I’m sure all those Malls in the USA, Radio Shack, Best Buy, Sporting Good Stores, and Mom and Pop shops are doing just fine right now because Amazon’s lower prices, larger inventory, and easily accessibility definitely didn’t take much market share away from them…
And conversely games that stagnate in development and never launch also have issues.
I think this game is in a good place. I believe the launch will be successful with everything I have seen/experienced.
I thank you for your passion on this issue though. It certainly has started a dialogue, even if it doesn’t result in direct change.
And my point, because you are saying that speeding up crafts will apparently break the balance of things, there are so many players doing so many things. This hypothetical whale won’t have much more of an advantage being able to craft something that the community really needs at one moment in time. You know why? Because there are plenty of other players who probably already have that thing crafted too willing to sell it. You’re assuming supply in the entire playerbase is low. I’m assuming supply is high for most items because I have had experience trading in this game for the past 8 months.
Why is a whale selling high demand goods for half the price anyway now that I think about it?.. did this whale get the items necessary to craft this stuff from… dare I say it… active time on the game?
They’re not doing as well as they were before amazon, you’re wrong.
Yes, I agree. I don’t think stagnating in development is right either.
I just think a dialogue is needed around what Cash Shop items get introduced, and how they are introduced. Right now it’s insulting personally to spend 40$ on a game and within minutes of starting it, be shown a Cash Shop and told, “Hey, you can spend real money here and make larger bases if you want!”
Like, I just spent 40$, and you already want MORE?!
If this game were Free to Play, introducing the Cash Shop that way makes far more sense, but the way it’s done now is a slap in the face I think, and though some people might not feel that way, there are plenty who are going to, and that may result in Steam Hate, which tanks games pretty hard.
So are you saying you don’t want one entity to be more successful in this game than others? Everyone should receive the same market share?
In case you’re serious, i was being sarcastic earlier.
You said inventory expanders and reduced crafting time wouldn’t harm other businesses.
That’s literally what Amazon did, they destroyed the competition in the USA and bankrupted a lot of businesses precisely because they had a larger inventory, and made it not only more accessible and easier to get for a lot of people, their prices were lower too.
Amazon is like the ultimate F2P Cash Shop Whale. They just swooped in and destroyed the entire country’s brick and mortar store system because they leveraged existing laws to produce and sell products at below market value.
In a game that is as close to not P2W as possible, where all Cash Shop items are cosmetic or non-functional, the market leaders should be those who achieved their status not by spending money, but by skill, right?
The one thing the whale CANNOT keep up with: supply. He can craft all day long, at super speed, but how is he going to supply all of this at a competitive rate?
His request baskets? Not likely! If he’s selling at an absurdly low rate, he won’t be able to buy at a good rate either. And you have to factor in some coin loss from taxes in all this too.
If he has to mine it all - then your crafting speed boosts aren’t helping you too much, because 10x more time will be spent gathering it than processing it
There is no way to use cubits to obtain more supply in game, and that is why it isn’t pay-2-win
I guess somehow I replied to Sly on this - I’m sure I kinda meant it to go to Miner, but I’m sure sly’s not going to mind 
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harming business and putting out of business are different to my understanding. Making a little less money in-game and having to wait a bit longer for income is different than not being able to feed your family and losing the roof over your head.
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So I can’t be Amazon without paying is what you’re saying? You think that the items that I craft for next weeks demand won’t counter this person potential Pay 2 Winner?
So, in short, you don’t believe two people of identical skill, one with 10,000$ to spend on the Cash Shop and Oortian Status, and one who only bought the base game for 40$, has an advantage in ANY way over the other?
I don’t know if you just explain wrong (no offence) or if you do not fully understand (again no offence)
But how many people need to say that everything in game can be doe 100% by earning Cubits which you get in-game the shoop is just to make it faster!..
I am level 13/14 on a new character and already have around 450 cubits (which i did not spend money on because its not implemented yet… and @james has said its optional only to spend cash… please not this argument again!!!
although i heavily agree… there HAS to be better explained that it IS done in game ((mainly)) and that the shop is ONLY secondary
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I got a little late to this discussion. lol
This isn’t a hidden cost at all. I’ve never gone to a restaurant without the expectation to be charged for extra servings of alcohol. In fact, it’s mentioned on a lot of menus I’ve seen that it’s a charge per drink. Fountain style drinks are different. I’ve never gone to a restaurant and been charged extra cause I wanted a refill on my soft drink. lol wtf
This isn’t how portals work in the game. You don’t charge people Coin for going through them. They’re actually, most of the time if not all the time, a huge sunk cost to the person managing the portal since they aren’t a profit generating source of coin income. The footfall traffic doesn’t pay for that much fuel time.
