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This game is a prime example of why Steam needs to end this paid "early access" crap. This game is an example of an all too common occurrence. Get so far with a game, drop it as early access to account for bugs, and broken games, collect your money, and move on. No reason to continue to fix/developer a game once you get paid, right?

I won't buy early access games anymore.

I hate the whole concept, because yes, what ends up happening is that you never get to enjoy a polished game.  Heck, even by the time the game is better fleshed out, and mostly polished, the majority of the player base, has moved on to the next half-baked early access game.   Gamers are easily tricked into thinking there's some huge advantage to being in the game on day one, when there really isn't.

It's a shame that this is allowed to go on.  It's a shame that gamers...people who are supposed to love games, do things to ruin games.

Sounds like a private server is the only answer.  A server admin would ban such people, and restore what was taken.

7 hours ago, Sykotech said:

First, if you live in lawless, that's pvp central.. you might get lucky and last awhile there but that's where everyone goes looking for easy raids and fights..  Your first step in atlas should be joining one of the biggest companies.

I quit not because of player behavior, in fact in season 3 I only lost 1 brig and my bases were never attacked.  I quit because everything you do takes so long.. want to go whaling? ok it'll take 30 mins outfitting a ship, 2 hours sailing toward the poles, an hour or 2 looking for whales, 2 hours sailing back.. now 6 hours passed and all you did was kill a whale or 2.  It just sucks time up, which is good in the way that it is addictive but it's bad if you value your time.

I never minded that stuff.  I was in the Navy for 20 years.  Have 5 years sea time.  So I know what it is like to be at sea.  I didn't mind the sailing.  I did mind losing shoulder tames, and bears, etc...when transferring between grids.  I did mind logging in, only to find that somebody did a Harbor run on us while I was logged off, and sunk the ship I had leveled up, and all the stuff I had on it, was now gone, and I had to start over...simply because I wasn't online.  I got tired of everything being about island and base defense.  I got tired of islands spammed with structures, causing me massive frame lag...but the animals cause even more frame lag.  I learned that in ARK.

20 hours ago, SeroJ said:

 

Last Oasis is awful. It's like Atlas if there were no powerstones, no kraken/yeti/hydra, you had to grind to use skill points, there were only 2 island types copy/pasted 4,000 times, you had to run around in circles on grass before you could sail your ship, no guns, no unique weapons, no hand to hand, no tames, no customizable ships...

 

no painting things, no custom stuff.

Oh, and literally only ~3 types of wildlife. Rupus, the racoon things and the tiger things.

Yep, have fun with that man.
 

It's a PvP game, not a PvE.  We have had tons of PvP every single day.  We literally had PvP the entire time I was on.  And you know why there is PvP every day?  Because the game is not focused on base defense.

But I get it...PvE players feel left out in the cold, and honestly, without game changing mods, it will never be a PvE game.  The mechanics on official make it such that building and decorating a base, is just not feasible.  The entire reason for the Walkers is that you must be mobile.  The tile you find yourself on today, will burn up soon, so have to constantly move East.

Also, the game is still in very early access, where as Atlas is about 1.5 years into its 2 year early access.  Last Oasis has been out for 2 months.  Atlas has been out for around 18 months.  In that 18 months, many major game mechanics changes, new animals, new biomes, new weapons, new islands, new outfits, etc...have been added.  Do you think that maybe...just maybe...Last Oasis will add new content also?  Oh wait, they already have, and I'm sure that won't stop. 

If Last Oasis fails, it will be due to lack of content, but they have been adding content.

But you know why Last Oasis isn't likely to fail?  Because I can pack up my base on my Walker, log it out to the Lobby, and it is safe, forever...until I log in and decide to put it at risk.   Honestly, I think that full wipe survival games are going to be a thing of the past.  Games that give you reasons to PvP, without having to risk everything you have worked for, will be the games most people gravitate towards, because most people can't devote their life to a game.

9 minutes ago, Pattus said:

 The game is supposed to be a naval combat game.  It defies logic to put in a mechanic that absorbs most of  your play time on land (breeding).  I think all tames should be the same level and no breeding whatsoever.  Nothing else changes.  You need an elephant, tame an elephant.  Every elephant is exactly the same and takes a few minutes to tame.  Problem solved.  No stashing at freeport, no wasted time, no breeding economy.  Done.  Get on a damn ship and on the water.

having to defend bases is worse.  THAT locks everyone down on the island, more than anything.  Breeding is typically done by just a small part of a Company...normally a few people.  The rest are focused on building ships and gathering for base construction and defense.

