Testing 187: Brews, Bombs, Rage, Focus, Revive and Atlases!

[james]

Update OP with details of Testing 187.4.

@james

Testing 187.4:

• Fix chat not closing.
• Fix universe structure on Testing including Warps failing to open.

[almund]

Non-patch related text

@Zina

It’s irritating me for some reason the debate that there is 3 characters worth of skills to have, and they want it all on one character, and still not even realize they would still have to grind all those skills no matter how many characters it’s on.

I also find it interesting how this kind of topics have been created lately. I don’t know how open skillpool mmo games are nowadays but it feels like some of these skill complaints are coming from players who might be playing first time mmorgp . IMHO Boundless is giving quite much skills on max level already and when I compare it to some mmorpgs that I have been playing on past those are much more limited on that.

@Eldwen

People are bypassing the skill system by using alts.

Isn’t this quite normal on mmo games to be able to try and play with different builds? Besides that alts have purposes in some games to spy and destroy guilds inside in some games.

@Eldwen

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.

I think this possible right now, just playing with alts allows to play alone quite well. Only problems might lay that someone can reserve land nearby solo players but then I see that problem in first place is that someone starts playing mmo based game.

@Eldwen

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.

I see Boundless more like MMORPG with sandbox possibilities, not just sandbox.

@Eldwen

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.)

I agree, new patch makes new players will make start game hard. Upcoming survival elements that you describe is quite rough and will force players who like to play alone, at least on start, to assign skill points too much around of character sheet. It won’t be fun start because of getting drained out of stamina and being hungry all time.
It feels little bit too hardcore survival start when it is already taking time to get know about game. At least start is not so rough like survival games; as for example The Long Dark where getting cold, hungry and tired after walking few hundred metres.

More non-patch related text

@Eldwen

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.

I think that good rpg games have system that can’t allow all skills on one character, maybe not even on one account. Boundless has succeed on that quite well, and personally I like how open it is by being classless and raceless game with having only skillpoints where it almost open to assign those as wanted instead of being divided it to attribute-/skillpoint system.
If all characters would be able to do everything on max level why even have whole skill system at all or levels? I guess this will be still possible when game comes out as hosting own server would allow most likely modify whole skill system to as wanted. And personally I just don’t find it appealing that everything can be done on one character; I like playing around character builds.

@Eldwen

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.

There are points that I disagree on your thoughts about alts, but like you wrote none is wrong. Different way of thinking about the topic are welcome even if it is irritating . My replies aren’t mean to be harsh, it is just easier me to write some of my thoughts as I nonfluent english speaker.

[luke-turbulenz]

@almund

I agree, new patch makes new players will make start game hard. Upcoming survival elements that you describe is quite rough and will force players who like to play alone, at least on start, to assign skill points too much around of character sheet. It won’t be fun start because of getting drained out of stamina and being hungry all time.

I’ve played the start of the game (roughly 8 hours now on testing) and food was never an issue for me. I have more than enough starberries (well over 90) to keep me going. I roughly need to eat two to three starberries every 30 minutes. The only issues I’ve had is around certain crafting skills being a requirement (something we are looking at addressing in a more long term change) and key resources being too hard to find on start worlds, which is an easier thing to fix.

[almund]

My experience on playing as new character on test is most likely be heavily biased as being spoiled on my character attributes on live and having short list of things that I did want to try on test that did make me assign points way that player who is new to game world might have differently. As I did wrote somewhere above having struggle with increased items that player can find, having limited inventory space on start (and having hoarding problem ) might be part of the reason that I did felt like hunger-stamina would be too much.
Anyway I guess if hunger-stamina is real pain when it is hitting there will be more input about it, still I prefer to see it on live like it is now.

[Zina]

@luke-turbulenz or @james
I noticed while in hunts in live, the diff ways we take out meteors, yields some with huge xp, and others only loot sweep up and a fraction of xp. Some roles one would have missed out on half the mobs. The coming Healers/bombers may get xp if they throw damage bombs in the mix to. Or unsling a slingbow, But that’s a lot of juggling when in the heat of battle just to get xp. This is ofcourse assuming we will have a maxed out healer/bomber that has no room for bow skills,(still needs survival skills) unless there is more balance to the skills coming that allow a well rounded hunter, as opposed to hunter and healers separate. Which I do not mind, because it further separates boundless from minecraft and more of a mmo where we need people.

