Greetings Citizens

With our next big event kicking off on the 13th March at 1200GMT, it’s time to reveal the details of Gleambow Racing!

As you may have guessed, the event centres around Meteorites. On Level 3 and above worlds, some regular Meteorites will be replaced by special Gleambow Meteorites. These will be easily identifiable via their spectacular multicoloured trails, and will be around for a shorter period than a regular strike. Gleambow Meteorites will need two or more citizens to be present in one area in order to be triggered, and scale up physically according to how many citizens are present, so we’re looking forward to seeing some big group hunts!



Each Gleambow Meteorite will consist of 1 Core Material, and a scatter of Gleam. These will be random resources, in randomised colours, some of which may have never been seen in any of the Known Worlds before! (Note: These are base materials that are found in the wild, not crafted ones)

Upon reaching the Gleambow Meteorite, 50% of these blocks must be destroyed within a time limit. If this is not achieved, all blocks will default to the world’s existing colours. The reward will be Rough Oortstone and Gold Ore - as well as the abundance of materials harvested from the Gleambow Meteorite itself.

As usual, players will share the final reward (Oortstone/Gold) equally, but the blocks will be collected by whoever breaks them - so you’ll want to reach the site as quickly as possible when you see that tell-tale colourful trail.

The tool you’ll need for this is the special Gleambow Totem. This is essentially an upgraded version of the regular Totem in a cool new colour scheme. To craft this, you’ll need to combine a regular Totem with Elemental Fusion at a Workbench.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a Boundless event without some cool new wearables to pick up in the exchange, and we think you’re going to like this one - the Gleamicorn Horn will be available for the two weeks of the event only!



See you all in there!

Greetings Citizens, and welcome to the latest update to Boundless!

Thank you for your patience while we rolled out the update, and now that we’re live let’s run through what’s new.

The headline items are some awesome new Guild Buffs, some neat Advanced Locks, 3 brand new Global Messaging channels, and, for our PC players, the prototype of our Sanctum Editor (Fear not, PS4 players, it’ll be hitting the console version in the future, but due to technical reasons we’re only able to prototype the feature on PC for this release).

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.

Please report all issues discovered with the update with a new post in the support thread.

On to the full patch notes;

Overview:

• Added 4 new Guild Buffs.
  
• Added Advanced Locks.
  
• Added 3 new Global Messaging channels.
  
• Prototype Sanctum Editor (prototype for PC, coming to PS4 in the future).
  
• Important:

This update refactors the world IDs. This required us to increase the local world cache version number.

You may experience slower world loading as all world chunks will need to be downloaded.

If you switch between Testing and Live the cache will be reset automatically.

Release Notes:

Crafting + Resources + Equipment:

• Added 4 brand new Guild Buff Helix Machines to craft and use:
  
• Home Healing Helix - provides your guild members with healing whenever they are in a Guild-aligned Beacon. Available at Minor, Greater and Super levels.
  
• Building Safety Helix - grants your Guild members reduced fall damage and increased interaction range when within a Guild-aligned Beacon. Available at Improved, Super and Mega levels. The Mega level will reduce all fall damage!
  
• Brew Extension Helix - grants your Guild members the ability to extend the length of applied brews by killing creatures. Available at Improved, Super and Mega levels. The Mega level will reduce all fall damage!
  
• Gatherer Healing Helix - heals Guild members whenever they harvest a surface resource (Plants and Boulders). Available at Minor, Improved and Greater levels.
  
• Blocked removal of plots containing active Guild Helix machines, in order to stop players accidentally cancelling their Guild Buffs.
  
• Readjusted the Crafting times of some start game items to better improve the flow for new users as part of our recent ongoing improvements to the start of the game and to bring them in line with similar objects. For example, Earthyams should now be a lot faster to cook, closer to the time of cooking a starberry.
  
