Linea

Awesome, but if you want to protect ships with the armored docks go all the way and add a roof which is part of the structure. If its not a complete shell people will exploit it and sink ships inside armored docks with less effort than they should. For example by throwing chickens or materials from above onto the ship to sink it by overcrew or overweight. I can agree with the other comments about gold costs, i dont want to play anymore because of the gold cost. It can only be played on private servers that hand out free gold to counter the gold cost for starters. Its no fun to sit around in landbases and wait for automated trade to actually be able to build and maintain a ship after many hours. Instead of moving players out on the sea it is even more landbased now to a point where players leave from waiting to reach sea content or get going again after a loss.

Hey glad to hear you are still kickin, it sounds like awesome additions that are well thought out. The first feedback i can give you is that it sounds awesome as additional feature but not so awesome when done in a way that the new feature basically deletes the complete game and all its possibilities like survival, open world, ship building and customization. Upkeep to play is a evil thing, upkeep to control or dominate is the way to go. When you buy a ship it costs gold and when you place it in a dock where it is repaired, maintained and refilled it will cost a gold upkeep. But by all means there should be no gold cost or upkeep if we build ships ourselves and maintain them ourselves. The trading is a good feature for endgame pvp but if it is mandatory for 90% of the games content there wont be much players able to play since those controlling the server will effectively prevent other players from playing wheter they want or not to do so. It still needs to be possible to go to an island and build ourselves up and not have to buy everything from a shop or be at the mercy that those controlling the economy give you a ship and allow you to work for them. There still need to be pirates that are self dependent and can strike out of the blue if the game should not stall and drop to very low possible number of players per map. Customizable ships, buildparts are also very important, the premade ships should be interchangeable or prepared for this system from the start so you dont run into trouble later that will result into the loss of this and other features. Keep up the good work but take the additional time to fit the new thing ontop rather than burn everything down and place the new thing on barren land.

Sounds good! About the structure limit on ships. I can just say it again, there are way to many parts needed to simply fill decks or build walls and ladders. Add 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 deck parts and 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 walls and make ladders one piece. You will be able to build the exact same ship with alot less parts and take alot load of the server and allow better ships to be build within the same structure limit. Also works for bases and can be done with foundations as well to not require so many single parts that create unneccessary load for the servers. You dont even need new parts for this just merge the 1x1 parts together to form the bigger ones. Or create a dynamical system that gives us a switch build/merge mode and lets us place identical items that are merged together with the existing one multiplying the health corresponding and creating a larger part where we can add more parts as we see fit. Keep up the good work, looking forward to the new ships and sea content

If you dont see anything it is likely you where not in the crows nest. You need to put an npc on the wheel and command your ship from the crows nest to actually see stuff. Since the crows nest is not the place to be for the captain i hope we will be able to place npcs there in the future so we can actually do stuff other than standing there just for the massive view buff.

Now this sounds interesting. We start to see more clearly which direction it is going now and it sounds awesome. I wonder does the farmhouse collect everything or just food and plants which would make sense so we see mines and other buildings in the future? I asume we need to stock the farmhouse with npc's to keep it running -> consumes gold that way. This will give us another reason to sail out and get gold on our adventures. Should also work well on PVE or mixed servers if you later come around to add more adventure and pve activities for cooperative and solo play. Everyone should be happy then, maybe we can even see dynamic events scaling to the number of participants. It seems you have a good course there i definitly want to see where it leads :)

it drowned

Yes all problems of the game remain they are just multiplied by the smaller map and less servers, it is the same on pvp. Also they talked that they plan to add some form of highway route so you can travel the map much faster and distances get even smaller that way. All in all it looks like numbers on the new map will drop much lower than with the old one. Way fewer player can ruin the map now completely and drive the players off again. I hope they fix this with what else they have planned but we know nothing and it would be a wild guess.

Removing the grind from discoveries is ok but removing most discoveries is just wrong. Some People liked it and the game lacks content anyway it should have stayed atleast optional to go and explore them and have something unique to come across from time to time. Removing the old map completly for no apparent reason instead of leaving it as an optional map for private server/sessions is also just wrong again there are people that liked traveling and exploring on the old map or it setup with multiple hotspots that allowed a more cooperative playstyle. There are no fixes for the issues of the game. Atlas lost a lot of players as in it current state it is not fit for high player density and the playerbase stabilizes only at a low number. A smaller map with only 4 freeports around 1 hotspot means in the long term the new map will hold a lot less players than the old map did. The official server will turn out more like an ark server with 2 or 3 rather small groups that actually own the server and not allow others on it. I hope you got a good plan how to fix this, but i would suggest to not keep it secret and talk with the community. A lot of feedback can be gathered before putting all the work into it.

