Still holding to my theory we are just testing it before a proper release
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I’m sure everyone agrees that if someone can’t get out of the sanctum and throws a tantrum this probably isn’t the game for them. However, there are plenty of people who love this game and want it to be amazing. They play for a bit then get turned off by different aspects and things that were added that provided very little other than making their game time harder. Here is a quick list driving away those players who should be thriving in a game like this:
- Large crafting time-gates
- Full loss of all items on beacon decay
- Poor in game communication
- Lack of real in depth combat
- Lack of any armor/wearables
- Lack of character customization (Rock goblins are ugly. Old models were better.)
- Lack of beacon development tools (I.E. the ability to make dungeons, arenas and what not)
- Lack of decent skill trees (Splitting QoL and Combat into different leveling trees)
- No Intractable furniture
- Adding needless complexity
All of these are from players I know and these forums. This game isn’t hard it can just be hard to find the information you need. Especially with how poor discourse is when it comes to searching for information. Very few of us that are pointing out its flaws are asking for free stuff or trying to make it hold our hands. We just want people to actually enjoy it and not have the servers go dark in a few years.
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Sorry, but that’s a horrible analogy. It’s suggesting that anyone who doesn’t ‘get’ Boundless after trying it must either be either a dimwitted, blank-faced nose picker, too lazy for this game, or ‘lack’ some special higher attribute that the better people who do ‘get’ boundless have.
People who have played this game and decided not to carry on with it are not lesser people. They simply enjoy other things, or things differently to what Boundless is offering. I’d agree that doesn’t necessarily follow that Boundless should change to cater to them, although I would highlight that if a professor can only engage one or two in every hundred students, perhaps it’s not a one-sided problem (assuming it’s a problem at all)?
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Absolutely agreed that there are things that can be improved for us, to make it even better. 
And that many of those changes like you suggest could pull in some of the people that wouldn’t be into it much now.
I guess I should say that with my post there, it was more intended to show why I think Wonderstruck should focus on niches similar to Boundless and not take a broad approach, like the free weekend. Elaborating on the point I was trying to get at but didn’t want to be too blunt about on accepting that there are going to be a lot of people we just won’t keep. And that there IS a certain line that has to be drawn in how far to take the changes.
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Personally I feel there is enough accessibility to a player base - PC and PS4. That is more than enough. I do believe there are many fundamental issues in game design that are causing much of the adoption challenge. Plus I’ve had some direct conversations about some things and there is a clear understanding that something must be off because of adoption. So clarity needs to be gained in that area or a new model needs to be introduced that has less friction in the adoption area.
Ultimately people will all have their own opinions on how to fix or how nothing needs fixing… for me I just look at the fundamentals and see clear evidence of problems.
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Agreed, you will never keep your entire player base, or we would never need new games. Voxel games make great inbetween games for when AAA releases haven’t hit in awhile. Boundless is trying to take that full time spot and is having a difficult time doing it. Its setup makes it very difficult for people to play part time and take real breaks.
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Certainly not lesser people or dimwitted - I know that post could come across badly, sorry - but that it DOES require a certain tenacity to stick with it, a desire to learn. (Edit: And some obviously understand and it isn’t their thing, leave regardless) Like I said, I took forever to learn a lot of stuff. It is more the ones who have no desire to learn or to try - just want super-simple. Mostly inspired by reading negative reviews on Steam - that many of the reviews that are bad, it just seems to me that they would never have stuck around, even with reasonable changes. How far should the devs take the changes? Apologies to any offended by it.
You aren’t supposed to breath in the air from the flotation sacs!
(but yes, you are beautiful)
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It would just be nice to have more options
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Joke aside, I agree with most of Peyago’s points above.
And there are more points that could be added too, I’m sure, like the inability to move/copy a beacon.
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Idk about that, to me seems like boundless is being such a civilization sim. I wish they added a local creative mode or local worlds where peeps can join. It would a much healthier game and easier to get into the online if they had a creative mode where people could learn the game and what it offers before spending 2.5k hours in it 
Don’t get me wrong I love the game for what it is, and I like being part of a breathing growing universe where everyones choice matters. But some people join and that’s not what they really wanted.
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Also Excessive Crafting Recipes requiring FAR too much material for certain things…
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Well there goes my plans for this weekend… 
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I’m still pretty new at only playing for a few weeks. I have some ideas on why its small.
I don’t get a lot of time during the week to play, so Io have limited play times. In the time I have everything is so slow to do. Takes me forever to mine anything (I don’t have the fun aoe tools), takes my character a while to place blocks, but that’s fine I miss click all the time, lol.
