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Dev Team is aware Sailing is boring, and are discussing methods to make it more interesting!

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So, a lot of people know of the reddit post that was posted a while back, giving ideas to make sailing more interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas/comments/bvbdn8/make_sailing_more_intresting_suggestion/

Well, it seems Jat has replied, and revealed that not only are they discussing the idea in-house, but they are also interested in it! We might see some changes for sailing come down the pipeline soon(tm)!
 

I can't wait to see what they come up with!

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Just to note, we discuss a lot of things, but yes this is something we have discussed internally a few times. No promises though.

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I don't think it needs to be less boring personally,just a lot quicker,some kind of fast travel system would be preferable especially keeping in mind the size of the map.I know we have beds but I like to keep my items with me.failing that just faster sailing would do, it just takes too long at the moment and when I get lag I run the risk of losing everything if I run into sotd. especially when the game freezes up,but not more mini games please,loading a pistol while im  fighting is impossible enough,dont wanna be fighting the sotd and constantly doing something else just to move anywhere.

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57 minutes ago, Jatheish said:

Just to note, we discuss a lot of things, but yes this is something we have discussed internally a few times. No promises though.

Consider the idea of fast travelling with interrupts for encounters(return to normal speed if traveling ship comes into a certain range of non allied ship, sotd or sea monster and resuming after enough distance is made), and taking all variables into consideration like weight,wind and sails.

Most people find sailing to already discovered places a chore, so my wager is, fast travel of x3 to already discovered islands outside of local server would be revolutionary.

Fast travel should not be possible to undiscovered islands.

Fast travel would start when you exit the island zone and if no enemy element in vicinity from atlas map while captain starts steering - no entering some special location for it, like currents etc, as this would be camped by griefers.

Fast travel occurs in normal game time, only the travelling ship is x3 faster.

Also, to further prevent big tribes from easily attacking long range, to take into consideration if any of the destination island in destination sector is war phase, and if so, slow down fast travel to normal speed. Also add cooldown if fast travel is interrupted by the initiator to further curb pvp abuse of the feature.

Allowing the npcs to auto pilot the ship across sectors is also a neat idea. But also would need some special leveling skills for them: gunnery, melee, navigation...

Edited by gnihar
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I think they should make it so the lighthouse acts as a beacon. You put an NPC on the wheel and tell it go to this beacon. You put food and gold and in the lighthouse and it takes care of all the NPC's on the island and to the island. (This solves other problems for people aswell). So the game could have a formula based on distance that determines the time it takes. The formula would be something like weight x distance x autosail penalty (cause having it be anywhere near as fast as a regular person sailing would be too good). A day or so later your boat arrives at your lighthouse. I don't really like sailing but I will do it. While I watch netflix or hulu. Not really a fun game mechanic. Rules would be need to be allied to place a lighthouse otherwise the lighthouse spam will lag the hell out of the server. Reason I say lighthouse is because it's basically a landmarker/rp building 😛

~Lotus

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Please be aware not eveyone thinks sailing is to slow or boring.

If I want to go someplace fast I can take my lightweight schooner.

If I want to transport a huge quantity of goods I know it'll take time.

I find sailing relaxing, interspersed with a few "oh! shit" moments, time to sit up and pay attention.

Also at the moment speed sail bonuses don't work, so when thats fixed we will all be a little bit faster.

 

more ship types however would be welcome,

Streamlined versions of each with less weight but more speed.

cargo versions of each with less speed but cargo containers don't slow it down.

The options open for design are myriad, I've been a little dissapointed with ship choice so far, a sailing game where since the start you've added new weapons, islands, tames, skills, building pieces & content yet not one new ship!

 

Edited by Jack Shandy
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Sailing is boring as f....
I was sailing from A8-O8 and a week later A9-O9, visit every island for one stop and go further, only for the damned discovery points.

At the same time i watch many old movies and series that im entertaint, because sailing its boring.

What could it be more intresting? Merchant NPC Ships, big size, small size, medium size, they sailing around, you can destroy them or not. They have some materials.
When you destroy Merchant Ships you get "crime points", NPC Schooner/Brigs/Galleons are on the hunt and sailing around too, i dont know why we have only Ships of the damned as Enemys in PvE. You can loose this points when you visit a dude on Freeport and pay some gold or other things.
More weather effects without tornados, maybe only nice rain with lightning and thunder.
A bit more sea life.
We realy need more "life" on sea, when i see the grid population ~10-15 people per grid, its empty. Filled up with Ships of the damned is boring.

