Weekly Dev Update: 2017 July 21st, 28th, August 4th - Slope Chisel, Square Chisel, and maybe Bevel Chisel and more!

[cor-karolis]

@james

We have implemented the missing slope block shapes (rotations of some existing ones that were missing, and some brand new slope shapes) and are progressing on to the new chiselled block shapes. All the new slope shapes work correctly with texture blending and will be available in prefabs and generated into new worlds’ terrain.

We’re exploring adding more Chiseling techniques into the building system. The following diagram beautifully captures the current voxel shapes, and the exploration of significantly more options. This will be quite a big change:

I LURVE YOU ALL SO MUCH LOOK AT ALL THOSE SHAPES I CAN MAKE

(and I like option 2 – single square chisel with an unlock for precision – best)

In other news…

@james

1.0 balance for player progression, player skills and abilities, resource spawning, and world difficulty - gradual iteration - player feedback is extremely valuable.

Ha! Since you asked: I’m level 30 or 31 right now, and I would like to report that levelling past about 25 has become pretty miserable for someone who mostly likes building/exploring. At lvl 29 or so I finally felt compelled to get mass crafting and make 10 crafting tables and then go mine for hours for rock I don’t need, to process into stones I won’t use, just so I could get enough XP so I have the plots to continue building. And lately that stupid flower exploit is looking more and more tempting… I mean, I don’t mind a bit of mining, or some crafting or hunting or whatever, but it’s becoming more and more a chore.

However – I expect that contracts (assuming they’re something that will give XP for building?) will help that a lot. And really, it’s the lack of plots that bothers me most – I do have most of the skills I really want, and the ones I don’t yet are the sort that feel like good “end” rewards – so if you were to keep XP gain the same but give me another way to get plots besides just leveling, that’d work too. Or maybe spread them out across the level? Because, while it looks very exciting to get 20 plots all at once, what it actually means is that I level and immediately place them and excavate them and then realize I’ve only got 1/10 of the way through the level and I’m already out. Which, yes, one could argue that perhaps I should exercise some restraint or something, but… when I can just make the devs do that for me…

I’d like to get much more XP for feats in general. Especially for the explorer ones. It’d be nice to get a bit for every Lacus Schau-quarter-mannheim I discover and then a good chunk for getting, I dunno, 10-25-50/50. But I figure they’re still pretty new, yeah? so you all haven’t yet got them all working yet anyway.

@james

Finally completing the HUD and GUI - will it ever end?

Yes. Probably. Maybe, someday. Have hope!

But while you’re at it, perhaps you could add a highlighted dot on the currently selected vertex, when you’re chiseling? It’s a bit hard to be sure sometimes which one I’m about to hit.

@james

Luckily Matt is here

Phew

@james

The question is: given that we’ll have more block shapes via the extending chiselling, is it possible that by providing packs of decorative stickers / decals - can players create their own decorations and props? Does this bridge a gap between sculpted voxels and full meshes?

YESSSSS HAVE I MENTIONED MY LURVE FOR YOU ALL THIS IS WHAT I HAVE WANTED SINCE EVER Ahem. I mean. It is nice to have some premade meshes, especially for more organic thingies like those pretty swirly ferns, and objects like doors that are interactive. But the thought of chisels + decals for player-made things is YES PLEASE PLEASE PLEEEASE – and if there were some way to make/trade the equivalent of blueprints but for these smaller deco things I’d never put the chisel down ever or quit shouting probably PLEASE?

Also. Are those bombs…OF BACON?

[Stretchious]

So much UPDATE! Absolutely adore the parquet pattern flooring! So many cool things in the pipeline

@james

1. Should Character names be unique? Or can many players create characters with the same name?

2. When you see a Character in the game, should we also display the user name?

3. Should we show Character names in the forum?

4. When a player deletes a Character what do you expect should happen to their beacons in the game?

1. Yes, definitely unique character names (Pretending to be other people could be used for spoofing / griefing).

2. Originally thought “No” for this, but being able to know which characters are used by which username could help both with identifying friends and also to see trouble makers.

