What did you people do to our beloved game Frontier?

[Digler]

In Canada, this game costs us $100 for the deluxe version with tax. What did you do to this game? it feels so...unfinished and lazy. We were looking so forward to this game and what you were going to do. Now...so many people are angry and frustrated. It's like you tried to please everyone but no one is happy. What a mess. I hope you fix this game, or at least bring it back to the Planet Coaster 1 style of playing. Money seems to be the thing people respect most. Fix this or I will never buy another Frontier game. Sorry for the rant.

 

[Branes51]

I wouldn't be sorry for the rant. They deserve it. They released a badly unfinished game with a crapload of hype about how much better it is than the original, knowing full well it wasn't ready, either that or it wasn't ever playtested because even a few hours of actually playing the game would have revealed its condition
Apparently, a few, well-chosen game influencers were given two hours to play it and even they had major problems with it. When DeLadySigner doesn't recommend the game, you know you have problems.

Planet Coaster 1 was released as an alpha six months before the game was released. We complained about the pathing, the poor park management and other aspects of the game, and were ignored, for the most part. I guess they didn't want to hear any more negative comments about their incredible accomplishment this time since we got no alpha, or even a beta before release.
And they have the nerve to make us wait a full month for any fixes to the many, many bugs.
Frontier is becoming a second EA.
Their behavior is stupid because in 2023 they had a couple of bad financial quarters resulting in a lot of layoffs. If they keep up this habit of ignoring customers, they're going to find themselves in the same situation.

 

[eznapor]

I'm too jaded and disappointed to spend much time here anymore. I'm praying this December update fixes the main problems and brings the game back to the foundation it should have been. It was released unfinished. Every quality of life feature from the last several years of planet games is missing. No restaurants, hotels, vista points, modular gift shops. All these improvements set to be great for Planet Coaster 2 just... absent. The game has never seen the last 5 years of planet games. The foliage is a step back from Planet Zoo. There's issues that were fixed not long after the launch of planet zoo 1 like the coasters highlighting blue when you're trying to change a colour, the building grid needing to made much more transparent. Fuzzy scenery thumbnails. The UI looks like it's still in dev mode, is the worst UI I've ever used, a lazy console port and needs to be reverted to Planet Zoo's design language just adapted for this game.

Again, I'm simply praying this update fixes these things, because I am baffled how they could happily release something that's such a step back. It's probably some high up suit with no passion for it that demanded it.

 

[shiftgreen]

I'm a game developer at a large company in the us and unless you are owned by a larger company like microsoft or embracer etc, they usually have pretty free reign on when to release game. The only things I can think regarding this was maybe they needed to hurry and spit this out bc the piggy bank was getting low ( they did have layoffs last year) or the shareholders were getting hangry.
I am waiting to buy this in dec after the patch bc I do not want to be ill towards this game since I have been checking on any word of a PC2 game for the past few years and it finally happened.
I can not imagine though, the actual developers and producers would want to release this if they knew so much was broken. They have tons of inhouse and outsource testers im sure that do weekly game testing. I know we wouldn't release something so broken unless we had NO option due to higherups or somehow we were just oblivious to it all.
I would love to hear their thoughts on this, but probably will not happen.

 

[Digler]

I'm a game developer at a large company in the us and unless you are owned by a larger company like microsoft or embracer etc, they usually have pretty free reign on when to release game. The only things I can think regarding this was maybe they needed to hurry and spit this out bc the piggy bank was getting low ( they did have layoffs last year) or the shareholders were getting hangry.
I am waiting to buy this in dec after the patch bc I do not want to be ill towards this game since I have been checking on any word of a PC2 game for the past few years and it finally happened.
I can not imagine though, the actual developers and producers would want to release this if they knew so much was broken. They have tons of inhouse and outsource testers im sure that do weekly game testing. I know we wouldn't release something so broken unless we had NO option due to higherups or somehow we were just oblivious to it all.
I would love to hear their thoughts on this, but probably will not happen.

I agree. They prolly knew this wasn't ready, but had to pay bills so...I get it, but fix it...just fix it.

 

[MrHappy]

.so many people are angry and frustrated.

Also many people absolutely loving it having given themselves more than 5 minutes to get used to it. Maybe there are things to add later or change slightly but the game is not unfinished or lazy.

 

[Branes51]

Also many people absolutely loving it having given themselves more than 5 minutes to get used to it. Maybe there are things to add later or change slightly but the game is not unfinished or lazy.

