Features from Planet Zoo

Its such a shame Planet Zoo is a standalone game and not an expansion. Will PlanCo be getting any of the new features?
  • Weather (whats different about PlaZoo that it can work there but not here?)
  • Shops with interiors
  • Easier/smoother path placing tools
  • Staff only paths
  • Spline based walls or "click+drag" fence tool
  • Variety of Employee appearances
  • More guest types
  • Improved AI, performance, and stability
Transfer-ability:
  • Seems like such a waste if blueprints cant be compatible, Especially all the scenery
  • DLC scenery kits should be shared, like Spooky/Adventure/etc stuff should transfer seamlessly to PlaZo
  • Very sad that we have to give up so much to gain a few new features, since were basically starting all scenery over from scratch even though its essentially the same game and same engine
Will we see updates become less frequent for PlanCo? will you focus exclusively on updating Plazo until you announce a Planco sequel?
 
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Joël

Volunteer Moderator
Bo replied to this question earlier, here’s her reply;


Hello!
It's unlikely features that we'll see in Planet Zoo come to Planet Coaster. It's a different/improved iteration of our Cobra engine and we've learned so much technology-wise with our previous games, so Planet Zoo certainly benefits from all that knowledge. However, making retroactive changes is not likely at all.
 
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Again this discussion? Why can't people accept the fact PlanetZoo is a stand alone game and not a PlanCo extension/DLC. Also it is been said a lot of times Planco wont be neglected, there still will updates/DLCs.
 
Again this discussion? Why can't people accept the fact PlanetZoo is a stand alone game and not a PlanCo extension/DLC. Also it is been said a lot of times Planco wont be neglected, there still will updates/DLCs.
I think this is more around the fact that PlanetZoo is clearly an offshoot from PlanCo and a lot of players are trying to understand what the "under the hood" differences are to weigh up their chances of seeing PlanetZoo stuff (whatever form that could take) in PlanetCoaster before committing to buying PlanetZoo. Be patient with these people as they aren't the ones that will just blindly jump over because it is a shiny new game.

As for PlanCo, I firmly believe that it is now at "end of life" and will be seeing news of PlanCo2 or a suitable sequel sometime in 2020... Based on the reduction of streams, the ramping up of PlanetZoo activities and lack of any real tangible news, PlanCo is now in run-off and I think that the best we will now see would be feature testing for future titles, like we have seen with some elements of PlanCo for PlanZoo (for example, getting weather as particle effects in PlanCo1 that paved the way for weather in PlanZoo). The best we will see are some filler DLC's to round off the offering - but I don't think Frontier will want to leave the coaster park game gap open for too long - so expect PC2 or something "next" soon.
 
I firmly believe that it is now at "end of life" and will be seeing news of PlanCo2 or a suitable sequel sometime in 2020
As much as I'd like that, I doubt it will happen that soon. The devs will push PlanCo and PlanZo for the next couple years before announcing a new sequel to sell more DLCs. I would be very surprised if they even decide to do a PlanCo2 by 2021 and not someother standalone game like PlanetLagoon or PlanetHotel or something, because all the DLC for PlanCo will become worthless if they make a PlanCo2 that doesnt support backwards compatibility. The DLC is my biggest problem with this game, and the fact that new games like PlanZo are not bc(even with basic scenery) means the $100+ pricetag of DLC is a complete ripoff, especially since theres going to be even more DLC for PlanZo

It also makes no sense that something as simple as a new style/appearance of employee cant be added into PlanCo. They added stuff to the game for the past 3 years, but now suddenly they hit a road block that requires a completely new edition of the engine?? I dont believe that for one second. I mean maybe I can understand animals not being in PlanCo, but basic game mechanics being neglected (like everybody asking for staff paths for years) makes me feel like the devs are afraid to update PlanCo because the game doesnt run quite as smoothly as most people would like and if they keep adding more stuff its only going to hurt performance that much more. Which is pretty lame considering the way this game was designed and its excessive DLC pricing

