Dochollyhood

If they do a Christmas event instead of fixing stuff, expect everyone who supported the idea to get griefed and offline raided the entire time. Because screw your cosmetic loot and colored tames... we want the game fixed.

34 minutes ago, George Catcher said:

07 - You wont be able to dig a treasure if you die fighting guardians.

Just found the issue. I spawned low level treasure. There were 6 guys spawned. I killed 5, then die, then went back and killed last one. After I tried to dig it said I need to slain one more guardian to get a chest.

I waited them to respawn. Another 6 guys appeared. Without equilibrium buff I killed one, die, then went back and killed another 5. After I tried to dig it said I need to slain 5 more guards to get a chest.

Happened to me twice with two different treasures.

It seems when you spawn guards it counts you kills before you die, and after you do - it just stop counting. That's why exact the same amount of them you kill after you died will shown in this "extra guardians" message.

This is because the ones that are still alive from the first spawn wave have wandered off. They do that... and it's dumb. You basically have to go hunt them down, and the longer it takes you to find them, the farther off they could be since that don't have a wander limit or anchor point. Also... they're UNDER the map wandering around and only come up when you're nearby. And this isn't even a bug... it's by design.

Only takes about 20-30 minutes to tear down a trap wall using a sickle. Probably your best option.

Your "Horse" has been killed by "OP" level 174.

We got Professor Oak'd. "Take this Pokemon and get the hell out of my lab," then becomes an unresponsive NPC for the rest of the game.

I spent a good portion of yesterday in the discord and as it turns out, they hinted at this in the last Captain’s Log. But when you say things like “batten down the hatches” and “hunker down”... your customers don’t take that to mean “fall off the grid”. Despite saying they would be available for crucial fixes and emergency assistance, they never said outright that they would be this inaccessible. And furthermore... NO ONE should ever be this inaccessible. There should be someone who does absolutely nothing but manage these forums, the social media, and other channels of communication.

Eh, I don't meet the "required perquisites". Pretty much guarantees I have no shot.

You mean like the Captain's Log (which is woefully infrequent and doesn't have a forum of its own)?

18 hours ago, Sleepinator2000 said:

Some developers prefer to be a big fish in a little pond. With all the potential promise of Atlas, with some chops, you could really make a difference there that you could be proud of, whereas even amazing lifetime developers can't budge the wheel in a huge shop like Ubisoft or Bioware.

The problem here is that there aren't that many of those types of people out there. And they probably aren't offering a competitive enough salary to draw people away from the "big ponds". They need to start loosening the criteria and focusing on hard working, skilled employees rather than credentialed ones. Either way, the goal is to get it done right... but the difference is how long it takes. Waiting for that 5%er candidate is costing the player community. Hiring a hobbyist (or 20) who is just as good (if not better) but has never shipped a game could save the game from fizzling out due to lack of response to feedback.

To put it simply, they need to stop pretending they need the best candidates for the job... because the best candidates aren't applying to work for them, and start accepting candidates who can improve their product. No one drives their 2002 focus into a Ford dealership and says, "I'm not leaving here without a GT500." No, they buy a Fusion and call it a win.

So I took the time to comb through the Announcements and General discussion forums to find all of the staff that are active on the forums and look at their accounts. Of the five that I found, all of them have viewed the forums in the last 10 days, but only three have been active. Dollie has been extremely active, but seems to be focused on damage control and support ticket elevation. All of the topics that were actually responded to were things with fixes/patches already in the works. Nothing about future developments or any real response to feedback about the direction of the game.

This all tells me that there is little focus on customer engagement, likely because as DOOTS2521 said, they are dreadfully understaffed. To me this says that they are over-committed, and it is taking every resource they have to put out the fires they're currently working on. Given that the game is in preview status, that's somewhat understandable, but there is a definite chasm that needs crossed before release. Too bad they are only hiring candidates with shipped titles and stacked resumes... otherwise I'd throw my hat in the ring. Guess modders and hobbyists who make games better (or in my case make better games) don't count as real developers because we didn't do it with a five million dollar bankroll behind us. Sucks that I have to finish my game (by my damn self while still working full time as a mechanical engineer) before any studio will take me seriously... but I can't get a staff because no one wants to work for free until I ship. Catch-22

As a developer (not with this studio) myself, I'm pretty sure that if my PR team, my dev team, or even just my GMs saw a thread decrying the dev team for failure to engage, I wouldn't let it go 12 hours without some kind of response. Just saying...

On 10/25/2019 at 9:32 AM, Inigo said:

 

Let me introduce you to the concept that you picked the wrong genre of games to play. ARK, Rust, 7 Days to Die, Conan Exiles, Etc. 

If you want to play on an Official Server, well that's your decision, it's also your decision to deal with whatever elements are present. Including being raided when you arent on, griefers, etc. Now despite my ire for the Devs and their bad decisions, they did in fact put a reasonable raid timer in. That you can personally set to your preference for Start and End times. 

IF STILL that is not good enough for you, let me remind you, there are PVE, private servers, with additional raid protections available if you just want to get on and play Pokemon without getting your shit shoved in. Alternatively there is also Singleplayer where you can Catch Em All without any risk to your little RP base at all.

I've got no sympathy for any of your problems. I've dealt with my fair share of griefers, proper raiders, even being attacked by the Player Cap Alliance, which prided themselves on their namesake for player capping entire sectors they were attacking(They were still bad at fighting, so it's w/e).

I've done my fair share of griefing and proper raiding, and it's quite fun. It would be a darn shame if they nerf any of that to pander to Casual solo players or 1-4 man companies. 

 

The problem here... is that you, and those like you, may be the majority when it comes to those particular battles, but are certainly NOT the majority of players in the game. MOST of us are in 5-12 man companies that don't have night-shifters. Even companies that do have someone up all night to protect from griefers can't expect that one person to hold off an earnest attack. So what is at issue here is that the devs have created an environment with an imbalance of power that allows large groups of trolls and troglodytes like yourself to have fun at the expense of the rest of the population of a server cluster... which is the majority of the players. So the 50 of you have fun, while the hundreds of us rage quit. Rage quitters don't buy DLC, don't buy servers to host their 30-40 friends, and certainly don't buy the next game you put out. In fact, I didn't even buy THIS game because I was so disgusted with how easy it was to grief in ARK. Someone bought it for me because they wanted my logistics expertise in their company...

At the end of the day, if they don't do something about the dynamics that force people to join large companies where they are just a number or get rolled by those larger companies... they're going to lose more players than they already have. Then it'll just be a circle jerk between all of you "proper raiders". Something something needs of the many, something something needs of the few.

Anything that can be done to prevent offline raiding is a plus. That's not Player versus Player, that's Player versus Player's schedule. A game should not require you to dump irresponsible amounts of time into in order to prevent the loss of what you accomplished during the time you willingly spent in it. That's basically saying that if you don't have people at your island for your entire combat phase, you might as well give up. So you need allies. And night-shifters. And NPC turrets. That makes the disparity between having the skills and resources to build a base and the ability to actually defend that base HUGE. Diminishing returns kill RPGs.

I also think that you should be able to place crafting stations as integral structures on planks. basically add a snap point that makes the crafting station built into the interior of the hull, with a different graphic representation depending on which part of the hull is being snapped to.

I have been having issues with crew aboard ships anchored at my island dying from lack of food or mutiny from lack of gold, despite the ships being fully anchored, over 100k berries and 4k gold in my silo. Some ships are fine, some are altogether left out, some one side of the ship is taken care of, and others it's random. The same goes for NPCs stationed at defensive structures throughout the island. What gives? I thought the silo was supposed to maintain ALL NPC crew on the island abd aboard ships anchored at the island, ESPECIALLY since my company owns the island.

Another thing I have noticed is that Aggressive creatures (specifically lions and yeti) are entirely too fast for the current server (in)stability. They leap at you cause you to lag and when the client catches up you are dead. While I understand that these creatures are supposed to be dangerous, they should not be a huge concern (unless they're alphas). I shouldn't be worried about losing a level 60 tamed bear to a level 7 lion because I can't use the bear's attack or dismount due to lag and the inability to visually track the creature. Make them slower, or make their damage better scaled according to their level.

Lastly, make pathing better. I understand that the clipping regions for things that can be harvested are non-static and therefore difficult to path around, and adding a clipping buffer region might result in seemingly open paths being closed, but a simple AI logic upgrade that allows the NPC to pass through a clipping border after failing a path check a set number of times would fix this. Then you just give structures like walls and permanent terrain features the ability to cancel that check, turn the NPC around, and have them walk a bit in that direction before circling back and trying a different point of egress. Tames already do this to some extent (although still not well enough). NPC crew on the other hand... just run smack into stuff. Both need improvement.