I have built 4 parks, mostly in sandbox, but also one in Creative. I also played a little of the career mode. The game is unfinished. Staff don't do what they are supposed to do, in sandbox mode I turned off breaks, yet every one of my staff still takes breaks and their jobs aren't covered. If I turn off breaks in the schedule, the notifications tell me that a staff member has worked 4 hours without a break.

Rainstorms are constant and last for real time hours. Guests hardly ever go into the pool because of the temperature with all four seasons. Yes, I know they're going to let us manage that in the December update, but why must we wait for almost two months to get fixes which should have been immediate? Guests come out of rides and then go nuts because now they want to leave and can't find an exit, when the paths are right there. There are so many issues that I can't enumerate them all.

 

[Wagi]

It's great that some people don't find anything wrong with the game...each person plays differently.

But it remains that there are many people reporting actual problems in the game that aren't going to suddenly disappear if only they played just a little longer. Things that don't work properly wouldn't exist to the extent they do in this game if it were, in fact, 'finished'. Decisions on some things that work or appear worse than found in previous Planet games tends to make one wonder at the reasons for the cutting of corners for this game. Would those problems be addressed if people didn't post pointing them out? I'm not so sure...All in all this stuff bothers some people, it doesn't bother others.

Some people absolutely loved RCTWorld too, didn't negate the fact that many people also found it lacking.:.

 

[Robert K]

They will probably release more fixes if enough people complain.

 

[eznapor]

Also many people absolutely loving it having given themselves more than 5 minutes to get used to it. Maybe there are things to add later or change slightly but the game is not unfinished or lazy.

I'm assuming this is a troll comment. It is missing vista points, restaurants, hotels, modular gift shops, random rotation, scenery thumbnail highlighting, edge scrolling, pause-only music, glass, to name a tiny fraction of things already in other planet games. Not to mention the UI is still in dev mode, the game is littered with bugs and gameplay balancing issues (not expected ones, the kind that make it obvious it hasn't been finished for release yet). All of my guests' animations completely glitch out when riding a coaster, which is arguably like... the main animation of the game.

We're not complaining because we need a minute to get used to the new path tool. And we don't want to force ourselves to get used to an absolutely terrible UI design language.

 

[Valdo82]

I'm assuming this is a troll comment. It is missing vista points, restaurants, hotels, modular gift shops, random rotation, scenery thumbnail highlighting, edge scrolling, pause-only music, glass, to name a tiny fraction of things already in other planet games. Not to mention the UI is still in dev mode, the game is littered with bugs and gameplay balancing issues (not expected ones, the kind that make it obvious it hasn't been finished for release yet). All of my guests' animations completely glitch out when riding a coaster, which is arguably like... the main animation of the game.

We're not complaining because we need a minute to get used to the new path tool. And we don't want to force ourselves to get used to an absolutely terrible UI design language.

No, you simply need to accept that there are diffrent ways to play Planet Coaster: I never used vista points, i hated the hotel and restaurant function for example. I also hated security.

But my biggest issues in pc1 were pathing, landscaping (shrubbery) and coaster smoothing. I have seen worst UIs and I am personally getting used to strange uis with poor design choices, so i don't mind the ui that much.

So yeah, i enjoy the game and invite everyone who has the same PC itch like me, to spend time with the game and accept the learning curve

 

[Topaz Star]

There´s a lot more grey area in between those arguments. I do enjoy the game, but I also have frustrations with it, and calling it unfinished is pretty fair in my opinion. I don´t even care for stuff not being included (like hotels, restaurants, the original themes, fireworks, security, some of the DLC rides, vista points etc.), it´s mainly that a lot of the things that are in the game are not working as they should. Some bugs are expected, but there's quite a few things that are not working sadly.

Tho I'm positive towards the future, I still believe they will fix everything and the game will be amazing eventually.

 

[Valdo82]

And i totally agree with you, but i think there is also the part of expectation and the 'bad' expectation management from frontier. RCT3, PC1 all were very rough releases, i would even go so far: PC2 is the most finished release of Frontier as a coaster / park sim. But this were my expectations. I know the cook and what he is cooking, so i am not that harsh on complaining about the taste of the soup, because i knew this before i (pre-)ordered it.

