What you just described is another reason the game should never have been released in the state it did. Paths would (should) be one of the first things they got to work right in the development as everything is based of paths.
Yes, it is a different pathing system in PC1 and PZ, but that is function, not visual. Kerbs does not affect anything but the looks. Since most players are playing in sandbox mode and is trying to make a good looking park, it does affect a large part of the player base.
You are correct that the parts works differently in PC1 and PZ. IOn those games they actually work.
I very much prefer those paths and functionality over what we, still, have on PC2. There is potential in PC2, but so far, 6 months after release, it is a huge downgrade.
I wouldnt go straight for downgrade as it is mixed, there are a lot things PC2 does better, maybe even with update 4 management (we need more long term results, but the first looks are promising as shops now have expenses and not anymore straight income = profit like it was before.
Just the example: i brought PZ recently in sale and i personally am underwhelmed. There were a million things that put me off, maybe because i wasn't use to, but i didnt had the motivation to engage with it. Of course people who play this game for 6 years know those nooks and crannies, can work around it, but the new player experience is not what many people think it is in 2025.
PC1 and PZ (and i am pretty sure, that pz uses a modified cobra 1 engine) were great this is full exploited and greatly tweaked engine with PZ, but also an engine where the foundation is from the mid of the 2010s and is probably outdated.
At sometime you need to do the cut and develop a new one as technology moves on, but we need to understand that this is cobra 2.0 and of course it has growing pains, which go away over time as the developer gets more acustomed and proficient with the handling of the engine.
It is the with Unreal 4 vs. Unreal 5, i think everyone knows 5 is the better looking engine, but many games still use 4 simply, because it is better supported still. In 1 or 2 years things will be diffrent.
We are still in this weird transition period, where the old version still may be better but in time it will turn around, this not even a Frontier exclusive issues: Civ 4 was better than the fresh release civ 5, civ 5 was better in its final state than the freshly released 6, and if you follow the news you probably know how the freshly released 7 is doing.
Crusader Kings 3 still doesnt have the complete functionality a fully DLC'ed CK2 has, but it is now slowly becoming the better game.
