Incarnate

On 4/15/2019 at 12:16 PM, azraveilius said:

I'm in a boot loop for PrimalGameData_BP and I dont know, I have tried all of the fixes posted and none of them work. there is no error its just stuck in a loop.

 

I know this is a while ago, but are you still suffering from this issue?
If so, could you post your pc specifications?
However I think it's likely that you haven't done the fixes correctly, or you have updated the game afterwards, which resets the fix as it redownloads the video sequence files.

@Jatheish - I was able to get on the official network, but it did stutter quite a bit and seemed sluggish on my system, even on low settings.
So obviously, the crashes I were experiencing with the performance test applied, would seem to be due to mods.

1 minute ago, Kalryn said:

where did they hide the ini file?  

It's stored in ..\ATLAS\ShooterGame\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor.

@Jatheish :
Here you are, the crashstack on pastebin.com: https://pastebin.com/0mbJ6J1d.

I haven't tried yet on the official, as I was too quick to begin reverting back to the normal client, however I stopped it, when it was at 20%.
So when it was done applying the performance beta, I couldn't actually launch it, because it kept and is still causing issues. I now keep getting the error, that there aren't sufficient resources. So I'm now working on getting the client working again, when I do I will update you with regards to the trying on the official network.

[EDIT]
Apparently, 89 files failed to validate, ~78MBs of data was re-downloaded.
Will test on official servers, once they're up, because it seems none are currently up.

Just now, Jatheish said:

I'll talk to the team about it, but just keeping this thread focused on the GPU changes atm.

Alrighty so still noticing problems with SLI. Will let our tech team know. 

Sounds good.

I've tried using the beta, but crash every time, however I've also been trying to join an unofficial server that are using a few mods, do you want the crashstack and/or dmp file?

17 minutes ago, Archsenex said:

The drive isn't even taxed, it's reading each of them at about 1mbps, so 2 mbps total.  While unpacking the download, steam is getting > 100 MB/sec (it's a three disk array)

Maybe not, but it certainly is impacting in a way that affects loading into the game detrimentally. Consider it, I have a lot reports from people saying that had 12-15+minutes when trying to load into the game when those video files weren't moved, but after for those people where it worked, they reported the same results or similar results I had, it after that fix was applied only took ~3 minutes or less to load into the game. That was only moving those two video files, so it certainly doesn't something. Also to note, a lot of people also have reported getting a lot of new fragmented data after running Atlas without the fix.

@Jatheish - One shouldn't have to use low memory mode to disable those video files, especially not when one isn't experiencing memory issues - I suggest adding a seperate startup parameter for it, like -novideos or -disablevideos. Those two video files being constantly loaded when loading into the game, is NOT a memory issue, but a design/coding issue, that can have or has severe implications to harddrives. Apparently, those video files being constantly loaded from disk during loading into the game, on a lot of systems seems to be severely impacting the harddrive's performance and potentially its lifespan. You need to fix this ASAP.

Just now, Archsenex said:

It'll almost certainly put them back.  Regardless, nuking them got me back in, and confirmed that Beta Versus Non Beta @ 4k and Max settings has almost zero difference, it's still 19-20 FPS on Non Beta.

Time to re-opt in and download again, because the bump at 1920 was still nice.

Also, had a hard time loading in because of the traveling between servers bug.  For whatever reason, I think whatever is routing me from Home Server to "current location" tries to drop me off on the ship stuck in limbo, then I got kicked out and forced to spawn again and it's working.

Kind of weird that they haven't actually done something about this issue, like a permanent fix to the game keep trying to load those two video files constantly when trying to load in.
You reporting that it worked removing those two video files, is just another confirmation that there is an issue they need to fix in regards to those video files.

4 minutes ago, Archsenex said:

Will Try that

@Jatheish  Reverting to normal client didn't fix anything, It still sits loading those two videos, no other files (it loaded a bunch of resources during first startup which seemed normal but now it's just sitting at low CPU and not looking for anything on disk so no reason for it to hang).

