Sandbox too easy even in Jurassic difficulty

Gondwana

Gondwana
The Sandbox mode has really improved with the recent updates, but there is still one major issue imo. It's way too easy to generate income and money, even releasing a few basic herbivores will get you millions. It's really too easy and no challenge at all. I think that might be due to the missing Hammond Fee.
So would it be possible to simply add a toggle (on or off) for that Hammond Fee in Sandbox please? It should be no problem to introduce that toggle and copy that fee from challenge mode to sandbox.
 

Nioell

Nioell
Completely agree with you there, however the fee (or tax in this game) wouldn't do anything to make it harder, only drag things out. Thing is it only cuts into your profit, not into the income which is actually what matters where star rating is concerned. So even if you got a fee that takes away 50% of your profit you'd still gain stars and progress way too fast due to the income going up anyway. Means what we need is something that cuts back the income, not profit, or both at least.

For one thing way lower ticket prices and fewer guests would work. Going by what I found while modding those numbers are waaay too high, especially compared to some other modes. I went and changed the price from 800$ (yes that much) to 100-150$ each and it already made a huge difference and I actually get to play some before I reach the next star and can progress further. Add to that higher appeal and dino numbers and it actually turns into a bit more of a challenge. So it really wouldn't be that hard to make some changes there and make things more interesting in sandbox as well.

Another thing that'd be nice to have would be random digsites like we had in JWE. It really adds to the challenge at the beginning of the game and also adds a lot more replayability compared to going through the very same unlock order over and over again.
 

Ceratosaurus

Ceratosaurus
Nioell said:
Another thing that'd be nice to have would be random digsites like we had in JWE. It really adds to the challenge at the beginning of the game and also adds a lot more replayability compared to going through the very same unlock order over and over again.
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This was a great way to implement replayability, it was all I chose when I played challenge modes on JWE. I also do prefer the flexibility of the first game's research tree, it allowed us to prioritise what we need or even allow us to adapt our own play style or even experiment with doing research you don't always do if we wanted to take a different way to progress.

I think it'd be great to have a lot more consequences for lets say... escapes and deaths. The whole -$50,000 for someone dying is just crazily insignificant compared to the $1 billion dollars I have in the reserve account...

It seems to me that "Sandbox challenge mode" isn't even a challenge compared to the actual challenge mode because we're missing the random events that can actually reduce your star rating or just your funds in general such as a staff member stealing cash to pay off their gambling debts for example.

It would be great if we could also control how much we charge for things like as you said, the entrance costs or even the amenities. That would give us a little more to work with and maintain.

"However the fee (or tax in this game) wouldn't do anything to make it harder, only drag things out."

I also agree but surely this would still reduce the overall income required for the next star rating?
 

Nioell

Nioell
DuskyHaddock said:
This was a great way to implement replayability, it was all I chose when I played challenge modes on JWE. I also do prefer the flexibility of the first game's research tree, it allowed us to prioritise what we need or even allow us to adapt our own play style or even experiment with doing research you don't always do if we wanted to take a different way to progress.

I think it'd be great to have a lot more consequences for lets say... escapes and deaths. The whole -$50,000 for someone dying is just crazily insignificant compared to the $1 billion dollars I have in the reserve account...

It seems to me that "Sandbox challenge mode" isn't even a challenge compared to the actual challenge mode because we're missing the random events that can actually reduce your star rating or just your funds in general such as a staff member stealing cash to pay off their gambling debts for example.

It would be great if we could also control how much we charge for things like as you said, the entrance costs or even the amenities. That would give us a little more to work with and maintain.

"However the fee (or tax in this game) wouldn't do anything to make it harder, only drag things out."

I also agree but surely this would still reduce the overall income required for the next star rating?
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So true. As for the last point: nope, it wouldn't. As I said the fee only affects the profit you make in the end while the income stays the same. Say you make 1 mil and the fee is 50%. You'd only get 500k in the bank at the end of the month but you'd still have a 1 mil income and that's the only thing that matters for the star rating. So maybe you'd have to wait a tiny bit longer until you can buy something but the star rating will go up anyway and unlock stuff.

I'd much prefer it if progression and profit/income went more hand in hand instead of having everything unlock rapidly and then just doing research after research once the money is there. Hope that makes sense.
 

Ceratosaurus

Ceratosaurus
Nioell said:
I'd much prefer it if progression and profit/income went more hand in hand instead of having everything unlock rapidly and then just doing research after research once the money is there. Hope that makes sense.
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You mean, "you can unlock the Compy when you reach $500,000 income" instead of "to unlock the Rex you need a 3 star rating"?

If so, isn't that technically what's already implemented but with the star rating instead?
Personally I preferred JWE1's progression style. Where you unlock everything based on star rating, which is the same as in 2. But the star rating was based on appeal rather than the income earned. When I did a replay on 1, it was a lot slower than 2 for sure as I find it took a LOT longer to get things done.