3. I think just being able to see a list of characters assigned to a username would be good - keep the forums as people’s usernames (prevents people throwing faux weight into conversations by using multiple character names).

4. Beacons should expire immediately on characters deletion (but provide a double-warning before allowing people to delete their characters - maybe do like WoW where you need to type “delete” before completing process).

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Loving the look of the additional chiseled blocks! Yes please!! Square chisels should be a high-level chisel skill though (can’t believe I’m saying that)… and if the bevel chisel becomes a thing, then that should be the highest skill level

@james

Question:

1. Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)?

2. Or should we add a single Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time), and allow players to learn a “Precision Chiseling Skill”. Which would upgrade their basic chiseling skill to be equivalent to the precision Square Chisel. This would make Building more skill based.

3. Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?

1. I’d say just leave it as a single corner chisel - basically the same way the sloped chisel works (to keep it consistent).

2. See option 1 - but as mentioned, have square and bevel behind skill unlocks.

3. Gradient Chisel, Corner Chisel & Sculpting Chisel.

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@james

The question is: given that we’ll have more block shapes via the extending chiselling, is it possible that by providing packs of decorative stickers / decals - can players create their own decorations and props? Does this bridge a gap between sculpted voxels and full meshes?

I think it could certainly bridge some of the gap, but I also think some functional props would still be nice to have (I’d love to be able to have my character sit down on an actual chair!)

[TechStomper]

@james

Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)?

Or should we add a single Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time), and allow players to learn a “Precision Chiseling Skill”. Which would upgrade their basic chiseling skill to be equivalent to the precision Square Chisel. This would make Building more skill based.

Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?

I think u should do both really have a multipurpose chisel one that allows for bigger chisels and one that allows for smaller more delicate matters (basically the chisel mod from MC) xD i would love to be able for this to happen actually as this makes imo building 10x more fun if this is optimized correctly.

[Heureka]

@james

1. Should Character names be unique? Or can many players create characters with the same name?

2. When you see a Character in the game, should we also display the user name?

3. Should we show Character names in the forum?

4. When a player deletes a Character what do you expect should happen to their beacons in the game?

1. Definitely unique

2. Both way are fine for me.

3. Yes, would be nice.

4. Set beacon fuel to zero.

@james

Question:

Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)?

Or should we add a single Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time), and allow players to learn a “Precision Chiseling Skill”. Which would upgrade their basic chiseling skill to be equivalent to the precision Square Chisel. This would make Building more skill based.

Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?

I like the idea of a basic chisel for steps, slabs and walls, and then the special chisels behind building skills.

@james

Showing the nearest Settlements and removing the Beacons.

Yes, the beacons clutter up the compass when running round in citys, or other areas with heavy building. But it can be usefull in the wild.

Maybe a setting to turn beacon, and other things on and off on the compass.

As always i love the props from @jesshyland, waiting to walk around and found new things to take home and decorate with :).

The new wood floor look excellent. More of this in different pattern, i want more stone and tree variations to build with, and also some planet specific trees with unique textures, not only tints.

[Clexarews]

@jesshyland, that pattern, much like yourself, is amazing!!

There’s so much here it’s gonna take me a few readings to make sure I’ve got it all! Thanks for sharing this load of information, @james.

[nevir]

Woot!

Square Chisel

So, when building a staircase, I wanted slab stairs, with a wall (vertical slab) on the outside to give a bit of a low railing feel. The trouble is that I can only use the wall that way every other stair (e.g. when it’s a bottom slab). As a crazy person, I’d love to have quarter slabs, so that I can stack 'em to make a vertical wall that matches. But, a more interesting (and far more flexible) idea here would be to have a square chisel which lets you carve out corners as cubes rather than slop…

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@james

Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)?

I think this is preferable. However, I’d be willing to bet that most of the time people just pick up a precision chisel, and only use the basic one for specialized/large builds. One corner at a time isn’t too onerous, even for stairs.

