Can we get ETA on road map / test release

[majorvex]

@Xaldafax

if any item is blocked off for use then it should be reported to the Developers over and over until it is solved

I hope you aren’t harassing the devs about a little bit of gleam or dark glass. I am fairly certain they said that’s the name of the game. To find & control resources. I would also like to see the part of CoC that says someone shouldn’t do that. I don’t like it, & I would never do that, personally, but it seems that’s part of the game. I didn’t code the game.

I did not start the P2W “argument”, I was simply replying. I have every right to respond and not agree. I play some games that have a TON of harsh P2W elements. BL is 99.9% P2W-free because you can obtain everything for free. Whoop-tee-do, you can buy GC…it’s not like a rare dragon that spits fireballs or a super-sonic Thor hammer that blasts through mountains.

@Xaldafax

I have not explored all the planets, but if any item is blocked off for use then it should be reported

Then I guess you have a lot to explore. If you try to mine on Serp or Malu, you are certain to run into HUGE areas that are “blocked off”. These areas are not reportable.

[Xaldafax]

@majorvex

I did not start the P2W “argument”, I was simply replying. I have every right to respond and not agree.

I am sorry I knew I should have stated it better. I didn’t mean that you started it. I think the issue I had was you stated this:

@Xaldafax

There’s no P2W in Boundless.

This is being said as a “fact” not opinion. So while you are responding (which is your right) you are basically telling the other person instead of just stating your views. The reason this is not helpful is because some of us have things we feel prove that there is P2W. This is what I was trying to stop because we have had plenty of these arguments where two sides feel the other is wrong and get into a yes/no fight. It is just easiest to just say you disagree and drop the conversation. That is all I was trying to suggest.

@majorvex

I hope you aren’t harassing the devs about a little bit of gleam or dark glass. I am fairly certain they said that’s the name of the game. To find & control resources. I would also like to see the part of CoC that says someone shouldn’t do that. I don’t like it, & I would never do that, personally, but it seems that’s part of the game. I didn’t code the game.

I don’t harass the developers but I assume you were just teasing overall. But for transparency sake, they greatly value my feedback because it is constructive and provides both sides of arguments to help come to a solution that helps the game over the interests of certain players. I’m a very technical person that has almost 30 years of IT experience in architecting and deploying huge projects in like a top 50 company. There have been scenarios where I have fought for things in these forums but when having the conversation with the developers I explained both my side and the merits of the opposing side and why it might make sense.

The red gleam issue from EA was a BIG deal that the whole community did not like. The developers are trying to balance the line between banning people and staying in a true sandbox environment. The area this crosses is into griefing which is part of the CoC and TOS but that can be a subjective discussion that I’m not really interested in having.

I have not seen the Dark Glass yet and if it is completely blocked out or if it is a “footfall farm trap” type design. I was hoping people would explain whether it was a complete block or that. Either way, because clearly it is a limited resource I plan to bring it up with James on my next call with them and discuss again the reality of limited resources and how them not taking a stronger stand and revamping their “control resources” comment is maybe driving larger community issues that none of us want for this game. This needs to be looked at by them because as we move to the next tier of resources comes out it can become an even bigger issue.

[anon42939288]

@Fallon

Whoa… is it really? Which part of the TOS?

its not in fact its one of the selling points of the game if someone reports a person for blocking off a resource then they are more likey to get yelled at for false reporting!

EDIT: wrong screen shot before

[majorvex]

A. I am aware of the red gleam issue.
B. I have every right to my view, as you do. You don’t get to deprive me or others of our views, just because you don’t agree with them.
C. If you don’t want to be part of the discussion, then don’t. No one is forcing you to do anything.
D. I have a background in IT too. I cannot help how long I’ve been on this earth though. I’ve worked for a huge company out of California, in downtown Dallas and Amazon. Is this a p***ing contest now?
E. This game will never be 100% balanced. They’ve stated if people plot a lot, the system will generate another planet. Therefore, infinite resources. No one can “win” if there is no “end”.

[MysticPandora]

Wow. …Wow.
This really took off and admittedly I just skimmed the last half.

