Can you elaborate for those of us who haven’t been around?
Sure. The big update , as far as was communicated, stalled out at the “polishing touches and business decisions” phase. Largely because of some rough decisions regarding how to present the private universe side of things.
There were mixed issues, like a mid-range computer taking longer to generate a first world (or maybe 3, whatever was ‘required’) than the steam refund period.
Anyways, there may have been more that wasn’t shared but basically the public universe stuff was done. To get back to your point:
One of the major features of the update, was a change to the way skill sets are handled. You would be able to have every compatible skill on the same page. Finally, a single character/skill page, that can do everything.
I don’t think it’s going to harm the economy though. It’s good stuff. More active players = more active economy.
EDIT: Just to add, last time I heard the test servers are live. You can log in over there and use the swords and shields, fuel portals for years on compact oort, hunt and mine on the same build, etc… if you like.
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And they get you a lot of tools to fight the rng.
Interesting. I’ll have to look further into it when I get a chance. I shared a similar opinion to div0ky that RNG was a good mechanic to have. Not so much out of concern for the economy but it’s what helped maintain spontaneity for the game and avoided stagnation. I recall the devs saying as much some years ago as well.
RNG is common in many games and the playerbase always adapted to it. But there was always a vocal minority in this community that just hated it.
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I’m not a fan of the forge. I don’t recall any big forging changes planned for that update. But definitely a change to the limited ability to spec.
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There are(were?) a lot of features in update 249 that would be useful for the NPE & experienced players:
- Max skill points increased to 367 to accommodate the new skills
- Melee weapons
- An Epic Skill that allows almost all tintable blocks to be spray painted
- New Block Protection Quirk on Melee Weapons & Bombs to stop any accidental base destruction
- 2nd chance brew for removal of death penalty
- Reduced the Foliage, Stick and Timber costs to all Wooden Tools and weapons to 2 Timber, 1 Stick and 1 Foliage. The coin cost has been reduced to compensate.
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Just quickly glancing through the notes, they’ve accomplished a major feat with trying to introduce a local universe of sorts.
I have mixed feelings about this. They’ve confirmed that there’s a significant part of the player base that doesn’t want anything to do with the MMO that they wanted to build hence introducing this local universe initiative on top of sovereign and creative worlds. Aka a multiverse.
On top of the skills cap issue, they want to cater to solo players more
But players like me wanted an MMO that they promised from the beginning.
Utterly frustrating. Now I remember why I stopped playing… Devs didn’t know what they wanted from their own creation and trying too hard to appease two different groups
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Local universe was also promised from the beginning, though.
I think my point was more that even if you use all of the most expensive RNG mitigators and top tier techniques, you’re still playing a slot machine and trying over and over until you happen get what you want. That’s not skill, that’s a gambling addiction persistence.
But I get that there is some quantity of players that enjoy the mechanic, I just think a skill based system would be much better received in general.
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No it wasn’t. There was never any mention of this when I started playing back in maybe 2016ish or so
It’s not supposed to be about skill though. So the phrasing is incorrect.
If you want skill, you play an FPS game
Agreed. It is what keeps forging interesting for me and makes forgers valuable.
Edit: To add to my point, I can’t recall the last time I forged - perhaps 2 years ago? Came back to the game about a week or so ago and today needed hammers. Went to my machine (which luckily was ready with all the bottles so i didn’t need to fumble for them). I read their descriptions again and forged myself a nice set of hammers and mind you it wasn’t some too-simple forge. I needed a full cross section hit (not less and not more), speed (as high as possible), and at least a level 8 dmg for the hammers to work on T6s - 3 different gums and requires a delicate balance of some sorts. All it took was 4 or 5 deconstructs for me to get the results and I didn’t need to watch or read any forge guides to remember how I did it. If anything, I hope more similar mechanics are added to the game. Spices it up!
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I was not aware the Economy worked very well at all. And even if it did, Forging shouldn’t be the main thing keeping it going. There should be a wide amount of things that support a good Economy.
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Like you, I personally prefer the MMO worlds - but James has mentioned the ability to play worlds locally since 2015. I do not know what Monumental’s opinions will be towards all of the original plans, updates, etc. They may not be interested in providing local offline worlds. They will be looking at Boundless through a fresh 2022 lens. Many things have changed (hardware, software, game engines, gaming, society) since 2015/2016. They seem very interested in Boundless - I think they deserve a chance to see what they can do with it.
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There are many kinds of skill outside of the twitch reaction and precision of an FPS. I’m fine with RNG and procedurally generated challenges, but let me fight against it in a way that knowledge, preparation, and some amount of finesse can give me a fighting chance rather than relying on “if you try enough times, it averages out”.
Do you really prefer it being what feels to me like an overly complicated slot machine?
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Do you have a better suggestion than the current approach? I think people underestimate how much prep work and organization it takes to line up all the materials. That unto itself is a skill, not at the ingame level , but meta level.
There’s a a danger to making everything so accessible from the get go that you make the experience vanilla
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Yes Local Universes/private worlds were planned from the beginning.
But were they made knowing how small the player base would be? The main planets were empty enough before they added private servers. Not a big enough community to support a thriving MMO.
You are not wrong…the pre-2018 servers were VERY empty… But a thats very premature statement coming from you. THe 2019 free weekend showed that players are interested. The game just never held up well and those players didn’t come back.
Maybe this time, it will be better 
Local universes is a content update for the playerbase interested in soloing, not in the MMO side. In fact, most of the content updates over the last 4 years have always targeted solo players if you think about it.
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Eh in all honestly this only helps you, even if you have zero intention of playing on a private universe.
A lot of server owners, 
, will host a game server even if they have between 0-1 players.
This brings exposure to the game as more little tiny community pop up, because not everyone is interested in playing the vanilla version of any game.
If you need more proof just look at All the non vanilla Ark, Minecraft, Rust, Project Zomboid, 7days2die servers out there with 0 player counts.
Making your product diversified so that soloists, private hosting and mmo players can pick and choose how to play is just good business sense.
In all honestly they should embrace private worlds and allow special portals so that any server is connected to boundless.
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This right here brings me back to when I hosted a 4x Conan RP server for like 6-7 people.
Folks who stream tend to have their own communities and in term would have a private server available for their community game nights or solely be on said server
That brings me back to when I used to air drop 30 Compys bred to be war dogs and watching players freak out as the slowly broke in.
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