Why I left the game (But would love to come back)

[Draycon 4]

So I started playing atlas the week when it came out and I fell in love with it even with the lag and bugs and offline servers.

 

 

It was everything I ever wanted from a pirate game (not the bugs and server issues). And I even got a few of my friends to play with me and we created a small 5 man company to sail the seas and hopefully settle on an island, however after a few days of grinding when we set sail, we discovered that basically every island was already claimed by another company and It was impossible to capture any land because we would be killed by a larger company with more players or a more advanced one.

 

So the only thing we could do was bring a bunch of rafts with beds to a lawless island and start building a ship there. With the help of another smaller German company (mostly with their protection from the Chinese players) we managed to build a schooner and set sail. We were hoping to find an unclaimed island in the colder regions but everything was claimed already and by the time we had explored every island in the south (every island was claimed and a lot of them were just claimed by big companies) with all the repairs we had to do after the encounters of countless damned and storms, the holidays had arrived and we had no place to build a base or even a bed except for our schooner and nowhere was safe to park our ship for the holidays. All we could do was park it near a seemingly abandoned island and hope for the best. But of course after just one day, someone had claimed it and all of our progress was lost. We had to start from nothing again.

 

That's when most of my friends left and the rest of us tried playing on a PvE server but the territory situation there was even worse.

 

I actually really like the game and would love to return but I don't see how I could have fun playing in pvp or pve anymore. With all the duplication bugs we've had and with Giant Companies having claimed large portions of the map. There is no way we can even hope to have our own little place.

 

I've heard some people hoping for a server wipe and letting only one or 2 territory flags placed per person and yes that would bring me back to the game because then at least one medium sized company couldn't claim 3 islands for themselves (Which is idiotic honestly. They don't even need that much space.) While small companies of a few friends can't even build a base anywhere except for a lawless region where we can't even respawn.

 

 

Overall I would love to return to the game and I am sure my friends would too if a new pvp server was made or the old ones got wiped with a claim flag restriction. I want a wipe not only because of the territories but also because of the many companies that abused bugs to duplicate thousands of high end materials no one can compete with.

 

 

 

;TLDR;

Me and my friends love the game but we won't come back to it if there isn't going to be some sort of a wipe of territories or full wipe and a claim flag restriction per person. Or at least a new server with a claim flag restriction.

 

[arzosah 84]

A server wipe is highly unlikely to happen any time soon. Jat mentioned the potential of adding a gold maintenance cost to claims in the last live stream, this would likely reduce the number of claims most companies would be able to hold since it would require a significant amount of treasure hunting to maintain a large number of claims placed all over the world. 

[Draycon 4]

But the duplication problem would still remain. The fact that many companies are stocked up on thousands of duped resources is just a deterrent for new and returning players. The thing is that if nothing changes then the game will slowly die out until only the most dedicated players are left and I am not sure if that will be enough to support the development of the game and support for the servers.

It would be very sad to see a cool game like this to go under but in the long run, players are gonna trickle away from the game and if they don't return because of hackers or companies with endless supplies of duped resources, then I don't see a bright future ahead of the game.

[Captain Scotch 10]

I am tired of seeing posts about no land. Get creative. LITERALLY last week my wife and I sailed one server North to look for metal as there is none on our home island. When we got there I noticed TONS of great tamable species I wanted. I spent 5 minutes running the shore until I saw a rock in the ocean I could plant a flag on. We dropped a few pillars and voila, aggro island outpost was up. I'll bet 10,000 gold you tell me a server and Ill stake a claim. 

[Draycon 4]

4 minutes ago, Captain Scotch said:

I am tired of seeing posts about no land. Get creative. LITERALLY last week my wife and I sailed one server North to look for metal as there is none on our home island. When we got there I noticed TONS of great tamable species I wanted. I spent 5 minutes running the shore until I saw a rock in the ocean I could plant a flag on. We dropped a few pillars and voila, aggro island outpost was up. I'll bet 10,000 gold you tell me a server and Ill stake a claim. 

