I don’t see how “we’ve ported to switch” would be ‘just’ an announcement. To take it to another platform would mean an injection of revenue from sales, exposure to another audience, and money to develop more…
Edit:to note, i would be quite supprised if that was the anouncement, excited sure, but supprised. My honest guess at the anouncement would be update 249 is nearing completion, and update 250 to include “some previous anounced feature or thing” will be on testing soon after.
Yes but you don’t have to. It’s just easier. I know I prefer it that way myself. Ask @BabyCookie it is possible to solo T6-T7.
In the end, it’s all about how a developer wants its players to play their game. If they want to push the group idea more they should reward groups of players for doing group activities, but they will get some push back from solo players as they are kind of left out in the cold and don’t get the same bonuses as the groups do.
I am not against any of it, but when solo players are overlooked in games you can lose quite a bit of the player base.
I like @Shadykatt34 play solo mostly. (I did plan to build near Shadykatt though and still haven’t 
) but my point is there are many players like myself and @Shadykatt34 that while we do play mostly solo we wouldn’t get awarded for not playing with a larger group of people that’s all.
The mechanics are already there for the most part when it comes to meteors though as you do get rewarded with more drops for less time spent.
I would however like to see more group activities.
Edit: Just to add, I bet there are quite a bit of solo/duo players out there.
I would like more group activities be added too, i think we have a lot of solo people left, because the group activities are limited true. Groups can still have an easier time in the game as is, but why play in the group?
There did used to be a mechanic that allowed quicker mining when done in at least a pair, if not 3 people. Remember bomb mining? Bombs used to do much less damage to resource nodes which let someone else come through with an aoe hammer and clear out the nodes quicker. Dev’s removed it, for fear of oversaturation of resources if i remember correctly. So maybe just getting more per rock isn’t quite the answer they’d want to explore.
But maybe something like a guild perk that so long as you were x meters away or less from a fellow guild mate your tools/weapons did more dmg? Or took less durability loss? Then it pushes current systems like guilds, and minimizes the extra resource dump, but not so OP that solo players are completely left out in the cold.
Short of adding party mechanics (hard grouping in other mmos), the guild machine buffs are the vehicle i’d see the devs use to implement more or new group type activities to current ones.
I wasn’t arguing there - just pointed out that in case of meteor hunts solo players are more limited in how and where they hunt if they want to get top drops. It was a direct response to your simple question before. In no case was I trying to argue for or against the way things are balanced in Boundless.
I started playing Boundless and fell in love with it because it’s the closest to my ideal of true open world mmo (player content only was always something I was looking for most of all: no NPCs and ready cities and shops where one could dump their unwanted stuff or get some super-duper items).
Throughout game development I agreed with devs ideas and choices most of the time.
It’s pretty well balanced between solo playing and the need to cooperate for better results.
With the population of Boundless shrinking, and not enough new players finding and staying in the game long term, this “no changes” crowd will one day find themselves playing an unchanging (effectively) single player game, if the current trend persists much longer. But hey, at least they will have crafting timers.
P.s. nearly all (likely 99/100) new players will start boundless as “solo” players. Boundless is not setting itself up for success by explaining to those players “its an mmo meant to be played as a group” especially when it comes to the most mundane tasks.
I was thinking about this as well. It might be a good idea to take a pass through all the crafting and see which things are actually intended to be group play style crafting jobs. It is good for large groups to have goals to work towards, but it is also good to have personal goals to work towards. Regardless of whether you are a solo or group player, it feels good to have personal progression. Maybe add new content that works as a group crafting goal, and tone down the stuff that is more geared towards personal progression. Define the vision a little, and make adjustments where needed. Iterate until you get the actual player behavior you are going for.
Totally not wanting an argument just open conversation. I actually want more group activities Boundless as it is can mostly be played alone and it needs to lean more towards group aspects and activities to reall be considered an MMO.
As it stands it’s a building sandbox with a few MMO elements.
portals were supposed to be more difficult to maintain making larger number of them possible for guilds rather than individuals
helix machines happened to be more difficult in terms of crafting maths and high end buffs costs
larger hunts in groups are more beneficial than individual
but not all that devs planned as difficult for single play, and thus encouraging group play, ended up being balanced well in that regard; in some aspects devs withdrew from their mmo trenches, following EA backers feedback, and simply made the gameplay more solo-friendly;
maybe it is time to revisit some of the balancing decisions? first things first though; we need to see that the game is back on some sort of developing path before thinking of any changes
I have to disagree, I have done almost everything in this game solo, my build/farm that go around the whole world, i built 100% myself.
