So in turn you are complaining about something that irritates us. Useful.
See, here is the issue you are completely missing:
People are bypassing the skill system by using alts.
Let that sink in for a moment.
This is supposed to be a community driven, open world, sandbox-ish, survival game that anyone can play.
Community Driven:
Yes, there are already player established guilds currently and that’s without any mechanics to help support it other then Discord, the forums, and a ■■■■ ton of hard work by the players that created them. However, not everyone is a group player and people shouldn’t be forced to rely on others if they just want to enjoy the game. If limitations are placed on their play style/abilities because they don’t play the game like everyone else, WITH everyone else, then yeah, they are probably just going to quit. What a same too. We need more people.
Open World/Sandbox
Wow some of these planets are big. It wasn’t until testing the Atlas did I really come to appreciate the amount of space we had available to us for exploration and building. However, this is again limited for a solo player. Travel abilities, Warp jump increases, Chisel Skills, and Compass upgrades all eat into a players total skill points. Sure, maybe some of those could be gutted out, but not all, especially for builders and anyone that wants to move around faster then a wildstock.
Then there is the plot limitations imposed (with good reason early game I supposed) for those that are soloists. Early to mid game there are more then enough plots for a decent base set up with a few to spare for “outposts” on other planets. By late game a single player has more then enough to found and start a rather sizeable location for themselves. At least until they invest a majority of their plots and find that those outposts they established earlier are kinda eating into that next expansion or the last few plots for a really neat build. Essentially, you can build in quite a large area, but only once or twice and then you’d have to tear things down in order to build something new.
Survival:
Ok, so a new player just starts playing Boundless for the first time and it takes a few weeks at most for a majority of people to reach level 50. During the leveling and learning process though, there are a lot of choices to be made and not every skill is completely understandable at first glance, nor would someone who is new know exactly what it is they are going to need just to survive. They make the best choices they know how until they reach max level and then decide to reset their skills and rebuild their character (At least until launch and this feature is removed). Right, so lets say they are going to be a resource gatherer, great! Lets go get some coal! But wait, They need to craft some tools. Hmm…seems the best we can manage is maybe a point in Iron. Ok. I’ll just be a crafter instead! Hmmm…how am I going to get any resources? I don’t have a lot of coin from leveling and market prices are kinda high. Oh, and I see here that I’m going to need some creature parts. That means I need to go hunting. Maybe I should just take a little of everything like I did when I was leveling? That doesn’t seem to let me do much more then when I was level 20 though…or very fast/efficiently. Oh ■■■■, all of my health and stamina are almost gone…I need to get some food. (Yes, this was very much so exaggerated, but then again so are some of the arguments I’ve read about why everything is fine as is.)
Solution:
Just roll more characters. Re-level two more times and then you can really start playing. Make a Gatherer/Builder, a Hunter, and a Crafter. All problems solved. Nothing to worry about any more.
Why? I already leveled. I’m ready to start doing all the things and stuff. I don’t want to spend more time and resources on other characters that I’m only going to use for specific tasks and end up with crappy names.
Every other sandbox survival game I’ve played is based around your ability to adapt to your environment and survive until you succeed or fail 1,000 times before that success. By the end of the journey, you are able to do anything and everything you want. There is no “This is hard, I’m going to do this to make it easier”. You don’t just restart a game and get handed everything from yourself. Everything must be re-earned. That doesn’t exist here. There is no challenge and the only reward for doing so is to eventually be able to play the game fully.
Ah, you’re probably right. I don’t like something so instead of offering feedback or asking for anything to be changed during early access development, I should just quit because this game isn’t for me.
There have been quite a few people on the forums from the past, currently now, and probably more will still post about not having enough skills. This isn’t just a sudden issue that just started to be an issue, it goes all the way back to when they were first introduced. It’s easy for those that already have everything to say that everything is fine as is. What about those just starting out or just hitting max level for the first time?
Of course this was just an example, but the important fact is, I wouldn’t be. You had an idea that you thought would be neat for the game or make your game play more interesting and decided to take the time out of your day to post about it? Great! I quite enjoy the portal system in this game so I don’t agree with changing it, but I’m not going to just start telling you that you are wrong for an idea. Same goes for skills, forced alts, and a number of other things that people have had issue with. They are our thoughts and ideas and who are you to judge us or say we are wrong?
Final Thoughts:
By the time I’m max level with a character I want to be able to do what ever I want and craft what ever I want with the only limitation being my ability to find and gather what is required to do those things. I shouldn’t be forced to choose what tools I can or can’t make let alone use. My building abilities shouldn’t suffer because I just don’t have enough points to master a specific block shape. If I spend the time and effort to go get everything needed, why should I then not be able to use it simply because I’m limited on skill points? I’ve already done the work. Where is my reward? On an alt?
I’m not saying that those of us who want more out of our individual characters are right, and I’m not saying that people who enjoy alts are wrong. I’m saying that there are those of us who are asking for more and the worst that happens is you find that you can do a little bit more on each of your alts and we can do a little bit more on each of our solo mains. The game isn’t going to fall apart with or without this, some people just won’t play it and that is a damn shame.
Not even irritated,
-Eld