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ATLAS

Q&A WITH THE DEVS - ASK A PIRATE DAY #10

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Ahoy Pathfinders!


Today we finally get to answer some of your questions once again. With the recent patch/wipe and contests announced, we didn’t want your answers to get lost in the wake. Now that the waters have calmed, we’re back to provide you answers. 


Please check out the contest here to submit your videos and have the opportunity to win up to a $25 Amazon gift card.

As a reminder, the answers below only reflect the current timeframe and are subject to change. While we can provide current insight on the game and what we hope to do, what is destined we can’t foresee. We appreciate your support and understanding.

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

npvnCdsGOU8ky42GSXmrFQRdKb2vKPuB4bZEWoDB

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:

Any plans to address shield stun duration or overhead mace torpor damage to make melee combat more entertaining and challenging, rather than stun-lock-and-torpor combat?

Damage during land combat is something we are only loosely balancing right now as we continue to work through Early Access. We will be revisiting it closer to the 1.0 release.

With barrel bombs (even shot from catapults) still dictating the "meta game," is there a plan to remove them from ship combat totally?

We are working on new ways for players to counter dominant strategies in ship combat. We recognize that ship combat is not in a good place right now and are focused on the long term health of the game. Look out for new defensive modules when we expand the module crafting system in the next major patch.

Are there any plans to limit structures per island, reducing the lag associated with the spam we have currently?

We are coming at this from a couple different angles. 
* Some memory management improvements are in testing that will allow clients to load and unload structures faster. 
* Some new structure types that are larger are in the works so players don't have to build massive structures out of many small pieces. 
* We are working through some ideas with claiming to help undercut the motivations for placing lots of small structures for meta reasons such as making landing tames hard or preventing others from building nearby.

Do you plan to limit the number of armored docks a company or island can have being used at any given time?

Not directly. Armored Docks require gold to operate. As we develop the economy, we are looking for more ways to sink gold and keep it scarce so that placing an Armored Dock costs you the opportunity to do something else important with that gold.

Are there any inbound flag claim (Height, Radius, etc) or Island changes (i.e.- Lawless Areas On Island Outside of Claim Radius)?

We definitely had some significant changes to this in the last major patch! We'd like to see how the meta adjusts before we commit to other changes. We are also spending effort making these configurations more customizable and exposing that to unofficial server owners so you can try out what combinations of ruleset you think are most interesting. Long term we would like to make fighting over valuable locations in the game take a concerted, multi-day effort. We'll talk more about that as features related to it are closer to being rolled out.

Are there any plans to add upgradeable end-game gear as a needed gold sink. Any chance on this being added back with the new BP crafting system you have hinted at?

We would love to make the crafting system more customizable and interesting. We have to balance this with other goals we have for the game. This particular area is not one of our primary focuses and so it's coming along in the free time, after hours, and weekends between other higher priority work.

Is there any way you guys will add a hull bigger than a brig with 4 large sails. But smaller than a galley?

Our plans for updating the modular ship system are full speed ahead and this is on the horizon. Our next major patch is planned to be focused on getting our core customization options out for ships. Immediately following that we will be working on making modular ships craftable in the Shipyard and introducing a dozen or more ship sizes. One of the great benefits of this new ship system is that we can make an entirely new ship completely out of existing parts and we are only a couple months away from unleashing that power!

Can we get an upgrade that increases the level (and rewards) of SotDs, allowing SotDs to be relevant in more than 8 out of 121 tiles in the game?

Check out the latest patch! Ships of the Damned are much more prevalent and have a much wider variety of difficulty on the map now!

Will the wipe affect the Unofficial Servers?

There are new features that unofficial servers may want to take advantage of. Our goal is to not require unofficials to wipe to support our changes, when possible. Early Access means that some changes in the future may be so transformative that this is unavoidable.

When will crew resource silos hold other food besides berries?

Thanks for the suggestion. This seems like an easy fix that will improve quality of life a little. We always try to fit these sorts of things in along side our larger features.

What does Atlas' long-term monetization strategy look like? Do you think it will be an Ark-like direction where you release multiple expansions? Subscription model? Mtx?

Right now we are focused on improving the game and making it something you want to bring your friends into play. Of those options, the most likely is expansions. There's not any interest with the team right now to do subscriptions or microtransactions.

What are some strategies you're working on for long-term player retention?

Improving the game. Seriously. We are trying to build a game where you want to gather a bunch of friends and try to carve out your place in the world and compete against other companies. That's the sort of game you can play with people for years and still have fresh experiences.

What are your thoughts on Armored Docks now that they have been in game for a while? They have added some really cool elements to the game but I also believe they have been abused by larger companies.

Armored Docks still are not where we want them to be. As the meta changes, their role within it will also change. Right now we want to focus on fixing any abuses or exploits using the Armored Docks. After we get some other changes in we'll revisit Armored Docks as a whole and see if they are fitting the way we want them to into the meta.

Is the current trade system completed in the devs opinion? Seems to not quite be everything it was advertised to become.

It's not at all complete. We got it roughed in and then moved onto roughing in some other things. We'll be coming back to working on it when we get some of our other large systems in order.

Any plans to improve how torpor works in general? Maybe make torpor do something like mess with the camera like the drunk debuff, torpor wouldn’t be such an instantaneous end to fights.

This is one of the approaches we have discussed for addressing the current land combat meta if we spent time on it. Land Combat is a major undertaking and requires a ton of continuous work on balance, so we are mostly leaving it as is right now until we have enough free resources to give it our full, undivided attention.

