Give us a little something...

[widlanquebec]

I'm really looking forward for beta, improvements on path system, new rides and even more management. It's true that we didn't have new things since a lot of weeks, but I prefer them to really focus on beta to finalize things and give us the best experience possible.

The fact to add goodies before would make them loss time and there's not a lot remaining... I prefer more optimized, stable and interesting beta.

 

[FuddyWoodie]

As for Bonfire night, it is far to close to Beta to release any major features, especially on a date that only means something in the UK.

Unless they're going to bring in gameplay elements where kids try and blow off their fingers with bangers or set fire to stolen garden fences.

In which case I'm all for it.

 

[Kombiice]

I'm 100% sure that we'll get some Halloween content! [yesnod]

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Much ado about pumpkin'.

 

[Ray Cox]

Disney has halloween all month
Plus fireworks every night. They don't need a day to be extra awesome...they do it all the time

 

[dUFZY]

I only can go with SPRidley and WingardiumLevicoaster . We have seen how hard they are working at frontier Studios. We are under NDA but what I can say is that they really finished something just the day we visited , so they can show US.I think Frontier will have all essential things ready for release.

Last but not least I often read about fireworks. Ofcause we had them in rct 3 but time goes on and graphics get better etc. Thats why I dont know if its really important to have things link this by release .. I dont quite remember but i think in rct3 they were added by an add on. Anyways sometimes i feel like people think that things which have been in rct3 are just converted to PC and thats it. But thats just not true everything has to be redone from 0.
And frontier is doing a great job

 

[breezerHOG1]

18 days to beta and 1 additional ride is really going to relieve you of your stress from waiting? Id rather just play the full game than see one little extra tossed out there "just for attention" everybody knew how the alpha was going to work, you could have just bought thrillseeker instead of alpha, why not be happy to play what you got?

Although a little more spooky scenery would have been nice for halloween [wink]

 

[loquacious706]

And finally 5. We deserve it.

I'm going to respectfully disagree.

We all paid money in exchange for goods and/or services that were outlined to us. Therefore, we have already received what we deserve and are not owed anything more.

Besides, the game is about to be fully released in a few weeks which has already surpassed most of our dreams (and certainly the competition). I don't really think there's much else we could (should) ask for.

 

[stuk71]

Let's not forget the awesome extras that Frontier are providing, just taking part and being supportive; digital art book and soundtrack etc [happy]

 

[Brett C]

I'm no game designer or coder, but my educated guess would be that in the grand scheme of things, adding what is essentially an object to the game, wouldn't require much resource on frontiers end.

I have to stop you at this one. Asset creation are not as easy as it sounds. The entire process takes a fair bit of time, no matter how skilled our team, let alone for any person is. Time is the greatest issue when it comes to quality.

1. Has to go through an initial design phase and iterations of the design.
2. Has to go through an approval process for the design.
3. Designer begins work on the approved design in a 3DCG application.
4. If rigging is required (if it's animated, it'll probably end up here), it has to go through the hoops for that (skeletal framework for dynamic objects, be it physics or general joint movement).
5. If sounds are required, the audio team will end up having to spend a fair amount of time recording a real world sound, an improvised sound, or simulated sound. (Hundreds of items in game have some sort of audio tagged onto it)
6. Item is then ported to the game engine's native rendering code.
7. Quality Assurance team does checks on the asset created in the game or as a black-box item to test. If it fails the intended design, it goes back to the artist/designer who made it, or whoever is responsible for a said process of the item.
8. If the final result from internal checks out, it'll show up in the game - barring any game-breaker/show-stopper bugs.

While this list isn't 100% correct, it's very close to the process that generally happens.

 

[Aaronroberts12567]

They don't need a day to be extra awesome...they do it all the time

Then I'm sure people won't mind waiting until November 9th to use those as content, if they are included in the game


If you're that bothered about Halloween, go look in the workshop for Halloween stuff, people have already made some Christmas decorations, one guy made some giant pumpkins with the terrain tool, or better yet, go make some Halloween stuff out of objects yourself, you have the freedom in game to do that.

 

[treverwarly]

In my personal opinion I feel that the alpha did offer good value for money during stages 1 and 2, however for me alpha 3 was disappointing and I feel to be worth the money, it does require an update in terms of content. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this though, I understand that we all have a different sense when it comes to value for money.

I have to disagree with you on this one. Alpha 2 was cool for coasters and terraforming but a lot were disappointed that no new themes were added. In Alpha 3 we got huge improvements on coasters + new theme + water + a bit of management + workshop. Alpha 3 got me interested a lot longer (and still is) than alpha 2 (although i can't say that i have ever stopped playing since alpha 1 [haha]). So i would say that each alpha phase added it's fair share to the game. And with the beta just about 2 1/2 weeks away i really don't see the point to add some assets. As one of frontier already said, deploying a version is quite time consuming.

 

[Huge]

It's less than 3 weeks till the FULL release of the game, have some patience.

 

[xyphic]

I have to stop you at this one. Asset creation are not as easy as it sounds. The entire process takes a fair bit of time, no matter how skilled our team, let alone for any person is. Time is the greatest issue when it comes to quality.

1. Has to go through an initial design phase and iterations of the design.
2. Has to go through an approval process for the design.
3. Designer begins work on the approved design in a 3DCG application.
4. If rigging is required (if it's animated, it'll probably end up here), it has to go through the hoops for that (skeletal framework for dynamic objects, be it physics or general joint movement).
5. If sounds are required, the audio team will end up having to spend a fair amount of time recording a real world sound, an improvised sound, or simulated sound. (Hundreds of items in game have some sort of audio tagged onto it)
6. Item is then ported to the game engine's native rendering code.
7. Quality Assurance team does checks on the asset created in the game or as a black-box item to test. If it fails the intended design, it goes back to the artist/designer who made it, or whoever is responsible for a said process of the item.
8. If the final result from internal checks out, it'll show up in the game - barring any game-breaker/show-stopper bugs.

