Community desires to test new features

General
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After a friendly request by @luke-turbulenz, I now created a new topic we were misleadingsly debating in a wrong place. Sorry for that, I thought it was the right place :wink:

To safe writing time I copied, what I already wrote in other place:

People like to see new features ingame to test them. But the last month there were a few big updates that really gave testing playground. Just the features to test were “shallowly” analyzed in a few hours and later extensively discussed in the forum. So of course they also demand more.
Especially because so many neat features are mentioned the last weeks. You devs test them all the time and give us feedback and we players cannot lay our hands on. I guess that is frustrating for some. On the
other hand many can imagine that you get even more feedback, if you release those features to public. And that feedback you can implement already within next udate steps.

Unstable features that make your servers crash all the time if players use them in a wrong way of course is an argument. But at the moment a lot of different features were presented, like:

  • portals
  • progression model
  • deal system = plinths (probably connected with currency)
  • new creatures
  • new blocks / materials / tools
  • new biomes
  • professions

Some cannot imagine (and I also doubt it a bit, now that i open this topic), that all those features are instable and / or belonging together.

So the community wishes those features ingame, test them, give feedback / proposals, what to change and what to keep. Receive your feedback about what’s desired. And maybe give you ideas that can be already implemented in the next update.

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I can already test new features and send feedback and when they update more features the same goes on, i keep testing.

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All of us know i’m the biggest fan of more updates and more communication. I would appreciate a more frequent update politic to give players the change to test things instead of being teased with spoilers and unable to do anything.

This is a big problem in my opinion. As i tested the new crafting system (with workbench and co.) i reached the “tech-cap” in less than 2 hours. This is by far to few time to really test the system. This is also a problem if you want to test the useability of the system i think. I’ve problems imagine this system with more items because the current testing possibilites are very limited (e.g. can different systems be stacked together [workbanch, extractor] to “automate” crafting ?).

It’s also annoying that a lot of former available items (e.g. Glass) can not be created because a new material is missing and for that material a workbench (Compactor) is missing. This is really pitty.

Yes, me neither. At least lot more recipes and items could be released… We are already able to pick gold / silver but we can not use it. @luke-turbulenz: Maybe you should also prevent that it’s possible to mine gold and siver with a cooper tool … otherwise a lot of people would just “skip” iron and siver tools and go directly to gold.

Not sure we are talking about the same game, but the current content can be explored in (as said above) less than 2 hours. After that, things are “repetitive”.

@lucadeltodecso wrote in the other post:

and maybe i can ask the question here. “Why would frequent wiped take more time ?”. Would it be possible to set up a “dev” world as test-server for other players ? You could use the worlds as always (wipe everything as often as you like and restart when ever you like) but everyone willing to “play” on this world can get access to the “freshest” development state. This would be a HUGE argument for EA (see content directly after it is ingame). I know this idea might generate other problems (people complaining about something in a really early stage) but you also have the chance to get feedback immediately and let others “test” the feature in detail.

I’m not sure if this is what’s included in the Oortain-Package … But access to a “dev” world (regardless of wipes and restarts) would be very very interesting.

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I feel exactly the same

like u said, as example you can build only wood, copper and iron tools, but you can mine silver and gold, and you can find some blocks you can’ t mine like titanium and hard coal. how can i mine titanium if the iron tool is to bad for it and it give no better ?
i would testing the new gleam lamp, but i can`t because some other blocks are missing.

the people complain about EA anyway with or without the new server, and the community part where will test, will have a lot of fun with it. if the server crash or wiped every day is no problem i think

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most of you guys are right, the testing is too fast to get done with it, there isnt much to do in the game now.
but why always talk about the down things, i cant understand that things are taking a lot of time to be developed which is very very understandable. your talking about adding items, imagine that that item that you are requesting to have, ex " bike " they need to create it as 3d model then animate it and then script it and implement it in the game.
but thats one item. i cant imagine how many things they are working on.
serious matters they get to it right away, I had an issue with missing audio in the game on my mac and now its fixed and that didnt even take two weeks.
your in early access game, and all these things that ppl are complaining about was expected.
true that im not on the game a longtime but i check every now and then for an update.

