I know. I have started a few characters since the changes and it’s not hard to get the cubits. Most people won’t ever need as many plots as they have available, so, alts is an easy thing to get. Even if a person wants the plots you just get the first alt. With that one you get the second alt. Now you have three characters and can concentrate on getting however many plots you desire. It’s quick and easy to get the alts. So, the way it works out is not a problem. I’m simply surprised people didn’t see what would be the result of what they were asking for. People seem to think getting things they ask for never has a price. When saying you want system B of games then you should expect system A becomes a paid alternative if it’s easy to do. That is what happened here and why it was the logical result. It doesn’t bother me as the cost is far less and pretty much meaningless.
How many of your earned cubits did this take?
Why should we expect that? This is not a sequence of events that always occurs. This is a paid for game, not a “free-to-play” kind of thing. If nothing else that would imply different ways of building & running systems. But quite besides that, the implication that it always happens that way is easily proved false by looking at erm… thousands of other games.
After a couple minutes of thought about this I actually like the way it turned out. Once the group hunts are back up people will be able to go from level one to level fifty within three or four days again and will be doing it. If a person wants the max skills for everything it will still require alts with this system. What people were (and some still are… not me) after to be able was to do absolutely everything with the highest skill on one character. That way they could have a max level character with all abilities in a matter of days. Most people it’s probably more like a month or two per character to get to max level since most won’t be doing group hunts to level and the silly slide method of leveling was thankfully disabled. So, had people gotten exactly what they wanted they could have easily had a max ability character for everything within a month or two. Whether doing it in days or months, it takes three times longer to do it with alts which essentially puts anyone using alts at a disadvantage thus pretty much eliminating alts as being impracticable and makes the game more boring for everyone.
The way it worked out you can have a general character at max level but not max skill at anything within those few days or a month however you play. However, to get max skills in everything you will still need to have alts. So, if your preferred style is one character then you can hunt and craft and build all on the one character, but, you won’t be as good at anything as a specialist in any of them. It’s kind of like in law or medicine. General practitioners of either field can do everything, however, they are at a huge disadvantage if trying to be as good as a specialist at top level things in that person’s specialty. If you want max skills with max level at everything you can do it by spending a very small amount of cubits and putting in the time. If you don’t have the time and want to do everything though then you can, but, accept the fact you won’t be as good at things as a specialist is. That is fair.
Do you buy skills or do you buy plots? Now you have a tough choice as a builder? If you want to be able to gather and make your own stuff (even the basics) you need another skill set or alt. Now I buy a skill set so at level 50 I have to earn 10,000,000xp in order to have another 100 skill points fill out that skill set? Or do I use an alt where the xp requirements are substantially cheaper. I was in the camp of wanting one character to be able to do more, but quite frankly the solution proposed by the developers makes no sense from a time investment standpoint. After about 9 months of steady play I do not have enough levels to fully spec two characters. I do have an alt that was level 40 in a few weeks. So is the new alternative to buy more copies of the game since that might be the most efficient way to gain a character?
I disagree with you strongly. I have a builder character. With the current spec system, there is no way they could survive a hunt in order to level. The death penalty kills that option. So now I have to make my character essentially a hunter in order to level quickly and not a builder. So I have to engage in an activity that I really did not want to focus on in order to gain the levels (cubits and skill points) to make a spec for a builder and then one to craft. I value my time too much for this. If I have to play MMO with a role that I do not want in order to advance then that is a problem. Maybe they should cut the xp gained on hunts to be similar to what you get when mining. Maybe 50xp instead of 1000xp. That would make it more level anyway.
OK when I just went into Boundless, it is allowing me to create another alt. . Was this a bug that has been fixed?
The current plan is that:
- Players start with 1 character and 1 skill spec.
- Players then earn (or buy) cubits by playing the game.
- Players can exchange their cubits for: plots, alts, skill specs, wearables, body paints, re-tints, etc.
