Already answered with my reply above:
Everyone gets the new glass sign modules, can add text to them - just like the previous signs. Def not something to rage quit over imo 
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I don’t even like the emojis, I agree with @Jeffrotheswell, it’ll be like when LEDs came out and they’ll be everywhere. But back when they made colored signs GC only, I said it was a slippery slope and I would probably quit if they continued down that path.
I’ll see how it goes. But the emoji are basically a new block type (hundreds of block types) for creative use and will be reserved for paying players only. That’s always been where I drew the line: new block types.
Fair nuff. But what if next they add seamless metal blocks and only GC can craft them and/or place them. Or elevators, only for GC members. James is clearly comfortable going down that slippery slope.
If the price point of the game were $20 it would be a totally different story.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
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Emojis are blocks now?
Oh no wait, they’re not. They’re just special characters to use on signs…
Also we get 2 types of glass signs!!! So exciting!!!
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I haven’t really anything on this beyond a like or two… but I think my official stance right now is I am kind of ok with the emoji (even though I do agree not all fit the theme of Boundless) but I am against the ability to make HUGE signs of them. That is what I don’t really like most about the update because of how it affects the overall game play.
I still believe that @James will add Boundless ones and even personal vectors at some point in the future. This was adding the technical level that wasn’t there… so it makes sense to grow it in ways based on use.
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They’ve been working on the next set of releases too. There is a huge content update that this is only part of… so they can only release parts as things are fully ready.
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I could be totally wrong, but most people try to create things that are nice & will bring visitors. I don’t think most people are planning to plaster huge yellow smiley faces on the sides of the beautiful builds. These emoji also cannot be seen once you are more than a few plots away from them.
I think most will use these emoji to direct, describe, label, and/or decorate in fun ways. I could see people using them to let people know what they sell in their stores, what items are in their storage, which direction town/housing/etc is, build aquariums, decorative borders…
Also…these will add to the mesh limit so ppl will have to use them somewhat sparingly.
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Why can’t we get some kind of information on when releases are coming? When will this release drop? What are they working on? What’s in the pipeline? Why is this information so hard to get?
that’s the coolest part of it 
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Oh, come on, you know what I mean. Please don’t be pedantic. Emojis on glass are essentially a ton of new block types for people to be creative with. But you can only use them creatively if you pay a monthly fee. I’d be ok with them charging a one time unlock for this (or new block types), but a monthly fee seems too far.
If people are OK with this, be aware that at least one of the following is next (based on seeing what has happened in other games with RMT slippery slopes)
T8 planets with new monsters only accessible to people with GC
Only people with GC can access new exos for the first four hours after spawning
Shields, lances and guns only craftable by people with GC
New block types only craftable by people with GC
New farmable crops only plantable by people with GC
No, I’m not saying all of these are next. But if you’re ok with this change, you should expect at least one of these next.
Again, I have 6 months of gleam club, to be clear. And I think the emojis are neat and people will use them in creative ways. And I’m not opposed to monetization, and emojis aren’t that big a deal. But they’re the first step in a slippery slope.
None of this is true, nor is it coming in the future just bc Boundless tossed in some unicode emojis for fun.
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You don’t know that. I would love to see James say that none of those are coming next, and to CLEARLY delineate where the line is.
Also, I don’t oppose fun. I just oppose paywalling fun.
If the game had more new content more frequently, this would be less of an issue. But this is the first new item to build with since August.
When colored text came out, people said that WS wouldn’t take it further.
We could speculate and be on the what-ifs merry-go-round to infinity 
This is just a quick, fun thing they are adding in with the update…no biggie. The meat and bones are the two new glass sign modules, the reclaim feature, spark, etc etc.
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I think it’s a biggie. But people are entitled to their own opinions.
From what I see some of the priorities change or sometimes coding doesn’t work or isn’t really ready or the asset didn’t show from the sub-contract, etc. A million things… I do think we get warning via the posts but just do not have the full details on the delay. In this case, I don’t even have the details why things didn’t come our earlier and emoji wasn’t on a radar I knew about… but I also do not bother them ever asking status or for anything minus a chat here and there.