And the Important thing, we need some more ideas why we should visit an island. It is ok to visit a island for Discovery Points, but it is useless, you hit the island and go back to your ship. Why should you stay? You have the same ressources.
Make the journey more a journey.
Im stuck at level 65 because of Discovery Points, and i cant get any motivation to sail again around and visit some island.
Why are only the treasure maps are fighting maps?
Give us some "trading" maps, go to point X, take the ressource box and sail to xyz and bring it on the island and get some gold.
We need much more stuff for visit islands as naturly organic sice and not for you must do that because you need discovery points.

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Like many people, I like sailing the way it is,  I think a fast travel system for boats would make the atlas feel small and would frankly, ruin the game as distance would become no object. Also removing sailing as it is would just make atlas like every other game of its type and remove its uniqueness.

Sailing is what you make it. Frequently when I’m making a trip, I’ll find a reason to detour. 

In fairness though, they could do with increasing ship speeds by about 25% and increase the minimum wind slightly. Also, more variety of encounters and things to do while sailing certainly would be appreciated, apart from that though, sailing should be left alone.

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Sailing is extremely and utterly boring! The worst part about this game is sailing, the times it wastes, and the boring and pointless SOTD/Tornado encounters. There is absolutely nothing that interests me as of current design to make me want to waste my time and effort to sail to other islands. Hell, I am 100 yrs old and still do not care about the FOY quest.

I prefer to live, develop, and tame on all of my Lawless base locations which I have spread out all over the map. I would love to see a "Fast Travel" system where you could travel between your beds while retaining all of the items you are already carrying. This should be a pretty easy system to implement.

Edited by vaylain
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I also enjoy sailing the way it is. The main thing needed to make sailing worthwhile is discovery. That's why XP should be scrapped for items like swords, guns, armor, cannons; instead make those items findable....just leave XP in game for skill based tasks like farming, captoneering, beastmastery etc, but implement a treasure system where you must travel to other islands, complete quests like Army of the Damned in order to achieve a chest which has the potential to include craftable items.

Also there should be non player shipwrecks that can be found with a chance to have craftable items.

The official world is so huge and you shouldn't expect to discover it all. That's what makes it interesting.

Edited by Saltydog920
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2 hours ago, Saltydog920 said:

I also enjoy sailing the way it is. The main thing needed to make sailing worthwhile is discovery. That's why XP should be scrapped for items like swords, guns, armor, cannons; instead make those items findable....just leave XP in game for skill based tasks like farming, captoneering, beastmastery etc, but implement a treasure system where you must travel to other islands, complete quests like Army of the Damned in order to achieve a chest which has the potential to include craft-able items.

The official world is so huge and you shouldn't expect to discover it all. That's what makes it interesting.

Screw that, sailing is boring as hell and a major waste of time. There is nothing on the majority of those islands that makes it worth the risk, effort, or time. We only sail about for "discovery" points merely because we have been FORCED to by the game system but it remains a lifeless and pointless chore.

What they need to do is actually stop being so lazy and apply effort to flesh out each and every island. Make them all unique and have different monsters to battle and diverse loot to acquire. Spread out NPC quests, settlements, dungeons, caves systems, secret passages, undead graveyards, haunted underwater shipwrecks, pirate enclaves, ancient tribal civilizations, and monster lairs to discover and conquer all over each of the islands. Get creative!

We need more in the way of PVE content to make ATLAS feel alive like a Fantasy MMO . Instead of lazily placing down a million lions, tigers, wolves, yetis, blah blah, how about mimicking real ecosystems that feel natural and NOT just mindlessly spammed. Mix up the danger with NPC pirates, skeletons, zombies, giant spiders, demons, elementals, giant scorpions, ettins, wyverns, fire beetles, mimics, spectres, constructs, goblins, imps, fey, mutants, wraiths, animated statues, gelatinous ooze, and etc. Give us different types of treasures such as special weapons, armor, tools, materials, gems, gold, blue-prints, skills, consumables, notoriety titles, cosmetic skins, experience points, and etc as incentive.

Edited by vaylain
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I like the sailing as it is. When it first launched, I appreciated the more realistic sailing experience, but I do see how now I prefer the current model for sailing around the world.

While sailing, I like to have music or a podcast playing, but I’m usually pretty vigilant about watching for ships of the damned.

The only change I’d like to make is to make the flotsam a little more worthwhile to stop and get. Thinking about this, I’m now wondering if you can use the harpoon to pull them in. I’ve not tried one yet, but looks like that’s a tonight project. 😊

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Try a sailing simulator for more exciting and realistic sailing action. This game was advertised as a Pirate, Fantasy MMO that not only had sailing but other interesting aspects like large-scale ship-to-ship combat, building and taming system, dungeons with dangerous encounters, and mythical creatures to fight which this game has failed to provide miserably.

