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    Captain's Log #34: Wild Pirate Encampments, Non Dedicated Mode, and More!

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    Ahoy Pathfinders!

    In this Captain’s Log, we aim to give you an update on some new and exciting features that will be making their way to the ATLAS, as well as a brief status update on the next Mega Update.

    Before we begin, we’d like to give each and every one of you a huge thanks for the support you’ve shown ATLAS. Over the course of ATLAS’ development, our recent review scores on Steam have jumped considerably. We just wanted to express our thanks and show our gratitude for your support. We know that our work is far from over and that ATLAS still has a long journey ahead. There are many more changes we plan to make and features we would like to introduce. Keep your eye on the horizon, there is much to look forward to, some coming sooner than you might expect ;)!

    :anchor: Mega Update 3! :anchor:

    It’s been a while since we’ve spoken about our next Mega Update 3. There have been questions about the release date, and how it’s progressing. The update is still coming together, our team of developers is actively working on getting it ready to release. When we’ve got something to share about the launch date, additional features, it’s availability on the PTR, we will let you know.

    Though, we won’t leave you guys empty handed! Here’s an update on our Hydra Six-Shooter Pistol! In an earlier log, we revealed it’s concept art, now we can actually show you what it looks like in game as it’s going through its implementation. This pistol, as the name indicates, allows for up to 6 shots before reloading -- though it is significantly weaker than the single-shot flintlock! So if your aim sucks, or you have multiple targets, this will be a great weapon of choice.

    large.86591993_Hydra_Revolver1080pcomp.jpg

    :anchor: Wild Pirate Encampments! :anchor:

    We’re excited to reveal to you a new system we’ve been working on, which will be released for Single Player, Non-Dedicated Multiplayer (more on that later!), Unofficial Dedicated Servers (optional), and potentially expanded onto the Official Networks in the future. 

    This is how the new feature will function on Non-Dedicated Multiplayer and Single Player mode: 

    “Wild Pirate Encampments” (WPE) are collections of enemy NPC characters, defensive fleets, and fortifications which inhabit claimable islands. They have varying weapons (melee and ranged), defenses (various cannons/turret types), and live in pre-built forts. They’ll also have AI ships representing all 4 classes (Sloop through to Galleon) patrolling the shoreline of their islands. The placement of Encampments will be randomized along the islands, and they can also include inland encampments without ships. You’ll have to explore an island to discover all the encampments which inhabit it, and the number can vary based on the island size, with larger islands having bigger and more Encampments. Each region will also have a WPE Level visible to players, some being higher than others resulting in better loot but a more challenging task.

    In order to claim an island, Pathfinders must destroy the WPE that currently live on it. This includes their patrolling ships and any enemy NPC within range of the Encampment center. Players will be able to use the Encampment claimflag to reveal nearby enemy NPCs. After claiming an Encampment, all Encampment structures transferred to the new settlement owner, and an Encampment Loot Box will be spawned. Once defeated, an Encampment will never respawn, and you cannot unclaim an Encampment. However, if the Encampment has not been fully defeated, it will reset to full strength if sufficient time has transpired without it being rendered.

    large.DuTtfTHW0AAbrET.jpg

    Players will have the option to disable WPE entirely via the Host Settings UI, or scale the difficulty of Encampments (this will not affect the loot quality). 

    If you decide to enable WPE on an Unofficial Dedicated Server please note that:

    • Encampments will only spawn (and can respawn) on unsettled islands when no players/tames/structures are nearby at all, over a long period of time. 
    • An island can only have Claim Flags placed on it when no Encampments are present on the island, indicated on the HUD when the system is enabled.

    With the implementation of this togglable content, we’ll be nerfing the traversal capability of Gliders on Non-Dedicated Multiplayer and Single Player, with an option to use the original values in Non-Dedicated Multiplayer. 

    We’re excited to introduce this type of encounter to the ATLAS and we expect to have it ready in the very near future.

    :anchor: Non-Dedicated Multiplayer! :anchor:

    Following the positive response to Single Player and after evaluating the relatively small amount of technical bandwidth required to make this a possibility, we’re excited to announce that a new game mode will be making its way to players!

