The implied question may be stated already several times but I am really wondering what are the game rules for a working economy in-game (buying, selling, minting) currently valid.
Reasons for this question:
1/ I had to re-create all bases again, as I have lost about 20 homes (worth several millions of coins) when I had to stop to log in last summer for a few weeks and did forget to renew my club membership. So as I returned after 1-2 months, everything was gone! Disappointed I did quit until last week when I was so bored by other games, I returned and restarted a small base at Dzassak, until I could reach a portal hub .
2/ I had a few tools left in my inventory and full skill sets, so I started to jump to all planets (up to t6 Norkyna) and visited all cities, markets etc and found two things: For several days, most of the planets have 0-3 (sometimes 6+ ?) players, making a total of about 30-50 players at all. Weekends may be a bit better? Second observation - similar but worse that half a year ago - now about 95…97% of the shops have empty selling stalls or do not search to buy stuff, prizes are also a bit lower but refilling of shops seems to not be done (people have already left?).
3/ If the remaining players do not need to buy stuff and perhaps get coins by minting, is the BL economy at all working in a satisfying sense? And if NOT, what is the direction the game is taking, if the few remaining players all are doing their thing alone?
And finally, does a non-working economy - with the current rules implemented - be an indicator of the game going down? For me as a single player, I am not able to make enough money in-game to survive on high-tier planets long and I will not be able to buy tools/stuff to rebuild my previous homes, also as I can not find sellers anymore. For me it looks like everything is dying and decaying…
Is there a more optimistic perspective for BL? I am playing since the first days and have restarted more than 3 times … I am not willing to do that again without knowing if the game company (with chosen design decisions) will struck me down soon. And w/o a healthy amount of active players, I believe that BL is getting really boring!
iam the optimistic perspective … i live on dzassak too… if u need anything shout out loud 4 a player called erotikus or forged with love too…
im online in 30 minutes…
I rarely see Arie’s online population drop below 10, sometimes really early morning in EU there’s only 7 or 8 but rare it drops any lower from what I’ve noticed.
If anything, I think I’ve seen an over all rise in player count over the last few months
Maybe try some malls, they’re the best bet for frequently restocked shops. Nova Golda being my favourite place to start. DKs mall, Gyosha Mall, Hamburg mall. Oh and if there’s something you can’t find check Alutech as he stocks just about everything!
There are certainly dead areas, you just need to learn the well known and well used ones dont despair! We may not be a community of thousands, but we are a strong and somewhat close knit group.
I’ve found there to be more and more players on the planets i visit. I feel like the population now is higher than it was a couple of months ago.
And the economy, apart from hunt-materials, is definitely not “non-working”. You just have to know where to go. I LITERALLY buy EVERYTHING. I cant even remember the last time i mined/gathered. And i know a lot of players like me.
Yes there are malls with empty shops. Thats just the nature of this game. Even I am guilty of it as i just cant keep up with demand (victim of my own success, hah). I’d say thats a sign of a very healthy economy. The shopfinder is your best friend. It will guide you to the right places
I’m generally a pessimist (i make myself feel better by saying realist), but the economy in boundless is doing very well. Only things it needs more of are things gathered in hunts.
There are dozens of ways to make a lots of money, let us know what you’re currently doing, or what you like doing, and i can guarantee that somebody will be able to point you in the right direction
The empty shop stands do look depressing, but they’re essentially just a filled buy/sell order for an item. Normally in mmo’s those filled orders are just removed from the list, so you don’t see them physically in the world. We have better shopping tools coming too, granted it won’t allow searching for forged tools yet, I hope that data is added at some point. Boundless Universal Trade Tracker [BUTT] has changed my shopping habits and view of the economy a lot.
There’s currently a minter “exploit” that allows you to multiply gleam value and print out money, I think that’s skewing the market a bit. Less people gathering things for money for example. I think this poll looks really worrying Poll: Where does the majority of your wealth come from? and hope they fix it sooner rather than later.
edit: I see it was just patched
I’m really happy the reclamation tool is coming where you won’t lose all your stuff when your beacon expires, eagerly waiting to hear how it works in practice!
