That’s also a very important point, imho. The starting values of new charaters are so low compared to similar games.
Walk speed, swing speed, everything is abysmal. You need to spend the frist few level just to “repair” your character and bring it back to baseline before you can start to me make real progress.
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That’s true. Of course it can be improved and Wonderstruck already improved it a couple of times, but in the end it can’t cover up other issues.
What I think Boundless suffers from in particular is the “It get’s great at max level” syndrome that many mmos suffer from. Players are required to put in A LOT of effort into he game before it finally begins to really shine and not every player wants to put in many hours before knowing if it was worth the while.
(Of course the game also has longevity issues but between bad NPE and bad endgame is a pretty amazing sandwich)
I don’t believe the sanctum is the ideal first spot, unless they are going to change the sanctum. The sanctum is offline, and items don’t carry over to the world from it. I can edit the sanctum on my own side, or have super jumping/abilities in the sanctum that aren’t on the real world - which server checks.
If they do a tutorial , I think it should be ‘online’ so that players can keep what they get. Maybe it gives them a blueprint of a starter house to use XD
I mean, if we are Oortlings fleeing our home, wouldn’t there be a template house that was sent with us?
Mission 1 - Plot 1 spot and put down this template house! Just gather the resources and put it down.
Sure it would be basic, but would give folks a place to stay right at the start <3
Just my 2c <3
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Just a heads up, last I checked, the last major update broke Sanctum Edit and if you save an edit your game breaks until you manually repair a JSON file.
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Yeah, when I click the button “use this as your sanctum”, my game crashes.
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If you actually get stuck not being able to play because of this, there is some info here:
Oh no worries, that’s probably half of why I haven’t messed with it in well over a year
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Wouldn’t a simple way to improve the npe be to give more coin for the objectives to allow people to start joining the economy sooner. If you did this you would need to have it as a one time reward (just for your first char) so as to avoid people gaming the system, but would be nice if you could straight up go an buy some nice blocks or tools or a few coils to get you started a little better…
Also if players are sent to an extra space for learning the game this could be done only for your first char and therefore have the extra coin as it couldn’t be abused. The final objective could be to create a warp augment and pick one of the t1 worlds that is orbiting around the trial area to spawn to. Perhaps you are limited to only 4 or 8 plots in this starting area so people don’t spend too long there and never get to the main universe. Everything you make on the starting universe could be accessible in reclaim when you get to the new world so the work was not for nothing, and one of the first objectives when in the main universe can explain the reclaim system.
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Extra coins/items for a first char could still technically be abused, by transferring the coins to a different account’s plots first, and then deleting the character. Unless the system specifically checks for more than ‘only character’.
The rest is a very solid idea though.
It could be just for your First char, deleted or not…
Could also be an “inbox” message sent to the player as a one-time thing for the account when newly made, so it wouldn’t be re-obtainable.
On that topic, a better way of giving people messages while offline wouldn’t be a bad idea either. Like an actual ‘letter’ system for those mailboxes we already have. That would tie into the talk about a chat rework in the OP.
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After seeing it discussed, I’m actually in favor of a tutorial planet. A place where new people could start and have step by step instructions on how to play. That you could stay on the tutorial planet as long as you want or need to.
I could see long time/veteran players creating a character to play on the tutorial world to sit and answer questions and provide additional information.
Have it set so that once you leave the tutorial world, you can’t go back.
Could also have it level capped. A soft cap of 10, where you get your first message and offer to head to the main universe and a hard cap of 20, saying that you won’t earn anymore experience until you enter the main universe.
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I always envisioned the Tutorial planet, using the local universe system, go as far as introduce you to getting Rough Oort stone, refine it, open a portal, and Environmental atmospheres and protections (with the zoning idea that the local universes had on a single planet) but I don’t think those currently unlock until level 20.
Hmm, maybe, A level cap could push people to join the main game, but I’m afraid that many people would just stop there, since they couldn’t keep anything they built already, so they would either quit playing (not what we want in NPE I’d assume), or only play there. I’d rather incentivize travel to the MMO another way, which I’ll mention in a minute.
I do like this idea, use reclaim as the way to transition things from the tutorial to the main universe.
What I’d like as the main incentive to join the MMO, would be a sort of “welcome to boundless” chest pack of sorts. When you have reclaimed your tutorial build, and land on your first planet in the MMO you’d be given a special chest in the “Exchange” that would give you 1 free skin voucher, 20k exp points (should be a nice bump at their early level), 1 recolor voucher, 1 respec voucher, a small sum of coins (5k or less), and Gold or lesser grapple (personally I think copper would be fine, but it would be good to have wooden ones be added like the totems you can always make, I can’t remember who’s idea that was but I like it too). This would just be a reward for completing the tutorial and landing in the MMO for the first time for your account (future characters idk, maybe not? I think this is better as a one time per account thing).
maybe not that exact list, but a welcome pack would be good for new players, a grapple I feel is the most ideal tool as it doesn’t “break progression” or whatever, but makes travel easier and more fun. Could be an AOE tool? or some other more forged like thing (a forge tutorial could also be in the beginning experience, or maybe a later one? and help guide a player to understand the basics of making an AOE Iron hammer or something idk).
