Jean Lafitte

2 hours ago, Notorious said:

I personally love the fog especially when the wind dies and night rolls in. The faint glow of the ships of the dammed are scary. Bring much need excitement to sailing and I'm not being sarcastic.

Yes, I found it very realistic and exciting when in a thick fog I THOUGHT I knew where I was going and ended up smashing into a mountain with my schooner.

*that was sarcasm but I do think the fog needs to stay*

7 hours ago, boomervoncannon said:

I know of few if any places on earth that experience fog every day, yet this seems to be the case for most of Atlas so far as I can tell.

Ireland - "If you wake up in the mornin' and ya can see the hills of Donegal, it's gonna rain. If you wake up in the mornin' and ya can't see the hills of Donegal, it tis rainin."

Just substitute your tundra island for Donegal and you'll be accurate.

1 minute ago, Harryplopper said:

Yeah keep it up. Its nice to see who action is being taken against. It would even be better is there was the cause for the ban. 

Well, if I do set this up in a more permanent fashion, one of the things I want to do is run a 'chron' job every night to grab the latest list.  By doing that, it could track the number of bans per day.  If they ever expand that list to more than ID numbers, say a .csv with other info like date and reason, then yea, that would be easy to incorporate.

5 minutes ago, MeatSammich said:

Whats up with a few of them showing no game bans, or days since last ban being greater than 90 days, which would preclude that ban being from Atlas?

Glitch in the system, overturned, or weren't actually banned - just their ID put on the list?

Not sure.  The Steam API describes it this way:

• NumberOfGameBans (int) Number of bans in games, this includes CS:GO Overwatch bans.

Because Grapeshot publishes the list of steam ID's that are banned, it may be a case of them not adding those bans to Steam accounts and relying on the list instead, which is why they may not be showing up.

Also, BattleEye keeps its own list of bans which it doesn't make public.  Whether it adds those bans to the Steam ID, I have no idea.

Once upon a time, @Jatheish responded to one of my threads and said he was considering what he called "a wall of shame" that would basically put on public display anyone who was banned from the game for cheating/using exploits. It would seem that he's been a bit busy or he's still undecided as to whether this is a good idea or not.

Also, one of the things I've been curious about is some really far-out claims that Grapeshot is not banning any Chinese.

Since I don't have the same tough decisions to make that Jat does, and curiosity killed the cat, I decided to do it myself and see of any if those claims were true.

I got bored today and decided to write a quick WordPress plugin and slap it on one of my test sites.  Basically, it grabs the steam ID's from the Atlas banlist here: http://atlasdedicated.com/pc/banlist.txt

It then polls the Steam API and grabs various bits of info about that steam ID including game bans and stuffs it into a MySQL database.

Some really interesting info popped up.  Pay particular attention to the date the account was created. If it says 1970 then Steam didn't return a creation date. Many accounts are pretty new. The other thing to take a look at is 'last logoff.'  I'm not positive of what this date/time represents but I'm going to guess it's the last time the Steam client was shut down. No info on when the last time it was started is available.

And surprise... many of the names are Chinese. And I think I saw some Japanese and Korean names.  A lot of the names... as you'd expect are simply 123.

http://www.twistedvoid.com/the-atlas-public-stockade/

Take note, I ran this earlier today so that data is cached until the next time I run it.  For now, I have no real plans to do anything with this unless you guys would like to have this in a more permanent home.

42 minutes ago, WilliamGrayton said:

 As it does not make sense now I am hopeful that it will later on. 

I"m not quite sure how a bunch of lemmings running naked into a cave to remove a debuff would ever make sense. It certainly doesn't pass as content.

5 minutes ago, Jozzie McTowel said:

I see I can find many angered souls here to come help and build a pyramid of shame cuz the Atlas devs like to "show 'n tell" shiny ingame stuff on social media rather than addressing proper issues.

Their shiny stuff is called marketing and your project will not be a marketing tool. Furthermore, anytime someone tried to hijack a thread to promote a pet project, I instantly classify that project as an attempt to gain personal attention and tend to ignore it.

