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Kast

Pathfinder
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Everything posted by Kast

  1. Where did they mention the next update? Also, I'm pretty sure that spiders are ride-able now since I've ridden one this season - granted, I might just have been drunk and imagined that.
  2. On PvP, armored docks should not be place-able on enemy islands.As most folks know, the current meta for island conquest is to place an armored dock at the target island and anchor a ship filled with beds, kit and tames. This gives the attackers an effectively indestructible FoB from which to siege the island for the duration of the combat timer. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that armored docks were never intended to be used offensively. The main defense against this strategy is to spam the entire island perimeter with underwater fence foundations. Conversely, the attacker will also typically try to do the same in order to make sure that they can place the armored dock. So, in both cases the tactic involves massive building spam. Armored docks should not exist on enemy islands. I say "should not exist" rather than "should not be place-able" because we all know that, if it was just not place-able, there will be inevitable shenanigans where allies with docks switch allegiances and bypass the "not place-able" restriction. Basically, they should not be place-able and they should instantly demo if the owner is no longer allied with the island owners.
  3. The idea that wipes only happen when there's some big update is a fallacy. They wipe when the population drops in order to reinvigorate the player base, and "big updates" are just the excuse they use to justify the wipe. IMO, they were going to wipe on or around August 24th to coincide with the launch of New World. So with NW being pushed back to late September, I think we can say that the wipe will happen in late September...
  4. Galleons are already faster than schooners and brigs with equivalent sail types and weight percentages. Speed is the only advantage a schooner has over a brig, so what's the reasoning for transferring that advantage to the brig? And your "large margin" idea - I'm not sure whether you're legitimately trying to improve your own situation at the expense of game health, or if you're just trolling these forums.
  5. Empower large alliances to exterminate smaller groups with even greater efficiency and ease. They could have just gone with that one line in the dev blog and spent the rest of the day at Dave and Buster's.
  6. From the 6/2 Dev Blog: What is the plan for PvP combat and balancing? Is there a philosophy that dictates what gets buffed, nerfed or removed? We feel that PVP conflict should consist of interesting challenges and opportunities for both sea and land combat. We want to drive the focus first towards fleet battles and provide ways to effectively defend your holdings with the ships you customize and build. The ships you build will be able to blockade your island, with your opponents first having to deal with those defenses before they can safely make landfall. Your fleet will also be your main weapon of attack – both to defeat your enemies blockade and to soften their land defenses. That's not how land-based PvP happens. Ever. Island attacks rarely if ever involve actual ship vs.ship battles. The standard procedure is to land as many players and tames as possible, build a FoB and kill/blow up everything. Typically, the landing ships retreat afterwards if there's any real chance of a naval counter-attack. Any organized attack will make landfall LONG before there can be any meaningful naval response. In fact, quickly destroying ships at anchor with tames is a favorite tactic. Add to that the fact the gold cost of ships, and no smart defender will ever un-anchor a green-anchored ship in an armored shipyard during an attack unless the defending side is guaranteed to win. The stated vision of PvP in this blog is pure fantasy. In general our PVP philosophy focus is on counterplay – to provide options that are deadly and effective but can be countered with the proper tactic. We want to see powerful options that players can use to attack their enemies, and equally powerful options the defender can access to counter them and fight back. Ideally this allows for and encourages players to have different tactics available to them instead of always relying on one mainstay ability that works best in every situation. Attackers will always have the initial advantage in any island attack for no other reason than because they're prepared and have a plan, while the defenders have to scramble. And I'm curious, what "powerful defenses" are available for defenders when tame-towed guns will always out-range NPC defenses? ...Or manned defenses for that matter, since a tame-mounted cannon can be angled on a rock or hill to fire higher and further than a mortar placed at the same level? Bottom line: the only advantage possible for a defender is to 'be-more' or 'be-better'. What more are we going to see in the upcoming patches? Are we done with map/macro enhancements in favor of micro adjustments and additions? Is there new content that we can look forward to? Updates are on the horizon for the game map, such as separating the map into regions with different geographical theming. Piracy happens all over the world in Atlas, and players