One of the additions I am having a lot of fun with in custom challenge mode is having saboteur staff, which would make large projects I want to pursue in the parks quite a risky venture. I wholeheartedly love this as I get to experience sabotage more often when building a park, the act of stopping what I am doing to get down and involved in damage control is a nice break to make sure all operations can resume normally.
I was hoping we could have more options when it comes to sabotage. For the most part, my experience has been disinfecting feeders/restaurants, rebooting fencing/gates/stations, surviving guest protests, and curing sick dinosaurs. It starts to feel very samey after a while and I think having more options for sabotage would make the experience less predictable and more engaging. I have listed below some additional ideas for more forms of sabotage, as I see that there is potential for more forms of play to be had when handling the chaos in JWE2.
1) RAMPAGING AMPED UP DINOSAURS
Remember in Secrets of Dr.Wu when Dr.Wu instructs the player to inject a newly hatched Troodon with a formula that would cause the Troodon to rampage and attempt to escape? What if one of your scientists got a hold of that formula? And what if they used it on a dinosaur much bigger than the Troodon?
I would love the experience of handling a rampaging dinosaur that has been tampered with by saboteur scientists that would give the security team a handful to calm down and recover. The dinosaur would temporarily act out of instinct and would go on a rampage, fighting off and attempting to kill other dinosaurs in the enclosure or attempting to break out and cause havoc to your guests. What would make this more interesting than a standard rampaging dinosaur is that they get a boost in attack and defense, ensuring they are more likely to win fights against other dinosaurs and break out of fencing faster. They would dislike every other dinosaur which would cause them to fight more often when possible, and the the amped-up dinosaur would require 2-3 times more tranquilizers to calm them down, making their presence scary depending on which species was drugged by the agitated scientist.
Players could either wait for the formula to wear out, in which the player has to be sure the enclosure could handle the aggressive animal, or tranquilize the dinosaur if the park's constructed security is insufficient to maintain the rampage. Since any dinosaur from a struthiomimus or Indominous Rex could be targetted and drugged with this formula, then the outcome of this sabotage would be unpredictable, having to either medicate a pack of small harmless herbivores or calm down the most aggressive and dangerous of specimens available in JWE2.
2) RANGER, MVU, AND CAPTURE TEAMS GOING ON STRIKE
This could be an interesting predicament depending on which team goes on strike. Ranger teams on strike would disable the ability to repair assets in the park, which would be unfortunate if this were to occur after a storm or power outage. MVU teams that go on strike would be dangerous if there is a dinosaur that needs immediate medical assistance, or if a mass disease outbreak is taking place. Capture teams going on strike is definitely a concern if you aim to sell your dinosaurs, move dangerous assets to their enclosure, or if a rampage is taking place.
Players met with this sabotage could wait it out or pay the team if their services were needed at the time of the strike.
3) ROGUE RANGER VEHICLE
Taking a page from the DFW Chaos Theory poachers, an extremely disgruntled staff member may have occupied one of the ranger vehicles and aimed to bash the fences in your park. This enraged driver would cause panic among your guests, may cause dinosaurs to escape, and would disable access to the vehicle which would not allow you to repair or reboot facilities in your park.
Similar to others, you could either wait for the driver to calm down and repair the collateral damage afterward, or ride another available ranger vehicle and ram the rogue car to submission, similar to stopping the poachers in DFW Chaos Theory.
4) POPULAR ATTRACTIONS GET DISABLED
Some enclosures in the park may bring about a great deal of appeal to your guests, should the attractions that bring that appeal get disabled, then you are at risk of losing star ratings fast. Simply navigate to the disabled attractions in your park to reboot them once more so as to not suffer from the sudden loss in star rating.
5) DINOSAURS GETTING TRANQUILIZED
With the new ability to wake up dinosaurs with stimulants, I could see a new form of sabotage that would have some of the dinosaurs tranquilized. Unlike most diseased dinosaurs, tranquilized dinosaurs would be completely immobilized for a brief period, would garner no appeal to your park, and could be vulnerable to predation. As a form of Sabotage, scientists could have some dinosaurs in the park tranquilized, in which the player could get to the ACU copter and stimulate them from their tranquilized state, preventing any harm to the dinosaurs or park appeal.
6) DINOSAURS TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM THE PARK
This is an advanced version of the previous sabotage. This sabotage would have a handful of dinosaurs (1-5) tranquilized in the park, but the player has 2-5 minutes to wake them up with stimulants before they get picked up by outside transportation helicopters and taken out of the park.
This form of sabotage should be similar to the repo man in The Sims, in which the player may lose some of the most valuable assets of the park due to burning out their staff. The difference here is that with the ACU helicopter, the player has the means to wake up the tranquilized dinosaurs before they get taken away. This would also have players prioritizing which dinosaurs to save if time is limited and if they are not able to reach all of the tranquilized dinosaurs in time.
7) MONEY GETS STOLEN / SUED
A simple but effective form of sabotage. If the player has been negating the needs of their staff for so long, then the simple act of losing money should be a possibility. This is to counter having staff overworked for a huge project with little care for their rest. If you had been saving up for that Indominous Rex project after having your staff tire themselves out with fossil expeditions and research with no breaks, then there is the possibility that your savings would have a notable deduction, a long-term consequence for short-term gain.
The amount of money could vary on how agitated your staff are, but it could be anywhere from 1-5 million dollars. Either a small expense to pay in an established park or the final nail in the coffin for a struggling park.
8) CONSTRUCTION STRIKE
For a few minutes, the player would have no means to build or repair anything in the park. This would make for a disaster situation depending on what is needed to be constructed when this sabotage is in effect. Best-case scenario, the temporary disability to construct or repair anything while the park is in a peaceful state could allow the player to take a break from park building and focus on research, expeditions, or going around and appreciating their current establishment.
9) STOLEN GENOMES
A Jurassic Park moment was when Dennis Nedry would steal dinosaur genomes from Ingen to give to Biosyn and one that could work in JWE2. If staff gets agitated for so long, there is the risk of some of the dinosaur genomes being stolen. In order to get them back, the player has to pay the expenses needed to rebuild the genome lost, which would vary depending on the stolen genome's species.
A more involved method is to have the genomes hidden somewhere in the park for collection, in which the player could get on the ranger vehicle and attempt to find the hidden asset, which could be anywhere in the park, from guest pathways or even the enclosures of the park's apex predators. Find the missing genomes, and you get access to those dinosaurs in the incubation lab again.
10) STOLEN DIGSITE PERMITS
As written on the tin, certain digsites would be temporarily disabled until permits could be restored again. This could be annoying if players are aiming to complete a dinosaur genome or aim for a new attraction, but it could be a fun divergent to have players try out other dinosaurs they would otherwise not incubate in their parks if a new attraction is needed as soon as possible.
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The more variety of sabotage this game has, the less predictable the consequences would be, challenging the player further when sabotage would occur to the park. Most of the ones I shared above would often disable park growth in an area for a temporary period of time, damaging the park's security and appeal, or loss of assets and resources which the player could prevent or workaround. I see sabotage as a damage control mini-game or setback for this business sim, and being able to work around multiple forms of sabotage would often be rewarding when attempting to reach a 5-star park.
I was hoping we could have more options when it comes to sabotage. For the most part, my experience has been disinfecting feeders/restaurants, rebooting fencing/gates/stations, surviving guest protests, and curing sick dinosaurs. It starts to feel very samey after a while and I think having more options for sabotage would make the experience less predictable and more engaging. I have listed below some additional ideas for more forms of sabotage, as I see that there is potential for more forms of play to be had when handling the chaos in JWE2.
1) RAMPAGING AMPED UP DINOSAURS
Remember in Secrets of Dr.Wu when Dr.Wu instructs the player to inject a newly hatched Troodon with a formula that would cause the Troodon to rampage and attempt to escape? What if one of your scientists got a hold of that formula? And what if they used it on a dinosaur much bigger than the Troodon?
I would love the experience of handling a rampaging dinosaur that has been tampered with by saboteur scientists that would give the security team a handful to calm down and recover. The dinosaur would temporarily act out of instinct and would go on a rampage, fighting off and attempting to kill other dinosaurs in the enclosure or attempting to break out and cause havoc to your guests. What would make this more interesting than a standard rampaging dinosaur is that they get a boost in attack and defense, ensuring they are more likely to win fights against other dinosaurs and break out of fencing faster. They would dislike every other dinosaur which would cause them to fight more often when possible, and the the amped-up dinosaur would require 2-3 times more tranquilizers to calm them down, making their presence scary depending on which species was drugged by the agitated scientist.
Players could either wait for the formula to wear out, in which the player has to be sure the enclosure could handle the aggressive animal, or tranquilize the dinosaur if the park's constructed security is insufficient to maintain the rampage. Since any dinosaur from a struthiomimus or Indominous Rex could be targetted and drugged with this formula, then the outcome of this sabotage would be unpredictable, having to either medicate a pack of small harmless herbivores or calm down the most aggressive and dangerous of specimens available in JWE2.
2) RANGER, MVU, AND CAPTURE TEAMS GOING ON STRIKE
This could be an interesting predicament depending on which team goes on strike. Ranger teams on strike would disable the ability to repair assets in the park, which would be unfortunate if this were to occur after a storm or power outage. MVU teams that go on strike would be dangerous if there is a dinosaur that needs immediate medical assistance, or if a mass disease outbreak is taking place. Capture teams going on strike is definitely a concern if you aim to sell your dinosaurs, move dangerous assets to their enclosure, or if a rampage is taking place.
