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Sydhart

Oh Atlas, my dear joy, where have you gone

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Once upon a time, we had a flourishing company of swashbuckling gents and ladies that worked together tirelessly to build a harbor with stunning docks filled with ships, a town bustling with activity, and a castle to hold our treasures and defend our people. The area around it was surrounded with individual villas, farms, and breeding grounds scattered throughout the island. People would visit our island and stop to trade or come in and ask to settle and we would happily help get them established. We had explorers who went out and established outposts for trading and farming of rare resources. We built amazing structures that spanned vast chasms and reached to the highest heights that helped our fellow adventurers find vast treasures that they wouldn't otherwise have been able to reach. But those days are long gone. Our island has nothing but ghosts of memories left. The animals have become feral again and the structures and beautiful galleons have started to decay. What was once a utopia has now become ruins.

It wasn't anything to travel into town and then immediately set off on a grand adventure to go kill a mythical hydra and secure a powerstone, to battle high level Ships of the Damned, to hunt giant whales, to explore and discovery vast treasures, or hunt and tame dangerous creatures. But now we shout out and hear nothing but an echo. Our cries for companionship and camaraderie fall on nothing but the ears of the damned and they laugh at our sadness. 

What is now to become of our world? 

 

Yep, that's just kind of how I've felt for the last few weeks logging on. Our company once had 50+ people with 20+ being logged in at any given time but now we're down to 2-3 being on. Many took breaks with promises to login every few days to take care of stuff but haven't been back for weeks and then come on and find that their ships are missing (even the ones that were in our port within our settlements) and probably won't ever be back. It just sucks more and more every day and gets harder to login and try to hop around to the ships and structures we have left to keep them from disappearing or to keep the animals and ship crews fed and paid. 

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I have an idea.  Lets make 50 more threads about numbers.  That is sure to make the game better and bring people back. 

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People have just lost interest, I loved the interactions but you rarely see it now unfortunately. 

All the people I used to play with in other companies have left the game, 1 by 1 they said i've had enough, if it's not something to do with the game like bugs then it's lack of content and boredom.

I recently had a problem on PvE server EU. I still log in every so often to keep the timer ticking over just incase I want to come on but recently i've been getting kicked from the game something to do with battleye. It will kick me and I can't log back in. You have to create a new character and go onto NA server then come back to EU and log in. Once logged in you have to fast travel to another server then back again, seemed to have worked for now but still had problems with it.

I'm usually playing single player now though, the mods seem good for it, more structures to build with and furniture. We also have the new encampments coming up, looking forward to seeing that also.

The game has took a very downward spiral though, can they get players back? Doubt it, only so many times after a wipe they will come back again. Officials will die out eventually, in my opinion. 

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1 hour ago, DannyUK said:

People have just lost interest, I loved the interactions but you rarely see it now unfortunately. 

All the people I used to play with in other companies have left the game, 1 by 1 they said i've had enough, if it's not something to do with the game like bugs then it's lack of content and boredom.

I recently had a problem on PvE server EU. I still log in every so often to keep the timer ticking over just incase I want to come on but recently i've been getting kicked from the game something to do with battleye. It will kick me and I can't log back in. You have to create a new character and go onto NA server then come back to EU and log in. Once logged in you have to fast travel to another server then back again, seemed to have worked for now but still had problems with it.

I'm usually playing single player now though, the mods seem good for it, more structures to build with and furniture. We also have the new encampments coming up, looking forward to seeing that also.

The game has took a very downward spiral though, can they get players back? Doubt it, only so many times after a wipe they will come back again. Officials will die out eventually, in my opinion. 

If the devs had a strong direction to take the game, people would come back.  If there was a greater sense of participation to be had, people would come back.  If a rationale for PvP and if asshattery was greatly discouraged, people would come back.

