The way connections act with PS4 connections would make this idea horrendous.
Since the in-laws moved out I had the chance to redo our home network setup so as a result now have the PS4 hardwired. My issues did not get better at all as developers has suggested it would months ago. I’d say it’s worse but I haven’t been able to play regularly for a few months now so that wouldn’t be a fair assessment.
it could be a one time thing when you login.
As much as I would like an accurate population sample, Naw it opens the door for more. Game time after kids in bed is precious! 
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But just my opinion, not trying to discredit the the effort. All suggestions and opinions help !
That is much, much better. Thank you. Now it feels like we’re actually having a thoughtful discussion.
It’s important to distinguish between base materials such as rock or trunks and any other product of those (stones, timber, etc), as the second part of my suggestion would see recipes balanced accordingly to the fact that there is a significant downturn in a player’s capacity to mass produce basic materials.
The nett effect of such balancing would focus on getting recipes to be approximately equivalent time-wise to what they are now. If people are currently mining 100k rock with 3x3 tools now in X amount of time, and a change to AoE strips that back to the most efficient tool creating 20k rock in the same time frame, then recipes that use rock would required ~1/5 of the rock that they do now. (these are sample numbers for ease of explanation).
This would result in diminishing the exponential gap between what a newer player can achieve without fancy tools and of end-game characters with fancy tools, while still giving room for advancement and progress. Do this and you subsequently both lessen people’s capacity to produce rock to exploit it’s crafting XP in the first place, and improve the value of low-level characters time. There are plenty of topics on player retention and how enjoyable low level play is that support this being a worthwhile consideration.
You are right… this would affect people who intent to actively build out of raw materials, and I hadn’t factored that in. Though my first thought is “Natural blocks are getting a prestige buff soon… maybe it wouldn’t be the worst thing if it took a little more effort to get them”.
Yes… and no. If I recall correclty, the major complaint about the bomb mining rework was that it destroys useful resources as well as rocks, which my suggestion does not.
Additionally yes, please do look at how it got settled. People didn’t like it, but they did it anyway for the long term health of the game. They absolutely should be doing the same thing with AoE hammer mining, given that it’s actually more OP and productive than bomb mining ever was. Wonderstruck has even acknowledged (without actively saying as such) that power creep is a real problem in the way that they’re greatly reducing the new material tier’s flexibility.
Yeah I didn’t want to aggressively break down your idea, there are further follow on considerations, most people are not actually eager for detailed criticism, and this side tack is off topic here.
As you appear to be that rare sort of fellow who can appreciate a detailed analysis even if it’s negatively weighted, nice to meet you. Even in troubled times.
James has requested suggestions in the announcement thread.
I think this is the real problem: I don’t object to more productivity at all, and I’d like to see even more of it. While it’d certainly affect the market value of different resources, I don’t see how it would affect overall economic activity - if anything, encouraging more volume of activity might stabilize the economy a bit.
I already have, but did a bad job of it (I didn’t go into it fully enough for fear of it getting overlooked as a wall of text). And Honestly, I regret it. Sometimes I feel like you get one chance to get it right when presenting ideas directly at Devs, so I’d actually rather have other forum users thoughtfully pick apart an idea so we can rebuild it with less flaws first. It’s why I often throw out ideas knowing there’s a glaring flaw. People seem much happier to get involved when there’s an easy start point to say “You’re wrong, because…”
Though you are right, this is getting off Topic.
I’m on the fence about this. On the one hand, I do agree that volume productivity could encourage the economy, but on the other I’m very wary of making that productivity something that’s greatly skewed towards endgame as it currently is. It might be that the Devs had expected more people to get used to crafting stone and iron AoE tools smooth off the curve, but I don’t think it happened yet.
The only issue that I can foresee from it is taxes taking a slightly larger quantity of coin out of circulation, which we know has already been a problem. Technically, if it’s the same volume of coin but for more goods, then the same amount of tax should be coming out and there’s nothing to worry about - but every time they have to round off to the nearest coin, there’s that risk that just a little more gets swallowed up. Also, if you have more people making more transactions, there’s a chance that more of those people haven’t purchased the tax epic skill, which also shaves a few more bits off of the edges.
And, of course, if we had more people able to reach an “endgame” state more quickly, then that might be something less worrisome for people coming up through the ranks. But that gets into this whole giant argument right now.