I will try isolating those files, and if that works, I'll re-up to the beta and do the same

I don't know if re-applying the beta will replace the video files, because if it detects they're missing, they will be redownloaded - which is basically the same that happens if you verify the game's cache and those files have been moved or deleted. If they're redownloaded after applying the beta, just move them again.

1 minute ago, Dabu said:

@Jatheish Is this compatible with Low Memory Mode?

Low memory mode, has never worked for me anyways, what worked for me was moving the AtlasTitle.wmv and LoadingScreen.wmv to a different folder, which low memory mode also has been made to encompass, after my fix was discovered.

40 minutes ago, cpjet64 said:

download size was 2.5gb but extracted size was 42gb for me 

I concur, extracted size is the same for me, though download size was 2.8GBs.

10 minutes ago, Archsenex said:

Are you referring to those two video files?

Yes, those two specifically.
It's basically using up most of the harddrive's amount of reads it can do.

I know this is a culprit when it comes to loading into the game, as I've had issue loading into the game, where doing that, fixed it, where before I could not even get into the game. The majority of those who've used the guide I've provided to accomplish the fix, have reported that it worked and that it cut their loading times down significantly. Personally, I went from 15+ minutes to ~3 minutes or less.

4 minutes ago, Jatheish said:

What happens if you don't use the beta?

Try moving them to a different folder - doesn't matter if it's to a folder within the same folder.
Thats basically the same issue a lot of people were having when people were trying to connect.

Download size isn't ~500MBs though, it's closer to 2.6GBs.
I'm curious to see if it does anything on my end.

1 minute ago, Danielnz00 said:

That's it?  A bull shit extension to a shit ass 2×, what about the people who now have to journey down to get the fountain of youth again 

..or what about those people who've been in CONSTANT PvP CONFLICT during this time? The loss of materials doesn't mean much, especially when you've been fighting a battle being outnumbered and actually been able to win and repel their attack. The 2x doesn't mean much for those where so much time and intense effort has gone into the game. This are peoples time they're not getting back, and all you can do is 2x bonus rates, that doesn't even remotely compensate for the loss of time and effort.

Good update notes from you @Jatheish, appriciated time and effort you put into those posts.

I think Tames really should be toned even way more down in terms of being efficient gatherers, because this isn't Ark, granted it's based on the build and framework of Ark, but this intended to be a completely different game, so keep it that way. There is absolutely no reason why tames should be good at gathering anything, other than maybe a very select few animals, where some tames would be better as mounts as tools for farming, or could be trained for various functions like a monkey being able get to hard to reach locations and get things, wolves for protection and so on.

Another thing I really think you should consider - a server region that blends between PvE, lite-PvP and full blown PvP, large city freeports that are hubs oozes with life and all kinds of activities to engage, trades to be made, social interaction. Where lawless islands could become those areas where people would go and claim land and build their communities, lawless regions where outlaws would often be found waiting to attempt to pirate tradeships, raid caravans or bands of adventurers. Outlaw and unknown regions to be explored to find treasures and loot, that kind of thing. Why am I suggesting this? Because both PvE and PvP are facing some serious issues in regards to limited space, and in regards to you want this game to be an MMO game and you want more players into this game, you're going to have to realize at some point you're going to be running out of space. For instance on PvE servers, there aren't any battles between players taking place, the only battles taking place are ship battles against the SoTD, which aren't that many in contrast the amount how many ship battles that takes place on the PvP servers. Which means that more and more ships will take up space, and also this means that eventually, it will become difficult to actually find space to settle down and build. So I think you should consider a different approach than what you're attempting now, consider how other MMOs are doing it, probably your greatest challenge is what all other MMOs struggles with when they attempt to have player housing, and why do they struggle? Limited amount of space, and in Atlas you can make homes and bases on massive and elaborate scale, so that means that Atlas is attempting the housing part on a super massive scale, so unless you do this differently, the servers will eventually run out of actual building and living space.