will be able to experience this more when they travel from an area of arid desert isles to a region of the world with tropical islands and crystal blue waters. There is a system in design to allow for the capture and control of strategic resource points placed in the world. These will unlock many capabilities for the companies who control them, such as structures which provide server-wide buffs you can share with all of your allies. Some of these structures will require monumental levels of materials and time. This all leads towards a long term goal of having large projects with huge collaborative efforts that companies compete over. In the upcoming patches there will also be many new ship options. Players will be able to customize more of their ship, starting with the midship portion of their modular ships – adding options such as gun ports, rowing banks, armor and more to the broadside sections of your vessel. In future updates there will be more options for other components of the ship, such as new sail types and front and rear castle varieties. There will be additional pre-built ships coming to the game, as well as a larger modular hull class that players can build. Players will have the ability to craft fleets that consist of vessels with different roles in combat and utility. When two enemy fleets clash there should be a variety of ships and tactics at play, each one effective unless properly countered. In the next major update we will see two new ship types – the Mortar Ship and the Turtle Ship. The Mortar Ship will add a long range artillery option to ship combat, while the Turtle Ship is armored up to break through blockades. You will be able to construct and customize these new classes of modular ships as well as the existing types in the shipyard. New BPs will drop in the world to allow the crafting of the railings, midship tiles, and ship types being added. We want Atlas to become known for large, collaborative fleet battles that require the coordination of multiple players and companies. Mortar Ships. I'm not even sure how to respond to that. I think that we can safely assume they'll out-range NPC-manned harbor towers, so yeah. Honestly, it's not any one "vision" for the game; it's a cumulative thing, ever-repeating evidence that Grapeshot fundamentally doesn't understand its own game.
  7. Is there a mouse in your pocket? I ask because I'm not sure with whom you're agreeing.
  8. A 20 million hitpoint dock protected by a 400k hitpoint claim tower? No one thought that one through, eh? So, add a recipe for an "Armored Dock:Claim" (1 armored dock + 1 claim tower) that make a dock that is also a claim tower. You're welcome, Atlas.
  9. Two players can place two different gathering buildings right next to each other if they coordinate: 3..2..1..place, etc..
  10. Atlantean Spire: - Provides Buff: Sailing Speed +15% The other tower buffs are fine, this one is not: 15% defense or offense is a decent buff, but 15% speed is the difference between life and death in naval combat. And let's face facts, who's going to hold the forts most of the time? The megas, obviously. In most cases, the only defense a smaller company or solo has on the sea is to be light and fast; but now it doesn't matter, whoever owns the tower will always be faster than you. The speed buff needs to go. It doesn't need to be reduced to 10%, or 5% or 1%. It needs to be gone. Gone and replaced with an entirely different buff. Speed on the sea is the last surviving beating heart of viable naval combat - don't screw with it.
  11. Do docked ships decay when docked? If so, and you had a damaged plank, that might explain it. Decay might also account for the damaged dock too.
  12. That's fine. As long as cannonball fire rate is also reduced to one shot every 40 minutes.
  13. I'll admit that I initially though that claimable lawless was an interesting idea. But no, no... like so much of the newer content, it's a train-wreck on PvP. Everything within a claim tower's radius is owned (or becomes owned) by the owner of the claim tower. So if you have a primary base, that central claim tower not only doesn't help you at all, it's actually a HUGE liability! It's a womp rat-sized exhaust port on your Death Star base. Add in saddle platforms on jumping crabs, and the fact that you can mount LARGE cannons on them (you can't even mount large cannons on the deck of a galleon...) and the bed/artillery building height restriction, and attackers can safely chew through your defenses from a mile away - if you can build a bed and puckles on it, a saddle mounted large cannon can hit it. You'd be far far better off building that same base on a normal lawless and spamming building blocks. Armored docks on claimable lawless. There's perhaps no bigger mistake made since King Olaf the Viking ordered 20,000 helmets with horns on the inside. A 20 million hitpoint dock protected by a 400k hitpoint claim tower? Good luck with that. So, we have two newish content updates (armored shipyards and claim towers)... that should never ever ever be used together. Brilliant! You know, as I wrote this, I had an epiphany: armored docks were designed with PvP servers in mind, and claim towers were designed for PvE servers. The fact that claim towers have 400k and 500k hitpoints was an afterthought when they remembered that they'd be used on PvP servers too... and that's pretty much all the thought that was put into it.
