I agree, but I think the issue is not that we have a slow growing game. I think we have a game that seems to be stuck at a certain player count and is not growing. They seem to get small surges in player activity after certain releases, but it does not seem to be keeping players engaged.
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At this exact moment in the game, QoL is bring pushed over content in the updates.
I know at least 10 big players thats taking a month break, just so the farming update is better to them. And they will return refreshed.
Its not a retention problem as much as a content problem. If you dont like building or hunting, this game would wear thin real fast.
Kal, I know. Itâs the result of the underlying issue.
I donât think the micro patches a couple times a month really is doing much to keep players engaged that much. Iâd rather see larger and more well thought out patches released with a mixture of quality of life and content features than some alternating between the two with every micro patch.
But yeah, if the game doesnât have what keeps a large majority of people engaged, they will go play something else. I think if that goes on long enough they will just not even bother logging back into Boundless and simply uninstall.
A lot of players have walked away due to conflict with other players. If they can get someone to be a community moderator in game and help settle these disputes we might see more players sticking around. The devs are doing the best the can but should be creating the game not arbitrating between players. The CoC leaves a lot of room to cause trouble, but really restricts players ability to settle it themselves if the other party wonât communicate.
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I am well aware but you are talking a small number at the moment.
The largest problem is content. And people taking a break.
(Taking a break isnt bad)
Just referred to it because the thin player count. And the fast content isnt moving as fast as needed in a game like this.
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And here is the issue. I think everyone is right. There are players leaving because of unpleasant inter-actions with other players. There are players leaving(or taking a break) due to a lack of content. There are players leaving as they feel the game is too time consuming.
So where does that leave the developers?
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- Start a team to focus on player interactions
- Devs make more content
- QoL improvements based on feedback as needed
It is an oversimplification I know, but there is your three tent poles to keep players playing.
And yes, some people will always say it is too hard or grindyâŚ
Thatâs what I would call a nightmare.
For them, I think the best course of action is to push out as much content as possible and fill the game with as much to do as possible. Throw in balance here and there with those content patches with some included quality of life stuff. If that means these patches get released once every 2 or 3 months, so be it. Cause the current way theyâre doing things isnât working and they need to pivot.
I also think there needs to be in game moderators that are separate from the devs that can respond better to reports and give the needed appearance that things are being looked at without the need for reports.
everybody wanna build nearest to the biggest hub on day one
when town grows people quit and new players get pushed to outskirts off town far from portals
towns mostly designed to small and to middle focused
to solve this im gonna look today to make a town network
so new players have new terrain and easy access to portal hub
i see so many hubs that all lead to same place
basically copyâs off each other running a micro network off double portals (also guilty 
)
think bossplayers can improve alot off towns by building town networks from zone to zone
leading noobs to virgin ground with stable portal link
etc etc
we all need to improve and adapt
dont be afraid to grab hammer and delete stuff and redesign
keeps ya busy improves your town
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if we are talking about long term player retention then yea there is for sure a problem there tooâŚhell just look at the portal seekers discord most of the people there that used to log 6 or so hours into the game only really play now to maintenance the networkâŚmy self i only ever log into do the hunts if it was not for that i prob would never log in at all.
my self i find that i subjective term it kind of depends on your definition form a development stand point the game is live and wellâŚform a playerbase standpoint if you compare it to other MMOâs it flatlined about 3 months ago 130 players average (pc) compared to say FF online witch is at around 8,513 given they are 2 totaly different games but if we where to cheat and say minecraft servers count has a MMO shard the top servers on there are clocking in at around 200 average (pc)
Edit: re reading FF online was a bit of a bad example cuz it has been out way way longer and is a established IP
i think it was the launch thread they know this was going to happen cuz they did not drop any ad rev into it cuz at the time if they did a legit launch it would have been sim city all over agian with no one able to log in due to full servers and crashâsâŚhell im not 100% sure even now the servers could handle 500+ people in one data center
nvm it was just a little befor launch
saldy i think this is going to hurt the game long term AWS was not ment for what they are doing when i took the student courseâs they made it overly clear the service was built with web services in mind not a video game with 100+ consists connections to databaseâs
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If that was the case then they wouldnât have felt pressured/forced to release as early as they did. When they released the PS4 version, at least, was plagued with so many issues.
They say they expect it to be a slow burner to downplay the realistic expectations. They canât afford to have it have massive growth at once because their infrastructure currently cannot handle it, or at least it couldnât previously. They havenât really commented much on any, if any, strides towards progress on that front.
On the other side of that sword they need either constant growth or at the very least influx of new players to offset the players leaving so that they can continue to get a) funding from the playerbase and b) funding from the outside.
