krazmuze

It eliminates a lot of griefing by design, not doing it means they want to have the griefing as that IS the content in this game.

I mean it is not like the starter island instance is not a new invention - it is pretty bog standard MMO design!

This could have also been done with the circle flags from the beginning just make them all the same size and hex pack them by constraining the flag to be at 60 degree angle and bordering the other flagged circle. Then there would be small DMZ gaps between the circles unclaimed. actual hexes are better. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_packing#/media/File:Circle_packing_(hexagonal).svg But it was so simple that it must just be too complex for these programmers....

That is what freeports should have been from the beginning, because 40k people rushing into the new season overwhelmed free ports. The reasons for not having instances was PVP - but freeports was non buildable PVE. Each freeport grid could have instead been a stack of instances that are just spun up servers based on capacity. Leave freeport grid you cross into the larger map, go to freeport you cross into your own version of it. It is just a server connection, it does not have to be one to one, it could be one to many. Freeports are unique that they only have basic resources, you cannot get highend blueprint resources. So you have to leave if you want to advance in the game, but it is a safe PVE retreat to repair heal and logoff. his will never happen in a free for all PVP game because it allows people to hide outside the open game world. In single player freeport is buildable and they make great home bases with the vendors being there. If the game ever goes towards PVPVE they could do this but then all the pure PVP will quit as well as the pure PVE. (OK population never got there but it was a design goal so the game should have been designed for it)

Instead of bigger islands costing more gold, you make each hex cost the same gold. You buy enough shore and bay for your base, nobody can build on it but the owner. You want to own the entire island, buy all the hexes. Instead of using squares that can turn only 90 degrees borders, hexes have 60 degree borders. That is what makes them easier to follow shorelines. The original flag system you bought circles and it was a disaster because of overlapped circles bug griefing. With hexes there is no overlap. You do not want neighbors and their griefing structures buy enough hexes to keep them away. You will never see it in the game because metas want to own the entire map square, they do not want you sharing an island. With expanding circles if you wanted the eastern island you would have to claim all the islands as they will be caught in your radius. With resizable rectangles you would have to buy that tiny middle island. With same size hexes you could buy only the eastern island and leave the others up for grabs.

wargaming has used hex maps for territory control for years for reasons that it works. Just make them small enough hex grid so the shoreline can be followed, but not so small that blocking fences can be built.

That is what discovery points are supposed to be for, finding the neat hidden beautiful corners of the map that are telling a story. Most people just figured out how to teleport to a plopped down bed to grab the point while complaining that it is getting in their way of speed leveling. Guess what happened with this map change, the discovery points many are deleted so they are no longer the leveling gatekeeper and the first thing that happened is multiple XPloits to fly right past the attempt at slowing down the higher levels. The beauty is there, you just need to slow down to see it. This is the same story method they used in Ark, and they cribbed it from the way Elder Scrolls tells you the story - by just setting the scene and letting you take it all in. Get yourself a sloop with tiny sails, set resources so one stone is one stone, set respawns to never. I do this in single player. It forces you to move for more resources, it takes a long time so when you get there you will take in the entire island - because you have to when nothing respawns. None of this you turned your back and stuff respawned infinitely and circular trade winds to fly you around the map stuff. All that design does is lead to removing the details in the world because you do not need to see them.

A horse is a tame....so you last statement does not apply! It is just more realistic than a bear.

So I guess Atlas pirates never heard of putting a north marker on their maps?

A weight boosted raft is actually useful now for getting into the shallows and moving stuff to main base or ship, especially with boxes holding more slots. Rarely gets stuck on shore or rocks anymore. They should make a survival version of it (cheap like the freeport version) that does not need a dock and comes with a hand cart for moving stuff to shore, then the raft for shore to ship.

sigh.....nothing new here. I posted about this last year and only returned to the game recently hoping to finally get to live out pirate fantasy life. Skeleton archers are a trope that has been around for years and is why they are in the game, so they get to fire on us but we cannot fire on them back? As I posted before it is a trivial fix if they did not like people kiting them to shore to plink them from the ship - because the system already knows where the damage is incoming from . All they needed to do was stop that and allow the low level who want to plink the freeport damned for their treasure using their bow they just learned. Cure the inevitable LTP get a bear posts...

They already have Wild Pirates for Single and non-dedicated players. It is not available for dedicated and official for now. Since the point of the game is exploration, they are not broadcast, instead those who explore first get the rewards.

equatorial freeport on the other side of the island.

