Martyn

No that's an excellent attitude imo. I'm kinda the same way. If you go NA or Eu pve, maybe you can offer to build on other peoples' islands for them. For a fee..

Can you imagine wildcard/grapeshot trying to do a space inertia simulator.. with a gravity/non gravity 3d space environment..? I can't.. at least not without so many bugs it just wouldn't work. So I think Dinos in Space isn't something we'll see anytime soon. But I bet they've thought about it.

I actually think Jat has gotten better over the years, esp on his twittering the logs and reports come out in fairly timely responces as well as update info, much of what we take for granted on ark/atlas forums, doesn't even occur on other forums for other games. I even get banned less by ark than I do anyone else.

Yeh this is closer than op. I remember however, watching a certain dev demoing our base on one of the usa servers, because we were accused of using exploits. I'd never seen anyone doing so, if I had I would have left the tribe and moved to another server, as I frequently did, as it was I got to see all my tames, that I'd spent many days taming getting killed, buildings I'd taken weeks to design, place, replace, rebuild etc destroyed. Whilst the people who were actually using aimbots and exploits looked on and laughed. So my opinion of Ark Devs might not be that high to begin with. Any of them. That said, the devs never turned up on the eu servers, so everyone who used exploits got to do it equally.. and noone ever turned up to help us, we had to find ways of doing that ourselves.

I get the feeling that salty jack is just another of those pvpers who can't play on pvp servers. So they like to lord it over others on pve.

But.. it wasn't his hand they cut off.. It was what he put in it. Now that's out of the way.. I left Atlas before the wipe was announced, mainly because I was being exploited by people I could do nothing about, I didn't see the point in even continuing. I think the biggest kicker from the wipe saga wasn't so much the announcement of the wipe itself, but the audacity of Grapeshot to turn a pve server into a pvp one.. until the end for the wipe. That's what drove everyone else away, people would have continued to play pve I think, if it was pve. Instead they just made all the exploiting and exploiters acceptable. It's almost as if they were saying sorry to the pvpers who were playing on the pve servers using exploits and cheats to pvp. There are a few choice words I'd like to use here, but swearing never gets me very far in a conversation.

Aren't all games? Most games we see are just the exact same thing with some new scenery.. There are some pretty nice brand new games coming out on steam, from india devs, which exceptional graphics, intelligent survival games, and offer a unique flavour to various niche game types. Many new games are stepping away from pvp environments into coop play etc. But the last decade it's mostly, buy this, version 2, buy this version 3.. 4..10.. and so on. Ark with all it's expansions is really just Ark 1 - 5 etc. Atlas is just Ark on the Sea.. Cowboys is Atlas with guns in a desert and no ships. The improvements in atlas are there's substantially less grind, the skills are grouped together so you get more content for less experience etc. In Ark you have to learn each item of a suit of cloth or hide or metal armour, in atlas you get them all on one skill and so on. Atlas is a huge improvement over Ark in terms of graphic and server lag, although initally not so much, but in general atlas is a much improved ark 2.0 more like an Ark 10.0 Maybe the cowboys will see a vast improvement still. Which is usually the opposite of why we accuse companies of being cowboys.. As for selling more copies of the same/similar design, that's more of a publisher issue usually, than a developer one, maybe it's snail pushing that ethos more, than grapheshot, maybe not.. until more info is known on who exactly is heading things up in each company we can make an informed decision etc. But selling more stuff.. that's the idea of any business.