Careermode, economics are all bad choice, that aren't very polished, so yes this a thing, but and this what the original quote probably intended to say: "there is also a lot of wrong expectations, instead of mantralike repeating those issues in the 1000 thread, oh 'no one is enjoying the game' maybe look behind the rough edges and see that behind is well thought system, which works more often than not."

If you expect the full PC1 experience, you should play PC1, but give this game the chance to be its own and let it come to live on it's own terms and not to be a carbon copy of pc1 with better graphics, cause this is not what the game aims to be.

 

[eznapor]

There´s a lot more grey area in between those arguments. I do enjoy the game, but I also have frustrations with it, and calling it unfinished is pretty fair in my opinion. I don´t even care for stuff not being included (like hotels, restaurants, the original themes, fireworks, security, some of the DLC rides, vista points etc.), it´s mainly that a lot of the things that are in the game are not working as they should. Some bugs are expected, but there's quite a few things that are not working sadly.

Tho I'm positive towards the future, I still believe they will fix everything and the game will be amazing eventually.

I believe so too. Sadly will have to just wait and check back in in 6 months.

 

[eznapor]

No, you simply need to accept that there are diffrent ways to play Planet Coaster: I never used vista points, i hated the hotel and restaurant function for example. I also hated security.

But my biggest issues in pc1 were pathing, landscaping (shrubbery) and coaster smoothing. I have seen worst UIs and I am personally getting used to strange uis with poor design choices, so i don't mind the ui that much.

So yeah, i enjoy the game and invite everyone who has the same PC itch like me, to spend time with the game and accept the learning curve

The fact you didn't use vista points or restaurants doesn't mean they weren't popular. Not including them in lieu of 'a different way of playing planet coaster' is not a thing. You are reaching and clutching very hard, it's highly transparent and it is not working. It is not a flex to say you are getting used to poor UIs, it's hilarious and honestly sad that you think that's a good thing. That mentality won't foster innovation and progression of the creative arts in this world, it will hinder it and allow the lazy to become tolerated. Your ethos is strangely resistant to improving the game, which isn't a good thing for anyone, nor you.

 

[Digler]

Listen, most of us complaining have been around since PC1 to PZ now PC2. What was added to those and learned about pathing, added updates of walk n talks, restaurants and QOL updates to these games of the same type. Most of us from PC1 went to PZ to learn how better PC2 would be. We are the ones that kept playing and suggesting and complaining. So we just thought all those things added and fought for would be in this one and then keep on inventing new additions... all those seem to have been forgotten by the team, or not translated to the next team. You would think that they would have kept all those hard-fought ideas.

 

[Valdo82]

You guys don't get the issue here:

Restaurants, Vista Points, Hotels, Security, Fireworks were all stuff that got added later in PC1. There are two reasons: release pressure (development time), Frontier isn't a company, that thinks like "ok, we develop a game for 6 years and then it is done. They are more in the way, we develop for 2 years and support for 4 years a game with updates, cause it is more cost efficient".
The second is design space: First you don't want to have to many interlaying systems at once, cause if one breaks, your whole game gets dragged down. For example the queue bug: Not only didn't people queue, the paths were overcrowded, Staff got stucked, the ride pricing wasn't fully on point, etc. If you now add restaurants, vista points, security to the mix, you are just creating more problems.
Additionally if you copy a system 1:1 you really make it hard(er) on yourself to improve those systems further, especially if it were a closed system. And some systems were just bad designed.

Vista Points: Wouldn't it be better if people watching scenery naturally? instead to give them a forced point where they should gather round. Even in RCT2 you had a system where people were just watching rides, without vista points. If you watch PC2 closely you see people are more appreciative for scenery not just there thoughts but also their body language, they are looking at your park. So maybe this is something that should improved on .

Restaurants/Hotels: The reason i didn't like restaurants/hotels was simple, it was a horrible system: One point of the game is watching your guests, see how they behave. The old system, was simply people vanishing in cubes, there was not interaction, no nothing. Especially for Restaurants, it always felt better to place food stalls in a bulding and flesh out the building with scenery and picnic tables. I could see people eat, interact and so on. So if i have a system, where i could place Restaurant specific scenery and maybe even hire waiter and so on, this would feel far better than the people go into cube system. Same goes for hotels.

Security: For me, i never felt 'i was winning' at security, you could hire guards, place cctv, but this was it. Here was a lot of room of improvement and was more a loved relic from the RCT series, which never got revised for new times. So designing a system where the player has fun to interact with, should be way cooler than the old system. Not to a level of 'ghostbuster' but all in all i felt that the 'ghostbuster' design system was a better security system than the, i hire two guards system.


