Curious: Sandbox or Challenge?

[MrOsterman]

So I'm nearing the end of my first park in Challenge mode. Around the time I finished my second "zone" in the park I'd hit a nice pace of making money every month and by letting the game run while I designed the next area's buildings and coasters, money just came in at a perfectly fine pace that I was always above the 400k mark on cash. One thing I really ~like~ about making a park is trying to keep it all profitable, keep guests happy, etc.

I'm prepping to start a new park and I think I'd like to try to do a full theme park on a single goal, like "Potter-Verse". But I've sat for a while unsure between sandbox mode and challenge. I don't really want unlimited cash and I don't ~mind~ research, but at the same time if I make everything fit neatly I'm not sure I want to be going back later to add in flat rides, or waiting to research up the Monorail (which felt really late for me).

Anyway, that's got me curious, what is everyone's preferred mode for this goal of "A park with a vision"? Challenge or Sandbox?

 

[HeatherG]

So I'm nearing the end of my first park in Challenge mode. Around the time I finished my second "zone" in the park I'd hit a nice pace of making money every month and by letting the game run while I designed the next area's buildings and coasters, money just came in at a perfectly fine pace that I was always above the 400k mark on cash. One thing I really ~like~ about making a park is trying to keep it all profitable, keep guests happy, etc.

Challenge or Sandbox?

Challenge or Scenario is how I play. I dont use Sandbox. I do it the same as you described. I dont want unlimited money. I have to have something to accomplish. It’s not just about building a park.

 

[KickAir8p]

. . . One thing I really ~like~ about making a park is trying to keep it all profitable, keep guests happy, etc.

I'm prepping to start a new park and I think I'd like to try to do a full theme park on a single goal, like "Potter-Verse". But I've sat for a while unsure between sandbox mode and challenge. I don't really want unlimited cash and I don't ~mind~ research, but at the same time if I make everything fit neatly I'm not sure I want to be going back later to add in flat rides, or waiting to research up the Monorail (which felt really late for me).

Anyway, that's got me curious, what is everyone's preferred mode for this goal of "A park with a vision"? Challenge or Sandbox?

I'd say neither, you want to make your own custom scenario in the Scenario Editor and play it.

Is there an existing Career scenario that comes close to fitting the bill? Then make a beginning save of it and load it into the Scenario Editor -- look at the terrain types, you may not want the defaults. In the Research Tab move everything into the Unlocked box (there's a check-spot for selecting-all). You probably want the most space possible (even if you don't care now, best to be prepared) so in the Park tab hit the Edit Park Dimensions button and max the numbers.

This might be a good time to consider your spawn-point options -- the art-devs always put those outside the park, but you don't have to, just make sure there's a park entrance gate on the path between the spawnpoint and the rest of the park.

Take a look at the Finance tab -- the max starting money you can give yourself is $100,000.00 -- take a look at the possible loans too. In the Marketing tab you can allow yourself up to 10 concurrent campaigns at a time (not that I recommend running that many, but again with the be preppared).

The Guests tab is particularly interesting, especially the Guest Traits side -- I put it on 100% and tweak the spawn chances to what I'd like. Also look at the Staff tab -- you may not want to use the staff features, but I find that turning them off doesn't turn off staff problems, so at least set everything to Easy before you turn them off, and make sure Allow the Player to toggle Staff Features is checked when you're done. And this is a Potterverse, so you might want to adjust the demographics to favor families.

Zoom out and use the Multi Selection tool to select everything (you'll probably have to do this several times in sections, overlap is fine), then unlock everything (lock it and then unlock it, that works). The spawn points will remain locked when you play, sorry. Now's a good time to set up what you want at the start, including starting terrain.

Have fun! [up]

 

[cerealfruitcakes]

I don't like sandbox, I like dealing with money. Challenge mode for me! My long term goal for parks is to make it profitable with free rides/park entry price. I have been messing around in the scenario editor since there are a lot of options to choose from to really customize the heck out of it. Some of the settings carry over into challenge mode when converting but not everything and I'm still figuring out which (loans don't, guest traits do, some staff features, starting funds, research doesn't, etc).

It would be cool if we could have a custom settings for challenge mode that takes all the settings you set up in scenario mode.

 

[Fishook]

I used to be a pure scenario person, but now I rotate alternatively between sandbox and scenarios. I have started to enjoy building and creating my own building's and coasters purely by scratch and just using the workshop for inspiration.

I found myself less likely to utilise the more advance options and DLC when just playing the scenario's , so that why I started playing sandbox to create nice looking parks you just to have a change of pace. I haven't touched the scenario editor due to time restrictions, and other games.

 

[aDOLPHINjoy18]

Prefer Sandbox.

Sandbox lets you openly be creative a lot easier than having an obstacle or challenge with money. I can pay all my staff well which makes them happy. I can have extra staff too which helps with morale and the work.

