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    Captain's Log 22: March Milestone & Official Server Wipe

    Ahoy Pathfinders!

    This Captain’s Log will go into some of the finer details of what we shared during our livestream earlier today. If you didn’t have a chance to watch it, you can check out the full VOD here, which also includes live gameplay of some of the upcoming features:

    In previous logs, we stated that we would be visiting some major design aspects of the game which make it more accessible for smaller groups and solo players, along with reducing the steep climb necessary to experience some of the later game content. There is a lot that we want to do over the coming months, and this update will be the first of many to help resolve these problems. However, before we get into that, we’d like to talk about something pretty important.

         :anchor: Official Network wipe :anchor:

    Please note that this wipe will not be forced on Unofficial Servers, however the old claim flags will disappear and you’ll have to replace them or allow them to naturally populate.

    With the release of this first milestone, we will be wiping all our Official Networks. This is not a decision we’ve taken lightly, however we believe based on a number of reasons that this will be the best move for the game, moving forward. 

    First of all, the changes we are planning for this update are huge. We are completely redesigning the world layout, introducing new island types and biomes, adding new playable areas beneath and upon the ocean along with completely revamping the claim system. Due to the impact of these changes, we believe a wipe is the best course of action so that you can experience the update in a fresh environment, without being influenced by any of our legacy or deprecated code. 

    The wipe will allow us to see whether the changes we’re making are heading in the right direction, or whether we need to sit back as a team and further adjust our design for the game. We believe that these systems, which we’re going to discuss in more detail, are some of the most important and core aspect of ATLAS. Using your feedback, insight, and creativity, we want to build on the foundation of the game throughout Early Access and we’re willing to make the changes necessary, no matter how large, to get them to work. Whether that means more content, complete redesigns, or wiping the network when big changes have come in.

    Secondly, since ATLAS launched as an Early Access title, there have been a number of bugs, exploits, and patches made to the game that have had a significant impact on the state of the persistent world. A number of players have benefited or have suffered grievances due to these various since-fixed issues, whether they were taking advantage of crafting exploits, alpha babies, duping, or had their boats sunk by Gatling Ship of the Damned.

    As such, being a game that is focused on players building an empire, claiming and ruling over what’s theirs, and being the hero or villain they were meant to be; we believe that a wipe is necessary to put everyone back on an even playing field.

    Furthermore, we’ve been a little more soft in some cases when it came to players taking advantage of these game exploits. After the first wipe has taken place in March, that will no longer be the case. We will still prioritize fixing issues/bugs/exploits, so we encourage you to work with us when you’ve discovered something that could be exploitable. That is our mandate, fixing and resolving game problems, however we’ll be taking a more firm stance against the serious cases where a company has used an exploit without coming forward which could result in company-wide and or alliance-wide punishments. 

    Finally, at the end of March, when this update drops, we’ll be commiserating those of you who have taken part in ATLAS’ first iteration. We’ll be rewarding all players who have ever logged into Official ATLAS prior to the wipe with a special cosmetic item that you’ll be able to keep post-wipe. Please keep an eye out for our announcements for when the deadline is, so you can be sure to get the cosmetic!

    large.891083673_CosmeticReward.jpg

         :anchor: March milestone :anchor:

    large.March_Milestone_8.png

     

    With this patch, the team have a number of primary and secondary objectives. With our primary and biggest changes we hope to address the following:

    • Players not being able to find land to build a base on both PvP and PvE
    • Offline Raiding
    • Incentivizing large companies to work with smaller and solo groups
    • Players not being able to connect/spawn on a server

    We recognize that these aren’t the only aspects of ATLAS which need to improve. There are problems with the new player experience, how punishing it is to recover after you’ve been defeated, server performance during large epic battles, viability of creatures, weapons, boat builds, etc. The list can go on and these are things which we plan to address, and more in the coming months ahead.

    This patch, however, will primarily be focused on the points we mentioned above, and will hit our PTR/Test Live Environment a week before it makes its way onto the main game, so you’ll be able to get an early look at it and experience it on that network.

    Please let us know your thoughts about this upcoming update, we value your feedback and insight. We don’t claim to be omniscient, and you may raise attention to something we hadn’t considered which will either result in us adjusting the design further, or we’ll consider how to tackle those concerns at a future date.

         :sword: claim revamp and war system :sword:

    General Rules

    • Players can now build anywhere, without owning a Settlement (an island which has been claimed).
    • An island which has been claimed is now known as a Settlement.
    • Only one claim flag can be placed per island, and the owner (player/company) is the owner of that Settlement.
    • There will be a hard limit on the total number of claim flags.
    • Islands are given a rank based on their location, size and how valuable they are. These rankings will be used to determine upkeep, as well as identify the Top 10 Companies which will be a sum of all the islands that Company has claimed.
    • Structures that are built on islands that are not Settlements can be raided at any moment. 
    • Fog of War and Shroud of War have been eliminated, so the entire ATLAS will be shown to everyone.
    • World Map will now show the name of an Island (which can be changed by Settlement owners), who a Settlement is owned by, the current tax rate, and the current war status of the island.
    • Islands will have colored overlay for ownership (Owned by you, an ally, or non-ally).