I think, however, only having a precision chisel may be a better option. It stays more consistent w/ regular chisels, and simplifies things a bit.

One crazy idea for a “advanced chisel” might be chisel templates: Craft a chisel template tool, put it into a “record” mode, whack a block w/ the chisel configuration you like, and then each block it hits from then on would immediately chisel into that configuration. Hold onto multiple chisel templates for all your building needs.

(or maybe two items rather than a modal item - one for recording, one for cutting? not sure what works best w/ the current implementation)

[Combyte]

Builder’s Hopes and Dreams:

@james

Teal - right shapes: We’re adding all the missing slope shapes and orientations. So they’ll no longer be shapes you can craft on the flour but not on the walls. The current slope shapes are presented in teal and beautifully highlighted. The additional shapes are below them.

Red - left shapes: We’re also exploring adding a Square Chisel that would allow players to chisel the red shapes. This will mean that you no longer need to craft the walls, slabs and steps. This may seem a bit sideways but we think it’ll make everything much more intuitive. It’ll simplify crafting because the list of recipes will no longer contain 4x the block variations: walls, slab and steps. So crafting will be simpler. Building will be easier because you’ll no longer need to worry about relative placement position to get the desired orientation. Instead you’ll simply chisel the 2 corners you want to remove to make some steps. You’ll be able to make all the currently missing step orientations, and a huge plethora of new shapes. We’re planning to limit this level of sculpting to beacons so that builds will feel extra special compared to the natural world. (These shapes will not be created by the World Builder.) If you mine a previously chiseled block you’ll always get the original whole block back. This will mean that chiselling and mining square voxel variations will follow the same flow as the current slopes. (Which you couldn’t craft or mine in the past.) So in conclusion we think this will help make everything simpler, more intuitive and ultimately more fun when being extra creative.

Green - middle shapes: We may even add a Bevel Chisel which are the voxel variations in green. If you look carefully the green combinations match all the red shapes but with a different cut style. But this is classic feature creep, so these variations may move into post 1.0 content - it’ll just depend how quickly we make progress.

Can’t wait for this, would unlock so many possibilities

@james

Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?

Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisels sound quite straight forward and easy to understand the difference to each of them, but if you wanted some different names you could say maybe:

1: Slope Chisel can remain a Chisel

2: Square Chisel can be per say a Saw, and makes sense as it’s able to cut out a small block

3: Bevel Chisel could be known as a Chipper, as beveling from the looks of the diagrams are smaller sized slopes of the Chisel

@james

Jess has been designing wooden blocks following raw, refined and decorative progression. Lustrous wood refined in a ‘basket weave’ parquet pattern.

I’ll be replacing my floors in the lodge by the time this is released, wonderful art work!

Can’t wait till this releases, looks quite exciting to use all these neat tools, blocks and STICKERS to buff the place.

Good work guys, keep it up!

[Nibuls]

@james

Questions:

1. Should Character names be unique? Or can many players create characters with the same name?

2. When you see a Character in the game, should we also display the user name?

3. Should we show Character names in the forum?

4. When a player deletes a Character what do you expect should happen to their beacons in the game?

maybe you’ll think about double names? first is your name on forum(your account name) second is a character name, like in families but vice-versa. And if you add someone in your friends list you add a “family”, for example: Nibuls Greatidea, Nibuls Firstborn

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@james

Question:

1. Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)?

2. Or should we add a single Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time), and allow players to learn a “Precision Chiseling Skill”. Which would upgrade their basic chiseling skill to be equivalent to the precision Square Chisel. This would make Building more skill based.

3. Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?

i think here is needed a one chisel but:
1 - with switching modes
or
2 - block on which you look with a chisel in your hand are get texture with regions which shows you where to click.

middle edge(blue) region remove whole edge(two corners, make a slide), corner region(orange) remove corner, middle face(green) region - make a wall or slab if you clicked on top.
or combine regions and switching mode and named it - Multi-Chisel, Forming tool, Shaping tool or so

[Cookviper]

I personally think the first thing that should be addressed is the experience gain. I’ve had two of my accounts logged on 24/7 for the last three days straight, sitting there placing flowers just trying to get my levels up and I’m still not level 50. I’m not one to use exploits, especially one such as this that completely takes away the joy of leveling, however, since leveling became so slow and all I really want to do is test out different skills so I as to be better prepared when the official release goes live, I feel this is necessary. One thing to keep in mind is this game does not end once you reach the highest level. It’s not until that moment when you can truly enjoy the game fully and everything it has to offer because you are not restricted. My main account reached level 50 a week ago and I have been having a blast ever sense, even more so than I did before.

[Pseudonym84]

I thought you’d been quiet this past week or so @james. You’ve had your head down working for a change! Bravo!

@james

Should Character names be unique? Or can many players create characters with the same name?

(Skip to the bolded text if you want my answer without the reasoning)

I’ve torn my hair out over systems in the past where names are unique to players. I assume it’s to make sending tells or whispers easier. Most people don’t want to type out a username they perhaps don’t associate with their friend. For example;

If @Scratchnwiff decided to name his character ‘Scratch’. I’d want to simply type out ‘/w scratch Get back to work’, opposed to ‘/w scratchnwiff…’

So I see why most games go the unique route. That said, you’re also releasing Boundless on PS4, and usually on the PS4 games tend to use just your PSN name; PMB91184 in my case - which is fine for a PSN name, but ugly when used in-game, such as in GTAV, Destiny, Battlefield, the Division and even more annoyingly; Diablo III.

Dark Souls III on the other hand allows you to display either PSN or character names. It’s honestly a breath of fresh air, but the game doesn’t have in-game messaging on the PS4, just proximity chat, so I’m not sure how that would be handled?

Simply put, I’d like to be able to call my character whatever I like, regardless of if or not it’s taken already. Could you imagine if real life followed that arbitrary rule?

‘You have a beautiful baby boy. What are going to name him?’

‘We like the name Robert.’

‘I’m sorry, Robert is already taken.’

‘Rob?’

‘Sorry, that too.’

‘Robby?’

‘Sorry’

Hours later…

‘Wonderful, you’re free to take xRobb17x home with you.’

Allow us to name our characters whatever, but have whispers tied to account or PSN names. Just be sure to show both names in the friendlist UI;

Obviously beautify it some.

@james

When you see a Character in the game, should we also display the user name?

Seeing as people will go one way or another on this one, I think it’s best to allow the players to choose. Have an option in the UI settings to display either character or user names.

@james

Should we show Character names in the forum?

Some forums allow you to choose which of your characters you’d like to post with. I think for continuity reasons you’ll want to display both account and character name in the forums, otherwise it’ll be hard to keep track of who is who, and not have people constantly explaining that their posting with their alt.

@james

When a player deletes a Character what do you expect should happen to their beacons in the game?

I actually think plots (and the ways you earn them) should be account bound, along with feats too while on the subject. It was always annoying in World of Warcraft logging onto a character and not having all my achievements. It made me reluctant to play that character, as I’d already built up years worth of achievements on another.

@james

Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)

@james

Or should we add a single Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time), and allow players to learn a “Precision Chiseling Skill”. Which would upgrade their basic chiseling skill to be equivalent to the precision Square Chisel.

I’m 100% on this one that you should take the latter route and have a chisel upgrade in the Builder skills. It would be tedious to have a bunch of different ‘Square Chisels’ on top of the others you already have planned. And like you said; it’d make Builder more skill based.

@james

Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?

Finally a question that’s in my domain of expertise, as I’m a builder in real life (though generally Joiners and Brickys use chisels, not foremen).

I’d actually have the visuals of each chisel class be different as to make them easy to tell apart.

Anyway, for bricks and concrete blocks we usually use Bolsters or Cold Chisels, which are heavy duty chisels. For woodwork we generally use a range of basic chisels at varying widths. Though there are specialised chisels for the sort of work you’re referring to, such as a Corner Chisel, which is used to remove 90° chunks, and would have been a perfect name for your ‘Square Chisel’, though it’d no doubt confuse people looking to remove angled corners who are not trade savy.

