Hey there!
So I know I'm going on a slippery slope talking about this as DLCs are massively hated across the video game community and if there were to be PC scenery DLCs for 50e per item, I wouldn't want to be remembered as the guy who talked about this on the forum and supported the idea.
However, when looking at Planet Coaster I see a game that is made for DLCs. STOP! Don't insult me, let me explain!
WHAT IS A DLC?
We all know DLC means Downloadable Content. Yet it is quite unclear what people expect from DLCs. The hate regarding them has been really justified in the recent years as they were basically a massive scam. 15euros for a few maps in multiplayer shooter games, minor skin/color changes in other games and most importantly, items that had to be in the base game that were sold later in DLCs in order to make more money.
DLCs can be great though! When they started the point of a DLC was to replace expansion packs in a logical way. Instead of spending 50 euros on the newest expansion to your favorite game, you could now pick and choose what you wanted to buy, thus allowing you to spend only half as much as the expansion costs for half the content. If used like this, DLCs are a great component to a game which allow the developper to support their games post-release for a long time! Not to mention that you don't have to walk to a nearby store to buy it or wait for the CD to arrive ( [mouth shut] )
WHY DLCs IN PLANET COASTER?
Assuming we get UGC, there is nothing we won't be able to create. Every possible piece of scenery will be made by this ever growing community who, as we've seen in the past few weeks, doesn't lack in creativity. So it seems obvious that Frontier, even if they wanted to, would have a hard time selling specific scenery items on their stores as they would be overshadowed by a way bigger catalogue of FREE community made scenery items.
Now let's take a quick look back at RCT3, the 2 new expansion packs had as a focus center water parks and zoos. This gives us quite a clear image of how Frontier can improve upon the game after its release in a way that the community can't (or at least almost can't) : by improving the gameplay.
The topic that gave me the idea to write this post was the one about the pre-show areas : the little interactive events you can have during the queue line of your attractions. It's a great idea that i'd really love to have, but let's be honest, we won't see it in the game on release. This is no problem to me as, just in its alpha, Frontier has already massively improved upon the last game of this genre they created (RCT3) and there are lots of new things to still be implemented that have me excited (Dark rides anyone? [yesnod] )
Then I came up with at least dozen of other small ideas like the pre-show areas and so this is my suggestion:
MY SUGGESTION
What if Frontier released a few regular DLCs for a reasonable price (I'll let you judge what that is, I'm already being looked at weirdly for supporting DLCs) that improved specific gameplay mechanics and added in a dozen items linked with this gameplay mechanic.
To show you how far this can go, here is a list of some possible mechanics we could get if we used such a system:
-Pre-shows
-fastpass
-simulator editor
-water parks
-animals
-shop editor
-show editor
-fireworks editor
-light sequence editor
-hotels
-flat rides editor
-(...) I'll let you come up with the rest of the list
As you can see, there are so many possibilities and all of these would drastically improve the gameplay and allow us to also have a strong post-release support.
I know the game won't be released until the end of 2016 but hey, this was in the back of my head and I can't get myself to work anyway, so I might as well throw this here on the forums.
Tell me what you think
Cheers!
EDIT : Quick insta edit -> I'm in no way linked to Frontier and I'm not trying to improve their revenues! I'm just trying to look at a win-win solution where we would get all the things we want in the game while still rewarding Frontier for what they've given us. Saying that all of this stuff should be added in free patches post-release would be idealistic. The game currently costs about 30 euros in pre-order and if the alpha were to release right now, it would be worth that money. So for that price, none of us should be expecting post-release patches for anything else than bug-fixing.
So I know I'm going on a slippery slope talking about this as DLCs are massively hated across the video game community and if there were to be PC scenery DLCs for 50e per item, I wouldn't want to be remembered as the guy who talked about this on the forum and supported the idea.
However, when looking at Planet Coaster I see a game that is made for DLCs. STOP! Don't insult me, let me explain!
WHAT IS A DLC?
We all know DLC means Downloadable Content. Yet it is quite unclear what people expect from DLCs. The hate regarding them has been really justified in the recent years as they were basically a massive scam. 15euros for a few maps in multiplayer shooter games, minor skin/color changes in other games and most importantly, items that had to be in the base game that were sold later in DLCs in order to make more money.
DLCs can be great though! When they started the point of a DLC was to replace expansion packs in a logical way. Instead of spending 50 euros on the newest expansion to your favorite game, you could now pick and choose what you wanted to buy, thus allowing you to spend only half as much as the expansion costs for half the content. If used like this, DLCs are a great component to a game which allow the developper to support their games post-release for a long time! Not to mention that you don't have to walk to a nearby store to buy it or wait for the CD to arrive ( [mouth shut] )
WHY DLCs IN PLANET COASTER?
Assuming we get UGC, there is nothing we won't be able to create. Every possible piece of scenery will be made by this ever growing community who, as we've seen in the past few weeks, doesn't lack in creativity. So it seems obvious that Frontier, even if they wanted to, would have a hard time selling specific scenery items on their stores as they would be overshadowed by a way bigger catalogue of FREE community made scenery items.
Now let's take a quick look back at RCT3, the 2 new expansion packs had as a focus center water parks and zoos. This gives us quite a clear image of how Frontier can improve upon the game after its release in a way that the community can't (or at least almost can't) : by improving the gameplay.
The topic that gave me the idea to write this post was the one about the pre-show areas : the little interactive events you can have during the queue line of your attractions. It's a great idea that i'd really love to have, but let's be honest, we won't see it in the game on release. This is no problem to me as, just in its alpha, Frontier has already massively improved upon the last game of this genre they created (RCT3) and there are lots of new things to still be implemented that have me excited (Dark rides anyone? [yesnod] )
Then I came up with at least dozen of other small ideas like the pre-show areas and so this is my suggestion:
MY SUGGESTION
What if Frontier released a few regular DLCs for a reasonable price (I'll let you judge what that is, I'm already being looked at weirdly for supporting DLCs) that improved specific gameplay mechanics and added in a dozen items linked with this gameplay mechanic.
To show you how far this can go, here is a list of some possible mechanics we could get if we used such a system:
-Pre-shows
-fastpass
-simulator editor
-water parks
-animals
-shop editor
-show editor
-fireworks editor
-light sequence editor
-hotels
-flat rides editor
-(...) I'll let you come up with the rest of the list
As you can see, there are so many possibilities and all of these would drastically improve the gameplay and allow us to also have a strong post-release support.
I know the game won't be released until the end of 2016 but hey, this was in the back of my head and I can't get myself to work anyway, so I might as well throw this here on the forums.
Tell me what you think
Cheers!
EDIT : Quick insta edit -> I'm in no way linked to Frontier and I'm not trying to improve their revenues! I'm just trying to look at a win-win solution where we would get all the things we want in the game while still rewarding Frontier for what they've given us. Saying that all of this stuff should be added in free patches post-release would be idealistic. The game currently costs about 30 euros in pre-order and if the alpha were to release right now, it would be worth that money. So for that price, none of us should be expecting post-release patches for anything else than bug-fixing.
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