Interestingly the description of The Welcoming on the Resort's website has now been slightly changed, now making reference to 'technology' and suggesting slightly different circumstances for how this mysterious group has come to find themselves at the Resort...

The woods surrounding the village of Alton harbor a mysterious group, which until recent sightings were unseen by the modern world. Whispers around the village say that the group are angered by people abusing the world’s natural resources and the rapid advance of technology. Every year the secluded group host a festival to celebrate their own interpretation of Halloween – paying homage to the earth and celebrating the crossover between the living world and the dead. The group have recently infiltrated the Alton Towers Resort and for the first time are allowing outsiders to celebrate with them. But what part will you (‘the outsiders’) play in this ritual? Is this really an initiation?

Teammaddiz wrote:

Used audacity to view the white noise at the end of the video as a Spectrogram and just as I expected there is something hidden within it. Looks like "Be Chosen"?



http://imgur.com/a/h9dVL

That is amazing, nice find.

I'm really starting to believe that SW8 is doing to be themed to being stuck in a different time, "the group" has somehow made its way into ATR from the past, so I'm wondering if we could go back to their's in the same way. It's certainly a possibility.

The group is angered by the "rapid advance of technology". Digital clock changes to old one, modern alphabet changes to runes... you may well be right...

So 'abusing natural resources' does this mean we will see some sort of message implimented into the ride much like fracking and DBGT. 

I mean SW8's backstory could be how Towers was going to build another 'World's First' with modern technology and then the land somehow travelled back in time and the worshipping of Gods and the Earth, and the mysterious group are unhappy with the people with this new technology(Us being obsessed phones etc, linked to how we have took a load of photos through the viewing windows or somethng) and as a result of us being obessed with new technology we get sacrificed(Remember how the GP think 'Wood Coasters are unsafe').  Just a thought though, could be wrong though.

Maybe the theming element is an action against us 'abusing natural resources'. It seems like a wacky enough theme for it to be something Merlin would use!

Maybe it is a slight dig at the locals.

Maybe the storyline could be of a mine being affected by some sort of curse? It fits with the Welcoming story. You could be getting ready to go on a mining tour but the curse arrives in the preshow and your mine cart (the rollercoaster) goes on a cursed ride?

OhShambhala wrote:

Maybe the storyline could be of a mine being affected by some sort of curse? It fits with the Welcoming story. You could be getting ready to go on a mining tour but the curse arrives in the preshow and your mine cart (the rollercoaster) goes on a cursed ride?

I don't understand? Are you getting this from the altonville mine tours?

Jcoaster wrote:

OhShambhala wrote:

Maybe the storyline could be of a mine being affected by some sort of curse? It fits with the Welcoming story. You could be getting ready to go on a mining tour but the curse arrives in the preshow and your mine cart (the rollercoaster) goes on a cursed ride?

I don't understand? Are you getting this from the altonville mine tours?

Sorry I worded that last reply wrong. Maybe not specifically a mine but something to do with technology or modern life as such? The Welcoming talks about the group hating mordern influences so maybe their curses are towards something like that? Just speculation of course...

oh right ok  

Short and to.the point. Has anybody considered the possibility there is a clue near the Galactica entrance?

There could well be clues around each of the SW coasters, since they like talking about the coasters so much in the marketing of SW8.. if there are clues, we've first got to understand what we would need to look out for.. more runes? (Doubtful since we have nearly all of them now) objects? Signage? All depends what happens in episode 2

I'm not sure that it could be done physically but here's an obscure speculation

Could AT do a Steel/Woodie hybrid coaster... I'm sure only the first half of the track has been completed so far. So the second half could be a traditional Steel coaster

Would go nicely with the 'conversion' theory if it was mid conversion

moog666 wrote:

Short and to.the point. Has anybody considered the possibility there is a clue near the Galactica entrance?

I'm guessing you've found one?

A seemingly pointless 'BeChosen' page has been added to the Resort's website, although I guess it confirms that it is indeed what the runes mean...

www.altontowers.com/chosen also points to that page.

Late to the party here but seems to me we have a clear theme and story kinda with technology and the enviroment. I do the sacrifce of sorts will be another theme personally. As for videos they're making I appreciate them and they're great marketing but I can't stand it but hey not aimed at me and its a good idea to inform the SW name to a wider audience.

It's not speculation but at the same time it definitely doesn't belong in the construction discussion, but I spliced a few plans together last night with the Virtual Towers Katanga Canyon/Mutiny Bay landscape asset, and since then I've managed to work up this 3D model of the ride's foundations, since it turns out that drainage plan indicated the foundations, and every single one of those elevation changes to realistic detail. I'm continuing to work up the landscape around it but it feels scarily realistic when it's plugged into NL2 and able to walk around!

P.S. Also featured my own mock up of the layout based on the bents that have been put up so far, my predictions for the first drop are making it look pretty awesome!

I can't see it being a straight after the first drop, more like an airtime hill if anything, but so far that looks really good! You best be making a video for that

It's a shame we don't know the clearance of the theming element, but then again, it doesn't look like there's much