Hey, just started the tutorial. I’m wayfarer~! I’ve wanted to get this game for a while. I’ll probably need to restart the entire thing again if I’m to take notes on all the things I think could be improved but here’s what I remember.
The text in the top left is too small, I think it should be defaulted to be larger and a little more flashy at first to draw our attention to it.
“E” should not be used to access our own inventory. That should only be “i” i think. When keyboard keys share functions, or multiple keys do the same thing, that becomes confusing. If I make doors or lights or other usable objects I dun wanna risk pressing “e” and opening inventory when I meant to activate them, I’m guessing there’s some basic “use” functionality like doors?
When I’m crafting, it tells me to make wood blocks, but I can’t see them, I had to mess around until I realized I had to scroll down to find the recipe. There should be a flashing arrow to indicate you can scroll down.
3a. When I’m crafting, use the entire screen. Why are you showing me my player character on the left side of the screen? In ARK, when I go into crafting mode, I’m in crafting mode, I’m not distracted by some giant avatar slowly swaying on 60% of the screen. Try to reduce the clutter on screen all at once and just focus on full screen displays for crafting, character options, etc. I’ll never care to see my avatar when I’m trying to make a campfire or crafting bench. This way I can see more recipes at once.
Cubit prices are craaaaazy. 60 is not a standard number. Humans don’t have 6 fingers. All prices should be base 10 or base 5. So lets make those cubit boxes cost 50, or 100, 500, or 1,000, etc.
Inventory/Handicraft are both “WHITE” yet the title above them is “WHITE” also, but can’t be clicked. This is confusing and inconsistent GUI design. All clickable options in the game should be the same color for simplicity.
When I move a tool into my inventory, it lights up red, so i assumed I made a mistake. Red is bad. Red is always bad. And yet, the item was placed and it worked? That makes no sense. Green indicates success. If I put an item in my inventory that is correctly placed, it should highlight the inventory as GREEN, not red, that’s extremely confusing.
I’d like to start with a movable beacon. I don’t like starting the game and instantly being given a countdown timer for how long I have until the campfire runs out. I just wanna walk around and explore first.
Damage values are crraaaaaaaaaaaaaaazy. Why does my axe do 300 damage already?! This is MMO levels of inflation and I’m only level 1?! Axes and shovels should do like… I don’t know, 3-6 damage at first, I can’t begin to imagine the numbers of late game weapons, you gotta plan ahead so you don’t have to condense numbers so early on.
When it tells me to go to “The Exchange” it should light up the button for Exchange and flash it a little to help navigate the user.
I think some of these steps should be in the front of the user and should require the user to actually click “okay” or “next” to move on. That or automatically and slowly do it for the user to show them how and then give the user a quest to do it on tehir own meybe?
Add a “Quests and Rewards” section, where we go when we press “L” to get all the bonuses we’ve unlocked, and then WAaaaaaaaaaaay later on in the game you can introduce the cash shop so people aren’t turned off immediately like that other person was?
cant think of anything else right now. Great looking game though, I’m enjoying it~~!
Why do we even have a campfire and a beacon? What’s the point? Aren’t they redundant? Why not just start the game with a beacon and say, “Go forth and find a plot of land to claim~~” and the next mission becomes, “Make a campfire to cook food!” or somethin?
Agreed, you replace it in like 1 minute anyways, why does the campfire even exist? Make it a really, really low tier furnace maybe that can only cook food, as you suggested, so we can use it for decoration too lol.
First thing anyone gonna wanna do when they start the game is explore and find a place to make home! Let us start with a moveable beacon pleeease~ Make a later tutorial for expanding our base or something, and allow us to learn about beacons then?
It never required you to place a campfire before wandering around and picking a spot. I just did it again today and realized right away the tiny bit of land I landed on surrounded by water would never work. So, I wandered around and crossed a mountain and found a nice peaceful spot. I probably wandered over 15 minutes before I ever gathered any materials or made a campfire. It was probably an hour later that I finally made a beacon.
