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ATLAS

Q&A WITH THE DEVS - ASK A PIRATE DAY #9

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Ahoy Pathfinders!


We’re back with another edition of Dev Q&A. We have info on PvE, game balance, and even a few cosmetics in the works. So thanks to all the pathfinders that submitted questions in the Discord.

The Atlas team is dedicated to provide as much transparency as we can since we feel the community is also a part of the team. Often the loudest of the members, you provide us with feedback, suggestions, and even a compliment or two. Therefore, we feel it is necessary to be open with the community in all facets. We hope you will continue to support us through rough (and calm) seas. 

Until next time, we appreciate your support and ‘til next time, may your skies be clear, waters calm, and sails full in whichever way you roam.

nfAtTTlziKleZZs5R31u56kQ_aAd-I3q6ufyGX4e

Without further ado, here’s our Q&A! Hang out at our Discord for a chance to get your questions answered in the next Q&A!

     :anchor: Q&A :anchor:


Can you confirm if there will still be island claiming system or will it be lawless everywhere after the wipe?

We are still making updates to the area claim system and are going to focus on that. The Island claim system is likely to stick around after the wipe, but the map changes are still being finalized so that is subject to change. Either way the Island Claim System should be available for private servers.

Can we get some details of the theme and vision? 

We're not planning to overhaul the game. We are planning to lean into things we have and reinforce them more with new content. So you might see Army of the Damned themed things in the world more, or Atlantis... We're also talking about introducing some pre WW1 dirty industrial content.

How are small companies and solo players going to work into the game? 

Just like they do in the real world. Seriously. Large behemoth companies can't do everything on their own, and they can't protect everything at once. As we move towards having Wonders that companies build, it's going to require a massive amount of trade, logistics and war to get one built. This creates opportunities for smaller groups to be part of the wheels of progress or engage in acts of piracy as large amounts of resources need to be shipped on the water.

When can we expect balance changes?

Balance changes are happening continuously in small amounts. We don't have a focus on getting balance "right" because so many things are still getting added to the game. We want to get all of our changes in to get a better understanding of the big picture and then will come back and tighten the balance.

Can we get some form of roadmap even if it has a disclaimer that the plans could change anytime? 

Right now we are focused on getting ready for a larger summer release. This will include more ships and some of the ship customization system talked about in another question. In addition to that, we are working on multiple maps that connect different parts of the world, rather than one large, uniform map. We also are laying the foundation for Wonders that players can build in the world by creating a general system for giving buffs to your company based on buildings you've built. The content we are working on generally will support these systems as we move towards a world where companies have more long-term goals and reasons to compete over specific land. That pretty much covers the major things we are working on for the next six months to a year.

...we all know the focus is on pvp but PVE players are still generally curious what the long term thoughts and ideas really are while lots of them generally feel marginalized and pushed aside.

We are focused on making Atlas one of the best and most unique pvp games out there. We want to be able to support PVE and Private servers so that other players can also enjoy what we create. Some of our changes are specifically driving PVP goals and do not fit well with PVE. We are looking at ways we can do a better job keeping PVP changes from creating bad experiences in the PVE community without having to spend a lot of time working on it to support two different play styles. In some cases, that means we need to not put those PVP systems on PVE. It also means we need to give unofficial server owners better tools for choosing how they want their world to be configured. Right now we are working on an overhauled configuration system that lets us do this with less disruption to our development cycle. Right now many things are hard-coded to work under certain conditions.

Are the new claim towers going to be modified for PVE? Will the mechanic change at all?

We would like to hear what PVE players think about this. While the disruption of adding the claim towers was painful because of the point in the season it occurred, generally we think it's better to be able to lay claim to an area and not have to build fence posts to prevent anyone else from building there. We do need to figure out some issues like decay times.

Weight Sail buff or changes, when?


All sails are getting updated and a new system is coming for changing the stats on sail blueprints. When is a harder question. We have some larger commitments that take priority right now and are taking a “time out” on some of the smaller things we've been working on to take care of some other business, like updating the mod kit, overhauling configurations, cleaning up a lot of bugs, and growing the team.

What tweaks do the team have for the new claim system, we are testing on Lawless islands?

