Five Hours of Power IX Winner: Fire Bird Jackson G!

It's that time for our annual stress out known as Five Hours of Power! Let's get prepared, shall we?

What is Five Hours of Power?

The contest is simple: Competitors will have just 5 hours to create a coaster from scratch, support it, test it, and upload it for judging. The competition runs at the same time for everyone around the world: Saturday, May 20, 11 am - 4 pm Eastern Time (17:00-22:00 Central European Time). As if that wasn't hard enough, each year has featured a unique challenge like building within a restricted area, meeting capacity requirements, building off the side of an existing structure, building around existing rides, and more. To keep the playing field level, the challenge is revealed just 30 minutes ahead of the contest start, ensuring no one can plan ahead.

Sounds fun/torturous! How do I sign up?

All you need is a copy of NoLimits 2, a few energy bars/energy drinks, and the focus to power through and complete your ride in a limited time. No sign ups needed in advance. We will share out the live stream YouTube link that will reveal the rules soon. The contest template will be provided for download at the start of the competition, and included in the template's description is a link to the upload form. The coaster must be submitted prior to the end of the contest to count.

What is the special challenge this year?

This year's challenge will be revealed on the morning of May 20th. In general the rules have stated that you can't touch water, can't touch scenery, can't go underground, and can't hit anything (scenery, supports, track, other trains, ground, etc). Wooden and shuttle coasters were usually not allowed as they would be much easier to build/support, and the coaster had to function properly to get scored. Previous unique challenges:

Build in a narrow area along a cliff, avoid water.
Build around existing rides and midways, crossing a river twice. One tunnel allowed.
Build both a wooden coaster and a shuttle coaster, pass both through a narrow canyon.
Build a coaster with minimum capacity of 1800 riders per hour.
Build a coaster with at least one mile of track located above a lake.
Build a Polercoaster style ride off an existing 300 foot tower.
Build a plausibly transportable coaster with a base frame.
"RMC" the Son of Beast
???

I have more questions...

Post them below or email us at nolimitscontest@gmail.com and I'll get back to you.

Stay tuned for updates on this fun competition!

-Ride_Op

Ride_Op

NoLimits Team

Posted May 10, 2023

Full rules:

Finished submissions must be uploaded to a file exchange site of your choice, then you must fill out this form with the required information.

PLEASE RENAME THE CONTEST FILE WITH YOUR COASTER'S NAME AND YOUR NAME!!!

PLEASE DO NOT PACKAGE YOUR COASTER. All we need is the NL2PARK file - we have everything else already. This saves us time. Thanks!

Late submissions will be disqualified.

The Challenge: Build a coaster that remains hidden below the tree line in a canyon

Local residents around the park have been upset at so many massive rides being built the last few years. They're tired of it and petitioned the city council to impose a "tree line" ordinance similar to Alton Towers. Park owners still want to build a big ride this year. Canyons have been dug down to the water line and extra trees have been planted to block views of the coaster.

**Primary rules: **

Build one full circuit (non-shuttle and non-spike) coaster of any style.
The coaster (when frozen) must be fully contained within the red boundary area.
The coaster(when frozen) must not go above the yellow boundary line when viewed from LEFT view in the editor.
The coaster may not go below water level.
No part of the coaster, track, footers, supports, train, or station may touch the water.
No restrictions on lifts, launches, or inversions.
Adequate storage for all trains is required.
Adequate clearance must be maintained at all times.
Coaster must run minimum 3 trains.
One below ground tunnel is allowed. Tunnel may not go below water line.

Boundary rules:

Coaster track, trains, supports, footers, and station must be fully within the RED boundary. This will be judged in the editor with the track in a frozen state and viewed from the TOP view. If any part of your coaster overlaps the red boundaries this rule will have been violated.
Coaster track, trains, supports, footers, and station must remain BELOW the YELLOW boundary. This will be judged in the editor with the track in a frozen state and viewed from the LEFT view with all scenery hidden. If any part of your coaster extends above the yellow boundary this rule will have been violated.

Support Structure Rules:

Support structure must look sufficient to handle the speed and direction of the forces throughout the ride.
Supports and footers must not touch the water.
Auto supports are allowed, with the stipulation that none of the supports or footers touch water.
Adequate clearance must be maintained throughout the entire ride.
Footers should look secured into the ground where they are placed. Use caution when building supports on steep slopes as the footers may not fully submerge into the ground. Judges will look for this detail.

Time Rules:

The 5 hour build period begins on May 20, 2022 at 4:00 PM GMT when the contest park is available for download.
You must build one coaster in the provided contest map.
You will have until 9:00 PM GMT (5 hours total) to upload your finished park to a file exchange/download/FTP site and fill out the official entry form with the download information, coaster names, your name, and your email address. Allow yourself spare time to upload your coaster and fill out this form.

Other Rules:

NO custom or pre-packaged scripts can be used on your coaster. Just keep it simple.
Any submission not using the template and/or submissions built prior to the contest will be disqualified.
You can only use NoLimits 2 and entities packaged with it - no custom 3D scenery, environments, or car textures.
You may use FVD++.
You may add scenery, however all scenery will be hidden and will not be judged as part of your coaster experience.
One entry per person. If you upload more than one entry, we will only consider the last one entered.
Please include your name and coaster name in the file name submission.

Judging criteria:
Judges will rate all successful entries in the following four categories, each on a 0 to 10 scale.
Realism - Forces, track shaping, coaster operations.
Supports - Support adequacy, clearance, design, density.
Creativity - Usage of the terrain features, originality of design, uniqueness of coaster style.
Fun - Pacing, creativity, variety, flow.

Disqualified coasters will not receive a full score. All coasters will receive written feedback.
Judge scores in each category will be added together and averaged. All averages will be added together to determine final score.

Disqualification criteria:

Any part of track, trains, or structure (in Frozen state) go beyond the red boundary or above the yellow boundary.
Track or any part of the coaster collides with the ground or water.
Collision with any part of the coaster: supports, track, trains, footers, station building/stairs, transfer track frame.
Train twists or collapses into itself or touches the track during too tight of a twist.
Any part of the coaster touches water.
Coaster trains are not able to return fully to the station.
Unable to download or open your submitted file.

Questions? Email nolimitscontest@gmail.com