The thing with root cause analysis brainstorming is no idea is usually off topic. We’d be looking for third order, fourth order, fifth order, etc effects that aren’t obvious at first glance when discussing possible fixes. This is all great conversation and it’s exactly what needs to happen.
By all means toss out ideas even if they seem only loosely connected. This is all one giant ball of interconnected strings that we need to pull on to see what unravels.
That is true. I guess it just depends on what this game wants to be. Is it a typical MMO style game where you race to level cap and then the game begins, or is it intended as a game you’re supposed to slowly enjoy all the way up?
I’d prefer the former… Obviously, there are enough other people on here that want the latter. And the game itself seems to do such a marvelous job of skirting that edge that it may manage to alienate both camps.
Posing potential solutions before the root problem is clear may or may not serve to stimulate productive discussion. In this case it’s unlikely, admittedly my opinion.
there’s another aspect to the issue, and I’m going to borrow a quote from another player in a similarly derailed thread, to express it.
So far each thread or conversation I’ve tried to participate in discussing why this blew up into an upset of this proportion has been derailed by this activity.
It’s often people who are frustrated and posting in whatever thread happens to be open. It’s frequently someone browsing several related threads and replying to the wrong one.
In my experience it’s mostly people who are afraid they won’t be heard in a ‘crowded’ thread looking for an alternative output, and white knights trying to re-frame the discussion for some sort of social currency. I don’t mean to be vague. Fanbois kissing ass.
These are attempts, typically, to terminate any root cause analysis and push forward into “like it or lump it” mode.
In any case the signal to noise ratio on this topic (referencing any or all of several relevant threads) has been very nearly useless.
I’ve only had very limited time using the forge for very basic items … is it economically viable to produce cheap stone and iron AoE tools without them having defects and quirks that make them virtually useless?
To me it seems that it’s only dedicated forgers that can produce any real tools of viable use and the ingredients needed make AoE stone and iron tools completely outweigh the final product which is why there is this massive jump from unforged to very powerful forged tools.
It’s fairly typical when doing right cause analysis that what the group thought was the problem turns out to be something else and the problem statement identified in step one is modified several times until it fully encompasses the actual issue at hand. Sometimes the original problem, when data points are reviewed, turns out to not be a problem at all; but merely a perceived problem which has a different fix methodology.
Additionally during discussions subordinate or connected issues are identified that are either tied to or are a result of the problem.
Forging mid teir tools was a lot easier before the pure boon recipe changes. Bumped up the material and power cost significantly for pure boon which precludes a lot of early game forging in my opinion. Quirks are annoying and defects practically ruin a tool.
This all sounds dangerously similar to science.
I’ve only dabbled with the forge using tips from this forum as the forge itself provides absolutely no guidance whatsoever and even the descriptions in the knowledge tab for each ingredient is virtually useless so I can’t see how new players are expected to take up the forge at an early stage to produce enhanced low level tools and then progress to better ones. The high level AoE tools are far too tempting and easier just to buy even for a relatively new player who can then go and mine a ton of metal to sell as well as all the stone to then mass craft.
Here’s my take for what it’s worth 
Characters in boundless are so limited that it makes it impossible to appreciate the extent of the game. The work done on character development and progression is simply the addition of Alternate Characters. The result - to fully appreciate Boundless, you MUST create lots of characters each limited to experience a single aspect of gameplay.
Why should players committed to, and supportive of Boundless, be seemingly punished by having to start again at the beginning? The only answer is - they shouldn’t. This so called “exploit” allows those who enjoy Boundless some respite over the game imposed punishment.
If character development and progression isn’t implemented in a lasting and satisfying way, players will continue to try their hardest to find in-game solutions to the myriad problems created.
If symptoms (like rock to stone xp) of the bigger issue (alternate characters rather than lasting character progression) are given credence and allowed to be treated as actual issues in themselves, then the game will be degraded over time without ever addressing the underlying illness.
Everyone forced to create alternative characters simply to appreciate the fullness of the game.
Everyone who plays long enough to have characters at level 50.
Everyone who experiences that “game-over” feeling at level 50.
In short - pretty much the entire player base.
Just my 2c
Well thought out and presented points. Thanks for joining the conversation. Hopefully the devs will see your post and take it under consideration with the other comments and suggestions.