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9 hours ago, Sydhart said:

Once upon a time, we had a flourishing company of swashbuckling gents and ladies that worked together tirelessly to build a harbor with stunning docks filled with ships, a town bustling with activity, and a castle to hold our treasures and defend our people. The area around it was surrounded with individual villas, farms, and breeding grounds scattered throughout the island. People would visit our island and stop to trade or come in and ask to settle and we would happily help get them established. We had explorers who went out and established outposts for trading and farming of rare resources. We built amazing structures that spanned vast chasms and reached to the highest heights that helped our fellow adventurers find vast treasures that they wouldn't otherwise have been able to reach. But those days are long gone. Our island has nothing but ghosts of memories left. The animals have become feral again and the structures and beautiful galleons have started to decay. What was once a utopia has now become ruins.

It wasn't anything to travel into town and then immediately set off on a grand adventure to go kill a mythical hydra and secure a powerstone, to battle high level Ships of the Damned, to hunt giant whales, to explore and discovery vast treasures, or hunt and tame dangerous creatures. But now we shout out and hear nothing but an echo. Our cries for companionship and camaraderie fall on nothing but the ears of the damned and they laugh at our sadness. 

What is now to become of our world? 

A question: If all of your friends and company mates came back, right now today, what would they do that they have not already done? What grand deeds, audacious adventures or glorious quests would they pursue? The quests that ha e been added thus far feel more like a checklist to be completed than anything epic. I am unsurprised they have not lured your compatriots back.

Some of the things that may have driven them away are fixed, some are not. Perhaps they merely require more time for the game to be fleshed out, or perhaps they fled sensing the developers have no coherent vision or don’t know how to enact it if they do. All I can tell you for sure is that No Man’s Sky is proving the truth of the old saying:

The opera ain’t over til the fat lady sings.

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5 minutes ago, boomervoncannon said:

A question: If all of your friends and company mates came back, right now today, what would they do that they have not already done? What grand deeds, audacious adventures or glorious quests would they pursue? The quests that ha e been added thus far feel more like a checklist to be completed than anything epic. I am unsurprised they have not lured your compatriots back.

Some of the things that may have driven them away are fixed, some are not. Perhaps they merely require more time for the game to be fleshed out, or perhaps they fled sensing the developers have no coherent vision or don’t know how to enact it if they do. All I can tell you for sure is that No Man’s Sky is proving the truth of the old saying:

The opera ain’t over til the fat lady sings.

Well boomer, this seems be be my biggest disappointment(anyone can feel free to argue with me and that is fine). This was going to be an ark dlc and they decided to break off and make a new game.

also feel free to disagree with that as well. I am keeping this as kosher as I can right now. There will be no attacks of any sort.

i think the time for a realization has come. There have been talks about it being a dlc from the beginning. Ala the main menu, copy paste islands, “aliens” which will be why atlas goes more tech than pirate. I don’t think we really need to drudge up every little thing especially since this isn’t a hate post.

this really should have been a huge open world ark dlc. It would have been met with so much success. They chose to try something new on the back bone of ark and it backfired. To be ho eat I don’t blame them for trying but the cold hard truth is that it back fired.

look at one map like valguero. Ark is seeing ridiculously high numbers right and years after release and years after early access. Can you imagine the success of ark if atlas was actually a multi server ark?

i mean this is just another map valguero is, but yet it is utter success. Imagine if they just stuck with ark but made this whole different gameplay style with the huge map? Omfg.

if you have noticed I haven’t blamed the devs one bit, aside from saying it was a bad decision. I have turned over a new leaf so to speak. The fact still remains that I know you are almost starting to think the same way I am to a point.

i haven’t just been talking out of my ass the past 6 months. Game related? Sure sometimes. Company related? Just go back and look at my earliest posts.

there is a big reason I don’t feel the need to play the game to speculate. I am very slowly becoming more accurate 

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This sounds like a story from a pve perspective on which case I would posit that your compatriots were quite right to move on. 

Atlas was never designed or envisioned to be a pve game. When the developers state an ambition to have a pirate game in the spirit of eve online you know that the main focus of gameplay is at least in principle pvp. 

