Changes on progression for a more focused path

It hasn’t been a week of boundless without any talk about progression on the forums, discord or in the overall game. And I think it’s very important to keep sharing our ideas, not only to shape the game in ways we’ll like, but in ways we think will commit to the devs idea of the game and what will make a game players will want to play.

What I want is not to eliminate the sandbox element of the game, but to make it so the player doesn’t oversaturate with the many options you have to play the game, and before he dives into the vast world, he can at least understand regeneration, stacks, crafting and many other things.

Before getting deep into my points, I will like to clarify what to my understanding are the points that will remain unchanged and what the devs are committing into making a reality. Long Post alert

  • Generalists or Specialists, there’s no room for people who can do everything in one character, the most efficient way possible.

  • There’s no one clear path towards achieving one profession The most clear path would be crafter, for getting all the crafting recipes and upgrades, but even then, you still have leftover skill points. Use them on attributes? Survival, Combat? There’s many ways one could go from level 1 to 50 without committing to an established path by the progression system. A crafter won’t always go for unlocking every recipe. Maybe you just want to craft tools or weapons and don’t care about investing in decorations and blocks.

  • Skill points are limited, cleanse points and plots are not Many would be wondering, what’s the use of a maxed out character to keep playing? Well 500,000 xp after level 50, grants you with 40 plots and cleanse points. What’s the use for those? Well more building and respeccing your character. And the consideration that a real end game doesn’t exist in boundless, as you can do what you want to do since level 1 (not the most optimal, but viable) and keep doing it at level 50 (Supposedly you’ve reached the point you want your character to be). Want to reach capital city status? I don’t think the race ends once you hit level 50, I want to say the race starts at that point.

  • Skills locking content I think boundless doesn’t really lock content in skills, with the only exceptions being unique skills affecting your character, like edge climb, jump related skills, atmosphere and combat related skills. That most likely doesn’t limit you in ways that you can’t do it, but can’t do it as efficient as others who focused on that path. Want to climb something with no grapple or jump abilities? There’s always blocks to push you up. There’s ways to go about it. You can still mine or chop trees, even if not as efficient as others. You can use gem tools, even if it would be better you kept to using stone. Crafting recipes in the other way, pretty much need to be locked content behind skills. That’s just the way it will stand due to the profession.

  • Choices matter Anything you choose to do can be pretty much fixed, with a few exceptions, but it doesn’t mean decisions aren’t important. Invested too many points into something? You can cleanse it, but it will take arduous leveling if you invested too many skills onto something you ended up not liking. So think carefully before you act.


Proceeding to my suggestions to the progression system:

  • Sancturm I know a better sancturn is in the ways. both to look cooler, but to also offer ways to explain better what’s in the game and teach new players the many mechanics the game possesses. I don’t know if this will work out very well. But I want the initial steps and levels to be in sancturn, offer a controlled environment with a set of blocks and things that will happen interchangeably the same for every player, ,making their first steps and comprehension of the game much more linear, but also more easy to understand.

  • Core Skills I appreciate and understand the need for core skills, but will very much like the first levels (fast and easy) to not purely go towards those, at that point, you’ve spend your first 5 levels toward them. I will suggest that core skills get unlocked on the sancturn. Hopefully once you leave sancturn you have all of them, and a much needed rebalance of how much they cost. Maybe have levels in sancturn that are not trully levels but precursors to the leveling system, much like steps, each step grants you a skill point that allows you to invest in the skill. Once the skill is unlocked, there’s an explanation to what it does, maybe by text or a video. Once you’re out in the open world of boundless you’ll be level 1 and have all the core skills, only to start making your path towards your ideal character from there on.

  • Essentials I would think many players are thinking about what’s truly necessary towards making a character that can do most things, while still not fully independent or fully dependable towards other players. Then the real question is. What should most players be required to have before they get to choose their own path and be different from others? I think the current system offers pretty much everything you need with Basic crafting recipes getting you everything you need to craft towards copper tools, weapons and technology. Allowing you to grapple, chisel and mine and gather.

  • Trying out things Much like how education systems make you try out everything the first year of college/university to see what path you really want to take. It’s important Boundless offers a much more linear and focused path towards working out what profession or activity you will be doing in game. That’s when Introduction skills come into play. I would suggest making an introduction skill to every possible profession we could have, crafter, miner, gatherer, builder, bomber, shooter, lancer, healer, tank, etc. We would need to define specifics and offer a limited set of things to get our feet wet. Accompanied by a visual representation of what you can do now and in the future if you were to specialize, that’s where the ingame wiki will be of great help, in guiding new players in their desired path. This set of skills will not only be great as a demo resource, but as a path towards making generalists much more viable. These skills won’t be required to be unlocked to proceed to the next tree, but be there to offer an option, so not to force players into choosing a “career” path early on.

  • The grind The grind is there, want it or not. The matter is, am I prepared to take the grind? Is my character interesting enough to let me level up without doing the only task I’m good at? Am I supposed to mindlessly hit blocks to get those desired skill points and finally start doing what I want to do? I think the less skill points spent on core skills and the more options presented early on by my proposal will allow players that hit that lvl 10 - 20 area will be capable to adventure and explore and try out new things, forgetting some of the grind and leveling up just trying out the possibilities. Hopefully making the inevitable grind much more bearable.

  • Cleanse points I would suggest not to eliminate the cap on cleanse points, but to make a cap of 5 cleanse points. Additional to that, I would like for cleanse points gained by “prestiging” (gained from the 500k additional exp) to be considered as a different system, maybe “high cleanse points” the only difference between the other ones is that those could be made as a cleanse point potion. A cleanse point potion would be made by any character (So crafters aren’t the only ones allowed to make them) that will let you sacrifice that “high cleanse point” and make it into a potion you could sell or trade. Allowing for a full respec, expensive but viable (To clarify, each potion would only grant 1 skill point). You won’t be able to make a potion from normal cleanse points, as it would be open for abuse by the creation of new players just to craft those. Also devaluating its value and the choices you made.

  • Ingame Wiki I think this will be the most prevalent feature towards explaining the game and it’s different mechanics. I must not be the only one rushing through a tutorial only to regret it after knowing I learnt nothing. An ingame wili one could return to, to consult on many things would be ideal. This would simply make the game much more bearable towards new players who have a vague idea about what they want to make in game, but don’t really know how to achieve it.

  • Rewards I’m glad with the recent update towards ores and mob drops on higher tier planets. It rewards the players for their effort. Maybe my only suggestion is to up the exp gain and reduce the drops a little. Other games have tougher mobs and occurrences, but they offer more exp and loot for the risk and time invested.


I welcome any suggestions, critique and compliments towards the ideas I’ve been thinking about ever since I posted this.

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