4 hours ago, Whitehawk said:

All new games start with the honeymoon period, and it seldom lasts before the cracks appear. I think if a decent pyrate game get's released that is dedicated to the subject, with devs that stay the distance ,then yeh Atlas would be pretty much be over. Tbh the problem as I see it is Atlas still hasn't broken properly away from being an ark dlc, Hopefully they will eventually do this and it will become a stand alone survival game in it's own right. For a lot of us that have played from the start it certainly needs more content now to bring the interest back. But I would like to add that the devs in no way deserved the torrent of abuse and toxicity that they got when they used to regularly post on the forum, I don't suppose that it helped them to remain upbeat and positive.

100% agree.  I am passionate, but I try not to be toxic.  Nobody deserves to be abused, and certainly not over a video game.

I also agree that it has to get away from being an ARK dlc.  To do that, IMHO, it has to get away from base defense.  I know many people feel the same way.  It brings so many bad aspects, including having to start all over, and often, while knowing that so many ships you run into will totally outclass your ships for weeks, and months...which twists your mind in the wrong direction.  Instead of welcoming PvP, you try to avoid it.  Then you simply get angered, when once again, your base gets wiped, because you are nowhere near ready to properly defend it, and once again, you start from scratch.  This is the experience most players experience, and why most of them experience a "the honeymoon's over" feeling.

Yet, there are many games where people stick with them for decades.  WWIIOL has had a two decade long run...and that game was designed from the beginning for the average player to experience a 1:1 success ratio.

I had high hopes for Atlas, and would love to come back to it, and see many people come back to it, but I just don't see that happening without a major change to the way the game is played.  IMHO, this game is the most well suited to being a game that allows safe areas, while at the same time, offers plenty of incentive to PvP.  Did you see my 34 point suggestion in another thread?

It offers suggestions on how to create the safe zones...how to create incentives to PvP without wipes...etc...

On 5/23/2020 at 6:23 AM, Captainlongjohn said:

If your playing last oasis then why are you on this forum last  i last i checked this was an atlas forum not last oasis forum trust me no one cares friend and you best believe when something better then last oasis comes out your friends will leave you alone again on last oasis better stop following the crowd and go your own way never ends well for those who follow others i dont care what game once a better one comes out you will get left alone and the next and the next and the next because sheeple cant think for themselves

Also, I have to point out that this might be the worst paragraph ever written on this forum.   Periods, and commas are left out, making the majority of it unable to be fully understood.

But the part about people leaving Last Oasis...if something BETTER, does come out, I am sure they will.  The key word there being, BETTER.  This would be 100% normal and expected.  The question is, why did they leave Atlas, for Last Oasis?  I mean, I am literally running into Atlas Mega, after Atlas Mega, now in Last Oasis.   And another question is, would they come back, if Atlas became a BETTER game than it is currently?

One reason that Last Oasis isn't likely to lose a large amount of players, is because it is very very attractive to most players that they don't risk what they don't want to risk, in most circumstances.  In fact, I can load up my crafting base into my Walker, and upload the Walker, and then go to bed KNOWING that it will be available to me when I log back on.  In fact, since I can store an amazing amount of stuff in that base, and it doesn't count against the weight limit of the Walker, I can even keep all my resources safe from thieving clan members.

The reality is that Grapeshot didn't pay enough attention to how much people hated their stuff being destroyed while they were offline.  Grapeshot should have had a better plan to make the game more focused on ships at sea, and less focused on base defense.   I absolutely love that the focus is not on base defense in Last Oasis, and in fact, it makes no sense to invest tons of resources into a base because the tile you would build it on, will eventually burn up.

It's not too late for Grapeshot to create an Atlas game that is attractive to a wider audience, but that time is quickly running out.  To get a large audience back, they are going to need big news that is appealing to them.  A ship vs ship server, would be just what the doctor ordered.

On 5/23/2020 at 6:23 AM, Captainlongjohn said:

If your playing last oasis then why are you on this forum last  i last i checked this was an atlas forum not last oasis forum trust me no one cares friend and you best believe when something better then last oasis comes out your friends will leave you alone again on last oasis better stop following the crowd and go your own way never ends well for those who follow others i dont care what game once a better one comes out you will get left alone and the next and the next and the next because sheeple cant think for themselves

Ah yes, there's always one, "well why are you here, then?"

Because I have many many hours in Atlas, on Official, and a lesser amount on unofficial.  There are aspects of the game that I love, and aspects that I hate, and many people hate, and it drove them from the game.  I am here, because I would like to see changes made that make the game more fun for more people, so that we can once again, have a healthy sized player base in Atlas.

42 minutes ago, Pattus said:

People need to sleep.  I like the island claim system.  Creating PVE zones to be friendly to new players is antithetical.  New players should settle on claimed islands and seek protection.  I like the idea of a 1 day cool down timer on tames in freeport, however this doesn't fix the issue if the company is using bots to refresh the timers.  Tames on Freeport should simply not be allowed to eat and starve/decay if left there.  If newbs can't handle PVP on day one, they should be in PVE. 

Freeport has become a ridiculous shelter/fob for major companies that have been around since the wipe,and that are virtually invulnerable at sea as well.  So by protecting newbs the devs are basically sacrificing mid-tier players.

You say it is antithetical, and then you go on to explain why it is not.

First, games need balance.  Would you pay to go see a sports game between Pros, and children?  I mean, would this be considered good competition worth paying to watch?  Of course not.  Why not?  Because there is no competition.  Even colleges are divided into divisions, to offer more fair competition.  Same for high schools.

What makes a game fun for anybody, if one group can just run roughshod over another group?  Who is that fun for?  It's certainly not a recipe for a healthy game community that will stick around for a while.

Honestly, how long do you think most players will stick around for games when they get wiped.  How many wipes in a row does it take for the average player to leave a game?  I have seen people quit after one.  I have seen many more quit after two in a row, and even more after 3 in a row.

Why do FPS players log into a game, day after day after day, when they get repeatedly killed in that game?  So long as they are experiencing something close to even success and failure, they will continue to log in.  If they get killed, but never get kills, they would not log in.

The idea that wipes are needed for a PvP game to be fun, is just absurd.  That is only fun for the one doing the wiping.  If the goal is to drive players from the game, then wipes are a great way to do it.  I've seen many people quit because of wipes.  The problems you describe, are people trying to avoid the pain of being wiped.  In short, it's like speed limits.  When you put up  radar detector and it shows that everyone is driving 10 mph over the speed limit, people are voting with their foot.  They are letting you know they don't like the speed limit.

In this game, people are showing that they don't actually like the wipe mechanic, and are doing everything they can to avoid it.  Cheaters used under meshing to avoid it.

Why not just come up with game mechanics that allow everyone to avoid getting wiped, and yet creates reasons to PvP?  Seems a more reasonable solution.

On 2/26/2020 at 2:54 PM, Collector said:

Honestly, it's game breaking to be able to build rafts and have full blown bases in freeports as well as using freeports to keep and breed animals.  There is no gold upkeep, there is no puckles and swivels to set up, no harbor defenses, no way for anyone to get your stuff unless you make a mistake and not repair a plank or a raft.

 

The way to remove this exploit in the game is to make all freeports have a 1 hour combat timer.  Nothing is safe in the freeport.  It will instantly stop people from living out of a freeport.

No, here's the real fix.

