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Planet Coaster 2: General Discussion

I've had my first play about with the game this evening on PC, and while I have only played for a few hours, I've certainly got some preliminary thoughts!

The Good:
  • The graphics are much improved compared to the original, with a definite dose of additional realism, while also maintaining the cartoony fun of the original as well.
  • The addition of some new ride systems is very much welcomed, and elements such as the trick tracks on coasters work very well indeed.
  • The coaster building system is much improved while also being highly familiar from the original game. I could very easily pick up the coaster builder and play with it... but my word, that new smoothing tool is a thing of beauty! In the original, coasters sometimes had an odd "shunting" sort of profile even when you smoothed them, but smoothed coasters here look ever so realistic and have beautifully smooth curves!
  • That scenery brush... what a game changer! It's so much quicker than placing greenery items one by one, and I also think it appears more organic and in-keeping with the surroundings as well!
  • In general, some of the tools seemed better than in the original, such as the mass deletion tool. The paving tool took a bit of getting used to, but also seems quite good.
  • I was impressed by how wide the water park aspect is compared to RCT3. The water slide types boast a wide array of potential elements, and there are also bits like lazy rivers and such that I don't remember from RCT3.
  • On a similar note, I do think the ride selection is very broad given that this is the base game. I bought pretty much every DLC of Planet Coaster 1, and there are very few ride types even from those DLCs that are missing from the game. And that's before you consider the numerous new ride types added! Given that this is the base game and more ride types will inevitably be added through DLCs in the future, I'm impressed!
  • Performance seems very good. FPS was a little lower than the original (an empty park in PC2 was around 80-90FPS for me versus well over 100FPS in the original game), but I expected this given the system requirements are higher and I certainly didn't notice any significant difference if ignoring the stats. The FPS drop as guests enter and more rides get built also seems less noticeable than in the original, with a good 1,000+ guests, a few rides and a small amount of added scenery making no difference to FPS, and the loading times seem quite quick compared to the original!
The Not So Good:
  • The physics of the water slides is very questionable. Your slide will launch out of the starting area at 15-20mph (this is not vaguely realistic), with no ability to change this, but then also lose speed at an inordinate rate once the slide has started, meaning that it's very tough to integrate special elements unless you put them very close to the beginning with little preamble. I would quite often build a slide with only one or two introductory curves before a special element, but then have it stop in the middle of the special element. Furthermore, many of the special elements are very jarring and jerky even when taken at a relatively slow speed.
  • On a semi-related note, I also think it's disappointing that they don't let you resize the special elements on the water slides like they do with the pre-made elements on the coasters. A bigger water slide will need bigger elements, and the inverse is also true.
  • If I'm being honest, I thought that some of the new management features were a bit unnecessary. I admittedly never have been one for the management side of these games, and largely ignored it in the original, but it feels a bit more obtrusive and harder to ignore here. The power and water filtration aspect in particular is one that I didn't feel I needed and very quickly turned off.
  • I know this is incredibly minor, but with the omnimover, I noticed that the whole thing would always stop if there was no one waiting to board, and wouldn't restart until the next person came to board. I don't feel this is terribly true to life; in parks like Europa Park, some of the omnimovers go with loads of empty seats.
  • I'm not quite sure on some aspects of the new UI. I find it a bit disruptive how you can't move the camera or do stuff while looking through certain menus.
Overall, it does seem promising! There are some tweaks to make, in my view, but I'm hoping that these are rectified with time.
 
Has that goosey been swearing in the wrong topic?

I am loving reading this as a non player.
My last coaster game was on the PS2 I think, but none has ever beaten my old breadboard, lego and biscuit tin of plasticine.
Cant find the right slot in the tin to plug in to the broadband for the new updates though.
 
rob666 said:
Has that goosey been swearing in the wrong topic?

I am loving reading this as a non player.
My last coaster game was on the PS2 I think, but none has ever beaten my old breadboard, lego and biscuit tin of plasticine.
Cant find the right slot in the tin to plug in to the broadband for the new updates though.
Click to expand...
Swearing like a sailor, he was.
 
The omnimover also only has a finite number of cars. Which is a bit crap given the point of the attraction.

Agreed on the water slide physics. No point putting in half the special elements currently. Hopefully the changes implemented will solve that issue but it's a bit of a dud currently.

The discourse online is incredibly negative over quite minor things. Acting like this launch is as bad as Cities Skylines 2 is completely overreacting since at least this game is playable.

Should be noted that if you want dark interiors you need graphics card capable of ray tracing on PC. Which I don't unfortunately.
 
Haven’t got the game yet, so just got a few questions:
- Have they added a wider collection of kiddie coasters? I.E, Mack powered coaster etc
- Intamin Swing Launch Coaster? 👀
- Extreme Spinner?

Nevermind all the info I need is on the website lol
 
Josh555 said:
Any word on whether the piece counter on PS5 allows for bigger parks than the original?
Click to expand...
I'm not ignoring you by the way. Other than the controls, this dreaded piece counter is probably the most important factor for console players to consider since it practically ruined ambitions in the first game.

So I don't have a definitive answer yet. It's probably a case of suck it and see. I've built 11 coasters so far and it's sat on 30%. So I have no idea how it works.

