RCT Feeling

[Kombiice]

Hey!

Maybe I'm just crazy, but do you guys remember this special spheric, immersive feeling while playing RCT 1-3 ? There was something about the atmosphere, which also happened at more abstract and surreal scenarios. I really don't know what led to it, but it surely wasn't just aesthetics.

Do you know this feeling / do you have ideas regarding what brought this feeling into existence?
Maybe these ideas could help P.C., which would be fantastic [yesnod]

 

[Crowdpleaser]

Hey!

Maybe I'm just crazy, but do you guys remember this special spheric, immersive feeling while playing RCT 1-3 ? There was something about the atmosphere, which also happened at more abstract and surreal scenarios. I really don't know what led to it, but it surely wasn't just aesthetics.

Do you know this feeling / do you have ideas regarding what brought this feeling into existence?
Maybe these ideas could help P.C., which would be fantastic [yesnod]

Hmmm i am not sure what you mean by that. But i will agree that the feeling is different to those Games. Which in my opinion is not a bad thing. Different is not always bad you see.

I think it comes from the Fact that the Focus of both Games is quite different. For example the Piece by Piece Building in RCT1-3 was a bit of a Pain to be honest. This is why i avoided it for the Most time. Yes i have build more Themed Areas in RCT3, because it was more visually pleasing, but for the most Part it was mostly Landscaping.

In Planet Coaster is is quite a bit more work, granted, but with it comes extreme Freedom to build what you want.

Scneario wise i am missing the classic ones, but the Scenario Editor fixes that.

I myself don't think that the Planet Coaster Atmosphere is any worse, like i said, it is just different.

 

[WingardiumLevicoaster]

I personally find it more immersive. In terms of being in the park and looking around. Feels more real. I like Crowdpleaser, never bother with PxP before, because I found building the roofs on large buildings a pain. I didn't often build ride stations or anything, though I wanted to. Maybe some of the scenarios are not as immersive? Or is it just nostalgia you are looking for? Given it is a slightly different type of game.

 

[breezerHOG1]

Theres a lot of things from RCT missing in PlanCo:

- Guests used to cheer when you completed a scenario, causing all their balloons to float away
- There were various "best scenery" awards including negative ones
- The UI was simpler and less cumbersome (I wont go into details here)
- Every scenario had various shapes to the park border which offered more variety compared to how PlanCo only allows square/rectangle borders
- You could purchase land and choose specifically which areas to purchase which added to the strategy element
- You could click on the ducks and make their feathers fly all over, which doesnt seem important but I really think the pigeon/seagulls in PlanCo are less appealling
- You could achieve a high score in every scenario and try to beat that high score, adding to the replayability
- You could fail a scenario and there were no redundant objectives such as "gain 500 guests, 1000 guests, etc" (in official scenarios, not custom)
- The RCT3 scenario editor was far more robust
- The guest editor in RCT3 was also far more robust, allowing us to create multiple groups and even see where they were and the pictures they took
- RCT3 Soaked had tons of water effects and making waterfalls way extremely simple (dont even get me started on terrain)
- Classic RCT had far more scenarios with a greater variety to their designs IMO
- Theres too many scenarios in PlanCo that can be completed in less than 1 year of game time, no chance to actually develop a park within the structure of the objectives
- There should have been a better progression for unlocking rides and purchasing a new park (like a real career mode)
- Having 15 scenarios that dont focus on coaster objectives, and only 5 that do seems out of touch for a game called Planet Coaster, especially considering how big of a gap there was in challenge from the first 10 scenarios to the last 5
- Progression, research, and economic balances could help PlanCo but unfortunately the DLC makes it impossible to properly set research limitations in the scenario editor
- My favorite scenario in PlanCo was Golems Rampage because I liked how the monorail broke the park up into 4 areas, I would like to see more scenarios like that

The biggest problem for me is that Classic RCT felt more like a puzzle thanks to its simplistic grid based design, where as PlanCo feels more like an easel and paint brush with its freedom. I miss the simplicity RCT offered and I dont understand why PlanCo couldnt offer both simplicity and freedom, unfortunately it doesnt. Most games are dumbed down for a casual audience and IMO this game could have benefited more if it had kept some of the simplicity that Classic RCT, mainly the option to turn on a grid for terrain and make simple walls of terrain for dark rides

 

[HeatherG]

not sure what “feeling” you’re talking about. I’d pick PC over rct any day.

 

[breezerHOG1]

not sure what “feeling” you’re talking about. I’d pick PC over rct any day.

its called nostalgia, you would have had to play RCT first to understand

 

[cerealfruitcakes]

I definitely get the same happy fuzzy feelings I got from RCT after I've created a new ride, area or finishing up a park. To each their own. [happy]

 

[pwc1]

RCT3 was my favorite of the RCT series. And while Planet Coaster is great in many ways, but I wish it was more similar to RCT3.

 

[Serpentrax]

I think it has something to do with simplicity of the first two RCT's graphics. Guest consist of only a few pixels, all the animations happened in pre-rendered frames and you couldn't zoom in very close. The camera was isometric so we could never see the perspective and inside of buildings from a guest point of view. It was all up to our own imagination and it is still magical how much imagination can achieve.

