I’d like to think that there are more than a few players who would prefer to find a legitimately acceptable method to speed things up.
I haven’t been on test but if it pushed me to (at least) level 35 or so I’d be happy to spend a few cubits on a ‘cheat loaf’ that I could give to a new alt. It would be perfectly reasonable if this, in turn, provided me with a series of “cheat level coffers” which delivered me the appropriate skill/cleanse points with no cubits.
Suuuure this is going to lead to some cries of “pay to win” but honestly, this game isn’t even “free to play”.
It just takes one or two vertebra to point out that boundless is “pay to play” and there is no “win condition”. These guys want to keep having a job!
It’s maybe not reasonable to expect perpetual hosting for an increasing (technically unlimited) number of voxels for a 1 time approximately 40 USD fee.
Please be careful in trying to use my comments in passing and out of context to try to promote your narrative. There may be some points that I can support but I’d prefer to speak my own views on a discussion especially in an area that you or anyone for that matter are not happy about. I don’t try to speak for other people and ask that people do not try to speak for me.
I especially don’t enjoy trying to bring up an old conversation about huge building and trying to link it to an XP abuse around rocks/stone.
The context would be that building a big city is not a feat a solo player could easily achieve. This game is a MMO game and the trailers communicated as such. They showed a society and people working together to build stuff. They did not show a solo player doing this so you don’t get to try to use that as an excuse to blame the devs for wanting to create a MMO.
I am a solo player primarily because I have played games since 1983 and learned that it is very hard to rely on people especially in the online world. So yes I would have communicated that group play will always be a challenge. There are other mechanics in this game that adds to the challenge. But, I would never try to link everything together.
You need to stop resenting and learn that you are playing the wrong game if you are so focused on the effort to build. The devs are pushing a MMO directive versus Solo player directive.
Either you quit the game, or you can be like me and just select what parts of the game you want to play and what parts you do not. There are many things in this game I just don’t participate because I don’t enjoy them or agree with the approach. But, I focus on what I like and make that enough. More people should approach the game that way.
You cannot create a plot machine because plots are limited on a world and the size of our worlds are limited based on player base and real life money costs. At this point the developers cannot create more worlds due to money and player counts. So you have to ensure there is space for players on the public worlds. That means we can’t allow unlimited plots or easy expansion of plots. The devs have to manage this correctly.
It is not fair to try to use EA as an example of problems we have in the game. During EA they were adding systems and developing the game. At one point you were an orange block - that changed. Also when Elop Portas was built there were plenty of things in the game to not make it an “easy build.”
The game will constantly change with new things coming and others being adjusted. People need to understand and just learn to deal with the changes or find ways to influence the developers to change the system.
This is a MMO game primarily. It has been communicated as such and the game has a large direction that way. The devs are supporting solo stuff but it is not the primary game mode they will promote.
Solo people need to understand this and deal with the situations they are presented with. I am a solo player and don’t enjoy it as much as the other person. But, I realized a long time ago to just play the parts of the game I like and ignore the rest until I could influence change.
My ideal scenario would be a combination of both. A character who can level up to a point where you would have unlocked all the skills and have about 1.5 to 2k plots, levelling after that max point will only gain cubits. all the while theres the Exchange where cubits can be used to purchase additional plots and cosmetics etc… Cubits can be earned in certain amounts in game but can also be purchased for cash as they are now. But this progression wouldn’t be overly choked so players feel like their time is rewarded significantly because if its not its starts to feel to much like a free to play game that you have to pay or exploit to progress
Whilst the history is very foggy - so I look forward to people picking holes in the following.
The game was originally designed for players to pick a character path. 1 character = 1 path. You needed to collaborate or trade with others to fill in the gaps. But some players wanted to do everything and campaigned for Alts. We added Alts allowing players to do everything. But everything aligned with the time investment of their primary character. Some players wanted to do everything but with a single character, as their in-world avatar and name were special and singular. We added Skill Pages allowing players to do (almost) everything with a single character.
I personally prefer the Skill Pages when I’m playing.
It exists as a loaded cost against constantly opening and closing portals are required. If the cost of opening was zero then you could: sign in, open your portal, travel, play, return, close the portal, sign out. The cost of keeping the portal open would be a fraction of the current cost.
I’m not sure how many plots you would have access to but at level 100 I think you have unlocked all usable skill points and even if the coffer gives you some more, it’s only the cubits (and maybe some cleanse points) that are useful.
Perhaps it wasn’t you directly but another Dev, BUT I really do think I remember reading a dev post about people progressing too fast and the need to slow it down.
But again do you think the system has worked? The one player one job all working together sounds good but in my opinion it hasn’t happened. Yes players are playing together but nobody wants to be overly reliant on someone else to play so as I said everyone or as best I can tell near everyone ends up using Alts to plug the holes in the skill page. And then once they have the skills they are using them to try build big by getting their plots. BTW I also liked the Idea of skill pages but they were introduced poorly as it takes even longer to use one of them effectively than it does to level an Alt, two options with the same source of frustration… time.
Hell even the biggest guilds are all using Alts when you would think that they should be the living embodiment of they original system.