1. Get rid of island ownership.
2. Bring back claim flags, but in limited numbers.  Create two home port flags, one for land, and one for a harbor.  Through balance testing, determine how big these need to be for companies of 75 people to build a reasonable sized base, and reasonable harbor.
3. Anything inside those land claims, are invulnerable.  Green anchored ships are invulnerable inside the harbor claim.
4. Create smaller claim flags for outposts on other islands.  At most, only 1 per island in every grid.  Testing my determine that it is better to limit the number to far less.
5. Anything built outside of a claim, can be destroyed, and significant decay timers, similar to freeport timers.
6. You can't build inside somebody else's claim.
7. Limits on how you place the claims could be added, to aid in preventing griefing.  In other words, in addition to the limited number of claims, there would be a substantial buffer zone between the claims of different companies.  Possibly the radius of the circle, would be the buffer zone created by the circle.  So if the radius s 400 meters, the buffer zone would be 400 meters away from the edge of the claim circle.
8. Bases would have a bank as they do now.  That bank holds gold, blueprints, and maps.
9. Every ship would need a ship's safe to be attached to the ship before it could be launched.
10. Gold, blueprints, and maps would be transferred between each other by company personal of appropriate level.
11. You would no longer carry gold, maps, or blueprints on your character.
12. When you find gold, it goes to the nearest ship.  If more than one ship is eligible, the gold goes to the one you select.
13. When grappling flotsam, the gold goes to the ship you are on, and is stored in the safe.
14. When going to a freeport to purchase things, the gold is drawn from the ship's safe.
15. When doing maps, the map must be in the safe of the ship.  Anyone on the ship can then create a copy that goes to their inventory.  This would have a decay timer, and does not replace the actual map.  The map stays with the ship, and only leaves the safe if you transfer it to another ship, or base bank. You must be within range to do so.  Maps decaying would also remove it, or if you dig up the treasure, that will also remove it.  All of these actions would also make the copies in your inventory disappear.
16. Blueprints are held in the safe, but just as is the case with maps, you can create a copy to place in your inventory, which you can then put in a crafting station.  To use them in a crafting station on a ship, you would need to transfer it to the ship's safe.
17. If a ship is in combat, the ship's safe would start a cooldown timer.  This timer prevent's anything from being transferred to another ship, or base within range of transfer.
18. If the ship is sunk, anyone can access the safe, and transfer all contents to a safe/bank within range.  If you control the area after a sinking, you can recover your valuables.  If the enemy controls the area, they will be able to transfer the valuables to their ship's safe.  There should probably be a cooldown timer for the defending company to access a sunken safe.
19. These mechanics prevent people from popcorning their valuables, just to deny the victor the spoils of victory.  This also creates a reason to attack other ships, as you might get a good payout when you sink the ship. 
20. It might also be possible to make ships carry 7 day's worth of gold, in order to have NPCs man the stations.  This would be calculated by multiplying each crew station, times 7, times a specific rate of pay for each day.  This simply bumps up the amount of gold on ships, which creates incentive for PvP.
21. Make it such that Captain boosts do not affect player manned positions, only NPC positions, so as to take away an incentive to use human crew, in orderto get around the gold requirement on the ship.
22. Ships at sea (not green anchored in a safe harbor), with all player and NPC crew killed, should be capture-able in a short period of time.  Animals lost at sea should be claimable. 
23. The safe area for bases and ships, allows the game to be friendly to people who can't devote their life to the game, small companies, and solo players.
24. The limited safe areas remove the need to spam islands with structures, and bases would be less likely to cause lag stuttering.
25. Harbor defense would still be needed, as your ships returning to base would not be green anchored for 30 minutes.
26. These mechanics remove the need for combat timers.
27. Only green anchored ships and structures inside of claims would be invulnerable.
28. Players, NPCs, and tames, could still be killed anywhere, at any time.  You will still want defenses at your base, as a result of this.  Only crew on green anchored ships, would be invulnerable (possibly).
29. These mechanics also solve the problems of using building structures to grief other players.
30. These mechanics allow a player to log off and have a reasonable expectation that their ship won't sunk while they are logged off.
31. While you can breathe easy inside your green anchored ships and buildings, stepping outside of them would always be a risky proposition.
32. In addition to the above, gold stored in a bank at the Freeport would collect interest.  Maps, stored in the bank would not decay, but would disappear if invalidated by building structures blocking the location.  Blueprints stored in the Freeport bank would regenerate crafts available.  Maybe one craft per day?   This creates a reason to go to the Freeport.  This creates a reason to hunt ships going to and from Freeports.  It creates PvP opportunities.
33. Why would you want to have good tames?  Because there would be no safe times to farm islands.  You would want protection when farming.  You could be PvP'd anywhere, at any time.
34. Create NPC cargo ships that can be sunk, for random loot.

That is a game I would come back for.

On 3/2/2020 at 5:41 AM, Sheepshooter said:

It is no the people, it is the game design...
If the game mechanics allow someone to grief they will...

The Last Oasis Devs understand this.  You do build crafting bases, but you pack it into your walker, which is like a land ship on legs.  You then upload this to the lobby before logging off.  All of your valuable stuff is safe.  You can set 5 walkers as "preferred."  This means that they automatically get moved to an Oasis to the East, if your Oasis burns up.  The concept here is that the Earth stopped rotating, and thus one day is the same as a solar year.  It also means that the area in the daytime is burning hot.  You live in the area between night and day, and move east as your oasis burns to the west.  In real terms, relatable to Atlas, it would be like the Grids on the west side eventually becoming uninhabitable, while new grids appear on the east side of the map.  Everyone would be constantly moving to the east.  Thus, the walkers are actually your bases.  Being able to upload your walkers to the lobby makes the game friendly to casual players, and players that can't devote 10 to 16 hours a day to the game.

On 5/4/2020 at 3:58 PM, Chucksteak said:

Tames are my least favorite part of the game. I find them a complete distraction from the concept and implemented in the heaviest and worst way imaginable.

Much like the way base raiding and defending ruins the game...along with offline raiding.  I lost several ships to harbor runs, the last time I played.  Every single time, I wasn't online when it happened.  I just logged in and found wrecks in the harbor.  Got tired of having to rebuild and level up ships because my ships were sunk while I was offline.  This along with the fact that the majority of my time was spend farming mats for base defense building, etc...  Not enough time fighting on ships at sea.