Are you on EU or NA ?

 

[Captain Scotch 10]

NA.

[Bad News Bear 59]

This game is phenomenal. It has to be tweaked, meaning people should, I hope, play with an open mind rather than a table flipping attitude. I understand your frustrations.

as far as claims go, I dont think it would be that hard to go hard and claim mega clan territory, easy enough to scout for desweted but claimed land and claim hard and fortify quick. If I were a soli player that’s what i would do, setup in the water near an island I want to build on, prep everythign and strike quick, plop down a mountain base with rudimentary defences and some mortars and try to hold your fort. Kind of sounds fun, actually.

[Draycon 4]

Well I don't know how it is on the NA servers but here on EU PVP, every island we checked had everything claimed and the only places that weren't claimed were either boxed in by huge walls or on top of really tall mountains.

 

 

Note: That was the situation a month ago when we still played the game

3 minutes ago, Bad News Bear said:

This game is phenomenal. It has to be tweaked, meaning people should, I hope, play with an open mind rather than a table flipping attitude. I understand your frustrations.

as far as claims go, I dont think it would be that hard to go hard and claim mega clan territory, easy enough to scout for desweted but claimed land and claim hard and fortify quick. If I were a soli player that’s what i would do, setup in the water near an island I want to build on, prep everythign and strike quick, plop down a mountain base with rudimentary defences and some mortars and try to hold your fort. Kind of sounds fun, actually.

And if you're unlucky and the company reacts and completely wipes your base in a matter of minutes, then you're back to a freeport and you need to start from a freeport with no gear again.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Draycon
Note

[arzosah 84]

2 minutes ago, Bad News Bear said:

This game is phenomenal. It has to be tweaked, meaning people should, I hope, play with an open mind rather than a table flipping attitude. I understand your frustrations.

Completely agree, at that's why the game is in early access.  Venting frustrations with the current state of the game is one of the reasons to forum exists, but when many of these posts start off with "I quit" it quickly devolves into a bitching fight between factions.  There are plenty of things in this game currently that could be fixed or balanced, but you have to come at it in a method that is constructive.

[Khaler 13]

Again with the "I looked EVERYWHERE and there's no land".

Nope, sorry.   NOT TRUE.

NA PvE, our company just claimed a large chunk of another island last week as the claims expired there.   I planted a couple flags myself in a Tundra region 3 days ago.

There *IS* land, you just have to look long and hard for it.  It's not going to be handed to you as you exit your first Freeport.

[Draycon 4]

1 minute ago, Dreadmill said:

I’m sorry that you have had a bad experience playing. I am a sort of upbeat person that rolls with things so my experience has been a little different. I have had a great base in the lawless region since the first week with a company of five. I have never had a ship sank by an exploit or kite. My neighbors are great and gave us a Rhino to celebrate the lunar new year. I never spam foundations and I can most certainly respawn in my bed in lawless on land. I made it to the FOY without that much effort. I have enjoyed this game a great deal and I hope that they make it even more fun. Give it another shot and maybe it will turn out better.

I am not someone who gives up easily but honestly the reason I gave up was because my friends could not deal with the constant loss. (We had lost everything we had about 5 times because of the Damned npc ships when they were spawning everywhere and attacked isalnd drydocks, attacks from the Chinese raft armada and random full plate shotgun geared raft raids were just a the salt in the wound after we had lost our schooner that we had built over the span of a week or so)

[Bad News Bear 59]

9 minutes ago, Draycon said:

Well I don't know how it is on the NA servers but here on EU PVP, every island we checked had everything claimed and the only places that weren't claimed were either boxed in by huge walls or on top of really tall mountains.

 

 

Note: That was the situation a month ago when we still played the game

And if you're unlucky and the company reacts and completely wipes your base in a matter of minutes, then you're back to a freeport and you need to start from a freeport with no gear again.

