Captain's Log 23: Setting A Course

Love that you are implementing a secure trading system for the shops in Freeport. It would be so great to have a vending table that will have a inventory menu and price of each item  for purchase and a small like resources box that the gold can go into. I'm sure this is probably the idea the dams have anyways LOL. I agree that alliances shouldn't be done away with and possibly increase the number of alliances so the whole island can watch out for one another and it promotes cooperation and communication. And maybe even have a way for those alliances to eject a problematic company from an island. You guys seem to be getting back to the right path and back on track with the game just keep up the good work. And again please find a way to save character progress unless the character wipe was misunderstood.

1 hour ago, Raine said:

So back to Archsenex's suggestion of limiting each player to a total of five ships.  Can we prevent that from being gamed?  Do all the ships belong to the player or to the company?  Company governance would cover that.  If to the Company, then 5 ships per player wouldn't work well.  Recruit heavily, retain a large Company roster even if 80% of your players abandoned the game, keep their ships all over your island claims by doing bed hopping rounds every 3 - 4 days.  It's also a good way to keep large amounts of claims, since you don't have to correlate those to any kind of an active player base.  

Company governance is probably best.  And you can prevent gaming by automatically kicking inactives from companies (which they need for their other scaling anyway) and disallowing tags if you are over the limit.  Basically, if you're over capacity, you better scuttle something fast.

Same with claim flags, over capacity... they expire and cannot be renewed.  I assume there's an expiration system on claim flags for retired companies. 

1 hour ago, travis843 said:

But if i start out at lvl 1 again this game is over for me.

But Travis, you get a hat.  What's not to like? </sarcasm>

Well I guess they expect solo players to kill the Kraken by themselves to get the sub now that they had they BRIGHT AND SMART IDEAL NO ALLIES in PVE smart move there, so how do you expect solo players to get Submarine EXPLAIN please  because I keep seeing some good changes but I keep seeing a shiz ton of stuff that will not work for the solo player at all!  For example  Kraken Killing!!!!!

8 hours ago, Raine said:

In this case, I'm glad Grapeshot is flexible.  Maybe it shows they're listening to player feedback.

This be true, me hearty

You haven't listened to CRAP!!! As a PvE player I feel like this is trying to force me into PVP … you have killed alliances which is BS you are keeping claims which is going to keep up the status quo with big companies getting everything and small or solo companies staying on Lawless as nothing else is available, and you are making lawless a graveyard or floors and posts again … as many of my friends have already said …  you are killing the game before its getting started and they have left and I think more and more are not far behind.

PVE discussion

So if we put down one little claim flag, we own the entire island?  That makes no sense at all!  

PVE people want a small piece of land to call their own. They just want to build in peace. PVE is player vs environment.  Let us battle against hurricanes and dangerous creatures but don't keep trying to pit us against each other and don't create a game that allows people to be the worst bullies they can be.

We need one claim flag per person. As you add another person to your company, add another claim flag. Put a limit cap for each company to 15 to 20 flags.  You could make several settlements with 20 flags.

Each claim flag should have a nice size radius.  The only people who can build in that radius are Company Members.  No one can build anywhere outside their flag radius.  People are going to be very selective how they use their flags so there will not be pillar/foundation spam everywhere.

 I would give anything if they would implement this in Ark.  It might finally stop the pillaring bullies there.

20 hours ago, [GP] Guybrush Threepwood said:

They aren't exactly listening though. People that were saying they want land claim flags still in PvE but limit it to 1 to 3 per company have now got the same as PvP. How is that listening to the community? Yes they listened to the fact people want claim flags back, but they then went and took the easy route of copying PvP system.

Is that what the PvE community was asking for? 

This.

well rip the mansion .....

I am happy about them at least considering our suggestions. 

I am happy for a claim system. Lets give it a try and when we tested it online thenlets get back in discussion.  Thats how EA can work.

I am concerned that sone settlement owners will abuse there "power" to keep anyone away from their island. 

