Given that @deenw has set up a great meta discussion on Portal Networks, and it’s generated some really healthy conversation about the mechanic/meta itself, I thought it’d be a good time to discuss/look at warping all together and it’s current role in the game. You can find Deen’s post here:
But as you’re here and we’re discussing warping now, these are just a few things I’d mentioned in the above conversation, but didn’t want to risk going too far off topic in that discussion.
Warping as it currently stands is a coin sink that isn’t really used as was intended due to the vast portal networks we see. I think we could make warping a thing and even specialize it as a crafting sub-segment as a result of the earlier theorized ‘temporary/distance/unstable/higher tier’ planets.
Warp augments as a crafting specialization could be focused on longer warps, for more coin, shorter warps for less coin, longer warps on extremely long cool down timers, and short warps on short timers. I wager many of you might even be able to come up with some even better ideas than these and I would love to hear/see where you are coming from in making this experience funner/more intuitive. It would give the existence of warping in the current game meta more reason for existing. As it stands now, it ‘feels’ like many don’t make use of the warping function. I used to make warp augments and one person would always buy them all up, out of pity or hording for actual use, I don’t know. When I realized there wasn’t a market for them I just quit making them.
The devs have a lot going on and are making some great strides with console/hardware fixes all the while adding in slight requests the community has made, such as GUI enhancements and similar things that don’t change a lot but make a huge QOL difference for the average player. I hope that when travelling/warping/porting gets a passover when the higher tier planets get released. I think there could be a lot of fun to be had with the warping augments and adding variation to them to make them have specific roles/uses.
lol Not to derail your topic, but you are literally outlining the whole net neutrality thing, but with Boundless Portals. It made me laugh, not because I think it is a good or bad idea, but because how fast real world problems are starting to show themselves in this game :-p
Being a sandbox, real world problems will always have overlap as sandbox’s are mini-worlds in their own right. There’s a reason these games have been called ‘virtual worlds’ all the way back since the 90’s. The same thing that makes the world successful and operational are the things that make virtual worlds successful and operational… that and a strong dev team to hold the virtual world in place. heh But you’re right, this could spawn an entirely new conversation in its own right.
I always figured, these are the core planets, and it’s OK to have portal networks around the core planets. This is home.
But with the addition of any number of features, you could break out of the “connect everything with portals” paradigm. These include,
EVE online has wormholes whose location are random, you could have a comet with a raid boss style event on it, which you would need to target with an augment.
You could have moons that are in unstable fields, where normal portals cost a ton of oort to maintain.
You could have T7 or T8 planets which you can only get to from certain T6 planets, where a warp augment skill would be required to get far enough.
You could have Myst mod style random worlds which can be connected only through lost technology style “found portals” underground. Like an actual ancient civilization left something there, so you take some oort and power it up and see where it goes.
Anyway, since there are so many directions it could go, I really don’t see an issue with commoditizing the current set of planets. Any alternative would essentially nerf the viability of a densely connected, vibrant ecosystem.
Here’s my usage habits. I’m pretty poor, never really have more than a few thousand coin to my name.
I only warp to get back to the portal I came in thru, which locks the cost at 100c. Let the portal do the heavy lifting.
In the portal commodity thread someone mentioned warping to hop around on the current planet from sanctum. This is a good use I’m going to be trying out more.
I don’t know a compelling reason to use warp blocks over your sanctum warp when playing alone. When grouping with friends you can all share the cost of a warp block warp.
So if you wanted to make warping more attractive I think it’s partially an education problem (ppl need to learn the tricks I mentioned above) and partially a cost problem. Portal hubs take most of the oomph out of the warp game. (And most of the Oort out of the economy )
Unless portals hubs are removed from the game no change short of removing coin cost will cause people to warp. There’s no gimick that will be better than getting where you want to go quickly, easily, and cheaply. At best any gimick with be used a few times for novelty and then everyone will go back to portal hubs unless they are first removed from the game.
Boundless is a multi player game. If a group of players works together to build something that thing, what ever it may be, should be better than something an equally competent solo player can build.
I don’t see what problem we’re trying to solve here. Why do we want to make it harder to travel? As mentioned the devs are busy why waste their time downgrading travel?
When a T5 planet has 19 people on it during prime time, Bes last night, making travel harder is not the route we should be taking.
I thought it was pretty clear. Giving warping a reason to exist outside of getting to a planet on day 1 of it’s creation. Or abusing it to skip the cost/tax from planet travelling by using portal network to get to your desired planet and then using a warp totem for 100c instead of 3k coin to get to a more barren/less traveled part of the planet.
I mean, outside of those 2 uses, what purpose does warping serve? Am I so limited personally that I have only used warp totems in those 2 instances, and others? Are there are other reasons to use warp totems? By your point then why do we even have warp totems to begin with?
No one is saying make travel harder at all. Not once was that ever implied here in this thread. Making it more accessible and fun is what the suggestion discussion is about. As it stands we have an entire mechanic that is used bare bones.
Unless warping is coin free traveling with warp is harder than using portals. No amount of sprinkles will make people spend coin when a free alternative exists.
And yes you are campaigning for worse travel.
What’s the problem with that? It’s inferior. Inferior things shouldn’t be used. I you want people to warp then either remove portals or make warping better than portals. No amount of novelty will make people switch.
Or abusing it to skip the cost/tax from planet travelling by using portal network to get to your desired planet and then using a warp totem for 100c instead of 3k coin to get to a more barren/less traveled part of the planet.
Not sure what you think is being abused here? If we’re purely talking about warping, then it’s 100c across the planet regardless, if you’re complaining about the portal network saving people coin then you’re getting back on topic of the thing you made this topic to avoid.
I warp all the time. Set up a gathering or mining beacon, portal to the world, warp to the beacon.
But, you’re right. I’ve only used augments a few times.
What if the augment/totem let you “zoom in” on the world before you activate it. Right now it’s less convenient than just running there since you can’t see the terrain.
Because there hasn’t been a reason given in the thread that will make anyone use warp. I’ve given the only two possible solutions to increase warp usage.
Currently I can get from any where to any where in less than a minute for 200 coin. That’s the baseline that everything needs to be designed against. If you want people to use warp you need to make warp at least that good. What’s your design for making warp better than the current state of travel?
Again, this is about making warping more attractive and friendlier to use than it currently is. As it stands, by your own words there is no reason to use it. Let’s brainstorm what can make it more fun and friendlier to use. It’s not replacing anything which for whatever reason seems to be the argument you are hedging around. The entire point of this discussion is how can we make the warp totem mechanic better than it currently is.
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