The original console piece counter seemed pretty basic. Build loads of coasters and let loads of people into the park and it was happy. No slowdown like you see on lower powered PC's every time a bird flies past. But build a path that was too long, and it got all upset with you.

Until I reach 100%, I don't know how it works. I've built hardly any paths, no shops, and let no guests in, but it's allowed 11 coasters. The original would have been sat at way over that by now. In the Speed Build contest 2 years ago, @Matt N asked me what all the coasters he saw in the background of POV's were about, and that particular park maxed out at 12 coasters, some light theming, a few flats, and some queue lines.

I'm cautiously optimistic that they've taken a more intuitive approach this time. But what effects this dreaded piece counter is yet to be seen. It seems more liberal, and the frame rate is definitely a lot lower now. But until I start whacking paths and theming in, it's hard to tell. It's definitely different, that's all I know.
 
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Another thing I've noticed from having played around a little more this evening is; the entry to the splashdown on any coaster with a splashdown is still really weird and jerky, with no ability to smooth it out. This was the same in the original, and it's a shame that they haven't been able to sort it out. When the rest of the coaster is as smooth as the new smoothing tools now allow it to be, this is quite jarring.

On a side note, the Shambhala-style v-seated B&M Hyper is a nice bonus add that I didn't know was in there!
 
60hz TV enough for Planet Coaster?

I have been playing on my 55inch TV for years and never given the refresh rate a thought especially since I rarely play fps games. I am looking at getting a larger TV and so I wonder if I should specifically look for a 120hz model or is this unnecessary for games like PC 2?

I read that it might help with eyestrain but not sure if there would be other benefits.

I notice I get fatigued after playing for long periods and get a brain fog feeling with internal tremors but I understand this may be associated with dopamine rather than needing a higher refresh rate.

I currently run the game on an older i78700k and GTX 1070 which is holding up surprisingly well but I am due to upgrade and I don't want to lose all the gains through the current TV
 
Played a few hrs so far on Xbox. Not bad but it's taking me a bit of time to get used to the new pathing tool. Finding it very frustrating and feel it probably works better with a mouse on PC.

Water parks / slides look a bit naff. Not that I will spend much time building them as it's not really my thing tbh.

The new coaster types / flat rides and themes are all really good. The ability to properly theme your rides is the real highlight of this new game.
 
I have to say I had my reservations but the coaster smoothing is pretty good once you get used to it
 

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The performance in this game is, I have to say, excellent.
Running the game in ultra graphics with 4K and DLSS switched on, with all the fancy ray tracing options and the game sits almost solidly on 60fps in reasonably sized parks.

My PC is not even what I would call high end either, more mid range and obtainable for easily under a grand in this day and age, Ryzen 7 5700X, 32GB Ram, Nvidia RTX 3070. The game runs amazing and looks stunning. Like wow, it is one gorgeous looking game and that lighting, just amazing. The lighting overhaul is so good.

I was looking at upgrading to an Nvidia RTX 4070 this month, now after I have played the game and seen how well it is running on a powerful but mid range PC, I think I will save myself the £500.

I have only managed 10 hours so far due to work, but the game is great, all the tools have been overhauled to make building much better. There are flaws yes, but lets not overlook the positives and many positives there are. A great foundation for them to work from for sure. I look forward to playing for many more hours.

The UI could do with some tweaking, it is not the worst in the world, but certainly not the best. I wont let that overlook what is there though and there is a lot. I mean a lot.

I was playing with the animated movement motor pieces to make scenery move or spin and turn, so many options. Especially because you can add animated piece to animated piece to create some truly crazy things.
 
What's roughly the scale for the empty building space? I know on PC1 people were able to build full on resorts with multiple parks so I'm assuming it's at least the same size map?

Do people have particular approaches when planning and building a park with an end layout in mind to make sure it's the right size, or is it just a case of building one area at a time and adapting as you go?
 
Can you build half walls? The bane of any building creation on PC1.

Martin said:
Do people have particular approaches when planning and building a park with an end layout in mind to make sure it's the right size, or is it just a case of building one area at a time and adapting as you go?
Click to expand...

I usually consider what I want in the area, start with the biggest coaster and work around that. Leave decent space between areas and you can always fill back with the support rides or buildings.
 
The biggest issue I'm having with Planet Coaster 2 is that guests are incredibly impatient and will refuse to join any queue more than two minutes long leading to severe overcrowding on paths near the entrance (this is currently the most complained about issue on Frontier's issue tracker).
 
Thameslink Rail said:
The biggest issue I'm having with Planet Coaster 2 is that guests are incredibly impatient and will refuse to join any queue more than two minutes long leading to severe overcrowding on paths near the entrance (this is currently the most complained about issue on Frontier's issue tracker).
Click to expand...

Is the issue tracker visible to see? Care to share a link I am curious?
 
Thameslink Rail said:
The biggest issue I'm having with Planet Coaster 2 is that guests are incredibly impatient and will refuse to join any queue more than two minutes long leading to severe overcrowding on paths near the entrance (this is currently the most complained about issue on Frontier's issue tracker).
Click to expand...
Then they all open their phones, log on to TST, and swamp the Ride Availability & Operations thread with inane updates on what the app says their wait will be.

The commitment to realism in this sequel is commendable.
 
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