Players met with this sabotage could wait it out or pay the team if their services were needed at the time of the strike.
3) ROGUE RANGER VEHICLE
Taking a page from the DFW Chaos Theory poachers, an extremely disgruntled staff member may have occupied one of the ranger vehicles and aimed to bash the fences in your park. This enraged driver would cause panic among your guests, may cause dinosaurs to escape, and would disable access to the vehicle which would not allow you to repair or reboot facilities in your park.
Similar to others, you could either wait for the driver to calm down and repair the collateral damage afterward, or ride another available ranger vehicle and ram the rogue car to submission, similar to stopping the poachers in DFW Chaos Theory.
4) POPULAR ATTRACTIONS GET DISABLED
Some enclosures in the park may bring about a great deal of appeal to your guests, should the attractions that bring that appeal get disabled, then you are at risk of losing star ratings fast. Simply navigate to the disabled attractions in your park to reboot them once more so as to not suffer from the sudden loss in star rating.
5) DINOSAURS GETTING TRANQUILIZED
With the new ability to wake up dinosaurs with stimulants, I could see a new form of sabotage that would have some of the dinosaurs tranquilized. Unlike most diseased dinosaurs, tranquilized dinosaurs would be completely immobilized for a brief period, would garner no appeal to your park, and could be vulnerable to predation. As a form of Sabotage, scientists could have some dinosaurs in the park tranquilized, in which the player could get to the ACU copter and stimulate them from their tranquilized state, preventing any harm to the dinosaurs or park appeal.
6) DINOSAURS TO BE TAKEN AWAY FROM THE PARK
This is an advanced version of the previous sabotage. This sabotage would have a handful of dinosaurs (1-5) tranquilized in the park, but the player has 2-5 minutes to wake them up with stimulants before they get picked up by outside transportation helicopters and taken out of the park.
This form of sabotage should be similar to the repo man in The Sims, in which the player may lose some of the most valuable assets of the park due to burning out their staff. The difference here is that with the ACU helicopter, the player has the means to wake up the tranquilized dinosaurs before they get taken away. This would also have players prioritizing which dinosaurs to save if time is limited and if they are not able to reach all of the tranquilized dinosaurs in time.
7) MONEY GETS STOLEN / SUED
A simple but effective form of sabotage. If the player has been negating the needs of their staff for so long, then the simple act of losing money should be a possibility. This is to counter having staff overworked for a huge project with little care for their rest. If you had been saving up for that Indominous Rex project after having your staff tire themselves out with fossil expeditions and research with no breaks, then there is the possibility that your savings would have a notable deduction, a long-term consequence for short-term gain.
The amount of money could vary on how agitated your staff are, but it could be anywhere from 1-5 million dollars. Either a small expense to pay in an established park or the final nail in the coffin for a struggling park.
8) CONSTRUCTION STRIKE
For a few minutes, the player would have no means to build or repair anything in the park. This would make for a disaster situation depending on what is needed to be constructed when this sabotage is in effect. Best-case scenario, the temporary disability to construct or repair anything while the park is in a peaceful state could allow the player to take a break from park building and focus on research, expeditions, or going around and appreciating their current establishment.
9) STOLEN GENOMES
A Jurassic Park moment was when Dennis Nedry would steal dinosaur genomes from Ingen to give to Biosyn and one that could work in JWE2. If staff gets agitated for so long, there is the risk of some of the dinosaur genomes being stolen. In order to get them back, the player has to pay the expenses needed to rebuild the genome lost, which would vary depending on the stolen genome's species.
A more involved method is to have the genomes hidden somewhere in the park for collection, in which the player could get on the ranger vehicle and attempt to find the hidden asset, which could be anywhere in the park, from guest pathways or even the enclosures of the park's apex predators. Find the missing genomes, and you get access to those dinosaurs in the incubation lab again.
10) STOLEN DIGSITE PERMITS
As written on the tin, certain digsites would be temporarily disabled until permits could be restored again. This could be annoying if players are aiming to complete a dinosaur genome or aim for a new attraction, but it could be a fun divergent to have players try out other dinosaurs they would otherwise not incubate in their parks if a new attraction is needed as soon as possible.
---------------
The more variety of sabotage this game has, the less predictable the consequences would be, challenging the player further when sabotage would occur to the park. Most of the ones I shared above would often disable park growth in an area for a temporary period of time, damaging the park's security and appeal, or loss of assets and resources which the player could prevent or workaround. I see sabotage as a damage control mini-game or setback for this business sim, and being able to work around multiple forms of sabotage would often be rewarding when attempting to reach a 5-star park.
