Opening and closing a ride

Every ride is either open or closed. A closed ride takes no guests: they can't board, no countdown starts, and its operator panel is out of service until it opens again.

A ride can be closed for three reasons. They all close it to guests the same way, and change what guests, your holograms and your Discord are told. Maintenance adds one thing: your staff can still ride it and run it, to test it.

The message shows on the guest's action bar, in their own language.

What closing does#

The moment a ride closes:

1. An operator holding the post is relieved. The ride puts itself back in order, as it does whenever an operator leaves.
2. Guests already seated in the station are let off. The countdown stops, the safety lock goes back if it was engaged, the restraints open and the guests are put out a few seconds later, told why.
3. The station's gates close, and stay closed.
4. Trains out on their lap finish it. The lap counts for the leaderboards, and the riders get off in the station — or at the unload platform — as usual.
5. The ride's closing commands run, to close its queue for example: see Close the queue with the ride.

While it is closed, no guest can sit in the train in the station, and nobody can take the operator post — except your staff testing a ride under maintenance. If guests are left stuck out on the track, the ride still sends an empty train round to bring them back, as it always does. /utp ride reset frees the ride as usual, but leaves its station closed.

When it opens again, its opening commands run and the station opens for the next guests as soon as a train stands in it.

Open or close a ride#

There are three ways, and they do exactly the same thing.

In the administration#

1. Open Rides.
2. Next to the ride, pick Open, Closed, Maintenance or Out of order in the list.

It is saved at once: there is no Save button for this. A closed ride shows its state next to its name.

In the game#

Type the ride's number (/utp ride list shows them), then open, closed, maintenance or broken:

/utp ride availability 7 maintenance

The chat answers "The Plunge is now closed for maintenance." To open it again:

/utp ride availability 7 open

It works from the console too, without the slash: from a button in a menu plugin, from a show, or from any plugin that runs commands. From the console, nothing answers in chat: the log shows [ride] availability changed (ride=The Plunge, from=open, to=maintenance).

If the chat answers "UTP Connect is not connected, and it is where a ride's availability is kept", your server isn't linked to UTP Connect right now: check /utp status, then try again.

From your own tools#

A program with a Read and write key can open and close a ride through your park's API: a button on your staff website, a command in your Discord bot. The request is in the API reference.

Test a ride under maintenance#

You've rebuilt a section of track and want to try it before the guests do. Under Maintenance, staff with the utp.operator.maintenance permission can still sit in the train and take the operator post. Guests are still kept out.

1. Close the ride for maintenance: /utp ride availability 7 maintenance.
2. Walk into the station and open your page (/connect). The display says Closed for maintenance, and offers you the post.
3. Turn the Operator key. The panel works as on any day: gates, restraints, safety lock, dispatch. Send the train round empty, or sit in it and have a colleague dispatch you.
4. When you're done, open the ride: /utp ride availability 7 open. Whoever is testing it is relieved, and the ride takes guests again.

While you test:

• The laps don't count. A train sent round under maintenance adds nothing to the leaderboards, the ride's figures or your API. Guests who were already out on the track when you closed the ride keep their lap.
• Nothing runs by itself. Sitting in the train starts no countdown: the train only leaves when someone at the post dispatches it.
• The gates are yours. You can open and close them from the panel to test them. Guests can walk onto the platform while they're open, but they still can't board.

Server operators have the permission by default. To give it to your technicians, with LuckPerms:

/lp group technician permission set utp.operator.maintenance true

Close the queue with the ride#

A ride can do something in your world as it opens and closes: open the queue's entrance, light a sign, close a fence. In the administration, Rides → Edit on your ride → Machinery tab, under Opening and closing:

• Opening the ride runs once, as the ride opens.
• Closing the ride runs as it closes, and again when the reason changes — from maintenance to out of order, say. In these commands, {availability} is replaced by closed, maintenance or broken.

Write one command per line, like the gates' commands. {ride} and {rideId} work here too.

For ride 7, The Plunge, whose queue starts with a gap at 120 64 -35:

Opening the ride

setblock 120 64 -35 air

Closing the ride

setblock 120 64 -35 oak_fence
say {ride} is closed: {availability}

The commands run when the ride changes, not each time your server restarts: your world keeps the fence as it was. If you open or close a ride while your server is off, its commands run as soon as the server connects.

On the operator panel#

The panel's display says Ride closed, Closed for maintenance or Out of order, and the Operator key is locked. Someone who tries to take the post anyway is told "The Plunge is closed: its panel is out of service until it opens again."

Under maintenance, the key stays free for staff with utp.operator.maintenance, and the display says who is testing the ride. Anyone else who tries is told "The Plunge is under maintenance: you do not have permission to test it."

Show it everywhere else#

• On a hologram or in a menu: with PlaceholderAPI, %utp_ride_7_availability_label% shows Under maintenance in the language of the player reading it. See Placeholders.
• On your website: each ride in your park's API has an availability, known even while your Minecraft server is offline.
• In a Discord channel: a webhook on A ride opens or closes posts Now open, Closed, Closed for maintenance or Out of order the moment it happens.