Well, this is what was ‘sold’ to backers, essentially :
I was personally sold on the game when I saw this trailer which shows the prototype of a Titan at the end :
And this trailer which shows the Ground Basher and the Hunter :
Though, at the time, I didn’t know I had been teased with trailers showing features that would still not be there 3 years later. These last two trailers are still on the Youtube channel of Playstation, BTW.
I’ll say it : to me, that is borderline scummy.
Fact is that we’re close to 7 years after the crowd funding of Oort Online started, and we still don’t have the big ‘Protectors’ or Titans, and we’re still running around in dirty diapers, while meteor hunting is still the only endgame activity… and I’m still grasping at straws hoping to have MAYBE a few more blocks or props by the end of 2021.
I would be very surprised if those two videos aren’t enough evidence to win a class action lawsuit against Sony. But ■■■■ runs downhill and Wonderstruck is under Sony. Not saying that I want that nor should anyone else, but I feel like Sony would offer full refunds for the game if anyone pushed them on it (and they’d also take down the videos immediately).
Edit: And to me, its straight up false advertisement from PS Europe. That 2nd one is listed as “Gameplay Trailer” from 5 years ago showing content that isn’t even rumored to have a release date yet.
(a) ‘advertising’ means the making of a representation in any form in connection with a trade, business, craft or profession in order to promote the supply of goods or services, including immovable property, rights and obligations;
(b) ‘misleading advertising’ means any advertising which in any way, including its presentation, deceives or is likely to deceive the persons to whom it is addressed or whom it reaches and which, by reason of its deceptive nature, is likely to affect their economic behaviour or which, for those reasons, injures or is likely to injure a competitor;
Whoah, mesmerizing videos! What happened to this game? It feels like we’re playing a simplified version of what we see there.
Just WOW!
Is it technically not possible to achieve?
PS. Somebody should save these videos otherwise they may disappear
PPS I want this:
You’re right, they should have had an “alpha gameplay, subject to change” disclaimer on those videos, and they may be subject to false advertisement laws because of it.
I feel like we have 95% of what is in those videos. Aside from 3 mobs, the titan, and a change to light rendering, what is missing?
The Hunter has been teased for YEARS.
Its animations have been showcased as (at least) mostly done in late 2016!
The 5 things you’ve mentioned equate to 5% in your book? I mean, the light rendering itself changes entirely the look of the game. And the Titan feature is supposed to be a huge part of end-game activity, it’s at least bigger than meteor hunting as a feature… that alone is like 10% of the game on itself AT LEAST (IMHO).
From the 2016 “Gameplay Trailer”
Ground Basher
Hunter
From the 2015 “Trailer”
Titan concept / moving blocks
From the Ort Online, too much to list DISCLAIMER - The dream of Ort Online is not a fair comparison to anything that was promised in an official trailer.
0:10 - Birds
0:26 - Dogs
0:40 - "HUGE numbers of different worlds… vicious and varied creatures…
1:40 - “after you’ve settled on your world you’ll be able to start digging for oort stones” (implies quick and easy access to portal fuel!)
I personally don’t blame Wonderstruck for things they promised back in 2014 that they haven’t done or decided to never do. Stuff like pets. The artstyle has also drastically changed since then. Though I’m not sure I prefer the current style over the artworks shown in the 2014 trailer…
But I definitely blame them for things they keep saying will happen, like Titans, alternate races, clothing, etc.
For me personally, I don’t understand why things that were previously in the game were removed, and why they cant simply be added back. The old armour and creatures looked like they were basically completed.
Moreso on topic, all I would like is an explanation on if Wonderstruck plan to continue development on Boundless after Baulders Gate 3, because as it stands it isn’t looking promising.
Ah, I have a sick child on my lap and had the audio off, so I missed that stuff.
I mean, yeah, based only on that trailer and the expectations I get from it, that’s the number I settled on. From my perspective, it looks like it’s missing a couple mobs and this abstract boss level thing that looks cool but clearly isn’t done. I don’t think there is anything wrong with you saying that’s 10%-20, though - that’s still fair. I am always skeptical of trailers and set my expectations low.
For some context, I remember being sold on this game when these trailers came out. I then went to look up the game, discovered it was an early access thing, looked at videos of what the game actually was at that time, and decided not to buy in until it was more done. I’m not a normal consumer, though, so buying based on the trailer alone isn’t something I dare to judge anyone for.