We're still in the process of seeing how the meta changes from the new claims before making tweaks. As far as in the long term, we're planning to add some unique buildings and locations that must be captured with this system to get the benefit. The intention is for players to have strategic points on islands that give them an offensive or defensive benefit. Capturing an entire island might be a multiple day process as you have to take over these locations, build your own buildings, and wait for the benefits to kick in.

When will you add side quests? Maybe ones that earn players gold, loot, and xp? Other ones aside from the skill tree achievements/ pve bosses?

 In the past there have been some MMORPG elements added to the game and we have decided this is not the best use of our time because this does not fit the kind of game we are making. Atlas is a sandbox survival game and we are fully committed to spending our dev effort on making tools for players to create their own interesting stories.

Are you guys gonna make more tames/bosses?

More tames are in the works! Our current focus (within the taming system) is making more existing creatures tameable. Crocodiles are next on the list and will be released soon. We don't plan to add new bosses. Our current boss fights didn't work well and were easily exploited, so we'd like to clean those up, and ultimately we want to focus on player stories rather than PVE content.

When will we see further information about the new ship system and further adjustments? 

We are continuously making balance changes to the new ship system and the customization features described in this post are currently in development. The first customization feature will be released soon and will allow players to craft and swap a variety of railing types. The railings available with the launch of this feature will include Standard Railings, Cannon Railings, Cargo Rack Railings, Diving Attachment Railings, and Dinghy Hangar Railings. We know everyone loves the ability to paint their ships and we are also working to make the new ship system compatible with the painting system.

Will the current ship system still be available to build next season or is it just going to be these new modular ships?

There is no plan to remove the original ship system. That wouldn't even be a possibility until the other system is fully implemented. We would like the two systems to exist side by side unless something changes that makes this no longer possible. This poses some balance issues that we are going to have to address at some point.

Will there be a new map implemented?

Some changes to the map layout will be coming with the wipe in order to support Tradewinds. Later this year, you'll see a much larger overhaul of the map with portals to new areas.

Is there any plan to add a farmhouse-like structure that could also feed tames? Or the ability for tames on wandering to feed themselves from wild berries/ food?

We would like to eventually introduce a Stable structure where players can store their tames. We plan to add a similar module for the new ship system that allows easier tame transport.

When will we get cosmetic hat microtransactions/vendor?

We don't currently plan to add microtransactions for cosmetics or anything else even. Most of our art effort is focused on making new ships right now, but we do have one new hat coming soon!

 

:anchor: Final Note :anchor:

Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed.


As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! 🙂

 

nfAtTTlziKleZZs5R31u56kQ_aAd-I3q6ufyGX4e

 

Happy Sailing,

- ATLAS Crew

: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

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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garbage game stays garbage, gotcha

Quote

We're not planning to overhaul the game.

This is why this game will always stay shit.

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PvE things can be as simple as varied treasure hunting or archeology things, more reasons to dive, varied npc ships and npc's on islands. Small outpost to overtake for blueprint rewards, more crafting or things to do on boats while they sail. More building PCs, alpha creatures, npc base attacks both at land or sea... Random quests at ports to earn gold or crafting quests to turn in for rewards like bps. Scavenging ship wrecks for boat upgrades.. the list goes on and on. Also, yes open up more config settings for server owners or implement a questing mod system so creators can create their own questing or treasure hunting content.. 

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Do you devs hear yourselves when you speak? You say one thing then in the next statement contradict yourself.  You say you appreciate the suggestions and comments from your community but obviously don't pay any attention to it or just don't care. Focusing on PVP is fine and understandable that you want to go that direction but to turn your backs on the PVE players is going to be a huge mistake. It saddens me to walk away from this game but I just can't do it anymore. My animals can wear hats but you won't fix the stuff broken in the game since launch and are now openly admitting that you are releasing broken content to us players.

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We're not planning to overhaul the game.

3,000 people play your game on a good day.  You may want to reconsider that.

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Laughing~ hahahaha

Blackwood map failed. You're going to make another little map?
The dog on the street must be laughing.

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Attention: Devs.

The latest Q & A is completely terrible for PVE players, which should be a considerable amount of your very loyal player base.. Your latest Q & A stating your intentions to not make any more PVE "content" at all (bosses / quests ). All the while, there have been plenty of complaints from players that you should focus on more interesting content, cause of us PVE players always running out of things to do.. ( in case a player doesn't like breeding). Please take note of this, if you want to retain your tons of really loyal, long term PVE players. Aswell as keep new ones from leaving, after a short while. 

