Too much customization, not enough management.

[DaniTheHero]

Hey there guys. 90's kid here who loved Rollercoaster Tycoon 2(And Zoo Tycoon 2 if it matters).
When i heard about Planet coaster and the big sale i decided to pick it up, and for some reason i was really disappointed.
The game seemed to focus a lot, and i mean A LOT on customization and personalization.
You can pick any shop for example, and customize it to look almost in anyway you'd like it to.
Attached buildings, accessories, colors. Which is a nice edition and all, but it does seem to be pretty much most of what the game offers.

There's barely any management involved. Just min maxing the economy which is mostly just making sure you don't hire too many workers and balance the pricing of rides/products - to be on a + side and build whatever you want in order to achieve a certain goal, while the rest is just you spending time on making things look "nice".

It seems like the game is trying to cater more to creative people, the sort that play endlessly play minecraft to make new creations, instead of hooking me on theme parks management and actually offering any gameplay.

I remember when i played tycoon 2 i felt much more involved.A ballon shop.. was a balloon shop.
A burger shop, was a burger shop.
And the goals were more stream lined and more fun to achieve in each mission.
Someone also wasn't rubbed every 5 seconds.

Am i playing this game wrong, Am i missing something? Or is this really not for me?

[Miffology]

Your not wrong in you're general assessment, I played the original RCT/ZT for years when I was younger and I suppose at the time 'creative' stuff was more difficult due to 'CD' disk sizes so it would be easier to add more management options or economic spreadsheets stuff to save asset sizes.

Planet Coaster is geared more towards the creative aspect of running a park/ mainly if you play a challenge park the first couple of hours feels great like RCT but after that the profits run away and you end up with millions. Lucky enough you didn't play this game on release there was less management options than there are now, I would love them to add in park maps that guests can buy and many other management options but it seems unlikely.

The fun you get from playing Planet Coaster is mainly creating blueprints/ creating coasters and been creative in general, all the management stuff is an afterthought, less a theme park simulator and more a building/scenery/coaster editor.

[Alice_1n_Ethrland]

From what I’m reading if you are after a game that focuses more on management Planet Zoo might be worth a look. On pre release now.

[DaniTheHero]

Originally posted by Alice_1n_Ethrland:

From what I’m reading if you are after a game that focuses more on management Planet Zoo might be worth a look. On pre release now.

Yes i am hoping that planet zoo will be different.

[DaniTheHero]

Originally posted by Miffology:

Your not wrong in you're general assessment, I played the original RCT/ZT for years when I was younger and I suppose at the time 'creative' stuff was more difficult due to 'CD' disk sizes so it would be easier to add more management options or economic spreadsheets stuff to save asset sizes.

Planet Coaster is geared more towards the creative aspect of running a park/ mainly if you play a challenge park the first couple of hours feels great like RCT but after that the profits run away and you end up with millions. Lucky enough you didn't play this game on release there was less management options than there are now, I would love them to add in park maps that guests can buy and many other management options but it seems unlikely.

The fun you get from playing Planet Coaster is mainly creating blueprints/ creating coasters and been creative in general, all the management stuff is an afterthought, less a theme park simulator and more a building/scenery/coaster editor.

Yeah, seems like this ain't for me then.

[Winter_Jasra]

Parkitect is a good game, more general management perhaps, but not as much micro-management of the staff and you can still be creative too, especially with mods and other assets
taken from the workshop.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/453090/

[rdwoolf]

I played RollerCoaster Tycoon 1, 2, & 3 when each came out. In my opinion the park management portion of Planet Coaster feels very identical to the prior games (mostly RCT3). I don't see anything that was offered in RCT3 that isn't offered in PC. PC has the added management of hotels and "sit down" restaurants. And we have to add employee break rooms. What additional management features do you remember from the tycoon games that is not in PC? AM I forgetting something?

What I see as an advantage to RCT series is better 3D realism in the way things look. If you are not a great building designer then you can always browse the Steam Workshop to find pre-built rides and buildings that you would like to use in your own park. I do this a lot. I am not great at creating amazing buildings so I tend to hoard stuff from the workshop to use in my theme park designs. It's like outsourcing that part of the game. You just need to be good enough at managing the park to have enough money saved up to buy rides and buildings for your park.

[black]

They need DLCs improving the economy part. There is plenty of stuff for customization.