You mean this broken page they should update and/or just take down unless they are ready to release a real roadmap or add some more serious disclaimers? Boundless Features Page
This, please. While I’m less worried about it generally, the status and functional plan of how things will move forward with the new company structures (whatever happened) is something I’d really like to know.
NMS is a pretty fair comparison here. Both appeared to get rushed out under pressure from Sony. Both have brilliant teams behind them, just not with the initial workforce to fill the vision. There was ONE difference - the hype.
Yeah, Hello Games went through heck because of it, BUT would the game have floundered if they hadn’t gotten enough of us in the door early on to keep going with the development? Similar situation with the fanbase there, just their overall numbers were larger at the outset. They experienced a pretty huge drop before starting to crank out the updates, a lot of us thought they’d given up. Heh, as much as I love the game, I STILL always laugh a little when I see this-
It has come so far since then though.
Which leads me to…
Totally agreed, this is my worry too, but there are two potentially positive reasons.
One is, several people here have said Sean Murray and James are friends. Maybe Sean convinced him to go the “put your head down, go to work, stop talking to them outside of the essentials and let them say whatever” route.
Other is, if they’re selling the game to another team - potentially very positive if it is a group with deep pockets that sees the potential of serious investment to fill all the original goals. Could go the other way though, just depends who gets it. But it would make sense not to talk about anything regarding the future outside of getting out the current update and technical fixes if so… anything past that wouldn’t be them, in that scenario.
Truth is, in those trailers, you see the Ground Basher… bashing the ground… and you see the Hunter walking…
That wasn’t a proof that anything worked.
Though the Titan with all the moving parts, that’s something else. But maybe at that time, it was just an illusion, like it wasn’t actually made of moving blocks, but instead made of big chunks of meshes made to look like clumps of moving blocks.
As for the armors, I’ve never seen any in-game looks. I’ve only ever seen concept arts.
The old character models had belts, and I think they removed it because the new models are maybe more modulable.
I mean, the official website of the game still has outdated screenshots of the old player-models…
To me, that’s a TERRIBLE way to act as a developper.
I get there’s a level of toxicity in EVERY playerbase. There will always be.
But if negativity makes you shut down every form of communication, you got a biiiig problem.
I’d like to see a company as large as Sony get hit with a massive class action lawsuit involving all of the games they misrepresent in trailers, but on the other hand I know their high paid lawyer teams would just pass the buck down to the smaller game developers in the end.
Ah, right. Basically, they need some specialized people, like a community manager. Not sure if that job encompasses the updates to website stuff, or if they’d also need a web-designer…
But they definitely need a presence on Youtube and Twitch, and they need to resume their presence on Twitter too. Plus, someone other than James should reply to questions on the forum. James has too many roles. He had to be the one who made the ownership transfer of my build, and that felt bad.
To be clear, it wasn’t “the titan”. Titans were billed as end-game, replayable content well beyond meteor hunting (which wasn’t even a thing in EA as far as I remember). Titans were what a lot of us were waiting on for this MMO - something truly “end game” that gave us replayability beyond just gathering and building for no real purpose other than casual enjoyment.
The mobs were in the “gameplay trailer”. Everything else featured in that video accurately depicted how it was in game. The basher does not move or target the player. It is stationary with attack animations. It is hard to tell if the hunter is path finding towards the player or it is moving forward in a straight line with a walking animation. So all we know is IF it was game footage, it might just be models and partial animation sets without AI / pathfinding.
The “trailer” featuring the moving structure could have been purely rendered/cinematic - it doesn’t claim to be gameplay. Rotating one 3D model around another is fairly basic.
Since we’re in the topic we’re in, I think I’ll be frank about my opinion on this…
They probably can’t afford that. Imagine them taking an entire developer off the team to get a dedicated social media person. A team that the most optimistic estimates put at like 5 people.
Then, we’re talking about selling more of Boundless, a game where we have a 117 post conversion about how it’s not done. A game where I’m pretty sure there is a high early- and mid-game bounce rate because of poor NPE and poor mid-game progression balancing. (I’m looking at you, centraforge)
They need that PR person if they want to sell more copies and keep the community sated, but is that more valuable than maintaining what little velocity there is in development of the exact things being discussed in this thread?