The sailing in this game remains boring as hell and too time-consuming to be worth it.

Edited by vaylain

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Suggesting that somebody who enjoys the game as it is is playing the wrong game is certainly an interesting argument, though one that I think is just backwards.

Everybody enjoys different things. Just because they don’t enjoy the same things you do doesn’t make them wrong.

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I hate sailing in this game due to the travel time to get somewhere.  I understand if I'm going 6 grids away it will take "some time".  but when I leave my starting point at I have a good wind, but the next 5 grids the wind is low and against me...  it changes a 30 to 40 minute trip to a 3 hour brutal event.

We need to increase sailing speed so it decreases sail time.  here's just a few ideas...

Weight sails, they just had a change so leave them where they are at to see how they work with the current change.

Handling sail.  give this sail the ability to turn 360 degrees. Using this sail you can get a good wind sailing any direction. These sails should also give a bonus speed to backing up a ship to park.

Speed sail,  give this sail a 20% boost to current speed and a additional 10% boost when. Aligned perfect with the wind. 

Decrease the speed penalty given by weight. No penalty if below 40%.

Add a stat to the ships for speed. You add points to increase your ships overall speed.

 

 

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10 minutes ago, Salty Del said:

Suggesting that somebody who enjoys the game as it is is playing the wrong game is certainly an interesting argument, though one that I think is just backwards.

Everybody enjoys different things. Just because they don’t enjoy the same things you do doesn’t make them wrong.

Correct; the sailing in this game is extremely boring; you enjoy the sailing. Roger that, got it, thanks!

Edited by vaylain

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2 minutes ago, vaylain said:

Correct...the sailing in this game is extremely boring to me...and but you enjoy it. Roger that, got it, thanks!

Fixed.

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55 minutes ago, vaylain said:

Screw that, sailing is boring as hell and a major waste of time. There is nothing on the majority of those islands that makes it worth the risk, effort, or time. We only sail about for "discovery" points merely because we have been FORCED to by the game system but it remains, a lifeless and pointless chore.

What they need to do is actually stop being so lazy and apply effort to flesh out each and every island. Make them all unique and have different monsters to battle and diverse loot to acquire. Spread out NPC quests, settlements, dungeons, caves systems, secret passages, undead graveyards, haunted underwater ship wrecks, pirate enclaves, ancient tribal civilizations, and monster lairs to discover and conquer all over each other the islands of ATLAS. Get creative!

We need more in the way of PVE content to make ATLAS feel alive like a Fantasy MMO and give us different types of treasures such as special weapons, armor, tools, materials, gems, gold, blue-prints, skills, consumables, notoriety titles, cosmetic skins, experience points, and etc as incentive.

I will agree they need to add content to make it worth sailing to grids. I find myself hitting the same grids for resources cause I know where they are. They aren't all that far from home cept ironwood/twigs.

I personally find the whole discovery system very cumbersome. Not a fan of searching for a needle in the haystack. I'm at the point now if I run across one great. But i'm not actively seeking them out. Treasure chest, urn or something to say HEY i'm here. I've stated before I would love to see beams like treasure maps or sparkly stuff around discovery areas. The spyglass helps for some but some are still pretty invisible for me.  Able Mapmaker imho-is useless. They could change that into discovery beams.

I can't say I mind sailing. I get tons of housework done during those voyages. But Salty and I are definitely in the minority here. Half my company doesn't play long or a lot because they don't like to sail. IE takes to long to get to grids etc. Not much to see once you are there. 

I wouldn't mind a speed increase on sailing again. They did it once and it was a great improvement. 

Spelling or Grammar not included. Lol Boomer.

 

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Here's one.  add different gods of sailing.  5 or 6 or how ever many different gods.  each grid us owned owned by one of the gods, you can pay a tribute to the gods and if successful they will change the winds to be in your favor.  if your not successful the winds might go against you. Or summon a storm, or spawn ships of the damn around you, or everyone on your ships gets struck by lightning and dies. different gods like different tribute.  one might like food, cooked food better thst raw, one god likes gold as s tribute.  one god will only accept a blood tribute.  tie this into hanging players or using a guillotine.  the next god may like armor an weapons.  the next likes resources.  so you have to figure out what god controls the grid to know what tribute to pay.  Then hit a key or go to the alter (new crsftable structure)  and it brings up the tribute screen, select the direct you want the wind to go, select the tribute you want to offer, press accept. the gods aprove! *insert cool sound and visual effect*  and the wind changes for you!   or you disappoint the gods,  *insert scary sound and visual effect*  and your punishment happens.