I keep coming across massive islands that are completely abandonned or have been wiped, so easy to find land. Just stay away from areas that are popular with megas/alphas. Desert/tropics tends to be hot for that. Temperate is really not that bad, tundra/polar is litterally a joke, 10 man squads holding down giant islands, so easy to carve a piece of land out of that.

 

if youre interested pm me and i can tell you where to look on the NA PvP server... I would even help you do it.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Bad News Bear

[Draycon 4]

3 minutes ago, arzosah said:

Completely agree, at that's why the game is in early access.  Venting frustrations with the current state of the game is one of the reasons to forum exists, but when many of these posts start off with "I quit" it quickly devolves into a bitching fight between factions.  There are plenty of things in this game currently that could be fixed or balanced, but you have to come at it in a method that is constructive.

By no means do I want to cause any conflict or ill will. I honestly want the game to succeed. I just wanted to open a conversation about these issues and I guess I did kinda Bait people with the title "I quit"

1 minute ago, Bad News Bear said:

I keep coming across massive islands that are completely abandonned or have been wiped, so easy to find land. Just stay away from areas that are popular with megas/alphas. Desert/tropics tends to be hot for that. Temperate is really not that bad, tundra/polar is litterally a joke, 10 man squads holding down giant islands, so easy to carve a piece of land out of that.

 

if youre interested pm me and i can tell you where to look on the NA PvP server... I would even help you do it.

We're mostly EU PVP players but the issue was that we couldn't find any land in the Tundra zone back then. Maybe the situation has changed over the past month.

 

 

[Bad News Bear 59]

3 minutes ago, Draycon said:

By no means do I want to cause any conflict or ill will. I honestly want the game to succeed. I just wanted to open a conversation about these issues and I guess I did kinda Bait people with the title "I quit"

We're mostly EU PVP players but the issue was that we couldn't find any land in the Tundra zone back then. Maybe the situation has changed over the past month.

 

 

It’s a lot less busy now imo. Our pilar region sometimes I’m the only player online. I’ve seen it in neighbouring tundra servers too. I think most people were having a hard time with the launch rush. It’s died down a bit, but not enough to ruin the naval pvp action: if you want it, there’s plenty of opportunity.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Bad News Bear

[Draycon 4]

10 minutes ago, Bad News Bear said:

It’s a lot less busy now imo. Our pilar region sometimes I’m the only player online. I’ve seen it in neighbouring tundra servers too. I think most people were having a hard time with the launch rush. It’s died down a bit, but not enough to ruin the naval pvp action: if you want it, there’s plenty of opportunity.

Honestly that's not good in my opinion. That means that a large part of the playerbase has left the game (I assume due to similar complaints). The more people leave the game the less people will want to play it. It creates a loop and I hope that the devs do something to stop it and bring the players back. While I want to have a place to build a base, I am not willing to have it at the cost of playing in a barren world where there is noone to interact with. Ideally I would love to see the game sprawling with players and be able to live on an island with multiple friendly or rival companies.

[Bad News Bear 59]

39 minutes ago, Draycon said:

Honestly that's not good in my opinion. That means that a large part of the playerbase has left the game (I assume due to similar complaints). The more people leave the game the less people will want to play it. It creates a loop and I hope that the devs do something to stop it and bring the players back. While I want to have a place to build a base, I am not willing to have it at the cost of playing in a barren world where there is noone to interact with. Ideally I would love to see the game sprawling with players and be able to live on an island with multiple friendly or rival companies.

I mean... I think the playerbase has shrunk, but jot as much at people make it to believe... I think a lot of players are playing 3-4 hours per day rather than 10-12 hours per day. Hardcore players are more casual.  I see spikes here and there in my zones, just as much as dead times. I’ve been one zone go from 3 to 56 players over a frw hours, and there were no raids going on.

this is speculative, and just going based on what I’ve noticed.

