For one thing way lower ticket prices and fewer guests would work. Going by what I found while modding those numbers are waaay too high, especially compared to some other modes. I went and changed the price from 800$ (yes that much) to 100-150$ each and it already made a huge difference and I actually get to play some before I reach the next star and can progress further. Add to that higher appeal and dino numbers and it actually turns into a bit more of a challenge. So it really wouldn't be that hard to make some changes there and make things more interesting in sandbox as well.
It already sounds like a lot of fun from what I read in this paragraph alone! I loved progressing through my parks and I admit that a sandbox park really speeds things up in an area I wish would be gradual. Now that the game is getting a wider variety of creatures and some that are really high in appeal rating, I would love it if prices in sandbox mode were lowered so that park building gets more gradual. I dislike how easy it is to get in in Jurassic settings sandbox mode, and there were multiple times where I would get a 5-star park using less than a third of the map's size if you plan the enclosures with highly appealing ecosystems.
Could I ask if you could see what the prices are in the new Malta sandbox maps? I had this hilarious yet unfortunate experience of almost reaching a 5-star map in 38 minutes with low dinosaur appeal but just stopped since the pacing was too quick for me to care. It was hilarious since despite the first malta map being one of the biggest in the game, I only ever used the small area next to my entrance to reach almost 5 stars, about a third of the small map you are given access to at the start of the campaign. This is very likely to be a hiccup but one that has greatly diminished my Malta sandbox experience.
If there are some key areas to improve progressive park building in sandbox mode, they would be these:
1) SANDBOX SETTINGS TO ADJUST TICKET PRICES AND INCOME TAX
As
@Nioell has mentioned, one of the biggest issues in sandbox mode is that ticket prices are too high and having the tickets lowered or letting the players lower the ticket prices themselves would make park building more gradual.
The ability to enable and adjust income tax would be just as amazing because even if we manage to squeeze a lot of profit with what we have available, we won't have a bank account that is growing in the millions, which diminishes any worry of financial mistakes when it comes to park management decisions such as researching more costly upgrades, reincubating a batch of expensive eggs for more desirable traits, hiring and training more expensive scientists, and using strategies that would allow for future planning of expensive projects, all the while the risk of bankruptcy is present if things get chaotic when they get chaotic.
2) SANDBOX CATEGORY TO ENABLE CHALLENGE CONDITIONS
I have grown to really love challenge mode and the various conditions seen from that mode of play. With each park comes conditions that spice up the park management of Jurassic World Evolution 2 and I definitely see some challenging conditions and features that I would love to use in sandbox mode. Urgent messages bring about ultimatums for the player to choose from, dinosaurs that are very fussy and prone to be dangerous during storms, intelligent ones that need a more secure enclosure to be housed in, scientists that are more likely to sabotage with each new task assigned, tranquilizers that needs to be researched in order to contain the more aggressive dinosaurs, not being able to sell your animals, and dinosaurs failing to live up to 10% of their expected life due to having negative traits.
Those are some of the challenge conditions I would love to enable in sandbox mode, as they really test me when growing my park to reach 5 stars. We could research and house a T-rex, but I find it to be more satisfying if that process was expensive, chaotic, and dangerous due to limited funds, agitated staff, and a T-rex that needs high-level security, darts, and is likely to cause a lawsuit due to the fussy and intelligent trait.
Jurassic World challenge mode does satisfy that direction when it comes to park management, I would like that to be possible in sandbox mode so that I could use these conditions on any map and with any building set, with the possibility of making it more challenging with other challenge conditions.
3) A NEW LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: DOMINION
At least from my experience, Jurassic levels of difficulty does not feel satisfying anymore. This could be in part to sandbox mode not having adjustable ticket prices and taxes, but I always feel that Jurassic Levels of difficulty do not let me utilize all of my park space. I recall back in Jurassic World Evolution 1's challenge mode where I would have to make the most of all of my park space, while yes the maps were rather small compared to 2, I enjoyed having to figure out what to place and where to place it. Jurassic World Evolution 2 really does streamline a lot of the process so that you could house a lot of animals within a limited space and have it feel more organic and complex compared to 1, to which I think the only downside is that experienced players may only ever need a third of a map if they know how to house animals for more appeal per gallery and guest amenities that would make the most of the traffic.
So why not include a new level of difficulty in the game? DOMINION: A difficulty setting that is double that of Jurassic but is only ever accessible in sandbox mode if players are willing to build a park in such conditions. This is mainly due to how amazingly huge the roster is in Jurassic World Evolution 2, and how you could utilize that roster to conquer the dominion levels of difficulty with the space given in sandbox maps, especially the large one.
Jurassic Difficulty in sandbox mode for Nublar 2015 is to have a park that would have a dinosaur appeal requirement of 9000 consisting of 30 species and to earn an income of $2,000,000 with Jurassic levels of guest count and sabotage. More often than not, I would reach that 5-star rating with at MOST, half of the park built. with the other half being empty and not experiencing any difficulty managing guest needs or experiencing any notable sabotage.
