Planet Coaster - ideas to bring game to the next level

[Haxel0rd]

Hi there,
Frontier has served us the best Theme Park Simulation that there is so far,
well done - good job! We have the singleplayer game which is great and going.
The simulation aspects have been met, time to get this game to the next level.
Here are some ideas, sorted by my personal thoughts of importance:


Co-op
Build parks together with friends, where as one is host and can open server with password protection.
It's 2018 and gaming by now has evolved into the direction of multiplayer expierience. Coop Park building
would grab a big bunch of people who until now have been holding back to buy the game (because they
dont play single player games).


Multiplayer / ingame community system (visit other players parks)
(Note here's a difference to co-op)
Imagine you could zoom into that earth ball at beginning of the game,
then zoom in on countries. Over these country maps, there are places
marked, where people have opened up a park. These parks are from
other players- not necesseraly friends of yours, just other people who
play Planet Coaster... and you could visit their Parks (maybe requires
official servers). People could leave ratings or walk in the park as guest,
and it would automatically build up a community within the game and
could - if thought further - be a huge thing to the game. Should be a
seperate system from single player. Maybe with the option to "buy" that
spot for your park on the earth ball with money earned in single player,
whereas locations may differ in price and properties per continent.


Water Park Add-on
I am sure this is already on the list, cause if not then me and many others = mad [happy]
We need slides and stuff to create wellness options (sauna, massage rooms, etc. - as we already have hotels).
Maybe Bungalows or camping that hold 4 - 6 people or so as alternate to hotels.


More awesome DLC's of course
The released DLCs have already been great so far, hopefully you will
continue releasing such, as this brings in more design pieces to the game


The world around the park - Game Events
This one is hard to describe...
Until now, you build up a park in nowhere, there's just the park and you.
There is a way that could make the players feel more integrated into the
world around the park (that graphically does not exist, but could be
"emulated" the follwing way: a TV channel that displays messages once in a while..:

a)
a message is displayed occasionally which represents the TV channel of a small town or village (which is next to your park).
The message you see is their news, which refers to your Park. At begin of game you get i.e.:
"New land next to the village has been claimed by unknown investors, rumors say a new theme park will rise"

b)
These news react on events and happenings in your park, i.e. if a ride crashes and people get hurt,
a news will be broadcasted like i.e. this: "Coaster Disaster in theme ParkXY, 7 people injured when coaster crashed".
Bad news will be like a debuff that lower park visitors rate for x amount of days. Same for good news when you pay
money for advertising, the tv advertising runs on this tv channel, and a buff on park visitors rate will be given.

c) DECISIONS!
Sometimes a player will have to make decisions that may affect x ride or game stat,
or the mood of people, etc.

d) THE VILLAGE / TOWN around
Still we don't see a village, but it gets "emulated" by that TV channel already. A new research tree
could be added specifically for the "world around", a village or town that holds your potential visitors.
The more you max that research tree, the bigger grows that virtual village/town which finally shifts the visitors rate.

e)
COMPETITORS! As having that TV channel, virtual AI competitors could be integratet,
so once in a while you see their advertising for a big new attraction that's about to be revealed,
putting you under pressure to build something big and new, too. To widen out the competitors
thing, you could do virtual auctions (implented over that tv) where you have the chance to
buy special rides (i.e. blueprints) from competitors that have temporary financial problems.
You then have to bid against the other AI competitors (refers to a game from the 90's called "Holiday Island").

f) SABOTAGE AI enemies
Thanks to recently integrated Hotels, we can already build a holiday resort in our game
(having a park and managing the visitors stay by offering beds and restaurants). So what
if somebody put cockroaches into the hotels of the enemy, or pours too many salt into the
food of AI competitor? (creates bad news, debuff on visitors rate).

All in all the idea is to create a feeling for the player that the park is integrated in it's surrounding world,
without the need to graphically display a town or any surrounding world.


I guess that's it. Most important i see co-op and waterpark addon.

Cheers.

 

[Palaber1984]

Thumps up!

