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Bright Angel Canyon Parkway - Ver 1 (WiP)

(Ver 1.1 with park in-progress and steam-train transportation laid out can be found here.)

Based loosely on the visual layout of Bright Angel Gorge in the centre of Grand Canyon National Park, this is an ambitious and challenging setting in which to build your dream park. For the layout I used the current maximum vertical space allowed by the game engine for terrain (about 300m, top to bottom): this meant lifting the entire controllable park landmass to maximum height (aka 'giant cube land') and then 'digging down' into this cube to create these vast mountains, canyons, and river-channels. (NB: This leaves some unfortunate-looking 'flat mountainsides' along the outside edges of the park, so some imagination is required to extrapolate what happens beyond your boundaries. But the focus is on what you build *inside* them, am I right?)

This is very much a work-in-progress, and I’ll upload new versions as I work. I’m uploading this version now because it is a fairly blank canvas onto which others might want to project their own visions for a Grand Canyon theme park. All that is included is the canyon setting itself, several rivers and streams with a few beautiful waterfalls (such a pain to build these in this game...), a lovely section of dam in one canyon (compliments of the good work of Palaber1984), and a vague suggestion of the direction in which to start off your park-building.

One thing to note is that this setting *demands* a well-thought-through park transportation-ride system to get your guests to and between all its inaccessible nooks, crannies, and corners. (My next version, now uploaded as Ver 1.1 here, has a full Steam-Train Ride that accesses the entire park, both horizontally and vertically.) It will also demand a great deal of terrain shaping, sculpting, and especially flattening for pathways where you want to build – just as if you were building in a real-life mountainous setting.

Elements I’m not yet entirely thrilled with, and on which I’d appreciate advice or feedback, include:

*** the actual construction of my mountain landmasses (recreating the very special look of Grand Canyon mesa-topped bluffs is surprisingly difficult using the game’s sculpting tools); and

***the manner in which I’ve painted the terrain (again, the GC is renowned for its ‘painted’ or ‘striped’ character, and I’d like to capture that as far as I can).


I hope you enjoy this setting, and I’ll appreciate your feedback in comments as I work up my own version of Bright Angel Canyon Parkway!