Boundless News

Greetings Citizens. We’re very pleased to share the first release of 2019 with you all: Boundless Empires!

This is our biggest post-launch release to date, introducing a host of new features which we believe will really change the way Boundless is played. Those of you who have been playing on our testing version will be aware of what’s coming, but let’s go through what’s new.

For a video rundown, the always-excellent Jiivita has released this great update here;

https://youtu.be/4-FGfNMIj2M

Guilds

First up, we are releasing our Guilds feature to the live game. The system will allow for huge cooperative builds, massive organised group hunts, and even complex social and political events to be put together within the structured framework of a centralised group of players. Starting as a lowly Operative, a player might eventually rise to the coveted role of Director. We can’t wait to see which groups rise to power first - it’s going to be brilliant to be a part of. For a full write up of the guilds system, head here;

https://forum.playboundless.com/t/guilds-system-overview/24515

Cross Universe Messaging

We’re also bringing in our Cross Universe Messaging system. This essentially complements the Guilds system, bringing asynchronous messaging to the game. Players will be able to leave messages to others even when they are offline, creating a more flexible method of communication for all players, not just those in guilds. Think Discord for an idea of how this will work in practice.

New Blocks!

We’ve also got 4 awesome new decorative block types going into the game, which we think will look great when players can incorporate them into their builds. These are Marble, Mosaic, Refined Gravel, and Wicker - there’s not quite like any blocks we’ve currently got in the game, so we’re excited to see what you guys can do with them!



Alongside a wide range of bug fixes and quality of life changes, we’re sure these new features are really going to add to the Boundless experience, and we can’t wait to see how you all get on with the new guilds system.

For the latest patch notes head here;

https://forum.playboundless.com/t/release-211-empires-guilds-and-messaging/24546

See you in there!

It’s beginning to look a lot like Oortmas…

Our Winter Event has just gone live! The event will last until the 1st January, giving you two weeks to enjoy all the bounties of the holiday season.

Weather forecasts across the known worlds are predicting heavy snow, and citizens are advised to have their screenshot tools at the ready to make the most of some of the beautiful scenes which are sure to arise. To go along with this, certain creatures around the universe will be seen sporting little santa hats - players will want to be on the lookout for these.

The special creatures will drop a new item once defeated - the green candy cane. These are used to craft some brand new props to decorate your builds. Wrapped presents and decorated Oortmas trees (built block by block) will be seen throughout the lands. Snow Citizens can also be built by using an alternative drop, the red candy cane, more on which later. All of these are of course tintable, and we can’t wait to see the creative ways you all deck the halls.

Naturally, we’ve introduced some special wearables for a limited time only, so you’ll be able to grab them from the Exchange while they’re available. Father Oortmas beards, antlers which echo Rudolph the Red Nosed Wildstock and the Snow Citizen mask will give you the chance to get your character fully into the spirit of the season.

Last, but certainly not least, we have a special event which will occur for these two weeks only. We all love building and crafting, but this time around we wanted to give you something combat-oriented to play with. So, for the duration of the winter event, special snowball fight meteorite events will be occurring. These will happen on the Spawn worlds, and rather than a regular strike, a meteorologically-unlikely but festively pleasing giant snowball will crash to the surface of the planet. This will then spawn special white snow spitters, which will launch their chilly projectiles at players, and are impervious to regular weaponry.

Last, but certainly not least, we have a special event which will occur for these two weeks only. We all love building and crafting, but this time around we wanted to give you something combat-oriented to play with. So, for the duration of the winter event, special snowball fight meteorite events will be occurring. These will happen on the Spawn worlds, and rather than a regular strike, a meteorologically-unlikely but festively pleasing giant snowball will crash to the surface of the planet. This will then spawn special white snow spitters, which will launch their chilly projectiles at players, and are impervious to regular weaponry.

How best to fight back? Well, you’ll have to fight snow with snow! Gather enough ice from the impact zone to hand-craft a bag of snowballs, and give the icy critters everything you’ve got! These will do direct damage to one target, and are the only thing which will damage a snow spitter. These will be on lower-level worlds, and will be a totally flat playing field, allowing players of all levels to play together. There will also be no death penalty on these events, with players instead building up ‘embarrassment’ from being hit, before heading to the sanctum without their ‘life’ for the event. The rewards for this event include red candy canes, as well as festive food, brews and gifts. Poorly behaved citizens may end up with coal...