But a lot if it comes down to the lack of knowing how things are, the little journal quest thing is worthless as I have not seen how to review things that randomly got completed, so no idea what I did to get that reward.
Skill Tree:
The skill tree is an insane mess. While I like that you can pick wherever you want on it (if you are high enough level) it still needs to have some organization. It should be tree like, not requiring things above it, but still connected in a line to show you the skills that are grouped together. For example, say the mining/gathering skills in a bank like they are now. Then a line going down to the next section to the hammer<>shovel/axe epic. Stuff like that so your skills are clearly shown. At the moment they are just a mess randomly placed in the different level tiers.
Tools.
For the love of god why is everything locked behind high level advanced forging. When I started, I wanted water for my little farm plots, and I wanted to make a small pond. So I got a bucket and went to the river to… stand there like an idiot. Trying to figure out why I could not simply collect water. Then I was told you need a tool with liquid breaker… WHY!!! For love that is holy does things like this (and some of the other forges I have come across) need me to do that instead of the bucket. Keep it like it is for the block collected yes, but let me use the bucket! Call it a water bucket, put wear on it, I don’t care just don’t make a simple thing locked behind high level content.
Block placement:
So we have all these fancy blocks with cool textures, and even regular blocks with nice textures… then you try to place them. And sometimes if feels like it randomly orientates. So you try again trying to place it on another glowing green surface to get… the same placement you had. So you try again from a different angle… now its some new way that is still not lining up. When you are up in the air trying to build this makes it very difficult to use. The game needs a tool for rotating all blocks. NOT a forge thing, just a regular old tool that rotates them. This a lone has frustrated me to the point I tore down what I was trying to make and gave up the idea because every now and then I just could not get the orientation to go the way I wanted. And eventually the frustration won.
I still don’t use very many decorative blocks because of that headache.
Plots:
We all want them. In fact, plots are one of the main reasons I picked this game up. I like building games (even if I am not a very good builder), and with other people around to see what they make, so they can see what I make, its fun stuff, but I also like my stuff protected. Plots protect my stuff so people can see, but can’t wreck it.
However, when first starting I think there should be a few more given than the initial 2. Maybe like 6, not much more but starting out and only having 2 kind of sucks. Sure you can gain levels and get more, but that 2 at the very start was not fun.
Settlements:
I like the idea of this, however now that I have a little time in game and have had some issues. I really really really want a way to OPT OUT! of joining one. Just cause I end up having someone build near me who is higher level and has fancy stuff does not mean I want them to absorb me!! Its my area, I want it to be MINE!! Not his, not the other guy who moved in on the other side either, I want my area mine and to stay mine, period.
Also, even without the plots touching, and once when it was just reserve borders, it destroyed my settlement saying it was bridging two different ones. I didn’t want this, I didn’t and don’t want to be connected to theirs. I had to unplot parts of mine to make it get fixed. I eventually saw the one guy online and asked him to move a few of his that he recently placed and he did, but I never should have had to do either of those. That is a problem.
Anyways, thanks for reading my book.
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Thank you for a casual player perspective. A lot of us that post here (me included) are probably more on the heavy user side of things. We don’t get enough first hand feedback from people who have limited playtime.
Okay yeh, that is not just a delay. Must be some issue with the syncing of mesh updates across chunk borders getting stuck…
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I think most games have difficulty with retention. People burn out, their friends convince them to play something else, etc. You can’t do much about that.
I do think lack of exposure is probably one of the main culprits. I am part of a lot of gaming/tech circles and I almost never see BL mentioned anywhere, in any form. It wasn’t suggested to me on Steam…I had actually avoided Steam for the longest time. Boundless & one other game got me to finally sign up lol. I came across BL by deep searching for sandbox MMOs…I wanted something new to sink my extra time into. It wasn’t easy to find - that was back when they were still in EA/Oort online.
I know Facebook ads & other ads can be a huge black hole-waste-of-money. It’s a bit of a risk. A few years back, my company spent $$$$$ on FB ads, targeting our audience. It fell on deaf ears and the money went down the drain. It didn’t convert into any new customers. Ads at the right time & place are key. Maybe some ads on Twitch would help - if you could target users watching MMO streams like NMS, Astroneer, Trove, Cv, etc. Perhaps use a few $$$ and pay an influencer on Youtube or Twitch to do a quick little ad with a link in the description?
Also…how about an affiliate program to encourage people to get players to sign up? $ per new account?
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Great ideas, big yes on all IMO. 
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You wanna see people work super hard to get people to sign up lol…$5 to paypal per $29.95-$39.95 new account…BL would still come out on top when compared to a 50% off weekend 
(& the free or 50% off sale doesn’t provide any guaranteed new sign ups)
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