Planet Coaster 2019

[ChrisDavid]

What can we expect over the course of 2019 and in the future? Where do you see this game going?

Is this incredible game pretty much finished, albeit a quarterly flow of small DLCs and bug fixing / convenience updates. OR can we expect this game to continue to break down new barriers and expand. And when I say expand, I don't just mean scenery content and new rides, I mean new systems and game mechanics.

Let's say things like Weather/temperature, walk-through attractions, real *dark* rides, mirrors and reflections, resizing and scaling of objects, more billboard shapes, 2m wide walls, more flat rides (that aren't theme specific), narrower paths, no-entry paths and one-way paths, expansion on existing themes (like pirates and spooky and sci-fi), more career levels, DLC content researchable, more management features, ride cameras and photos, etc. There's so much.. [where is it]


What do you think? The end, or more to come? [yesnod]

 

[Joutlaw]

IMO the pathing system needs some serious love. I would love to see more maps. Maybe one with a city scape off in the distance or an actual ocean side map. That would have been great to release with the Vintage pack since everyone seemed to wander off into the boardwalk abyss.

 

[cerealfruitcakes]

New biomes are on the top of my "Do want!" list. A sandy desert biome, coastal beach, ocean island...

 

[breezerHOG1]

Terrain improvements are my #1 wish, like being able to easily build walls of terrain quickly and easily with a grid would really greatly benefit those who prefer building dark rides to help block out the light, a "form-terrain-to-path" option or angle-snap to line up with sloped paths and stairs without having to manually tweak every little inch, the option to create terrain grids for a maximum distance/thickness the terrain will flatten out at, maybe even give us different options for the shape of our terrain brush and faster/larger radius sizes would really do a lot of good IMO [happy]

Then theres the issue of matching up terrain with the outer skirt/biomes causing glitches when you try to change a parks background which is probably why we dont see more variety in them, I really miss the way it was setup in rct3

 

[MateriaGirl]

I just want them to halt all the art assets and get to work on the meat of the game. It should've been improved so much by now.

A complete overhaul to game balance. Guest flow, money, costs of literally everything, it all needs rebalancing. We all know the gameplay is sloppy and we all know the game launched that way, and we all know the new features (that you can turn off, by the way, so they're clearly not balanced...) don't improve it to a notable degree.

Also, basic QOL issues. Huge QOL pass. That it took 2 and a half years to get the blue overlay to turn off when recoloring something is unacceptable...

I'd also like, as a combination of the above two points, for them to unify the building system.

-All scenery types should have all the same wall pieces (i.e. plain wall, door wall, various window walls, arches, half walls, quarter walls, etc)

-An overhaul to the system where you select which TYPE of piece you want, THEN the style. So you select 1 tile wall and you can then choose if you want castle, concrete, modern, qin dynasty, etc.

-Half-width walls.

-The ability to bulk-modify wall styles. Select a building made entirely of castle pieces and choose "Qin Dynasty" and the appropriate pieces are all swapped in.

-Tons more roof pieces for everything

-Free rotate option for ALL building pieces

I almost wonder if they fired most of the programmers once the game was out the door.

 

[UCES Fossil]

I almost wonder if they fired most of the programmers once the game was out the door.

Frontier probably put most of the programmers on another game while some artists continued on PC. New art is exciting and tangible and evidently generates revenue. Would, say, smarter guests or better balance generate additional sales of the game? That's Frontier's business decision. Based on what we've seen over the past year, I think we have their answer.

 

[LN]

I just want them to continue what they are doing now.

I still enjoy every bit of the game. And the additions work fine for me.

I do still want to see some improvements though, like people mentioned, wall sets that (to me) are incomplete. But I bet it's nothing that can't be overcome with the introduction of the Toolkit.

Other things, like paths and terrains, I don't really need modifications for that, as I already learned myself all the tricks needed to make the best paths and terrains if necessary. That being said, others that find it difficult to learn or understand, I can see the need for something like a terrain-grid.

 

[Harbinger]

More DLC on the existing game? Or big mechanical improvements and expansion to the base game itself?

Speculation alert

I'm going to side with the latter. With the introduction of the Thememaker's Toolkit I think Frontier is signalling they're ready to move away from DLC that are predominantly theme based going forward. They're not likely to stop doing paid content updates, they just won't resemble the kind of packs we've seen previously, they'll instead allow the community to fill the gaps in this area.