Overall, though, communication with the community is a challenge. Use this situation here - some like emoji and some don’t. So how can they decide who is right? We have details on each side of the discussion but most of the points brought up were not “actionable” or really gave details on why something is good or bad. The closest I saw in the comments that was actionable was the ones around either removing certain emoji or making them more Boundless looking. But, as we hear they have that planned somewhat. At the end of the day this decision to add them WAS thought out and was put in for a specific strategy. I’ve never seen them do any flippant decisions and most of the times the community just doesn’t see the longer term win. I would be this was all for the technology layer that was added here more than the “emoji” part.
Personally I don’t like to speak about “soon” stuff because many of the things that are in the works need to be contextualized and shared in the correct way that James wants. So they do it when they are ready and feel they have all the information and things lined up so it makes sense. I believe community response over the years has caused some of this too… Sometimes the long term stuff needs to gel into a reality and an actual plan before it can be shared.
Case in point - I knew about creative (as an option) probably about 8-10 months before the first post. James was looking for a big change to draw in other people. Creative came up as one of a long list of ideas… it wasn’t until many months later that it was committed on and executed. And even there it is still in experimental mode. So even if I could have shared it wouldn’t have landed right because they needed to develop it into the real form it was to be and how it would integrate in. Not to mention I basically agreed to not share things that I am told when in long term pipeline or concept phase. It isn’t fair to them in my view plus it could disappear and not happen anyway which I’ve seen.
All I can say in the long run is I do wish people would try to understand more on why the Devs are careful with their communications instead of beating them up so much. Believe they are doing it for good reasons and that in the long run it is more helpful to us.
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I don’t know why this is GC versus everyone. But I would guess it was because colors were part of GC and this falls into that kind of. At least it will be limited spam if people’s concerns come to reality.
I do agree it would be nice to James to clearly draw a line but many of these things are emergent game play - and he REALLY likes that. Let the game evolve and see where things go.
I do not agree that they will lock content behind GC. They want more people playing the game not less and are putting things in place in the long term to drive that. I have never seen him like a “gate” in front of people… just risk/reward - cost/benefit.
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I appreciate all this insight but you have to understand that, as the customer, what we see is the following:
- Used to get releases every two weeks
- Last release was almost 3 months ago
Purely from a customer standpoint, this gives the appearance of a game that is either a) on its last legs or b) directionless. I, personally, don’t want Boundless to be either.
I also worked in the game industry for a while. I work in IT and deliver very complex software for a living now and have for the last decade. I know very well how challenging long-term projects can be to deliver on as things constantly change, priorities shift, new people enter the fray, and money ebbs and flows between tight and plentiful. That doesn’t change the fact that, at the start of it all, there’s a roadmap with a high-level vision and that vision, regardless of all the changes along the way, gets delivered on or else you scrap the entire project and start from scratch.
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I do completely get that and agree it is hard to stop perception without information. I just don’t know how they could show that the game isn’t on its “last leg” because people can still find ways to make the argument. As for the directionless - it isn’t but really only hindsight can show why it makes sense. I think many people would argue each of the updates since release haven’t been the right ones. While some of us see the progress of “why it was needed” over other things.
I think scrapping would be a bit extreme. But, from my view just based on what I have seen is that they are trying to pivot a bit and add specific things to increase players. Find what is broken in the model and get the sauce special enough so more people stick around than leave. If that isn’t done the game will have bigger problems. Personally I think the direction they are on is much more important than “titans” or many others things. Fix the growth curve! Their vision is still there just slower because of the issues we have seen.
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Emojis have been restricted to gleam club since they were added. August 2018:
?? This isn’t even a change.
EDIT: I just linked that particular post because it was the easiest I found showing that emojis were in game, working, and restricted to GC for over a year and a half now.
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Emojis in signs is what I meant. My apologies for not being more specific.
But I think what he meant was that the old chat emojis are technically the same ones as the ones we’re getting in signs.
So then it does make sense that you unlock both chat emojis and sign emojis at the same time.
However, when they add the 2x2 and 3x3 glyphs and other symbols designed for the game, if those are limited to GC, yeah, I’ll agree that it’d suck.
But please, don’t go putting pressure on the devs saying stuff like “if you guys do this, I’m not playing your game anymore”. That’s an unfair way to make a point, IMHO.
And that’s coming from someone who finds these emojis horribly ill-fitted to the game.
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