Seasonal Planets

Suggestions
1

Edit July 11, '22

This is an older thread and a lot has happened since it was originally concepted and I want to clear a few things up.

No, we do not want a wipe of existing worlds- Boundless is a persistent universe.
No, I’m not going to be deleting posts, I retired as a forum mod- but I ask @majorvex to do as I would have. Please skip ahead to the * marked paragraph below to get to the meat of the idea.

Edit August 14, '19
Those of you coming to this thread from the “do we need a wipe” thread, I want to point out some important updates to this idea that have become possible in the recent months since Exo worlds were added to the universe.

Firstly, we would only really need 3 permanent worlds in a seasonal world list to be permanent, with the rest being exo worlds visiting regularly to provide gems, precious alloys, and unique challenges to the system.

Secondly, I’m less interested in discussing minutiae like how long should a season last, how long in between seasons, what should be the specific rewards, etc. I think these details should be left up to the creative processes of our developers and the community should not build it’s own expectations of what should or should not go into its implementation. That always has in the past lead to hyped up expectations and senseless disappointment when an anticipated idea is finally released and I dont want to further contribute to that trend.

Thirdly, please stay on topic. Let’s discuss the idea and leave the baggage at the door, to quote James. No need to bring up discussion from other threads, and I’ll personally be deleting posts that are counterproductive or derailment or derogatory, including memes.

  • Ever find your self wishing you had started your Boundless adventure… differently? Do you ever find yourself wishing for a wipe, so you have a chance of leaving your own mark on Boundless without having to compete with the already established corporations, portal hubs, and cities?

Seasonal Planets are the answer!

Seasonal Planets differ from typical planets in a few key ways. Firstly, they do not start as a part of the current live universe. Seasonal planets start off in their own micro system, just a single planet of each tier- possibly more depending on present active player numbers. These systems launch every few months, fresh and disconnected from the persistent universe’s influences. After a period of time, the season ends and the system joins the larger persistent universe.

This gives both new and existing players who feel like they missed out in the launch day event a chance to experience those unique challenges faced by launch players- before portal hubs, before stabilized markets, and before the universe was fully mapped. Possibly, even new unique challenges only faced by seasonal players.

Unique seasonal planet rewards could be granted to those who reach various milestones in their seasonal play that can then be carried over to the persistent universe at the end of the season. Unique body paints, masks, and more are potential rewards to entice new and veteran players roll new citizens in a seasonal system.

There are various design challenges that would have to be solved before this idea could become a reality… Gem distributions are the biggest challenge that comes to mind right away. Real world regions also pose challenges… Do you launch a seasonal system per geographical region? That has the potential to quickly flood Boundless with dozens of new worlds at the end of every season. What are your thoughts about the system?

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Yes. 100%.

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I don’t know about other people, but for me, this kind of thing is what burnt me out on Diablo 3 after 3 or 4 seasons.

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I think that’s a fair criticism, but I also think it likely helps bring lapsed players back into active play as well. Especially when a season offers highly desirable unique rewards. Sure, it resets the grind back to zero, but you take away a reward that only those who participated in the season can obtain, and can not be obtained thereafter.

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I… I’m not entirely sure how to respond to all that, but the gist I got is: New planets. Rewards. Shazam!

Totally down with this.

Now, am I correct in thinking this is how new (permanent) planets will be added? So if we launch all the way to the t6 in these small systems we’ll get more t6 worlds permanently?

I guess the word “seasonal” makes me think they’ll disappear after a while. If they do, do we lose everything if we built on them?

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I don’t suppose the two things would have to be mutually exclusive. You could, in theory, add planets to the persistent universe outside of seasonal rotations.

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Normally I would agree with this, but i’m going to be honest. With the way things are going, involving the nerf bat making more then a few unwelcomed rounds. and still looming over the forge yet again. I don’t think lasped players want to do the grind again from the ground up, when it is or will be hard enough from the point they are at right now.

I feel they would need to spice it up with something fun, to make the process of starting over, less daunting to think about, to make this work.

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I’d prefer to not discuss nerf speculation in this thread.

Your analog of Diablo 3 is very appropriate though, that’s where the idea is inspired from. Spicy new features, prizes, etc. would be critical. You don’t want every season to play out the same as the one before!

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Aah, yup, this is the part that confused me.
I’m going to take that as confirmation we keep them. :grin:

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And this is where I feel D3 failed and fell flat. With the only changes being in the Meta and 2x bonuses and the like

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So basically they become mining/gathering planets were we all live like cave men/women :smiley: ?

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Just for the sake of full disclosure, this is just a suggestion, not a road map. I’m not a dev, so nothing here would really be “confirmed” and is totally speculation!

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I mean, if that’s what you’re into I guess :stuck_out_tongue:

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Well, I totally support it. =D Sounds neato.

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I agree, and this is where Boundless’ sandbox format has a distinct advantage! Every aspect of the sandbox can be altered from the baseline. One set of seasonal worlds could feature changes that would not exist in the baseline worlds. How about something like… Unique culture/lore features? Unique weather effects? Altered creature behaviors? New technologies, crafted from resources only found on these planets? Altered gravity? Etc.

I know… New races could only start in seasonal worlds. That way, it’s like you’re building an all new civilization in each season? New races could have unique needs that need to be addressed? Maybe a race that breathes underwater, and has worlds with much deeper oceans to build in?

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and

Might be incompatible with each other, depending on what the devs feel is allowed to contaminate the main universe
.

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I think one thing that would be good is that items from older seasons have a chance of being in new seasons, to give people a chance at getting them, but there made to be more rare then other items in the season.

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While this make sense. logically, and could give a lore reason to why new races are suddenly showing up. I feel this may make players who don’t like the idea of seasonal game play at all feel a bit left out, if because they don’t want to partake in such, they are not allowed to make any other races.

And having a race that can breath underwater. Might make some people unhappy, if for whatever reason they missed the underwater season, and now there are some players who are allowed to breath underwater, and they can’t because they just weren’t playing at the right time.

So inless, after the season is said and done, the race becomes unlocked for everyone. regardless if they played in seasonal or not, the moment that race is allowed to “contaminate” the main universe. I feel this might cause problems otherwise.

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So, at the end of a season when a system joins the persistent universe, those new races become available for creation, race change, etc. Seems like a feasible added service feature that would not annoy a large portion of the player base.

I agree with your edit

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yes, that would have to be the case, to make this non-problematic

I edit things a lot. I tend to post something and then proof read, then I find mistakes or more things to add.

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