section, the wall sets (like the Office Block sets) into another, objects (like the animatronic scenery) into a different section, path scenery into another different section, and fences into their own section. Even they have their own sub-categories. For instance, you can filter out different types of path scenery when you want to place them. The wall sets, you can expand or contract the selections.
• Better Generic Scenery - RCT2 had some interesting objects, but RCT3 had a much better selection. But that's only because of the Office Block Sets and Colonial Sets. But even on the generic housing, they had corner roof pieces and rectangular door pieces. They aren't absent in RCT2, but you can only find them in the expansion pack themes. RCT2 is also missing rocks.
• Path Scenery - let's forget about the lamps and the day/night mode. The path scenery looks much better in RCT3, even if it weren't for the graphical improvements. Not to mention, but you have more freedom of path scenery placement. In RCT2, when you place a path object on a path, it takes all closed sides of the path, so a dead end will have three path objects. A narrow path has two path objects. In RCT3, you can choose which sides you can place an object, as long as its on a closed edge.
• Paths - RCT3 beats RCT2 in yet another category - paths. They look a whole lot better in RCT3. Not just that, but you can choose between ramps and stairs, you can repaint (generic only) queue lines when attached to rides, and you can build underwater tunnels. In RCT2, you can't even build scenery underwater.
• Fence Options - in RCT3, you can choose what type of fences you want for your park in scenario editor (including the laser fence). For rides, fences for queue lines and flat rides are customizable too.
• Saving your buildings - one of the best things in RCT3 that you can't do in RCT2 is saving your buildings. If you made a cool building you want to put in other parks, you can save them by saving areas. It's also good for those who can copy and paste the same buildings over (which you can't do in RCT2).

What RCT2 did better:

For many cases, RCT3 is better in terms of scenery. But these are the reasons why I would play RCT2 more:

• Carpet Terrain Textures - RCT3 is clearly superior when it comes to terrain, but one thing RCT2 beats RCT3 in is some of the terrain textures. All of RCT3's terrain is outdoor terrain. RCT2 has five terrain textures that are better for buildings than for outdoors.
• Missing RCT3 Themes - if you're wanting to build a winter theme park, a Chinese theme park, or a theme park based on ancient civilizations, then please do it in RCT2. Even if RCT3 has a winter background and the cold climate, RCT3 does not have a winter theme, which is another serious downfall of RCT3. What's even more disappointing is that the ice texture looked a lot better in RCT3 than RCT2 (and there's a separate snow texture too). They may have an Adventure Theme (which also includes these Indian and Arabian themes), but they do not have a Chinese theme or Japanese theme in RCT3, even if incorporated as part of the Adventure Theme. RCT2, however, has these themes.
• Better Themes - when it comes to the city, the wild west, and summer, RCT3 barely beats RCT2. But when it comes to anything else, RCT2 has better. They have better scary themes, better sci-fi themes, better pirate theme, better castle themes, and better jungle theme. In addition, RCT2 has themes based on other continents and timelines in the expansion packs.
• Full Wall Height - this might sound petty, but I preferred that full walls are 4x the low walls, not 3x the low walls.
• Plants - even if RCT3 (at least RCT3: Soaked) has better flowers, RCT2 has better trees and bushes. Even the palm trees are better in RCT2 than RCT3.
• Fences - as much as I liked RCT3's sci-fi fences, RCT2 has better fences. RCT3 doesn't have cast-iron fences, brick fences, or even plant-like fences.
• Walls next to paths - another serious flaw with RCT3 (along with the framerate issues) is that you cannot put a wall or fence item on the same spot you place a path. You can do that in RCT2, as long as you don't put the wall on the path. But in RCT3, you can't even put them along paths in the same space. They have to be placed in another space. I'm not sure if this was intended or a glitch, but it's bad either way. You can put walls along tracks on the same space, but due to graphical overlapping, it looks stupid if you do it with wooden rides.
• Signs - the last difference that proves that RCT2 is better is the sign scenery. You can place signs along rides and buildings to show their names, but in RCT3, they don't have that (but they have billboards, which you can upload images). A bonus fact is that you can choose the color of a banner's text in RCT2, and a "No Entry" text is always in red.

How I would do it:

First of all, RCT3's theme organization is a good idea. So I would use that. But if I were to use it, I would put in the following themes:
- Generic/Urban
- Seasonal (such as horror, Christmas, and beach themes)
- Sci-fi
- Historical (such as ancient, pirates, and wild west themes)
- World Tour (such as Mexican, Italian, and Chinese themes)

I would also incorporate RCT2's carpet terrain textures and RCT3's terrain features and textures. Oh, and make all walls and fences be able to touch paths, remove theme organization in plants, and make it possible to save buildings.