5 minutes ago, venomvv said:

thanks bro!))

No problem, I always help when I can.

Hello Developers and Everyone in this community reading this.

There are lessons to be learned from other game companies and studios, especially the bigger ones, primarily how they're utilizing their community and playerbase to the absolute fullest, but also in terms of what features seems to work well and not so well in their games, etc. But there are also important things to be learned from players, especially from those who seem to express an interest in improving various things in the game, like gameplay, balance, feature, experience of the game, etc., especially if they seem to be creative, have insight and understanding of the above.

So a good idea would be to let the community try and tackle how to solve various gameplay and balance issues, etc., where a community manager would be assigned specifically for this, who also will be participating with the community in trying to figure out good and lasting solutions to various issues and problems. This is to make sure the correct suggestions chosen but also to make sure they're carried through.You might be thinking why would it be a good idea to let the community to try tackle solving various gameplay and balance issues? There are several good reasons for this, the first one is they're actually playing it and probably a great deal more than any developer is currently, so they're likely to have a better idea of what is needed and what would be more likely to work, another thing that also comes from this is that players in general are dealing with the issues on a daily basis and thus can provide far more accurate feedback information about it than a developer  could and quite possibly provide viable and accurate solutions on how to fix them. Quite often there are very talented players in a game community, where if the developer team were to actually listen carefully to what their players suggest and implement it, chances are that it will be a lot more successful. And considering when bigger studios actually spend a great deal of resources in bringing in a panel of players specifically for this, to their studio for a weekend or week that is - to work in tandem with the players. But why do the bigger studios actually spend all of those resource on projects like these? It's because those particular studios have realized one important thing; it's what the players want and not the developers that is important, this in my opinion says a lot. This makes a lot of sense when considering it is the players that are going to be playing it the most, it makes perfects sense to listen to what the players have to say, as a happyplayer is usually a very loyal player, and would be a recurring customer, recurring customers have a tendency to bring other people onboard, because they like/love the game so much. However I completely understand if the developers have a vision about the game they would like to reach, but I would like to say this, players are far more likely to know what they want from the game, than you knowing what your playerbase wants, and you should be asking yourself if it's more important that you like the game or the players like the game.

.:: How the developers actually work with the players ::.
The process of how the developers actually work with the players is rather simple but quite powerful, because it enables the developers to accurately narrow down issues and become informed about how players would like those issues fixed, what they like about the game and dislike about the game, ultimately this enables the developers to make the game even more enjoyable and enables them accurately iron out unwanted/unnecessary gameplay mechanics. This essentially makes the players a form of co-developer without formally being recoqnized as such unless the game company would like to.

The process is as follows:
1.0 - Players test the latest build or even next build of the game.
1.1 - Players then hold a meeting where they share their gameplay experiences and issues with the game and/or build.
1.2 - Players then discuss various ideas and solutions, which is either to fix gameplay or balance issues, what gameplay features they feel are missing and/or what gameplay features that are unwanted/unnecessary, etc.
1.3 - 1st Co-development meeting is held - players and developers both attend, here the players share accurate feedback information about their gameplay experience and issues with the game and/or build.
1.4 - 1st Co-development meeting - The players then share and discuss with the developers the various ideas to solve various issues and problems, what gameplay features they feel are missing and/or what gameplay features that are unwanted/unnecessary, etc.
1.5 - 1st Co-development meeting - The developers then discuss with the player what would currently be possible to implement of the suggested ideas and if the developers can do something on their end to make it possible, if it would be feasible and so. Where they from there then workout and agree on what is implemented, where the developers then get to work ASAP on it, where it's possible that individual players will work with one or several developer while they're working on developing and implementing it.
2.0 - Developers roll out the build in testing environment, where it's basically from here they repeat the process from 1.0 through 2.0 and they keep on rinse and repeating, and the process continues until they reach their goal or run out time, but if they were to reach their goal I'm sure they wouldn't be wasting the opportunity to keep working with their players while they're there.

Obviously, this would gear the game more towards what the players want rather than what the developers want, but this is a good thing, because if the players are happy, satisfied and are enjoying the gameplay experience, then there are great chances that other players will like it as well, and happy players are usually a very loyal players - which usually means a recurring customer. Besides this the players generally know whats better for the game than than the developers actually do, but this is because that the players are more likely to know the game better than the developers ever will, unless of course the developer is also playing it in his or spare time. Understandably with you being a smaller studio, it's completely acceptable that you won't be bringing in a panel of players to do an operation like the above, but what you can do, is the next best thing, use the official forums to do something similar. So what I would suggest is that you assign the community manager as mentioned, and if necessary the community manager select a few volunteering key players from the community to act as ambassadors for the community, who're primarily paying attention to what players are satisfied with and what they're not satisfied with, but these are also going to working with those who express an interest improving gameplay, balance, features and the gameplay experience. The ambassadors work closely with the community mananger in relaying on behalf of the players, key information about player satisfaction, suggestions, etc. Including their own. This can be a lot of work, I would recommend that you acknowledge this and reward accordingly.

This process would be somewhat different and look something like this and should take place in a closed section of the official forum specifically for this:
0.0 - Ambassadors always pay attention to what the rest of players express in terms of issues and suggestions for the game, and will in general do their best to include and relay this.
1.0 - Players test the latest build or even next build of the game.
1.1 - Player Ambassadors then discuss their experience and issues with the game.
1.2 - Player Ambassadors then discuss various ideas and solutions (as continuation of 1.1), which is either to fix gameplay or balance issues, what gameplay features they feel are missing and/or what gameplay features that are unwanted/unnecessary, if the game is going in the right direction, ect.
1.3 - Player Ambassadors then each make detailed write ups of their individual ideas for the various solutions and suggestions.
1.4 - Player Ambassadors can then review each others suggestions, provide feedback and discuss various aspects of the suggestion.
1.5 - Player Ambassadors then submit the suggestions for review by the community manager assigned for this, where the community manager can discuss and ask question in regards to the suggestions.
1.6 - Community Manager then takes the suggestions that qualified, and presents them to the developer and explains, if clarification is needed, they can ask the player in question who submitted the idea.
1.7 - Developers then decide on what, how and if it can be implemented as is, what they will need to change/implement to make it possible, the feasibility of it, but should attempt to implement it as is, unless there are technical issues with it.
1.8 - Developers can if they find it to feasible, have a test build the Player Ambassadors can access and test to provide accurate feedback on it.
1.9 - Developers adjust accordingly to provided feedback, and keep doing 1.8 and 1.9 until they reach a satisfactory result.
2.0 - Developers then include it to the live build and roll it and when it's time to do so.

To note, this will be an ongoing process and developers would still keep developing it as they see fit, this is just an additional way to get the game more in the lines of what the players would like.

@Jatheish - Would Grapeshot Games be interested in this?
Would any players in the community volunteer for this?

Obviously since I'm posting this I would personally welcome the opportunity and definitely would volunteer for it.

// Inc.

37 minutes ago, venomvv said:

tell me how to paint the armor? there is paint, brush too. When I start to paint, for some reason, it is not the armor that is painting, but the skin ...

You have to create dye -> 5 Berries + full water skin = 1 dye of your choice.
These I know are made in the grill and possible also the cooking pot, but not sure about the cooking pot because I haven't tried it yet.
Once you have the dye you just drag it onto the item where you can apply it, like armors and weapons.

I hope this helps.

@Shakarian - What they need is one main server that is a blend between PvE, lite-PvP and full blown PvP, and they most certainly need a much, much larger map, with regions for designed for various purposes, like for instance lawless islands could be those where people are trying claim land for them selves where they can set their laws and build their communities, etc. There could be other regions that are intended to being explored and people will hunt for treasure, and so on. In some way you could say it would be similar how Eve online has it's various security sectors with high-sec, low-sec and null-sec being the equivalent to PvE, lite-PvP and full blown PvP respectively. Freeports should be large cities, hubs that oozes with life and activities to engage in.

