I think I am beginning to really see the devs balance dilemma more completely. On the one side you have power gamers with a deep understanding of the meta that can produce large amounts of items because of progression mechanics thinking this is too easy, and on the other side we have people just trying to play the game casually that haven’t progressed that are thinking this game is brutal because of the amount of grinding they are engaging in to try to survive, and many of whom are giving up.
Oh your DEGT Sly ? I aint know, you never expressed to me that you was with movement.
That’s good info. 
( Or am I confused ) please explain Sly.
Exactly & that was my whole point, I just had to stroke my ego a bit as well is all 
Oh don’t get me wrong, we are very much competitive rivals with DEGT. May the best men win 
In my opinion, as a lone player that owns 10 3x2 portals & 2 3x3 portals simultaneously I would have to say there is nothing wrong with the current rate Oort is exerted by portals however, Larger portals like 3x3 portals & up cant hold enough shards to keep them open for very long and that’s pretty annoying considering they burn it off so quickly.
Oh okay, Well whos all the members in this 5 man team you speak of?
& thanks for letting me know exactly whom requires compacting 
( 5 against 1 ? Now that doesn’t seem fair ) 
It isn’t necessarily people playing casual. It’s people not having the time in their day or week to even play the game as much as they want to. So if 5 hours a week is “hardcore” for them cause they have so much on their plate each week then they wouldn’t be casual.
It’s hard to feel motivated to play in a game where the reward doesn’t justify the time sink required to get where you want or the results of a particular task. This isn’t a fault on the developers at all. It’s just a reality that people have different amounts of time to devote towards playing a game and naturally they’re going to gravitate towards whatever gives them a better ROI for their time so they can ultimately have the most fun.
I really do love this game. I find the competitive aspect of shops to be only current form of PvP but for me to compete in that part of the game, I have to invest a bunch of time into getting to where I need to be in order to compete. With my luck in these sorts of things, I will most likely experience a game reset/wipe before that happens and with that assumption comes with the attitude of not even bothering but rather just screw around with different ideas, come up with pricing formulas that give me an economic advantage for if I did have the time to open and maintain a shop, and also for when more content and actual game system features get brought online.
Right now I much rather spend 3 hours playing Far Cry 5 or Rimworld or Crowfall or host my weekly online D&D campaign over Boundless just because I, and probably a lot of other people, have realistic and limited time restrictions on how much we can play video games during each week.
I think you get where I am coming from though.
I’d sell my left kidney to be able to play more Boundless so I could actually have the time to run a shop. For now I can dream and watch the game get developed more. 
And if you’re playing RimWorld, you really CAN sell your left kidney.
I think the portal cost/balance now is fine – once there are more worlds added. As a single player I can maintain several portals on my own, even without the group hunts. And honestly, its more the spark cost for the conversion of rough → shards that keeps me from being able to support any more.
However, once there are more worlds added (50-ish keeps being thrown around), the portals I could maintain would be but a drop in the ocean. At that point I think the balance of players being able to keep a few portals open as they do now, will be just fine.
Also, I’m heavily on the side of portals being not just fascinating, but an entirely different form of exploration and mapping from walking across the planets or using totem augments and warp conduits. And an ever-changing web-like network at that. I love seeing a new portal somewhere and seeing where it goes, whats there, and where I can go from there, etc.
If it was harder citys would benefit cause it forces players to use cityhubs and live in theminstead off just link by portal to a network also creates more travel adventures and make roads usefull again maybe a planet limit off bigportals like 8alowed per planet for more then 2hops (and add a usage counter please) 
maybe link the skill to using them so low levels cant use them if they have low warp skill i think the grind and cost is well balanced i see on my hub that only dedicated players can keep em open
This isnt really a specific reply just to Moe’s comment, its about that phrase. “force players”.
It’s been thrown around a lot lately, on a variety of topics, from portals, to forcing skill/build/class choices, and various other things as well.
I just keep coming back to this: the name of the game is BOUNDLESS. As in, the freedom to do, explore, build, and create, … anything.
IMHO, forcing = bad, limiting = bad, and too grindy = bad.
I already have a job where I have to work. When a game becomes too much like work, or consistently frustrating or repetitive to achieve anything of note, when it stops being fun and starts feeling like work, that’s when I stop and go find something else to do that is fun.
I also think this is a big part of the reason we see so many people play for a few hours, get some machines made and just into copper/iron tools, and then… just stop playing. And if this is the reason, its something we need to seriously consider. Churn rates like that will not be good for the game in the long run. Player retention is obviously important to the game’s health and survival.
As far as the ‘getting to 50 should be hard’ argument… I’d argue that a very real (perhaps the largest part of) the game, doesn’t really begin until you are 50 or near it. That’s when you can really begin to focus on building and/or crafting the things you’ve been envisioning, planning, dreaming of. I’m not saying it should be simple to get to 50, but the game doesn’t end when you hit 50, its just beginning, so I’d hesitate to make it too hard.
I feel like most new players are attracted to Boundless for two main reasons.
One, the portals. Those snagged me day one. I spent the first two days wandering around all the portals and trying to ‘map’ all the connections out in my head, and it was amazing, all the sights I saw. I can only imagine the awe and wonder at exploring a network of portals spread out across a universe (50-ish planets? 
).
Two, to build something amazing like they’ve seen in the promo or YouTube videos.
I don’t feel like that many people come to play the traditional mmo grind-a-character-to-max-level kind of game.
No worries, I am sure the developers are just testing the waters. Not looking forward to testing that grind. I will be sure to post about it when I get to that point. I’m currently working a tier 2 planet (Elapor) I have found a bit of titanium but no gems yet sadly. I’m guessing I will have better luck on a tier three going to finish my 40k feats raise a few more stats and give tier 3 a shot hope it’s not insanely hard lol.
You wont find gems on Elopor, there aren’t any.
Might want to give this a quick read:
Wow that’s great! Thanks.
hey on aquatopia solulm capital and therka plaza are mining hubs me and dundragonmade the portals themself show what blocks gems and gleam can be find its like a ingame wikepedia 
moebius plaza in therka has two portals leading to this system
it also shows on signs where to look for stuff and altitudes off gems
and what graves have gleam under them
I checked that out but I was confused, maybe I overlooked the sign with info after I went through portals.
Yes, I have played Rimworld and done anything in that game. Including organ selling. lol