Rollercoaster Renaissance - Planet Coaster, Rollercoaster Tycoon World & Parkitect

jonfentyler wrote:

That video is glorious and it makes me more upset that I can't play it yet.

In their EDX presentation today (where they showed that video), they said that all Thrillseeker per-order-ers (?) can play Alpha 3 for a weekend, I think it's the 6th to the 10th October, giving them a sneak before their Beta access starts in early November. So if you have pre-ordered the Thrillseeker edition, you'll get to play that weekend

omni wrote:
jonfentyler wrote:

That video is glorious and it makes me more upset that I can't play it yet.

In their EDX presentation today (where they showed that video), they said that all Thrillseeker per-order-ers (?) can play Alpha 3 for a weekend, I think it's the 6th to the 10th October, giving them a sneak before their Beta access starts in early November. So if you have pre-ordered the Thrillseeker edition, you'll get to play that weekend :)

I usually don't do pre-orders, but this does look good. Plenty to keep me busy until November, though.

For anyone following, Planet Coaster entered Beta phase yesterday. People who pre-ordered (or pre-order now) the Thrillseeker edition can play right away.

I've only had a short time in the Beta last night, but, they really have squashed the few issues I had with the game during Alpha, and it truly is shaping up to be THE ThemePark/Coaster sim for the modern age. The terrain tools are fantastic to use, the animations and sounds of everything in the game are delightful. The level of detail you can achieve, even with mediocre skills is quite unbelievable, and the fact that guests now appreciate and even interact with scenery you place makes it more than just aesthetics for aesthetic's sake. Things like adding custom music that plays through speakers you place at certain points in the park - you can even have those speakers/music triggered by a track ride as it passes by. (All animatronics, lights and speakers can be used as triggers).

If you have any interest in the genre at all, I urge you to watch some of the Let's Play videos or live streams from Beta onwards (I'd no bother with the Alpha footage as a lot has changed).

And if you have no interest in the Beta, then you only have to wait until the 17th for the full release.

Wow, so... Roller Coaster Tycoon World now has a release date... the day before Planet Coaster releases. I'm guessing that they're just hoping to catch people out, because in it's current state, there literally is no comparison. Such a shame for that franchise and name, but what a mess.

Also, this seems to be doing the rounds:

I picked Planet Coaster Thrillseeker up a couple of days ago. Have barely scratched the surface, but wow, the love put into it just oozes out of everything. The wooden coasters and the hybrid? Brings back memories of the American Eagle coaster from Great America back from my middle school days!

Wow, that does look good! Here's to hoping it can meet the hype and more.

I picked up the Planet Coaster beta a couple days ago and this looks like it is going to be fun. The freedom to design and the "life" of the park is really amazing. My one hope is they include (or patch in) VR support. I would love to ride the coasters in 1st person like that.

Is anyone else excited for this release?

Well, it's made in the same engine as Elite Dangerous, so VR is certainly possible. I think the last they said on the matter was that they weren't actively looking into it before launch.

I'm... kinda excited about the launch. I guess I've put enough hours into the Alpha that the 'big' release isn't quite as anticipated as a normal release.

I'm also interested to see how the launch of RCTW goes. Going by the Steam reviews, it's not going to go well.

omni wrote:

Well, it's made in the same engine as Elite Dangerous, so VR is certainly possible.

Can I give my planet rings? And put it in orbit around a pulsar?

The alpha access to Planet Coaster was a tad too expensive for my liking, but I have been watching the occasional youtube video since alpha and it looks spectacular. You can almost do a bit too much, I can see myself never getting done with my first park if I get too obsessed with the details. It seems to be running very well, too, especially considering how beautiful looking it is and what you can do with terrain and lighting. Overall at this point I'm expecting it to finally be the Park Tycoon game I've been wanting ever since the original Rollercoaster Tycoon - I'm very much looking forward to it and will probably be getting it as soon as it's out. Hopefully it won't disappoint!

You can spend a lifetime on the details, true. That's the way I approached the Alpha. However when Beta arrived, I wanted to test out the Scenarios, so I used entirely pre-build buildings, other than the coasters, and, as a game, it worked just as well as previous Themepark sims. Not how I will play the game for realsies, but good to know you don't HAVE to go all 'Youtube builder' level of detail if you don't want to. The fact that you can grab a near endless number of pre-built items/buildings/coasters from the workshop just enhances this (over 9000 items already in the workshop for launch day, despite the entire workshop being blanked when they went into Beta).

