How much would you pay for an EXPANSION?

[Serpentrax]

Two things that are known for certain: more work is being done for future mod support, and a Planet Safari is on the "next up" list

How is that certain? You said yourself that devs are prone to stating false things.

I dare to say that the game is currently in a pretty bad state and there is no indication that this will improve or expand on short notice. At least not until that dinosaur game is in the bargain bin. New features like the hotels feel tacked-on, half-arsed and unsatisfactory. Since the last mojor update, performance took a nosedive, and the increasing amount of white textures is not even really acknowledged, let alone addressed. The last patch only did some polishing in the DLC that was probably already on the backlog before the DLC was released.

I feel bad for saying this, but I have no trust that Frontier is currently dedicated enough or capable of creating a fully featured expansion, if the free feature updates are anything to go by. I certainly wouldn't have paid for the implementation of hotels, fireworks, shuttle rides and staff break rooms. Those are excellent features on paper and could easily get their own expansion each, but the way there are materialized are not exactly impressive. So to get back on topic, I wouldn't be willing to pay for a water expansion at all.

 

[dixinormous]

Does this hypothetical expansion alter the gameplay in anway?

I would be willing to pay top dollar for an expansion that made single park long-plays more fun (I'm looking at you challenge mode). By that I mean maintaining the challenge and immersion for longer, as opposed to adding specific rides + features.

Otherwise I probably wouldn't bother with it at all.

 

[inspectorgadget1]

How is that certain? You said yourself that devs are prone to stating false things.

Talking about 'stating false things' this is why I put breezer on ignore, constantly stating things as if they were fact when there's been no indication of such.

And comments like 'the game is currently in a pretty bad state' just re-affirms what I've previously stated about people exaggerating things for effect. I'm sure you'd like certain things improved (as we all would) but saying it's in a bad state is ridiculous. If that's your opinion fair enough but how many of the 1m+ owners of the game would describe the game's state in the same way as you?

 

[Zakman]

I'm of the opinion I'd rather see fixes before we even begin to discuss further DLC or possible expansions.

Putting a price on something I'd happily pay £20 for the crashes to be resolved.

 

[inspectorgadget1]

I'm of the opinion I'd rather see fixes before we even begin to discuss further DLC or possible expansions.

Putting a price on something I'd happily pay £20 for the crashes to be resolved.

Crash fixes should never and will never (fortunately) be charged for. Content updates and bug fixes aren't mutually exclusive, both will always be continued to work on simultaneously.

 

[Wagi]

I just think there is a ton of content and themes that could be added to flesh out what we already have before venturing into the unknown territory of a water park.

And I'm not sure if people really understand what adding water parks would entail. The current in-game water is just a texture on a plane, it's not dynamic, I'd expect that if they left the water as-is the complaints would roll in, so the water in game would have to be revamped. Guests would have to be able to change into bathing suits and tweaked to allow them to swim - and to avoid each other in the water like they somewhat do on paths, besides a whole set of specific behaviors needed for a water park. The needed changes to how water is rendered, a whole new set of guest behaviors and appearances, and the different needs of water based rides might mean a big hit to game performance, I don't know.

While I'd love to have a water park expansion as much as anyone, but I think I'm realistic as to what it would likely require tobe added/changed when it was said it was never planned for this game. I just think there's a ton of other things that could be added without the same possible problems myself. An expansion pack with 3-4 major themes fully filled out, some additions to previous themes to fill out what's missing, and then filling a large number of the missing flat rides and coasters I'd buy today even if the price was close to the original game price. Improvements to the management side and tweaks to improve how the game functions should continue to be free until the game is closer to a finished product as we were led to believe it would be.

 

[KickAir8p]

I'm of the opinion I'd rather see fixes before we even begin to discuss further DLC or possible expansions.

Putting a price on something I'd happily pay £20 for the crashes to be resolved.

Crash fixes should never and will never (fortunately) be charged for. Content updates and bug fixes aren't mutually exclusive, both will always be continued to work on simultaneously.

Bug fixes are for issues Frontier is willing to acknowledge as bugs -- when they can shrug off complaints with variations on “that's not really a problem, you just think it's a problem” and go back to working on JWE?

. . . I'm not sure if people really understand what adding water parks would entail. The current in-game water is just a texture on a plane, it's not dynamic, I'd expect that if they left the water as-is the complaints would roll in, so the water in game would have to be revamped. Guests would have to be able to change into bathing suits and tweaked to allow them to swim - and to avoid each other in the water like they somewhat do on paths, besides a whole set of specific behaviors needed for a water park. The needed changes to how water is rendered, a whole new set of guest behaviors and appearances, and the different needs of water based rides might mean a big hit to game performance, I don't know . . .