But lets try out first! Its worth a try

@Jatheish Here is a real thoughtful solution to reward players for all their progress prior to wipe. Give everyone a through-death xp boost that is timed based on max level achieved during "Season 1". Example: Account1/Player1 achieves level 50 and has 3 days of boosted XP (maybe 2x, maybe 4x) while Account2/Player2 achieves level 100 and has 6 days of boosted XP. That XP counter will start as a one time use from the time they create a new character and last in real time duration (not ingame time). This will also encourage players to jump back into the game to gain more levels before wipe. For the cases with multiple characters on the different servers, it would derive from the highest level character on that account. This XP boost could also be derived from other factors such as hours played or ingame milestones like Powerstones/Kraken kills/Rejuvenation buffs. This also rewards players who played a lot during Season 1 and who are not able to play at the start of the wipe with some catch-up XP boost as it would not be activated until a new character is created on any server. Players will still have to acquire powerstones and complete the Kraken quest to advance their new character beyond base cap but the boost says "Thank you for helping us develop ATLAS!"

On 3/8/2019 at 10:06 AM, Rats said:

The claim system is a joke, just make it all lawless one flag per company and a set area radius to build in with a one week decay timer.

Simple as that.

player: Take away the decay timers since we are rly below the max server capacity

Grapeshot: Here you go, decay for boats.

player: .....

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Player: We dont need claims in PvE, just prevent pilaring and fencing somehow.

Grapeshot: Ok

Player: Really?

Grapeshot: Just kidding, Here you go, copy paste of PvP claim system

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Player: Progression in this game is 2 unrewarding and time consuming to be worth it, also you can lose all your hard work in a single disconnection

Grapeshot: here you go, proceduraly generated shipwrecks

Player: ¿?...what for? why would i want to the botom of the ocean to gather resources when i can gather a lot with my pets? or do tresure hunting for Bps??

Grapeshot: Who cares?  new content! you need to do kraken first tho

Player.......

Hello everyone

I have been reading the March captains log and the forums in repose to the log, so here is my two pence worth

First of all I understand this is an alpha game, and I don't like having to start again but i do understand that it is the only way to remove some bug and make the game better going forward. Im a PvE server player and I have to say the ideas for the game changes are not well thought out, below are a few more ideas for alternative ways forward

1,. As you are putting more islands in and changing the map, an idea would be to put pre-set small areas on the island ( districts county's provinces zones call them what you want ) in these areas there will already be a claim flag for the players to claim. This way all the land on the island can be used with no over lapping claims and no wasted land that can not be claimed.

2. Limit the number of claim flags per player to 3 or 4. In this way you could have a larger piece of land on one island or other claims in different sectors of the map. you would have to use your limited number of claims wisely. You could also make these areas transferable between players, with all building on that land going to the new owner.

3. Reduce the resource spawn radius to minimum, so no player in the adjacent area can grief your resource spawn by building on the area border

4. Reduce the claim timer to 7 days, possible upkeep also

5. Get people off the lawless islands so they can be used as intended, as a stepping stone out into the big wide world. Limit the shipyard size to medium. Have a1 or 2 day limit that is free to build, then the upkeep starts, and doubles every 12 hours

6. Extra content should not be limited to players that have defeated a boss, this would make it impossible for small or individual company's to access them. This content could be limited to the players level. No access if you are under level 50

That a few ideas, I hope you like some of them

 Morning all.

Ok so most of the islands that were foundationed spammed out were lawless islands.

You never seen bad cases of spamming on claim land-exception of claim flags. So take lawless islands out. Give everyone a claim flag and call it good. 

The reason why I said in a previous post to put it in Thatch Construction. Well its gonna prevent the immediate log into game and start dropping claim flags everywhere. If its tied in with building it should be a little easier to add in the decay settings. IE-resource bank/claim flag in one structure. I've seen it done in multiple games where they have limited the amount of a certain structure in an area. So this I know can be done. What i'm not sure that can be done- if they put a hard limit on the amount of flag since every grid is a separate server.

When the bank runs out. The area well fades away to nothing. Someone else can grab that land.

