What do YOU think Boundless needs to regain more players?

like fidach said, crafting times.

I am not very far into the game, and I have not crafted to many things. But right now I am trying to build with the limited time I have. I ran out of refined gleam… now its going to take 25min per mass craft stack. Which means I have 25 minutes before I can work on my build. And then in 50 blocks that runs out. So yeah lower crafting times would be nice, not removed but much lower.

Also resource gathering is slow. If you don’t have access to much funds, and don’t have access to buy or make the better aoe tools… yeah you are spending hours just trying to get some things to make stuff with tools that only mine one block at a time, plus they break left and right.

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I know this is probably the least helpful thing to suggest in a game based mostly on player creativity, but there needs to be more of an end game. We need goals and rewards set by the devs to give us something to work to.

Once you get your workshop powered up, and some decent tools going, the only progression to to build. That’s good for a while, but if you hit a creativity block and can’t decide what to build, there’s nothing else to do.

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Trove style exploration and building.

Have planets for building be separate from planets for exploring. Every week have a new set of planets to explore and harvest appear. Gives atlas makers a purpose too.

More forms of wildlife.

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A. I think Boundless is an :heart: amazing :heart: game
B. I’ll try to be constructive & post some observations:

  1. No one wants to worry about losing their build or getting griefed - those mechanics just aren’t fun for most players. :woman_shrugging:t4:
  2. All of the planets are kinda the same. If I go to a T3, the trees/creatures/plants are the same as the ones I see on a T7 (just a diff color). It would be cool to come across a weird planet that is nothing but columns of violet timber with sponge caves of luminous yellow spinbacks. Or a planet that has nothing but hoppers floating in water with black ice mountains in the sea. What about planet buffs/debuffs? ie: an EXO that gives everyone 2xdouble jump while on it.
  3. We need cosmetics and more races.
  4. A demo/tutorial region or planet is badly needed.
  5. More use of social media & tags are necessary (think meta description tags in website code or a robot.txt file). Making a tweet with no hash tags, will only be seen by your current followers, and no one else. Dev stream once every 1-3 months would be awesome…even if it just shows you guys at your computers, eating doritos and you say “things are going well, have a great weekend” :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:
  6. Possibly rethink the deployment of permanent planets…seeing that most players pile up to build on T1-T3s and leave the rest of the planets almost vacant, is telling. Maybe everything above a T2 or T3 should just be for exploring & hunting. Maybe the new planet spawn formula should be changed to include % of plots on a planet, and not just # of players accessing it. Maybe a planet should start “dying” if the activity on it drops below a certain level.
  7. Should people be able to plot resources and control/prevent other players from freely harvesting them? Isn’t this only fun/satisfying for the person that plots the resources? The results of this action: 1 person = happy, 50 people = unhappy/frustrated.
  8. Add fun surprises/treasures: While mining, you should have X chance to get a special drop or find a treasure box. While hunting, you should have X chance to get a special drop. Double XP/coin/drops weekends. More events.
  9. Transportation. Fishing. Boats. Flying. Mounts. Pets. Dungeons.

:heart:

36 Likes

In my honest opinion the game needs some structured activities for us to do. Let us find secret portal entrances to a randomized temporary dungeon like an Exoplanet, only smaller scale.

Give us more building props like the chairs and tables we have, like trophies from those dungeons. Maybe some rare forge materials. Different weapon types would be great.

And the skill system - it’s a bit confusing for a new player. I feel like it should be streamlined, layed out in a more tree-like pattern or more clear path. It’s a mess of a grid right now.

None of this is coming from a bad place. I still play Boundless and enjoy the game, got my moneys worth and more. Will be here until they close the game down.

8 Likes

Forums and Combat:

Daily/weekly activities:

Crafting:

I also feel the crafting needs to move away from “mobile game” style craft times. Between crafting and repairing your machines it can take a casual player days to just craft the blocks once they have the materials. This game is probably the least casual friendly builder on the market as of right now, and I think thats going to seriously hurt its growth. Why would a person with an hour a night even try? They can’t amass coins and they can’t even process rocks into decorative blocks just based on the crafting time in a single session. It’s going to take them multiple days of crafting timers just to get started.

11 Likes

I do agree $40 is a bit out dated. I think $30 is more reasonable. Also more event weekends. Extra XP weekend. Extra Oort weekend. Ect

Look at Astroneer coming to PS4 the 15th. Releasing at $30 even tho it has great reviews. It could clearly charge more but isnt.

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I’d argue 25 dollars is a more appropriate cost.

