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[Raven77]

Yep! Hella nice

Nice, I could care less about a career mode. I just want a sandbox to get creative in and I pray the community is active with it's creations.

 

[InaudibleWhispa]

Nice, I could care less about a career mode. I just want a sandbox to get creative in and I pray the community is active with it's creations.

It's incredibly active. Over 12,000 workshop uploads in the past week. If Sandbox is your main focus (as it is with me too), you're going to love it!

 

[SirMossyBloke]

Hmm, I have a 6600k and a Hyper 212. Maybe I'll just OC to 4.0 GHz and hope for the best.

My next purchase is that very heatsink and fan. Then I'll overclock as well.

 

[epmode]

I love the orchestral versions of the main theme (Welcome To Planet Coaster and Journey to Planet Coaster I think they're called). Great for speakers in the park entrance/main street, it captures that magic perfectly. The attention to detail in the audio in general is pretty staggering.

I was blown away by Elite Dangerous so I can definitely believe this. I need to play some more.

(seriously, Elite Dangerous has some of the best sound design in the industry)

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

The party stream just ended, it was pretty great. Bo and Ed have huge amounts of charisma.

I was blown away by Elite Dangerous so I can definitely believe this. I need to play some more.

(seriously, Elite Dangerous has some of the best sound design in the industry)

Yup, thats excatly the same thing when I heared Planet Coaster. I said, holy shit, this actually the best sound design ive ever heard on a game ever.
And talking with Mathew Florianz when I went to Frontier, the guy has such a passion with his work, things like sounds echoing and bouncing from scenery walls still blows my mind.

 

[Moz La Punk]

Nice, I could care less about a career mode. I just want a sandbox to get creative in and I pray the community is active with it's creations.

Exactly what Im doing man!

Made some good progress, medieval part of the park is halfway done and next to it started the western part. Gonna have a blast with that, inspired by westworld series. Will upload some new pics soon!

 

[Gothos]

From what I read the game is great for fans of simply creative building. For people like me, who like some actual challenge and tycoon aspect of those games there's not really much to offer. Shame

 

[A-V-B]

From what I read the game is great for fans of simply creative building. For people like me, who like some actual challenge and tycoon aspect of those games there's not really much to offer. Shame

That's my first impression, too.

 

[Moz La Punk]

From what I read the game is great for fans of simply creative building. For people like me, who like some actual challenge and tycoon aspect of those games there's not really much to offer. Shame

Yeah its perfect for me but i can see what you mean. Frontier is awesome in listening to their fanbase though, wouldnt bet against a deeper manager system through a free update somewhere down the road!

 

[Ferrio]

From what I read the game is great for fans of simply creative building. For people like me, who like some actual challenge and tycoon aspect of those games there's not really much to offer. Shame

Well the original RollerCoaster Tycoon games weren't really about the financial aspect either, this game pretty much follows the same philosophy.

 

[satriales]

I just got back from the launch party. It was great to meet people and chat with some of the devs, they were all really friendly and approachable. Also, free bar and some Planet Coaster themed food
It was a really good night! I don't know any other devs that invite their fans to a party!

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

I just got back from the launch party. It was great to meet people and chat with some of the devs, they were all really friendly and approachable. Also, free bar and some Planet Coaster themed food
It was a really good night! I don't know any other devs that invite their fans to a party!

You lucky man!
Did zac (the community manager) print my poster at the end to show it there?

 

[satriales]

You lucky man!
Did zac (the community manager) print my poster at the end to show it there?

I didn't see your poster, but I had to leave a bit before the end to catch a train.

There were lots of cool prints hanging on the walls, so it might have been there and I missed it.

 

[Moz La Punk]

New picture time!

Here is an update from Atlantica World, a theme park that I started two days ago that will combine different themes into one big park. I've mostly done work on the fantasy / medieval section that is at the beginning of the park, consisting out of lots of cool buildings, often with shops and toilets inside (and I've downloaded a lot from talented Steam Workshop-users, so props to the hundreds of them!), two rollercoasters, a few scary rides and one or two easy rides for the kids.

This is the entire park up until now from above.

And here is most of the medieval section from up closer.

