In regards to objectives limiting gameplay and free form play styles, I believe any feature in the game, somehow or another limits it, to a minor or major state.
I think the best way for objectives to work, is if they’re spammable, meaning that you can do it without really investing into it. What I’m trying to say, let’s say you get about 20 exp for mining 5 blocks, the objective would be mine 5 blocks and get 20 exp. It wouldn’t be a huge ordeal, so you don’t feel obligated to mine 20 more minutes to get the exp assigned to 1000 blocks, it would just mean, you wouldn’t want to do it from the get go, since it means a huge task.
Keeping it to focused and small objectives means you could do 200 times the mine 5 blocks and get the same exp as to do one objective of 1000 blocks, both reward the same exp, but one doesn’t interfere with gameplay as much.
Some people can mine or build for hours and not get tired, some do lapses of 10 to 15 mins, I think both should get exp for that in that time, but in order to do that, they need to be able to complete an objective in that time frame, the exp growth would be proportional and not exponential.
Additionally, we could have global objectives, meaning for those specializing in one task, the constant grind and labor they put into mastering their craft will be rewarded with additional exp
Maybe tasks could be means of a guideline for the player. Accidentally achieving a task grants you experience as well as actively pursuing them. I’m not familiar with daily or weekly tasks in mmos although they seem to be almost standard.
It probably would also mean a lot of work creating tasks, like make a looping around a pillar with your grapplehook, or hunt three lifestock in between 15 minutes. So a task also could function as helpful example what you can do in the world, if one would run out of ideas.
I have to say this makes me slightly nervous. Of course, we’ll have to see how it’s implemented but I love the current freedom that we have to play how we want to play. The addition of dailies and weeklies is awesome as an optional activity, but it seems as if they will become a necessity for leveling, which makes me cringe a little as it brings back Destiny memories of doing the same things over and over and over. I have limited time to play most times I get on and I’d hate to feel like I HAVE to use that time to complete tasks in order to not “fall behind” as it were. I hope this comes across as respectful as I intend it to. As always, thank you for being open with us and sharing what the devs are thinking.
I don’t think anyone’s forcing people to do objectives - just do what you enjoy doing and I am sure some objectives will be completed automatically without you thinking about them.
However for someone like me that spends a lot of time in game, dislikes building, and is looking to spend my time doing a little of everything then you’d probably be correct that I’d complete more objectives than you.
Really we can’t say until we know how it works properly in game, If the objectives work on a loop like DZChan asked then perhaps you can build a house while I do 10 other things and we’d get the same amount completed?
But this isn’t the proposed system. You’re not forced to do anything. If anything it’s the opposite.
You choose which objectives to enable from the available objectives. If you want to go hunting, enable a hunting themed objective. If you want to go mining, enable a mining themed objective.
The whole point of this system is to give you control over what you want to do.
There will always be a collection of objectives to pick from. You can enable upto (I think) 5 objectives at once. And then work towards these.
The objectives can vary from extremely generic: “Mine any 5 blocks”, to extremely defined: “Travel to Therka and mine 5 Ancient Corruption from the base of a glacier”.
Great job so far! IMO, when done right, these dev/community collaborations, aka EA game, are very good for the game’s outcome! Might I also add I love this forum design and layout!
(The following is unsanctioned by the designers and reflects my personal opinion.)
My ambition is to deliver Objectives across the following groups:
Tutorial style - teach players all the systems in the game.
Coverage - if you follow all the objectives you’ll “do everything” the game has to offer: craft all items, build all items, mine all block types, kill all creatures, forge all enhancements, build portals, warps, visit all worlds, find all locations, etc.
Missions - a collection of hybrid actions - “travel to world A, find biome B, and kill / collect / harvest C”. Longer form adventure style.
Worker - objectives that complement standard play: mine, craft, explore, travel, defeat, build, etc, because I’m doing this stuff already and I want to generate experience + coin.
Whilst the objectives are still opt-in, they help and encourage you to do thing that you might normally not have done.
After reading the update 1, I can’t see how any style of play will be blocked from existance, it’s a very open system and very rewarding in my opinion, it’s nice that you took the chance to explain things by the objectives, little by little so we don’t get overload with information.
Now we just need to be smart with objectives, so we can kill two birds with one stone. Or maybe three?
You might want to consider not requiring the player to choose which objectives to activate - just let them naturally complete as the player does things in the world. (But definitely give us a mechanism for tracking the objectives we care about)
That would imply that either objectives don’t have overlapping tasks, or that some objectives unlock as earlier ones are completed
Like plenty of others already wrote: Not getting exp nor coin from anything but those objectives sounds quite limiting regarding play stile. What makes it even worse is the idea of implementing it as daily-objectives. For me, personally, this means that I’ll finish my dailies and then play something else since I won’t get any coin or exp for any of my efforts.
Almost any early-access survival game i know (Rust, 7 Days to Die, Life is Feudal) has had an “activity based” exp system since its early days. All of them are very fun to use and barely-to-not exploitable, shame that it’s not meant to be for Boundless.
There, fixed it
What if, instead of implementing such extremely generic objects, you tune them down to a “Mine any single block” objective that is permanently active without being tracked? Which would basically make it activity based exp, while reserving the ‘objectives-mechanic’ for the interesting tasks.
PS:
Collaborative/Competitive ‘Guild- & World Objectives’ definitely sound like something that should be a thing too.
Not at all. True, my first paragraph was about agreeing with what has already been said, but the rest of my post added new ideas or voiced my humble personal thoughts on the topic.
Absolutely, though, everything but the daily-objective isn’t repeatable (as it stands now), so eventually you’re left with nothing but the dailies.
Gotta think in long terms
We’re aiming for 50+ objectives per area (crafter, miner, etc) which you only need to complete once. They are currently not planned to be repeatable but this is subject for debate. However, you only need to complete two or three professions to reach the level cap.
From what it seems, not so hard to reach level cap.
So dailies and weeklies are just a bonus-
Repeatable tasks will mostly be for daily and weekly tasks which will have bigger rewards.
Thanks for the clarification! Player control is always best IMHO. 
I was under the impression the tasks were decided for you.
IMO, when done right, these dev/community collaborations, aka EA game, are very good for the game’s outcome! Might I also add I love this forum design and layout!