 

we have an outpose in the tropics with like 6 allys on it, every night an alpha company sinks everything on the server for lols. Our strat is to keep our ships on the docks without releasing them until we can send them to our main base.

 and we have a base and 100% control of an island in the polar and is generally very safe. Really just depends where you want to live and what you’re willing to sacrifice.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Bad News Bear

[Draycon 4]

1 minute ago, Bad News Bear said:

I mean... I think the playerbase has shrunk, but jot as much at people make it to believe... I think a lot of players are playing 3-4 hours per day rather than 10-12 hours per day. Hardcore players are more casual.  I see spikes here and there in my zones, just as much as dead times. I’ve been one zone go from 3 to 56 players over a frw hours, and there were no raids going on.

this is speculative, and just going based on what I’ve noticed.

Well I can't judge the situation right now as I haven't played the game for ever a month now

[Bad News Bear 59]

Funny story, we had players shoot our base a few times with cannons, then left without even breaking anything. In global they said: “Too cold, fuck this”

[Teach 79]

In a game that would take over a full day of travel time to traverse (the entire map grid by grid) I find it very hard to believe there is no land available.

I feel the biggest problem about people getting land is their approach...

You got a german company to help you build a schooner- did you form an alliance? Are you still working together? If you left good people behind you've already missed out on the point of this game.

There are politics to land ownership, and acquiring land. If you're not willing to be communicable, land will not just appear out of thin air for you. It has to be found, taken, or negotiated for.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Teach

[Draycon 4]

3 minutes ago, Teach said:

In a game that take would take over a full day of travel time to traverse (the entire map grid by grid) I find it very hard to believe there is no land available.

I feel the biggest problem about people getting land is their approach...

You got a german company to help you build a schooner- did you form an alliance? Are you still working together? If you left good people behind you've already missed out on the point of this game.

There are politics to land ownership, and acquiring land. If you're not willing to be communicable, land will not just appear out of thin air for you. It has to be found, taken, or negotiated for.

So I didn't explain the situation completely. First of all we were on a lawless island with that german company. Honestly they were an aggressive company that killed anyone that came to the island but we managed to create an alliance by offering them some of the accordion songs that we had found. (which were pretty rare at the moment when we met them) We frequently saw them raiding other settlers and even sinking another schooner for the materials. It was an uneasy alliance with them as they were quite unpredictable but they were very far ahead in terms of levels and they did protect us from attackers since those attackers posed a threat to them as well.

While we stayed in an alliance, we both knew that the lawless island was just a temporary spot for us to build up and they had a schooner ready to go as soon as the Spawn rates of the damned ships went down. We ended up sailing off first because we didn't want to risk losing our ship overnight. (And also because they decided to make an extra schooner) Also that alliance was mostly a truce that meant that we don't mess with them and they don't mess with us and we helped each other is someone tried to attack either of us.

But again it was for the most part a temporary alliance while we were both on the same island since they were a more aggressive company than us. (Kill on sight type of guys(Kill first, ask questions later kind of company))

[Teach 79]

15 minutes ago, Draycon said:

So I didn't explain the situation completely. First of all we were on a lawless island with that german company. Honestly they were an aggressive company that killed anyone that came to the island but we managed to create an alliance by offering them some of the accordion songs that we had found. (which were pretty rare at the moment when we met them) We frequently saw them raiding other settlers and even sinking another schooner for the materials. It was an uneasy alliance with them as they were quite unpredictable but they were very far ahead in terms of levels and they did protect us from attackers since those attackers posed a threat to them as well.

While we stayed in an alliance, we both knew that the lawless island was just a temporary spot for us to build up and they had a schooner ready to go as soon as the Spawn rates of the damned ships went down. We ended up sailing off first because we didn't want to risk losing our ship overnight. (And also because they decided to make an extra schooner) Also that alliance was mostly a truce that meant that we don't mess with them and they don't mess with us and we helped each other is someone tried to attack either of us.