    Company Updates

    • NPC crew on offensive/defensive seated structures will no longer count towards the tame limit whilst seated.
    • Company limit has been reduced to 250 members
    • Group ranks have now been increased to 10
    • Alliance changes will now be logged in the Company Log
    • You can now sort the Company log to display entries from top to bottom
    • A new group setting which can grant ‘owner’ permission for company members, which can only be set by the owner and unset by the owner. Members with the ‘owner’ permission will not be able to remove the actual Company Owner from the company.
    • An alliance now only contains a maximum of 4 companies
    • A company can only be in 2 different alliances at a time.

    Claim Flags

    • Sea Claim Flags have been eliminated
    • Claim flags can no longer be used to steal structure ownership on land
    • Claim flags can no longer be merged into other companies
    • There will be a hard limit on the total number of claim flags per company. For example, 20. Numbers can be adjusted.
    • A claim flag cannot be placed without a tax bank.
    • Claiming an island will take a fixed amount of time plus an additional amount per claim flag owned. For example, 1 hour to claim and +1 hour per owned claim flag. Numbers can be adjusted.
    • Declaiming will always take a fixed amount of time. For example, 2 hours. Numbers can be adjusted.

    Claim Flag Upkeep

    • Claim Flags now have an upkeep cost which is paid from the tax bank
    • The upkeep cost will be an assortment of resources.
    • The upkeep cost will scale on the size of the island, the total number of claim flags a company has, and how many different companies/players are building on the island.
    • Players can only place items into a tax bank that go towards upkeep
    • Claim Flag will have a grace period after successful claim to allow resources to gather in a tax bank before upkeep is charged
    • The claim flag will visualize if the upkeep will not be met, so players are able to contribute directly to the Tax Bank. The Tax Bank will now stack resources like a ship resource box.

    Settlements

    • Settlement owners must set a window of vulnerability, currently set to 9 hours, where their island is raidable. Outside of this window, players, structures and ships will not take damage from other players. 
    • There will be a timer on players before they receive the invulnerability status.
    • Anchored boats or docked boats will follow these same rules, if they are in the radius of a Settlement
    • Non-settlement owners who have cannons on ships and are anchored shall not be allowed to fire cannons outside of wartime.
    • Settlement owners can freely damage other characters and structures on their island. 
    • Settlement owners can set taxes on their island which will automatically be deposited into the Tax Bank
    • Structures that are built on a Settlement which do not belong to the Settlement Owner will have a decay timer.
    • Player Run shops which are placed on islands can also be taxed by Settlement owners

    Declaring War

    • Players can purchase a war token (significant cost) which can be used to declare war on an island.
    • When war is declared on an island, players must select a schedule time in the future (3 days to 1 week)
    • Only one war can be scheduled at once
    • There is a cooldown after a war has ended before another war could be declared on that island
    • Declaring war is per-island, so it is possible to declare war against multiple islands at the same time.
    • The UI will indicate whether an island is experiencing Wartime soon or is currently in Wartime.
    • Wars will last a fixed period of time
    • When an island has been deemed warlike, building rules no longer apply. After the war has ended, the normal rules are enacted again. 

    Settlement Build Rules

    • Only the owner of a Settlement will be able to build offensive structures (mortars, cannons, and swivels) on their island, outside of Wartime.
    • Other companies can build defensive structures (puckle) at any time.
    • Other companies can build offensive structures ONLY during Wartime. Outside of Wartime, these structures are non-functional (inactive and unusable)

    Notification System

    • Players can sign up for email notifications related to company log activity
    • Company Logs that have any physical in-world location shall now include the grid and GPS. (e.g a boat was sunk on K5 at 50 50)
    • Discord Webhook for in game company notifications

    Lawless Servers

    • Will continue to operate like normal, no islands on these servers can be claimed.
    • Reduced structure placement rules
    • Damage decay added over time on all structures

    PvE Network

    • No claim flags
    • Damage decay overtime added to all structures
    • A new auto-repair structure which players will need to upkeep to prevent structures from being destroyed by decay.

    :map: world redesign :map:

    This milestone will also introduce some world changes to the ATLAS itself. The overall objective from these changes is to provide players with more land to use for their bases, as well as a general update for our current biomes and introducing new areas to explore.

    • Over 200 islands added to the network, approximately 1 additional island per grid.
    • Players can now set any server as their home server. Following the wipe and the potential for freeports to be overloaded, we’ll be temporarily enabling setting any ATLAS server as your homeserver. Additionally, we’ll most likely create a respawn on current server option too.

