So I just tested "Harder" challenge mode for about 15 minutes and I can already say, this is the real meat of the game for those of us who want a chal

[FinalMantasyX]

So I just tested "Harder" challenge mode for about 15 minutes and I can already say, this is the real meat of the game for those of us who want a challenge.

The game still needs core mechanic and balance fixes to be a truly satisfying experience. But from just fifteen minutes playing around with it, man, this is much improved.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PlanetCoaster/comments/5eo9ax/harder_challenge_mode_what_makes_it_harder/

-2,000 Starting Cash (fake difficulty IMO but whatever)
-10k and 5k loans as only options (neat)
-Guest generation seems to be crazy low, compared to crazy high from normal gameplay? My park 3 months in only has 80 guests.
-Guest ride cost preference seems lower? I placed 3 wild blues at 14 dollars each and guests didn't get on until I lowered it to 10.
-Guest ride repetition preference seems lower? 3 wild blues - "I wish there were more rides". Before it seemed like taht complaint was based on quantity, not identical rides. Or maybe they just want more than 3.
-11% of my guests say "This place sucks..." which I've never seen before.
-My janitor, within seconds of being placed, went from happy to right in the middle with two ":|" face complaints.
-3 months in, 90 guests
-Only one challenge so far- Monthly shop profits of 500.
Picture of status of Harder park on Jun 6th

MEDIUM MODE PARK RESULTS:

-13 days (!!!) in and I already have over 100 guests. GUEST GENERATION IN HARDER MODE IS MUCH LOWER CONFIRMED.
-Guests are paying 12 dollars for Wild Blue GUEST COST PREFERENCE IS LOWER CONFIRMED
-Guests still want more rides, this one was misread on my part, apparently they do care about variety more than I thought.
-Janitor is still happy after a few weeks. STAFF HAPPINESS THRESHOLD LOWER CONFIRMED
-Guest count breached 300 before May even started. Guest generation is WAY lower confirmed.

From a short 10-15 minute test, HARDER MODE ACTUALLY MAKES CORE GAME MECHANICS HARDER, YOU GUYS, HOLY ❤︎❤︎❤︎❤︎!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[chris.beet]

Many thanks for that FMX.

My guess is they've used the balancing settings from the Skull scenario in career mode as that all sounds very familiar. This is along the lines of what I was hoping for and I'm looking forward to giving it a bash. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts.

 

[Curlyriff]

Not sure that is what I was really wanting. All the management mechanics are the same and I didn't find anything interesting challenge cause of this. Looks like I will still be avoiding for now.

• You said loans are more complex in your reddit post? Why, they don't seem much different. Just different figures.
• The ride repetition and amount they are willing to pay is good but should just be like that generally but I guess that's a start and something which is really a different difficulty change
• The janitor being instantly unhappy is just false difficulty
• Same with starting funds
• Low guest spawn just slows progress not difficulty

So yeah not loads for me tbh. But am glad that you guys have a little more that you want.

If they want to do it lets take loans:

Loans should be based like a real system. You select between let's say $1000 - $100,000 you then select your repayment term of between 6 months and 60 months.

A list is generated based on the following factors:

Years trading
Current Balance
Current Debt(s)
Number/Value of assets

This then generates various repayment rates from fictitious banks. You have a very likely, likely, not likely and wont rating groups (like when you do compare site).

Within this each one would offer; repayment rate, over-payment ability (Y/N) , early repayment fee, number of months you can default on.

This way you can select what you feel is best for yourself at the time. This actually adds depths.

It means if you are running a successful park you can borrow more at a better rate but may be locked to a longer payment period so the bank can get a better return in long run. It would also offer a pay now but with a large fee to do so.

If you park is not successful then you can borrow from less lenders and thus likely to have much higher rates. This means you are paying more monthly in interest. It could be that you can take out an interest only loan but then after 5 years you have to pay the rest of the loan off in a bulk lump at a heavily inflated amount.

There are lots and lots of options.

