Planet Coaster, RCT & NoLimits Quick Questions

[Ian]

I’ve never not had it sync up. I think there are a couple of stock messages it can throw, particularly if there is service disruption at Steam’s end, but it’s personally never caused me an issue. Sometimes Steam just throws a hissy fit and flashes up warnings to try and cover itself.

Best bet would be to give the free tier a try, play for an hour or two with something you’re not too precious about and then try quitting and reopening locally. Just bare in mind that if you quit and rejoin GeForce Now in quick succession I think you can sometimes get allocated the same rig, as there’s a bit of a closedown process that takes place once you kill your session, to make sure it’s fresh for the next person. If you’re quick you can catch it out (which I assume is to try and preserve the session in case your connection fluctuates), so it might not be a foolproof way of testing the sync. Best the quit and give it a few minutes before reconnecting if you’re testing it that way.

As DistortAMG says, expect a bit of a wait for a rig on the free tier, especially when America comes online or on weekends. I pay for the service on a founder plan as I used it through the beta period, but even then there can sometimes be a couple of minutes wait at peak times (though it’s generally pretty instant).

 

[Matt N]

Hi all,
Sorry that this isn’t expressly related to PlanCo as such, but it is related to the videos I upload to show off my PlanCo work.

Basically, I uploaded a video this evening for a Speed Building Contest over on CoasterForce, and I used a bit of theme park audio within the video. For the first time thus far, YouTube has given me a copyright claim. Not a copyright strike, which is apparently worse and has actual effects on your channel, but a copyright claim.

From what I can gather, the copyright owner’s policy is that they have no issue with the video remaining up, but they have to run ads on it and I’m not allowed to gain money from it; the ad revenue goes to the copyright owner.

However, I do not run my YouTube channel as a public channel (every video on there is unlisted, and only people with a direct link can view them), and I have no intention of monetising my channel or trying to profit from it or pursue it as a legitimate venture; I use it purely as a means of showing you guys my Planet Coaster creations, and for absolutely nothing else.

So what I was basically going to ask is; is this anything to be worried about if I’m not intending to profit off of my channel or run it as a legitimate business venture? Should I remove the content that YouTube has flagged, or do you think it’s OK to stay there seeing as it’s only a copyright claim as opposed to a copyright strike, and I have no intention of ever monetising my channel or making it a properly public venture?

 

[Burbs]

Claims are fine. I have them on pretty much all of my videos - pretty sure all that will happen is that for anyone that's not got YouTube Premium or an ad-blocker installed, they may get an advert for related products before your video. Worry not, young Matt.

 

[Matt N]

Claims are fine. I have them on pretty much all of my videos - pretty sure all that will happen is that for anyone that's not got YouTube Premium or an ad-blocker installed, they may get an advert for related products before your video. Worry not, young Matt.

Ah, that’s a relief; cheers @Burbs! So it’s nothing to really worry about unless I get a copyright strike?

I wonder what you’d have to do to get one of those… I dread to think!

I have no intention of ever monetising my YouTube channel or making it properly public, though; it’s all going to remain very small-scale and isolated to TowersStreet and CoasterForce only. Aside from a “Thorpe Park Project Exodus as a B&M Hyper” video I posted on the very popular Project Exodus threads, which has 151 views, my most viewed video has 48 views, so it’s not like I’m going viral or anything…

 

[Tim]

To get a strike someone has to report you, which is really unlikely unless:
- your video is getting watched by thousands of people
- or you've literally re-uploaded a video or entire song that can be argued to be taking away earnings from the copyright holder.

A claim means that some content searching bot has detected you've used something owned by a copyright holder, usually a bit of a song. It's not an issue for you but many YouTubers hate these claims. An entire video can be demonetisation because in a 30 minute video they walked past a speaker playing a pop song. Or in a bizarre case I heard recently where a news chanel played someone's YouTube clip, then put a copyright claim on all "their" content which resulted in the original video being claimed against.

It's so hard now to use any music in a video without getting some sort of claim. I remember back when YouTube was only a few years old and you could get away with uploading a RCT3 video with any music you liked in the background. But YouTube is serious business now, any video no matter how small, has to come under the same restrictions to stop the wholesale stealing of content that was happening all the time.

It's safer to stick to in-game music and content because Frontier have no intention to make a claim while you are giving them free advertising.

 

[JAperson]

I believe when companies make a claim on your video they have a few options, A soft route where they take earnings (if you are making them from YouTube - which I presume you won't) or a hard route where the video gets deleted. YouTube tends to not let you upload something that will get you a strike these days though, it checks the video first I believe.

 

[Matt N]

I believe when companies make a claim on your video they have a few options, A soft route where they take earnings (if you are making them from YouTube - which I presume you won't) or a hard route where the video gets deleted. YouTube tends to not let you upload something that will get you a strike these days though, it checks the video first I believe.

