SpacePirate Ridley
Member
OP UPDATE 03/03/2016
1 hour of amazing videos, art and cool things explained.
For people who couldnt watch the stream yesterday, they upload it to their channel.
https://youtu.be/JAItaBmxn6I
_______________________________________________________________________________
OP UPDATE 12.12.2015
2nd DEV DIARY: Rewarding creativity
Theme building and terraforming. Must see and absolutely phrnomenal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOAiH4_Wrc4
New thread for new news, and because they have confimed so many things in the last Q&A (and also confirmed the release date for the public alpha) I think its appropiate to create a new thread, gathering every piece of info we know about the game.
Will try to keep this OP updated with the new images and dev diaries, but if theres anything big, another thread will be created.
Release date for the public alpha (you need the Early Bird Edition) is March 2016.
They also made new forums for the community to interact with the devs at Frontier website.
Official website:https://www.planetcoaster.com/
Official forums:Click here
So they been doing in the forums a Q&A with John Laws, the Director of Art of Planet Coaster.
He explained things he is excited to show in the future, and that he is the art director for the peeps mostly (and also paths). The one for the whole game (that includes rides and the overall look) is Matthew Preece.
The most interesting answers though, came from the questions given by the Coaster Head Club members (the ones that have a private forum to interact with the devs during development, that im thinking to join also). He answered things that fans of this games where wondering if they would appear as just some weeks ago we had 0 info about the game, apart from the trailer, and RCTW will flat out not have them when its released (that beta went disastrously bad).
THINGS CONFIRMED:
Here are some of the few details he answered, and other things that have been confirmed the game has in the forums, and other dev diaries.
-The first thing they are working out is the behaviour of the guests. This is extremely important so the pathfinding works perfectly with strange path shapes, they move realisticly, and the management for stalls and rides works with zero problems (that, in fact, was a big problem RCT3 had (the family/group system), and its why the first thing they are doing is trying to resolve it from the get go).
From what they have shown, seems the pathfinding works with big modular groups of guests and painted areas of interests. Instead of working only in rides and stalls as single objects of interests, every ride and stall you put into an area will "paint" the path and a modular group of guests will be automatically interested in that area, and change their direction to visit it. So if you are building a path, and theres nothing in there, the game will not paint it and guests will not visit that area of the park wondering what to do.
-The guest system is completed and is working perfectly right now in their tests.
-There are talking about aprox numbers of guests in a park. From 2000 to 20000 guests are the numbers thrown around just now.
-Guest will not walk through each other, they will actually go around if someone is blocking their path.
-Animations for guests are also an important aspect of this game it seems, as they are giving it a lot of depth. Just one example, if the path is congested they will try to look around trying to see whats in front of them, an intersting animation for queues. Your workers will also became angered or happy (something totally new in the RCT type games, ThemePark World did something similar, not with the same depth of course).
-Guests are going got be of different sizes because they are not resticted by a publisher. Theres going to be fat guests (he says big framed), something that Atari didnt seem to allow in RCT3. Lots of body variety he says.
-And abouth paths, this was confirmed in the Q&A. Normal paths with variable widths, curved paths, and possibilty of rounded plazas also. Underground paths with no constrictions (so just as above). Elevated paths. And then theres seem to be small details where you can build paths under rides that make sense (so flat rides that use some form of elvated rails, for example).
-Somone showed an aerial photo of a disney park describing how the paths looked in a real park. John Laws said that the variable width and curves system they created allows to quickly create some very authentic pedestrian spaces.
-Individual placement of object in paths (benches, bins, lights...), instead of the two sides of the path with the same object RCT3 had. This is to accomodate the new variable widths paths.
-If you are scared theres no queues in any of the material showed, do not fret. They are confirmed, and not only that, they are thinking of making it possible to add entertainments elements to them (like disney and universal parks). Thats still in the thinking process so it could be scrapped.
-Far more options for customisation and integration of stalls, rides and terrain than ever before. Details about these are going to be disclosed soon.