I play Last Oasis now.  Really enjoying it.  Know what I did?  I packed up my crafting base into my Walker (ship) and drove it out of the Oasis, and uploaded it to the Lobby.  It stays there forever, SAFE.  I download it from the lobby when I log in.  This was my 3rd day playing.  We've had a lot of PvP, every single day.  No need for raid timers, when you can keep safe what you don't want to fight with, by uploading it to the Lobby.  You only risk what you take into battle.  Walkers involved in fighting, can't be uploaded until a cool-down timer expires.

Also, he has a very valid point with the breeders.  Even a Mythical Galleon represents just a fraction of the time it takes to breed very high level tames.  The time investment there is literally the highest in the game, and involves a lot of sacrifice.  I know, I dabbled in breeding.  Having to set timers for every 8 hours is a pain.

It would be a great idea to be able to designate a tame as a breeder, which would make it unable to store things in it's inventory, but also not take damage.  Games are supposed to be fun.  People turn them into penis measuring contests.  There is a cost point at which players just won't do it anymore.  Tames are one of them.  Somebody who is very much into taming and breeding, is very likely to get discouraged when they had worked for many months to get high level babies, but then lose them in a wipe.  To start over is like looking up at Mt Everest.  Many just can't find the motivation to start that climb all over...knowing that it can all be taken away in a moment.

Let me know when there is a Ship vs Ship mode, with limited number of claim flags that give you an area to build safe bases in, and provide safe harbors for anchored ships.  Then I might come back.

5 hours ago, Dingiva said:

Because there was private servers with ship vs ship pvp setting, and nobody wanted to play that.

Incorrect.  I played on such a server, that had all 3 modes.  PvE grids, PvP grids, and SvS grids.  People spread evenly across all 3.  They decided to do just one, maybe two modes.  So, they took a poll.  This was a highly populated unofficial.  The poll results had SvS winning by a huge margin.  Better than 2/3 of the people voted for that.

1 hour ago, Dingiva said:

Oh, your friend said this? Then, it must be true!

You have forgot to mention that a base pack timer will be introduced soon, so one person hitting the wall of your base with bare hands is enough to prevent the uploading until his friends arrive, you also have forgotten to mention that due to server issues, LO has already lost 30% of the players, and you also forgot to mention that LO is absolutely about non stop grinding ressources, unless you want to run around with common stuff.

You forgot to mention that most of the Megas from Atlas are there.  You also failed to mention that Atlas had server issues in the beginning that cost the game way more than 30% of the player base.  What MMO hasn't had server issues in the beginning?

Also, in your attempt to be sarcastic, you missed the point.  I did finally join LO, and it was only my second day last night.  We discussed Atlas.  The sentiments of my  friend were echoed by the other players in the group, and others in the Alliance on Discord.  Atlas is a great concept, but poor execution.  It is very unfriendly to noobs.  The highest level in LO is 60, and in two days, I am already level 35.  I am also not forced to create my character to fight, or craft.  There, I don't feel like I am at the mercy of those who have 70 hours a week to put into the game.

I do wish Atlas would create a Ship vs Ship official server.  If they did, I would come back.  I personally think the ship battles in Atlas are epic, and this is what the game should be about.  Not about defending bases.  The Devs said they wanted to take Atlas out of the Shadow of ARK.  To do that, you have to make the game about being at sea, and fighting at sea...not putting most of your efforts into building and defending bases.  The only thing base defense should be for, is harbor defense, so that if somebody is chased back to home port, they can defend the ship until it is green anchored, and thus invincible.

I got tired of logging in to find that somebody had done a harbor run on us, and destroyed my ship while I was offline.  Got tired of most of my efforts going to building and defending bases.

My second day in Atlas, and already involved in a huge fight involving many Walkers, both large and small (ships).  And even the smaller walkers such as a Spider, were useful...very useful.

If I had my choice, Atlas would be changed to Ship vs Ship, and that would be my preference.

The game will never thrive.  Get used to that.  Most former Atlas players are now playing Last Oasis.  All of my Atlas friends are there, and they say it was everything they had hoped Atlas would be.

They could literally save this game with one simple change.  Ship vs Ship servers.  Also, reduce the disparity between the high and low end of ships.  Common ships vs 200% ships is only going to end one way.  People can say, "Just create your own Mega," but that is the dumbest thing anyone could say.  Creating a Mega isn't easy, and not something new players can accomplish in a short period of time.  Most players are already in a Mega.  The simple fact is, this game is extremely hostile to new players, casual players, and players that like to play in small groups.  Ship vs Ship servers, with ships ranging from 100% to 125% tops, would save this game.  Will that happen?  I doubt it.  All of the former Atlas players I know said they have no faith at all in Grapeshot ever seeing the light.

