Fully agree Majorvex. Silence to the situation is probably more detrimental at this point. They need to at least drop a line out there stating where things are at this point. If there is plans to keep it going they will need new players to keep joining the game or there won’t be funds or people to even make those plans happen. I had not looked at steam discussions as I get most of my info here. Sounds like they need to step up all around.
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Leaving out commentary on the state of the game (EDIT: I didn’t leave it out lol), I’d like to drop a reminder about what happened at the beginning when player count was peaking… This is not my opinion, but the pure fact of why those numbers were not sustained. I will throw a hyperbolic estimate in here though that you’re all free to argue but I do so to drive home the point that this FACT caused a mass player exodus.
THERE WAS NO FREE SANCTUM WARP HOME FOR MONTHS AFTER RELEASE
Please understand the implications of this reality. I rarely left Sorissi so this didn’t affect me enough to make me quit. Hundreds, if not thousands, of players joined this game with no knowledge of player-made infrastructure. My group of about 15 people were only aware of Portal Seekers and their Biitula hub. We didn’t know what hubs were. None of us had portals or knew how to make them.
All we “knew” was that if you wanted to mine the good stuff, you HAD to go from Sorissi’s PS portal, to some other world where the portal link was in the sky so we literally didn’t know it was a normal planet, then WAIT for upwards of 30 minutes to get onto Biitula when the player count on world dropped from 60 to 59 and you were lucky enough to get through before one of the hundreds of other players trying to get on from other worlds, then randomly follow their network we didn’t understand until we got to a higher level world. Once there, if you didn’t save a location token for the portal, good luck getting home.
I spent about an hour on more than one occasion trying to get back to the PS portal, where I’d then have to wait another 15 minutes to get back onto Biitula… and oh yea- the game used to log you out after 15 minutes idle. People would be logged out waiting for a spot to open up, then never turn the game on again… Source: One of the guys in my group rage quit over this, claiming he was waiting for over an hour and got logged out three times.
We didn’t understand warps/augments very well. We were all under level 50 because nobody was feeding us xp and we didn’t know the best ways to earn xp or money. I didn’t know aoe was a thing for at least 3 months. Even if we had enough skill points, we didn’t know that the portal/warp skill would help us get home. Hell- we rarely had the COINS necessary to warp to other planets if we even did understand all that.
The infrastructure was abysmal at launch. It didn’t deserve 1200 concurrent steam players (which btw has been empirically less than half the number of Playstation players, as we PS4/5 players are able to identify each other by online ID and in those times were about 2/3 of players I’d see on non-PS4 worlds and like 99% on PS4 worlds), as it could not physically handle that number. You can’t expect any other outcome than mass exodus and deletion. Look at overhyped online games nowadays- remember Fall Guys release? I probably spent 5 total hours in that game and close to 2 of those hours were spent waiting. I will never play it again.
Sure, a good amount of people left for plenty of other reasons. Clearly by how much I’m saying my group didn’t understand anything, that was an issue too. We all know the valid reasons people quit, between grind, drama, lack of competition, too much competition, lack of challenge, too much ch… point is, these things are expected to cause flux. The game spits out players who aren’t up for the relative niche, but it isn’t so niche that the gameplay itself would cause that kind of drop in playerbase. It was the infrastructure.
Now that’s it’s fixed, I even believe that the difficulty retaining new players is still partly a ripple effect from those times. The mass exodus knocked over multiple dominoes that continue to fall, like dead/empty beacons ruining an area. Think about how many lifeless beacons you see now, and imagine what is was like when there were thousands of them. If anyone quit as a result, their beacons joined the ranks of the lifeless, and the loop continued. It’s like a ‘6 degrees of separation’ thing but with players who quit. So my crazy estimate- at least 600 of those 1200 peak concurrent players quit as a direct result of the server infrastructure issues, with more following as a result of those players quitting.
Does this help at all with our current situation? Maybe not on the surface but it’s an important perspective to consider when looking back on what went wrong in the first place. We can see that every single player who joins the game leaves a footprint, often to the detriment of the game and its established players.
This supports my theory that slow growth is key and advertising should be extremely strategic and should ensure prospective players know what the game is truly about. Don’t advertise to the general masses of survival fans who expect something like Ark or Valheim and are disappointed by the weak combat system, but to Animal Crossing type fans who want more. And for the love of god make a new trailer!
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Nice theory, but every new player goes through exactly what you described. A long time of not knowing that the world is much bigger than they realize. There is no tutorial explaining much in the beginning and I only stuck with it because my friend did.