• Copper Bars: Was 40 seconds, now 30 seconds
  
• Glass: Was 60 seconds, now 30 seconds
  
• Glue: Was 40 seconds, now 20 seconds
  
• Beacon Control: Was 40 seconds, now 30 seconds
  
• Stone Furnace Base: Was 20 seconds, now 15 seconds
  
• Stone Furnace Crucible: Was 20 seconds, now 15 seconds
  
• Atlas: Was 60 seconds, now 30 seconds
  
• Stone Tools and Weapons: Were 30 seconds, now 10 seconds
  
• Storage Block: Was 60 seconds, now 40 seconds
  
• Storage Shelf: Was 60 seconds, now 40 seconds
  
• Cooked Earthyam: Was 60 seconds, now 25 seconds
  
• Cooked Waxy Earthyam: Was 60 seconds, now 25 seconds
  
• Cooked Exotic Earthyam: Was 60 seconds, now 25 seconds
  
• Cooked Meat: Was 120 seconds, now 60 seconds
  
• Cooked Prime Meat: Was 120 seconds, now 60 seconds
  
• Cooked Lean Meat: Was 120 seconds, now 60 seconds
  
• NOTE: These are some quick improvements to the early game crafting times. We’re still reviewing the feedback about crafting times in general.
  
• Added Advanced Locks:
  
• By default an advanced lock stops everybody except for the beacon owner (and guild directors or executives if the beacon is guild controlled) from accessing nearby items.
  
• Can be configured to allow access for characters by interacting with the lock.
  
• In a guild aligned beacon guild factions can be allowed access.
  
• In a guild controlled beacon only characters from the guild can be given access.
  
• If a character is removed from the guild while the beacon is guild controlled the character will be removed from any locks permissions.
  
• Looking at an advanced lock will show a red outline around all items locked.
  
• Multiple items can be locked by one lock.
  
• If 2 locks are placed next to an item it is locked by both locks. Characters need to have permission on both of them to access the item.
  
• Machines can be locked. Characters given access to the machine will be able to fully use the machine (including taking any items stored inside it!)
  
• Storage connected to a lock will lock up to 3x3 storage blocks (but you can place storage on both sides of a lock). Characters given access to the storage will have full access to the items inside.
  
• Powercores connected to a lock will lock the entire group of powercores.
  
• Buying and selling plinths can be locked. Characters with lock access will be able to access the plinth like the beacon owner (managing coin and stock).
  
• Signs can be locked. Characters given access to the sign will be able to edit its text.
  
• Portals can be locked. Characters given access to the portal will have full access so can fuel it (they can also take all of the fuel out so be careful!)
  
• Beacons, letter boxes and guild controls cannot be locked.
  
• Locks permissions can only be viewed by players with permissions on the lock and beacon workers and engineers.
  
• Locked items, Locks and the block they are attached to cannot be removed by anyone other than the beacon owner (and guild executives or directors if the beacon is guild controlled).
  
• Renamed existing locks to door locks. They only work for doors and stop anybody without permissions on the beacon from interacting with the door. If left open other players can still get inside.
  

GUI + HUD:

• Item Categories:
  
• Added Stack Category for new Beams and Poles which will now show as Beam Smart Stack or Pole Smart Stack when rolled over, previously just showing as Smart Stack.
  
• Added text for Helix Machine smart stack.
  
• Split the Raw Food Smart Category into “Raw Edible Food” and “Raw Inedible Food”. This should make it easier for new players to quickly spot food they can eat without the need to cook it.
  
• Furnaces now have a Recipe tab, allowing you to see what ingredients are required for crafting.
  
• Reworked inventory panel layout in UI screens to make more room above the fold.
  
• Furnace shows correct colour of output item whilst working.
  
• Added UI highlights during the tutorial for changing filters.
  
• Added a flash to the legend during the tutorial for changing tabs and filters on PS4.
  
• Tutorial now highlights missing ingredients.
  
• Global Messaging channels:
  
• Added a new set of global and public messaging channels to help everyone connect.
  
• Shops and Trading - A public channel for all players to promote their shops and ask for trades. You’d still need to visit shops and meet in person to trade.
  
• Looking for Group - A channel to promote builds, hunts, community events and other collective stuff.
  
• Questions and Help - A channel for players requesting and responding to help.
  
• The channels contain rate limits and a big group of players will be given the rank of messaging moderators to help us keep these global channel on target.
  
• All players who have the rank of Regular on the forum will be made moderators.
  