Maybe Im explaining myself poorly, but basically Im saying it all comes down to the amount of time and effort needed to enjoy the game, and the way it is now is far too much of both needed to have fun. For 40 quid id I think we should be able to do it all, but if you want to be extreamly extra about it and want your own City or Massive build then you have to either pay up, team up or slog it out in game untill you can.
but currently you can hardly manage the basic stuff for your cash and very significant time investment.
I find it slightly unreasonable that after the base game, deluxe upgrade and monthly gc payments I’d still have to shell out more money to be able to play how I want (read: get plots at a reasonable rate in-game)
Mats worth less than one coin is one of two things that has kept me from returning to Boundless - really glad to hear a fix is in the works!
The other (connected) issue that really destroys the really fun loot grind from early access is that the most efficient way to farm anything now is with an AoE tool. One of the biggest factors to a fun game (for me) is diversity.
I still have fond memories of ruby mining in Vulpto’s caves - you could get *lost down there for hours on end. Now it’s just get AoE hammer → spam rock surface all the time.
Running around the surface gathering shimmering orbs was just as enjoyable - and breathtaking - way more enjoyable than get an AoE tool and regen bomb the same spot to death.
Hacking a forest to bits for sap + bark was fun and provided amazing views. AoE axe + regen bomb the same tree is really boring.
Solo hunting mobs was both challenging and rewarding - way more fun than running around with an auto-collect totem in group hunts.
Grappling along mountains on Munteen in the hopes of ancient devices was just as enticing - now they are worthless and we can get them in droves with AoE tool + rock spamming (again).
The forge largely killed balance - and with it the diversity of activities that Boundless once offered. Is there any hope of these becoming viable again?
I still check the Boundless forums frequently hoping for the game to be restored to some semblance of the fun it offered me before the forge - really hoping that you can re-balance that magic. Will definitely give it a go once the economy actually allows for trading most items again.
Gleam club is not a subscription requirement. Or a contract for any term over 30 days (available in blocks).
So no, I doubt it’s covering their hosting costs with the current user base, if the number of players voicing their desire not to join gleam club is a valid indicator of proportion across the player base.
Let’s say we’re seeing 300 “daily active” players right now and every one of them joined gleam club.
I sincerely hope that 1500 USD per month (before steam’s cut) isn’t enough to cover @james salary, or any one of the “developers”.
If that number (daily active players) is doubled for PS4 players We’ve got wonderstruck earning almost 3000 USD in monthly revenue.
Forget hosting costs. What are they developing on?
So I need to accept it or leave… or I can come here and voice my opinion about it? But my opinion is wrong, so I should just accept it… or leave… unless I want to influence the game by talking about it here…?
Towards my reply, so if i were to lets say spend 1000 dollars on cubits tomorrow, go to hmmm, Cenophenix or Merika dont remember the exact name, or Norkyna and just plot a huge area full of resources, is that me exploiting the ability to purchase cubits at insane amounts, or would it be okay for me to do that and block off a huge area of resources?
For me this is a major issue. No I can’t accept throwing away a massive percentage of my tooling cost to “run around and whack stuff” for crafting materials directly in the face of an alternative that’s both time-saving and coin-saving. Doesn’t that seem like an odd thing to be frustrated by?
It just means that I spend a couple hours ‘farming’, and consider that a separate cost which enables the time I spend “playing the game”…
I mean after trying most everything I could, foraging turned out to be my favorite pastime, and was, before regen bombs were widely understood/accepted, one of the most (coin) profitable activities in the game.
Now it’s a silly waste of time that I consider a luxury.
yep because the buff is meaningless to players that needed the xp. I was willing to take the time to craft what I needed for my builds and at least got rewarded for it. I do not consider the insta-craft of stone to be equal in value to the lost xp.
@james I would be really interested in renting a planet. Any ballpark idea as to when they might roll out? Will they go to the test server or just be available via steam/store?
Not an answer i want, some honesty, 10 weeks 150 a week for cubits and plot away, is that an exploit? I work, its affordable, is it smart no but it can be done.
Can’t find any mention of it anymore, maybe it was just a rumor. Although the server costs shouldn’t be thousands in a month, so I wouldn’t say it’s implausible to think gc covers the hosting. But we don’t know the actual bill they’re footing or gc numbers so
I don’t think I said it should cover the salaries either, but that doesn’t dismiss the feeling that after paying a sizeable sum to play the game we should pay more after this nerf, hopefully something similar is figured out and not patched out quickly. Otherwise I’m starting to get star citizen vibes here if the solution to nerfs is just throwing money at them. And that’s just the cubit side, there are other problems with xp gains that this loophole made bearable.
No I don’t think that you did. Didn’t mean to imply it.
I’m just trying to point out that the company has a cost to operate. While it’s easy to light heartedly compare it to hosting costs or any specific line item, it seems unlikely to me that gleam club is covering any significant portion of wonderstruck’s operating costs with the current player base.
Yup, can’t imagine it would cover a significant portion either. And the devs have made it clear this isn’t intended to be a cubit purchase push. The reality is just harsh and that is what the change would do, slow down the in-game way of earning cubits aka plots. Just wanted to voice my concerns when the solution you presented was to just buy the xp this will take away.