The NPE (new player experience) sucks. I have talked with way too many new players including recently that have said they were so lost for so long… one person played the game about 2 years ago and gave up then decided to try it out again.
So I can only imagine how launch was for new players… couldn’t connect… if you could…you were lost and didn’t know what to do … etc. etc.
I don’t mean to sound negative … as I do enjoy the game made it to a fun hunt tonight on Valhalla, helping with a new DK Mall hub… new shops going up … and so on. I think there are a lot of things that would have to change in order to help the current situation… but who knows.
On the niche comment I made, go look at some of the games that are close to Boundless and look at their Steam stats. While there are quite a few that has done better than Boundless when you compare them to other games in other genres it pales in comparison. I can give you a couple… Creativerse (highest max Steam players 10000, current avg 350) and Craftopia (highest max Steam players 3500, current avg 3200).
There are a few other games you could include but I don’t know that I would classify them in the same genre like 7 Days, No Mans Sky, or Rust. All of which have a considerably larger playerbase.
Needless to say the game needs some further development to address some of the small issues, but a larger issue is I don’t think the game could even handle 15,000 - 25,000+ players.
So, I will continue to play the game in it’s current state until it is no longer available to play. I will continue to manage DK Mall the best I can in order to help more players and I will continue to seek out new players and try and help them. It’s the least I can do for a game and community I love.
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Oh come on, I didn’t have any trouble. All you have to do is read through a bunch of the wikia wiki, a couple dozen forum posts, and make sure you actually land near an existing hub that connects somewhere important, and it’s easy going from there. Who are these lazy players not doing 5 hours of research before starting up the game?
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In the game’s defense… my 11 yr old figured it out 
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I think all of what you said here could help… in selling Sony on giving Boundless a chance on Spartacus. Sony originally was very sold on the idea of Boundless; from this -
This quote -
While it will always be a niche game, the game didn’t get an ad push that could have - factoring losing players - to get it to where the ones that stuck could be a sustainable base, and also, all the factors you mention show that it is in a much better state to retain players than it was at launch (though the NPE does need work still).
The beauty of putting it on Spartacus: My feeling is that you really wouldn’t want a big ad push if it goes on there, that could potentially overwhelm it. If Spartacus can get to a few million subs at least in the opening months, just doing a conservative estimate of how many might give it a try and then stick with it might well put us in the sweet spot, not overwhelm the servers but steady base higher than anything we’ve seen. Yep, we’ll lose a lot, but that is fine if you have even half a percent of millions of players deciding to check it out. Benefits Sony too, to have an offering like this on there for the reasons they themselves mention - it is unique, they have nothing quite like it. They NEED stuff like that on there if they’re going to compete with Game Pass, which is why I think it would be to their benefit to give Turbulenz a good deal, pick up server costs, maybe even front them a bit more to get some staff to work on it in preparation for a try (they would HAVE to get the PR turned around here too if they wanted to try this)… for a big company like that, not a risky gamble, doesn’t work out, they remove it, they won’t lose much (for them). Sony more than anything needs to have a big offering for Spartacus when it launches, with both a wide array of genres and some unique choices, otherwise it could bomb… that would be their motivation to give devs like this one good deals to get things on there, because a bunch of (to them) small investments like that can potentially add up and make the overall package a lot more appealing to potential subscribers (who probably aren’t going to research the offerings too deeply mostly, just going to want to see things that are intriguing at a short browse).
Sorry to rant on this again, I know I said I’d step out of the conversation here, but I just see this as such a potential way to get Boundless to thrive… 
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I know this isn’t a wishlist post, so I apologize if this is off topic…but…
I honestly didn’t care about swords and shields, unless they could be displayed as deco. What I really wanted from the PTS version is the ability to use ALL of my skill points on ALL of my skill pages. I’ve heard it said that the update has to be all or nothing, that we can’t be given just parts of it. I’m definitely no programmer, so I’m sure theres a valid reason there, but its still a bummer 
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@Xaldafax while I agree with you that some of the comments are reaching, I do think potential new players deserve to know the accurate state of the game: the devs are on a multi year hiatus at best. New releases are on hold. Major bugs do get fixed, which is good.
I think the forum comments and threads mostly fairly reflect this reality. I think all humans on the internet take forum rant posts and know how to interpret them on their own without guidance. People are pretty smart, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Hi @majorvex 
u
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Nah, you’re good 
I am really looking forward to the melee weapons, personally.
