After finishing up projects on PC1, I've now started using PC2. And admittedly I feel lost. LOL!

I've actually been searching for beginner videos from when the game first came out trying to figure out how things work, since they are often so different than PC1, and we know how well Frontier does in instructional media. If anyone knows tutorials that helped them in the beginning, feel free to suggest them!

I do like the fact that the game looks crisper, and load's quickly (although THAT will surely change because of the type of parks I like to build...).

It IS sometimes frustrating the lack of themes and pieces and things we used to have just aren't there. I know we know have the ability to use what we do have differently then before, so that goes back to learning how things work. Thankfully many things can be scaled, because once again Frontier seems to have no real standard when it comes to scales. Some objects in the game I really like...others seem a step down from what we had in the first game, and some textures are just plain BAD.

There's a lot of cool things people have been able to do in this game, hopefully I'll have the patience required to get to that point!

Welcome to 2024. 😄

22 minutes ago, Wowman said:

Welcome to 2024. 😄

I know! LOL!

But I was so wound up in stuff made with PC1 that I never seemed to have time to do more than open it once in a while and see what new things they added. Trurhfull it's the same with Planet Zoo...have it and all the DLC's...but never play it. By the time I do PZ2 will be out...

I get it. I'm working on 1 PC2 park, 2 PC1 parks and one zoo. Jumping between all these games keeps me so messed up.

3 hours ago, Wowman said:

I get it. I'm working on 1 PC2 park, 2 PC1 parks and one zoo. Jumping between all these games keeps me so messed up.

Truly, I don't know how you do it!

Especially when each game has it's own content and game play methods...yet you still show progress all the time on all of them. Hat's off to you for doing so!

"yet you still show progress"....yes but very slow progress. I want to just stop some of the older ones, but my brain will not let that happen.

Slow and steady wins the race!

Wagi, Rather than hunting for videos, I downloaded a few of the featured parks or a couple of parks from known parties, and then started taking them apart piece by piece. I also downloaded some beautiful structures just to see how they are put together. Same with pathing. I have zero interest in pools or the electrical stuff, so haven't bothered with them at all.

I get a little worried when I see a small Main Street type building composed of over 3000 pieces. How many is too many? Has anyone figured out the piece limit on entire parks?

Any thoughts or guesses on the next DLC?

Playing PC2 (or any recent Frontier theme park/zoo game) has been a learning curve. PC2 for me I am a huge fan of the water parks and am finding those are more forgiving. I am so used to the RCT3 building mechanics that the transfer to PC2 is a lot.

10 hours ago, citytrader said:

Slow and steady wins the race!

Wagi, Rather than hunting for videos, I downloaded a few of the featured parks or a couple of parks from known parties, and then started taking them apart piece by piece. I also downloaded some beautiful structures just to see how they are put together. Same with pathing. I have zero interest in pools or the electrical stuff, so haven't bothered with them at all.

I get a little worried when I see a small Main Street type building composed of over 3000 pieces. How many is too many? Has anyone figured out the piece limit on entire parks?

Any thoughts or guesses on the next DLC?

Great idea! Of course I should probably stick to simpler structures and not download some huge Bavarian Castle, huh? LOL!

I have no idea on the piece count question, but yeah, some of those Workshop finds are pretty hefty. Gorgeous, but if you can only have two of them before lag kicks in...

Rudi came up with some great suggested DLC's, but I'm not sure Frontier is listening...

There's so many things that are missing that could contribute so much to the game. His suggested Main Street Pack would be fantastic, but I'm already seeing some decent looking Main Street-style things using what we have... Adventure would be one I'd go for...if they bring back proper Jungle Cruise-type boats without water channels, and add a lot of animatronics. Hotels would be a nice returning feature. His idea for floats is nice, but not sure Frontier would go that far. I loved his idea for a Barn Pack with animated animals. As he suggested, they could release DLC along with bringing back some of the PC1 themes, possible as part of updates.

But to be honest I'd be happy even to see them go back and fix some of the poor textures they used on some things and add in the pieces that were missing...little tweaks that would take the game up a notch towards where it rightfully should be.

5 hours ago, Cody said:

Playing PC2 (or any recent Frontier theme park/zoo game) has been a learning curve. PC2 for me I am a huge fan of the water parks and am finding those are more forgiving. I am so used to the RCT3 building mechanics that the transfer to PC2 is a lot.

Oh jeez, I remember how going from RCT3 to PC1 was...PC2 would even be harder!

In fact I didn't jump on the Planet Coaster bandwagon right away back then either, but stuck around finishing RCT3 projects first, which was good as some of the kinks were worked out by the time I took it up

Its really not that bad of a learning curve. Best way is jump in and play around. If there is something specific....just ask this group as I'm sure we will all help.

7 hours ago, Wabigbear said:

Oh jeez, I remember how going from RCT3 to PC1 was...PC2 would even be harder!

In fact I didn't jump on the Planet Coaster bandwagon right away back then either, but stuck around finishing RCT3 projects first, which was good as some of the kinks were worked out by the time I took it up

4 hours ago, Wowman said:

Its really not that bad of a learning curve. Best way is jump in and play around. If there is something specific....just ask this group as I'm sure we will all help.