The roads in the medieval section all lead up to this market. Very cosy!

Right next to the market is a relaxing pond with a restaurant looking over the water. What a view! Great for seflies

I'm very happy with this rollercoaster that I've dubbed Dragonstone. As in dragons on stones (rocks), hah. There are two, one breathing fire and one sleeping. I also like the tower in the middle. Its pretty cool to go in first person mode on the ride and see all the cool setpieces you've placed, and of course the rest of the park in the distance. Mind you, behind the rollercoaster I've not build anything yet, so don't mind the empty space.

As I've said I'm not done yet with the medieval part of the park, I'm still working on this part, the end of the medieval part. Like I said this is still work in progress so its missing many details. Visitors can exit through the gate you see here, which will bring them to the western part, that I've seperatated with mountains!

Now I've done no work at all on the western part yet, that will be my next project, but I have placed this cool water ride with the waiting line actually going in the attraction. Again, most of this attraction has been made by someone on the Steam Workshop. Very talented folks! There's even a drink shop IN the waiting line, lol.

So that's most that I've got to show, although with the pictures from top you miss a TON of cool details that I've put in every nook and cranny of the park. Sometimes I like to put the camera down at the road, like the picture I'm showing you next, just to feel like I'm walking around in my own park. Its so... cozy! Love it

That's it for me now! All in all I think I've put 10 or so hours in this park, maybe a few hours more. Have to get some sleep now but I look forward to work further in the weekend! For all that have read and watched the pictures, thanks for your attention!

Happy park creating everyone!

 

[Mik2121]

YES! The soundtrack is available!
My favorites after playing quite a few hours (over 25 now and because I've been busy at work) in order from top to bottom would be:

(14) Pride of Pimlico
(06) Dream. Build. Repeat
(09) Sink Cat

But all the songs are just soooo lovely! Amazing work by Frontier in the aspect too.

 

[fritolay]

Is there a demo I can download.

 

[D-Pad]

Had my first ever crash Thank frontier for the autosave!!

 

[EatinOlives]

Does anyone know if Frontier have mentioned anything about working on the management part of the game post-launch? It's really the only thing that's preventing me from pulling the trigger.

 

[Mik2121]

Does anyone know if Frontier have mentioned anything about working on the management part of the game post-launch? It's really the only thing that's preventing me from pulling the trigger.

I don't know if they've said anything, but based on how they support Elite Dangerous and assuming they'll probably want to keep Planet Coaster going for a loooong time, I'd assume they'll probably keep working on it a bunch.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Wow, this ride looks absolutely amazing. All those bridges and rocks going around so it actually looks realistic, good stuff!

 

[Data West]

I did not expect to be immediately intimidated the second I launched int othe game.

but man I see tons of potential. So much that it intimidates me.

 

[Stiler]

Anyone trying to make Space mountain yet?

That is like the main project I think I'm gonna try, not a 1:1 space mountain but similar theme.

Hopefully they get some more horror them stuff out , I want to make the tower of terror type of ride sometime in the future as well.

 

[Ferrio]

Just noticed someone recreated Mr Bone's Wild Ride in the workshop. A classic.

 

[Moz La Punk]

I did not expect to be immediately intimidated the second I launched int othe game.

but man I see tons of potential. So much that it intimidates me.

Just take it one step at a time. Start small. When I began I felt intimidated as well but it took just a few hours and felt right at home.

Again I keep stressing to download some background buildings and ride skins from steam workshop. Once you start to edit those you learn more and more about the options and materials you have and stuff like placement, height difference and getting the most out of the thousands of building materials.

 

[Data West]

What's the color indicator on the rides imply? Just that red is bad and green is good or is it like a greater theme of your park? Like your park guests prefer stuff with lower excitement?

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Just noticed someone recreated Mr Bone's Wild Ride in the workshop. A classic.

Holy shit at having to test the ride for various minutes so you can open it hahahaha.
Mr Bones will always be remembered

What's the color indicator on the rides imply? Just that red is bad and green is good or is it like a greater theme of your park? Like your park guests prefer stuff with lower excitement?

