Just lost my 12th Schooner

[ave26 20]

7 minutes ago, strawman said:

There are always going to be fanboys who defend every decision a developer makes, no matter how plainly wrong and harmful to the population that decision is.

But a dead game is exactly the path we're on. Not only do we have Steamcharts as you mentioned, Reznok's tracker still shows the populations of official NA and EU PVP. At the absolute best moments they have a combined population of about 5,000. Right now there are 3,300 online between both servers.

Wow, those numbers are sad. And after all complaints and suggestions I've made because I care and want this game to survive, I mostly get "git gud"  bullshit replies.
Blows my mind how oblivious some people can be.

[Teach 79]

3 hours ago, strawman said:

There are always going to be fanboys who defend every decision a developer makes, no matter how plainly wrong and harmful to the population that decision is.

But a dead game is exactly the path we're on. Not only do we have Steamcharts as you mentioned, Reznok's tracker still shows the populations of official NA and EU PVP. At the absolute best moments they have a combined population of about 5,000. Right now there are 3,300 online between both servers.

They can't make any money selling cosmetics with population numbers like that. Since the Fountain of Youth was introduced, we've lost about 20% of players each week. The subreddit has actually been losing subscriptions this week, which makes it feel like there aren't a lot of new people buying the game (33% positive reviews on Steam probably doesn't help).

I don't think the population is going to find a bottom without quick, major changes from Grapeshot, but they seem committed to their failed design. There will only be a few hundred people left on officials here soon.

3 hours ago, ave26 said:

Wow, those numbers are sad. And after all complaints and suggestions I've made because I care and want this game to survive, I mostly get "git gud"  bullshit replies.
Blows my mind how oblivious some people can be.

 

I'm so glad this is another thread I can put to rest as simply devolving into people who still think population numbers mean anything in an early access title. This isn't WoW; It doesn't matter if the entire population left tomorrow. Even with ONE player on the entire map, ATLAS is still being developed. It has a budgeted development cycle, that's only been bolstered by the day 1 cash they raked in. This isn't Shroud of the Avatar; This isn't a "complete" game that's development success relies on the "donations" of it's consumers every month.

The bottom line is the decline is completely natural, expected, and HOPED FOR. Atlas as an EA Project got the attention of a AAA title going GOLD- and it was only an ALPHA. People got way over-hyped because the streamer content lately has been the same stale regurgitation of the games they continuously play. They NEEDED new content, and jumped at the first whale they could latch on to. They blew Atlas up to generate subscriptions. Let's be real, Summit1g still plays sea of thieves- but SoT is a trash game, and a joke in comparison to what the develops "promised" in many interviews during conception and development. Why? Because there's nothing else to play. It's all been played.

What you are seeing is everyone taking a glance at a game that's not even done yet, and either returning it, or shelving it. Just the fact that there are that many people so damn eager to play a pirate MMO, is only going to fuel Grapeshot to get ATLAS right by the time it does go gold. Even if you quit today- you bet your ass you would come back and revisit because everyone that has bought this game, will.

I encourage people to quit. I encourage them to shelf the game. I encourage you to never come back if that's your choice. I discourage entitlement, whining when it's too hard (when in fact, you've really put no effort into adapting or thinking at all), and people who scream they wanna play survival games, but then preach to remove all the survival aspects out of said game so they can build stone castles.

How many people in "The Walking Dead" survive alone? Morgan. ONE out of all of them- and even that is just to keep him in the plot. I wouldn't mess with Karen either, but Morgan is not someone you can be in Atlas- not without suffering huge losses at every turn. It's like everyone wants to fantasize about survival- but disregard the conditions, circumstances, and difficulty of doing so, especially alone.

 

You know when my ships stopped being sunk? Never. You know when my ships being sunk was reduced by 90%? When I made friends with people that are awake while I sleep.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Teach

[ave26 20]

Like I said - oblivious. If they didn't need extra financing from early access they would wait 2 more years to finish it and then release it. You're insane if you think that player base or sold copies don't matter, especially in a game with 900 official servers. 

If you've read my posts you'd see I'm doing good as a solo player but mainly because I have enough time at the moment, most people don't.

I'm just going to quote Jat from his captain's log few days ago.