I think the company behind this one took a soft route, as the video is still up (in an unlisted form), but it lists the copyrighted music within it in the video description, and ads also have to be shown before it in certain territories even though I don’t monetise my channel. I cannot monetise the video in question; all ad revenue goes to the copyright owner.

Which I’m totally fine with; I was never intent on using my YouTube channel as a public commercial venture anyway!

 

[JAperson]

I think the company behind this one took a soft route, as the video is still up (in an unlisted form), but it lists the copyrighted music within it in the video description, and ads also have to be shown before it in certain territories even though I don’t monetise my channel. I cannot monetise the video in question; all ad revenue goes to the copyright owner.

Which I’m totally fine with; I was never intent on using my YouTube channel as a public commercial venture anyway!

Yes most companies tend to go the soft route as they can make more money that way.

 

[DistortAMG]

Not a question so to speak. But I got this information off reddit the other day in a since deleated post. Take it with a pinch of salt. But it does add up with the leaked roadmap leaked from Frontier a few years ago, of which 90% has since turned out true. Saks road map did mention Planet Coaster 2 with Disney as a partner.

So a since deleted post on reddit was posted a few days ago. I think it gave the most realistic prospects for Planet Coaster 2.

Make of these what you will but these were the takeaways from it, important to note. This is not confirmed as real and pure rumour at the moment. But to me, they seem like some of the more realistic rumours.

Planet Coaster 2 is apparently in development, with an estimated announcement and marketing to begin in late 2023. With that I would expect a release late 2024 maybe. Hopefully also the year of Grant Theft Auto 6. Two very talented British devs releasing two amazing games, the two single most highly anticipated sequels for me may I add, in the same year would be amazing!

Project lead is apparently Sam (I assume Sam from the original Planco dev diaries) if this is true, fantastic. Take my cash now Frontier, take it all!

Big delays due to Covid and an "IP Grab", which has not come to fruition. This could be the previous speculated partnership with Disney. You just have to look at the state of the Sims 4 to see this is a good thing it fell through. Plus, I thought one of the key strengths of Planet Coaster was for the most part, its originality. This would be lost, so could creativity somewhat be lost, having to build within the constraints of Disney. But who knows what they had planned.

Pathing systems are apparently going to be the same. It is apparently a known QoL issue but the AI is so heavily tied into it the investment of time is not deemed worth while. To be fair I can live with paths staying the same as they were not too bad..some of the worst QoL stuff for me was stations having to hold all trains and boats. So a log flume with 30 boats would have to have a station 30 boats long - very annoying. Plus, no exit and entry stations for coasters - finally the REALLY terrible physics for all the water rides in the game (especially tracked) the boat ride that is supposed to be like the Pirates of the Carribean boat ride is the worst offender here. Bottom line is I could live with pathing systems being the same, aslong as some of the worst QoL issues are fixed - I say aslong as, not sure why, as I will still be buying it anyway.

Potential to release with 5 themes, again this makes sense, as a newer game, will need newer assets to take advantage of advancements in computers and their game engine. Not to mention the increased dev time for higher detail assets. Again, I am fine with this, 5 is enough for the base game. The most important thing for me is that the foundations of the game are spot on. People including myself will happily pay for extra content if the fundamental foundations in the game are there. I do hope we see weather this time Frontier. Having parks in a state of sunshine, while very nice, gets stale rather quickly. Especially considering we were and are accustomed to dynamic weather in most games these days. I understand why you chose it that why (I think!), but hoping you can evolve the weather for the next one. Especially seeing as Planet Zoo got an excellent weather system, so the systems that handle weather should now be built, right? In any case, I am confident this will have already been decided to be put in the game for the huge demand there was for weather with the first one, the fact the systems are now partially or fully built as can be seen in Planet Zoo means the engine now supports weather. Then finally the extra opportunities and mechanics that can be added to the management aspect of the game.

I know Planet Coaster got some minor criticism in reviews over shallow management and it was. Even with Security and other updates, it seemed hollow. Understandable, it had been a while since they worked on this type of game. Planet Zoo really picked it up at notch management wise and I am confident Frontier will be hitting their stride with management sides in Planco2. This is why I think weather will almost certainly have already been decided on as a feature..if PlanCo2 exists that is.

Which nicely ties into a rumoured DLC format similar to Planet Zoo. Which was successful as they got the fundamental foundations right, as they did with Planet Coaster.

Very exciting times ahead if any of this is true.

 

[Matt N]

Building upon what @DistortAMG said above about PlanCo2, I’d be intrigued to know; what is everyone’s personal wish list for PlanCo2 of features that you think the current PlanCo misses?

