Collection of popular discussion threads w/ links

I would happily take a dead-calm all-water park skirt! Or one with still waves. I don't intend to use it close up, it should be stated on release that it's not suitable for that.
I think that's a great idea; an all-water park biome. We could create our own islands on it, for example, like some of the old RCT scenarios. [up]
I want space and ocean biomes too, however it seems as though the devs have had some problems with biomes. Last year they added a feature that allows us to switch biomes after we start a park, but this causes a major glitch where the outside "skirt" doesnt line up with the inside playable area (links are posted in my OP under biomes)

I remember a discussion with Bo and Team Schematics where they specifically talked about ocean and space biomes, and Bo said the devteam was looking into it. However, since the glitch occurred with switching biomes, the devs have quieted down quite a lot on the subject. Based on what the glitch looks like, it seems as if each biome is created differently, they have no "common grounds" and in order to fix that we would need to start the entire game over because all of our previous saves are broken. And I doubt the devs want to spend all that time fixing a minor glitch, but it makes me worry about the addition of new/future biomes

Personally, I'd like to see them approach biomes with a new game plan, in order to fix that glitch, but it will probably be a lot of work for the devs. Either way, I do hope they release a "blank/space" biome that has no skirt around the playable area, and of course an ocean one as well! I really liked the way RCT3 handled backdrops, I wish the same could be done for PlanCo [up] maybe the devs will release a PlanCo2 with improved biomes?

Agreed! I've been super thirsty for an ocean/island or coastal beach biome. I really want to make a boardwalk park with some ocean front hotel resorts and you really can't do that with the current biomes.
I also think an Egyptian desert style biome with sandy dunes would be really fun and perfect for the Adventure theme!
images
Cool [up] that seems like a good idea too!


I always wanted the option to rename/reclassify items to my own liking. This way you could group to your own needs, rename items to something that makes sense to you, and sort/filter to what makes sense to you (as each individual user). Behind the scenes it can all still have the in game names. etc, but the interface could be customized as needed.
This would be nice too [up] organization is a bit of a problem for this game IMO, especially with downloaded blueprints and park saves! Theres quite a few links I posted on the subject too [wink]
 
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The way I have always looked at coaster smoothness is that it comes down to how much time people put into their coasters. I have seen coasters that are at least 95% smooth, and that little 5% isnt a big deal IMO however, I do feel that the methods/tools used to smooth coasters could be improved, and the amount of time it takes to make smooth coasters could be improved, and there are obviously lots of other little things that could improve the overall coaster building experience.

When you simply state "coaster smoothness" I can understand what your point is, but I think that you should be a little less rigid about "smoothness" and try to ask for other things that could help improve the general coaster building tools. I mean, if we compare to RCT3 the smoothness factor is 100x better in PlanCo, but the simplicity factor has been lost completely. And there are a lot of players who would more enjoy/prefer making coasters in RCT3 simply due to the fact that it takes less time. Maybe we can find a middle ground though, because I am sure someday we will see a PlanCo2 with perfectly smooth coasters, but the tools also need to be relatively fun to use as well!

I suppose you can call me a novice/casual builder, I mean I have made some extravagant parks in my RCT days, but I am not the type of builder who rotates every little piece, and I dont spend hours smoothing my coasters. I like spending as little time as I can just to make things as big as I can, which is something I struggle with in PlanCo compared to RCT3 cough.terrain.choke.cough, and I know I am not the only person out there who feels this way [tongue]
 
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The way I have always looked at coaster smoothness is that it comes down to how much time people put into their coasters. I have seen coasters that are at least 95% smooth, and that little 5% isnt a big deal IMO however, I do feel that the methods/tools used to smooth coasters could be improved, and the amount of time it takes to make smooth coasters could be improved, and there are obviously lots of other little things that could improve the overall coaster building experience.

When you simply state "coaster smoothness" I can understand what your point is, but I think that you should be a little less rigid about "smoothness" and try to ask for other things that could help improve the general coaster building tools. I mean, if we compare to RCT3 the smoothness factor is 100x better in PlanCo, but the simplicity factor has been lost completely. And there are a lot of players who would more enjoy/prefer making coasters in RCT3 simply due to the fact that it takes less time. Maybe we can find a middle ground though, because I am sure someday we will see a PlanCo2 with perfectly smooth coasters, but the tools also need to be relatively fun to use as well!