Quote

• Making sure that solo players and smaller groups feel safer when logging off, or that after they’ve taken a break they can come back and know that it won’t be such a difficult feat to get out on the seas again.

Even the devs don't agree with you. It is HAPPENING, I just want it sooner.

[Teach 79]

9 minutes ago, ave26 said:

Like I said - oblivious. If they didn't need extra financing from early access they would wait 2 more years to finish it and then release it. You're insane if you think that player base or sold copies don't matter, especially in a game with 900 official servers. 

If you've read my posts you'd see I'm doing good as a solo player but mainly because I have enough time at the moment, most people don't.

I'm just going to quote Jat from his captain's log few days ago.

Even the devs don't agree with you. It is HAPPENING, I just want it sooner.

 

I don't disagree with the devs- I disagree with the "I want it now" (because that's what you're really saying, sugarcoated with a sooner) mentality.

 

Oblivious would be to not see that prefacing your "request" with "Lost my 12th schooner", thinking as a solo that's an accomplishment (in a 2x weekend even a soloist can build a schooner in 30 minutes from scratch, if that) would entitle your ludicrous request the attention you're crying out for- when in fact if you saw the big picture- you would see how easily your request would be abused by every player with a ship- solo and mega alike.

Just be glad its not your base. Ships are disposable, and recoverable (up to 80%)- where your land base, and your loot- is not. In a game where I can build a sloop with 4 explosive barrels and potentially sink a galleon- you really gotta understand the metrics.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Teach

[ave26 20]

5 minutes ago, Teach said:

 

I don't disagree with the devs- I disagree with the "I want it now" (because that's what you're really saying, sugarcoated with a sooner) mentality

NA PvP Player Online: 2904 
EU PvP Players Online: 991 

Yup, definitely should've happened sooner. I'm gonna have a difficult time bringing any of my friends who left back into the game after their experience. People like you are the reason they did not react fast enough. They obviously thought their "fanboy" base is way bigger than it is. 

[Teach 79]

Just now, ave26 said:

NA PvP Player Online: 2904 
EU PvP Players Online: 991 

Yup, definitely should've happened sooner. I'm gonna have a difficult time bringing any of my friends who left back into the game after their experience. People like you are the reason they did not react fast enough. They obviously thought their "fanboy" base is way bigger than it is. 

I'll play those numbers in lotto over the weekend- thanks.

[ave26 20]

19 minutes ago, Teach said:

 

I don't disagree with the devs- I disagree with the "I want it now" (because that's what you're really saying, sugarcoated with a sooner) mentality.

 

Oblivious would be to not see that prefacing your "request" with "Lost my 12th schooner", thinking as a solo that's an accomplishment (in a 2x weekend even a soloist can build a schooner in 30 minutes from scratch, if that) would entitle your ludicrous request the attention you're crying out for- when in fact if you saw the big picture- you would see how easily your request would be abused by every player with a ship- solo and mega alike.

Just be glad its not your base. Ships are disposable, and recoverable (up to 80%)- where your land base, and your loot- is not. In a game where I can build a sloop with 4 explosive barrels and potentially sink a galleon- you really gotta understand the metrics.

Gonna reply to this since you added a whole new paragraph.
30 minutes for a schooner? Give me a break.

16000 fiber, 15000 thatch and 16200 wood excluding cannons and extra structures on it. Even when you have all 28 planks ready it takes at least an hour to place all the pieces and then load it. Never said 12 is an achievement. It was said to point out HOW i lost them not how many. I could've build many more if I needed to. As a solo player you do most of the stuff on a sloop.

Having few more hours in freeport is now a ludicrous request? It would still take a shit ton of materials to keep repairing those big ships and time for traveling back and forth if you wanna store it there.

Lemme guess, your company's main strategy is sinking enemy ships while they're offline and it would be still doable because most people wouldnt want to spend 3 hours everyday to sail with their galleons to freeport, farm and repair it there then come back.

[Teach 79]

23 minutes ago, ave26 said:

Lemme guess, your company's main strategy is sinking enemy ships while they're offline and it would be still doable because most people wouldnt want to spend 3 hours everyday to sail with their galleons to freeport, farm and repair it there then come back.

 

Quite the contrary- it's going to be busy enough with the player-run markets in the Freeports. To then turn them into parking lots for anyone to go to sleep would bring those servers to a halt- in both FPS drops and the blatant amount of congestion around anchor-friendly places.