Green is good, orange is only for the thrillseekers (in this game teens and adults without children), red no one will ride it.
The bigger the number on excitement, the better (green)
The bigger the colour on nausea and fear, the worst it is (red)

Rhose numbers are mostly important in coasters, and maybe some trakrides (and flatrides that can have change on its animations).

Basically you need to strive for coasters with green in excitement and green/orange in nausea and fear. I one of those two is in red, nobody will go into the coaster.

 

[potatohead]

This game reminds me of all the potential that can be reached with PC gaming.

I miss the good old days. And I want more games like this.

 

[Zafir]

Yeah tis a shame about the Career mode. Had hoped it would turn out okay despite it not being present in the Alpha when I last tried it. Oh well, hopefully that's something they'll work on in the future.

 

[Boba2007]

This game is already amazing, and I haven't even gotten into any real park stuff yet. I've just been transforming and adding plants to my park entrance for the past 2 hours.

Also love the music a lot, it's really relaxing. I actually wish I could make it play more frequently.

 

[Data West]

I think I've already got inspiration for my first sandbox park

 

[PREC0GNITIVE]

I cant afford any games for a while and everything about this looks fantastic so when I next have disposable income I will grab this the instant I can. I can see myself falling into this pretty deep! Just gutted I missed out on the pre-order discount - oh well.

 

[That Damn Kid]

Has a Mac version been confirmed for this game?

Not sure if my 2011 Macbook Pro with 8GB of ram could run it though...

 

[Strider]

Usually when playing games like this I zone in and don't notice at all... But the soundtrack actually caught my attention and seems pretty good. I'll have to give it a proper listen sometime.

Anyway I played about 3 hours of Sandbox mode so far and I'm pretty impressed. I can spend many many hours in just the one park alone plus there's the Challenge/Scenario stuff waiting for me.

Overall really happy with the purchase... I hope the game catches on and there's tons of new stuff added to the workshop frequently.

 

[Moz La Punk]

Usually when playing games like this I zone in and don't notice at all... But the soundtrack actually caught my attention and seems pretty good. I'll have to give it a proper listen sometime.

Anyway I played about 3 hours of Sandbox mode so far and I'm pretty impressed. I can spend many many hours in just the one park alone plus there's the Challenge/Scenario stuff waiting for me.

Overall really happy with the purchase... I hope the game catches on and there's tons of new stuff added to the workshop frequently.

Hope so too! I expected more posts on NeoGAF for instance. Perhaps the fanbase will grow! I'll continue to fight the good fight here

 

[Tash]

I am not sure why people are disappointed about career mode - I see those as some kind of tutorials - the challenge is the one that is the most fun if you are looking for proper management game-play.

Or am I totally off here?
Man, making custom coasters totally kicks my butt. I have a really hard time with banking and making high excitement/low fear coasters..rocking the scenery and creative part though
Having tons of fun creating my own custom buildings and some-such - will upload more to the workshop as time passes.

 

[Kabouter]

Yeah, still getting the hang of good coaster design. The best I can generally hope for is a 7.5ish in excitement with relatively low fear/nausea. I tend to make coasters that are a bit too slow, because I overcompensate for how higher speeds can really up the fear/nausea a ton. Last coaster I built was pretty meh initially but I intentionally left space to adjust the lift hill at the start so I could easily make it faster/slower, that helped a lot. One extra section going up and the coaster was good enough.

 

[Arex]

Guys, are you all using the latest nvidia driver (if you're nvidia user) for this game?

I'm still on 372.54 and just now it freezed and crashed to desktop again when I'm putting scenery on my rapids ride.

Happened before on different circumstances so I'm wondering if it could be the driver. Never crashed on other games though.

Edit* also how do we access the soundtrack?

 

[Nyx]

I am not sure why people are disappointed about career mode - I see those as some kind of tutorials - the challenge is the one that is the most fun if you are looking for proper management game-play.

Or am I totally off here?
Man, making custom coasters totally kicks my butt. I have a really hard time with banking and making high excitement/low fear coasters..rocking the scenery and creative part though
Having tons of fun creating my own custom buildings and some-such - will upload more to the workshop as time passes.

Same here, I like the career mode so far!