  14. You do start with 200 claim points as a company of one, I can tell you with 100% certainty (I have an alt in a company of one, and he's currently around 40/200),. I'm guessing that the 176 you're seeing is 176/200 - unless you're playing on a private server or PvE and the rules are different.
  15. Until defending lawless claims while offline becomes not-laughably-futile, tames at freeport islands is fine.
  16. The introduction of platform saddles (and the fact that you can attach LARGE cannons to them), combined with the height limit change for beds and artillery, means that no defense you can place is out of range of cannon attack from the ground. A mount with a large cannon on a platform saddle can easily maneuver itself onto a rock or slope and angle its large cannons nearly vertical, firing in a high arc. By doing this, the large cannon can hit targets higher and further away than a mortar could if placed on the ground. This fact is a griefer's dream since it effectively renders lawless land claims or building blocking meaningless because no siegeworks ever need to be built. So, suggestions: Remove the bed/artillery height limit from lawless islands Remove the ability to mount large cannons on platform saddles Implement a "maximum elevation" check for all cannons (this would fix everything, but I'm not going to hold my breath)
  17. "Platform saddles for crabs". Someone at Grapeshot actually uttered this as a suggestion at a design meeting, we know that. And yet somehow, they not only weren't laughed at and/or immediately terminated on the spot for doing drugs at work, they were lauded as a visionary as the team proclaimed, "Great idea!" Originally, I was going to go on a long explanation as to why strapping artillery to the back of an already-overpowered tame, while still allowing it to jump, is a really really bad idea; but anyone who's ever played the game and is not regularly under the effect of a mind-altering narcotic or hallucinogen knows this without being told. So, I'll just stop here, sigh sadly and go on my way.
  18. Or get three people together, each with a harvesting building ready to place, then do 3..2..1..place. Because coding is hard. Apparently.
  19. Something interesting that megas know about claim towers that a lot of folks might not: Each company, even a company of one, begins with 200 claim points. So, what happens when that mega (at 200/200 claim points spent) steamrolls a lawless company of two and wants to claim their stuff? Easy! Someone drops from the company, claims it, and then rejoins the company. For example, let's say that the mega company, INCELZerg, needs to drop a claim, but is capped at 200/200. Pirate MegaN00b03 drops from the company; MegaN00b03 is now the only member of MegaN00b03 Company with 0/200 claim point, so he starts claiming like crazy until his solo company is also 200/200. Now comes the fun part! INCELZerg re-invites MegaNoob03 back, and all of MegaN00b's claims become owned by his old company. INCELZerg's claim points are now effectively 400/200. Repeat, repeat, repeat... Honestly, you don't even need to be in a mega - a company of two people effectively has infinite claim points. Basically, each company needs to be HARD CAPPED at 200 claim points. For example, If a 200/200 company merges with a 100/200, then all of the 100/200 company's claims instantly demo. I think the intention of claimable lawless was to provide an ownership option for solos and smaller companies. But as it is now, island-owning megas are using the island claim exploit to purge lawless islands and claim every square inch. Quick edit: Another fun hobby is to sail around claimable lawless islands looking for poor saps who have armored docks within claim tower radius. Destroy the 400k hp claim tower, place your own, demo your new armored dock for 5k gold. Continue on.
  20. All good points. I've built a bunch of obnoxious harbors too - most of which were better at stopping Xbox'ers than subs. I've brought up the sub thing a few times over the past year or so, and nothing... Honestly, I think that they're not willing or able (probably "able") to remove the 'ships' classification from subs. Code-wise, a ship is 'an ocean-going object that players can ride in or on'. So, they'd basically need to create an entirely new class of object for subs or somehow flag subs as 'ship, but also a sub' and tie a new cannon-wheel option to that flag, which might not be possible (or maybe it's just too hard).
