My nephew got Planet Coaster for the Xbox One and was bummed to run into what the game so fancily calls the Oswald-Eugene Counter. Basically, you can’t have too much stuff in your park because it’s too much for the game to process, so that counter is a hard cap how much you can build. But he has ridiculously few things in the park, and it’s basically just flat grass with mostly paths and less than a dozen rides. He even deleted some stuff and the counter didn’t go down, so he couldn’t re-place the stuff he deleted, which makes zero sense. I was looking for help online and came across comments from
@Rich T elsewhere on the internet which was neat, but the problem persists and he’s kind of given up on the game. Idk why I’m saying this here, partly just to vent, partly as a warning to anyone who might also be thinking of buying it, and partly hoping Rich T responds with a magic solution that fixes everything. I certainly won’t be getting the game myself and I was looking forward to it.
Hi, egg! Let me put it this way: I’m playing the game on XBox One (the least powerful console the game can run on.)
This is a park I recently finished— Hippo Lake:
Okay. This took me about a week. As you can see, I got the Oswald meter to 92% toward the end. At that point, I had all the rides I wanted, including four huge coasters, a Jungle River ride full of animatronic scenes, about 15 flat rides, tons of shops and restaurants, more animatronics all over the park, tons of audio including safety warnings, Jungle Boat narration and music loops, custom signage (I made the Hippo head entry and the Christmas Cows with the game’s built-in 3D modeling tools).
I felt satisfied and decided to just keep adding foliage until I maxed the meter out. Hundreds of trees and shrubs later, the meter hadn’t gone above 92%, and my park was finished. I could have added a log flume and another coaster, but I felt this park was complete. I had a great time building it and walking around inside it and going on all the rides.
And here’s what I love: Even with the finished park packed with guests & staff, the frame rate stayed silky smooth, making the first-person ride POVs a joy.
I’ve built four full parks now, and each time, I’ve never even seen the limit meter (I’ve set it to appear when I hit 85%) until I’m already feeling that I’m nearing completion.
So, what can I say? I don’t know what things your nephew did to max the meter out so quickly...except that there are a bunch of enormous pre-built coasters, buildings and dark rides included in the game as examples and if one were to place a lot of them at once, maybe that would do it; some of those examples have insane amounts of detail.
But, in my experience, if I just play the game as if I’m designing a real park, the meter isn’t a problem.
Consoles, by their nature, have limits. Frontier made sure the game maintains a smooth frame rate no matter which console it’s on. That means having the meter. I find I’ve got lots of room, and if I upgrade to the new XBox, apparently I’ll get 33% MORE space (and the game upgrade is free).
So, presently, I can’t build, say, a complete Cedar Point, but I can build Knott’s. And considering the amazing frame rate, I’m happy.
For players who want more room, there’s always the original PC edition, but that requires hefty graphics cards and, though it has no meter, has its own form of limit: on PCs, the frame rate drops as the park grows. I prefer the console version’s guaranteed frame rate inside the meter bubble; I think the tradeoff’s worth it.
That’s my take on a game I’ve been very happy with. Please let me know if you have any other questions or observations, and I do hope your nephew gives it another shot at some point!
(Edit: Just had to add this bit: Today, while building a new park, I spotted one of my security guards running like mad through the crowd, chasing a guest who was fleeing toward the park exit (it turned out she was a pickpocket). I tried to stop her, but she made it to the exit—and once out the gate, guests are beyond the player’s interference. But then she stopped, caught her breath and had the GALL to re-enter the park, gloating about her plans to pick more pockets. The moment she set foot in my park again, I alerted the guard. He apprehended her and the stolen goods were returned to their owners.
That’s what I love about Planet Coaster: wonderfully animated guest and staff interactions are happening constantly whether you happen to see them or not, and as a result the parks you build feel alive with an energy and charm I’ve never seen in any other building game.)