Why can't people accept the fact PlanetZoo is a stand alone game and not a PlanCo extension/DLC
Im not asking for the new scenarios or even animals to be in PlanCo, but there is no explanation for why a simple tree or rock cant be bc with both games other than to make us spend more on DLC... and what about the TMT will that be re-released for PlanZo with no support for the work people have done in PlanCo? it seems like the devs hit a road block with PlanCo, which is why they need to start over :(
 
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Its such a shame Planet Zoo is a standalone game and not an expansion. Will PlanCo be getting any of the new features?
  • Weather (whats different about PlaZoo that it can work there but not here?)
  • Shops with interiors
  • Easier/smoother path placing tools
  • Staff only paths
  • Spline based walls or "click+drag" fence tool
  • Variety of Employee appearances
  • More guest types
  • Improved AI, performance, and stability
Transfer-ability:
  • Seems like such a waste if blueprints cant be compatible, Especially all the scenery
  • DLC scenery kits should be shared, like Spooky/Adventure/etc stuff should transfer seamlessly to PlaZo
  • Very sad that we have to give up so much to gain a few new features, since were basically starting all scenery over from scratch even though its essentially the same game and same engine
Will we see updates become less frequent for PlanCo? will you focus exclusively on updating Plazo until you announce a Planco sequel?

It is possible that these things and more might show up in the rumored Planet Coaster 2.
 
i have a simple answer for all planet coaster fans who want to see a much more detailed version like this asked feautures...

the Cobra Engine in Planet Coaster 2 will have ALL asked features and much more... for sure .. so why we dont play planet zoo, testing the new stuff and are happy to see this soon in an updated pc2 version ;)
 
@ joeee & SanctusLupus -

first of all, wheres the proof to these rumors? they havent even released Plazoo yet, I doubt we will see planco2 before 2022, maybe winter of 2021 but thats pushing it

second of all, if current DLC will be compatible in planco2 then whats the point of making a new game and not just updating planco1 or releasing a big DLC expansion pack? If planco2 can share DLC then why cant plazoo?
 
@ joeee & SanctusLupus -

first of all, wheres the proof to these rumors? they havent even released Plazoo yet, I doubt we will see planco2 before 2022, maybe winter of 2021 but thats pushing it

second of all, if current DLC will be compatible in planco2 then whats the point of making a new game and not just updating planco1 or releasing a big DLC expansion pack? If planco2 can share DLC then why cant plazoo?

Have you not heard of the "frontier developments roadmap leak"? If there is any creditibility to the leak. Then it is a possibility. If not, then so be it. However, we'll see soon enough in the near future.

There are plenty of possibilities of why they would take this action. Could be due to game engine upgrades, recourse the base code of the game for a refreshing take, moving into a different direction or expanding on the one they are on with greater freedom. Being able to put more into it then what is already standard and etc. Who knows, until such an announcement is made. It still stands as a quite possible outcome.
 
thats a lot of rumors... 2 strategy games Man vs Machine and Lego Star Wars, a sequel to JWE and a survival based JW game... all on top of planco2 and DLCs every few months? it says JWE2 will release 2021, but doesnt give any release dates for the other games, which proves my point that I said before which Planco2 wont release before 2022, because they still want to sell Planco1 DLC while they still can

its hard to believe rumors, i mean everybody knew planet zoo was planned back when planco first released, but it was also believed to be called Planet Safari back then. Would have been a cooler name, hopefully if they make a sequel it can be more like RCT3 with water parks and zoos combined with amusement parks all in one!

it still sucks that DLC isnt cross-compatible, but makes me very happy I didnt waste money on them because they are so overpriced, lol $100 for DLC and its not even compatible with future games using the same engine? I mean 90% of plazoo is the same engine but due to a few minor changes and we have to lose every single rock and tree from planco? i get if a game engine is vastly different but plazoo and planco are very much the same
 
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WingardiumLevicoaster

Volunteer Moderator
I expect the reason why, they may not retroactively add the features as there is too much risk to an established game to make fundamental engine changes, that would not harm existing save games, or blueprints etc. Planet Zoo does not have this risk.