• Gleam Club members no longer count towards Guild membership limits, up to a maximum of 500 members per guild.
  
• The current world’s Capital is now available as a Warp Conduit destination in the Locations tab. Selecting this location will take you to the outskirts of the Capital.
  
• Changed text in “Undisputed Capital Of The World” objective to reflect being able to now use Warps to travel directly to the Capital.
  
• Coin in Shop Stands and Request Baskets is now always visible to owners.
  
• Guild Tags are now enforced to be unique, just like Guild Names. Note that existing duplicate tags have not been changed. You will need to contact us if you think another Guild has misappropriated your tag to resolve the issue.
  
• Improved frame delay opening Exchange.
  
• Updated Setting Your Warp Destination tip for more player clarity. Removed reference to Crafting and Trading Warp Conduits to draw focus to approaching one of the Warp Conduits in the sanctum and interacting with it to start the players first Warp.
  
• Added a new tab in the game menu screen to view past news events.
  
• The player will be alerted with a confirm popup when a forging potentially could destroy the forging tool.
  
• Added Durability Drain Mod stat in the character attributes information.
  
• Skill tooltip now provide stat information concerning the current rank and the next rank of the skill.
  
• The recipes on skill tooltips have been grouped together where appropriate.
  
• Changing the representation of completed objectives slightly to handle longer objective names.
  
• Updated wording on Start World screen for ‘Start on a Hostile World Button’ to explain that Creatures can attack first and will be hard to defeat.
  
• Improved “Guild Full” join button message for Factions to explain when Master Guild capacity is blocking joining.
  
• Added News Flashes for the main features of this release.

Engine:

• Added runtime checks of more game asset types to try and detect any corruptions to report to users to re-install the game or verify assets.
  
• Updated PS4 client to be built against latest Sony SDKs.
  
• Updated server compiler toolchains.
  
• Add instancing groups for simple prop meshes (e.g. storage). Repeated meshes near to each other are processed as one object during rendering. This improves frame rates around built up areas, especially on PlayStation 4, and reduces ram usage.
  
• Refactored how worlds are referenced by the universe making them easier to add and remove. This is foundation work required to enable: temporary or time limited worlds, player worlds, and event worlds.
  
• Created a script to validate that all guild members are correctly subscribed to their guild message channels.

Sanctum Editor: (prototype for PC, coming to PS4 in the future)

• Added a new debug panel from the F1 menu, currently only available on Windows, for editing the Sanctum locally.
  
• You will be able to fly in the editing-sanctum, use the F9 give menu and break/place/chisel whatever you want.
  
• The editing-sanctum will display a character model for where the player would normally spawn during the tutorial and normal runs of the game, as well as the tutorial totem and warp-augment (not collectable) to avoid breaking the tutorial flow.
  
• The F9 give menu now has a button for “give in-world selected” which will give you a full stack of whatever block you are looking at with your character in-game.
  
• The Sanctum Editor is the tool we used to create the default Sanctum and decorate it for the Lovestruck event.
  
• This editor is a first step towards an in-game prefab builder.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed some edge cases where beacon fuel duration would look like it isn’t protected by Gleam Club - when it was.
  
• Fixed an issue where guild leaders could not rename a district from other player’s controlled beacons.
  
• Updated the symbol on the mailbox so as not to be confused with the products of a certain multinational tech company.
  
• Fixed some presentation issues with the messaging GUI where they could be rendered with incorrect sorting.
  
• Fix not being able to send the letters ä, ü, ö, ß on world chat.
  
• Stopped guilds getting negative Endeavour scores when multiple simultaneous Endeavour transfers occur.
  
• Fixed incorrect tax modifier value when setting prices on Shop Stands in beacons owned by someone else.
  
• Fix text input cursor flashing while it moves
  
• Fixed users with permissions (but not guild-based permissions) not being able to interact with a beacon control.
  
• Fix XP bar in exchange screen not ticking up nicely anymore.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Boundless account type was not being displayed in the support screen.
  
• News events in the game menu screen will not display a “view in browser” button on PS4.
  
• Fix server crash when accepting a trade request at the same time as the other player cancels the request.
  
