This post has been updated on March 6th 11:10 AM GMT+3 to include 2 new additions: Researchable land expansions, and Locking Sandbox Settings.
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With update 2.0 soon to be here, I am excited to jump into sandbox mode with a new gameplay perspective, one that is more excited to build a park from the ground up with having to research everything from scratch. In a way, I think sandbox mode has now open itself up to be the custom challenge mode I and many other players have been waiting, choosing any map and researching and acquiring any dinosaur or asset provided you work for it.
The previous live stream showed us the new sandbox mode options that would come in update 2.0, and I am looking forward to trying them out when tuesday comes, as I love the idea of progression via research and expedition, as it makes the incubation of dinosaurs just as rewarding. With that said, I do see the potential for more sandbox options to be included that could enhance the challenging aspects of park management even further, and I want to share them here on the forums, and if you have any ideas of your own, please do share!
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LEVEL ENVIRONMENT
ASSET VULNERABILITY DURING STORMS: [None, Normal, High]
By adjusting this option, storms would hit your map would affect the rate your park assets would break or succumb to failure, as this includes buildings, fences, power stations, and vehicles. Setting it to none would leave these assets unaffected, while setting them to high would lead to a higher rate of asset damage.
DINOSAUR VULNERABILITY DURING STORMS: [None, Normal, High]
Adjusting this option would determine how vulnerable dinosaurs are during storms. Setting it to Normal would leave them vulnerable to the standard weather-related ailments and injuries. None would leave them immune to all forms of danger a storm would often bring to the animals.
High is special, as this is where storms would not only bring about the standard weather related ailments and injuries, but your dinosaurs may lose health depending on the weather they are facing. For example, sandstorms would slowly start to chip away health from a dinosaur, which is often not fatal to a healthy animal, but is risky if the animal is starving, dying of thirst, sick, or injured. While tornados would actually be a threat to your prehistoric residents, where the closer the animal is to the eye of the storm, the higher the rate their health is lost, stay in the eye too long and you might lose a star attraction.
•••
The level environment options are able to provide players a visually stunning yet harmless spectacle of a storm, or deliver a devastating nightmare where players have to be quick and resourceful to recover from.
DINOSAUR WELFARE
DINOSAUR STATUS DECAY: [On, Off]
By default, a dinosaur's status for environment and needs would decay over time, and a ranger needs to be sent out to observe the animal in question. This decay could be turned off if wanted in sandbox mode, where the dinosaur's status would always be visible to the player. This is especially useful for creative players wanting to create large parks with high dinosaur population, and would eliminate the hassle of setting up the ranger station and post to observe the status of your dinosaurs.
CONTRACTS
PARK RATING REPORT: [On, Off]
This is something I missed from challenge mode while playing sandbox mode, it is when one of the narrative characters, often times Cabot Finch, would notify you of your park's growth in star rating. I would love to see the return of this report as I like the way these characters would notice my progress, I especially would love to reach the 5 star rating and be congratulated with the fanfare and congratulations.
URGENT MESSAGES: [On, Off]
Yet another aspect of challenge mode I miss. It is when you would get the urgent message where you have to make a choice then and there that would either aid or hinder your park progress. What will you do with the endangered species you found during construction? Will you reward your scientist for learning a new skill on their own? Are you willing to lend a local museum your fossils? These urgent missions were quite fun and were the external factor to sway your progress when it comes to park building, similar to contracts.
SCIENTISTS AND TASKS
EXPEDITIONS AND FOSSILS: [Fossils, Wild Dinosaurs, Off]
This was a newly added mode for sandbox mode that is coming to update 2.0, to which my request is that the option could be expanded to include wild dinosaurs.
Players who have played campaign mode may remember the pennsylvania, oregon, and california sections where you send out teams to wrangle some of the wild dinosaurs to include in your parks. This was sometimes done via the urgent messages in challenge mode, but I was wondering if it would be possible to have it be a fully dedicated option when it comes to populating your park with dinosaurs. This would be a fun way of getting species you did not plan, as you have to work with what is available at certain times. With the option to introduce dinosaurs is more random and luck based, it could lead to some unexpected situations.
RESEARCHABLE LAND: [On, Off]
This is a option that is only accessible before starting your sandbox game, and only if research has been turned on.
