My suggestion towards what should be worked on first @Monumental

I don’t want to be a bother for the new upcoming team and I’m well aware it can take months until they really lay hands on boundless…

But as the creator of the sunset forge market and my mission that comes with it, I really wish that something can be done about the forging. Forging must be more influence-able, steerable. Less random less frustrating. Maybe like it used to be in old days? I think it’s one of the highest priorities really… because! No other sandbox game has for example aoe tools like boundless. But the access to forged goods is difficult. Small things could make it easier, like higher droprate for hopper cores, deconstruction resin shall exist in 100%, twist something about the RNG and its less of a turn off for new players, current players and old players that want to come back. I’m sure there are loads of people that also quitted because of the forging or the lack of tools. Since they want to work first on things that make it more attractive for new players, and forging and its market is also part of that because of the accessibility that needs to be improved,… I hope the situation gets better and its one of their first focused projects. Until then we can only work together to improve it.

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About forging, I would also question the need to craft Setting Resin, since it’s required to forge. Why not make that a function of the Centraforge, and free one spot in the Forge-Deck? Same with Deconstruction Resin 3. Just put these two as buttons in the Forging UI.

To me, Forging also became the way for devs to say “ok, here’s a new feature, we don’t have time/money to make it into a new tool, so it’s gonna be a new Chisel/Spanner boon”, and that should not keep being a thing in the future, or at least not in the state it is. I already made a thread specifically about that :
https://forum.playboundless.com/t/crazy-idea-chisel-pie-menu/30949

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I believe this is a critical part of the new player experience. The rarity of materials on gem worlds makes forging necessary at that stage in order to continue harvesting materials anywhere near as fast as on pervious tiers.

Personally, I would focus on the RNG part of it. Change the numbers around so it’s much more deterministic, maybe by increasing the influence of gums and/or reducing the cost of the transmutation and removal solvents.

Basically, tweak the system so that the challenge is more on the planning and response side than the brute forcing RNG side. Having to reset a few times to get a high-tier clean forge makes sense, but right now it’s just too much.

People need to understand that retention and onboarding of players is what is critical. Things that create friction there need to be removed. They have to find ways of solving that and ensuring people stick around first and foremost.

The challenge is that a few tweaks or major changes. I don’t think people understand the large challenge here to revamp the game and make it one that people want to stick around and play. One of the biggest decisions will be do they still go down the MMO path or scrap that and make it more building, etc. Each decision and answer will risk whole new issues or potential changes in who is staying/going.

Those that don’t set their expectations correctly will quickly be disappointed in the coming months and the next year. That will start to set the trend and allow people to see what Boundless might or might not become. We shall see who is still here in 2-3 years.

Not to mention if James and some of the old Devs are still involved or if it is a new team completely. A new team will not understand challenges from the past and could make huge mistakes or changes we don’t like. Hopefully they are still involved and it wasn’t a full buyout. If a full buyout I worry on how big a change Boundless will get then…

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Totally agreed… simple in general concept - get it to where people are grabbed by the game, not frustrated at the outset - but the execution is going to be time intensive, no question. And like you said, exactly what to do there, what path to go down. Then of course, there is getting the attention of new players, a fresh push - have to bring them in, AND they have to get into Boundless enough in the first hour or two to stick around. For all my belief in Boundless’ potential, these are the key issues I see, and not easy fixes, especially with a completely saturated game market. The one-two challenge of getting them and keeping them. Because of that…

I totally agree that I hope they are still involved in some way… but, for a number of reasons I won’t elaborate on because it is speculation, plus the wording used about the transition, makes me think this is a no, or close to it, after the transition period, that it is a full buyout. For that reason, hopefully some of the amazing talent here in the player base may take a shot of joining the new team when the jobs go up. And those of us who don’t try, can do our best to contribute what we can. The combination of passion and knowledge of this game, it’s history, the genre in general, the specific challenges it faces in today’s market and in relation to what else is out there… all this could be invaluable, make-or-break for Boundless. We have a chance now at least, that is something.

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A lot of good suggestions here to adjust the forging experience.

I have a small quality of life suggestion…as a PlayStation player, unnecessary clicks and movement can be extra exhausting. I dislike that I have to click start round and then click skip animation. Like just…assume I want everything to go quickly. I realize work went into creating that animation and there are probably new players who are enamored by the animation but after even just a couple forges I’m done being excited by the animation. It doubles the clicks it takes to make something.

Edit to add: personally I would categorize forging as end game as it is right now, not new player experience. I didn’t even look at forging as a new player outside of any objectives the game made me try.

Once the dust settles, we’ll definitely look at any systems that we can improve safely.

If there are data-driven systems that can be changed to improve your quality of life, we will find them.

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Your Zynga past betrays you :stuck_out_tongue:

Data is amazing.

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My greatest wish is that crafting timers get looked at and adjusted. My deepest but admittedly unlikely wish is that crafting timers get abolished entirely.

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I don’t like timers or energy as game mechanics.

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Long times can be boring but a small part of me enjoys planning stuff ahead sooo😆

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The crafting timers are what finally made me give up boundless. It was taking a week to cook the items I could collect in a day, and it would take hours loading and repairing machines just to build for a couple hours.

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Absolutely! And so powerful to focus ones work!

Plus, IMO, Boundless has already has a solid base of intangible/subjective things like the game’s art, atmosphere, etc

:+1:

… Though I will say something that will I know be disagreed with here by some. On the practical side, you of course need to make money, especially if you go F2P as you mentioned in the other thread. To me, reducing timers - perhaps as part of an enhanced Gleam Club - is one way to monetize that to me is palatable. Like I said, others will disagree, but this topic is contentious as frankly almost anything aside from cosmetics some people will claim is P2W and be upset. Timers though are a pretty common thing to monetize now - to me far more preferable than loot box mechanics or going into NFTs or such. Things like that, longer lasting portal fuel, the ability of portals to hold more fuel, expanded inventory - and a ton of suggestions on rentals - I’ve got a lot of thoughts on all this. Obviously cosmetics as mentioned, clothing and all, but of course only so much you can do with the cosmetic stuff, I know realistically you may have to go further so figured I’d throw in my own $.02 on things I personally find ok and not.

Haha, you said it takes about six months for communities to tire of you - you’ll get annoyed with me long before that I’m sure, old team is probably chuckling now since I’m on YOUR hands now, sorry in advance. :smiling_imp: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: And thank you for all your answers!! :slight_smile:

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Sometimes timers are necessary but I generally think they are lazy game design (we game designers are notoriously lazy).

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To keep the economy in balance if they’re gone, main things that hit me would be increasing the power needed by the machines a good bit… or, without changing current recipes, when you add in new stuff, utilizing the more super rare crafting materials more, and adding in new ones of those. :thinking:

Giving newer players a niche in the economy also important though, I’d probably add in more recipes using easily obtained but more grindy T1 resources too. More blocks are always great, but decorative items come to mind here, there is a TON of room for additions on the furnishing front.

Boundless is so innovative, trailblazing… it goes out on a limb in many ways, but that is where the fruit is! :wink: The economy is absolutely one of the most unique things about it - finding new balances if the population is huge will require some playing around! It is also a very addictive aspect of gameplay, to me, being a merchant.

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Something to do besides building would make the timers more bearable for me. I want to go titan hunting more than anything.

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Giving players more tools to create dungeons, challenges, and such strikes me as a huge way to increase engagement - we have such incredible talent in this community, giving those players more means to create interactive, fun & rewarding challenges = Boundless possibilities. :slight_smile:

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