Boundless is currently in that shaky ground area where it either course corrects or sinks more. As great as the game seems to be and as great as this small community can be, none of that matters if the population continues to degrade as a whole.
As to the OP, just watch the stats daily at Boundless.ninja
Updated: 2019-02-19T09:40:02-0800
Page auto-refreshed every five minutes.
Total of 228 players across 48 planets
People comment that itâs normal for a games population to degrade over time and thatâs true but on average during prime time itâs sitting around 280 if I recall? Someone more nit picky may have a more accurate stat there. Whether itâs normal or not is not the question or point to ask. Can Wonderstruck and Boundless continue in a positive cash flow direction with the current population, that is the question.
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im willing to bet my power coils it was not them that forced it tho it was the $#@! at square enix that did has soon as they got there grubby hands on it alot of things started to change involving the release
edit: sorry for going a bit off topic
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And I would bet that same bet with you, sadly it doesnât change the current scenario the developers and gamers find themselves in.
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Iâm certainly not an expert about the whole architecture and backend of the game. If I remember right there is a lot of local database design with a manager type component and stuff.
I think they have optimized things decently but certainly some decisions put them in a corner and they are working hard to get out of that corner.
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It was communicated at release that it was rush a bit more than expected. They could not release at end of year because Sony wouldnât allow it with other games coming and instead wanted it sooner to drive into the holidays with growth.
James stated the slow burner comment because from the perspective of the developers, nothing changed in the overall direction - continue to grown the game. The only thing that was different was that it was release and not early access any longer. So they continue to focus on doing things as quickly as can to meet the demands needed.
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Yea, thatâs why I stated what I did. Not everyone saw those comments or dug back in post history enough to see/know that. Itâs what gives insight in to where the game is now, with the dev size they have, and what is realistic to expect from them in a timely fashion.
To be honest had I known those comments before I stumbled across the game during the PS4 release I wouldnât have purchased the game at that time. I would likely have waited another year because by and large the game is in an early access phase right now, whether itâs called that or not.
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They kinda shot themselves in the foot with a few of their patches early on.
When they removed bomb mining, sure maybe 3 people cheered but the unanimous voice was, âBOOO!â
And then they randomly added wax to the decorative block recipe a few days later and once again, âBOOO!â ⌠One person cheered though because thereâs gonna be that guy in every crowd.
Theyâve been considerably more cautious after that, and the recent footfall patches have left people scratching their heads more than anything. But with the exception of the guild and chat update, none of these updates have brought much fun to the game⌠sure, new blocks are neat-o, but I hear theyâre a pain to produce in large quantities. And mass producing snowmen was just downright unrealistic.
Games like this need cool/fun things to do in addition to building. Thatâs gonna be when the player base really starts to grow. I will say though, Iâm having a blast building with ice right now⌠dirt cheap, easy to get, looks good, doesnât require machines or days to produce, doesnât require off the wall crafting ingredients⌠just mine some ice and build!
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Itâs more like this game is at its plateau this is the representation of the game that we all enjoy or we wouldnât be here now on the forums. We preach the issues and we give suggestions ideas we tell the developers and everyone involved in the community what we want to see come to this game but thatâs as far as it ever goes. Iâm going to give my opinion and people can dislike it or like it but the bottom line for me is I LOVE this game and I will stick it out till the next great thing comes around but I need more information on where this game is going. We are getting farming that is great but aside from a picture that says farming we are being fed nothing about it and all we have is player speculation. How are we suppose to know if this game is going to give us something worth staying for another few months if we are given next to nothing but words example: hey everyone farming is coming to the game us well thatâs so vague we dnt care and some of us wonât stay to find out. Vs hey guys farming is coming to the game here are some pictures of what to sort of expect plus look at this developer hard at work making a whatever for the update - now Iâm drawn in now Iâm like yea Iâm going to stick it out for a few months while I wait for that next big update. Same thing goes for all these players ideas why is there not a way to support fan made content make the dev workshop for people to make content for the game and select the best ones based on the voice of the people. Not only all of that but a Q&A session where we can ask questions about the game and upcoming patches.
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Yeah the game absolutely needed to release when it did. Bounless was never meant to compete with holiday heavyweights and falls more into beloved indie territory, only with a 10x larger dev team. 6 more months wouldnât really have made that much of a difference, and Iâd rather be playing the game while they finish it than waiting for some distant release date. Each time the launch date for a game gets pushed back the expectations go up⌠to the point that eventually these expectations canât be met.
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Q&A sessions takes developer time. There is only so much of that. So many of us prefer them coding and finalizing a release beyond general forum posting.
I would say if you have questions do a post with them and see what information you get back⌠But without listing them how can we know if we get the responses we want.