ATLAS

Ahoy Pathfinders! Conch here, bringing the latest edition of Atlas Community Q&A with the Devs! While murky waters and stormy seas may alter the exact timelines in the future, the Atlas crew will continue to provide more engagement opportunities during the off-weeks between patches. It may be through Q&A or may be a fun community event or two, but like a pesky barnacle on your broadside, we'll be making it tough to leave us in the wake. Teaser Hmm? This seems familiar. How does it go? Release the... something something? Well, thanks to my parrot postal friend, this image just landed on my shore. Apparently, she was recently spotted out in the deep sea, headin' our way! She's definitely a beauty... so, can anyone spare a coin or two so I can take her for a test sail? Shells don’t get a lot of loot these days. As a reminder, before we get into Q&A, with all the new features we provide, there is also significant development going on with optimization and maintenance of the current game. Again, these teams work in tandem and you can expect the major patches with overhauls or additions to some of the major gameplay components to come in due time. Meanwhile, to make sure our fellow pathfinders don't feel like they're overboard without a life preserver, we'll be releasing additional smaller content continuously until the big items we’re working on are ready to set sail. The ships to a better ATLAS have already charted their course and shoved off, but until then, doesn't mean we can't take a ride on a dolphin or seahorse and enjoy the voyage. Without further ado, here’s our Q&A! Hang out at our Discord for a chance to get your questions answered in the next Q&A! Q&A Does the dev team have any thoughts on merging EU and NA pvp or maybe merging all of the servers to make 1 big megamap? Yeah. We understand that this would be a lot of fun from the perspective of increasing the populations, but we're not ready to do this yet for two reasons: 1. We are concerned about lag when people are playing in distant servers (we locate the servers near where people are playing, so EU servers are in EU and any NA players going to those servers would suffer more lag). 2. There would always be a time when roughly half the population would be sleeping and thus easy pickings. Overall, we think that this will add to frustration until we have implemented ways of players protecting their stuff when offline. Have you thought about making less planks needed on the lowest layer of ship building? Yes. The new ship system will handle this much better once it rolls out. How does the team feel about setting minimum stat values for blueprints at each rarity and adjusting the maximums, so that 300% cannons as an example cannot exist and so mythical blueprints that are no better than common ones don’t exist either? There is a huge balance pass in progress for blueprints right now. Please let us know what you think once it's done. Are there any plans to reduce stun duration with shield bash or even use a diminish return so it isn't an indefinite lockdown? Yes. There is a lot about combat that really bothers us and stun locking is number one. It's on the list. Are there any plans for more "old style" ships to be released (build from frame up ones) or will all future ones at this point be prebuilt? The new system contemplates a more modular design that isn't as intricate as the old system and isn't "prebuilt". For now they are as we work on the system, but ultimately it will be a modular system that allows you to swap components and create ships with different functions without allowing for the crazy exploits that the current system permits. It will also be more performant which should improve frame rate. Any plans for bigger structures, like sea-walls/gates? So there's less need of overbuild harbours with thousands of structures? Absolutely. We have this on our radar and will be looking into it as soon as time allows. We hear you. When can we expect more pvp balances to come? It would be great if players could provide a detailed list of changes they would like to see in the Discord channel. We have a long list of things we're fixing from the old team and putting a complete and forward thinking list up in the discord channel is the single best way to be heard. This goes out to all our players, not just Official PVP. (For example, last week’s survey was based on a compiled list of player concerns) When will the SoTD loot table be fixed? Also the instant/infinite respawn of Sea Fort tax banks? Will there be some tweaks also to the market/warehouse/farmhouse structures to limit companies from spamming them so that new/returning players can have a chance to get their markets up? Consider them all added to the list. Cheers! Will we see a new bossfight anytime soon? Not for a while. We have to fix all the broken stuff and introduce new features first. In general, Bossfights didn't work well and were easily exploited. Will Seahorses and Dolphins eventually be able to follow behind ships? Yes. We are also looking into having them pull ships for speed and maneuverability. Any update on tradewinds? They are coming. :). We are still working on them and they should be here at the end of Q2 beginning of Q3. It might be sooner but don't want to promise it sooner than that. Any ETA on some bug fixing and stability patches? We run patches roughly every 2 weeks. There are a number of fixes associated with each patch so we are doing this constantly. If your particular issue isn't being surfaced, please join our discord and let it be known there. Final Note Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed. As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! There have been reported sightings of a strange and mysterious creature, often alluded to but frequently brushed off as nothing more than a sailor’s tale! It appears these majestic Seahorses have found their way to the seas of Atlas! From what we’ve observed, it appears these creatures are quite fond of Seaweed and Sea Grapes! Once a Pathfinder has gained its loyalty, the Seahorse may allow them to travel the waters on their back. With its natural poison, the Seahorse is a powerful ally. Just be sure to have an antidote ready in case of any mishaps! Not to be outdone by Seahorses and their poisons, Dolphins have learned how to harvest Coral and Seaweed for their masters! Do we sense a Dolphin vs Seahorse rivalry in the makings? Various changes were made to the Glider to make it more fun and useful while trying to address some previous exploits. It will likely undergo more changes as we hear feedback and discover abuse cases. Please see the full patch notes below for additional details and other exciting changes - including the Flame Ballista Bolt buff, new blueprints for farmhouse variants, resource and loot drop changes, among various bug fixes as well! Community Surveys We will be publishing a series of surveys on different topics in an effort to better gauge and quantify Community Feedback. Surveys may range from balancing, to design, to community/social initiatives, and more! Some surveys may be more geared towards specific audiences than others, but we will try to hit a variety of different topics and niches - so don't worry if your concerns are not addressed in the current survey. We understand how diverse our player base is and we want ATLAS to be accessible and fun for everyone! However, we are a small team, so we cannot roll everything out at once. While this first survey is focused on PVP Balance, please rest assured that we are working on many different things at the same time in the background. We aren't forgetting PVE, or Private Servers! A lot of things that you may not see being discussed are either already being worked on or already on our radar/to-do. These surveys do NOT mean that we are only taking feedback in this way. We are continuing to take feedback from all sources. These surveys are only meant to help us pinpoint and gather further details from community data. Please find the Survey here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeTCwgHFfxeOLpgTlRjeTRDUaOY5r7CbY7V_EOPDWVvi5RcJQ/viewform?usp=sf_link Although we cannot promise to commit any specific change, we would want to be able to quantify which issues players care about most by using this survey to reach as broad an audience as possible. We appreciate your support! Thank you! Released Patch Notes v521.6 New Creature: Seahorse Found in the depths of the Trenches, Seahorses are a new creature that can be tamed and bred after unlocking the Underwater Taming skill in the Beastmastery tree. Favorite Foods: Seaweed and Sea Grapes Taming Style: Passive Saddle: None Primary Attack: Venomous Bite Gives the target the Poisoned debuff which deals 20 damage over 15 seconds The Poisoned debuff can be negated by using an Antidote Secondary Attack: Acid Spit Fires an arcing projectile that deals extra damage to Submarines and increased durability damage