Every time they tinkered with  a claim flag setting they screwed it up. Some flags were grandfathered in to older settings.

They need to stick with one system and let it ride. Otherwise we could look at repeated wipes in the future.

As for the kraken-I think it could still be done by a solo player with the help of friends. Last I heard it took about 3 brigs and wasn't all that hard to complete. I know the drake and stuff it was 2 other companies that helped on that kill. Everyone got the update.

Limiting ships. I'm not entirely sure if that is gonna work out as you think. It goes back to the claim flag thing. I'm not sure how that can be coded in with multiple servers in play. On that we need an actual game developer who can say. Yes this can be done or no -due to how the game is setup. 

Character wipe doesn't exactly bother me so much. Yeah its a little tedious trying to hunt down every single discovery point again. But I am hoping to be on this game for a while....I think. I actually wiped my character the first time I had to do the fountain of youth stuff-when the grids were crashing and only on one server at the time. It was easier to reroll on a double xp weekend and get rid of the old age debuff.

For character wipe. If I had to guess-Much like the decay on everything else. I don't think the old bodies of people actually disappeared. Wiping is probably the only way they can truly get rid of those accounts.

They need to put the claim settings back to personally owned. So if a player quits. The flags/structures will go with it. Otherwise. Big companies who will massively recruit will either have multiple accounts with claim flags or just keep adding in people so they have more territory. Companies could keep refilling banks of other players to keep them active if they aren't set to personally owned. Long run it will be the same problem all over again. Too many claim flags. Not enough land for new players.

If person doesn't log in for x amount of time. All territory, ships etc need to vanish. So claim flags need to have the same render settings of the owner as the ships do.

That is my morning coffee thoughts.

19 minutes ago, 2-of-12 said:

Hello everyone

I have been reading the March captains log and the forums in repose to the log, so here is my two pence worth

First of all I understand this is an alpha game, and I don't like having to start again but i do understand that it is the only way to remove some bug and make the game better going forward. Im a PvE server player and I have to say the ideas for the game changes are not well thought out, below are a few more ideas for alternative ways forward

1,. As you are putting more islands in and changing the map, an idea would be to put pre-set small areas on the island ( districts county's provinces zones call them what you want ) in these areas there will already be a claim flag for the players to claim. This way all the land on the island can be used with no over lapping claims and no wasted land that can not be claimed.

2. Limit the number of claim flags per player to 3 or 4. In this way you could have a larger piece of land on one island or other claims in different sectors of the map. you would have to use your limited number of claims wisely. You could also make these areas transferable between players, with all building on that land going to the new owner.

3. Reduce the resource spawn radius to minimum, so no player in the adjacent area can grief your resource spawn by building on the area border

4. Reduce the claim timer to 7 days, possible upkeep also

5. Get people off the lawless islands so they can be used as intended, as a stepping stone out into the big wide world. Limit the shipyard size to medium. Have a1 or 2 day limit that is free to build, then the upkeep starts, and doubles every 12 hours

6. Extra content should not be limited to players that have defeated a boss, this would make it impossible for small or individual company's to access them. This content could be limited to the players level. No access if you are under level 50

That a few ideas, I hope you like some of them

I've been for pre set claims all along.   The dynamic system is too exploitable. 

I'd put 5 claims per player.  Reduce the number as a company grows.   At 11 only 4.  At 26 or so only 3.

7 days timer but each company gets 2 to 4 vacation modes per year,  which are 14.  Something like that. 

I'm fine with boss gating the new content, if they don't wipe again.   Otherwise they shouldn't even bother with new content only a tiny fraction of players will ever see.

3 minutes ago, Sadie Blackhawk said:

 

Ok so most of the islands that were foundationed spammed out were lawless islands.

 

While true,  it was still only a small fraction of the lawless islands.   Of the 6 zones we had outposts in, none had this problem.   Our island or any other.  

Lawless was supporting (estimate) 75% of the active players or so for hundreds of hours.  They were able to play. 

Claim land didnt have spam true,  but the vast majority of it lacked life at all.   Most of it was totally unused wilderness with 1 or 2 people per server.

