Economy system idea [Edit phrasing to better explain points]

Suggestions
1

Hi,

So I am not a economy expert but I had an idea reading all the comments and some suggestions.
Purpose: I really like Boundless, I been playing since 2017 and I taken part of all aspects of the game, economy on and off. So I want the game to grow, be simple to get into but rewarding to master. The economy to me is the least updated feature in the game and I believe some changes would make it easier and a very attractive feature to take part of as a veteran or fresh off the sanctum nub.

~First of all I would like to identify some of the biggest concerns I have seen when I comes to the economy.~

  1. Difficulty Shopping/selling

  2. relying extensively on out of game resources

  3. Coin injection is unreliable

Let me break down each of these issues and solution i can think of.

  1. Difficulty shopping

• Problem: the universe is chaotic, huge, we need a little help. Finding what you want in a reasonable amount of time.

• Possible Solution
A) Begin at the start with Capitals status recalculation being changed slightly. By adding an activity requirement that work along with prestige to calculate a capital score. The score will determine who gets capital at the end of the period [insert time here].

Why the change? Why add it this activity variable?
When I think of capital of the planet I think of players, builds, shops and portals and thriving community. If the variable gets add it to count items sold, unique player visits, total prestige it would enhance player experience and a guarantee that if a player shows up at the Capitol they will find some sort of activity.

B) A new machine, planetary trading machine. This machine would allow you to access all other planetary trading machines and teleport the item you want to you at the cost of postage on top of tax. Additionally you will be able to see a location token/coordinates where you can travel to. This machine will only list shops in that planet.

How will it work for shops scattered around that planet?
Upon a player being able to create the machine they can place the machine in a beacon area thus allowing any requests/shop stand in the beacon to be listed across all planetary trading machines.

C) Galaxy interatable map
Expanding on the idea by Xaldafax In Game Universe Map I was looking much like No Man Sky it has listed the economies strength. This would assist in finding the strongest economies in planets to know where to begin shopping.

How will it be implemented?
I was thinking of a new recipe, of a blank map and you can only see the planet after a atlas with all 50 locations is added to have the planet unlocked. As you keep adding planet you will see more and more planets until you have the Galaxy map filled.

  1. relying extensively on out of game resources
    •Problem: Although I don’t think there is nothing wrong with seeking outside resources but when that is the only option then maybe we need to look into making that better in game.

•Possible solution
A) changing the role of the capital to be a more activity oriented tittle to change the idea that the capital is nothing but a huge build. There is no guarantee that the capital will or will not provide any resources.

B) allowing a form to show and measure economic activity by adding the previously mentioned Galaxy map detailing economic strengths.

C) allowing a machine that lets you access the planets shops, being able to see prices to compare, with the option to travel to that location or simply get the information and let people decide if they want to go and avoid a postage fee.

  1. Coin injection is unreliable
    •problem: making coin seems unreliable, either you build near a hub to get coin, attempt to sell and buy in our universe or grind coin with a minter, all seems very unrealiable and also not everyone is able to benefit.

•possible solution
A) Tax should be distributed across all home beacons within the same planet to spread the coin between more people. This will encourage players to buy not only because you’re not only getting what you need but you’re also going to get some of that back the more sales are in your planet.

Why do this?
I think it’s better to keep the same coin in circulation that encouraging players to try to regenerate footfall. If a coin sink is what we worry about guild buffs take enough out but if that is not enough the postage system I mentioned could take over a a better coin sink than tax has ever been.

Thank you.

6 Likes
2

Hmm I see nothing wrong the way things are. Making money is easy. Finding shops is Part of exploring seeing what people have built. Plus once u know what u want seriously ain’t that hard to find it.

3

Very nice topic consolidation. I’ve said my piece on this a few times but I’m looking forward to others putting forth potential ways to make being involved in the economy more intuitive.

@superman101 It’s not about if you or I can engage easily and know what we’re looking for, etc. Finding things is a common complaint amongst a large portion of players who quit playing.

For example, you gather beans to sale to people making forge mats. You know of a few shops that buy them. You use them reliably. Well those people are getting regular mats and you’re getting regular coin but there are others who are searching for these mats or trying to buy these mats and they can’t find anyone to interact with though both are looking for each other, simply because they haven’t found the shops you’ve found. A large part of the player base doesnt engage as a result , its shown in the achievement stats. (on ps4 7% have bought items using a request basket - where as 50% have engaged in hand to hand trades)

This means we move to the forums or to discord to continue trade deals. This is not ideal. What many are looking for are ways to stream line the ability to find shops outside of leaving the game client. Being able to find shops in game should happen intuitively.

