Ah yes, the quarterly Atlas update sandwich. Top slice of 'Hey guys this is really hard but we have some great ideas and we're going to be doing a better job communicating and listening to you... and this time we really mean it!'. Bottom slice of 'Just remember guys it's still early access, so please don't hold us accountable for anything regardless of how poorly thought out or executed it may be'. So what's the filling this time?
Ah, of course. An extremely complex multi-grid trade route system adding new island types with automatically generated defenses, npc trade ships, and a boat designed to ram other boats. What could possibly go wrong? I mean last update you said you were just adding warehouses, and we got an unannounced game-destroying barrel 'balance' change and you broke a number of critical core game functions and disappeared for a month without a word. I hope you don't expect much confidence from anyone that you are even remotely capable of successfully implementing something of the magnitude that you're describing.
Stop dangling stuff that nobody cares about or asked for and 'teasing' all these cool new ideas you have when there are so many existing mechanics that are completely broken, useless, or imbalanced. Fix them. Get your game running smoothly and add some polish to what you already have before you go introducing a bunch of new stuff that you aren't capable of doing anyway.
You also mentioned more frequent wipes. How frequent? Do you really think that's a sustainable model for a game that has a ridiculously complex breeding and 6 resource type grindy upgrade mechanic? Is that the purpose of the trade routes? Having to get a bunch of different resources sucks, so rather than simplify the core system lets implement a complicated, difficult to implement alternative to make it suck a little less.
You guys have no direction, no accountability, no credibility, and nobody buys your 'new ideas, more communication, we're going to do a better job and btw look at this amazing idea we have' PR nonsense that we've seen over and over and have been let down every time. Nobody cares that it's early access. Early access doesn't give you carte blanche to make strings of idiotic decisions and expect players to stick around.
The last thing in this update you said is that you'll be paying extra attention to suggestions and feedback, so here's some from a 5,000 hour player. Put this trade system, ships for gold, and whatever other half baked band-aid ideas you have on the shelf. Fix what you have, give regular updates on what you're working on, and stop saying over and over that you're going to be listening to players and start actually doing it. Focus your energies on resolving those issues and building on those ideas first. Thinking for yourselves and deciding what you think is best for the game is why there are 92 players on NA PVP as I write this. Get your shit together or just shut it down.