MaxPower

6 minutes ago, boomervoncannon said:

Just to tack on to what I said about a PR person...I'd bet dollars to donuts you could have paid a pretty good PR professionals salary for a year with all the revenue you could have saved in the form of having fewer refunds if you'd just communicated with your playerbase better during that launch. Remember how many people said their biggest frustration was the lack/quality of communication?

Oh absolutely. I've made this comparison before but I remember when Star Wars Galaxies launched. The game launched a year early, was broken at every level, you couldn't log in the first day and several major features were cut to make the launch date. It makes Atlas's launch look like smooth sailing and that was a production release... not an Early Access release. Yet the community management and dev teams were so amazing. They were so open and honest with the players that while people weren't happy, they gave the team the benefit of the doubt. It wasn't until most of the original dev and CM teams were gone that things took a noes dive. Why was that? Because communication dried up and the devs sprung massive changes to the game on the community with two weeks notice... and refused to listen when literally everyone said they didn't like the new direction. The game died that day. PR matters. 

2 minutes ago, Asanna said:

I agree I never said it wasnt an issue nor underplayed it I'm speaking from how the devs might see it. They dont care , but if it carries over to PVP then it becomes and complain fest from PVPers they cant plunder. I apologised if my post didnt explain well enough what I meant, figured it was easily understandable. 

There are many fixes (dont let dead bodies have items transferred into them, dont let people walk over weighted, etc dont wanna go into details for those people looking for griefing.)

But the current issue known is every change made in one setting carries over into the other setting. Its been there since day one. Something changed in PVE alters PVP and vice versa. And since more people are on that PVP kick they dont really care how negatively it effects PVE when changes are made.

Yeah I see what you're saying and sorry if my post was a little harsh. This is just an issue I find very frustrating since I actively want to be playing Atlas but refuse to until I can launch a ship and not have it sunk by another player in PVE. I don't have unlimited time to keep harvesting resources to replace ships. 

I would disagree that PVP is where more people are playing. The server counter that was posted yesterday seems to indicate that the PVE servers are far more populated. 

Just now, Asanna said:

The issue is keeping things without hindering the gameplay for either sides.

Look at the weapons debuff that took place, pve is having a hard time with the reduction against Wild animals and such. It was meant to help in PVP but backfired in PVE.

It's not that big of a deal to them because most people dont parade around how it's done so it remains semi-controlled. Theres also about 4 ways I currently know of and have seen be done that would have to be fixed. And an easy fix for those things makes no feasible sense for game play.

Sorry but that's nonsense on so many levels. One, it IS a widespread issue in PVE... a lot of people just don't realize that when their ship mysteriously vanishes at night that it was because some asshole sank it on them. And even if it was a more limited problem, its still a HUGE exploit that cuts against the very idea of a PVE server. Something like that should be a high priority fix. 

Also, the fix is pretty easy. First of all, the main way this is happening is through an exploit (which I won't explain) that has existed since Ark which lets players carry unlimited weight. To make matters worse, for some inexplicable reason, a character is still able to walk/swim no matter how much weight they are carrying... even if its 100,000 pounds. Just fixing that exploit and preventing people from moving at all when over their weight limit like in Ark would make this a lot harder. There would still be other ways to do it, but they'd require more people and take more time. 

The real solution is, at least for now, prevent ships from sinking due to being over weight in PVE. Instead, just make it so ships can't move if overweight. Combined with people not being able to carry unlimited weight this would solve most of the problem and there would be no negative impact on gameplay from either. 

2 minutes ago, boomervoncannon said:

Yeah the way he stated that came across a bit tone deaf. As I've said before, Wildshot™ is being penny wise and pound foolish by not having a PR professional on staff whose primary job it is to communicate with the playerbase. Jat as a developer should never be in the position of having to weigh things like how his tone will come across to a diverse playerbase, that's a PR person's job, because they're trained in it. I'm trained in sales and if you ask me to write code, we're @#$%ed.

Yeah I'd agree with that. Jat's doing his best but such a poor response to an exploit and design fault that has cost a lot of people significant amounts of time isn't a good look. People play PVE specifically so they don't have to deal with losing their stuff to other players and an exploit that allows exactly that should be a very serious matter for the dev team. 