‘Block Chisel’ came to mind, but everything is a block in a voxel world, so that’d be too broad? ‘Cube Chisel’ would be more accurate than ‘Square Chisel’, though sounds a little odd.

I don’t know? I’m still tempted to say ‘Corner Chisel’, as that’s pretty much what you’re doing; removing corner blocks.

So - as a builder, if I were chiseling cuboid blocks of wood into the shapes you have above, I’d use a Corner Chisel for the red shapes, and a Butt Chisel for the rest. Though for the sake of simplicity and keeping the naming in-line, here are my suggestions;

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Oh, and that Refined Lustrous

Moar decorative metals though! I want some metal flooring!

[Nibuls]

@Nibuls

block on which you look with a chisel in your hand are get texture with regions which shows you where to click.

middle edge(blue) region remove whole edge(two corners, make a slide), corner region(orange) remove corner, middle face(green) region - make a wall or slab if you clicked on top.
or combine regions and switching mode and named it - Multi-Chisel, Forming tool, Shaping tool or so

i’m thinking about how… For “my” Forming tool need a “cache” - when you click and hold MButton there are two options appear, for example: if you click and hold on blue region you’ll be proposed to choose - steps or slide - you chose once, a steps(It’s immediately applied to the block) and after you just clicked on any of this blue regions on onother blocks you’ve get a steps feced to the edge that you’ve clicked.

And important thing - (gem Forming Tools should replace gem chisels) this tool should be able to make a bidirectional transformation: cube - steps - cube. That’s why it should be called a Forming tool. And those previous chisels made of wood, stone and metals must be unidirectional, ordinary: cube - step.

[lesley64]

@nevir

I think, however, only having a precision chisel may be a better option. It stays more consistent w/ regular chisels, and simplifies things a bit.

I agree with that too. Maybe we can have only one chisel just like we have now, but, just like the slingbow, it may have a crystal slot, where you could put a red or green crystal that would change the cut mode to Square and/or Bevel.

To simplify the things for the builders, these crystals could have infinite durability, so you just have to craft them once.

ohh, and what a Weekly Update! It took a while to read this much!

[Pseudonym84]

Oh, and this double herringbone pattern;

I’d love to get this in Clay Brick form too, as it’s a very popular flooring pattern. Regular herringbone would be nice too.

[treyvoni]

I am excited for so much of this, but I’m torn between being most excited for the chisels and the wood block progressions. I love working with wood in my builds so it was sort of sad that timber was the highest, so I’m super looking forward to seeing the refined and decorative block versions. Would there also be something like the brick progression?

@james

Questions:

Should Character names be unique? Or can many players create characters with the same name?

When you see a Character in the game, should we also display the user name?

Should we show Character names in the forum?

When a player deletes a Character what do you expect should happen to their beacons in the game?

Account names should be unique, and maybe character names don’t have to be. Then when you friend a character you can also see the account name? Or perhaps displayed below the name if you toggled them or turned that on in options. Showing character names in the forums depends on how many characters you will allow, but they can also just appear on the profile page, with their main being able to be selected to appear next to the account name like the badges are? As for the deleting a character, it depends…I’m assuming that you will not allow people to put more than 1 of their characters per beacon (to prevent people from being a village of one [that is, so they don’t have a crafting character, an exploring character, a mining character and a market character all on the same beacon…where’s the MMO in that?]) but since you can still have another person’s character on a beacon perhaps it should devolve to the villagers, if any, when the character is deleted. Otherwise it goes wild.

@james

It’ll simplify crafting because the list of recipes will no longer contain 4x the block variations: walls, slab and steps. So crafting will be simpler. Building will be easier because you’ll no longer need to worry about relative placement position to get the desired orientation. Instead you’ll simply chisel the 2 corners you want to remove to make some steps. You’ll be able to make all the currently missing step orientations, and a huge plethora of new shapes. We’re planning to limit this level of sculpting to beacons so that builds will feel extra special compared to the natural world. (These shapes will not be created by the World Builder.) If you mine a previously chiseled block you’ll always get the original whole block back.

