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When I first bought Atlas, I was expecting it to be a reskinned ARK. As a long time ARK player, I wasn't overly phased by that as despite the quite average performance, ARK could be a quite beautiful game, rich in diverse and interesting locations. And so when i first bought the game, I did so expecting to refund it after 2 hours. I just wanted to check it out basically. I ran around the first Freeport and enjoyed the new setting. I thought the little Freeport itself was extremely underwhelming and lifeless - something which didn't remotely look like what was shown in the trailer, but I continued. I ran around doing the basic things to level - killing, collecting etc until I finally had enough for my first raft. By this point i was planning on refunding. I liked it, but it just seemed under-whelming. And then I got on the water. I set out on my first raft and holy crap - the water was amazing and far better than I had imagined. I'd always liked the water aspect of ARK but it never felt fully-developed, but this water - the way it moved, the way it bobbed my raft atop it, the feeling of being on it, awesome. It was here that it didn't feel like ARK but it's own game. As I journeyed further out and the sun went down, i had my little fire roaring and my sail up - i bought the game. I was so impressed with that early experience. In time, I built my own sloop and started to explore properly. I crewed it with NPCs, began collecting salvage, deep diving, exploring islands. All of this was extremely enjoyable, but the more i played the game, the more dependent on land i became and the water aspect became something that fell into two categories: 1. I was either not using my ships at all or: 2. I was sailing for vast amounts of time with nothing happening other than changing the sail directions from time to time. I was spending huge amounts of time on farming. I was banging my head in frustration trying to tame animals to reduce the farming times. I was having to erect great ugly structures to house those animals and well, the cycle just became boring. I didnt want to be spending time on land, I wanted to be on the sea - but to be on the sea it required a bunch of land time and well - it just declined from there. One thing I really thought lacking in ARK was a lack of structures/towns of any form. With things like the Freeports and various ruins, I thought this is where ATLAS could have really taken itself to the next level. Funnily enough there's little docks and buildings around the various islands but they're always empty - interesting but soon forgotten. I wish it was here that the developers started to place emphasis. The game needs to be about the sea and the coastlines. Not taming animals, not erecting giant inland bases - but erecting coastal ports and trading hubs. Give us a reason to travel. Dont spend all your time on island biomes - create interesting mini-islands and atols, reefs teeming with fish and hand created shipwrecks. Create port towns which are like the Freeports on steroids - fleshed out with NPCs and things players themselves can add to them. Give us more to do when sailing - more aquatic creature diversity. More NPC ship varieties that aren't always threatening. Migrating birds, weather diversity, island forts. Return the emphasis to the sea - for that's where Atlas truly shines. Create bigger waves, different waves, whirlpools, sea monsters, different coloured water. Create a ton of different underwater biomes so we have a proper reason to visit them and dive. If we want a land based survival pvp - we have ark and conan. Atlas is only weakening itself by continually expanding down that area. Work on the sea. Focus on the sea. Make the sea the best thing possible and focus on why people like me bought the game - to sail and be on the water. Or by the water. Always

Dear Mister Erik, I was told to ask you about a hat. I hope this is your top priority. Everything else can wait. 9 out of 10 Atlas players polled said that a hat would cover their heads so you can see the need. Moving forward I’m looking forward to going forward. Thank you for coming aboard. Yours Truly, Gomez

