Planet Coaster

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To start ‪#‎GamesCom2016‬ tomorrow in the most awesome way possible, we are extremely happy to announce that the official release date for Planet Coaster is November 17, 2016!

This slightly worries me going from Alpha to Gold in 3 months. Hopefully they haven't rushed it :(
 
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Hopefully this means the stuff being shown this week will include the management side of the game, something thats extremely important, right now its purely sandbox mode and this period of "lets make beautiful complex parks" hasnt been challenged by practicality of spending park funds on hedges and theming, rather than on a new coaster. Of having a policy of guests pay for their hats, their burgers, their entry fee or ride fee etc.
Its a sim where money doesnt exist and everything comes free and unlimited.

Seems possible that with the steam pre-order starting next week that this could well be when an Elite style price-bump happens. They bumped that price up to full retail rather than a discounted price, and we know they're doing a discounted price now, but we dont know whether them listing on Steam will continue a preorder discount as many titles do, or if it'll go up a nudge (ie 10% off, if its currently 25% off) anyway.

- yup, looks like it is (links wont be there cos its a C&P).

Hello coaster creators!

As we prepare to move to the next phase of development, Alpha 3, we have some important news concerning the Steam Store.

A quick recap: on August 23, 2016, the Planet Coaster Alpha 3 will officially be released. As of Alpha 3, Planet Coaster will require Steam to run, meaning you need a (free) Steam account to be able to play the game.

On August 25, 2016, Alpha will be closing to new players; current players or those who upgrade before this date will be able to play all the way through to Beta and release.

As of August 25, the following products will be removed from the Frontier Store:

• Planet Coaster: Early Bird Alpha Edition
• Planet Coaster: Coaster Head Edition
• Planet Coaster: Deluxe Edition
• Planet Coaster: Early Bird Upgrade
• Coaster Head Club Upgrade
• Planet Coaster In-game VIP Single Ticket
• Planet Coaster In-game VIP Group Ticket
• Planet Coaster In-game VIP Staff Pass
• Planet Coaster Foundation Stone

The Frontier and Steam store will then have the following products available until release:

Planet Coaster £26.99/€33.99/$40.99
Planet Coaster: Thrillseeker Edition £29.99/€37.99/$44.99 – this version includes an in-game Golden Hat for your avatar, a Gold King Coaster mascot, a digital sketchbook, the Planet Coaster Official Soundtrack and access to the Planet Coaster beta.



Please note that these new editions do NOT give you access to Alpha and this can only be purchased by getting the Early Bird edition of the game before 25 August.

Anyone who has already purchased a pre-order of Planet Coaster will be given ALL the extras of the Thrillseeker Edition including Beta access, as a thank you for your continued support and feedback during the development of Planet Coaster. So with the current lower price of pre-order until the 25 August it’s the perfect time to pre-order or join the other Early Birds in Alpha now.

Please see the general Steam FAQ here.

-- Edit --

The ability to buy access to the Alpha ends on the 25th
Game only goes from £19.99 to £26.99 (Launch price is £29.99)
Game + Soundtrack, Digi Sketchbook etc and beta access (Beta date & duration unknown)

'Upon the release of Planet Coaster all pre-order customers will be granted a Steam Key which can be redeemed for game access via the Steam client'

Cleans up a chunk of what i was saying. So until the 25th you can pre-order for £20 rather than £27 before release or £30 upon release.
I know we have NMS fresh in the news as a stark reminder of the risk of preordering titles, however the difference with this and many other games is seeing legitimate content and hearing hands on thoughts beforehand from regular players not reviewers, and certainly no blind release etc.
If you're preordering and have a change of heart, you can still cancel upto release. See what this weeks announcements and content shows off, theres still a week before the first price bump.

edit #2 - Seems that reading through their forum comments, its clarified that pre-orders made via the frontier store will get a key for the Thrillseeker Edition (Game + Beta + Soundtrack etc), and i'd assume those with extra perks (VIP, Early Bird etc) will get keys like DLC would in order to access any additional content. So that £19.99 version (here) gets you the £29.99 version, if done before the 25th. After the 25th, the only 2 purchases possible will be the basic game (£27) or Thrillseeker (£30) as offered on Steam.
 
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Theres a couple of new short videos on their YT channel if anyones interested, i presume their earlier livestream will be uploaded in full too.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzpQvNnyoKgpu0lJdeXbFmQ/videos

Nothing hugely significant, but a couple of highlights being the ability to remove supports on tracks and bridges, remove the ride entrance 'gate' so it can be themed directly without having things forced upon you, and the colour adjustments to assets.

I kinda expected they'd do a range of simple walls will swappable materials, a few brick colours, wood styles, plaster, plastic, metal etc, but this is just changing the colours of pre-set areas of an asset.
This means you can change the colour of a building easily, but if it included textures then it could change the style beyond just colour, their way means if you wanted to swap brick for wood, you'd need to remove existing blocks and replace them, all of them.