-Finally confimed that you can build your own structures and buildings piece by piece (like in RCT2-3, and not like RCTW where building structures is out completly). They are planning on having a *PLANET COASTER* piece by piece system (so I suppose its a twist on the piece by piece RCT3 formula).
He adds that piece by piece gives the player a level of precision and control when designing authentic parks that's hard to argue with. What they want to ensure though is the tools behind it are smooth and building is enjoyable. This system is already a lot of fun with huge potential for player creativity.
-The team is looking at how you can combine scenery pieces for ease of use. Just the other day one of the members of the team combined separate scenery objects in game to create a their very own Skull Rock diorama.
-Making larger, connected, integrated buildings is something they are very excited to show in the future. It's what happens in the real world and they want to echo the connectivity in Planet Coaster. (Apart from the older piece by piece, some type of copy paste modular buildings, maybe?)
-They've also confirmed by one of the facebook guest animations (you can watch it at below this OP) thats there's tables for the guests to sit down and eat. You can finally make a proper restaurant or eating zone.
-Someone asked about the complexity of building coasters if used only splines (like in the RCTW beta where everyone had problems even building a simple coaster), he said he couldnt disclose yet the type of coaster builder the game will have but that he made a cool building with a narrow, arched opening through which he threaded a complex coaster with ease. The coaster wasn't a jumble of spaghetti but a varied track with tight turns and perfect straights. He adds that the system is feeling solid, controlled and that they are still working on it.
-Sandbox is confirmed. Just a big open grass space, like RCT3.
-Terraforming comes back and he says is better and more intregated than ever (he is always talking from the point of what they made in RCT3, where terraforming after the first big patch was already super deep). Possibilty to make a completly underground park. And of course underground coasters (and mix between underground and air).
-Waterides confimed (again RCTW doesnt have them when its released). BUT theres going to be a limited number becuase they want them to make it right. With this possibly means is the waterides we are going to see are the typical RCT franchise waterides that appear in the vanilla games, so that means probably: log flume, river rapids (thin and wide versions I hope, although the wide is from expansions), shoot the chutes, and some kind of Tow boat ride and/or boats and swans.
Nothing like what RCT3: Soaked! expansion brought, so dont think you are going to see pool water slides, at least on the first release.
-No number of flat rides given, but he said 'plenty'.
-This one is for people that had more fun with RCT1 and 2 than 3 (because it borked somewhat the management aspect of the games). Management of your theme park is a main core of the game.
-Day and night cycles are also confirmed. The lightning of the engine is one of the first things they did apart form the guest behaviour. He still doesnt know how many time will pass between night and day (im pretty sure they are going with the same system as RCT3, where you could click a button to be night when you wanted, as it was perfect).
-Theres a first release, and then they will continue to add things in the game. In this day and age, I would be wary of that phrase, but this guys did it amazingly well with RCT3, giving and already giant game in vanilla, and making it even better with the two expansions, soaked! and wild! Time will tell, of course.
-They started with the game just one year ago. The first thing John Laws created was the hipster guy from the trailer.
-What each character takes in time to be made ranges by the character and if it's altering a base model or completely new so 6-15 days. A guest takes 12 days from scratch ignoring rigging and animation. The animation is shared between skeletons. Large and Small body-types. Child, Teen and Adult male and female.
They are thinking of making a timelapse video of the whole process to show.
-John Laws says he is paying attention to "that other game" (RCTW), but of course he also adds they are making their own thing and that competition is good to impulse the genre forward.
But something interesting he says is that "we are concentrating absolutely on making this game the best sim it can possibly be.
" Take that as you will.
VIDEOS (will update as new ones appear):
Dev Diary Part 1 - The Individual Experience
Announcement Trailer
INTERVIEWS:
Meet the Team & Q&A - John Laws
Screen and other images:
They've been also putting a few animations of the guests and workers in their facebook and forums (some of the are old from the other thread, others are new) Newers are up, olders are down, will update with new ones as they release them:
1 hour of amazing videos, art and cool things explained.