6 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

But, it's not, and fixing bugs, not band aiding take precedence. 

In which case, this game will experience Lingchi.

8 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

You get what you pay for, $25 game, no monthly subs, and you want AAA customer service. Man, I wish I had your optimism. 

I paid <$4.00 for a gallon of milk once.  The glue holding the seal on the top was stronger than the plastic jug.  I wrote an e-mail to that company in my usual sarcastic fashion.  The next day I had a response from their customer support. It wasn't a standard, 'thanks and fuck off' mail, it was a personal reply that was just as humorous as the one I sent.  They even offered me a free gallon of milk which I politely declined.  I still purchase their milk regardless of the fact that the seal is still a pain in the ass to get off.  Why? Customer service. They listened. They didn't fix the problem, but they listened and responded.

The kid next door shovels my sidewalk when it snows. He charges me $10 a pop to do it. When it's done, he always comes to the door and asks me if I think it looks good enough. It always does.

The price I pay for a product or service should have no bearing whatsoever on the support I receive.  Even a 10 year old child shovelling sidewalks knows that and that's why I give him repeat business. He cares what I think. It's just smart business.

1 minute ago, Wh33ls said:

That's the whole point. They only have so many GM's, I would hate to see what their ticket backlog looks like. They get to it when they can. Ask 10 people what their definition of timely is and you will get 10 different responses. 

That depends on the situation. Prioritizing tickets is essential.  If I'm stuck in a rock somewhere, can't kill myself and can't get out, I'd expect a response within 15 minutes.  If I've been raft or pillar spammed, I'd expect a response within 24 hours.  If I lost a ship because of a bug, a week, and that's if I even bother to submit a ticket.

Again, if they don't have enough GM's to provide REASONABLE customer service, hire more. Don't use bug fixes as an excuse for not providing it, which is what they're saying.  They will lose more customers from poor customer service than they will gain by fixing the bug that caused these issues.  Fixing bugs and responding to customer tickets are BOTH part of customer service and neither should take precedence over the other.

That being said, we can agree to disagree and I'm done repeating myself.

4 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

I believe fixing the root cause of what is making customers unhappy is the priority. 

And if you lose customers because it takes you months to fix that root cause and you use 'limited resources' as a reason to not fix those issues, that's acceptable?

Just now, Wh33ls said:

Yes, that is amazing customer service. Also $14.99 a month. 

I didn't set the pricing model for Atlas.  Their choices on how to price their game should not be an excuse for poor customer service.

Once upon a time in Eve Online, I lost a very expensive ship to lag.  I submitted a ticket. Within 24 hours, the ship was replaced.  It took their GM less than 5 minutes to verify that loss and produce a replacement. It was missing a few modules but, I did get the majority of the items back.  The impression that left on me was profound. It told me that, in my own little personal world, that CCP did give a shit about my enjoyment and making things right even when it probably wasn't their fault. And it cost them next to nothing to do that.  That was probably 10 years ago and to this day, I still remember it. Why? It was great customer service. I paid a monthly subscription price for multiple accounts with CCP for over 12 years.

How many accounts has Atlas already lost because of poor customer service and screwed up priorities?

2 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

I never said I was talking about you, your issue was with spam rafts blocking everything. Yes, that also sucks, but as fast as GM's can delete them there will be griefers building them to put right back.

Correct. And until such time as that's fixed, GM's need to continue to delete them and do so in a timely manner.  Period.

1 hour ago, Wh33ls said:

Want some salt for your popcorn. I have been dehydrating all the tears I have been collecting from the "I want my stuff back" posters. 

I have never stated I wanted stuff back. I've never submitted a ticket wanting stuff back. As a matter of fact, I've submitted two tickets the entire time I've been playing and as far as I can tell, they were resolved, via GM's or other means.  I currently have no complaints with the ticket system.

I am stating though that players of Atlas are customers of Grapeshot and therefore, should reasonably expect customer service in a timely manner. If that means hiring more GM's to handle the issues, so be it.  It's good for customer relations, it's good for customer reviews and it's good for sales.  Jat saying that customer service was not a priority because they're focused fixing the reasons customer service tickets arise in the first place is just bad public relations. Making customers happy should always be a priority, whether it's support tickets or stomping out bugs.