- The only items that can only be acquired for real money are Worlds (post 1.0) and Gleam(* see blow) Club membership. Worlds need to be paid as we incur real world costs with running them.
But you’re taking things away from us! Grr!
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Yes - players used to get 3x Alts, 1x Weekly Skill Resets, 1x Cleanse Point per Level and a fixed number of plots per level.
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Now - you can earn 10x Alts, skill resets as required, cleanse points as required, 3x skill sets per character (a huge request / demand from some players), plots as required, re-tints as desired (coming), wearables as desired (coming), body paints as desired (coming), and more.
We’ve reconfigured the way the items are gained and extended what is available.
Yep you’ve lost some things, but IMO you’ve gained much more.
We could have locked all customisations, wearables and body paints to real money purchases. But instead we’ve chosen a path that allows all players to earn (or buy) all items.
I really think we’ve delivered a pretty fair system.
(* Excluding Worlds and Gleam Club. The reason Gleam Club is paid is because some players argued in favour of a subscription. We don’t think we could make a subscription work commercially. But for players who are willing to pay a subscription we’ve created the Gleam Club that gives them subscription-esk features - specifically auto-fuel. Whilst you’re paying your subscription your builds are maintained. We then extended the Gleam Club with a collection of non-gameplay fun add-ons. It’s modelled a little on Discord Nitro.)
Additional: XP progression for all actions in the game should be consistent. An efficient hour of mining should generate the same XP as an efficient hour of hunting. The XP balance still needs more balance. But to be honest it’s pretty hard thing to do!! And we’re still working on it.
I appreciate your response. So we can buy alts or skill sets with cubits. So whatever we (as individuals) feel is best we can do. I guess that makes it cost something (cubits) for those that want alts and those that want extra skills. Seems fair. Up to 10 alts should more than cover all the skills.
On the XP progression, maybe I was going off topic. I like that fact that group hunts get great participation. I think that is important to the game having a community. I have been disappointed, that I get a few thousand xp for building or mining for a few hours versus once getting over 40,000xp hunting for 3 hours. I will admit I have used that in the old universe to level alts. It certainly was the most efficient way to do that. I guess with the new skills, I was seeing that as being almost impossible so I appreciate the fact you are looking at trying to make the different roles more balanced in XP gains for the same time worked.
This sounds like “We could’ve thrown puppies in the river but instead we let you choose more puppies!” to me.
You’re building grind-heavy systems that ape a F2P model. The only difference is how you’ve limited its impact. This is a paid game. I know there are different sets of customers but I’d rather pay more (money = time) than play more (I have less time). How do you fill the two second skill sets with skill points? Or experiment with skills when you’re a new player. Pushing the cubit system so early into play systems that impact you from L1 (plots, skills, resets, choice) will just annoy people who’ve paid $40 already.
I don’t disagree you need to fund the game on an-ongoing basis and I’m happy to pay my way but this initial try seems cack-handed. I won’t repeat what I’ve said elsewhere about other time gates that’ve been addded. This choice is felt by us in the context of all those other choices that have come in the 191-195 phase of updates.
Edit:
Do you think the current 2nd to nth skill set XP required amount progression is fair then?
Has there been any kind of discussion of increasing cleanse point cap? It seems to be still just 3 points. Those 3 points are really fast used when needed to make some stat changes but then there can be times when I get it to max 3 cleanse points somewhat fast.
Using cubits to get points is nice thing to have and most likely better way to do fast adjusting but increasing maximum cleanse point amount via leveling could be increased from 3 to something like 8 it would be still nice to have.
About these two things did make mine on starter worlds with aoe tools: block hp lower, same xp gain. It gave me usually 40k-60k xp in 45minutes. That said it was before stamina and foods but still with current system: better aoe tools and more efficient skills and teaching buff xp gain by mining of starter world shouldn’t be in any case few thousand 
That hardly a surprise. What your post describes (and is an assessment I agree with), is that despite now having the option of multiple skills sets where before we didn’t, you liked it the way it was and you’re realised that nothing has actually changed. A player MUST still use alts to cover all the skills fully if the want to do them all, and for still no better (or perhaps better explained) reason than because an unfortunate majority people that ascribe to the opinion that ‘That’s how MMOs are supposed to be’.