It's also a bit of an omen that the Thememaker's Toolkit update will bear the version number 1.9.0, whilst it's not unheard of to go to 1.10.0 in the next iteration this tends to lead to confusion in the general population between it and 1.1.0 as people have a tendency to drop the zeros when they refer to the version numbers so many will refer to 1.10 as 1.1 adding ambiguity.

That being the case I think the next major update after 1.9.0 will go ahead and up the version number to 2.0.0 so only an epic update would do that version number justice but if they are switching up to major expansions going forward be prepared for a much longer wait between major builds.

My prediction Thememaker's Toolkit (1.9.0) around the second anniversary of the game's launch in mid-November and Planet Coaster's first major expansion (no, not water parks or zoos ) around 6 months later.

 

[NoNameCity]

Would like to see Water physics, but as Fontier have ruled out 'Waterparks', how likely is that now?

 

[lilibat]

I could wish one wish it would be to fix the Dark water bug with the lighting. We could use water and webs underground at night. We could light water with coloured lights.

I don't actually expect this will ever be fixed. But it is my number one issue.

 

[breezerHOG1]

others that find it difficult to learn or understand, I can see the need for something like a terrain-grid.

its not really about learning or understanding, the game is not complicated but it is very time consuming to build large detailed parks, and not everybody is willing to dedicate as much time as other, even experienced or highly talented players have agreed that improving the tools to be less time consuming would be a huge benefit, and like I said its mainly for those who want to create large dark rides so I wouldn't say what I am requesting is for the "casual" or inexperienced player, though it would help everybody all alike [up] in rct I could build a huge mountain in 2 minutes but it takes 20 minutes just to build a small lump in planco and thats not even mentioning finer details

 

[LN]

its not really about learning or understanding, the game is not complicated but it is very time consuming to build large detailed parks, and not everybody is willing to dedicate as much time as other, even experienced or highly talented players have agreed that improving the tools to take less time would be a huge benefit, and like I said its mainly for those who want to create large dark rides so I wouldn't say what I am requesting is for the "casual" or inexperienced player, though it would help everybody all alike [up]

I agree. It's a combination of factors that limit players in their creativity, and those factors come from both player and game.
The difference is, as a player you can adapt yourself to the situation, where the game can not (at that moment).

A larger radius for instance for the tool could get rid of one of those factors to create big mountains and hills faster and easier, but it's not a factor that limits that creativity. It's the player that still sets the limits himself (which I understand).

What Lilibat says about the water bug, is a limit in the game, where the player can do nothing about.

All in all, I find every improvement welcome, but not all necessary.

Maybe I am a patient guy that spends a good half an hour on making an decent mountain without getting annoyed/bored, and I can truly understand how somebody else that wants to build something quick struggles with that.

To be honest, I don't open the game to play "just an half an hour or so". If I play, I make sure I have at least 1,5 hour of time available. (the long loading screens don't help either).

So I support any improvement, even if it just makes things easier. But I'd rather see more improvements in rides, and incomplete wallsets and such (but that can be overcome to as well pretty soon with the Toolkit).

But a larger radius, or different shapes for the terrain tool, please yes.
Fix the dark water bug, yes please (but I thought that had to do with the difference between natural lightning (moon) and other light sources.)

 

[breezerHOG1]

thanks for the deep philosophical metaphors on perception, but I think if the game allowed us to snap and drag walls of terrain in place similar to regular walls you would be amazed at how much more potential you would have in freeing up your time to build other things, and again as I keep saying its mainly for those who wish to create large dark rides to block out the light... I also think if the game had walls of terrain from day 1 that a lot less people would have quit playing but thats like just my opinion and all

is this a glitch were talking about? no but this would help a vast majority of players who have lost interest in the game due to it being time consuming, and to be frank most of the die-hard fans dont seem to care about improving the game for non-die hards which is a real shame... its like your response was basically saying you would rather keep the game slow and time consuming because thats just the way you like it [blah]

If you dont think walls of terrain are important to you thats fine. I heard you and I'm sure the devs are not planning anything for terrain grids so you dont have to worry about the devs being slowed down on other things like the tiny little light bug

 

[LN]

thanks for the deep philosophical metaphors on perception, but I think if the game allowed us to snap and drag walls of terrain in place similar to regular walls you would be amazed at how much more potential you would have in freeing up your time to build other things, and again as I keep saying its mainly for those who wish to create large dark rides to block out the light... I also think if the game had walls of terrain from day 1 that a lot less people would have quit playing but thats like just my opinion and all

is this a glitch were talking about? no but this would help a vast majority of players who have lost interest in the game due to it being time consuming, and to be frank most of the die-hard fans dont seem to care about improving the game for non-die hards which is a real shame... its like your response was basically saying you would rather keep the game slow and time consuming because thats just the way you like it [blah]

If you dont think walls of terrain are important to you thats fine. I heard you and I'm sure the devs are not planning anything for terrain grids so you dont have to worry about the devs being slowed down on other things like the tiny little light bug

Lol. Read again....