10 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

And they are not going to use Ark's profits to pay for GM's for Atlas to delete spam rafts and replace lost brigs. 

Replacing a lost ship as a result of buggy code? Yes. Replacing it because they took on 10 SotD's? No. Removing items used to grief another player? Without a doubt!  And if that means using funds from Ark to prop up another game, well... that's what they're there for. To make even more money.

Just now, Wh33ls said:

Last time I checked, Chevrolet did only make Chevrolet's, various models, but still all Chevrolet's. However, GM makes all sorts of brands. 

So Grapeshot made Atlas, Wildcard made Ark. But, here's the kicker, Snail Games made both. BOOM, wrap your mind around that. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_badge-engineered_vehicles

Atlas is a badge engineered Ark. Same code, different paint job, different name.  And yes, it's all 'made in China'.

Just now, wildbill said:

You seem to know all about Grapeshot, but you buy the game and say you had no idea you would get bad customer support from them.

Maybe you are just ignoring the facts you don't like, as if maybe it is all "Fake News"?

And you're assuming I'm incapable of researching a company after I purchase a product?  Maybe I have expectations from a company when I purchase their product... like reasonable customer support. But it's kinda like expecting to have a logical debate on the forums with a reasonable person without them resorting to ad hominems. I guess that's not gonna happen either.

Oh, and for the record. I never said I lost anything and asked for it back. You assumed that too.

Since you've resorted to insults, I'm done with you now. Bye.

3 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

ok, so $50,000,000 / $160,000 ($80,000 per employee for 2 years) = 312.5 full time employees with no other operating expenses. 

Umm, was that math supposed to prove your point that hiring GM's is not viable????

Shit, I better call my phone provider now and tell them to fire all of their customer support!

1 minute ago, Wh33ls said:

What the fact the founders of Wildcard split off to make a sister studio Grapeshot to make Atlas? Still doesn't change the fact, Atlas is Grapeshot's only game. 

Right, that's like saying the Chevrolet is Chevrolet's only make of car even though they're owned by GM.

2 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

3 years of a top 10 game? Werid, didn't know Grapeshot had any other game. 

Do your research. It's all pretty obvious.

2 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

In both examples you state hire more people. I'm sorry to say that in the real world there is this thing called limited resources. So if they are going to hire more GM's to deal with your temporary problems they are also going to have to let go of the developers who are coding long term fixes. I myself prefer long term fixes that help everyone playing the game and not just short term fixes like give me my stuff and delete these rafts that help a few people. 

So, SteamSpy says there are between 1 and 2 million owners of Atlas. Damn, Wildcard/Grapeshot are broke and destitute! I did not know this. Perhaps I should leave now? Do you think they'll have enough money to pay the electric bill next month?

2 minutes ago, wildbill said:

So would a reasonable person knowing the reputation of ARK and having read the reviews expect that they would get good GM support in game? I don't see how.

A reasonable person should expect to receive timely customer support for products they have purchased. When that product is so defective that it is unusable for the purpose it was designed for there should not be weeks of waiting to be given a canned response.  I should not have to spend days researching a gaming company just to find out what their customer support is like. I can go to any car dealership for any manufacturer, purchase a car and expect, and get, reasonable customer support. Why? Because they all know it's good for their business as it improves... watch this... customer relations. 

I have never played Ark and knew nothing of Wildcard prior to this purchase.  Which means, you can just classify me as being totally unreasonable because I expect timely customer support because I paid for this product. That's what I've come to expect from every other game I've played and that's what I expect from this one.

16 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

So you walk into the dealership and the service tech tells you. Ok, you have a problem with your car, a mechanic will fix it shortly. Do you go straight to yelp and flame the dealership for the service tech not fixing your issue and passing it on to someone who has the tools to fix it?. 

If I walked into a car dealership as a result of a flawed car design and the secretary, not the service tech, pointed to a sign on the wall...

We're too cheap to hire enough mechanics.
Please consider yourself a pedestrian
for the next two weeks.

