Sorry for the boring title, but I wanted to capture the essence of an experiment I ran today. I've spent quite a bit of time playing Parkitect now, and for the past two weeks or so I made a conscious effort to try and identify 1) how different is the game from the all-time classic Rollercoaster Tycoon, and 2) for all the emphasis on decorations, how much does your decoration rating really matter?

TL:DR Answer to #1: ultimately this is subjective, but I find that embracing decorations, theming, and staff management give a game that's fundamentally different from RCT. Answer to #2: A lot.

I decided to run an an experiment on Maple Meadows to test out the effect of a decoration rating on profitability. There would be two save files, each with the exact same layout, rides, and pricing. My staff consisted of two haulers, two handymen, two engineers, and one security guard. There's a 3-tile high wall blocking the receiving dock from view, so any elements affecting decoration rating are rides or stalls. The base layout is shown below. Included is a junior coaster, three thrill rides, a burger and drink stall, and restrooms.


Here's a view of the scenery impact. With the exception of a tile or two on the left, the only negative rating is coming from the bathroom. There's nothing contributing significantly to a good rating.


Here are the financials after six months of operation. Omitting January, my park lost $1,501 from February to the end of June.

Here's the layout for the same park with a moderate amount of decoration. I'm not skilled at this aspect of the game yet, but I think it looks fairly decent and keeps with the scenario theme. This much scenery cost me about $2,700 or so.


The decoration overview confirms that there are some tiles with a 'good' rating. Note that enclosing the bathroom has completely eliminated the negative rating from it. Hmm...


Here are the financials after six months of operation. Omitting January, my park lost $879 from February to the end of June. Hmm. That's almost half of my first test with zero decorations. There might be something to this...

Of course, a one to one test doesn't prove anything for certain so I decided to run this test three times on each map. Once the construction costs are omitted, it's pretty clear that a higher decoration rating has a significant impact on your park's profitability. The numbers don't lie. Here's the sum balance for each category for February through June:


A few key takeaways here:

• More people come to parks with a higher decoration rating. From this test, it looks like you get at least a 30% boost.
  
• Ride income was almost double in parks with good decoration. I'll have to pay attention to this, but I think it's that decoration contributes to immersion and happiness, and happy guests ride more frequently.
  
• These numbers don't seem huge, but they add up immensely over the life of your park. The additional $400 from your extra guests can make or break your park in year two when you're trying to add an expensive new steel roller coaster.

One thing I noticed when doing this test is how frequently I'd see notifications about tired guests. Even at the fastest speed, I was surprised at how many of them shuffled slowly along paths and out the gate on their way home. So as a test variant, I decided to add a total of ten benches to each scenario and see what changed.


Hmm, that's interesting! What do the numbers say?

• Ride income in the "no deco" scenario almost doubled.
  
• Ride income went up by 11% in the "deco" scenario.
  
• Shop income increased by almost 35% in both scenarios.

Benches have a huge impact on guest energy levels, and their energy is a key factor in how much time they spend in your park. The longer you can keep guests in your park, the less pressure you're under to constantly attract a stream of new guests.

Doing this exercise have given me a new appreciation for Parkitect. The decoration system and employee / shop management really does create a game that feels and plays different from Roller Coaster Tycoon. If you neglect scenery, you'll have a difficult time creating a profitable park. There's definitely a balance between adding rides and theming them well, and I'm still learning that. It seems like money spent on scenery is an investment with no recurring expenses but significant long-term payoff.

I hope this experiment proves helpful to someone!