• Fixed a funky sign text rendering issue if you had a text with text and colour codes, and then removed all the text leaving just colour codes behind.
  
• Fix for the “Able to craft” filter not updating when adding input items to the inventory.
  
• Fix missing friends in Sanctum with large friend lists.
  
• Fixed a word order typo in the Sanctum Warp Augment tutorial, now reads press (button) to view rather than press to (button) view.
  
• Fix for automatically picking up items you drop at another players feet.
  
• Fix for occasional client crash when interacting with a crafting machine.
  
• Fixed error dialogs for fatal application errors not showing the details of the error but only its title.
  
• Fixed wearables not being tinted correctly in the inventory screen.
  
• Fixed some cases of characters popping out visually where they are stood, when stood very close to a short-range same-world portal pair that is being rendered (depending on order, previously ended up popping the character out so that it could be rendered as partially sticking out of the other side of the portal pair as we don’t support rendering the same entity in multiple positions in a single render pass).
  
• Fix a very rare client crash when throwing a bomb.
  
• Fixed a crash when looking at a beacon screen when it expires.
  
• Fix unintentionally unequipping a held item on PC (reported by a13o).
  
• Fixed bug producing infinite fate when the players apply fate reversal forge status effect on the forging process.
  
• Fixed guild membership limit workaround using factions.
  
• Updated Max Energy attribute for Earthyam Pie to use correct numbers, now shows as a greater max energy increase then Earthyam Loaf and matches game log.
  
• Fixed an issue where putting a totem into a request basket would show lots of blank entries.
  
• Hiding the various portal block states in in the request basket when a warp or portal block is requested.
  
• Fixed an issue where Guild messaging channels would be removed if they didn’t contain any messages.
  
• Fixed a rare client crash after creating a new character and then switching back to an older character.
  
• Fixed client crash when leaving the sanctum with a bad connection.
  
• Fixed typo in both Centraforge and Advanced Centraforge Power Coil text. Forging and Item to Forging an Item.
  
• Fix for Report button not working when reporting a player who started chat from a Mailbox
  
• Fixed occasional crash when switching characters.
  
• Fixed issue with range of Advanced Locks on large walls of storage. A single lock should protect 5x5 storage elements.

Hey folks,

We hope you're all enjoying the free weekend of Boundless! We thought this would be a good time to let you all know what we're currently working on for the next few updates to the game.


We’re following a development process where we alternate between updating Testing (our Steam branch for beta testing new features) and Live (the full game) every other week. Then Tick-Tock between minor and major feature updates to Live. 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.

(Unless someone suggests we do a free weekend, then we only have a few weeks of panic where we attempt to polish the new user experience, and all the releases get thrown up in the air!)

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 Poles, Beams and Letterboxes so it’s time to refresh the coming items on the roadmap.

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.

Special Worlds: Exoworlds will shortly start visiting the Boundless universe. These are worlds that enter the universe temporarily, orbiting around another world, before vanishing never to be seen again. Expect a constant stream of new worlds to explore, filled with resources to harvest, unique colours to snag, and a playground for future features. There’ll be no regen or beacons on these worlds so once they’re exhausted you’ll be ready for another. Exoworlds will also include the first Level 7+ Rift, Darkmatter and Blink worlds. A new challenge awaits, but only until you or they expire…

Gleambow Racing: An event unique to the Boundless universe. Race fellow citizens for the multi coloured prizes waiting at the end of the gleambow. But don’t be too slow or you’ll be left feeling a little grey. Gleambow totems at the ready!

Guild Buffs: Are all the guilds’ perks feeling a little alike? Well not once the next batch of guild buffs land:

• Home Healing Helix provides your guild members with healing whenever they are in a Guild-aligned Beacon.
  
• Building Safety Helix grants your Guild members reduced fall damage and increased interaction range when within a Guild-aligned Beacon.
  
• Brew Extension Helix grants your Guild members the ability to extend the length of applied brews by killing creatures.
  
• Gatherer Healing Helix heals Guild members whenever they harvest a surface resource (Plants and Boulders).

