HELP! What is "new content"?

I would like to be able to repair tools, this will reduce prices in the store and revive the market. Many players will not agree with this, but also many players would be easier to play. Gameplay should be friendly. I still have not mastered forging because I think it’s too difficult, I’m a little lazy) But if I could repair tools, I would not mind spending time learning forging and getting resources for it :hugs::heart:

ADDED: The ability to connect the machines to the storage boxes

Theory of Block Games says, the game is fundamentally a framework in which a number of systems interact. These systems are largely independent but can form a tiered hierarchy or tech tree.

But importantly, the best systems are those that repeatedly engage people in utilizing the core features of the game. Building, trading, and interacting with other people.

That is why everyone had a shop. There are hundreds to thousands of shops. That’s why everyone has a base, it’s required for progression. Within your base, you have some decorative or structural elements, but you also have your machines, and some storage, and these are all structures you have to build to do the game. That’s why Guilds are such a great improvement; lots of people had made guild halls before, but the new systems and things mean that there will be a lot more people getting together to make a proper “guild hall” to contain the helixes and such.

In Minecraft, especially modded, your base might expand to make a tower to put your Thaumcraft stuff in. Or you might make a little power plant that teleports lava in from a persistent block and powers things. Or you might make a little robot test room. Or you might make a factory that organizes and crafts items using pipes or something. Or you might make a nuclear plant, which needs to be separate from your base because it might blow up. These are all structures that implement the systems that are part of the game. Usually, a person is “done” after they have gone through all of the systems that they have an interest in and made their structure

And unfortunately, it’s why a lot of people make a base, then make a shop, and then do some hunts to power that shop, and check out. I think the reason that people say there is no new content, when there has been some decorative content, is because the number of systems hasn’t really changed, just the context in which those systems operate. Now, anyone can just go build anything, but ultimately… if it’s not a functional building, then you are building it for design or aesthetic purposes, which is fundamentally less rewarding than making something that people can interact with.

Now, Boundless isn’t Minecraft, but the fundamental rules of those systems stay the same. So the TL;DR for my answer is,

New content is anything that gives you a new thing to build. That’s basically the bottom line. You could say, hey, titans are not that, so what gives? And I will say, the main reason you would fight a titan, AFAIK, is to get the heart so you can build like a skyship or something. Everything comes back to building.

So I am super excited for Guilds, because as I said, it gives people new reasons to get together and build cool stuff. I am super excited for Farming, because people will start to build farm structures or greenhouses in their base (if that interests them). But similarly, ideas include

  1. Land transit like trains. People are currently accessing everything via portals. But if you had trains, it would give you the chance to see things between points A and B, that you would not otherwise stop and look at. I think the snowball hunt was cool because it actually got people roaming on the planets where there were things to see, and people LOVE making long roads and infrastructure, so land transit would be something that gets people building AND gets them to see more of the nonfunctional things that have been built.

  2. Titans, for obvious reasons, technology permitting

  3. Stadium games. People are doing the best they can with bombs, spleef, etc. but simple logic elements in a machine that just, detects the presence of a person or a ball or something would give people the option of making more games to play.

  4. Higher tier worlds requiring armor or other prestige equipment. Could be something like an “infuser” machine which takes lots of resources but allows you to access a higher tier or spark-rechargeable resource. I am thinking like, a hammer with a special ability that hits like a bomb used to and exposes materials, but can only be used a limited number of times before needing to be recharged by a spark infuser or something.

  5. Renewable energy! Think windmills or solar panels that generate small amounts of spark per hour. Gives people a reason to build those structures if they want to for aesthetic or functional reasons. But this would make sense with more use of the spark mechanic.

And you get the idea. There are a lot of things you can do. I think you guys are on the right track. But the more people have things to build, functional buildings with high potential to interact with others, the better.

3 Likes

The old graphics were great, i miss it very much. Likely that this is a victim to crossplatform.