I want to add that, in my company during these 2 years, when we gather up to do things like powerstones, Kraken, or Ice Cave, everyone in the crew "wakes up", and comes online again, after being passive and not gaming for a while, etc. Even old players that have been offline for quite a while, often come back, at those more special occasions. So, a few more side quests/smaller and easier bosses to do, would add tremendous ways to "lure in" new and old players into the game.

Just my 2 cents. 

Regards from a day 1 (PVE) player. 

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So yay PVP!  Fuck the PVE.  Sounds like you're really working on the game for everyone.  

 

Its sad when the gameplay I paid for is no longer going to be allowed.  I want a refund.

Edited by Grayson
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You guys keep saying you want more “player stories” kind of hard to get those when there is hardly any content to use, in my opinion they kind of go hand in hand.

Maybe it’s just me but the way y’all go in about pve almost seems like y’all have a strong disliking for the game mode. And if that’s the case why not just go ahead and get rid of it altogether. Since y’all don’t care to work on it an it’s obvious that’s it’s just holding y’all back. 

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As a PVE player and never s PVP player, I was dissapointed to hear that you won't consider supporting both paths.  I know it is a lot of effort but your only going to succeed and make money if you draw all players into the game.  Reconsider your focus on the PVE genre.  Other then that I really enjoy the game and look forward to the new changes, thank you.

 

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Hey, one of the better Q&A.
I still dont get it fully, but its nice to finally see where you want to move.

As PVE player i would totaly like the official PVE network with disabled farms/warhouses/markets and no claim towers. All that stuff felt more like anticontent, reducing player interaction and player storries.
So concider to just disable this mechanisms for PVE.

Regarding claim towers in PVE, i dont see how new players will have a space to live on afger a while, everything will be claimed in lawless. So without a good balance in points it will be bad for everyone most likely, and that balance would mostly be neccessary for PVE, so i dont see it done right.

Anyway, you talk for almost a year now about tradewinds, can you please tell us what they do?

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Game is not moving in a positive direction.  keep ignoring glaring bugs/issues and lack of pve content.  just keep adding more stuff to tame and relying on the community to build "player stories" from pvp, because they clearly won't be gaining any from PVE.  They go hand in hand pvp & pve, you can have both simultaneously.  Make lawless zones pvp zones, make the safe ports and non-lawless zones PVE.  Do it all in 1 big server, those that want to PVP go to lawless, make rare resources in lawless, and or keep the golden age where you have to sail through (lawless) pvp zone to engage with golden age.   You can do both pve and pvp on a single server.  It's so stupid how when I go to PVP I see the biggest companies hiding their stuff in freeports and getting on every 8-12hrs just to repair stuff.  Give people both choices, let their be PVP zones and PVE zones on 1 large server, make it so you can't craft the best stuff without taking risk in those pvp territories fine.  Most PVP stories are those of people quitting anyways due to broken mechanics.  Even hardcore pvp fans will often agree they don't enjoy losing everything while being offline raided etc.  Let people that want to pvp do so in lawless and have fun make it a battle zone as it should be, and those that don't want to can avoid it while not being able to accomplish max end game tier items/ships etc. without risking it in lawless.  Many games have been able to accomplish both pvp and pve on single large servers, the community is too small to even justify having a separate pve and pvp server at this point.

Edited by JDawg
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I just hope the dev's actually look at other games successes in the same genre.  Passively gaining resources and income isn't a fun mechanic in any game.  The whole market place with passive trades etc. all needs to be reworked.  It really did kill a large chunk of content for PVE players, while not offering a whole hell of a lot for PVP players either.  The whole mechanic of passively receiving any types of resources or income is just not entertaining.  Add in pre-made ships u can purchase for gold with little customization and what do you get?  It's like the dev's don't even understand what people still cling to this game for in PVE, it's human interaction it's trading and bartering - it's making cool customized and unique ships in their own shipyards, not buying premade ships with gold and having everything passively handed to them resource wise over time.

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"we want to focus on player stories rather than PVE content." are you kidding us? My story about crocodile taming?!
this is first time i see developers put a gun to the head of their game and eager to push.
Good luck guys. I'm glad one wonderful game was released in the start of this year (they sold 6mln of copies btw). ANd that one promise us 4 new bosses. istead of taking awaw what was left here to do.

best PVP? a joke

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Well as an official PVP solo player this means for me RIP Atlas.
 