    :pirate_mask: full notes for march milestone :pirate_mask:

    - New Vehicle: Submarine. Explore the depths of the ocean in this small scouting submarine. No weapons on board, but it does have claw arms to help harvest the ocean floor and explore (demolish) shipwrecks

    large.Submarine.png

    The submarine can also light up its surroundings, and will require fuel to run. The fuel cost will be based on movement, so the more it moves, the more it uses. Additionally, there will be a higher cost for movement that is lateral (forward/backwards) compared to longitudinal (upwards/downwards). The submarine will not outclass ships as you’ll need to pay a lot in fuel costs to be able to travel far, the intention is to use them in these underwater deeping-diving scenarios. It’ll be unlocked and can be driven by defeating the Kraken, though players will be able to be passengers in other users submarine’s without having completed the Kraken quest.

    - New Environment: Deep Ocean Trench. A new area to explore, guarded by powerful underwater creatures and home to the new Giant Crab.

    large.1093801945_UnderwaterTrench.png

    The trench will be found on the Golden Age Ruin servers and contain 8 new power stones which can be used to unlock fight a more difficult version of the Kraken. It’ll be an area where players can find new resources, new creatures, such as the Crab with more to come in the future.

    - New Creature: Giant Crab. It can heavy loads, along with players, tames and wild creatures

    large.Crabs.jpg

    The crab can be found in the Trench and it is a tamable creature. It’ll have the ability to carry and throw other players/creatures, and it can also jump very far. These abilities may change over time as we progress further into ATLAS’ development.

    - New Environment: Eastern Tundra now has its own visual design, no longer using the Western Tundra style

    large.1437529941_EasternTundra.jpg

    We’ll be updating the eastern side of the Tundra to have it’s own unique design!

    - New Structure: Guillotine. Hanging your foes in a noose taking too long? Off with their heads!

    large.Guillotine.jpg

    When you behead another player, the game will remember their facial appearance and hairstyle, which can be used as decoration on wallhooks (on gunmounts too)!

    - New Feature: Curses. Tied to the execution of players

    When executing a player, you’ll now receive a % of their experience points. This will have a cooldown, so it cannot be used to quickly drain/transfer experience, and some general experience will be lost when the transfer occurs. We’re not intending for this to be an incredibly aggressive feature, but something more fun which occurs when executing players. We’ll be expanding the curses system more later on.

    - New Feature: Squads (ships) of the Damned will now come in multiple size variations with different stats and difficulty levels.

    large.1951006312_ShipoftheDamned.jpg

    Ships of the Damned will now appear in squads! They’ll contain an assortment of various types including Galleons of the Damned, Brigantines of the Damned, and Schooner of the Damned. These types will determine their difficulty, and the loot will scale based on the level of the damned, as well as type of damned that the squad is comprised of. For example, a Squad containing 2 Galleons is going to reward better loot than a Squad containing 5 Schooners. Loot will be rewarded on a per-ship basis. The intent behind this change is to make the fight less predictable and a more interesting experience out on the seas. We are not planning for them to be killing machines or an immense threat, they’ll still maintain a reduced targeting ranged and players will have the choice whether to engage in battle or to flee. However it should be noted that they will now share the same target when attacking.

    - New Cosmetics: Peg Legs and Hook Hands.

    large_Hook.png

    These will be acquired through the cosmetic vendor in freeports, as they won’t be providing any stat benefits, we prefer that they are readily available for players. You will not be able to equip both the left hand and left leg (or foot) at the same time. Additionally, it will not be colourizable nor can it be used on naked characters but we are working on both of these aspects.

    - New Cosmetics: Multiple Armor sets to customize the look of your company and crew! Provided as a permanent unlock for completing the Quests in addition to skill rewards.

    large.982918069_HideCyclopsArmour.pnglarge.Heavy_Hydra_Armour.PNGlarge.Fur_Hydra_Armour.jpglarge.1841105216_ClothCyclopsArmour.png

    Rest of the Notes

    - New Feature: Player shops in freeports. Players can set up automated shops in each Freeport, listing loot for sale and naming their own gold coin prices.

    Balance Changes

    - The higher quality shipyard used when building a ship, the more level ups a ship will be able to obtain.
    - Ships can now level up their total damage output (which effects all cannons on a ship) and their total resistance, as new upgradable stats.
    - All tamable creatures will be made breedable, with no exceptions except for Mythical Creatures.
    - Vitamin Rebalance
    - Various spawner adjustments & fixes across all islands

    QOL Changes

    - Territory map will now display allies as teal-coloured
    - Character creator now has a Height slider to make it easier to set your character's desired height
    - Any dead ships (shipwrecks) from your Company appear with a unique icon on your map now, so you can find the wrecks
    - Global territory message updating
    - Currently contested claims will be indicated on the minimap
    - Players can now mount a sail to directly control the sail's open/close amount and rotation settings in a more intuitive way.
    - Pistol Reloading now changed to have the mini game appear back to back, rather than through various points of the animation.
    - All servers can now be set to a home server and have unique spawn points
    - Players can also respawn on the server they died on
    - Grappling Hook has been revamped, better physics & rappelling mechanics, and players will be able to realistically swing using them.