to armor New Medicine: Antidote The Antidote can be crafted at the Mortar and Pestle after learning the Basic Medical Studies skill in the Medicine tree. Grants the user a buff that removes the effects of Seahorse poison and prevents them from being poisoned again for 20 seconds Crafting Resources: 5 Medicinal Herbs, 2 Organic Paste New Tool: Crude Tool Players now start with a simple recipe to make a tool they can use to collect wood. No more bloody fingers! About 1/4 as effective as a Hatchet Loses Durability very fast Crafting Resources: 1 Stone, 10 Fiber Dolphin Dolphins can now harvest Coral and Seaweed Bug Fix: Water Temperature Fortitude bonuses from the skill tree are no longer removed when riding creatures underwater Bug Fix: Resolved issue where Dolphins would occasionally die when near the surface Flame Ballista Bolt Deals increasing damage to Sails every 2 seconds Example: 20/40/60/80 damage at 2/4/6/8 seconds Hitting a Sail with a second Flame Ballista Bolt adds 100 to the current amount of damage Example: A Sail is hit with a second Bolt after it has already been on fire for 2 seconds. The amount of damage received by the Sail increases from 20 to 120 Fires can be extinguished by closing the Sail, using an Olfend's water spray, or by dumping a Water Bucket on the Mast Glider Suit Various changes were made to the Glider to make it more fun and useful while trying to address some previous exploits. It will likely undergo more changes as we hear feedback and discover abuse cases. Restored the ability to control pitch so you can now glide up and down Increased the max height to activate from 100m to 400m Slowed the base glider speed down by around 40% Added a drag component to the speed updates The faster you are going, the more drag will slow you down Prevents maintaining high speed for a long time after a dive Reduced the minimum speed you can glide at before you stall to about 2m per second Changed the dive angle and required dive time Glider Known Issues: You can still gain height but it's slow You can still glide across half a server if you jump off a 400m spot It's hard to tell when you are about to stall Sometimes at super slow speed you inexplicably corkscrew Pressing the 'Dive' button (Shift by default on PC) results in a weird sideways dive Loot Drops Blueprints for Lumberyard, Quarry, and Mine now drop. They have two new stats on them: Capacity (how much weight and stacks they can hold) and Gather Rate Coffee and Coffee Seeds may be found in place of other food drops Resources Fish Oil drops from some fish which previously did not drop it Stone Harvesting nodes in the Copper Region (Northwest) have been rebalanced and a set of changes are being tested Iron is the most common metal now, and may be found in rocks in place of whatever metal may have been used before. Copper is the less common metal found primarily in this region Geodes may now drop from rock. Using a Geode will destroy it and may give some limestone, rock salt, and/or a small amount of different gems and crystals. Geodes may only be gathered by hand or with Tames, not with the Quarry or Farmhouse These changes will be moved to all regions after a period of testing Ships Bug Fix: Third person view can no longer be obstructed by structures built near the ship's wheel Bug Fix: Ship levels 46-50 are no longer purchasable on ships with a level cap of 50 Bug Fix: Cannons on the Ramming Galley now have wheels Tames & Creatures Carried Rabbits now give a 20% speed boost while the player's stamina is at or above 90% Creatures' torpor bars are now displayed after receiving torpidity damage Seaweed can now be placed in the Trough Misc The Seed Vendor's inventory now rotates every 12 hours Decay Times on Market, Warehouse, and Kiln have been set to the standard 10 days Fixed some instances where Markets get out of sync Bug Fix: Structures can now be built next to the sides of Armored Docks NOTE: There is still an area near the entrance and exit where structures cannot be placed Bug Fix: Resolved issue where Markets, Farmhouses, and Warehouses become invisible in Single Player Final Note Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed. As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! This week we have another Q&A with the Devs for you all as we wait for next week’s Patch! Moving forward, Pathfinders can expect a patch every other week barring any unexpected circumstances are changes in tide. Some of ye on our Discord may have noticed a new hand on Deck! Let’s get an official introduction to our new community manager! *Washes up on to shore* Hey y'all, I'm Conch. I'll be joining the crew as Captain Nami's first mate. I'll be handling most of the dialogue here in the Discord going forward and I'm look forward from hearing from you all. I'll say now I cannot make promises on where our journey may take us but I will do my best to relay your concerns and make our voyage as enjoyable as possible. You'll shortly see that my sarcasm is my sword and will be wielded often for the forces of good-natured humor (*Trolls Beware*). Other than that, I'm a BIG e-sports fan (*cough* TSM *cough*) so if it's been streamed I've probably watched some of it. Still waiting for competitive Atlas to take off *crossing fingers*. So if you find yourself in need, I'll be here. Here's to smooth sailing ahead! Cheers! It’s a new year, and we know some curious Pathfinders may be wondering how ATLAS is going to continue to shape out from here. We are still very much continuing development across all the features and mechanics we have introduced so far. The Trading System and the pieces dependent on it are still in the early stages; and there are still a line of new and unique ships to come! The claiming system rework is still in the testing stages as well. As we work on refining these systems we have put in place, we are also getting closer to defining the direction that we’d like to take ATLAS. We’re still planning it out, and once we have a more cohesive structure in place, we’ll roll out more information to the community. Teaser Ehhhh? What’s this!? We’re not seahorsin’ around! The Tameable Dolphins were only the first of the new underwater tames, which are going to be a part of a taming/breeding rework. Not to fear! This isn’t taking away from our development time in other areas. It is a smaller project that we are doing on the side to add a bit more fun and flavor out in the waters. We would also like to stress that we are not neglecting optimization and bug fixes in favor of new content. We hear your concerns and understand that there is a lot we need to continue to fix and improve. The team of engineers who work on optimization and fixes are different from the team of designers that implement new content. We are fixing elements of the game while developing new content in tandem. Oftentimes, optimization and bug fixing are a multifaceted issue and require more time and resources to address. Other times, these coding updates may be an under the hood improvement. We’re taking things step by step, and it may take multiple patches for certain fixes, and even new content, to reach the stage we want it. We thank you for your support and patience! Without further ado, here’s our Q&A! Hang out at our Discord for a chance to get your questions answered in the next Q&A! Q&A What is the next step in the new ship lego project? For now, we will continue to make unique ships built with a growing selection of unique modules. Further down the road we are looking into allowing players to buy / craft their own modules and build their own ships. Will the team be addressing or nerfing large walls spamming ? So we might actually be able to destroy a 50 layer wall of them or an entire island spammed with it. Yes. This is on the list. How is the progress on the claim system? Are you able to reveal more details on it now? While the focus of the game is, indeed, to get more focus on the sea, we can't ignore the land play. The "new" claiming system is an attempt to balance land play and make it more fun. In general, the team has found band-aid on top of band-aid in this department and we want to remove those layers and get to a cleaner code base and more fun gameplay. Where in Development is Mech Monkey? I'll never tell. Any plans for new servers? Modes? Yes. We have lots of things planned. We have hit upon a theme for the game that we really like and lots of other wonderful things that are really going to make this game pop in 2021. To answer your question a bit more I can tell you that we're beginning design for small, temporary worlds that you get to via maelstroms that appear on the map. They will only be available for a bit of time and will typically have something cool on them. This is really early but lots more really cool stuff is in the works. Any word on improving armored docks? Like maybe enclosing them so NPCs are safe? Also, having repairs inside armored dock would be helpful. Yes, this