On pve it seems that if you land on an island that isn't claimed. Anything you build upto the point it is claimed is safe. Say for example you arrive on day 2, island is clear, you build a nice little house, some fencing, a pen etc. Then on day 3 some dude turns up with 40 mates, they build a tax bank and claim the island, you will now be within their area. Everything you built on Day 2 will be safe. But everything you then try to build on Day 3, onwards will be deletable by the new owners for upto 12 hours after it is built. If the new owners are okay with it, it'll become safe after 12 hours. If they're not. That's life eh. I "assume" tax banks will still need specific resources like gems etc so people will likely need to find those before they can build a tax bank and make a claim. They'll also need to level up enough to make the tax bank, which with everything else that's needed will take some time. Although respecs every level will probably help with that. Unless tax bank is moved down the skill tree, it's as far as I'm aware at the end of the buildings skils, under advanced buildings after stone. So a few levels will be needed just to access it. The worst aspect of exploitation of the new system, is people will make multiple claims of islands within a given zone, to "own the zone" and then never build on those islands. Just to block other people. But they'll need to patrol those islands to remove buildings within the 12 hour deletion period to actively block anyone from building, which is easier said than done. Even if someone claims an island, and even if they put tax to 100% they'd still need to actively patrol it to stop people living there. In claiming multiple areas, they'd also be raising their own upkeep costs and in trying to keep people away, would mean they'd need to grind those costs themselves. Both would be useless exercises as presumbably people would also want to play the actual game. Ultimately they'd need to make concessions and allow people to build. I have no idea how tax on a given island affects building stuff on your ships at sea. Maybe it does or doesn't, which should see tax levels reduce as people realise they need other people living there, or they won't be able to afford the upkeep. I expect/suspect that upkeep is going to be the catch22 of the game. If you try to be obnoxious and toxic, you'll spend all day grinding resources for upkeep. Just trying to keep the island claims to yourself. If you share with people and tax fairly, you and everyone else will have fun. Therein lies the problem of catch 22.. help or hinder.

Must admit the bad experiences I've had over the decades playing on someone elses server outweigh those on official servers, I've seen some very well run unoffs, even been admin on a few, but in general, trying to find that one that's worthwhile after looking repeatedly at dozens of others, it's alot of hassle finding a worthwhile unoff server that offers what I want. I also prefer official servers, they set the bar and to be honest I've found that playing a game with all the help switched off, with longer tame times, lower resource gathering etc make the game more challenging and fun overall. You have a true sense of accomplishment as you achieve different goals. Often I find I log in to a server that is 3-5x the taming speed, resource gathering etc or has admins giving themselves mounts like special or alpha models, then going around "helping" people with tasks, but they aren't really helping, they're spoiling the fun. Ruining the immersion. Good intentions certainly, but that's not what I want. I like relaxing gaming, stress free. Whilst I might complain a tame is taking a long time or that I'm bored sometimes, it isn't a reason to ruin my gameplay by taking the easy shortcuts. The long scenic route can be much more fun. So it'll be official pve for me, eu if available. Maybe pvp later or after release.

I think the new animal is a sharkopus, only it's arms are folded so you can't see it, it'll be a new creature, that not only destroys ships at sea, but can now walk onto the land and wreck our bases as well. Honestly.. Actually, I don't mind the new perspective the game is taking, it kind of reminds me of the burning desert expansion arc took. It took me hours to realise the tent sheltered from the blistering heat waves, I died so many times, it was actually funny.. escaping so many dino attacks only to be continually killed everytime a heat wave turned up and all the little squirrels were trilling warnings I didn't comprehend. If you go a similar route with Atlas, I won't mind so much a little twist on what is and what could be is very cool. And alot of fun. However, the main disappointment for me, is that it seems you are also working on a cowboy wild west version of atlas as well, which means you'll not have the manpower to fully impliment atlas. I take it from that, that grapeshot have given up on making atlas what it should have been, mistakes were made, so make a new game, get more money from people, make more mistakes and move on to yet another new game and just rinse repeat. That's my line of thought anyway. I guess we'll see where it goes. Although I think the wild west version also looks pretty cool, I won't be buying that, unless it's for a dollar.

My responces were to your attitude. Don't try to make it seem like I'm entirely at fault here. I was giving my opinion on what I thought was likely, because I was no aware of log 23. That should have been pretty obvious and could have been pointed out by anyone. But instead you went off at a tangent. I suppose it's probably not obvious, but I tend to think and write about stuff in a way that doesn't quite fit with what others think something says. I see many possible outcomes to what devs write what will happen and sometimes voice those opinions as fact, when I'm only trying to suggest they are just thoughts. I feel that alot of people do this, which is why I often think when reading someones responce "oh he's obviously misunderstood what that is or what that meant" etc. I take it with a pinch of salt. But I've noticed there is a definite toxic attitude from certain people who seem to almost purposefuly misinterpret everything and anything incorrectly written as some kind of manifest threat to their existence. And they respond as thou such is. I am however deliriously happy that you did understand my sarcasm with horses & knickers. Now we can move on.

You could make an unofficial faction.. on the server, and have unofficially official companies join it and operate as a single entity but under multiple disguises.

