Captain Jack Shadow

Last 30 days. Rust...64,323 Atlas...2,815 Clearly Rust is doing something right, and Atlas is doing something wrong. I suspect that Rust has more balance in that while you can wipe somebody, it's not nearly as difficult for them to get back on their feet. You don't tame and breed creatures, right? I haven't actually played Rust, but I have watched some of HOD's videos, and I did see huge differences. For one, single players are able to find success...huge success. The videos I watched, there weren't huge megas. Small groups of 3 or 4 max. I do not know whether there is a clan member limit. What I did see is that raiding was very easy for a single person to accomplish. And getting back on their feet seemed a quick process. No blueprints to farm again. No tames or NPCs to farm again. No treasure maps to farm. No having to travel across a map that can take you several hours to do, with a return trip to your base. In short, they are two very different games, but what that video highlights, is that there is a huge amount of variation in what happens in Rust, while what happens in Atlas is highly predictable. Frankly, I think the huge player companies, and the huge bases is partly what causes that. It is far more complicated to raid in Atlas. So you don't have those unique 1 v 1 encounters like you do in Rust. It's predictable. Huge group will attack, and you won't have nearly enough online to defend. You lost a crap ton of stuff, and have to rebuild. Less PvPing and more PvE smashing rocks and trees.

You have to have some skin in the game. I am trying to think of ways for that to be, but at the same time, make it such that even when you lose some stuff, it's not the end of the world. Look at it like this. You work for 3 months to create a great pair of breeding bears. You go camping with your family for the weekend, only to come back and find that your base was wiped, and your bears are now gone. You have to start over. With my idea, your breeding bears are never at risk, but their babies are. You have to get them from the freeport, to home. You WILL lose some of them. Somebody will attack, and sink you, and you will lose those bears...but it's not the end of the world. You still have your breeding pair. You can still make more of those awesome bears. With the gold, maps, and BPs, it's the same thing. If they created an incentive for you to keep them stored there, it would serve the same purpose. You could have several hundred maps in the bank, and they don't decay there, so you can let them build up, and then pull out just the maps for a specific set of grids. But, you risk losing those maps when you pull them out and put them on your ships. It will suck to lose some of them, but you don't lose all your maps. You aren't set back to zero. Same for gold, and same for BPs. Maybe the BPs could get a decay timer also, to incentivize putting them in the bank. Gold, you would get some interest, thus incentive to store it there. You will lose some, when somebody sinks your ship, but you aren't set back to zero. People cry about being retaliated against. Well boo hoo..that's what's supposed to happen in games. So what...if you wipe somebody and a week later, they wipe you, so what. It's a game. That's actually healthy for games, because nobody sticks around to be somebody else's punching bag. The best games have the average player experiencing a 1 to 1 success to failure ratio. This keeps the majority logging in...coming back for more.

I think your ideas, combined with mine, would make the game thrive. Simple fact...people want to fight with their ships, not worry about their bases. I will never understand why they don't create a footprint, like with the old claim flags, that limit the area that a company can build in. Then make bases nearly indestructible, and or give very powerful means to protect. But in some way, get people to have to store a lot of their valuables in the central bank, which creates PvP zones around the freeport grids. Reduce fighting over bases, and increase fighting from ships. That is what will make this game thrive. I remember Jat saying they wanted to get out from under the shadow of ARK, but then they basically recreate the play style of ARK by making everyone worry so much about their bases defense, just like in ARK.

Atlas players gained and lost. -36,289......January, February, and March. +2,707......April -2,920......May, June and July So let's ignore the first three months. People left for many reasons at that time, but of course, the biggest reason, in the first month, was server stability, but after that, it was mostly the offline sinking of ships. Yeah, it seems people don't actually like losing what they work for. But they really hated it when there was nothing they could do about it. So in April, we got 2700 back. But since then, we have lost that, plus 200. I would rather try to find ways to make the game more interesting, and fun, such that we not only don't lose more players, we gain players back.

It's YOU'RE. Want to be taken seriously, learn the language. Second, I am not crying. I am not even playing Atlas right now. I don't quit because of a wipe. But I have seen groups lose many members after a wipe. These survival games always start off with a lot of people, but very quickly, the numbers dwindle. As groups get wiped, they lose members. One of the biggest issues is the tames. You seriously don't think people quit after spending months getting a breeding set of tames that are great, only to lose them and have to start over? It takes a very long time to breed, and capture the stats you are looking for. So some guy has a breeding pair that is phenomenal, that took him 3 months to create, and in minutes, somebody destroys his work, and you think he's just going to start all over? Some might, but many don't. How many are even playing Atlas right now? Every survival game I go onto, it is a struggle to find people even playing. I wonder why? If you were trying to be the voice of reason, you failed...hard.