Given the discussion about weather previously, this isn't a simple feature and was stated to not be possible in Planet Coaster. This suggests, they have had to architect the engine to achieve this. This might even mean they have had to change the way assets work, as we all know they are a hit on performance. Which would mean the blueprint compatibility would be a no no, even if the assets look the same, or they have reused the textures of Planco assets. This is all speculation, but it seems quite likely to me.

Also we already have shops with interiors. The buildings in Planet Zoo are fixed interiors, the same as the Planco shops (this was confirmed when I visited the Studio, but I thought it was clarified at E3). If you mean a customisable interior, I don't believe Planet Zoo has that.
 
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thats a lot of rumors... 2 strategy games Man vs Machine and Lego Star Wars, a sequel to JWE and a survival based JW game... all on top of planco2 and DLCs every few months? it says JWE2 will release 2021, but doesnt give any release dates for the other games, which proves my point that I said before which Planco2 wont release before 2022, because they still want to sell Planco1 DLC while they still can

its hard to believe rumors, i mean everybody knew planet zoo was planned back when planco first released, but it was also believed to be called Planet Safari back then. Would have been a cooler name, hopefully if they make a sequel it can be more like RCT3 with water parks and zoos combined with amusement parks all in one!

it still sucks that DLC isnt cross-compatible, but makes me very happy I didnt waste money on them because they are so overpriced, lol $100 for DLC and its not even compatible with future games using the same engine? I mean 90% of plazoo is the same engine but due to a few minor changes and we have to lose every single rock and tree from planco? i get if a game engine is vastly different but plazoo and planco are very much the same

That's why I said that if it is true, then this would be seen within the near future. If not then, we'll still see what happens.
 
there is too much risk to an established game to make fundamental engine changes, that would not harm existing save games, or blueprints

RCT2 and RCT3 both accepted blueprints from previous games, and they had actual expansion packs. City Skylines even allows players to import custom maps. But Planco feels like an unfinished game with tons of scenery DLCs slapped on to make it look like it has a lot to offer. The fact Planet Zoo or future Planet games wont be backward compatible is very disappointing, especially if the rumors of future games is true. I know its not confirmed but the rumors specifically state that Frontier is making JWE2 because they cant fix JWE1, once again I know its just a rumor but I feel like its actually Planco thats really messed up with, because of performance issues limiting the game and an over-saturation of scenery packs.

It basically feels like Planco has been one massive beta test for their future titles, and it makes sense that they would want to further increase revenue by selling more DLCs, but I cant help feeling like if there had been someway to design the DLCs differently to work with future titles, it would have made purchasing them that much more valuable. Like lets say Planco2 releases in 2022 with amazing hyper-realistic graphics, I wouldnt care if the older DLCs didnt look quite as nice we should still be able to use basic things such as rocks, plants, walls, etc., without having to repurchase new DLC. I would be able to accept it if certain rides were not compatible, but at least the basic scenery should be.

It just seems like they did not plan ahead properly, and considering the quite steep price for this series as a whole, I would have expected much better for this franchise. Like, I would have already pre-ordered Planet Zoo if it was an expansion or b/c, and I would certainly have purchased a water park add-on, but I never once purchased any DLC for this game cause I hate packs of random items and I hate that certain blueprints require a variety of DLCs, and I honestly think this game would be more popular today if it had proper expansions like RCT3 because sometimes too many selections to choose from can be overwhelming

I'm sure Planet Zoo will be extremely popular since its a different crowd from Planco, I don't plan on buying it but I am excited to see what people create in it, however I am more concerned with the future of Planco and what people will say when Planco2 is released with no b/c, because the ability to keep your old blueprints and transfer them to a newer/improved version is always a major selling point in games like this. Obviously, theres people around here that will disagree with me, but I think the majority of players who may agree with me gave up on this game a long time ago because of the direction Frontier took with the current DLC packs, which are not worth the constantly increasing $100 price tag on top of the base game

At this point, the only outcome I desire is that hopefully Planco2 has photo-realistic graphics and superior performance without requiring quantum computers to run the game, but I bet the only way would be with streaming and require a monthly subscription inorder to allow the game to reach a bigger audience with lower end PCs. Either way, I'll be waiting to spend anymore money on this franchise for a few years though, as I get enough enjoyment from just watching other peoples creations. It takes way too long to actually get anything done in this game because Frontier refuses to update their piece by piece building technology, and they rather put all their effort into over-complicated guest AI and terrain formations, instead of making a simple fun game with actual indepth gameplay. Its just too "artsy" for many people, and even some of the top designers have left the game cause its too time consuming. At least Planet Zoo seems to be adding more management features so that is a big improvement for the series, just too bad its in a standalone game.
 
