If a lot of people are needed to keep portals open - e.g. a guild of some kind, then people at all levels need to be able to support that portal. It shouldn’t only be the people at the top of the food chain who can do that. That will lead to elitism (maxed-out/min-maxed players) and the exclusion of those players who can’t provide (new/casual players): a toxic community structure to my mind.
Maybe different tier of oortstones - high level ones work for longer but are harder to get, low level ones work for shorter but are easier - sort of like burning leaves for fuel as compared to hard coal.
I like the idea of supporting our portal hubs - and most MMOs have some sort of benefit-cost for guilds - but at present I’m not well equipped enough to do so, so feel like a free-loader, not a pleasant experience.
The idea that I have is that 1 hop portals can be maintained by at least no more than 3-5 people. Making it impractical for soloist but can give enough leeway for the said number of people. Further increasing the number of hops also increases the number of practical players that can maintain it. Starter world portals leading to other starter world would be more costly which I think makes sense as one main reason of going to other starter planet is for market as these planets all have the same resources. This will encourage local markets for small settlements instead of everyone saturating a major market with portal and players.
I’m interested on how it will turn into a toxic environment? What I’m imagining is guilds will exert an effort in opening a portal and in return, others/lower level players will pay for the service when using it (hopefully cheaper than warping to it yourself).
Could be. We could also spread out rough oort stone loots across different tiered creature. Level 2 Cuttle = 1 rough oort stone, Level 3 = 2, etc. So hunting higher tiered creatures would be worthwhile.
If you make it so only one type of player (max level) can support a portal hub, you create elitism. Elitism generally leads to a toxic atmosphere (not by everyone - some people will do it just because they want to help others, but unfortunately not everyone, a world takes all sorts of personalities). That’s why I suggest everyone has to be able to contribute - everyone is able to support the portal hub so everyone is valued, that helps avoid elitism.
I just noticed that what you meant was group of people at max level. That could indeed create toxicity. I was suggesting more of “More people needed for the petty job of collecting Oort Stone” so a group of low levels can coordinate in opening a public portal by killing level 2 Cuttletrunks. It’s much more efficient though for higher levels who can kill level 4 Cuttletrunks.
Regarding the community’s support to the portal hub, everyone can do contribute by paying when using the portal.
I think that is a good idea - a shard lock used for a “payment for use” mechanic would be a good way for that to happen.
Also worth noting that the idea of a “Donation Box” was mentioned a while back (and there is an entry for it in the game files), so people could also help contribute that way.
the donation box is to easy to pass by and not donate lolz
in hole time i play the game my request baskets collected
maybe 25 oortstone donated by some friendly players
HOW DO U FEEL this?? like what do u do now?? U GO AND BUILD stuff u explore the planets instead of just “visiting” U go and find people u make a house you craft THERE is soo much stuff
you sit and wait untill we discover a new planet hahaha
Nicely taken out of context there 
I don’t feel this at all… it was a comment relating to this response …
It relates to people aspiring to get to other planets themselves… not having it handed to them on a plate, by portals being so overused, that they’re on every street corner. Always better to have the proper context
Do mind, I’m a bit of an economist. I’ll happily fund a dozen portals for free just to get my shop in the spotlight. Portals are great at attracting players to you. As the player base grows people I expect that people will continue to use the free networks instead of paid ones and groups will continue to offer it for free to attract feet to their shops and builds.
This looks like the devs plan too - since we’ll be paying a tax on our shops to the settlement we’re in. This will be the big incentive for builders to create amazing cities that attract shops and players with their portals.
I think what I’m trying to say is, like Google, the elitists will happily offer you a free service since you, the user, is in fact the product!
found trick to keep lower level players out just put two high wall around it lolz
good way for if you think its to powerfull portal to just walk into
exactly how im gonna run plaza all portals free to place just ask me
most of my footfall before was used to buy shards at omnishop
so now with improved footfall this will just get easyer to do
also the starter rooms i give away are completly free plus i trow in some gifts