Dear Sir, As a very famous and important forum personality I feel I should mention that my handwritten invitations to GrapeCard’s staff meetings to share my invaluable thoughts and ideas with you have all rather unfortunately gotten lost in the mail. No matter! Let us not dwell on the deficiencies of the postal service. Time is short my good man and there is much that needs doing. I am sure that you would have sought out my advice eventually anyway. I am doing you the kindness of preemptively providing it here, you may thank me later by ensuring my consulting invoice is paid promptly by accounting. Major issues that inhibit the fun and limit the enjoyability of players Atlas experience: 1. Sailing is THE core pirate activity and should remain a core gameplay mechanic. However the act of sailing itself most players find too tedious. Some existing bits of gameplay like sextant, flotsam, shipwrecks, sotd’s and storms exist to break up the monotony of sailing but each of these systems needs further development with an eye towards making trekking across the Atlas an adventure rather than dull. In pvp a major consideration in this regard is the vulnerability of ships when players are offline. As the game is presently constructed, for pvp players to sail further afield than they are able to return to a heavily guarded defensive harbor within the same play session is a foolhardy exercise. If a core concept of Atlas is to remain exploration, it must become more feasible for pvp players to sail far without the need to return to base in the same play session. In pve this is far less of an issue, however pve players often feel there is less to sail and explore for. Reducing the number of islands which are cookie cutter versions of each other would help, as well as increasing the incentives for exploration beyond a discovery point system that feels very grindy for little benefit beyond a certain threshold. Since the ingredients for cooking are one of the things players need to travel for, expanding cooking by giving most of the foods a useful buff, rather than just a few of them, would be one way to do this. 2. The defining act of piracy, raiding merchant shipping, is nonexistent in Atlas. In pve especially, this should be a major focus of adding content over tames and other peripheral add ons that do little to add to the pve players experience. It is inconceivable that Atlas holds itself out as pirate themed game yet 8 months into development there is not even the suggestion of actual piracy being added to game content. At present Atlas is pirate themed in name only, perhaps because there is no term for “people who plant gardens so they can tame animals so they can build shipyards so they can build ships with which to sail around for a bit and accomplish nothing meaningful before coming home to feed the animals.” 3.The game needs more things to do in groups in order to enhance the experience. Atlas is more or less completely failing to leverage one of the fundamental truths of the MMO genre, namely that it is the people you play with as much as the things you do that makes the experience fun and keeps players coming back. Not only is there no grouping mechanic, there is nothing to do as a group other than the kraken or the ice dungeon. Atlas needs more group content because in pve there is currently no particular reason you should join someone else’s company and in pvp the only reason is for mutual protection. A game dominated by mega clans where a few people in leadership positions make all the decisions and do all the fun stuff like captaining the ship while the majority of pvp players are either peon grinders doing what amounts to an online job for no pay or small groups huddling in the shadows trying to eke out an existence where they don’t get wiped regularly by far larger groups does not sound like a game that screams fun to most players. This is currently what passes in large part for the social aspects of gaming in Atlas. 4. For a game that started its Early Access journey claiming it wanted to pattern itself on Eve, economy is nonexistent in Atlas. The few things that have been tried in the past like player shops, demonstrated a woeful understanding of matters economic by whoever was making the decisions before. I personally feel this is a major area where Atlas could be expanded in a direction players have vocally and repeatedly requested. By and large players did not come here to build farms and forts, tame elephants and bears, but to be pirates on the open seas. If the game’s economy were structured in such a way that there was both need and incentive for players to band together to move large quantities of resources back and forth over distance, then in pvp the defending and attacking of each other’s shipping moves the focus off land and onto the water, where everyone wants it to be. In pve this would help foster trade networks. There is a lot to consider in revamping Atlas towards the goal of making it the ultimate pirate adventure. As someone who has been here from day one, who has 15 years experience playing MMORPG’s, and who has read, discussed and digested a lot of the feedback offered here on the boards, I offer these thoughts to you as you chart a new course for Atlas. Fair winds and Godspeed.

I'm done... again. Decided not to play until there's a wipe and the whole stupid land claim system gets fixed. It started with someone claiming and taxing a previously unclaimed island where I was farming tin and cobalt. It got exacerbated when I was trying to build a ship to take on STOD. Spent a small fortune in time and resources, got to the part where I was trying to place a sail and it kept saying obstructed (even though it was blue). Ripped half the ship back apart and it was still obstructed (and got 0 resources back because it wasn't 'anchored'). Got pissed off and demolished the entire shipyard. Then, got to looking at claiming the island I was on (not because I wanted taxes but because I didn't want anyone taxing all the work I'd put into it) and realized just how much maintenance I'd have to do to keep paying for it. Screw that. If you claim the land, you're taxed by the game, forced into a time-sink to pay for it and the only thing you get is that someone else can't tax you. If you live on someone else's claim, you're taxed by them, spend 20% more of your time to gather the same amount of resources and get nothing return. If you live on an unclaimed island, someone can come tax you without so much as a by-your-leave and you get nothing in return. Of course, the other option is to live on a lag-fest lawless island and there, you are never truly safe from dickhead neighbors. Sorry but this is supposed to be a game, it's supposed to entertain the players. None of those options above are entertaining to me. Ta-ta.