Ten years ago RCT3P had better water than PlanCo does currently, and was able to resolve all the issues you've brought up, on Frontier's in-house game engine which they have 100% control over. Variations on "but it's too hard, it's unreasonable to expect that!" are not persuasive given the history of the genre.

In a RCT3P park I was still fiddling with just before PlanCo came out I had an Atlantis area which could only be reached by underwater paths -- can't do that in PlanCo yet. The paths on the beach had water cannons -- can't do that in PlanCo yet. I'm not particularly interested in waterparks or putting pools in my parks (although they'd be nice beside the hotels), but I very much want what a water expansion should include. I'm willing to pay for it. Judging by the positive responses to the OP, I'm not the only one.

 

[Crowdpleaser]

Ten years ago RCT3P had better water than PlanCo does currently

Which was only introduced in the Soaked Add on...

 

[KickAir8p]

Ten years ago RCT3P had better water than PlanCo does currently

Which was only introduced in the Soaked Add on...

The "P" in "RCT3P" stands for "Platinum", RCT3's all-expansions release which included Soaked and Wild -- I didn't get into it until they had tunneling, and it was ten years ago, so I can't remember what happened when. If PlanCo needs a $$ expansion to get water and features on-par with what was doable ten years ago? Frustrating, but I'd rather pay the money than go without.

 

[Crowdpleaser]

The "P" in "RCT3P" stands for "Platinum", RCT3's all-expansions release which included Soaked and Wild -- I didn't get into it until they had tunneling, and it was ten years ago, so I can't remember what happened when. If PlanCo needs a $$ expansion to get water and features on-par with what was doable ten years ago? Frustrating, but I'd rather pay the money than go without.

I understand your frustration, and i know why. But here is a thing:

Frontier said from the beginning they won't do a Water Simulation. To me this includes Physics and Underwater shaders. Johnny Watts said it himself.

This doesn't mean they won't ever change their mind, but i wouldn't hold my breath. I have no clue what the next DLC would be. The Studios Pack caught me a bit off guard. This Theme was a bit unexpected to me. So i am very curious about the next one.

 

[KickAir8p]

. . . Frontier said from the beginning they won't do a Water Simulation . . . This doesn't mean they won't ever change their mind . . .

Aside from the now-standard "Frontier's said they wouldn't do things they then did" bit, this topic is not asking if Frontier will do a water expansion -- it's asking what we'd pay for a water expansion.

Yes, Frontier's original intent was paid-DLCs+included-updates instead of expansions -- with the benefit of nearly two years hindsight, does it still look like that was the right call? Is there money to be made with a solid water expansion for PlanCo, especially since several of the features are likely to be in JWE? That'll not only be a dandy test-bed for them, but will lead to inevitable frustration that JWE has features that PlanCo easily could but doesn't -- an expansion is a possible solution, to Frontier's benefit if we're willing to buy. Are we? Responses to this topic so far are trending "yes".

 

[Kucewiczr]

I would pay between $15-$20 for a good water park expansion. That all depends on what is included. They can add some flat rides that aren't in Planet Coaster with a Summer theme and a decent amount of water attractions like water slides, lazy river and a splash area for families and kids.

 

[breezerHOG1]

Talking about 'stating false things' this is why I put breezer on ignore, constantly stating things as if they were fact when there's been no indication of such.

lmao - I stated that Planet Safari is something that frontier has in their line-up and you call me a liar? I say that I believe frontier is still working on developing this game and you call me a liar? thats freakin hilarious... lmao

Its not as if I said "Planet Safari is due for release in March 2019" now that would be a blatant lie [wacky]

 

[Spanky]

I think meanwhile it's too late for a real Expansion Pack. That would have appear in the last November, one year after the public release.

And what would happened, if this expansion pack did not satisfy anyone? We had large discussion about one DLC with lot of Pro's and Contra's in the past for every single update or DLC. One person miss this, other complain about that. Anytime again. We discuss here again about something, which probably never will be released. Why?

In the beginning of PlanCo I had hopes for an expansion pack, but meanwhile I prefer single DLC, because at least I can decide, if the released theme interest me or not and if I buy it or not. If an Expansion Pack came out with, for example, five themes and I'm only interested into one, I must buy 4 other themes that I don't want or need.