We’re hugely excited to share this event with you all, and we especially can’t wait to see how big some of the snowball events can get - so wrap up warm, and we’ll see you all there!

With all that, it just remains for me to say a heartfelt Merry Oortmas everyone!

Hey folks,

We're excited to say that we've just updated Boundless to include some very cool LED Blocks! We've also put in a full balance pass on the forge, as well as a raft of fixes and quality of life changes. This update also prepares Boundless for the Oortmas event.

The LED blocks in particular are really exciting - these can be manipulated with a Transformation Chisel to create basic lighting animations. We can't wait to see what you come up with!

Here's Jiivita with the news in video form;

https://youtu.be/HPux4XTtSJQ

Overview:

• New LED Blocks that can be Transformation Chiselled to create basic lighting animations.
  
  
• Iteration and balance pass on the Forge;
  
  
• Quirks are no longer negatives, many have been changed to provide the weapon with positive and negative Effects.
  
• Entry level ingredients have had items removed from crafting recipes to allow players easier access into forging.
  
• Reactive Lamella can now be found on Level 3 Lush and Coal Worlds.
  
• 100% Efficiency cap removed, so boon points can go even higher with skills and Power Coils. Making early gear much more powerful in the Forge.
  
• Upped the Flexibility and durability of some gear. Will help even more with the changes to Efficiency.
  
• The Forge Epic Skill now adds four Deck slots (increased from two).
  
• Deconstruction Resins give the original item back unforged, ready to be forged again.
  
• Draining Compound now adds Quirk points, but with a reduced vigour loss turn count (a positive change to people using the compound as it was originally intended).
  
• Preparation for the Oortmas Winter event
  
  Oortmas Winter Event:
  
  
• Oortmas is here! Revel in the festivities and holiday cheer in this time limited event, featuring new items, props, masks and a brand new seasonal Snowball Fight Meteorite event!
  
• Look out for Snowball Fight Meteorite Events spawning on Placid and Temperate worlds. Collect up some Ice to handcraft Snowballs to throw at the new Snowspitter enemies while avoiding their own snowball attacks. Every Citizen is on a level playing field to tackle the Snowspitters as conventional weapons have no effect, and watch out for the stacking “Embarrassment” debuff. Take too many hits and your embarrassment will cause you to be defeated and loose your Meteorite Life, but fear not, you will not be be given the Defeat Penalty. Win the fight and you will be rewarded with Red Candy Canes and other festive treats. Will you be lucky and get a Mega Fast Brew? Or have you been naughty this year and find yourself with a lump of Coal?
  
• Three new Head Gear items available from the Exchange, Rudolph the Red-Nose Wildstock, Farther Oortmas Beard and Snow Citizen mask.
  
• All new Props to craft: Snowcitizens featuring three unique head types, Oortmas Trees and five different Presents.
  
• Craftable Snowballs to throw at your friends for fun, or to join in the Snowball Fight event. These will only be craftable from Ice and Glacier blocks during the Oortmas Event.
  
• Red and Greed Candy Cane items, used to craft the seasonal props. Hunt down creatures sporting an Oortmas hat to gather Green Candy Canes, and complete Snowball Fights to win Red Candy Canes.
  
• Find and search snow covered regions of the world to increase your chance of finding an Oortmas hat wearing creature.
  
• Snow will surround a Snowball Fight Meteorite.
  
  Art + Animation + Assets:
  
  
• Added a new animated LED Block.
  
• LED Blocks are crafted in a dim “off” state.
  
• LED Blocks take their colour from Gleam ingredients and required Decoration 3 crafting skill.
  
• LED Blocks have 16 different blinking patterns that can be used to create 4 frame animation.
  
• Use a Chisel centraforged with Transformation Boon to cycle through the different animation patterns.
  
• Use a non-forged Chisel to sculpt the blocks.
  
  Crafting + Resources + Equipment + Forge:
  
  
• Made it so the initial set of Forging Compounds are easier to craft for players getting into the forging system for the first time. While the first tier of compounds are not the most efficient way to forge the best gear, these changes should encourage players to play around and start crafting items.
  