    Non-Dedicated Multiplayer will facilitate playing as a client whilst also hosting the server at the same time. It will allow up to 8 players to play simultaneously on the server. Similarly to Single player, the host will be able to make use of the host settings UI to adjust server settings to your group’s needs, as well as additional enhancements in your .ini files.

    We expect to have this game mode available next week (the week of July 14), and the “Wild Pirate Encampments” Beta towards the end of the month.

    :anchor: ISO: Blackwood :anchor:

    large.Blackwood_01_4262019_resize.jpg

    We are working on final touches and testing for ISO: Blackwood and we expect to have it ready to play later this month.

    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!

    For those not familiar with Blackwood, this is not something we’ll be supporting specifically on our Official Network, as it was designed and intended to be used for single servers an example of a mod map that can be hosted unofficially. This specific map will be set up so that you can still enjoy all the mechanics that ATLAS has to offer, whilst hosting it as a standalone server with no database setup required!

    :anchor: Live Game Patches :anchor:

    Since the last Captain's Log, our live game updates have taken a look at some more long term issues we’d like to address with the game in addition to our general focus towards bugs, performance, and QOL. 

    We released an update which was shortly reverted with the aim of tackling sky high Claim Flags. Our initial attempt involved setting a maximum height for flags to be placed at, but we recognize this one-stop solution doesn’t work for all islands, so we’ll be looking at a more island-specific approach in the future. We understand why these locations are chosen for flags, and how they relate to some of the more frustrating mechanics involved in contesting claims for both attackers/defenders, which we also plan to improve in the future.

    An additional patch focused on the implementation of Fast Decay on our Official Network in order to tackle the structure spam that is present on islands. We understand that this doesn’t resolve the root issue and it can be worked around, however, it’s an initial measure we wanted to put in place whilst we explore proper long term solutions.

    With today's patch, we'll be deploying a measure to help new settlement owners clear out existing structures on their island. A frustrating part of the game, after claiming an island from someone else, is dealing with the remains of their structures, whether that's a large base, or where that's multiple pillars and foundations littered around the island. With the latest patch, new settlement owners will now have a 12-hour window to activate a one-time razing of an island. This will destroy all structures on that island, including their own. It can only be used during peacetime, and will notify everyone on that specific grid, as well as log into any companies that had wiped structures on that island.

    And finally, crew changes! So, of course, you guys may remember our mention of the I.W.C.R.S, now dubbed the Silo - a structure which can store gold and berries and is capable of feeding and paying crew from anywhere on the island - a much needed QOL change!

    Another crew focused change we made recently, was to sync up the costs of both stationed and idle crew. This was because we wanted to encourage players to keep their crew stationed when possible, and the primary reason for that is for performance. Stationed crew are a lot more cost efficient on our servers due to specialized logic. So it’s a win-win for everyone here!

    Further changes involved allowing the stationed crew to repair boats, but that change was shortly reverted due to players requiring the choice of whether or not they wanted their crew to repair their boat. Having all crew capable of repairing meant resources were being used up a lot more rapidly than some intended due to natural boat decay, but changing it back to idle only, means players have a partial choice in determining how often those resources are being used up. It's clear this system could use some improvements, and it’ll likely be something that's touched on in the future.

    We wanted to highlight that sometimes we’ll make changes and they may not pan out, but we’re not afraid to pull those back, give them some more time in the oven or tackle problems from a different point of view. We appreciate your feedback as always and will continue to iterate on solving these problems and more!

    And now for the rest of the patch notes:

    209.499
    
    - Fast Decay has now been enabled for Settlement Owners
    - Fixed Reservoir and Waterpipes being from being falsely flagged by Fast Decay
    - Fixed some edge-case 3-5 structure builds from being falsely flagged by Fast Decay
    
    209.497
    
    - Fast Structure Decay has been enabled on our Official Network. This means that core foundation structures (floors, pillars, and fence supports), which are not snapped (connected) to more than 2 pieces or do not have a valid structure on top will have rapid decay which will result in their destruction after 12 hours of not being rendered in. Unofficials can enable this setting with the following command parameter: ?FastDecayUnsnappedCoreStructures=true
    - Reverted the change to Stationed Crew repairing anchored boats in order to control the amount of materials that are being consumed when a boat has been anchored. Idle crew will still repair boats.
    
