Coggage

Give this "solo" server program a try out, because I am going to. It looks pretty good, you can run it on your own PC with a low usage footprint and can try out mods too, if you like. It will be a nice way to try out new things and also just have fun building and exploring. I like the PvPvE Unofficial I play on but this will add an extra dimension to the game, sort of like a Creative mode, I hope. Official servers both blow and suck at the moment. A brief excerpt from the author's post: ... this is the program that will dynamically help you open and close servers on the fly so you can play privately on the full official map, with just average hardware. If you can run at least 1 server, this will work, allowing people to even run it on the same computer they are playing on.

Have a read of the experience of just a couple of players which are pretty representative. This isn't a "feature", this is just incompetent Devs. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Avatar-X (on Steam forum) I am now 94 years old and solo games. I have been trying to reach the well for two days now. But it is impossible. So many mobs with a LvL over 120. Tigers, Lions, Gordon, Fire Elementals, Army of Damned, Wolves, Sharks, the whole wildlife of Atlas is settled on an island. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Lord Stealth (on this forum) ....last night was absolute aids trying to deal with it. Near impossible lag/rubberbanding, too many players being forced into a ridiculous narrow space (who thought that was a good idea), change happening faster than 50 in-game days, etc. Why did they decide to have such a thing on the Power Stone Islands?

You took the words right out of my mouth.

As I say, EA isn't a problem, though you seem to have been unable to assimilate that fact. I'm fine with things being introduced incrementally... but when they introduce stupendously ill-thought out game mechanics that is NOT an EA issue. It's down to incompetent devs who seem to have no clue what to do with the game and who have made the game a little worse with every patch, breaking more than they fix EVERY TIME. On what planet would introducing this global Ageing debuff and cure system in such a disastrous manner seem like a good idea?

Oh dear, run out of something clever to say and have to use my turn of phrase? How unbearably sad for you.

What an incredibly selfish and short-sighted way to look at it. The Devs are wrecking their own game and pissing off their playerbase who don't really mind that it's EA, but genuinely hate the Devs running Atlas into the ground. EA isn't the problem - the Devs are. It's players like you who encourage poor game design and implementation with an attitude which is essentialy "Kill the game? Fine, as long as I get plenty of room to play... on my own".

No, it's an Old Age Simulator where 90 year old characters (aged to that in only 3 or 4 RL weeks!) have to try and find a cure that moves around the map, which is lagged out by corpses, players and ships and populated with Alphas such as Cyclops and Elementals. Getting past that lot, no doubt with multiple deaths in the process from the videos I have watched, players then have to repeatedly run the gauntlet of creature-infested caves/tunnels in the hopes that, if you don't die for the umpteenth time, entering the sparkly zone will confer the cure on you. It might, it might not, apparently. The zone is supposed to be for 150 players, but hundreds are trying to cram into there. Some players haven't been able to get in there for a couple of hours, only to find the location has changed and they have to set sail yet AGAIN. Don't get me wrong, EA I can live with and have done so with many a game over the years. This game isn't suffering from EA teething troubles so much as suffering because of the incredibly inept way the Devs "fix" things and also because of the way they suddenly introduce badly-designed, game-changing game mechanics. What part of a good idea is it where EVERYBODY over 90 (the vast majority of us) suddenly got a nasty debuff without warning, and the Devs, in their ineffable wisdom, came up with the "solution" described above? This NOT one of your usual EA problems, it's just complete stupidity. THAT'S why the player base is angry.

They are just about the only creature worth taming, and the irony is that we can't. Imagine having 5 or 6 of those on Follow as bodyguards!

Get real. It'll be dead in the water (no pun intended) in 6 months, never mind finished and released in two years. There's "Early Access" and the associated teething problems that go with EA status, but neither we nor the game can survive some of the crazy things the Devs are implementing without any apparent thought and "fixing" things with patches without actually fixing the issue and also breaking other things with the failed "fix". The Devs need to know how shit some of their decisions on game mechanics are NOW, loudly and very, very clearly, otherwise the game simply won't make it no matter how good the game could be.

