SwiftFate

I mean it's not exactly peak hours, but even still we would have dozens of members and allies online running around doing shit. I think the only ones on at the moment are gold farming etc. No one has any motivation to farm or god forbid build anything with this bullshit change now. Not even ships. If we can't protect our ships with an awesome fortress what's the point?

We checked through all of our allies discord servers etc and found at most 2-3 players online where usually we would see 10+ all chatting and playing the game together. Even ours was a ghost server and we usually have a couple dozen online. So sad..

What a fucking joke this patch is.. Not only did they make Stone weaker, they made it pretty much impossible to build even a SMALL structure in the tundra or polar area without a massive grind or traveling 4-5 grids to get what you need to build it. Yeah you can dive for paste, so what? You die 5-6 times each haul of coral, which isn't much, either to sharks and other ridiculously impossible to fight predators under the water, or to the freezing cold. Diving suits are useless as they add no protection to the cold at all, or speed, or protection when swimming. The water is so deep that even IF you go down, unless you are specifically specced into everything that will possibly help you (which is a waste of points and will make you useless everywhere else) you will just drown or freeze to death the moment you finally find some Coral. Even with the stats needed, most of the time a shark will slaughter you anyway or you'll still drown half way back to the surface. My entire company has pretty much skipped playing tonight due to this change, no one has any motivation to farm because what's the point? We made some token efforts at progressing our island but none of us have the time nor the patience to sail 4-5 grids south for resources, only to come back with enough to build at most a few little stone shacks? Fucking pointless. Hope they serious rethink this change because you will be losing those of us who actually enjoy the building aspect of the game. The islands are amazing and I have so much fun coming up with new ways to protect and build up our harbours, but if you want us to focus on ship building this is not the way to do it. There is no fucking way we will build ships if we can't secure them or give ourselves even a slight sense of security for when we are mostly offline or not around. If we don't have a cool base to build out of/to call home, what's the fucking point?

One of the main aims of this game is to take entire islands. If you can't find one for free, you take it. Monopolizing resources and ideal base locations is going to be one of the major parts of this game, it's not greedy, it's literally built into the game where in order to get higher tier stuff such as masterwork or legendary, you need control of or at least the ability to trade for different types of resources. That means usually taking the island in question or forming an alliance. One of the main reasons crews are so territorial about letting people on their island is to prevent scouting however. Resources respawn, so it's no big deal to share, but allowing potential enemies the ability to roam the island you are based on freely is just stupid. No way in hell would I or any of my crewmates allow players to land on our island without escort or prior approval. If you intend to treasure hunt, that's fine, but again you would be required to park off shore and be escorted to the location. Try to show up unannounced and get caught, prepare to be shot on sight.

Rule #1: Do not, under any circumstances, go hunting with a big ship and lots of gear unless you are prepared for a fight. Landing on islands is pretty much impossible unless you do it stealthily or have permission from the groups controlling them.. And most groups tend to be dickheads about it if you announce your intent. I suggest sneaking onto the island with a few pistols and such for killing the mobs that spawn, go solo or with a group of 2-3, get in and out fast. Do not linger. Like said, most groups in this game can be pretty territorial and unwilling to compromise right now, even if your only intent is to simply set foot on the island for a few minutes to claim a treasure. If you feel the need to announce yourselves however, I would suggest offering a compromise with them and ask whether they would be willing to send a single member of their crew to join you on the hunt and gain a portion of the loot. That way they at least gain something from the situation.

Except, you know..For those people who CAN'T play in a group due to real life etc. Not everyone has the time to play regularly with a group of friends let alone a group of any significant scale. Being unique is fine, but not if it is at the expense of fun for people who simply cannot do what you do and find a massive group to join. I could go on and on about various reasons for people to play solo or play with groups, but no matter what a game will never be able to cater to both sides, so there needs to be a compromise. That was the mind wipe in ARK. Not able to build that awesome base you want? Wipe, spec into everything you need, build it, wipe again and go back to your fighter build that lets you go kill shit. Easy. Adding in a feature to wipe when needed does not kill you "uniqueness" it just expands on it and opens up slots for someone else to jump into your role when you are not around or vice-versa. You will stll be able to focus on the role you wish to play no matter what, if that is how you want to play, but other people like being able to swap it up regularly and not be tied down to certain roles. As for being able to learn every skill in the game? I doubt it. Not if they keep adding stuff which I am sure they will eventually. Plus, it gets harder and harder to level up. Most people will not even reach level 50 within a month if they don't follow a specific level-up guide and just play casually due to lack of time.

There is no current known method to respect outside of leveling up. Hopefully within one of the coming updates, adding in some sort of item to do so (similar to the memory wipe in ARK) will be a priority. The game already limits our options immensely when it comes to individual skills, an unfortunate side effect being that solo play for any extended period of time is impossible. If they want new people to continue joining and playing Atlas, they need to start considering catering towards the solo players. I definitely do not like the idea of reaching max level and being unable to swap out my skills when needed to suit the situation. If none of my crew can make firearms for example, would be nice to swap out my ship building skillset temporarily and build up a stockpile before swapping back or to something else that may be of use.

Please do a wipe of the servers. The over-claiming of land not even being used by large groups is out of hand. Also, please add in a Respec item. Level up respecs are nice and all, but the fact that it is so hard to multi-skill is a real pain. Otherwise keep up the good work and keep us all updated on progress