Just a passing thought to be honest -
In my opinion we no longer need the totem warp upgrade, simply because there are so many well established portals around the Universe.
So there are a few options here…
What is everyone elses thoughts?
I remember times when you had to pay 600 coins to travel from solum to therka and back. Quite expensive way of travelling.
I’ll like to keep it poeple might want to travel to a planet by themself insted of useing an existing portal 
As the game exists today, the totem upgrade serves little purpose with the thorough coverage of existing portal networks on a relatively small number of planets that anyone can freely wander.
In the future, if there are many planets, portal networks may become stretched too thin to reach all of them, especially if there are 50+.
In the future, if new planets are added, then obviously totem upgrades will be necessary.
Ideally, I’d like to see the totem upgrade serve a bigger role, where one prepares for a long journey away from home by packing multiple totem upgrades (and other manufactured goods) because where they are traveling there may only be portals between some of the worlds and few settlements along the way to buy provisions in.
that is a brilliant answer (and idea)
It’s nonsensical to have it removed when it is the only way of establishing these portal networks on other planets in the first place. If we get new planets or started on game’s 1.0 launch, we’ll just get stuck on our home planets 
However, this random thought just shows how widespread portals are (and saturated on cities as well) to the point that totem upgrades are close to being complete useless item at the current state of the game.
yes i keep forgetting that everything will be fully wiped before full release! Lol…
But this is the reason i had the tought -
Basically to simplify what i am trying to say… would it not be possible (come full release) to have an individual player allowed to make a limited cap number of portals per planet… and then maybe a total number of portals allowed per planet? this will not only keep things interesting but also give use to the Warp Crystal once more!
Addition - not to mention Server instabillity - Trying to connect to server when you go through a portal hub (this issue comes from having so many portals close together because it is trying to load all the servers at once!)
I think this is the first time I’ve heard of this kind of approach to this problem and It looks good. 
There have been discussion regarding this issue and most of the time, I always just think of “increasing the difficulty of obtaining Oort stones” and then add the option on portals to require a fee per use. It’s a little hard to balance as a couple of players right now do enjoy the current system and further increasing the difficulty of maintaining their portals will equate to less fun game for them.
With your solution, they just need the same effort as before in maintaining their portals but would be wary of adding more due to the number of portal cap. No more nonsensical portals that leads to a portal network from a building just 100m away from it. As usual, explorer skills could increasing this shortcomings for those people dedicated to networking portals.
Have to agree with you, I love the portal mechanic but im beginning to feel its far too over used. For me its beginning to destroy the sense of adventure. Iv used the totem and warp blocks to discover every planet iv been too so far, but its a little heartbreaking to arrive somewhere completely new to you only to discover Portals everywhere that could have taken you there in just a few steps. There seems to be no need to actually explore any of the landscape anymore with there being portals to mines multiple portals to every town/city and even more portals from one part of a city to another part of the same city etc…
As I said though I do love the Portal mechanic, but perhaps they should be tied to prestige. say a minimum of 10,000 for first and then a stacking effect where you need more an more prestige to place more.
I agree with Nevioni. Portals should only be created established in city’s. Something like a minimum prestige, plots, or citizens would be required to open one. They should probably be a high end skill requirement in the exploration tree, lvl 40+. And lastly they should cost something to use. Maintenance costs should be high enough to discourage personal permanent portals.
Maybe then people would use totems and personal warps.
This probably isn’t an original suggestion, but I think it would help.
I’ve always felt and thought of portals, as time investments designed for guilds, groups or cities to take on, they were never limited to just them, so people could create and manage a few portals on their own.
While I can comprehend the over saturation of portals, I don’t think making them limited or tied to prestige is the solution, boundless has always been a game of choice for me, and while in normal gameplay, highly prestigious cities or builds will be tied with players capable of opening them, it will for certain not be the case for all of them, imagine a portal opened to a beaconed but natural place, with great landscape and views, kinda like a protected rainforest or the sort.
What about the isolated players, who want to access their remote homes, without constantly having to walk or warp there, as they can’t maintain the costs of warping, and would rather make portals.
While I think limiting number of portals per players is the best solution, out of all the suggestions, I can’t agree with making portals limited per planet, as it would allow for big groups to go to a new planet, open as many portals as they can and monopolize access to a planet through portals, making it them control the portal system there, while it may feel like something morally wrong, I can’t see someone condemning them for doing that.
I could get behind players having the ability to create up to X portals anywhere, but then having to skill in order to open more, big groups wouldn’t really experience any issues, as someone on the team can take responsibility, and still allow players in the direction of managing all their portals by themselves, to have the option to expand.
