Planning for 2017 - Contribute your ideas!

Devlog
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1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:
I have read all of the comments to date and thought long and hard about this. As far as a major feature that needs rehauled, it would be combat. To date, every single fight with anything is the exact same mechanic. Shoot with an arrow and dodge the attack. Shoot, and dodge. It’s very cumbersome if you’re on sloped terrain, or ice, or in water. Pretty much, any surface (which, in a voxel-based game it’s almost every surface) that slows or limits your movement makes it a nightmare to fight anything. And for what? There is no awesome loot to be had as of yet. There are no trophies I can hang on my wall. There are no or very rare special creatures (I certainly haven’t found anything that excites me yet). Where are the swords, clubs, bows, spears, maces, magic fireballs (or magic of ANY type) that make it simply fun to go hunting? Where are the monsters that, by their looks or titles or something, give me tingles down my spine because I know if I can defeat them there is loot to be had!?

Devs, you guys have done awesome things. But, just one or two more steps would make them groundbreaking fun! When I see an elemental creature, having never fought one and only seen them in concept, I expect they’ll drop something related to their element. If I want to cast ■■■■■ of fire that explode, I would expect to have to kill fire elemental hoppers or something. And, shouldn’t these special creatures be in certain places so that I choose to go there based on my adventurous spirit and/or my current skill levels and gear? I haven’t found areas where I don’t go because I’m getting one-hit by the monsters there. That’s part of the combat systems in previous games that excites me. I want to have adventures where I don’t know if I can handle them or not. I want to have to use my brains and my cool weapons in conjunction with one another in order to defeat the obstacles I meet. I want to be excited to see a creature and go pick a fight, not quite knowing what I’ll get if I win, but at least knowing the fight will be worth it.

Each creature dropping meat, tallow and bones makes sense. But, shouldn’t there be more exciting drops too? And a combat system to make it fun to get those drops?
2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:
The compass is good, but I’d like a map of some kind, even if I had to pull it out and look. It would make sense that I have to go to an area to see it on my map, too. If this isn’t going to happen, I’d love to be able to mark the locations I have on my compass so that I didn’t have to pull up the debugging and keep checking the coords so I could go find where I have already been.

I may be stupid or something, but right now coal isn’t as functional as I’d like it to be. I have an over abundance of iron and copper ore, and am burning wood because of how little coal there is. I think it’d take a lot of work to rework how much coal is in the world and all that, so I’m suggesting increasing how much ore one can smelt/glue/glass one can make with one block of coal. If it was doubled, I feel like it would be perfect, because I seem to run out with half the ore that I got from mining expeditions left unsmelted every time.
3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:
I’m a bit surprised to find this question at this time. I thought there were several major features planned before 1.0 . . . and I don’t see how a 1.0 release can be thought of without any of them. Especially given the advertising of them, specifically: Titans, Achievements (that actually do something? I hate achievements that just say, kudos you killed your nth creature of the same type), Skilltrees, Guilds, etc.

If I have to choose ONE, then it would be skilltrees. The game is stagnant right now because we’re leveling up, but other than the coins and plots there’s no evidence of leveling. I get skillpoints, and I am gnawing at the bit to spend them on skills that will make the grind easier, and the play more fun (e.g., I want to be able to move around easier and mine faster/easier and find resources better). This should be telling, that this game is new and getting updated all the time with exciting stuff but i already discuss the grind. Mining’s tough, tedious, and too-often-disappointing and I saw some glimpses of hope that would make it better in those skilltrees.
4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:
Portals. The mechanic was in the game once, I used it and loved it. I’m not sure why it would be challenging (or even if it would be challenging) to put them back in, but I crave portals. If I had to get a hundred compact gold blocks in order to build a portal that stayed open all the time, I’d do it.

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1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:
I have to play more to judge this point
2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:
I think the swimming mechanics are rather odd. At least I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet. All I know is that I randomly shoot upwards and jump out of the water when I hold down space.

Another thing is crafting: It happens to me quite frequently that I want to craft something in the e.g. crafting bench but notice that I am out of sticks. So I need to craft more obviously, and now come the - to me - very illogical part: Why do I have to leave the bench menu, turn around a bit so I don’t hover on the bench with the cursor any more, and then enter my “personal” crafting menu to craft a stick, only to return to the crafting bench and put in the stick. I mean, perhaps there’s a deeper reason to that but it’s not very apparent to me.

Sometimes, when I am killed in dense forest my respawn portal hovers over the treetops. When I then jump down I almost lose my entire LP again.