The game switching all servers to lawless, along with adding about 40% more islands, will increase usable space by 3 or 4 times.   Assholes scorched <10% of the old lawless.  

Unless people really think that the game will suddenly gain a wave of new assholes that would have to be bigger that the entire player base, lawless would work just fine. The new decay and maintain system would work just fine.  

They should target specific problems with lawless etc:

Rather than decrease the build deny distance (was a terrible idea), increase it.

Limit number of behemoth gates per island per company

Rapidly decay small structures.  Even taming traps should only last a day.

Consistently curb off clipping between boats and land structures.  I clip through pillars (and ceilings) all the time but others apparently don't. 

Then, as new asshole moves come up, react to those.  Right now they are disrupting the non assholes more than the assholes. 

You are running an mmo.  You will need gms in the game.  That is a fact of mmo.  There is no fully automated mmo.  Assholes are too creative.

If people build a hut over resources, a gm can ghost into the structure, see it, warn them and tear it down.  Hire college kids.

35 minutes ago, 2-of-12 said:

Hello everyone

I have been reading the March captains log and the forums in repose to the log, so here is my two pence worth

First of all I understand this is an alpha game, and I don't like having to start again but i do understand that it is the only way to remove some bug and make the game better going forward. Im a PvE server player and I have to say the ideas for the game changes are not well thought out, below are a few more ideas for alternative ways forward

1,. As you are putting more islands in and changing the map, an idea would be to put pre-set small areas on the island ( districts county's provinces zones call them what you want ) in these areas there will already be a claim flag for the players to claim. This way all the land on the island can be used with no over lapping claims and no wasted land that can not be claimed.

 

Few games have tried the whole rental units. Dark and Light comes to mind as the last one I seen. They could never get it functioning properly. Now you have shipyards and animals that also come into play. I put a post in the suggestions some time ago about adding in tiny islands that were rentable. Have it come with a shipyard and some areas to house animals.

However if they would just go down to a one claim flag system per person. Wouldn't really need the whole tiny island rental thing. 

You want to leave some areas open on islands for resources and taming. If its outside of a resource box/claim flag area and set with a rapid decay. People could still put up taming pens. Last time I checked no tame took more then an hour to complete if you have the proper items on you for taming.

1 minute ago, Archsenex said:

Claim land didnt have spam true,  but the vast majority of it lacked life at all.   Most of it was totally unused wilderness with 1 or 2 people per server.

That was not our experience.  Of the claim islands we visited, there were hearty populations of active players.  If there were any exceptions, it was the tundra/polar and desert areas.  Those areas are predictably less attractive to people so I wasn't surprised.  But no, there were always far more than 1 or 2 players on most claimable islands.

4 minutes ago, Raine said:

That was not our experience.  Of the claim islands we visited, there were hearty populations of active players.  If there were any exceptions, it was the tundra/polar and desert areas.  Those areas are predictably less attractive to people so I wasn't surprised.  But no, there were always far more than 1 or 2 players on most claimable islands.

Take a quick peek at the map and you'll see you kinda just said "if there are any exceptions, it was half the map"

Theres a LOT of desert, tundra, and polar

What is the point of keeping a server grid with 3-5 islands of lawless? A stepping stone for what. Most people want to build there permanent base right off the bat. It's a whole lot of unused islands. Really they could designate one island on every grid as the Lawless/Taming island that is no build. The server grid editor actually allows you to set rates for a specific island. So you could make the island have faster respawn. But most people want a permanent base with a claim flag.

L10 before we had the chaos of ship sinking/territory overlapping. We had averagely 30-40 players on it. When people lost claim flags yet again or had their entire fleets sunk. It caused a mass exodus from the game. I lost my entire company due to that. People didn't want to start from scratch all over again. They chose to go to a private server where the griefers could be banned. I stuck around and eventually joined another company. 

