Planco 2 thoughts

[Vampiro]

I'm not a Youtuber, im not a reviewer, Im just an avarage Planet Coaster 1 enthousiast with a desire to share thoughts on this game we all want to love.

Let me start by saying I loved Planet Coaster 1, and im eager to start loving Planet coaster 2 as well. Planet Coaster 2 has so much potential, it can be everything Planet Coaster 1 was and much much more. I love the new pathing tool, I love the darkness inside buildings, I love how we can stick scenery onto rides. All this opens up SO many creative options I can't wait to start playing!!

However, I am waiting to start playing because I can't place a single ride without noticing bugs. Lot's of bugs. I know every new game has bugs and I'm pretty forgiving when bugs occur in weird / uncommon / obscure situations. In this game however many occur on every day standard actions.
When I place the "Wild Blue" and test it, the ride is like a washing machine. When I place a log flume turntable, the log gets launched out of it at 96km/h in default setting, etc etc. How can it be I notice these bugs while QA didn't? Or were they seen but ignored? Or not enough time to fix them? I reported so many bugs already that I have the feeling I am part of the QA team while I should be enjoying the game as a fan and costumer.

The omnimover has been a long long requested ride and I can't express how happy I am we finally got this ride!! Yet I was sad to find out the car limit on this ride is 99, so you can only build small tracks or you will be left with an incomplete train. Also this ride is being treated as a normal tracked ride as it will stop moving when there are no new guests boarding. This is not an omnimover, or if it is, it's full of bugs.
At one point it was shown that the ride would have a special station with conveyor belts. In later versions this description was removed. I realize the game at that point said it was in Alpha and things were subject to change so fair enough, but it's all so confusing and weird.

Since we had Custom music and Custom Billboards in Planet coaster 1, people assume they will also be available in Planet Coaster 2, even some youtubers who had early access assumed these features would be available. Yet in the release version it's not, which caused great dissapointment. Fortunatly Frontier responded quickly by confirming these features will be added in the future.
To me it's so sad this hasn't been communicated -before- people got dissapointed. Didn't the deep dive streams provide enough time to adress what was changed between Planco 1 and 2? And which beloved features had to be removed for the time being but would certainly make a return later?

Planet Coaster 1 had fireworks and amazing animatronics, unfortunatly it lacked a user friendly mixmaster. Planet Coaster 2 gave us an amazing mixmaster but now we lack the fireworks and animatronics. I know we can't expect everything available from day one, but since this has a "2" behind the name you would expect that this game will start where part 1 left off. In some area's it certainly does, and in others it doesn't or even take a step back.
We (the community) aked for a lot of options / features / QOL improvements over time and Frontier was kind enough to deliver most of them in Planet Coaster 1. On some of these we are back to square one again as most have been taken out again so we have to start requesting the same thing again. It's all so frustrating because I can't wait to start enjoying the game.

Im sure in a few weeks / month's most of the obvious bugs will be fixed and a lot of QOL fixes will be implemented. In the meantime I would like to encourage people to use the official Frontier bug tracking tool. The better we report, the sooner this game will reach it's full potential! Which I have no doubt will happen eventually!

 

[Sclurp]

Hey Vampiro,
Great post. Summed up how I feel too. I posted a long list of ui feedback on the discord. But I too am not going to be an unpaid QA tester. So I'm done now.

It's time to hear from Frontier. We need some answers.

 

[Leftstrat]

Running into bugs myself... I am one of those folks who just wants to create a park, and watch the people run around enjoying themselves, so I was very much looking forward to the sandbox mode with no micromanagement needed... I'm finding out that for whatever reason, even selecting the no challenge sandbox mode, my rides and stalls still have no assigned workers, and I was under the assumption that there were automatic hires, no matter how many stalls, rides, etc you open. The other problem I see in sandbox, is that I have to set a price for every ride, when I would just set a park price for entry, and the rides are part of the entry fee... It's a bit frustrating. How do I fix this to make the play a bit more fun?

 

[lucidplasma]

I am hoping that they add camera controls so i can have the setting simple drag invert

 

[FunGaming]

I completely feel the same way as Vampiro, that and the problems with the frontier workshop specially the issues with the constant need to update subscribed blueprints as i discussed here in this ticket https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/68051 and this one https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/68073 and the topic about it https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...for-years-frontier-workshop-annoyance.629500/ what happens is if it gets marked as updated then it will basicly unsub and remove it from the game until you go through all your subscribtions and update them, it is a constant task something I been trying to bring to frontiers attention ever since they launched the frontier workshop for planet coaster 1 on console, now it is also here for pc this giant mess of a workshop. See also my video about it which was made for planet zoo on console but same story for planet coaster 2 on both pc and console https://t.co/pc47vCIWtO i hope all the mentioned options from 1 make their way back in the game along with a very fast update to the frontier workshop even today the workshop been down most of the day and when it was on for a couple minutes it said i had no subscribed blueprints while in reality i have over 200 that i subscribed to, we need fixes and additions from planco 1.