Edited by TyGeR_STD

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4 minutes ago, TyGeR_STD said:

Here's one.  add different gods of sailing.  5 or 6 or how ever many different gods.  grids are owned by the gods, you can pay a tribute to the gods and if successful they will change the winds to be in your favor.  if your not successful the winds might go against you. Or summon a storm, or spawn ships of the damn around you.  different gods like different tribute.  one might like food, cooked food better thst raw, one god likes gold as s tribute.  one god will only accept a blood tribute.  tie this into hanging players or using a guillotine.  the next god may like armor an weapons.  the next likes resources.  so you have to figure out what god controls the grid to know what tribute to pay.  Then hit a key and it brings up the tribute screen, select the direct you want the wind to go, select the tribute you want to offer, press accept. the gods aprove! *insert cool sound and visual effect*  and the wind changes for you!   or you disappoint the gods,  *insert scary sound and visual effect*  and your punishment happens.

In many of the fantasy books, I have read. Sailing was made faster by wizards who would be hired to cast wind spells into the sails, summon water or wind elementals, and cast fireballs at approaching ships. I'd sure love to see a cross between gods and a magical aspect to the sailing.

Oh and maybe it would be fun to have mermen/mermaids trying to board our ships and sirens trying to lure crew members overboard from time to time.

Edited by vaylain
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14 minutes ago, vaylain said:

In many of the fantasy books, I have read. Sailing was made faster by wizards who would be hired to cast wind spells into the sails, summon water or wind elementals, and cast fireballs at approaching ships. I'd sure love to see a cross between gods and a magical aspect to the sailing.

Oh and maybe it would be fun to have mermen/mermaids trying to board our ships and sirens trying to lure crew members overboard from time to time.

All those statues you see around the world or what ppl have build to represent or also pay tribute to the gods.  now we have a lore tie in

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How about a skill in upcoming tarrot tree -  5 minutes to go full speed at any wind direction with 10 minute cooldown (INT should barely affect the cooldown of this skill for balance purposes)? or something in those lines.  For PVP that might be pretty unbalanced so they should have two mode balance branches to somehow work it out I feel.

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4 minutes ago, Jester said:

How about a skill in upcoming tarrot tree -  5 minutes to go full speed at any wind direction with 10 minute cooldown (INT should barely affect the cooldown of this skill for balance purposes)? or something in those lines.  For PVP that might be pretty unbalanced so they should have two mode balance branches to somehow work it out I feel.

I don't see how it would adversely affect PVP as anyone could spec for INT and Tarot if they wish. If they don't then they chose other avenues to become proficient in... It is called, carefully, dedicated skill choices and SHOULD be important to each character and help to provide diversity in character builds.

Edited by vaylain

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2 minutes ago, vaylain said:

I don't see how it would adversely affect PVP as anyone could spec for INT and Tarot if they wish. If they don't then they chose other avenues to become proficient in... It is called, carefully, dedicated skill choices and SHOULD be important to each character and help to provide diversity in character builds.

True, you are probably right. But if they do that, they should probably add somewhat of a cooldown on ship so it cant be spammed, just how it was spammed with nature's cry by switching players that mount the tame.

So maybe instead of the low affect by INT it should just be a hardcap of how low the cooldown can go. Since what stops a big company from just having a crafter character on board to spam the winds magic all the time for them when hopping on wheel to go fast? I am just spitballing here ideas, but I'd love somewhat of magic mechanics with wind implemented, that would improve our travel times for sure.

Dead wind? Cast magic wind skill! 🙂

It would definitely add a bit of more variety to ship combat I feel.

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3 minutes ago, Jester said:

True, you are probably right. But if they do that, they should probably add somewhat of a cooldown on ship so it cant be spammed, just how it was spammed with nature's cry by switching players that mount the tame.

So maybe instead of the low affect by INT it should just be a hardcap of how low the cooldown can go. Since what stops a big company from just having a crafter character on board to spam the winds magic all the time for them when hopping on wheel to go fast? I am just spitballing here ideas, but I'd love somewhat of magic mechanics with wind implemented, that would improve our travel times for sure.

Dead wind? Cast magic wind skill! 🙂

It would definitely add a bit of more variety to ship combat I feel.

In many movies and books, practitioners in magic often have only a limited tolerance before succumbing to exhaustion from the mental exertion.

For PVP, tarot casters could also call forth fog, enshrouding their ship, or summon rogue waves to thwart or slow pursuing ships...

I would love the Tarot to finally be implemented and these would make some pretty interesting aspects to include.

Edited by vaylain
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