First of all, let me say welcome to Boundless!
That said, this is some really good feedback that I think the devs will get a LOT out of.
The “i” key does actually open your inventory, whereas the “e” key is the interaction key, which opens your inventory when interacting with a storage block or any machine, such as the workbench.
I must admit, I’ve been around for so long I just accepted that the game does this and never considered a point of view like yours. Maybe instead of your character, they put a UI for your inventory so you can see what resources you have while trying to select a recipe instead, and slightly extend the UI for recipes? It would eliminate one of the tabs for the machine UI menus and be a little more user friendly that way.
These questions have me rather concerned. If a new player doesn’t clearly understand what the purpose is for a beacon as compared to a campfire, there is a huge risk for confusion and loss of resources.
That said, I will clarify that a campfire is a temporary, 24 hour protection over a plotted area, whereas a beacon, once fueled with at least basic beacon fuel, will protect your plotted area for at least 2 weeks. When protected, only you and those with the permissions can edit or use equipment inside your protected area.
Edit: @boundmore has corrected me, campfires only last for 2 hours now.
Also, given that I have not made a new character in a long while, I do not know if the Beacon Plotter/Remover tutorial objectives have clear instructions either. If they aren’t adding those to your list would be a good idea too .
it was aimed at explorers/hunters/miners going to an unknown territory as well, as means of creating easily movable camp where you can put down some of your equipment and free inventory while going around
I’d rather have more freedom at the start is all. I can get picky. Maybe i wanna start here, or there, but it just feels weird having to make a beacon after a campfire.
i fully agree with all points apart from most with the campfire… you are not forced at all to plot as soon as you make it… but on 1.0 release you stay on starter world untill you make enough skills to get plnaet warp crystal… so not forced at all… and yes change campfire to use as food cooking… but then how would you make plot to put machines… you cant place table without plot
Suggestion to first plot…
Make first plot a free plot sheet in inventory and only one plot, not two… why make first plot give 2? thats silly
In the last week or so I have created three or four new characters and gone well past the Beacon Plotter and Remover parts of the tutorial. I have no problem at all with that. The plotter says exactly what to do and has you do it. As for the remover, it simply has a pop up that informs you that if you wish to remove a plot for any reason then make a plot remover and use that. It’s perfectly clear to me.
As for the campfire and beacon it appears clear to me too. Make a campfire when you decide to start a temporary camp. It shows you the area you just claimed and lets you know a campfire burns out after two hours so you will need a beacon and fuel if you wish to keep the spot. Shortly after it has you make a beacon and fuel. If I remember right the initial fuel it says powers the beacon for over three weeks.
There are things I think could be improved (like I think it still never tells you to use the TAB key to get to the Exchange. I found that the first time just by pressing every letter and then trying non-letters until I found the menu with the exchange listed in it), but, I think with plotters/removers and campfires, beacons, and beacon fuel it is good.
I definitely agree with you on the Exchange. I had to ask people how to get to it, because I would normally hit the escape key to open the menus, not tab. The Exchange in general needs a lot more in game clarification, as there are a number of issues with it that aren’t clear.
I never realized it as a problem, but in fact I activate machines and storage blocks by mistake on a regular basis when I actually want to open my inventory.
And I agree that the campfire is pretty pointless by now. Beacons and Basic Fuel are so cheap to produce that this extra step is not needed. I never used a campfire again other then for decoration.
There is an option to have E on/off as interacting key (unless it was removed and I missed that moment).
I like it turned on and have always preferred to be able to both interact and open inventory with the same key (as interacting with machines opens inventory anyway).
So its a matter of taste and habits I guess.
there actually used to be a bug (quite some time ago now) that when pressing E for the inventory, you would also activate a door/interact with a player character a second before the inventoryy came up, don’t know if it is fixed now but it appears to be… but i agree Have E to interact/I for inventory only
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