 

[Tash]

Yeah, still getting the hang of good coaster design. The best I can generally hope for is a 7.5ish in excitement with relatively low fear/nausea. I tend to make coasters that are a bit too slow, because I overcompensate for how higher speeds can really up the fear/nausea a ton. Last coaster I built was pretty meh initially but I intentionally left space to adjust the lift hill at the start so I could easily make it faster/slower, that helped a lot. One extra section going up and the coaster was good enough.

oh wow that's a pretty amazing excitement rating. My best so far was 5ish. What exactly does influence that rating? It has mostly to do with slower parts in the ride? Are scenery items in pull-along areas influencing it?

New picture time!

So that's most that I've got to show, although with the pictures from top you miss a TON of cool details that I've put in every nook and cranny of the park. Sometimes I like to put the camera down at the road, like the picture I'm showing you next, just to feel like I'm walking around in my own park. Its so... cozy! Love it



That's it for me now! All in all I think I've put 10 or so hours in this park, maybe a few hours more. Have to get some sleep now but I look forward to work further in the weekend! For all that have read and watched the pictures, thanks for your attention!

Happy park creating everyone!

The park looks ace! The only thing that jumped out at me is that I feel it could have some more Greenery on the flat areas?

 

[Mikeside]

The Hats Fantastic jingle is my new favourite thing. So catchy. I'll hate it in a week because it'll still be stuck in my head

 

[Waikis]

Why does the soundtrack rarely play?

 

[Moz La Punk]

The park looks ace! The only thing that jumped out at me is that I feel it could have some more Greenery on the flat areas?

Thanks! And yeah you're right! Only put a lot of greenery in the beginning of the park, still have to do it everywhere. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Boba2007]

Very successful and fun first day. Ended up getting a building and a coaster finished. The building was actually pretty difficult to make, it kinda sucks that you can't rotate building pieces up and down. The coaster editor is really great though, the smoothing options really help.

Here's a video of the coaster. It has 6.3 excitement, 4.15 fear and 1.73 nausea. I actually only had to adjust it for nausea, cause it was around 3.5 at first. Got lucky with the others I guess. Can't wait to play more tomorrow!

 

[Moz La Punk]

Very successful and fun first day. Ended up getting a building and a coaster finished. The building was actually pretty difficult to make, it kinda sucks that you can't rotate building pieces up and down. The coaster editor is really great though, the smoothing options really help.



Here's a video of the coaster. It has 6.3 excitement, 4.15 fear and 1.73 nausea. I actually only had to adjust it for nausea, cause it was around 3.5 at first. Got lucky with the others I guess. Can't wait to play more tomorrow!

I love the terraforming! Nice job!

 

[Munter]

New picture time!

Here is an update from Atlantica World, a theme park that I started two days ago that will combine different themes into one big park. I've mostly done work on the fantasy / medieval section that is at the beginning of the park, consisting out of lots of cool buildings, often with shops and toilets inside (and I've downloaded a lot from talented Steam Workshop-users, so props to the hundreds of them!), two rollercoasters, a few scary rides and one or two easy rides for the kids.

This is the entire park up until now from above.



And here is most of the medieval section from up closer.



The roads in the medieval section all lead up to this market. Very cosy!



Right next to the market is a relaxing pond with a restaurant looking over the water. What a view! Great for seflies



I'm very happy with this rollercoaster that I've dubbed Dragonstone. As in dragons on stones (rocks), hah. There are two, one breathing fire and one sleeping. I also like the tower in the middle. Its pretty cool to go in first person mode on the ride and see all the cool setpieces you've placed, and of course the rest of the park in the distance. Mind you, behind the rollercoaster I've not build anything yet, so don't mind the empty space.



As I've said I'm not done yet with the medieval part of the park, I'm still working on this part, the end of the medieval part. Like I said this is still work in progress so its missing many details. Visitors can exit through the gate you see here, which will bring them to the western part, that I've seperatated with mountains!



Now I've done no work at all on the western part yet, that will be my next project, but I have placed this cool water ride with the waiting line actually going in the attraction. Again, most of this attraction has been made by someone on the Steam Workshop. Very talented folks! There's even a drink shop IN the waiting line, lol.