 

[joeee]

i can feel Vampiro´s post 100% ... sooooo many things in PC2 feels like "unfinished" and i hope Frontier will give us a statement about that cause this is not what i expected.
Im one of many many people out there who refunded till we get some love from the devs to the majority of pc platform players!!!

 

[rosschris10]

Hey Vampiro,
Great post. Summed up how I feel too. I posted a long list of ui feedback on the discord. But I too am not going to be an unpaid QA tester. So I'm done now.

It's time to hear from Frontier. We need some answers.

hi may i ask for a discord link to join as i prefer discord these days

 

[Sclurp]

hi may i ask for a discord link to join as i prefer discord these days

I am not sure you can post links on here but it's the Frontier Unlocked channel.

 

[lilibat]

PC2 really feels like 1 step forward, 3 steps back. I am just building what spooky stuff I can considering we have no spooky pack but the bugs are annoying and I am tired of the constant notifications even when the park is closed just so i can build.

 

[Rusty2000]

I can only underline that 100%! I've also been a Planco player since day one with all the DLCs and was super hyped for part 2. And yes, the new tools are mostly great, but as you or Rudi or DeLady say in their videos, so much is missing and it's totally unnecessary:

• you add the important six barriers from Planco and Planet Zoo, but they don't work. The visitors still go through everything. Hasn't this been tested??? For many, one of the biggest problems (besides bugs)
• I can no longer delete paths with a right click
• why doesn't multiselect work with shift/ctrl anymore
• why is there no mouse scrolling on the edge? Something like that must not be forgotten!!
• why do we only have around 12 of the 40 shops in Planco/Planet Zoo and only 6 of them are vending machines? They're finished, why so stingy??
• Why are the employee buildings empty?
• I also miss ATMs and first aid and of course GLASS
• why can't I color the normal (white) stones
• Why don't bathers change and go home in their swimwear???
• why are there no more signs to point to rides or shops (that was possible in part 1) and was great for livening up empty areas or pointing out new rides (I don't think you can point out new things in advertising campaigns either), at Planet Zoo there was at least the viewing point for it
• you can build barriers so well in Planet Zoo, why is it not possible to put up fences here now or just adjust the width in scaling. There is often still a piece missing to close gaps
• why is there no challenge mode with tasks and area purchases? I also think all modes are far too easy, you can quickly get 1 million and 150,000 research points on hard
• why are only rides researchable and everything else is already free? In Planet Zoo you also had to research components, scenery objects, shops, benches etc., that's cool!!
• I don't even want to talk about the workshop, it's so incredibly confusing and unwieldy for PC users. How great was Steam with 500,000 blueprints, props etc. I'm wondering anyway, how do props/assets get into the game without tmtk? Or will we never get cars for parking spaces, backstage props, lockers, merchandise and much more? Park construction depends on details like these, that's exactly what makes it so much fun (that's what Cities Skylines lives from). I hope you give modders the appropriate options
• the whole management menu is a nightmare, not only ugly but also confusing. The old versions of Planet Coaster or Planet Zoo (displayed, where you can still see the rest of the park) look much more modern and are easier to use. There isn't even a complete overview of everything important about the park. Why has everything been completely changed here? 80-90% are PC players, so they should have separated them from the console players. It's sad that we have to do without the Steam Workshop because of this

I don't think it's bad that the Western, Pirates and Horror themes aren't available yet. But when they come (hopefully soon), please provide everything from part 1 plus new things, so that all the old animatronics (cowboys, pirates, soldiers, snakes, spiders, etc.) don't suddenly disappear. For restaurants and hotels, I assume that a new mechanism will be introduced, otherwise the omission would be unnecessary here too. Simply introducing the topic of resorts and then not having any hotel facilities for the pools is incomprehensible...

And of course there are the many bugs. It really annoys me that the snapping on the ground keeps getting deactivated when I place trees or plants. It drives you crazy, you're just clicking just to get out of the menus. And why are only the blueprints always visible first? I want the components in my interface first and optionally the blueprints (another click more!). And then there's the bug with the colors of the paths. I change a color and suddenly the original colors are gone for all the flexicolor paths and there's no reset button. Frontier, why isn't something like this corrected immediately? You should have seen that in QA too!

I'm surprised that after all the feedback from the community, there was only a mini hotfix and not a big day one patch. I don't want to wait weeks now and if all the bug fixes and improvements drag on like this, then Planco 2 will suffer the same fate as Cities Skylines 2 and disappear from the scene. That would be extremely sad :-(

Please Frontier, deliver this really quickly, PLEASE PLEASE! Right now, so many streamers, content creators and YouTubers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers are playing Planco 2; you can't afford to miss out on that...