I'm sorry but that's where our views differ. I know all too many that would be willing to pay the price of decay for 8 hours sleep if the game guaranteed their ship would be there on the clock. It's not feasible. I also know all too many who already sleep well without the freeports needing adjustment. They themselves, adjusted.

I know you're bitter that randoms keep sinking your ships dude- but maybe they're not the problem. 12 Schooners lost and: 

23 minutes ago, ave26 said:

As a solo player you do most of the stuff on a sloop.

 

I just think you're approaching the game all wrong. You simply won't admit to yourself as a solo player you can't protect a schooner- yet. Instead of building schooner after schooner- build a shell around a shipyard. get NPCs and defend the shell. Use sloops (since they are much less labor intensive) to source the mats you need in your local grid.

You signed up to be a soloist, but want to move at the speed of a mega. That's where devs struggle to scale things- because entitled soloists demand everything be handed to them at the rate dozens if not hundreds of people are working together to attain. Your refusal to join or start a company and your choice of playstyle is what inhibits you, not the game.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Teach

[strawman 114]

15 minutes ago, Teach said:

you're approaching the game all wrong

 

16 minutes ago, Teach said:

entitled

This was Grapeshot's attitude, too, and the response of the playerbase was predictably to stop playing

[Teach 79]

3 minutes ago, strawman said:

 

This was Grapeshot's attitude, too, and the response of the playerbase was predictably to stop playing

Nah I think it's more most people don't want to play an unfinished game, and love to bandwagon in this day in age- oh look at the hype around Apex Legends....

Edited February 8, 2019 by Teach

[ave26 20]

12 minutes ago, Teach said:

 

Quite the contrary- it's going to be busy enough with the player-run markets in the Freeports. To then turn them into parking lots for anyone to go to sleep would bring those servers to a halt- in both FPS drops and the blatant amount of congestion around anchor-friendly places.

I'm sorry but that's where our views differ. I know all too many that would be willing to pay the price of decay for 8 hours sleep if the game guaranteed their ship would be there on the clock. It's not feasible. I also know all too many who already sleep well without the freeports needing adjustment. They themselves, adjusted.

I know you're bitter that randoms keep sinking your ships dude- but maybe they're not the problem. 12 Schooners lost and: 

What do you mean? You can safely park there already if there's someone able to repair in 7-8 hours. Current decay rate is 10% per hour, all im asking is to decrease it to 5%.
Well if adjusting means waking up after 6-7 hours just to fix your video game ship then fuck that.

Yea in the current system its just not worth my time to build schooners because they keep getting sunk after 1-3 days. That's why im asking for a change. Actually not sure what ure trying to say here..

[Teach 79]

1 minute ago, ave26 said:

What do you mean? You can safely park there already if there's someone able to repair in 7-8 hours. Current decay rate is 10% per hour, all im asking is to decrease it to 5%.
Well if adjusting means waking up after 6-7 hours just to fix your video game ship then fuck that.

Yea in the current system its just not worth my time to build schooners because they keep getting sunk after 1-3 days. That's why im asking for a change. Actually not sure what ure trying to say here..

Stop. Building. Schooners. As. A. Soloist. If. You. Are. Not. Ready. To. Defend. It.

[Evir 38]

2 hours ago, ave26 said:

Had 2 towers with 4 puckles on each covering every single angle. Also had 4 swivel guns armed with grapeshot on the ship and one on the tower in case they dive to avoid puckle gunners. All they had to do is make a tower out of thatch and outrange my puckles. My point is if I were there I'd probably be able to defend it or at least have an interesting and intense experience but instead they were left clicking on non moving planks and towers. I can't understand how ANYONE can enjoy this more than actual PVP. Giving us an option to keep the ships while asleep would keep so many people in the game and also lead to more interesting gameplay loop. But seriously I'm done arguing with you offline griefers, you're getting fucked anyways soon as they announced in cpt's log. My suggestion was to give us a temporary safe heaven in freeport until they implement their idea in march.