Global Chat: A new set of global and public messaging channels 2. To help everyone connect. They contain rate limits and a big group of players will be given the rank of messaging moderators to help us keep these global channel on target.

• Shops and Trading - A public channel for all players to promote their shops and ask for trades. You’d still need to visit shops and meet in person to trade.
  
• Looking for Group - A channel to promote builds, hunts, community events and other collective stuff.
  
• Questions and Help - A channel for players requesting and responding to help.
  
• Advanced Locks: for giving permissions to individuals and guilds to access storage and machines

Hunter: She’s still 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? She’s been coding, doing technical reviews, joining in with design discussions - we think we’re going to offer her a full time job. Get back to working on your own AI!

… and …

Farming: A new farming system is coming to Boundless with 4 cultivating domains:

• Organic farming - everything you’d expect - irrigated with placeable water.
  
• In-organic farming - grow yourself a nice bit of Kindling Mass and Combustion Fraction - irrigated with placeable lava.
  
• Garden Flower farming - to bring some much needed life, colour and prestige to your home.
  
• Dripstone farming - cultivate your own dyes by farming throughout the known worlds. Each world atmosphere will mutate your crop’s tint and with skill and perseverance you’ll open up the full spectrum of building materials.
  
• Oh, and did we say that placeable water and lava will be used for irrigation - or whatever else you can find a use for.

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

Let us know what you’d like to see next.

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!!

Hey everyone,

We’ve got some exciting news - Boundless is FREE on Steam for the entire weekend. The event will last until 8pm GMT Sunday, and the game will be on sale with a 30% discount during this time too, which will run until March 4th. So players who really enjoy their time in the free weekend can join in permanently at a discount.

If you’ve been waiting to join the game, or have friends who you’d love to convince to give it a try, then now is the time!

Let’s make sure to really welcome all our new citizens, and show off just how awesome and supportive a community of players we have. This is our chance to show off just what a brilliant world we’ve all been building together, so don’t be shy!

Hello Citizens! We have just released another update to Boundless, with the focus on making the opening of the game a little smoother for new players. Here are the full patch notes;

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.

Overview:

The aim of this release is to fix a collection of rough edges that hit many new players.

The most significant change for all players is that warping home is now free.

Release 215:

Sanctum + Tutorial + Objectives + Progression:

• Added an arrow that shows the steps in the tutorial to make following the tutorial easier.
  
• Added custom lighting to Warp Conduits during new user tutorial.
  
• Hide non-critical tips during the tutorial flow.
  
• Add an error log if you try to interact with a campfire, informing the user they cannot be interacted with or refuelled, and to use a beacon controller instead.
  
• On reaching level 10 and claiming rewards we now show a popup asking for feedback on the game.
  
• Make warping to your home beacon be free, rather than just allowing coins to go negative. All players can now always warp to their home beacon for free. This is to help players who get lost, or stuck on worlds with dangerous atmospheres.
  
• “Mapping the World” Objective can now be unlocked sooner by completing “Mountain High, Cave Deep” or having a Furnace in the inventory.
  
• The Core Objective “If you Build it They Will Come” has had its Prestige requirement to complete dropped to 150 from 200.

GUI + HUD:

• Add various icons and markers to the atlas when held up in front of you, as long as it is an atlas of the current world. Any settlements and players as well as your home and any currently set destination on the compass will be replicated onto the atlas with the same visual icons, as well as the top-50 settlements, and any settlements in your Places menu, and will also show any other players on the world even if not on the compass. The atlas will also show your saved locations and beacons from your Places menu with the usual planet-in-the-sky marker icons. No icons or markers will be shown if the atlas has any resources equipped.
  
• Made the atlas larger when held up in front of you to get a better view.
  
• Upon dying you will now be given a second choice, to return home via the sanctum. Technically this is not something new, as you could always do this by interacting with the second warp, but many users did not understand this. If you have the option to “revive” then this will replace the usual option to return to the sanctum.
  
• The game now supports Xbox One and Xbox 360 Controllers with relevant Icons.
  
• We will now only ever show the 3 most recent news items at the start of the game.
  
• Added an exchange promotion for upcoming special worlds.
  
