Buying Sovereign Worlds is Not Very Enjoyable

General
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Hey folks, I just wanted to bring up the topic of Sovereign Worlds. Obviously I know we are in a state where nothing aside from new player experience is being tackled in the near-mid future, but I still think it is worth discussing these topics so they have a variety of things on their radar.

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, but I hope you’ll hear me out and understand a bit of where I am coming from. And at the end, please vote in the poll as I would love to see where you stand and the developers could always use more data!

I haven’t played for a very long time, but I have ordered many worlds across a couple of accounts now. I want to share with you my thoughts and experience with the system as I think it needs a massive overhaul.

  1. Pricing seems fair. A bit more expensive than a Minecraft/Rust server, but honestly to be expected given the size and complexity. Higher player counts would be nice though.
  2. The creation process is a nightmare. Using a google sheet to order a game server feels incredibly bizarre. An in-game tool or even a dedicated website where we could get a visual representation would be far superior.
  3. No information is provided about the world types, resources, etc. The community has to spend thousands of dollars trying different configurations to figure out which resources spawn on which planet types more often… that is absurd. Even with this data, individual community members have to “reroll” sometimes dozens of times (hundreds of dollars) just to get the generation they want or the resource percentage they want.
  4. The lack of a reroll function feels a little insulting. The only analogy that comes to mind is imagine having to buy a new rust/ark/minecraft server every time you want to regenerate the map… it makes no sense and just feels like a way to get us to keep ordering new worlds (which is also a bad business practice as you make more money by keeping one server subscribed long term rather than having to dedicate AWS to booting up dozens of servers in a week to get the right roll). It runs the risk of making some users just never refill their server time as they feel like their planet is useless (in my case I wanted 2 or 3 planets for my guild, but it was so frustrating we just stopped trying to get a good one and didn’t refill their timers).
  5. picking colors before generation would also be great, but this is not a huge deal as the in-game tool is fairly decent at handling it as well (the real-time feedback is nice).

This is just a summary of some of my thoughts, but lets discuss it further. Some people get really defensive when people bring up a critique of this game, but I hope we can have a civil and constructive conversation about this topic :slight_smile:

So, how do you feel about the current Sovereign system? (Ordering process, RNG, etc).
Also, feel free to elaborate on your vote in the comments, as 3 choices don’t necessarily cover all viewpoints!

  • It is terrible, I don’t like it
  • Its okay, but a revamp would be nice.
  • Its perfect how it is.

0 voters

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The system is brilliant (for making money). Let me explain:

If you could roll exactly the planet you wanted, you might roll 3-4 and call it done. In the current system you roll planets (spend money) until you get the one you like. Pretty smart way to make some money to me.

Money aside…

It wouldn’t even be called rolling a planet as much as just creating one. Having “rolled” A LOT of planets I know the pains of a not so happy outcome, but the only concern I have is for new players not knowing going in they might not get the best planet, then again it depends on their wants and needs.

My most recent roll was to get the highest Topaz, Sapphire and Bitter Beans again in an attempt to create one of my previous successes. The planet did well, but nowhere near what I had hoped so what did I do? I rolled another. Had I got what I wanted the first time I wouldn’t have rolled 2.

With that said, an argument can be had with the fact that I won’t spend any more money on fueling the first rolled planet so there is that.

I do think there could be a system in game or at best something on the shop.playboundless.com site that isn’t a Google form with some descriptions as you have stated especially for someone that might be doing it for the first time.

Colors are random at first and you have the rare chance to unlock a previously locked color with the RNG of rolling a planet.

Id love to hear some input from @Soju-VB or @bucfanpaka or anyone that has purchased 100s or so.

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I’m no expert or anything but I have done my fair share of rolling planets. And I can say though there are a couple things I’d improve (mainly just the pictures of biomes, but I truly enjoy rolling them. The excitement of what could be is what I enjoy. If I could pick and know exactly how it would turn out I feel as though it wouldn’t be as fun and I’d probably only have done 2 planets.

I chose : It’s okay, but revamp would be nice. Just to tweak the picture options a little better.