I think what ppl really need to remember is it’s not just a game, it’s a business, a source of income to those making the game. We get to enjoy it, and they get the dosh from us buying it.

However, once you buy it, unless you buy gc or cubits, you’re not giving them anymore money.
Why would they keep working on something if it makes them no extra income?
They won’t. The game will die. Especially since it’s run on servers they have to pay for that, without income, will no longer be supported.

So they NEED a steady source of income coming from the players. If players want rentable planets, that keeps them from going hungry, AND it keeps the servers going for everyone playing on the free open universe. So, really, everyone wins.

This will also entice new players, as others have stated with streamer communities, and that doesn’t mean they’ll play exclusively on their own private world. Human nature is unpredictable, ppl come and go, and maybe streamer watchers will want to play, but go to public universe bc they don’t want to invest that much, but still want to play. So yes, this can actually attract more players.

There are going to be good and bad points on both sides, but please keep an open mind.

I really do think in the end, rentable planets will help.

[majorvex]

More info …

@james

Now let us assume that many players claim chunks of the world…
new worlds would automatically be spawned.

So again - I don’t think it would ever get to the point where non-paying players wouldn’t be able to easily find the resources they seek.

(To be clear - we’re working very hard to make sure the game isn’t pay2win. I understand that introducing any monetisation into a game could lead to winning - but we’re working hard, and thinking hard, and striving to keep stuff fair and reasonable and considerate of everyone in the game. But we need some monetisations to maintain the game servers. If we didn’t need to maintain the game servers, say it was an offline game, then we would never had introduced IAP.)

[AeneaGames]

Perhaps this topic needs to be closed before it gets too heated?

[AeneaGames]

Very, very on-topic comment:

Wasn’t there supposed to be a Testing release this evening (yes, it’s evening in the UK)? Wonder what went wrong.

Would love to tag a dev but then I’m probably getting accused of pestering them again

[Xaldafax]

@majorvex

B. I have every right to my view, as you do. You don’t get to deprive me or others of our views, just because you don’t agree with them.

Again this was not what I was trying to do so please take note of that and stop insinuating that I am trying to block your views. I clearly have communicated what I was trying to do. Additionally I apologized and instead of escalating the issue and restating stuff you already did, you could have just understood my points and said thanks or not responded.

What I was trying to express was there wasn’t a need to say “it doesn’t exist” and instead you could have communicated you just disagree. By stating that you communicate your views without the need to shut down the other persons points.

@majorvex

C. If you don’t want to be part of the discussion, then don’t. No one is forcing you to do anything.

I was trying to help stop another P2W fight. I did not say anyone was forcing me to do anything.

@majorvex

D. I have a background in IT too. I cannot help how long I’ve been on this earth though. I’ve worked for a huge company out of California, in downtown Dallas and Amazon. Is this a p***ing contest now?

The point was you attacked me by stating I harass the developers. I assumed you were joking (seems I was wrong and it was an attack) but clarified how my input to them was contextualized into a way that they value and helps them. The statement was for that reason only.

@majorvex

E. This game will never be 100% balanced. They’ve stated if people plot a lot, the system will generate another planet. Therefore, infinite resources. No one can “win” if there is no “end”.

No where did I say 100% balanced. Yes the “win/end” part is your perspective but unfortunately the term “win” is a contextual statement in this scenario because we are playing in a sandbox game. Due to that, people define “winning” in their own way and hence actually create the ability to “win.” So for them there is a win, lose, and possible ending. Either way, that is for each person in this game to chose and decide on.

[majorvex]

@Xaldafax

you could have communicated you just disagree

I said what I wanted to, thanks.

@Xaldafax

help stop another P2W fight

I see a conversation, not a fight.

@Xaldafax

you attacked me by stating I harass the developers

Interesting accusation. I don’t think red-gleam-gate was a big deal. Obvs a lot of players do. Yes, if you hound the devs over and over and encourage others to do so, I would define that as harassment.

@Xaldafax

people define “winning” in their own way and hence actually create the ability to “win.” So for them there is a win, lose, and possible ending. Either way, that is for each person in this game to chose and decide on.

