What do you feel are your biggest strengths & weaknesses in Planet Coaster?

[Matt N]

Hi guys. Every Planet Coaster builder surely has areas that they’re stronger at and areas that they’re weaker at in the game, so my question to you today is; what do you feel are your biggest strengths & weaknesses in Planet Coaster? Identifying weaknesses is the first step towards improving upon them, so I think it would be good for any budding Planet Coaster builder, myself included; there’s certainly plenty I could improve! Also, I think identifying strengths helps to show what are good things to carry on doing in future projects!

In terms of my strengths & weaknesses; I don’t know if you guys would agree based on the work I’ve posted here, but I’d personally go with:

Strengths

• Coaster building - My coasters are admittedly far from perfect, but I’d say I’ve hit a bit more of a stride with coaster building, personally. I’d like to think my rides are fairly realistic examples of their ride type, on the whole.
• Putting a good variety of rides into my parks - I don’t know if you’d agree (base this on my mostly complete bar 1 area Worlds of Globala park; on the subject of that area, I promise it’s coming soon!), but I personally like to think that I put a good variety of attractions into my parks, with at least a couple of each out of the following; coasters, dark rides, water rides, flat rides and other rides that don’t fit any of the above(e.g. relaxing/transportation rides), as well as a solid selection for each demographic/thrill level (thrillseekers, families, kids).

Weaknesses

• Theming - Although I’d personally say I’ve improved in this area, I still don’t feel like my theming is as detailed as in many other people’s Planet Coaster parks.
  
• Dark rides - Again, even though I’d say I’ve improved, my dark rides fall considerably short of many peoples’ efforts. I often have a tendency to get a bit too trigger-happy with the flamethrowers as opposed to building ambient, well thought out dark rides, and my scenes often lack theming and detail compared to the dark rides other many others build. In future, I’m going to try and aim to make some more ambient, considered dark rides with lots of static scenery and constantly moving animatronics as opposed to going all-in on the pyro!
• Park layouts/symmetrical scenery placement - I’m personally quite pleased with the park layout of Worlds of Globala, and I’d say I’ve considerably improved my park layouts since some of my early creations (in hindsight, the layout of my very first Planet Coaster park was absolutely shocking!), but I’ve been told that I often have a tendency to build things in 90 degree angles an awful lot. This is likely down to the fact I’ve always liked symmetry, and when asked to lay things out, I often do them symmetrically and/or at 90 degree angles. As much as I personally love symmetry, 90 degree angles and making everything look nice and uniform, there are unfortunately no 90 degree angles in nature! As such, in my future creations, I’m going to try and aim to make things look a little more natural, and build less 90 degree angles!

For some idea of the park I’m referencing, here’s the thread where I post the work I’ve done in Worlds of Globala: https://towersstreet.com/talk/threads/worlds-of-globala.5458/

But what are your biggest strengths & weaknesses in Planet Coaster? Also, based on the thread I posted below, do you feel there’s a strength or weakness I missed for my own work?

 

[Danny]

I love putting the time into doing coaster layouts and terrain manipulation, but just don't have the patience to produce really good theming. Praise be for the workshop.

 

[Matt N]

I love putting the time into doing coaster layouts and terrain manipulation, but just don't have the patience to produce really good theming. Praise be for the workshop.

Fair enough! Theming certainly takes a lot of patience; I always try and max out the criteria (very high on-ride scenery and 100% queue scenery rating) whenever I’m building, and it’s a lot more difficult than it seems!

As much as I find Planet Coaster fun, I can sometimes find that focusing relentlessly on theming one thing can leave me feeling a little burned out after a while, and I go off and do something simpler in a different map. I most certainly have peaks & troughs when it comes to my creativity/productivity in Planet Coaster!

For instance, one “simpler” thing I often like to do is just mock up random coaster layouts in a separate map, just for the hell of it! I’ll often just open a new map and build some completely random coaster layout; some of my favourite coaster types to randomly build are B&M hypers & GCIs, and I find RMCs quite fun too!

 

[Connor98]

Definitely my strongest point is my realism and theming, always strive to make my parks as realistic as possible, wether that be fully fencing off a ride area, or spending hours just to get shrubbery right , as far as weaknesses go, I sometimes struggle coming up with brand new idea for ride concepts/themes so I end up taking something that already exists and altering it to my style.

 

[Tim]

Time.

I'm very happy with what I can make in the game, but it takes a long time. Sometimes I spend a whole day trying to fit a single part. And I'm especially bad at not moving on until I've found that part!

It's such a shame because on a normal working week I don't see a point in playing as I can't commit enough time.

 

[Matt N]

Time.

I'm very happy with what I can make in the game, but it takes a long time. Sometimes I spend a whole day trying to fit a single part. And I'm especially bad at not moving on until I've found that part!

It's such a shame because on a normal working week I don't see a point in playing as I can't commit enough time.

Yes! I can definitely identify with this one; I quite often take my sweet time getting things built in Planet Coaster due to the aforementioned peaks & troughs in my creativity!

Speaking of which, I’m going to try and get the final country of Worlds of Globala done soon, I promise!

 

[Skyscraper]

My strength in PlanCo is definitely coaster building. I've actually got really good at it.
My weakness is themeing and patience. I can do huge but very plain/simple buildings, but I don't have enough patience to spend hours on one thing.
Another thing I'm not great at is themed areas; most of my parks tend to have one particular theme (Western, pirate etc), with the rides spread out everywhere.

 

[Ian]

As said before, time and finishing (Oooh Matron).

Like Tim, I find it incredibly hard to commit time to the game around real life and also find myself getting frustrated when I spend the best part of 3 hours fiddling with some minor detail, only to stand back and survey my work and think it doesn’t seem to be progressing.

More recently I’ve found myself playing the campaign modes more, as I enjoy the satisfaction of having a list of set objectives and ticking them off. It’s too easy to feel unrewarded in sandbox and just abandon a project and move onto the next thing.

I feel like this is why I’d say one of my strengths is doing layouts, as cliché as that is. They are instantly rewarding as you see dramatic progress in a short space of time.

 

[RicketyCricket]

I play on console so theming is basically impossible. Even so, I'd still probably be crap at it as I don't have the patience.

I think my coaster design skills are really top notch though

 

[Matt N]

Sorry to bump the thread, but I’ve thought of another key weakness of mine; terraforming.

Anyone who’s ever seen any of my Planet Coaster parks will know that I don’t tend to do too much ambitious stuff in the terraforming department; I’ve done lakes within my parks, and I’ve done the odd tunnel as well, but I’ve never gone much more ambitious than that. That’s because I’ve always preferred to have my parks looking neat & tidy throughout, and even though the terraforming tool is not difficult to use, I’ve always found my attempts at it look a little bit clumsy, and I wouldn’t want my creations marred by that, so flatter plots of land often

I might try a theme park with more difficult terrain (e.g. a mountainside or hillside) at some stage, but terraforming is certainly not a strength of mine, I’ll admit.