I am not against innovation, quite the opposite, but i also know it is not fair to compare PC1 (in the actual fully polished state) to PC2.

 

[Topaz Star]

The main question is gonna be, if they add hotels/restaurants/etc. again in this game, is it gonna be an improved version of it or basically the same thing? If it's improved, you could argue it's worth the extra wait. If it's basically the same thing, you could ask why they just couldn't include them from the start since everything was already made. I believe we are gonna see the first one, but we will see in the future!

 

[Valdo82]

This neither of us can answer, but it feels that way (not talking to you): Many people forget that game designer are human beings, many care and are quite passionate about their projects, (probably a reason why some people got triggered by the op, calling someone indirect lazy is not nice, the game was probably rushed as a reaction to Frontier's previous games (the warhammer stuff). My first reaction to the announcement was: "so soon?" i thought it would be a 2025 announcement. so those dev's worked their behinds off by those tight corperate goals)


back to topic: i do think there was no dice roll, where vending machines and staff features won and vista points/restaurants/security lost.

It feels more they wanted to change those systems or they needed time to adjust those features to the upgraded engine. Vista/Security always had a impact on pathfinding, paths and therefore pathfinding got a big overhaul, maybe you want to see how players interact with the new tools.
Restaurants mess with the new 'nutrition' system, no one actual cares about. etc

 

[Digler]

You guys don't get the issue here:

Restaurants, Vista Points, Hotels, Security, Fireworks were all stuff that got added later in PC1. There are two reasons: release pressure (development time), Frontier isn't a company, that thinks like "ok, we develop a game for 6 years and then it is done. They are more in the way, we develop for 2 years and support for 4 years a game with updates, cause it is more cost efficient".
The second is design space: First you don't want to have to many interlaying systems at once, cause if one breaks, your whole game gets dragged down. For example the queue bug: Not only didn't people queue, the paths were overcrowded, Staff got stucked, the ride pricing wasn't fully on point, etc. If you now add restaurants, vista points, security to the mix, you are just creating more problems.
Additionally if you copy a system 1:1 you really make it hard(er) on yourself to improve those systems further, especially if it were a closed system. And some systems were just bad designed.

Vista Points: Wouldn't it be better if people watching scenery naturally? instead to give them a forced point where they should gather round. Even in RCT2 you had a system where people were just watching rides, without vista points. If you watch PC2 closely you see people are more appreciative for scenery not just there thoughts but also their body language, they are looking at your park. So maybe this is something that should improved on .

Restaurants/Hotels: The reason i didn't like restaurants/hotels was simple, it was a horrible system: One point of the game is watching your guests, see how they behave. The old system, was simply people vanishing in cubes, there was not interaction, no nothing. Especially for Restaurants, it always felt better to place food stalls in a bulding and flesh out the building with scenery and picnic tables. I could see people eat, interact and so on. So if i have a system, where i could place Restaurant specific scenery and maybe even hire waiter and so on, this would feel far better than the people go into cube system. Same goes for hotels.

Security: For me, i never felt 'i was winning' at security, you could hire guards, place cctv, but this was it. Here was a lot of room of improvement and was more a loved relic from the RCT series, which never got revised for new times. So designing a system where the player has fun to interact with, should be way cooler than the old system. Not to a level of 'ghostbuster' but all in all i felt that the 'ghostbuster' design system was a better security system than the, i hire two guards system.


I am not against innovation, quite the opposite, but i also know it is not fair to compare PC1 (in the actual fully polished state) to PC2.

I don't think you understand why we, as fans with thousands of hours in both PC1 and PZ, are so frustrated. Even though the pathing system is redone, the game still looks and feels like the others. So why did they not put in all the other updates and QOL? If they changed the engine, mechanics, and graphics, we would have expected to start over. That is not what Frontier has done, they have continued the spirit of the others, but not the gameplay. The game is not as familiar as the others. Now people who haven't spent time in games like us don't care, I understand, but we who complain will only improve the game. Just like we have done with PC1 and PZ. From my point like I said originally, I spent $100 for this game expecting something great out of box, this is not a new genre for Frontier, they should have learned from all the previous games. They didn't seem to do that and that is lazy. I'm playing but it is not as enjoyable as the others. I sure hope they learn that PC and Consoles are different, and split the team to deal with both systems. It would be better for us all that play.