was always the plan, we just need a little more time to get there. Can you tell us more about the direction tames/breeding is headed? For now, we are looking at cleaning up the tame system and adding some more tames to the water. Beyond that, it's fuzzy. the more work we put into tames the more people want to stay on land, but the tame system is only a fraction of what is possible and who are we to stop that. I wish I could tell you more, but we really need more time to come up with something fun, deep, and different. When will there be a sail revert/rebalance and perhaps a buff to weight sails to make them usable? A major overhaul of the sail system is on the books. It's another example of the layering of issues that we are now stripping off to get to the fun of the game. No word yet on the timing. In the steam page, the responses from the devs, and older interviews seem to emphasize a focus on player immersion and faction building with a pirate/colonial aesthetic. The actual design seems to be more of a min/maxer grind fest with theory crafting elements. What’s the actual intended experience for the game? I hear you. Let me clear things up if possible: -Atlas isn't where we want it. The game has a long history already and I don't want to spend time there. Just know that where we are today is not where we want to be. -Vision is about destination. When we talk about vision, we're talking about where we want to be, not where we are today. -Finally, remember that the game's development is a cooperative experience. We put a bit of something out and then see how you like it and then we adjust to that. All that said, this is where we are today... We have hit on a theme for the world that is going to give it more cohesion, remove some of the more annoying limitations of the game, and open it to more possibility. If allowed, we'll be introducing this theme a bit at a time (the way a new idea would be introduced IRL) and then grow it from there. For a period of time last year we were guided to add a new strategic layer to the game to give companies new tracks to explore. The aesthetic and realism boundaries of this have expanded a bit and we're very excited for what's being planned for 2021. Final Note Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed. As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas d with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! We hope you all have had a wonderful start to the New Year so far! ATLAS’ first patch of the year is now here and we thank you for your patience! Since we have renewed the ATLAS journey last Summer, there have been many changes and we are continuing to further develop the features and mechanics that are starting to take shape. Farmhouses, Warehouses, Markets, and the Trading system will continue to be tweaked and refined. We have plenty in store for the specialized ships within the Ships for Gold system as players will be able to customize these ships as more are released and the system becomes more sophisticated. We are still testing a new claim system and Tradewinds are still on our agenda. We also have a few new things on the horizon for ATLAS. Not to mention, we are continuing to work on optimization and server improvements in the background! We hope you stick with us, it’s gonna be an exciting ride! New this Patch Tameable Dolphins Tired of travelling by ship? Dolphin riding is now an alternate form of water traversal! Dolphins are the first underwater creature that can be tamed and bred by unlocking the new Underwater Taming skill in the Beastmastery tree. They can be tamed passively by feeding them meat, in particular, the new Squid Tentacle which can be obtained by defeating Squids. As part of an overall initiative to revamp and bring new purpose to tames, Dolphins are the first of a slate of new underwater tames that will have specialized functions. Afterall, as a pirate game, we would expect there to be more interactions with creatures at sea. Pathfinders can expect small changes to tames and breeding to slowly roll out in tow with some patches. We hope to elevate the taming system in ATLAS to be more viable and fun as other mechanics may change how some tames were used before. Seed Vendor and Coffee Business is booming, and a new vendor has set up shop at the Freeports! Working on your farm and looking for a particular crop? The Seed Vendor is your one stop shop! Most seeds can be purchased at a rate of 10 gold for 5 seeds. With new business, also comes a new crop! Coffee Seeds can be purchased from the Sea Vendor at 20 gold for 5 seeds. Fight away sleep in real life and in game! Coffee Beans can be brewed to create Coffee! Drinking coffee will give pirates the new buff, Caffeinated, which reduces incoming torpor damage. Embrace the power of coffee! Do we smell a Starfishbucks empire coming up? Farmhouse Variants Last patch we introduced the Lumberyard, the first of the new Farmhouse variants as we continue to refine the Farmhouse system. These variants are specialized Farmhouses that will gather certain resources at a faster rate. We are now introducing the Mine - a farm that will only gather Metals and Gems, and the Quarry - a farm that will only gather Stone, Crystal, Salt and Flint. They both share the same placement restrictions as other Farmhouses, but require different resources to craft as detailed in the Patch Notes. All Farmhouses are undergoing changes in preparation for adding Blueprints. Gather rates have temporarily been normalized at a lower rate across all types. Quality Blueprints with stats will increase this in a future patch. Other changes made to Farmhouses include base inventory size and base inventory slots increase. Based on feedback, decay time of Farmhouses has been changed to 10 days. Balancing and Tweaks Through our observations, conversations, and feedback from players, Patch 520.12 also includes some balance changes and tweaks that should help to mitigate some of the issues we were seeing. Bolas are a versatile tool that can be used on creatures and players. While great to use for taming and fun to use on others, there was little that could be done to counter the mechanic when a player is caught. We have reduced the duration of Bola entrapment from 5.5 to 2.5 seconds and after recovering from entrapments, players cannot be entrapped by a Bola for 10 seconds. Another change we’ve made is that players can no longer stand while entrapped by a Bola. Explosive Barrels have been a hot topic and we are continuing to work out a good balance for them to fit within the mechanics of the game. Cannons, Large Cannons, Swivel Guns, and Ballistas are now immune to AOE damage from Explosive Barrels. Damage from Explosive barrels to players and creatures has also been reduced. We are also continuing to make changes to the Ramming Galley and both Ship systems as we prepare to rollout the rest of the upcoming Ships for Gold. The Ramming Galley has received a few quality of life upgrades - an increase in number of additional structures that can be placed, and an increase in turn speed with rowers active. An adjustment to the leak rate when damaged has been made as well. In general, we have also added the option to purchase ship levels 56-60. Ship Gold cost will also now scale with Ship Quality and we will continue to take a look at the prices and adjust accordingly to balance with future changes and mechanics to both ship systems. Please see the full changelog below for more details and additional changes related to combat, horse rear kick attack, rabbits, and more! Released Patch Notes v520.12 New Structure: Mine The Mine is a farm that only gathers Metal and Gems. It can be crafted at the Smithy after learning the Advanced Automation skill in the Construction & Mercantilism tree. Shares placement restrictions with other Farmhouses Crafting Resources: 800 Wood, 600 Thatch, 320 Fiber, 280 Metal, 100 Hide New Structure: Quarry The Quarry is a farm that only gathers Stone, Crystal, Salt, and Flint. It can be crafted at the Smithy after learning the Advanced Automation skill in the Construction & Mercantilism tree. Shares placement restrictions with other Farmhouses Crafting Resources: 800 Wood, 600 Thatch, 320 Fiber, 280 Metal, 100 Hide New Shop: Seed Vendor A new vendor has arrived! The Seed Vendor can be found in Freeports and provides all the seeds required for your farming needs. Coffee Seeds: 20 Gold for 5 Seeds All other Seeds: 10 Gold for 5 Seeds New Drink: Coffee Coffee can be brewed at either the Cooking Pot or Grill after learning the Intermediate Recipes skill in the Cooking & Farming tree. After drinking, pirates are given a new buff, Caffeinated, which reduces incoming torpor damage. Incoming torpor damage reduced by 15% Buff lasts for 10 minutes Ingredients: 1 Water, 30 Coffee Beans New Vegetable: Coffee Bean Since Coffee Beans are not native to the Atlas, they can only be grown from seeds. Pirates who prefer adventuring over sleep will always want to keep Coffee Beans on hand! New Seed: Coffee Seed Coffee Seeds can only be purchased from the Seed Vendor. They are required for growing Coffee Beans. Can be planted in Tropical, Temperate, and Equatorial environments New Tame: Dolphin Dolphins can be tamed passively by hand feeding them meat. In particular, they enjoy fresh Squid Tentacles, Fish Meat, and Crustacean Meat. By grabbing hold of their dorsal fin, pathfinders can ride them as they speed and jump through the ocean. Favorite Food: Squid Tentacles Taming Style: Passive Saddle: None Primary Attack: Bite Secondary Ability: Jump Gives nearby pathfinders the Dolphin Intellect buff Increases intelligence stat for 10 minutes New Meat: Squid Tentacle Squid Tentacles are a new type of meat that can be obtained by defeating Squids. They can be eaten raw and don't spoil. Instead, they dry out over time and remain safe to eat! Dried Squid Tentacles will soon have a special use, so you may want to start collecting them now! Bola Players can no longer stand while entrapped by a Bola Duration of player Bola entrapment reduced from 5.5 to 2.5 seconds After recovering from entrapment, players cannot be entrapped by a Bola for 10 seconds Combat Headshot multiplier reduced from 2x to 1.5x Bug Fix: Critical Strike can no longer be used with weapons other than the Sword Explosive Barrels Cannons, Large Cannons, Swivels Guns, and Ballistas are now immune to AOE damage from Explosive Barrels NOTE: These weapons can still be damaged by a direct hit from an Explosive Barrel fired from a Catapult Explosive Barrel damage to players and creatures greatly reduced Deals 120 damage to pathfinders Deals 135 damage to creatures Farmhouse Variants All farmhouse variants are undergoing iteration in preparation for adding Blueprints Stats changed and inventories wiped at restart You can cheat spawn high quality variants with better stats (bigger inventory and faster gathering) Base Inventory Size has been increased from 8k to 10k Base Inventory Slots have been increased Decay time changed to 10 days Gather Rates have temporarily been normalized at a lower rate across all types Quality Blueprints with stats will increase this in a future patch. Ramming Galley Increased number of additional structures that can be placed on the ship from 8 to 40 While turning, only one side of rowers will row, increasing the Ramming Galley's turn speed when rowers are active The leak rate of damaged ship components now increases as the component's health decreases Leaking begins at 25% health and the leak rate increases until the component reaches 0 health The maximum leak rate has not changed Bug Fix: Fixed an issue where the prompt for opening the command wheel would appear on parts of the ship after they had already been demolished Ships Added the option to purchase ship levels 56-60 at a rate of 75 Gold per 1,000 XP Levels can be purchased when viewing the ship's stat menu NOTE: Ships can still reach max level by earning XP normally Ship Gold cost now scales with ship quality Minimum price is used for ships constructed at 100% durability Shipyards and maximum price is used for ships constructed at 225% durability Shipyards Price Ranges Schooner: 5,000 to 10,000 Gold Brigantine: 18,000 to 36,000 Gold Galleon: 50,000 to 100,000 Gold Tames Torpor damage from Horse's rear kick attack reduced by 40% Rabbits can now equip hats Bears and Rabbits now only receive 10% of the stat bonus from equipped hats Misc Increased Grill ship structure weight from 1 kg to 12 kg Wood Doors, Wood Pillars, Wood Staircases, Wood Fence Supports, and Wood Ladders can now be crafted at the Smithy Winter Event items are no longer craftable at the Smithy or purchasable from the Cosmetic Vendor Fixed some cases where Trade Routes get reset or modified Bug Fix: Fence Supports can no longer be placed without a connection to the ground NOTE: Any floating Fence Supports placed prior to the patch will be destroyed Some Crashes Fixed Known Issues Levels 46-50 can be purchased on ships with a level cap of 50 Trade Route Range was increased between patches to include nearby servers. These farther routes are getting reset on server restarts and may be having other issues. Riding a Dolphin at or near the surface will occasionally cause it to die Tamed Dolphins may no longer be able to jump after crossing grids Farm Variants have floating fires near them Final Note Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed. As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! The next patch will be scheduled for 1/13 7:00 PM PT. It includes a variety of balance changes and as a heads up, please note: Grill ship structure weight will increase from 1kg to 12kg. Please be aware and take care! Full patch notes to be released tomorrow! Meanwhile, here's an additional sneak peak at the tameable Dolphins coming as part of the next patch: Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! We're ending the year and starting the next one with a rate up event! From now until January 4th, enjoy 3x Gold, Taming, and Harvesting, and 2x experience! Thank you all for supporting us these last 6 months as we have renewed the ATLAS journey. Looking forward to 2021! Stay safe and healthy! Happy Holidays! Yo ho ho ho Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! Last week was quite a ride and we would like to thank you all for continuing to sail along with us! It has been about 6 months now since we have renewed the ATLAS journey, and now the last scheduled patch of the year is upon us! We have made several fixes to the Ramming Galley, Armored Docks, and more. This includes a fix for Explosive Barrels so they no longer deal damage in Freeports and removing some bad maps from Treasure Map spawning. Christmas Trees and Ship level caps have also been fixed. We have also included a few changes, like the much requested increase in reverse sailing speed, which has now been increased by 200%. The Glider Suit may now only be activated under 100m height as well. As a little bonus, Bears can also now wear hats! For the full list of bug fixes and changes, please see the changelog. Most importantly, we have also made some server reliability improvements that should also help to reduce incidents of losses. To fully address the issue will be a long-term process, as it is a multifaceted issue and touches many aspects of the code. We are touching on different symptoms of it throughout development as we continue to make our investigations and improve the code. Please continue to report these issues to us as they greatly aid in our efforts to optimize and improve the ATLAS experience. Thanks for your patience, understanding, and support! NEW Tonight’s patch has quite a few new things in store! First up - we have the Lumberyard, a farmhouse variation that gathers only thatch and wood. All of the systems we have been implementing will continue to see development and improvements as we refine them based on feedback and observation. This is the first step towards the next iteration of the farmhouse system as we introduce specialized variants. Regular farmhouses will still continue to collect Wood and Thatch for now. However, Lumberyards will gather them at a much faster rate. Aye, and were ye looking for a way to store all yer drinks for the holidays? The new Keg is the perfect way to store and transport your alcohol. Afterall, drinks taste best directly from a Keg, don’t they? The Keg can be crafted at the Smithy after learning the Secrets of Cooking skill in the Cooking & Farming tree. For only 30 fiber, 5 metal, 50 thatch, and 60 wood - you can build a Keg and be able to store any alcohol items in stacks of 50. Drinks for everyone! Having trouble taming some creatures? Might we recommend the new Tranq Arrow? The Tranq Arrow is a new ammo type for the Bow that deals high amounts of Torpor and little physical damage. It can be used to put creatures to sleep, allowing pirates to more easily contain them for taming. Tranq Arrows can be crafted in the Mortar and Pestle after learning the Taming Tier 2 skill in the Beastmastery Tree. Ramming Galley Last week the first of the new ships that can be bought for gold, the Ramming Galley, hit the shores of Atlas. We were excited to see our baby in action and have made a number of changes to help it create more of a splash. We increased its base speed by 40% and have also increased its turn speed while sails are closed. As a ship meant to directly attack and charge into others, it needed more oomph so we increased the damage of all cannons on the Ramming Galley from 100% to 125%. Ramming Galleys will also now deal damage to NPC ships. To compensate its strength a bit, the Ramming Galley now costs an additional 75 Rhino Horns, a new resource type obtained from defeating Rhinos, to purchase. In addition to these changes, we also made a number of bug fixes to the Ramming Galley, which can be viewed in the full Changelog that follows. As