Why is everyone so obsessed with bringing along their old blueprints?

I would start over in a heartbeat if it would mean Planet Coaster 2 on a vastly improved Cobra Engine without the frame rate issues.

If you already made the blueprints you know how you did it so recreating them is easy.
 
Why is everyone so obsessed with bringing along their old blueprints?
by "everyone" i assume you mean me, as most people who care left this game a long time ago. I believe i already answered your question in my previous post, but I'll try to summarize it in a simpler way for you.

#1 - its not just about "my" blueprints, its about the 200,000+ blueprints everybody has shared with the world

#2 - its also about the time wasted remaking the blueprints over, you really think people want to remake their creations in future games when they are nearly identical engines? yea Plazoo is an "updated" version of the engine, but it still plays exactly the same. If somebody wants to create a star wars themed zoo it really sucks having all those starwars blueprints in the workshop become unavailable (thats just one example, obviously theres many other themes well be losing)

#3 - will Plazoo have spooky or adventure themed DLC? I'd be pretty annoyed if the devs remake or re-release similar style DLCs with a separate price tag, but I assume they will try to do different things with Plazoo DLC (which will be fine) but still sucks were losing original themes

#4 - its not just about the blueprints, but the price of the DLC and the time we have to wait for new DLC to be made in future games such as Plazoo. imagine if all the current scenery items in Planco were available in Plazoo on day 1 of release, it would be amazing, and it might even cause people to purchase the DLC who originally wernt planning on it, but now the DLC is just a waste as people have no reason to buy it knowing it will be useless in future titles, and Im not talking about the people who suck up each DLC the day its released, Im talking about potential new buyers

#5 - As i said before, I could understand if certain rides were not compatible with future games, or if certain blueprints didnt work properly, like not all rides from RCT1/2 could be imported into RCT3 but at least it still offered the option for the majority of blueprints, but its a serious issue when simple objects such as rocks, plants, walls, etc., have to be sold as new DLC and/or a different TMT. its possible the devs release an upgraded TMT for future games, but we shouldnt have to remake all the old items over again.

#6 - if these things dont bother you, then great, spend over $100 on the current DLC knowing full well that it will be useless in future games, but it would make both games much more popular if Planet Zoo was at least partially compatible with some blueprints, scenery items or DLC from Planco. I know many people who dont care to have coasters in their zoos, or to make water parks of any kind, but water parks were probably the biggest request in this game, and there are people who would enjoy the option to combine their parks similar to how it worked in RCT3, but obviously thats not in the plans for this series which is a shame considering all the wasted potential. I guess will just have to wait another 15 years for a true successor to RCT3

#7 - obviously this series will continue to grow and be successful, but I cant help but think it could be way more popular if things were handled differently, but now Im just repeating myself at this point
 
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WingardiumLevicoaster

Volunteer Moderator
RCT2 and RCT3 both accepted blueprints from previous games, and they had actual expansion packs. City Skylines even allows players to import custom maps. But Planco feels like an unfinished game with tons of scenery DLCs slapped on to make it look like it has a lot to offer. The fact Planet Zoo or future Planet games wont be backward compatible is very disappointing, especially if the rumors of future games is true. I know its not confirmed but the rumors specifically state that Frontier is making JWE2 because they cant fix JWE1, once again I know its just a rumor but I feel like its actually Planco thats really messed up with, because of performance issues limiting the game and an over-saturation of scenery packs.