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I think at least 10k coin to get people started, its not like it is hard to make that unless you are starting. Would obviously only work as a one time reward.
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Really like the level cap idea to get people moving on, and we would end up with less mud huts in the main universe (not that there are too many at the moment)…
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I liked the book idea that was mentioned a while back, so the tutorial planet would take you through the basic game mechanics, but the book went into a lot more detail and you could take the book through with you to re-read whenever you want.
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That would have worked for me. I lived in a mud hut for my first 2 weeks. As it was on Raxxa, the mud there looks like poop 
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So… Completely different thought, but still in line with NPE. I’m using an * to mark my comments vs what we currently have… Sorry for the wall of text, but i wanted to be through.
So right now our NPE is as follows (correct me if I’m wrong), you get the game on steam or playstation store, you launch it, create a character (with every aspect being able to be changed again later, i don’t remember if there is info there to tell you that…), Pick if you want to start on a tranquil or hostile world (or something like that), you walk down a hallway, up a ramp, meet the elder who grunts and waves at the totem and warp augment, you are directed (via text objectives on screen) to load up the totem and point at the planet to open up your first warp portal.
*So far I don’t see any hiccups (let me know if you think we need changes to this first 5min), probably ok here, maybe some little more info about hostile enemies being able to be ran from or fought could help, idk… I’d say putting them on a local planet instead of a main universe planet, but only if reclaim is permitted after tutorial as a minimum, otherwise straight to mmo i think is better…
Once on the planet you are instructed via objectives of some things to do, but you can largely ignore these and play for quite awhile in clear daylight. If you follow the objectives you are directed to gather things to make a campfire, crafting table, wooden tools, a beacon and fuel, and place so many blocks to make your first “structure”.
*That is where I’d say a little firmer hand could help… Things like highlighted menus, maybe a dream bubble of sources of wood and leaves, told to handcraft a woden axe before you cut so many trees with a totem, make a hammer before you start whacking rocks with the totem.
Next you are directed to make a plow, and plant some seeds, then to find either a portal or make a warp augment and warp conduit and travel to another planet. I think once you’re there it just says to gather some resources then return via warp back to your home beacon…
*At least that is what i remember (i could be way off on my memory here), I’d argue the farming is a little tedious to be shown so early, but fine, and the planet travel is probably fine but I’d argue it should just be via warp, not portal, not yet. And on the other planet instead of gathering resources, you are encouraged to make a location marker and/or find a settlement probably the capital via the “warp to current planet” trick that takes you just outside that planet’s capital. Then after walking around the city for some amount of meters, you are encouraged to either travel through a portal (if an active one is nearby, use highlights to show what the purple portal icon on the compass if so), or return to santium and direct you to the warp home feature, (if you go through the portal it just has you walk around a little bit more then do the warp home thing)
***Now where a mechanic I feel should be added for the sake of NPE, have them now that they are home and have learned basic travel, have them do a special “reclaim” where they make a blueprint out of their plots, and now can place it on other planets. IF they are on a tutorial planet, now they move to MMO, if not then have them put it down either elsewhere on the same planet, OR place it on another planet (via warp to location marker if in MMO, otherwise they just pick a new spot on the MMO planet they end up “spawning to” based on their pick in the first 5min). After they put down the blueprint, they are shown a cutscene that displays highlights of different things in the game, like high level mining, exos, meteors hunting, glimpses of advanced farming, shops/malls, and perhaps glimpses of a couple portal hubs), then they are shown the “featured social channels” in the menus, namely the links to the official forums, and the discord (don’t have to click them, but are told that they are great ways to find and connect with the community). Told “welcome to boundless” and given a special box in the exchange that gives them a basic grapple, some coins, and a chunk of xp. End tutorial.
*If blueprints aren’t a thing that could be added yet, i guess standard reclaim works too, but I think the idea of being able to move your build will help the NPE so much more than just standard reclaim (although standard reclaim should be told to them too so they know their stuff is saved should they quit and comeback later).
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I’d suggest finding a friend or family member that has no idea about the game and watch them play it. Don’t tell them anything and observe them. I’d also suggest creating a new character and trying it out again.
My son who is 13 years old and a gamer was interesting to observe going through the game for the first week. Lots of questions arose, some I didn’t even consider.
If I was Monumental I’d do some user testing personally and observe where people have questions and get stuck. We as players who play all the time forget any difficulties we may have had because a lot of it is second nature.
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