The cash shop and cubits

i agree but on other side it fools suckers who think they can win by buying q-bits and :grin:
also i think the lootbox was originally made for ingame and somehow got recycled into the rewardmenu lol

This to me is the biggest issue. At endgame I feel like my choices are: 1) buy cubits 2) demolish a build 3) grind like crazy. So instead I just manage my existing builds instead of making new builds and buying mats for new builds. It is way less fun. If you are a gatherer or a hunter or a shop owner the game is free, but if you want to be a big builder you have to pay real money to enjoy the game.

This i can relate. Sure people can say you can use alts… but i dont use. I like playing 1 char.

I can agree on this. Wouldnt be as bad if we had more items to put inside our builds. Still think making vertical builds cost less could help this problem for now though :thinking:

Right, on the Risk the devs nerf xp again and again…
i still make between 2 and 4 Levels a day, depending what i do and what i craft.
I am a pure builder/miner, no Shops and i hate Hunting.
Does it depend on the Hours put in to mine resources? For sure does. But it also depends what you really do with all mined resources andhow far ahead you plan.
As allready stated above, 2 times i bought plots with Money, because i wanted to plot “now” not because i needed to.

Play with the time and resources at Hand and the Levels will still come. To slow? buy plots but dont complain really. You decide if you spend Money, not the game.

1 Like

still leveling an alt plot his plots tag beacon on main and never use alt again is pretty easy for some fast plots also can skill a bunch off stuff ya main dont need like portal skill our woodchopping lol

Attitudes like this are why the game industry is struggling, why MMORPGs are dying and why early access games are taking over and failing to meet player expectations time and time again.

The people who create this stuff need money to live too, end of story. You dont go to a concert or movie and wonder why you have to pay for a ticket.

6 Likes

I still dont seem to understand how one WINS at boundless. Last time I checked there is no final boss or checkpoint, theres no ending cutscene, or a fade to black roll credits.

The ONLY competition in the game is via prestige, and that is based on building. The store and exchange are separate, and even in separate menu’s on ps4 (been away from PC for awhile but I’m sure they’re separate there too.)

A player never even needs to set foot(metaphorically speaking) in the “store”. Not once have I been prompted or told to visit that particular page. However, as has been stated "pay for convenience " is certainly a thing.

Let me tell ya a little something. If you like competition, you like playing with blocks, you like exploring new places and seeing beautiful scenery and landscapes then you’re in the right place. You can build with blocks and compete at it and you can explore a vast number(around 45 permanent worlds now I think) of varying worlds.

The ONLY thing the game asks is that you play it. That’s it. It IS an MMOrpg, no NPCs, no quests(except player made ones) and certainly no final boss fight, yet at least(Titans I’m looking at you!).

6 Likes

Well i dunno about you, but at least for me it sounds pretty baffling to get money from the plot system… it shouldnt be surprice that people calling it out cause its the key feature of this game.
As gamers have said many years alrdy… make cash shop purely cosmetic that doesnt effect on gameplay.

1 Like

My prpblem is not about whos winning.
Its about building… you get good inspiration and start building but you run out of plots… what to do? Either grind or get your wallet out.

2 Likes

So. What you’re saying is that plots(also alts, skill pages and resets) should be removed from the cubit system?

In the old days it was just grind out another level. You gained plots ONLY by leveling. And I think it was only 2 per level. It hasn’t changed very much tho, has it? You now have the pay for convenience option for sure, but you still have the level to earn the currency to buy plots. OPTIONS! And yet we complain. What’s the fix then?

4 Likes

I hear what you are saying, but I think the game gives you plenty of cubits to do what the average player does. I bought cubits yesterday, not because I can’t earn them, but because I have zero patience. The key is having multiple toons. I buy cubits occasionally, but since September, I’ve spent less than $100 (plots and gleam club) on a game I play for hours a day. I have to add the previous game I played was Neverwinter and I spent thousands on a free game that was DEPENDENT in micro transactions.

Also, why should the studio not have a shop? It’s a for profit company and they should be able to upsell. Ultimately, I think it’s a tricky dance gaming companies do, and this one is doing it right. The prices are good, it’s not necessary to play the game, and it keeps the game going.