I suppose you can call me a novice/casual builder, I mean I have made some extravagant parks in my RCT days, but I am not the type of builder who rotates every little piece, and I dont spend hours smoothing my coasters. I like spending as little time as I can just to make things as big as I can, which is something I struggle with in PlanCo compared to RCT3 cough.terrain.choke.cough, and I know I am not the only person out there who feels this way [tongue]

coaster enthusiasts come to this game because its the closest you can get to easily creating rides in a similar fashion to no limits in a very immersive, simple environment. You can place your track pieces like wet spaghetti. You're not restricted to prefabs and you can create anything that comes to mind. Thats why enthusiasts play this game. Its an easier, more casual version of no limits. There's no steep learning curve you have to get over before making a somewhat decent ride. That's why this is classified as a game and not a simulation like no limits. There's no other game or piece of software out there that has properly executed this kind of experience. So to some, this game is a miracle from god... That hit something on its way down from heaven because dear god coasters can get pretty rough. <-joke, kind of. But in all seriousness, everyone is aware of the issues surrounding smoothing, including you. He already did a great job ( https://forums.planetcoaster.com/showthread.php/15700-Coaster-Smoothness?highlight=coaster+smoothness ) on giving the devs/community more than enough evidence and information on the issue, which you also replied to. And his rigidity is due to irritation, its only natural to feel some sort of irritation after being indefinitely excluded since day one of this software. Same goes with all the other people who want certain things from this game. :kingcoaster: . But we're waiting to see what the devs have found out about smoothing, saltily waiting...
Also I 100% feel ya when it comes to the rct building. Im personally fine with complexity, but it is nice to make things more simple from time to time ;)

here's a picture
QHL9QbP.jpg
 
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Its cool how many enthusiasts there are, and I certainly enjoy the videos of our top community builders! Yours are definitely the most realistic I've seen and I enjoy your videos because you show how complex and intricate coasters can be! Your picture looks so real [tongue] like I said I am a novice at building, and I think for a game like this there is probably more casual players for the game to be sold to. (not trying o get all into marketing, and of course I could be wrong) but I would assume theres a lot more casual players than there are extremists, and I think it would help the community overall if we didn't just ignore the casual aspect of this game (like better scenarios, tutorials, etc). Especially since the building aspect seems to have come along quite nicely already.

I certainly understand the basics and how to get a decent rating for my coasters. I agree that PlanCo is sort of the "middle ground" between NoLimits and Rct3, which is great I'm not saying I want grid-based coasters (just grid for terrains) but at the same time, and even as you pointed out, this is supposed to be as much a game as it is a construction/builder. I would go as far as to say that with ClassicRCT the game was more important than "reaslism" and I personally wish that could still be true, but alas the game is what it is and I for one dont expect many big changes to come from the coaster builder aside from hopefully improved smoothing [up]

Again this is strictly IMO, but as much potential there is for creativity in this game, I think there is just as much potential in giving casual players a better/deeper more intricate career mode experience that actually teaches players about amusement park rides and coasters, yet this game doesnt do that in the slightest. I forget how that old expression goes (I'll try to paraphrase) but sometimes you can achieve more greatness by limiting oneself (meaning scenarios need to be more focused with better goals and objectives for casual players). Thats what I hope for anyway [wink] and thats also why I only posted a couple times in the smoothing discussions, because it's not something that concerns me as much

https://forums.planetcoaster.com/sh...ter-Smoothness?p=156663&viewfull=1#post156663


I have posted a lot of ideas that I know have zero potential of ever happening, but it would be cool if career mode objectives had certain hazards to worry about such as fire, lightning, power outages, and other safety issues. It would be more interesting have an objective that is like "Build a coaster of X height, and maintain its safety for 15 years" along with a complex system of wear and tear, and unfortunately we have a very simple system for breakdowns, even RCT had more variety in ride breakdowns!

Or I would like to see an employee mode (which I've posted about before) but those ideas are obviously out of the scope of the devs at this point in time


An extra checkbox that enables a continuous roll between pieces would do the trick.

This would help certainly, but might also be a lot of work from the devs. Personally, I would lke to see more pre-built pieces to make things feel a bit more like RCT3 with the coaster builder. Hopefully well get everything we want in PlanCo2 [tongue]
 
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I like the idea of premade pieces added to the coaster builder. I think the RCTW coaster editor handled that in a good way. You can free form the track (with way more control than in PC), or build with premade pieces, and of course combine the two methods! I think the best way of simulating this style of building in Planet Coaster is to use the angle snap feature.