    v209.491
    
    - Magic Mythos bonus rates have been disabled
    - Fast Structure Decay has been disabled on our Official Network (needs more tweaks before we can set this live)
    
    v209.48
    
    - Fixed a bug which would cause bears and horses from not basing on ships when they had storage carts attached to their harness (this would cause them to fall off ships when sailing)
    - Non Seamless Grid maps now save and load player/ship locations properly (notable on mod maps such as OceanTest)
    - Stationed crew can now repair anchored boats
    - Stationed Crew and Idle Crew now have the same gold cost requirements on land and on ships (Client will need to be updated to visualize this change, it's inc!)
    - Fast Structure Decay is now enabled on non-snapped core structures. This means that they will decay within 12 hours.
    
    v209.46
    
    - Shipwrecks and their icons should now correctly vanish on the map after 5 days. We're still investigating legacy wrecks and however they may clear with this change after 5 days, as company data is loaded
    - Fixed "leave Company" button
    
    v209.43
    
    - Fixed a bug which would sometimes cause the Wall Hook to not remember whether a light source was active after loading a saved game
    - Fixed a bug where players would temporarily enter combat state upon transition
    
    v209.4
    
    - Fixed a bug which prevented players from gaining experience at level 149 (Max is level 150)
    - Companies are now enabled and force-created on Single Player so players have access to their Company Log. If you had a pre-existing savefile, you will be able to create a company, however it will only pull in boats/structures/creatures for the grid you're currently on. We recommend creating your company on your most active grid. You can use the cheat command 'cheat givetome' to pull boats/structures/creatures into your new company
    - Added an Admin Command to Single Player: cheat DoLeaveTribe
    - Forest Colouring can now be crafted and applied to items
    - Renamed one of the Purple colours to 'Dark Violet' as there were two of the same name
    - Demolishing buoys will no longer leave the sign floating behind
    
    209.36
    
    - Fixed a bug which caused silos to pay crew that weren't on the same team
    
    v209.35
    
    - Reverted the Claim Flag height limit on Official Servers
    
    v209.34
    
    - When replacing invalid claimflags, you can now place them within the green ring of your original flag
    - Claim flag height limit has been increased to 6500 units above sea level
    
    v209.31
    - Magic Mythos is enabled on our Official Network: 4x Harvesting, 4x Taming, 4x XP, 2x Gold, 2x Egg Hatching, 2x Baby Maturing, 2x Crop Growth, and 50% less mating interval!
    - Company Island Point Limit has been increased by 100
    - Tax Banks can only be placed by Admins or above in companies.
    - Fixed certain level creatures not receiving experience points in Single Player
    - Fixed underwater trenches not loading properly in Single Player
    - Fixed a bug which caused Pistols to have a bullet loaded after being repaired from a broken state
    - Discovery Zones on the map can now be hidden using the Toggle Island Info button on the ATLAS map
    - Discovery on the map now temporarily disappear beyond a certain zoon distance on the map (zooming back in will have them reappear)
    - Important: Claim Flags now have a maximum height limit when being placed. Claim Flags that were previously placed which exceed this limit will indicate as such on the HUD. Those which exceed the limit will be able to place a 2nd claim flag in a viable location. This will destroy your old flag and drop it's entire inventory into a loot cache (2 hour expiration time) on the ground. Next Wednesday, we'll be deploying an update which will force destroy any legacy flags which exceed the height limit. The limit is 4k units above sea level which is approximately 16/17 walls and only admins or above will be able to replace the flag.
    - New configurable ini setting for Claim Flag height limit
    
    [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
    MaxSettlementFlagZ=4000 // you can set this number to 999999 to have no height restrictions.
    
    v209.1
    
    - Added activate sail turning as a keybind (default: Left Shift)
    - Crew Members will now take food/gold from the following structures in this priority (it goes to the 2nd/3rd if the first does not have gold). 
    