 

[Ramm]

I really hope the lack of communication means they are fixing things already. I played over 24 hours of Planet Coaster 2 already but now hit my personal limit where I cannot continue because of simple reasons that guests get stuck on the paths and cant find the entrance to rides. Literally unplayable.

I really hope they will get it together and start pushing daily (if not weekly) patches until it becomes as enjoyable as Planet Coaster 1.

But i'm afraid we will still keep missing a lot of stuff and the first paid DLC will arrive before basic things from the first game are implemented.

For me, right now it feels like the Cities Skylines 2 disaster again. And because I loved Cities Skylines 1, now the memory of the franchise is ruined and I cannot enjoy either game.

Same thing is happening now, I loved Planet Coaster 1, but now Planet Coaster 2 is such a bad experience, I really start to dislike the franchise and I cannot enjoy either game anymore so i'm left with nothing.

I hope Frontier makes a comeback, they fix everything in the next couple of weeks, they give us a lot of daily or weekly patches fixing things, improving things, adding basic stuff from the first game (Steam workshop, fireworks, option to remove path kerbs, glass pieces and so on) and then after few months when the game is good I would be happily buy the DLC.

I pre-ordered both Planco1 and Planco2 but I will not be spending a single penny for this franchise until Planco2 is fixed.

 

[joeee]

@Ramm you re right with all what you said BUT the "lack of communication" has nothing to do cause the devs are busy....thats why they have community managers to be a voice between us and the devs.
In my opinion they should start talking about the many problems to give us some honest feedback what we can expect in the near future and what we can expect the far future...

 

[Ramm]

@Ramm you re right with all what you said BUT the "lack of communication" has nothing to do cause the devs are busy....thats why they have community managers to be a voice between us and the devs.
In my opinion they should start talking about the many problems to give us some honest feedback what we can expect in the near future and what we can expect the far future...

I think we, the paying customers that paid top dollar for a pre-order game are more deserving of at least daily updates. yes sure it's weekend, but the game is not even out for a week and there are so many complaints. You would expect when releasing a big title they would communicate better at least every day. I work weekends myself plenty of times too. Sure if they hit the nail on the head and the game was great, take some time off. But not when there is so much work to do.

 

[WingardiumLevicoaster]

I'm noticing I feel like I'm back in Planet Coaster early access except it's more stable. A lot of the fixes put in during that process are now gone. It's playable, don't get me wrong and I'm having fun, but lots of tiny little things that are important have regressed to mid 2016.

 

[wowman]

I hate to jump on the Hate bandwagon, but I do hope many of these items are addressed. While this is a new game, or a version of a game, as a player you would hope and expect that some game features from previous versions were carried forward in the initial design and release. I too am a bit discouraged that we need to be the QA for the features. Bugs are always a part of a game, but this seems like an early release of a not ready game to get a cash grab to me. I would have rather waited a bit longer. Simple things like the ribbon fence not functioning the way it does in PC and PZoo, and the answer on the bug report is that its as designed? I'm having an issue with this.

Yes the new features are great, or at least have great potential, but why create a new version of the game, with great new features, but remove old features are now considered standard features in the series?

Sorry Frontier. Sadly, A long time dedicated fan is now on the fence, and not the ribbon fence.

 

[Rusty2000]

I hope Frontier has enough manpower for the more than 100 bug reports and suggestions for improvement, not that 2 people are working on it now (because of the many staff cuts), then we'll have to wait forever. Then an alpha phase with corresponding development would actually have been better, like with Planco, it wouldn't have been a problem for me.

The comparisons with Cities Skylines 2 are realistic, although it was completely unplayable at launch due to the performance, but that's not the case here. I'm now hoping for lots of free content with things we know from Planet Zoo and Planco (more shops & vendor machines, glass, backstage props, ATM, viewing point, a few cars etc.) and the most important bug fixes (barriers, snapping to the ground always jumps on off, edge scrolling, reset button for the original color of the flexicolor paths, better pathfinding, guests visit all rides/slides etc.) in the next 14 days. I'm surprised, however, that many known error messages in the bug reports in the forum are not even marked as "in progress" or acknowledged/confirmed...

For me, it would be crucial for the future of the game that the development of the PC and console versions be separated again. You can't design both completely the same in terms of scope, menus, workshop etc. At the moment, the design is putting off many PC players and Frontier urgently needs to get back on track. It would be better to adopt the menu navigation 1 to 1 from Planet Zoo with the pop-up windows and the park in the background, plus a nice overview with all the important information and much better sorting and search functions. It's still a mystery who came up with the current design. I can't say whether Steam is possible as a workshop, it would certainly cost a lot of money and server capacity there...

And I hope that modders get the appropriate tools for improvements and props like with Planet Zoo!