Creating portals doesn’t work like that. They’re made by crafting a block called Portal Conduit. Then you have to have two locations setup to link them to one another. They don’t just instantly spawn into existence out of thin air.
This isn’t accurate at all. Customers go to a business to spend their money cause that business brings value to the customer. I doubt you’re going to go to a mom 'n pop grocery store to buy your milk at $5.00 a gallon instead of going to Wal-Mart for the same product that’s $2.00 cheaper even though it’s 10 miles further away. You will drive that extra distance since the 20 miles in gas money you used negates the cost since you’re able to pick up other items at Wal-Mart cheaper than other locations.
This is how it’s going to be in Boundless. Someone can have their Metemorphic Brick blocks at 35c and be further away than everyone else’s shop but someone else could have their price for the same item be 45c and be located closer. It doesn’t mean that the customer is going to not travel to the further location to save out on 10c per unit of Metamorphic Brick.
Personally, I’ll travel through 100 portals if that means I can get to a shop that’s 50 worlds away from mine just so I can get a material that’s significantly cheaper than something closer to me. It would be worth it if the math works out in my favor. This is akin to some space MMOs where running freight between NPC locations to buy and sell items is a thing. I can see the same thing once shops have fully setup their request baskets.
No where has there been any confirmation of any of this. You’re bringing up stuff that don’t exist and are non-issues even if they were going to be in the cash shop.
No, it isn’t sustainable. If you aren’t watching how much coin you’re using in request baskets you could be over buying on items that you use to craft into stuff that you can’t flip inventory of fast enough. Even at a cheaper price, things don’t sell instantly. There’s a lot more that goes into running a successful shop in Boundless than just having a good price. Also, if you’re selling stuff to low in price, you’ll never be able to sustain inventory to continue stocking your shop stands of those discounted items. There for, it isn’t sustainable unless you raise your price point to discourage people from buying you out constantly at your dirt cheap price. So when that happens, you’re faced with a situation where your shop goes with lots of inactive purchases, gains a reputation of not being reliable, and there for when shop stands are restocked, people might not bother to even check you out since you have a very unreliable shop.
We don’t have inventory upgrades or craft time reductions in the cash shop. They aren’t a thing. In fact, the devs actually got rid of inventory skill trees and give them to every player by default. Something a lot of people probably wanted so it was an easy thing to give. We already have Power Coils and Advanced Power Coils with Power being a stat on Machines. The more Power they have, the less crafting time. You can’t throw real money at the game to get Power Coils faster. That isn’t a thing!!!
Just cause someone threw down 5 grand for Oortian backer package doesn’t mean they some how have some innate massive advantage over someone who just spent only $40. Both players have to put time into the game to get stuff done. How much real money you spend on Boundless doesn’t change that and never will.
You’re lacking a fundamental understanding of how this game is played. It’s hard to have a conversation or discussion with someone who doesn’t even play the game.
No. This isn’t how the game is played. I could throw all the money in the world at this game and still be on the same playing field as everyone else who got it for $40.
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With the current things you can buy in the cash shop: No, I do not think so at all. None of the things in the cash shop could assist me making money in the game currently
Not if they can just keep throwing money at the game.
Like we’ve established, two people of equal skill, the person who wins is the one who has more bonuses. You won’t be able to win.
That’s P2W. You can find all the what-if scenarios you want, but these bonuses offer a competitive advantage, and that’s unfair.
Whether or not it translates into negative reviews is another discussion.
I think advantages are not a problem in and of themselves. I think the effects on the disadvantaged players matters more. If you set your expectation that people will buy tons of anything available, then you won’t be disappointed when they do, and you can be happy improving yourself relatively.
Not if you can project demand which is a basic skill that most business owners practice… in the end this guy who payed 10k IRL will have made how much more profit? This guy also has to be on ALL the time if he wants to fill everyone’s orders. You aren’t thinking about overhead and I could rant about that for hours on end. Goodness, I don’t know what else to say my man.
I’m out
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This time, I got for dinner, and 1 hr with 58 posts >.<
I can’t keep up with the llama drama of the Exchange.
In my example, the two people have identical skill. So, this argument doesn’t hold.