Lol, thanks to the "Incredibly Stupid Age Debuff Debacle" we're having to jump to end-game content after playing for about 4 weeks, so I think we could be considered to experience some of the more significant content, whether we want to or not.

It's not the game as such, in a way. If the Devs made rational decisions on how to implement game mechanics instead of "Hey, let's nerf Taming. Maybe nerf Firearms, no, let's nerf Fire Arrows, or possibly we could fix a weight exploit by trapping people on boats they jump across to get to their own boat?" Then there's the Utter Classic "Here's good one, lol. How about we let the suckers age to 90 in three or four weeks, suddenly hit everyone with an age debuff, then expect them to run through End-Game, Alpha-infested islands and caves overrun with predators to try and get it fixed. Oh, and, for even MORE fun, let's make the source of the cure bounce around the map and even if they find it - the sneaky bastards! - we'll ensure SO MANY players, corpses and ships are jammed into the place the lag will make it damn nigh impossible! That's just PvE though - bad though PvE will be, PvP will have everyone desperately fighting to protect their spawns and some of them will be trying to stop other players getting in, simply for the shits and giggles. " I can imagine them wiping away tears of laughter. The game could be great, if the Devs stopped pissing around.

I've had Penguin Biscuits but never Penguin Bread.

On behalf of over-60's everywhere let me apologise for the "grandad" attitude aimed at everyone in general. Some people can't wait to turn into their grandparents, and in the process forget they were ever young themselves. I can see his point, but honestly, calling people "spoilt brats" is hilarious. I can just picture the frown and the wagging finger!

Without doubt this is the most boneheaded, badly thought-out game mechanic I have seen in two decades. Whoever came up with it should be fired for incompetency, as should be the person who thought introducing it in this manner this was a fabulous idea.

Then you have the correct versions and your problem is nothing to do with needing to download an update. So many people waste time thinking this is their problem. What your problem is I have no idea. Make sure you run Atlas and Battleye as Administrator. Some people say running the game in Low Memory mode fixed their issue.

My personal experience: In Ark I have never had an admin abuse their power, never been kicked randomly, any griefing was crushed out and any wipe was after months of play and we were given ample warning. I wish Atlas official was half as well run. I am lucky enough to have found a good Atlas Unofficial, which is PvPvE, a 4x3 map with lots of islands with ample room to make a Claim and x3 rates. I log into Official less and less.

The Client version should be 15.1 and the Server version should be 15.35 - is this what you are seeing? Lots of people think the two numbers have to be the same.

What will happen, given the behaviour we have seen in the game from antisocial players, is that big companies will wall off access to the various Fountain locations (there aren't that many places, comparatively speaking) and get the buff whenever they need it, leaving everyone else as 90+ year-old characters under a permanent debuff. There will be a few of these companies, not just one or two, and they will keep the youth buff for their members and also blackmail people into paying extortionate prices for access to the Fountain. It's inevitable.

Don't forget the utterly garbage ageing system.

Firstly, however, do away with the bloody stupid ageing system. Ageing 20 years per RL week is crazy, and so is the Fountain of Youth concept.

Yep, it was reported at O12 sector and people found it wasn't there any more. It's the stupidest game mechanic I have seen in the last 20 years, and whoever came up with the idea is an idiot.

I wouldn't put anything past this bunch, to be honest.

Well, every player in the game saw this coming, plus the many hundreds of people all trying to log in to GET into the server the fountain is in... but the Devs didn't, apparently. We're not really surprised they didn't see it though, are we.

You think they do? Based on their sheer inactivity they may as well not. Maybe we're better off if they don't attempt to fix them, because every fix they ever made failed to fix anything and has screwed at least one other thing up.

Yes, a good point. People will just skip past ageing in this manner to avoid the tedious, pointless quest. In a similar vein I thought it amusing that the Devs were telling everyone to take a couple of hundred of each fruit/veg and about 50 of each meat and 4 or 5 waterskins when leaving Freeport. Why bother when you can sail with no supplies at all and just kill yourself and respawn on the bed. Many players still do this, even with points in vitamins and fortitude - it just means you kill yourself less often.