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boomervoncannon

What is/should Atlas hang it's hat on?

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So we're six months into what has been announced as a 2 year EA (minimum) development cycle. After a burst of initial excitement at intriguing possibilities like 40k players all on the same map and 700 different islands to explore, it's probably safe to say that the precipitous drop in playerbase is a strong indication most who tried Atlas out initially on the promise of these and other selling points have found them wanting. While the devs have worked continuously to make improvements and produce new content, I'm not getting the impression that any of it has created meaningful enough interest to draw significant numbers of players back to the game.

All successful MMO's must have at least one aspect of their game that is the draw, the thing the game hangs it's hat on and is known for. Atlas will need to differentiate itself not only from other MMO's and survival games, but other pirate games as well. I think one of the reasons it is struggling is because there is no one aspect of the game which is strong to the point that when any of us as players are talking to friends, family and other gamers, if they ask "Why should I come play Atlas with you?" we could answer "Because it really does X well." One quarter of the way into that 2 year EA cycle is a point where either this should have started to become apparent, or the devs need to pick something and focus on it to really make it shine and stand out.

My question to everyone is: What do you think that thing could or should be, and why?

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2 minutes ago, boomervoncannon said:

So we're six months into what has been announced as a 2 year EA (minimum) development cycle. After a burst of initial excitement at intriguing possibilities like 40k players all on the same map and 700 different islands to explore, it's probably safe to say that the precipitous drop in playerbase is a strong indication most who tried Atlas out initially on the promise of these and other selling points have found them wanting. While the devs have worked continuously to make improvements and produce new content, I'm not getting the impression that any of it has created meaningful enough interest to draw significant numbers of players back to the game.

All successful MMO's must have at least one aspect of their game that is the draw, the thing the game hangs it's hat on and is known for. Atlas will need to differentiate itself not only from other MMO's and survival games, but other pirate games as well. I think one of the reasons it is struggling is because there is no one aspect of the game which is strong to the point that when any of us as players are talking to friends, family and other gamers, if they ask "Why should I come play Atlas with you?" we could answer "Because it really does X well." One quarter of the way into that 2 year EA cycle is a point where either this should have started to become apparent, or the devs need to pick something and focus on it to really make it shine and stand out.

My question to everyone is: What do you think that thing could or should be, and why?

Tames

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Just now, Realist said:

Tames

Then the obvious question would be, how would that differentiate Atlas from Ark? Ark is clearly tame oriented, and my gut feeling is given the choice between a game with dinosaur centric taming and more traditional animal centric taming, people would tend to go for the dino one. Do you think Atlas can succeed by rebranding itself around fantasy type tames of creatures like the olfend, giant crab and turtle, or sea horse? Keep in mind the sea horse was just announced and the impression I'm getting of the reaction on the boards was not just that most people weren't excited about it, but many seemed actively irked development resources were put into it as opposed to other things they would have preferred, like new ship types.

Not saying it's not a possibility, just asking how you see Atlas differentiating itself from Ark if it is going to be tame oriented, since the former currently is floundering with a bad rep in the industry and the latter is an established hit.

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As I recall, just before release they showed pics of towns full of people (some NPCs but probably supposed to show a lot of players, too?) in the early days where players could gather, trade, plan wars and forge alliances and thus create a player-driven economy... then they made ship decay so incredibly fast in the Freeport hubs that no-one dared to linger there more than a few hours.  How can you possibly trade enough stuff to form a thriving player-driven economy with the Player Shop system when no-one dares to hang around to browse and trade?? Atlas needs a Merchantile System - not a global Auction House - where players could take on NPC/Player contracts to transport cargo to other islands to earn gold or to exchange for other Resources.  Yes, it's similar to Eve Online, but that's what they were supposedly aiming for even though they made no real attempt to implement this whatsoever. This would at least make piracy a viable activity and at the same time it would give small companies a chance to earn enough gold to claim and keep a bit of land for themselves.

Give players a REASON to congregate, socialize and trade and they will do so.  Otherwise they just squat on their bit of turf eyeing up everyone else suspiciously and jealously guarding their solitude until they eventually realise that's all they will ever be doing in Atlas.