I mean.. Conan Exiles did it...

The gangplank WAS used to board enemy ships though... that'd be a nice addition.

Soooo... the farthest you EVER have to sail is 8 grids in any one direction (if you have to go more than 8 grids North, then you should have went south :P). That's not THAT bad, and pretty much anything you really need to get that that's far away is available somewhere closer. Anything that's not... probably shouldn't be that easy to get in the first place.

Also... it's a sailing game. Don't like sailing that much? Get some Company members who do and send THEM on the longer runs...

Adding to this:

K. Resource buildings staffed by NPCs and/or players. Lumberyard, Mine, Quarry, Butcher, Farm, Tannery, Weaver. These would all basically be scaled up endgame versions of the crafting stations, but with greater production volume, NPCs that speed production and increase quality while providing passive resource collection if placed close enough to a source of materials (or with NPCs on wander *wink wink*).
L. NPC buildup in non-Freeports. Tribes, NPC Pirates, Civilized towns, etc. They could have a small chance to pop up after say, 10 game days of no Player activity/structures in a certain radius. Wouldn't disrupt the game much, the AI would be easy to setup, and they could offer trade/fight/tax opportunities.
M. Spread the gold sinks around. Instead of having higher gold prices on island upkeep, more than daily wages for NPC crew... find other things for players to routinely spend gold on. Repair NPCs, Vendor equipment, bulk resources, bargain basement tames... there's a lot of stuff people would buy if it were available.
N. Ability to stack Maps on the same island into a "book".
O. More items to encourage deck combat on Brigs and Galleons. Gangplanks, Ladders that actually reach the water (that shouldn't even be a problem but it is), THE ABILITY TO CLIMB THE RIGGING!!!!
P. THE ABILITY TO CLIMB THE RIGGING...
Q. It'd be really nice if you could climb the rigging.

The time of pirates on the high seas was late 17th to mid 18th century. Ships were friggin huge then. While it would be great to see this mirrored in the game, it'd be a performance nightmare for a game that's already struggling to deliver a smooth experience. Hate to say it, but I'd rather they work on smoothing out what we have than making it harder to render :(.

In every case, when opening a new skill tree, you have to spend one or more skill points... without anything actually changing about your character. At least one of the introductory skills of that tree should come with that unlock, otherwise it's just a point sink in a system where points are already precious.

Additionally, some skills that are essential have multiple unlocks before you get access to them, some of which make sense, and some of which are just poor hierarchies. Meanwhile, ancillary skills are early in the tree and don't require a bunch of branching in order to access.

Lastly, the use of Fine items should be basic, especially since they are not directly mentioned in the skill tree (Studies skills open "up to" Journeyman.

2 hours ago, Geminia_Sierra said:

you're kind of close but not really.

depending on size of the cannon there would be more crew.

12 lb cannon crew

18-lb gun crew
Constitution 24-lb gun crew

That's royal navy, we're talking pirates, who prided themselves on doing more with less

1 hour ago, Gemini Five said:

I have about 2000 hours in. I've lived there a long time. I do understand the basic. That still does nothing for you when a whale renders right in your path when your at top speed and you can't turn to avoid. Resulting in an impact and a full stop, with the second strike takes out 4 planks. Then you get to the side of the whale to start moving again only to get the deathblow.

The post if poorly written is about 1. The time required to get somewhere while requiring continued full awareness just in case (boring). 2. Because you may have something render right in your path at close range.  Rendering range being the key issue, as it has always been.

It could be an easy fix. They could move the SOD and whales 300 meters off the grid border until they fix rendering range. So, those just wanting to get somewhere could travel the border and those wanting to hunt just go inward. That would also fix the problem of crossing a grid just to res/rending in the middle of an SOD fleet.

Yeah... render distance is boned. I definitely agree there.

