It's been a few days now since the embargo has been lifted for content creators and a deluge of JWE2 content has flooded the internet. Hours upon hours of gameplay and people dissecting every aspect of the game systematically. We are seeing tons of threads already--mostly pack hunting---but I felt we should try to get the bulk of qualms and suggestions for improvements in one place. Going to list the ones I have heard and my own thoughts on them, and hopefully we can go from there.
Most of the complaints we are seeing appear to be bugs, glitches, or otherwise related to time constraints on the development team more than anything else, but let's begin with the list thus far:
Pack Hunting
Don't even know if I need to say more this is by far the one discussed at the greatest length. I think everyone is 100% in agreement that pack hunting is simply too efficient its like the Allosaurus being overpowered in the original game except worse. There doesn't appear to be any sort of trade-off for small carnivores that are pack hunting, its like multiplying damage rapidly by trapping the prey animal in an animation/AI loop where only if its genetically modified will it stand a chance of survival. Several people on these forums have made some good suggestions to limit the efficiency of this behavior.
To this point I have referenced the pack hunting in terms of raptors, but we know this also extends to Deinonychus, Proceratosaurus, & Dilophosaurus. I advocate only the Dromaeosaurids have the pack hunting in the short term with Dilophosaurus & Troodon obtaining pack hunting in a post-launch patch / DLC pack if they have unique animations/hunting behavior to distinguish them from the Dromaeosaurs. Dilos would open their frills to spit venom to blind their prey and snap at the appendages of the flailing creature lacking the major jumping force of dromaeosaurs while Troodons would be distinguished by whittling down their prey through a series of venomous bites to slowly weaken them avoiding more direct confrontations as other small carnivores do. Proceratosaurus would join Compsognathus and Coelophysis in that they lack pack hunting behavior.
I also just think it makes sense that we avoid making pack hunting the end-all, be-all. We want small carnivores to be threatening and pose a risk outside of their weight class on occasion, but we don't want them to be so dominant over herbivores or challenge the large dinosaurs aside from that special interaction raptors have with the Rex.
Marine Reptile Social Issues
This issue honestly feels like it was the main result of a time constraint and placeholders weren't replaced before content creators got early access to the game. Lagoons really are at a half-way point between the Aviaries in RtJP and the Aviaries in JWE2. The animals aren't looped or anything, but they basically have next to no interactions with each other and their environment. We can improve things by making some changes to their social tolerances, but sadly the lack of interactivity would have to be resolved via later post-launch patches and DLC.
Any combination not explicitly listed means the species is " neutral " in its opinion. So long as there is sufficient territorial space they can coexist even if they don't particularly like one another. We got a maximum of seven species for these huge lagoons, the problem will naturally alleviate as more additions are made moving forward. This seems like a good starting point to really slim down on the social issues where basically nothing wants to be in a lagoon with anything else.
Sandbox Limitations
There are a litany of small and bizarre decisions that really impede Sandbox more than they really ought to do. Here is just a short list of what those happen to be:
Jurassic Park Era Issues / Missing Decorations
Just going to consolidate all of these complaints into one section. Jurassic Park has consistently been letdown, its always treated secondary to the Jurassic World era. Even with Return to Jurassic Park (RtJP) from the first game, there were less buildings and attractions for Jurassic Park than available for Jurassic World. Both Jurassic Park Chaos Theory & Challenge Modes reportedly suffer on account of the detrimental nature of the JP era which lacks aviaries and lagoons. Despite having steel Aviaries in the Campaign, they aren't in any of the other game modes where you might expect them. This places a big damper on enthusiasm seeing as JP always winds up lacking features including gameplay options available to JW era.
It is even harsher when you realize that the missing decorations tend to be the JP era decorations we got in the first game. The Raptor Pen, the film accurate Restroom, the film accurate Bunker, some of the Signs, etc. This is super disappointing given the assets could have just been imported and a little extra salt in the wound now that JW era has decorations and they are more varied than what the JP era has ever had. We can't even place the Jurassic Park: San Diego Amphitheatre in Sandbox parks unless its the pre-selected map which just feels silly and unnecessarily limiting.
The absence of the JP3 Pteranodon skin continues this trend as JW era has its own film accurate Pteranodon skin now and its the default. Then there is the weird issue with the JP3 Velociraptor (female) mistakenly having quills. Really seems minor, and the fix shouldn't be hard for all these issues, but its just a bit disappointing knowing the Jurassic Park Chaos Theory & Challenge Modes could have been so much more engaging by having the inclusion of these big advertised new features as part of them not just for Jurassic World era scenarios. I fully expect several of these to be rectified, but as someone who prefers JP over JW, it doesn't feel great knowing so many features--large and small--are locked to JW only even in Sandbox.