Never seen it that way, i am afraid to examine it also. You know things that cant be unseen, like handling sail angle, i dont want another I think, better dont think about it. :rofl:

Well, here's the kicker: I'd been playing on PvE (because I value sleep). Played on PvP and left, not because of the PvP... because I frankly never experienced actual PvP, just PvMyStuff while I'm sleeping/working/adulting. I like PvP. Real PvP. When I think of ATLAS or even ARK, I just don't think, "Wow yeah I'd really like to PvP in that game." I don't want to build a boring reinforced box to house my crap. Why give me a cool building system to suck the creativity out of it because I have to build a ridiculous looking ship to be viable in PvP combat? I think, "Dude, I want to build a badass looking base and cool ships. Because I can." If I want to slaughter (or be slaughtered) players, I'll go play PUBG or whatever. Even WoW PvP was great. RIP. Here, every "PvP" situation was: *Log in* "Why am I naked... oh this again." *Build sloop* *Go get the stuff from the hidden caches* *Find new island* The fun in PvP for me is the rush of knowing you're facing another human being in digital combat. Maybe you're evenly matched. Maybe you're not. Winning or losing almost doesn't matter because either way you gave it your best. ATLAS PvP lacks any ambition for that. Why face someone when you can just wait until they're not around and take their stuff? That never even crossed my mind to do during my time on PvP (back to societal degradation, I guess). It just seemed totally cowardly and most of all un-fun to me. If I want to break into houses, I'll go sneakthief in Skyrim. At least the NPCs don't log off. I don't really care if I lose stuff because someone actually fought me for it. I do care when my biggest threat is supposed to be flying lions. If I log into my 4 years inactive (... but still active... should probably cancel that) WoW account, my stuff is there. My main from launch is there. I wouldn't be surprised if I logged onto freaking EQ if my characters are still there, assuming I could ever remember my account info. Couple weeks gone from the PvE server and poof. Even people who log in every day are mysteriously losing ships they've physically moved within a couple of days. This is kind of a fundamental problem and people who are already fed up are throwing in the towel because it's making the game a job even for PvE players. And it's really only there on PvE because the devs can't figure out how to curb foundation/pillar spam (and maybe to save server memory). Hell, even before the wipe it was kind of fun island hopping and checking out peoples' bases and maybe coming across something abandoned and finding some loot. Even ARK is better on single player. At least there you have a fighting shot at all of the content with hoards of meticulously bred dinos. Solo players and casual groups are effectively locked out of end game content here because many of us simply don't have the hours in a day to live, breathe, think ATLAS. For us, unless something changes, there will eventually be a brick wall where you can choose to farm yourself to death or just leave and go play something that's actually fun. This is where they are failing at an MMO to the core. The content is just not there. Hopefully, this upcoming announcement parts the clouds and unicorns pooping rainbows come down from the sky (... although the way things are looking, there is a literal possibility of this) to give us a kickass game... But the realist (no pun intended) in me thinks... probably not. Fundamentally, ATLAS is not an MMO. Sure, the map is massive, the player capacity (supposedly... we don't actually know) is massive. But in reality, it's a cluster server multiplayer with fantasies of being a pirate MMORPG. It's like calling Fortnite an MMO because a crapload of people are online all the time. It checks very few of the boxes that make an MMO an MMO... It's just kind of... meh right now in almost every aspect of the game. Unfortunately, it kind of is ARK reskinned. Only problem is, they have effectively sucked all the good of ARK out of ATLAS, with the single exception being the building system. They haven't copied and improved. Hell, it's not even looking like they've considered ANY of the great mechanics of great MMOs past. Basically, ATLAS doesn't do anything for me that something else does better. If I want hardcore survival, I've got The Long Dark. If I want FPS, I'm enjoying Anthem. If I want PvP, I can go play a FPS PvP or head to Cyrodil in ESO. If I want an MMO, I could resurrect my WoW characters or play some ESO. If I want to sail non-ridiculous ships with proper sails on a cool ocean, I could go back to some Black Flag. If I want to just murder monsters and have an actual storyline, FFIV, Monster Hunter, Witcher III. If I want to build cool shit and maintain a hoard of animals: ARK. Hopefully, they can turn this ship around (pun intended).

Well, Ive gotten my time out of this game, but with the changes (none for the good) and the limited player interaction, the game has ran its course. My main base is on the western coast of Surfil Penninsula in H7. There is a galleon and a Schooner available, countless resources from all over the game, and several tames . Like 6 or more bears, several very high level (breeders). Several Elephants (some breeders), 2 giraffes (a breeder too), wolves, cows, etc. In L11 I have an outpost with several bears there as well and a Schooner. In M7 There is a brig with a bear, tiger, and a cow. All of this is free for the taking! Thanks and best wishes! Ranger

Isn't it about time the large shipyard was able to craft all ships of all sizes, even the smaller ones? It's a pain needing to place shipyards let alone a large and a small side by side, and it would cut down on game clutter too, and would help cut down lag.