But in regards to if they actively and secretly trying to push people away from the official servers, I don't think so, but anything is possible. I'd be more prone to saying it's a matter of them not thinking it through, and perhaps them releasing the dev kit is just a way of saying they're not able to keep up with the infrastructure in terms of demand. There could be other factors involved.

2 hours ago, cavagan said:

quote myself from another thread reporting similar issues:

 

From my experience and investigation this issue is a result of the Nvidia Waveworks/Gameworks engine being incompatible with the Radeon 6800 series cards (probably any older/legacy AMD cards and drivers since the specs pages says Radeon 7870 or better). I have Dual Radeon 6850's and cannot log in to any server; the game crashes when attempting.

When the game crashes the event viewer shows the cause to be the Atlasgame.exe with the faulting module the listed as the gfsdk_waveworks.dll - this is part of the Gameworks engine which creates the ocean graphics and physics effects.

I have not yet found a solution to this issue, and believe the only true solution is for the Dev's to optimize the game to run on different hardware and older/legacy hardware and drivers (unsure if that would even be possible).

I think you're right, one of my friends who sent me one of the .dmp files, which I analyzed with the windows debugger program, that indicated an issue with waveworks.dll, and another friend who ran a .dmp file through the same program reported the same issue, both of them had incompatible amd radeon cards, one of the was just the series before the required one. So yes, I definitely believe it's because the Radeon 7870 uses some technology which isn't on any of the previous ones, which waveworks.dll relies on, hence why it crashes.

Unfortunately, I think you're right, but maybe we could have them implement a startup paramter where the use of it has been disabled, at least to some degree. @Jatheish would this be possible?

11 minutes ago, Hector of Troy said:

I think thats one of the issues. No ship battles. The majority of fights I have been in or seen have been on land contesting a spam based claim system.

Without some reason to make trade routes there is no way to predict where people will go or head to. Which in reality there are should be routes you can estimate. But without that and the number of SotD, the sailing is mostly a PvE experience anyway. PvP really is limiting where fights happen.

One of the issues I see with PvE, is exactly what you pointed out - no ship battles, and the only ship battles are against those of the damned. This means that because there are only ship battles against ships of the damned, the ship amount will keep increasing - which an issue. And the land claim system currently, in my opinion is really bad.

As we've reached concensus of before, a server with a blend between both PvE, lite-PvP and full on PvP, would be the best for the game, at least from a gameplay experience perspective.

12 hours ago, MightySheep said:

Except I conclude youre not an avid PvPer quite easily because of how dumb the title of this thread is. This game without actual PvP would be dogshit and anyone who thinks that is a "better version of this game" is 1-not a pvper and 2-an imbecile.

It's an interesting thing you happen think so, because I know quite a lot of Avid PvP'ers who were playing PvP, but due to all the issues they switched to PvE.
PvP are alot worse than PvE, because there are so many bugs, glitches, OP wildlife, etc. but also especially due to cheaters, hackers, exploiters, griefers and so on, because it's a lot more difficult to survive on a PvP server, where losing everything due to a glitch or someone hacking/cheating/exploiting mechanics in the game that will give unfair advantages, means a heck a of a lot more, as you've likely spent a great deal more effort on that.

Bottomline is, there are a lot of avid PvP players who have played a good deal on the PvP servers, but realized it in such a bad situation right now, that efforts would be better spent playing PvE. Where I'm currently only playing on a PvP server, and I fully understand why people are fed up with all the issues. If you cannot see this, then don't bother responding, because that clearly shows that you and I would not be on a compatible wavelength.

2 hours ago, Hector of Troy said:

I think most of the PvE complaints have been centered on the lite PvP elements they don't like. As an avid PvPer it seems like common sense to protect your stuff. There game needs to strike a balance between pve and pvp elements I think on one mega server while using the resources of both to increase player caps while limiting how much coastal real estate is claimable.

