Challenge mode JP era Isla Sorna needs a serious fix

I'm not sure if this is where this type of request should be put so I'm posting it here until further notice. And I hope that the Frontier team sees this because this issue is a huge problem.

I recently started trying to go through all of the challenge modes in order to unlock all of the skins. I decided to do Isla Sorna in JP era as I figured that era would work best for the island. My plan being to make one of the prongs of the playable area into the center where my buildings were and turn the rest of the island into one long safari. However, when I started the mode, turns out that the game starts you out with a ridiculous $250,000 Hammond Foundation Fee. From second one. No other mode begins you this way. This makes doing this mode pretty much impossible since you are out of money with no way to acquire income within 10 minutes. I thought that maybe this Island starts you out with such a high fee because there are already dinosaurs on the island. But this is not the case if you play the mode in JW era.

While I understand that I could do this challenge island in JW era (which I will have to do until this issue is fixed), this should be MY choice. I should not be limited on what era I can finish an island in because one of the options has been made impossible. $250,000 HF fee is an amount you wouldn't even get on other islands until you hit the later portion of your playthrough. This seriously needs to be fixed. These modes are supposed to be challenging, not unreasonable.

I appreciate any Frontier reps who may see this post and I hope this issue is addressed soon. As difficult as they are I really enjoy the challenge mode and this really bummed me out. Thank you for your time.
20200324132625_1.jpg
 
Last edited:
An update to this post.

(Disclaimer: I in no way want to seem like I'm coming down hard on Frontier for this. This is an overall singular issue in an other great game that I have played since launch. However, I believe that not addressing issues or just pretending that they're not issues does nothing to help the game and the developers improve. Problems should be found and addressed to ensure that the work is as smooth as possible.)

There is a trick to make this particular scenario possible. You have to spam Malcolm contracts repeatedly in order to stay ahead of the fee and accumulate money. Basically only have the Arrival Helipad, Visitor Center and a Geothermal Power Station built. Then when he contracts you to build a Emergency Bunker and/or Storm Defense Station you build them and deactivate (Storm Defense) immediately after. Rinse and repeat.

This is the only way I can figure that this is even possible. Any other contracts from the other contract givers, minus Grant on some occasions and Cabot even less so, require you to build or breed your money away. And from what I've found it seems that Nublar North has the same problem in JP era. I've even found out that some people don't even run into this issue. There HFF begins as normal just like any other island set up. So that makes me think this was not intentional. Even if it is, requiring the player to need to spam the same 3 or 4 contracts ad nauseum in order to complete the challenge island is not at all challenging. It's extremely tedious and unfair for someone unaware of the trick. Challenge mode should be about test your park building skills to the absolute limit, not testing how well you can spam a set of contracts.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom