Captain's Log 14: Happy New Year to ye, me hearties!

Ahoy Pathfinders!

We'd like to wish all ATLAS Pathfinders a very Happy New Year! It's been a crazy start to our voyage, and it's already filled with so many exciting memories for us here at Grapeshot Games! We've only just explored the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what ATLAS will be and we're excited for the future ahead. As each night passes, ATLAS gets one step closer to becoming one of the most ambitious online worlds of all time and fulfiling its destiny as the ultimate fantasy pirate adventure! Thank you so much for becoming a part of our crew and we can't wait to show all you scallywags, landlubbers, captains, and seadogs what lies ahead!

Development Update

We don’t have too much to add this week as the general battleplan is the same, though we’re going to do our best to keep you informed on a regular basis, via Social Media, Discord, and our weekly Captain's Log posts.

As mentioned in the previous Captain’s Log, our number one priority at the moment is tackling the stability, connection, and data issues, and we promised that we would make significant progress! Over the last few days, we have released a number of critical updates which have improved our server performance tenfold. We have statistically eliminated over 95% of all crashes, and are presently working on further updates to bring that number down even more. As a team, our direction is now shifting onto connection issues, data loss bugs and general balance and gameplay fixes -- as you can see, some of these changes are already underway!

Patch Notes up to v8.56: 

Current Version: v8.56

- Anyone can now demolish shipwreck structures to regain resources so get your diving suits ready!

- NPC Trading Ships are back and no longer affected by wild creature destruction commands! Reminder for those with deep pockets, the trader ships have an epic Dragon which can be purchased for 50,000 gold coins

v8.35

- Improvements made to joining/rejoining servers, should make it more reliable and eliminate many cases of connection lost/failure to grab server info.

v8.35

- Fixed a bug where HUD may not have shown to players in some cases.

v8

- Further improved server stability.
- Further reduced Ship of the Damned spawns by 20%
- Ship of the Damned now are allowed to "Wander" away from shore if they find themselves close to shore
- Ship of the Damned targeting ranges now are reduced by the type of ship (down to 30% for rafts (which means they will now attack rafts - but you have to get pretty darn close to them!) and 0% for dinghies)
- -LowMemoryMode now disables the background movies for lighter memory footprint
- Changed damage type on repair hammer to 0 against players, human npcs, and creatures
- Ships near shore do not attract cyclones anymore
- Vultures should now more easily harvest corpses
- Ships that players are based on do not use staggered updates now (resolving the issue of the choppy spyglass rotation when in the crow's nest, for example)
- Can no longer weapon-charge or dodge when encumbered.
- Fixed erroneous reference to chalcedony instead of flint base
- Added Ingots/Alloys and Organic Paste to the list of resources allowed in the ship repair box
- Tripled gathering weighting of metal in all the generic rocks for both pick and hatchet damage types
- Grenades damaged to stone multiplied by 3x
- Changed Human Crew character carry inv max weight from 1000 to 60.
- Switched damage weightings around so the pick tool is preferred from metal/crystal/gem/salts and hatchet for wood/coal/stone, etc. No adjustments have been made to yield changes, just tools have been adjusted.
- Fixed an issue with treasure bottle's spawning (there will now be more of them and more reliably spawned) and increased the quality of loot found in treasures.

v7.8

- Further server/networking optimisation to improve server performance and stability. We have effectively eliminated over 95% of our crashes. We'll be continuing to monitor our servers over the coming days ahead and tackle more events. Consequently, we will be turning our primary attention to data transfer issues and connection issues.
- Reduced Ship of the Damned targeting range by 50%. We're going to look into scaling that based on the type of ship.

v7.6

- Further server/networking optimisation to improve server performance, stability, and connection issues.
- Further tweaks made to Ship of the Damned should no longer wander close to shore, however, they may chase you.
- Shipyards are now properly tagged on the server side, so enemy players will not be able to demo them unless the decay timer has truly hit 0 on the server.

Link to complete Patch Notes:

Dynamic ATLAS Maps Round-Up

Pathfinders! It’s week 2 and here’s another round up of the Dynamic Maps! For those who aren’t familiar, The ATLAS Dynamic Maps is a system that monitors live in-game territory ownership and indicates which companies dominate over the lands. 

Soon, the Companies that have occupied Islands for a certain period of time will gain the automatic privilege to name them on the in-game and web maps, as it is their land! So each week with our Captain’s Log, we’ll be including an image to monitor the progress of the maps, taking note of any exits or new arrivals and any drastic changes in the overall claim. 

Who will come to dominate the ATLAS may very well become clear in the days and weeks ahead, though maintaining a large Empire will likely come with its own longer-term challenges...

Remember you can don your tribe’s company flag by stylizing it in the game with a paintbrush! Upload your own images or design it how you like, with the top company flags always being visible on https://map.playatlas.com/

[EU PVP] The Whale’s Wrath

Held:  XSM???, Cobra, French & Ships, Bad Company, Blackwater Company, BLDX DOUYU56876, and Chem B

Arrivals: PUBG GOLDEN HORDE, OOOOOOOOOF, and La Flotte Ancestrale

Departures: Le Saint Empire, The Holy Annwn Empire, Blackwater Company, and Marlong.

[NA PVP] The Kraken’s Maw

Held: Dynasty, MAGA, INFINITE, The Goodship Misery, High Seas Booty Bandits, Radium, and Order of Freedom

Arrivals: TPG, CSTG, and Barry Sails

Departures: Darkblade Army, Libertalia, and Black Sails.

And whilst there isn’t active PvP on PVE servers, we’d like to recognize the following tribes for their claims!

[EU PVE] The Siren’s Call

Held: Compagnie des Indes, M.E.R.C Spirit, Forlorn Hope, Unlucky, and Paragon.

Arrivals: Rum ueber Bord, I.C.E, Woelfe des Rudels, Future Company (HUN), PIRATES, and Febrirs Dogs

Depatures: Unlucky, I L O, UseR, Tacorsair, Starroad, and System of the Wipe. 

[NA PVE] The Hydra’s Den

Held: Biz Enton Company, Plunderers, Scales & Sails, The Salty Seamen, Dead Men Floating, and The Exiles.

Arrivals: Atlas Shrugged, blublublu, East India Trading Co., and Sail, Fail, Repeat.

Departures: Test Squadron, Bad Neighbors, The Exiles, Chronically Raving Co., and Pirates of Gore.

Show ‘n Tell!

Hear ye, hear ye!

We be seekin’ fer the finest of ATLAS community creations! Show us yer mighty fleets, paint pieces, flags & sails, impenetrable forts, hellish tats, scenic screenshots, 'n entertainin' videos! Each week, we'll be runnin' a contest where we'll select th' best o' th' bunch 'n award tha winners wit' a cash prize!

We’ll be extending the first contest until the following Monday as we started midweek, and wanted to give every one of you a chance to enter! Though, here are some of the fantastic Community Creations we’ve seen so far

Entries can be posted in the Creative Section, the Steam Workshop, or shared via social media! 

That's all for tonight! We hope you guys have a fantastic New Year celebration!

All the best,

Grapeshot Games

‍For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information‍

Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
Navigate ye olde Subreddit:https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
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