It makes me sad to say this because of how hopeful James had me for a while, but given the results I genuinely wish I hadn’t ever argued in favour of skill specs. The very fact that ultimately nothing has changed leaves me feeling like the development time could have been better spent doing… pretty much anything else.
Sorry Devs 
I will disagree. I never used buffs while hunting and a gem weapon “tagged” the mobs to allow me to get the points. If I have to use buffs and tools that are more expensive (to make or buy) then they are not equivalent. If you have to be a high level (and skilled player) to get the extreme xp you got while mining and a relative newbie to make the same xp hunting then again they are not equivalent. If this was so easy to do, why does everyone hunt in order to level their characters versus mining?
even if I have not been efficient in the 1000 hours I have played and mined. . building never has gotten equivalent xp in the same timeframe as hunting.
What are re-tints?
(Before the P2W alarm bells start ringing again.)
Yeah sorry.
It’s the way you can customise the colour of wearable items.
Say you buy a Blue hat, and want to make it Red - you can get a little kit to change it’s colour.
This much is true and so dissapointing!!! (i sware - one of the dev teeam - no names 
said a few months agowe are looking to implement it so that you can do everything on a single character… it is sandbox after all… not a direct quote)
But why do they keep breaking certain promises >>> going in a reverse direction than they say!!!
Thinking about it… i think the first one to mention it was a user not a dev… and then @james (or someone else?) replied something like that’s actually a great idea, we will see if we can implement this - (cant always trust a photographic memory it seems - considering i cant even find that post/thread
Ive said this many times in discord.
. I wouldve been ok with it if you wouldve chose just either
1character system plenty skill trees
Or
Alts
You cannot please everyone and thats just a fact.
My point of view here is this:
I dont like that Players that play with alts have advantage to players who wanna just play with one character.
this comes obvious,when you reach 50 and try to earn skill points to your 2nd skilltree.
Lets just say 200k xp is to lvl “51”. And you get skillpoint
While these who have alts dont have to do it
They can just roll in with forged weapons and tools and get exp easily.
This was just my 2 cents on the subject.
I still love the game… im gonna play just 1 character, but doesnt change the fact that its not a balanced system.
yep idd… example math (i suck) it takes 5 mins to reach level 2 … takes 6 months someone said? (currently) to reach 50 if playing every day… and then a further 1.5? to reach level 50 + 1
100% let us have MORE skill points per level / or allow us more than one character on release… or BOTH (for those who hate alting)
maybe only 1 extra on starting the game… and then have extra character slots real cash purchaseable only due to the OP nature of them?
wrong topic sorry
Hmm
Not sure if I like the way the new setup will be. I shelled out 95 to back the game, and get the Wayfarer package. As I read this, the people who spend only 60 on the digital deluxe edition seem to get more perks. My opinion on this is to offer backers the same rewards that the digital deluxe buyers get, like the gleam club, 300 cubits ect… you’re going to upset a lot of early backers
as much as they SHOULD do this…
They either won’t or possibly can’t (i can understand why)
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the code would be immense to implement this on every backer package now
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IF it could be done, how would it be done? (its a lot easier to implement it to NEW backers that it is to find every single person who has backed so far and give all of them the same deal)
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i would settel for a booby prize at this point (but yes… something does need to be done about the fact that DDE’s get more than any backer… they just cant live on a dev world/get art/music/credit
But then again it does seem we are all getting what we paid for…
- exploreser XYZ
- Wayfarers XYZ + more
- etc
But no it is not fair when DDE is basicaly the same as wafarer (or just above) when that backer costs £70 and DDE only cost £39 ($59)