It basically feels like Planco has been one massive beta test for their future titles, and it makes sense that they would want to further increase revenue by selling more DLCs, but I cant help feeling like if there had been someway to design the DLCs differently to work with future titles, it would have made purchasing them that much more valuable. Like lets say Planco2 releases in 2022 with amazing hyper-realistic graphics, I wouldnt care if the older DLCs didnt look quite as nice we should still be able to use basic things such as rocks, plants, walls, etc., without having to repurchase new DLC. I would be able to accept it if certain rides were not compatible, but at least the basic scenery should be.

It just seems like they did not plan ahead properly, and considering the quite steep price for this series as a whole, I would have expected much better for this franchise. Like, I would have already pre-ordered Planet Zoo if it was an expansion or b/c, and I would certainly have purchased a water park add-on, but I never once purchased any DLC for this game cause I hate packs of random items and I hate that certain blueprints require a variety of DLCs, and I honestly think this game would be more popular today if it had proper expansions like RCT3 because sometimes too many selections to choose from can be overwhelming

Software development has got far more complex over the years and as Moore's Law has continued to apply to computing power, it also applies to the complexity and speed that software applications are developed to take advantage of this power. (Games are software after all, so I can be confident to believe that it is also the case there) https://www.webopedia.com/TERM/M/Moores_Law.html. Perhaps a dev might have the choice, of backwards compatibility or a new and better performing feature? Planet Zoo is going to bring us things they said were not possible with Planet Coaster. RCT2 was practically the same game as RCT1 with extra rides and scenarios and a few small enhancements, unlike Planet Zoo. I didn't realise blueprints were compatible from RCT2 to 3? Still, it doesn't mean that it's easily possible nowadays. I have been a software dev for almost 10 years and in that time so much has changed. It's pretty hard to keep up to be honest, but if you don't, it's not going to work on the latest hardware.

Though, we don't have any confirmation on these things and are just speculating, but I just want to stress, that normally there are very good reasons such decisions may be made. Things are not so simple.
 
Yea I get it, its been discussed many times on these forums before, but it doesnt change how I feel. Theres certain things about this game that are more complex, but theres things that are stuck in the past. The terrain tools are more advanced, but at a cost of time consumption, simplicity and occasional pathing glitches, because the dves chose to not include an optional grid for terrain. The guest AI is only slightly improved, at the cost of major performance issues. The piece by piece building system has some improvements, but I'd rather see a click+drag feature for walls before advanced rotation tools (I know others will disagree with me, but some people do agree with me).

For how "advanced" people like to claim Planco is, its really not that much different from RCT3... IMO i would even say RCT3 was a bigger jump from RCT2 in terms of going from 2D to 3D and especially compared to how similar Planco and Plazoo are, yet RCT3 was still b/c with older blueprints. I don't think saying the game is more advanced is a suffecient excuse for poor programming, with superior technology and superior knowledge the devs should have been able to keep the engine more stable, and planned ahead better. They had a 6 month beta and the ability to add features as they went, but it always felt like they rushed everything especially the campaign/scenarios, instead of making sure the engine would perform well for all players and not just for people who own supercomputers.

Its obvious this game wasnt as successful as it coulda been, its popularity has dwindled away, partly due to performance issues, partly due to certain toolsets not being simpler, and partly due to an overabundance of lackluster DLC. I know rumors are not facts, but the supposed rumors even state that Frontier acknowledges mistakes were made, but whats important is how they handle them moving forward. Just because graphics are improved, doesnt mean the engine should have to suffer.

Now that Planco has been put into "maintenance mode" and will get less updates, the devs should focus on making future iterations more feature rich, as well as being better in performance (which it looks like they have accomplished in Plazoo) but players would be much happier if the original DLC they purchased was still usable and it will always be a huge waste of potential that all the Planco1 DLC + Blueprints will be unusable in future games.

Like I said, if Plazoo had all of the basic scenery items from Planco available for people who own both games, then it would make the game that much more successful and popular, and even help drive sales of the older DLCs. (and to be clear once again, Im not saying all Planco rides need to be in Plazoo, just basic scenery items)
 
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