At some point, you have to realize that pushing on a door that only opens towards you, just isn't going to work. I have played several survival games, and every one has the ability to totally wipe people...set them back to zero. What took months to acquire, in some cases, can be wiped out in minutes. I have been playing those games again, and I'm presently playing Conan. What I have seen in the past, and I'm seeing again, is that people often quit the game after getting wiped. For some of those games, I am not sure what can be done to fix that, but I think Atlas is unique, in that a fix that drastically reduces the pain of getting wiped, can also enhance the game play. I noted before that if there is a central bank on the Freeports, and a Stable for tames, it would provide for more pirating at sea, while also lessening the impact of wipes. The stables would allow you store 2 of each type of animal. This would work just like uploading a dino in Atlas, except that there is no timer. You talk to the stable owner, and pay a fee to store the animals. Nothing outrageous...like a few credits per week, per animal. You can also breed on this island. A new structure should be made. Just big enough for the tames to breed in, and a baby to be raised in. It disappears after the baby matures. Babies left unattended for 48 hours after this happens, after they matured, become claimable. The Central bank would allow you to store gold, blue prints, and maps. Maps would not decay while stored there, but could become invalid if somebody builds on that spot. A limit could be set on how many maps and BPs a company can store at the bank. Not a small number, but also not an unlimited number. Gold stored should earn interest, but a safety deposit box for the maps and BPs should cost a small amount of gold. So storing gold could auto-pay the cost for the safety deposit box. So, what this does is create pirating opportunities, as people try to store their valuables, but also when they pick them up, to use them. What most companies would likely do, is try to keep enough gold at their base to pay the NPCs, for about a week, but then they would need to make occasional gold runs from the bank, back to base. After breeding your animals, you would need to get them home. To use maps, you would need to go pick them up. To use BPs, you would need to pick them up and take them back to base. Having gold stored, would also allow a company that got wiped, to quickly recover, as they can use gold to buy resources. They could have a few BP ships ready to go, and enough structures, and enough NPCs to get a base set up someplace, very quickly, if they were diligent about creating their safety net in the bank. Somebody who spent 3 to 6 months creating an awesome breeding line, isn't going to feel like they are now, once again, standing at the foot of Mt Everest, after having made it to the summit, or gotten nearly to the top. I think this would help stop the bleeding, the people leaving the game, after being wiped. It would also add more fun and pirating opportunities. I think it would take some of the focus off of wiping, and put it onto pirating.

I would definitely like to see some changes here. If an animal is abandoned at sea, it should be immediately claimable. It's abandoned at sea. Any animal is going to see you as it's new best friend, in such a situation. It may not fully trust you, but it's going to recognize that it needs you. There are many real life instances of this, even on YouTube, where animals in dire situations, recognized that humans could help them, and allowed it to happen. There is one I watched, where a Hawk was injured in a hurricane, and took refuge in a man's car, and then allowed the man to take care of it. If a wild animal will do this, a tamed animal will be even quicker to do this. Make animals abandoned at sea, immediately claimable. It's an easy way to make for more loot in the game. It would also make the animals on a ship, claimable if you kill everyone on it, and smash their beds so they can't get back to the ship. A ship that is abandoned at sea, should also be immediately claimable, even if you have to have the pirate skill to do it. Maybe make it very fast, like a few hours without the skill, and 15 minutes with the skill.

Maybe they can add a feature where when you are in a grid, and go to the map, you can see icons in the closest grids, so a max of two grids. Those icons would give a pretty close approximation as to where SotD are in those grids. This should not overload the server with info. It could also be set that it only shows SotD in close proximity to the grid line. Would that really be that hard to program?

Yes! Yes! Yes! What they can also do as an alternative is create a separate use tree, and make it not so expensive to gain the skills to use items. Crafting the items should be where the real cost in points should be at. You shouldn't have to be a tier two tamer and breeder, to ride tier 3. Personally, I'm really liking the skill tree in Conan Exiles. That game is also friendlier to small groups.

The should allow us more control over this. Like a setting that allows them to repair one time, to get the ship to full health, and then they don't repair until the planks decay to a set amount. There could be some defaults, but they could also allow a custom setting. Like some may not want the repair to happen until the damage gets to 400, but some may be OK with 100, preferring the ship to be less damaged at all times, at the cost of more resources being used.