The caves are a bit too convoluted to explore in the beginning. Lots of high drops and one needs a fair amount of torches to not get lost in them. I guess the idea of having some kind of “beginner firendly” caves someone else floated in this threat is nice.

Some kind of in game guidebook would be nice. It doesn’t have to be the “in your face” kinda deal that tells me everything and them some I need to know. But having a few more hints on how things work would be nice. A la “You’ll need iron to progress further” etc.

Beginner tools should either be cheaper or have a longer durability. Right now one doesn’t get nowhere with them, which is a bit infuriating.

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:
Farming or Titans.

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:

Sneaking! So that I can sneak up to the edge of a block without falling down. It’s god sent in minecraft at least. Right now peering down a ravine (especially in an ice biome) almost always leads to me falling down :neutral_face:

EDIT: It’s already in game! :smiley: Thanks @Valkirth

Pretty please add leave decay! It really grinds my gears that I have to remove all the leave blocks by hand. It’s especially useful to see if I have overlooked a piece of the tree trunk up there somewhere. Alternatively cutting down the whole tree by removing the bottom most block in turn for a longer block break time would work too, I think.

Another nice feature, to me, would be if leaves were non-solid block and instead of being impenetrable would just slow me down. Alternatively them being easier to break would be nice too.

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sneaking has been in the game for awhile,believe its on the crouch button

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so the higher your mining skill the better version of the ore you would receive?

so it could be like-

crude iron ore
iron ore
fine iron ore

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I hope you understand my broken English. :smiley:

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:

Warps: A different payment than coins. Coins should be for trading and not for warping. Just a few people spend their coins to trade items. I think it would do more people if there’s another payment, something you can craft with resources.

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:

Swimming: Doesn’t look good and isn’t working fine.

Durability of tools: Just the tools in your quick selection should break if you die, not all first items of a stack in your inventory.

Beacons: The design of beacons isn’t beautiful (I always hide them). Make them customizable with materials like wood, stones (what the player wants).

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:

Exchange Plinth/Buying Plinth: Plinths where you can set the reward as coins or items. For example: You can sell Iron and get Copper for it.

Farming: I want to find or buy seeds and grow them and sell the fruits and vegetables (or what you call them in Boundless). That would be awesome. Farming is always one of the features I love in other games like in Starbound. :wink:

Fishing: I built my base at a sea with some other people and it would be great to go fishing. :slight_smile:

Chat & HUD: 1. Different chat channels. /near people /friends (A chat with friends in your friend list all over the world, or maybe all over the universe) 2. Chat windows should have an extra place in the hud and not using the same like the notificatiosn of level ups and resources.

Map: A map of the current world (things that are near) and the option to use different icons for places and the option to mark saved locations on the map and HUD.

Portals: Like in this quote but standing open forever and the option to demand payment when others want to go through it.

Portals are a permanent rift between two locations and can only be connected to other Portals. You make one then you make the other (or a friend does) and you connect them. You always know where they’re going to go. They are opened for a cost of Oort Shards for 60 seconds, and then they close again but they can be opened again and again (for the cost of Oort Shards).

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:

Leaves: If I cut down a tree the leaves could fall down after a while, because I don’t want to cut off all the leaves, but it looks not good to see flying leaves in the sky.

Signs: I know they are coming but I hope they will come soon. :wink:

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Before 1.0 must come titans (of course!) xD
And I would like to see farming, like you can plant trees, seeds (wheat, carrots, potatoes, etc.)

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There are some, I think there is a waving and a sitting one, but it would be cool to have more like it.

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Just got this game and I suspect that I am only just seeing a small part, but what I do observe is that I can perceive a point of not being fun any more… I have built my place, mined my resources, ran around with friends… But there is no WHY to doing this other than the novelty, which once done is DONE. I have played MANY games since my first PC more than 20 years ago and one game comes to mind when it comes to having a LONG running WHY to the question of what your are doing in a sandbox MMO. It starts and ends with “E”, has a “V” in the middle and has only three letters in it. If one could see the deeply intertwined depth and longevity of Resources, Crafting, Professions, Skills, Economy and Guilds of this game somewhat transposed then there will be much to do with everyone playing a small part. Against this back droop, the economy of resources and crafting, was to feed PVE and PVP.