    As more changes are made to the patch, these notes will be edited to include them. 

         :skull: Anarchy Update - v20! :skull:

    With our planned changes for March, the game will be heading into a more rule based system, so for the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes to experience what it would be like if we took an alternative route. 

    We’ll be releasing an update tomorrow which includes the following changes:

    - 6x Rates - Harvesting, Taming, Experience, and Gold.
    - Claim flags will no longer prevent enemy building. You can now build anywhere, and only structure build radius will prevent it. This is a non-default, which will be enabled on our PvP Networks. Unofficials can also use this as a custom server-side config.
    - All servers, other than Golden Age Ruin servers, can be set to home servers, allowing players to respawn at them.

    Game.ini:
    [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
    bDontRequireClaimFlagsForBuilding=1
    bIsLawlessHomeServer=1

    This is what we’re enabling on all our non-Golden Age ruin servers, but please note that you must also flag the corresponding grids as homeservers on the servergrid.json

    This patch will also include:

    - Whispering voice hotkey
    - Server side config that allows you to alter the distance for the 3 voice modes: Whispering, Normal, and Yelling.

    Game.ini:
    [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
    ProximityRadius = 8500
    YellingRadius = 22000
    WhisperRadius = 2000

    - Removing the Destruction Mesh on Lighthouses
    - Increased the limit of folders in inventories from 20 to 40, and 80 in Bookshelves
    - Treasure Map names now includes the grid for easy filtering

    These changes will allow us to see how the game would pan out if we didn’t have the claim system affect build rules, which helps us collect more feedback on playstyles.

    :anchor: released patch notes :anchor:

    Complete Patch Notes

    :skull: up to v19.62 :skull:

    v19.62
    
    - New style Claim Flag with improved flag physics
    - Improved mini map X icon for visibility
    - Added chat tabs
    - Reorganized claim flag notifications (requires updated server)
    
    v19.52
    
    - Fixed multiple cases where inpulses would be stacked causing players or creatures to be launched into the distance.
    
    v19.51
    
    - Disabled the use of some client side console commands which could be used to gain an unfair advantage in PvP
    
    v19.5
    
    - Army of the Damned Soldiers and Crew melee attacks now properly hit.
    - Fixed an issue with servers that could have stalled them out for significant periods of time (5+ seconds)
    - Improved general server performance
    
    v19.4
    
    - Further optimized server performance
    - Fixed issue where Buffs were not being added (drinks and such) if you were on a seating structure, or if you were encumbered.
    
    v19.3
    
    - Significantly improved server performance when unstasising structures (50%+).
    - Fixed the bug where picking up stat'ed Structures would eliminate quantity of existing structures in your inventory.
    - Fixed a case where server-side Spoiling Times were incorrect on preserving bins.
    - Whale corpses now last 30 minutes
    - Giraffe harvesting now yields 6x thatch
    
    v19.21
    
    - Doubled maximum server physx substeps to maintain more consistent ship movement at low server framerates.
    
    v19.2
    
    - 2x Harvesting, XP, Taming and Gold enabled on the Official Network until Monday 25th.
    - Bookshelf added to organize your maps, blueprints, notes, and songs. You can learn it from the Esotery of Building skill.
    - Signs/Canvases can now be placed on storage boxes and bookshelves to help indicate what they're used for.
    - Note added to the game to leave each other messages. You can learn it from the Secrets of Building skill.
    - Company UI now displays last online time for members
    - Significant server optimizations (company network data is now replicated more efficiently to clients)
    - Maximum ship level is now 52.
    
    v18.97
    
    - Fixed Melee damage application to Army of the Damned
    - Fixed NPC crew disappearing for a fraction of a second when mounting on cannons 
    - Prevented climbing of the Kraken barrier wall 
    - Improved Cyclops movement to allow it to clamber over rocks better

    :map: Dynamic atlas maps roundup :map:

    The ATLAS Dynamic Maps is a system that monitors live in-game territory ownership and indicates which companies dominate over the lands. 

    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. 

    Those 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…

    The companies that have occupied islands for a certain period of time will soon gain the automatic privilege to name them on the in-game and web maps, as it is their land! 

    Remember you can don your Company’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

    large.1399027072_EUPVPTheWhalesWrath-Week10.png

    Held: French & Ships, The French Monkeys, IVANARMY, Eternal Diamond, CHZ!!**, Kraken, Dark Project Armada, Frogue One and Stray Cats.

    Arrivals: Just Look for Merge

    Departures: Enslaved

    [NA PVP] The Kraken's Maw

    large.1232175594_NAPVPTheKrakensMaw-Week10.png

    Held: Dynasty, TPG, CSTG, OwO, The Federation, No No No, Uganda, SoV, Bobs of the Seven, and Team Casualty.

    Arrivals: Slam Whales

    Departures: CSTG

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

    [EU PVE] The Siren's Call

    large.949384360_EUPVETheSirensCall-Week10.png

    Held: Compagnie des Indes, Rum ueber Bord, Future Company (HUN), SouL SanD, SwiftS.RU, Black Hand, Phantasia, M.E.R.C Spirit, and mochi. 

    Arrivals: War Bradaz

    Departures:  DoS Bros$

    [NA PVE] The Hydra's Den

    large.1229272131_Week7-NAPVE-TheHydrasDen.jpg

    Held: Scales & Sails, Atlas Shrugged, The Exiles, East India Trading Co, Sons of Orion, Without Divide, Lotus, Poets and Pirates, and Darksea Dawgs.

    Arrivals: Paragon

    Departures: TPG

        :pirate_mask: SHOW 'N' TELL #5 :pirate_mask:


    We’re still collecting entries for the Show ‘n Tell! So you have a little longer to astound us with your creations, be they your fleets, building designs, imaginative tatts, entertaining videos, original fanart or scenic screenshots. Don’t be shy and head to the submission thread for a chance to win some booty in the form of a cash prize!

     

    :wheel:

    Alrighty, that ’s it for this log! 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!

    Happy Sailing,

    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
    Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
    Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame

    Edited by Jatheish

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    13 hours ago, Kidori said:

    We will see how it plays out.

    However, you (devs) would be wise to have a backup plan in place and ready to implement before the wipe if the feedback on the PTR servers goes nuclear.

    The PTR works well for checking the implementation of some changes, to make sure that they don't completely bork things.  Unfortunately, the limited number of people that will use the PTR are the dedicated people who want to play the game and make it better. They aren't the same people who will grief the hell out of the live servers.

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    30 minutes ago, MeatSammich said:

    The PTR works well for checking the implementation of some changes, to make sure that they don't completely bork things.  Unfortunately, the limited number of people that will use the PTR are the dedicated people who want to play the game and make it better. They aren't the same people who will grief the hell out of the live servers.

    1. Wondering if the 1 week they're planning to have this patch on PTR will be long enough for more than 1 iteration of feedback. 
    2. The more potential for grief we can identify and report during PTR, hopefully the fewer opportunities for it on live!

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    I noticed that the patch notes still show the 7 new main quests (though I may have missed it listed here), but the daily missions seem to have been removed from the notes, is this no longer planned or is it just pushed back?

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    1 hour ago, Polar Express said:

    They have essentially added pve to pvp. This is good imo. The landlord system is good too. The pillar spam shouldn’t happen due to upkeep. All these things are good. No solo or small company should own a whole island. That’s ludicrous. If you want your own island I suggest populating one of the dead unofficial servers. You can have 10 islands if you like. Raid windows is a good idea. So you won’t see salty small groups bitching on forums that they were offlined. 

    The pve servers will end up with seperate rules and their own updates like what has happened in the past. Pvpve is a good balance to this game. Actual pve players seem to be the only ones in this entire thread complaining about the update as a whole. Chill out guys. It’s not even out yet. There are no real details on anything yet. The way the devs are leading the game is good imo and I’m sure a lot of other people agree. Ask pvp players in general. This sound a little bit like kid gloves but I’m sure most will acknowledge that it will stop small groups and solos complaining because there isn’t really a reason to anymore. 

    I like the proposed changes.

    I think part of the reason the PvE community is complaining is the difference in explanations of coming changes during the stream.

    What they said about the changes to PvP sounded well thought out.  It was coherent and, while not a guarantee that it'll work as they think, it's definitely worth finding out .  It could be really interesting.  They've obviously had some very productive brainstorming sessions.  Awesome.

    Then you get to the description of changes to PvE... There really wasn't a whole lot there, was there?  Maybe they'll get back to it later but right now it seems like there were no brainstorming sessions for this side of the game.  There was no coherent framework explained as there was for PvP changes.  Might work out just fine, but adding upkeep and calling it a day doesn't really inspire that much confidence. 

    I do think the PvP changes coming sound intriguing though and if their vision can become reality, it sure does have a lot of potential.

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    23 minutes ago, Kveldulf said:

    I think part of the reason the PvE community is complaining is the difference in explanations of coming changes during the stream.

    What they said about the changes to PvP sounded well thought out.  It was coherent and, while not a guarantee that it'll work as they think, it's definitely worth finding out .  It could be really interesting.  They've obviously had some very productive brainstorming sessions.  Awesome.

    Then you get to the description of changes to PvE... There really wasn't a whole lot there, was there?  Maybe they'll get back to it later but right now it seems like there were no brainstorming sessions for this side of the game.  There was no coherent framework explained as there was for PvP changes.  Might work out just fine, but adding upkeep and calling it a day doesn't really inspire that much confidence. 

    I do think the PvP changes coming sound intriguing though and if their vision can become reality, it sure does have a lot of potential.

    Another part is that people that dont play PvE dont know what its like to see your precious resources blocked of by some random kid that plops down a single foundation in your nodes and there is nothing you can do about it with these new changes.

    With the claimflags you could atleast change the area to be company only and remove the offending foundation after the timer expired.