2 Likes

You don’t win anything by buying plots. You don’t get prestige from plots. You still have to actually play the game, obtain blocks/materials/tools to build something on those plots to make them worth anything. Therefore, you are expending effort & playing the game, either way. You don’t “win” anything. If there were only 5 planets & real estate was precious, it might be different…but if we run out of land, BL will make more.

Devil’s advocate…if someone has a ton of cash they want to blow, they could simply buy several copies of BL and plot away…and give perms to one player/guild. They still wouldn’t win anything though.

Now, for example…if you could use IRL cash to buy a super duper laser gun that gave you 500XP everytime you killed something, that would be P2W (although, in BL there is nothing you can “win”).

When they introduce paid rental planets, I guess everyone is going to refer to those as “P2W” planets.

Also, call the level rewards whatever you like - I like being rewarded for things & opening chests/boxes/presents. Give me all of the “loot crates”. I will gladly take them. You know…video GAME :video_game::video_game::video_game:

8 Likes

I agree. This is a game, it is supposed to be fun. You are supposed to receive a prize, treasure chest, or something great.

5 Likes

it isnt baffling to me at all lol i have upwards of 1000 plots JUST by playing the game and i dont even focus on getting plots. them making money off the people that dont have the time or are too impatient to take the time to get the plots in game is not hindering you.

If they dont continue to make money off the game they cant afford to pay the devs to create new content, people get bored and quit and then they shut down the servers and you dont have a game to play at all. Think it through.

I can tell you RIGHT now Boundless is not a cash cow. they are not making money hand over fist. I would be surprised if they are doing much more than breaking even.

4 Likes

i just wanted to say im sorry if my thread came off has me trying to troll or start a flame war i was not trying to
do ether when i made the thread i just felt there was the possibility for problems with the cash shop and wanted to voice it.

1 Like

Then, what is a potential fix? How does one make money without putting something there to make money from? In a situation like the one we find ourselves in, I agree with the Devs choices concerning cubits and their uses. They changed the location of the “cash shop” and gave it less ummmm limelight(?).
How much more unobtrusive can they make it without removing the system entirely? If remmoving the system is what you’re suggesting then how can they change the system to make it more appealing or less p2w(figuratively speaking).
To answer my own questions, I dont think it can be less obtrusive. There are no prompts to enter the “cash shop”. You have to be curious enough to check it for yourself. And if you do you’ll find a couple little things like cubits, and gleam club(voluntary subscription[which only guarantees that your plotted stuff is still there so long as you’re a member, pretty sweet deal]).

Cubits, however, are used in the game for things… like buying cosmetics and another character slot, or some erasers(skill point/pages), but most importantly Plots, the place where all your stuff goes, the only area in the known worlds that is “yours”. So, if I spend the money, theoretically I buy an entire planet. It’d be expensive, but could be done.
Herein lies our perceived problem. As I mentioned above, the only true competition in Boundless is through prestige. The only way to increase prestige is to build, and the only place you can build and earn prestige are in plots which can be bought with cubits, which in turn have the option of being purchased in the cash.

The key word is “Option”. You can also Earn those same cubits by playing the game. Almost unheard of! Quickly off the top of your head name five games, mobile or console(PC is included in that) that allow one to purchase AND earn their “premium currency”. I know of two off the top of my head, mobile games, Dragonvale and Pokemon Go.

Back to question two: If the cubit system should be removed what/how do we fix the gap its removal leaves behind? Make cubits only good for cosmetics, and then have a second currency, only earned through leveling, that grants plots and the other skill related items?

My opinion says that is not a good idea, longevity-wise and monetarily. Maybe theres another option that I cant think of. So I ask you who read this far, what do you think?

1 Like

I think the point was that when you have leaderboards and plots that generate coin, there will be competition. And you can, at least theoretically, buy yourself an advantage in that competition.

I’ve got thousands of plots from just playing as well, but still the plot count is the bottleneck deciding if I can build more.

So that’s one argument for the p2w crowd, but I also feel that it’s not a cash cow by a wide margin. I’d also be fine with a sub fee if that allowed them to be more generous about the plots, but I’m probably not the majority in that.

That was one of the incentives with the EA tiers. If you bought a higher tier you earned plots faster, slightly. It carried over, but I think it’s like only 10% extra plots or some such.