For the multiplayer part I would add some ideas.
Like you said, someone host a game and set the rules.
For example, I’m host and I can do everything. But then I deside to open the game for one, two or three players and make adjustments like one player has access to path and terrain. Second player has access to scenery and building. The third has access to rides and coasters etc. this could be a open multiplayer with people you don’t know you can start a voice chat or text message for communication.
Maybe you could set more adjustments, like just setting trees and bushes and nothing else, for each player to be sure no one sabotaging your game with access to all parts.

And there is off course the way to play with friends you know and you give them access to all parts.

I love multiplayer and I play ark or Conan with my friends on PS4 and this way of gaming is more motivating then playing alone.

The only thing is , that we need a way where someone can keep building later while the others are off. Therefore we need a constant saving option. You quit the game the save game is immediately in the cloud. Another’s starts the saved game from the cloud. And if anyone joins a running game it loads the actual game.

I mean there’s a huge potential and a big addition for the multiplayer community.

 

[DisneylandFreak]

[up][up][up][up][up][up]
Take this[big grin]

 

[Captainjelle1]

Multiplayer / ingame community system (visit other players parks)
(Note here's a difference to co-op)
Imagine you could zoom into that earth ball at beginning of the game,
then zoom in on countries. Over these country maps, there are places
marked, where people have opened up a park. These parks are from
other players- not necesseraly friends of yours, just other people who
play Planet Coaster... and you could visit their Parks (maybe requires
official servers). People could leave ratings or walk in the park as guest,
and it would automatically build up a community within the game and
could - if thought further - be a huge thing to the game. Should be a
seperate system from single player. Maybe with the option to "buy" that
spot for your park on the earth ball with money earned in single player,
whereas locations may differ in price and properties per continent.

Iv'e been an advocate for this since a very long time. You have very solid ideas especially this one. Iv'e always envisioned myself entering a park made by a creator, as a spectator. Ground level just like a normal guest. In a chatbox i could talk to other players who are also visiting the park. That would be so awesome!

 

[spoonetti]

Absolutely great idea! [big grin][up]
Especially the "world around" part with the TV channel could bring more "life" into the game and would makes the managment more complex, tricky, interesting and fun.

 

[Haxel0rd]

The only thing is , that we need a way where someone can keep building later while the others are off.

Good point indeed, well afaik for todays coop games the server is mostly the one who saves the map
but if that guy is not online one day then the other players cant continue with the park [ugh]

[up][up][up][up][up][up]
Take this[big grin]

Thanks bro [heart]

Iv'e been an advocate for this since a very long time. You have very solid ideas especially this one. Iv'e always envisioned myself entering a park made by a creator, as a spectator. Ground level just like a normal guest. In a chatbox i could talk to other players who are also visiting the park. That would be so awesome!

That would be extremly cool [up] ! A chat box for those who visit the park would allow players to group and visit parks/rides together, while communicating.

Absolutely great idea! [big grin][up]
Especially the "world around" part with the TV channel could bring more "life" into the game and would makes the managment more complex, tricky, interesting and fun.

Thanks mate [happy]
I think from technical/coding perspektive it is also not much work;
the TV is just a .png picture of a comic TV, the box appears on the middle of the screen,
(i.e.: like in the "Tropico" game) displaying different pics inside the TV window tied to eventXY,
while the events are just an Array or XML list of happenings and their influence on game.

I have also written in a different thread about how a coop could technically be realised,
see here for more info: https://forums.planetcoaster.com/showthread.php/134-Multiplayer-support?p=232316&viewfull=1#post232316

Nice to see we all share the same basic visions about the game [happy] Cheers!

 

[Lokius1]

I love a lot of these ideas. Expanding on the multiplayer/open world concept. Why not have theme park plots that are "purchasebale"? And no I don't mean microtransactions...I mean if there was a mode where as you build your theme parks and accrue income you can save up and buy new locations for your theme park. Heck you could even let players "partner" pooling their money to buy locations, etc.