That said, my reference game made above was based around a game style of horrific cut throat play that i have to say is not for everyone and produced some neurotic/psychotic players in the end. If Boundless can allow for casual players to have their little corner of the world where they can simply get by just fine while doing a decent amount of stuff but producing one or two special things (of hundreds of possible special things); all the while have a deep and rich system that will allow hard core players to be heavy traders, crafters, fighters, etc…

Probably more than what you were asking for here… but i think this game has all the right mechanics of a game but seems to be lacking the killer “WHY” of play.

All that said… Great game … loving it so far!!!

IMHO.

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~Before I start, I have about 54 hours into Boundless, and I only recently discovered and picked up the game less than a week ago. This time represents a lot of experience with certain features and areas of the game, but not nearly all or even a significant chunk. So, my preferences here are based largely around the experiences thus far. The first half of this gameplay was spent exploring and spelunking a great deal on Solumn; the second half was spent constructing and toying with the machines needed for transportation and creation.

My favorite favorite favorite two (so far) features of Boundless are the hookshot and chisel. The addition of mobility, the aid of farming materials in hard-to-reach areas, and the dual wielding feature combined with the hookshot make it an incredible addition to this type of game, and I find it very difficult to go back to an environment without such a tool. In addition, the chisel is a wonderfully simple way to manipulate creations to allow for even more fun and precision. I would be willing to venture that a good 15-20 hours of my played time thus far is solely to test the extensive capability and use of this little device.

That being said, here are my responses to the 2017 Planning questions:

1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:

Plot monopolies. I realize this is a design feature currently, and that the devs may want to encourage guilds of players monopolizing large swaths of land and the resources beneath them, however, I am urging caution and would like to see greater restrictions of this.

And besides the mass monopolies, there is absolutely nothing more frustrating to me than seeing a lone beacon sitting somewhere with no indication of progression or building or interaction from its owner in who knows how many days. This is something that is unfortunately a deal-breaker for me. If a beacon goes unused for so many days, have it go back into the player’s resources to be used elsewhere.

Real estate is the most valuable resource here in Boundless, and if the current state of the game with its resources being tied to specific regions and/or worlds stays true, the first order of business will be to run around throwing beacons and plot extenders around as fast as you can level mining. I can see people selling or even renting plots of land - which could, admittedly, be an OK thing. But, this can also get out of hand very quickly. We simply do not have the active player base to see any potential unforeseen consequences of implementing such a feature. I would advise steps be taken to limit and curb such behavior, rather than retroactively try to undo problems arising from monopolizing behavior that could potentially shut out players who just want to grab a pretty mountain peak and build next to their friends…who have neighbors who have taken up every mountain peak and interesting landmark in the surrounding area (check the large town on Solumn).

Right off the bat, I can see issues with griefing and (this one being more the case) absent players. Player “JaneDoe123” decides to go play something else for a few months and has a half-made eyesore right in a prime area, or has a few beacons scattered right vertically above where someone wants to extend an underground ice cave, which effectively prevents them from going through with the project because of how the plot system works at the moment. What kind of time frame can players be expected to have to preserve untouched property? Indefinitely - I sure hope not. I can recommend a time frame, but there are all sorts of scenarios where players could reasonably be absent from the game with intentions of coming back to keep working (I am military; 120-day deployments are a thing).

My Suggestion: Maybe have them build a plot preserver that you could feed into the beacon, and you can only build so many before the world begins to reclaim your beacon? I dunno, something so that the player has to premeditate the hold on their property. I’m thinking you would only need to feed a beacon that you aren’t currently or recently manipulating, so you could either feed your beacon with preservatives or run to every one periodically to interact with it. Perhaps a 10 day natural preservation, with an item that preserves the beacons in 10 day increments up to a max of 120 days. Plus, you would be able to email a support ticket for extension requests, and should you come back earlier, the bonus extension disappears.

2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:

This request is directly tied to my experience with the Township Project currently going on Berlyn. A feature that is pretty badly needed is the ability for town governors/designers to selectively give rights and privileges to members. We need to be able to give members the ability to access items and areas that are relevant to their status and/or contribution. If I’m designing roads and bridges, I shouldn’t be able to knock down someone’s house. The current system relies heavily upon the integrity of the players, and there is no ability to give players access to items like plinths or machines without revoking access to structures within the same plot - or vice versa.

My Suggestion: (I realize this suggestion is to implement a new feature) I would like to see a guild be able to put down guild beacons, and then leaders within the guild be able to assign guild members subplots to either build homes on or contribute to guild building projects. This also needs to be coupled with access to certain guild features such as storage blocks/shelves, construction/destruction of blocks, supplying plinths, etc.

