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Thayxen

Make Atlas Great Again

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Here are my suggestions to make Atlas great again:

1. Run Development Decisions by the Community First

This could be in the form of a forum poll, or some other interactive medium.  I specifically propose that it is of the format:

  • Here is what we want to accomplish
  • Here is why we want to accomplish it
  • Here are our proposed solutions
  • Here are the top player-proposed solutions

I think this is important, because it is not always clear what the developers are trying to solve in any particular experimental mechanic change.  Often, the developer completely destroys multiple well-working aspects of the game while attempting to solve a pre-determined problem.  The player base (especially the majority who are enjoying the game and not vocal on the forums), suddenly reacts in force with negativity.  This in turn leads to bad press / marketing not only here, but in the Steam reviews and forums. (Ahem, barrel bombs. Ahem, gold costs in ship building).  Perhaps the developers could better accomplish their goals with outside-the-box suggestions from the community, if the community knew what the problem was in the first place. From a player's perspective, the dev decisions just look like they're being made by people who neither play nor care about the game.

 

2. Get away from the direction towards Arcade Play

This speaks to the point above.  Many of the decisions which are being made to get more players on the ocean, can and will damage some of the intricate and fun parts of the game. For example:  The idea towards releasing 'whole' ships instead of hull classes and parts.  Sure, this would reduce time building.  Many players enjoy the building and customization aspect in the ships.  The amount of time invested, consequently makes players feel invested in their ships. This investment in a time-intensive asset increases the risk / reward feeling of combat.  The tiers of parts / blueprint system, and the varied rss types needed for advanced components, is a huge driving factor in the Atlas economy (and also the player's need to move around the map to acquire these resources.)  While I won't knock the trade system / warehouses/ farmhouses until we see how it finally ends up, I think all of these things should be taken into consideration before gutting these mechanics.

Afterall, if Atlas' goal is to simply become a naval combat with no underlying effort, then what exactly does Atlas offer over a title like World of Warships? Nothing.  The latter does the arcade thing better.

 

3. Improve Your Marketing

This game needs a professional marketing department in the worst way.  If you really want to breath life into Atlas, stop spending time breaking the existing mechanics, and instead introduce new content that works with the existing mechanics.  Market it. Create a buzz around it.  I'm not sure you can do DLC's while in early access, but DO SOMETHING. Make it make an impact on social media.  Work to bring more players into the game.

 

4. Keep Yourselves Afloat

I suspect you really could use some more revenue.  This is the type of game  I'd pay a monthly subscription for.  That ship has already sailed though. So you need to be thinking of other ways to generate new revenue for Atlas.  Whether it is content, or even some minor pay-to-win mechanics.  I don't mean cheap cell-phone game mechanics.  Look at what Eve Online does.  In game assets are easily tied to real world money.  The constant wars, loss, etc, creates a vacuum in the game which makes this viable and not unfair.  I must stress this especially:  Don't focus on punishing players who put the work in to succeed in Atlas, but do give the option for the lazy or busy players to buy into some resources and components.  (If they don't know what they're doing, they'll lose it to the players who do, so no harm, no foul.)

 

5.   Increase the Map Size

Atlas was much cooler with the larger map.  I realize the downgrade was partially I financial decision / shrinking player base.  If you do succeed and getting more players on the water to fight over local-water assets, then relying on cramming everyone towards the golden-age ruins will be less of an issue.  And if you succeed in some of the other steps above - an increased player base may necessitate a larger map again.  

 

I realize all of this is easier said than done.  But there are many players out there that love Atlas, and would support you more, if you gave them reason to.  Cheers.

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Remove the fu....ing cost of ship, its demotivation of play gaming, 50k for gally? seriusly? we have 20-30 people online played and for example get 50k gold need a sail and farm maps maybe 1-3 days time!!! its for 1 galleon. But imagine, for expample how to build gally for 5-10 people, its need a week time 😄 ? Its system demotivation.

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On 11/27/2020 at 2:52 AM, Chopa said:

Remove the fu....ing cost of ship, its demotivation of play gaming, 50k for gally? seriusly? we have 20-30 people online played and for example get 50k gold need a sail and farm maps maybe 1-3 days time!!! its for 1 galleon. But imagine, for expample how to build gally for 5-10 people, its need a week time 😄 ? Its system demotivation.

I hear you.  After a very long break, I decided to give Atlas another go this week. The grind for a single schooner is astronomically boring and long. (Not to mention, there's no point in making that kind of 5k investment before you've dropped 10k on an armored dock ...to protect your one measly little ship that you'll be afraid to take out.

And then you start thinking :  "If I have to spend 1 to 2 weeks grinding for a single ship, do I really want to waste 5k on common components? Or a common shipyard at all." 

Let's consider the income sources at the moment:

1. Treasure Maps

These are great, except there's a 50% chance you're going to run into a puckle or the area is going to be walled off by a company on any single map. It's equally tedious for the players who have to constantly retrieve bodies of people who innocently wandered past their base, or meet them to buy the map from them, etc.  To make this mechanic viable, treasure maps need to lead to somewhere players can never build.  An extra ring of islands near lawless maybe. Call them 'davy jones locker' or whatever you like.  I do see the last Ask A Pirate thing mention 'Maelstrom's'  (which sound a like like Eve Online's wormholes, in the vague description given), so that might be where that's heading.

 

2. Shipwrecks

Putzing around to these in a sloop is tediously slow. I'll admit, I enjoy the challenge, and being in a sloop makes the world feel big.  But the payout is pathetic.  Not to mention, 50% of the shipwrecks that show up on the map (after using Sextant) actually have nothing there.  The icon is there, but there is no flotsam to indicate a wreck, and no wreck on the sea floor where the icon is. 

 

3. Trade System

I haven't figured it out well enough to really comment yet. What it does seem like to me though, is that once a company sets its routes in market, there is no incentive for them to check again until needs change.  This leaves a new-coming market locked out.  The resource offer list is also tedious.  There needs to be a more efficient way to set 1:1 trades on 5 types of wood at once for example, instead of having to create a separate offer for each.  I do think the option should remain there, to customize like this. But there could also be some quality of life UI automation to improve this experience. 

 

4. Farming SoTD

It's been many months since I've done this, so I forget the payout. May comment on it later.

 

5. Selling stuff in shops at Freeport 

 Again, I don't know how well these do. If you have experience with it, please feel welcome to comment in this thread.

 

6. Whaling

This has a decent payout (but finding them, and hoping they've respawned takes time.   A lot of time.  Can it be done in a Sloop?  I've certainly seen some players build whaling sloops. But how successful they are, I'm not sure.

 

Conclusion

As it stands though, it feels like a small armored dock should be more like 1,500, not 10,000. And a Schooner should be in the realm of 500 - 800.   That's still a small grind, but it won't flatten your eyeballs before you get there.

Edited by Thayxen
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