    Even though i play PvE i think the PvP changes sound great, it will help smaller and bigger companies to not get offlined (which we all know is among the worst that can happen).

    The settlement stuff sounds really cool but it feels more of a PvE change than a PvP change to some extent. As you said, we still need more information on the PvE side of things before we can make any assumptions but its important that we dont just lay down and die and wait for the PTR to hit (which isnt even guaranteed to have a PvE server). Especially not if they only put them up 1 week before the planned date since by the time that week has gone and the wipe has gone through before they are able to sift through all the feedback on the new system and by then it will be to late to change it without causing another uproar.

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    Please adjust the PVE stance, if you allow building everywhere you are either going to end up with foundation spam or its going to be so expensive to upkeep your structures that it prevents those who love to build bases (a large chunk of Atlas/Ark) as they will have to be mindlessly farming to upkeep their castle.

    There is no middle ground. People will be building on resource spawns with little or nothing to do about it.

    THE SOLUTION!!!

    1. Limit claim flags to 1 per person.

    2. Increase the claim flag size to roughly halfway between the current sea claim and current land claim size.

    There is plenty of land in Atlas today in PVE if you exclude the select few who own 100+ flags.

    Everyone wins.

    1. It solves the land grab and lack of land to claim

    2. It allows companies to protect valuable resource spawns

    3. It prevents pillar spam

    4. It removes the need to endlessly grind resources to afford the upkeep

    5. You still have a place to make your own, to build on as you wish without being impeded by your neighbor

    So much more, the system works, just limit us all to 1 claim flag per person.

    We love this game, we love to build & breed, you fixed breeding, now don't make it so that we are all stuck with tiny little bases as its so expensive to maintain.

    If you make it too inexpensive to maintain then we get pillar spam.

    Either way, we lose, please, keep the flag system, just modify it, 1 per person is plenty!!!! and there is enough space for it and more!

     

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    1 hour ago, Kveldulf said:

    Then you get to the description of changes to PvE... There really wasn't a whole lot there, was there?  Maybe they'll get back to it later but right now it seems like there were no brainstorming sessions for this side of the game.  There was no coherent framework explained as there was for PvP changes.  Might work out just fine, but adding upkeep and calling it a day doesn't really inspire that much confidence. 

     

    Exactly.  You notice the only mention of PvE was a tiny afterthought at the end of the Captain's Log.   At the moment, Grapeshot is fixing up some honey-baked PvP ham for their Atlas sandwich.  PvE is merely the mayonnaise schmear on their bread (pun intended).

    March Atlas PvE update.JPG

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    3 hours ago, Polar Express said:

    They have essentially added pve to pvp. This is good imo. The landlord system is good too. The pillar spam shouldn’t happen due to upkeep. All these things are good. No solo or small company should own a whole island. That’s ludicrous. If you want your own island I suggest populating one of the dead unofficial servers. You can have 10 islands if you like. Raid windows is a good idea. So you won’t see salty small groups bitching on forums that they were offlined. 

    The pve servers will end up with seperate rules and their own updates like what has happened in the past. Pvpve is a good balance to this game. Actual pve players seem to be the only ones in this entire thread complaining about the update as a whole. Chill out guys. It’s not even out yet. There are no real details on anything yet. The way the devs are leading the game is good imo and I’m sure a lot of other people agree. Ask pvp players in general. This sound a little bit like kid gloves but I’m sure most will acknowledge that it will stop small groups and solos complaining because there isn’t really a reason to anymore. 

    I like the proposed changes.

    So if 50 PVE players don't like the proposed updates but you do though you are PVP, does that mean you are the only one who is right?

     

    Seriously dude stop going on about PVE. It's not what you play. Leave us PVE people to try and express our disappointment and wish for these changes to be stopped for PVE.

    Thisis what the forums and feed back.

     

    To be honest I don't care you like the changes for PVP. Great wonderful brilliant. Just shut up about PVE and the fact we don't like it. We are entitled to not like the changes. You are not important enough to tell us to chill out. We dont want to. Enough.

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    March Atlas PvE update.JPG

     

     

    300 hours of the game to the garbage I can not claim land whatever you build will be damaged over time. Ah, but they are going to give me a stupid hat that will replace my gold boats and resources that will take me away. Of course it sounds fair! I'm left with nothing and fuck the pve, but what else will I have a hat! Give me back my money and put your stupid hat up your ass.

    Edited by andariego
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    I understand why there is going to be a server wipe, but I feel like everything I've grinded for all this time was for nothing.   Finally after searching and searching for days, maybe weeks,  I found a good place to lay down a base of operations, built a home with my shipyards and it's all going to be destroyed.

    So basically there's almost no point in playing until the wipe occurs.

    I think this is going to be my last early access game.  I don't want to pay to beta test anymore. 

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    It's like watching a really long movie and discovering at the end, it was all just a dream.

    Surely there could have been a better way than a complete wipe.  I almost feel that was the easy way out.

    This game is/ was a huge grind to start with.  Now all that was for nothing.

    Early access shouldn't mean "beta access".  Only on beta servers you can expect everything you've done count for nothing, and could be wiped at any time.

    Like I said before, I'm not paying to be a beta tester anymore.

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    Do not like the new claim system at all...may as well get rid of claims period and just have no flags and no settlements...I think the current claim system actually DOES work, the problem is you guys never removed legacy flags under a different rule set. I had neighbors with overlapped flags, 3-4 in the same area as one should be, I couldn't do that because the new ruleset assigned to my flag prevented me from placing a new flag within that flag's claim area. If you had done a simple wipe and restricted claim flags to 1 per person that would have been enough to solve those issues. Like usual though, you overcompensated and made it overly complex to solve a simple problem, you guys actually somehow managed to make your game worse which I didn't think was possible...what a shame.

     

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    300 heures de jeu perdu ... pour au final avoir un chapeau moche en cadeau 😄 ok le patch est coool mais franchement ... le reset est horrible ... vous avez déjà perdu la moitié de vos joueurs ... vous allez perdre encore une moitié de la moitié qui reste 😞 La pire chose le reset surtout après autant de temps ....

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    Most of the upcoming changes are welcome or interesting, your patch has potential and the game might get better and better.

    Yet your decision of wiping the characters is unnecesary and in my opinion totally disappointing, most people including me spent a good portion of their gameplay levelling up their characters, I myself decided to invest a major portion of the game to farm discovery points to then be able to enjoy the game and chill later on. which means that I have given up on fun and enjoyment of the game to farm discoveries, which was ok and worth it for the character and now you decide to wipe them making us all have to do it again? Characters have nothing to do with your upcoming patch, only companies, building etc have to do with it. If u want to force a wipe reset us all to lvl 1 but at least allow us to keep our discovery points, its too much of a struggle to get them all back again. Since you made it kind of a core part of the game to farm discoveries, which can be fun for the first few hours and it then gets tiring and surely not fun, you should really think this through, its getting a lot of people mad and you have never explained why you are doing this.(character-wise).  Please either explain us why you are doing this or just let us keep our characters. I mean, after playing your games for  years, I wouldn't be surprised to hear that your explanation was something like: 'we aren't able to wipe the servers and keep the characters untouched because of the way we store information in our database'.  But at least that would be some kind of an explanation (not a good excuse, but a valid one), right now all we know is that we are gonna lose everything, even what is not needed to be lost, because of.... yeah we have no clue. And the advantage thing and all is pointless. if that was the case you'd have to wipe the server every day to keep it safe and fair. I hope that you wont wipe the servers and characters again in a month due to another major exploit. There will always be exploit, it's bound in your way of implementing stuff and in the engine you are using and especially in the EA concept itself.

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    13 hours ago, MeatSammich said:

    The PTR works well for checking the implementation of some changes, to make sure that they don't completely bork things.  Unfortunately, the limited number of people that will use the PTR are the dedicated people who want to play the game and make it better. They aren't the same people who will grief the hell out of the live servers.

    What we need is a dedicated group of testers to "test out" these new changes.  I'm betting 1 week is long enough to demonstrate the ultimate results at least in one map sector.  🤨

    After that one can just extrapolate, even though that requires...math.    1 week with 4 people can produce X, so 2 weeks with 300 people can produce Y.

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    One Wipe ... Ok there will be more Wipes in Future.... so all you do after wipe will be wiped again.. May? June? 

     

    a Hat? Really?  What game would you play where you invest 500 hours to get a cosmetical hat?

     

    Did anybody else hear about rumours of  something like game design / motivation / keeping player interested / motivated?

    like for example progression systems ... ? leveling? Badges? Achievements?  Gathering? Building? ......

     

    Wiping everythign ist just the easy way out... there are alternative options....

     

    So everybody gets motiviated / satisfaction in any kind of progress .... RIP

    Edited by SeekTheOne

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    I don't mind a server wipe that's coming but why can't you save the progression of our Pathfinders now that they log out of the world completely, it's the releveling of our pathfinders that is the grind, unless you give us a x6 week [7days] after the wipe.

    is there a way to save the pathfinders progression?

    or if not then PLEASE give us a week of x6 to give us a chance to get back to where we are now.

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    Quote
    • An alliance now only contains a maximum of 4 companies
    • A company can only be in 2 different alliances at a time.

    This pretty much kills anything other then mega companies. A mega company can only have 6 other companies as allies, why would they waste spots on small companies. Currently if a mega comes into your little square you basically get the choice, ally, merge or wipe. Ally isn't really ally, it isn't a you help us, we help you kind of deal, it is a you help us and we won't wipe you. With that choice gone you get merge or wipe. Limiting alliances might sound like a good way to get rid of the giant dominating alliances we currently have, but all it is going to do is force everyone to merge because the only way to not get wiped is to be in one of the 2 or 3 big alliances that will still dominate and the only way to be in those will be to get as close as 250 players on your roster as you can.