I think the economy is pretty healthy for a small community. Goo kernals, paint, animal drops, gold, silver, concrete, marble, mosaic, exo gleam, pies, lucent gear, oort stone, and forged gear all sell for reasonable pricing. Its found a healthy balance as far as what people can afford and what people are willing to sell at.
Yeah, and I agree with @Sujimichi88 I think the empty stands these days are more people selling too much and cant keep up with demand. Most people buy things these days to save time
1 few people keep in mind players rotate because of irl time.
2 exo’s don’t forget that when exo’s are around that a good part of players online at that time might be on these exo’s.
3 minting minting is like a trash can. You will get coin but not more if you where to sell it (that takes time to)
4 shops empty Probably but have you taken the time to check what is being sold?
At least 50% of the base materials alone fly out of the stands within a day or two.
5 activity’s yes there are multiple activities but i am a builder (mainly) and mostly avoid hunting until i have to. Like most other activities.
To be fair most of current 50+ oortians are hard headed and refuse to quit (or are simply addicted ).
But of that group there are a allrounders and “experts” (as in the keep to one thing and stik with it to a degree).
We all see new faces appear and disappear but that doesn’t mean the end is near. To this day there are several new faces that became as hard headed (addicted) as us.
So how i see it our “small” group is growing.
And I don’t think ingame economy needs to fear the minter. We all know (or atleast shoud) that minting value’s can and will drop for items.
I think theres always going to be 2 types of items.
Moneymakers and items that people just dont buy cause they are easy to get anyways.
Everyone can name their price and they dont have to tell you why their wooden axe costs 100c on stand and so on.
This is why i love this game… you could have city market where prices are a bit higher than some places but if you buy from there it goes towards the city.
At least i try to play by this.
Theres no wrong price… to some x is worth 10c a piece cause of no use, but to Y that needs it buys it for 100c a piece.
Beans! Farm beans!spicy sweet and most importantly bitter beans! I’m a millionaire in a few short months and the majority is from beans. I can’t keep up with the demand honestly lol, I earned it all solo
I like how the economy works. Honestly the reason for empty shops etc is a combination of the owners not playing for a while or not feeling like grinding for the particular items they sell. Ironically the most successful shop owners are the ones who have to grind the most to keep their prices down- I set all my prices high until I have a good amount then I slowly drop the price, and some things have sold at the crazy high prices which feels super rewarding.
EDIT: I meant to mention the “ironic” part of this as being the ones who quit on their shops are the most successful ones, due to not wanting to grind that much anymore.
Our guild has been kind of taking a break from hunts. At first I was worried about my lack of oort shards to sell, but then due to that break people started buying all my trophies that were piling up in stock. This realistic supply/demand cause and effect is just cool imo.
Keep in mind that as more items are added to the game and players have to keep specializing their production, the balance will continue to improve. I think the biggest problem has always been that those who play the most have been able to produce a ton of every item and undercut the more casual sellers’ prices, but as we only had like 5 total items to craft using gleam in the beginning to now having like 15 (just a guess), then let’s say 30 a year from now- we’ll continue to see more people buying more supplies when they simply don’t have the time to add to their daily gathering/crafting. Every update improves the balance of the economy and it should only continue to improve.
I also think something that would bring positive change would be if we have more functions for a build than just portals and shops. Right now I’d bet there are more builds with shop stands in them than total players because an active shop garners more footfall than an empty build.
I have some relatively simple ideas of how to make a beacon more functional but no real game changers. Hopefully as the game develops and more professions and activities come into play we can visit a city for more than just looking at builds once each or shopping. Then there may not be quite as many empty shops.
Also- last thought on this matter- I think a massive improvement to the economy would be the implementation of some totally unique and customized items. Technical specs and file sizes aside, being able to make and sell paintings out of screenshots would be nuts, having food and brews with multiple possible effects with assigned percentage values that you could NAME would create a real system of patronage, same with all tools/weapons and the ability to repair them for scaled mat costs, and the ability to sell beacons as an in-game system would really shake things up in the long run (considering builds are the only truly unique things we currently have). These would give each current and future profession a lot more meaning.
… i live on dzassak too… if u need anything shout out loud 4 a player called erotikus or forged with love too…
dont despair! We may not be a community of thousands, but we are a strong and somewhat close knit group.
).
It is the Tana portal at TNT (or just look for portals to DKMall and DK Ultima Tree)