This is all fine to debate in theory but in reality we’re here to play a game. If that experience can be made less fun, be that with money or time investment, then we should raise our concerns. That’s sort of the point.
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Fair point as long as you get similar released. If someone is sitting on the spawn points of a desired resource and they are uncommon, the new worlds would need to deal with that. Which sort of makes a point for me - why introduce a system that then would likely need active moderation, extra planets, resultant developer time, etc. to deal with. Probably wiser to think about the potential for abuse up front.
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Well that seems rather dismissive being that all I was doing was raising my own concerns too.
My concern is that Boundless gets whatever funding that it needs to thrive and grow, and that if it doesn’t get that funding, it’ll never be as good as is could be. I’m just offering an alternate point of view that highlights that, if done with the respect and the consideration that the Devs appear to be attempting, it’s doesn’t have to be the big deal it often gets made out to be.
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@james One of the thoughts I had was, if someone pays to create a world and opens it to everyone, or to a subset of players, what happens to that world when the payer decides they don’t want to pay for it anymore? Does it disappear, and all players on that world lose their builds? Does it allow another player to take over the cost?
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^ This.
If total granted plots at a current level is P, then just cap the number of plots a character can purchase at that level as 2P 2.5P, 3P, etc… or something within reason. The founder’s +% should be calculated before the plots purchasable multiplier. Allow the pseudo-levels past 50 that grant plots to raise the purchaseable limit. Throw in an absolute maximum to the purchasable number of plots (per-planet?).
Yes, people could end up with a lot of plots. They already can (and do) with the plots from the pseudo-levels past 50.
This way, at least its based on previous support of the game (founders +%) and/or time invested into the game (levels).
Though I’d also be OK with people being able to buy a higher level of plots at level 1 than a level-based system like this would allow. Maybe make it 2P, but allow P to include, say +10 or even +20 character levels worth of plots in the calculation. This way people really interested in building, could start doing so from the get-go.
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skyscrapers’s worlds only? 
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Oops apologies for coming off as dismissive, wasn’t the intent. I meant “in theory” in the sense that it’s much more likely and immediate that after release someone throws money at a particular thing to do with plots. To grind out enough plots to cause chaos would necessarily take the time you mention. It’s a long term threat which requires tenacity and dedication on the part of the hypothetical griefer. Whereas allowing purchase of them without an upper limit or rate limit would present an immediate problem. So in theory was meant to imply it’s a possible future, in my opinion less likely threat.
I too welcome funding sources for the game. I’m a lot more relaxed about purchasable convenience items than many here appear, having played a game where it was quite well handled (for a time). The plot system though seems to have a greater potential for direct and profound impact on play experience, particularly for new players. If I buy an iron hammer from a microtransaction shop to get some coal I didn’t want to leave behind, it has very little impact on any other player unless someone very short of coal is very nearby.
But if I can’t set up an outpost near a resource spot or find anywhere (subjectively) pretty that isn’t taken… I don’t know it feels more like a meaningful change in the play experience.
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5% isn’t a lot and I think that wouldn’t work out as well as you think. If someone wants to use all 1000 of their plots they have on a single planet, they should be allowed to. Taking away that option that we have now is a little restrictive and definitely pretty silly of a design choice given the entire game design philosophy around Boundless. They want to give as many choices and options to players as possible, period. Full stop. That is what James has said multiple times in the past. Restricting how many plots someone can have on a planet goes directly against that.
On top of that, what you’re suggesting makes having portal networks like the one Portal Seekers has going pretty difficult to build. It makes all the portals that Aquatopia has going on not exist cause space wouldn’t be there for all the portals.
So hard no on that one from me on anything that is going to restrict what a player can do in the game that is allowed by what the developers deem fair.
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I agree. Again I think the time or money cost of reserving even 5% of a planet would be incredible. So I don’t think this issue via the exchange is going to come up even once, not when people can rent their own planets.
Through regular gameplay gaining plots forever, over years and years, possibly it might. It depends how many planets are released periodically to make sure new players always have room to build.
All that said the point @schasm made that I agreed with was mines. Sadly even restricting someone to 5% of the planet, won’t solve someone tying up several of the best mining spots on a planet (turning them reserved or walling them off so you can’t build close) - I am thinking rarer ores than gems, as we progress and smaller deposits. Not trying to wall off huge diamond clusters :D. Again the solution to this is to release new planets periodically, if they can do that indefinitely so new players coming in can gain access to resources, then there is much less of an issue.