If you read between the lines they plan to implement the trash exploiter claim tower system to everywhere, not just lawless.

I will certainly not build something up for months again, just to lose it to some LOL troll naked noob with a claim tower in 45 minutes again.

No, i as a lone wolf do NOT want to be just „a wheel“ in some mega companys machine as you discribe it.

What you are planning is just a slavery systems to benefit the megatribes.

Good luck, if you think that over i may come back.

But certainly not while your offline raid system „take anything from anybody in 45 minutes“ trash stays implemented

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I get it now. Took 12 hours and it hit me last night. Your actively trying to kill the whole game.  You want the game to be entirely different and actively trying to make the game go away as is. 
 

still want a refund. 
 

G

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I'm currently PVE solo player and I have nothing to say about QnA above. We'll see what you brings...

But about current PVE game state I could say few words.

1) - Current food/vits system. When I do all my inland stuff, setting up my base - I have no worries. My hunger level decreases and I eat a lot. All berries/vegies are automatically gathered, I spend 5 minutes a day to catch a fish. All meat usually comes with wolves/snakes/lions while I'm doing inland business. So I always have full mess table. And eat while I need that. So it just boring routine.

When I sail far for treasures - I have to take off my armor at nights and do left/right dashes to low my stamina and low my hunger level, because this is the only place where I need equilibrium buff. So you force me to do such silly action like dashing left/right naked. There is no other way to do in fast during seas travels.

When I sail for hydras and do powerstones - I don't eat. I don't care. It took me like a 4 days or so to complete gathering powerstones and I didn't eat a single meal during this time period. Because sometimes hydra kills me, sometimes all wild fauna does that in goldens. And running in to the cave - it's one way trip.

Some players, btw, prefer to eat poop and die, when their vits are going low. I'm not sure if farming and cooking somehow solve all food problems, especially during far travels. It's easy to maintain all vit's same level by eating "5-5-25-25" simple food instead of growing and cooking something. So... basically current food and vits doesn't brings anything in a game. Especially while you can just die and get you equilibrium. So current vits and food system needs to be changed somehow.

Maybe cancel vits, and bring farming and cooking to some buff stuff??? Or if you wanna go easy way, just make hunger level decrease with vit's level, not because of player's actions.

2) - Tames. In PvE the only tames I need is a horse for... like metal gathering from other part of island where nodies are, or just to run through the island for bottles. And a TIGER for lvl-20 treasures. Nothing else. So I have to spend like whole a lot of points for that. And you know I wish I don't. I wish I need to tame just a basic horse, for fast traveling and that's it. I don't wanna bears. I don't wanna TIGERs. I don't wanna dolphins and seahorses. I don't wanna CROCODILE (wtf, why the hell I wanna this one???) I don't wanna (and don't do) breeding. So some balance changes to let me do lvl-20 treasure without tames, would be welcome. With high level armor and high level weapons for example... And I would forget about beastmastery skills like for ever (I mean, I'll take just a basic for horse).

3) - Make gold weight noting. Like all other MMOs does. You do realize that to buy new ship I need to be lvl-100+ with 3 rejuvenation buffs, with all my stats put in to weight, and naked. Only then I'll be able to carry 22K gold in my inventory? (Or I should use some game exploits).

Edited by George Catcher
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The fact is they are turning Atlas into rust on water. Maybe the devs want a game filled with trash talking griefers , who knows? After all they don't exactly communicate that well ,do they?

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Lets see if this question gets answered-- if someone wants to re-post it on discord I would appreciate it

     If you intend to make this "one of the best and most unique PvP games ever", exactly how do you plan on solving the "Wolves vs Sheep" dilemma? I have heard of several vague "incentives" mentioned to encourage large companies to work with small companies, but I haven't heard of any specific details that can't be solved by a few alt accounts.

 

     Sidenote, if you want to encourage the Atlas Community, a LARGE step in that direction would be tagging whose question is being answered and who exactly is answering it.

*** Bumps appreciated ***

 

R1K

Edited by Ranger1k
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18 hours ago, ATLAS said:

As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! 🙂
 

Obviously the feed back from the community isnt herd otherwise we would get the answer from what keep being asked........  via Majority of the same question.