1 hour ago, wildbill said:

I built a few building where there were resources. Nothing spawns by them. I haven't measured, but the distance is over 10 floors worth, probably closer to 20 or more.

There is a no spawn zone around foundations, apparently where you have no resources because you have built everywhere.

Yeah everyone knows that. The thing is foundation block was turned off in lawless until a couple days ago. When they turned it back on, thanks to foundation spam everywhere, resources were pretty much removed from lawless. They turned it back off again yesterday but it seems to have reverted with this mornings patch. 

EDIT: I hadn't actually logged in when I made that post, was just going by the OP. Seems resources ARE respawning in lawless... just slower than usual.

Jat's jovial nature in that post seems to indicate this isn't a big deal as far as the devs are concerned. Sure, there is a vague threat that the games single GM might do something if you get caught doing this but its a pretty hollow response to a game breaking bug to be honest. 

5 minutes ago, Percieval said:

That’s such bullshit. The playerbase puts on an idea and the community responds to it. If there are people on the forum that disagree with an idea and you immediately think they’re fanboys, means youre delusional. 

Ok I hate jumping into landmine threads like this but while Scorpionshawn is clearly just a troll looking for attention, his general point actually isn't complete bullshit. I've been in and around the game industry for almost 30 years and blind fanboyism is definitely capable of hurting a title. 

People will have different opinions and disagree with each other about what the best direction for a game is. That's totally fine. What's less fine are people who run to the forums to defend a game no matter what. They take an everything's perfect don't change anything ever stance no matter what the reality is. Usually these "fanboys" do it because they feel like they're helping the devs or perhaps hoping for some sort of recognition for their tireless efforts to defend the game (this use to happen a LOT back when closed betas were more common... people would kiss serious ass hoping to get an invite). Essentially they're the internet do-gooders of the gaming world. Every game gets people like this and there may or may not be such people in this very thread. 

The problem is, such blind defenses aren't a great thing in the long term, especially when dealing with a smaller/amateurish/indie development team. Large AAA dev teams are far more mechanical and aren't really prone to listening to user feedback for better or worse. Smaller teams working on EA titles though really are susceptible to user feedback and its ALWAYS easier to listen to the people saying you're doing a great job than those giving negative feedback, even when those giving negative feedback are a much larger group. That's not to say the masses are always right one way or the other and sometimes, especially with an EA title that's lacking a lot of content, you're not getting a completed vision and things might seem broken when they're just not finished. However, if there are real problems that need to be addressed, you're not doing the game any favors by mindlessly taking the other side just because you want to defend the game.

Again, this is a troll thread through and through. However that doesn't change the fact that the underlying idea has merit. If you like something about the game even if others don't, by all means defend it. Just make sure you're not defending it for the sake of defending the game... because if so, you're doing the game a disservice.  
 

1 minute ago, Wurger said:

OK, thx for the info. Wont leave them at freeports anymore. Do you have to be completely out of the grid or just away to another island in the same grid??

Have to leave the zone completely. 

1 minute ago, Calypso Sangrael said:

Well, I tried to get out of the D8 Freeport twice and my ramshackle sloop fell apart. The THIRD time I built one I left it overnight (last night) at the wharf and today it was gone, along with storage and bed. The map shows it out by the C8 border, and I have no way (and no desire at this point) to try and get it. I am at L8 and since it's a Freeport I can no longer level, so there's really nothing left for me to do. At this point I discouraged a couple friends from joining the game as it is unplayable for people just starting out. I have a friend who got in early, has land, etc, and he will tell me when Devs are ready to make it playable to a larger group. I understand it's alpha, and while I think early releases without basic pretesting is the kiss of death for a game, this one might have potential. So, you guys keep reprting gliches, and people like me will say farewell for a while and wait for friends to tell us when it's playable.

Pretty sure they fixed the issue where ramshackle sloops break while leaving freeports. As for your third Sloop, you can't leave ships in freeport overnight because they decay rapidly in freeport zones. As Nightstrasza said, that's something that should be made more clear than it is. 