For people who couldnt watch the stream yesterday, they upload it to their channel.
https://youtu.be/JAItaBmxn6I
_______________________________________________________________________________
OP UPDATE 12.12.2015
2nd DEV DIARY: Rewarding creativity
Theme building and terraforming. Must see and absolutely phrnomenal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOAiH4_Wrc4
New thread for new news, and because they have confimed so many things in the last Q&A (and also confirmed the release date for the public alpha) I think its appropiate to create a new thread, gathering every piece of info we know about the game.
Will try to keep this OP updated with the new images and dev diaries, but if theres anything big, another thread will be created.
Release date for the public alpha (you need the Early Bird Edition) is March 2016.
They also made new forums for the community to interact with the devs at Frontier website.
Official website:https://www.planetcoaster.com/
Official forums:Click here
So they been doing in the forums a Q&A with John Laws, the Director of Art of Planet Coaster.
He explained things he is excited to show in the future, and that he is the art director for the peeps mostly (and also paths). The one for the whole game (that includes rides and the overall look) is Matthew Preece.
The most interesting answers though, came from the questions given by the Coaster Head Club members (the ones that have a private forum to interact with the devs during development, that im thinking to join also). He answered things that fans of this games where wondering if they would appear as just some weeks ago we had 0 info about the game, apart from the trailer, and RCTW will flat out not have them when its released (that beta went disastrously bad).
THINGS CONFIRMED:
Here are some of the few details he answered, and other things that have been confirmed the game has in the forums, and other dev diaries.
-The first thing they are working out is the behaviour of the guests. This is extremely important so the pathfinding works perfectly with strange path shapes, they move realisticly, and the management for stalls and rides works with zero problems (that, in fact, was a big problem RCT3 had (the family/group system), and its why the first thing they are doing is trying to resolve it from the get go).
From what they have shown, seems the pathfinding works with big modular groups of guests and painted areas of interests. Instead of working only in rides and stalls as single objects of interests, every ride and stall you put into an area will "paint" the path and a modular group of guests will be automatically interested in that area, and change their direction to visit it. So if you are building a path, and theres nothing in there, the game will not paint it and guests will not visit that area of the park wondering what to do.
-The guest system is completed and is working perfectly right now in their tests.
-There are talking about aprox numbers of guests in a park. From 2000 to 20000 guests are the numbers thrown around just now.
-Guest will not walk through each other, they will actually go around if someone is blocking their path.
-Animations for guests are also an important aspect of this game it seems, as they are giving it a lot of depth. Just one example, if the path is congested they will try to look around trying to see whats in front of them, an intersting animation for queues. Your workers will also became angered or happy (something totally new in the RCT type games, ThemePark World did something similar, not with the same depth of course).
-Guests are going got be of different sizes because they are not resticted by a publisher. Theres going to be fat guests (he says big framed), something that Atari didnt seem to allow in RCT3. Lots of body variety he says.
-And abouth paths, this was confirmed in the Q&A. Normal paths with variable widths, curved paths, and possibilty of rounded plazas also. Underground paths with no constrictions (so just as above). Elevated paths. And then theres seem to be small details where you can build paths under rides that make sense (so flat rides that use some form of elvated rails, for example).
-Somone showed an aerial photo of a disney park describing how the paths looked in a real park. John Laws said that the variable width and curves system they created allows to quickly create some very authentic pedestrian spaces.
-Individual placement of object in paths (benches, bins, lights...), instead of the two sides of the path with the same object RCT3 had. This is to accomodate the new variable widths paths.
-If you are scared theres no queues in any of the material showed, do not fret. They are confirmed, and not only that, they are thinking of making it possible to add entertainments elements to them (like disney and universal parks). Thats still in the thinking process so it could be scrapped.
-Far more options for customisation and integration of stalls, rides and terrain than ever before. Details about these are going to be disclosed soon.