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We know there are going to be multiple wipes.  We don't know when that is going to be.  The game is pretty good, not perfect but it is getting there.  The problem is, as far as I'm concerned and a lot of my friends that used to play it is the whole instability issue.  Why put effort in now when it could wipe any time?  Would rather just wait for final release where we can be guaranteed a decent amount of time to keep our work.  That is of course depending on the state of the game upon final release.

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1 hour ago, Tanchyon said:

We know there are going to be multiple wipes.  We don't know when that is going to be.  The game is pretty good, not perfect but it is getting there.  The problem is, as far as I'm concerned and a lot of my friends that used to play it is the whole instability issue.  Why put effort in now when it could wipe any time?  Would rather just wait for final release where we can be guaranteed a decent amount of time to keep our work.  That is of course depending on the state of the game upon final release.

We do? I think we know that wipes are possible, but not assured. 

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6 hours ago, boomervoncannon said:

Then the obvious question would be, how would that differentiate Atlas from Ark? Ark is clearly tame oriented, and my gut feeling is given the choice between a game with dinosaur centric taming and more traditional animal centric taming, people would tend to go for the dino one. Do you think Atlas can succeed by rebranding itself around fantasy type tames of creatures like the olfend, giant crab and turtle, or sea horse? Keep in mind the sea horse was just announced and the impression I'm getting of the reaction on the boards was not just that most people weren't excited about it, but many seemed actively irked development resources were put into it as opposed to other things they would have preferred, like new ship types.

Not saying it's not a possibility, just asking how you see Atlas differentiating itself from Ark if it is going to be tame oriented, since the former currently is floundering with a bad rep in the industry and the latter is an established hit.

Well ark you tamed dinosaurs for the most part. With atlas you tame animals. I am pretty sure they are mad about a sea horse because it is that is kind of a girly tame. But yes, I do believe they need to bring in more fantasy type tames.

a cerberus for example would be pretty bad ass.

maybe even centaurs 

4 hours ago, Sheepshooter said:

Yeah! Sea Horses ForDaWin !!! 🙄

works every time... just only in ARK...

Yeah I am not too happy about the sea horse either lol

7 hours ago, boomervoncannon said:

So we're six months into what has been announced as a 2 year EA (minimum) development cycle. After a burst of initial excitement at intriguing possibilities like 40k players all on the same map and 700 different islands to explore, it's probably safe to say that the precipitous drop in playerbase is a strong indication most who tried Atlas out initially on the promise of these and other selling points have found them wanting. While the devs have worked continuously to make improvements and produce new content, I'm not getting the impression that any of it has created meaningful enough interest to draw significant numbers of players back to the game.

All successful MMO's must have at least one aspect of their game that is the draw, the thing the game hangs it's hat on and is known for. Atlas will need to differentiate itself not only from other MMO's and survival games, but other pirate games as well. I think one of the reasons it is struggling is because there is no one aspect of the game which is strong to the point that when any of us as players are talking to friends, family and other gamers, if they ask "Why should I come play Atlas with you?" we could answer "Because it really does X well." One quarter of the way into that 2 year EA cycle is a point where either this should have started to become apparent, or the devs need to pick something and focus on it to really make it shine and stand out.

My question to everyone is: What do you think that thing could or should be, and why?

All I know is the better not try to hang their hat on the claim system 😂

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I had high hopes in the Community tbh. Yet the Islands Are beautiful i had Hope Players create Citys And we can have a flourishing market And stuff to keep us Entertained. But atm the only way a good market works is discord. Also missing decoration And the Option to Change player Shops Into different types. Like an Amboss Force etc. For Armor And weapons. Some veggies And fruits for crops And so on

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50 minutes ago, Realist said:

Well ark you tamed dinosaurs for the most part. With atlas you tame animals. I am pretty sure they are mad about a sea horse because it is that is kind of a girly tame. But yes, I do believe they need to bring in more fantasy type tames.

I am using a couple of interesting mods, one that makes hostile NPC humans that can be tamed (Total People) and one that adds Ark beasties and elements of its taming system such as Tranq Arrows, special foods, cages and so forth (Better Animals & More) and it adds a lot to the game.  I've seen Quetzal flying around but am not at the point where I could chase one and try to knock it out and tame it because I know I'll need a crapton of Tranq Arrows for that!  I also have added a stacking mod, a mod that adds extra structures and a rope bridge mod.

It will be the modders that breathe new life into this game.

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2 hours ago, Coggage said:

I am using a couple of interesting mods, one that makes hostile NPC humans that can be tamed (Total People) and one that adds Ark beasties and elements of its taming system such as Tranq Arrows, special foods, cages and so forth (Better Animals & More) and it adds a lot to the game.  I've seen Quetzal flying around but am not at the point where I could chase one and try to knock it out and tame it because I know I'll need a crapton of Tranq Arrows for that!  I also have added a stacking mod, a mod that adds extra structures and a rope bridge mod.

It will be the modders that breathe new life into this game.

Yeah modders always come up with the best stuff. Sounds like you have some pretty cool stuff already

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14 hours ago, boomervoncannon said:

So we're six months into what has been announced as a 2 year EA (minimum) development cycle. After a burst of initial excitement at intriguing possibilities like 40k players all on the same map and 700 different islands to explore, it's probably safe to say that the precipitous drop in playerbase is a strong indication most who tried Atlas out initially on the promise of these and other selling points have found them wanting. While the devs have worked continuously to make improvements and produce new content, I'm not getting the impression that any of it has created meaningful enough interest to draw significant numbers of players back to the game.

All successful MMO's must have at least one aspect of their game that is the draw, the thing the game hangs it's hat on and is known for. Atlas will need to differentiate itself not only from other MMO's and survival games, but other pirate games as well. I think one of the reasons it is struggling is because there is no one aspect of the game which is strong to the point that when any of us as players are talking to friends, family and other gamers, if they ask "Why should I come play Atlas with you?" we could answer "Because it really does X well." One quarter of the way into that 2 year EA cycle is a point where either this should have started to become apparent, or the devs need to pick something and focus on it to really make it shine and stand out.

My question to everyone is: What do you think that thing could or should be, and why?

Being a Sandbox MMO RPG

The Sandbox MMORPG genre is EMPTY currently!

Runescape / Ultima Online - Both are ancient

Eve - Is in Space

Wurm Online is old Grindy and low graphic's

 

The entire Sandbox MMORPG Market is WIDE OPEN!!!

Atlas could fill this void but it needs to actually make itself an MMORPG not just another Grief Based MMO like Rust and Ark.

They already have the huge sandbox map capable of supporting an adequate population now they just need to make it an RPG

Professions (The Current Skill system is a horrible Jack of Trades skill system, we need clear cut Professions)

Economy (Player Vendors place-able at free ports - Not an auction house)

      Stimulate the economy with more exciting ways to earn your ingame gold.

      Truly make resources regional and worth the effort to trade!

      

Larger amounts of Safe Space! 

Lawful Zones with NPC Government where people can Rent Safe Land to put up nice houses and have nice things! 

Insurance for Ships

 

Do away with the pointless PvP and implement, PvP for a reason, Faction vs Faction warfare etc

 

Create a Law and Order system.

 

Basically turn atlas from an MMO too a MMORPG

And Move away from this Ark inspired Griefing based game!!!

 

And for the love of god improve the Sailing!

Get Rid of this Texas "Bigger is Best Mentality"

And create realistic Sailing profiles for realistic Sail Type's (Lanteen for Close Haul) (Gaff for Beam Reach) (Square for Broad Reach)

and Realistic acceleration vs weight of ship.

Bring us Real Sails! Gaff Sails, Square Sails, Lanteen Sails, Bowsprints, Jibs, Mizzens, Spinackers

 

The biggest Problem here is that the gaming community has been trained to think (X=Y)

Or in this instance (PvP = Free for all no rules, kill everyone and defecate down there throats)

This is because of a Terrible Trend I blame Ultima Online for Setting!!!  The Creation of Felucca and Trammel led the way for the PvE and PvP playerbase to be seperated they they couldn't possibly coexist, and that lead to PvP = Meaning: (PvP = Free for all no rules, kill everyone and defecate down there throats)

Instead of Meaning: I have the possibility to kill another player if I feel the justification warrants doing so!