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I’d like a good lore injection, some directions as to why/who/where. The sanctuary guy judgemental look down on us is killing me…

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Meaningful additions to the game, particularly I would use “new content” meaning new systems or clear packs of content I guess. Now you’ve made me think about it I’d say specifically new:

  • systems
  • enemies
  • blocks, meshes & objects
  • ways to interact with the world
  • player goals

Thinking in terms of that list then:

Systems

  • Lore in the world - e.g. objects or prefabs that can bestow knowledge, or can be interacted with to achieve objectives or just present narrative/context, and those being collectable in Knowledge tab would keep those kind of players happy.
  • Buff improvements - more choice, stacking, higher cost recipes for longer duration or death-proofing or both. How comes a bloomin’ wildstock can have more buffs than me, a mighty Citizen? Personally I’d prefer fixed-benefit buffs that aren’t time-based so I don’t lose as much from frequent AFKs but that’s seems like quite a lot of work for little gain.
  • Deepen objectives and achievements - perhaps from 5 tiers to 8 with only 8 being very high numbers. Make more XP available from there and it more likely one’ll ever see it.
  • Skills - cheaper cost, more of them to choose from. Something like the Quirks re-work would be good, e.g. Improved Breathing 1-5, Water Walking Epic and to play with some other player variables we haven’t got our hands on yet.
  • Colours/lighting - this still needs work - refined stone blocks (and others) and their lighting, night should be somewhat darker, day/night cycles could be longer, too-strong world colours need fixing, gleam seems like it is not what it was, many of the colours in the available palette seem muted.
  • Caves like Early Access
  • Combat - Lances, unarmed melee/martial arts skill line, greater Fist variety
  • Reduced recipe costs across the board. Recent recipe additions have been sadly the opposite.
  • Expose more fundamental content with less investment and do more to get the early game to get players to stay - e.g. make better jump & run speed super cheap and a viable option before all the other necessities in their skill tree. Or make short-lived but excellent, dual-wield grappling at L3 a real possibility. An alternative could be a Training Mission type area available from Sanctum where you can get a taste of what’s to come early on. Story-driven games can do this with flash-forwards and whatnot but it’s a bit more tricky here. It just pains me to think how many people play and leave again before they’ve understood how fun the movement in this game can be.
  • Tied into the above and perhaps connected to the notion of “Oortstral Projection” I “joke” about below, I would suggest the game would benefit from a way to show players the terrain variety and colour of later worlds early on. Perhaps a way to sacrifice any benefit gain (you can’t interact with the world or engage enemies?) but be able to freely explore other landscapes and get excited. It takes a lot of time to get good enough to survive on some of the most stunning scenery in game, not just atmosphere skills specifically but the long road to get there. It’d be nice if people could still get hooked on the amazing world hopping early as I could when I joined the game during EA.
  • Other new in-game professions/activities like Farming.
  • Some way to leave comments/likes on others’ builds.
  • More player control over the UI, movable elements, individual element sizing, hiding, show on hover, etc. What you’d expect from the MMO side of the game. Player designed skins.
  • Temporary planets

Enemies

  • New enemies. At least hunters, preferably more.
  • Improved AI. Particularly for higher tier mobs and higher tier as-yet-unseen worlds. Something that isn’t just a bigger bag of HP would be good, e.g. mobs that occasionally self-heal, seek cover and snipe, flank, etc.
  • New spawning systems with greater variety or goals - not just a herd plopping out of thin air and then no enemies for minutes/many squares, e.g. designed encounters like fighting your way down a cavern to a lava floor through levels of mobs, rituals to summon greater numbers, other fancy tweaks to make it more heterogeneous basically.
  • Variety in loot drops - e.g. very small chance for rare drops or new, different creatures could drop more than just their body parts.

Blocks, meshes, assets & objects

  • MORE!
  • Seriously though, more props, wall fixings, etc. first would be good, many beautiful buildings with bare interiors out there.
  • Display stands that show existing object rotation animations to either show off your loot/crafting or to add movement to a build design if used creatively.
  • Toggle to show chunk boundaries in plot view so we can plan machines & meshes better.
  • Toggle to show a block level grid in plot view
  • Glass with thinner edges.
  • Actual window meshes that serve a different purpose to glass blocks (now we can fudge one with signs we may as well have an actual window mesh).
  • I would love a way to set my chisel to e.g. always hit the top right corner of the face I’m hitting until I next set it to another edge or empty the setting. For example, I hold SHIFT and chisel the top-right corner. It now always chisels that corner no matter where I hit the block until I tell it otherwise. Chiselling can be far too fiddly at scale.
  • More outfits, light-emitting body paint, other races.
  • Blink, Dark Matter, Rift.