In germany we have the saying: "Allen Leuten recht getan, ist eine Kunst, die niemand kann" which means "All people are done right, is an art that no one can". At the end, every discussion ends right here at this point.

 

[breezerHOG1]

I think meanwhile it's too late for a real Expansion Pack. That would have appear in the last November, one year after the public release.

I am starting to feel this way too, maybe a true sequel can occur in a couple years though.

And what would happened, if this expansion pack did not satisfy anyone? We had large discussion about one DLC with lot of Pro's and Contra's in the past for every single update or DLC. One person miss this, other complain about that. Anytime again. We discuss here again about something, which probably never will be released. Why?

I think its wrong to say something is not worth trying just because some people wont like it. And IMO it sure seems like the two most popular requests that I see are either carnivals or water parks (at least IMO) even if some people are against those ideas, I still think they would sell pretty good

In the beginning of PlanCo I had hopes for an expansion pack, but meanwhile I prefer single DLC, because at least I can decide, if the released theme interest me or not and if I buy it or not. If an Expansion Pack came out with, for example, five themes and I'm only interested into one, I must buy 4 other themes that I don't want or need.

Fair point and I get what your saying, but I don't know I just don't like seeing a dozen or more DLCs, I'd at least like to see the current DLCs bundled into one package because if I gifted this game to a friend they would be like "dubya tee eff" when they see how much DLC there is, the price, and how little it adds

In germany we have the saying: "Allen Leuten recht getan, ist eine Kunst, die niemand kann" which means "All people are done right, is an art that no one can". At the end, every discussion ends right here at this point.

Discussions should not end just on one point we can still discuss things

 

[Eabool]

nothing, its time for Planet Coaster 2. [tongue]

 

[Helena]

imho I prefer to see the main game expanded to be more.. complete game, before expansions. But I can see why they would want some money meanwhile. That's why we get scenery dlc's now after all. It is ok! The gameplay stuff are usually included in the free update part anyway!

 

[Wagi]

Ten years ago RCT3P had better water than PlanCo does currently, and was able to resolve all the issues you've brought up, on Frontier's in-house game engine which they have 100% control over. Variations on "but it's too hard, it's unreasonable to expect that!" are not persuasive given the history of the genre.

In a RCT3P park I was still fiddling with just before PlanCo came out I had an Atlantis area which could only be reached by underwater paths -- can't do that in PlanCo yet. The paths on the beach had water cannons -- can't do that in PlanCo yet. I'm not particularly interested in waterparks or putting pools in my parks (although they'd be nice beside the hotels), but I very much want what a water expansion should include. I'm willing to pay for it. Judging by the positive responses to the OP, I'm not the only one.

Oh, I don't disagree with you, RCT3 has MUCH better water and features connected with water. But PlanCo isn't RCT3. Even if they share a version of the same game engine, they aren't the same game, they aren't designed the same, they don't have the exact same coding, they don't have the same resource requirements.

My point is that we don't know why Frontier decided to go with this type of water for PlanCo, was it perhaps done to limit use of resources that they wanted to use elsewhere in the game? Would changing to RCT3 style water cause problems for PlanCo as it was built? Is it because changing to RCT3-style water isn't hard, but the work needed to tweak AI and everything else to use pools, etc. a problem? I certainly don't know, and I doubt anyone else here knows for sure either.

I just think that Frontier likely has reasons why behind these decisions, behind the reasons for this water design and behind the reasons why they don't plan to alter it. And they may well be very good reasons, we simply don't know. Stating that they were able to do it in a game ten years ago still doesn't address the very real possibility that there maybe are plausible reasons why they didn't do it now. And I think some people (not referring to you) perhaps don't take into consideration that there might very well be specific reasons why water parks won't, or can't, be added, no matter how much they would like them, and no matter how frustrated they may be that they don't get them.

Some other people have brought up hotels elsewhere, and how they did get them after being requested quite often, but they don't like how they work. Perhaps there's a very good reason why Frontier designed them that way. Perhaps it was just a small addition that didn't really put a hit on game resources like the addition of pools and peeps changing clothes and swimming would, or like more dynamic water would. I don't know myself, but I think that's a realistic possibility. They shouldn't compare the simple addition of adding hotels to what I imagine is a far more complex process needed to add better water and water features like pools.

IF Frontier changes their mind and decides that they can tweak the game to offer water parks, I'm all for it and would gladly pay for such an addition. I'd still like to see other additions to the game as well, preferably before a water park, but Soaked! added a lot to RCT3 besides just pools and peeps in bathing suits.