PvP should not be a license to kill.....  It should be an option to do when the player has slighted you so badly there is no other recourse!!!

 

 

 

 

Edited by Sulfurblade
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 Why so many people was interested in the game and why it had such a sucessful EA launch? What was being said about the game both in social media and articles, and what people expected the game was going to be? i'd go with that.

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The game needs depth.  There's no richness to it.   I agree with the comments above - professions, economy, government systems.  (The key word being "systems)

So far, the "mega" updates just add one more of what we've already got.  One more tame, one more island, one more boss to kill.  But they don't add anything new to the game.  When you think about it, it's all re-skins.  Re-skin an island, re-skin an animal, re-skin a boss, re-skin some armor or a sail.  The only real fundamental change so far has been in claim systems.  That wasn't a great move and there are still unresolved issues from it.  NA Pve is so empty that running across another player is a major event.  That's what happens when you start with a bad claim system, make a bad change to it, and then shut the server down for a while to put focus on pvp instead.  Is releasing a "mega" single player version supposed to help that?

The only chance to get new people interested in the game is with big expansions of crafting and professions, government and diplomacy, town and city building systems (which don't stem from companies), and the addition of new things rather than re-skinned content.

 

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2 hours ago, znasser said:

 Why so many people was interested in the game and why it had such a sucessful EA launch? What was being said about the game both in social media and articles, and what people expected the game was going to be? i'd go with that.

The problem there is I think Atlas's difficulties to date have to do partly with the fact that with limited information of just a single trailer, there was a bit of a tabula rasa effect prior to launch where people filled in their own desires and expectations which may never have been reflected of what the game actually could or would be. I do think people were excited about a vast game world and the possibility of thousands of players on a single server (which turned out to not really be a single server but different servers patched together). Maybe they were just excited about the possibility of a pirate based game that rose above mediocre, it's hard to say with any certainty, but where your suggestion has merit is it certainly couldn't hurt to pause and look back at what led to the initial excitement to see what elements of it could perhaps be regained.

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2 hours ago, Winter Thorne said:

The game needs depth.  There's no richness to it.   I agree with the comments above - professions, economy, government systems.  (The key word being "systems)

So far, the "mega" updates just add one more of what we've already got.  One more tame, one more island, one more boss to kill.  But they don't add anything new to the game.  When you think about it, it's all re-skins.  Re-skin an island, re-skin an animal, re-skin a boss, re-skin some armor or a sail.  The only real fundamental change so far has been in claim systems.  That wasn't a great move and there are still unresolved issues from it.  NA Pve is so empty that running across another player is a major event.  That's what happens when you start with a bad claim system, make a bad change to it, and then shut the server down for a while to put focus on pvp instead.  Is releasing a "mega" single player version supposed to help that?

The only chance to get new people interested in the game is with big expansions of crafting and professions, government and diplomacy, town and city building systems (which don't stem from companies), and the addition of new things rather than re-skinned content.

 

The only way to accomplish that is to make wiping bases not a thing anymore. That is exactly what ark is and if that playstyle stays atlas will remain ark.

yeah he had a lot of good ideas. I’d like to see them all implemented. There is only one way that is going to happen.

juat by getting rid of wiping the game would automatically get better

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22 minutes ago, boomervoncannon said:

The problem there is I think Atlas's difficulties to date have to do partly with the fact that with limited information of just a single trailer, there was a bit of a tabula rasa effect prior to launch where people filled in their own desires and expectations which may never have been reflected of what the game actually could or would be. I do think people were excited about a vast game world and the possibility of thousands of players on a single server (which turned out to not really be a single server but different servers patched together). Maybe they were just excited about the possibility of a pirate based game that rose above mediocre, it's hard to say with any certainty, but where your suggestion has merit is it certainly couldn't hurt to pause and look back at what led to the initial excitement to see what elements of it could perhaps be regained.

Yeah I am sure people wanted a pirate game. They got an ark pirate game though. The minute a lot of these people found out they could lose months of work in a matter of minutes or hours they didn’t like that.

with ark you could lose everything. With atlas and the upkeep system you not only lose everything but also the extra time you too to upkeep everything and it is still all gone. People definitely won’t stay for that.

seen it all before. People get wiped and they leave. They try coming back after a the game has to wipe for a fresh start, they get wiped and leave. A mega patch or a change in mechanics comes that they like, they try to come back, they get wiped and they leave. Lol

this game has no chance because it is ark but just a worse version of it.