But a larger radius, or different shapes for the terrain tool, please yes.
Fix the dark water bug, yes please (but I thought that had to do with the difference between natural lightning (moon) and other light sources.)

I'm only saying you can still do those things, but it takes time..... Of which I understand not everybody wants to take time for stuff like that and why you and others want it upgraded and I'm NOT saying no to that.

 

[Robert K]

So I guess no Planet Soaked? That’s too bad that we won’t have working water slides and pools in this game unless they fix the water. I honestly wish they would have just made a better RCT3 without Atari and include a water park expansion. You know, with PC graphics but all the rides and stuff from RCT3 plus more. Hopefully they will make Planet Coaster even better moving forward. I also vote for new biomes and a completely blank one with no pre molded skirt, just flat land beyond the park border and no background.

 

[MateriaGirl]

They seem pretty insistent that there's not going to be a water park expansion. But, they've also put lots of stuff in the game that they've said since launch would never be added to the game, so, I don't exactly trust anything they say at this point and expect they'll release a proper expansion eventually.

 

[NickEast]

It's also a bit of an omen that the Thememaker's Toolkit update will bear the version number 1.9.0, whilst it's not unheard of to go to 1.10.0 in the next iteration this tends to lead to confusion in the general population between it and 1.1.0 as people have a tendency to drop the zeros when they refer to the version numbers so many will refer to 1.10 as 1.1 adding ambiguity.

That being the case I think the next major update after 1.9.0 will go ahead and up the version number to 2.0.0 so only an epic update would do that version number justice but if they are switching up to major expansions going forward be prepared for a much longer wait between major builds.

It's not at all confusing. It's quite normal to continue with 1.10.0. The Unreal Engine 4 is already at 4.20. It's the 2.0 that's confusing. Because that implies the game is Planet Coaster 2, which it isn't. People only seem confused as they think it's a decimal number. If they read it as 1.1.0, then that's their own fault for not reading properly, and I rarely see that happen.

The usual content of such updates don't warrant to increment the main version number, as it's not a completely different game. The first number is the major version, the second is the minor version, and the third is a hotfix/bugfix. These updates contain fixes and minor improvements or additions to the game, but they don't fundamentally alter the game, so the usual process is to increment the minor version number each time.

Stellaris did go to 2.0, but since that fundamentally altered the game I can understand even though it's not Stellaris 2.

 

[Harbinger]

Stellaris isn't unique, any game which is updated for an extended period of time increments the major digit. Typically it happens when a major expansion releases.

The reason you don't see it that often is because most publishers will push out a game and then provide maybe 6 months to 1 year's worth of post-release updates and then that's it, they pull the funding. There is no need to increment the numbering beyond 1.X.X. It tends to be more commonplace in online (games as a service) games.

A sequel will get it's own version numbering and will ultimately launch with a 1.0.0 version number just like it's predecessor would have.

 

[hos]

What can we expect in the new year and over the course of 2019? Where do you see this game going?
More DLC on the existing game? Or big mechanical improvements and expansion to the base game itself?

- performance increase at least in edit mode (freeze in-game animations if that helps, and if so, give such behaviour as optional game setting - so if others prefer game animations all the time, they still can have that)

- dynamic shadows coming from animated objects

- overall more realistic light effects

- finetuned working tools (consistent Gizmo default arrows based on custom align options to align towards any(!) selection instead of being based on a single algorithm which aligns to an average angle of all selected items)

- less finetuned behaviour of water layer (keep water on any level the creator wants to have it and do not disable water when anything touches it. again an option for such behaviour is prefered)

- consistent shortcuts (use "R" key to start editing buildings - use same key to start editing anything else, for example the coaster track)

- don't move a coaster out of position when you first grab it to move it somewhere else. keep it in place at start to allow (advanced move) pixel-by-pixel adjustment to the original position.

- change scenery/building objects like firework a to z from single object for each version to a single object for all versions which offers further object settings to define the object shape.

 

[LN]

- Torque Launch section stop time/countdown options (is that just missing recently? i'm quite sure it was an option we had for this track part earlier on)

Only the section that launches backwards and then forwards has this option I believe.