Yeah, that's true, having the Steam Workshop in tandem with the endlessly customizable rides and buildings will effectively just provide anyone with a sheer infinite amount of assets to put into one's park without having to build it from scratch. Just having that accessible will be nice, even if it's initially just to look for inspiration.

The more I think about the game, the more I'm getting tempted to buy into the beta right now and just start playing, it's only ~3€ more than the standard edition after all...

Having been a long time huuuge fan of RCT I was really torn as to which to get. On the one hand, is RCT World, the actual successor and then there's Planet Coaster which was made by Frontier, the same devs as the old RCT games.

I decided on Planet Coaster and got it last night. After playing through the first scenario, I can safety say I LOVE IT! I am so glad I bought this. I was playing last night and had to almost literally peel myself away from the screen. The graphics are very nice, rides are all great, park management is spot on (and very similar to RCT), and the customization options are awesome.

For theme park sim fans, I say take the plunge now! Also I do think it's worthwhile for the $4 extra to get the Thrillseeker edition, not only do get to play right away but you also get the Thrillseeker DLC and the combination of those two makes it worth getting (and really $4 extra is not that much for US buyers).

RCT World is reportedly quite bad, and best avoided.

I have 3 installed games that I haven't started yet. I think I'm done with Civ 6 (for now), and the gameplay videos and live streams I've seen for Planet Coaster look really good.

Resistance ... fading.

RCTW randomly popped up on my steam frontpage so I took a glance. TLDR it's crap, steam reviews are ripping the game a new asshole. Seems like one of those typical early access failures that get stuck in development hell, get Planet Coaster instead.

MeatMan wrote:

I have 3 installed games that I haven't started yet. I think I'm done with Civ 6 (for now), and the gameplay videos and live streams I've seen for Planet Coaster look really good.

Resistance ... fading.

The countdown timer for the 10% off ended 2 hours early, so that made my decision whether to buy now or later an easy one.

Looks like the game is getting a really great reaction from people!

After watching several videos of Planet Coaster, I'm 100% sold on this one. I can finally make Six Flags over Texas the juggernaut theme park that it should be, without having to worry about Globe Life Park taking over the parking lot, or the lack of real land to expand...or the unbearable 110+ degree temperatures in the summertime.

Wow! From the looks of some of the stuff built in those videos not only do I HAVE to get this, but it totally blows the building tools from something like EQ Landmark completely out of the water.
If this is not the future of user generated content, the games industry has majorly dropped the ball.
Yes you will have the wheat with the chaff but tools like this could speed up content creation for any game 5x.
This could be a new revolution much like how a generation of game designers got their feet wet and their first game gigs (like yours truly) from Quake modding.

So, I believe the "tutorial" is just starting at level one in a small park, one of three. I was a bit intimidated at first, but you really learn the menus and stuff by hunting around.

One cool difference from what I remember of RCT is that when you buy a shop/food stand/etc, it comes with staff. That makes it easy to get started. Just place it and it will open up, and you can then add in the little decorations and benches and trashcans and whatever you need to make it fit in to your park.

The Management screen makes it easy to track guest feedback and issues, even though that stuff is presented via popups as well. I find that the placement interface is a bit weird, but once you get used to it, it's very very detailed. (Weird - Hit Z and an arrow key, and you'll get a light green menu that you can use your mouse to control rotation with. Hit Z and you get a large rotation; hit an arrow key and the screen view slides in that direction. Point is, it's not entirely clear at first that you're *not* supposed to "hit and hold" the Z-arrow combo, and that leads to comic frustration. But trial and error fixes it quickly.)

I think this is going to be a great time suck.

Yay! Hope you have fun with it, Robear.

You playing, Boog?

No, sir! Don't have it. Had no idea it existed until, well, a few days ago, lol.

I'm awfully bad about gaming news these days. I have no idea what's coming out until it is basically out. Sweet ignorant bliss, really!

I am so excited for this game. I will most likely play it with my kids at my side, telling me what to do. This will in turn frustrate me to the point where I will uninstall it. Or at least tell the kids I uninstalled it. Then I will have to get up at 3am to play it. I will get no sleep and my work will suffer. Pretty soon, my boss will call me into her office and let me go. Which gives me more time to play the game, but again, the kids won't let me do it.

You've ruined my life, Planet Coaster.

I REALLY want Planet Coaster as I'm a big fan of the original series, but I am holding off until next year when I get a new graphics card. The one I have now only has 2GB of memory, wanting to find a replacement with 4-6. Looking forward to reading everyone's impressions though.

I also have a 2gb card, a GTX 770. Runs like a champ so far, but I'm only a bit in.

Tamren wrote:

Wow.