• Added an exchange promotional item for our upcoming Gleambow Racing event.
  
• Exchange promotional items will cycle on entering the screen if there are multiple to be shown.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed a bug which inhibited progress in the tutorial for characters who have gleam club.
  
• Fix beacon refuel text when you need to get more plots from the Exchange.
  
• Fixed early tutorial so that the correct number of items are reported that need to be collected.
  
• Fix a crash with out of date clients when new time limited events are added.
  
• Fixed a client issue when returning home after death that could leave the client stuck in the sanctum if the connection to the server was lost (only applied to returning home after death).
  
• Fixed client crash when receiving rewards for >= 20 levels.

This time of year is perfect for celebrating companionship, so why not show your fellow Citizens how much you enjoy playing together?



From 1200 UTC today, until 1200 UTC on the 18th February, Boundless is getting Lovestruck!

Handcraft a Bouquet from Flowers commonly found throughout the Known Worlds, and Trade it with another Citizen to gift them a Heart Rock. You can then use this to Craft a Romantic Vase, Romantic Stone Column, or even some Heart Balloons to decorate your home!

Then head to The Exchange to pick up one of our time-limited Wearables, including the Lovestruck Mask, the Ribbon Fascinator, and the Climbing Roses Body Paint - you’ll love them!

Greetings Citizens

We've just released the latest update to Boundless!



We’re introducing a big drop of new building materials in this update, with 24 variations of Poles and Beams incoming. These are a little different to the Blocks you’re used to, with each Pole or Beam acting as a more streamlined piece (visually, they don’t take up a whole voxel), designed with connectability in mind. They can be placed on Blocks, or slotted together with automatically generated smart Connectors. For example, a Connector will appear between two Beams, but not between a Block and a Beam.

For more detail on the placement logic of the new pieces, James has a handy rundown in the patch notes, so I’ll quote;

• Both poles and beams can be place vertically and horizontally based on the surface they’re placed against.
  
• They have some new placement logic to assist with making structures. When poles connect to poles, and beams connect to beams they will follow the same orientation.
  
• When beams connect perpendicular into poles the beams will automatically extend into the pole voxel so that they’re touching.
  
• “Beams extend into Poles” is the rule.
  
• The chisel can be used to rotate the poles and beams around their longest axis.

These are a really cool addition to the visual language of Boundless, and we’re all looking forward to seeing how some of our super creative Builders can put them to use!

Letter Box

This release also includes another new Item to be placed in your Beacon, the Letter Box. This handy device allows Citizens to leave each other Private Messages, much as you would your Friends or Guild Team in Boundless. Say you’re exploring a World, come across an amazing Build and just have to congratulate the architect - just drop a Message into their Letter Box and they’ll get it next time they’re online.

This should have some useful implications for Traders too, allowing more nuanced negotiation and sales to be conducted within the Messaging System, making the most of its asynchronous capabilities.



General Improvements

Stepping away from new features for a moment, we’ve been hard at work on a wide range of bug fixes and general quality of life improvements. While there are way too many to list here, we’ll have updated patch notes very soon, which we’ll link here.

Lovestruck Event

Love is in the air! Boundless will be getting seasonal again very soon, with our Lovestruck event kicking off on the 7th February from 1200 GMT. It’ll run until the same time on the 18th February, during which time we’d like to invite you all to celebrate companionship in the Boundless Universe!

Collect Flowers from around the Worlds to Craft a Lovestruck Bouquet, which can then be Traded with another Citizen, the recipient will then receive a Heart Shaped Rock. (Please note, this will only happen once per citizen that you trade with - so get out there and meet your neighbours!) This can then be used to Craft some unique thematic Decorations for your home - Romantic Vases, Stone Columns or even a bunch of Heart Balloons! You’re also welcome to swing by The Exchange and pick up a Lovestruck Mask, Ribbon Fascinator, and Climbing Roses Body Paint in exchange for some Cubits.

We’re really looking forward to sharing this update with you all, so don’t be shy, let us know what you think! Remember, your feedback is incredibly useful (and we never get bored of seeing your awesome screenshots!)

Thanks, everyone, see you in the Known Worlds!

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.