ATLAS is the game about NPC on board?

[4ekPoint 1]

Hello! I have a big question about your new game ATLAS. Im capitan of big team with ~15 people. We fight 3 times on shooner and brigantine with many crew(team) people on board and at all time opponents have 2 people on board and 10 NPC and they sunk our ships. NPC have 90% accuracy on the ships battles, it is so bad.... You need friends only for gathering resourses because NPC won all battles, you cant fight VS NPC on ship battle! Delete this sheetly npc from game, make sails turning to capitan, and all team will shooting, abordage, repairing, playing music and other. Now in this game i dont need team for ship fights, i need only NPC on my ship beacuse they have 90% accuracy in fight. When im stay on cannon in battle we have smoke on board when enemy hit us, we have big waves, we have many visual effects in battle, npc dont see it, they are very powerful, they f**k up this animations and shoot with 90% accuracy, so for won battles in sea i dont need any people on board, only for repairing, because people cant shoot like NPC. I will upload 3 fights VS NPC ships for game creators. Now gameplay for team is *gather resourse, build ships, take nps, go repair ship npc do all work on battle*. We will waiting when GM understand this and fix this sh**tly NPC because when we buy this game we think this game about Ships Crew and Teamplay. Nope. This game about NPC MUST HAVE.
https://youtu.be/6yIBUPNUZpw
https://youtu.be/toVbSuMtMXM
https://youtu.be/LyKdlq4b9r0

 

Edited January 7, 2019 by 4ekPoint

[GuntherFM 1]

This is a big problem for us. We want to feel the spirit of piracy, but our players leave because they aren't needed on the ship:  any mercenary is better than a live player. 

[DocHolliday 366]

Yeah NPC's have built in auto-aim......human players not so much.  We will get better as a player base gains experience, but I would not mind seeing the NPC crews be less effective on the guns. 

They gain levels like the rest of us, correct?  I wonder if they have random rolls built in to them for aiming and the higher the level the better the odds.  Start them low so only crews that survive for a long period of time will be as effective as a highly skilled human crew. 

[Migolcow 30]

There's pluses and minuses to NPCs as gunners.    The main thing your human crew should be doing though is one on captain's wheel, one on lieutenants, and 2 on repairs...not having an active repair guy is such a huge thing, NPCs can do it but badly.    

The rest of your human crew should be focussed on boarding and salvaging, something NPCs can't do.    Use the grappels, wingsuits, etc.     

Note that your "Human crew" can also be better Cannoneers if they are good at aiming and have the artillery talents, they can aim at specific spots and reload faster than your npcs.

Finally, the other advantage toward the large crew is that they can just be home farming materials and getting other things done, then teleport to your various ships via beds in a hurry to help with whatever you're doing.    You'll also need your human crew to "feed" your npc crew their Gold, having a good 15+ NPCs on a brig gets expensive, so treasure maps are a must, and NPCs aren't good there.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Migolcow

[Spidernumerouno 9]

They can snipe the NPC's or captain with guns.

They can try and set the boat on fire with fire arrows.

They can repair your damaged ship.

They can help get all the water out of the ship.

[Talono 434]

They can not all of that when they have been sunk by aimbotting NPCs

[GuntherFM 1]

24 minutes ago, Spidernumerouno said:

They can snipe the NPC's or captain with guns.

They can try and set the boat on fire with fire arrows.

They can repair your damaged ship.

They can help get all the water out of the ship. 

The ship carries a limited amount of resources. Mercenary attacks quickly destroy a ship before we can repair it.  We want to take part in the battle as cannoners. But now 8 mercenaries +2 players are better than 10 players.

13 minutes ago, Talono said:

They can not all of that when they have been sunk by aimbotting NPCs

Alas, but if you watch the video, they all did it (

Edited January 7, 2019 by GuntherFM

[Migolcow 30]

NPCs aren't 100%, not even close.    They're only more accurate than human players atm by a bit, and lag plays a role.     And "Aimbotting" Npcs can't use guns as far as I know except swivels and other artillery things

[LSG 7]

Flame cannon, enough said. 

