Result of the last dev-issued backer survey
I wouldn´t call that noone 
:
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Dear Devs, and Boundless Online community,
Perhaps the problem we all face is this: there is a mixture of people using beacons to their advantage. I believe these two people cannot be looking at the beacon for an allround solution. Not the way it functions now. The people using beacons currently consist of two main playergroups (and some minor experimentalists):
- protecting the structures and buildings, which are necessary for the game to develop.
- claiming resources which is necessary for the player to develop.
I’d like to rather see these two different players get two different types of fuel to upkeep the beacons. Adding different beacon stats and characteristics to suit the needs of the player.
The field-type:
- is cheaper to construct,
- is smaller in size
- can (with proper training) be constructed on multiple locations
- is weaker, so it lasts about a day or two (does not allow fuel-stacking to pay in advance)
- still allows others to take actions inside it, giving them a time-delay that is significant
- is attackable with special siege equipment that allows other players to strip block by block
- it’s fuel is transferable to other players (using currency // blocks).
The barrier-type:
- is relatively expensive to construct, cheaper per block if they are larger
- can be huge relative to the field-type,
- is stronger, so it lasts about a month without fuel (allows fuel stacking to ‘pay in advance’)
- prevents the other player from deconstructing inside it
- is not attackable (unless fuel reaches 0), at fuel 0 it will become attackable with special siege equipment that allows players to strip block by block
- it’s fuel is transferable to other players (using currency // blocks).
I know that what you asked is not another tool to use, but in the end the world is 'possible with white and black, life and death. Creation and Destruction.
I’m curious to hear what you people think of this idea.
Regards,
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I like it 
I’d like to give you a dislike. This forum is living from constructive discussions and evaluations.
I’m by the way with the 70%
@endymion nice to see kind of new perspective. worth to consider
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While I do understand the position you are coming from, I completely disagree. The reason I disagree is simple: entropy. Entropy is the gradual decline into disorder. Chaos. Voxel games are particularly vulnerable to entropy, and exponentially more so for every single additional player that shares that voxel space.
As a former host of a minecraft server that went from 5 to 3000 players, I’ve seen the effects of entropy on a voxel space first hand. It’s simple, really. As players come and go, they often tend to spread out. Everybody is looking for that piece of beautiful virgin territory to claim as their own, and the resources to build it. Since you can only support so many people in a given area, people spread out further and further each time. In an “infinite” generating server this is a huge problem - the world size swells for every new chunk rendered, and players are generating them by the thousands daily. So to prevent that, you set max limits on the world size, right? Only now you have more players in a confined area than the land can support. What’s worse is that vast amounts of land is now completely unusable since players that don’t play anymore have their protected claims on land that they don’t play at anymore.
When the server hits that point, the only choice is to either 1, meticulously identify and restore unused plots (something that the brilliant world regeneration and beacon decay that is being discussed here does automatically) or 2, do a world wipe and have everyone start from the beginning again. Choice 1 keeps your continuous regular players happy, but may dissapoint your occasional player who comes back after an extended period for one reason or another. As a host, I had pleanty of such instances. Choice 2 has its own problems and is considerably less favorable than choice 1, but since we’re not discussing regular world wipes, it’s not worth addressing further.
So, from that experience, it is plain to see why a system of beacon decay is necessary. The cost of entropy alone mandates it. Nobody here is saying everything has to rot, we’re just discussing how to best preserve the things that people most care about. If somebody never comes around to maintain their gameplay, it’s best for everyone if that space is freed up for the next player.
In short, it is impossible to support a positive gaming experience without allowing things to rot.
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@Lady-Rosetta: In addition to @Vastar i like to say that there is a current pending community made vote here. Maybe you like to read through the first two post in the topic and add your opinions or improvement proposal (make sure you vote in the second post). The current status is that 87% of the players are for vanishing beacons (this is a clear majority and not “noone” btw).
@endymion: Maybe you like to add your opinions the the above mentioned topic too. It’s a collection of “ideas” according to the beacon persistence. All ideas are welcome.
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I understand @Lady-Rosetta 's point of view and hereby I want to fully support her opinion.
I can’t remember for what I have voted. But If you have created sth. into the world, you would not want to have it destroyed at some time. It is like if your have maxed out a char in WoW and stop playing for a year, you would not want to come back only to find it downgraded to a low level char. And in a game like BL it would be worse even more so.
Could not have said it better myself.
That’s a false equivalent. It would be more like if in WoW every enemy you killed and every item you looted was permanent and nobody else could get those items or kill those mobs. Eventually, there might not be any more enemies to kill or items to loot anymore. Your comparison to BL does not work here and is unsustainable.
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Also think it’s a comparism of apples and pears.