• Pure Boon Compound 1: Removed Spitter Eye, increased Fresh Vital Essence to 2.
  
• Imperfect Boon Compound 1: Removed Adrenal Gland, increased Fresh Vital Essence to 2.
  
• Unstable Boon Compound 1: Removed Wildstock Eye, increased Fresh Vital Essence to 2.
  
• Increased the flexibility on Copper tools and weapons from 50 to 60.
  
• Increased the flexibility on Gold tools and weapons from 30 to 40.
  
• Draining Boon Compound was clearly unbalanced, meaning it was either completely ignored, or abused along side catalysts to easily create max tier forged items with no repercussions. We have some changes which should add more usability in forging while taking back the abuse factor.
  
• Draining Boon Compound 1 now adds 160 Quirk Points, Vigour Drain now only lasts 3 turns instead of 5.
  
• Draining Boon Compound 2 now adds 400 Quirk Points, Vigour Drain now only lasts 3 turns instead of 5.
  
• Deconstruction Resins now saves the forged piece of gear (but strips it of any Boons/Quirks/Defects) along side the chance to recover forge ingredients. This should be a major improvement to all players in the forge!
  
• Wooden Tools now have 600 Durability, up from 300. This is to let players experiment and try out early game forged creations using maximum Effectiveness before investing skill points and Power Coils into Forging.
  
• Mottled Tar Spot Fungus will now spawn on Level 3 Lush and Coal worlds, meaning Reactive Lamella can now be found earlier.
  
• Forging Epic now grants 4 additional Centraforge slots in the ingredient deck, up from 2.
  
• Quirks no longer reduce the Rank of an item.
  
• Various changes to Quirks:
  
• Carpe Noctem Quirk now provides +100 Damage and 10% Damage increase during the Night, and reduces damage by 100 and 10% damage decrease during the Day. It no longer reduces the forge effects during daytime.
  
• Carpe Diem Quirk now provides +100 Damage and 10% Damage increase during the Daytime, and reduces damage by 100 and 10% damage decrease during the Night. It no longer reduces the forge effects during nighttime.
  
• Best of Health Quirk now provides +10 Action Speed at high Health, and reduces Action Speed by 10 at low Health. It no longer reduces the forge effects at low Health.
  
• In Poor Health Quirk now provides +10 Action Speed at low Health, and reduces Action Speed by 10 at high Health. It no longer reduces the forge effects at high Health.
  
• Fully-Filled Quirk now reduces energy use by +10 when the players Hunger is low (as in full up), and increases Energy use by 10 when Hunger is high. It no longer reduces the forge effects at high Hunger.
  
• Ravenous Quirk now reduces energy use by +10 when the players Hunger is high (as in needs to eat), and increases Energy use by 10 when Hunger is low. It no longer reduces the forge effects at low Hunger.
  
• On Icy Ground Quirk now gives +40 Falling Armour.
  
• That Sinking Feeling Quirk now lets you hold your breath for an additional 50%.
  
• Slow-Mo Quirk now reduces your walk/run speed by 25%, but increases your sprint bonus by 50%.
  
• One Jump Ahead Quirk now also grants the user Double Jump, even without the skill.
  
• Wonky Trigger Quirk now also gives 400 Durability to the item.
  
• Nutritionally Challenged Quirk now also increases Max Energy by 30%.
  
• Bleeding Edge Quirk now also increases Max Health by 30%.
  
• For Quirks; “Day time” now starts 10% later, and “Night Time” Now starts 10% earlier. Day and Night for the sake of quirks are now of equal timing.
  
• For Quirks; “Hungry” is now 45% hunger and lower and “Full up” (for quirks) is 55% and above.
  
• For Quirks; “Low Health” is now 45% Health and lower and “High Health” is 55% and above.
  
• Reduced Defect points on Imperfect Compounds to make them more competitive with other compounds now that quirks can be desirable.
  
• Imperfect Boon Compound 1 was 100 Defect points, now 80.
  
• Imperfect Boon Compound 2 was 200 Defect points, now 160.
  
• Imperfect Boon Compound 3 was 500 Defect points, now 400.
  
