Free to play version, buy to unlock

Suggestions
1

English is not my main language, so forgive my spellings…

Don’t get me wrong, let me explain why this suggestion first:
The learning curve of this game is not that great for mid-end game content, I started playing on the free weekend, and If I didn’t research a lot about the game mechanics of the game, I would probably have stopped playing (Happened to a few friends, that didn’t see progression). one weekend was not enough to see what the game has to offer, I did buy it to give it a chance, and I enjoyed it a lot, I belive that most players from the free weekend didn’t see enough of the game.

Also, a lot of game aspect, like player driven economy, cities and stuff require a bigger player base than the game actually seens to have, the game feels empty, I feel like I am alone in the world most of the time.

I do appreciate the devs work, what I am suggesting here, is not to make the game free as it is, but enable some free to play aspects, so we have more population and people can actually see the game

This is what I suggest (Don’t mind the numbers, all could be better balanced, those are just examples)
Making the game free to play with some strong limitations, for example
*Maximum free players per world, or even on the whole game (waiting list if necessary)
*Limit max plot count to 10
*Limit max level to 30
*Do not allow guild creation
*Limit access to some higher tier planets
*3 Days max fuel on claims
*Some trade limitations to prevent multiple account abuse
*EDIT: Only allow to claim on an already existing settlement
*EDIT: Max daily stammina regen cap
*EDIT: Limit some skills like ‘bulk crafting’

What I mean is some strong limitations, so it would be more like an “infinite trial time”, and the game currently price could be moved to a DLC “Full Access”, a one time purchase like it is right now.

I belive that this would help to populate the game, and probably would incentivate people to buy it way more than the free weekend.

This wouldn’t be pay2win since it would be a only time purchase to unlock the game and not a bunch of microtransactions, the game in my opinion becomes more attractive the more you play it, I didn’t consider buying it before, when I was just watching and reading about it, but it did grow on me after playing a lot

EDIT:
*EDIT: Only allow to claim on an already existing settlement
Would be a nice thing to people who has the game and want their settlement built, also would help a lot on new players getting in contact with other people, improving the community aspects

7 Likes
2

Your English is excellent.

These are good points, although I’m sure the Devs have considered or are considering this approach.
They have proved with the F2P weekend that that have a long term ambition to make the game huge + I can’t imagine a big company like Square Enix investing in the game unless the business model was sound.

What I’m getting at is, give it time and see where they take us. It’s going to be a mostly fun ride, I’m certain. (even if at times it can feel a little frustrating)

2 Likes
3

Well, I do not suggest this to myself actually, since I already bought the game…

Just the way I see, is that the game would benefit more from this approach way better than this is right now,
since aspects like growing the game and the community, and not forgetting that the devs want to have a profit from it.

The game was around a long time ago, but the first time I heard about it was like 2 weeks before the free weekend

4

I don’t know how practical it is, but it’s certainly not the worst idea I’ve heard.

And welcome aboard!

5

Dayem! That’s a lot of interesting ideas that I have to digest for a week or 2. Welcome to Boundless!

You are right about seeing the game for what it really is - some do, some don’t. Often people arrive with an idea of what they will find, and don’t get much further. It’s really hard to show all the games potential in a few hours without making it simple to do - if that makes sense?

I watch a regular YouTuber who has people on the streams say “it’s like minecraft 2?” - he replied “man, it’s like minecraft 10” LOL

3 Likes
6

Thats not the only point, Having free players would also benefit players that alrady bought the game, specially on the market aspects or on the settlement idea

7

It’s definitely interesting. Maybe they can only warp/portal to up T3 worlds. Enough to do a meteorite. Max plots sounds good. Maybe max fuel in beacon. They would be able to take part in T1-T3 economy and footfall - that would be nice. Max Alts?

8

To be honest, I don’t think economy should be limited, I belive their crafting should be, so they are forced to participate in the economy, because economy would benefit players that already bought the game having costumers…

My concern is about people abusing it by multiple account.