Counter-question, does this mean that we will no longer receive walls and slabs from trees? If they are no longer in the natural world, does this mean the tree shapes will become blockier? While harvesting raw slabs and walls from trees was sort of useless, it did add wonderfully natural looking trees that I have always appreciated.

I will return to answer the chisel questions later.

[OctavioNG]

Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)?

Or should we add a single Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time), and allow players to learn a “Precision Chiseling Skill”. Which would upgrade their basic chiseling skill to be equivalent to the precision Square Chisel. This would make Building more skill based.

Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?

Havent really thought a lot about this but I would prefer this to be a skill for the builders tree and since the advanced chisels (if it ends up being a builders skill) would be only for builder experts it could be “Builders Chisel” or “Builders Hammer”? haha not the most creative name I know but its the 1st thing I can think off xD. I’ll come back if I can think of something more profound

[NL-Tim]

@james

Questions:

1. Should Character names be unique? Or can many players create characters with the same name?

2. When you see a Character in the game, should we also display the user name?

3. Should we show Character names in the forum?

4. When a player deletes a Character what do you expect should happen to their beacons in the game?

1. Should Character names be unique? Or can many players create characters with the same name?
   Character names should be unique. It would be very hard to distinguish between you being ‘James’ and me being ‘James’ as well. Displaying the username in combination with the character name could be a workaround, but I’m not a fan of that (see 2.)

2. When you see a Character in the game, should we also display the user name?
   I suspect to see the Character name only. Displaying the health bar, the character name and the username (and maybe even the guild name in the furute) would take a lot of screen space. Especially when there are multiple players around.

3. Should we show Character names in the forum?
   Could have, and even then there are multiple ways to implement this:
   Option A - Fully integrated with the game system, so that it is always up-to-date. A possible con is that test characters would show up as well.
   Option B - Give users a profile field where they can manually enter their character names.
   Option C - No integration at all.
   I think option B is good enough for now.

4. When a player deletes a Character what do you expect should happen to their beacons in the game?
   If there is no option to revert the deleation I see a few ways to handle that situation:
   Option A - Do nothing, the beacon keeps running on the fuel in there and players on that beacon can refuel.
   Option B - Same as option A, but players can not add fuel so the beacon will expire after some time.
   Option C - Beacon gets transferred to the highest prestige builder in the beacon. There will be an issue with claim blocks I guess.
   Option D - Instant delete the plots and beacon, everything in there will be at risk being regenerated or claimed by other players.
   Option D seems a no-go for me. I think option A or B is the best option without that much coding impact. Option C will get quite complex quickly.

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Other suggestions about multiple characters:

• Character name uniqueness
  If a character name is unique (I think it should) what would happen with the character name after it is deleted? Would the beacons still that name, and what is a new user create a character with the same name then?
• 2 factor verification for character deletion
  Require 2 factor verification for character deletion since impact is high? For example in-game deletion marks the character for delation, should be confirmed by a confirmation link sent to the e-mailaddress of the player account. If not confirmed withing 24 hours, the character is no longer flagged for deletion. After confirmation the character is marked as deleted, but actually still exists so that dev’s can restore characters that are accidentilly deleted. After x period (30 days?) the character is truely deleted. In which stage the character name becomes available is a thing up to the devs, easiest option would be after that the character account is really deleted from the system.
• Character count limit
  Prevent accounts to create infinite characters, as this allows abuse of multiple character spamming around in world or constantly switch between a large amount of characters. I think 8 would be a good functional limit. This could also be an option to differentiate with, for example standard allow one package. More expensive option allows 4, most expensive option allows 8 characters. See it as the options/tiers available in the current pre-release.
• Beacon character limit
  Beacons now have a limit on how many characters could do something with your beacon. Some people are hitting that limit now already. Maybe that limit should be set high or removed at all. When you have 4 characters and would like to access your own plots, that would already take 4 of the available slots.
• Character deletion/creation limit
  Prevent users from creating and deleting accounts quickly. Since this would allow users to use a not so fancy name, harass a player, quickly delete the character and pick another name [insert loop].
• Players bans
  Bans should occure on account level, not on character level. Just to make sure.