They note that Last Oasis devs actually care, and police the servers.  They have already wiped clans that duped.  They also have long cool-down timers so that megas can't swap people in and out of the clan.  In short, the Devs listen to the players.  There is NO offline raiding, because you upload your walkers to the Lobby before logging off.  Your crafting base packs up in the blink of an eye, and is stored on the walker, as are your resources.  The game puts the focus on PvP, not grinding...and no grindy base defenses.   Atlas, unlike many survival games, could go this route, but they seem to choose not to.  As such, the game is dying.  These forums are nearly dead also.

Those who make survival games have to understand that it is a Game, not a job.  Nobody wants to have to spend 10 hours a day playing it, in order to compete.  Atlas, ARK, and so many other survival games require you to treat it as your second job, or you will fall to those who do.  This is why Last Oasis is going to top all of them.  It is extremely popular right now, as a result of the emphasis being on fun, not work.

The best advice was to suicide, and spawn at a freeport.  It's not very complicated.  Just pay attention to where it says you are spawning.  Communicate with your friends to make sure you all spawn at the same freeport.  It can be a little bit of a process.  You can select the grid, and then select the island.  AFAIK, you can also spawn at and island in the lawless regions, unless they changed that.  If you want to build a good boat, and you and your friends spawn there, that is your best bet.  Why waste time making, and sailing a garbage sloop out of the freeport?  Just go for the lawless island, and build a better ship there.  Then find a large company that will let you build on their island.  Some will, some won't.

On 5/13/2020 at 2:58 PM, Pattus said:

There's always PVE... I mean if you can't stand the heat and all.  Either way the only thing you have really lost is time, regardless of the outcome.

This game never should have had base defense as part of the game.  The focus should have been on PvP at sea.  Sadly, I experience way more land PvP, and most of my play time was dedicated to building for land defense, and taming/breeding for land PvP.

There was a large non-official server that had 3 types of grids.  PvP, PvE, and SvS(Ship vs Ship).  People were spread evenly across all three types.  They decided to go to one type, and put up a poll to see what people wanted.  SvS won big.   If I were to do this in official, I would put a limit on how big you can build.  I would bring back those claim flags but with a change.  I would create 3 types, and limit how many you have.  Increase the size of the old sea claim, and allow one per grid.  Create a home base flag, and allow one per grid.  This would be the size of the old sea claim.  Then allow one outpost claim on each island in the grid that does not have a home base flag.  These would be the size of the old land claim flags.  Those flags would be accompanied by a sea claim flag of the same size.  This to allow green anchoring at your outposts.

Structures in the land claim flag area are invulnerable.  Anything build outside of them are not protected.  Ships green anchored inside of a sea claim would be invulnerable.  30 minutes to green anchor at a home port sea claim, and 60 minutes at an outpost.

Everything else is PvP rules.  You would still want port defenses to protect ships that are not green anchored  In other words, you were chased to a port to save your ship..you need defenses to fight the ships trying to sink the ship you just anchored.

This removes the need, and ability to spam structures all over an island.  It also provides remedy for those trying to grief using structures, since anything build outside of a claim area, can be destroyed, and you can't build on somebody else's claim.

Next, reduce the disparity between new and old players.

• 100% = Common 
• 105% = Fine
• 110% = Journeyman
• 115% = Masterwork
• 120% = Legendary
• 125% = Mythical

Or, the game can continue to be noob-hostile, and continue to shrink in player numbers.

Last Oasis:

• far more popular than Atlas.
• No large disparity between players or walkers
• less grindy resource gathering
• no wipes
• no risk of equipment while offline
• you only risk what you take into battle
• crafting base packs up in the blink of an eye and is stored on the walker.  If the walker is uploaded to the lobby, the walker, crafting base, and everything stored on it, is safe.
• cannot upload to the lobby while in combat.

In other words, a Ship vs Ship game mode in Atlas would draw a lot of people back to the game.  You could retain the full PvP for those who like that.  My guess is that it would not be very popular, just like the Empires server wasn't.

I did suggest this to a friend who is playing Last Oasis right now, and he said it's too late.  He thinks it's over for Atlas, because they didn't listen to the players, and the Devs of Last Oasis did.  I disagree.  Give the people what they want, and they will play.  Most do not want to spend their time defending bases, and risking being wiped, offlined, etc...

On 4/2/2020 at 7:52 AM, user1 said:

this game is clearly not made for you.

Also, if you ever need to log out for more than 30 minutes, EVER, be prepared for having to start all over again every time.

Hate the game, not the players.

This isn't just hyperbole.  It's the truth.  Survival games that allow you to lose everything, and have such a large disparity between new players and veterans, are not for casual players.  99% of players are casual players, whether they like that or not.

