Beacon Persistence

Devlog
426

I feel that this is an easy problem to solve. If for some reason a player stops playing for an extended period of time this is what should happen.

  1. After a few months the player is emailed a warning that his items\base\plots are about to decay.

  2. If they choose not to log in then all their items, and I mean ALL their items including every block used to create their entire base is returned to the player in some form. Perhaps placed in a one use sack or chest. By doing it this way when the player returns at a later time he wont have to start over from scratch. In fact, depending on how big their base was, they will have everything they worked so hard for available to them so they can start fresh without starting over.

I personally have seen this implemented in other MMORPG styled games and to my delight I had all of my stuff in a chest when I finally logged back in which gave me the encouragement to continue playing again. If my stuff wasnā€™t returned I would have never started playing again. Games like Boundless have people coming and going all the time. The key is to provide replayability for those who have strayed an then returned.

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427

Its an interesting idea, like you say it would be an incentive to pick up the game after a break, but not have to start back from scratch.

428

It would also promote further growth and world development. Imagine a hand full of players returning after a 6 month break. Not only are they returning with everything they previously owned but now (depending on how much they had) they have the goods to build something big and fresh. Maybe they can build something they wished they wouldā€™ve built the first time. Granted the goal here is to encourage players NOT to leave, and to give the more dedicated players a chance to reclaim to prime plots. But by doing it this way you would be sky rocketing your replayability through the roof and giving a huge incentive to players whose circumstances have changed, either from another game, or maybe their grandma got hit by a car and they had to sell their computer to pay for her hospital bill and it took them 6 months to get another computer and when they finally do and log in for the first time in half a year they still have every single item and block from their previous base right there at their fingertips. Praise to the Boundless Devs for implementing such an amazing feature!!!

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429

Personally Iā€™m still not really onboard with the idea of fueling, would much prefer something based on time spent active in beacon, with a super slow beacon life decay rate (months).

The decay rate could be accelerated by other players ā€œreportingā€ the beacon as abandoned.

And once your beacon decays, you should definitely be returned all materials as above, i donā€™t think anything should be up for grabs.

This is quite an important part of the game for my playing style and Iā€™ve been holding my breath for months, as i may permanently abandon boundless based on the Devs decision (this is not some sort of threat, Iā€™m just being honest).

Iā€™m not totally against fueling to the point where Iā€™ll leave the game if fueling is brought in. Iā€™m just saying itā€™s a very delicate mechanic to play with and Iā€™ll either love or hate the outcome, you canā€™t please everyone!

431

I feel the main reason beacon persistence is brought up is because said player inactive beacon interferes with others players ability to build, and get their desired results.

Say a city or guild, youā€™re building, and decide that you want to further expand your place, but the beacon next to you, is empty and blocking your way, or itā€™s in the way of a new city landmark or common area, it would bother 1 or more people. But that wouldnā€™t always be the case. Say your beacon is in a stranded area, no beacon to see in the horizon, no one would have anything to hold against you. So why should your beacon be removed?

True that with the guild system, there should be less problems inside a guild or city with unwanted beacons, as most would be the guilds disposition, or whatever, guild system is still being worked, so we never know.

Just as @Cookviper mentioned, I donā€™t feel the player should lose progress, just because they stopped playing. But there should be a way for the beacon to be removed from itā€™s place, with everything inside it, returning to itā€™s owner. And maybe, just maybe, keep it the same way as it was, I donā€™t know how hard it will be to program and code, so if itā€™s gonna be a pain in the ass, please donā€™t consider it for 1.0 release. As I know you have your hands full with so much stuff already.

And about the time playing protecting your beacon from being removed, the only gripe I have against it, and itā€™s because Iā€™ve seen it happen in other games is, players logging in, and been afk, to generate ā€œplay timeā€. Again nullifying the purpose of the system.

Iā€™m all in favor of players not losing progress, as well as Iā€™m in favor of removing beacons that are in the way of others plans. Letā€™s be honest, no one likes to see a dead beacon in the vicinity of the city or guild youā€™re in, and if the player isnā€™t active anymore, it will be removed, with the items inside, returning to itā€™s owner. But if you have a beacon somewhere no one frequents, then whoā€™s there to complain?, whoā€™s affected by it? Let it stay there, peacefully and quietly.

So @Karokendo mentioned this idea to me, and I took the liberty to make some ā€œupgrades or changesā€ to it

Have a voting system be implemented. Instead of making the fueling system harder.

  • Beacons will only have the option to vote up a beacon for removal, after the beacon is not longer active (has no more fuel) and itā€™s voted by players after crafting a special voting tool (tool will be hard to make (rare materials), and it stops trolls from trolling that easily).

  • Beacon will be removed after the player hasnā€™t responded to the issue and itā€™s reached enough votes (maybe 5?), or it hasnā€™t been protected by another players votes to keep it.

  • Everything inside a beacon, gets returned to the player it belongs. Only the empty plot will remain, for other players to take.

  • That way, only inactive players beacons, that disturb others, will be removed, and the ones whoā€™re affecting nobody, even though itā€™s not fueled, will remain as they were left.

1 Like
432

Iā€™m making a thread about it :slight_smile:

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433

Yeah, this is how it worked in Archeage and it was a nice system, everything was returned to you via your mail box if you failed to pay your taxes if you took a break.

Only problem I had with it was bag space, I had to create an alt army of level 1ā€™s and purchase extra bag slots from the store to regain all my goods since all mail in that game had a 6 month timer before it was auto deleted, I assume to keep the servers clean. Your single chest idea would sort this out.

434

Of all the proposed systems I like this one best. Its simple and effective.
I also like the idea of time spent to fule your beckon with physical fule for exstended leaves. Simple

435

Would just like to make it clear for my own peace of mind - when I say I am against ā€œbeacon fuelā€, I am simply against the idea of spending game time gathering ā€œbeacon fuelā€.and having another responsibility to worry about.

I am NOT against non-permanent beacons and I do not want infinite Beacon Persistence (permanent beacons).

This seems to be a point that gets lost in the discussions Iā€™ve had, so I want to make that clear. @Skippy0330

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436

Would some people be less opposed if the beacon ā€œfuelā€ was coins? So you could earn it however you enjoyed playing in the course of the game?

I am getting the distinct impression people think it will just be hundreds of extra hours of coal mining?

We donā€™t know what the fuel will be yet.

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437

My biggest peeve with MMOs is over-use of currency then just sticking sinks on mechanics. Itā€™s like the easy way out but just feels like economics when youā€™re playing.

My vote will always be for player/community moderation, especially something to provoke a direct discussion with the person whoā€™s beacon you want to remove. (Because there is a person behind that ugly abandoned house)

1 Like
438

Perhaps the objectives could be used here. Since they intend to cover nearly every aspect of the game, their completion could add beacon time as well as xp and coin.

Additionally, since objectives are completed from the very beginning of the game, it would be a resource easily obtained by both new and veteran players passively, rather than actively

Iā€™d also still like to see the use of beacon batteries of some sort to store extra beacon power to use before extended leaves of absence. Could even be stored, traded or sold by players who have maxed their own beacons power.

1 Like
439

Thanks for the thoughts guys. Iā€™ve just started a new thread about this, with a proposal for you to peruse:

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