While I enjoy a challenge sometimes in games, I prefer the easy way. The time it takes to create a good park from scratch is enough of a challenge as it is. However for instance with Minecraft, I have heaps of legit survival no creative mode no host privileges worlds, yet only like 2 or 3 creative worlds. And most of my friends on Xbox know I'm a good builder for a survival mode. I'm waiting for Microsoft to release their super duper graphics pack for Xbox One X cause I'm sick of playing vanilla which is what the Windows 10 version is like too, vanilla graphics. They do have some packs, I like the greek mythology and city modern pack. It's the same for cities skylines and the sims 4, mainly play those in sandbox mode. Also played Final Fantasy XIII and that is like a 40+ hour game and that's just the main story. I conquered it within 5 months of getting it due to my schedule.

 

[lilibat]

I like building stuff so I mostly do sandbox, but I do have a challenge park I noodle with now and then. I have never touched career mode at all.

 

[Captainjelle1]

Why are there so little scenario's? Sure there are 900 on the workshop but i want nice approved ones by Planet Coaster! They themselves have only created a few of them and those aren't the best scenarios i have to say. And why in heavens sake are there challenge's? Their the same as scenario's but only different and you don't have sense of completion by playing those ones.

Is Planet Coaster alive still at this very moment? My god i wish they where more active... Sure they've created a nice game i love the sandbox but the rest is crap and they don't bother anymore that's what i think!

I WANT approved scenarios with sense of completion! Weekly approved custom scenario's and also new ones by Planet coaster themselves.... Grrrr

 

[Crowdpleaser]

Is Planet Coaster alive still at this very moment? My god i wish they where more active... Sure they've created a nice game i love the sandbox but the rest is crap and they don't bother anymore that's what i think!
I WANT approved scenarios with sense of completion! Weekly approved custom scenario's and also new ones by Planet coaster themselves.... Grrrr

The Rest is crap? oO Alright then. If you say so. About the Scenarios: No i don't think Frontier will "approve" any of the Workshop creations. Will there be more Frontier Scenarios? I don't know. The Community is capable of doing pretty awesome stuff, so why not stick with those Scenarios on the Workshop? Because Frontier didn't make them? By that Logic you shouldn't download any User created stuff from the Workshop then...

 

[Citytrader]

As a builder I prefer sandbox. It allows all the freedom you want.

Having said that, I dropped a Sandbox park into the Scenario Editor, but I would like to take it back to Sandbox. I'm probably just missing something silly, but I can't seem to re-save the park as a Sandbox. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Fishook]

Why are there so little scenario's? Sure there are 900 on the workshop but i want nice approved ones by Planet Coaster! They themselves have only created a few of them and those aren't the best scenarios i have to say. And why in heavens sake are there challenge's? Their the same as scenario's but only different and you don't have sense of completion by playing those ones.

Is Planet Coaster alive still at this very moment? My god i wish they where more active... Sure they've created a nice game i love the sandbox but the rest is crap and they don't bother anymore that's what i think!

I WANT approved scenarios with sense of completion! Weekly approved custom scenario's and also new ones by Planet coaster themselves.... Grrrr[/QUOTE

I thought the same way a couple of months ago, but I can guarantee that a least 10% of the senarios on the workshop are as similar to Frontier’s efforts, as there are some very talented people out there. You just need to search for them. Offfical/approved take time to develop and play test them, so I only think you are going more official ones when they add major gameplay updates to showcase the features.

I haven’t played any custom scenarios yet, but I have downloaded loads which look interesting and have some sort of backstory for to them. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I generally dislike coaster building objectives but other people love them, it’s getting the right balance

 

[Captainjelle1]

Fishook that's a very nice suggestion... I'm gonna look out for those 10%!
I only wish Planet Coaster took some effort to put those in the limelight by giving them a spot on the opening screen! The campaign/scenario's those by PC themselves are not polished and should make place for those created by the community who are really cool and easy to grasp. I regret my lash out to be honest but i can't all be praise her on the forums. Again thanks for the uplifting post!

 

[wowman]

I only play in the sand[wacky]box...

 

[rockhpi]

If I want to make something artistic (like your Potter theme), then I play in Sandbox. I'm currently making an Avengers-themed park. I want to be able to build what I think is cool, not what I can afford.

If I want to play to run an actual park, then I play challenge and ignore the goals. But what I'd really love (and it sounds a bit like what you're describing) is Sandbox mode with finances intact. So I don't have to research (in the real world, all of these things are invented), I have a huge plot of land and I want to build a park that makes money. It can be fun waiting for your money to get high enough to build that new project.

 

[MrOsterman]

So here's what I've gotten out of my experiment in the Potter Verse.

Challenge is a decent way to make you balance expansion vs profits, watching guest happiness and how much money in their pockets. Doing that while still trying to max out ride prestige, and keep the park viable is a lot of fun.

But there are two things I'm hitting:

1) Research. All the cool stuff is automatically at the back parts of my park because I researched them later. No matter how cool something might have been to have in the front Diagon Alley but I didn't research it until later. Even the flight around Hogwarts was something I was ready to build but I didn't have any launching coasters yet.

2) At current difficulty, the profitability engine makes money a non issue. Seems once I get to a certain sweet spot I don't even look at my income anymore. I've got profits nearly every month and it can take me a few game months to design a new ride so, it almost pays for it self while I develop and test.

 

[Asteroidcrusher]

Sandbox.
[big grin]