I havent seen an attacker that determined on lawless, I have spent a few weeks on them, the only time I have been attacked was when I had little to no defenses, by people looking for a quick hit and run for salvage on ships. Now I have seen large groups "clear" an island they thought was theirs, but never really saw anything beyond that. Most large groups do not even bother clearing islands or looting bases, because it is a waste of their time and effort, there realistically isn't anything for them to gain. Most likely it is one group(or alliance) doing the harassing, at that point it is time to leave that island and find a better place.

Also, I havent seen your set up but it sounds like you didnt have very good interlocking fields of fire. from multiple angles, to prevent them from focusing in one direction. It sounds like you had 2 towers for them to worry about and that is it.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Evir

[ave26 20]

 

Quote

Stop. Building. Schooners. As. A. Soloist. If. You. Are. Not. Ready. To. Defend. It.

I've seen 5-20 men companies quit the game after their brigs/schooners got offline sunk. And those type of the companies are/were the majority of the player base. 

 

Edited February 8, 2019 by ave26

[Evir 38]

1 minute ago, ave26 said:

I've seen 5-20 men companies quit the game after their brigs/schooners got offline sunk. And those type of the companies are/were the majority of the player base. 
 

That is because most of them refuse to defend what they have, they would rather get on the forums and complain, than actually defend their stuff, if they spent 1 hour for every 2 hours they spent building ships, building defenses for those ships, they would probably still be around

[Teach 79]

11 minutes ago, ave26 said:

I've seen 5-20 men companies quit the game after their brigs/schooners got offline sunk. And those type of the companies are/were the majority of the player base. 
 

 

9 minutes ago, Evir said:

That is because most of them refuse to defend what they have, they would rather get on the forums and complain, than actually defend their stuff, if they spent 1 hour for every 2 hours they spent building ships, building defenses for those ships, they would probably still be around

^This.

Not everyone is cut out for full-loot PvP. It's a very old style of gaming that has slowly been phased out for carebear arcade-esque titles that really take no long-term thinking and mainly reaction. Sea of Thieves, Fortnite, Apex Legends- I bet most of them went to those games; and all it does is make the servers smoother for us. Thanks quitters!

 

Addendum: This is a game people will keep coming back to over and over after they hop off the hype of the other games that get released, even if they get hooked on something else; Bet any dollar there's not one person that paid for this game (and didn't refund obv) that won't reinstall it at some point.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Teach

[ave26 20]

5 minutes ago, Evir said:

I havent seen an attacker that determined on lawless, I have spent a few weeks on them, the only time I have been attacked was when I had little to no defenses, by people looking for a quick hit and run for salvage on ships. Now I have seen large groups "clear" an island they thought was theirs, but never really saw anything beyond that. Most large groups do not even bother clearing islands or looting bases, because it is a waste of their time and effort, there realistically isn't anything for them to gain. Most likely it is one group(or alliance) doing the harassing, at that point it is time to leave that island and find a better place.

Also, I havent seen your set up but it sounds like you didnt have very good interlocking fields of fire. from multiple angles, to prevent them from focusing in one direction. It sounds like you had 2 towers for them to worry about and that is it.

It's 2 or 3 chinese guys who come to our lawless island and burn every ship. Its really that simple if you're determined. Cannons placed on a thatch tower outrange puckles.

They're not getting anything from it because i dont leave stuff on ships. They take few planks get some ingots from large cannons and thats about it. It was level 41 schooner, waste of time.

 

11 minutes ago, Evir said:

That is because most of them refuse to defend what they have, they would rather get on the forums and complain, than actually defend their stuff, if they spent 1 hour for every 2 hours they spent building ships, building defenses for those ships, they would probably still be around

You just cant defend on lawless. This is not ark, focus should be on sailing and fighting other ships rather than spending most of your time building your defenses and rebuilding.

And no, only patient idiots like me come to forums and try to make a change, most people have quit and thats why you have 3k people playing it now. Soon there wont be ships left to grief

[Evir 38]

1 minute ago, ave26 said:

You just cant defend on lawless. 

False. You can indeed. You just need to choose better defenses and terrain. I see people do it all the time, there are several thriving guilds on lawless.

[ave26 20]

And I can assure you I could destroy all of their ships while they're offline if i really wanted to. And that sucks.

Edited February 8, 2019 by ave26

[Teach 79]

5 minutes ago, ave26 said:

 And that sucks.