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This is already a non-problem due to resource regen, as they don’t regenerate in the same place. Reserved plots can also still be mined by anyone.
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Picture a small resource on the atlas. - Now picture I beacon around it. You can’t get in.
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I’ve seen people setup mines with glass so you can see the ore inside, beaconed off around it. One I saw was very elaborate and got me thinking it was a nice setup, to create his own cave almost, he just mines through the beaconed glass and he’s in to the ore. I will eventually do this in my own mine but it’ll be for a larger resource like diamond not a small limited one.
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Even blocking a single plot will take 11 plots to surround it. Credit to the person that wants to waste plots to do that. The outcome to you is no different than them just beaconing that single plot.
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I’ve seen this too. It’s by no means prevented me from obtaining those same types of resources from other place on the same planet (or even other worlds depending on the resource).
Extra: there will be more planets on release. Many more will have the same rare resources as each other. Good luck to the trolls trying to reserve all of that. Especially on my (or other players) rented world(s) where they won’t be able to plot at all.
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I am not speaking about people trolling here as others are. For me, it isn’t about one person walling off all deposits, that seems unlikely but possible. Its about several people doing it on one world with a valuable resources through natural gameplay, which seems probably. As I said it depends how small the resource deposits and how many worlds are released over time for new players as to how much this matters. - It also depends on the resource spread on the new higher tier resources, if they are like emerald or amethyst for example.
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I know. This is why I am looking at doing it. If I thought it would completely block others, I wouldn’t be. I am commenting here on it looking like an effective tactic.But one thing that requires a lot of plots, hence the relation to the topic.
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In a nut shell, James proposes a most fair sounding idea as far as monetarily supporting his game than compared with most of the games out there and their coin shops that breathe fear in the very mention of coin shops/micro transactions.
I think the term “they better be careful” may not even need to be said. The entire dev team have shown true intelligence so far, with the use of patience, and reasoning skills that prove they are planning for a successful game. Whatever it turns into, I most likely will be here for the entire duration.
Lets now sit back and welcome the new age. Because all new ages that come, come. They leave behind the civilizations, (us) that didn’t want to come with them.
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Continuing the discussion from Red Gleam Griefing:
It’s happened before, it’ll probably happen again to a certain extent. The devs have learned from the red gleam incident so I’m sure they will consider this in regards to plot ownership
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Karrade, players don’t need to make mines. They need to save locations to warp to that are meant to mine from. I have done that and so have a lot of other players. It’s how I’ve found diamond mining sites where I’ve gotten hundreds of diamonds from on top of coal, iron, copper, titanium, and fossils.
Claiming plots just to reserve them for a mine is really silly. It’s essentially wasting one of the most limited resources a player has on something that is present in the hundred some other thousand plots on the planet they are on.
But even that person should be allowed to play the game like that if they want to. It’s just a dumb use of plots IMO.
The only reason I’d ever plot claim stuff for a mining cave is if it was going to be part of an overall build’s design and I wanted to go for a certain look, feel, and visitor experience from start to finish.
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I mine a lot. @crypticworlds
I assume you are speaking to the second point? It isn’t done to reserve them for mining in the areas i’ve seen it. It’s done to create an artificial window to view ore as you walk along, like a cave only more organized and private, break the glass and into the ore as you spot it. - As for wasting plots, that’s the point of the topic, ways lots of plots could be used for a players gain.
If you are speaking to point one. Yes. But whatever I think of it, people will block off spawns if they are few and far between. Just like conversely people protect ore by reserving it with a beacon above or below. Its all dependent on availability,
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Any resources can still be mined/gathered by anyone even if it’s reserved, it’s just the plots that are reserved. It’s only until the plots are actually claimed that others can’t mine/gather resources from that plot but it also means nothing will regenerate.
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I understand all this :D.
Reserved is a good thing for miners. It is useful way of keeping ore free to mine. I am not sure you understood the type of mine I was describing.
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For reference: 5% of 331,776 is 16,588
But if someone really wanted to reserve a planet with money they could just buy new accounts…
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