What this game needs is to fulfill what we saw in the original trailer.  For that to happen, you need PvE on land, and PvP at sea.  In other words, Ship vs Ship.

Green anchored ships should be invulnerable.

Thousands of former Atlas players are now playing Last Oasis, and say they aren't coming back.  It has MORE PvP, but it is also more enjoyable.  No full wipes because you upload walkers (ships) to the lobby.  You only risk what you take into battle.  Crafting bases pack up in the blink of an eye onto a walker, and are then uploaded to a lobby.  And there is no large disparity between players.  Last Oasis is quickly becoming the most popular game in this genre.  Atlas will need to adapt or die.  Most people are tired of full wipe games because most people don't have 70 hours per week to play the game.

All of my former Atlas friends are playing Last Oasis, and keep asking me to join.  I am seriously thinking about it.

Many former Atlas players, are now playing Last Oasis.  Last Oasis has a very high user approval rating.  Why?  It's PvP focused, not base defense focused.  The only thing you risk in the game is what you take into battle.  Atlas could be that way, and more, but most people got tired of the land focus of the game.  Why not have a Ship vs Ship server?

This problem can be fixed with one simple change to the game.  Remove island fighting.  Make the game all about getting out to sea, and exploring other islands.  Then, add more random stuff on islands, to find.  Make quests for the game.  Make the freeports someplace you want to go, for social things, and put quest givers at those islands.  It wouldn't be hard to do.  A mission giver might ask you to bring back a resource, or a live Yeti, or information about a ship that went missing in a specific grid, etc...

The game lags so much because people gather 300 tames, and have many more NPCs on defenses, plus tens of thousands of structures.  In some areas of our base, you can't even place a box down, because we have actually exceeded the structure limit somehow.  That base has over 8,000 structures in just part of it.  Go to the front part of the base, and it is just under the limit, so this means that the entire structure has way more than 8k structures, and that's just scratching the surface.  There's over 30k pillars on the island, and that count comes from when they weren't even halfway done.  Then you have the port structures, the other big buildings on several other parts of the island, and then the ships.  It is not a surprise that our computers cry uncle when trying to run this game.

On 12/1/2019 at 4:29 AM, DannyUK said:

People like to build though I wouldn't say it's their fault, if it's in the game then why not?

It's on the devs to sort it out and have a work around, it's their game and they should have thought about this problem.

I'm no expert at making games or sure what they can do but as others say they should limit what you can build for now but don't think it should stay that way, people like the building aspect of it.

With them changing the direction of the game making you spend more time at sea than on land then we might not see many huge buildings anymore. Time will tell on that one.   

Even with activities at sea, people will still lag the server with structures.  It's the fact that you have to defend your island that causes this.  Go to any island, and you will see an amazing amount of pillars everywhere.

First, you run around the island, placing 3 pillars in a row.  You do this so the enemy can't place a bed down.
Next, you spam a wall of pillars around the shore, so they can't easily walk tames up onto your island.
Next, you make pillar towers with Puckles, swivels and Ballistas on them, to kills anyone who does make it onto your island.
Then you have large bases to store all your stuff, and store animals in.  You don't want them outside to be easily killed be invaders.
Since boxes have limited storage, you need a whole lot of them.  This is one thing that Conan does right with the large vault.  It holds a whole lot of stuff.  ARK had a vault that isn't nearly as large, but does hold a lot of stuff.  The resource box helps, but a vault for storing a lot of armor, weapons and ammo, would help a ton.

But honestly, just making it so we don't have to defend islands would free up resources, and get more people out to sea.

19 hours ago, Whitehawk said:

I don't see why if anyone likes atlas so much that adding fast travel would make them quit. I and many others wanted more styles of ship and more realistic builds but instead we just got more tames. Which is annoying cos that's why I don't get on with ark having nothing but taming to do most of the time. I joined cos it was going to be a pyrate mmo, now it clearly is not, I still haven't quit. If you want to find reasons to quit a game then you'll find one eventually anyway. Like lots of gamers with families I don't have 9 hours a day to play so yeh for me the sailing can be a pain. And if we all did the thing that was suggested by the people that can play all day, just quit, the game would be dead in 6 months anyway.

Fast travel would wreck the game.  It wrecks Conan Exiles.  Want fast travel, go there.  I can agree that the speed could be increased a little bit, but not a huge amount.  I like that the map is huge, and so people don't just quickly travel from their grid, to mine.  Conan Exiles sucks because it is too easy for people to cover that map.  Thus, everyone knows where everybody else's base is.  We tried to get started on several servers, but it is just too easy for the Alphas to find you, and raid you...constantly, so you never get a chance to build up.  If you are getting built up, it's because the Alphas are letting you.  Fast travel turns a large map into a very small map.