 

[chris.beet]

There are indeed lots of options Curlyriff but this is a step in the right direction and given that bigger changes will take more time to implement than just a week post release I'm glad we've got this to keep us quiet for a bit! If it's anything like the Skull scenario I can honestly say I found it challenging. Yes the mechanics are the same but you didn't get the sense that you could get by with just slapping down a few rides haphazardly. It did require a bit of thinking and that's what I want from the game when it all boils down to it - I want to have to think about what I'm doing and have a strategy.

 

[Curlyriff]

Yeah but I just think the changes are superficial and don't change anything. And so I am still not interested tbh. It doesn't really take any more thinking I don't believe. You just play it for longer and leave it running for longer tbh. There is no real need to change strategy compared to before.

I can do the same principle of dropping a few rides down, make sure everyone happy enough not to quit on first day and then leave on FF until I have enough money in to research something, do that, add it and then repeat. Sorry but I think it would have been better to sort out the bugs for queue issues, for the demographic side we discussed etc.

I just feel this is a quick fix that doesn't add anything really. At least not for me. As said I am glad others are all good with it though because at least more are playing and can see other issues and bring up other thoughts and give further feedback.

 

[Ghosrath]

Yeah but I just think the changes are superficial and don't change anything. And so I am still not interested tbh. It doesn't really take any more thinking I don't believe. You just play it for longer and leave it running for longer tbh. There is no real need to change strategy compared to before.

I can do the same principle of dropping a few rides down, make sure everyone happy enough not to quit on first day and then leave on FF until I have enough money in to research something, do that, add it and then repeat. Sorry but I think it would have been better to sort out the bugs for queue issues, for the demographic side we discussed etc.

I just feel this is a quick fix that doesn't add anything really. At least not for me. As said I am glad others are all good with it though because at least more are playing and can see other issues and bring up other thoughts and give further feedback.

The demographics are hopefully going to get a bit more diverse because guests wont idle around your park anymore when there is nothing to do for them. Alas, not the change we were hoping for, vut a good start

 

[Curlyriff]

The demographics are hopefully going to get a bit more diverse because guests wont idle around your park anymore when there is nothing to do for them. Alas, not the change we were hoping for, vut a good start

Yeah I get that. I was just more making point there are things I would have liked to see "fixed" that make all of the base game sorted further than some arbitrary "harder" setting when (hopefully) we could do this with a basic scenario editor.

It will be interesting to load up a current large park, close it and then re-open it to see how that changes.

 

[Replica]

Not entirely sure what the big deal seems to be.

All this has done for me so far is change the starting meta from:

>1 Wild Blue at 17$
>1 Carousel
>1 Cosmic Cow w/ tweaked extras and prices

to

>2 Wild Blue at 17$

or

>Take 10k loan
>Use 12k to build Looping American arrow with 2 trains at 17$ per ticket
>+ 1 Wild Blue at 17$ if left over money
>Then wait while loan is repaid

Everything else after that seems kinda the same tbh.

Edit:

Went afk for 10 minutes to buy a packet of smokes, and now I can afford to build a brand new much better coaster.

Oops, I guess I broke the game again??

https://i.gyazo.com/62503cffea0858eeadf971182e141bc6.png

 

[Curlyriff]

Not entirely sure what the big deal seems to be.

All this has done for me so far is change the starting meta from:

>1 Wild Blue at 17$
>1 Carousel
>1 Cosmic Cow w/ tweaked extras and prices

to

>2 Wild Blue at 17$

or

>Take 10k loan
>Use 12k to build Looping American arrow with 2 trains at 17$ per ticket
>+ 1 Wild Blue at 17$ if left over money
>Then wait while loan is repaid

Everything else after that seems kinda the same tbh.

Edit:

Went afk for 10 minutes to buy a packet of smokes, and now I can afford to build a brand new much better coaster.

Oops, I guess I broke the game again??

https://i.gyazo.com/62503cffea0858eeadf971182e141bc6.png

Yep that was my point too. It really isn't any different [sad]

 

[Cestinja]

Just did the same. Placed a wild blue and brought scenery rating to 100% .... 1 janitor 1 mechanic. 2nd wild blue + carousel and then a cosmic cow + chief beef + toilet. Went afk and went shopping. Had loads of cash when I came back.