-Finally confimed that you can build your own structures and buildings piece by piece (like in RCT2-3, and not like RCTW where building structures is out completly). They are planning on having a *PLANET COASTER* piece by piece system (so I suppose its a twist on the piece by piece RCT3 formula).
He adds that piece by piece gives the player a level of precision and control when designing authentic parks that's hard to argue with. What they want to ensure though is the tools behind it are smooth and building is enjoyable. This system is already a lot of fun with huge potential for player creativity.
-The team is looking at how you can combine scenery pieces for ease of use. Just the other day one of the members of the team combined separate scenery objects in game to create a their very own Skull Rock diorama.
-Making larger, connected, integrated buildings is something they are very excited to show in the future. It's what happens in the real world and they want to echo the connectivity in Planet Coaster. (Apart from the older piece by piece, some type of copy paste modular buildings, maybe?)
-They've also confirmed by one of the facebook guest animations (you can watch it at below this OP) thats there's tables for the guests to sit down and eat. You can finally make a proper restaurant or eating zone.
-Someone asked about the complexity of building coasters if used only splines (like in the RCTW beta where everyone had problems even building a simple coaster), he said he couldnt disclose yet the type of coaster builder the game will have but that he made a cool building with a narrow, arched opening through which he threaded a complex coaster with ease. The coaster wasn't a jumble of spaghetti but a varied track with tight turns and perfect straights. He adds that the system is feeling solid, controlled and that they are still working on it.
-Sandbox is confirmed. Just a big open grass space, like RCT3.
-Terraforming comes back and he says is better and more intregated than ever (he is always talking from the point of what they made in RCT3, where terraforming after the first big patch was already super deep). Possibilty to make a completly underground park. And of course underground coasters (and mix between underground and air).
-Waterides confimed (again RCTW doesnt have them when its released). BUT theres going to be a limited number becuase they want them to make it right. With this possibly means is the waterides we are going to see are the typical RCT franchise waterides that appear in the vanilla games, so that means probably: log flume, river rapids (thin and wide versions I hope, although the wide is from expansions), shoot the chutes, and some kind of Tow boat ride and/or boats and swans.
Nothing like what RCT3: Soaked! expansion brought, so dont think you are going to see pool water slides, at least on the first release.
-No number of flat rides given, but he said 'plenty'.
-This one is for people that had more fun with RCT1 and 2 than 3 (because it borked somewhat the management aspect of the games). Management of your theme park is a main core of the game.
-Day and night cycles are also confirmed. The lightning of the engine is one of the first things they did apart form the guest behaviour. He still doesnt know how many time will pass between night and day (im pretty sure they are going with the same system as RCT3, where you could click a button to be night when you wanted, as it was perfect).
-Theres a first release, and then they will continue to add things in the game. In this day and age, I would be wary of that phrase, but this guys did it amazingly well with RCT3, giving and already giant game in vanilla, and making it even better with the two expansions, soaked! and wild! Time will tell, of course.
-They started with the game just one year ago. The first thing John Laws created was the hipster guy from the trailer.
-What each character takes in time to be made ranges by the character and if it's altering a base model or completely new so 6-15 days. A guest takes 12 days from scratch ignoring rigging and animation. The animation is shared between skeletons. Large and Small body-types. Child, Teen and Adult male and female.
They are thinking of making a timelapse video of the whole process to show.
-John Laws says he is paying attention to "that other game" (RCTW), but of course he also adds they are making their own thing and that competition is good to impulse the genre forward.
But something interesting he says is that "we are concentrating absolutely on making this game the best sim it can possibly be.
" Take that as you will.VIDEOS (will update as new ones appear):
Dev Diary Part 1 - The Individual Experience
Announcement Trailer
INTERVIEWS:
Meet the Team & Q&A - John Laws
Screen and other images:
Character model design sheet
They've been also putting a few animations of the guests and workers in their facebook and forums (some of the are old from the other thread, others are new) Newers are up, olders are down, will update with new ones as they release them:
