Challange Mode: Where is the challange? Stupid Marketing

kweb · Dec 5, 2016

Hi there,
first of all: I like this game. I like it so much that I am playing every free minute in the evening. I have spent now about 140 hours in my challange park and I getting really bored now because of the stupid Challange and Marketing system. So what am I talking about?

First of all: I get 1000 bucks to be successful in a challange. So how much is 1000 in this game? You can build 2 inversions for it. Thats all. So the challanges are no challanges where I am going for because I have a much more simple trick to get much more money.

With the time my park has reached a certain size. I have built up about 70% of the area you can build up. So I found out that with a certain park size, only a certain range of visitors can enter your park. When I do NO marketing campains, the amount of visitors is about to be between 4000 and 4300 people. When my big rides are not broken down I make a park-management PLUS of about 6000 - 13000 bucks. When some rides break down or I open shops that are not well visited I am falling down to minus but not much more than -3000.

So what I am doing now? I get a credit so that I can start the 2 biggest marketing campains. I set up my park entry to about 40 bucks and fast forward the simulation. The park entry is getting overcrowded and in 3 Minutes i have 35000 bucks on my side. The park is filling up with visitors of about 5300 people. After that nearly NO visitor is coming - doesent matter if the marketing campain is running or not. Where is the logic? So when I stop the marketing the visitore decrease without anybody is coming to my park. Lets say I have about 4900 visitors in my park and start the marketing campain again NOONE is coming. When Im falling under 4800 and start the marketing 100 people are coming, after that nothing.

Sorry that system is so stupid and unrealistic so that it has to be much improved. Its simply too simple. No incentive to do the challanges, and a stupid marketing system....

I think Im not writing anything new but I would have been better releasing this game 2-3 months later an INCREASING the management...

I think my next game will be a sandbox game. Money is completly waste in that game...

breezerHOG1 · Dec 5, 2016

The more expensive $5000 marketing ads will put you in the negative. I recommend having only 1 or 2 cheaper $1000 ads going. You should have at least one ad at all times. It will only gain you an extra 100 guests. Also the "pay for entrance" is broken and you just have to charge per ride if you want to profit. Also ATMs are rarely used and guests will stick around without spending money

Replica · Dec 5, 2016

Don't do park entry fees, it's untested and broken, and the game wasn't designed to accommodate it in the first place.

Frontier added it to quell all the people requesting it during Alpha 3 > Beta.

breezerHOG1 · Dec 5, 2016

Im going to add this to my management wishlist [wink] check link here https://forums.planetcoaster.com/sh...e-Career-and-Staff-Management-with-Facilities

SilverArrow · Dec 5, 2016

Replica said:
Don't do park entry fees, it's untested and broken, and the game wasn't designed to accommodate it in the first place.

Frontier added it to quell all the people requesting it during Alpha 3 > Beta.

Oddly enough it works well on my end. I manage to have nice profits without charging a dime for rides, only park entrance and shops (trendy shops, I have to avoid balloons, hats, mementos, chicken and such).

kweb · Dec 6, 2016

So this is the solution for a theme park manager? In Germany EVERY theme park is working with an entry fee and no charge for the rides. So this should be an element in every theme park game. What I am complaining for is that you can run my explained system every time, every time and every time to get quick money. Its simply not exigent. The solution is to fast forward a simulation and watch things going on. I would have suspected a bit more...

breezerHOG1 · Dec 6, 2016

kweb said:
The solution is to fast forward a simulation and watch things going on. I would have suspected a bit more...

I agree, I do this to. Paused while building and FF to make money

Replica · Dec 6, 2016

kweb said:
So this is the solution for a theme park manager? In Germany EVERY theme park is working with an entry fee and no charge for the rides. So this should be an element in every theme park game. What I am complaining for is that you can run my explained system every time, every time and every time to get quick money. Its simply not exigent. The solution is to fast forward a simulation and watch things going on. I would have suspected a bit more...

The reality of what Planet Coaster is hurts doesn't it

Wablamo0821 · Dec 6, 2016

Replica said:
The reality of what Planet Coaster is hurts doesn't it

It's like the five stages of grief. It looks like kweb is onto the anger stage (stage 2). Or.... maybe bargaining (stage 3).

Indomitus1973 · Dec 6, 2016

creaper said:
The more expensive $5000 marketing ads will put you in the negative. I recommend having only 1 or 2 cheaper $1000 ads going. You should have at least one ad at all times. It will only gain you an extra 100 guests. Also the "pay for entrance" is broken and you just have to charge per ride if you want to profit. Also ATMs are rarely used and guests will stick around without spending money

I disagree about the ATMs. It's all about the location. I started the Good Gully Miss Molly in career mode, and put one near the entrance right next to an info booth (custom building). Both were WAY in the red, not just a little negative. Then after I opened the first coaster all the way down on the lower level, I moved them both. I put them down near the coaster's entrance because I saw so many guests turning away because they were out of money. Now the ATM is making a HUGE profit at only $1 per transaction (imagine if I increased it) and the info booth is almost breaking even.
I think the AI works like this:
- Go to ride. (Ignore how much money the guest/group has.)
- Check money. Not enough money for ride.
- Decide to leave.
- Head toward exit, but look for way to get more money on the way.
- If the ATM is near the exit, they'll just leave. Or they'll use the ATM *then* leave with the money.
- If the ATM is far from the exit, they'll get money and then they will change their mind on leaving long before they reach the exit. They might not spend it on that original ride, but they'll spend it, and that's really all what we want.

Also, I've not had an issue with park entry fees. I keep them low, though. Not a big money-maker, just a little to take the edge off anything else that might not do well.