I dont know if that will turn out as intended. Foundation wiping does happen way less frequent than loosing your ship. Having to rebuild your ship whenever you do something fun in the game is a big problem. If bases are indestructible and ships are not, the sea will be even more empty than it is now. Even on the sea it is the same and it is hard to find an even fight, one side is always outgunned or outnumbered. I think a combination of rules could make the game open to an increasing playernumber again. For example, containers cannot be destroyed and you cannot drop stuff to the ground while inside another players base area. So you cannot destroy all their stuff by dropping it to the ground you need to actually move it and transport it. So you are more likely to only take what you would need. Walls cannot be destroyed they are just breached so you can pass tiles with zero health but it is more easy to rebuild. And ships shouldnt sink so easily, planks only getting damaged and not deleted at zero health and ships are more likely to stay afloat as a wreck that you can repair again. If hit below water line they can sink but you can dive down and lift them to be able to repair. After all the amount of real pvp is dependend on the cooldown which is the time needed to rebuild and the motivation to do so.

Well as i said there is a proven solution that can be found in many games especially of the era when pvp mmos dominated the gaming market before developers divided them into either pvp and pve to save money and then were puzzled why noone played. There should only be pvp active between companies that are at war. You can declare war on any company at any time but you need to buy an item and there is a 48h warning period followed by a 24h war time. This gives both companies time to prepare for the war and bring their players online during the war window. It also does stop griefing completly. There could also be unrestricted pvp zones in the center of the map mixed with this or the war system could cover the whole map as it is more competitive. It does solve all the mentioned problems and any player can play under these rules. There is no griefing and offline raiding. PvP is forced by fighting for control in bigger battles rather than griefing matches that see little player contact. Bigger companies would attack other big companies as it would be a waste of time to attack small companies that do them no harm just because they are sailing by someones base. One Companie cannot get dominant as they cannot subdue an Unlimited amount of other companies. With different companies controlling the rare ressource spawns trading would really kick off now. I would go with either PvP restricted to company wars and unrestricted pvp in the center of the map Or factions that divide the map into npc founded realms that fight each other under a competitive ruleset If they stay with unrestricted pvp and megas the game will be unable to aquire new players and only loose players. The game has already lost a massive amount of players that didnt like 100%pvp and 100%pve that was offered.

For the time beeing they could also leave the current PvP and PvE servers as they are and introduce a third PvE/PvP server. I think factions would benefit any scenario but even without them a PvE/PvP server could basically just be a PvE server with company/clan wars. Where there is only PvP between two companies that are at war. One needs to buy an item to declare the war then there is a 48h warning for the defenders so they can prepare as well as the attacker and then there are 24h of war. Those wars should explicitly not be for annihilating a company and make the players stop playing the game but for competition and seeing who is stronger and wins, thus some rules could apply that limit the permanent destruction especially between clans of different strenght. Of course the ususal rules apply like a cooldown phase for the next war and no instant switching of clans or during the war and so on like seen on many other games that got it working. Of course if they aim higher, there lies a bright future ahead if they do introduce factions and open an RvR (Realm vs Realm) Server as these modes tend to attract high numbers of PvP and PvE players as well as all those that are not limited to one. You are relatively save when deep within your realms territory and the bordering regions are dangerous war zones. Everyone can play in every way they like but has to contribute to the realm in their function so they dont loose territory against the others. There would be constant PvP as well as PvE and the mode would allow for all possiblities that Atlas can offer to be present and open to any kind of player that exists, that would be the way if they want to achieve something great with this game.

