i would like it if i could choose to put public portals on a 1 shard opening system
because lot off people sponsor me but allways those who give to much away
makes me feel bad lolz
so others who use it could pay one shard seems cheap to me
also this way hubs stay open if players are not on to fill em
for the portals that do hops i dont know how this would work
the shard could be obligated sponoring or is this to mean?
please people give your opnion
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i was thinking about this because i have no way off telling if portals are used or not
maybe a people counter would fix this issue
so i can close off bad locations put in better used ones
was thinking some more i know it hurts
maybe footfall on portals could solve this
that way i see if its used or not plus i get some sponsoring
and people dont pay PERFECT
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Maybe footfall could be an indication of this - although that would require than your portal/plot was separate from your main build/area.
Colour coded beacons would allow for this (I’ve been told that they’re going to be a thing!)
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cool i was thinking putting the footfall in the portals menu
I think a portal tax would be pretty good, as it is a lot of work to keep a full hub open without donations
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Now for new players that don’t have access to shards this might be a problem. But it the cost would started at maybe level 15 this would give the player time to find them. Just a thought I know I didn’t find shards when I first started.
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your wright and good solution
im all about helping people who are new
the workshop got now 8 newplayers beginning boundless
come check it out someday
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I believe the owner should be able to open a portal with the original 50 shards or whatever, then anyone who uses it must give up 1-5 shards per use so the owner can keep it open. the portal should always be see through, but to actually use it one must pay the shards.
this also tells you if its an oftenly used portal, because if its not open then no one is using it.
and you cant say 1-5 is too much, you get so many shards from just a few rough oort stones.
I personally don’t want new players hopping through different planets that easily. It sort of kills the experience for me. Travelling to different planets is one of the main objective of a new player. At least having them pay rough oort stone should balance this so travelling to portal will still feel like quite an accomplishment and limited. They wouldn’t be able to do much on those harder planets anyway.
I’m basing this off from my experience when I started playing again. When I started, I found multiple portals in Pixel Gate and traveled to different places. It’s initially fun of course but plummeting the will to build my own portals and the experience of being interplanetary through hard work. I then stopped using it and decided to build my own.
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I actually strongly support the idea of differentiating portal fueling requirements based on public/private use. If a portal generates enough footfall in a given time frame (aka, gets enough public use) i think it’s fuel requirements or fuel consumption rate/price should absolutely reflect the community’s perceived value of said portal. A top notch idea @Lawrey!
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I’m new to the game and I had a similar experience. It was very exciting when I found the first open portal in an outpost near my Homebase. I traveled to the moon that i’ve been seeing big in the sky since the start of the game.
Yesterday I read about the hubs on google (because I wanted to know how to get the red stuff ^^)
And then I have been to all 12 planets in 10 minutes. My first reaction was of course: “Well, thats it now?”
But I don’t agree a paywall would be a satisfying solution to this. It feels artificial and forced on the system. Getting to all 12 planets fairly easy in an ealry stage of the game is only a Problem if you have everything the planet has to offer in the proximity of the protal.
Getting to other planets should only be the first step to get your feet wet. The exploration should start there. I’m talking about biome specific items for example. Here is also where the roadblock should start with more difficult enemies, threatening environment and ores you can’t mine with lowbob tools.
A solution could be to get the diversity of places in the universe big enough that it’s not possible or reasonable to have a hub that leads to every biome on every planet in existence.
Edit:
I also like the idea of portals generating footfall to help support them.
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I’m actually persuaded a bit with what you said. One of the original intent of rough oort stone payment was to help keep the portal open. This would organically shut down unused portals and help keep useful portals open. I believe this would strike the balance of the amount of portal in a settlement which is a good thing since I believe they are really resource heavy.
This makes sense but for me, there is a separate sense of accomplishment/experience by just being on a planet itself and exhausting them all in a span of 10 minutes seems a bit of a waste. A waste in terms of robbing them the anticipation for days or months of longing to go to a certain planet and stay motivated. During these days, you’ll look at tinted blocks in awe, gem tools with admiration and thinking to yourself, “when can I visit a planet with red tints all over the place?”. My first arrival at Vulpto took me by surprise. It was so different. The place looks so hostile with the fog and the are reds blocks all over the place! Not to mention, I was so scared in encountering any creature cause they looked different and scary. Now, I’m wondering what other planets look like but I’m too lazy to go there right now in this state of the game 
Anyway, what my point really is that you sort of already seen a big chunk of what the game has to offer in a couple of minutes. The feeling of anticipation and mystery for me is a big part of a great game.
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What if you could choose to make either a private or public portal.
The Private Portal:
This portal would function as it does now, no difference.
The Public Portal suggestion 1:
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The initial cost would still be the default of 50 shards or maybe more expensive to open.