Maybe locking coins from reward boxes until a limit, I don’t know exactly

Agree on max alts and max fuel (I did wrote about max fuel)

3 Likes
9

Yeah for the economy i meant more that they could only farm lower level worlds. No reason why they couldn’t take part in the wider economy.

It actually starts to sound like a cool free game :slight_smile: So … I guess it can’t be SO good they don’t feel the need to buy it and contribute to the game’s future!

1 Like
10

Oh yeah, Thats why I said “strong limitations” They need to be incentivated to buy the game

1 Like
11

This is an excellent idea, possibly they have considered something like this already. Though with all the features being added in future updates. It might be better to wait on something like this until there is more leverage to pull this off as far as content and development goes. But Iit sounds like a solid plan to me for the future

12

Good suggestion, and nice limitations.

I think the max level being 30 is a little high, maybe 15-20 instead? Many ppl have alts that can function well under 30.

The plot limitation is a very good idea. And reasonable.

Maybe don’t restrict planets, but simply go the restricted skill route and disable the planet protections. Less messy that way.

The limit to 3day fuel seems harsh, imo. That’s like a long weekend and if they end up being gone for a holiday or unplanned event, they might just quit altogether if they loose it all.

No hand trading seems fair, but give full access to shop stands to support the economy. Might as well give them whatever coins they would legitimately earn too.

I’ve played games that don’t allow new players to speak in chat until a certain time or level has been reached. It can be a little frustrating, but I understand it is to cut harassment. So I think that could work here too.

Edit: and no alts allowed until buying the game. You get one character.

Good idea, welcome to Boundless. :blush:

2 Likes
13

This would 100% bypass any abuse protections for preventing people from making free alts to farm and or mutli-box with, since they can then sell the stuff back to their main account for either nothing or very cheaply.

However I am not sure how big of an impact it would be on a game like boundless to allow free mutli-boxers, The main thing I can think of is loot amplification when hunting. so it may just be worth allowing it and not trying to stamp it out.

14

True, but wouldn’t that be pretty much the same as a paying player making an alt or 6? And their alts would have no limitations.

Seems like more of a hassle to make a free character instead of just getting an alt.

The only difference/problem I can see is it’s a different account, and not as easily tracked to find their link together, if that ever needs to be addressed.

15

There should not be any more free weekends of any kind until many of the games issues are fixed.

16

Sorry for my poor english.
The Game price is not the biggest problem.
The biggest problem with this game is its non-existent marketing campaign.
Yesterday in Twitch, 3 streamers playing it with 7 spectators.
Boundless is a great Game but a few people knows It.

2 Likes
17

I get the idea behind this suggestion, but I think it would end up with some pretty severe negative consequences. The game would certainly benefit from a larger player base, and this would certainly grow the player base, but it would also result in lots more dead accounts, and because of the plotting system, this would really hurt the game. There is also, as someone else mentioned, some opportunities for abuse by making lots and lots of F2P accounts.

They way Beaconing works would mean F2P does more harm then good to Boundless I think. There are possible ways around it though. For instance, they could open new F2P worlds, and make it so only F2P players could beacon on those worlds, but They couldn’t beacon on any of the current worlds. They could also make it so the only fuel available to F2P was 72 hours or something like that that would make it so dormant F2P accounts would stop cluttering up worlds fairly quickly.

18

3 day plots would be okay I think. Maybe limit to 2 plots and limit to level 5?

19

Agreed, the non existent marketing is a huge problem. A few thousand dollars spent on Facebook ads would go a long way.

I previously suggested (only semi jokingly) that fans take this into their own hands, and instead of buying gleam club for $5 a month, show your support for the game by buying $5 in Facebook or google ads a month!

20

That’s a bit rude tbh :sweat_smile: The developers probably know better if they need to spend that 5$ in ads or something else.