Some people will move on to a new game, if they have been wiped. Imagine somebody who has worked hard to develop a really good breeding pair of bears. Very high stats...some good mutations, etc... Somebody attacks, his crew is woefully undermanned, and they lose everything. It took him months to create that breeding line. Think he starts over? Not likely. Some will, some won't. How about a company that isn't really a full size company...and they got to the game a little late. They work hard, start building up, get a healthy amount of gold, get some good blueprints, some maps, etc...and just as they feel like they are getting somewhere, they get wiped. At this point, they are trying to compete against an alliance of Companies that dwarfs their size, and now they have to start completely over. Do they do so? Maybe once. Maybe twice. At some point, they move on. So what can be done? Obviously you want the PvP element, and the piracy, and raiding. But, how can we do that, and yet not have total wipes? I would put a central banking system into the game. The banks would be located at the freeports. Here, you can store your maps, blueprints, and gold. Obviously you wouldn't keep all of it there, but you would keep there, what you don't need in the near future, like in the next few days, to a week. At the same time, I would create a Stable, with an animal tender. In effect, what you would be doing is uploading your breeders here. They would be uploaded until you need them. Ideally, you would be able to use a facility on this island to breed babies. The idea here is that you would have to put stuff at risk, to take it back and forth between the freeport. If you can breed there, it allows you to keep your breeding pair safe, but the babies, once grown, would be at risk, as you transport them home. Your BPs that you want to use, would be at risk, as you transport them home. Same for maps, and the gold. What you have in your base, would be at risk. BUT...when you lose something, even your entire base, it's not the end of the world. You can rebuild, and not be starting with nothing, in a world where there are people so far ahead of you. This would help retain players, and companies.

Using the period key works, but you have to point right at what you want to attack. So let's say you see a Cobra heading toward you...you point at it, and hit the period key...and keep doing so until you see a red arrow flash above the cobra. The bears will react instantly. I will agree that this is easier done with at least two people, so one can tame, while one stands guard.

Set the cannons to fire only at ships...still fires at fish. I don't understand this. Honestly, they should alter the code so that cannons do not even see fish. Who in their right mind is ever going to want their cannons to shoot at Sea Bass, Tuna, Turtles, Mantas, etc... Why would you want that? I wouldn't even want them to shoot at Sharks. If I want something to shoot at sharks, I will put Ballistas on the ship. I liked that S+ allowed us to set the guns to fire only at specific Dinos. You want to shoot Rexes that invade your base, but you don't want them shooting at every last Ptera that comes in range, for instance. They should do the same thing here. Allows us to pick exactly what we want our defenses to shoot at. Lions, Cobras, Tigers, Wolves that get into your base? Yes, shoot them please. Cows, bears, horses, etc.? No, do not shoot them. Fish? No. SotD, yes please...fire away.

Not sure why you are having issues. These are default PC whistle hotkeys. Attack this target...period [ . ] All Passive...semicolon [ ; ] All Neutral...dash [ - ] All move to this location...comma [ , ] You follow...[ T ] You stay...[ Y ] All follow...[ J ] All Stay...[ U ] Not sure what others there are, that you might feel that you need, but you do not need to use any dropdowns, or anything like that. Just check the key binder to see what key is for which whistle.

And yet, your tames are always safer in a pen, on land. There have always been issues with tames on ships. Even with everything you listed, I wouldn't keep tames on ships. Timers not resetting would be just one more reason not to. Not to mention that wild birds on ships, can and do make them sink. We lost a Brigantine that had 5 slots open on it. Meaning 6 birds landed on it. It was verified that birds were what caused it to sink. Guy got on it to try to save it, but was too late. Leaving tames on the ship just make that more likely to happen. So I stand by throwing idiots and morons around. I never leave tames on a ship. Period.

What idiot leaves tames on ships? What moron would leave them on a ship long enough for them to become claimable?