Then RCT3 came out and suddenly we could zoom in and see the game world up close. We could see what the guest see and it was not a pretty sight; guest looked horribly, scaling was inconsistent, coasters were janky and the overall visual fidelity was kept low to keep the performance somewhat acceptable.

PlanCo may look beautiful, but because the attention to detail is so high, the flaws are breaking the atmosphere and immersion immediately. The botched guest brain plays the same animation for all guest at once, guest are following the same invisible rails like they are robots, and we are able to view and take care of the building interior, so we can no longer leave that part up to our imagination either. Even though Frontier thinks otherwise with their rabbit-hole "features".

 

[Chicolin4u]

Theres a lot of things from RCT missing in PlanCo:

- Guests used to cheer when you completed a scenario, causing all their balloons to float away
- The UI was simpler and less cumbersome (I wont go into details here)
- Every scenario had various shapes to the park border which offered more variety compared to how PlanCo only allows square/rectangle borders
- You could purchase land and choose specifically which areas to purchase which added to the strategy element
- You could click on the ducks and make their feathers fly all over, which doesnt seem important but I really think the pigeon/seagulls in PlanCo are less appealling
- You could achieve a high score in every scenario and try to beat that high score, adding to the replayability
- You could fail a scenario and there were no redundant objectives such as "gain 500 guests, 1000 guests, etc" (in official scenarios, not custom)
- The RCT3 scenario editor was far more robust
- The guest editor in RCT3 was also far more robust, allowing us to create multiple groups and even see where they were and the pictures they took
- RCT3 Soaked had tons of water effects and making waterfalls way extremely simple (dont even get me started on terrain)
- Classic RCT had far more scenarios with a greater variety to their designs IMO
- Theres too many scenarios in PlanCo that can be completed in less than 1 year of game time, no chance to actually develop a park within the structure of the objectives
- There should have been a better progression for unlocking rides and purchasing a new park (like a real career mode)
- Having 15 scenarios that dont focus on coaster objectives, and only 5 that do seems out of touch for a game called Planet Coaster, especially considering how big of a gap there was in challenge from the first 10 scenarios to the last 5
- Progression, research, and economic balances could help PlanCo but unfortunately the DLC makes it impossible to properly set research limitations in the scenario editor
- My favorite scenario in PlanCo was Golems Rampage because I liked how the monorail broke the park up into 4 areas, I would like to see more scenarios like that

The biggest problem for me is that Classic RCT felt more like a puzzle thanks to its simplistic grid based design, where as PlanCo feels more like an easel and paint brush with its freedom. I miss the simplicity RCT offered and I dont understand why PlanCo couldnt offer both simplicity and freedom, unfortunately it doesnt. Most games are dumbed down for a casual audience and IMO this game could have benefited more if it had kept some of the simplicity that Classic RCT, mainly the option to turn on a grid for terrain and make simple walls of terrain for dark rides

Isn't Parkitect like a puzzle as well?

 

[Coastercad]

Did anyone actually ever go back to rct 3 after playing planet coaster?

 

[Vampiro]

Did anyone actually ever go back to rct3 after playing planet coaster?

I definatly didn't. As much as i loved RCT3, Planet Coaster is all that was RCT3 and more

 

[cerealfruitcakes]

Did anyone actually ever go back to rct 3 after playing planet coaster?

Yup, I was working on this RCT3 park while also playing Alpha,

Once alpha3 released I moved on to building Lake Greenwood in PC and never looked back. I see PC as RCT3 on steroids.

 

[wowman]

great looking map for this park

 

[cerealfruitcakes]

great looking map for this park

Thanks! It was my last "hurrah!" before moving on. I had countless RCT parks that went unfinished so I wanted to have at LEAST 1 after a decade of playing [tongue]

I still go back once in a blue moon and replay RCT for the scenario's. So if there's one thing RCT has over PC in regards to that "RCT Feeling" it's definitely the scenario's for me. I just don't find myself wanting to replay them on PC and I didn't even finish the last few. I think a lot of that has to do with the lack of biome/landscape variety. It was always fun and challenging to deal with different landscapes to build on with each scenario in RCT1, 2 and 3. An icy island world, cliff side water front, island hopping in the ocean, an ocean pier, a bridge, beach front boardwalk, sandy deserts, movie town, Dracula's castle, building up a large hill with height limitations, tiny park, an alien world, jungle world, massive gardens, etc. etc. It was always throwing something new at you. PC doesn't offer that same variety/challenge IMO.

 

[Helena]

Gameplay RCT1+2 was the best ever. Hands down.

Graphics wise: PlanCo wins!

Now if these get combined - dream game!

 

[Crowdpleaser]

Gameplay RCT1+2 was the best ever. Hands down.

Graphics wise: PlanCo wins!

Now if these get combined - dream game!

Yes... but be careful, sometimes it is just simply Nostalgia clouding ones judgement.
It happens that i have high regards for an old game as the best thing ever in ever for ever, but when i go back this opinion kinda changes.

I still enjoy playing RCT2, but while doing so i deeply miss things that Planet Coaster introduced. Yes there are things that RCT2 did better, like advertising for rides instead of age groups, the ability to keep track of single peeps... stuff like that. In my humble opinion though, Planet Coaster is a better overall Game.

Which doesn't mean of course it is free of flaws. I think we all have our little issues here and there