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    1 hour ago, phyreforge said:

    I don't mind a server wipe that's coming but why can't you save the progression of our Pathfinders now that they log out of the world completely, it's the releveling of our pathfinders that is the grind, unless you give us a x6 week [7days] after the wipe.

    is there a way to save the pathfinders progression?

    or if not then PLEASE give us a week of x6 to give us a chance to get back to where we are now.

    Unless they're also going to make sailing 6x faster so I can get to several hundred islands to get my discovery points back, it won't matter.  They tied leveling to a major time sink.  Resource gathering was the smallest issue

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    14 hours ago, Seren Du said:

    So if 50 PVE players don't like the proposed updates but you do though you are PVP, does that mean you are the only one who is right?

     

    Seriously dude stop going on about PVE. It's not what you play. Leave us PVE people to try and express our disappointment and wish for these changes to be stopped for PVE.

    Thisis what the forums and feed back.

     

    To be honest I don't care you like the changes for PVP. Great wonderful brilliant. Just shut up about PVE and the fact we don't like it. We are entitled to not like the changes. You are not important enough to tell us to chill out. We dont want to. Enough.

    C h i l l b r o. 

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    16 hours ago, Kveldulf said:

    I think part of the reason the PvE community is complaining is the difference in explanations of coming changes during the stream.

    What they said about the changes to PvP sounded well thought out.  It was coherent and, while not a guarantee that it'll work as they think, it's definitely worth finding out .  It could be really interesting.  They've obviously had some very productive brainstorming sessions.  Awesome.

    Then you get to the description of changes to PvE... There really wasn't a whole lot there, was there?  Maybe they'll get back to it later but right now it seems like there were no brainstorming sessions for this side of the game.  There was no coherent framework explained as there was for PvP changes.  Might work out just fine, but adding upkeep and calling it a day doesn't really inspire that much confidence. 

    I do think the PvP changes coming sound intriguing though and if their vision can become reality, it sure does have a lot of potential.

    Your post is honestly the most understandable, coherent, honest and constructive post here. 

    You very importantly state the actual issue that no other pve player has stated and i commend you on that. Honestly. 

    There is not alot of information regarding pve and planned changes there yet. The devs have essentially only mentioned pvp server balances and changes. The pve servers run under a seperate set of rules and did at launch and all the way through the beta so far. 

    In my opinion, this is probably why i feel inclined to tell some of the more melodramatic pve players in this thread to chill out. No one truely knows what is coming to pve from this captains log. The devs eluded very vaguely in some cases. But there is nothing in concrete for anyone.

    As a pvp player.

    I like these changes. I want the lowering of the pvp difficulty curve  to be something pve players may enjoy aswell. That is the main take away for me from the new updates. I want people to play on the pvp server and have fun regardless of their personal play style choice. It was never meant to be an attack until i was attacked by doomsayers saying the game will die. 

    Enjoy the game everyone. Please for gods sake let the devs just put something out the way they developed it for once without it being changed many many times before it lands. This has lead to so many catastrophic fuck ups in the past. I have played from launch and i dont want repeats of the SOTD night, the stone wall patch, the second claim overhaul. 

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    22 minutes ago, Polar Express said:

    Your post is honestly the most understandable, coherent, honest and constructive post here. 

    You very importantly state the actual issue that no other pve player has stated and i commend you on that. Honestly. 

    There is not alot of information regarding pve and planned changes there yet. The devs have essentially only mentioned pvp server balances and changes. The pve servers run under a seperate set of rules and did at launch and all the way through the beta so far. 

    In my opinion, this is probably why i feel inclined to tell some of the more melodramatic pve players in this thread to chill out. No one truely knows what is coming to pve from this captains log. The devs eluded very vaguely in some cases. But there is nothing in concrete for anyone.

    As a pvp player.

    I like these changes. I want the lowering of the pvp difficulty curve  to be something pve players may enjoy aswell. That is the main take away for me from the new updates. I want people to play on the pvp server and have fun regardless of their personal play style choice. It was never meant to be an attack until i was attacked by doomsayers saying the game will die. 

    Enjoy the game everyone. Please for gods sake let the devs just put something out the way they developed it for once without it being changed many many times before it lands. This has lead to so many catastrophic fuck ups in the past. I have played from launch and i dont want repeats of the SOTD night, the stone wall patch, the second claim overhaul. 

    As just another player, you're not entitled to tell anyone to chill out.  As a non-pve player, you're even less entitled to do that.

    I'm glad somebody explained the issue to you in a way that you can understand it.  Here's an even simpler explanation.

    The devs put a lot of thought into pvp and none into pve.  The pve solution they came up with is a real wtf moment, because everyone on pve complained there were no claims and they didn't want to live on lawless.  Their solution is to wipe all the claims and make everything lawless.  And add upkeep.

    So if pve people want to let the devs know what they think of that brilliant decision, you should consider that it's really none of your business and maybe just go 

    27 minutes ago, Polar Express said:

     

    Enjoy the game 

    and stay out of it.

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