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3 minutes ago, Realist said:

The only way to accomplish that is to make wiping bases not a thing anymore. That is exactly what ark is and if that playstyle stays atlas will remain ark.

yeah she has a lot of good ideas. I’d like to see them all implemented. There is only one way that is going to happen.

juat by getting rid of wiping the game would automatically get better

Fixed. 

Thorne is female and to the best of my knowledge still alive (assuming no one poisoned her coffee this morning).😜

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2 minutes ago, Realist said:

Yeah I am sure people wanted a pirate game. They got an ark pirate game though. The minute a lot of these people found out they could lose months of work in a matter of minutes or hours they didn’t like that.

with ark you could lose everything. With atlas and the upkeep system you not only lose everything but also the extra time you too to upkeep everything and it is still all gone. People definitely won’t stay for that.

seen it all before. People get wiped and they leave. They try coming back after a the game has to wipe for a fresh start, they get wiped and leave. A mega patch or a change in mechanics comes that they like, they try to come back, they get wiped and they leave. Lol

this game has no chance because it is ark but just a worse version of it.

Good point. It's not just what got their initial interest that got everyone's attention, but what drove them away. I think there are multiple factors there as well, but wiping definitely seems likely one of the biggest.

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2 minutes ago, boomervoncannon said:

Fixed. 

Thorne is female and to the best of my knowledge still alive (assuming no one poisoned her coffee this morning).😜

No, you broke it. She said that @Sulfurblade had a lot of good ideas. I was agreeing with her that “he” had good ideas. Lol

 

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1 minute ago, boomervoncannon said:

Good point. It's not just what got their initial interest that got everyone's attention, but what drove them away. I think there are multiple factors there as well, but wiping definitely seems likely one of the biggest.

Yeah I won’t sit here and say the claim system was the main, or wiping was the main, or yadda yadda yadda was the main, but they have people grinding for upkeep and still the same wipe based playstyle of ark.

its a lot easier to build up in ark and they don’t have to worry about upkeep in ark.

ok, so people don’t like my factions idea, which I still think is the best way to go, But if they don’t need to go that route there should actually be npc cities that are lawful and non wipeable at the very least.

one thing is for sure they need to change a lot of stuff and soon. I would definitely vote for getting rid of the claim system and getting rid of the wipes based ark playstyle. That alone we be enough for even me to say “ok, I guess it isn’t really like ark”. Not to be a broken record but this is still very close to ark. Sure their are some differences as well but I think the list of similarities is a good amount longer than the differences right now

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9 minutes ago, Realist said:

No, you broke it. She said that @Sulfurblade had a lot of good ideas. I was agreeing with her that “he” had good ideas. Lol

 

Ah. Missed that. My apologies. I also agree Sulfur has a lot of good ideas. 👍

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21 minutes ago, boomervoncannon said:

Ah. Missed that. My apologies. I also agree Sulfur has a lot of good ideas. 👍

These damn devs don’t understand how awesome the game could actually be. PROFESSIONS!!!! 

That was probably the best out of all his good points. The skill tree needs to go. Professions need to be introduced. That would make a total difference.

who knows I might make another thread pretty soon along the lines of sulfers ideas as well as my own and others and make a positive post. I’ll make sure I am not drinking as well because I tend to get a little dickish then lol.

i don’t want atlas to be like WoW or FFXIV. What they have to realize is that they HAVE to start using some of these mechanics from these MMO’s. Like you said an mmorpg.

another BIG thing they need to add is a looking for group (LFG) which has been mentioned by others. When those people mentioned it they were told by other forum goers to “just hang out at the powerstones and when someone comes along they will help you”. Are you kidding me? Hell no, I wouldn’t do that. Just add the damn LFG which is very common for mmorpg’s.

god man, these guys need to phone a friend or something. Poll the audience maybe? Guess they don’t want to be millionaires. Sure they already are but that money won’t last forever lol

Edited by Realist

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