Ways to interact with the world

  • Lore (see above)
  • Vehicles of some kind or, as that’s expensive to develop, a compromise system like “oortstral projection” or similar where you can travel differently without new objects & systems
  • Cheap, short-lived blocks for “wasting” on public space (e.g. graffiti, decor, fun events, temporary bridges across lava, the excellent suggestion from another poster of scaffolding).
  • Private worlds and the control and tweaking fun that will bring.

Player goals

  • Achievements tweaks - In-game achievements (see above), improved rewards for consecutive timed feats (not just “Get n XP for the week” but also "If you hit all the week’s feats you also get this, or unlock this extra objective), greater variety in daily objectives’ goals and the play systems with which they interact.
  • Post Level 50… not sure what this needs but it needs something. The cubit treadmill is fine if you’re a 500-tabled masochist with a desire for cubits but if you dislike the skill set system and don’t need more plots it doesn’t leave you with much to aim for. Perhaps a reincarnation system where you can go back to L1 with a extra Skill Point available in your active Skill Set (with a cap on it at 120 or something).
  • Easier way to update existing builds - e.g. upgrade boon for chisels - did you build your first castle out of stone because you’d just started but now you want bricks? Take an upgrade chisel to upgrade blocks through their tiers! Perhaps it could be expensive and/or wear quickly to disallow avoiding usual timesinks. I’m thinking people might want to keep their build and not knock it down & rebuild it. Provides other routes to build/block progress. Or maybe a block swap mode where you can give with one hand and take with other to achieve same.
  • Prefabs that act as dungeons with perhaps puzzles as well as mobs (seems you’re half way there with LED blocks & chisels to set them). XP rewards for e.g. finding the attached lore or getting a drop off a boss mob. Preferably available per player rather than per world to avoid tedium & camping.
  • Lore (see above)

I don’t expect this is all achievable I just figured you wanted all the ideas here. 2019-2021 maybe. :slight_smile:

10 Likes

I’m tipping my hat to this fine idea.

7 Likes

I would like to see some lore content as well. This could take the form of a Core Oortian world that cannot be plotted by players and is only accessible via time limited portals. The portals could be activated by an event like a mass meteor hunt. The loot on the planet could be a mix of decorative relics and usable tech.

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+1 I love this idea.

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Where do I sign up?

Yes! I said this in a much less elegant way amongst my wall of text. Well put.

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Maybe the moon is how you do an instance but keep it in theme?

There could be moon mobs (Clangers) that actually seek players, so miners would need a protection team. The actual moon rock (regolith) could have no value (decay to dust?), but the mined rewards appear as a node that everyone gets - like a mini meteorite. It could have valuable rock for decor.

How to get to them? Every now and then a starry monolith would appear on a known world - even underground. It will have a countdown timer. When the timer ends the portal opens for the life of the moon. You can leave by the portal and it is automatically bookmarked. After a while the moon vaporizes. Anyone left on it will return to sanctum with a free(?) portal home(?)

How about conveyor belts? Take a look at TerraTech crafting. Do that with your existing machines.

You would need:

  • vertical and horizontal belts
  • filter belts
  • storage buffers
  • callers and senders

I think people would have a lot of fun optimizing factory blocks. Especially if they have nice animations. In fact, people might even have belt arrangements for decor.

One more thing I thought of was critter variety.

I’m not talking new mobs, but maybe take a slight cue from No Man’s Sky. By that, I mean variety among a single type.

For example, wildstock is wildstock. But Wildstock could have 10 different faces, ten different body types, ten different limb types. Have those elements randomize on each instance. Getting a random, unique name for each one would be cool too.

