17 May, 12
Get Involved Coaster Games RCT 2 Guide 3 - Track Merge
 RCT 2 Guide 3 - Track Merge
Covered here in guides, written by Brian Andrelczyk (Cedarpoint6), we take you through the basics of improving Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 through Trainers/Hacking.

It is important that you read the "8 Cars" guide before you continue, as it lays the foundation for using the Trainer.
So you’re recreating Six Flags over Georgia. You begin on Mindbender, but a problem arises, what track do use. You want realism, so the Intamin box section would be the perfect choice. But you can’t do loops… The tradition Schwarzkopf looper has those, but the track isn’t the same. So what to do? You don’t have to settle for a less then perfect ride. Track merging can help you achieve what you want. Track merging takes two (or more) tracked rides (coasters, water, cars, etc.) and puts them together as one so a train will run smoothly over them.

For this example, I will be merging a giga coaster on to a Schwarzkopf.

Start out by building your original coaster (the Schwarzkopf in our example) to the location where you want the merge to occur. Stop 1 space before the merge point.

Now build the new coaster in front of the original, leaving a 1 square gap.

Then take the original coaster and build a separate section above your two coasters. It should be 3 sections long spanning the last section of the original coaster, the gap, and the new coaster.
Merge 1
Use the paint palette and paint the original coaster with Alternative Scheme 1.
Merge 2
Open up 8 cars per trainer. Find the new coaster (the giga in our example) in the menu on the top right. Change the operating mode to Boat Hire Mode (2) and change the launch speed to 5 (3). Click Apply, but do not exit the menu.
8 Cars 1
Now find the original coaster in the menu and find Alternative Scheme 1 in the colour scheme option box (2). Check the Raise/Lower box. (3) This will lower your section of track. Specify the amount you wish to raise or lower it in the offset box (4). -2 is the most common offset for flat track, and the one we used in this example. Click Apply (5) then cancel (6). Do not click ok. By clicking apply and ok, you initiate the hack twice, putting the track below where you want it.
8 cars 2
Go back to RCT. It should look like this:
Merge 3
Now, we reverse the above steps to merge the track back to the original ride. Instead of making it on a straight section, we’ll do it on a turn. It is essentially the same as the first time.

Leave one space (the turn between the first track and the second)

Create an overlap piece with the merge coaster (the giga) just like the first time. Be sure to copy the bottom track exactly.
Merge 4
Now go back to 8 cars once more.

Find the original coaster this time and follow the screenshot.
8 cars 3

Repeat with this screen after finding your new coasters (the giga):
8 cars 4
Go back into RCT.

If it’s done right, go ahead and test it and it should look like this:
Merge 5
Now you can paint the alternative schemes like the original and clean up the look of your ride.

You’ve successfully merged in RCT2.

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NOTE 1: The merges do not have to be done separately. Once you understand how this all works, it's often easy to just merge it all at once. Until you're comfortable with merging, don't do it.

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