[LaiTash 156]

I prefer to have one guy at the wheel, one guy at the podium, and at least one guy for repairs and navigation. Having a sniper who can take down the enemy crew helps as well. We can't replace brigs as easily as some people claim, so i prefer having one ship with 4 people to 4 ships with 1 guy on each. 

But i certainly appreciate being able to set sail on my own without having to wait for someone to join me.

There's also a technical reason for NPC crew. Some of us once tried to participate in battle on a galeon with just 8 NPCs on it and the other roles filled by players. Needless to say it didn't end well - that one ship contributed to lag more than anything else and was constantly getting kicked from server. Didn't have a chance to do anything useful. There would never be large fleet battles if not for NPC crews.

[The Joker 0]

You must think bigger, everyone of your company need there own ship. So wildcard wants to prepare big battles.

[GuntherFM 1]

I'm not against mercenaries on ships, I would like their shooting accuracy to be lower. When a fight takes place in bad weather conditions, they shoot like in good weather.The role of artillery player is reduced to zero

@Jatheish Please, tell me, what is the position of the developers on this issue?

Edited January 8, 2019 by GuntherFM

[Dingiva 16]

First of all: NPCs dont calculate the wave movement. Players can (and should). Furthermore, NPCs have a huge problem to hit when you dont sail in a straight line, as long as you dont try to sail against the wind. They also encounter problems when you just show your front to get closer. NPCs wont fight back when you enter the enemy ship to kill them. They can easily be killed with flamethrowers.

To be honest, in your 3 videos, you just play pretty bad, thats it. You get hit several times, and still, nobody in your crew cares. In our crew, we have at least one teammate just for the repairs, and he will repair the ship directly after we received dmg. You just stay at the cannons. This isnt a "pew! pew!"-game, its not only about staying at the very same spot, playing with huge guns. Before thinking about nerfing/adjusting the NPC´s, you should think about adjusting your playstyle on the ship.

The captain doesnt even announce on which side the damage will come in, basically because noone is going to repair stuff anyways. You dont win seafights like that. Our (completely) human crew wont fear you, not even on a raft, to be honest. No blaming, but its like that. Your aiming is awful, and you are not coordinating anything on the ship.

An experienced (and coordinated) crew will outplay every mercenary-ship.

In your videos, even a lvl 10 ghost ship might sink you.

[wakko151 36]

7 minutes ago, Dingiva said:

First of all: NPCs dont calculate the wave movement. Players can (and should). Furthermore, NPCs have a huge problem to hit when you dont sail in a straight line, as long as you dont try to sail against the wind. They also encounter problems when you just show your front to get closer. NPCs wont fight back when you enter the enemy ship to kill them. They can easily be killed with flamethrowers.

To be honest, in your 3 videos, you just play pretty bad, thats it. You get hit several times, and still, nobody in your crew cares. In our crew, we have at least one teammate just for the repairs, and he will repair the ship directly after we received dmg. You just stay at the cannons. This isnt a "pew! pew!"-game, its not only about staying at the very same spot, playing with huge guns. Before thinking about nerfing/adjusting the NPC´s, you should think about adjusting your playstyle on the ship.

The captain doesnt even announce on which side the damage will come in, basically because noone is going to repair stuff anyways. You dont win seafights like that. Our (completely) human crew wont fear you, not even on a raft, to be honest. No blaming, but its like that. Your aiming is awful, and you are not coordinating anything on the ship.

An experienced (and coordinated) crew will outplay every mercenary-ship.

In your videos, even a lvl 10 ghost ship might sink you.

I like the crew for the sails. But I would much rather have human crew members on guns and in the crows nest shooting at the enemies ship. If they have NPCs we kill those first with sniper fire. Most people I fight just turn there ship with the wind and head straight. Its sad. Not the games fault. You have to learn. We all do.