Animation & Skin Complaints
There is considerable discussion on this topic as of late... or always. Anyhow, I think people are going to always be pretty harsh on this topic given the subjective taste that are skins. Probably best to leave it at that, better than fighting and at worst I am sure modders will find a way to add new skins like they did with JWE. In terms of the animations, however, I would say its just a matter of time in order for everything to get finely tuned. I doubt it will ever be perfect, but I expect continuous tweaking so that the animations better align with expectations. Sure, its post-launch now, but at least we can feel reassured we are going to continue to see adjustments moving forward.
Database | Grammatical/Text Errors
The most minor of issues, its nonetheless one that seems to be driving many people up a wall. The database is just a repository of information, so this should be an easy correction, I wouldn't get too worked up about this one. I do have my own personal criticisms about the Scientist Bios though which are bothering me. For most people they probably don't even notice, but there is something really weird about how they Bios are written like they are almost AI generated. Anyone else pick up on how every bio follows one of two formats?
1) This format is 2-3 sentences long and only ever refers to the scientist's name. It feels very jarring and unnatural even if grammatically correct similar to as if it was written by a non-native English speaker. Just comes off as really robotic and it rubs me the wrong way.
Example: [Insert Name] etc. etc. [Insert Name] etc. etc. [Insert Name] etc. etc.
2) The second format I noticed is just straight up grammatically incorrect and drives me up a wall more than the first. While the first rejects the use of pronouns, this format never stops with its usage, but only if they are in the plural sense. It will only ever use " they/them/their " regardless of context or situation to refer to the scientist it corresponds with even if other words are better suited for sentence structure and a natural sounding flow. I really don't understand why this was done in lieu of he/she and him/her which are automatically more natural singular pronouns that could have been used instead.
I understand someone is likely to pick out all my grammatical mistakes for pointing this out, but it just irks me. If we could get these corrected, I would most appreciate it for my own sanity if nothing else.
Let me know if there are any other glaring issues I have missed. I didn't mention the crashes and other issues as those are going to be fixed, that is a given. Feel free to discuss, agree or disagree with me, etc.
Most of the complaints we are seeing appear to be bugs, glitches, or otherwise related to time constraints on the development team more than anything else, but let's begin with the list thus far:
- Pack Hunting severely overtuned
- Marine Reptiles Social Issues
- Sandbox Limitations
- Missing Decorations
- JP Era Lacking JW Era Equivalents
- JP3 Pteranodon absent
- JP3 Velociraptor (female) quills
- Animation & Skin Complaints
- Database | Grammatical/Text Errors
Pack Hunting
Don't even know if I need to say more this is by far the one discussed at the greatest length. I think everyone is 100% in agreement that pack hunting is simply too efficient its like the Allosaurus being overpowered in the original game except worse. There doesn't appear to be any sort of trade-off for small carnivores that are pack hunting, its like multiplying damage rapidly by trapping the prey animal in an animation/AI loop where only if its genetically modified will it stand a chance of survival. Several people on these forums have made some good suggestions to limit the efficiency of this behavior.
- 3 Pack Member (Minimum)
- 3+ Hadrosaurs
- 4+ Iguanodontids / Small Sauropod (Amargasaurus/Nigersaurus)
- 4-5 Medium Carnivores / Armored Herbivores (Ceratopsids/Stegosaurs)
- 6+ Tyrannosaurus Rex (Unique Velociraptor Interaction)
- Large Carnivore + Sauropod Immunity
To this point I have referenced the pack hunting in terms of raptors, but we know this also extends to Deinonychus, Proceratosaurus, & Dilophosaurus. I advocate only the Dromaeosaurids have the pack hunting in the short term with Dilophosaurus & Troodon obtaining pack hunting in a post-launch patch / DLC pack if they have unique animations/hunting behavior to distinguish them from the Dromaeosaurs. Dilos would open their frills to spit venom to blind their prey and snap at the appendages of the flailing creature lacking the major jumping force of dromaeosaurs while Troodons would be distinguished by whittling down their prey through a series of venomous bites to slowly weaken them avoiding more direct confrontations as other small carnivores do. Proceratosaurus would join Compsognathus and Coelophysis in that they lack pack hunting behavior.
I also just think it makes sense that we avoid making pack hunting the end-all, be-all. We want small carnivores to be threatening and pose a risk outside of their weight class on occasion, but we don't want them to be so dominant over herbivores or challenge the large dinosaurs aside from that special interaction raptors have with the Rex.
