With the current amount of layers in this game I find that Malls are problematic. Theres dozens upon dozens of malls and even more random shops scattered around the world or at guild hubs. Many of the malls or shops are essentially abandoned because many of the plots are owned by players who quit and thus theres wasted plots with empty or near empty shops that cant be removed. As such people build more malls hoping to fill it up with shops that are active and the cycle continues and will stay like that till theres no one playing or theres no space left to build on the map at all. Likewise there are shops that are owned by active players but are simply not restocked cause they cannot be bothered to do so. Especially when they have no need for coin any longer.
Of all of the malls out there when I ask about where people go to find stuff to buy and sell, pretty much only 3 locations are named and they never go anywhere else. I do play on US East so maybe people starting on other servers go to some different locations than players on East.
Over time as players come and go this becomes a major issue. Especially when most malls operate by allowing players to own the plots they set shops on. As I see it, things need to change, and theres many possible ways to approach the issue.
Make an auction house. Items placed in shop baskets get listed and players can buy from a shop stand of their own or a new placeable item. A player purchasing an item listed in players shop for the first time in 24 hrs provides footfall for the plot or settlement the shop items are placed at. This removes the needs of Malls and provides more building space to future players of the game. Especially when certain planets have people building structures that take up large portions of the map and have tendrils far away.
Introduce an afk decay system to fuel in beacons so players who have not logged in for a few weeks have all the fuel in said beacons decay by a week per day.
Allow settlements to list plots as shops. They can sell the plots to players on a monthly contract and it has to be renewed before the end of every month. If a player does not renew by the end of the month anything placed in that plot is reclaimed for the player that bought that plot. This way if they return in future nothing is lost.
Your suggestion. Comment below.
With some change like this, either the existing malls frequented the most can be the only malls we will ever need and there will be no issues in the future if the game ever grows, or malls will no longer be needed at all.
There’s nothing wrong with markets and malls in the game. Just like there’s nothing wrong with hubs, cities, art, or large empty beautiful buildings. Malls use the same plots and blocks as every other build. There are no plots or blocks that the game recognizes as “block_ID_mall…”.
I’ve seen over and over where people are unhappy with seeing “abandoned” builds. Sometimes players build things and move on. Who cares?
People have priorities. Real life is #1…work, kids, business, family, health…etc. Trying to force people to maintain something in virtual entertainment software would drive people away.
If you want to build a mall or a town, go for it. If you plan to try to force people to do things everyday…good luck. Games are suppose to be fun. People being forced to do things isn’t fun
Forcing is bad, but it would be nice if there were some better mechanism to address plots from players who quit a year ago.
Also keep in mind in other MMOs with auction houses like WoW, there’s other stuff to do like quests and pve and PvP. There isn’t much of that in boundless. On the other hand, WoW lacks building, so there can be no malls anyway. Without malls a lot of players wouldn’t socialize and meet people.
Saying because people have life problems as all people do is no reason to be okay with building a mall and letting it go sour. No one likes running around the relics of shops long gone, structures that serve no purpose. If you went to the mall and 90% of the shops were closed, or had no product indefinitely you would be pissed and wonder why they have a shop there at all. As a mall owner it should be in your best interest to provide the best experience possible. Invalidating the feelings of others cause people quit, come and go, or have issues arise is not the way to make this game better.
I have and its great for knowing where stuff is. Running around, portal hopping to get to the shops and running through what ever is built in your way to make a sell or purchase is quite tedious. Especially when you buy nearly everything you have and use cause you cant make anything on your own.
No, I don’t. I use the wonderful item finder tool that the devs added a few updates ago, and go explore other planets to find the item I’m looking for. I don’t overly concern myself with things that other people build and get angry at them for it.
This is a game for fun, entertainment & enjoyment.
Right but running around portal hopping just to find 1 thing is the opposite of fun. You like wasting time, others value theirs. You have been around forever your shopping experience is different. You can probably make or already have everything you need. New players however need to buy everything. Its impossible for new players to make everything the desire and need. So something as simple as buying building blocks, tools, food, ect becomes a task thats just purely annoying. Only made worse by how large malls are yet so dead and empty and filled with relics of shops and other stuff that just gets in the way.
Mall creators don’t control other players’ time or priorities. There’s no way to force players to add items or keep up with something they built.
The game does not differentiate between types of plots…they are all the same. A mall plot is the same as a workshop plot is the same as a house plot, etc.
This game is a community effort. Of course the comings and goings of people affect others.
This is true in real life too and you’re not simply able to go and take peoples’ property because you don’t feel like they’re making it work for you.
I’m not any more obligated to stock my shops with items you want/need than you are to come buy what I randomly decided to stock.
IDK sometimes I think it would be helpful to send people back to a time before there were malls or even the shop scanner lol.
Actually, that’s why some people came together to build malls, markets, etc…so people would hopefully spend less time running around trying to find stuff. No one can control how many players there are or what they do while in the game. People move around. Nothing wrong with that.
The devs added the shop scanner and there’s the B.U.T.T. now…so finding items is much easier than it used to be.
I think you’re angry at an issue that can’t really be solved. Every one has a different level of seriousness when it comes to gaming… some are far more casual. People will inevitably quit or find themselves unable to play on occasion perhaps due to real life important issues.
The shop scanner should help you out though and save you time!
Regardless lf how you feel you cant say none of my suggestions are good. The 3rd o e would solve all problems for everyone with 0 issues. I dont see why people are complaining about malls being fine as is instead of trying to make it better for everyone. Its not lile im the only one even the devs see the amount of malls popping up as a problem
Many of us have made suggestions. I personally have asked several times for different types of beacons/plots. Something like “ecommerce” beacons, etc.