Theres another stream from 3pm but i think its more of a community thing, showcasing what others have built with Alpha 2 etc.

It also appears as though Alpha 3 has the economic simulation in there, im assuming they'll talk about it during the full stream, ive only seen it present in screenshots so far.

In fact, i'll quote someones reddit post...

Things announced (from memory so might be missing some):
- Revamped coaster pieces
- More coaster pieces
- Coaster "handles" to help select track
- Recoloring of track
- Smooth algorithm improvements and smooth all/smooth banking separation
- Remove supports
- Remove entrance archway
- Paths can lock to building grids
- Blueprint functionality and pre-built buildings
- Fairytale theme
- New locale - desert
- Water
- Recolor scenery and walls

Things noticed (but not officially announced)
- New coaster types - looked like some RMC track and definitely Eurofighter track
- A few new flat rides shown
- Money and ride stats in game
 
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Seems even the brick pieces theres the ability to tweak 4 (iirc) colours, so if you wanted a darker red brick you could do that. It didnt seem to do direct colour, so if you picked blue the brick was tinted blue, rather than being solid blue, which is probably better. Would be nice to change materials, but i suppose theres so many unique blocks you'd only really be able to make material changes on a few simple pieces and not the ones themed anyway.

Apparently tomorrows livestream at 11am will talk about the management side, thats the big one for me, as much as i love just how much creative influence you have and the realism and variety of the park elements, management is the foundation of the game, without that its a sandbox. Im not sure it makes for a particularly exciting stream with things to show off compared to building and showcasing new rides and whatnot, but its important.

Todays streams should be uploaded at some point tonight, apparently.
 
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Hopefully this means the stuff being shown this week will include the management side of the game, something thats extremely important, right now its purely sandbox mode and this period of "lets make beautiful complex parks" hasnt been challenged by practicality of spending park funds on hedges and theming, rather than on a new coaster. Of having a policy of guests pay for their hats, their burgers, their entry fee or ride fee etc.
Its a sim where money doesnt exist and everything comes free and unlimited.

Seems possible that with the steam pre-order starting next week that this could well be when an Elite style price-bump happens. They bumped that price up to full retail rather than a discounted price, and we know they're doing a discounted price now, but we dont know whether them listing on Steam will continue a preorder discount as many titles do, or if it'll go up a nudge (ie 10% off, if its currently 25% off) anyway.

- yup, looks like it is (links wont be there cos its a C&P).



-- Edit --

The ability to buy access to the Alpha ends on the 25th
Game only goes from £19.99 to £26.99 (Launch price is £29.99)
Game + Soundtrack, Digi Sketchbook etc and beta access (Beta date & duration unknown)

'Upon the release of Planet Coaster all pre-order customers will be granted a Steam Key which can be redeemed for game access via the Steam client'

Cleans up a chunk of what i was saying. So until the 25th you can pre-order for £20 rather than £27 before release or £30 upon release.
I know we have NMS fresh in the news as a stark reminder of the risk of preordering titles, however the difference with this and many other games is seeing legitimate content and hearing hands on thoughts beforehand from regular players not reviewers, and certainly no blind release etc.
If you're preordering and have a change of heart, you can still cancel upto release. See what this weeks announcements and content shows off, theres still a week before the first price bump.

edit #2 - Seems that reading through their forum comments, its clarified that pre-orders made via the frontier store will get a key for the Thrillseeker Edition (Game + Beta + Soundtrack etc), and i'd assume those with extra perks (VIP, Early Bird etc) will get keys like DLC would in order to access any additional content. So that £19.99 version (here) gets you the £29.99 version, if done before the 25th. After the 25th, the only 2 purchases possible will be the basic game (£27) or Thrillseeker (£30) as offered on Steam.
Thanks for the heads up. Can't argue with £19.99 :cool:
 

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ok absolutely baffled here,


I want to buy the game plus have alpha/beta access is it the £30 or the £50 package I would need?
 
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£20 for the full game, and a few extras like soundtrack & beta access, i'd say is fantastic value if its a genre you're into.

Not sure if you're saying the £50 is too much (it is, especially as 2/3 of that price has less than 3 of 9mo worth of access left), or £20 is and its just that thats where your interest level is at for a coaster management game, but it'll be £27 next week and £30 at release, and even with discount sales it'll be a while till its even 50% off (£15), maybe after a year?

For a new release, £20 is pretty cheap when a known studio is making the game, especially when it looks as good as this does.
 
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I really like the old tycoon games but not really feeling it with this at the moment, not tried it but going on videos etc just a bit unsure, almost certainly going to be great though.
 
Soldato
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Looking forward to seeing the full release of this!

The ability to make items and upload them to the Steam Workshop with ease looks great!

 
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So hyped for this!

But as I said in a earlier post, will be seriously peeved if I can't build dark rides.

What makes/made you think you wouldn't be able to? :confused:

Here's an example (or two) that people already made (and there are lots of others).


There is so much customisation in this game, you can pretty much do whatever you want.
 
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