Default pay for every staff member and 17$ for both wild blue and 6$ for carousel. Toilet 1$, cosmic cow all raised to 7$ and chief beef upped by 2$.

 

[As'ault Lemming]

From my second game I've been playing on challenge mode on the highest difficulty setting. It's a little more difficult to get started, but once you realise there's only one viable strategy it's no more challenging than medium. My park is sitting on close to a million in cash, about 1k per month income, all staff max happiness.

Just keep adding rides, you can't fail.

 

[Thysios]

Question about starting funds, do you start with $2,000. Or is it a $2,000 loan like RCT used to do. I guess this question could be asked about any mode, not just the hard mode. But still curious.

Also, this doesn't effect the career mode does it? It's just challenge mode? This all sounds like a good first step, but if the objectives for career mode (does challenge mode have objectives?) are still ridiculously easy that's most of my motivation to play gone.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Also, this doesn't effect the career mode does it? It's just challenge mode? This all sounds like a good first step, but if the objectives for career mode (does challenge mode have objectives?) are still ridiculously easy that's most of my motivation to play gone.

Challenge mode offers what I think are kinda fun goals, especially if you try to meet them all in one park, AND have a decent park. I lost the decent park battle tonight though. [haha]
The goals are increasing ride, scenery, and park ratings, and income goals, and coaster length/speed/inversion/excitement/height goals.

 

[Thysios]

Challenge mode offers what I think are kinda fun goals, especially if you try to meet them all in one park, AND have a decent park. I lost the decent park battle tonight though. [haha]
The goals are increasing ride, scenery, and park ratings, and income goals, and coaster length/speed/inversion/excitement/height goals.

Is there a time limit? Or can you take as long as you want? Imo that's probably the main thing I want. If you can't fail it doesn't matter what the goals are because you'll always reach it at some point.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

Do you need failing a challenge to end the game?
If it doesn't, what happens next? Do you get offered the same challenge again?
If you didn't finish the coaster in time, should the game auto delete it?
If you don't meet the challenge, should it just continue offering up the next levels?

Challenge mode is intended for "long play" unlike scenarios, which are meant to be short.
Challenge mode gets more interesting the longer you play. It forces you to place more rides. It forces you to place more scenery, it forces you to fill your park up, basically. Add in longer, faster, taller, more "complicated" coaster challenges and it becomes harder to build them in your park. This is casual game play. Not death match.

Scenarios are where you fail. Or should have the opportunity to fail.

 

[Thysios]

Do you need failing a challenge to end the game?
If it doesn't, what happens next? Do you get offered the same challenge again?
If you didn't finish the coaster in time, should the game auto delete it?
If you don't meet the challenge, should it just continue offering up the next levels?

Challenge mode is intended for "long play" unlike scenarios, which are meant to be short.
Challenge mode gets more interesting the longer you play. It forces you to place more rides. It forces you to place more scenery, it forces you to fill your park up, basically. Add in longer, faster, taller, more "complicated" coaster challenges and it becomes harder to build them in your park. This is casual game play. Not death match.

Scenarios are where you fail. Or should have the opportunity to fail.

I never said they should have that. I was just curious, cause that's what interests me. You can have failure states and still have a casual game. Why does everything seem to think wanting failure states means wanting the game to appeal to the ultra-hardcore.

 

[Bitter Jeweler]

So, answer my questions. I specifically asked what would happen if you failed.

 

[Replica]

Challenge mode is intended for "long play" unlike scenarios, which are meant to be short.
Challenge mode gets more interesting the longer you play.

No it doesn't, it gets easier and less interesting the longer you play, because if you don't muck your start up you'll have virtually unlimited money pretty early on and just turn the whole thing into a pseudo sandbox anyway.

 

[Curlyriff]

No it doesn't, it gets easier and less interesting the longer you play, because if you don't muck your start up you'll have virtually unlimited money pretty early on and just turn the whole thing into a pseudo sandbox anyway.

I agree with Replica, it has been shown here how you can just get the start right, leave it and come back and rush through the rest of the goals.

 

[Palaber1984]

The interest or they willing to pay not much more shouldn't be dependent on the difficulty of the challenge. It should always be real stats. I hope you understand what I mean!