Hey there @Chismebeard, @Nami, and @Gortok. I am glad that the hidden gem that Atlas is has not been forgotten on the seabed. Im sure you can understand that the community is a bit salty as it had been left there as well You have my respect for willingly jumping into such rough waters. I would suggest you to communicate as much info as you can as soon as possible to give players a clear and honest idea of what to expect and also include singleplayer and pve-players which make up a large part of your playersbase and potential new players. Everyone understands that money, time and abilities are limited resources so it would be a good thing if you could share if you are able to extent the Early Access Phase or if you have to finish up the game for the 1.0 release in a few months. New Map Well it is much smaller so i can already give you feedback on problems that will arise if you havent made some significant fix for it. Putting the lawless sectors into the center of the heat/map is problematic since those sectors are mainly used buy new and solo players or small groups. On PVP a even smaller number of players will now be able to clear the game of any other players. On PVE even fewer players will now be able to litter the whole map so you cannot find a place to build. The reason why the official servers could not sustain a large community is not that there are not enough players that want to play. It is more that even with the big map the game could not support more players on a server -> not technically but from the gameplay side. People left because there was no room for them to play, and playing includes much more than just sitting around somewhere. I am all for one big map with a hot spot in the center and a progression from easy to harder the near you get to it. But keep in mind the reasons why most people left the game dont make the same mistakes again and again. I hope you leave the old map atleast optional for Singleplayer/Dedicated and Serverhosts. Deleting it would be ultimativly negativ even if it would not get the new features like traderoutes. The giant size of the map is a unique selling point of Atlas you should try to hold onto it as much as possible. All in all it sounds really promising but we need more info. I hope we can give you more feedback once we get a clearer picture. I guess the following are some of most important questions for players that consider playing or buying the game. 1. Scale of the work you plan to put into the game. How long do you plan to build the release version? Do you plan to add significant content after the release and continue to grow the game? 2. How do you plan to stop griefing. Even games like Red Dead Online had to put passive mode as players where fleeing the game and there you didnt even loose anything except for the fun. 3. How do you plan to provide a place to live for players be it new players, casuals, or groups. Whether it be a rental house, base or a ship but something you can actually use not just rebuild every day to lose it overnight. 4. How do we spent more time on water when on the smaller map there is so much less water? Will it be optional fun activities that make you want to go out sailing or will it be necessary grind that forces you out. 5. How will there be playerinteraction besides KoS? Do you plan to have hubs like neutral cities or npc guarded areas where players can live and work together with strangers? 6. How do you plan to kick off the economy, will there be an NPC economy as foundation and players can jump in? With a smaller map it seems even more like getting the stuff yourself is always easier than finding a trade partner and organize it. 7. Most requested feature -> new ships. Can you do it? 8. Are you planning to bring alot more cooperative content to give players more reason to work together? Maybe even stuff seen on almost any other mmo like drop-in drop-out events and quests? Are you planning to add scaling difficulty so a mission will scale to the size of an group to give everyone a good experience while playing? 9. Servers cost money so it figures you want to reduce the amount of servers. What playernumber do you plan for the new map and will you open new official server when they reach that number? I am positive the news you had planned will answer this all but if not please try to include it, thank you. Good Luck Lin

Hey, i will put some simple suggestion here to increase server performance and allow to finish ships and bases with more useable details. I think these should go into Phase 1 or soon after. So we would need the following build parts added to the game (this can be expanded as seen fit, since buildparts are stored in the local client and should not effect server performance, depending on potential engine limitations): Floor and walls for ships and bases with the following sizes (tiles) -> 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 When Building for example a 8x8 ceiling or deck, it doesnt make sense to fill it with 64 single tiles, that all have their own collision, health, links, weight, color and so on when you could do the same with 4 (4x4) tiles that would greatly reduce the server lag generated buy ships and bases in general. Sails with climbable rigging, and ladder parts with the size -> 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 This will remove the need to put ladders on sails and reduce the needed parts for ladders on the ship. Again saving alot of parts for building a ship. Foundations with sizes -> 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 1x2, 1x3, 1x4 Foundations with more height (best scaleable when placing) -> from 1 to 20 This will greatly reduce the parts needed to build the foundation of your buildings and ports saving alot of items to reduce server load generated by land bases. There is no need for new visuals just merge the smaller part into bigger blocks so they will fit smoothly with the smaller ones. Other usefull changes: Smaller crafting stations that prevent some unnecessary large buildings where one doesnt want to build one. Clientside visuals that fill the gap between a ships hull and a placed wall. Larger XL sails for the galleon. It does not only look better having three sails of appropriate size, it will also reduce server load needed for calculating speed, position and stuff compared to having six sails instead. -> This will allow to build the same ships with fewer parts so we can complete them and not just build empty hulls to meet the item limit. In the future it allows us to put more interactive objects and stuff on ships to allow building them into a mobile base to live on the sea and offer more gameplay, rp and social value. -> Same for land bases there often goes an incredible amount of parts into building foundations and basic walls and ceilings that can be greatly reduced. So there is more room for building more fancy stuff and keeping server lag low at the same time. -> With the decreased server load it should be easier to add more details to ships like more sail types and sail locations like fore and aft sails. Cabin details like windows, balconies, interactive objects to outfit your ship. Damage visuals for planks and other stuff that helps to locate where you need to repair and judge the condition of your ship in an intuitive way. Or a more realistic way of handling the water line and sinking of ships. And many more things like seen among the other suggestions. Happy sailing, arrrrr!

Initially they planned to add airships which would fix pillarbases. Even a balloon attached to our bears to send them up up into the sky would work, which doesnt mean cannon bears and normal bases dont need balancing too.

Maybe it would be a good idea if you could not add your int stat completely to items. Rather have the int stat on an crafted item be composed with 50% from your int value and 50% from the bp base value. So you cannot stack the int of gear you wear indefinitely as it will be a declining effect but still high int will allow better results than low int when crafting.