with all the features and mechanics we have so far introduced, we will continue to balance and refine the Ramming Galley. What's Next Previously we discussed a rework on the Claim System. Originally, we intended to introduce this by the end of this year. As things move in development and new challenges present themselves, timelines and ideas can often change. We are still working on the new Claim System’s implementation and testing it. It will likely not be introduced until early next year. Many were concerned that a rework of the Claim System would bring about a wipe. Although wipes are inevitable in EA, we also do our best to wipe only when it is absolutely necessary. At this time there is no estimated or set date for a wipe and we will keep the community updated if that changes. As the last patch of the year, the ATLAS team will be setting sail for a small holiday break. The next scheduled patch will be the week of January 11. However, we will continue to perform daily server restarts and we will have our spyglass handy to watch out for any urgent issues that may require our attention. Otherwise, pass us your Kegs and some glasses please! Happy Holidays! Released Patch Notes V519.5 New Structure: Lumberyard The Lumberyard is a farm that only gathers thatch and wood. It can be crafted at the Smithy after learning the Advanced Automation skill in the Construction & Mercantilism Tree. Shares placement restrictions with other Farmhouses Gathers about 1/3 more wood and thatch than a regular Farmhouse Crafting Resources: 800 Wood, 600 Thatch, 320 Fiber, 280 Metal, 100 Hide New Structure: Keg The Keg is a new storage container used to store alcohol. It can be crafted at the Smithy after learning the Secrets of Cooking skill in the Cooking & Farming Tree. All alcohol items can be stored in stacks of 50 Crafting Resources: 30 Fiber, 5 Metal, 50 Thatch, 60 Wood New Bow Ammo Type: Tranq Arrow Tranq Arrows are significantly more effective against tameable creatures Players and NPCs are immune to Tranq Arrows Crafting Resources: 1 Stone Arrow, 20 Berries New Keratinoid Resource: Rhino Horn Rhino Horns can now be obtained by defeating Rhinos Armored Docks Updated UI text on Armored Docks to clarify that only 1 Gold is consumed when the timer expires Bug Fix: Armored Docks no longer stop working for a period of time after server restarts Bug Fix: Armored Docks no longer consume all Gold in their inventory after server restarts Ramming Galley Added 75 Rhino Horns to cost Base speed increased by 40% Increased turn speed while sails are closed Increased damage of all cannons on ship from 100% to 125% Ramming NPC ships with the Ramming Galley now deals damage Players can now swim through some large holes in the Ramming Galley after it sinks Bug Fix: Health is no longer displayed for undamageable parts of the ship including weapons Bug Fix: Demolish option no longer appears for components that have already been demolished after the ship sinks Bug Fix: Ramming Galley can no longer be crafted in the Large Shipyard Bug Fix: Forward-facing Large Cannons are now correctly assigned to the Front Station Group Bug Fix: Oars will now always automatically retract after idling for 10 seconds Bug Fix: Sail rigging now previews correctly when placing new sails Ships Max reverse speed for all ships increased by 200% Bug Fix: Level cap for max quality ships restored to 60 NOTE: The max level of ships built during the previous patch won't change Winter Event Christmas Trees now produce gifts every 12 hours Bug Fix: Santa Hat skin will no longer disappear from player inventory Bug Fix: Santa Hat is now properly positioned on Monkeys, Parrots, and Penguins Bug Fix: Resolved issue where Stockings and Christmas Trees would stop producing coal/gifts after server restarts Trade Fixed some cases where Markets would break Limited the number of Trade Offers Markets can have to 20. Misc Made some server reliability improvements Bears can now equip hats Glider Suit may now only be activated under 110 meters height (about the height of the lighthouse) Reduced Grill's damage resistance Sea Fort walls now swap to a damaged mesh when destroyed rather than disappearing Bug Fix: Explosive Barrels can no longer deal damage in Freeports Bug Fix: Removed some bad maps from Treasure Map spawning Final Note Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed. As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! The team is working on a fix for the keybinding crash issues. The crash is caused by a key bind being looked up by the tutorial and having no entry. If any of these bindings are unassigned, there's a potential for a crash. You will need to make sure that all key binds referenced by the tutorial are mapped. Until we are able to get the formal fix out, please follow the steps below for a workaround if you are having issues: Navigate to the Key Bindings menu: You will need to RESET your key bindings as shown here: If you would like to then again rebind your keys (prior to the formal fix), you will need to make sure that there are no unbound keys. Note: There are some unassigned keys by default - these are okay because the tutorial does not reference them. Note: "Restore Default Settings" will restore ALL settings, not just the key bindings. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding! If you continue to run into any other bugs or issues, please report them to us here: https://forms.gle/pYZuMuZCuCC2ZHEf6

12/8 8:45 PM PST EDIT: We are looking into the issue where beds that were placed on land before the patch are now out of claim. Thanks for your reports and patience! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ahoy Pathfinders! The holiday season is here! In the spirit of the Holidays, we set sail for a little trip up to the North Pole to bring back some Holiday loot and festivities to ATLAS! Sail the Seas in a fancy new Santa Hat or Top Hat, and craft festive decorations! Safely have a “Company” Holiday Party here on ATLAS! Ramming Ship Looking for the perfect gift? How about the new Ramming Ship? That’s right, the Ship Salesman is now officially open for business! He can be found selling our latest ship - the Ramming Galley - on his island in the center of Freeport grids. The Ramming Galley features rowers, 20 cannons, and a ram that deals bonus damage when ramming other ships. Rowers, a new feature currently unique to the Ramming Galley, give a burst of speed to intercept and ram other ships. Using rowers requires use of the ship's Rowing Stamina. Once Rowing Stamina is depleted, rowing will cease and the stamina will regenerate over time. As the first ship using our new ship system, the Ramming Galley will function a bit differently from previous ships. In addition to HP numbers changing, holes will appear in parts of the ship as they become damaged. As the damage worsens, the holes will grow, giving pirates a better visual indicator to determine how damaged each part of their ship is! Be sure to keep your ship repaired since rowers and weapons will only function if the part of the ship they're on has sufficient health. Repairing the Ramming Galley will require the use of a new item: the Patch Kit. No longer will you need to haul planks and raw resources to ensure your ship stays in pristine condition! Since the Ramming Galley already comes equipped with a large arsenal of weapons, players will not be able to build additional weapons on it. Workstations and furniture can be constructed freely, and existing stairs, doors, and sails can be switched out with player-made variants. Although walls and other structures cannot currently be constructed on ships, we would like to iterate on this in the future to allow pirates to customize their ships with a variety of rooms below deck. We hope you enjoy the new Ramming Galley and Holiday festivities! We are still hard at work continuing to fine-tune the Markets and Trade system, among other optimization and performance improvements. It’s a long-term process, and we want you to know that even if certain changes are not seen right away - we are taking the steps to move these things along. Thanks again for all of your support and feedback! Released Patch Notes V515.7 New Ship: Ramming Galley Cost: 22,000 Gold Weapons: 18 Standard Cannons, 2 forward-facing Large Cannons Special Features: Rowers, Ram Max Level: 60 Sail Points: 4.0 Repair Resource: Patch Kit New Item: Patch Kit The Patch Kit is a new item used for repairing the Ramming Galley. It can be crafted in the Smithy after learning the Shipwright skill in the Seamanship tree. To use, approach a damaged part of the Ramming Galley and use the Repair Hammer. Once the repair is complete, the Patch Kit will be consumed and the repaired component will have 1,000 health restored. Healing: 1,000 Crafting Resources: 100 Fiber, 120 Thatch, 200 Wood New Workstation: Kiln The Kiln is a new workstation used for rapidly creating coal out of wood. Add wood to the Kiln inventory and activate it, and it will burn one into coal every second. Kiln crafting is learned in the Secrets of Building skill in the Construction tree, and can be done at the Smithy. Crafting Resources: 500 Stone, 200 Flint, 25 Metal Winter Event Two new hat skins are available for purchase from the Freeport's cosmetic vendor for a limited time Santa Hat: 200 Gold Top Hat: 200 Gold Seven new items available for crafting at the Smithy for a limited time Christmas Tree: Produces a random gift every 24 hours! Crafting Resources: 250 Wood, 200 Fiber, 250 Thatch Festive Lights: A decoration that can be hung on walls Crafting Resources: 20 Wood, 10 Thatch, 1 Metal Holiday Gift: A festive variant of the Small Storage Box Crafting Resources: 44 Wood, 40 Thatch, 15 Hide Sleigh: A festive variant of the Wooden Chair Crafting Resources: 100 Wood, 100 Thatch, 50 Fiber Snowman: A new friend that can be placed on ships or floors Crafting Resources: 2 Wood, 12 Coal, 1 Carrot, 50 Fiber, 30 Ice Stocking: A decoration that can be hung on walls. Produces one Coal every five minutes Crafting Resources: 40 Fiber, 30 Hide Wreath: A decoration that can be hung on walls Crafting Resources: 20 Fiber, 10 Wood, 20 Thatch Armored Docks Bug Fix: Gold upkeep status now only shown for the owning company Bug Fix: Upkeep timer now correctly updated on the UI Bug Fix: Ships in Armored Docks no longer stay protected after the owner of the Armored Dock or the ship changes Market Market Logs now have paging, allowing all logs to be displayed for each Market Bug Fix: Suspend and Unsuspend Market are now working correctly Known Issues The Ramming Galley's Railing Gunports and Castles can be damaged, but don't update their meshes to reflect this damage (their HP updates accordingly and they can be repaired) The Ramming Galley's forward-facing Large Cannons are in the Right Station Group by default HP for undamageable parts of the Ramming Galley can be viewed and will always display as 100/100 Cannons on top of the Ramming Galley's Front Castle clip through the castle when aiming left and right (this doesn't prevent them from firing) Sail Rigging does not preview correctly when placing sails on the Ramming Galley Many map tiles are black when viewing the map through the Atlas or when spawning Final Note Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed. As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

EDIT 2: We issued a fix earlier this morning for the armored dock crashing issues. If you are still experiencing any further issues or bugs, please report them to us in the bug report form here: http://bit.ly/36zPZmJ We apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you! EDIT 1: The team is currently investigating the crashing issues with armored docks and the potential data loss from the related crashing. We will update again when we have more info. Please send further bug reports or details of any issues here: https://bit.ly/36zPZmJ Thank you! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ahoy Pathfinders! We hope you’ve all enjoyed the 2x event over the Thanksgiving Weekend! This week, we have a bit of a smaller maintenance patch, with the Small Armored Dock now available! Small Armored Docks, for Schooners and Sloops, will have 20,000,000 health. We are also beefing up the Large Armored Dock to 30,000,000 health. Gold upkeep has been lowered to 150 a day, while Small Armored Docks will have an upkeep of 50 a day. We have also made a number of changes and bug fixes to balance and improve the Armored Docks. Rest easy knowing yer furry companions are safe onboard your protected Ships! Development and optimization work for the Trade System continues! We have made improvements to the Market UI for Market Searching. Most importantly, we have addressed several server issues to improve performance and latency. Thank you for your feedback and bug reporting as the Trade System continues to undergo development. Again, not all features of the Trade System, including the NPC Ships, are out yet. Subsequent patches will continue to see more and more improvements and fixes. Missing resources and new items are now available for Trade as well! Anyone got any Ale or Grog? We’re stockin’ up fer a new adventure as the Ramming Ship is getting closer to making its debut on the ATLAS seas! Look out for it in the nearby future Released Patch Notes V516.2 New Structure: Small Armored Dock The Small Armored Dock is suitable for protecting Schooners and Sloops. It can be crafted at a Smithy after learning the Intermediate Shipwright Skill in the Seamanship tree. Health: 20,000,000 Upkeep Cost: 50 Gold every 24 hours Crafting resources required: 700 Alloy 900 Fiber 4,000 Stone 1,000 Thatch 1,250 Wood 10,000 Gold Large Armored Dock Increased health from 300,000 to 30,000,000 Decreased upkeep cost from 500 to 150 Gold every 24 hours Added 50,000 Gold cost for crafting Armored Dock NPCs and Tames on protected ships can no longer be damaged Added a new protected icon that replaces the anchor icon above protected ships Ships can now anchor inside an Armored Dock even if the Dock is placed in deep water Ships must not have received or dealt damage for at least five minutes before receiving protection from an Armored Dock Bug Fix: Armored Docks can now only protect one ship at a time Bug Fix: Ships are no longer protected after an Armored Dock is destroyed Bug Fix: Protected ships will no longer decay. This prevents an issue where protected ships instantly sink when raising their anchor after a long period of time Ships Brigantine price decreased from 25,000 to 18,000 Gold Increased max level of common ships from 42 to 50 NOTE: This change only applies to ships built after the patch Trade Markets Searching now returns a paged list instead of all Markets. This should clear up the performance hit on the server when someone opens a Market Added new resource types for Trading: Rushes (missing from Thatch) Oil Category and variants Salt Category and variants Consumables: Wheat Maize Ale Grog Others Cannon Balls Large Cannon Balls Gunpowder Fire Gel Blasting Powder Organic Paste Fertilizer Bug Fix: Addressed several server issues that led to increased latency Bug Fix: Trade Routes are now correctly calculating distance when the shortest path wraps around the map border Bug Fix: Disconnected Markets are no longer shown as candidates in the Market List Misc Warehouses and Farmhouses can now only be enabled or disabled by players within the same company Restored XP reward to standard Golden Age Army of the Damned Soldiers NOTE: Golden Age Army of the Damned Soldiers in caves still don't reward XP Bug Fix: Treasure will no longer spawn on Sea Forts Known Issues Not all available Markets are showing up from every other Market during search Upkeep Cost on Armored Docks does not properly show the next time. Upkeep is still taken on skill Final Note Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed. As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! To thank everyone sailing along the EA journey with us through thick and thin, whether yer a new shipmate or a seasoned Captain, we're activating 2x Gold, Taming, and Harvesting now until 11/30 11:59 PM PT. Happy Thanksgiving Weekend! View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! There will be no patch this week, so instead we’re delivering some information based on some questions we have collected and seen around the community! Since we announced the renewed ATLAS journey last Summer, a lot of things have changed in the development cycle, and we are still working on improving our processes and the feedback loop with the community as well. Like in any adventure, some parts of the journey can be rough but as we overcome them, we continue to move forward and build on our experiences. Whether we are making small steps or revisiting old ideas, it is important to remember that we are still sailing forward! Development is very often not linear, and understandably things can get confusing for the community - even for those seasoned Pathfinders who have been sailing the seas of ATLAS since the very beginning. We hope that today’s discussion and some of the answers to your questions will help the community understand our vision for ATLAS and where we are currently at. ATLAS, in general, is lacking a strong theme. Yes, we are a Pirate game, but it's currently a mishmash of a bunch of different stuff and we are looking to address that post the release of the current feature slate (Trade System, New Ships, and Claim System). Right now the idea we are liking most is something we're calling "Stormpunk" which centers around that idea that there are more resources to capture on the water (like harnessing lightning). We are going to maintain an element of fantasy moving forward, but it may not be so openly Dungeons and Dragons (although we love this game!) or "high fantasy" feeling. As with all things, everything will remain as we introduce