If that park is given a higher level of difficulty, such as Dominion, those aspects could increase doubly so. So a park in Nublar 2015 may need $4,000,000 in income, 60 species, and an appeal of 1800 with even more guests to satisfy and more risk of sabotage.
Already it sounds bonkers, but such a level could work in sandbox mode, cause it is sandbox mode. Not all aspects could be done at this dominion level of difficulty as players may want to try out this level of difficulty for one aspect instead if they think it is easy in that area, or be curious and try it out in all 4 categories and see how long they could last under such pressure.
4) GRADUAL STORMS AND DISEASE INTENSITY SANDBOX SETTINGS
This one is very straightforward, but I think the maps in the game could use a weather and disease system that gets more intense the higher the star rating. The ones in the current sandbox settings could be very random or too much from the start, and I think having it gradually would enhance the experience. If gradual, things will be peaceful from the start so as to allow players to set everything up accordingly. Only when players start earning higher star ratings, the storms would get more disastrous and the diseases could be more common, acting as a suppressor to the player's progress during the later star ratings, so that the final few levels of star ratings could be more challenging and would require the player to plan ahead for any impending disaster.
5) RESEARCH PAGES APPROPRIATE TO THE BUILDING SET
While all the above are to make it more challenging for the player in sandbox mode, this is more to have it be fair. When playing sandbox mode, I would often go for Jurassic World, Jurassic Park, DFW, or All-Building sets, because I dislike how the Biosyn and Malta building sets are handicapped due to research.
If you played sandbox mode with research enabled, you would notice that the research's UI is done with the Jurassic World building set in mind, as Jurassic World has a building set that covers everything such as transport, additional attractions, and higher level fencing. While it made sense to use it for all building sets at first, flaws are more apparent when playing in other building sets, Jurassic Park and DFW would have research items that would yield nothing if research such as the monorail, zip lines, and heavy fencing when using the DFW set.
It however gets more infuriating when using the Biosyn or Malta pack as they have important items that are only accessible in later star ratings that would make the park management with research very difficult or downright impractical. The power stations are only accessible at 3.5 stars with no smaller substitute to use, while Malta only has a large hotel which is practically impossible to get since you need 500 guests to unlock it but no small hotel to reach those guest numbers.
If the research page were to be more appropriate per building set, not only would it be aesthetically immersive per building set with the correct research pictures and Biosyn's research compound UI, but items like power stations and hotels would be accessible to the player in a much fairer manner when playing in Biosyn or Malta sets with research enabled, allowing for players who like to progress in park management via sandbox mode to enjoy the new building sets without feeling they have reached a dead end and would have to use other building sets that allow for more fair research progression and only use these building sets for parks where research is not enabled.
6) SANDBOX SETTING TO ENABLE AND DISABLE GUEST NEEDS
If we are able to adjust the ticket prices for our sandbox game, we could overcome the need for guest facilities and focus on expanding exclusively on species variety and dinosaur count.
This would allow a similar level of play from some campaign levels where players were to build a park with more focus on sustaining ecosystems and containing many dinosaurs while disregarding guests. This would be great for roleplaying DFW Containment Parks, Research Facilities, and especially Biosyn sanctuaries that have a building set that lacks basic guest facilities like toilets, tours, and hotels and rely on the DFW pack to fill in the gaps.
Turning guest needs off would simply turn off the management tab for guests, and not display management aspects that cover Food, drinks, shopping, toiletries, and transport.
Bonus: Scientist-only guest type
To better capture a guestless park in areas that are not DFW, let us have the option to have our guests be scientists only. This is different from the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World staff if we want to utilize an unbranded guest type for parks that are not operated by InGen.
7) SANDBOX SETTING TO ENABLE AND DISABLE ALL DECORATIONS
An aesthetic change, but I always felt decorations could contain all items for any building set, similar to how we could use rocks from all biomes on any map. Sometimes I like to focus on a single building set such as Jurassic Park, and I like how it simplifies the choices for guests, facilities, and fencing to focus on Jurassic Park era items, as any other building set item like Jurassic World, DFW, or Biosyn could be unnecessary and removes those items from selection to streamline the experience.
Except for decorations, as sometimes I feel this cleanup is more limiting in that area. Similar to the other buildings, decorations would focus on a specific era, but I always felt that there are items I would love to use in a certain era, such as the spinosaurus skeleton in Jurassic Park, the DFW spotlight for my incubation labs, tents and wooden crates for Jurassic World and Malta, and the multiple dinosaur cages that are divided between building sets.
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This post really grew to be rather big but I definitely see potential with this game's sandbox mode. All the ingredients are there to allow for more challenging park progression that would better capture the franchise's chaos while simultaneously benefitting sandbox mode's ability to use any map, any building set, and access all dinosaurs the game has to offer. The areas to work on in sandbox mode shared above I think would help make such level of progressive play achievable and enjoyable, and I hope it gets considered by the devs to implement such changes to the game.