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0:

At the risk of coming across as an ungrateful child, I would love to see EVEN MORE versatility with the chisel. For example, my last project design was specifically chosen to test the capabilities of the chisel: I tried to replicate in miniature the globe-tree from the game Myst: Riven. I got pretty darn close, but the limitations - while extended by the use of the chisel - lie in the angles currently available. (I realize I could have made it much bigger in order to make it much closer to the design it was borrowing from, but I kinda detest being that guy and hogging the land needed for such a thing. And in any case, a 10x10x10 with “rounded” edges raised on an artificial tree trunk should be large enough to replicate a globe."

My argument for this feature being essential is simple: If the most appealing feature of Boundless is its creation aspect supplied by tools such as the chisel, then fueling this feature can only increase appeal and staying power of the game.

I would love to see the ability to chisel extended to chiseling slighter angles into blocks, perhaps by the ability to use the chisel on slabs and other sub-block types.

4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:

OOH Oooooh! I have a good one. So, dual-wielding is hot stuff. Hookshots and hammers are even hotter. Hookshots and hammers, trying to clear out pitch-black areas in large caves is like trying to assemble a puzzle upside down: it’s doable, and you can accomplish it with some effort, but not fun. Can we please have a consumable night-eye/lightsource effect for this purpose?

I don’t know what kinds of wearable gear you guys are going to implement, but if sapphire night-vision goggles aren’t in the cards, can I beg/buy such a thing?

Bonus Feature Request: MOAR BLOCKS PLEEZ. Might we pretty please with cherry on top have access to natural blocks like igneous-with-iron-deposit for the purpose of crafting and designing? I assume I do not need to brick you (again) with more information and arguments to support this request…

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If you want to take the problem up for an in depth discussion we have a thread that have been sitting duck for some time:

Its quite a long thread but new perspectives are always welcome ^.^

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Thanks for the lead, Thor!

This is just a good place to take advantage of the dev’s question as to which features I/we currently consider broken and which feature we would like to see implemented earlier rather than later. I just see this issue as a potentially game-threatening one, so I’m throwing my two cents around.

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Yup I know I just thought I would throw it out there ^.^

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  1. More beacon types or customizable beacons. I am happy with beacons as they sit but think multiple variety’s of beacons would be good to accommodate different play styles. Along with standard beacons you could have boundless beacons which would be much larger than standard and allow for larger builds. Of course monsters and resources would spawn in them allowing for player owned mines and dungeons. maybe bacons could have beacon enhancers to allow for a greater percent chance to spawn certain minerals or monster. guild owned utility beacons as described in another thread would be a good 3rd beacon type.

  2. Resource distribution on starter worlds. I like how it set up on other worlds but the starter worlds should have more small seems of gold. I have literally never seen gold on a starter world and if it wasn’t for @Havok40k setting up a gold shop at the berlyn market I might still be there.

  3. [quote=“james, post:1, topic:5845”]
    Assume that we can only add one more MAJOR feature to Boundless before hitting 1.0.
    [/quote]

Titans a solid skill tree and guilds. you asked for one but you need all three!

  1. Decorations such as item frames, pictures statues, books, and mail boxes would be swell. In fact you cant have to many types of decorations. Also farming would be great.
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1. Which current feature in Boundless do you think needs a MAJOR overhaul?

a) Agree with most here, about ressource distribution. On mountain walls should be visible what can be found inside as well. Digging into the blue is no fun…
I liked the idea to connect certain ressources with specific “architectural formations”. i.e. there was a blue gleam stone you could find when you digged out graves (can’t remember anymore on what planet it was) the idea was formidable. Architectural / geometrical formations that indicate special ressources around are really nice.

b) achievement system (for long time fun / time killer / task variety). Kill 100 livestock, swim 20.000 blocks, get every ressource of a planet, etc… with respective rewards (decoration, receipts, titles / names, etc.)
Here you can very easily add a lot of stuff, that motivates players to follow other goals for some time, even when they miss new “real content”. I also implemented it under 3. since for me currently there is no real system yet. I think there somewhen was a very nice thread in which many many ideas were collected. If someone wants to find it, feel free to add in response to my post.