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I am one of those people who is perfectly content with how things are, but when I look at the forums and see complains it makes me wonder if things can improve.

Making money is easy, true making a lot of money may not be for everyone. I am not saying give everyone money just give them the chance to get started quicker then you or me.
As far as finding shops I would agree it’s part of exploring, however when you’re not looking for a lot of shops or care about exploring it creates an unpleasant experience. I literally spent a whole hour traveling through our chaotic builds all over our Galaxy trying to find simple request baskets to see items… The ones I found were either low money, not what I was looking for, or at a price that I would have rather keep the item instead of selling it. So I know what I want but I cant let it go for the price some folks have set up when I know the price is better I just need to find that 1 basket that offers a fair trade… But that would require more and more exploration… And honestly I would end up just going back to my store and leaving it in the shelf until someone comes by.

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5

Wow, that makes sense :exploding_head:

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My rule of thumb is generally, if people are building tools outside the game to do something the game doesn’t provide (e.g. shop scanners, high-res maps), then clearly the in-game system isn’t working for them.

+1 :+1:

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I remember forever ago there were designs for these shopping beacons that would send a signal in the air and a dot on the compass to show you that there is a shop. I don’t remember which of the older devlog post, but I remember seeing something like that.

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8

I am fine with the way the capital city works as is.

The tax system is designed to remove coin from the game, not put it into other players pockets, and it should remain that they if there is going to be a tax at all.

For the sake of inventing lore because this game needs it, maybe this can not be done because automated machines would malfunction if it tried to manipulate a portal or if the grabber arm got to close enough to it to drop/put something thru it.

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And that’s great, I just propose a way to assist people in finding there way to a good shopping area. Glad you like how things work currently, that was just a simple suggestion

.[quote=“Trundamere, post:8, topic:34271”]
The tax system is designed to remove coin from the game, not put it into other players pockets, and it should remain that they if there is going to be a tax at all.
[/quote]

I was not aware of that, I don’t talk to the devs directly so I don’t know their exact intend. I can assume as by calling it tax, I would assume that’s a small fee taken from purchase goods among other things that go towards providing some services in the real world, at the same time people also get some tax-returns. But this is a game and tax can work in different ways, if that’s the exact intend I apologise for being miss-inform, I would like to point out that tax is easily avoided through hand trades and the buff system is a bigger coin sink than tax has ever been.

Additionally, I would like to point out that my suggestion included a transportation fee when using the trading machine outside tax like postage that would not be refundable.

:joy:

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I don’t know their intent either. and what I said is based on the logical reasons of why it was done in other games, and therefore what I think is most likely the case for here aswell.

My statement is not to be taken as an authoritative statement by any means

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11

I am all for improvements…lol stired up the apple cart

12

Not familiar with that idiom, but if you’re offering to bring apples I enjoy honey crisp.

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13

I did some digging and I found the post haha!

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14

That’s an interesting idea :thinking: sounds like from the start they were trying to make shopping a unique experience? Maybe something that could be done from Sanctum/other planets and warps :thinking:

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No, you didn’t stir up anything. Just wanted to clarify why some see this as a problem and how maybe it could aid in player retention and make the economy more vibrant.

That’s all :smiley:

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16

I see ur point…But just don’t think it’s that hard. New shop if put in right location or with portals in correct location makes it easy. I do understand some people frustration…I just don’t see it…

17

I really would like there to be some way that you can take shop stands and request baskets and put them into some sort of recipe that creates a multi-block kiosk-style auction house that you can place inside a shopping area. This way you condense a shop’s inventory into as little space used as possible. It would basically have a large inventory and have advanced shop stand settings and functionality.

Some of those functions and settings would be minimum bidding price, buyout price, a listing of items of that device, inventory space equal to a dozen shop stands and request baskets, can be setup for buying or selling of items.

This kiosk could be scaled up in graphical size like fueled portals, warp portals, doors, and modular signs. So this way you could have the kiosk be function decorative building pillars that are a little bit thicker in design, have a function auction house style kiosk shopping experience, or a better outlet to store items and that basically means it would a chest of some sort.

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18

It’s aussie slang I guess…I think it’s same as. Stiring up a hornets nest…Lol

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19

I think retention can come from many things…

20

The taxes are a way for coin to leave the game otherwise footfall and the other mechanics would be increasing the coin in game forever. Eventually without adequate coin sinks you get inflation which will just make it harder for players that are new and depending on objectives to get coin.