POLL: Is boundless heading in the right direction?

[Ynnoz]

A bomb-mining nerf was needed, but not a removal.

I convinced 2 friends this weekend to buy the game and bomb-mining was one of my arguments, well I look silly now

[schasm]

I don’t know I can’t read minds Just saying it’s not the only reason.

[wade44423]

The old university (Alpha beta) looks like official release version.
Current patch looks like Alpha beta.
How come they test so many change after the release ?
(It should be done way earlier before new universe released, or bring bk the test server for long run testing)
Also please write down the complete version of change on the patch notes, and release patch notes 2 days before the patch.

For example: Recipe change this time, you have to note every recipe which are affected on the new patch.
(In this way, player can give you the feed back and do something else to prevent the lost due to the future change)

If you change a lot of skills in one patch (either buff or nerf) , you should assign free skill reset token for everyone.

Also, if you make serious mistake, you need to give some in game compensations to players too.
(The time we waste to help your company to find out those serious bugs)

[boundmore]

I would have voted half/half agree/disagree if it was there.

[anon73404375]

To answer your question… I’m not a bomb miner, and this isn’t a snap decision. I’ve had the game since April 2015.

[juanjoe33]

I totally agree.
The thing that is bothering me is they are sending confusing messages on what is the idea behind the changes. If you read the release notes, it says:

@Steggs101

We are attempting to keep the different types and techniques of mining in balance so that they are all equally productive and you can choose which technique you want to apply.

And after that, they removed bomb mining from the game, at least the way people use to do it. So, one thing is trying to balance the game, and a totally different thing is changing the way you are use to play.
I felt the same with the powercoil change. These changes are not balancing are gameplay style changes, so devs please, we are not in alpha anymore, try to keep the surprises only for new features.
Thanks

[Elrood]

@juanjoe33

And after that, they removed bomb mining from the game, at least the way people use to do it. So, one thing is trying to balance the game, and a totally different thing is changing the way you are use to play.

Eh,maybe give them at least minimum of a credit? They already tried to balance it with last patch and probably tried a lot of other ways to do it on test servers. And from what it looks like they just plainly failed in making it on par with everything else. My guess is either they decided that re-balancing whole game was too much work in short period of time or decided that they just can’t make it to work the way they can accept it.

[juanjoe33]

Tests servers? so we have test servers again? I would expend time testing this balance things on a beta server before been released to the main branch. But no, we don’t have an option to test them beforehand.
I don’t know… I love the game, but perhaps is time to take a break for a while.

[Arkhainn]

@Dzchan94

The direct ones are starting to take place. But just of the top of my head, bomb mining used to be the most viable while gathering and hammer mining not so much. Who is to say with the new changes to resources generation it won’t be ok?

Hammer mining was perfectly viable. When starting the game, hammer mining is perfectly viable for copper. Then it’s still perfectly viable for iron, and then gold and silver (tho some people seem to have trouble finding silver). During all those stages of the game, you’d gather a couple hundred of uncommon resources (ores) every couple hours of mining.

And then you’d get to the tier 5-6 planets with bombs and gather a couple thousand of the rarest of resources with the same time and effort spent.

Are we really going to pretend that this makes sense?

[Trizer]

@Elrood

This poll was created way to fast.

Yup!
Im against a survey while everyone is in fire and nobody tested anything in depth.
The general direction of this patch was obviously to fill the gap of useless ressources and overlaping tools.

Yes balance is off again. But the intent is there.

[Nevioni]

While I still love the game im finding myself less drawn to logging and the reason is simply GRIND, I expect to have to work to make the best materials but we have gotten to and exceeded the point where the amount of work is not worth the result.

I understand the devs didn’t want any useless blocks in the game but cramming them into already expensive and over inflated recipes was not the answer. With the effort needed to collect all the raw materials then gather enough fuel for spark and after the massive effort to get enough power from coils then the huge amount of time waiting for items to complete I’m just left thinking what a waste of time! All that effort for 50 slightly fancier blocks… I fully expect that kind of GRIND from free to play games that wamt to flog you boosters but not from a premium game.

And as well I’m sorry but the amount of bugs is unacceptable, iv played a lot of online games and I know some bugs after an update are to be expected but the sheer quantity of things that break after an update is ridiculous, when a game is in beta it’s completely expected to have to play a buggy game but after you hit 1.0 there is a level of quality expected, I think maybe some have gotten to comfortable releasing an update and letting the beta testers find the bugs but that can’t be your main quality assurance in a live game.