I think there could be lessons learned from an EvE online approach of having non pvp sectors, lite pvp, and full on pvp. This would allow for a lot more interactions in non pvp areas while encouraging traditional pve players to venture into pvp areas to get some sort of resource, a trade route, or treasure.

Also when it comes to shipbuilding, due to size of shipyards, I think NPC controlled shipyards that you pay a time frame for use would be useful. It keeps random shipyard spam down and frees up coast lines while adding to the list of things you can spend gold on.

By the way, I'm in the process of making a write up based on the part about what can be learned from Eve online, in regards to having a blend between non-pvp (pure pve), lite pvp and full pvp, trade, etc. and why it would be beneficial for them and their player to use this model as opposed to their current model. Most likely they won't change their model, and quite possibly because they don't have the gameplay infrastructure set up to support this kind of gameplay, especially in regards to npcs and so on. So if you have something you'd like me to add, feel free to message me the details.

@Baelithan perhaps this thread here could be a step in the right direction as it specifically deals with making and holding land claims be a more costly endeavor, where it would make those that either wants to hold or is holding land claim(s) having to focus on activities that yields gold to be able claim and continuously keep the land:

This idea can be further explored and be made even better and viable for the game.  I think this definitely would fix the issue with all of the land claims being held, it wouldn't surprise me one bit if they implemented an upkeep cost paid in gold, players/companies would begin to lose land claims, right, left, center and other directions. Players and companies would suddenly have to focus on activities that would yield gold, where they both wouldn't be able to spam flags and be able to spam claim flags, because my suggestion also deals with making it more costly to actually place claim flag, and not only that, players/companies would also have to craft the flags that would be a finite resource. This alone would also deter players/companies from spamming claim flags, and with initial cost and upkeep cost, players and companies would find that they would have decide on what land they would like to keep and if the next land claim / expansion would be worth it and if they would be able to afford keeping it.

2 minutes ago, Hector of Troy said:

That would be great. The game needs features that build upon the idea of taming the land and making it a digital space in which players use to communicate, meet, and trade. Once there is a society to support it then pirating becomes a viable method of playing the game as people look to get rich off trade. To me, its the direction the game should go. 

 

Exactly, and it takes time for the gameplay environment to establish and stabilize to support and cultivate other types of gameplay. I also think that they should be focusing on diversifying the skill trees to make players more reliant on others and less self-sufficient, rather than make every player self-sufficient and self-reliant as that inherently disincentivizes trade and any reason to interact with others except when you're more less forced to. Making players self-sufficient and self-reliant can be good for a single player gameplay and experience, but for a playerdriven MMO thats also a sandbox, it's not.

2 hours ago, Hector of Troy said:

I think most of the PvE complaints have been centered on the lite PvP elements they don't like. As an avid PvPer it seems like common sense to protect your stuff. There game needs to strike a balance between pve and pvp elements I think on one mega server while using the resources of both to increase player caps while limiting how much coastal real estate is claimable.

I think there could be lessons learned from an EvE online approach of having non pvp sectors, lite pvp, and full on pvp. This would allow for a lot more interactions in non pvp areas while encouraging traditional pve players to venture into pvp areas to get some sort of resource, a trade route, or treasure.

Also when it comes to shipbuilding, due to size of shipyards, I think NPC controlled shipyards that you pay a time frame for use would be useful. It keeps random shipyard spam down and frees up coast lines while adding to the list of things you can spend gold on.

I think you're spot on in terms of learning from Eve online, in regards to non-pvp, lite pvp and full on pvp sectors, which makes sense from several perspectives, where one of the more important ones is server requirements and performance with regards to them being a smaller studio, this would free up more resources that they could spend on other things they need to aquire for the game, whether that be a piece of technology, a specialist, and artist, etc. Another perspective is that it would also become a much more enjoyable gameplay experience, as you would be able to freely choose between PvE and PvP, on a case by case situation, rather than having to be only one or both to experience both gameplay, which both would be vastly different from one that combines both.