Like the Jurassic Park and The Lost World Chaos Theory game modes, we could have the option to research more land during gameplay. They could be unlocked via money/star rating, and would be a nice limitation for players wanting to make most of the limited park space at first and expand the land as the park grows. Some maps could have anywhere between 1 or 2 expansions based on map size and structure.
PARK CONDITIONS
This is an entirely new section when it comes to sandbox options. This is where players could introduce some additional limitations and conditions to make the sandbox experience engaging, and could only be applied before starting your park. This could include rules like, but not limited to:
• Ability to sell dinosaurs [On, Off]
• Ability to genetically modify dinosaurs [On, Off, Cosmetics only]
• Species Limit [10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, Unlimited (PC, XBOX SERIES X|S, PS5 only)]
• Dinosaur Roster [Herbivores, Carnivores, JP Chaos theory, TLW Chaos Theory, JW Chaos Theory, All]
• Short lifespan for dinosaurs with negative physical traits [On, Off]
You may recall most of them from challenge mode as the additional conditions that could be introduced when attempting harder challenges. With this new category, not only could you introduce more challenge to your park, but the JWE Team could also introduce further conditions with future updates that would be fun to attempt with in sandbox mode.
LOCK SANDBOX SETTINGS
A sandbox mode feature that would be great for players wanting to stay committed to the chosen sandbox settings. This feature is only accessible before starting a sandbox game, as locking the sandbox settings would not allow further modifications during gameplay. The only settings that could be modified would be the Island Lighting, Day/Night Cycle Duration, and Color Grading.
This feature would be useful to resist the temptation of changing sandbox setting during gameplay, as it would be easy to bypass certain struggles, such as eliminating all diseases during a breakout or turning cash unlimited when close to bankruptcy. This is so that there is a level of challenge that would test players wanting to make it through a sandbox scenario with rules they have set themselves.
-----------------------------
These were some of the ideas I had when it comes to additional sandbox options that would add more challenge like elements in these playthroughs. I am hoping they could be considered as they would increase the replayability of sandbox mode should you wish to mix things up and challenge your level of park management in conditions that may be unique from those available in challenge mode.
Hope you enjoyed what I shared, do share some ideas you have as well.
Thanks for reading, until next time, Take care
-----------------------------
With update 2.0 soon to be here, I am excited to jump into sandbox mode with a new gameplay perspective, one that is more excited to build a park from the ground up with having to research everything from scratch. In a way, I think sandbox mode has now open itself up to be the custom challenge mode I and many other players have been waiting, choosing any map and researching and acquiring any dinosaur or asset provided you work for it.
The previous live stream showed us the new sandbox mode options that would come in update 2.0, and I am looking forward to trying them out when tuesday comes, as I love the idea of progression via research and expedition, as it makes the incubation of dinosaurs just as rewarding. With that said, I do see the potential for more sandbox options to be included that could enhance the challenging aspects of park management even further, and I want to share them here on the forums, and if you have any ideas of your own, please do share!
-----------------------------
LEVEL ENVIRONMENT
ASSET VULNERABILITY DURING STORMS: [None, Normal, High]
By adjusting this option, storms would hit your map would affect the rate your park assets would break or succumb to failure, as this includes buildings, fences, power stations, and vehicles. Setting it to none would leave these assets unaffected, while setting them to high would lead to a higher rate of asset damage.
DINOSAUR VULNERABILITY DURING STORMS: [None, Normal, High]
Adjusting this option would determine how vulnerable dinosaurs are during storms. Setting it to Normal would leave them vulnerable to the standard weather-related ailments and injuries. None would leave them immune to all forms of danger a storm would often bring to the animals.
High is special, as this is where storms would not only bring about the standard weather related ailments and injuries, but your dinosaurs may lose health depending on the weather they are facing. For example, sandstorms would slowly start to chip away health from a dinosaur, which is often not fatal to a healthy animal, but is risky if the animal is starving, dying of thirst, sick, or injured. While tornados would actually be a threat to your prehistoric residents, where the closer the animal is to the eye of the storm, the higher the rate their health is lost, stay in the eye too long and you might lose a star attraction.
•••
The level environment options are able to provide players a visually stunning yet harmless spectacle of a storm, or deliver a devastating nightmare where players have to be quick and resourceful to recover from.