new things, and we will fade things that people lose interest in. What is the long term plan or overall vision? It'd help explain a lot of these changes if we were also privy to just a rough idea what the long term will look like, because right now it seems things are going a bit backward in regards to accessibility, especially for small groups and solo players. At the highest level, the goals are as follows: Get players out on the ocean - there are lots of things we're doing to encourage this but it basically means that we want players spending more time at sea and less time on land. In order to do that we really have to blow out all the things you can do at sea so that they are as fun and interesting as what you do on land. Make ship-to-ship combat fun. There is so much to this, but we really want PVP interactions on the water to be richly rewarding. Increase player recuperation. Survival games can be tough and we want to make sure that players can be devastating to one another, but that the losing side player doesn't have to feel like they are starting over each time. We also want to make small companies and lone wolves more viable. We still have a ways to go before we reach these goals. We know that we are not there yet and that the current state of ATLAS does not reflect what we envision. Most of what we have implemented so far is still in its beginning stages, and are only just setting the foundation for how the gameplay is going to evolve. Trade System For instance, one of the main goals of the Trade System is to increase play at the smaller group and solo level. We recognize that right now the system is not very friendly to these players - There's a lot of balance to be done there and a number of missing elements, like the upcoming Tradewinds feature, but we are working on it. Ultimately, when all pieces are in place, we are planning for a system where large companies will actually be incentivized on a different scale for helping small companies and solos. The Trade System is still in its alpha stage, and as of build 515.17, all Trade Shipments are virtual and locked to a single grid. We are continuously working on Market optimizations as well as bug fixes and server side improvements to bring the system to full functionality. Subsequent patches should see more refinement to the Trade System, opening up more routes and eventually the NPC Trade Ships. Please note that at this stage, we may have to disable and re-enable Trades sometimes to work out and troubleshoot any issues that may potentially arise. What about the players that do not wish to utilise the market system? Asides from the market, are there any other big gold "earners" in the planning besides maps and whales/sunken treasures? Although the Trade System is meant to be one of the core pillars of gameplay, our main goal is that "gold comes from the sea". So yes, you'll see some additions and refinements to life on the ocean which should make getting gold easier for non-marketplace participants. Claim System We are looking into rebooting the original claim system that allowed players to take over a section of the island. This is done by placing down a claim structure that takes longer to build and is more robust than a claim flag. It may also have its own defenses. Once fully built, it will have to be destroyed for you to lose your claim and everything that goes along with it. We are not completely reverting back to the old claim system, but will be taking the original concept and building off of it. We are currently still testing some ideas. Ship Systems Getting a new ship system into the game that can support future expansions does take a bit more time than just putting out a "new" one on the existing system, and we are excited to be getting closer to it! We teased the first one, the Ramming Ship, a few weeks ago and we have a number of other ideas for these unique and specialized ships, but we don't want to spoil the surprise completely. The important note here is that we are moving from releasing ship parts to releasing complete ships that have special roles in the game and thus begin to grow the strategy of managing a fleet. All of the upcoming Ships that can be bought with gold will be primitive class and up. Ramshackles will still be available at Freeports for now, but when you buy things with gold they will be good ships. In regards to the existing Ship system, can we get tokens as random loot drops from bosses to craft schooners/brigs/galleons please? So there is a route for smaller groups to get boats? This probably won't happen. Right now we're really happy with how hard it is to get bigger ships. Many players have reported having more fun than ever with "Sloop Wars". Dropping tokens would benefit large companies more and go against what we are trying to do, which is to fundamentally change how ships are currently perceived. Right now, ship progression is linear. Once you can build a Schooner, you never build a Sloop again and so on up the ladder. We are more focussed on giving every ship type a viable role on the ocean and introducing strategy and reasons for each ship type to exist. On the Horizon Post integration of the claim system we'll be going back through all the content that is currently in the game and be making quality of life improvement and balance adjustments. We aren't very interested in nerfing things so much as bringing their fun factor way up. How far out are we from super wind sea-highways that make traveling around the map faster and consolidate content? We're trying to get it by the end of the year. A lot depends on how long it takes to balance the Trade System, new Ship System, and new Claim System. Any plans for expanding fishing so it doesn't suck so much? Like better random loot tables from fishing, maybe getting maps randomly from fishing. higher quality fishing pole=better maps/blueprints/gold etc. We can answer this by saying that we don't think there is nearly enough fun stuff to do on the water and we are looking to blow that out significantly. This will include water creature taming, better fishing, ocean resource gathering, and better diving. Any planned changes for freeports? Exponential decay or something to prevent freeport living? Not yet. We have to put in all the systems that allow lone wolves and small groups to survive elsewhere first. Long term, we envision settlements of any kind to be more friendly or hostile to you depending on how you've treated them in the past. Can you tell us more about the ideas behind how breeding is envisioned by the Dev team for beginner breeders through the most advanced breeders? Right now it takes too much time to do, unless an entire weekend day is devoted to it. Perhaps more difficulties while raising babies through their infant stages, but have it be for a much shorter duration so that it is more practical and enjoyable for a wider audience. One of our designers has taken the breeding and taming of creatures under her wing. In the background she is working on a completely revamped system that should be more of what you want to see. Can't tell you when it will ship, but I can tell you that we are working on it. Treasure Maps need a lot of work. Are big changes planned for the hunts to be more engaging? The distance requirement is also a negative map factor. It's not enjoyable to sail 7 grids out, 7 grids back to run a Masterwork map. Could maps that are of any qualities spawn on an island that are closer? Yes, a rework of this is planned, but it's down the road. It's not where we want it either and for sure we are looking at the treasure spawning closer. Additional Q&A What is some of the work that is currently being done to help with optimization and performance issues? About half our engineering staff is on performance and optimization. We know it's a problem and are working to fix it. The issue is that we also want to continue to put the rest of the planned features in the game to see if they are viable. We want a high performance game as much as you do. Remember, optimization isn’t going to suddenly happen in one patch. Some improvements may happen in small steps over time, while other improvements are a bigger engineering endeavor and may not be seen until we are further along. Is the team still looking at ways for players to keep some progress through wipes? Yes. We haven't figured out a balanced and scalable method yet, but we do want that. Adding a new global server structure with the Trade System was the first step on this and we'll keep working towards it. The challenge here is that the funnest part of a wipe for most people, is that they are all on an even footing again. Allowing players to retain progression may also allow them to maintain oppression. Can we please get a HUD indicator once a ship is protected by the new shiphouse structure? The green text popping up once the anchor is down is not such a great indicator. Totally agree that this is a bit confusing. A