Yes that has been bounced around but then requires other services around email management, making sure you whitelist their IP so they don’t get listed as spam. People miss emails, etc… It starts to become a conversation on all the things the Devs must put in place to help people handle their beacons when the game is pretty clear on what happens. Also at some level shouldn’t people be responsible for their beacons not the game builders since they do offer guilds and ways to keep it fueled.
But that part of this topic has been debated a huge number of times in various ways…
I completely agree that it sucks to lose stuff. I myself might not be happy to lose what I had, but then I look at the beauty of starting over and of course many times mention how a wipe would be good for the game…
Either way while maybe there are not many that impact players like this method, I believe that many would argue that any game that required you to start over after you died is close enough to the same thing. You lose and have to start again.
Obviously we could argue each side but I don’t see that helps the problem at all. I think Boundless needs to be very clear in the game about what happens when you let your stuff expire and what you do keep versus lose. I think they need to look at smaller long term storage versus all items…
TBH I agree with several posters above, that the beacon system is maybe reason #10 as to why people stop playing. I’d say start with things like adding endgame content first.
Rust and Ark for instance, many other Minecraft servers. Older MMOs that have server merges or server wipes. I can’t remember, but I remember getting a email about another game letting me know if I didn’t do something I’d lose my stuff.
But if a lot of the reason people stop is simply they have other games to play, and they come back and their stuff is gone, it goes from 10 to #1-3 I think.
I think I reached a point in the game where I was primarily searching for a nice place to build something new, maybe a store. I cannot even fathom going through all the gathering and crafting again to get to where I was. That grind was fun once, but I’m not interested in starting from scratch in creating building materials. I might still pop in every now and then and see what settlements are still around and how cities may change, but I just have no interest in mining or gathering on a large scale again.
I think it is s big issue.
I know people who won’t even try boundless, even if given a free key, because they will lose all of their stuff if they forget to refuel which is very easy if something in life comes up and they don’t play for a couple weeks.
I can understand people quitting and writing a negative review after it happens to them.
If the developers think this is a minimal issue, then that is a bigger problem.
Maybe we should address the reason why people leave in droves before we decide what to do with their stuff.Certainly there are probably 1% that have an emergency or a real life situation BUT the 800lb gorilla in the room is the ones that just leave after a couple months. IMO Beacons arent the problem its the Customer retention rate.
I think a couple months is an average for most games, but then it becomes a question of do they return. I’ve been in and out of the same MMO’s for years, the 800lb gorilla with Boundless is there’s no good reason to return, only a bad one.
A couple months really? Id like some stats for that. If a MMO only grabs my attn for 2 months I wont be back anyway stuff or no stuff. To many other MMOs out there.
Just one point: I work for an ISP servicing multiple ISPs. This includes things like web-hosting. “Storage is cheap.” Trying to say that storing the data on builds, especially if broken down into their components and not design, is costly is just not true. Nor is it particularly time consuming. The data file exists. Just archive it for retrieval. Delete it after a year or 2.
No stats, just myself. Although I pay attention to steam player notifications and see what friends are playing and for how long. Yes, 2 months of anything and I’m ready to do something else for a while, but I generally always return to games. I’ve been playing WOW since it came out, but only in spurts. I have no real reason to return to Boundless, and I see that as a MAJOR problem.
Well if thats your play style normally then my next question is why play a game you knew had this mechanic in the first place? I mean I assume youre an informed gamer? So im kinda left scratching my head here. I mean you know you better then me. So if I knew this was my playstyle I woulda never stepped foot in here. Myself on the other hand I have played a few games where theres perma death and you have to start over from scratch and I like the challenge. If i was you and had that kinda gamestyle logic would dictate not to play those kinda games. I guess Im just trying to see it from your perspective and I keep coming back to why play a game with a mechanic that you cant tolerate?
On a side note this is not a subscription based game so I think this mechanic was designed for 2 reason 1. to clear out dead builds 2. To get you to support the game either through gleam club and those that arent to keep them at least logging in to fuel and keep the game populated I think the last part was unforseen a lil.
sadly i think that is the case this was there stance has of yesterday. right now there are atlest 3 threads on the steam foums of people saying the beacon system needs to change or that they quit/refuse to play due to it and this was a reply to one of them
Yup I think that was a wonderful reply by @SamF. It stated that it exists for a reason and attempts to explain to the person that their views are incorrect in how they perceive them.
Threatening the developers does nothing really. It is a frail attempt especially since there are some people that could say they won’t play the game if the beacon system goes away and builds are permanent. I know many people that like the partial ugly builds that are right there beside their build or the 1 plot that is blocking your expansion or whatever…
none of the solutions listed here in the poll, seem reasonable in the sense of people finding ways to abuse the system, actively and/or passively (Passive abuse = It Promotes laziness), and the amount of extra „Cost“ it is going to place on the devs for some of the systems, and the royal mess it can make.
the coin value solution is the closest thing to a reasonable solution that is listed, however it i feel is not good enough, I am sure there are many players who don’t really care about coin and just want their stuff, Builds can have sentimental value, and the effort put in to the build is also worth something to players, and having to start over, even with a pocket book with a modest amount of coin in it, can still be quite daunting or an unacceptable trade to some players.
I think the main thing that needs to happen, is better education and awareness of the situation, I feel the NPE doesn’t really drive how important refueling is and the the full risks involved with the situation.
Next, I feel the warning signs for low fuel need to become much more obnoxious, there are many many UI elements that can be added in to do this, as well as in game effects that happen when you are in a plot that is low fuel.
Lastly, We are at the point where I feel like the rate of fuel burn needs to be slowed down, The population of the game is modestly low. There are many worlds, there is a lot of space. We are not at risk of running out of space any time soon. Therefore I think all fuel values should be doubled at the least, I think the shortest lasting fuel is 4 weeks? that would become 8 weeks, and I think the longest lasting fuel is 16 weeks? That would become 32 weeks. I understand this might cause some people to complain that this is would devalue gleam club a bit, but if this is a problem that is going to shove the player base to extremely low levels, then it might need to be done, and the devs will need to find some other way to place value on gleam club so people will buy it.
I am one of those who think all of it should regen and any items with it disappear. This game needs more item sinks, not less, for the good of the economy!
You might not have to loose anything to feel like the game is too punitive, though.
Simply knowing it can happen, understanding that you will have to refuel each beacon separately (unless you can afford the Gleam Club, because the game itself is already quite an expense) might be enough to make you think “uh, nah, I don’t feel like doing anything big in this game, I’ve had a quick taste, and now I want a refund”.
I’m sorry, but this make me nervously laugh. You are soooo out of touch if you think a force wipe would be good for the game.
Dude, if Wonderstruck does a force wipe and I loose all I’ve done so far, even though I have Gleam Club and stuff, F@CK “the beauty of starting over”, I am gone, I leave negative reviews everywhere, I burn the living sh!t out of the game, and I never buy anything linked to Wonderstruck again. XD
And you can be SURE that A LOT of people would do the exact same thing.
not that I’d want to go back to that game.