Ideas for Creative Mode

Suggestions
1

With a creative mode on the way, my interest in the game is reinvigorated and I wanted to to take a moment to jot down my “perfect” scenario around this mode. Note that this is my current “perfect” scenario as there are surely things I haven’t even thought about that would be great changes or additions.

1. Creative mode and standard mode coexisting

I’d love for creative mode and standard mode to coexist in the same universe. That is to say that all planets, be them creative or not, would be part of the same persistent universe. To accommodate this, we’ll obviously need some safeguards which brings me to my next points:

2. Anything “spawned” via creative mode is flagged as such and unusable on standard planets

Obviously it would be game breaking if someone could spawn things willingly on a creative planet and then make use of it (building, selling, etc) in standard mode. Objects in Boundless should be extended to allow for states or flags denoting their origin.

3. Anyone can travel to, explore and even gather from creative planets

Since the creative planets are connected to the same universe as all other planets, anyone should be able to port to them and explore. I’m even cool with gathering being allowed here so long as the planet owner(s) permit it (more on this in a second). Items gathered from creative planets (note: gathered, not just “picked up” as to prevent someone from dropping creative-spawned blocks for someone to pick up and take back to standard - thus the “flagging” of objects mentioned above).

4. Creative planets are the result of purchases from players

You can spend cubits or pay with real $$$ to spawn a creative planet. When you pay for such a planet, you are that planet’s owner and therefore set the permissions for it. For example, the ability to place beacons the planet must be granted by the owner. The ability to gather from the planet should also be a permission.

5. Coin maintains its current purpose and creative-spawned items cannot be chrysominted, sold, or bought.

Obvious one here but coin should remain as it does today. If you want to buy things, go to standard planets. Earn coin as you would today. Participate in the economy. Creative mode doesn’t care about coin. It’s for pure building and, well, being creative without the constraints of having to gather and craft everything.

6. Objects from standard planets can be acquired as they are today and used freely on creative planets

Another obvious one but if you leave a creative planet and go gather things on standard planets, you should be able to bring those back to your creative planet and use them. This brings me to my next point:

7. While the vast majority of items should be available in creative mode instantly, I’d be fine with some objects only being available in standard.

Some may balk at this and may want creative to have free reign to every object in the database. If so, that’s cool but I think it would be great for the community if there were some items only available in standard. This might possibly take the form of only seasonal items or it could be a bit more.

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  1. It would be neat to be able to visit creative mode planets to go see what others have made.
  2. and 3. I think that nothing whatsoever should be able to be brought back and forth from planets of the two modes. It would be a good idea for instance to either lock your complete inventory from being usable or that you can’t go to and from creative mode planets when your inventory is not empty.
  3. It might also not be so easy to just flag materials as coming from a creative planet since it would mean every single object in the game would need to have that flag.
  4. Currently you can only run the server for a creative mode planet on your own PC, am sure they will keep it like that in some form when it finally releases but also kinda figure that the eventual rental planets will be using this code for when people want to rent a creative mode only planet.
  5. On Testing there is no way to get coin for say guild buffs, etc. so to test those out I gave myself high value mats which I then chrysominted. If a player wants to play in Creative Mode and add some guild buffs they would be forced to go to regular planets in order to get coin, am sure many will not like that idea at all.
  6. Why would anyone go gather on a standard planet and use them on creative when they can just give it to themselves?
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3

This goes pretty deep.

Each block or item essentially will end up needing it’s own database.

If characters can move between creative planets and ‘normal’ planets IMO there should just be an inventory wipe with the transition.

While this means doubling inventory data for basically every character in the game, it would be far less than what would be required to track in the sort of scenario you’re describing here.

4

I agree & this is a must. Just like people switching back and forth from the test server. You can visit, but nothing can leave nor be brought in from the outside.

5

I’m fine with that but then it also invalidates my point about some items only being available on standard planets as a way to bring communities together. For example, perhaps seasonal events only run on standard planets and the items from them cannot be “given” to yourself on creative planets.

6

That is not true. A simple flag would suffice and could be achieved via a single column to an existing table or collection of tables.

You’re going to have some really unhappy players that accidentally have their inventory wiped. Just flag items from creative and it solves the problem.

7

I’ve kind of pushed some of these ideas as well and agree with most of the approach. I think the Devs are already on board in some context for many of these things if they can code it. Here are some adjustments on my views to the OP:

This would only be an option for me if the planets people create cannot be adjusted or hacked in a way. If they are standard extensions of planets in our MMO universe then I would be ok with it. We wouldn’t want someone spawning a planet with 5000% diamonds or 1 million sweet beans so that their friends from the MMO universe can just come over and get easy resources. If they can find a way to keep things going back and forth safely with no hacks and staying within Universal rules then I would be more than fine with it. No one knows how easy or hard this might be so the Devs should decide if it is feasible and allowed or not.

The current system has people running creative planets on their own computers. So I wouldn’t want to pay money or cubits for that. If we are talking about “server based planets” that the Devs run for people then I would lean toward money.

8

This is fine :+1: if it’s between planets that follow the live universe rules (Exos, rental planets, etc).

A creative mode planet would not follow the rules - therefore, I could only see allowing the public to visit or play there (if it’s connected)…not move materials to the live universe (which would harm the economy & make crafting pointless).

Just like you can’t bring items back from the test server.

9

No you just have a creative inventory, and a live inventory.