While this list isn't 100% correct, it's very close to the process that generally happens.

I'd also like to add that it's highly likely that the devs will be working on planned assets up to and beyond the Beta. By taking them off plan to create new assets would necessarily delay the rest, and I don't think anybody wants that. As to the first list (wooden coasters, etc.) all of those items will have a significant amount of game and engine logic associated with them so backporting to a branch that's a few months old would be a very time-consuming job that's prone to error as there'll be a whole bunch of interdependencies and bugfixes that have happened along the way that may not even be obvious.

Similarly, it may *seem* like porting just the objects back to an older version of the engine would be straightforward but there are legitimate reasons why it might not be. The object format may have changed, the engine may have needed changes to support the new objects, etc. So just transplanting one of the new themes or some of the objects would probably require enough resource to delay the Beta / release dates.

We're all itching to get our hands on new stuff. Mine especially as I've seen a good chunk of what's coming! But a couple more weeks wait (with content reveals coming earlier than that in the Beta livestreams) isn't a lot, and we'll be there soon.

 

[Aardwolfz]

In response to the OP, I strongly disagree with pretty much your entire post. You argue that new content needs to be added before the Beta. You also say that the "it's in Alpha" reason is boring and un-related[weird], when in fact it is 100% the reason why no new content is being released till the Beta. None of what you've requested uses radically different core mechanics from what is already in the game so it is unnecessary for FD to add them to the game during Alpha.

4. We paid a lot of money for alpha access and I believe a little extra before opening up to the lower paying customers, would show your appreciation.

And finally 5. We deserve it.

What? Deserve it? You bought into the game to test it first, enjoy it second. If it's the other way around for you then you have the concept of alpha testing wrong. Also, no one is entitled to anything from the developers. They never promised anything else for the Alpha, so they have no reason to add new flat rides or coasters if they won't help test the core features. If they add something extra it's because they might have teams who are done with most of the important stuff.

"Transport ride (It's been teased from the very start in terms of a greyed out icon and my theory is that it was suppose to be in an alpha at some stage)"

Yes it has been in the menu. The menu is an extremely important core system, it needs to be as complete as possible before release. Imagine they added the transport tab just before beta, and it messed with something making certain text not appearing correctly (just a random example).

-Water ride (The iconic log flume or even a rowing boat attraction?)
-Wooden coaster

FD have on several occasions stated these will be later features, coming after release.

- Any new flat ride

Not necessary. Flat rides have been tested and work, they have no reason to add new flat rides until the beta. Sure, it would be nice, but it might take resources from things that need to be fixed or tweaked before the beta. Now, of all time, they need to be extremely focused on any features or mechanics that might mess with something else. Beta, and thereafter resealse, is not very far away.

- An update on management (I still feel really disappointed by the lack of this in alpha 3)

On this one I cannot argue. I feel that the management is a core feature and so it should be in the Alpha and be more or less complete before the beta. I do, however, have faith that FD have tested what they need and that the management aspect is ready to be greatly expanded with minimal bugs.

Again, I feel as if you missed the point of an Alpha. I am sorry if I've come off as a bit strong, but I've seen way too many people being impatient and feeling entitled during Alpha stages of development. Everyone should just relax a bit more, then the world would be a better place [big grin] Go listen to Jim Guthrie & JJ Ipsen's track from the music of Planet Coaster. Have a cup of coffee. Breathe in and tell yourself that 2 weeks is not that long to wait. [praise]

 

[Abletudu]

-Water ride (The iconic log flume or even a rowing boat attraction?)
-Wooden coaster

FD have on several occasions stated these will be later features, coming after release.

I was under the impression that wooden coasters were going to be in the game by release at the latest. Where was it stated that they would not be in until after release? If this is the case, I for one (and I'm am sure many more) will be seriously upset about it. Also, if this is the case, you can be sure that a lot of negative posts and reviews will be posted on Steam, Facebook, Twitter, etc. So, I sincerely hope this is not the case.

 

[treverwarly]

I was under the impression that wooden coasters were going to be in the game by release at the latest. Where was it stated that they would not be in until after release? If this is the case, I for one (and I'm am sure many more) will be seriously upset about it. Also, if this is the case, you can be sure that a lot of negative posts and reviews will be posted on Steam, Facebook, Twitter, etc. So, I sincerely hope this is not the case.

I can't comment on the water ride (although they've teased that there might be a surprise for release, idk) as for wooden coasters Sam Denney said in one of the developer Streams that Wooden Coasters are in, but will probably not hit the game until release. Until, not after

 

[Abletudu]

Then where did Aardwolf get the idea that they would not be in until after release?

 

[Curlyriff]

I can't comment on the water ride (although they've teased that there might be a surprise for release, idk) as for wooden coasters Sam Denney said in one of the developer Streams that Wooden Coasters are in, but will probably not hit the game until release. Until, not after

I am pretty sure he actually stated not until release or a little after. We are going back many months ago but am pretty sure on that. I don't see it as end of the world but would think with the time and progress they have made that we will see them in.

 

[Aardwolfz]

Apologies for that confusion, I meant to say after or until release like Curlyriff said... I do remember them saying in a stream that water rides won't be in until some time after release. I'll go edit that bit to avoid confusion... But wooden coasters will be in the release (One of the more recent streams confirmed this)..
Edit: I can't edit my previous post [wacky].