Not sure you’d need to decrypt it either, there’d likely be other ways to be naughty.
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Encryption exists for a reason and because it is overall safe if correctly done. You cannot edit the contents when encrypted - because it is wrapped in encryption.
Yes there “could” be ways to break through the encryption if the developers do not approach things correctly. But it is really crazy to have such concern around this issue and file solution when any person that clearly could overcome the technical challenges here would be able to overall hack the game and take advantage of things on a much larger level.
Additionally for those that talk about “editing a text file” - it is ridiculous to assume that the file would be text. It would be a binary file or some other type of method that they decided to use exactly for that reason - so it could not be edited. Hence why I even mentioned the possibility of hex editing things.
We can stop talking about encryption as we would never store anything like this on the client. (You can continue talking about encryption for fun!)
Only the server has authority - independent of any client/server security model that could be implemented.
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to that. Though, IMO, speculating on the technical implementation is a bit of a distraction, and the devs are in the best place to know what is feasible or not.
I think it’s best to focus on how we think the game’s mechanics could/should be changed
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I didn’t think it’d be client side. I was just pointing out encrypting it locally wouldn’t solve all of those kinds of problems. 
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Here is the main challenge IMO, assume there is a mechanism for gathering up the contents of a beacon - say it gathers all stored items and machine contents. Beacons can be huge. 1 beacon could cover the entire world. So storage in beacons can also be huge. It could contain many 1,000s of items. Let us assume this is all bundled up and stored for a lapsed player for when they return. They return.
What is the interface that returns these 1,000s of items?
- Is it a 6x6 storage GUI with N pages, that can be flipped between?
- Is it a 8xN mega inventory that scrolls as required?
- Is it a Matrix style “guns, lots of gun” construct storage?
How does the player manipulate this huge list of items back into their inventory and into the world?
(Alternative random idea - the beacon contents is liquidated and we convert all items into coin via the Economy Machine prices. This value is added to their balance. No mega storage or mega inventory required. If they return they can go shopping for everything.)
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A variation on the first possibility sounds good to me. With tabs everything could be easier to find what you are looking for.
The coin idea sounds interesting, but will spark some rage if prices spike. A player getting 2500c per power coil and coming back to 10,000c prices would be very unhappy.
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I would vote for the coin option if anything was offered at all. You are already storing the coin data for each character so you are adding very little data to storage. I still think it is too bad this would remove scavaging as something to do in the game, but that is up to you.
This cuts both ways they can be happy if prices drop or unhappy if they spike. In any case it certainly avoids data storage issues and the need to come up with an interface to return large inventories. At least a player is getting something when they return. They are never going to be in the same position as the players that stayed. New machines and blocks may have been introduced that might have rendered some of what they had obsolete. The city they were in may have moved. The portal network they relied on may have closed. The shops they used may be selling different items. New planets may have spawned. Their guild may have different leaders. The universe is not going to be placed on hold and therefore is not going to be the same. It is certainly better than what they get now when they leave the game.
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Maybe we could have random ‘builds’ appear that players could stumble across while exploring. Special items could be included. Kind of a no combat meteor.
Personally, I think if they decide to do this, we have to take the removal of scavenging as the cost. It is one thing to have the player build something that goes wild. It is another to have the developers spend time creating random builds. Also again, player complaints “How come the build I found was not loaded with gem tools like the one Vurtadelic found?”. Why even create the headache for a group already working pretty hard?
I personally found scavenging abandoned builds to be one of the more exciting things to do in Minecraft and even games like ark survival. It’s just another way to play a game no different then finding buried treasure sometimes you find good stuff other times you find dirt.
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I vote to let the builds sit dormant for a week so players have time to find them and loot them before they get swallowed back into the planet.
I really dislike systems that allow players to keep there stuff they had after they decided to leave the game for a period of time. This game offers great mechanics for you to keep your stuff. Either pay for gleam club. Or get some good beacon fuel and turn the game on and refuel your beacon 4 or 5 times a year.
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I’d like it the most if regen worked like normal, but when it claims a mesh block (storage, machine etc), store the items. When returning, have a portal in the sanctum for the “guns, lost of guns” style storage that will be available for a week or so. Just my preference 
I understand why you disagree with keeping stuff for people who decide to quit the game.
I quit the game because I lost all of my stuff when my beacon regenerated. Not because I wanted to quit the game entirely but because I took a break to play another game for a while. My mistake was that I missed the email reminder and I had miscalculated how much time I had left on my beacon. I returned to find my castle very nearly gone completely through regeneration and all my stored resources and machines lost. I don’t even think anyone managed to benefit from my mistake!