The only thing in boundless that I felt compelled/pressured to do in a group are hunts for oortstone. and that is mostly because I really do not like the combat system in Boundless as a melee only player.
When I hear someone say a game is not friendly to solo players, games like Albion come into mind which can be absolutely brutal to the solo player. and to a lesser degree, games like EVE online and WoW, both of which require groups to do their end game content.
But even thou I am mostly a solo player. I would not want to play Boundless as an offline only experience. I enjoy games where I can be as independent as I want, and not feel punished for taking an solo playstyle, while having the option to play with others if i so choose to do so.
I am not saying its easy to do what I have done and in the way I have done it, but it doesn’t feel unfriendly to me at all, or otherwise designed for groups.
I’d argue the game isn’t explaining to new players that group play is the focus, and that is the problem, not that it needs to be more solo friendly. Right now new players think the game is slow paced and grindy, it doesn’t do anything to tell you how to speed them up or even suggest playing with others that are focused differently.
That’s the fault of the new player on boarding the game lacks, but my argument is we have a solid sandbox mmo with nearly every bell and whistle it needs to jump off from, yes more content would be awesome but the gem here is solid, getting it to the right kind of players in such a way that shows off what’s great is all it needs immediately,
I think it would help if Boundless was presented as an open world survival mmo rather than sandbox voxel.
Could catch attention of more different players that don’t leave the game soon after as in-game experience doesn’t fit what they think was advertised to them.
Look at Valheim. It’s not presented as building game. Yet a lot of players explore that part of the game and enjoy it a lot. So maybe Boundless could learn from that. Voxel and building are not the leading characteristic of the gameplay to be true.
I totally agree that Boundless is more fun in groups.
It’s a bad design to me for retaining players when you have to rely on someone else to progress. The actual game should start to be more focused around teamplay later in the progression. Once the new player is familiar with all the aspect of the game and have some decent tool/skills that he could acquire solo OR in group.
Game is doable 100% solo but you have to be prepared to grind a lot and its not the taste of tea for most of the gamers.
Sadly these type of games please to either solo players or really small group of people since it’s more chill games. Rarely you will see group of 20-30 players starting a game like this.
Valheim is a more linear progression than Boundless being by yourself in the vast universe. Valheim have some stuff to do like defeating some bosses to progress to the next area but once you have done all this there is not much replayability were Boundless shine bit more there.
yes, but my point is players can’t never be sure what the gameplay will be like for them; only general idea can be formed based on how a game is advertised and labeled (genre-wise)
so, whatever surprises Valheim, Boundless or any game has for potential buyers are not that heart-breaking as when one sees large difference between ad-built expectations and early game reality;
what I’m saying is, if what players find in first hours of play is not far from what has been advertised to them, then they are more likely to stay longer and any game-play disappointments further down the line would most likely not be as important for player retention
I played Boundless with little to nothing advertised to me other than the trailer on Steam. Maybe I didn’t play close enough attention or something, but the game is exactly and more than what I was advertised to.
Where the game almost lost me is little to no guidance in the new player experience. It totally (for lack of a better term), “pissed me off”. I literally quit for a couple days, but luckily gave it another go.
The problem there is how many others didn’t give it another go.
You cannot retain players if they cannot get past the NPE. As far as retention, I still stick by my guns that people will still get bored over time it is just human nature. I stated they could drop the 249 update and add titans and people will come back for a bit and then quit after things get stale for them.
If you eat tacos every night (boy, do I love tacos) eventually you want something else, adding some rice and beans to the meal though doesn’t make the tacos any different, just adds something new to the mix.
Brilliant analogy
I don’t know, I’m sure this is basically true, but I also think there’s room for all kinds in Boundless. I get a lot out of both the social and solo activities I have in Boundless. I can get immersed just wandering a planet collecting beans and leaves, but I also enjoy being part of a mall or town community. Without everyone else though I definitely wouldn’t have gotten as far as I have, because I don’t have patience for some things, so it’s easier to buy stuff from others.
You’re right of course. It’s part of why single player option apart from the mmo isn’t likely to sell a bunch of copies of boundless to new fans. Without the community sure there is a still fun game, but it’s the other people that make these systems they designed shine and more enjoyable.
By no means am i saying don’t release the single player, i just don’t think that this game has the right kind mechanics to make a single player experience even close to as enjoyable as the mmo side.
Some of us mine with other people to help them reach a goal. I have my stuff built and I go on hunts for the fun of it.
But if a random player said they were looking for a certain rock and needed a lot of it, I’d volunteer to join them and then hand over what I mined to them.
There’s quite a few who would do the same. 