Charakter developement in Boundless will be stored as well.
If you are off for a year in wow your collected stuff is also quite useless, because a new expansion appeared and gave a lot of more valuable goods.
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Depends on what progression for you is ingame. For example if it is reading all the storyline in WoW, it is possible you keep it as a memory.
If it is building the biggest builds in BL you would annihilate the whole progression for the person who has done so, by sweeping it or letting it corrode. Others might keep it as a fond memory, but for the builder it would be like ripping out a pear tree which has grown for 5 years in your garden. If you see the tree as ressource it would not be a problem. Same to builds - livestock/material for others to harvest.
For a person putting it up much more than just ressources. But you can take screenshots. After all some things left to remeber. 
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That’s why these players should tune in from time to time to spend 5 minutes to fuel their beacons ^^
No offense but I don’t want ugly dirt houses or unfinished and long abandoned buildings to destroy the imersion and take away building spots from other players. If you want your building to be infinite without doing something to keep them protected you can still rent a private server.
that’s just my humble opinion though
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But at least they are going to be used for something ^^ I’m only talking about abandoned buildings
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Sorry I didn’t check up on replies, I slacked a bit there!
Just want to add to my previous post that, splitting fuel up, allows the player to have acces to different stats/advantages depending on which type of fuel is used. This in turn might answer to the need of a broader community and technically, this can provide the game with a currency or resource-dip. Transforming blocks in the world into beaconfuel, that protects and defends more precious blocks in the world.
@Smoothy, thanks for the consideration.
@Heurazio, I will surely read that thanks for bringing that into view. I’ll go ahead and dig into it.
Unfortunately, I see more gamers buying a game and finding out after a short period of time, it’s not the game they expected it to be or the buying was more of sudden, acute motivation then of long therm thought. Afterwards they abandon the game forever… To me it happens from time to time.
I don’t wish it for B<, but I can see it happen…
This would place beacons of many “game hoppers” somewhere (estethic not mentioned). The amount of these guys (i bet) will be far more then guys with “worthy” monuments. I think of “ugly dirty huts” all over without use to anyone that just are permantly occupying space in nice landscape.
I can imagine, your builds maybe are the monumental ones. So for personally you I don’t have a point against permanent buildings. But YOU will be probably with some other like nyuudles or havok quite a minority…
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My concern is not for the quality of builds that are abandoned, but the volume of them. I’m of the opinion that abandoned builds should decay regardless of quality. Though the community will find a way to preserve the builds that matter to them the most (donate batteries toward it’s upkeep or buy time extensions from WS, what ever).
My humble builds don’t compare to the mastery of @Nyuudles 
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I personally feel the same as you, everything should decay through lack of beacon owner use. The only difference for me is that nothing should be saveable by the majority. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so what some people think is a great building, others may not.
I also feel that if beacons are to expire, they need to do so after a certain amount of decay (regen) has occurred first. I don’t feel that anyone should be accorded with that much of a “leg up”, via looting, from someone else’s hard work. That for me would be game breaking, especially if it were only offered to the explorer profession.
I’m still against fuel too - for me, it just feels like a completely unnecessary game mechanic that offers very little to the overall immersion of the game (other than being a chore I think everyone could do without).
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I’d love to make monumental builds. It is an obsession. But often I feel like scaring people away by it. It is nice to build huge structures if you have the time. After a while they don’t seem that gigantic any more. I’m already impressed by what I have seen in the trailers and on Steam. In combination with screenshots I have seen before, the trailer conveys a story and progression and most of all creative interaction between the guys building the structures.
One (Many) could build an eternal city - maybe would be ingame phenomenon that players constantly contribute in beacon upkeep.
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I think a good solution here is the absentee storage idea. On expiration, chests, machines, valuables are removed from the confines of the beacon and placed in storage till the owner claims it. That leaves only building materials that must be mined before natural decay, and maybe some plants and animals. Not a huge leg up, and only available for a short window.
Tl;Dr abandoned builds should only leave behind the build itself, not the valuables inside.
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Yeah, that’s the option I’m leaning towards.
For added realism, buildings will decay. But to honor players, their valuable items will be saved until they return to retrieve them.
I know when I’m playing video games (especially with boss fights) it’s so disheartening to lose everything that I sometimes just quit it for a while.
While playing Hexxit once, I dug into the side of a mountain and built a huge mountain temple. Something happened and the chunk was reloaded. It didn’t delete everything, but it regenerated the natural blocks much like the world regeneration is described in B<. I will admit that it looked like an amazing Indiana Jones movie, but I was so distraught at the loss of my building that I didn’t come back to that world.
I can understand why people would want permanent beacons, but they will be if they just keep playing.
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