But perhaps that was due to the game speed mechanic, even then it didn't take 1 second to synthesise/incubate 5 Parasaurolophus' with 2 Genetic specialists and someone who specialises in faster synthesise/incubation...

Eh, either way, it's not the rating I have an issue with, it just feels like we need to have income be nerfed/lowered by 50% for it to start becoming a challenge.
 

Nioell

Nioell
DuskyHaddock said:
You mean, "you can unlock the Compy when you reach $500,000 income" instead of "to unlock the Rex you need a 3 star rating"?

If so, isn't that technically what's already implemented but with the star rating instead?
Personally I preferred JWE1's progression style. Where you unlock everything based on star rating, which is the same as in 2. But the star rating was based on appeal rather than the income earned. When I did a replay on 1, it was a lot slower than 2 for sure as I find it took a LOT longer to get things done.

But perhaps that was due to the game speed mechanic, even then it didn't take 1 second to synthesise/incubate 5 Parasaurolophus' with 2 Genetic specialists and someone who specialises in faster synthesise/incubation...

Eh, either way, it's not the rating I have an issue with, it just feels like we need to have income be nerfed/lowered by 50% for it to start becoming a challenge.
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No, I mean we need a more balanced system when it comes to progression and how fast things are unlocked. They way it is in the unmodded game right now I can reach 2-3 stars without making much progress or developing the park at all. The only thing I need for that is one herbivore enclosure and some galleries plus amenities, income will shoot up and so will the star rating. Not much sense of progression there.

The way it worked in the first game was a bit better, but still pretty easy and fast, so maybe a combination of the two would be cool, with the things besides income having more weight where the rating is concerned. Would also be cool if more things were unlocked based on the number of dino species or guests you have instead of stars alone.

But yeah, the first step would be to cut the income from ticket sales back drastically as well as reduce what you can make from amenities and set the income goal higher. I did that by modding (as well as some unlock and appeal changes) and now my star rating actually fits the progress my park makes instead of running way ahead of it and it feel so much better while playing. Like you actually have to do something to make it work etc. Only thing missing is the random digsite unlock thing, but it would still be great to have those things work in the official version instead of having to resort to modding to make the game harder and more of a challenge lol
 

LordTrilobite

LordTrilobite
LumpBubDubTrub said:
Looks like this wasnt added in the patch? Unbelievable
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What did you expect? This is a very recent suggestion. Obviously the devs would not have had time to add this suggestion if they wanted to. Ten days? C'mon. Generally things get finalized long before that. You can't keep adding things last minute. That's not how game development works.
 

LumpBubDubTrub

L
LordTrilobite said:
What did you expect? This is a very recent suggestion. Obviously the devs would not have had time to add this suggestion if they wanted to. Ten days? C'mon. Generally things get finalized long before that. You can't keep adding things last minute. That's not how game development works.
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Incorrect this has been mentioned MONTHS ago. Numerous other people as well have talked about how the income issue trivializes the sandbox difficulty MANY months ago.
 

HeatherG

Volunteer Moderator
HeatherG
Gondwana said:
@Jens Erik Hi Jens, is there a chance this might get fixed in the next update?
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The CM team won't be able to tell you what comes in future update.
Would you like this in the Suggestions section? It's hard for me to tell if you just want to discuss the topic or if you're suggesting it for the game. Let me know, thanks!! :)
 

Gondwana

Gondwana
Jens Erik said:
I've let the devs know about this suggestion, but I can't say whether or not this is something that will be changed in the future.
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It's actually not just a suggestion though, the difficulty settings in sandbox are seriously broken in general. It's as Nioell described above, you earn money and gain stars/ranking way too easily.
So there must be something wrong in the codes concerning the difficulty settings I'd assume.
 

Nioell

Nioell
Gondwana said:
It's actually not just a suggestion though, the difficulty settings in sandbox are seriously broken in general. It's as Nioell described above, you earn money and gain stars/ranking way too easily.
So there must be something wrong in the codes concerning the difficulty settings I'd assume.
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Yeah, there is: the ticket prices are through the roof. I kinda went on a little modding spree to make the game harder and found out sandbox parks have ticket prices of 800$+ which is just insane. For comparison the challenge maps have something around 300$ if that, so obviously the balance is waaaay off already, add to that the low goals for appeal and dino count etc. and super easy, everything at 5* within 10min mode is complete. And it's so easy to fix, too, just a few line changes and done. I set my prices to 150$ and upped the goals by quite a bit and damn it's actually fun to play it now lol
 

Gondwana

Gondwana
Nioell said:
And it's so easy to fix, too, just a few line changes and done. I set my prices to 150$ and upped the goals by quite a bit and damn it's actually fun to play it now lol
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Jens Erik So there is the solution. Thank you Nioell for the report.
Just a few minor changes in the code will fix this problem.
 
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