Observations by a returning player

Suggestions
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So, as I mentioned in another thread, after a solid break of 7-8 months from the game, I’ve finally got the time to play Boundless again, and safe to say; alot has changed, and so far only in a good way.

Keep in mind that it’s not to say I haven’t made time for other games, because I have indeed played a bunch of different games that doesn’t require as much time nor dedication in the same way Boundless does. Taking a break from the voxel-sandbox genre in general, and after I’ve spent 4 or so weeks in Boundless so far this year, it’s really given me a different view of the various aspects concerning it’s gameplay and content.

I’ve searched the forums for topics that might’ve touched the surface of the ideas I want to mention, but I find them so different that I hope that you fellow forumers won’t get upset and cause a commotion over me mentioning vaguely similar suggestions from earlier threads.

Without further ado; here’s my contribution to an ever-expanding pool of ideas out there:

MORE VERSATILITY AND USAGE OF EXISTING MACHINES

So we’ve got the crafting table, the crucible and fire pit, the workbench, extractor, compactor, mixer and the refinery. There’s a huge variety of machines. But sadly, as it stands, I feel that they actually don’t really do all that much. In all honesty it feels a bit pointless to have that many machines if there’s such limited materials and items to work with. I’m certain I’m late in the race with this one, but either way, I just expected there’d be a bit more development by now on that front.

MORE VARIETY IN MOBS AND CONSUMABLES

It would’ve been nice to have several different ingredients from the Boundless’ ecosystem, to cook and combine to create consumables. Also, I feel like, travelling to another planet should feel like something foreign and alien, meaning that for instance spitters and wildstock shouldn’t exist on every planet, and rather have their own “substitute species”, so that you would feel for sure, due to it’s wildlife, which planet you’re on. And that being said, I feel there should be even more types of mobs on each planet, especially underground, with mobs that only thrive underground and in darkness.

REFINING TOOLS AND WEAPONS

The ability to improve/enhance tools and weapons through the refinery or something? Not much, but enough to notice a slight change in durability, speed or/and power. Nothing overpowering, but would add to the usages of the machines.

NEW MACHINE(S)

The one I had in mind particularly, was a forge and anvil, so that you will be able to repair damaged tools and weapons, as well as being able to craft armor, using different ores and materials. I would also like to see the spark-core being used to power other automated machinery in a similar fashion such as redstone in Minecraft, with switches and toggles to operate different, handmade mechanics, such as closing or opening doors, turning gleamlights on and off…

ANIMATIONS

I see that there’s an improvement on that front, but I still feel the game lacks in that department. For instance: smoother door opening and closing animation, actually seeing the tools or weapons break and fragment, seeing animals and players disintegrate or slowly vanishing instead of instantly, seeing mined blocks being sucked towards the player instead of vanishing into the inventory, making you unsure whether or not it appears in your inventory. Things like that. I’m sure I could list up quite a big list of examples, but getting basics done is a huge step towards the sensation of a finished product.

ORNAMENTS, DECORATION, FURNITURE, DIFFERENT DOORS AND INTERACTABLE WINDOWS

Title says it all really. Interactable chairs, tables, candlebras, ceiling-lamps, weapon- and armor-stands, beds, private interactable storage-units such as cupboards, carpets, wall-carpets, statues… I think y’all catch my drift. And windows that open upon interacting in the same manner as doors!

2-BLOCKS-WORTH OR MORE IN WIDTH FOR DOORS

Probably not an easy task to code, but it should be possible as you would occupy 2x2 block’s space…? Or drawbridge-doors would’ve been epic too! Another option would be to add “magical oort doors” that “vanish” upon interacting and thus “opening”, and interacting again would make these blocks solid again.

A COMMON BLOCK TYPE FOR COLORING

I miss being able to create blocks with a variety of colors, purposely for creating “pixelart” and whatnot. The way things are now, people are limited to quite few colors to build with, and that’s kinda depressing as people long to stand out in-game, much like many would want to in real life.

That’s all for this round. I’ve got a bunch more, alas not the time to knot them down just now. It’ll do for now. :wink:

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I am in a bit of a hurry this morning so I’ll add as I come back to it. Regarding the first two concerns, the devs have mentioned that we will be getting a more diverse loot pool from mobs allowing us to craft new consumables and recipes. We will also be seeing many more decorative items in the future.

EDIT: In regards to refining, there is a forge coming in that seems to let the player refine weapons and potentially other tools. Maybe we’ll see the forge when the lance comes out? Who knows?

Animations! I can’t speak of animating the breaking of tools and the opening and closing of dors but a more interesting application of animations seems to be in the works. The engine can handle translation and rotation of the blocks so we will be seeing things like the Titans animating as well as airships and other moving things as mentioned by the developers. I’m sure they will polish up some other things too :slight_smile:

Furniture would be great! This suggestion is up on the dev roadmap specifically on the “Decorative Items” card. At some point before the release they should more than likely get to some of these items.

I’m not sure what their opinion is on the common block. More variety in terms of color differences will be available with the new worlds at 1.0.

Its sometimes easy to forget that the game is still in Early Access. This was a problem for me when I started playing as I had many of the same concerns. I suggest checking the Trello Board so you have an idea of what they are working towards in terms of updates.

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I was gonna make this a suggestion, but in the current environment, I felt making this suggestion would be considered taboo, however, since you raised the point…

I’m really hoping they eventually put a machine in that lets us change the color of blocks. All you have to do is gather dye and/or some kind of metal.

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I like the idea of every block being available in each of a certain set of colors. If we’re going to get more planets anyway, every block could be available in any color somewhere, so the way to get the color and block type you want is to find the planet where that combination exists and start digging. I think that would encourage some additional exploration and expansion, and also help differentiate planets in another way.

Based on the different colors of blocks that exist already, I feel like maybe this is how it’s already planned to work? The main thing would be making sure every color has roughly equal representation.

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I have suggested that long ago and general response was that availability of color changes through any kind of crafting process would go against exploration as activity that the game is trying to encourage the most. I had to agree with that point, but still think that coloring through crafting could be a thing if its made hard enough (time-wise or resource-wise or both).
If we strike the right balance between getting a rare color block through exploration and through craft, then it could work. At the end of the day having two ways of achieving something adds to possibilities in game and helps people get what they want through different play styles (explorer vs crafter).

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I get that they want to encourage exploration, but how about this:

We all know Minecraft had sheep, shears, wool and dye. And that was fine, but I still missed having colored materials (not depending on the block’s natural color) that were tougher, had different texture and wasn’t flammable.

So my idea is basically paint by collecting things from the Boundless vegetation from different planets to create paint. “Too easily obtainable”, well then, make “painting” a level needed to be earned? Level requirement of unlocking, like for instance level 40. That way, the game entices you to level up and simultanously denies newbies from messing around with paint and spamming pixelart before a certain level much later on… :thinking:

With paint the players could choose whichever blocktexture they would see fit to paint. Like, you could still see the stones on a metamorphic stone, just that it’s painted another color.

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As for the colors of the blocks.

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Nah you’re good. It’s a wonderful idea. I think the de team mentioned that they were pretty against it though. I don’t have the exact quote so don’t take my word for it.