Personally, I think PlanCo is pretty great as is, but talking exclusively from a personal standpoint, I do have a few things I’d like to see added. If I had to say a few things that I would quite like added to a sequel, I think they’d be:

• I’d like to see a few ride types added that are missing from the original game. For instance, the Mack Powered Coaster is surprisingly absent, and also things like Mack XTREME Spinning Coasters and S&S Free Spins (I know you have a 4D coaster in-game, but this is the massive X2-style model; the more common Free Spin style is missing). I also think some kind of family launch coaster and family suspended coaster would be a nice addition, as the game currently misses these.
• In terms of non-coasters, I’d quite like to see omnimovers added as a dark ride system, and I’d also like to see a slightly wider range of water ride systems (or at least, more expansive capabilities on some of the existing ones; some of them aren’t especially versatile).
• This is probably slightly geeky, but I’d like to see more trick tracks on coasters. I think swing launches and switch tracks in particular are quite a big omission, as they’re now growing pretty common. I also think drop tracks would be a nice addition, too.
• Again, this is probably a slightly geeky request, but I would also quite like to see a wider range of station options on rides. In particular, I think things like separate onload/offload stations, omnimover stations, dual dispatch (like on Oblivion and Saw) and dual stations (like on Galactica) would be a nice addition. Omnimover stations would be a particularly valuable addition, in my opinion, as all of the dark rides in the game seem to have a pretty low throughput at present. That is a phenomenally geeky request on my part, though; the average player probably doesn’t care about that!
• Finally, as a slightly more minor suggestion; I do think the addition of staff on ride platforms would be a nice one, if only to add a bit of realism. Instead of having the lap bars lower magically or have the guest self-lower them with no check, I’m suggesting that they have staff on the platform going down checking restraints like they would in a real theme park. That is a phenomenally nitpicky suggestion on my part, though, and not something the game really needs!

Other than that, I don’t personally have any major issues with the current mechanics of the game. The management issue doesn’t bother me, as if I’m being honest, I don’t make that much use of the game’s management features, and I also have no issue with the current paving system, theming build system or any of those sorts of things.

I know some of these are phenomenally picky, and probably only appeal to me, but that’s what I’d personally do!

 

[Burbs]

Think you've pretty much hit the nail on the head there Matt with what I would wish for in PC2 as well. It'd be good to have more support for dark rides in particular, for instance my main bug bear of lighting fixtures shining through walls when focused to them is rather irritating.

 

[Skyscraper]

Building upon what @DistortAMG said above about PlanCo2, I’d be intrigued to know; what is everyone’s personal wish list for PlanCo2 of features that you think the current PlanCo misses?

Personally, I think PlanCo is pretty great as is, but talking exclusively from a personal standpoint, I do have a few things I’d like to see added. If I had to say a few things that I would quite like added to a sequel, I think they’d be:

• I’d like to see a few ride types added that are missing from the original game. For instance, the Mack Powered Coaster is surprisingly absent, and also things like Mack XTREME Spinning Coasters and S&S Free Spins (I know you have a 4D coaster in-game, but this is the massive X2-style model; the more common Free Spin style is missing). I also think some kind of family launch coaster and family suspended coaster would be a nice addition, as the game currently misses these.
• In terms of non-coasters, I’d quite like to see omnimovers added as a dark ride system, and I’d also like to see a slightly wider range of water ride systems (or at least, more expansive capabilities on some of the existing ones; some of them aren’t especially versatile).
• This is probably slightly geeky, but I’d like to see more trick tracks on coasters. I think swing launches and switch tracks in particular are quite a big omission, as they’re now growing pretty common. I also think drop tracks would be a nice addition, too.
• Again, this is probably a slightly geeky request, but I would also quite like to see a wider range of station options on rides. In particular, I think things like separate onload/offload stations, omnimover stations, dual dispatch (like on Oblivion and Saw) and dual stations (like on Galactica) would be a nice addition. Omnimover stations would be a particularly valuable addition, in my opinion, as all of the dark rides in the game seem to have a pretty low throughput at present. That is a phenomenally geeky request on my part, though; the average player probably doesn’t care about that!
• Finally, as a slightly more minor suggestion; I do think the addition of staff on ride platforms would be a nice one, if only to add a bit of realism. Instead of having the lap bars lower magically or have the guest self-lower them with no check, I’m suggesting that they have staff on the platform going down checking restraints like they would in a real theme park. That is a phenomenally nitpicky suggestion on my part, though, and not something the game really needs!

Other than that, I don’t personally have any major issues with the current mechanics of the game. The management issue doesn’t bother me, as if I’m being honest, I don’t make that much use of the game’s management features, and I also have no issue with the current paving system, theming build system or any of those sorts of things.

I know some of these are phenomenally picky, and probably only appeal to me, but that’s what I’d personally do!

I agree with all of those Matt. I'd also like breakdowns to be changed so that this doesn't happen;

Plus I'd like the ability to add park names on coaster trains, and the ability to close a ride queue without closing the ride itself would be welcome too.

 

[JAperson]

If we are talking about things that I'd want sorted. The thing where wooden and sometimes steel coaster supports and track overlap but it still runs. It also doesn't let you change the supports in that area properly.