So that's most that I've got to show, although with the pictures from top you miss a TON of cool details that I've put in every nook and cranny of the park. Sometimes I like to put the camera down at the road, like the picture I'm showing you next, just to feel like I'm walking around in my own park. Its so... cozy! Love it



That's it for me now! All in all I think I've put 10 or so hours in this park, maybe a few hours more. Have to get some sleep now but I look forward to work further in the weekend! For all that have read and watched the pictures, thanks for your attention!

Happy park creating everyone!

I hope I can get this creative with the game, that looks awesome!

 

[Tash]

Been working on coaster station design to go with my Asian inspired theme for the park and my demon ride. For now this is all flat but there will be elevated areas of course and much more scenery/plants:

The idea behind this ride is that you dive down into a fire pit full of explosions and small vulcanos and through the caves of fire then come up again to go through the peaceful areas of the village with water bridges for some slower scenic parts of the ride.
I also started to play around with triggers and sounds so once you emerge the first time you have little vulcanos explode as you come up and the second time you emerge from deep underground you come up to the surface in a explosion of fire and smoke.
It's missing pretty much all effects and lights still but I managed to capture the second small explosion thingie as you come up for the first time. Still needs a hell of a lot of work..

 

[Merino]

I am not sure why people are disappointed about career mode - I see those as some kind of tutorials - the challenge is the one that is the most fun if you are looking for proper management game-play.

Or am I totally off here?
Man, making custom coasters totally kicks my butt. I have a really hard time with banking and making high excitement/low fear coasters..rocking the scenery and creative part though
Having tons of fun creating my own custom buildings and some-such - will upload more to the workshop as time passes.

My personal issue with the career is that many of the objectives are very easy to obtain and rather bland as a goal to strive for. A number of scenario's have as a gold medal requirement to pay off all loans (they say all loans but it's always just 1 single loan) which is very easy to do since money is never hard to earn in this game. Neither is it very hard to attract 1000 guests which is also a gold medal requirement.

A poster on the official forums put it better than I could myself:

I'd like to start by congratulating Frontier for making this game. There is no doubt that what they have come up with is as good as or better than anything I've played before. I hope they enjoyed the launch party (I'm looking forward to watching the VoD later) as they deserve to celebrate their success. For me, the fundamental difference they have achieved is this: when I play, I feel like Im building a theme park as opposed to just plonking down some rides in a field and joining them together with a path.

However, I also share with other players my disappointment in some of the 'management' aspects the game that I don't think live up to the same standard as other aspects of the game. I agree with others that the game does not seem to have moved forward from what we had 10+ years ago in many areas and I'd like to expand on some of my thoughts below.

Career Mode

To me, if you have three tiers of objectives (easy, medium and hard) that implies that it is more difficult to complete the 'hard' objectives than it is to complete the 'medium' objectives, which in turn are harder to complete than the 'easy' objectives. The trouble is, in the game it doesn't work that way. The objectives system in this game reminds me very much of RCT3 which I found to be quite bland and uninspiring.

Here's the thing: building 4 flat rides is not harder than building 3 flat rides. Earning a ride profit of $6000 is not harder than earning a ride profit of $4000. Why? Because all you have to do is keep building and you'll get there in the end. It doesn't matter how good you are at 'managing' your park, just keep plopping down rides and eventually you'll hit the target. With no time-limit and no way to fail getting the gold star is an inevitability. Consequently, I feel no sense of achievement for having completed the level on 'hard' as I don't feel like I've been rewarded for my 'management' skills, just my tenacity.

I've mentioned before that difficulty seems to be added by having gimmicks such as the Monolith scenario. Instead of 'objects with strange cosmic powers' why not say:

"You've been asked to turn around a dilapidated park on the brink of bankruptcy. The rides are all worn out and there's no money to repair them. The council will revoke the parks license if safety does not improve. The board of directors want you to sort out repairs and maintenance, get the park making a profit again and build a new rollercoaster to reclaim some of the lost market-share."