So my advice would get to get another sloop now that they're fixed and head for a lawless region. 

The 4 day timer starts counting the minute you or your company members are no longer in the area (or logged out) and resets when you come back. So you need to log in to refresh your timers at least once every four days.  

Sort of need more info to give you an answer.

If you left it in a freeport, it decayed. If its PvE and you haven't been on in a little while, its probably because someone sank it. 

I've had a couple trees respawn right next to foundations, so its working.... just slowly. 

11 minutes ago, Scyver said:

Even if it was their original intention to push us off Lawless, the devs seemed to hear us out when we voiced our concerns and now that they've reverting the changes back and even made it easier to build closer together I say they deserve a little kudos. Maybe they didn't see the game being so popular among the solo/casual crowds but I think they're open to altering their original intent and trying to make a place for us.

Hey I've been very vocal on this issue and I'll be the first to say thanks to the devs for hearing all the bitching and reverting this change. It really is appreciate. Now fix pve ship sinking and we'll be set!

7 minutes ago, Percieval said:

He never said that. I don’t know where you have that from. 

Grodgen might be exaggerating a bit but what he's saying is true. Jat DID say that lawless is suppose to be unclaimable land that's just a stepping stone.... and that's a problem right now. People ARE claiming large chunks of lawless with foundations and their foundation spam is blocking the spawning of resources. Its pretty hard to get a foothold when there are no resources spawning. This is made into a larger problem by the amount of people living in lawless because its very hard to find a claim anywhere for solo/small group players. 

I'd also be happy to leave lawless and just live on my ship... but right now some d-bad can easily sink it even in PvE, so that's out too. The whole thing is a cluster right now that's making the game unplayable. 

46 minutes ago, Jatheish said:

Lawless Regions: Spawns, Resources, Temps. and Weather

Shortly after launch, we temporarily hacked up a change which turned Lawless Regions into Homeservers and enabled some special settings on them which prevented Alpha Creatures from spawning, it had faster respawns when it comes to harvestables, and weather events (or might have just been rain) were disabled. In the latest update, we removed these changes and have set it back to our initial design. These servers are meant to be unclaimable land to allow players to gain a foothold once they’ve left Freeports, but they’re meant to be a temporary area before setting sail into the wide ATLAS!

Based on our investigation thus far, resources are certainly respawning on these grids, and the signs point to the structure spawn-prevention radius causing confusion and leading to the reports. This system is native to the game but wasn't present during our initial launch due to Lawless Regions being listed as Homeservers, so from a technical point of view, it's intentional, however, I know better than to rule out possibilities for other issues (hence they're investigating). There's an argument that the radius itself needs to be adjusted, so we'll have to think on that. Keep in mind that this can change, whilst there may be some things we’re unlikely to change, it doesn’t mean that we’re set in stone. We’ll keep you posted if we have any updates!

PvE Exploits

Not going to share what the exploits are, that would be unwise…although I suppose for those of you who weren’t aware, you might be with my post.

Just wanted to say we are well aware of what’s happening and are exploring ways to deal with it. The obvious solutions won’t quite work due to some backend stuff, however, we are actively looking into a more delicate and effective solution. In the meantime, quit being jerks and griefing each other, otherwise, I might have to set Amberenix (our Game Master) on ya! 

On Resources: 

Come on, you know damn well what the problem is... its the same as it was in Ark. People are foundation spamming the lawless regions and its preventing resources from spawning due to the laughably large block range on foundations. This was foreseeable since its been happening for years in Ark and while many of us would LOVE to leave lawless in Atlas the terrible claim system is currently preventing that. 

Now, a large block range made sense in Ark. The Island was covered in trees/rocks and people wanted to build huge dino pens without having trees and stuff in the way. You don't have such a need in Atlas. There is no real need to have a football field of clear land around every foundation and just like Ark, it allows for easy griefing and a lack of resources for the players that need them most. I see no reason the foundation block range couldn't be reduced to only a few feet. Its not like people were complaining when there was no blocking at all.... 