  Sanctum + Tutorial + Objectives + Progression:
  
  
• Updated “Down with the Elite” objective to reflect that the Player needs to collect Trophies specifically not Items as previously suggested. Players should now be able to complete the Objective.
  
  SFX + Music
  
  
• Added audio for Snowballs and winter event.
  
• Fixed audio issue where the system could run out of voices.
  
• Fixed audio dropping out on Tier 4 worlds.
  
• Fixed audio dropping out after prolonged tools use.
  
  GUI + HUD:
  
  
• Updated character info in the character overview drop down.
  
• Character Level.
  
• Character Total XP.
  
• Skill Points.
  
• Skill Pages.
  
• Skill Page Reset Tokens.
  
• Skill Cleanse Points.
  
• Appearance Change Tokens.
  
• Tint Kits.
  
• Gleam Club Membership.
  
• Added Spanish translation for “Boundless username” to aid understanding for Spanish-speaking Players.
  
• Game will present English versions of text strings for context whilst localisation versions of missing.
  
• Updated Character Overview to include details of Total Spent and Total Skill Points.
  
• Updated Character Overview to include outstanding Gleam Club membership duration.
  
• Updated Shop and Character Overview to present Gleam Club membership consistently.
  
• Updated TimeLimitedEvent system to get event date from the discovery server.
  
  Engine:
  
  
• Reduced size of some large data packets from the game server sent when connecting to portals to do with chunk requests by about 3x depending on terrain detail settings.
  
• Includes a bug-fix for lighting simulation which erroneously allowed too much light to pass through certain configurations of sloped leaf blocks.
  
• Resolved some server side issues that resulted in lodded-chunks in the distance being able to diverge from their correct state over time due server crashes. This also improved the server-side performance of lod-chunk updates allowing them to be updated much more quickly so that they will visually be more responsive to changes, though this may be very hard to notice as a player.
  
• Change the PS4 memory layout to reduce the out of memory crashes.
  
• On PS4 when memory is very low reduce the amount of data for other world portals.
  
  Bug fixes:
  
  
• Fix a crash when the user despawns from a world while projectiles are being fired.
  
• Fixed a bug causing Level 1 Roadrunner drops to sometimes not pick from their full range of drops.
  
• Fix for crosshairs not showing grapples ranges correctly when they had been forged with extra range or the character has grapple mastery
  
• Fixed “World Gatherer Challenge 1” objective text grammar.
  
• Fixed a bug in the exchange where the XP progression bar would display incorrect information when over level 50.
  
• Fixed an issue in the way weather-effect wind values were used that could cause jerky grass animations in periods of still wind, and which caused wind to often be much stronger than it should have been for the given activity levels of the weather systems.
  
• Fixed client crash during day/night transition whilst holding items with forged quirks
  
• Fixed issue with healing bombs reading healing value from the currently held item instead of the bomb item.
  
• Fix a crash on Windows when the the windows resized.
  
• Fix memory leak on Windows when the game was not visible, e.g. minimised.
  
• Removed unused spark from handcrafted Snowball recipe.
  
• Re-export character textures and meshes to fix some issue introduced with a change to skinning.
  
• Fix mesh distortion on Wildstock heads when grazing.
  
  

Here is an update to our active development roadmap. Make sure you checkout the first version for the full story;

https://steamcommunity.com/games/324510/announcements/detail/1702818865627629514

We’re following a process where we’re alternating updates between Testing and Live every other week. The aim is to deliver a constant stream of quality, optimisations and features. Every week there should be something new to explore on Testing or play with on Live.

We often have many different sized features progressing in parallel. In these roadmap updates we want to make sure you’re aware of the most significant features. So we’re planning to keep it updated as items are released. We recently launched the new Body Paints in Release 207 so it’s time to refresh the coming items on the roadmap.

What’s in development?

Feature development can often take more time that you might expect so we have a few things going on in parallel. These items are in development NOW, so you should expect them to appear in the coming updates.

Guilds: The biggest feature currently in development is a new Guild system. The aim is to create a system for everyone and not just hardcore players. This includes a new set of controls for managing the guild’s privileges and factions. You’ll be able to align or control beacons directly from your guild. This will allow players to group together to form a guild and align it with their settlement. As the settlements change your settlement and guild with continue to maintain its identity. The collective endeavour of your guild is rewarded with a new set of buffs affecting everyone. Expect more guild details in the future once it takes more shape.