I wasn’t cross with the game, I was cross with myself for letting this happen.
I still follow the game and do get the urge to return when I see a new update. What has stopped me from returning is that I know how long it took me to build up all the machines and resources that I had and I honestly can’t be bothered to put all that effort in again when I know it could all just disappear if I take another break for a while. I know I should have been more careful about refuelling my beacons but this is a game and I don’t want to feel punished by it.
I would love to have some sort of saved storage for things in storage blocks and machines. It would also be great to have the machines themselves stored as well but I guess I could live with losing them. The blocks that are part of the build itself should be lost as there has to be some sort of regeneration and this would still allow for looting as some blocks are quite time consuming to make.
I really want to return to Boundless some day but every time I think about logging on I remember how much grind there was to make my castle build. I don’t want to have to spend hours and hours replacing the resources I lost before I can get back to the building I love.
I’m sure there is a way to make storage an attractive option only if you need a break. Just meaning that it only works one way would probably be good enough. If stuff comes out it stays out.
On another note, is there going to be an offline mode so that my builds could be permanent? I’m sure I read something like that.
Thanks for reading my very long text splurge,
saryent
That might be when they offer self hosted servers, but these servers (planets) would not be connected to the public universe.
I do understand the issue you raise. I also appreciate the fact that you at least acknowledge that you did know the game regenerates builds when the beacons run out so it was clear when you played how it worked. But in your case as it was an accident, you would not have known to put your items into a special storage area even if it existed so would your build still not have regenerated? Or are you suggesting that machines get stored during a regen and other blocks would still regen? I think this reduces the value of scavenging but it certainly does not take it down to nothing. I do still worry about the data carrying cost for the developers since they have to carry the data for all machines regened forever in case a player wants them back, but I wonder how much this would reduce it.
Hear is what I suggest I enjoy scavenging as do so many others but some players feel punished for letting their beacons burn out. So to make it work For both sides i Would suggest a way to buy from the cubits shop a beacon box essentially it will have limited storage but enough for what you consider valuable so you tell it what items to look for in the beacon and in what order then when you beacon burns out it will fill the box with the materials until it becomes full so when you come back on all you have to do is set a beacon down and the box will be in your inventory. Place it down like a loaded chest
@james would this be a reasonable feature for returning players.
Could even add a feature that purges out really old in active accounts.
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It is a difficult problem and yes, I was suggesting that only placed building blocks regen and stored resources and perhaps machines automatically enter saved storage.
I did know how the game works and so I fully accept the loss of the build itself. I guess what I was trying to say is that I feel that all the time I played the game was completely wasted time because I lost everything I had worked so hard to build and gather.
My characters are still high level but, as I did expect to be back, I hadn’t bothered storing precious stuff on them. Perhaps I should have. Or perhaps others will also not think to store their stuff on characters and like me feel that their time was wasted and try another game.
I think I will return to Boundless at some point but I do also like different types of games and I when I play a game do tend to get sucked into it completely. I want Boundless to be my go to building game but at the moment it requires too much long term dedication without allowing me the freedom to put that same dedication into other games for a while. Maybe this is not a bad thing but may mean that some Boundless players who quit for a while don’t keep returning.
I really like this idea and would mean that there were things to scavenge if players let their beacons expire. A system like this would make you feel less punished for having a life outside Boundless.
I think the stored resources are an issue. Based on James’ comment on how much data they would have to store for players that are not playing (and may or may not every come back) I worry that is a lot of items. I know I have over a hundred thousand items in storage from machines to resources and I do not have as much as some other players I know. I understand trying to make sure that artificial boundaries are not set up to prevent players from returning, But is it fair to have the developers spend money to store a great deal of data for players that are not playing and therefore are not contributing cash towards the cost of operating and developing the game? If gleam club costs $50 per year and the cost of the game is $40, should they store data no more than 10 months? Can a player repeat this pattern indefinitely? If they do, does that erode the value of gleam club which does contribute to running the game?
Do they give each account one time to store expired beacon items (not each alt, but each account)? Once you use your one time then you either need to plan, log in once a month or 3 months to fuel beacons or pay for gleam club. Does this give players at least a chance if they forget once or have a real life issue occur a chance to recover? But only store the data for 10 months then purge to not create a mountain of data over time that everyone except the player that quit the game permanently has to pay for.
Maybe, a simple solution is a special storage item that can be placed, that what ever is put into is saved from regen and put into a special storage item in the sanctum which people can collect from.
they would have to put items they want to keep in this special storage, so it doesn’t save everything, only the things the player chose to keep safe in their special storage block.