At the suggestion of MrGamer117 I post these “end game” ideas or discussion and refinement. I originally posted them under the “why I would quite” thread. Every game mechanic has consequences which need to be explored and found acceptable by most players.
The bottom line is that to keep this great game interesting we need game mechanics to develop Community, long term Challenges, and soft Competitions (the 3 C’s). I will also add that communities should be strongly themed around various interests such as hobbies, political philosophies, spiritual philosophies, and whatever. When Eve-online started up we had Taggart Transdimensional themed around the free market philosophy of Ann Rand, Such strong themes and fun to play with and against in a competitive environment, way better than interacting with bland guild x, bland guild y, etc. Interesting communities have interests! Here is the original post
Ongoing Challenge - This game is already on way with this with tiered planets. Make the richer and more unique planets ever more difficult to settle and eventually have lots of tiers with each tier settlement dependent upon resources from lower level tiered resources. Advanced technology crafting and building will need resources from higher level planets. Multidimensional beacons are a key part of this. Right now they only define plots but they can also be used for repel and attract certain creatures and other powers when fed various resources (use them to repelling spitters!)
Community Building - Provide settlements with various in-game governing structures and powers proportional to that. Governing structures can range from anarachic to dictatorial. Each type of government along with the quality of it leadership will attract different kinds of players. This will start to generate community pride. Only allow communities to have automated trade routes for certain resources (including between planets), some completely unique to community beacons. Since communities get income from taxes and power from membership they will invent in community building activities to bring people in to settle or trade. This can range from mini-games like treasure hunts, to classes, to art shows if players are allowed to take in-game screen-shots and put them on blocks.
Competition - I don’t mean PvP which in this game will mainly attract gankers but soft indirect competition of communities and their backers for land and resources. Think of the cultural pressure aura of Civilization 4 but with directional control as one dimension of a beacon. Use that to gain access to certain community resources which may block another community from gaining access. Community diplomacy will be required. Communities will need small branch villages to help them in this plan but they may be isolated by more powerful auras from others.
This can be done as an RP bases… but i cannot speak for the devs in saying that i dont think it would officically be done…
we definately need something like this/ similar for sure!
as i said in the previous post where i saw this… i beleive it best to keep this betwee n guilds/communities themselves
Some kind of inter-dimensional turf wars/regional/planetary/plot wise??? 1billion times yes!!!
as to the other points i dont really agree with that is only because the devs entire idea was to make it as free-form as possible to everyone… and unless i mss the context of what you are saying it would turn most off because it would be a very forced mechanic
in extra responnse to guild philosophies and etc… if i had my own i would call it The Usui Masters simply because i am an Usui Reiki Master & Teacher of the 3rd Degree and i follow and am into spiritual/universal healing and energy balanceing (notice how my troll/white Knight posts seem to eventually even out?)
But as i say i beleive this should be done independantly… although…
if boundless had some kind of extra back history/lore as EvE online does (Jovians and etc and their back stories and the true reason why our ancestors went through the EvE gate and etc) then that i would fully agree with and hope would be done… so yes
using te above premise then ofc, if we had background lore then we could form guilds/communities that RP around it
I don’t like the idea of blocking others. Leads to griefing, trolling, etc. Competition should be in the builds and prestige. I’m fine with that unlocking benefits for players. Just don’t penalize smaller settlements simply because they’re not grinding 24/7 and have a life outside of the game.
I certainly understand that concern which is why I imagine this scheme having two classes of resources, one for players and one for communities to do community only things. This sort of strategic level competition would only be for certain community resources and only start on higher level planets (perhaps starting on tier 2?). Consequently independent players would not be affected by this and lower tiered planets are available for all sorts of builds by groups not wanting to participate in the competitive aspects of the game.
The problem is that many love to build. I have seen amazing, jaw-dropping builds in Second Life but they are empty. Once the building is done no reason exists for others to visit and use the space. Eventually the builders move on and a wonderful work of 3-D art is lost. (which is a reason this game also needs blueprints for the builds so they can be recreated again later).
I think a lot of these points are very valid, and part of the advantage with Boundless is that as an ever-evolving platform the developers can take it in any number of directions.
I definitely think that there’s a lot of interesting depth that can at some point be applied to the gameplay for Wardens or Viceroys - whether it’s more control, zoning, buffs or whatever is a big discussion, but something that I think is best had once we see how the post-launch universe settles down.
The other thing to remember is that there are lots of things that could be added in updates over the course of the first couple of years that will change the dynamic - things like titans, farming, PvP worlds, etc - plus the nature of the community-curated events (building comps, community hunts, etc) the limit is really the imagination of the player base.
I love seeing suggestions and feedback such as in this thread
I like how this is mentioned casually but it does suggest that it’s still in the pipeline some where to be experimented on. It’s also like people have forgotten about it and how it isn’t going to be forced onto someone. I do think that when you go through a portal to one of those worlds or are on one of those worlds it should be very obvious and clear that you’re on a pvp world.