@james

Question:

1. Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)?

2. Or should we add a single Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time), and allow players to learn a “Precision Chiseling Skill”. Which would upgrade their basic chiseling skill to be equivalent to the precision Square Chisel. This would make Building more skill based.

3. Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?

1. Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)?
   Well this all seems to get quite complex quickly. The 1 versus 2 corners at a time is quite hard to explain to players. There would also be to many kind of chisels (slope single, slope two, square single, square two, bevel single, bevel two).

2. Or should we add a single Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time), and allow players to learn a “Precision Chiseling Skill”. Which would upgrade their basic chiseling skill to be equivalent to the precision Square Chisel. This would make Building more skill based.
   Or… the other way around and let the first chisel skill be that you have to chisel each corner manually and a more advanced ‘speed chiseler’ skill allow to option to do two corners at once. I think a single skill would be enough though, since you already need a skill to create a chisel in the first place.

3. Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?
   Not really, but the options @Pseudonym84 suggests are good as well (corner, edge, angle chisel). I have a different chisel mechanism in mind, see below.

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Other suggestions about chisels:

• Alternative chisel feature: Preview the chisel shape before applying them. Think about putting your chisel in a specific mode before chiseling. Pick you chisel, use your scroll wheel (or a key) to change mode. The mode is displayed to the user, so that he/she can scroll to the options and rotations available. For example, you scroll through the list and pick stairs with the entrance facing towards you and sloping up away from you. The chisle is now in that mode, all the player has to do is click on the specified block to apply the configured chisel mode. (This could be on a single chisel, or three seperate chisels.)
• Question: what happens when you remove a chiseld block?
  Will you get the orginal block back, or will you receive the chiseled block. Since we will get a lot more block options I start to suspect the second.

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@Nibuls offers an option to visualize the chiseling operation:

I think it is a nice option, but it might get hard when using the chisel on a longer range (especially with range improvement skills applied). Maybe combine it with my suggestion above: preview the destination chisel shape when hovering your mouse cursor over the block to chisel.

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@james

We have further optimised the network traffic to reduce bandwidth, especially for some of the large data items such as beacons and achievements. The server optimisations continue to allow more users on the worlds.

We have been analysing the portal transitions to see causes of the portal lag and have fixed several causes of spikes that lower FPS. This is often done by amortising creation and destruction costs over multiple frames. For example, this has always been done for meshing chunks, but it’s now done for deleting the chunks as well.

Good to see these improvements being made, not every one has a blazing fast low latency network connection available. I think the game should be well playable with just a couple of megabits available like on some DSL networks (4 down / 0.5 up). This should also allow family to play together without needing insane amounts of bandwidth

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@james

Code - August 4th

The HUD work is focusing on the compass to show more useful information more often to users. The GUI completed the smart stack improvements, such as being able to hold a given item in a stack. We also have a local placement student (hi Maxime!) who has been reworking the debug ‘.’ text into a debug GUI window. This will make it easier to find information and tidy everything up.

It would be great the debug screen would be easier to read. It contains way to many text now. Maybe we could swap to different debug screens by pressing TAB or something. Then you can get a simple debug with coordinates and world coordinates on the first, meshing and rendering stuff on the second, network and I/O on the third, etc.

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@james

We also spent a little time exploring the status of the original minimap system and shared a few screen shots in the following linked post. We want to explore how a HUD minimap and GUI map might world alongside the compass. Just explorations at the moment.

I think the minimap is to better use than a very full compas. Maybe we can split what is rendered on where:
Compass: Players, Mobs
Minimap: City’s, plots, friendly players

There seems to be a fish-eye lens on that minimap, I prefer to have it flat (and maybe square but that is my personal opinion). I think there should be a zoom option or full screen option as well to see more details but not that much more in range.