But they could have accomplished the same testing goal by saying all live servers are closed, and if you want to play go to PTR where the devs will be on their xboxes. The only advantage PC has then is they scouted the map early.

PVE players often want nothing to do with PVP players. They see it as a toxic, immature hateful environement to be in. So you say OK just stay on your side of the map. Then the PVE players says OK only if it exactly as your side of the map. Then the PVP players no that is not acceptable higher risk higher reward - so we want better mats on our side. That means the PVE player now has to deal with PVP by either sneaking into PVP to get the better mats, or paying PVP to get the better mats, or staying on his side with inferior mats. So now you are back to PVE player wanted nothing to do with PVP, but to make a hybrid server work, PVE has to have something to do with PVP. So now it appeals to the few PVE players that want the option to get into a scrap, but they are otherwise safe. Then you have PVP players complaining about others hiding out in the PVE zone (exactly like they complain about freeports now) and they leave for a free for all game And that is where you realize you need the PVE server, then PVP server and the PVPVE server.

There is no Atlas official 5x5, that was provided by your hosting company. The devs decided to change a bunch of islands because they always planned on wiping. That means everyone else is wiped and has to redo their maps.

Would have made much more sense if the only server up was a PTR server for two weeks. It would accomplish the exact same thing of testing a live environment - you just need to say we are wiping in two weeks but have fun breaking the game and getting intel on the new map. But I can think of no better way to get PC players back to the game that they dropped long ago than saying... "Hey come back - we are packing those XBOX fish into a barrel for ya.!"

I never got the idea that it was a headstart - I just read it as NA PVP was going to be a PTR during that time while the others are down.

what is that I see where I sat but a cat in a hat...

they should not optomize the map for the current population. Do you really want them to wipe the map everytime the population finally grows enough to need more freeports? At the start it was such a disaster even with the 4x copy pasta that they had to open up lawless as 'freeports' but they did not have any spawn points set so everybody got dumped into a pile of bodies in the ocean. The bodies was from the bob eating crocs. It would be better if they had instancing technology since freeports are not buildable - just load in a different instance. Problem with that is bad enough players hide in freeports on PVP - be worse when you do not even know what instance they are hiding in.

Amazing that people think this statement means it will never appear in official, but any command of the english language knows what this is saying it is not going on official right now at this moment, is exactly the same thing as saying it might go up shortly but we are not going to tell you that so that you do not think we are planning to wipe... Notice that it does not say 'This will only ever be available' This will be available to play on single player and non-dedicated at the moment.

Islands are deleting - how do you think they will deal with discovery points becoming garbage pointers if they do not wipe your character?

You are missing the point, it is useful on an MMO that has the potential to start dying (like the attrition it has had since release). Yes if it is always successful there will never be any WPE on official beyond the start. But when players start rage quitting because they do not like some stupid change (which has a history of happening with these devs) - that downward spiral is slowed because once the first players leave - there is some new repeatable PVE content to do for those who remain - without that they would leave too leading to complete server death.

They cannot add these islands without a wipe - as their stated intent was for those new islands to replace existing islands. (to remove copy paste maps) Now if that be a relocation wipe, server wipe or atlas wipe - they have not committed. If you replace an island with another - that requires a wipe - you obviously cannot have the old/new islands in the same place. And even if you put a new island in a new place - you still have to wipe the old island because that is their intent to delete old copy paste islands. WPE is a way to add content to fresh servers and dead servers in the MMO, it slows the onrush of claiming, but it also increases player retention with PVE content to fight once someone rage quits and frees up an island. Do you really think they would be developing it only for solos and unofficials? Some people may have misinterpreted their delay in testing WPE as scrapping it....they are not familar with this teams habit of announcing stuff months before it is ready. I like the idea of lawless becoming permanent WPE....I have to agree with those who think if they cannot get treasure map AI to work, do you really think killing off the last WPE so you can claim is ever going to work.

Shelling from shore and watching skellies crumble as a result is also very much part of pirate fantasy. There is an easy exploit fix without removing the ability to do it. The solution is very simple, the XP should not come from the mob, it should come from the method used to attack the mob. This is something the game clearly knows because you get XP per dmg, and it knows the dmg types on a hit. Do that and now if you want to use easy but fun ways to murder skellies you get less XP than if you go wading into mobs naked with your fists. And since it is so damn easy to wack a mole with a bear using one should also get nerfed XP.