2. Which current feature in Boundless do you think needs a MINOR update?

a) AI of creatures (i.e. charging for you even when never able to reach you).
b) under water movement

3. Assume that we can only add one more MAJOR feature to Boundless before hitting 1.0. What MAJOR new feature do you believe is essential before 1.0?

a) skill tree
b) guilds (with adequate, comprehensive authority system)
c) group challenges: titans
d) exploring worlds and finding sacred temples and maybe hidden receipts, treasures…
e) achievement system (as considered above).
f) a map (in which way ever to be realized, maybe with option for players to “write notes” into)
g) an own language with own hyroglyphs to learn: Oort (if this is still part of the concept)
Priority a to g

**

4. Which new MINOR feature should we add to the next update of Boundless?

**

  • far more wearables (stats included)
  • sightglasses (so I can see even from a distance which way I prefer to go, or detect ressources on a high mountain wall even in higher levels)
  • swimming fins (I want more speed under water)
  • decorative objects (carpets, curtains, pictures, potted plants, diverse kinds of fences)

Edit: @james I really hope 3.) was just for prioritizing your tasks, since I think 5 of the points I mentioned are MUST HAVEs for 1.0…
I also hope the publishers don’t force you to publish to a certain date even when the game (from your view) is unfinished. If the game contains bugs and lack of long time motivation / gameplay variety, it will just result in bad ratings on diverse websites and magazines. Even when everything will be updated sooner or later, a bad start is nothing positive for every game. it has major impact on it’s future. If you find time, maybe give a comment in a dev post to the idea of publishing. Date driven or quality driven?

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haha…your ‘minor feature’ suggestions would be BIG to me :))

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1. Which current feature in Boundless do you think needs a MAJOR overhaul?

Fighting / Combat. At the moment, as others already pointed out, it’s a boring system of “dodge and shoot”. It doesn’t feel like there is any learning curve. I also do not find the slightest sign for “team tactict” in the current system.

2. Which current feature in Boundless do you think needs a MINOR update?

Swimming. As I already pointed out in another topic:

Please go back to your “first” system where one swims continuously in water.

3. Assume that we can only add one more MAJOR feature to Boundless before hitting 1.0. What MAJOR new feature do you believe is essential before 1.0?

First of all I really hope that a proper skill tree, titans, temples are something that will come anyway and that they are not part of this question.

I would like to see a complex automation system for building and mining. I’d like to build machines that mine, collect, or builds things for me. There has also already been a topic about this. To sum this up I would like 3 kinds of machines.

1: A machine that is able to mine and/or collect blocks along a defined way. This would be very handy if I like to build a big tunnel or if I need to clear a huge area.
2: A machine that is able to “build” things. This could be eigther, as the first machine, be along a defined way (e.g. for building roads, or geometrical structures) or it could be a “blueprint” which builds “saved” buildings.
3: A machine that is able to transport materials over a “long” distance (e.g. a belt or a crane).

At the moment I don’t really care if they need fuel or something else (e.g. like the power core) but it would be “necessary” in my opinion that they don’t break like tools. They should get “used” and be repairable like other machines (e.g. workbench).

4. Which new MINOR feature should we add to the next update of Boundless?

Don’t know if this is a “minor” feature but farming would be cool. The smallest variation of “farming” could be “attracting” livestock that I like to “hunt”. E.g: I build a lure to attract “ground basher” which will increase the probability that a ground basher spawns or walks to the lure.

I don’t really need to “tame” them. It is sufficient if I’m able to imprison and breed them.

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Oh and something I completely forgot that is probably way more urgent than everything I mentioned in my previous post:

#Abolish the vertical plot reservation of beacons

Seriously, why can’t I build a cave-base if someone 100 blocks above me resides on a floating sky island?
I know the devs argued with “It’s there to prevent potential abuse of the beacon system”. But honestly, all it does is relocating it from a 3-Dimensional issue to a 2-Dimensional one as a potential griefer now just has to build around my plot, instead of enclosing it.
So atm it’s just a huge annoyance that doesn’t prevent anything.

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Hey, so I know that this is a little off topic, but I’m just a Trailblazer, I am yet to play this beautiful game.

And as such, I can’t really contribute much to these questions, but since you said there’s only 1 Major Feature that can be implemented before 1.0, does that mean 1.0 is gonna be here quite soon? Sorry if this has already been confirmed, haven’t been up to date with all the posts. Thanks guys!

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1. Totally rework a broken MAJOR current feature:
Starting tutorial.
**2. Tweak a broken MINOR current feature:**crafting

3. Essential MAJOR feature before 1.0: please implement a questing system. By not having quests, you are turning away a huge group of people who like sandbox games but like questing in them.

**4. Add a MINOR feature in next update:if not questing some sort of story objectives.

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I really hope that too…
@james , @olliepurkiss ?