DINOSAUR WELFARE
DINOSAUR STATUS DECAY: [On, Off]
By default, a dinosaur's status for environment and needs would decay over time, and a ranger needs to be sent out to observe the animal in question. This decay could be turned off if wanted in sandbox mode, where the dinosaur's status would always be visible to the player. This is especially useful for creative players wanting to create large parks with high dinosaur population, and would eliminate the hassle of setting up the ranger station and post to observe the status of your dinosaurs.
CONTRACTS
PARK RATING REPORT: [On, Off]
This is something I missed from challenge mode while playing sandbox mode, it is when one of the narrative characters, often times Cabot Finch, would notify you of your park's growth in star rating. I would love to see the return of this report as I like the way these characters would notice my progress, I especially would love to reach the 5 star rating and be congratulated with the fanfare and congratulations.
URGENT MESSAGES: [On, Off]
Yet another aspect of challenge mode I miss. It is when you would get the urgent message where you have to make a choice then and there that would either aid or hinder your park progress. What will you do with the endangered species you found during construction? Will you reward your scientist for learning a new skill on their own? Are you willing to lend a local museum your fossils? These urgent missions were quite fun and were the external factor to sway your progress when it comes to park building, similar to contracts.
SCIENTISTS AND TASKS
EXPEDITIONS AND FOSSILS: [Fossils, Wild Dinosaurs, Off]
This was a newly added mode for sandbox mode that is coming to update 2.0, to which my request is that the option could be expanded to include wild dinosaurs.
Players who have played campaign mode may remember the pennsylvania, oregon, and california sections where you send out teams to wrangle some of the wild dinosaurs to include in your parks. This was sometimes done via the urgent messages in challenge mode, but I was wondering if it would be possible to have it be a fully dedicated option when it comes to populating your park with dinosaurs. This would be a fun way of getting species you did not plan, as you have to work with what is available at certain times. With the option to introduce dinosaurs is more random and luck based, it could lead to some unexpected situations.
RESEARCHABLE LAND: [On, Off]
This is a option that is only accessible before starting your sandbox game, and only if research has been turned on.
Like the Jurassic Park and The Lost World Chaos Theory game modes, we could have the option to research more land during gameplay. They could be unlocked via money/star rating, and would be a nice limitation for players wanting to make most of the limited park space at first and expand the land as the park grows. Some maps could have anywhere between 1 or 2 expansions based on map size and structure.
PARK CONDITIONS
This is an entirely new section when it comes to sandbox options. This is where players could introduce some additional limitations and conditions to make the sandbox experience engaging, and could only be applied before starting your park. This could include rules like, but not limited to:
• Ability to sell dinosaurs [On, Off]
• Ability to genetically modify dinosaurs [On, Off, Cosmetics only]
• Species Limit [10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, Unlimited (PC, XBOX SERIES X|S, PS5 only)]
• Dinosaur Roster [Herbivores, Carnivores, JP Chaos theory, TLW Chaos Theory, JW Chaos Theory, All]
• Short lifespan for dinosaurs with negative physical traits [On, Off]
You may recall most of them from challenge mode as the additional conditions that could be introduced when attempting harder challenges. With this new category, not only could you introduce more challenge to your park, but the JWE Team could also introduce further conditions with future updates that would be fun to attempt with in sandbox mode.
LOCK SANDBOX SETTINGS
A sandbox mode feature that would be great for players wanting to stay committed to the chosen sandbox settings. This feature is only accessible before starting a sandbox game, as locking the sandbox settings would not allow further modifications during gameplay. The only settings that could be modified would be the Island Lighting, Day/Night Cycle Duration, and Color Grading.
This feature would be useful to resist the temptation of changing sandbox setting during gameplay, as it would be easy to bypass certain struggles, such as eliminating all diseases during a breakout or turning cash unlimited when close to bankruptcy. This is so that there is a level of challenge that would test players wanting to make it through a sandbox scenario with rules they have set themselves.
-----------------------------
These were some of the ideas I had when it comes to additional sandbox options that would add more challenge like elements in these playthroughs. I am hoping they could be considered as they would increase the replayability of sandbox mode should you wish to mix things up and challenge your level of park management in conditions that may be unique from those available in challenge mode.
Hope you enjoyed what I shared, do share some ideas you have as well.
Thanks for reading, until next time, Take care
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