I'm willing to bet (I haven't seen the remaining 10 scenarios yet) that at some point there will be a scenario where every square inch of path is covered in litter and vomit. That's not a challenge. Just hire some janitors and wait for them to clean it up.


Challenge Mode

This is well covered in other posts but I share the same feelings. The only difference between 'easy', 'medium' and 'hard' is the starting cash (and how many rides you have available at the start). Consequently the only point at which the game is challenging is at the start. Once you've built up a profit-making park you're off and there's no longer any challenge.

So how else can you add difficulty into the game? Here are a few ideas:

- Making the guests more fussy and less willing to spend their money
- Increase running costs to make it harder to make a profit
- Make the staff more demanding in terms of wages
- Reduce the number of guests that come to the park - make the player work harder to attract them

Simulation

I've yet to see evidence that the simulation is as sophisticated as the pre-release 'hype' (i.e. dev diaries, live streams etc.) claimed it is.

We were told that the guests would care much more about what was around them. We were told that scenery and theming your rides and shops was important as it would influence how much profit you could make. I'm yet to see evidence of this.

What I've observed is that it doesn't seem to matter what you build, the guests will think it's great and will happily hand over their money. As many players have pointed out, its far too easy to attract a crowd to the park. Build a small fairground with a teacups ride, a carousel and a thrill ride and suddenly you've got 800 guests. Do they come and say "this park is rubbish, there's only 3 rides"? No, they have a whale of a time and spend a substantial amount of money. What's worse, is that you can build 6 Whirly Rig rides all next to one another and the guests think it's the best theme park ever.

Rides
- I think flat rides are too lucrative at the moment. The amount the guests are prepared to pay is too high and you can make profit far too easily. In a livestream I saw one player charge $14.00 for the Insanity ride (a 100% increase on the base price). That ride alone was making over $2000 a month profit. What's more, the flat rides don't seem to be well-balanced amongst themselves - some are definitely more 'powerful' and more profitable than others.

- Flat rides attract too many guests to the park

- The guests don't seem to care whether or not the flat rides are suitable for their preferences. Most of them seem to have a go anyway just to kill time. I've built a park that only has 'family rides'. There are still a large number of teens in the park and they're not complaining about a lack of thrill rides they are having a whale of a time riding the Whirly Rig. Why are they even coming to the park in the first place?

- The fact that ride refurbishment seems to be an optional feature makes it seem very superficial and not worth bothering with. Why don't the guests refuse to go on a ride that looks like it isn't well maintained? Why doesn't the park get fined for having unsafe rides? Why isn't the park ordered to close the ride and be unable to re-open it until the repairs are done?

-Scenery and theming doesn't seem to have that much of an impact. There is perhaps a marginal difference in queue tolerance but that's about it.

Shops
- The guests don't seem to care that much about scenery and theming. I've made plenty of profit from a shop by simply placing the 'cube' next to the path. You can still raise the prices and the guests will pay.

- The diverse selection of shops available seems to be superficial. The guests don't complain if the only food outlet you have throughout the park is Chief Beef. Where is the motivation for the player to provide variety? It seems if they're hungry they'll just go to whichever outlet is nearest to them. At the moment you may as well just have a 'food shop' and a 'drink shop' as the different brands appear to be nothing more than cosmetic, which is such a shame because they are so well thought-through I'm terms of the branding and really do make the world of Planet Coaster more believable.

- The option to add toppings/extras to food and drink items seems incredibly superficial and I suspect only added to please the community members who were repeatedly asking for it. It doesn't seem to have any impact on sales, profitability, guest satisfaction, or...anything really.

Guests and other issues
- The guests will come to your park no matter how good it is. Why do groups of teens turn up to a park that has no thrill rides or rollercoasters? And what's worse, why don't they think the park is rubbish? Why do they seem to be happy to keep spending their money?

- The guests don't seem to appreciate novelty or lack thereof. You'd have thought that if you ran the park with the same rides for several years that eventually very few people would come. That guests would stop wanting to ride your coasters because they've been on them before. In real life theme parks are continuously having to innovate and develop in order to hang on to their market share. In real life theme parks close down rides that are no longer drawing in the crowds to make room for their latest star attraction. There's no need to worry about this in Planet Coaster.