    Crew on Land:
    
    1st priority: Resource Box and Food larder
    2nd priority: Silo
    3rd priority: Claim Flags
    
    Crew on Fully Anchored Boats:
    
    1st priority: Silo
    2nd priority: Claim Flags
    3rd priority: Resource Box and Food larder
    
    - New placeable land structure 'Crew Resources Silo' which allows storage of food and gold to feed crew. Note this will also function on lawless servers, but to do so we've had to have them display island points on the map, however they still will not be able to be claimed.
    - New option on claim flag which allows turning off crew gold and food payment
    - Fixed an edge case which allowed you to fire cannons through walls
    - Fixed a bug where Crew was taking gold/food from a flag before they took it from a resource box/larder when dealing with Crew on Land.
    - Fixed a bug which prevented harvesting on creatures/using tools in Singleplayer
    - Fixed a bug which would sometimes cause the resource override to stop functioning, therefore provide players with a different resource than intended

    :anchor: Show 'N Tell #9 :anchor:

    We loved looking over the entries for Show 'n Tell and we're excited to showcase our favourites so everyone can check out player's creative endeavours and piratey adventures! Feast yer eyes on  th' best o' th' bunch below! 

    LUNNINGSTOOKSlarge.lunningstooks.jpg

    This shows some dedication to aligning and individually painting each canvas. Love it! 

    GUNSLINGERlarge.Gunslinger.jpg

    Kudos to the builder, this is meticulously designed and executed. 

    OTAWA72large.otawa72.jpg

    Otawa never fails to impress with well-framed and creative shots. 

     Honourable mentions 

    MESCALINlarge.mescalin.jpg

    PIRATESS

    large.piratess.jpg

    Congratulations to all of the winners who will receive some real life cash booty! We look forward to the next round of Show n' Tell!

    :wheel:

    Happy Sailing,

    Grapeshot Games

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

    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

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    Ok... Not so sure about the raze.  Doesn't that mean any people who've been living on unclaimed islands for over a month are just SOL?

    Glad we never left lawless.  We didn't get an island fast enough to have a good claim base and this is going to massively punish those who built on 122 point islands.

    Plus the "pay for everybody's repairs" bugs mean even people who own islands could get razed now if the bugs eat all their gold (which happened to us a couple days ago and 3k gold vanished from our company only flag in about 8 hours)

     

    Lawless... where there has been the most consistent laws since launch.

     

    Yeah.. it's now way too dangerous to build on claimed land.  Our allies quit the game and we lose our base on their land? That's a terrible idea.

    Edited by Archsenex
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    I agree. We have 2 bases on islands for breeding that we have invested several months in, on islands that we no longer own. one of them has had 2 owners after us and had this been implemented back then they would have definitely wiped us out. This is not a good idea in my opinion.

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    At least we still have lawless... those servers with a consistent, predictable set of rules since practically launch...

     

    And yeah, we were about to move our breeders to an allies island... Now to take them back to lawless.  Lose our entire stock because the island changes hands?  Thats just dumb.

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    Non-Dedicates Multiplayer awesome! Will buy more copies for friends now :)
    Will players be able to go to different grids at the same time or do they have to stay with the host?
    It would be great if we can at least move freely on a grid and dont get teleported to the host once we are a few meters away which was really annoying in the ark local mode.

    Next new ships and it will sail to a bright future.

    Wipe island button for mmo mode, i also dont think its a good idea. Its the mmo mode dont always listen to people that dont want other people around in a mmo. It is not single player and it is not a deathmatch, to get a lively world with a place for many people, they need to live together not just in closed groups or on lawless.
    You should be absolutely sure before implementing a nuke all button. It does not differ between inactive and active players you dont want to get rid of active players just because people think the endgame content is to farm gold and wipe islands with it.


    Keep up the good work!

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    Absolutely hate the 'raze' addition. This means that any day if my island owner decides to quit, someone else can come along and entirely wipe everyone's work on the island.

    @Dollie @Jatheish You honestly feel this is an encouragement for people to play? I for one know the moment someone new claims the island i'm on and if they wipe it then i'm done, i'm not rebuilding. I don't understand how in a PvE world you guys feel that it's ok for someone to come along one day and wipe everyone else.

    Edited by [GP] Guybrush Threepwood
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    2 hours ago, [GP] Guybrush Threepwood said:

    Absolutely hate the 'raze' addition. This means that any day if my island owner decides to quit, someone else can come along and entirely wipe everyone's work on the island.

    @Dollie @Jatheish You honestly feel this is an encouragement for people to play? I for one know the moment someone new claims the island i'm on and if they wipe it then i'm done, i'm not rebuilding. I don't understand how in a PvE world you guys feel that it's ok for someone to come along one day and wipe everyone else.