complete UI revamp is on the schedule and this item is part of that. This is nitpicking, but can handling sails trim opposite to how they do now? It is backwards to real world physics Ok. We'll look into it. Teleporting bed to bed, and killing yourself to respawn on lawless islands for discovery points is one of the lamest things I have to do in this game. Will other features be looked at for discovery points that are more interesting? In short, yes. We agree that killing yourself and bed teleporting is lame. We all want to fix that and give you more ways to travel the world more quickly. Will we be able to have the fog of war back? We had it early in the game, but it could be cheated by sharing game files and so was removed. The thrill of exploration was exciting for many players. As things stand at the moment, you just always have the full map explored. It's something we hadn't thought about. We’ll look into this idea. Final Note Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed. As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders! We want to start off by expressing our gratitude to the community throughout the launch of the Trade System. As we sail along the development journey, some seas may be rougher than others, but we are still making progress and we would like to extend our thanks to the community for their patience in joining us on this ride. Although we had to consequently disable Trades last week while we worked on a solution, we will be enabling them again with tonight’s patch. Patch 515.17 is scheduled for tonight, 11/18 at 7:00 PM PST. Harvest Rates will also be returning to normal. EDIT 11/18 as of 11:30 PM PT: We are working on the Trade Functionality and ping spike issues related to Markets. Trades are not working at this time. We hope to have a fix by the end of the week with Trades enabled again soon. If anything changes, we will let you guys know. Thank you! EDIT 11/18 9:00 PT: Note to Private Servers: Private Server Admins may need to run the following command to clear Market Logs and get the Trade Routes running again: cheat CleanMarketLogs 0 Further Developing the Trade System The ATLAS Trade System is an ambitious undertaking that we want to make into one of the core pillars of ATLAS gameplay. Even with the initial iteration of Trade Functionality introduced, it is still very early in the development phase. We are continuing to develop the system in a step-by-step process. Early Access gives us the unique opportunity to roll out the system in phases to see how it performs live, allowing us to also make changes and improvements based on community feedback. It is to be expected that while the Trade System is still in its early development phases, we may have to regularly enable/disable Trading as required to fix any bugs that may occur - although we will do our best to minimize this possibility. For players wondering if this means we will have to perform a wipe, the last wipe was necessary for us to clear any withstanding issues from a previous implementation of the Sea Forts. The Trade System was implemented in a way so that we can disable/enable Trade Functionality server side without requiring a client update or a wipe. With that being said, depending on the issue and how it affects gameplay, sometimes it can be necessary. Trade Shipments will remain virtual for the time being until the system is more stable, and testing on the tangible NPC Shipments continues. Survivability As a survival sandbox, the gameplay surrounding the risk of losing your stuff is part of the appeal. However, there is a balance to it and we recognize the need to introduce some elements to help with survivability. One of the first things we’ll be introducing are Armored Docks, as seen in the preview image, to protect your hard earned ships! With tonight’s update, players will be able to build the first one - the Large Armored Dock, which can be found in the Seamanship Tree under the Expert Shipwright skill. For 1200 Alloy, 1800 Fiber, 6000 Stone, 2000 Thatch, and 2500 Wood and a daily upkeep cost, players will be able to build a Large Armored Dock to park and protect their ship in this 300,000 hp Armored Structure. At this time, the Large Armored Dock can protect all ships. However, this large version is intended to store Brigs and Galleons, with smaller version(s) to come out later. The long term goal is that larger ships will need a lot more support than smaller ships. Please know that this is still the Alpha version of the Armored Dock. Future Patches will see bug fixes, balance changes, and more polish to the Armored Docks. We are not quite there yet, but with further balance and changes, we hope to see this as one of the first of many changes that will also help solo Pirates and Small Companies. Community Feedback We would like to thank the Community again for their continued feedback and support throughout the ATLAS development journey. The reintroduction of Explosive Barrels was meant to bring back an old mechanic and create a space and balance for it. We have spent a lot of time observing the gameplay surrounding it and we have been paying attention to your feedback. While we are still going to be introducing changes with Barrel gameplay in mind, we do hear you! In 515.17, Explosive Barrels can no longer be fired from Cannons or Large Cannons. We have also added an 80 Gold cost for crafting Explosive Barrels. Thank you to the Community for your part in helping us to shape and define ATLAS gameplay. Released Patch Notes V515.7 New Structure: Armored Dock The Armored Dock is a structure built in shallow water to dock a ship inside of. It must be destroyed before the ship can be damaged. This Alpha version of the Armored Dock is still in progress and not fully functional! Be warned! Smaller Armored Docks are coming in future patches along with bug fixes, balance changes, and polish. Added Large Armored Dock to the Seamanship Tree under the Expert Shipwright skill Has 300,000 health and is an Armored Structure, giving it increased resistance to explosive damage Costs 500 Gold upkeep per day (This will be reduced to 150 gold in the next patch) Explosive Barrels Explosive Barrels can no longer be fired from Cannons or Large Cannons (may still be fired from Catapults) Added 80 Gold cost for crafting Explosive Barrels Sea Forts Duplicated some flag interactions onto the Sea Fort Tax Bank Fixed some stuck interactions with the Sea Fort Tax Bank Structures Increased resistance to explosive damage by 40% for Large Stone Walls, Large Stone Gateways, and Large Stone Gates Weight of placed Catapults increased from 120 to 150 Trade Log Fixed issues where Trade Log incorrectly reflects what was sent and received Fixed an issue where sender and receiver were swapped in Trade Log Added resources received from Trade Events to Trade Log Fixed some scrolling issues with Trade Log Trade Shipments Fixed an issue where resources were received twice from one trade Fixed multiple issues where incorrect amounts of resources were received Fixed multiple issues with Shipments getting stuck, eventually causing performance issues Fixed the amount of Income (Gold) generated by Trade routes. It should now correctly reflect the route's length Updated some virtual shipment server settings Market Markets must now be within 22m of a Warehouse to connect Fixed an issue where Markets and Warehouses could not connect Fixed some issues where editing Trade Offers would create mismatched information between the server and the client and break those offers Added new Trade Route statuses to replace PENDING: SENT: Trade Route requests you have made that are pending RECEIVED: Trade Route requests other Markets have made to you Cleaned up some Market interface interactions Misc Removed XP reward from all Golden Age Army of the Damned Soldiers Added 10 second cooldown to gliding after crossing server borders Final Note Again, we would like to emphasize that ATLAS is still in Early Access, meaning many things can and will likely continue to drastically change - even in the middle of development. Anything discussed is only up to date as of the moment it is posted. Features and changes that ultimately make it to the next patch, as well as timing, may be different from what was previously discussed. As always, we appreciate the suggestions and feedback from the community. Please keep them coming! Thank you for all of your support! Happy Sailing, - ATLAS Crew For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame View full article

Ahoy Pathfinders, We will be temporarily disabling Trade while we continue to investigate a solution for the Server Issues related to Markets and Trading. If you continue to see performance or server related issues, please report them to us in the Server Outage form here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdhAG84VvDhPBurAY8p4JLUhQfAmhjg42UR6o5zQTuzlqD6NQ/viewform We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.