As for smoothness, smoothing functions aren't at all difficult! And it has nothing to do with realism or not. The awkward rider cam caused by the non-continuous banking just make coasters look really really bad in this game. Unfortunately, Frontier rather spends time on developing new DLC, than on improving the base game features. [sad] What makes it irritating, is that Frontier is so close to having a very powerful coaster builder that is also very easy to use for casual players. Just the lack of one simple option makes the coaster builder go from great to blegh...
 
Competition and random events

Since the beginning, I hope for management options that would add choices and force to choose what to do. I would like to have competiting park(s) and have to change strategy to compete with this park. At this stage, maybe it would be too difficult to make it happen to the game. So, at a minimum, it could be great to have some random events (for example: another park build a coaster of 6 excitement, build one too or else you'll see less guests in park for some time, you've some time to sell or build shops/rides to have some prize, etc.)


About the competition idea, in a general way, I think of something like this (just a personal idea)
I don't need to see competing park(s), competition against AI, but it would be amazing because it could has impact on our park.

For example, at start of a scenario, there's demographic of 10% teens and 90% family. The surrounding has a potential of 2000 customers, so 200 teens, 1800 family. At the beginning, you could attract 100% of the customers to your park as this is the only one. After some time, a competing park open. The customers will go with park that has the best attractiveness.

Parameters could count for a percentage and make attractiveness percentage level. The park with more attractiveness level will attract more customers. Just example and will have to be adjust to best fit and fun, but example rides excitement will count for 50% (and ride will have different excitement for different demogaphic group so that family will not search for the same kind of rides), 30% level of reputation (publicity, cleanliness of park and low breakdown) and 20% value for the money (mix of all parameters vs money it cost to go in park).

I just make this small spreadsheet to give idea on how it can work (just a personal though and a work in progress). It's base on calculated value of park attractiveness for specific type of guests (families and teens). It would calculated the # of guests you'll attract. If there's competition, it would be your park attractiveness vs the competing park attractiveness. The attractiveness could also be modify (just example) by making publicity, by having or not a good reliability, etc.

Here's the spreadsheet:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h67vopfr21vwvjz/Amusement park attractiveness.xlsx?dl=0



The competition idea has the purpose to add interesting management decision and challenges. For example:

- a park open a new coasters and make lot of publicity about it. If you don't build interesting coaster also, more teens will be attract by the new ride and go in the competing park.

- the competing park make ticket discount, more guests will go in the best value park.

- you've too many breakdowns, it will affect attractiveness level and so, number of guests in park.

- etc.
 
From a quick glance, you didn't link the item sorting threads. I recommend especially this one on the roofs. It's also a good overview of pieces that are mysteriously missing from the different sets.

The one thing that is the most severe in my eyes when it comes to building is the 3D-gizmo issue. It's such a huge thing I can't believe it has still not been adressed. I didn't even see or hear it mentioned by the devs anywhere. Advanced building mode is basically crippled because of the 3D gizmo not working properly. (It's behaving in a way that seems almost random as soon as you select more than one piece at once.)
 
Since the beginning, I hope for management options that would add choices and force to choose what to do. I would like to have competiting park(s) and have to change strategy to compete with this park. At this stage, maybe it would be too difficult to make it happen to the game. So, at a minimum, it could be great to have some random events (for example: another park build a coaster of 6 excitement, build one too or else you'll see less guests in park for some time, you've some time to sell or build shops/rides to have some prize, etc.)


About the competition idea, in a general way, I think of something like this (just a personal idea)
I don't need to see competing park(s), competition against AI, but it would be amazing because it could has impact on our park.

For example, at start of a scenario, there's demographic of 10% teens and 90% family. The surrounding has a potential of 2000 customers, so 200 teens, 1800 family. At the beginning, you could attract 100% of the customers to your park as this is the only one. After some time, a competing park open. The customers will go with park that has the best attractiveness.

Parameters could count for a percentage and make attractiveness percentage level. The park with more attractiveness level will attract more customers. Just example and will have to be adjust to best fit and fun, but example rides excitement will count for 50% (and ride will have different excitement for different demogaphic group so that family will not search for the same kind of rides), 30% level of reputation (publicity, cleanliness of park and low breakdown) and 20% value for the money (mix of all parameters vs money it cost to go in park).