I am not advocating one play style over another but pve is lacking substance or longevity just as you mention in your original post. The only concrete challenge in atlas is in fighting other players. 

The pve aspect of the game is good for a few hundred hours of gameplay a lot of the time will be spent travelling from place to place. Beyond those hours there is nothing really. 

If you want to talk numbers, the peak numbers on official servers don't reach much further than 700 players per server. The total population of players across all servers pve pvp and unofficial numbers a few thousand. 

In terms of what the developers can do to change that? Well that's a long debate but I think there needs to be more emphasis on player skill influcing the outcome of most activities along with greater diversity in ships, ships armament and equipment and more player influence in the quality and effectiveness of those things. 

Sorry for the great wall of text. 

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9 minutes ago, Badkebab said:

This sounds like a story from a pve perspective on which case I would posit that your compatriots were quite right to move on. 

Atlas was never designed or envisioned to be a pve game. When the developers state an ambition to have a pirate game in the spirit of eve online you know that the main focus of gameplay is at least in principle pvp. 

I am not advocating one play style over another but pve is lacking substance or longevity just as you mention in your original post. The only concrete challenge in atlas is in fighting other players. 

The pve aspect of the game is good for a few hundred hours of gameplay a lot of the time will be spent travelling from place to place. Beyond those hours there is nothing really. 

If you want to talk numbers, the peak numbers on official servers don't reach much further than 700 players per server. The total population of players across all servers pve pvp and unofficial numbers a few thousand. 

In terms of what the developers can do to change that? Well that's a long debate but I think there needs to be more emphasis on player skill influcing the outcome of most activities along with greater diversity in ships, ships armament and equipment and more player influence in the quality and effectiveness of those things. 

Sorry for the great wall of text. 

Unfortunately if the pve people left then you would be left with less than 500 people spread across the 2 pvp clusters. The reason for this is because there is very close to 50/50 on the pve vs pvp arena. The other players are unofficial. Just for the sake of argument let’s say all of them are pve because the hardcore pvp people don’t recognize them.

once the 500 players/mega tribes fight. What do you think will really happen? Once the one mega gets wiped they won’t bother coming back either. You might be left with 2 mega tribes/ alliances and once that battle happens the other won’t atay for long.

 

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Well, we played for a while, had fun, and now we are waiting for the release. This game lack content for 7 days a week, 30 days a month, 12 month a year play with x2, x4 rates on. Hopefully this will improve closer to release we are. if not, I had enough hours of fun in that game to call it good buy 😉 

 

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9 hours ago, Badkebab said:

This sounds like a story from a pve perspective on which case I would posit that your compatriots were quite right to move on. 

Atlas was never designed or envisioned to be a pve game. When the developers state an ambition to have a pirate game in the spirit of eve online you know that the main focus of gameplay is at least in principle pvp. 

I am not advocating one play style over another but pve is lacking substance or longevity just as you mention in your original post. The only concrete challenge in atlas is in fighting other players. 

The pve aspect of the game is good for a few hundred hours of gameplay a lot of the time will be spent travelling from place to place. Beyond those hours there is nothing really. 

If you want to talk numbers, the peak numbers on official servers don't reach much further than 700 players per server. The total population of players across all servers pve pvp and unofficial numbers a few thousand. 

In terms of what the developers can do to change that? Well that's a long debate but I think there needs to be more emphasis on player skill influcing the outcome of most activities along with greater diversity in ships, ships armament and equipment and more player influence in the quality and effectiveness of those things. 

Sorry for the great wall of text. 

Both PvE and PvP lack substance and longevity. I started on PvP and soon got bored because there is no point to the PvP in Atlas. There's no reward system, there's no ladder system, there's no accountability. It's one big grief fest. I switched to PvE because I could at least experience the other content and build without having people use exploits just to ruin my day.