Fast travel in a single player game...sure, but in an MMO, no...just no.  It's hard enough to build up with a Mega or two in your area, harassing you.  Imagine if every Alpha in the game had the ability to get to you quick and easy?  No...just no.

And pirating?  I see that a lot.  But it could be better with NPC sailing ships to attack, and sink.   Making the flotsam more interesting would take some of the boredom away at sea.  As it is, most people just sail past it because it isn't worth it.

The key isn't fast travel...it's making the sea travel more fun...more things to do while at sea.

On 12/2/2019 at 8:31 AM, Jack Shandy said:

To top tier ride, including commands 3, natures cry & touch 3 feats, you need taming 1&2, Advanced taming 1&2 and Breeding 1,2&3.

Thats a lot of taming and breeding knowledge to be good in the saddle.

Of course if they seperated them as they should, they would also need to redo the skill points so people wouldn't just be able to get every combat, riding, sailing and survival skill if they took no practical skills.

I agree.  I am not asking to be able to spec into every single combat skill, or into every single occupation, but it has to be understood that there are two sides to the game.  Production when not fighting, and fighting, both on land and at sea.  A lot of the stuff is just frustrating.  Why not break it up into categories, and give us points to spend in each category.

Making armor is an occupation.
Making weapons is an occupation.
Building both ships and buildings, is an occupation.
Taming and breeding animals is an occupation.
Cooking and farming is an occupation.

Using armor is a skill
Using weapons is a skill
Captaining/crewing ships is a skill
Riding animals is a skill
 

I'm not sure what's so hard about that.

I'm not sure why they resist giving us a skill tree that makes sense.  Break it into an occupation tree and a skill tree, and give us points for both.  When you are maxxed out, you should be able to have a significant portion of both trees.  Not 100%, but maybe 80 to 85% would be good.

I get frustrated when I need something, and nobody is around to make it, or perform the task. 

On 12/2/2019 at 5:05 AM, The D Legacy said:

the engine's associated assets might give a game a general feel of reminiscence as you mentioned but i can guarantee you that if enough creativity is put into something it can be completely different.

about half life 2, no, it doesnt bother me if the have similar assets because they are totaly different, if you get to play ARK you will quickly notice the problem i am referring about is way wider then just asset recycling, is a giantic copy paste that also includes collision mechanics, movement mechanics, sounds, taming mechanics, even the how you drink water in early game is exactly the same, hell they even have the exact same bugs. i am pretty sure that if you got the left overs of another person's food as your food in a restaurant you would complain, yet here people even defend it like beggars who simply cannot afford themselfs something better.

you are free to like and enjoy the game if you do so and i will never critizice you for that, but you gotta understand that the gaming industry is a sinking ship in wich companies feel entitled to do just about anything to grab some easy money, if we allow that to continue the only thing awaiting ahead of us is a heavy drop in games's quality and an exponential increase in its price.

Your posts are childish.  If you read my history of posts, you will see that I have many criticisms of the game, but you pick out silly stuff to whine about.  Once again, a Giant Crab is a Giant Crab.  These two look nothing alike, other than the fact that they are giant crabs.  The Bear looks much more like the ARK bear, than this crab looking like the Karkinos.  Yes, I played ARK.  4,325 hours played, both PvE and PvP.  I am very familiar with ARK.  While some things are similar, like the Smithy, tools, etc...they all have different skins, and slightly different functions.  There are also enough differences that had this literally been a different company making it, and simply having bought the engine from Wildcard, nobody would be calling it a DLC.  There are huge differences.  Frankly, I don't give a crap if it was supposed to be a DLC, or a brand new game.  It's very different, and for the most part, it's fun.  Stop whining about little stuff.  There are bigger problems, some that traveled here from ARK, like the building mechanics on official.  No matter how many times you post, the fact that the Crab looks much different than the karkinos, isn't going to change.  This crab actually looks much better, and is much more colorful than the Karkinos, which looked dull, and ugly.  You have to wait for Holiday events to get a colorful Karkinos.  Here, you get them all day long, every day, every week, every month, all year long.

Why is it sooo laggy?

It's simple...they need OCS, Object Container Streaming, which is being developed for Star Citizen.  Ah, but that will never happen.   This means that the only way to fix this issue is to limit what people can have.  A limit on:

• Tames
• Structures
• Ships
• NPCs

They do have limits, but the limits are about ten times too high.  But then, they would need to make huge changes to the game.  Like take the emphasis off of protecting bases.  Put the emphasis on getting out to sea, and visiting other islands.  Ah, but so many people complain about actually having to sail, in a sailing game, so .... smh