You're damn straight I'd flame. Hell, I'd light a bonfire.

__________________________________________

If I woke up one morning, logged into Atlas and found this in my harbor:

...and was then told, "Sorry, we don't have enough GM's to fix this for at least 2 weeks. But we are hiring dev's to prevent it."

You're damn straight I'd flame. I'd light a bonfire under that one too!

Just now, Wh33ls said:

Would you have bought that new car if at the time of purchase they told you "This car is not completely finished, there will be unknown mechanical issues that will cause failure"?

 

Every new car has that same problem right now. There have been millions and millions of vehicles recalled due to design flaws. It's a given that both automobiles and games will have their design flaws. Refusing to assist a customer as result of these design flaws is not how a successful business is operated. There's an old saying in business, "A happy customer will tell a friend. An angry customer will tell 10 friends." Allow me to give you proof of this:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/834910/ATLAS/

A poorly designed product is not an excuse for lousy customer service, whether you tell the customer it may be flawed or not.

7 minutes ago, Wh33ls said:

They had support, Jat replied and explained their reasoning for not giving back individual items. They could have a team of 1,000 GM's giving back all the items people "lost" in game due to bugs and nothing would would ever get fixed. So instead, they are fixing the bugs that cause the problems. 

[9:01 AM]JAT:

GMs may provide more immediate gratification, but it's our development team that is going to fix the issues with our game in the long term

If I went out and purchased a new car and 2 days later the transmission fell out, I'd be back at the dealership pronto. If the car manufacturer told me, "We're sorry but we're not going to replace your transmission because we aren't spending money on mechanics, we're spending it on engineers to keep the transmission from falling out in the first place,"..... I'd go home and start cleaning the guns.

Fixing a busted transmission in a new car is not immediate gratification, it's called a responsibility to your customers.

There are successful MMO's and then there are those that crash and burn.  In my many years of gaming I have found an axiom that holds true to most all of these.  Game content facilitates human interaction which is the key to a game's survival.  Nobody is playing single player games from 20 years ago. The content runs out and you're left with nothing to do.  But, I can point you to a purely text-based MUD that has be running for almost 20  years.  The reason it survives is that it has a deep content system that allows players vast choices in how they build their character. This depth then facilitates the PVP and PVE interactions.

To me, human interaction, whether through triumphs or foibles, is more entertaining than anything the dev's can come up with.  You can only whack a wolf so many times before it becomes boring.  Your buddy flying naked across the lawn, slamming head first into trees because he accidentally punched an alpha pig who's now head-butting him like a soccer ball is priceless.

There is a reason why streamers are watched as avidly as they are. It's not because of the game content they're playing. If it were, people would just play the game themselves. It's the comedy, the tragedy, the unexpected events in the course of their play that make you fall out of your chair laughing. It's the events that make you look close at your monitor and go, "oh bullshit."

It's all about the drama.

“What is drama but life with the dull bits cut out.” - Alfred Hitchcock

A good MMO facilitates drama.  Atlas does that now.  To succeed, it needs to facilitate it even more.

3 hours ago, uli said:

and again another reply that reeks of bitterness and oh look what i did without a tame for thatch , i and everyone else so far who played the game 

not every grid has what’s needed for a bear to get thatch , the answer isn’t go do what i did as i managed , players want to cut down on farming times .

as op pointed out we need a dedicated thatch farming tame to speed up thatch farming ,end of ,there is nothing else that is needed or any suggestions to get around it as we all know that using pick is the fastest way available at the moment .

like everyone else  farming thatch by hand allowed us to build what we needed ,but a faster way is needed so we can cut down the time on land and go out and explore the grids get the discovery points needed , better bps etc etc 

Bitter? No, sarcastic. The game is less than 2 months old and people keep crying because they haven't gotten to that end-game content and 'won' yet. You have a tame that farms thatch. You're just too lazy to 'go out and explore the grids' and find places where the bear does it well.

6 hours ago, Notorious said:

There is a saying that goes like this... Never give a sword to a Man that cant Dance.

Never give a license to a man who can't build his own car.

                                           -out-of-work politician