Is Mid-game still a problem for new players?

General
41

If I provide you with a poo sandwich, and a pee sandwich, and you refuse both, is it really fair for me to blame YOU for being hungry? It is the responsibility of the devs to make a game that has options that are fun for solo players. They create the game, and thus, the restrictions that arise from it.

You cannot get enough gems for coils by hunting meteors in a reasonable amount of time, gem wall grinding is dozens of boring hours of grind, and I’m a solo player. Maybe the problem isn’t me, maybe the problem is the game doesn’t provide enough options for solo players?

Then solo shouldn’t be such a grind.

Boundless has 255 colors, and dozens of shapes for each color because of the chisel system. That is far more in the way of building options than any other voxel game that just offers different types of solid blocks, and half blocks.

If any other game existed that offered this variety in color and shapes, I’d be playing it, but they don’t exist. You keep saying there’s other healthy building sandboxes but haven’t given a single name of one.

And yes, Minecraft has far more in common with Boundless than Boundless has in common with most other MMO’s. It’s what everyone is going to compare Boundless to. Minecraft is the gold standard for voxel building games. It is what people are going to compare Boundless to.

42

lol I would go to Sonic and buy a burger instead. I don’t expect other people to do everything for me.
Boundless is a fun game to me so I play it. If it wasn’t fun to me, I’d go play something else.

Then you go mining or trade with someone. Simple.

If you are choosing to limit yourself, the road may be longer and less enjoyable.

Different colors & angles don’t count as a block. By that logic, every other building game FAR exceeds what BL has.

I disagree with this 1000%.

But you said:

2 Likes
43

WTH

If you keep doing something over and over again, and never do anything else then you will probably get tired of whatever you are doing.

That is why you can trade, or go find some gems. They could add something that drops gems too, but it doesn’t seem to be a large issue with players atm.

It’s an mmo sandbox rpg game. It has grind.

Yeah BL has 255 colors, but the choices of block shapes and different textures is not many.

They do exist, you just have to play them.

Boundless is far more unique than Minecraft.

2 Likes
44

Why are you so against changing the game so solo players can enjoy it too?

I can’t, because the game only offers mindnumbingly boring methods of mining, and trading would require me to NOT play solo, despite the game advertising it being solo.

I am not limiting myself. Just like you, I play games for fun, and the developers have made me, and FAR more people than you, not enjoy the game because of the grind. You, and those left playing this game, are the minority compared to the number of people who have tried and quit this game.

But you seem utterly determined to refuse to concede any ground that might allow the vast majority of people who quit the ability to also enjoy the game.

Again, which building games are you talking about?

Minecraft is going to be used as a comparison to all voxel building games REGARDLESS of whether or not something is an MMO, and just because Boundless uses the label “MMO” doesn’t mean it fits everyone’s definition of an MMO.

If you want a full set of coils, and want to play solo, you have no choice.

The people who are left in the game have all gotten past the mid-game. None of you care anymore. You’ve got your 3x3 AOE hammers. What about the solo players who tried and quit the game because of the grind?

Use math. The number of possible combinations from chisels, blocks, and colors, is far more than any voxel game I can think of, with the exception of creative mode in Rising World, which unfortunately lacks an aesthetic nearly as pleasing as Boundless or Minecraft/Creativerse.

The big, long awaited farming update brought back like 50 concurrent players. That’s it.

How do people not realize you’re all in an echo chamber surrounded by other diehard fans? That no one else is here to offer a contrary opinion because you all told them to find another game instead of working with them and the developers to find ways to make the game fun for them too.

The selfishness in this community is tangible.

Why is it so hard for people to just say,

“Hey, you know what, you’re right, Boundless isn’t friendly to solo players, maybe they could ease up some of the restrictions in how the game is played so solo players can comfortably play also?”

Instead all I hear is, “I like the game how it is, and if you don’t like it, leave.”

Welp, enjoy your ghost towns and dwindling community I guess.

1 Like
45

My point was mainly when people are almost throwing fully powered machines to a new players.
I dont see any harm when its just a block that you are giving.

1 Like
46

I think it’s more the fact that BL is the only “forced grouping” MMO in every other MMO I have played I can get most content and hit max level without even talking to other people but in this game it’s almost impossible

They have not really though I know people who refuse to trade or buy cuz it takes just has long has mineing. The last time I tried to buy a hammer to give mineing one last shot before quitting I spent a good 3HR’s (off and on over the course of the day) and only found 1 shop selling for 15k

1 Like
47

Because solo players can already play solo.

This is your opinion & your decision. The game is advertised as being an MMO.

