List of Common New Player Complaints

General
11

Had one who couldn’t see what I was saying to them. They had clicked on my name and the chat window switched to PM mode, to a channel specific to me. They had no clue that going back to channel ‘All’ would solve that.

Perhaps when you click on a player name to send a PM to someone, stay in the ‘All’ channel. It’s confusing…

1 Like
12

Better yet, have a tutorial on the chat window itself.

2 Likes
13

For all these issues, a simple gif animation showing the process required would go a long way to help.

1 Like
14

I feel alot of this haves to do with the fact this is a very melee unfriendly game and the new players do not understand this and therefore get very upset when they try to attack something in melee range and then take alot of damage from it, as this game seems to be designed around ranged combat and trying to stay outside of melee range.

I think they need to add some more mobs that are pacifist, so the newer players will have something to kill and get food and drops from that doesn’t attack back, or run away at break neck speeds.

3 Likes
15

Just take a page out of Minecraft. Big mods would always release a physical in game book that guided you through the steps of how to play. It was so handy with a pictures on each page explaining simple instructions how to do something. This game could benefit from books.

1 Like
16

Since this thread is about it, Going to leave this here for easy Reference/it doesn’t get lost

2 Likes
17

I’ve seen:
“I don’t have enough room/inventory space”
“How do you make glue?”
Maybe a sack that functions like any other storage but doesn’t require glue?

Also see lots of folks attacking wildstock with hammers.

Maybe add “not a weapon” in the description.
Frankly, these guys are coming from minecraft. We need swords to get rid of the confusion.

1 Like
18

@MinerDiggerMan
Just to clarify, I didn’t mean personal inventory, I meant the sack as a storage block/shelf alternative that doesn’t require glue.

Though I think we could use one more line of inventory. Inventory fills up quick for noobs.

3 Likes
19

The newest patch is for new player’s tutorial improvement.
But i think the major problem is how they design the tutorial.

I think they need to add better animation to help players understand the basic system setup (for example arrow and box frame or some kind of jumping text to allow newbies notice the important function).
Right now it just throw a lot of text for players to read, and i know most people don’t read the text.

Some game even start the newbie tutorial about how to move (W / A /S/D). They don’t pretend like newbie know all of these things and this is great thing to do. The current tutorials boundless have somehow pretend newbie already know the basic things, for example mark the location and how machines works.

This game is unlike minecraft have easier setup for everything. This why they need better tutorials “design” to help new players learn all the basic knowledge. Don’t pretend like every new players will meet a nice teacher in game. It should be dev’s job done at first place, it can make sure all the newbie understand everything at first place as well. I am not too surprise a lot of steam feedback is terrible wrong about everything, because the info is not clear at first place to allow them to understand how this game works. 10 people will have 10 different feeling and guessing. So, the best way is don’t give them the chance to guess anything. This is the importance to create a nice and helpful tutorials for new players by showing them what kind of functions make boundless special.

20

the biggest complaints seem to be the crafting times, inability to find certain resources like fibrous leaves and the micro-transactions alongside the lootcrate reward system.

21

yea alot of us has soon has that released was saying it needed to be changed cuz it makes it seem like a lootbox(random items) and not what it is where you get what you buy

22

Ran across 2 new players on new world’s. They brought up a valid argument…search section in knowledge tab!!!

23

Knowledge tab is overwhelmingly full of information just start the game with a book that guides you through.

24

I’m a relatively long term player, since ea, not a power leveller, I just take my time and try and do the things which I enjoy the most, still haven’t even got any level 50 characters yet.
With the release of the two new planets and the last update I thought I’d create a new character and try and see what it’s like for new players. Below are just a few of my first impressions.

  1. Still no colour picker for the character creation, just the endless clicking through each one one at a time, extremely tedious, not a good first impression.
  2. The text explaining what to do is far too small and out of the way in the top left of the screen, this needs to be much more in your face for first time players. I’ve watched a few videos on YouTube of new players completely missing the part about pointing the totem at the planet rotating above the elders head which he is pointing up to.
  3. The planet above the elders head rotates far too slowly, we either need a way to control the speed or better still, be able to rotate it freely like a globe.
  4. Personally I felt that the passive planet had far too much water for a starter planet especially as swimming is painfully slow and our characters don’t float unless we are holding down the space bar. Once you start swimming across a large body of water you have no choice but to either finish swimming all the way across which can be a ridiculously long time, turn around and try and find away around if you’re not on an island or simply let your character drown and go and do something else instead.
  5. I absolutely loved the topography of the hostile planet and thought many of the little islands were really beautiful. Unfortunately I think hostile creatures on new planets either need to have the damage they inflict toned down or they need to be slightly easier to kill.
  6. Compass, health bars etc Initially need some sort of legend on screen so that new players know what they mean otherwise they are obviously somewhat meaningless.
  7. A bit more instruction on how and where to find food as it’s not immediately obvious and this too needs to be a bit more in your face. I know when I first started my initial thought was to get food we would have to kill an animal to get meat, then found myself flying through the air and having the stuffing knocked out of me by a wildstock.
  8. As many people have said before, how do you make glue? There’s no list in the furnace and the knowledge tab isn’t obvious to someone who is new to the game (it’s ok, i know how to make it so there’s no need to explain :slightly_smiling_face:)
    That’s more than enough from me for now and before anyone gets upset these are just my personal opinions and therefore please feel free to ignore if you don’t agree. I absolutely love this game and think the developers are doing an amazing job with it but obviously it needs more content and ongoing polishing. Nothing will ever be perfect but for me this game is certainly closer to it than most I’ve played.
10 Likes
25

anyone got any new ideas since the free weekend ended? Looks like Steam gained about 150 new players at least.

1 Like
26

More free weekends! Has to be the best player growth since launch!

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27

I think the free weekends would be a good stimulus to player growth.

Have one every couple of months.

The one thing that I could add to the OP is that I noticed a lot of the new players had no idea what foliage was or where to get it.

That can be problematic especially getting started since you need to get quite a bit

Maybe have just for the tutorial some sort of image that pops up and shows you what to look for.

1 Like
28

Good idea! I definitely had this problem back in the day.

Maybe it’s an American issue? I’d call them tree branches perhaps?

2 Likes
29

Or just use slingbow . Common sense

30

How is that common sense?