Failed Strategy?

[GodrikUnderscore]

So, I have failed twice now at the San Diego Chaos Theory scenario. What happens is, I spend 10 plus hours grooming my park - successfully so I might add.

Twice now have my hours long efforts been destroyed within a matter of seconds. The first time around I have about 2mil in my account when a storm swept in. As we know you lose money during a storm, which is fine since that is what should happen. My money was quickly depleted before the storm was even over leaving me with nothing to repair the remaining damaged buildings. This drove my park rating down and eventually I had to restart the scenario since there was no way of getting back on track. No income, no money, no point to continue, right?

The second scenario, I again had 2-3 mil saved up and was working on my park's power distribution when one of the repeater stations was suddenly without power. The thing with the repeater stations is that you need to daisy-chain them carefully one by one to make sure they are drawing power. Once the daisy chain is "broken", you have to re-do ALL of the repeater stations in order to regain power. Well, before I knew it my resources were again depleted (due to no power to certain areas my income went into the negative) with no way to get back on track.

My gripe is, you spend hours building a park only for everything to be wiped out within only a few mins with no way of rescuing the park. I am quite sure that this cannot be the intended game design, that you risk losing EVERYTHING due to a storm or in the case of the repeater stations, trying to add additional repeater stations.

What is the trick here and what am I missing? I refuse to believe that this is intended and by design. And if it is by design, it's a poor design that allows hours and hours of gameplay to be completely wiped out due to a small issue that could easily be fixed if you didn't run out of cash so quick.

 

[Professor_Oak]

When you get the message of an incoming storm, pause the game. Open shelters. deactivate every single one of your amenities (Food, Drink, Presents). let the game continue. This is really effective, although pretty tedious. Concerning the "not intended" part of you comment I like to remind you that this is the same team that thought small wounds and curable diseases should require another manual command for the medi to heal the dinosaurs.

 

[LordTrilobite]

Maybe save when you get a storm warning so you don't have to start over.

And yes it can be quite hard. I had a bunch of close calls and negative money balance. Firing a bunch of scientists gave me enough income to climb out of the hole after the storm.

 

[Aramus418]

Operating costs start to stack up late game. I've only really ever encountered the kind of trouble with storms a lot of people complain of when I was on SW USA. On that map, I was making a series of mini parks in each open area; a paddock, one of each guest building, and a monorail station to connect them all. I was making a tidy 300-400K profit, but my underlying operating costs were really high, so when a storm comes even with advanced warning and good bunker coverage I was losing millions in repairs and operating costs while my little money makers are hunkered in the bunkers.

My suggestion is to take a good look at your wider park design philosophy for the long game. Decide early where a centralized mainstreet is going to go and upgrade the shops there as you go, and only put small/medium shops in outlying areas when strictly necessary. 1 large shop serves as many people and makes as much profit as 2 mediums, but less operating cost and power needs. Also, if the area only needs a small shop, don't place a large or medium: it's better to let people be a little over crowded or underserved, than to have a bunch of half-full shops. One last thing: use internal modules practically, pay attention to what will maximize your profits, and recognize that in some situations maximum profit comes from not placing another module at all.

I haven't tried it myself yet, but if your still having trouble you might try deactivating your shops same time you pause and open the shelters: this 'should' cut down those operating costs while the storm blows over.

Oh! and pay attention to the hud during the storm, close shelters and reopen shops as soon as that hurricane emblem disappears, regardless of the apparent weather (there's a delay between the start/stop of official storm conditions and apparent weather in game).

 

[Jens Erik]

What is the trick here and what am I missing?

When you get a storm warning, immediately open up your Shelters so your guests are safe. It's also a good idea to tranquilise your more dangerous carnivores so they don't escape. Finally, you should keep a Ranger team or two on hand to repair anything that may need repairing.

My suggestion is to take a good look at your wider park design philosophy for the long game. Decide early where a centralized mainstreet is going to go and upgrade the shops there as you go, and only put small/medium shops in outlying areas when strictly necessary. 1 large shop serves as many people and makes as much profit as 2 mediums, but less operating cost and power needs. Also, if the area only needs a small shop, don't place a large or medium: it's better to let people be a little over crowded or underserved, than to have a bunch of half-full shops. One last thing: use internal modules practically, pay attention to what will maximize your profits, and recognize that in some situations maximum profit comes from not placing another module at all.

This is also a very good tip!

 

[Leftthisplacebehind477544678865]

The sandstorms turn your power off every time, so make sure you have backup generators by your important infrastructure so all your stuff doesn't lose power. Backup generators don't empty if everything in their radius is powered by a substation, so they'll only turn on in emergencies. There's literally no downside except a little bit of space and money to put backup generators everywhere.

Also, get the highest level fence as soon as possible. It can't lose power when it doesn't use power, and very few dinosaurs can escape from it.

 

[James4125]

Honestly I'd recommend not using repeater stations at all.
The pylons may be ugly but at least with a large substation you don't need one every 10 metres and unlike repeaters you can at least remove unnecessary ones without shutting down others.