If you are mixing universes and allowing materials to move it needs provenance. Is this block:

  • Mined on live with live hammer
  • Mined on creative with live hammer
  • Mined on creative with creative hammer
  • Mined on live with creative hammer (?!)
  • Mined on creative with live hammer forged on creative
  • Mined on creative with live hammer forged on live
  • Mined on creative with creative hammer forged on creative
  • Mined on creative with creative hammer forged on live (?!)
  • Mined on live with creative hammer
  • Mined on live with creative hammer forged on live
  • Mined on live with creative hammer forged on creative
  • Mined on live with live hammer forged on creative
  • Mined on live with live hammer forged on live

Accidentally forged your live hammer on creative?
What if I mined a block on live but type changed it on creative?
Crafted an item with creative ingredients but exo gleam?

Etc …

It’s a lot.

10

I do not think any of us know if this is true or not. A creative mode currently allows people to GIVE themselves items but doesn’t allow customization of that world (resources) yet. So you still are within all the rules minus just items showing up. So if a MMO player goes to creative land and there is no way to put “spawned items” into my inventory, then I should be able to mine items just fine.

As long as they can easily map creative “spawned” items to a different inventory than “mined and gathered” then we should be fine.

We have no full details on if this is possible or not. Even I haven’t gotten into anything with the Devs beyond a conversation to have a clear 2 system inventory - creative/non. There was a conversation of allowing items to flow from MMO to creative but not other way around. We didn’t get into “mined/gathered” items though.

As long as flags can’t be hacked this might be an option and people shouldn’t take things off the table until we have more information of what is and is not possible. So many people complain we don’t have enough worlds… this could open it up exponentially if we can keep those worlds within the “rules” basically.

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There are many games that have different modes, including creative. None of them let you bring materials from a different mode. Roblox won’t even let you bring items from mini game to mini game. MC warns you when you go into creative mode that all achievements are blocked & it’s permanent. When you access a RS tournament server, you are given access to every weapon in the game…when you leave, you can’t take them with you - it would ruin the economy.

= same as the current BL test server
Your items there stay there. You can go there, other players can go there. When you come back to the live server, you have your main inventory, skills, etc.

12

I understand that other games don’t allow this. This doesn’t preclude that Boundless shouldn’t either. At the end of the day I “like the option” and would do what I could to help provide solutions to make it happen as long as it stays fair for everyone. Overall, though, until I know the technical options around it - meaning if they can even do it or not safely - then I will only just provide my preference around the option being available because I believe it increases options and makes the game better. It is the best mix in my view.

For me it is simple - the planet is the persons, they still have to use plots, build their house (even if they spawned all blocks) and play the game like the rest of us. As long as all the systems I use in MMO are enforced there (beyond spawning items) then it doesn’t hurt me at all. I might finally get a planet that has the color I want and can go mine it. Win for me and my build in MMO.

I see no basic difference between this and "paid planets that the Devs run as long as things cannot be hacked. If hacking can’t be stopped then I will certainly switch my view very quickly. But, until I have more information I am not going to take a “possible feature” off the table just because other games in the space don’t allow it.

I am surprised people are so against the “option”… finally I can have my own planet/universe that I run when I want and all my friends can visit me and enjoy the open resources I provide within the rules of the existing game. Why is that bad just because I might have castle on my planet that I “spawned in the blocks for”… it doesn’t hurt anyone. Imagine people like Sola, Apt, Goblin, etc with full creative mode to do their builds but still being forced to have the rest of their world be within the MMO rules (minus they spawned in the resources)? OMG it would be like visiting Disneyland on each of their planets. Massive WIN for us all.

For me if Boundless can make this work then they have a HUGE win and open up a new area they can market to increasing the player base.

13

Are we still talking about a true creative mode planet or a rental planet?

Just as you mentioned no one should be able to spawn/use items from a planet with 10000% diamonds, you don’t want someone from a creative mode planet to give themselves 1000000 refined oort blocks, then build with them in the live universe.

It seems very clear to me :woman_shrugging:

14

Without repeating my earlier post, there are a lot of items in boundless besides building blocks, and even resources.

I’m not sure but you seem to be describing a partial creative mode where only building blocks can be spawned, rather than the full “give” menu that’s currently associated with the test universe and the creative worlds?

15

They could take the current system, where you have to create a new character for creative mode like the test server, and allow us to basically give them the same name (add “creative” in the database?) then have it switch characters when we travel there. Then our inventories and skills would remain the same.

Your “current perfect” idea wouldn’t allow us to eat cheat pies to level up for skills and cubits, which they are going to allow with the current system.

I could imagine, if they were to allow “portal travel“ from live to creative, they would have to come up with a different sort of portal that would be more like the sanctum that you’d have to go through to load creative stuff. Or maybe they would just allow travel through the sanctum and you would choose planets you know or have a token to from a new menu in the right-side warp.

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I imagine the Portals from your creative planet will be pretty epic since oort wont be an issue!

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17

Pay with cubits directly into the portal!

18

It would be nice if we could visit Creative worlds. The way I would handle it, a copy of your “Normal” character can visit private worlds but you spawn in either with an empty inventory or with predetermined items set by the host. Nothing goes with you when you leave - you just pick up where you left off on your regular char like nothing happened. And if you return to that world you have the same inventory as when you left.

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19

I don’t know how the test server is set up (is it off on a dedicated server, not with AWS?)…
but if they could duplicate the test server mode into the live universe as it is & if PS4 players could access it, it would be perfect as a creative mode that a lot of people would love.

There are only 2 things that keep the current test server from = creative mode…wipes and no PS4 access.

(Unless creative mode planets are going to be a sub-type of rental planet)

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and flying

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