Frontier Developments announces Planet Coaster 2, available fall 2024

With every coaster design simulator I've ever played (RCT, NoLimits, Planet Coaster), the most annoying aspect of the creation stage has always been having to do a test run before knowing what your results are, including whether or not the coaster will even complete the circuit. I've always wanted the ability to see velocity and G forces calculated as you’re molding the track, so that you don't have to keep stopping and waiting for the train the pass through your incomplete coaster before making adjustments. Hoping Frontier has made this a feature in PC2.

That would make it easier to keep things in line. Interesting problem to solve, too, because adjustments up track aren't just track shape, but also brakes and launchers.

I'm looking forward to the improved path design. Creating a path that links up right is very difficult. Just making a path that travels through the three entrances in a pre-made building is a challenge.

And I'm looking forward to making waterslides!

Also hoping that Josh gets his hands on it for another Let's Game It Out video.

Bakeman31092:

the most annoying aspect of the creation stage has always been having to do a test run before knowing what your results are, including whether or not the coaster will even complete the circuit. I've always wanted the ability to see velocity and G forces calculated as your molding the track, so that you don't have to keep stopping and waiting for the train the pass through your incomplete coaster before making adjustments.

I hear Intamin someday hopes to be able to do that too.

One of the biggest whines people have about PC1 is the coaster builder, and that it's too hard to make perfectly smooth coasters. I'm OK if they add better smoothing tools, but I sincerely hope that they don't throw away the entire builder. In my opinion, the ease in which you can build a decent coaster is part of the attraction of the game to me -- it seems like a nice compromise between the rigid but quick RCT-style and the flexible but complex and time consuming No Limits.

Bakeman31092:

With every coaster design simulator I've ever played (RCT, NoLimits, Planet Coaster), the most annoying aspect of the creation stage has always been having to do a test run before knowing what your results are, including whether or not the coaster will even complete the circuit.

It's been a while since I've played with it, but I'm pretty sure NL2 has the option to show velocity as you build. I know it can show G forces as you go. In either case, you can see whether or not your coaster will complete the circuit as you build.

NL2 certainly has G-Force, Speed and a few other comb options as well. You can set the limits of the colors within the comb, so you know exactly what is going on if you want to limit (say, make -1G "red" for specific styles, or change positive G from 4G to 3.5G, and so on), like so:

Also, if you want even more challenge (actually, easier once you learn it), using FVD to build your rides in their entirety using force vectors... I can make complete rides very quickly and they are perfectly smooth. But you are building your ride completely based on the force plots, second to second.

Final result in-game:

I could pump out a ride in NL2 quicker than in Planet Coaster, which I find so clumsy and frustrating to do what you want, well. (Also note, I been playing NL since the original demo and release days LONG ago...)... But they are also entirely different games at the end of the day, but if I want that style I much prefer firing up RCT2 still to this day for a 'park' simulator... But maybe they will fix many of the frustrations I personally have with it in PC2.

That's really cool! Curious, where did you learn how to design a coaster using force vector plots?

I hope they changed how history is kept / maintained. If there was an option to say drop hisotyr after X amount of time it would greatly increase the overall games performance.

Bakeman31092:

That's really cool! Curious, where did you learn how to design a coaster using force vector plots?

Heard/knew about the program for some time before actually trying it out, then a few youtube videos to learn the basics for the software itself. Once I knew how things worked, it was pretty easy to figure out how to manipulate the graphs to do what you want with the track. I actually find it quite therapeutic when I'm building the rides, I just get in the zone and space out for a bit. It makes the brain think a bit differently when building with FVD.

Now that I know it well, I can churn out rides very quickly... Faster than hand manipulating for sure (for the level of smoothness and profiling I was after). FVD just makes that really easy!

I wouldn't really call NL a "game." I mean, if the outcome you're after is "make a ride," I dunno, you're not really trying to beat a set of goals. That's fine, I just always thought it was weird that anyone referred to it as a game. And it's not lost on my that we made a forum for it under "games" here.

In Planet coaster, you can test the ride as you build it, and turn on a kind of heat map showing the intensity, and other factors. As the train travels the layout, it shows a different color line to indicate what you choose it to indicate. I can't remember details because it's been a while since I played it.

Jeff:

I wouldn't really call NL a "game."

Big debate in the flight sim community too... If somebody mentions it being a game, get ready for some fun!

"ItS a SiMuLAtoR!"