 

[PCMR4Life]

I had to start over at least once because of the game on the JP Choas Theory scenario. It was actually two times I had to start over, but the first time was my fault because I messed around and didn't play the right way apparently. The second time I had to start over because a storm my park while I was low on funds and basically destroyed me financially and I got a bunch of sick dinosaurs at the same time. I couldn't afford to do anything to fix my park up. What I did was I just reloaded a save and the storm came through again and caused no damage. Basically, I got lucky with the storm RNG and that's how I got to where I am today. I finished the JP CT scenario. I am still unlocking things and doing expeditions.

The JP Chaos Theory scenario is rated 2/5 stars for difficulty but even BestInSlot said it's more like a 4/5. It's more difficult than it should be. BIS said it's most likely cause they wanted people to play them in a certain order. If people had seen that the JP scenario was a 4/5 they would have chosen the easiest scenario first.

I think BestInSlot said the TLW scenario is pretty accurate in the difficulty rating.

Go and watch some tutorials on the game and the scenarios. I suggest BestInSlot because that's who I watched. Watch how he plays the scenarios. You can pick up hints and tips.

But there are issues with the game though. The JP Chaos Theory needs a difficulty adjustment. I also think the economy of the game needs a slight adjustment as well.

 

[GodrikUnderscore]

Thanks for all the replies and all the help!

i have decided to put the game on hold for the time being, at least until things have matured a bit via some patches, especially the strategy aspect.

 

[Slowpokeking]

Also close the shelters as soon as the storm stops.

 

[Slowpokeking]

I really suggest to finish all the challenges in easy mode, then try Chaos Theory, you will find most of them are very simple.

 

[Mo0ze]

1. Step one change autosave to every 20 min. By the time you realized you are screwed the game already autosaved you into the death spiral.
2. You have to keep about 1-2 million on hand at all times because that's apparently how this game is balanced. I'm tempted to make a big post about this because money and time balance are really hurting the fun aspects of this game.

DEVS SOLVE THIS BY : Allowing us to fix buildings while in debt! This will save many games from turning into unsolvable losses that result in us quitting and having to reload by allowing us to take further financial loss to potentially right this ship. In your last game we could do this, or sell fossils individually with out spending money. We can't do either of these things in this game.

 

[PCMR4Life]

I just made it through the San Diego Chaos Theory scenario the other day. It took me about 16 hours, but I did it. I enjoyed it actually and it was fun. It was less difficult than the JP Chaos Theory scenario. I didn't even really use the map expansions much at all except for a big enclosure off the side of the entrance with some Brachis and Stegos in it.

I finished the JP3 scenario last night in about an hour and 12 minutes. It was ok and I had no issues. That would have to be the easiest one so far. Though it had nothing to do with JP3 except for the Easter eggs. So far, it's three what if scenarios and 2 scenarios that just follow the post JP3 JW universe lore. There wasn't much chaos in the JP3 scenario. Not complaining cause after going through the JP scenario I kind of welcomed some fun breezy gameplay where I got to deal with some dinosaurs. The JP3 scenario reminded me of the campaign, which was short but fun.

I never had any issues with money in the San Diego scenario and I completed nearly all the research. I had made about 50 million or so before the Two starter Rex's had died. I am actually surprised that people are having issues with the TLW Scenario. It's probably the scenario with the most accurate difficulty rating.

The fact that I found the San Diego scenario so easy and the JP scenario so difficult means there is something really wrong with that scenario or something. I am not the only one either. Even YouTubers said it was difficult and the difficulty rating is not accurate at all. I did nothing different in the TLW scenario. I built enclosures put dinosaurs in them and put shops near the viewing galleries. I made plenty of money. I used mostly small shops though.

Though early on my profit was high and well above operation costs. But near the end my operating costs went well above profit and money kind of slowed down. But I had to do certain things like research and so on. It still wasn't an issue. My guess is that the cost of operation for certain things needs to be reduced a bit maybe.

I ditched the backup generators as soon as I could as well. I only had one in my San Diego park and it was near some main operation buildings.

 

[Aramus418]

Yea, If you want to just sit back and enjoy the dinos without having to worry about anything just play JP3 until it opens up the rest of the map, then stop doing missions and you can just drive around and watch the wild dinos do their thing.

 

[GodrikUnderscore]

Yea, If you want to just sit back and enjoy the dinos without having to worry about anything just play JP3 until it opens up the rest of the map, then stop doing missions and you can just drive around and watch the wild dinos do their thing.

What I want is a realistic challenge. Not something that sabotages your careful planning on a whim without recourse. As for sandbox mode, I wont play it because there is nothing to research and there is no challenge.

This game urgently needs a CUSTOM GAME

I'm so glad to read that I'm not the only one who feels the same way. I finished the game the day before yesterday. I've been playing through the campaign and Chaos Theory a while ago, but now I've finally unlocked all the skins in challenge mode, unlocked all the dinosaurs for sandbox mode...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[micryda]

U guys should really use the photo function just make a few pictures of your dinos that saved my ass a few times