The problem with PvP in general, these days, is the toxicity. I have played PvP for years, and the reality is that people get far more personal with their trash talk these days, and it does detract from the experience. People...some people...take things way too personally. What this shows is that they are typically a loser in real life, thus they look to a game like this, to make up for it. Maybe they do have a good job, but keep getting passed over for promotion, or nobody likes them at work, so the look to a game to make them feel like a winner, and then they vent all their real world frustrations onto the game community...because they can. Not because there was a legitimate reason...just because they can. They know the people they are verbally abusing, are not able to retaliate. If they did this at work, they know they will get fired, so they hold it in, until they get in game. The other difference between a game like this, and BF4/5, is that this game is not balanced in any way, shape, or form, like Bf4/5. Battles are typically not at all balanced. Plus, when killed in Bf4/5, you simply spawn, and are right back in the fight. With this game, you spend way more time just getting to where you can fight, such as building a ship, or building a BP ship, and it can be taken from you in seconds, in a fight you had no chance in, because you are either outnumbered in the battle, or the other side plays more hours, or they have more people, so they were able to build better quality ships and cannons. So when you add to that, how much effort you then have to put in to get back into the fight, it is way out of balance with regards to how punishing failure is. This is why so many people leave the game. You can only kick a dog so many times before it has had enough and leaves. This also adds to the toxicity, because the effort to rebuild makes people take it more personally when they lose. This is why I advocate a reputation system that would encourage raiding, but punish popcorning, and wiping. See, we should take note that Pirates didn't commit needless violence. They had a code. We raise the black. Now it's your turn. Strike your colors, and we will not shoot. We will board the ship, take what we want, and let you be on your way. Resist, and we will punish you for that, and you will wish you had struck your colors. That is what this game is missing.

I think, with ARK, there was more of a sense of things to do, for most people, mostly because there are now so many dinos to tame, and some people got into the breeding for the colors. So, I saw people just set up bases, tame stuff, and rarely do any of the artifact bosses, and never do the main bosses, like Rockwell.

The point I was getting it is that if you can see the timer, it would be reset to maximum. Maybe what you need is a way to see the timers when you are offline. Or maybe have an alert set to let you know when you have 24 hours left on the timer.

Learn the whistles. You can use your bear to attack pests for you, while you feed the elephant. Look at the approaching pest, and hit the comma key. The bear will run to the pest, and attack it. Take more than one bear, for insurance. Note, however, that if the elephant hits you, the bears will attack it, so you will want to be quick on the passive whistle. Hit it as soon as you get hit. Actually, I think you can have the bears on passive, and they will still respond to an order to attack, which is the comma key.

I said it a long time ago, that a game like this, needs to have a reputation system, with penalties for doing bad things. This is not easy to do, because you DO want people to be doing some bad things, but you don't want them to do a lot of really bad things. Let me explain. You do want people to raid, right? So just raiding, and taking a little bit of loot, would not really hurt your reputation too badly, so long as you do certain things. Doors/gates/hatches when destroyed, for instance, would not count as much to the negative direction of your reputation. Destroying walls and foundations would count much more to the negative in your reputation. So you would want to raid, but not wipe. Taking things counts against your reputation in a negative way, but this would only encourage you to only take things of high value. You would not be encouraged to popcorn people's resources. Doing so would really add up to a negative in your reputation. Killing passive tames would be really bad, but to make that fair, you would need to make it such that only food, and or specific items could be retained in the inventory of a passive tame. I think resources would be fine, and general items, but no gold, maps, or blueprints. No items made from blueprints, etc.. It should not allow you to put them to passive until those items are removed. In short, you use the reputation system, as devs, to steer gameplay in the direction you want it to go, and away from actions you do not want to see. Of course, you would also need some penalties for those actions, and you would need to have an individual's actions weigh on the company's reputation. It would take some serious trial and error to get it exploit proofed. I myself would even put in the TOS that exploiting the system is cause for getting wiped, and or banned. Let's face it...people know when they are exploiting. Sure, they whine and cry when caught and punished, like with the guillotine, but those guys knew what they were doing, and knew it was an exploit. Punishing exploiters keeps the community healthy and strong, because it gives the legit players more confidence in the game being fair. You would also need the war declaration to be able to have a waiver on the penalties for excess destruction. With the war declaration, you could wipe somebody with no hit to your reputation. I would like to see that have a way to seek a parlay. In other words, war has been declared...you know you can't defend against those who declared war, so you seek to pay them off.

Yeah, I think those delay timers are important. But, doesn't it reset if you are there? In other words, let's say that a timer on my base is about to expire, or maybe has expired, and it is now demolishable, doesn't it reset when I render it? If so, being able to see the timer wouldn't be important, since it is always at the maximum, if you are standing there looking at it. In fact, I am not even sure other people can see your timers, if you are within render range, because there is no timer. The timer starts when you are no longer within render range of the structure, right?

I wonder if what is going on, is that the ship is getting destroyed in the shipyard by SotD. Somebody kites SotD to the shipyard, and they do they dirtywork.

It seems pretty clear that most people want this. Would be good to have more votes, however.

Yeah, the icon sticks around for a while, even after the ship is fully salvaged. I don't see that as a bad thing. It allows you to see where ships sunk, which can be valuable information, for a variety of reasons. However, I do wish they would make everything on a toggle, so you can remove things, to see other things.