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I think this idea will help but also it will take time if they do it most likely.
Addons for world regens maybe like a one time fee so you can change each color thats not added to normal regen changes Like exo colors Also re rolls for Percent chances for resources 5$ 5-15% 15$ for 15-25% and so on. also the colors that exo colors to change it will cost 5$- 15$ for one time for a Limited time like 1 month then it will set it to previous color that was chosen that normal also to change to normal colors will be no price because they are default colors @Tiggs @monty1

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I’d really prefer not to incur any more costs when it comes to planet generation. @L3g3ndaryPhoenix

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Ok sorry i just thought of the idea sorry

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No apology needed lol. I weas mostly stating that buying sovereigns is already kind of pricey. I do agree having more colors would be nice, but the color rarity is pretty cool albeit kind of annoying at times.

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@monty1 Sorry for tagging, but I figured something like this you’d be interested in. :slight_smile:
Obviously a topic for the much longer term vision, but its never too early to collect feedback data!

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Tbh, I might drop some real money once I see them updating this game into a direction that I like. And btw, that direction is a direction where I’m not forced to spend real money.

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You definitely are not forced to spend real money for anything in this game… but the sovereign worlds thing is a bit of a ripoff in it’s current state.

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I’d disagree I think the planets and their rng are worth it. You get a planet where you have full control over who visits it, if they can or can’t build on it and you can even choose the colors and change those colors.

On top of all that if you don’t like it you don’t have to continue to pay for it.

I think there is enough information on planets and how to make a decent one to fit your needs .

If you need that information let us know.

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I love having sovereigns; tbf this is the only game I’ve ever spent this kind of money on… The chance in biomes is intriguing and I feel like I’m playing the lottery when I roll. I get my gambling fix in… lol Haven’t been to the casino since I started playing this game. hahaha

Also - reading all of the posts and getting ideas of what biomes to select and keeping little notes help.

Seriously though, I think it’s fine the way it is and I enjoy the way it is. I am not saying it can’t be better… but I am saying I’m not mad at it.

I also think the title of this post leans to potentially negative voting on the poll. I know I’m looking cause I am a big fan of sovs and want to share my thoughts. I don’t really want to vote though cause I don’t think any of the responses fit my vote.

Just my two cents; or quarter… whatever the going rate is these days.

^c^

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I enjoy the lottery feel of it too personally.

My most recent roll didn’t come out as well as the planet I was trying to pattern it after but you know I actually wound up liking it better go figure.

I do however see how someone could view them in a negative way, but I think I might be more disappointed if I knew the exact outcome every time and probably would not enjoy rolling just to see what randomly appears. I’ve seen some amazing world generation … wouldnt get that if I just knew and saw what was going to be made.

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It does kind of work out to the same thing, but it isn’t presented like that, by either terms or presentation. What I mean is, there’s almost no technical difference, to what you’re saying.

However what’s on offer here isn’t “a server”. It’s “a world”. And I’ve gone ahead and made this post because it’s worth noting, or trying to clarify, that this comes with several things, including a (potential) effect on the rest of the public game and the player base.

So your down payment includes a run through the world generator with your selected parameters. Which, as far as I know, probably doesn’t actually happen in the instance that it runs in. Not that it couldn’t theoretically, it’s just a bit dangerous with the current tools and architecture.

It’s also important to note - and definitely a part of what many players are still paying for - that it’s a chance to generate a new color palette. One that actually unlocks new colors.

Then after that is, of course, the hosting which seems a lot like “a server” in another game. but again, running another instance of the world server, which is not actually the same tool as the generator.

Also the way the technical part of the system is put into a traversable universe for us would be messed up by this, again in the current game. I’m talking about regions and orbits here, and blinksecs.

You can’t just decide to turn your T1 orbiting (sharing a server instance) a public T1 into a Shock T6. While there are clearly systems in place to add and remove worlds from these instances - I doubt there’s anything to really deal with someone who wants to “play with their server” for a while and would actually be repeatedly spooling up new planets on various instances hosting the public worlds.

Because again to the world generator which is greedy, and consumes max cores -1 IIRC.

So, I’m not saying that none of this is addressable. A “re-roll” doesn’t have to offer the same palette chances as the original roll, for instance. The tools and server platform stuff would be considerably more effort.