They don’t even have to truly be random. Have the “back end” code do a one time randomization for each world and get, lets say, 50 different, permanent varieties with unique names. You only have to use the randomizer that one time (or whenever a new world is added). Not only could that provide much needed variety, but discovering and killing all 50 could be a great hunters goal, especially if you broke it into 5 different reward tiers.

It would also be great when, and if, we ever get and kind of animal husbandry.

2 Likes

It’s got to be something exciting and rewarding and intuitive. I have previously suggested easily droppable builds using a blueprint item. This would basically allow a player to pack up a plot worth of blocks into a blueprint, which could then be placed on any free unbeaconed area for fighting meteors or doing copy and paste on a build, or even for selling. That or something purely combat related would be awesome.

Also I just realized I’ve been calling 3x3 AOE hammers 9x9. I could do with a 9x9 hammer. :sweat_smile::kissing_heart:

1 Like

Storage epic let’s you have bigger inventory would be great

6 Likes

I would say content is adding in new things to game such as,

  • more decorative blocks/meshes
  • more creatures
  • making the variants of creatures standout more from the standard version
  • getting objects and things shown in dev blogs and dev art in the game

For me, new content is any update that gives players something new to do. This includes new blocks to farm or craft, new items, new systems, new creatures. Pretty much anything except balance changes, bug fixes and QoL improvements, and non-craftable cosmetic items.

The main thing I’d like to see is more things for groups to do together. Titans are the immediate and obvious answer, but non-combat group activities would be great and would really compliment the new guild system. I am also really looking forward to farming, which is already in the pipeline. Finally, some system that would make participating in the economy easier would be great. Having the economy be player driven is wonderful, but the result has been hundreds upon hundreds of shops that mostly buy and sell a seemingly random assortment of objects. Finding the object you want at the price you want, or being found by potential costumers takes way more effort than it is worth at present.

New content for me is a themed drop of content for example I would like to see…

Armor sets in the game that we can forge for different levels of protection and environmental protection.

Make things repairable each time you repair an item the durability falls by 25 percent.

Paintable armor, augments for armor,
Spark infused armor charge it for buffs built into the armor spark runs out then the armor looses its buffs till recharged.

Armor stands to show off your armor in home or in shop windows.

Spark tools used for the spark armor spark blade for the wrists for melee combat.

Dive suit for long journeys under water air tanks for the dive suit. With goggles, flippers, and mouth piece.

Gliders for those who want to live in the sky and glide over the world.

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Also, and “high end” players will scream bloody murder about this suggestion, but what this game needs is not “harder” content, just “more” content.

Like, drop 20 new block types that are T1-3 (IE: Stone-refined-decorative).

The new blocks look great, but I have been playing since PS4 launch and I have all of 26 shadow orbs. That’s it. Not even enough for a single mass craft of super enriched. I farmed for 90 minutes the other day and only came up with ten (and died twice along the way because I was using my gatherer. Stupid cuttles.)

These two threads come to mind and cover a lot.
Also, shameless plug:

Most new content suggestions that are important to me have already been mentioned, but I’m just gonna go ahead and reinforce that. :wink:

Farming is being worked on, so yay!

Pets

More creatures. Even ones that don’t fight. Maybe a little scurry critter. Maybe something uncommon I can feed that puts out a pheromone buff. Could be the “Boundless Bird Watching Club”

Mounts - I don’t care if I have to pull them out like a Pokemon, I just want em! Some games have used skills or instruments to “call” them

Something to go over water with-- hover skates, board, whatever. And maybe lava too if I’m being greedy.

Races!!!

What happened to this? They’re amazing!

Clothes and accessories-- even just adding one or two on a regular basis would be nice. Not quarterly, please. Maybe make it a skill and we can have tailors

Faces, looks, general ways to make my character stand out from everyone else

Hair!! Lol everything is so bald

Interactables–can I sit in that chair?

Decorations.

Plants, flowers, maybe botony skills? Flower arrangement to go with the decorations.

Fishing!! One of the best waste-away-your-day pastimes.

Hrm… Well, I’m sure I forgot plenty, but I’m also sure someone else mentioned it at some point. Also, those links.

Maybe an arena for those pvp’ers

Thank you so much for all your hard work and open-mindness!

1 Like