2 minutes ago, Archsenex said:

Take a quick peek at the map and you'll see you kinda just said "if there are any exceptions, it was half the map"

Theres a LOT of desert, tundra, and polar

I also said "IF".  We also saw tundra and desert with active populations as well.  But of the ones with a bit less activity, I'd have to say those were tundra/desert.  That might mean the devs could encourage better participation if the desert/tundra areas were changed up a bit.  Or some might be changed from desert/tundra to more attractive environments.

In concept development, I think Grapeshot devs figured the playerbase would all spawn in to Freeports, radiate from there to Lawless where they could develop their resources and build ships to explore and claim their own properties on claimable islands, leaving Lawless to the next generation of playerbase.

In theory, it could work.  In practice, it didn't.

Lawless rules gave rise to as many problems as claimable islands.  Why have Lawless areas at all?  With a preset claiming grid, you could make claimable islands work better than they do now and decrease the foundation and pillar spam as well as the griefing it allowed.  

2 minutes ago, Archsenex said:

Take a quick peek at the map and you'll see you kinda just said "if there are any exceptions, it was half the map"

Theres a LOT of desert, tundra, and polar

If you are talking about rightnow. The numbers as a whole are down. When the game first came out. Lawless would have 90 people. Other grids had 30-40 people. That was when the games population was between the 40k-70k range. Now on the weekend you are looking at population of what 4-5k between 4 servers?

The biggest cause of the exodus was griefing and the lack of land availability. Do I think there will be an influx when the patch comes out. Depends if they can get the wipe done and claim flags fixed before the newest game comes out. 

Sitting stagnant like this. Well Conan Exiles has a free weekend going on rightnow. They are grabbing people. Some people have gone back to Ark. Some will go to the latest FPS etc that come out. But the longer we all sit in limbo the worse it is. Gamers as a whole have a short attention span. Keep sitting to long. The game wont recover. Some people might come back. But if the population remains as it is. 

Well its like going to a bar on the weekend. If you walk into a bar with only 1-2 people. Your either gonna turn around and walk out. Have one drink and then leave. People like to be packed in together. Your gonna find a busier bar/game to play.

Just now, Raine said:

I also said "IF".  We also saw tundra and desert with active populations as well.  But of the ones with a bit less activity, I'd have to say those were tundra/desert.  That might mean the devs could encourage better participation if the desert/tundra areas were changed up a bit.  Or some might be changed from desert/tundra to more attractive environments.

Desert had great resources.  I loved our desert base.  I don't get the turn off.

Regardless,  my main point is that the lawless ruleset wouldn't be this hellscape people make it out to be, and both rulesets had problems.   The temperature server right next to our lawless was one of the ghost claim servers

1 minute ago, Sadie Blackhawk said:

If you are talking about rightnow. The numbers as a whole are down. When the game first came out. Lawless would have 90 people. Other grids had 30-40 people. That was when the games population was between the 40k-70k range. Now on the weekend you are looking at population of what 4-5k between 4 servers?

The biggest cause of the exodus was griefing and the lack of land availability. Do I think there will be an influx when the patch comes out. Depends if they can get the wipe done and claim flags fixed before the newest game comes out. 

Sitting stagnant like this. Well Conan Exiles has a free weekend going on rightnow. They are grabbing people. Some people have gone back to Ark. Some will go to the latest FPS etc that come out. But the longer we all sit in limbo the worse it is. Gamers as a whole have a short attention span. Keep sitting to long. The game wont recover. Some people might come back. But if the population remains as it is. 

Well its like going to a bar on the weekend. If you walk into a bar with only 1-2 people. Your either gonna turn around and walk out. Have one drink and then leave. People like to be packed in together. Your gonna find a busier bar/game to play.

We lived entirely in lawless since christmas and always found space and resources

2 minutes ago, Archsenex said:

We lived entirely in lawless since christmas and always found space and resources

Perhaps so, but in that case we are talking about a n=1 situation.  To be fair, that's the same in my own case or in the case of anyone replying to this thread.  We can speak only from our own experience.  But the preponderance of n=1 experiences stated on these threads seems more supportive of the claimable experience  than of the global lawless experience.