I just make this small spreadsheet to give idea on how it can work (just a personal though and a work in progress). It's base on calculated value of park attractiveness for specific type of guests (families and teens). It would calculated the # of guests you'll attract. If there's competition, it would be your park attractiveness vs the competing park attractiveness. The attractiveness could also be modify (just example) by making publicity, by having or not a good reliability, etc.

Here's the spreadsheet:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h67vopfr21vwvjz/Amusement park attractiveness.xlsx?dl=0



The competition idea has the purpose to add interesting management decision and challenges. For example:

- a park open a new coasters and make lot of publicity about it. If you don't build interesting coaster also, more teens will be attract by the new ride and go in the competing park.

- the competing park make ticket discount, more guests will go in the best value park.

- you've too many breakdowns, it will affect attractiveness level and so, number of guests in park.

- etc.

I´m SO happy that I´m not the only one who think the same way. I posted bscly the very sime idea few times already. One of the biggest let down in the management side of the game is that you can keep the game running all year long, not touch it, but people will still be coming, happines will be at the very same level and you will have so much money that you can consider it a sandbox mode.... This would fix the problem, at least partialy for sure.

Same reason why I also wanted to implement accidents. Bad maintenance -> higher risk of accident -> unhappy people -> low park attendance.... You can say there are no consequences to what you do in the game.... And the best thing is is that I don´t think this would really be that hard to implement...

If we wanted to bring this to another level, we could actually make this competition on the "planet" (meaning among the people who are on your friends list and own Planet Coaster). They already pop up in the main menu. Now just some simple system that would gather some data and compared some stats in between you and your friends. So did you friend build a new mega coaster? You get lower attendance and he gets higher attendance. You can then try to beat him by building a better ride, or maybe with discoounts or anything.
 
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I realize that is a UI problem, but its also more of a scenery thing, I've already listed UI so. . .
I dont want this thread to be about specific/missing scenery, especially individual pieces
I hope you understand [wink] thanks!

I don't think I understand what you mean. Might be just me but if you're listing UI and scenery stuff it seems strange to not include the 4 threads with the most comprehensive analysis of the item catalogue.

[Edit after moderator comment: Aside the fact I never requested any scenery in here, the original OP said this thread was for discussion of
THE GAME and GAMEPLAY and how to IMPROVE THE GAME

So the OP reads different now but this was changed only after I posted. Also by looking at the non gameplay posts in this thread it seems a bit weird that mine is singled out. But hey, whatever. Have fun in here.]
 
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Joël

Volunteer Moderator
I don't think I understand what you mean. Might be just me but if you're listing UI and scenery stuff it seems strange to not include the 4 threads with the most comprehensive analysis of the item catalogue.
Please read the OP again; this thread is not for requesting rides, coaster types, or scenery. As requested by breezerHOG; gameplay only.

Thanks.
 
Some suggestions that would add to gameplay (for me personnally)

- more information in UI about demographic (family, teen, adult) to better understand what each group want
- staff paths only and having to hide building from guests
- fix when many guests trying to enter a queue at the same time and turn back because "queue is full"
- better use of "fast queue" by having a separate queue and more use of this kind of pass
- guests reacting to custom building and not just ride scenery
- better "career mode" when we start small with low budget and grow bigger
 
The PC news letter mentioned a new grid based building system for the wooden wild mouse coaster.

It sounds intriguing. I wonder if if will be really helpful or frustrating because it creates limitations. Maybe it'll be something we can toggle on and off while building? We should find out on the stream tomorrow! Do we know what time that will be?
 
It sounds like it means the wild mouse will be easier to build in a square shaped pattern that has different heights of track lineup and overlap in a way that takes up very little space, much like real life wild mouse coasters often do

funny though because I never heard anybody request grids for coasters...

it would be interesting to see if this new grid feature gets expanded to other coasters (or terrain) but I dont think that its really a big/important feature as of this point. I do hope they consider adding grids to other assets of the game though... just my opinion [wink]
 
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it would be interesting to see if this new grid feature gets expanded to other coasters (or terrain) but I dont think that its really a big/important feature as of this point. I do hope they consider adding grids to other assets of the game though... just my opinion [wink]

Good point!!
 
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