Shouldn't Portals be harder to build and maintain?

[schasm]

@Buugi

Well… i certainly agree that portals are easy to make

I disagree here. I found the cost of portal conduit crafting (probably appropriately) prohibitive for some time. It was only once I was higher level that I had the resource to make enough for both sides of the portal.

[Jenndragonfly]

NO, I think they way the portals work now are already harder to maintain and really don’t want to
deal with even more maintenance issues. I’m sure the people who run large portal hubs would be against this idea as well.

[ElfMarine]

@GreyArt247

I agree with @ceresward … I does go against the grain with restricting portals but if it did ever become a thing then the compass would definitely need to reflect that. I’ve already done it a few times where I’ve trekked half way across a planet (ok, slight exaggeration) just to find the portal is locked behind a door. With a population explosion and the portal network eventually growing again that would be extremely frustrating especially if you’re stuck on a hostile planet.

I agree. Not only are these wonderful things called locks and doors with permissions already in the game to do this function of restricting access to portals, but, guilds are coming along with private planets that you can restrict access to friends, guild members or whatever so portals to those planets won’t work for people not approved to go there. Keep things simple. If a portal is behind a locked door and a player doesn’t have permissions then of course they can’t use it. Any portal that is restricted should not appear on a compass unless a person is on the access list just like the beacon list. Restrict access to your own character only and nobody will even know the portal exists. We don’t need developers wasting time on features that are already available through beacon controls, locks and doors plus soon to be planet permissions. If a portal is in a public area with no restrictions then people should be able to use the portal.

[silentunion]

In my opinion, after the release of 1.0, the easiest networks to use will become the prominent networks. For example, I’m far more likely to use a portal network that does not have a bunch of random portals interfering with it. Market hubs would be much more cleaner if they were on a spot off the main network rather than a part of it as well in my opinion. I can understand shops wanting easy access, but if I want to go shopping, then I’d rather go to a dedicated shopping hub at that point, rather than get confused while I try to go hunting somewhere.

Therefore, if there is a bunch of “noise” in the portal network, all one would have to do is make an easier network and, over time, people will more likely use that network.

[ElfMarine]

@silentunion

In my opinion, after the release of 1.0, the easiest networks to use will become the prominent networks. For example, I’m far more likely to use a portal network that does not have a bunch of random portals interfering with it. Market hubs would be much more cleaner if they were on a spot off the main network rather than a part of it as well in my opinion. I can understand shops wanting easy access, but if I want to go shopping, then I’d rather go to a dedicated shopping hub at that point, rather than get confused while I try to go hunting somewhere.

Therefore, if there is a bunch of “noise” in the portal network, all one would have to do is make an easier network and, over time, people will more likely use that network.

I agree. I prefer using portals I know are for shopping, for hunting, or for mining depending on what I am doing. Blind portals I try to avoid after getting the achievement for ten planets or whatever the number is. I also prefer friend’s portals rather than one I have no idea who it is.

[Zina]

Not sure how I side on this. On one hand I hate that everybody and their brother is making a “hub”, and they all want it to be THE HUB to use. It already is hard to keep them fueled, and the hubs are CONSTANTLY closing.

I mean just as you really get use to a route to your favorite places, “closed”, then you have to run around and find new routes. It would be more on an issue if too many portals was a problem for the servers. But they aren’t. And the dev’s wanted everyone to have the freedom to make something solo, eventually, and not be forced to have to depend on a guild. that’s not freedom.

I find it hard to keep a couple off world portals going. Oort is at times a pain to get. I think most of us had HUGE stockpiles of it when it was easy to get. I actually haven’t even ran out and hanve’nt worked for oort in a long time because of my stockpiles. I think when the game goes live and all the vets do not have their massive stock piles anymore, there will definitely not be a portal issue.

The best hubs are the ones that never run out, and always can be counted on. That is hard to see even now.
My thought to solve this: @vdragon dragon, The issue goes away as easy as it was started, if they were to disappear when they run out. Maybe like a beacon, portals should be their own beacon, and when they run out, and after lots of warnings like beacons, they are vanished and the planets regenerate around them. This also would make it impossible to abuse portals or use them as a plot because you have to fuel them at their current rate. They would also take up a plot like a beacon, or more if they are huge.