• Winter Event: We have a Winter Event coming that will run for a couple of weeks up to New Year. The Halloween event was based on gathering and this event will be focused on fun combat. An event announcement will be live shortly so that everyone can count down the time to launch. The whole world will look a little different as the chilly weather rolls across the landscape.
  
  
• Hunter: She’s coming. Prowling up on you. The Hunter’s AI is in development and she’ll be unlike any of the other creatures already in the game. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. Did I just hear a warp open?
  
  
• Messaging: To support the guilds we’re also working on a significant messaging expansion. Players in a guild need a channel to communicate when they’re scattered across the known universe. You’ll also be able to maintain channels with individuals between worlds. The system will also support (if configured) messages reaching out of the game so that you can respond to messages when you’re outside of the game, desperate to get back in again.
  
  
• LED Blocks: Like Gleam? Well you’re going to love LED blocks. Disco anyone?
  
  

When?
Keep an eye out for announcement posts of features going to Testing. These features are already in development and coming soon.

What’s coming next?
There is a long list of features that are all jostling for attention. After the Guilds our next major feature will be a Boundless version of Farming. Don’t expect carrots and cabbages. We’re exploring ideas that bend farming into something that complements the Boundless universe and unlocks new sandbox options.

Our aim is to expand Boundless with new content and new systems for the full spectrum of Boundless players. We’re just as desperate as everyone else in the community to make progress with adventurous and experimental universal persistent sandbox features.

Of course, this is very much another step of our plans for Boundless. We’ve got plenty of features planned for the future, and your feedback will be invaluable as we continue active development of the game. We love talking with our players on the forums and social channels, so don’t be shy about championing the features you want to see in the future of Boundless.

Thanks!!

This update is accessible via the "Live" release of Boundless on Steam.




Please restart Steam to make sure you get the latest version of Boundless. If the update happens whilst Steam is open it's unlikely you'll get the latest version.

The following release notes are not final and should not be considered complete or exhaustive.

Overview:

• Body Paints are now available in the Exchange to customise your characters, along with a series of quality of life upgrades and smaller fixes. Enjoy!
  
• We recently added a new set of Level 5 and Level 6 worlds to make sure that all geographical regions contain worlds that contain all gem types. This should mean that everyone can mine for all resources locally.
  

Art + Animation + Assets:

• Body paint decals now added.
  
• Customise your character from a collection of eleven body paint designs.
  
• Tiger, Spots, Motion, Hand, Forest, Portal, Fire, Water, Brick, Energy and Feather.
  
• Apply and choose the body paint tints from a wide range of colours.
  
• Gleam Club members can further customise their body paints by choosing the high and low tint colours.
  

Crafting + Resources + Equipment:

• Increased contrast slightly when displaying resource maps to avoid blowing out details too much, particularly in the blue range of the scale.
  
• Metal and Gleam signs will now have emissive white text by default, so the text will be visible in as many light conditions as possible. Players with Gleam Club can still tint the text whatever colour they want.
  
• Removed transparency from chiseled sign text texture as it didn’t give the desired visual effect.
  
• Level 1 Roadrunners will now drop Adrenal Glands, and drop less Fresh Blood to compensate for the inclusion of the Adrenal Glands. This should help lower level players get into crafting more Augments and Fast Brews.
  

Creatures + Combat + Characters:

• Changed the way hunger and running works. Previously running reduce your energy level based on a percentage of your max energy. This meant a player with 600 energy and a player with 6000 energy could run for the same amount of time before starving. This was rather unfair as a high energy player would need to consume far more food to run the same distance. We have now removed this scaling, and Hunger depletes at an equal rate of points for all players. Meaning Higher energy players can run for longer, but eating food will allow for the same time of running.
  
• Meteorite Events will now reward players XP upon opening the prize crate at the end of the event. This XP is based off the world level, not the size of the meteorite;
  
  
• Level 3 Worlds - 500 XP
  
• Level 4 Worlds - 1800 XP
  
• Level 5 Worlds - 4000 XP
  
• Level 6 Worlds - 8000 XP
  
• Dormant Meteorites will not reward XP.
  