  21. Kast

    Alphas

    I saw an alpha lion... for a few seconds.
  22. This post is more of a brain-dump about the new lawless claim tower system than a commentary. It's not comprehensive by any means, but hopefully it might be useful for anyone with questions about it. We're a small company of ten folks this season, so we decided to forego the whole island claim race and give the new lawless claim thing a go. So far, we generally like it as it seems ideal for small groups or even a solo, since a claim tower locks down a good chunk of land for yourself without the need to spam claim blocks. Now onto the stuff: You cannot place claim towers on lawless islands adjacent to freeports or on "quest" islands - like the polar islands where you do the yeti achievement. There might be more islands that are blocked, but we haven't found any. Claim towers have no "combat timer" or permission functionality at all, and they will not protect you or your buildings/tames from attack. Basically, they just give you a ring of building blocking and immunity from the lawless decay timer. Attackers can happily skip past your ring of claim towers and burn down your thatch shack 24/7, so plan accordingly. Only the claim owner can build within the claim tower circle; enemies and allies alike cannot. Player and company owned claim towers become owned by the inviting company when joining or merging. Claim towers are fairly cheap (no alloy for land claim towers), and one person can probably gather enough mats for one in a few minutes. Water claim towers are pricier since they require alloy. If you played in the first season, the claim mechanic will be familiar (since it's basically the old flag-claim, but with towers). Each company, even if you're a company of one, begins with 200 points to spend when claiming. Your first tower will cost (4?), and then scale up as you add more. Tower claims do not need to be adjacent (or even on the same island), and they cover a reasonably large area (this isn't us, btw): There's a one-hour(ish?) delay after you place a tower before the land is officially claimed, which you can see as a flashing green circle on the map. When first placed, the tower will have very low hitpoints, and will repair itself over the next hour to a maximum of 400k hitpoints. Note: On hover, there's an option to feed the tower 200g. We have no idea what this is for - maybe it instantly repairs it to full? Dunno. You don't need gold to place one, and we're not in the habit of giving gold to random buildings without knowing why. You can place multiple claim towers at the same time, and their circles can overlap. In the case of overlap, the first tower placed takes precedence: I.e., the first tower placed controls a full circle, the second overlapping one controls its circle minus the 'bite' taken from the first claim. This is relevant when placing towers next to enemy claims: you can place a tower directly next to (but not within) an enemy claim, and your claim will not capture any land controlled by the enemy tower until it's destroyed, Enemy claimed areas can only be captured when the enemy claim tower is destroyed. At 400k hitpoints, common cannons will need just over 300 cannonballs to destroy it. Water claim towers can only be placed adjacent to your own land claim towers (I'm guessing that this is to prevent monkeys from claiming chunks of open sea, as often happened in season one). Land claim towers follow the local build height limit (not the bed/cannon height limit), so you can definitely land claim mountaintops around you (and you should). Your buildings within a claim ring will not be subject to the fast lawless building decay rate. You might see a 'decay quickly' when you first place a tower - ignore it, it's a dirty lie. If you read nothing else in this list, read this... it's really, really important: buildings within a claim tower radius are owned by whoever owns the claim tower. Which means, if the claim tower in which your base resides is destroyed, and an attacker places their own claim tower in its place, the attacker now owns everything within the ring of their claim tower: every building piece, door, chest etc.. now belongs to them (i.e., their company's name appears on hover instead of yours), potentially without a shot being fired - other than those at your now-destroyed claim tower. It is possible to build around a claim tower and completely enclose it within layers of blocks and/or honeycombed walls (see above bullet point). If you have a primary base, it's probably a smart idea to build your base around a claim flag. That's all I can think of at the moment, but I'll add more if anything comes to mind. Feel free to add anything if you have additional insight or have specific questions.
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