You both are great at PC/PC2/PZ (lots of letters). Yeah, that is a huge jump, and my projects are ongoing over in the RCT3 realm.

Aside from a lot of missing content that I'm hoping will return, PC2 is a joy to work with compared to PC1. Well, not exactly a joy, as it still has a lot of annoyances. There's a bit of a learning curve, especially with path building, but once you get the hang of it and learn some tricks, I think you will appreciate all the changes they've made. I love the way that paths are now basically building "pieces" and can be moved around, edited, lifted up and down and placed wherever you want, just like any other object. The scaling makes all the difference when creating complex objects and buildings, making it so much more versatile than PC1. I won't get into the negatives here, but suffice to say, for everything that is good in this game, there is something else that sucks or is broken. But at the end of the day, I much prefer building in PC2 and every time I go back to work on an old PC1 park, I feel so limited in what I can do.

Edited February 1Feb 1 by shyguy

I'm not a very good park builder or have put that many hours into PlanCo2 but I really do like how you build in it.. I picture it more as like a Lego set where you get different small pieces and put them together to make anything you'd like. The scale feature is VERY strong and useful so I highly recommend you play around with it!

It definitely takes some getting used to but like others have said, once you do get used to it, you can really build anything you'd like. I'm sure we'll see more theme packs and additions in the future as well. I've tried building things but I'm super slow in it since I'm not that used to it.. would like to do a park project one day in PlanCo2 instead of a pyro show though! Maybe some day 😅

I've been playing the game for years and I'm super slow...so experience isn't a factor in that.

What did they do to the Workshop??? 😕

I just started getting used to the Frontier Workshop - which is really bad compared to Steam - when now they moved everything to the PC2 page and re-did the Workshop, supposedly as an 'improvement'. However when I went to look for something today, from the filters I selected 'blueprint', theme was 'mythology', and I was looking for facades and different sizes of structures...

What I get are flume rides, Main Street buildings, park files, and flat rides - none of which were mythology... So the filters seem worthless at the moment.

Is there a secret to finding anything in the Workshop, or do we just have to wade through hundreds of things we don't need to maybe find something we might use? LOL!

Edited March 1Mar 1 by Wabigbear

The Workshop's search engine is a complete joke. I checked out the web version but still prefer connecting through the game. But both versions are bad. I've yet to understand how it comes up with the results it does when you do a search. Yes, it will display every blueprint that contains any word or combination of words that you enter in the search field. When looking up "fire hydrant" you'll get anything that contains the word fire, or anything associated with the word, like dragons...even if "fire" is not in the title. And you'll also get about a hundred more blueprints not remotely close or containing either word.

Also, searching by "rating" doesn't result in the top rated blueprints to be listed first. You'll get 3 star objects, then some 4 star objects, then more 3 star objects, etc. How does Frontier mess up nearly everything they do? And then don't fix these things?

Damn it. Now you've got me ranting again!

Well, it's comforting to at least know that it isn't just ME...this time anyways.

I'll see if connecting through the game is any better, as I usually go through the web version.

The issue about the themed tag is that they are automatically added once you use one piece of the set. Like you use a wooden beam from the western boom western tag even if you're doing .
You need to manually uncheck them and a lot of people don't (or do the opposite and check every box to have their thing have "more chance" to show)

Even as someone who doesnt use the workshop to find blueprint at 99% even when I do check , I often give up and do the thing myself

@Wabigbear I just read your review on Steam and you really hit the nail on the head, and much more concisely than all of my abandoned review attempts have been.

But the main point you made (and I hope it hurts them to see it) is that THIS is NOT the same team that gave us PC1 (and the first couple years of PZ). This week out of Frontier frustration I started finally getting into Skylines 2, where the entire dev team was fired and replaced at the end of last year and the game is already better for it. I hate to wish unemployment on anyone, but if I was this bad at my own job I would expect to get canned as well.

The next update announcement (which seriously needs to be any day now) will be very telling as to the future of PC2. I really want it to succeed but I have less hope for that every time I load the game up.

Thanks JPTV. I was really torn between recommending the game to others, or not. I choose to recommend, but only while pointing out the faults. I DO think there are things in PC2 that are great and excellent improvements to PC1, but dealing with the faults in the game can just make some of us frustrated. Not everyone, of course, some people really enjoy the game and sing it's praises, and I can understand that. But different people play in different ways and have different expectations. I see what some people can do in the game, and their work is impressive. But not everyone can pick up the game and expect to get similar results, especially with the many things that frustrate people.

I know PC1 had it's own problems early on, and there were things in it that frustrated many of us to this day. But it's just a fact that the way Frontier handled the early days of PC1 has no resemblance to how they are handling the early days of PC2. The team working on PZ1 seemed to maintain a certain degree of connection with the community and far better attention to details and game play. I started really noticing the difference after Frontier brought out the Theme Makers Tool Kit Editor to great fanfare...and then promptly walked away from actually supporting it. It took almost three weeks last year to get someone from Frontier to take a look at it when it quite working. That's the attitude that I find concerning.

I still have that sliver of hope that they'll turn things around, but as you said, the next update will be telling