PvE Exploits: 

Nice to know that the only thing keeping my ships from being sunk right now are other players behaving. I'm sure that stern talking to will help!

Oh right, that's not working... someone was in chat before bragging about all the ships they've sunk and salvaged on PVE. I doubt a hollow threat that the GM is going to get them will make it stop, especially since its really hard to report such activity when they sink your ship while you're sleeping. What's frustrating is this has been a known issue since launch and isn't a hard one to fix: Ships can't be sunk due to weight in PVE, they just don't move. Being able to destroy another players property in PvE should be THE top priority of the team, as its pretty much game breaking. That's obviously not the case unfortunately. 

 

I don't think its that they are trying to force people off of official servers. It seems more like they're trying to annihilate solo players and small companies. Its pretty clear they have no regard for anyone but large companies and streamers and they want to push everyone into just a few big groups. 

I mean just look at the biggest issues right now. The lack of resources in lawless don't impact large groups, so its not important. Solo players having little change of taking/holding claims doesn't impact large groups, so its not important. PvE ship sinking doesn't impact larger companies (or PVP) so its not a priority. However when streamers were getting their galleons sunk after last nights patch thanks to messed up SotD you better believe that received a rapid fire hot fix. Can't have the streamers getting upset now can we?

And while the SotD rapid fire bug impacts everyone and absolutely needed a hot fix,  just as many people are losing ships to the over weight sinking in PvE. Hell, there is someone in chat in my server RIGHT NOW laughing about how they go around sinking peoples ships ON PVE. Yet that has gone un-fixed for two weeks. Why? Because its not something hurting streamers or large companies. 

Just now, Khazador said:

That comment from the dev was very wishy washy. To me it seems like it was broke before and now it is not broke but yet it is still broke according to them. So now they are thinking about how to fix it?

As was said in the other topic about resource spawn there is no need to "think" about how to fix it. Its a single variable in the server config file. They could change it in minutes if they want to... 

Just now, zwt2135 said:

Where does it say this was an intended change. Why would they not warn us in the patch notes doesn't make any sense.

Read the previous posts. There is a quote from one of the devs saying things are functioning as intended... and it was kind of sorta of in the patch notes. Its related to them removing lawless from being home servers. Resource blocking has always worked in non-lawless are far as I know, its just not an issue since there is no foundation spam. 

17 minutes ago, haseo said:

same problem here why did you do this wildcard? no one like you claiming system we want to play lawless to have fun

and don't say it's a bug

like ark 3 line

ResourceNoReplenishRadiusPlayers=.1
ResourceNoReplenishRadiusStructures=.1
ResourcesRespawnPeriodMultiplier=.5 

Yes, that is how simple the fix is for anyone that doesn't realize it. Changing a single variable in the server config file. Now, I could understand the need for a wide spawn block range in Ark. People needed to build large dino pens and didn't want trees/rocks in the way. We don't have that need in Atlas and there is a LOT more open land to build than in Ark. There is no good reason the respawn range couldn't be turned wayyyyy down.  

1 hour ago, LifelessGamer said:

I still believe this to be a bug.

IF  structures stopped resource spawns then people could go around hiding stone pillars barely sticking out of the ground to make the game a barren wasteland very quickly.

Its not specifically a bug. This is exactly how foundations worked in Ark and since this is pretty much a forked version of Ark... foundations are likely "working as intended". The problem is, you use to be able to use pillars to "claim" land in Ark, which was a pain in the ass to deal with but at least it didn't block resources. 

30 minutes ago, Puppies4ever said:

So many cry kids.....put away your foundations and ressources will spawn in minutes

Its not that simple. Where I live some d-bag spammed foundations for hundreds of yards around his tiny little house. I had no choice but to throw down a couple myself to keep him from pinning me in. There are also foundations someone else placed down which they keeps renewing with less than 12 hours left on them for some reason (they're not really in a buildable area) as well as several other houses built really close together in the area. Sure, we could all demolish everything but a 1x1 hut and some resources would come back but that's not really an option. The minute I demolish my couple foundations someone is going to place down their own. 