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If block breaking HP on claimed plots was lowered to match T1/2, and mob spawning was easier to block I think people would flock to higher tier planets. A system like No Man’s Sky where being indoors blocks environmental effects would also be really neat, and allow for lower skill players and alts to still come vist.

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boundless is very unfriendly for new players. I contributed a lot to Boundless. I introduced this game to about 10 of my friends and persuaded them to buy it. Now, almost all of them quit. This is a serious problem.

  1. very very bad attributes at the beginning. Slow walking. Slowing placing. Slow action

  2. useless guidance
    The guidance is too short. My friend told me he did not know what to do at the beginning. I think at least the guidance should teach new players to make metal tools and get tech skills, etc.

  3. too much experience required to level up
    Think about how slow the action speed and how low the damage of the new players are. Getting one base mental ore is only about 16 exp (I do not remember the exact number) . They need hours to level up even at very early time.

  4. Monotonous early life
    It is boring staying underground. Because hunting and collecting plants do not give you lots of exp. The only way to level up is mining, which means you have to stay underground. Exploring is dreaming at early time. Huge lake, river and lava are between mountains on advanced planets. basic grapples are short. We need tools to solidify liquid for new players!

  5. slow crafting time ( not only for new players )
    unreasonable crafting time and waste players’ time

  6. crops are useful? NO!
    For new players, if they only want some food, they can directly collect earthyams. They do not need to grow crops. New players do not have extra skill points for sowing skills, do not have advanced seeds and do not have extra time to wait for maturity. Growing these basic crops either do not give them much exp and waste lots of time (slow placing block speed and long maturity time). Several hours waiting only gives you a little low level food. 20-mins maturity is reasonable.
    The purpose of agriculture should be to save your time, not waste your time. The only thing new players can get benefit from agriculture like I mentioned is food, the crops gotten in this game at early time do not make new players progress at all. If the basic crops can be ingredients to craft something that is hard for new players to get at early time, then it will be much better. Or if people can get inky leaf, fiber leaf from basic crops, etc, new players will be willing to spend time on agriculture.
    another thing confused me is that why water is so hard to get. Forge is too far for new players, even for me. I am now level 50 and still do not start to forge tools. If you tell new players that you only can get water after at least level 30, they will be crazy.

  7. no iron
    You know what I mean. My planet is stories II. The iron is 2.2%. That is unreasonable.

  8. language and servers
    Japanese, Chinese language translation and servers will get you thousands of players. It is very easy to do.

13 Likes

I agree here maybe have a skill that can cut craft times in half or something

1 Like

Oh another thing. Advertisement. I know its costly, but I have never stumbled across any. Hit up PS4 Featured page. Get on the front page of MMOhuts.com . Little stuff like that could go a long way.

I actually do miss waiting for an hour to get in a portal because the planet was full. It made travel much more rewarding.

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That’s where you’re wrong my friend, plenty of circles to be ran. :joy: that’s how i get past my creativity block at least

The game is great as is, people come and go as with any MMO, but in regards to OP to regaining players

  1. A skill and combat overhaul/improvement
  2. Player made dungeon tools and a way to reward dungeon completion
  3. A longtime thing to chip away at besides a build (think artifact weapons you grind for and cant buy)
  4. Cosmetics/new races
6 Likes

I’ve spent so much time hopping around machines in my workshop while thinking, I should probably build an obstacle course.

I think #3 in your suggestions would be a huge benefit, and has the potential to serve as a good coin/material sink that could be adjusted to deal with issues in the economy.

1 Like

As you level up you build with plots you gain, I have moved countless times, he to rebuild after tearing down for days. Another player suggested a way we can store items from our build and have a deconstruct setting for beacon where we want to delete the beacon, all our items in the build goes to a storage. Please… we so need this.

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Like any good story, a good beginning middle part and an end. They have a solid mid part just need to add an start and finish :smiley:
But I can wait… I’ll sip mAh coffee and sit here while content rolls in.

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Alder and others planets usually have on average 21 players. I’m happy where it is at right now and I believe the developers are as well. It will come. They are working out the bugs.

The grind is real!!!

I like grinding in games but can understand how it frustrates some folks

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Lots of things that I’ll put in the Xmas wishlist thread but mostly:

  1. standard $19.99 price. Game is a year old. They could put in a paywall that it’s another 19.99 to unlock alts and skill pages.
  2. if your beacon expires, your storage gets saved. Not your build or your deployed blocks, but any coin in beacons and stands, items on shop stands and items in storage blocks/chests/barrels should get saved
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More for hunters/fighters. I honestly play this game to hunt. It is feeling quite dated lately. Ground or Platform hunting, it’s all ends in the same Meteors, the same mobs and the same drops. Oh and them seeds…those damn seeds!

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