Exactly. I don’t define colored font in a sandbox game as “winning”. I don’t consider putting down 1000 plots “winning” since there are over 16 million plots for 150-400 players to use and the game auto-generates new planets if X amount is plotted = infinite plots = no way to “win”.

[catfud]

@AeneaGames

Very, very on-topic comment:

Nice try, Aenea, but I think others are having too much fun with the back and forth (ad infinitum…)

I’m happy to wait for a road map that makes sense for the game and it’s players

[Arkhainn]

I think the biggest hurdle for me is imagining what ‘winning’ entails when it is a game designed with no failure state.

Is any advantage “winning”? Then it is inherently impossible to create balance, as for example, anyone that can spend more hours than anyone else playing will have an advantage. Is this “winning”?

Anyone that’s put a couple hours in game is already ‘winning’ in the sense that it’s almost impossible to regress back to the “I just stepped out of the sanctum for the first time” state short of voluntarily deleting the character.

That’s why I think it would be more useful to those discussions if people could specify what “losing” entails. Because as far as I can tell, you can’t have ‘winning’ without ‘losing’. Since resources are infinite, you can’t ‘lose’ by never having access to resources.

Since trade exists, and worlds are automatically added to combat resource scarcity, there’s no way that any particular resource will be the exclusive domain of a select few.

Is “economic advantage” winning, then? That gets us back to the problem of playing time and an impossibility of balancing it.

But since many people (I think @Kal-El mentioned he was in this camp on some other topic) avoid the economic aspect altogether by shared group effort and bartering, circumventing any need to participate in the coin-based economy, so that too doesn’t sound like something you can reach a failure state at.

Coins themselves, as well as cubits, are infinite resources and the only measure of difference there is in rate of acquisition so I can’t grasp how people could ‘lose’ on this aspect either.

I don’t think any productive discussion can be had until anyone manages to narrow down what ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ entails in a game where there’s no end in either direction.

With no unrecoverable failure state (that I can conceive of), and without any way to effectively ‘win’ at anything either, since, outside of prestige wars which I thoroughly ignore and actively avoid, there’s no real competition. With everything being infinite there’s nothing to compete over, not really.

[GooseyB]

Hey everyone! Just read most of the comments and got the gist of what everyone is trying to say. I recently took a couple month break from the game and came back because I really love this game.

As much as I want more content this game is designed to be a sandbox and the most important thing in a sandbox is people to play with. Focusing on tutorials and QOL stuff will help attract new players. If there is a healthy player base that is growing because the game is more accessible there will be more people for community builds, hunts, quests, etc. and player made content in a sandbox is always the most driving factor for longevity.

I can’t wait for farming, titans, new planets, etc but what is going to capture a larger audience? Accessibility.

Also more interior design items to craft pleasee!!!

[Arkhainn]

@GooseyB

I can’t wait for farming, titans, new planets, etc but what is going to capture a larger audience? Accessibility.

Also more interior design items to craft pleasee!!!

And pants.

[GooseyB]

Meh I can wait for pants

[Arkhainn]

I can too but it just seems odd to have a species that managed to conquer interplanetary travel before inventing chairs or clothes.

[GooseyB]

Maybe you should try suspending your disbelief! If you we’re busy using magic to warp to other planets you probably wouldn’t focus on sewing either!!!

[Arkhainn]

Of course you would. That’s why magicians have funny hats and intricate star-covered cloaks!

[GooseyB]

Well in the Oortian world no one has time for constraining clothes! Maybe the warp augments and portals don’t allow for them.

[Arkhainn]

But on a more serious note, the diapers are really immersion breaking for me.

And I’m sure greater character customization would have at least some positive impact on first impressions for new players.

I’ve played a ludicrous amount of mmos and in most of 'em, there was that moment when you first step into a heavily player-populated area, see someone with awesome clothing/armor or an amazing-looking mount, and it immediately gives me a goal. “I want that shiny thing too!”

Since lots of people complain of lack of goals when faced with sandbox games, that’s a (so far) missed opportunity right there.