I'm not sure how to best describe this concept, but a lot of games I've seen in the park builder genre usually don't really think that hard about how people move through the park. In most of the videos I watch of people playing said games, however, you can see that it's something players usually take into consideration when building their parks. I recall seeing a parkitect video once where they show off the feature where you can track where a guest has gone in your park, and it's this strange sadistic pattern of running back and forth across the park to hit up two or three rides, which generally isn't how people go about enjoying theme parks in real life. It would be nice to see some consideration given to how people plan out their trips and their day. This would make park layout a bigger concern in the game, where you want to encourage people to move through in a natural way to get the maximum coverage for your rides, shops and attractions.
I think this could be accomplished in a number of ways. You could have groups and families have a present path that they come in expecting to follow. They may deviate if something they want is close by (like if they're hungry or need to use the bathroom), but otherwise will stick to that path during the day until they run out of money. Other possibilities are a bit more complex. People have mentioned implementing things like fast passes, which would direct guests back to an attraction at certain times. Other possibilities might include time tracking in the game and having certain rides, stalls, and attractions have peak times. People would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner around certain peak times, which could be accomplished by modifying the hunger rates of guests when they enter the park so that people are getting hungry in certain ranges. Water rides like Log Flumes could be more popular during midday and afternoon hours. If you have shows or parades, people may flock to those at specific times (I know Disney uses the parades and fireworks to get everybody onto main street and headed towards the exit at the end of the day). And all of this could have an impact on park performance. A poorly planned out park might get congestion on the paths, slowing down guests and reducing the number of rides they can get to in a day. It could cause massive lines for certain rides and events, causing guests to simply not bother with that ride because of its popularity. Or forcing people to move across the park for certain needs may just waste time.
But all of this would contribute to players putting together a design that gets guests to move through the park smoothly. You could even implement a "standing" stat that determines how much time a guests spends on their feet vs at attractions. It may be harder to please a guest if they spend a lot of time walking between attractions rather than one rides.
I think this could be accomplished in a number of ways. You could have groups and families have a present path that they come in expecting to follow. They may deviate if something they want is close by (like if they're hungry or need to use the bathroom), but otherwise will stick to that path during the day until they run out of money. Other possibilities are a bit more complex. People have mentioned implementing things like fast passes, which would direct guests back to an attraction at certain times. Other possibilities might include time tracking in the game and having certain rides, stalls, and attractions have peak times. People would eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner around certain peak times, which could be accomplished by modifying the hunger rates of guests when they enter the park so that people are getting hungry in certain ranges. Water rides like Log Flumes could be more popular during midday and afternoon hours. If you have shows or parades, people may flock to those at specific times (I know Disney uses the parades and fireworks to get everybody onto main street and headed towards the exit at the end of the day). And all of this could have an impact on park performance. A poorly planned out park might get congestion on the paths, slowing down guests and reducing the number of rides they can get to in a day. It could cause massive lines for certain rides and events, causing guests to simply not bother with that ride because of its popularity. Or forcing people to move across the park for certain needs may just waste time.
But all of this would contribute to players putting together a design that gets guests to move through the park smoothly. You could even implement a "standing" stat that determines how much time a guests spends on their feet vs at attractions. It may be harder to please a guest if they spend a lot of time walking between attractions rather than one rides.