Is there a plan to address the lack of craft charges mainly on Gunports, Planks, and Cannons currently in the game?

These were addressed in the recent patch.
 

     :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! 🙂

 

npvnCdsGOU8ky42GSXmrFQRdKb2vKPuB4bZEWoDB

 

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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I read this and laughed.
You add barrles, Then JUSTIFY them staying in the game to push these new boat system w a balance THEN. So you add something NO ONE WANTS to justify replacing the boat system with one with ALOT LESS uniqueness that no one likes (cause how many do you see out of all the boats out there on official, almost NONE!) saying Barrels will be balanced THEN.

NO ONE ASKED FOR BARRELS and you added them TO MAKE US HATE THEM ON BOATS TO FORCE the players to these NEW crap boats Saying THEY WILL HAVE THE BARREL BALANCE!

You are very bad at mental manipulation, You made boats bad to push new boats on and take the old ones away.

They have been in the game for a year, take barrels  off boats it not hard it like 3 settings you flip.
Your acting like its So hard to fix. A YEAR of not having fun. Just let us PLAY THE GAME!


ON TOOOOOPPPPPPP of you petteling that lie. You give use another.
Planks and gun port craft are NO WHERE NEAR where they were.
Use to find some with 30-50 crafts.....
now 3-5....
thats fixed? It was 1 sure... but come on.
is this more messing w stuff to force us in to these new boats and remove the old ones?

I legit want to know.

Then we have more.

SotD.... Check the latest patch notes....
Yeah datamined it and the floatsum that come off the ones in the north are still not dropping mythic anything....
So you should have just said
NO
we made the north of the map like Pollar in prior seasons with Sotd's in the range of 30-40

Nothing has changed. No better drop rates.
IN FACT we still get drops of gold and ammo from 60 Gallys in Golden ages..... FIX THIS PLEASE

Stop working on ships and work on the Game system that are busted...

Also WHO ASKED for quality of life to be down graded with Bottles not having interference? I LEGIT want to know who thought it was a GREAT idea to Allow people to WASTE MORE HOURS of the game time in having to run + swim to collect maps.

Why are you adding hardships to the game? you have had better states in the game.

I do appreciate you nerfing Catapults BP's (although i think 140 ceiling would have been better then the range it currently is.)
i did see that and want to say it was a step in the right direction.

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Will this game ever be released?  Or will it always be a work in progress?

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This type of communication is just... Insulting. For goodness sake just stop it. Respond timely and meaningfully or not at all (we are used to that anyway). You are just going to annoy those few of us who are left. When we complain that there is silence we are not looking for a placatory response, we are wanting actual information.

With over 11,000 hours in game... No, there is no typo.... I've definitely gotten my money's worth. I like Atlas (obviously) and it had so much potential.

 

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This one was bad:
Move on to next task (still broken market system)
Weekendjob (BP and Crafting revamp)
Live with it (New brocken ship system)
We addressed it allready (Runs on some BPs)
Stupid QoL in a survival game (for silo, really you want to give us a no spoil storrage for all food?)
Hold the line (New Ship only a couple of month more, they mentioned the "new" ship system like 10 month ago, for how long shall it go on??)
Promise of higher performance (still this season the lag was just from the beginning, feels like it got way worse, releases stupid brocken functions like spyglass with tradewinds)

Every question the comunity asked had to be answered with, low prio job. That only shows that they dont develop their game for the current playerbase. GL everyone 😞
 

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Guys, you really HAVE TO fix crew no more following you in the ship (right now they just don't follow, but try to hit boat center). Or at least instead makin crew mount closest station - make station lure closes crew. Like I press the cannon and can choice in round menu: "mount here the closest crew".

Also both Pick and Axe gather more stones that flint.

Also warehouse gather just 1 stack of wares from farms.

Edited by George Catcher

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With barrel bombs (even shot from catapults) still dictating the "meta game," is there a plan to remove them from ship combat totally?

We are working on new ways for players to counter dominant strategies in ship combat. We recognize that ship combat is not in a good place right now and are focused on the long term health of the game. Look out for new defensive modules when we expand the module crafting system in the next major patch.

This is not even an answer!
"- Will you remove barrel?"
"- Well, we know there is problems with barrels but hey! check out our new module system for ships that nobody is using!"

The barrel overpowered problem in sea fights is serious problem, people don't wanna sail anywere around because they can get oneshoted and lost theirs ship that they were hard working on it. No sailing equeals no pve fun like bosses, caves, maps, sunken treasures etc. so the only thing that's left is sitting on one island and play really boring game.
Question is why don't then everybody use barrels? They want, they try, but not everybody is great captain, and 30 second fights are not fun at all especially if you were sailing an HOUR to get to the place!

Seriously, avoiding problems like that is not a solution or saying "we will try to work on it" This is really super simple task and would take you no time to fix that so i don't understand why you still can't fix it for such a long period of time! This is just ridiculus. If you don't want remove them, don't want spend time to work on them simply reduce dmg by 50%+ for ships. That's it.

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My question is just this. Will you PLEASE just sell the copyrights to another company that will at LEAST TRY to Dev like professionals?! That wont bait and switch their customers! Keep their promises! That wont crossplat! Nothing but love for PC, but everyone knows it's a true killjoy consoles! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!!! ARK TOO?!?! Btw. Speaking of console! Single player is still busted with NO mention of repair in sight! Not professional! 

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