Just for future balance, here is my suggestion: compactors should need lesser resources to make compact things, I think 10 for 1 compact is too much, not even talking about rare things (like u need 20 silver for 1 silver hammer), but making bricks and glass is a pain in the *** too because of this, u need to dig out a whole swamp if u want a little brick house. 3, 4 or 5 for 1 compact thing would be nice in the final version, would allow more brick and glass building pieces and more useful rare resource utilization.
I don’t entirely disagree with you, but from an economy prospective, I’d say that this high effort to make certain blocks and items adds a degree of value to them that would not exist (or be so low as to not be worth the effort to gather) and disincentivizes players from providing them in shops or buying them from others. So perhaps if the output was increased but the input was the same, you would still need to invest time and effort into gathering the materials, but the outcome would be better justified?
I can’t say much to this, because I haven’t progressed this far yet.
From my humble pov I’d say, there is way too much coal and not enough iron. But it could be, that’s the place where my base’s at.
And of course the obligatory - “I neeed morrrr plotttts!”
But atm. I try to accept as it is now and work myself through the crafting recipies. So far progress is a bit time consuming and slow, but really great. A lot of fun, basically because you have enough time (=slow progression) to think about your project or base or whatever you’re planning to build, so it won’t turn into a rush.
I do like the idea of having some blocks being harder to make than other for economy reasons, but I think glass and bricks are a basic enough resource for building that they should be a bit cheaper. Maybe make all the decorative versions of the blocks take more effort to make, but just basic glass shouldn’t take 20 blocks of silt dirt and 2 sand to make
I agree that the balancing for now is quite harsh but I believe that’s how it should be to have a healthy economy/diversity among the players.
As an MMO, having everyone finished up their home in a few days doesn’t sound good to me. We may have been accustomed too much to minecraft (which is effectively a single player) that’s why we are uncomfortable with how scarce or hard doing things in boundless is. This way, it will be more rewarding once we accomplish things.
Just my thoughts.
Side note: I can’t even start building my own little home since even gathering wood is too much for me (with the 1:1 trunk to timber ratio).
I didnt say that we should rush-build, but when its easier to make a refined rock monument than a brick hut with glasses thats some unbalance I think, lets see the numbers:
So the most advanced (and not decorated) building blocks:
1 timber (yes its the most advanced from wood!): 1 trunk
1 brick: 8 rock, 10 clay soil, 4 soft coal (2 for 180 spark, 2 for baking)
1 refined base metal (copper/iron): 10 base metal, 20 soft coal (for melting)
1 refined silver (2 for 1 tool): 10 silver, 10 iron, 84 soft coal (44 for 4320 spark, 40 for melting)
1 refined gold (2 for 1 tool): 10 gold, 20 copper, 104 soft coal (44 for 4320 spark, 60 for melting)
1 refined titanium (2 for 1 tool): 10 titanium, 20 gold, 20 silver, 20 iron, 40 copper, 408 soft coal (188 for 18720 spark, 220 for melting)
I didnt cover the steps and needed machines/tools for them but I think with these numbers we could say that bricks and glasses (in my opinion) should be faster and cheaper to make as basic building blocks. And considering that how much machines and steps they need to make (if you want a brick, you make 4 stones from 8 rock in the crafting table and 1 compact clay from 10 clay soil in the compactor, then you make 1 brick mixture from the stones and compact clay in the mixer, and last you need to bake the brick from the brick mixture in the furnace), at least the gathering part should be faster, but at least not 5 times slower than the gathering for a refined rock (for the brick you need to mine 22 blocks, for the refined rock only 4 blocks).
But I think making rare metal tools (like silver, gold, titanium) should be from less resources too, they are rare enough anyways. How much time do you need to find 20 titanium, 40 gold and 40 silver? Just asking: how much time do you need to find 20 titanium? And thats for 1 titanium hammer.
Firstly, I’m impressed and appreciated the info that you provided!
I totally agree that the recipe for brick looks too much! I don’t actually have that enough experience with crafting so I can’t share your experiences first hand and apologize for that.
As a general rule of thumb for me, if it’s only for decoration or misc blocks, the recipes doesn’t need to be that hard to make (to encourage players to have more creative and artistic build!); however, for things that affects the overall progression of the player, I want them to be really challenging.
I’m actually fine with how hard it is to get those metals. This my opinion taking into consideration that once progression is around, miners and crafters can make it easier so it’s normal or by design for beginner like us to be intimidated.
I’m with the ‘everything is rather balanced’ faction.
In fact, I think that it’s a rather smart way to gloss over one of the biggest problem this genre of game bears. The unavoidable issue of limited space in a persistent MMO game.
How I jump to that conclusion? Easy.
Building is a big part of this game so naturally people will spend a lot of time on it, either by trying to go bigger or prettier.
Going bigger has to be limited by certain mechanics as we all share the same unviverse with a finite amount of space.
Going prettier is a different story, as there is virtually no limit on how nice you build and decorate your home.
Thus I think that guiding the players to spend more time on making their home prettier and away from just wanting to go bigger is a pretty smart choice by the developers to ensure long-time motivation within the activity of building without the need of granting each player excessive amounts of beacon space.