It'd make a mess of fishermen i'd bet. I expect they'll add some whacky new sharks n squids n whales.. to fit the fantasy element. It looks like the chickens and lions etc is going to be a basic idea and they'll expand into a new concept that's neither ark nor what we know.

I'll be streaming using obs when ptr comes up. On twitch. Maybe I'll get that niche mob.. Been having some problems using obs lately tho, it causes several games to ctd.

Tried to put a cow on a raft.. cow drowned.. chickens were ok tho. Dingy.. dunno, maybe small animals. you'd probably need to put a ramp over it, walk the cow or sheep onto it, the problem really is dingy is horrible to use.

Once had a conversation with some guys on our pve island, we'd gated off about half of it, put 4-5 buildings inside, a farm, pen etc. At the time the weight exploits and lockers etc weren't locked, so trust was an issue with people. They asked us to open the gates to let them in and everyone, in my company was like "no don't let them in, they're here to steal our stuff" but I let them in, even helped out with a few of the undead and they gave us some gold n blueprints that we'd never be able to use or make. The area was still gated off right up until the server network was taken down, only I'd unlocked the doors to let people in. I have to say it's understandable that people want to protect their own areas, but I personally don't like using gatewalls, it looked awful in ark. Looks awful in atlas. But it comes down to the need to not be exploitable easily v necessity to keep stuff away from thieves etc. Plus there's an issue with server/client lag, caused by having huge walls made of multiple walls and foundations v a dozen gates which make 2 dozen polys and reduce lag etc issue. It would be nice to have open land around buildings, but often stuff wanders in that forces you to wall it off. And what wanders in isn't just humans. Nothing beats logging in to all your dead tames and 2 hungry tigers outside. Maybe in time they'll add some form of large wall/fencing system. So we can easily make forts and castles out of as few items as necessary. And treasure maps will update themselves or maybe even cover an approx area, rather than always be at an exact and specific spot.

Same. I also like the exploring islands stuff in atlas. I have been on some fun runs just sailing around, would be nice to do it with friends, but my friends aren't as boring as I am.

Have you seen the Cowboy themed Ark/Atlas yet? Looks cool. As does Ark with Ships.. er Atlas..

You should put your guns and swords down and play nice with each other. That's a fact. All this arguing.. and anger and boiling rage and wait i'm talking about myself again.

There's buried treasure in it. Pirate game.

Yeh they could add a sharkopus, head and body of shark with 26 arms and tenticles.. hope I spelt that right..

Wow.. It's no wonder why people end up in hospitals..

I did read that. Clearly you think I didn't. But I actually did. So. "Crazy" objections from people who couldn't even be "bothered" to read it. Got issues much? Want to add a T to issues.. but I figure you have those covered. I'm seriously gonna laugh my ass off if we get ingame and discover an owner can demo after the 12 hours using pinwheel on pve. But it seems to be cleared up that they won't be able to demo pre claim buildings and anything after 12 hours, so hopefully, they will be people who are sleeping 8 hours, working for 8 hours and therefore when they log off, you'll be able to sneak buildings in, and it'll be 16 hours give or take before they realise what you've done and can't do anything about it. Oh crap.. hmm. Yeh, Jat, if you're reading this, I think maybe 24 hours would be a better bet, owned would then have ample time to log in, delete unwanted buildings and then get to playing, otherwise we'll probably see us logging in to a dozen new structures which'll take a few hours to remove and only have a couple of hours left to do it in. Or you'll need to allow demo permissions to be given to admins of the company so they can do it as well. Just a thought before anyone gets twists in knickers etc. An observation. I wonder if I should wear a safety helmit and googles when reading my replies incase there's a spillage. OH and Fyi.. although it seems it should have been obvious. I thought pin wheel demo meant they could do it without being near buildings, but could just remotely demo and manually meant being next to item, when it actually meant hitting it with a pick or cannonballs etc. Which obviously one cannot do in pve. I hope everything is cleared up now, you can all get off your high horses as it's putting a sprain in my neck looking up at you all.

That is my hope as well.

Excellent, I'll add something to me diary, that on or after April 3rd PTR will probably, maybe start.. I look forward to seeing it. Any conjecture as to how big the patch will be? 20gigs? 40? 60?