Sanctum + Tutorial + Objectives + Progression:

• Players can now freely cleanse skill points and reset skill pages until level 20. This is to allow players to experiment with skill builds in the early levels.
  
• Added emotes for Elder during tutorial.
  

GUI + HUD:

• Added more descriptive secondary descriptions for improved clarity when viewing Resources in the Knowledge.
  
• Added a game option to enable and disable the (F1) Debug menu.
  
• Removed “(Gleam Club)” from the beacon fuel tab timer.
  
• Adding info under the timer bar to show whether the player has Gleam Club protection active.
  
• Disabled showing some developer-orientated debug lines when the debug menu is enabled.
  
• Allowed Gleam Club members to re-tint wearables without requiring a tint kit.
  
• Increased the number of locations players are able to save from 32 to 100.
  
• Plants will not display drops only dropped during special events.
  
• Made portal information consistent across all GUI screens.
  
• Allowing players who have permissions to fuel beacons to see all the relevant beacon information.
  

SFX + Music:

• Added new audio option for selecting your speaker type.
  
• Mix adjustment according to audio playback and speaker preference made in the Settings menu
  
• Added swim animation audio.
  
• Above and underwater 3rd person swimming SFX.
  

Engine:

• CPU Performance improvements for the client entity system around areas with many players or many entity-blocks with large storages full of items.
  
• Optimised the way lighting configurations work to reduce bandwidth when connecting to worlds and reduce lag spikes on slower machines and PS4 due to the processing of the lighting configuration data. This should improve portal opening speed.
  
• Performance improvement in the client side entity-system to significantly reduce allocations caused by component updates.
  
• Reduced amount of planet-markers that are tested for terrain occlusion each frame to help prevent performance drops especially when looking at a planet near the horizon with the totem equipped.
  
• Reduced the number of packets sent from the server to the client to reduce the probability of packet loss and reduce chance of rubber-banding.
  
• Reduced amount of memory allocations during loading to improve loading performance and reduce memory fragmentation.
  

Bug fixes:

• Fixed an edge-case crash that occur if walking through a portal whilst your connection to the server is really bad and you are rubber-banding badly enough to be lerping long distances just as you transition.
  
• Fix an issue that could sometimes cause incorrect (too low) player counts to be reported for a world in the client (eg when looking at the player count on a warp or portal)
  
• Fixed more cases where Beacon fuel timing was reported incorrectly for Gleam Club members.
  
• Fixed a bug where Hoppers sometimes played their launch and landing animations twice.
  
• Fixed an issue where “Trader Block Seller” objective could not be completed due to the inclusion of items not currently in the game. These tasks have been removed from the Objective.
  
• Fixed status effect information closing when the character screen updates.
  
• Fixed Centraforge ingredients not displaying stability and vigour stats.
  
• Fixed an exploit that could cause many creatures to spawn around players. [Additional details withheld until release is Live.]
  
• Fixed an issue where Module Signs would not count towards “It’s a Sign” objective.
  
• Fixed natural resources not displaying the recipes they are used for in the knowledge screen.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused players to wobble to a stop on slopes instead of smoothly coming to a stop. Was a side-effect of a change to resolve an impact-damage issue in the physics which is now reverted and resolved in a different way that does not cause the wobbling behaviour.
  
• Fixed grammar errors in Defeat Penalty text in order to now read correctly.
  
• Fixed resource maps on globes not taking into account the different drop probabilities on different tiers of worlds. The resource maps will now correctly show for instance, a higher density of coal on a level 5 world compared to a level 1 world, even if the number and distribution of coal ore blocks are the same (since on the level 5 world more coal will drop from the blocks on average).
  
• Fixed resource maps not taking into account time limited events, so that spooky seeds from Halloween will no longer show up hot spots on the planets until the Halloween event next begins.
  
• Fixed client crash crafting token location out of settlement in the locations screen.
  
• Fixed an issue where level 3 healing bombs were healing hunger instead of energy. As we all know, you can’t eat bombs!
  
• Fix memory increasing due to not cleaning up all data for predicted entities.