Captain's Log #32 - Blackwood Update, Singleplayer Mode, and Mega Update 3!

Ahoy Pathfinders!

We have much to share! Let's get down to business, shall we? 

      Mega update 3! 

Mega Update 3 is on the horizon and we’re excited to share some more teasers and information!

New Islands: Discover! 

More new, unique Islands will be landing on the ATLAS giving you more opportunities to own land, explore and unlock new Discoveries.

New Cosmetics: Sail Skins!

Unfurl new sails against the sky with new Sail Cosmetics. The new cosmetics for small and medium sails lend the appearance of a delicate Junk or Sampan rig with bamboo slats which harkens back to a Far Eastern inspired sail design preceding Western square sails. Opt for the new large sail cosmetic to imbibe your ship with a commanding battle galley aesthetic and make it stand out as the flagship of your fleet!

New Creature: Sea Horse!

The elegant Sea Horse can be found in the deepest trenches of the ocean. It has a calm demeanor unless provoked which will anger this aquatic species, resulting in a deadly attack. They have two known methods of poisoning their foes, it can either be through the form of a venomous bite in close quarters or a toxic substance shot from their snout at medium range. The poison is said to be quite potent with strong penetrative abilities that have been reported to even pierce through armor and golden age infused metals used to build vessels. 

While generally a solitary creature, it seeks out the assistance from its kin when in danger. A few daring adventurers have yearned to saddle this beautiful marine equine, however, due to its hostile nature when disturbed, it has been an impossible task. 

      Single Player Mode 

We’re excited to say that we are currently working on a single player experience! This has been a common request from many of you and it is currently being prototyped by our team. We expect that we will have it ready to test on a beta branch in Mid July. This mode will be a true single-player mode; you won’t have to run a server in the background using up your precious memory! Every piece of content will be available, that includes the same massive world, with each and every island.

With single player, there always comes the question for whether we plan to allow users to play in a listen/local server mode. This isn’t something we’re working on at the moment, and pending on how the single player works out, it may be something we consider in the future.

      ISO: Blackwood 

Prepare for a dark twist on the Equatorial biome with our standalone map, ISO: Blackwood coming Mid July!

Explore the heart of the jungle or settle in rolling farmland. Silent eddies run before your boat as you make your way through the slick reeds of The Mire. Wade through thick green waters teeming with dangerous creatures, rare plant life, and the occasional Gorgon to find buried treasure and lost corpses. Approach the ancient serpent boss, Anacython, if you dare!

Please note, this is not a map that will be supported on our Official Network, as it was designed to give players all the mechanics that ATLAS can offer hosted as a single server, without the use of a database.

      Live Game Patches 

Our patches can focus on various different things. They may be aimed to hotfix a bug introduced by new content, improve performance, resolving outstanding technical issues, and much more. This past week, the primary focus for our live updates was QOL improvements and balance changes. A lot of these changes were influenced by your suggestions and feedback, so keep it coming, Pathfinders! We understand you may feel something is too strong, too weak, or tedious - let us know, and we’ll do our best to improve the game experience. We truly appreciate all the support you’ve shown the game and will continue to work on improving it.

v207.991

- Fixed bolas releasing creatures prior to their timer ticking down entirely.

v207.99

- Fixed a bug which prevented tames and crew on ships from not having their claim timer refreshed on PvE. To refresh their timers, you will need to board the boats they're on.
- Fixed a bug which would result in the XP Curse lasting permanently (retroactive)
- Fixed a bug which prevented firing cannons which were placed on the top deck above gunports
- Beds can only be used to spawn on after their initial respawn cooldown has cleared

v207.981

- Inactive PvP boats will now automatically destroy after 4 weeks of inactivity
- Enabled auto-destruction for decayed structures on Official Servers.
- Sunken ships will always destroy after 5 days on Official Servers. This will clear the icon from your maps too, as long the area where the boats were sunk have been revisited.
- Gunports can now be opened again without cannons (i.e you can now fish out of them again)
- Fixed some invalid cannon placements / shooting edge cases. 
- Open gunports will obstruct firing from any cannons that are not explicitly linked to them, either by dismounting the shooter or blocking the projectile.
- Fixed a Sail placement exploit.
- New game.ini mode for Sunken Ships

[/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
DestroyDeadShipsIntervalTime=0 // Defaults to 0, meaning sunk ships would last forever and set to 2592000 for officials.

v207.972

- Fixed an issue where NPCs on a Galleon's front NPCs would not replicate, due to the Captain being all the way in the back. This would have previously shown Missing NPCs, even if they were stationed.

v207.971

- Updated localization for German, French, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Swedish.
- Gunports will no longer open if they do not have a cannon snapped to it
- Cannons using gunport-snaps now check for near-by freely-snapped cannons before snapping, in order to prevent multiple cannons shooting from one gunport.
- Fixed the Global Ship Limit counting Sunken Ships

v207.95

- Increase torpedo ammo weight to 12
- Increase the torpedo launcher weight to 240
- Reduced the weight bonus torpedo launcher receives from closed gunports to 20%
- Bola CC duration reduced to 6 seconds on players
- Bola release time now reduced to 0.5 seconds when removing it from a player
- Torpedo crafting costs updated. Reduced by approximately 20% and updated metal to require 2 types of ingots. Mythos requirement unchanged.
- Flame damage now eliminates ballista harpoons
- Improved server performance on Golden Age grids as AoD enemies will only be networked to clients once they've awoken.
- Ballista Harpoon reload time has increased
- 2x Magic Mythos is now active with bonus rates for Harvesting, XP, Taming, and Gold.