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Maybe require a public portal skill, only obtainable in the higher levels (30 or 40)
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It would enable the portal owner to see the portal statistic window, this window could maybe have a list of players contributing to the portal and/or a count of how many people have used it.
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It would enable every player to open the portals donation window so they can contribute to portal.
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1 shard would still fuel the portal the same way as it already does.
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The portal would not require the initial cost again if it closes, or maybe just require a smaller amount like 10 shards to open again?.
The Public Portal suggestion 2:
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The initial cost would 100-200 shards to open.
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Maybe require a public portal skill, only obtainable in the higher levels (30 or 40)
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It would enable the portal owner to see the portal statistic window, this window could maybe have a list of players contributing to the portal and/or a count of how many people have used it.
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It would enable every player to open the portals donation window so they can contribute to portal.
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1 shard would fuel the portal for much shorter amount of time, maybe 10 min.
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When the portal is closed it would still only require 1 shard for 10 min up-time.
In my opinion “The public portal suggestion 2” would solve the hub owners problem plus it would make it more difficult for new players to just jump around as it would require someone opening the portals for them.
The first public portal suggestion would mostly if not completely fix the hub owners issues, and would allow new players to travel as much as they do now.
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An idea just crossed my mind while reading @alventra’s post. More specifically, it being locked by a public portal skill.
I think this is the big break that explorers are looking for. Their purpose in the game. Currently, I can’t even look at them as a profession. The only way they’ll be in demand is for public portal to only be available to explorers. Each time their portal is used, they can have some sort of payment like Oort stone but it will be better if payment is Coins as this will be their main source of income.
It also make sense to tie portals to explorer since you are literally exploring when using it. Explorers would also find a purpose of them mindlessly running around the planet. They are now finding as well for a good spot may it be a jaw-dropping scene or a rich mine. When they come back to town, they will setup a portal to that location saying “RICHEST MINE I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE”. Jokes on you though if they are just lying and you fell for it 
I think I made a good suggestion? hehe. I will now initiate for the first time my sparingly used “tag-a-dev” skill cause I want it to at least be seen. hehehe @james @luke-turbulenz
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The original premise behind permanent portals was that they would be difficult to achieve - that only dedicated guilds or groups of players would be able to build them (and I think, and hope, that this is still going to be the case).
This puts more onus on the groups of players striving to achieve the goal of being able to build an maintain their own portals. Currently portals are far too easy to power, due to the high tier creatures that drop Oortstone being too easy to kill, but this will be changing soon. So that feeling of “I’ve visited all 12 planets, what do I do now?”, won’t be so much of an issue anymore, as they’ll have a much higher cost associated with powering them, they’ll be less abundant or accessible.
This also doesn’t prevent you travelling to other planets, as you can still use your warp conduits, but you will need to invest more time in crafting the warp destination picker or buying locations from other players that have actually been to the other planets.
This could potentially be an avenue where explorers can earn revenue - and personally, I would be tempted to put the ability to craft location markers behind a skill for explorers only (but I may well stand alone on that idea lol!). You could still save a location, but only if you could get someone to physically take you there first.
When it comes to public / private portals, I also believe the coin lock will eventually make an appearance and will be able to be used with them, so instead of a portal being a public right of way, players would need to pay a toll to be able to go through it (maybe an “Oort Shard Lock” would be a good thing for future development too?).
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The new patch might make portals hard to keep up! Have you tried to kill a mob on a ring world recently? I think it will require a dedicated combat toon now xD
You’re not alone! There’s nothing much for explorer currently and this could be a good perk addition for them. Though, I don’t think it’s enough for a stable income.
Still hoping though that explorers are somehow required in achieving this feat. I’m thinking along the line of their skills being required for initializing and re-initializing a portal. Hoping as well that “Oort Shard Lock” will be a thing on 1.0.
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I’m glad I stockpiled a good few smart-stacks of shards then
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I’m thinking we really need a poll on one’s expectation of portals in the game. A more specific details on portal maintenance like:
- At least how many people can keep a portal open indefinitely
- How many portals can/should a settlement support without making the city feel like saturated with portals
- Are portals your main private and personal mode of transportation or they should be more limited in a settlement.
- If you’re planning on a planet hop, how much time are you willing to invest before doing so
- What could be a fair amount of payment when using public portals
One thing that I can see from the latest update is that people with portal hubs are hit hard and felt disappointed. This though is just a step in eventually balancing portals making them less spammable and controlled (unlike now). However, from what I can see from the recent posts, people really have different expectations on portals.
My aim for this supposed to be poll is to guide the next balancing that will happen to prevent people getting more upset. Right now, we don’t have clear numbers of people who prefer the “more harder to maintain and limited portal” vs “portal is the bread and butter of the game so this should be accessible to all players”.
Edit: And hopefully by seeing the numbers, people would come into a consensus and people on the minority just have to let go.
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