Planet Coaster 2 may have endured some ups and downs when it launched back in October, but Frontier Developments' post-release support for its theme-park building sequel has been as steady as a lazy river. January brought improved flume simulation to the sequel's all-new waterslides, while February added video billboards players can create their own custom adverts for. Now, Frontier has unveiled its roadmap for the next few updates landing over the spring, and there are some substantial new features being added to the management sim in the coming months.
The most imminent update, which lands later this month, adds even more flexibility to flume construction. Update 3 increases the variety of movement of guests and rafts on special flume pieces, improves the appearance of guests jettisoning off flumes, and adds "inflatable deformation", so rafts will bend and squash in a believable manner as they whizz around a slide. On top of this, it also adds "round-bottomed flumes", a phrase which instantly caused a certain, similarly-named Queen song to start playing in my head, like activating a sleeper agent obsessed with seventies glam rock.
April's update 4, meanwhile, brings a whole new feature to Planet Coaster 2—in-park restaurants. Players will be able to build restaurants in their park to sit alongside the smaller food stalls, which will "satisfy multiple guests' needs and tolerances". The description is somewhat vague, but since visitors buy food and drink separately from stalls, it's possible eating in a restaurant means they can get both at the same time, which would provide the mechanical impetus to construct a more complex eating establishment.
This isn't everything the updates will add. Both patches will bring new rides to Planet Coaster 2. Alongside a bevy of stock coasters, update 3 will let players build the Vector inverting suspended rollercoaster, while update 4 will add an as-yet unrevealed ride alongside its restaurants. Update 3 also heralds the return of the 'Western' park theme from the dusty plains of obscurity, letting you build a rootin', tootin', coaster shootin' park just as you could in the original Planet Coaster. Both updates will also make "ongoing" enhancements to performance, stability, economy management, alongside more specific parts of the simulation like ride attendants.
There's a video featuring Frontier devs talking through the roadmap and update 3 that you can view above. April doesn't represent the end of support for Planet Coaster 2, with further, unspecified changes and additions coming in May. For now, though, you can expect update 3 to land on March 20.
