Planet Coaster 2’s New Ride Customization And Park Management Features Explained

Highlights

• Planet Coaster 2 introduces water parks with pools and slides, along with new park management systems and ride customization options.
• Players must keep pools clean and ensure rides have power in Planet Coaster 2, which offers a variety of ways to customize rides and flumes.
• New park management systems in Planet Coaster 2, such as power generators and water systems, focus on keeping guests happy and showcasing their emotions.

While the original Planet Coaster dipped its toe into water rides like the Log Flume and River Rapids, Planet Coaster 2 brings fully-fledged water parks to players for the first time with pools, slides, and more. It’s an exciting prospect that also brings various new park management systems and ride customization options to the Planet Coaster franchise. Not only will players have to keep their pools clean as part of a new water system, but they must also ensure their rides have power. There are also a bunch of new ways for players to customize their rides in Planet Coaster 2, including flumes, which looks set to expand the level of creativity that the franchise is known for even further.

Following attending a Planet Coaster 2 preview event, Game Rant recently sat down with Game Director Richard Newbold and Senior Executive Producer Adam Woods to learn more about the new ride customization options and park management systems. The latter is also important for guests’ emotions, something that sounds like it will be rather different.

Planet Coaster 2’s Pool And Ride Customization Options

One new customization feature in Planet Coaster 2 is the pool construction tool to create classic and custom pool shapes. Woods talked about how geometric shapes are ideal for newcomers and for putting down shapes quickly before moving on to advanced tools. It certainly sounds like pools will give players creative freedom and, as Woods said, to “build a water park they want to see.”

There are also many different flume types, including raft, body, and inner-tube flumes. Newbold also explained that flume construction in Planet Coaster 2 is “piece by piece” and just like coaster building in Planet Coaster. That means choosing flume design features like angles, curves, transparency, colors, and patterns.

Decorating flumes with patterns also extends to Planet Coaster 2‘s coaster building, wherein players can add various patterns to their rides and even attach scenery to them. For instance, players could add a moving, animatronic scenery piece to the center of a teacup ride, or patterns to coaster carts, as just two examples. Of all the exciting features coming to Planet Coaster 2, Newbold added he is most excited to see the potential of what the community will create with the new ride customization options like Planet Coaster‘s scenery.

Planet Coaster 2’s New Park Management Systems And Guest Emotion Features

Newbold and Woods also spoke more about Planet Coaster 2‘s new power system, which is necessary to ensure rides have power and to keep them open. Newbold explained this means having power generators and ensuring distributors are placed in the correct places. There is also the water system, which is all about keeping pools clean to keep guests happy, something Newbold added is “core” to the Planet Coaster 2 experience alongside authenticity. These priorities are also evident with the new ways for players to see their guests’ emotions, which sounds like it has the potential to introduce even more realistic NPCs:

“We wanted to have the guests be kind of a representation of how well your parks are being run. Of giving you that feedback of, ‘I need more toilets in this area because I can see that in the behaviors that they’re showing.’ In
Planet Coaster 2
, that’s what it’s about. It’s about the guests showing you that feedback.”

It also sounds like there is even more for players to look forward to when it comes to park building in Planet Coaster 2, with Newbold also revealing that Frontier will be talking more about more management features “in the next few months.”

Planet Coaster 2 is due for release in Fall 2024.