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

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!

Congrats, Matt! You earned that :slight_smile:

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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.

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Big important question. Will glass be able to be ramped? Or even just crafted into Ramps instead of chiselled. I just really really want glass Ramps

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It “has” been put on the list of craftable/slopeable blocks to add. But from a technical perspective, right now it would not work very well visually, as the glass has no “volume” to it other than edges of the texture, so if ramped/crafted into steps etc, most of it would just be entirely invisible without a lot of work done just for this one block…

My response to that is simply :\

I understand it’s a lot of work it’d just be so cool…:\

You do you y’all it’s a good game and it’s getting better with hiccups.

I don’t see the value of adding an additional square chisel for removing two corners at the same time.

Instead I propose the following: detect whether the cursor is closer to a corner, or closer to the center of the edge. If it is closer to a corner, just remove that corner. If it is closer to the center of an edge, remove both corners attached to that edge.

This is more intuitive, doesn’t require an additional item, and doesn’t (questionably) lock it behind skill progression.

A visual highlight that indicates what part is about to be removed would go long ways to make it even more intuitive.

Intuitive, maybe, but I’d imagine it could also be quite frustrating to use if I am having to precisely aim my chisel at extremely specific parts of the block to get the cut I want, especially if I’m hanging from a grapple while I chisel. It’s not too difficult to hit the quarter of the face I want to hit while swinging, but divide that block up further into even more subdivisions - each giving a different cut - and I’m intuitively cursing like a mad drunken sailor. At least with various chisel options, the most frustrating thing becomes switching chisel types mid build, and I honestly only see that becoming a problem in complex high detail situations like making statues or art. Jobs that, arguably, would most frequently be done by dedicated builders any way. Why not give this uniquely refined ability to at least moderately dedicated builders! They certainly could do with more attributes that set them apart from their crafting, mining, and/or combat kin.

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Yup. No way this is coming out this year

Thanks! That really helps clear it up for me. That also helps me understand the difference between pre-fabs and generation a lot more.

Better a long awaited finished product than a rushed out mess. I’ve lost count of the amount of games that have been released in unfinished states, and have failed precisely due to that reason.

In the meanwhile you’re free to play the beta Live or Testing branches, but I wouldn’t expect a release within the next 6 months.

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Cant argue with that. However The way you dolve tgat problem is not tell ppl a game is hitting in 2016 (and now 17) and miss the target twice. Take a queue from Bethesda and dont even anmouce a game til its like 3 months from release. Cant anticipate something you didnt know about 1+ years in advanced right?

As for playing the beta. Id love to, as soon as they put it on ps4 ill get right on that

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I feel like we’ve told you that the games release date got pushed back when the scope of the game was drastically expanded before, but you continue to choose to ignore this fact in favor of whining about the game not being released yet in spite of the fact that you agree that a game is better late and solid, than on time and unfinished. The mental disconnect is extremely puzzling to me.

The initial release prediction was exclusively for a pc release, not a simultaneous console release. You’re complaining about a broken promise that never existed.

A quick scan of your post history is basically this same complaint over and over again. Eventually you must start to ask yourself- why do you keep doing this? What do you think to accomplish? Because right now, it’s just annoying.

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Well let me help you solve the puzzle. Yes late and working is better than on time and unfinished. No objections there. The issue is then however is stop annoucing target timeframes youre not gonna hit. Wait til you KNOW its gonna hapoen before making an announcement and getting people hopes up. OR at the very least dont waot til uts painfully obvious by everyone that you wont make the date before telling us you wont. Let us know about the delay or vhange of plans the second you know its gonna happen. Great examples being Bloodstained and Shenmue 3 both annouced their target lauch delays more than 6 months before the original date so we never had to get the chance to wonder “is this game coming out when they said it would” as for the target timeframes only being announced as PC release and not console.

Ok so what will you say if I provide links to an article this very company posted on the PS Plog in 2015 near the Paris Convention that said this was coming to PC AND PS4 in 2016? Then what will you say when I post aryicles from gaming journalists site like IGN and Gamespot that say its coming to PS4 in 2017?

Even if the ones by journalists hold no credibility, the one posted on th ps blog by this very company in 2015 is 100% credible as it came straight from the horses mouth.

They postponed the release date.

I believe you haven’t answered his question. I’m not trying to be snarky, I’m wondering this myself. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you simply want to vent your frustration concerning the altered release window, due to a far more ambitious final product?

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He knows this, but chooses instead to make the same tired complaint. I’ll just flag these posts as off-topic and cease to reply to them in the future.

about the name question
i like my name name i dont want other moebiusses around
and ban names like moebius1235 let them choose family names
or
3 name combo
moebius herculius the heroic ( example lol )
moebius adacemos the inteligent
moebius fastious the swift

What do I hope to acomplish. Well the concept of Minecraft interest me but I have zero desire to play that game due to its ugly art style and lack of direcrion. Whereas Boundless seems to add things to the minecraft formula that makes me want to play it (its a living persistent open world with other players running around outside of those you in ite and it has direction.) Its basically Minecraft the MMO. Thus Im dying to play the game, bit at this rate Im quite convinced that dying me literalky come before playing. So yes I am here to vent my frustration as you said

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About Characters

  1. I think should display after adding as friend or after some type of “meeting”.

  2. Sure! But please be optional, otherwise UI information will be crazy.

  3. To be deleted (just plots, not the blocks on it). Or passed to someone on the beacon permisson list.


About Chiseling

  1. and 2. Solid one corner remove for intuitivity sake.

I think @Nibuls idea would be excelent (tho might be dificult for long distances):

@james I’d like to know if you guys plan to add more of the Teal Chiseling options (since there’s not all combinations on the image you showed), and if there will be mesh variations of some with same “corner configuration” like: