boomervoncannon

It’s not uncommon for hardcore players to cluster together in guilds in online games. They often do so because they feel if they play with more casual players, then they are pulling most of the load for others who are free riding off their greater productivity in game. The fact your guild mates play a lot represents observation bias in your perspective of Atlas’s playerbase. It is fortunate that you are not a primary decision maker in the design process because Atlas is already struggling without the arbitrary policy you’ve just put forward of ignoring the preferences of more casual players. Since their money is as good as yours, I can’t see this being a good business policy. As it happens, after a cursory google search there is a recent and relevant academic paper on research into gaming behavior that includes average MMO playtimes. https://www.iis.sinica.edu.tw/~swc/pub/wow_player_game_hours.html The authors used WOW for their research and since it’s the largest game within the same genre, can certainly be considered comparable for purposes of this discussion. Note that on the very first page under section 4.3 daily activities, the paper indicates that most players log in for between 1 to 5 hours per day on the days that they play. Not all days, just the ones they play. Thus your assertion that people who play less than 4 hours per day shouldn’t even be considered would very likely lead a majority of players preferences ignored. After 15 years of MMO gaming however, I am unsurprised that a hardcore gamer wants his wishes catered to while being dismissive of others. Sadly I have found this underlying attitude to be all too common within that demographic.

Very simple answer: because you’re not remotely reflective of the typical player. It’s exceedingly common sense that games should be designed to accommodate the most typical player. Most people do not have 12-14 hours per day available to devote to playing a game, let alone have the desire to do so. Designing your game to cater only to people who do would be a very poor business decision because you represent a small fraction of the market. Now that we’ve established that for common sense business reasons the game should be designed for all of us and not you as a minority, if your play style doesn’t fit that, that’s your fault not ours. Why should our gameplay be affected because you have nothing else to do with your life?

There is at least one legitimate point on each side of this discussion. Yes, players were forewarned this was Early Access and that the product was unfinished, and it is entirely true that too many posts here seem to be written in ignorace or indifference to that fact. However, I'm not sure anyone reasonably should expect internal testing to be so nonexistent or ineffective that a brand new item, upon being introduced, promptly is shown not to work as advertised at all. If you ask me, the Early Access part at a minimum ought to mean "we're testing the stuff we've developed to see how well it fits into a play environment." Not "We're testing the stuff you've developed to see if it even does what you said it does." That's an exceedingly low bar. But the reason we're even having this conversation (yet again) is because when it comes to Early Acess, the bar is whatever the developer decides it is, and the consumer has no way short of reviews or word of mouth of knowing whether Early Access means: a studio not entirely sure how to design an MMO or do effective internal testing and is therefore using their customers as crash test dummies to see if their game even works (Atlas) or a studio that has their shit together and is releasing a highly polished conceptually finished graphically gorgeous game you'd pay 30 bucks for as a finished product without a second thought and all they really need to do is iron out a few bugs, add in their endgame content and get feedback on how best to tweak already tested game systems further. (Satisfactory)

The way large numbers of players complained endlessly about vitamins without ever acknowledging that a reasonable investment in cooking could mitigate everything they were complaining about still sticks in my craw. Admittedly vitamin drain was a bit much out of the gate, but they tweaked it and imo at that point it was fine, but many players continued to howl nonstop until they nerfed it to a point that now cooking isn’t remotely needed, just a convenience option with a few buffs. The fact many players employed a play style so lazy they viewed just dying and respawning as the best solution is right in line with what you’re saying here. I hate that they got rid of the various specific debuffs for each vitamin deficiency. I thought that was a neat gameplay twist and innovative design that fit perfectly into the survival concept.

1. It’s not my responsibility to be familiar with your entire posting history to know whether you’ve ever given feedback beyond what you put here. The discussion at present was in this thread. I based my comments on what you said here. That’s not a lack of counter arguments, that’s relevant frame of reference. Your response attempts to make me responsible for being familiar with anything you might ever have posted and takes me to task for apparently not doing so. Yeah, that’s a reasonable position... 2. You are attempting to oversimplify what is actually proving a thorny problem with no obvious solution. You don’t like the decay system and wish it gone, yet have no suggestion as to what might prove a workable alternative. Saying “it ain’t rocket science” implies that there is a simple alternative they could use, but if there was, you would have mentioned it. 3. Your statement about chefs and restaurants is a flawed analogy because the restaurant does not have a sign on the door saying “Menu still under development. Customers welcome at discount prices but advised recipes not perfected. Detailed feedback about your experience requested.” Such a thing exists, it is commonly referred to as mock trials, only your participation amounts to saying upon being asked for feedback “Get rid of entrees, I hate them.” and then leaving. Not “Get rid of these entrees, they lack flavor etc.” Just “Get rid of all entrees. I don’t have any suggestion for what to replace them with, so my suggestion isn’t remotely practical, but that’s what I’m telling you. By the way, prepare for foul language and invective if you ask for elaboration, and don’t expect me to repeat myself, ever. But if you want me back, get rid of entrees.” 4. I agree Atlas is struggling, but no 2 people seem to agree completely on what changes have the best chance to attract people back. Your suggestion, remove an entire system that is one of the design underpinnings of the game, while offering no alternative but getting surly and defensive when this is pointed out to you, comes across far less as genuinely offering your feedback and far more like just grinding an axe.

Furniture is the kind of non functional polish items you’d see added normally towards the end of a game’s development cycle, once all the nuts and bolts have been ironed out. Not saying they won’t, just saying my money is on it coming further down the road.