- Your park exists in isolation, free from competition. Where is the incentive for the player to make their park better? The guests and the profit will come regardless so you may as well just plop down some rides in a slap-dash fashion and wait for your gold star. Wouldn't it be more of a challenge if you discover that a rival park has just built a new rollercoaster and suddenly you've just lost a huge chunk of the market-share? And to make matters worse you can't afford a new rollercoaster at the moment so have to do your best to attract more guests with a couple of new thrill rides?

- The park rating system. What is that all about? What do the numbers mean? How can I do better? And more importantly, why would I want to do better? If I'm making loads of money and have loads of guests where's the incentive to aim for a better rating? Except of course if it's yet another bland scenario objective.

- Overall there just doesn't seem to be any incentive for the player to 'engage' with the simulation in the manner that the hype led us to believe. I was led to believe that attention to detail would matter. That the game would be about optimising and tweaking and trying to squeeze every last drop of profit out of the guests. But there's just no need because profit comes too easily. You can just drop in a couple of flat rides and a couple of shops and a loo and just sit back and wait for the money to roll in. Then build some more and repeat ad-infinitum (or until you've beaten the level on 'hard' difficulty and you're ready to move on to the next one). The only reason to optimise as much as you can is if you're attempting a 'speedrun' JMR style.

What don't I want to see?

As some people have already said - having more management options available is not the same as making the game more challenging. I personally would find the idea of having to manage my parks waste disposal and power distribution tedious and I can't see how it would add to the challenge, You build a new ride, you build a new underground wire to connect it to the power supply. Simple. It would end up being just another superficial feature rather than an actual challenge.

What do I want to see?

In short, I want to see the player be rewarded for being good at managing their park. I want to see that my actions have consequences. I want to see that good design and attention to detail matters. I want to have to work hard to earn three stars on each scenario. I want to feel a sense of achievement for having earned three stars.

I'd like the guests to be more demanding and more discerning, less willing to part with their money. I'd like to work for my profit, to earn it.

 

[Tash]

My personal issue with the career is that many of the objectives are very easy to obtain and rather bland as a goal to strive for. A number of scenario's have as a gold medal requirement to pay off all loans (they say all loans but it's always just 1 single loan) which is very easy to do since money is never hard to earn in this game. Neither is it very hard to attract 1000 guests which is also a gold medal requirement.

A poster on the official forums put it better than I could myself:

Well, I am not sure if above post is from a RCT Vet or a sim vet in general.
I guess it really depends on how much you played any of those before.

For me, for example, I didn't play any career and started straight with Challenge, without having any background or clue what to do. I had a horrible time getting out of the negative the second evening after having build a bit of my park. Then all of a sudden it took off and I learned how to keep my staff happy, that I had to maintain rides etc etc. I went on to make 123k but two days ago all of a sudden I started to constantly lose money and I couldn't fix it. Still not sure what I missmanaged or did wrong (which is fine). My point here is that yes, it is VERY easy to lose money even in challenge and even after you already do well. At least for a n00b like me.

I guess the underlying message is that PC is more for the casual manager and super creative sandbox nerds then for the hardcore sim manager crowd? At least at the moment?

Also again, about career mode. Everything above post mentioned is still pointing in the direction that career serves as a tutorial to teach players what to look out for and what the different aspects of the game are. It might have the wrong name and the star ratings might be off as well since as you say; most of the things happen naturally anyway.

Again though, I don't agree with the whole "once you manage this amount of income you will automatically also manage a higher one" just by building more.

On the other hand, it might as well be the case if you only do pre-made building. I think the thing that actually gave me troubles was the fact that I started to add custom made coasters.

While I am completely happy with the current game I see the suggestion at the end of the write-up as logical and something that would improve the game further, though.

 

[The Broker]

In my humble opinion Planet Coaster is my 2016 best game of the year. Congrats Frontier. The parks that some creators are building... F Wow-

 

[Tajbong]

I'm gonna buy this tomorrow when I get back home. Re-living my childhood years is gonna be a blast.

I can already see myself playing this for 72 hours straight until I get sick of it and never touch it again. Can't wait for it.