    🤣

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    I understand the PVE complaints about raze, but, on the other hand, something like this is completely necesary in pvp. My company conquered our main from another company long before i joined them, and they couldnt clean up all of the enemy structures untill recently because one or many of the old owners came to visit every few days to reset the timers. Even with the fast decay thing, meaning you don't have to worry about single pillars now, it's a huge grind to eliminate all of the bigger structures. In long pvp defenses the island get so spammed that becomes hardly usable even for the original owner. So 12k Gold to get the job done with a single click it's a huge QOL improvement.

     

     

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    Wild Pirates Encampments seems to be a great idea,

    for our community who are playing on dedicated servers and single player.I already opened a small thread about implementing NPC Royal Naval Forces,so it's fine for me.

    But hopefully these encampments will not be on every island per grid, this would be too much  and  hinders the feeling of exploring natural islands.

    Or did i not understand that correctly ?

    (this isn't my native language)

     

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    The raze is one of the worst ideas for this game I've heard in a long time.

    Recap of claims  (PVE version) - 

    Unlimited claims - nobody was happy because everyone wants to own land and some of the players hogged it all

    Claim changes to own an entire island.  -  Everyone still can't own land because now there's really not enough to go around, but an attempt at balance is made with the new "build anywhere" rules.    Even though island ownership is "capped" by company size, the large companies surprise no one by leaving the big islands alone and grabbing up all the small ones.  Smalls and solos have to content themselves with the "build anywhere" mechanic.  A server wipe is conducted to make the change.  So many people leave the game that the repercussions of this move aren't felt in full force.

    Claim Razing - "build anywhere" is thrown out the window and server wipes (minus player characters) are now enabled for the player base to inflict on each other.  On the plus side, this may entice new players to the game when they realize they could claim an island as though it is pristine.  Also, the player numbers are so low now, that given some warning of this mechanic, existing players could try to claim land in advance of being wiped.  

    On the minus side -this may not entice new players to the game when they see that anything they build can be wiped out by another player at whim.  There is no way this mechanic scales well to a fuly loaded server if many players join the game, as everyone will not be able to own land and the penalties for being a settler have become so severe that the option is even more unacceptable than on the previous iteration of claims design.

    Here's what's unclear -  

    What problem is this new mechanic attempting to fix?

    Has anyone anticipated the effect of this "fix" on small companies and solos, especially on a fully loaded server.  Has anyone anticipated the effect on brand new players joining a server that is half-loaded or fully loaded?

    Has anyone run the classic what-if scenarios for abuse of this new mechanic?

     

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    the change is good because now you have a reason to have an island. maybe need to lower the island points that got raised or maybe new islands incoming soon.

    if you do not have one join a company or go solo laweless

    brand new players will join or play solo like in every other game.

    scrubs on islands that have build before claiming to save points or gold have 2 days time to move, and in pve they always say i was first... (big islands)

    Edited by photek
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    9 hours ago, [GP] Guybrush Threepwood said:

    Absolutely hate the 'raze' addition. This means that any day if my island owner decides to quit, someone else can come along and entirely wipe everyone's work on the island.

    @Dollie @Jatheish You honestly feel this is an encouragement for people to play? I for one know the moment someone new claims the island i'm on and if they wipe it then i'm done, i'm not rebuilding. I don't understand how in a PvE world you guys feel that it's ok for someone to come along one day and wipe everyone else.

    you could claim it, but it costs gold, wich brings us to maybe more small islands for solo medium tribe and a limit for big companys to not even can claim such small islands.

    the new owner do not has to wipe the island if people cooperate i guess xd (pve)

    and you still have laweless, so..

    Edited by photek

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    nerfing the glider is ok as long as they put the resources ie gems,in lower areas and reachable areas so I won't need it.

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    So excited for the non-dedicated multiplayer! Playing this game with just a group of close friends is about ideal for me!

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    16 hours ago, Winter Thorne said:

    The raze is one of the worst ideas for this game I've heard in a long time.