I've said this half a dozen times already but they need to combine PvE and PvP.  PvP should be restricted to certain areas (grids). They need to add at least 3 factions. Those PvP areas (or outposts) as I've referred to them in other posts, should have objectives (garrisons or flags) that allow a factions to fight over for control and then that opens up special quests, reward vendors in a neutral (safe) area, and rare materials. Golden Age ruins should work the same.

 

 

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58 minutes ago, Sydhart said:

Both PvE and PvP lack substance and longevity. I started on PvP and soon got bored because there is no point to the PvP in Atlas. There's no reward system, there's no ladder system, there's no accountability. It's one big grief fest. I switched to PvE because I could at least experience the other content and build without having people use exploits just to ruin my day.

I've said this half a dozen times already but they need to combine PvE and PvP.  PvP should be restricted to certain areas (grids). They need to add at least 3 factions. Those PvP areas (or outposts) as I've referred to them in other posts, should have objectives (garrisons or flags) that allow a factions to fight over for control and then that opens up special quests, reward vendors in a neutral (safe) area, and rare materials. Golden Age ruins should work the same.

 

 

I disagree, every time games try to combine them they both suffer for it. PVE gets changed due to things that are happening in PVP, and it is rarely for the better. This is because the AI doesn't care if it's engaged in a lopsided battle, or if the player is using something it doesn't have access to. It's never going to hop on the forums and beg the devs to nerf something players are using. 

PVP however should be fair, players shouldn't have to fight lopsided battles against other players unless for some weird reason they want to. Everything should be balanced in PVP, because if it's not, it quickly becomes not very fun for the player. They get frustrated and leave. Very few people like having the deck stacked against them or fighting 50 to 1 odds, or worse. 

Sure, there are some games that successfully have both PVE and PVP but they also tend to have developers with a clear vision of what they want their game to be and where it's going and a staff that's large enough to juggle all the conflicts of interest that arise. This game does not really have any of that. 

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DaOC, Guild Wars 2, & ESO would disagree with you. The PvE and PvP were good in all 3 of those games. 

 

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8 hours ago, Sydhart said:

Both PvE and PvP lack substance and longevity. I started on PvP and soon got bored because there is no point to the PvP in Atlas. There's no reward system, there's no ladder system, there's no accountability. It's one big grief fest. I switched to PvE because I could at least experience the other content and build without having people use exploits just to ruin my day.

I've said this half a dozen times already but they need to combine PvE and PvP.  PvP should be restricted to certain areas (grids). They need to add at least 3 factions. Those PvP areas (or outposts) as I've referred to them in other posts, should have objectives (garrisons or flags) that allow a factions to fight over for control and then that opens up special quests, reward vendors in a neutral (safe) area, and rare materials. Golden Age ruins should work the same.

 

 

Far more than three Factions if they go that route.  Maybe 10-12 factions.

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13 hours ago, Slash78 said:

Far more than three Factions if they go that route.  Maybe 10-12 factions.

Agreed. 3 would be the minimum for this type of system. I think splitting the map up into 1/4 or 1/8. Leave a zone around each faction section that would be Lawless/PvP. Rarer exotic resources would spawn in this area and this is where the new Encampments would also be.  

Freeports would also be interspersed through the game on the edges of the Lawless zones. Freeports not only have the vendors for cosmetics but you can also "fast travel" with your ship to another freeport. This would GREATLY reduce sailing time. Basically Freeports would be able to get you within 2-3 grids of any location in the map. How awesome would that be. I'm in D5 and need to get to L11. Instead of 7 zones that you have to travel through you'd only need 3! 

 

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8 hours ago, Sydhart said:

Agreed. 3 would be the minimum for this type of system. I think splitting the map up into 1/4 or 1/8. Leave a zone around each faction section that would be Lawless/PvP. Rarer exotic resources would spawn in this area and this is where the new Encampments would also be.  

Freeports would also be interspersed through the game on the edges of the Lawless zones. Freeports not only have the vendors for cosmetics but you can also "fast travel" with your ship to another freeport. This would GREATLY reduce sailing time. Basically Freeports would be able to get you within 2-3 grids of any location in the map. How awesome would that be. I'm in D5 and need to get to L11. Instead of 7 zones that you have to travel through you'd only need 3! 

 

Two factions would not only work perfectly but would be the most efficient. 

Multiple factions would still lead to alliances of different factions which also is the definition of cowardice and weakness.

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2 hours ago, Realist said:

Two factions would not only work perfectly but would be the most efficient. 

Multiple factions would still lead to alliances of different factions which also is the definition of cowardice and weakness.

You would want alliances.  Though I think a system from games like Europa Universalis where not only you have alliances, but you also have to pick Rivals (which have to be factions roughly the same size).  Basically you'll want to fight your rivals and leave everyone else alone.

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20 minutes ago, Slash78 said:

You would want alliances.  Though I think a system from games like Europa Universalis where not only you have alliances, but you also have to pick Rivals (which have to be factions roughly the same size).  Basically you'll want to fight your rivals and leave everyone else alone.

To be honest if I think mmo, I think WoW. If I think survival, I think ark. If I think pvp, I think Call of Duty. 

Call me crazy, but when I think of a certain genre I always think of the best first. All of which I mentioned are the best.

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11 minutes ago, Realist said:

To be honest if I think mmo, I think WoW. If I think survival, I think ark. If I think pvp, I think Call of Duty. 

Call me crazy, but when I think of a certain genre I always think of the best first. All of which I mentioned are the best.

WoW is a theme park MMORPG.  Atlas is a sand box.  Because it's a sand box you need things to be more dynamic.  This is the why on multiple factions.  So there is an ebb and flow, a dynamic political map.  

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1 minute ago, Slash78 said:

WoW is a theme park MMORPG.  Atlas is a sand box.  Because it's a sand box you need things to be more dynamic.  This is the why on multiple factions.  So there is an ebb and flow, a dynamic political map.  

Dude I am cool with that as well. “Claims” with forced gold upkeep sure as hell isnt a sandbox. At least agree with that. Claims are bad enough but now with gold upkeep? That is as theme park “zoo tycoon” as you can get lol

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1 minute ago, Realist said:

Dude I am cool with that as well. “Claims” with forced gold upkeep sure as hell isnt a sandbox. At least agree with that. Claims are bad enough but now with gold upkeep? That is as theme park “zoo tycoon” as you can get lol

There are 0-for-2 when it comes to the claim system.  Companies should have as many claims as they can hold on to.  They should get to set a tax value.  Anyone is the same faction should be able to build freely on a company's island as should friendly and neutral players (both being decided by a reputation system).  Upkeep on the flag makes no sense.  Maybe if there were company/faction owned ports/settlements on the island, I would say a certain material upkeep and gold/food upkeep for any NPCs (guards, etc), yes.  Gold upkeep, I don't get it.  

Why have island ownership?  For faction ranking.  Ranked by size, resources, tax income, improvements, player population, etc.  Also as tie ins to other mechanics.  Like if you anchor at a faction controlled island and someone decides to sink your ship "4 teh lulz" then they take a major reputation his with your faction as well as a their overall rep.  (Or at an allied island, they take rep hits with your faction and your ally).  Same with breaking down doors, busting open boxes, LEVELING THE WHOLE GODDAMNED BASE!!!111.

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3 minutes ago, Realist said:

Dude I am cool with that as well. “Claims” with forced gold upkeep sure as hell isnt a sandbox. At least agree with that. Claims are bad enough but now with gold upkeep? That is as theme park “zoo tycoon” as you can get lol

This statement makes no sense as claims and their upkeep have no bearing on the difference between theme park and sandbox concepts. Just as an example, here is a link describing the upkeep costs and system for sovereign  systems within Eve:

https://www.eveonline.com/article/upgrading-and-upkeep-of-sovereign-solar-systems-in-dominion

Eve is most definitely a sandbox. Sandbox and paying an upkeep are not mutually exclusive. C

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