A word about "balance"

General
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The new patch includes some balance changes. as @james said, there are currently no nerfs being tested. This is something I am glad he pointed out, and I think the community needed. A good 'ol round of buffs!

Everyone is pretty happy with the current testing patch notes.

So, when the next patch comes, and it has a nerf… just remember, it is all about “balance”. It is not an IF it is a WHEN the nerfs come. They will. Why? Because we are a creative community who finds ways around things the devs never intended. It must be an infuriating mix of wonder and awe at our tenacity as players to them.

It has been that way ever since online MMO’s were games. Even after official release, patch notes are always full of nerfs/buffs.

In Everquest, Fippy Darkpaw’s rare drop was dropping a bit too often, flooding the market with repeatable quest gold. had to be nerfed.

In World of Warcraft the casting time of a self heal, allowed players to be almost un-killable, and had to be nerfed.

In Boundless, bomb mining turned out to be an almost too lucrative gem farming tool, and had to be nerfed.

In Starcraft 2, the crafting cost of a unit was too cheap, allowing Zerg rush to be almost unstoppable.

Balance is a double edged sword that happens well after a games release in EVERY online game ever made.

So remember this feeling of happiness for all the buffs coming that you are feeling right now. As it adds to balance. And perhaps when the next nerf comes, be happy for it! As it is just the devs way of creating a world of balance.

(This post is not meant to start fights, or open up old wounds. It is merely timed to capitalize on the current reactions to the testing patch notes. Mainly the round of high-fives going on that should happen every patch, regardless of it being a nerf or buff.)

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They haven’t confirmed that they’re gonna nerf footfall, but they’re looking at ways to nerf footfall. I’ll be surprised if they don’t nerf footfall. The argument is that footfall has always been coded wrong, 24 days instead of 24 hours. But actual reality is that most of us were getting footfall roughly every 24 hours due to daily server crashes that we were not aware of. Or they may not squeeze that one into the next patch if they need more research.

Glad they diligently found the problem with our help. Not happy that it’s resulting in a nerf. Understandably, balance is a must with the economy, and maybe the nerf will be like a 10% and I’m all worked up over nothing (but with nerfs it’s usually go hard or go home so I doubt it).

Removing bomb mining was more of a war on fun because the servers couldn’t keep up. I never got to bomb mine and was looking forward to it. Dreamcrush Inc. Maybe 20m bombs shouldn’t have been a thing but as I said go hard or go home and just remove bomb mining completely.

Then they added wax to decorative blocks because decorative blocks were too OP and people were tired of the insane DPS they did. And they had to add spitter eyes to low-end forging because if n00bs had 3x1 copper shovels it would be bomb mining all over again. Why? Just why?

If it kills fun or adds meaningless grind it’s a nerf whether it adds balance or not. People literally quit playing over these things.

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Or how frost mages could freeze people over and over with no diminishing returns. Or rogues could stun lock you into oblivion. Then diminishing returns had to be implemented :joy:

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This right here is exactly how I feel. Too bad they’re going to take the easier route, because their team is so small.

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This is not true, the current hammer mining is way more over power than bomb mining in old patch lol

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This is not completely accurate.

Bomb mining wasn’t just effective as a means of mining (something they are looking into rebalancing) but the cost associated made it the only option.

Right now, my Diamond/Emerald Hammers can be forged to one hit (requires AOE forge and Damage forge), I can drink a speed potion and THEN I am on par with what bomb mining was.

Bomb mining was forging titanium bombs with one enchant to up their AOE and you are good to go.

If the bar is being set that hammer mining is the cost it should be to get the output we are currently getting, then bomb mining was woefully overpowered and underpriced. The cost to make bombs would need to increase, there would need to be some restriction to force gems bombs to be required and then something else added to equalize the speed potion/ str potion need that comes with hammer mining.

I think it can be done! And I don’t think they need to be exactly equal, but it is important to note they are different and bomb mining did need a nerf because of its cost/entry.

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They should make a new type of bomb called explosives whose sole purpose is mining. That way bombs can still be bombs.

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Totally untrue.

Totally untrue.

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Lots of people love to talk about how the nerftrain is/was the problem. But it’s not the nerf that’s the cause of it.

It’s that they were too aggressive about implemention of certain mechanics. Those things eventually lead to the nerftrain. I’m not blaming them nor calling them incompetent because balancing a sandbox game is extremely tough especially for a small development team. Quite frankly, I think they are as agile of a development team that I’ve seen in a while. How many games have we played where updates are being rolled out every 2-3 weeks? Not many.

Somtimes a more conservative approach can help them in some ways that the community doesn’t see. Use gold/silver tools or brews as an example. Both were underwhelming and they slowly improved both based on their analytics. It took 1-2 months to get it right but they did.

People like to talk about how game developers don’t listen to the community anymore when I think the opposite is more true than ever. Due to incessant trolls and forum warriors, some game developers may feel the pressure to succumb to community pressure by buffing this or nefing that in an effort boost player count. In doing so, they sacrifice the longevity of the game just to make players happy in the short term.

Honestly, I trust these developers more than I would trust some of the players. Some players suffer from tunnel vision and can’t be bothered to look outside of their own playstyle and understand what’s good for the game. Not just for themselves. They don’t always have a 10,000 foot view of the game whereas the devs too.

Just a thought.

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Yeah, I guess there are always big picture issues, but I’m more of a casual player so when I hear something that used to take an hour now takes three or something that was useful is now ‘meh’ I get annoyed. Couple streamers I like have also quit doing this game around the same time as the bomb nerf and I think they’d still be playing if that hadn’t been executed so extremely. Who knows, they may come back but I doubt it. And of the 7 friends I made early on, only 2 still play.

But it doesn’t sound like there are more nerfs on the table so if we can just make improvements moving forward there is still hope. I don’t play Minecraft or 7 Days To Die because there are no “real” servers, you just spawn in level 0 and naked every time you join a new game. Eager to see what happens with gold tools etc. even though I’m at the AoE hammer mining stage thanks to The Awkard Mining company :joy: I’m probably still weeks away from centraforge crafting my own gear. I just don’t want to see nerfs drive more people away (if that’s even what did it… this may have just not been the game for them).

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2llwc4

Don’t hold your breath. A nerftrain is always around the corner :slight_smile:

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I haven’t personally been effected by the major nerfs in Boundless–i didn’t even realize the xp gains from bomb mining until after the fact.

But I also played Ark over a year before official release and that game got nerfed into the ground. Repeatedly. Then beaten with a stick for good measure.
It was mostly bc of alpha tribes on official servers that engaged in PvP bc griefing was a huge thing. It was needed for PvP, but also trickled down into small private servers and single players. After The Great Flyer Nerf many ppl rage quit and I personally I had a battle Argy that hit like a nuke but flew away at the speed of smell so his hit and run tactics made him useless.
But then they added Griffins and all was well in the world.

So, yeah, I’ve been on the nerf train, and even though it doesn’t always end with a griffin, that doesn’t mean the end won’t be worth it. I’m gonna stick this one out. =)

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In other games, people be like “OMG why can’t I survive a point-blank double-barrel shotgun blast to the head? Plz nerf!” so then shotguns get balanced.