No- That's part of the game. From someone whos been offlined many times and doesn't offline.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Teach

[ave26 20]

On 1/29/2019 at 1:28 PM, Jatheish said:

Some of our design changes will revolve around:

• Allowing players to experience the ‘piracy’ side of the game immediately, whilst not trivializing the content.
• Making sure that solo players and smaller groups feel safer when logging off, or that after they’ve taken a break they can come back and know that it won’t be such a difficult feat to get out on the seas again.
• Incentivize companies to neutralize their territories, inviting others to make use of their land so that both can benefit.
• More MMO aspects: player markets, player-specified automatic trade routes, additional quests, and daily missions

 

 

Yea. Part of the game that's about to get changed because it worked so well.

[strawman 114]

Blaming the players for the game's failure - as Jathiesh did in captain's log 19, and as many of the posts in this thread do - will certainly make Grapeshot feel good about themselves, but it won't bring the lost players back.

33 minutes ago, Teach said:

Not everyone is cut out for full-loot PvP. It's a very old style of gaming that has slowly been phased out for carebear arcade-esque titles that really take no long-term thinking and mainly reaction. Sea of Thieves, Fortnite, Apex Legends- I bet most of them went to those games; and all it does is make the servers smoother for us. Thanks quitters!

This is the same attitude that killed Ultima Online. If these people didn't want full-loot PvP, why were they playing a full-loot PvP game in the first place? If gamers are a bunch of carebears, how can EVE and Rust maintain their popularity over so many years?

People are dying for more full-loot PvP games that are balanced and relatively free of bugs. Carebear games have a lower standard of quality than games like this because the consequences of bad design and bad coding are so much lower. Grapeshot's reckless attitude towards balance and quality will be the death of Atlas - you can't blame full-loot PvP.

[liano 7]

Quote

Just lost my 12th Schooner

[Teach 79]

10 minutes ago, strawman said:

Blaming the players for the game's failure - as Jathiesh did in captain's log 19, and as many of the posts in this thread do - will certainly make Grapeshot feel good about themselves, but it won't bring the lost players back.

This is the same attitude that killed Ultima Online. If these people didn't want full-loot PvP, why were they playing a full-loot PvP game in the first place? If gamers are a bunch of carebears, how can EVE and Rust maintain their popularity over so many years?

People are dying for more full-loot PvP games that are balanced and relatively free of bugs. Carebear games have a lower standard of quality than games like this because the consequences of bad design and bad coding are so much lower. Grapeshot's reckless attitude towards balance and quality will be the death of Atlas - you can't blame full-loot PvP.

Please...what killed Ultima was age dude- don't be ridiculous. By the time Ultima shut it's doors, it had so much competition visually and mechanically it was obsolete only being held up by Garriot and his loyal minions.

Rust maintains it's popularity from it's loyal garry's mod fanbase. It's also the cheapest survival game experience that doesn't require a monthly sub. Rust also has the most toxic, prepubescent community as a result. EVE maintains its popularity for being the opposite- the only full-loot PvP game with a sub and cut-throat experience that filters most toxicity and attempts to culture a more mature community through monetization of the persistent environment.

The players will come back on their own lol- take your bitterness out of the equation and open your eyes. Ark has been going through this for yearssss and still has players after all this time. There will be players playing ATLAS long after you're gone too.

Edited February 8, 2019 by Teach

[ave26 20]

16 minutes ago, Teach said:

Please...what killed Ultima was age dude- don't be ridiculous. By the time Ultima shut it's doors, it had so much competition visually and mechanically it was obsolete only being held up by Garriot and his loyal minions.

Rust maintains it's popularity from it's loyal garry's mod fanbase. It's also the cheapest survival game experience that doesn't require a monthly sub. Rust also has the most toxic, prepubescent community as a result. EVE maintains its popularity for being the opposite- the only full-loot PvP game with a sub and cut-throat experience that filters most toxicity and attempts to culture a more mature community through monetization of the persistent environment.

The players will come back on their own lol- take your bitterness out of the equation and open your eyes. Ark has been going through this for yearssss and still has players after all this time. There will be players playing ATLAS long after you're gone too.

Nothing like ARK. Just compare the charts, this game is doing so much worse.

EU-PVP right now: 
750 / 33750 

We're fineee, game's great as it is,  players are just too dumb to play it