LINK TO REDDIT POST To start off I'm just gonna put out there I have over 4k+ hours in Ark. Some on official but most on Unofficial (Back and fourth a few times). I was with Ark since it was in Early access on steam and watched it develop with the content building all the way up to what it has now. Ark's player-base isn't what it used to be now and I'd like to think Atlas is on a similar path and I can only hope it differs in it's own way that makes it more enjoyable for many than Ark ever was.
My MAIN issue with Ark, was that the developers didn't accommodate the different kinds of play that alot of their playerbase would have liked. Sure they had Primitive+, Extinction and it's regular official servers but they never appealed to the playerbase that wanted to pvp and wanted better gratification in a shorter time period. You couldn't play on official servers comfortably without really getting wiped a bunch of times. For people that have full-time jobs as myself, just can't spend 13+ hours like some of these other people however we enjoy the game and try it anyways till we get tired of rebuilding from 4am wipes. THOSE players all lose interest so quickly and it's sucha shame because the game was great. Imagine this, imagine working a 10 hour shift from work, it's been a long day. You wanna come home and enjoy some Atlas. However just the other night you were wiped and now you're spending the next few days again logging in to swinging at trees and rocks again to settle down again. I'm sorry but after a long day at work the last thing I want to do is spend more time on a game like it's a second job, I'm not sure about everyone else but it sucks. Yes getting wiped is part of the game, YOU SHOULD NOT PLAY THIS GAME without the mentality of "Hey I'm eventually going to have to rebuild sometimes, and multiple times but it's part of the game."
Now before people use the "You just want everything handed to you" no that's not the case. I'm sure plenty of people are fine grinding as long as they're getting some gratification from the game rather than spending nearly the entire time just getting back to where you were just a few days/weeks ago. It definitely turns people away, and all of you know it does. How many people have been in a Tribe/Company in either of the games, been wiped and had a friend just lose interest because they're getting whelped multiple times in the same day/week. It happens it's not for everyone but hey those are still valuable players of the community that I think we need to accommodate.
My opinion really. Make an official High rate server for us. Doesn't have to be crazy high but something that clearly requires LESS time needed for people who have responsibilities outside of the game. They also need a system that caps players on how many are in their company so you can play on a server where you're not going to get zerged by 15+ guys when you're just playing with your 3 buddies. Not everyone wants to join a huge company a lot of people enjoy their tight group of friends and mainly want to focus on that. If you've ever played on an Ark unofficial server, A LOT of the admins made rules and changes that accommodated these players which was great you could choose where you wanted to play, maybe you had time to spend on official maybe you didn't and needed unofficial.
TL;DR-Get to the point.
They need official servers that like unofficial have different settings than default settings that we have right now (Higher rate, Steam Workshop mods, Rules, Smaller map, Etc). Servers where we can mass vote for the type of steam workshop mods, rules, changes that differ from the regular servers we have now. I'd love to be part of an official server that has it's rates a bit higher and maybe a company cap on members. Where your small group of 5 wouldn't be severely out numbered to some of these massive groups that just completely eclipse you and all the work your small group has done.
"Why not just play on an unofficial server then?"
Unofficials get wiped, late updates, admins play favoritism, badmins, not enough donations server shuts down, etc. If you've ever played on a few for a while, you'll know they are far from a perfect fit. However if you were to calculate how many people are on unofficial servers right now and how many people have quit the game because of the issue I'm talking about, I'm sure that's more than plenty for another official server that's even at least half the size of the map we have now.
"Why bother there aren't enough of those players that care to join a server like that."
Yes, that's because they all quit. The player-base that ends up leaving you shouldn't be like "Those are players not fit for this game type", "They're weak", "Go play on a PvE". That's not the case and you should cherish every bit of the community that comes to play your game. Because if you LIKE ATLAS you WANT people to keep playing, you want to have a community to come play to and not a dead game with barely any population other than the zergs. These people matter and the Dev's need to focus on keeping those type of players interested in the game as well.
I'm going to use an example of a good idea. If you've ever played Eve Online. You will know there are massive corporations and small corporations. Both prosper, both offer game-play for specific players and what they're interested in. In Atlas currently, there is no High Sec, everything is 0.0 space. If you think for a moment the larger companies aren't going to eclipse everything with time, you're crazy. 0.0 is savage and that is how Atlas is going to be. There needs to be something for the little guys who want nothing to do with 0.0 space but still enjoy the game and pvping on a small scale. Otherwise they're just going to quit and probably never come back.
If for some reason I'm misinformed about something, or the devs have hinted at something. Feel free to point it out so I can correct myself. I don't know everything there is to know about the game. I'm just going off of what changes I've seen compared to Ark, and don't want the samething to happen to Atlas where most of the content to be found on the forums/reddit is negativity that turns people away from the game.
EDIT: Something I feel people are missing here. If you're not having issue somehow with your small group. Fighting for space just to build, just being plain whelped yet, etc. Take a look at this map https://map.playatlas.com/. That is how much has been conquered in the span of less than 2 weeks. Fast forward this to half a year. Do you still think you won't be whelped yet? Do you think you'll still be able to find a place for just you and your small community of close friends? You'll eventually have to join a large company or quit overall.
EDIT2: I'm not saying this is a priority in any sort of way. I understand the game was just released and they have an agenda. Bugs take priority and game breaking mechanics that's fine. All I'm saying is that the issue should be addressed, doesn't have to be right now and could be later as I'm sure those who quit would gladly come back to check on changes that better suit them as a player. Neither do I think my suggestion is perfect, I'm just sure there is some sort of answer for the issue that should address the large portion of players that quit or will quit the game.