Weird, unrealistic, and counterintuitive. Possibly done for gameplay reasons but just speculation on my part.

*whispers to Chuck* I don’t know about you, but anyplace that has a stable power grid, broadband internet, and people can afford the rig it takes to play a game like Atlas AND have the leisure time to do so, well those things are most of what you’d need to get moved from the shithole list to the not a shithole list. The good news is that contrary to what most media would have you believe, this is steadily becoming a larger and larger portion of the homo sapiens population. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/35960123-it-s-better-than-it-looks

Tbh I think this request is less about national pride than asking for boosted breeding since a significant chunk of the playerbase will be on holiday. Come to think of it, on the same basis we could start asking for Chinese New Year to be boosted too. Speaking as a proud american who loves his country, I see no particular reason my country’s holidays need to be celebrated in a game played globally unless others are as well. *wink wink* *grin grin* *nod nod* KnowwhatImean?

*tackles Skinner and hog ties him with a ball gag* I got it folks. Everything’s under control. Don’t think Jat heard. *looks down at Skinner* Whats the matter with you? You wanna be unable to dye your clothes without crude oil? If Jat makes us need blubber to make dyes I’m gonna feed you to the sea horses. I like all my clothes and gear dyed in a tasteful blue and white tyvm, and I’d prefer for it NOT to be a PIA to make the dyes. Also this doesn’t mean that we’re dating or anything. I’m sure you’re a wonderful guy, I just prefer Olivia Munn. *mutters under his breathe about restraining orders.*

Rofl. I am sitting in the parking lot of the Wendy’s I just walked out of grabbing a quick lunch before my 1pm apt. Way to call it.

Sorry I don’t eat at Taco Bell.

Build a man a fire and he’ll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

...with lettuce tomato and mayo? Hold the onion please, you never know when you might wind up making out with someone later. What? I saw everyone making these request threads for wind and boosted breeding and stuff, so I thought we’re just placing orders now. I love grilling out on the 4th. Oh and make mine just medium well done if you will.

Last time I checked Schooner was the one with 2 masts. How did this guy get 4 large sails on a ship with 2 masts? Also, link?

If your family can’t fend for themselves in the wild, let natural selection do it’s work. People always talk big about tough love, but they @#$& out when it comes to handing their loved ones a hunting knife and explaining the new family rule is “you kill it, you eat it.” Sure an 8 year old can’t run down a deer, but they can’t eat that much meat before it spoils anyway. So unless you’re willing to sacrifice more of your playtime teaching your daughter how to salt meat to preserve it, tell her to start small with squirrels and rabbits and work her way up. Cause a man’s gotta have priorities, and you’ve got a new hard drive to shop for.

How big are we talking? I’m still otw home from a sales apt in East Chicken Neck, so won’t be able to log on for another hour.

What’s your fort stat, and are you wearing armor other than cloth?

Debatable. I think it's quite possible that if you give players something more compelling at their destination, the frustration at doldrums impeding and slowing down arrival at said destination might actually increase. I think one possible solution would be to add content specifically in mind as something to do during those doldrums. Perhaps music and dance options with the potential to shorten the doldrum period might be a good idea, or some mechanic that could be coupled with the intelligence buff provided by dolphins to further incentivize crafting during such downtimes (increased dolphin spawns during doldrums would obviously be part of this). Mini events involving mermaids or other otherwise rare ocean spawns would be a great way to create an upside to something that currently only has a downside.

Yes but you notice the 10 minutes of doldrums way more than you notice the 90 mins of good wind. It’s about eliminating a mechanic that overall detracts from the experience for most players rather than adding to it.

Not a fan of auction house but do like this idea.

So your argument boils down to: Me and my friends don’t have an issue with wind, therefore no one else should. Sorry but this isn’t a compelling case. Btw the wind changes primarily when you pass into other regions or if you wait for a significant period of time. You aren’t the only person with experience of the game’s wind mechanics. Pop quiz: If a game based largely on sailing over the 1st 6 months of its EA is doing poorly with a fraction of the playerbase it started out with, should the development team A) consider altering a mechanic which provides no obvious benefit to anyone but does create frustration as stated by numerous players. or B) listen to one member of your greatly reduced playerbase who claims the mechanic is fine based entirely on the fact his personal acquaintances don’t have an issue with it. Which of these options has any chance whatsoever of drawing people back to the game? Hint: not B.

Except it isn’t and the party saying it isn’t laid their argument out with clearly stated reasons why they find fault. Your post does nothing but disagree with nothing to support your position but some assertion that’s irrelevant to the question at hand. Personally I feel that a certain amount of realism is fine, but realism that leaves you staring helplessly at open sea going nowhere cannot possibly add to one’s enjoyment of the game. If doldrums are predictable the I would suggest that saying to your playerbase “ we’ve preprogrammed in windows of time where for the sake of realism we’ve arbitrarily decided you shouldn’t sail in our sailing oriented game.” is not a path to success. If doldrums are random and unpredictable, then they are nothing but random and unpredictable frustration when players can’t get where they wanted to go in a timely fashion. tl:dr version: Atlas has a lot of challenges right now. Eliminating doldrums to make the game more enjoyable should be a no brainer.

If Atlas sp works like Ark sp then time stops when you log out, so decay timers don’t matter.

No one is suggesting your structures decay even faster. I’m just opposed to extending decay timers for all structures in order to accommodate a minority who go on 2 week vacations and don’t have company members not on vacation at the same time. Basically some small fraction of EU PVE.