Not sure what to do next. I logged out of my Ocean game to help a friend in his Blackwood game. Maybe twenty minutes later I tried to log back into my Ocean game and for the last hour or so I keep getting Fatal Error while the game is loading, after the Login Screen. Like, just as the game is about to open, the white screen of death... I have rebooted computer and run the Steam file validation thing. Turned off Battle Eye. Nothing works. I am locked out of my game on a cronic Fatal Error. Weirdly, I can still get back into my friend's Blackwood game no problem. It is only My own game that is crashing. I have a two week old Windows 10 Nitro5 laptop and so far all I have done on it is play Atlas, so it is not gummed up with a bunch of other apps. Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Including image of fatal error message.

Surely straight from the bottle is the pyrate way.

Four cannons on the back of a sloop isn't what I'd call a problem. Over 100 cannons stacked in a broadside apparently designed for that one encounter where you need to wipe out all of Tampa Bay in a single broadside (let's be honest, who *doesn't* fantasize about wiping out Tampa?) is more what bothered me. That's what I meant by exploitative designs. You have a point that strictly limiting canon placement does restrict creativity, which is definately a potential selling point on the game compared to other sailing games. Quite frankly I hadn't considered it from that point of view. In the long run a balance must be struck somewhere. Hopefully the devs can produce a system that balances some creative freedom with limiting exploitation. Off the top of my head I have no idea what that might be, but thankfully my paycheck doesn't depend on it. *looks at the devs* No pressure guys.

Hi all. My Suggestion is that i do want Canons and large Canons(maybe the other weapon platforms as well) to be picked up and placed any time. or maybe only be able when its fully anchored. This idea came to me from how it was in the old times that Privateers and Pirates as wells the Navy re-equipped the ships for specific missions and the ships mostly had mixed cal. canons.

Your game is dying, it is on a 2.5k peak players on a game supposed to be a MMO. Why are you focusing only on Singleplayer and Single server maps? Official network is completely dead, unoffical is slowing walking to that status. I'm guessing developers are busy with another ARK DLC since its seems a better way to profit from the playerbase.

Still Dont understand why upkeep or tax still is a Problem. The First few days After a fresh wipe but now you get so much good for Basicly Doing Nothing. Sell stuff tames or Ressources. Do a few Maps on Weekends or Dive for shipwrecks After the Buff,go whale hunting, all stuff which gives you enough Gold for a years upkeep in a Short Amount of time

Oh, I see. The first thing you want to say to the new developer is about the deficiencies of the postal service. Very nice. For your information, the post office is being rebuilt. It has been being rebuilt for weeks now. First, the floors wouldn't place underwater where needed, then the walls refuse to snap properly unless bribed with triangular ceilings which cause the entire building to fall down if inadvertantly removed. And when all that has been solved, the last wall will not place because it says it has no foundation support, even though foundation exists for miles around it in all directions. You have no idea of the time and trouble that Atlas Mail has gone to in order to provide service to the embattled inhabitants of the map. Rest assured, the postal service will soon resume operations with a new and improved post office, as long as nobody touches the triangular ceilings. Atlas Mail - Let's go Postal.

Because the thread you cited had a different purpose, as I’ve already pointed out. Just because some of the things mentioned are the same doesn’t make them identical. As far as the notion that players shouldn’t discuss each other’s ideas on a discussion forum....I’m not not sure what to say about that.... If you don’t care to contribute here, no one is forcing you, but this thread harms no one, so posting here to say the thread shouldn’t exist is just shitposting. I have already pointed out how this threads purpose is meaningfully different from the livestream Q&A thread, your response seems to just willfully ignore this. In Dollie’s Op of the livestream thread she makes two things clear: the thread is for submitting questions for the livestream, and that those questions should be brief. Providing feedback on your game experience for the benefit of the new designer is not the same as asking questions, and that feedback may not be brief, so again this thread serves a different purpose.