This is an assumption, we don’t have any factual data.

It’s called disagreement. & People quit games for various reasons.

Pretty much every other one out there - they all have more items/content. I love what Boundless has so far though.

This is not true and kinda rude. I spend hours of my in-game time helping out newbies & other people. Even players that have said some really @#!$! things to me. I care. I’m sure a lot of us do. I want as many people as possible playing & enjoying this game. Some people just aren’t going to like the game though. No game has 100% retention.

Because it’s a sandbox MMO. You can totally play it solo if you choose to. You know what my favorite thing to do in MMOs is? Melee fight everything. You know what Boundless doesn’t have? Melee anything. It’s not Melee fighter friendly. Am I mad? Nope. It has other things I like. I also prefer to play games solo and sometimes I play Boundless solo. I’m not an absolute solo player anymore though. My decision.

I’m pretty sure most of us post weekly/daily about changes we’d like to see in the game. You have made some good suggestions too. If I agree with you, I say so. If I disagree, I say so. It doesn’t mean I’m right & it doesn’t mean you’re wrong.

3 Likes
48

I disagree. There are quests & things in the large MMOs that require you to group up or interact with other players to complete/achieve things if you really want them.

Trading is instant.

There are several shops in many markets/malls that have forged equipment.

1 Like
49

And then I meet a new player who wants to make a deal with me for forged tools in return for any material I want including diamonds. Opens a shop at my market to sell anything he gathers that I’m not too interested in, joins my guild and then tells me he has been playing for FOUR days!

I didn’t believe it at first, lol! But it’s true. Granted he hasn’t touched much on the building aspect nor the crafting, he just buys and deals his way to what he needs and got to level 50 rather quickly. He told me he has been devouring Jiivita’s and other peoples videos before he got the game so he hit the ground running (with a mega fast brew!)…

But yeah, not everyone is like that and most will do what we have done as well I think, build a little here and there, craft, etc. Then you realise you need a heck of a lot of gems for coils, many materials that aren’t easy to get when mid-level, etc., etc.

Have to say tho, the economy in this game does indeed allow you to jump start certain things. I was hitting the gem wall too at a certain point, I was using a stone chisel to dig tunnels and using titanium hammers to get my first gems. Then I opened a shop selling pies and other food items, and I also started selling gems for a much lower price than others (not many, was mostly for show!) but I also bought them for a price much higher than anyone else. Which meant (with food an brew prices being super, super high back then, pies 2k+!) that I slowly but surely managed to get my hand on more and more gems to get my coils!

If you are a bit creative there are many ways to get what you want, but yeah, the mining with titanium hammers (unforged) was crazy slow and rather boring…

1 Like
50

There are shops out there that buy and sell stuff, no need to deal with actual players, they can simply treat them as NPC’s so not sure why that would be an issue…

Ewww, don’t say such a thing, I will read the rest of your post negatively right away, it’s a silly bias based on nothing but your own feelings and ideas!

Those same people also use the forums, as far as I know that is also not integrated into the game…

1 Like
51

The act is but logging on to the forums and posting a “looking to buy” thread and waiting for a reply could take minutes,hours or even days the global trade chat des nothing has most people don’t even pay attention to it.

Good luck finding one unless you scan the forums for a up to date portal network map and find a thread with a active shop or mall. I know the network I was using but did not want to have to dig through the forums so it was one dead shop after another going for planet to planet maybe I missed a active one but when “at the time” there are like 30+ Shop portals to check it’s easy to get turned around.

1 Like
52

You don’t need to use the forums, you know this. You can simply buy it from a stand in a market or from another player directly.

The markets & malls have several consistent forgers that do nothing but that.

1 Like
53

I totally feel this when i was running the city in Minorengle.
When a lot of new players asked me what they should do when they stock on their first diamond.
The only solution I could give to them was join some hunts and get some oortstone to sell on market to exchange the money to buy the first 3x3 forge aoe tools. After that power leveling by reset your current character to pure miner until you fast level up to level 50.

I still believe this is the only solution at the moment since i just read the same solution on forum 1 week ago .

I mean of course we can tell new players to use this method as shortcut, but it really make them burn out very fast especially when they couldn’t find out where to join the group hunt. Or most of them don’t even know what’s “hunt” mean in Boundless.

Every time when players bring up new player and mid player’s problem, people start to mention about join the group hunt …etc. Same thing for the commercial part in the game. So many people want players to do devs’s job which is kind of ridiculous. I believe people in Boundless are very nice, but it won’t help new players to enjoy the game or make the game attract more players. The more important is the game itself. Is that fun enough to keep players stay in the game for long run. Clearly boundless success to keep 20% players stay in very long terms. If this is their goal, I think they already success.

