Hello! I've been playing some of the old challenge maps as of late, and I've noticed that some maps' setups give them significantly less challenge than might be needed, or would be a lot easier with tools available in later maps. Perhaps it would be possible to add a 'Custom Mode' once you've beaten a challenge map, so you can add new challenges and tools so long as the map setup permits it? (I imagine that the rustlers wouldn't really work in maps not explicitly designed for them, for example.)
For example, say you're on Challenge 3. Once you get past the initial hurdle of 'how do I pay for all these Struthiomimus to feed to the carnivores' and can satisfy your carnivores with goats instead, it's pretty easy, particularly if you're mindful of exhibit densities so your rangers don't get eaten every five seconds. This is doubly so once you unlock aviaries- Quetzalcoatlus-Barbaridactylus exhibits give you incredible Appeal density at minimal risk, since the Snowstorm status doesn't really distress your pterosaurs beyond injuries, which mitigates the only real weakness of Quetz as an animal (ie he's very willing to break out and a bunch of Quetz and Barbaris flying around is a massive risk to your rangers). On top of that, you can get things like hybrids easily enough, and snowstorms make those creatures pretty anemic as a threat too. But what if you could get the Intelligent trait on these maps? If you're forced by cost or circumstance to release a few Intelligent dinosaurs into your park, well, that's going to make things a lot more exciting!
Or what about Challenge 5, and its maze of canyons combined with its limited power sources and sandstormy weather? I found that my best solution was to just jam everything into as small a space as posssible and let tour vehicles deal with the rest- a few aviaries, some troodonts and a herbivore exhibit or two, and you can bypass dealing with the maze by sending tour vehicles to deal with it instead. But that leaves a lot of the map yet to be explored, and unless you just want to shove a viewing tower next to some ichthyosaurs or something, a lot of those nooks and crevices that are just begging for an exhibit just don't really leave the space for fitting the monorails and tour tracks that'd make them useful (at least, not in a pretty manner). They're practically begging for some Biosyn-style towers, and there's plenty of things to trade for them, like returning the 'forest' need to dinosaurs on this map or making sandstorms cause comfort problems.
Something like a 'Chaos Meter' might be a nice way to implement things- you increase chaos by adding helpful things like new objects, and increase it by adding unhelpful things like intelligence and whatnot. And remixing old features, like having snowstorms cause comfort issues or power disruptions, would be a great way to add some more intrigue and provide counterweights to maps you're getting additional helpful features in!
For example, say you're on Challenge 3. Once you get past the initial hurdle of 'how do I pay for all these Struthiomimus to feed to the carnivores' and can satisfy your carnivores with goats instead, it's pretty easy, particularly if you're mindful of exhibit densities so your rangers don't get eaten every five seconds. This is doubly so once you unlock aviaries- Quetzalcoatlus-Barbaridactylus exhibits give you incredible Appeal density at minimal risk, since the Snowstorm status doesn't really distress your pterosaurs beyond injuries, which mitigates the only real weakness of Quetz as an animal (ie he's very willing to break out and a bunch of Quetz and Barbaris flying around is a massive risk to your rangers). On top of that, you can get things like hybrids easily enough, and snowstorms make those creatures pretty anemic as a threat too. But what if you could get the Intelligent trait on these maps? If you're forced by cost or circumstance to release a few Intelligent dinosaurs into your park, well, that's going to make things a lot more exciting!
Or what about Challenge 5, and its maze of canyons combined with its limited power sources and sandstormy weather? I found that my best solution was to just jam everything into as small a space as posssible and let tour vehicles deal with the rest- a few aviaries, some troodonts and a herbivore exhibit or two, and you can bypass dealing with the maze by sending tour vehicles to deal with it instead. But that leaves a lot of the map yet to be explored, and unless you just want to shove a viewing tower next to some ichthyosaurs or something, a lot of those nooks and crevices that are just begging for an exhibit just don't really leave the space for fitting the monorails and tour tracks that'd make them useful (at least, not in a pretty manner). They're practically begging for some Biosyn-style towers, and there's plenty of things to trade for them, like returning the 'forest' need to dinosaurs on this map or making sandstorms cause comfort problems.
Something like a 'Chaos Meter' might be a nice way to implement things- you increase chaos by adding helpful things like new objects, and increase it by adding unhelpful things like intelligence and whatnot. And remixing old features, like having snowstorms cause comfort issues or power disruptions, would be a great way to add some more intrigue and provide counterweights to maps you're getting additional helpful features in!