    Recap of claims  (PVE version) - 

    Unlimited claims - nobody was happy because everyone wants to own land and some of the players hogged it all

    Claim changes to own an entire island.  -  Everyone still can't own land because now there's really not enough to go around, but an attempt at balance is made with the new "build anywhere" rules.    Even though island ownership is "capped" by company size, the large companies surprise no one by leaving the big islands alone and grabbing up all the small ones.  Smalls and solos have to content themselves with the "build anywhere" mechanic.  A server wipe is conducted to make the change.  So many people leave the game that the repercussions of this move aren't felt in full force.

    Claim Razing - "build anywhere" is thrown out the window and server wipes (minus player characters) are now enabled for the player base to inflict on each other.  On the plus side, this may entice new players to the game when they realize they could claim an island as though it is pristine.  Also, the player numbers are so low now, that given some warning of this mechanic, existing players could try to claim land in advance of being wiped.  

    On the minus side -this may not entice new players to the game when they see that anything they build can be wiped out by another player at whim.  There is no way this mechanic scales well to a fuly loaded server if many players join the game, as everyone will not be able to own land and the penalties for being a settler have become so severe that the option is even more unacceptable than on the previous iteration of claims design.

    Here's what's unclear -  

    What problem is this new mechanic attempting to fix?

    Has anyone anticipated the effect of this "fix" on small companies and solos, especially on a fully loaded server.  Has anyone anticipated the effect on brand new players joining a server that is half-loaded or fully loaded?

    Has anyone run the classic what-if scenarios for abuse of this new mechanic?

     

    Raze is great for pvp sucks for pve basically.

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    2 hours ago, ragnar cook said:

    Raze is great for pvp sucks for pve basically.

    Agreed.  I was looking forwards to Blackwood being released so I could restart my unofficial server with a setup that would be easier to maintain.

    However, the Island razing idea sounds like it offers too much scope for griefing.  So I guess I'm out.

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    19 hours ago, Synalia said:

    So excited for the non-dedicated multiplayer! Playing this game with just a group of close friends is about ideal for me!

    I’m also excited for this! I love the idea of playing and chatting with everyone and I do, but the player base is so low right now that I feel I’m playing alone without the added benefits of MODS and the worrying about my base when I have to work 80 hours a week. 

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    The only thing about the npc blackwood idea that annoys me is there will be no friendly colonies,can't an mmo for once actually have a realistic balance of hostile/non hostile npc's? it would seem that the need to get everyone playing this game to start fighting or warring in some way is completely dominating any future changes.If you're constantly battling all the time you might as well play pvp.I like the idea of giving players something more to do,but why is that always just fighting more people or elements or monsters etc?Has no one on the team got an imagination beyond more things to fight?what about more things to explore that aren't just an excuse for more monsters to fight?

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    13 hours ago, Whitehawk said:

    The only thing about the npc blackwood idea that annoys me is there will be no friendly colonies,can't an mmo for once actually have a realistic balance of hostile/non hostile npc's? it would seem that the need to get everyone playing this game to start fighting or warring in some way is completely dominating any future changes.If you're constantly battling all the time you might as well play pvp.I like the idea of giving players something more to do,but why is that always just fighting more people or elements or monsters etc?Has no one on the team got an imagination beyond more things to fight?what about more things to explore that aren't just an excuse for more monsters to fight?

    agree, npc settlements to trade with and recruit sialors from, would be a nice feature

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    Quote

    :anchor: WILD PIRATE ENCAMPMENTS! :anchor:

    We’re excited to reveal to you a new system we’ve been working on, which will be released for Single Player, Non-Dedicated Multiplayer (more on that later!), Unofficial Dedicated Servers (optional), and potentially expanded onto the Official Networks in the future. 

    This is how the new feature will function on Non-Dedicated Multiplayer and Single Player mode: 

    “Wild Pirate Encampments” (WPE) are collections of enemy NPC characters, defensive fleets, and fortifications which inhabit claimable islands. They have varying weapons (melee and ranged), defenses (various cannons/turret types), and live in pre-built forts. They’ll also have AI ships representing all 4 classes (Sloop through to Galleon) patrolling the shoreline of their islands. The placement of Encampments will be randomized along the islands, and they can also include inland encampments without ships. You’ll have to explore an island to discover all the encampments which inhabit it, and the number can vary based on the island size, with larger islands having bigger and more Encampments. Each region will also have a WPE Level visible to players, some being higher than others resulting in better loot but a more challenging task.