207.93
- Mortar and Pestle slots increased to 40
- Soap Blueprint added to Cooking Pot and Grill
- Large Storage Box slots increased to 100
- Small Storage Box  slots increased to 40
- Sugars now stack to 500 (increased)
- Thatch now stacks to 1000 (increased)
- Grenade weight increased to 5
- Firegel, Gunpowder, Blasting powder, Mythos and Coral can now be stored in the ship resource box.
- Reduced Grenade damage to players by 33%, to NPC Crew and Creatures by 10%
- Increased Playershop health to 12000
- Reduced base damage of Blackjacks by 10% and reduced the Fall Swing damage by 65%
- Doubled stamina cost of shield bash
- Fire Elemental now takes 50% more damage from Shotguns and 100% more damage from Ballista
- Fixed ""Fail" sound line for the medkit using male voiceline for female characters
- Fixed being able to place wallhooks on demolishable resources to prevent floating structures
- Fixed being able to place triangle foundations on top of beds
- Player Name is now included in the tribe log when scuttling ships or demolishing it via a shipyard
- Fixed a bug which allowed you to move whilst bola'd 
- You can now base on non-allied PvE boats, and we've added an actionwheel entry to force non-allied characters off of your ship in PvE

207.91

- Torpedo Damage reduced by 45%
- Boats will no longer sink when overweighted or overcrewed if they are fully anchored (green anchor)
- Settlement Mode: Claim Flags now appear on the World Map for the grid region you're currently on
- Submarines docked on hangars now retain their colour after server restarts
- Prevented firing from gunports if the gunport has not fully opened. This is to resolve crews being dismounted as they were blocked for firing too soon
- Quest skills are blacked out with a silhouette when not learned
- Cocoa can now be crafted properly in irrigated grills
- Fixed FPV reload animation playing when switching from TPV to FPV with the Crossbow
- Fixed an issue where servers that were running for more than 4 days consecutively without reboot would have choppy water on the client.

v207.9

- Networking range for players on ships is now the same as players not on ships (~34,000 units)
- Networking range for unseated NPCs on ships are now about 18,000 units, and seated NPCs are now about 9,000 units.
- Fixed Crows no longer flying to attack.
- Fixed Shipyards at max storage capacity (300) fail to create ships.
- Fixed being unable to gain any stamina after sailing to another server with a stamina debuff active from using any feat, for example, "reload overdrive" feat on a ship. Previously you would have had the debuff permanently until you die and respawn

v207.81

- Improved third person view offset so that it now positions at the average head height rather than the center of the character's capsule. This should improve how it feels when the camera is brushed up against a collision in the world. 

v207.8

- If a launched torpedo hits within the first 3.75 seconds of being fired, it will do significantly reduced damage
- Torpedo overall damage reduced by 20%
- Torpedo overall projectile lifespan reduced by 10%
- Torpedo and Torpedo Launcher crafting cost has been increased
- Fixed hotkey assignments to save on relog
- Readjusted Marker UI location when minimap is open to prevent overlap
- You can now use "prying eyes" to look inside lock chests if they are your own company's boxes
- Cannons/Puckles will no longer fire in peacetime if the structure does not own the claim and the target is a player or tame
- Significant shoreline data memory optimization

      Community Spotlight 

The Community Spotlight is a new series that introduces you to player-driven communities, projects and/or initiatives in the ATLAS community. If you’re looking for more player created ATLAS resources and fun, keep an eye on these amazing projects, groups, and individuals.

ExploreAtlas

ExploreAtlas is a user-friendly resource and creature index for ATLAS with over 10,000 resources and creature locations currently logged. The site also offers an up to date taming calculator for gaining max efficiency on your tames!

Other features include:

• PVE claim point calculator
• Imprint calculator
• Added Resource Navigator (Allows you to input a location you are at and the resource you desire to find the closest available) 
• Support 9 languages through native translations
• Live player tracking on a Cluster and Region basis
• Introduction of Companies to show off your home island and flag

https://exploreatlas.co.uk

   Show 'n Tell 

We’re still collecting entries for the Show ‘n Tell! So you have a little more time to astound us with your creations, be they your fleets, building designs, imaginative tatts, entertaining videos, original fan art 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!

Art by SpookyAnonymous

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 

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