If Boundless really will grow to 50+ worlds, I think balancing portals right now is a little difficult.
I think it is reasonable for there to be 12 or so ‘core’ worlds that are well-connected by portal networks, with only occasional portals to the more remote locations.
I guess a suggestion for adjusting portal frequency would be to scale portal costs based on:
Maybe these should only apply to portals that leave the planet? I’d still want a portal from pixelgate to aquatopia, but maybe we don’t need portals just to get across town.
Not 100% sold on all of it, but these seem like some ideas to help get a more satisfying balance to portals. As things are right now, most of the terrain in boundless remains unseen and under-appreciated, and there is no point to building bridges or roads between points of interest.
Ultimately I think rebalancing based around the existing 12 worlds is probably not the right idea, we should look at balancing more when we have closer to the final number of planets.
I also wouldn’t like to see it go too far either, I believe everyone should and needs to be connected to the community at large as the economy is very important to new players, The way I see it is if the first portal is available relatively early eg. 10.000 prestige then most players can connect to the community, but having many portals needs to be restricted to the capitals like you said, but even they should be restricted so as the insure the Mayors manage them wisely. The likes of Threka Market are great (have a portal there myself) but its just silly when you see a portal there leading to a shop just around the corner, I think theres like 3 ways of getting to Munteen Paradise from the Plaza too which is a little silly. No offence to Mobieius the Plaza is great.
… or to extend upon this… with the addition of more planets planned (is it stil a thing?) then maybe outer rim planets… the real far/difficult (level wise) etc… should have a massieve requirement to get to (i.e only available travel to and from is Warp Crystal/there would be a permanent (game-side) portal leading from one planet to the outer planets… or… have the real highend planets (or stacking level planets) harder and harder to portal too - not just with the skill… but also with prestiege/coin/etc…
To make myself clearer… the higher the level of the planet… the harder to get to + the more materials/coins/stones needed etc… and maybe… limited to one per player on the really hard to get to planets?
I think a solution to at least control the saturation of portals in settlements, is to have the mayor decide how many portals are allowed in said settlement.
First and foremost, I know the solution is far from perfect, it may be a bad one. But I’m recurring to the community and the devs to add on the idea, just as many other additions have come to fruition after sharing ideas through the forums.
So far, the shortcomings I imagine would happen with the proposal will be the following.
Solutions to overall problems found, are what I’m trying to find. So far I believe. The decision over how many portals are allowed, I think should rely not only on the major, but on a board of say the 5 most prestigious member’s. Making the fight for major much less appealing and preventing abuse, not blocking it completely but counter measuring it.
Perhaps this is better suited for guild cities, but I thought like it was better I shared my idea and got good feedback from you smart people
As discussed in some previous posts, portals were mentioned to have tolls to make travel a little more difficult and will be revisited before release. Portals are an essential part of the game, but they also make travel too easy to put it simply. I talked about other solutions in our wishlist board. While they would hamper the effectiveness, Time Gates and Distance Limits would create a unique experience, one that I believe was the way intended by the devs.
Its been stated by devs that they thought of portals as affordable by guilds rather than single players and that a total number of portals would be rather limited through its cost of building and upkeep. It can still be like this through altering the said costs, but it can also happen that the idea behind them change since people seem enjoy portals and its often named as one of the most important features Boundless offers.
I for once hope they will be more difficult to build and maintain in future and that warps and totem upgrade will find their way to be important in players daily life.
The totem upgrade will most likely become more difficult to make in future as well. Or so I hope anyway.
I have heard about this a LOT in game and even heard thats the way it used to be before? and a great idea (only affordable by big groups etc) but if you mean to say 100% only affordable by, then that is unfair imho… all i am saying is that for everyone it should be a lot harder come release - Addition: @boundmore i meant this part if you mean to say 100% only affordable by, then that is unfair imho… to be aimed at you - sorry about the ordering there
Also a great idea come full release
But as i say… i know (and hope) on full release there will be a 100% wipe (characters/inv/builds/claims etc) - but we are not at full release yet, i know this… just trying to get things sorted with everyone so things are known to be what they will be
The idea of tolls would in my mind be most easily implemented if it was by a per person basis. Just because you are with a group does not make the cost smaller. Just like everything else in the game, if you have money it will be easier to get the stuff you want.
Ultimately, you’re right though. This will not full fix the problem which is why I also suggested:
Time Gates - Limited number of hops in a set hour long or day long interval.
Distance Gates - Restricts players from hopping from Planet 1 to Planet 10 similar to the warp restriction in the skill tree.
Without it we can’t travel to any new worlds that might pop up