[Heurazio]

@james: Maybe you can find the time to answer some questions (here). It would be nice to know what we can expect from B< except building.

[dwarvenname]

I’ll go ahead and answer all those questions to provide my opinion for the discussion.

Character Questions:
Q: Should Character names be unique? Or can many players create characters with the same name?

A: Having played Elder Scrolls Online, a game in which all character names are unique (and there are also many restrictions on character names, such as use of space, punctuation, explicit words, etc.), I would prefer that characters in Boundless can share names.

This would mean that any account can use a specific name for a character, and any other account could use that name as well.

This could obviously have problems with people mistaking someone for a different person, but I have a few solutions to this. The second solution is in the answer to the next question, but the first solution is that: the developers, and users belonging to a higher tier (wayfarer and up) should have exclusive rights to reserve appropriate character names, so that no other users can take that name.

Q: When you see a Character in the game, should we also display the user name?

A: Yes, this is my first solution to the unique names dilemma. Additionally, it would help differentiate users, display more essential information, and make it easier for users to identify friends and acquaintances.

Q: Should we show Character names in the forum?

A: Showing character names on the forum should be optional. If a user desires to display a specific character of theirs on the forum, they should be able to choose that character from their list of characters (much like the drop-down list for badges). This could be displayed either next to the user name/badge area, or somewhere on the user card when the username is clicked on.

Q: When a player deletes a Character what do you expect should happen to their beacons in the game?

A: (This is all assuming whomever the beacon is transferred to possesses enough plots) In the event that a character is deleted, the owner of that character should be given a few options as to where their beacons go.

First option, they should be able to transfer the beacons/plots to any of their other characters. Second option, they should be able to transfer the beacons/plots to anyone’s characters on their friends list. Third option, allowing the transfer of beacons/plots to anyone else who is a contributor/part of that beacon/plot. Last option, to abandon that beacon/plot entirely and let anyone claim it or let the world regenerate the area.

Chisel Questions:

Q: Should we add a basic Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time - so easy to make steps, walls and slabs) and a precision Square Chisel (which removed 1 corner at a time)? Or should we add a single Square Chisel (which removes 2 corns at a time), and allow players to learn a “Precision Chiseling Skill”. Which would upgrade their basic chiseling skill to be equivalent to the precision Square Chisel. This would make Building more skill based.

A: My personal solution to the chisel problem might seem a bit complicated at first, but it simplifies the excess of options required (more chisels, more skills, etc.).

What I propose is that there is a single chisel tool that anybody can craft at the earliest stage of tool crafting (Higher tiers blocks would require higher materials/tiers of chisels obviously).

When in the left hand, a left click on a block would remove a single space from the block, and holding down the left click on that space would restore it (This would have to be refined, however, to allow for the limited block shapes). When in the right hand, a right click on a block would remove that space and create a slope on that block, and holding down the right click would restore that slope to its previous state.

I’m not sure how this system could accommodate for the possibility of beveled blocks (personally, I don’t think the system is needed, as the building system presently in the game is at the perfect level of complexity to allow for amazing builds). My idea for the chisel system could be flawed, then, but I would love to hear what others think.

Q: Does anyone have a better names than Slope Chisel, Square Chisel and Bevel Chisel?

A: I think that those names are simple and effective to quickly understand their purpose, so no changes are needed, IMO, though @Pseudonym84 had some good suggestions. If need be, one could always right click the item in their inventory to receive a detailed description as to how the chisels are used.

P.S.
I added the pictures of the natural props, the lustrous refined floor, the bag of bombs, and the chisel system diagrams to the archive.

Thanks for reading through all this if you did!

[ben]

Congrats, Matt! You earned that

[lucadeltodecso]

When James said not generate, he meant as part of the terrain like slopes do. Prefabs, including trees continue ti have whatever shapes, just now when you breeak a part of a tree that is a ‘step’ you just get ‘wood’ instead of ‘wooden step’ in your inventory.