I am also looking forward to the new combined skill sheet (this is one reason I’ve held off on making any new videos.)
I think any additional weapons/creatures are great for a game like this.The melee weapons might be popular with the more casual players & new players. It will give forgers & crafters more things to create, which will create a larger demand for crafting supplies from hunters/casuals/noobs. More creatures are badly needed at this point though.
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Me like Boundless too!
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Im personally pleased To see even @philelliott responding… He doesnt have to but he does.
All the Best To the future Phil!
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This, + compact oort.
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Came back to check in on the status of the game, shame such a good community it deserves a better dev team who truly cares about its future. I wish you all well kind of glad we left now but the writing was on the wall with this one.
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I never would ever defend people blocking new users or anyone from knowing the state of the game. I want to be clear on that if there was some confusion. I’ve just suggested other ways of communicating that viewpoint since there are those that seem to prefer to attack and denigrate at times in their posts. Even over stating things in a negative connotation sometimes.
I would push back the same on those that might try to act like nothing is wrong with the game’s status. Yet, there are really none of those people at least speaking out. Everyone knows that dangerous state the game is in and even the possible highly unlikely ability to recover.
Somehow, though, there is a group that can just enjoy the game for what it is and if anything they are more likely able to give new players enjoyment. They prefer to enjoy what we do have instead of constantly beating down on it trying to make it look even worse… We’ve lost so many good players because of past/current decisions by the Devs and the challenge around their communication style along with some community issues. I just don’t want to see other possible new people never give Boundless a chance and the small community that is still supporting the game. At least give them correct information from BOTH sides and allow them to decide. Saying James doesn’t care about the game and is letting it fail - without any type of proof - isn’t correct information. There are plenty of other posts in that fashion about dead/abandoned, etc…
I don’t see anywhere that I state people aren’t smart enough or need “my guidance.” But, we’ve seen people never give Boundless a chance because some person felt they would over state that Boundless is “dead.” So likely that person should be a bit more concern than my requests for a better communication style… In my view, asking for balanced information is much less an issue than those that say the game is dead and Devs don’t care even though, like you said, they seem to be fixing the bugs at least.
Either way hopefully we get some type of response or movement, but like you said, it isn’t probably going to be for a long time…
We all are.
The question is “when?”
Is it for 2022? 2023? Never? The worst is that we can’t tell and all options are on the table.
Some of us assume we’ll get these updates when “Larian Guildford” will be done with Baldur’s Gate 3… but it’s also very possible that when they’ll be done with BG3, they could start working on additional content for it, or they could simply move on to another project entirely, leaving Boundless behind.
Interestingly enough, a new project could mean there’d be lessons learned from how things went with Boundless.
What would these be? Maybe a different approach to marketing and communication?
Or you know… no lessons, and they do the exact same thing… which is also an option on the table.
I’m still around here because I still have some amount of hope… but definitely, I won’t hang out forever if James keeps ghosting us for all of 2022, which I think only a mad man would defend, then.
This is the year where he needs to come back.
I ask you all this:
What is your limit with Boundless? When do you think waiting won’t be an option anymore?
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So long as I’m enjoying playing the game, and the servers are still up, I’ll continue to play the game. As much as I do want to see more content added, I think the game is still fun for me as it is.
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Many people including myself don’t look at it like a waiting game. We aren’t waiting on the update. It may or may not come who knows but we could spend all our time on the forums complaining about it, or talking about it, or waiting for it or just play the game.
Don’t get me wrong though I’d love regular updates, but lets be honest it’s not looking good. At this point I have written off any updates until proven wrong and I do hope I’m wrong.
The game is fun as it is until it isn’t and everyone is different in that aspect and the amount of time it takes until boredom sets in. I’d even say there are quite a number of us that won’t ever get bored, but only time will tell.
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To this point, spending on Bitcoin is a far more better choice for me.
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Have you heard about NFTs, then? It’s the future of gaming! Or at least, that’s what the CEO of Square Enix says.
Come one sheeple, it’s time to “play to contribute”! 
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Well, related more to the other thread, but that would be the one 100% Paka-out-the-door move, if they added NFTs.
Hopefully that statement didn’t make them just want to add them… 
But as far as my money spent in this game goes, I see it as a combo entertainment money/something nice for a community I love. I don’t expect anything back from it but enjoyment, and the occasional bonus of good feelings I get from nice feedback from my felllow Citizens.
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