suggestions for Dev’s

1- if its possible to make the name of items pop when you hover your mouse over it before mining it, specially Ore.
2- crafting info for the items already implemented in the game " ASAP " i know it didnt take me a lot to figure the fire pit and the furnace how to place but a small tip in the crafting panel would make that easier.
3- some of the goat like creatures drop nothing when killed, im not sure if its intended to be this way.
4- cooper tools can farm most of the ore, " reducing the types would help slow the progress of crafting and make use of other tools "
5- increase in creature spawning and spawning spots for them, as it takes ages to find a goat.
6- having the creature name displayed above its healthbar would be great.
7- giving use with our first beacon placed few chunks claimed already would be nice, instead of directly using from our chunks amount. " like one chunk from each side".

thats it for now.
i hope no one gets upset or angry of what i have said, but its just to demotivating for the devs to keep hammering them with all this negativity.
the game looks awesome now and it will be amazing when its done.

great work guys.

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Well, welcome to EA games.
I can only guess but I think that higher quality tools are just not modeled/programmed yet or that they require higher tiered crafting stations (like the compactor) which aren’t modeled/programmed yet either as they are busy with other stuff (trading, portals and progression apparently).
Anyway, I’m sure they are not doing this to mock you.

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maybe they have add them to the dev world or maybe not ^^ i dont know it

but some old blocks still the same problem, and they are modeled ^^

but i am a big friend from EA, i like to test new feature. If the server crash all 2-3 hours who cares me not.

yes correct, it seems like copper and iron tools can mine the same items, i think copper should only earn iron ore and not more.

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oh, please no. i want my time to test things, if the servers would crash all the time or get wiped by updates i would wait before its more stable (updates less frequently).

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I don’t want to interfere here too much, but actually it’s less about detailed balancing suggestions for tools or proposals what to implement into the game as nice new features.

It’s more about that there are bunch of features existing (since we saw screenshots and dev’s talking about testing it), but they are not released for quite a while.

I guess “bug” reports or suggestions the dev posts themselves are more appropriate. :wink: Also they will be read there probably.

To me there is more the question, why are there so many, diverse features that didn’t come at least partially with an update. I.e. this groundbasher or the cuttletrunk or the roadrunner could be implemented, to see their mechanics. Can’t imagine, they are yet all unfinished and after 4 weeks they are suddenly finished all together. If one is finished, implement! If other comes later, put him into the game in the next patch! And I am just talking about single objects.

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we talk over a testing server not the stable server. for a better explanation a part from the old topic.

the same i said in the last topic ^^

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You getting this wrong i guess. My post was about already existing items (from the “older” versions) that are now not useable. Yes, there is a machine missing (Compactor) but it is “dull” if you are able to craft a gleam lamp (it’s shown in the workbench) but you are not able to get all the incredeants for it (either all [all items shown can be crafted], or nothing [the items is not shown until all “subparts” are available]).

B2T:

@Smoothy, @Saint_X : I totally agree with you in all points.

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then you need to wait patiently for next updates

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And this is the main problem in this topic… Your argument is therefore invalid :joy:

The hole topic is about update frequency and to test new features :joy:

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we had wait over 3-4 month for update and had only 2 hours play time, i think something is wrong, thats why this topic exist

:+1:

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So, I think what you’ll find is that the amount of play time increases dramatically with the releases that are coming out soon.

Up until now, much of the work has been behind the scenes:

  • Porting the game engine to C++ so it can run on PS4s
  • Overhauling how the game renders and configures its UI (and making it easier to add new UI views)
  • Overhauling the crafting system (machines, crafting trees, etc - which makes it easier for them to add new crafting features)
  • Overhauling the world generation and world builder (making worlds easier to build, and more interesting)
  • Overhauling the art pipeline (to make it much faster to create creatures, player models, doodads, etc)
  • Implementing progression features (there’s a lot of server side work that appears to be already implemented for that; xp being tracked, etc)
  • And many other foundational systems along those lines.

The thing in common here is that Wonderstruck is front loading a lot of the “boring” foundational work. Once all the systems are (mostly) in place, adding new things to the game becomes much more efficient. Adding new items, creatures, crafting recipes, combat abilities, etc becomes much easier. And those are the things that keep us entertained for longer periods of time.

TL;DR - The updates we’re seeing now don’t have much in the way of lasting gameplay, but the set the stage for future updates that have lots of gameplay, and for those updates to come more frequently.

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True words, that are hard to negotiate.

In your individual case, you also had more content to play with because you are kind of excessive world builder user and the world builder experienced massive updates right?

