Let it all go is fine with me. Malls in this game are pretty much a thing of the past …
Come build me a colour storage 
Sadly there are not so many active shops at malls anymore.
I usually build my shops at malls as it is convenient as a shop owner and I also prefer shopping at malls. Looking at BUTT and then find the right portal or sprint over half a planet makes shopping more and more annoying for me right now. When there is a shop with a good enough price at a mall I usually go there first.
Observations I made during the last weeks:
- I regularly see people running through DK mall
- I encountered 2 players during my time building there that were looking for shop plots at DK mall
- Having 2 shops at malls I can say they are working well
In my opinion malls are still nice to have but there are not many well maintained ones.
Having a well known mall such as DK vanish completely would be sad
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The current state of things relies entirely on @Mayumichi. Ehhh there’s one other moderately useful service that I think probably still exists but who even knows what I’m talking about?
Another spot in which the wonderstruck either completely failed, or just entirely decided to ignore, what the players actually wanted in and around the game - in favor of deeply technical “implementations” that are really just the groundwork for some decent tools.
The window between implementing the shopping tools (knowledge pages) and BUTT being fully operational was probably the heyday of malls in Boundless. Shopkeepers will continue to gather to attract business but if you’re willing to compete on price it’s too easy to drag customers out of the malls and markets.
IMO as long as we have status quo, “big malls” are done.
There’s more to it than just marketing concerns for individual shop keepers. It’s been a long time, I’m not sure how many currently active players aren’t aware that DK was the second owner of that mall, he saved it after the original builder was griefed out of the game.
It’s continued to be a source of mixed fun for at least three “managers” after DK went idle, right? I forget who pushed it around for a while, then redlotus, then (teamwork?) TMMK to some extent. I’m not sure how many people have had a hand in it.
All complaints about the same problems and even if nobody is actively trying to grief the mall, abandoned projects, forgotten plots, etc… continue to be ongoing issues. “Fix the floors” in plots that aren’t mall-owned, etc…
It’s sad to see things go but also the level of social obligation to keep something like this running smoothly for several years is a real burden that someone has to carry in order for it to exist. If no one is ready to carry that load, the day is done.
Edit:
I’m still laughing at the above typo “the wonderstruck” - I’m not changing it.
A CDN really? For a few bytes of serialized data at a time? Still so fragile they never gave out more than a couple of publicly used keys for it?
…
Thanks so much Mayu for finishing the job. You should have been paid.
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Oh I totally agree. I am a fan of BUTT personally and really feel it helps the small shops out in the middle of nowhere. I actually have a few shops marked out in the middle of some field that some new person or some “hermit” decided to build and more power to them, BUTT has really made those shops visible.
My 2 issues with BUTT, and one really isn’t even an issue just something I wish it could do is colors and forging. If I wanted to find a specific color I can’t, and if I want a specifically forged item, I cannot see the speed, damage, etc. This of course isn’t BUTT’s fault.
The other issue with BUTT is I feel it feeds the competition a bit and at time forces people to mark things below an actual profit at times just to move items. Granted that’s not such an issue really when one could play the market and buy all the items at a low price and resell them for a higher one, I know I’ve done this a time or two. Playing the market is fun at times and somewhat profitable.
I always thought the TNT hub would be a great place for a mall, though I imagine they’d not want the hassle. Centralization to one spot would be great, like a bi bazaar but everyone wants to be the one who makes the perfect mall.
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Adds some pressure maybe. However that’s an inherent human behavior and nothing to do with the tool.
!00% of the same information on current prices is available in game. It would be a nightmare to collate it all for all items, but honestly if you’re looking to price a single item, it’s a couple of minutes to check the majority of the universe.
And anybody who will “sell things below an actual profit to move items” is trying to move product, not make coins. There are players who want to “be the cheapest” more than they want to make money. If someone doesn’t understand the value of something they produced - it’s not BUTT’s fault.
Same for people who sell items for less than the loot value you can extract from them.
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Let me take it over then, it’s too gorgeous to let die, and I love the glowing ruins of the old mall on one end, perfect for building a more favela-like architecture next to
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Let me take it over then, I’d like to save the color block museum under the road and the new mall – I have the plots for it.
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It just needs to go.
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I wish you’d been honest about this a lot sooner; that was a lot of my time and I really liked the place and was delighted when the griefer finally went away.
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There’s so many gorgeous shops in the new mall, why not let me take it over?
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I don’t control it now. The main problem is the old section is just a lot of empty shops and a whole lot of holes in the floor. it is way too big for the current population and @DKPuncherello could reclaim it all. It would simply be all the roads (what’s left of them) and the workshop along with the block museum.
Ultimately it would be better to just start a new mall, even though malls are a thing of the past.
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I don’t think malls are a thing of the past there are areas full of stores that are malls / homes for some guilds .ITs if you try to run a mall alone it don’t work no one can keep up with protecting plots in there mall alone unless its a sov world.
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No one should have to protect a mall in general.
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we all know it will never work that way in any game there will always be those who want to see the world burn
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I thought the old mall would be fun to watch decay over time, having the roads vanish would turn it into a fun grapple adventure, that’s why I put my small shop just past the edge of the new mall where things start getting funky; it’s like a favella. I can build trees or some other facade / wall and stuff to block out the eyesore if need be. The new mall is such an awesome hub & collection of buildings.
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Gyosha Mall was the first mall I ever went to. I’ve been there a lot. I hated going to DK Mall because I used to have a crippling fear of heights.
Then I had a shop at Finata Mall for a while. Now have a shop at Starlight Mall. I fill it with stuff periodically. I’m still sorting through reclaim so it’s slow going. Water seems to be a popular sale item.
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I frequent malls simply to try and spread the coin around to different people. Granted a few select people I go to get a good bit of coin as they have what I need in mass quantities like @Foxx449 and @Naeah with marble, @Wondernut with a lot of gleam chests etc.
All in all, I do love a nice mall. It’s just so hard to keep one filled and active any more.
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I don’t think anyone is being “dishonest” here.
One by one the issues and real life have worn the people out, or taken them away from it. This is a natural evolution.
Yes, please @Solgato or anyone else. Bring your vision into the world.
I’m not going to lie people trying to “Save” things that other people built just because they don’t want “someone’s work to go to waste” or “something I’m fond of to disappear” is something that has also been a big issues in the game.
A dead, literally stolen city sat as capitol of Raxxa for something like three years for this. People trying to “save the city” and talking about “tragedy” saved most of what was there and the gave it to the player that had griefed the city builder into quitting. Super proud of themselves.
And I’m not kidding it was so bad that James came out and told them that the player had personally/actively deleted those plots after many issues. I’m sorry for anyone whose home world is overshadowed by a dead megalith.
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