[Elrood]

Hmmm… about that more grinding stuff, to be more precise bricks:

Recipe Changes

Just a little FYI, while the bricks recipe now requires a wider variety of materials, cooking brick mixtures now makes 4 bricks each, instead of 2, so after actually trying the new recipe I’m pretty much ok with it, since we now get a lot more bricks with no added need to compact stuff.

Recipe Changes

It is in fact less grindy since it requires less spark. It was 180 clay per 25 compacted clay, so you needed two mass crafts (360) to make one mass craft of brick mixture (50) that turned into 100 bricks. And you had some leftover compact clay. So, 360 clay = two bricks and 288 mud + ash = two extra bricks So even in raw materials, it’s less grindy.

[sztosz]

@Elrood

Eh,maybe give them at least minimum of a credit? They already tried to balance it with last patch and probably tried a lot of other ways to do it on test servers.

Actually looking at all the changes from the official release, it seems like they main purpose is to slow the players down. All progression. I strongly believe they badly miscalculated how fast will people gather stuff, build stuff and gain levels, and all those changes with recipes, nerfing xp gain from mining (and removing altogether from bomb mining) are to simply slow the players down. Now the purpose of totally nerfing bomb mining looks like another step in that direction. Maybe they were afraid that majority of people will play for few days-weeks at most, do all there is to do, level to 50, some alts, build all machines and power coils… get bored, and don’t come back until at least major content update. And empty servers does not look good in eyes of investors Having to slowly grind for that another level, gather tons of different basic stuff for more advanced stuff slows you down, and it lengthen the time player may stay with game. Of course the other side is that if grind it too heavy, players will drop out earlier than later anyway. I understand why they do this. But lengthening grind weeks after release looks very very bad in the eyes of current players, especially when they really, really broaden the gap between players like me, who have all advanced power coils they need, and those who didn’t get them. This kind of changes, and proper measurement of various aspects of game, like how long does it takes average player to do X, should be done before release, not after.

So it’s either the financial pressure, and they have to meet some goals very fast, or the design team have some internal issues.

Also to be clear, it’s only my opinion based on my observation. I believe if there are some problems with design team, with a little will they can be ironed out internally. And if it’s financial pressure… we, the players can do little to none.

[Elrood]

@sztosz

Actually looking at all the changes from the official release, it seems like they main purpose is to slow the players down. All progression. I strongly believe they badly miscalculated how fast will people gather stuff, build stuff and gain levels, and all those changes with recipes, nerfing xp gain from mining (and removing altogether from bomb mining) are to simply slow the players down.

Actually i totally agree. IMHO they completely underestimate how quickly veterans will go when starting from scratches. And how quickly newbies will pick that up.
And they are running out of content very quickly.

[Alamandias]

The amount of grind makes it feel like one of those free to play mobile games where you can spend a ton of time trying to do anything or you can pay to win. They just charged us for the game and dropped the pay to win. So, we just paid to spend a ton of time getting nothing accomplished.

[IAintNerdy]

The idea behind a grind is to keep you playing (sounds obvious i know) but you are right. now they have added wax too…

[Arkhainn]

@IAintNerdy

The idea behind a grind is to keep you playing (sounds obvious i know) but you are right. now they have added wax too…

Is wax a problem? I have about 4000 of it just sitting there unused (hoarded for the future I suppose), if you need some I’ll be happy to hook you up.

Edit: I queued a few mass crafts before I realized they were for decorative blocks and not bricks. Oops.

[Alamandias]

I agree and I dont mind some grinding. I mean i max leveled all characters in the star ocean games. It was grindy before and i was ok with that. But, with the recipe changes, it seems like they are purposefully trying to make it as grindy as possible.

[sztosz]

@Alamandias

it seems like they are purposefully trying to make it as grindy as possible.

I won’t agree with that statement. They lengthen the grind but it’s not as grindy as possible (vanilla wow reputation etc ) They fixed resource regeneration, so some resources are easier to gather than before. They changed bricks recipe so now it need more variation in grind, and grinding 10 X + 10 Y instead of 20 X although it’s always a grind, often player will perceive it’s easier, just because the variation.

[IAintNerdy]

Waxy earthworms or processed wax?..I’m in the market for some