boomervoncannon

From a business perspective it does not make sense. You can go on about EA all you want, but the reality is it is everyone's first impression of the game, and as the old saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Given that the business model for MMO's is to generate steady revenue over time, usually via cash shop purchases, retention of player base is far more important long term than initial game purchases. This means that when players try EA, get frustrated enough with the brokenness to quit and never come back, telling all their friends what a horrible game it is and never buy it, Atlas's long term success is diminished. Having an actual functional effective QA dept (they claim to have one, but if they do anything meaningful I see scant evidence of it) limits how much frustration EA players experience with the game by at least catching super obvious stuff before it goes live. The horrible game breaking bug which caused whole bases to disappear due to a patch that appeared to have no testing done before release at all during Extinction's first live weekend would be exhibit A for how lack of QA can hurt you. Obviously Extinction was a released game and not Atlas's EA, but it is illustrative of the attitude this organization takes towards QA, how poor a job they do of it, and how that can hurt Atlas the same way it hurt the Extinction DLC. They got away with it with the DLC because cash in hand from initial purchases was almost the only thing that mattered. MMO economics will be much less forgiving of such an approach with Atlas imo. Failing to spend for, or demand, effective QA is penny wise and pound foolish.

3:47 Didn't see a single wolf snake tiger lion cyclone. Nope, not at all like Atlas.

^Doesn't know where his towel is. And here I thought you were a real hoopy frood.

I bow to your greater breadth of experience sir. So noted.

Fixed.

Do they have a post office in your world? Local government? Or is everything just run by the pink elephants?

*mentioned it was probably sarcasm* *still took it way too seriously anyway*

*whoooooooooooosh*

Well now you're just talking crazy talk.

Public service announcement: Best way to get your feedback taken seriously by the devs? Use lots of profanity. That way they know you are serious. It’s also a strong indication you’re not a kid, because you know words that a four year old probably doesn’t, so it’s clear you’re at least seven or eight and therefore mature enough to be taken seriously. PS ALL CAPS IS THE BEST WAY TO ENSURE THEY CAN READ WHAT YOU WROTE EASILY WITHOUT SQUINTING. DEVS HATE SQUINTING. Carry on.

A lot of this is good, just keep in mind that one month into a 2year EA is probably not the point at which the devs are ready to tackle QOL changes. I’d guess it might be a year before they start looking at this kind of stuff. I’d suggest reposting periodically and adding other stuff to it as you go. with regards to Xp for crafting, that one is kinda tricky cause I get where you are coming from but they gave crafting Xp in Ark and people just used it to pl to 80 in a day by crafting narcotic. On the other hand they have 15 professions and only about a third of them deal directly with killing animals, currently the main way to get Xp. Clearly a middle ground is needed.

I can neither confirm nor deny.

There is an ingame canvas and paintbrush. I make mine pose for nudes. I mean... Red makes them pose for nudes. I would never do that. *clears throat awkwardly* Sooooooo how about that local sports team?

This. I also work in sales with a marketing background and it’s a chicken@#$& way to interact with your customers. Given the behavior of a lot of gamers, I can’t completely blame anyone, but the message it sends is “we don’t want to be bothered to respond to you unless it’s convenient for us.”

*spocks eyebrow*

These guys have always had a head scratching level of difficulty getting their weights even vaguely realistic. My personal favorite was how for the longest time in Ark a scuba tank weighed the same as FIVE berries.

Not that I have a direct line to the devs or anything, but something that might reassure you is that there is a common misconception Ark was a dinosaur game that got sci fi tech shoe horned in. This is patently and demonstrably false. The very first concept art for Ark showed non low tech items and players had sci fi implants in their wrists from the beginning, there were decidedly not primitive giant floating obelisks in the game from day one. Ark was always a sci fi game with Dinosaurs, there was just a segment of its playerbase who chose to willfully ignore all of this and claim it was a Dino game that got “ruined”. GrapeCard has given themselves wiggle room by saying Atlas isn’t pure pirate, but pirate/fantasy. Therefore it’s reasonable not to expect Spitfires and P-51 Mustangs in the base game, but one should expect magic based content going forward. Personally I tend to agree that flying in a game based around sailing is undesirable except maybe on the smallest scale. One should never be able to fly to islands one can’t swim to without being eaten. I guess we’ll find out if the powers that be see it that way.

Welcome to the world of online gaming! Do not expect other players to be rational, reasonable or respectful. Be pleasantly surprised when they are. It is easy to fall into the trap of taking the game too seriously. Don’t. Play only as long as you are having fun. When you stop having fun, consider doing something else. Especially in sandbox games, don’t let other people define how you should have fun. Remember that the people you play with are the single biggest factor in how much fun you have so choose your server/company/neighbors carefully. If this advice seems incredibly obvious, it is only because so many of us who have been doing this for years still have trouble following it. And lastly, remember Boomer’s guarantee: All predictions wrong or your money back.

Ghillie, the Ark armor type that gives heat protection, wasn’t introduced until about a year into its EA cycle iirc. Something similar may be the case here, where a means will be introduced later.

Verily, who hath struck Nightstrasza upon thine head with a tomb of Shakespeare or king James’s own bible? A pox upon thy house foul villain! Thou hast left the lady’s speech in tatters most grandiose.

I feel like the damage to players should be somewhat randomized. Most of the time nothing. Sometimes a little. Rarely it should be severe. This would realistically represent the risk of being on deck during tornado force winds. The wind alone won’t hurt you, but if it pries something loose that then comes flying across deck...Look Out!

Much depends upon your temperament tbh. Right now this game is not for the easily frustrated or overly emotional EA or not. Much of the advantage to be gained from playing EA lies in learning the ins and outs prior to launch imo.In that respect you have plenty of time. 2 years at least. I’d wait a bit. Playing a wildcard EA game is a bit like being strung out on heroin. The highs are amazing. The lows are soul crushing. your pets go hungry and your hygiene tends to deteriorate. Holding a job is incompatible with full commitment to your hobby.

So my partner, the infamous Red Hessian (none of you know her, she avoids forums like the plague), has just confirmed this by quadruple checking it. Dropping anchor during a storm causes nearby cyclones to dissipate after a few seconds. Given the difficulties cyclones continue to cause in lost ships, damage and trepidation to even venture out for fear of losing ships to them, I thought the community would want to know. We will continue to test to see if it holds up,but she seems pretty confident of the correlation. For the record I am sitting in a pizza and salad bar buffet in East Chicken Neck 2 hours from home, so this isn’t based on my own experience. However we’ve been gaming together for 15 years, so I’m confident enough in her conclusions to say that if she’s wrong, I will personally watch Percival eat a handful of live bees. That’s right, I put it on the line like that.

Hrm. Odd. I have had no exposure to olives yet ingame, but thanks for the info.

Same boat brother. Posting from the work IPad at a gas station in East Chicken Neck 2 hours from home. Won’t be back from sales apts til prolly 8ish.