Marine Reptile Social Issues
This issue honestly feels like it was the main result of a time constraint and placeholders weren't replaced before content creators got early access to the game. Lagoons really are at a half-way point between the Aviaries in RtJP and the Aviaries in JWE2. The animals aren't looped or anything, but they basically have next to no interactions with each other and their environment. We can improve things by making some changes to their social tolerances, but sadly the lack of interactivity would have to be resolved via later post-launch patches and DLC.
| Species | Likes | Dislikes |
| Mosasaurus | None | Tylosaurus |
| Tylosaurus | Liopleurodon | Mosasaurus |
| Elasmosaurus | Attenborosaurus | Liopleurodon |
| Liopleurodon | Ichthyosaurus | Elasmosaurus |
| Attenborosaurus [Deluxe Edition] | Elasmosaurus | Tylosaurus |
| Plesiosaurus | Ichthyosaurus, Attenborosaurus | Elasmosaurus, Liopleurodon |
| Ichthyosaurus | Plesiosaurus | Attenborosaurus |
Any combination not explicitly listed means the species is " neutral " in its opinion. So long as there is sufficient territorial space they can coexist even if they don't particularly like one another. We got a maximum of seven species for these huge lagoons, the problem will naturally alleviate as more additions are made moving forward. This seems like a good starting point to really slim down on the social issues where basically nothing wants to be in a lagoon with anything else.
Sandbox Limitations
There are a litany of small and bizarre decisions that really impede Sandbox more than they really ought to do. Here is just a short list of what those happen to be:
- Dinosaur Combat cannot be turned off
- Scientists are needed to incubate eggs
- Campaign Maps aren't available
- DFW building skins aren't available
- San Diego Amphitheatre not freely placeable
- No JP Aviaries / Lagoons
Jurassic Park Era Issues / Missing Decorations
Just going to consolidate all of these complaints into one section. Jurassic Park has consistently been letdown, its always treated secondary to the Jurassic World era. Even with Return to Jurassic Park (RtJP) from the first game, there were less buildings and attractions for Jurassic Park than available for Jurassic World. Both Jurassic Park Chaos Theory & Challenge Modes reportedly suffer on account of the detrimental nature of the JP era which lacks aviaries and lagoons. Despite having steel Aviaries in the Campaign, they aren't in any of the other game modes where you might expect them. This places a big damper on enthusiasm seeing as JP always winds up lacking features including gameplay options available to JW era.
It is even harsher when you realize that the missing decorations tend to be the JP era decorations we got in the first game. The Raptor Pen, the film accurate Restroom, the film accurate Bunker, some of the Signs, etc. This is super disappointing given the assets could have just been imported and a little extra salt in the wound now that JW era has decorations and they are more varied than what the JP era has ever had. We can't even place the Jurassic Park: San Diego Amphitheatre in Sandbox parks unless its the pre-selected map which just feels silly and unnecessarily limiting.
The absence of the JP3 Pteranodon skin continues this trend as JW era has its own film accurate Pteranodon skin now and its the default. Then there is the weird issue with the JP3 Velociraptor (female) mistakenly having quills. Really seems minor, and the fix shouldn't be hard for all these issues, but its just a bit disappointing knowing the Jurassic Park Chaos Theory & Challenge Modes could have been so much more engaging by having the inclusion of these big advertised new features as part of them not just for Jurassic World era scenarios. I fully expect several of these to be rectified, but as someone who prefers JP over JW, it doesn't feel great knowing so many features--large and small--are locked to JW only even in Sandbox.
Animation & Skin Complaints
There is considerable discussion on this topic as of late... or always. Anyhow, I think people are going to always be pretty harsh on this topic given the subjective taste that are skins. Probably best to leave it at that, better than fighting and at worst I am sure modders will find a way to add new skins like they did with JWE. In terms of the animations, however, I would say its just a matter of time in order for everything to get finely tuned. I doubt it will ever be perfect, but I expect continuous tweaking so that the animations better align with expectations. Sure, its post-launch now, but at least we can feel reassured we are going to continue to see adjustments moving forward.
Database | Grammatical/Text Errors
The most minor of issues, its nonetheless one that seems to be driving many people up a wall. The database is just a repository of information, so this should be an easy correction, I wouldn't get too worked up about this one. I do have my own personal criticisms about the Scientist Bios though which are bothering me. For most people they probably don't even notice, but there is something really weird about how they Bios are written like they are almost AI generated. Anyone else pick up on how every bio follows one of two formats?
1) This format is 2-3 sentences long and only ever refers to the scientist's name. It feels very jarring and unnatural even if grammatically correct similar to as if it was written by a non-native English speaker. Just comes off as really robotic and it rubs me the wrong way.
Example: [Insert Name] etc. etc. [Insert Name] etc. etc. [Insert Name] etc. etc.
2) The second format I noticed is just straight up grammatically incorrect and drives me up a wall more than the first. While the first rejects the use of pronouns, this format never stops with its usage, but only if they are in the plural sense. It will only ever use " they/them/their " regardless of context or situation to refer to the scientist it corresponds with even if other words are better suited for sentence structure and a natural sounding flow. I really don't understand why this was done in lieu of he/she and him/her which are automatically more natural singular pronouns that could have been used instead.
I understand someone is likely to pick out all my grammatical mistakes for pointing this out, but it just irks me. If we could get these corrected, I would most appreciate it for my own sanity if nothing else.
Let me know if there are any other glaring issues I have missed. I didn't mention the crashes and other issues as those are going to be fixed, that is a given. Feel free to discuss, agree or disagree with me, etc.
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