Crying involves tears. We really need to make sure that we can confirm there are in fact tears present before we even try to use that word lol

I can assure you I very much bought the game because of the water aspect. I just didn't expect the water to be such a good part of the game as visually in the trailers or various Youtube vids the waves never looked that good, and having experienced the water in ARK, it was good but left a lot to be desired. The look and the feel of the water was considerably better than i thought it would be going in - hence my expecting to refund it and initially going in only planning to trial it. There's absolutely nothing deceptive about this other than your interpretation.

It worked perfectly!! Thanks

To be fair they changed that almost 2-3 month ago. While i agree ships Need to have more variations to them, i Totally agree with the decision to take away large Cannons from the back of the ship. Only using broadside ships was my own decision,so cant Blame People for that,but making all the erffort to get a mythical galleon And good Cannons just to See a schooner killing a Level 60 galleon Without a scratch was just dumb And made ship BPs pointless

None of this has much of anything to do with people being upset about buying a game marketed as at least partly about pirates and finding no actual piracy in it's game content. It's just you going on a personal crusade about something unrelated that happens to have some of the same words in it. Even when it's pointed out to you you're dragging the conversation off topic, you just continue to do it. I have made the point I wished to make on this topic. You should feel free to carry on with any seperate discussion you wish. I'm not particularly interested in it.

Number one, take the wheel for a moment will you I'm just going to see where all those rats are going

What do you all perceive to be the ideal atlas experience? The game seems to lack a clear direction. What do you all intend to do if anything to shift game play to be more boat focused? They only way to accomplish anything in PvP currently is destroying people's islands. Housing any kind of boat safely, even given peace timers, requires mega bases that the majority of player groups can not dedicate the time to build and maintain. What are solutions to this problem you all have considered, and what is the ideal scenario you all would like to see? How specifically do you all intend to rework the blueprint system to not put players without a mythic galleon at a MASSIVE disadvantage? At current, a common boat can't even hold enough cannonballs to sink a mythic boat, and it takes a group of 5 or more to have a chance at sinking a mythic boat. At the moment you can keep a galleon with half its planks missing afloat with only 4 people bucketing, What steps are you all taking to address this (maybe remove bucketing in to camp fires...)? Server performance has managed to seemingly decline even given the low player population, assumably due to mega bases. Is optimizing the game's current system to run better the best way forward, or are you all looking in to more wholistic changes? There is currently no reason for players to repeat any of the world bosses other than to help others. Is this the intended game play experience? How do you all think on boarding of new players should be handled? At the moment new players either join an existing company to teach them how to play, or they sit around on a beach and never experience most of the game's content. should it be the job of existing companies to onboard new players, or should their be more resources given to new players to teach them how to play?

Will we be able to Duell each Other? Like both Players Need to accept a Duell And then a Timer Starts ticking down And then we can. Do fist fight or sword Duells etc.

+1, these should be removable when anchored.

I lost the last of my ships on PvE not that I play it now, I only log in to keep timer ticking for structures but there was a time I would have been angry at losing my ships, I just laughed when I didn't see them there lol. I get why people are throwing in the towel, I do have respect for the last ones standing putting up with all the faults though but after 1400hrs I just had enough, I couldn't do it anymore. When you leave Atlas you realise what you've missed in other games. If they improve it in the future and add more things I may come back again but as it is right now I have no desire to play official. Merging servers and having cross play is the way to go in my eyes if they want more players in 1 place. You look at the map and you barely get more than 2 or 3 on each server.

Yeah. You should be able to pick up cannons, swivel guns and turrets - if you can carry the weight of them of course.

My Galleone, which I entered less than 14 days ago, has just been removed. I am really delighted! It is completely incomprehensible to me why PVE players only received 14 days. But obviously you do not even manage to implement it properly. A pseudo MMO, where after a week already half the stuff disappears. How stupid is that? After a few weeks break, all the progress is gone and you can almost start as a new player? How stupid are the developers here? My life is not just Atlas.

Can we get a log message for any NPC's or Tames that have been lost at sea with GPS coordinates? I would think that if an NPC/tame is in the "swimming" state for longer than X with no company member in render range it should trigger a log message (or maybe not in distance of "landfall"). At least give you a chance at rescuing them. This weekend I came across someone's bear in the middle of no where that I was able to claim and save (not the first time). I also lost my NPC wheelman at some point during a SotD battle, he wasn't on the wheel at the time and I think he got booped by cannon fire. He was level 101, HP tanky and wearing plate. Couldn't find him afterwards and have not received a death log message, so he's still out there swimming somewhere in the ocean.