1 minute ago, Axden1 said:

I'm not even mad. I just have a feeling our situation probably wasn't even noticed because it's not something the big streamers are dealing with. I know it will be fixed, just hoping sooner then later.

The devs are aware of it. The official response is that resources are being blocked by foundations and its working as intended.

This was my biggest fear buying Atlas. Wildcard almost never listened to community feedback on issues in Ark and rarely ever reversed a change that was "working as intended" no matter how much is pissed people off. They'd just keep their head down, ignore the community and do whatever they want. I mean, fair enough its their game... they can build it however they want. Just don't blow smoke up our ass with this "we want community feedback". No, they want streamer and mega tribe feedback. That's it. They don't care about the normal players experience. If they did, things like PvE ship sinking would have been fixed weeks ago.  

The peak player count happened during what was pretty much a holiday weekend, so that's something to keep in mind. There are also some pretty game breaking issues right now that are keeping some people (myself included) from playing at the moment. Until other players can't sink my ships in PvE and resource respawning is fixed in lawless, I'm not going to be spending much time in game. Might see an increase in population after those fixes.... if they ever come.  

You'll also see spikes in player population going forward every time there is a large update. Once the game is stable and not a complete dumpster fire after every update... things will likely improve. For now, so long as Atlas is above 20-30k players, I'd say its population is healthy... and I don't see it falling bellow that anytime soon. 

10 minutes ago, JotaCe said:

We don't know that. If this was a deliberate change in Patch 10, they should have said it. But there is nothing in patch notes. I think that was something that goes wrong with the patch and they didn't expected that.

If there are 3 patches fixing some of those bugs and none the resources respawn is because the issue is hard to fix yet, if don't they need to notify us about that change.

It shouldn't be hard to fix. Resource respawn block range on foundations was a server setting in Ark... and since Atlas is built on top of Ark, I'm sure its a server setting in Atlas as well. You'd think it would be as simple as turning it down or off. Perhaps there is more to it than that for some reason but that seems unlikely.

More likely its that this isn't something impacting streamers... so they have no desire/pressure to fix it quickly. Same with PvE ship sinking. Streamers losing their Galleons to SotD sure as hell got a hot fix though.  

18 minutes ago, Sneakydude said:

Do not build around your base with foundations, boeys etc.. just warning you. Otherwise works fine for us on NA pvp

Its not an issue in claim zones. Its only an issue in lawless because right now lawless is nothing but foundation spam. People are building in lawless because they can't find a claim but now they can't do anything because there are no resources spawning in lawless to build with. Its not a sustainable situation... people will just quit playing. 

9 minutes ago, Capt Adonis said:

I set a timer for a tree respawn and after 3 hours of real time and 3 days/night of game time no trees respawned in lawless areas.

 

Its not a time issue. They seem to have enabled foundation blocking in Lawless areas so anything within a certain radius of foundations isn't respawning. The radius is ridiculously high, especially given the massive foundation spam in lawless areas.   

48 minutes ago, Khilandros said:

The resource issue is being investigated

 

What is there to investigate? They are using the same system they've been using for years in Ark. They just turned on foundation resource blocking in Lawless with this patch... and since lawless is nothing but foundation spam right now, no resources are spawning. Either turn it back off or dramatically reduce the block radius (I prefer a reduced radius so rocks stop spawning in my house). Like a lot of the issues they've been investigating for days now, its not rocket science... they're just very bad at setting priorities. 

4 hours ago, Captain Varghoss said:

#1 biggest issue for me is people sinking my ships on PVE. Makes me not want to launch my ships because people are exploiting the weight bugs.

Absolutely. It is entirely possible and relatively easy to sink another players ship in PvE using the weight exploit. Why has this not been addressed? Its a simple fix (ships can't sink because of weight, at least while anchored, on PvE) and for those aware of the problem it has pretty much made PvE unplayable. I refuse to launch anything beyond a Sloop right now after someone sank out Schooner the other day with this exploit. Alpha/EA or not, its unacceptable that such an issue has remained unsolved for this long.  

 

One thing to consider is that there are different qualities of weapons you can craft. If your "Common" pistol can one shot things, what's the point of ever looking for better blueprints?