A. Offloading improvements. The increased efficiency leads to greater resource storage, which could actually lead to an actual economy emerging.
    1. A cargo crane that can transfer storage boxes from a special platform on the ship to a cargo cart
    2. Being able to "team" horses to increase speed and carry weight (allowing for them to take an entire ship's cargo in one trip).
    3. A cargo elevator (like the one from ARK).
    4. A wheelbarrow that works as a "saddle" for NPC crew members
   5. Having and actual "pier" object that is anchor point specific. Basically each island has a selection of piers that can be placed (maybe like 12 or so anchor points per island). This pier could host a lot of options that assist with unloading ships, including some of those listed above.
B. Ability to reduce graphics on Xbox to increase performance.
C. More ship types. A catamaran (like a dinghy but with a handling sail and an outrigger), a barge (basically a floating storage platform), and an Ark (just a big ol' ship that you can build an alpha base on)
D. Sail improvements
   1. Change sails so that the mast and sail are two different items, with the mast being a storage device like the Wood Wall Hook, and sails in its inventory. This will allow sails to be swapped out much more easily than having to rebuild an entire mast. It also allows for sails to be stacked. Example: a Large Speed Sail becomes a Large Mast, Small Speed Sheet, Medium Speed Sheet, and Large Speed Sheet.
   2. Functional jib and spanker sails that are activated along with fore and aft sails, and could be easily added as a sub-item (in the inventory of the mast they attach to if you give them the proper amount of slots!). Jibs could be stacked to help with handling, speed bursts, tacking, etc (the greater the number of jibs, the greater the number of benefits are gained). Spankers could be specialized for handling, braking, and reverse.  Example: a Large Speed Sail in the foremast position becomes a Large Mast (jib boom automatically added when positioned as foremast), Small Speed Sheet, Medium Speed Sheet,  Large Speed Sheet, and up to six Jib Sheets (From forward to aft: Jib of jibs, Spindle jib, Flying jib, Outer jib, Inner jib, Fore staysail). Spankers would be similar in that a mast placed in the aft would automatically have a gaff, and room for a single Spanker Sheet.
E. A tame that DIGS!
F. A wheelbarrow that functions as a "saddle" for NPC crew, allowing them to carry more, transport players (rickshaw style), and farm resources (yeah, let them gather on wander).
G. Color the HUD icons to indicate when they are satisfactory (green), low (yellow) and critical (red).
H. Factions. In addition to player alliances (which are not known to the rest of the populace), allow us to join NPC hosted factions like every other MMORPG. There could be faction objectives, various hardpoints that could be captured and change hands, and a greater sense of community on PVP servers.
I. Add ship construction pieces called "Medium/Large Sweep Plank". These would allow the bottom decks to run out NPC and/or player manned oars that could be used to increase speed in any direction, aid in braking and hairpin turns, and help break ships off of sandbars and escaped be becalmed.
J. Visible detection cones for NPC crew, or at least the ability to view them temporarily.

A. Offloading improvements. The increased efficiency leads to greater resource storage, which could actually lead to an actual economy emerging.
    1. A cargo crane that can transfer storage boxes from a special platform on the ship to a cargo cart
    2. Being able to "team" horses to increase speed and carry weight (allowing for them to take an entire ship's cargo in one trip).
    3. A cargo elevator (like the one from ARK).
    4. A wheelbarrow that works as a "saddle" for NPC crew members
   5. Having and actual "pier" object that is anchor point specific. Basically each island has a selection of piers that can be placed (maybe like 12 or so anchor points per island). This           pier could host a lot of options that assist with unloading ships, including some of those listed above.
B. Ability to reduce graphics on Xbox to increase performance
C. More ship types. A catamaran (like a dinghy but with a handling sail and an outrigger), a Man-o-War, a barge (basically a floating storage platform), and an Ark (just a big ol' ship that you can build an alpha base on)
D. Functional jib and spanker sails. Jibs could be specialized to help with handling, speed bursts, tacking, etc. Spankers could be specialized for handling, braking, and reverse.
E. A tame that DIGS!
F. A wheelbarrow that functions as a "saddle" for NPC crew, allowing them to carry more, transport players (rickshaw style), and farm resources (yeah, let them gather on wander).
G. Color the HUD icons to indicate when they are satisfactory (green), low (yellow) and critical (red).
H. Factions. In addition to player alliances (which are not known to the rest of the populace), allow us to join NPC hosted factions like every other MMORPG. There could be faction objectives, various hardpoints that could be captured and change hands, and a greater sense of community on PVP servers.
I. Add ship construction pieces called "Medium/Large Sweep Plank". These would allow the bottom decks to run out NPC and/or player manned oars that could be used to increase speed in any direction, aid in braking and hairpin turns, and help break ships off of sandbars and escaped be becalmed.
J. Visible detection cones for NPC crew, or at least the ability to view them temporarily.