    In order to claim an island, Pathfinders must destroy the WPE that currently live on it. This includes their patrolling ships and any enemy NPC within range of the Encampment center. Players will be able to use the Encampment claimflag to reveal nearby enemy NPCs. After claiming an Encampment, all Encampment structures transferred to the new settlement owner, and an Encampment Loot Box will be spawned. Once defeated, an Encampment will never respawn, and you cannot unclaim an Encampment. However, if the Encampment has not been fully defeated, it will reset to full strength if sufficient time has transpired without it being rendered.

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    Players will have the option to disable WPE entirely via the Host Settings UI, or scale the difficulty of Encampments (this will not affect the loot quality). 

    If you decide to enable WPE on an Unofficial Dedicated Server please note that:

    • Encampments will only spawn (and can respawn) on unsettled islands when no players/tames/structures are nearby at all, over a long period of time. 
    • An island can only have Claim Flags placed on it when no Encampments are present on the island, indicated on the HUD when the system is enabled.

    With the implementation of this togglable content, we’ll be nerfing the traversal capability of Gliders on Non-Dedicated Multiplayer and Single Player, with an option to use the original values in Non-Dedicated Multiplayer. 

    We’re excited to introduce this type of encounter to the ATLAS and we expect to have it ready in the very near future.

    As a PVE player I'm happy to see stuff like this being added. We need NPC humans to fight, especially NPC humans sailing ships. I think it'd be good for PVP too, but regular pvpers may have a different opinion. I've been asking for this kind of content for a while now and I'm glad to see it's at least on the horizon. I can't wait until it goes live. 

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    "We’re excited to reveal to you a new system we’ve been working on, which will be released for Single Player, Non-Dedicated Multiplayer (more on that later!), Unofficial Dedicated Servers (optional), and potentially expanded onto the Official Networks in the future. "
     

    Please please please pretty please expand it to Officila Network. There is simply nothing to do after you defeat all the bosses. The Game is dying...
    I wouldn't mind them, pirates, spawn on our inhabited islands, It may look like simple camp-large camp-fortified camp-fortress or smth but PLEASE bring us challange. We still want to play as a tribe on official servers but it is boring. 

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    i hope there will be friendly "wild pirate encampments" or ports so we can trade. or they will be initially friendly unless attacked and can be used for trading until then.

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    Hm...I might actually come back to the game when this launches. That 6 shot revolver looks yummy and having human npcs to fight will really spice PVE servers up. Fighting sotd is cool and all but not very "piratey". Pirates plundered cargo ships and traders, transforming these same captured ships into war vessels to then plunder some more. Very rarely did a pirate and his crew actually battle against a ship already designed and fitted for war(in game the equivalent being sotd). Having human ship npcs to fight wont fix this dilemma completely, but will atleast allow me to further my pirate fantasies ingame to a higher extent.

    Hopefully they add cargo/trader ships as potential human npc ships to raid. Something sorta like the shipwrecks, but instead of dead and lifeless(and at the bottom of the ocean), they would be alive and moving on the ocean surface waiting to be plundered like the helpless rats they are hehe. This would be perfect for mat farming. One thing I hated about Atlas since launch was having to sail 10 regions over just to get that regions material and then having to sail 10 regions back just to bring that material back to base. This idea would ease that misery to an extent and make the ocean much more lively with players. Could even have these said helpless cargo ships being escorted by npc warships, and in order to get to it -  to plunder - you have to take out its escorts first. So many things grapeshot could do to make this game much more enjoyable on the open seas. I can totally see players on the pve servers temporarily grouping up with random players, or swarming the ocean with their companies to take on these "cargo fleets". And it would definitely give us solo players another reason to play with other players, even if for a brief moment. You only see this kind of team play with ships when fighting the kraken. Something not everyone has done yet especially if they are solo players. This idea would open more oppurtunities for players to experience that kind of team play.

    They could even take a whole different route of content in the form of exploration with reward. Something like exploring caves or shipwrecks for aesthetics. Something like placeable objects we could put around our bases(furniture, artwork etc etc). This would add a nice flavorable twist to the game allowing us to enjoy the game from a different gameplay perspective. Killing animals, aotd and mythical creatures can get boring and repetitive afterall. Also something like this would open a whole lot of doorways to further implement story and lore into the game. 

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