New claim System???  its Season 1 revamped (Lawless for a reason - Be seen and not found) -  Might aswell call it Law and Claimed. - Not Broke dont FIX IT. (Now you can claim someones BP'd Ship not just there base.  or you might be lucky and claim half of the base now that is funny lol)

Barrels still able to shoot from Boat (Been complained about alot in the last 2/3seasons) Remove them and allow Over Board Barreling via Hand.

Armoured DOCK (Way too many for one company in one Grid - Reduce them to x2 Per company Per Grid?) - (NEW FREEPORT META ON ANY ISLAND just need an NPC Vendor with them)

Sea Tax Island (No build except for bank and towers?) - (Theres Armoured Docks placed there and FOB Boats hmmmmmm)

Honeslty ide love to know who asks these Questions you guys throw out there because the Normal questions that would be asked are never seen lol

Side note the past few updates that came out were good IMO (Stam Drain and movement of Glider) - (Ballista Flame increased over Sails) - (and i do like the Dolphin/Seahorse) So a big well done and thnak you on these Patches.

 

You wont get more people visiting the sea when it take less then 40minutes to claim someones isle on LAW'd they wont go farm becuase of the time travel.

You wont get more people visiting the sea when they can lose the 50k Galleon within x5 Barrels! 35k brig x3 barrels 5k schooner x1/2 Barrels.

You wont get more people visiting the sea if they have to dock at a LAW'd isle as something going on in rl to come back and they lose there ship. It takes days to Claim a ship with What yours is mine (Useless skill for awhile now) but if i thow a SEA CLAIM down its mine within 40mins.  YAY!!! - FAIL SYSTEM Season 1

 

Some may have given more to this game then me but since launch ive invested 6k hours and is still playing not so much now becuase of the Wipe Hype but hey.

Questions that are asked must be from the new Players honestly or even the dev team throwing questions to each other as there role play tester.......

Edited by KillaBry
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@George Catcher and Atlas Development Team

     Piggy backing off of Georges points and offering some corroboration and alternate feedback

      1 Food- I observed many people choosing to cheese the food system by either popping the brown pill or punching an animal until it killed them. The solutions are simple some have been in place for decades

          a. When you DIE you should LOSE EXPERIENCE. Period. Yes even in PvP, carebear bullshit.

          b. The the average human can survive SEVERAL weeks with zero food and MUCH longer on partial rations. Knock off the character pissing and moaning every 5 minutes for a meal then miraculously sailing FOREVER with zero hunger unless its cold

          c. Theres more but I'm sick of giving you ass clowns FREE UNACKNOWLOWLEDGED FEEDBACK

          *** Fix your shit when it ccmes to food DEVS, if you can't understand how, DM me ***

 

     2 Tames- DEVS -Is this fucking Ark or Atlas? Make a decision. I am NOT a fan of your ENTIRE, OFF-THE-TOPIC-OF-PIRATES TAMING CLUSTERFUCK. My opinion. I'm not saying scrap it entirely, but lets just say I think you might want adjust your development priorities.

          *** Another one that I can help with, if your confused D........M....... Me ***

  

     3. Devs you do realize that gold coin WAS NOT the only form of currency, right? 

          a. Silver

          b. Copper

          c. Barter

          d. Authentic Letters of Deposit

          e. Bullion

          *** Once again if you need help with this fucking rocket science, 😃, DM me ***

 

     Get your shit straight

Edited by Ranger1k
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Its really sad to see you guys go in this direction and neglecting a core component of your game.

PvE does not only provide content to do for the pve server, it provides content for the pvp players as well.

It gives incentive to go out into the world, it creates oppourtunity for players to encounter each other and the potential for conflict to occur.

You say you want players to create stories as they live in Atlas, yet by neglecting new enviornmental content you reduce these stories into only "we went out hunting and killed some noobz". This becomes stale and eventually boring.

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Have you thought of reworking Armored ship docks? 1 Per Grid, per company, and it can store multiple boats?
Not a fan of The claim towers i think you kill off a large part of the solo players with this. AND its spyglass obstruction is STUPID, if you have alot of claim towers you cant see anything!? why? also cant see the radius while holding H ? wtf

I dont even play solo, or in small company's but this mechanic.... I just see it as a answer to armored shipyards and spam. And i think there are better solutions then this thing, i really just think there are better options

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