The private world stuff exists. If they ever push this out the door, you’ll be able to do it as you like. But for now there isn’t really a standalone “game server” for boundless, like there is for minecraft or some other mentioned games.

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You keep mentioning rust, but newsflash, Rust is a toxic community. It’s a festering trash heap that will explode at any moment. I’m glad that I never played the game after seeing all the toxic people populating it.

Boundless has had the best community of any game I’ve played. And right now I have a small sovereign that I pay $10 a month for and I’m fine with that. Yeah, I had to roll about 5 previously to get this one, but that’s only because I made some bad choices early on. But I was patient and waited until each one had expired before rolling a new one. Patience is a virtue after all.

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Not that my voice means anything, has never stopped me from stating my mind :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ve been vocal about the Sov’s since it came out. I am one that will pay for a group of planets but I’d like them to be focused around one planet. Not split up between two planets that are spread too far apart. Because of this issue (US-East t6 planets) being too many Blink Sec’s apart. I didn’t renew the planets and really have not been as active.

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Short consumer bio, then my thoughts on sovereigns :wink::
I am a single-income earner and a low-budget gamer. This leads to a few traits as a consumer.
#1 Once my needs are met, I’m often, by necessity, content. Beyond that, it has to pass #3 to get my $.
#2 I am a patient observer of new products (like…years of patience sometimes).
#3 If something doesn’t knock my socks off, I’m probably going to pass.
#4 I don’t gamble unless the odds are very (VERY) heavily in my favor.

I’ve never “rolled” a sovereign myself, but here are my thoughts anyway:
A. They’re expensive for a low-budget gamer (that’s me!).
B. With 50 permanent worlds that offer literally everything the game is built to do, owning a sovereign does sound cool, but it’s hard to justify financially (for me). -See #1 above.
C. After watching others “roll” numerous (a lot!) planets because of receiving undesirable results over and over, the purchase of a sovereign fails because of #4 above.
D. I’ve been keeping my eye on the sovereign system since it came out (#2 above), but the prospect of buying one has never passed #3, because literally nothing has been done to improve what appears to be a sub-par delivery of a very cool concept.

Are there cool sovereigns out there? Definitely! Are there terrible ones as well? At least some would say, “yes.” Should you have to play a high dollar RNG game to get a cool one? This consumer says, “no.” The system of “rolling”/purchasing/generating one would need to be improved for me to try it. Purchasing a sovereign is a premium feature, but the initial process doesn’t look like a premium feature imo.

Fwiw Boundless is among my top 3 greatest games, and one of only 2 I’ve ever paid a subscription fee for, purchased premium content for, purchased additional copies to share, etc.

edited to correct a number reference

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Guess I will add my bit.

I personally really enjoy rolling sovereigns (after the cave fix from early days), to me its like rolling a 30 day exo that I get to explore and discover new stuff (love biome merges).

As a few have mentioned, the pictures could use improvement for the biomes, but other than that I am ok with the current process because its available to both PC and PS players in the same way.

The randomness is what I enjoy the most, even if the world is not what I was expecting, it is always something new to explore which is one of my favorite parts of the game. Even if you pick the exact same options for biomes and world types, the world will be different, which is great to me.

I am a bit older, and I grew up playing Everquest with the $15 monthly fee for a very long time, so $10 to roll a fresh world to explore every once in a while is really reasonable to me, and if it helps to support the dev team going forward, then that’s even better in my eyes.

As always, just my opinion =)

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Ditto on what @Soju-VB said. I adore rolling sovereigns and the randomness is most of the appeal.

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Have been trying to get a sovereign I liked enough to move since their introduction, and have done regular batches of 3 to 6. Last batch was almost 20 though (over a few weeks) but I finally got one that felt just right and have now moved to.
Like others here, I have never regretted the hundreds of pounds spent on this quest (or how much wine that could have bought… :thinking:) as it is fun figuring how to stitch different biomes together and also supporting the game a little in the process.
It can get a little frustrating when things go a bit awry but there is always the next one to try again :thumbsup:
Have also generated quite a few worlds for mining and will continue to do so when needed.

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