INHO being able to loot the items on shelves of expired beacons is absolutely imbalanced.
Removing them from the live universe on beacon expiry and storing them for the returning player is actually doing game balance and economy a huge favor.
Example: Just with a few lucky shots in dec 2017 i never had to farm anything ever again until the end of beta.
That was mining, gathering, hunting and shopping removed from the game for 6 months for me.
That might sound tempting, but it is just game breaking.
I’ve seen more than once and only started playing sense ps4 deluxe “early play” that the devs have helped people that knew or have reasons for not being able to be on (ie deployment, sickness) and the devs have fueled the beacon for them. If have a legitimate reason for missing say something. Maybe they can fuel extra month or so but after that it’s up to you.
I guess my question is why is it game breaking? The items existed in the game, they had been farmed and crafted so it was not like what you collected was created out of thin air. That would be game breaking. If it is game breaking for a player that is sill playing to be able to use the materials they scavenge, why is it not game breaking for the materials to be stored until a player someday returns? It does it give the player that found the items access to tools and machines that might not have had as well as resources, but they did already exist in the game and one player getting a windfall doe not break the game in my opinion.
I used the term game breaking because it completely eliminated certain aspects of the game for me in beta.
Maybe the term game breaking is exaggerated, but i do believe it’s a balanching issue.
On the gameplay side:
Of course 200 copper bars that you can loot from a new players house won’t break the game for you. But imagine you find an expired workshop of a player who played 2000 hours. Or imagine finding 5. That’s items worth of 10000 hours of gametime acuired in a few hours. That’s just insanely imbalanced towards any other method of acquiring items in this game. That makes running around and camping beacons the most profitable farming method by far, even though the chance of looting a 2000 hour workshop is low, it’s very real and it happens. And I’m very sure there are a lot of poeple out there who already do nothing else.
On the economy side:
In other mmos, when a player leaves the game or takes a break all their items and money leave the game with them, so the player to commodities ratio stays roughly the same. But in Boundless players come and go, but their items stay. That might be one of the reasons why we currently see such oversupply and deflation (because the money leaves but the items stay.)
I think this would just add to the P2W stigma and really not make those players who aren’t fully thrilled or sold on the game like it any more. It would end up just being another solution catering to fans.
I talked to the devs about getting gleam club for someone that was deployed just a month or so ago. I PayPal the money to them and they activated gc for the player.
I will agree it certainly changes the way the game is played for the player that finds the larger build. I think it would be interesting to see stats on how many people do this as a way to advance in the game. You certainly do not get xp directly from it, but by having the tools, machines and resources, you can certainly craft to get it. Maybe I do not explore enough but I have rarely found abandoned (unbeaconed) builds and the few I have had hardly been worth it in EA and since launch. But even if players do this, at least the resources are staying in the game and being used in the game. Someone giving a player everything they have before they leave would create the same imbalance and in this case they could give them the coin also. . should this be prohibited?
I would have argued the oversupply is the result of the players using the highest tier tools to gather everything, but I have no stats to prove that. I know for my guild no one has every discussed salvaging another players build and we have probably hundreds of thousands of blocks in storage . . (it is something to see), but most of them do use the 3x3 AOE tools. Would be interesting again to see if the developers can shed any light on how much is recovered from unbeaconed builds.
I spend a lot of my time looting, have looted a couple that took me multiple days to disassemble, and I’m still not as rich as the ppl who AoE farm or hunt all day.
The oversupply issue is solely because of two things: AoE tools and meteor monsters dropping full loot for all players. Those create out of thin air more materials than repurposing a looted build will ever provide
I don’t think it should, its not different from other collaboration among players.
I think the difference is that giving away your stuff is an opt-in thing and not the default, plus I don’t think many players do it, and only do so when they deliberately dissolve their beacon.
But leaving their items free for taking is the default state for everyone who lets their beacon expire, deliberate or not. Of course a lot of beacons might regenerate unnoticed, but the scale of items that would stay in the world is still very different I think.
I absolutly agree that aoe tools is most likely the main source of the oversupply. (especially for flint and yams) (And hunts for low level monster drops)
But I think item’s not leaving the economy with leaving players is contributing., but how much I cannot tell.
Could you imagine playing this or any other block game without aoe tools? That’s some grim gameplay. It’s like Brad McQuaid was the developer and its Everquest all over again. You die? Lose all your gear and have to run back to your grave to get your stuff back, even if it’s in another dimension.
I think we need to recognize games, like players, have evolved to recognize time is valuable and that not everyone likes tedious and repetitive tasks. Some do and bless their hearts.
I can! It would be a lot more fun. There’s a lot of ways to address the supply issues without compromising why we do them. We should be working smarter, not harder. Players farming thousands of growth for a low% drop chance on shimmering orbs is a design bug not a feature. Hopefully farming addresses that one. We also need ways to locate gems without resorting to de-mountaining the planet and sorting thru the rubble. Gem planets with cave systems or other methods to improve our situational awareness more than atlases provide.
Everyone’s desire to farm everything themselves with AoE tools, and everyone’s complaints about how grindy the game is, go hand-in-hand. You should be able to specialize in one or two roles, sell the goods from it (which have value because every other player isn’t also AoE farming them) and then spend the coin for the goods you can’t get yourself. The shop system should be nothing more than a universal goods converter.
All the numbers in this game are extra. If you chopped a zero off of everything we do, everyone would have more time to hang out and build. Or simply play without burning out.
It’s an overly simplistic solution - it’s why it’s attractive. It doesn’t resolve any particular issue and only makes the game more grindy.
The hard solutions are the ones that try to solve for every type of player - thus creating mass appeal. I would pay money for coins to avoid grinding because I perceive my time as more valuable than my money. But if wonderstruck was selling coins, it wouldn’t solve anything and we would still have a disparity.
Any change has to be for the benefit of the majority of players and has to help, not harm. The core gameplay and core behaviors need to be reinforced. Reward exploration with dungeons. Reward building with footfall and Points if Interest or another mechanic. Reward crafting with quests, consignments or a global market. Reward combat with unique loot.
The devs don’t need to reinvent the wheel. There are perfectly good wheels they can pilfer all over the place that would enhance and support the behaviors they obviously want.
As you said - I should not come back
I am used to playing alone.
I hate starting from the beginning.
I don’t have a coin now.
So I don’t have to come back and keep playing it anymore - some players who want to come back are think so, too.
That’s not what I said at all. I want all players to come back. The game needs to support them coming back. We need mechanisms to encourage them to return.
Guys! I am now running a long term storage option for people. I run GC and have extra plots (and friend slots) on a super lightly used alt, so might as well put it to use for the community. I do ask for a trade/payment (permanent not rental) but this is really just to cover my cost of materials more than anything. I have a post with more details here: Fif's Storage Unit's are open for business