Is there plans on healing or resurrection xp when done healing onto others?

[luke-turbulenz]

@Zina

Is there plans on healing or resurrection xp when done healing onto others?

Healers should be counted as combat characters. When a player heals another player and that player goes on to kill a creature the healer should get that XP as well. If that is not the case then that is an issue.

@almund

Anyway I guess if hunger-stamina is real pain when it is hitting there will be more input about it, still I prefer to see it on live like it is now.

There are items you can craft which negates hunger and stamina.

[Zina]

thnx, I actually havn’t been able to test if healing gives xp yet on test.

[TPranara]

Finally!!! No returning to sanctum and then walking out only to realize you forgot to change. LOL

[Oggieogham]

For the extractor: recipes: suggest filter to show recipes that don’t require power. And another for ones that don’t require sparc.

Since there are 24 identical fresh vital essence selections I request differentiating the recipes, perhaps by saying from what you are extracting.

[Heureka]

What is the thought behind compacting coal need power?

I can compact all soil, all metals and all gem, but i can not compact coal without getting diamonds to build power cores…

Also missing recipes from furnace, like in the other machines (without going to knowledge page).

Maybe a new cooking own for the kitchen. Now all my food taste metal and burnt coal…

[boundmore]

Furnace not showing available recipes has always been a downer for me - comparing to machine recipes it’s way more difficult to figure out what’s possible etc.

Power to compact coal doesn’t seem to make much sense either. Looks like players starting the game and their progression will have to forget any kind of efficient spark production for several levels before they lay their hands on enough resources, materials or coins to buy them to be able to build engines. However, I am ready to wait before fully judging how power compacting of coal affects progression of a crafter and overall economy (coal supply, demand and prices, any bottle-neck effect on it, thus its influence of production of spark- and power-dependent items).

[Braindrop]

Glad to hear you are still thinking about it. I’m firmly on Team Eld when it comes to mandatory alts.

[thebeeznest]

Mmo wolvy. Also u nees a workbench or table (i forget)WITH the recipe learnt to get a refiner. This game needs spacing between milestones. It keeps the economy rich and alive

[Prome3us]

I was also a bit taken aback when I realised I’ll need gems for compact coal now. I’ve only been playing live for about a week when I restarted on test so I can offer a noob’s view on this…

Peat seems to be the “wood age” fuel where coal is your “stone age” equivalent. As such, it feels okay that you need more tech to compact the coal than peat. I would however agree that maybe soft coal might be compacted with spark but without power?

I’ve only just begun to explore off-world (still unhappy that warp augments are gone and I have to use “old universe” portals from others and I don’t stand a chance against the other creatures yet. It’s a sprint to the nearest unclaimed ground and digging hard to get out of sight before dying.

To this end it’s a b!tch to get down to where the nice resources are and I haven’t even seen gems or a gleam block in the world yet… So I’m left unlocking things I cant quite craft yet, but that pushes me to try and explore and become able to make them.

So in a nutshell yup it’s a pain, but I think it helps to push me outside my comfort zone

[GreyArt247]

We’re going to need gems just to compact coal!

[boundmore]

Yes. You smash coal with diamond hammer until it’s compacted. Lol

Not directly. He meant diamonds are needed to produce engines that are needed to create power that is needed to compact coal.

[GreyArt247]

Ah ok that’s a relief, for a moment I thought I was going to be totally screwed.

[GreyArt247]

So now we’re going to have to collect fuel for beacons, spark cores, furnaces as well as machines? … so to get compact coal, apart from mining for the raw coal, we now need to fuel another machine to be able to fuel the compactor to be able to compact the coal so we can use it in the machines?

[sikerow]

the amount of things is surreal

[Jiivita]

@GreyArt247

So now we’re going to have to collect fuel for beacons, spark cores, furnaces as well as machines?

Beyond crafting the power coils… no fuel is harmed in the making of power ^^

Think of power coils (engines) like gears on a bicycle… they amplify what the machine is already doing without needing an addition outside power source.

Power is NOT Spark 2.0 =)