But don’t you think at least some creatures could have been implemented week by week or craftings that already existed as mentioned above? Just to give a bit feed?
I don’t talk for myself since I am more patient person, but I can imagine some already lost the interest because of the less “visible / touchable” dynamics.

Anyhow, your approach is to keep further patience because in your opinion the “basis is prepared”, right? I for myself hope so.I just see from week to week comments like “…next week will be implemented” and after that “in a few weeks it will be in…”, that is kind of disappointing. It makes me not really want to cheer anymore for the next week, since I’m to afraid to be frustrated again.

I hope you are right and in 2 or 3 weeks we expierience massively more interaction possibilities

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This is what happens in Early Access games. If you’re easily frustrated by such things, you may wish to switch to a new game and focus more on Boundless at launch. The dev team has stated MANY, MANY times now that releasing things in packages is a more efficient/less costly way of doing things. Please don’t make them repeat themselves AGAIN. This is their livelihood, their careers. Just trust that they’re doing all they can to make a product that everyone can enjoy and that they’re doing so to the best of their abilities.

The fact that we get verbal updates every week is a vast improvement over some Early Access projects, asking for new things to test AS SOON as we hear about them isn’t going to be possible and will likely even cause trepidation before new details are discussed in dev posts.

I see that you’ve participated on this thread, @Smoothy, but let me just post a quote from the very first post of it by James:

He says everything I said above, gives a rough timeline of the next update, and promises to keep us updated. I don’t know how you could possibly want anything more than that.

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There is this magical thing you can do these days for early access games. It’s called waiting til close to launch before buying in. Seriously you people have to stop buying an incomplete game that you are told is incomplete and will be updated over time and expecting every feature available when you want it. Like honestly please show me where the Dev team said buy this game early and receive all features playable right now and we will cater to your every need at the same time.

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Actually a quite low value contribute here. You did not understand the thematic…

People here are very aware that an early access game is incomplete. And nothing was promised, when we accepted participating in an EA game. And it seems you also do not understand the meaning of early access. it is by far not waiting till the finished game appears. It is more likely testing unfinished content, helping to finish a developing game, supporting the dev’s in polishing bugs out, so on. I don’t know how long you are part of the community and actively following the games developement. The people debating here, are quite a long time.

So if you want to contribute, please do on a level that is aquired here… Seeing the topic being filled with those posts which mislead to other discussions always make the discussions unnecessary long.
So far…

@Clexarews I don’t think dev’s are not doing their best. In the end it is also not negative critics from my side, like you could read out. It’s more an individual opinion. It should be also seen as constructive, and as opinion of those who are not as deep in game developement as others.

The current developement can also lead to other assumptions (not by me, but by others who see the game from a far more distanced view). The conclusion that the current dynamics could be representative for some, as an indicator for future dynamics? Just look at the time passed, and the small amount of new features appeared to test.
If I would be simple minded, I could assume the game will have problems in future, when it is finished, that it will develope on frequent. In that case, if I would believe it, I would lose the game totally off sight and look for others. Gladly I am not that simple to be disappointed in a way I leave the game. I still have trust that the dev team will prove this assumption wrong in future.

From a dev point of view things might run right, from a marketing point of view and the amount of time spent on the developement in combination with EA potential, things are running suboptimal. Don’t you agree?
And the community who could be taken as a input ressource is also negatively influenced. If you be honest to yourself, you see (you and me included) about 20 - 30 people participating in suggestions / improvements / bug reports frequently. Don’t you think that’s a bit less for a development of 1.5 years (?) EA? If the feature implementation has been more frequent, I can imagine, far more people would have been activated already. The surveys would have been far more representative. There would have already been much more community work, more websites dealing with boundless as a game, more magazines writing reports, more public attention.
I agree, that the current way to develope the game is good, when all this is not desired by now.

Anyway, I just want to point out, this is not just a demand written in this topic, but much more constructive critics to make Boundless a great, world wide well know game. This is what I wish to myself for Boundless… The game experience with many people will be much better then with less.

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It actually is not a low value contribution since many people on EA games can’t grasp the simple concept of EA. Where were you told that you must buy a game in early access? No where… because like everything else it is up to us what we buy. If you are not prepared to wait through slow development for extensive game play then you should not buy an EA game.

See when you buy any game you should be willing to take the risk that your demands will not be met. No where did I say that you should treat early access as a pre-purchase… so please don’t put words in my mouth.

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