Again a good design system, user don’t need to spend so much time to search for solution, and creator doesn’t require to keep explaining what’s the system for and how to use it.

If Boundless want some improvement, I think set up a goal to create a system that 80% of people on the market can understand how it works when they play in 2 weeks. A system doesn’t need to rely on any third party source like forums, discord, youtube or wiki. At least not for anything related to system (forge, farm…etc)

5 Likes
54

The best advice I would give to a new or mid player is to keep going. The grind is always going to have rough patches. Plus, the coils you make with the hard earned gems don’t break. I’ve been using the same ones for all of 2019, and have found the time to add a few more. So the 30 hours it takes to get the first gems is worth it.

2 Likes
55

I think for some people, this is worth to involve. But It’s not how the game market work i think. If they really done their research on when new players quit, they will find out most people quit during their first power coil. Anyone has experience to host city, they will notice that most new players quit before they get their first gems. It takes way too long to progress, and too much condition for block them to understand the game.

  1. Environment protection skill requirement (atmosphere skills)
  2. How to use Atlas to find materials.
  3. Extremely slow grind speed
  4. Efficient skill set to mine
  5. Understand all the portal hubs system ( or they need to pay to travel. And portal hub is kind of hard for new players to understand if no one explain to them)
  6. Find a good mining spot without other end game players fast mining there or plot by beacons.
  7. Not much exp when they kill monsters in low level planet ( no exp = no skill point = no grind efficient)
  8. Most of them only have one character, so that character need to have crafting skill, status skill (power, dex), which kind of hard to get efficient build.

With these condition above, I really not too surprise why new players quit that fast especially solo players. As my observation, most of new players they won’t stay more than 2 weeks, only a few of them will stay and become one of us who support the game for long terms. Basically people who can stay longer than 2 weeks, they will stay at least for half year. And why i say 2 weeks, because its about time to get their first diamond in minecraft as new players. And that will be their expectation as comparison in similar sandbox game.

2 Likes
56

Making bomb mining mid game might help.

I really like how detailed your examples were. It shows you’ve listened to many players feedback.

2 Likes
57

I am also stuck in the midgame somehow. I still mostly use iron tools and can not upgrade to Titan. Of course I can make the tools and I also have some material for some of them. The production is so complex and the material for me too rare that I could take this as an everyday tool for all characters.

For special runs I buy the tools on the market, but I simply miss the source of income that I could do that for all twinks. Already for the specialists, the money is tight, so I, for example. I do not have a good tool for the Exo Explorer. No one really buys something that could somehow generate a steady income with a reasonable amount of time. Due to the farm update, the plants have dropped significantly in price, which has brought in at least a little money so far.

1 Like
58

Just want to add something on the part about directing them here - to me that is just as much about getting them to feel welcomed and part of the community as it is about the information itself. If they like the people and are shown kindness and generosity, then they’ll be far more likely to WANT to participate, they’ll be ok with pushing through that one part of the mid-level learning curve. Yeah, some things could be simplified a bit, but it can never IMO be made where there aren’t things that people might have questions about without stripping away all the depth… and really, to me, part of the appeal has been in the satisfaction of learning it all.

This is sort of what happened with me - I’ve never interacted IN a game like I have in Boundless. Boards, yes, but not actively participated in the “Multiplayer” stuff, just sort of went off on my own, did my own thing. As Vex said, this is an MMO, you can play alone but you aren’t going to get the complete experience and you’ll have a longer road of it if you don’t participate. And with as large as the game universe is, the way people are spread out and because newcomers will generally be off on their own, it is good to catch them and direct them here. If they still want to solo, fine, but then they have info they need, and many I think will be more active once they are warmly welcomed and get their start with our gifts and all. I mentioned in another thread that I got by the part where I stepped away for a bit once I could reliably get AOEs and mine T5s, allowing me to thrive, but the community was a huge part of what made the game for me, and I can see that for others in thread after thread.

4 Likes
59

I would like to know why so many players in an MMO always see the compulsion to form a group? For me, an MMO is a game where I can interact with many other players and play together. But I do not want to be forced to! For the very reason that often the activities are already very different and you really stand in front of a wall that you can not get over alone.

2 Likes
60

I havent seen anyone complaining about gem walls for ages, until now.

Topaz is 40c. You can sell 2 leaves and come away with change

Not sure who is struggling, but if you push the up arrow (or up on the right control stick on ps4) and walk like 3 meters, you will find enough things to afford your first gem.

Your welcome.

8 Likes