How is the queue scene rating calculated?

Question

I noticed that all rides have a "Queue scene rating" on their Overview tab. I also noticed that guests will pay about 50% more for rides with a good queue scene rating. How exactly is this rating calculated?

Answer 1

After lots of experimentation in sandbox mode I think that I can say this:

• Every building part and scenery object has a scene value and an effect radius. These values can be vastly different, but do not necessarily correlate with price or size.
• Each of these objects affects all queue tiles within its radius. The total scenery value of each queue tile is the sum of the objects which affect it.
• Effect radius is limited horizontally but not vertically. That means scenery can be placed far above or below the queue and still affect it fully.
• The scene rating of a ride is the average of all tiles of its queue.

That means in effect:

• Rides with short queues are easier to style than rides with long queues
• Compact and winding queues gain more score from each tile than long, stretched ones.
• Placing scenery very close to the queue is good for two reasons. First, more scenery objects can affect the queue and second, each object will affect more queue tiles.
• When you don't care at all about aesthetics or realism, you can move all the scenery exactly below the queues and a hundred meter below ground.

Update Version 1.1.3: While the patchlog says that "Various improvements have been made to how guests assess ride queues", none of these seem to have invalidated any of the above points.