But again it was for the most part a temporary alliance while we were both on the same island since they were a more aggressive company than us. (Kill on sight type of guys(Kill first, ask questions later kind of company))

 

The clarification is appreciated, and definitely adds new light to the story. What I meant by approach, is a lot of small companies tend to disregard the "big picture" meta of the world- not knowing who the major alliances are, who runs what territories, etc. Smaller companies tend to feel like all hope is lost- but it's really how you present yourself.

I know of many micro-companies that have talked their way into land claims, into alliances much bigger than themselves. Mega's will be inclined to absorb or wipe you rather than work with you if they feel you can't handle yourself in the world. If you don't privy yourself with the knowledge of the daily on-goings within the Atlas, most will not take you seriously.

It's amazing how much this game mimic's real life civilizations and evolution as a whole. The truth is, you can progress very far without ever staking a single claim of land. Having land is a goal, it shouldn't be THE goal. Having land should only be a proponent towards growth and expansion. You don't need land to learn to play the game, or be the best at it. I actually know quite a few sea-faring companies that do the majority of their harvesting from war and salvage operations.

A lot of gamers come into Atlas expecting the game and its population to bend to their wishes and desires. They enter a world of pirates full of hype and are quickly shocked when a pirate's life is not an easy one to live. You make sacrifices, take losses, and the average pirate is lucky to have one big score in their lifetimes, if ever. While the game allows you to live a pirate life above the documented norm, most get carried off in the fantasy of being a Pirate, and neglect what it actually took to be one.

Edited February 7, 2019 by Teach

[Draycon 4]

I believe that we can all agree that there is a problem with support for the new players. The fact that they don't know what to do when they constantly get killed without warning forcing them to start back at a freeport is an issue... How are they supposed to get anything done when all they do is:

start from nothing > get a raft > farm > get killed on sight by a big company > start from nothing > get a raft > farm > get killed on sight by a big company > start from nothing > get a raft > farm > get killed on sight by a big company > start from nothing > get a raft > farm > get killed on sight by a big company > start from nothing > get a raft > farm > get killed on sight by a big company > start from nothing > get a raft > farm > get killed on sight by a big company > start from nothing > get a raft > farm > get killed on sight by a big company > start from nothing......

How long until that new player is just gonna give up and refund the game ? This is an issue that will eventually kill the game if it remains.

[arzosah 84]

I don't think PvP in a survival game is friendly to new players in general.  Even in ARK if you weren't there when the server came up you were at a great disadvantage compared to the tribes that have had even a couple days extra time to get situated.

[Draycon 4]

1 hour ago, arzosah said:

I don't think PvP in a survival game is friendly to new players in general.  Even in ARK if you weren't there when the server came up you were at a great disadvantage compared to the tribes that have had even a couple days extra time to get situated.

Yeah but honestly that is an issue for the longevity of the game. But besides that, the companies with the duplicated resources make it impossible for new companies to compete.

[Enki Anunnaki 240]

See, myself and most of my 60 man guild are taking a break too. Mainly because at 540 hours in game, there's a distinct lack of content other than pvp and defending against pvp. having to no life the game and interrupt your life (i lost my job because of this shit lulz) or your 500 hours of work gets destroyed in an offline raid/wipe by a mega tribe (which ended up happening when i went back to work lmaooo).. then there's balance issues where large tribes ruin the game at every chance they get via hacking/duping . I personally believe large tribes should be restricted to limited (defensive) pvp simply because they dominate every single company they cross paths with just for the lulz and taxes, therefore ruining the game for everyone else. also, it would incentivise groups to keep smaller if they want to be pirates/raiders/asshats. We will see what happens with the future updates but im not holding my breath. more access to trade and bounties won't mean much when all there's left is mega tribes who already tax their slaves (conquered small tribes they convinced to pay tax or lose all their land) and get everything they want anyways... so, i don't expect things to pick up and make this game worth playing until the mega tribe and mega tribes allying together with other mega tribes issue is addressed and fixed. But we'll see won't we. 

 

Edited February 8, 2019 by Enki Anunnaki
grammatical errors