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Dollie

Pathfinder
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Posts posted by Dollie


  1. Just now, Archsenex said:

    I'd love to test this for you, but the landlords I know all put walls around their flags etc.  I suppose I could get a pick and try and break my way in to see if I can pay for their flag.

    Still doesn't help if your landlord decides to drop their flag.  And we don't get a warning "hey, bill stopped paying for his flag, you need to take over"

    Hmm that's a good point. It's something I'll discuss with the team. 


  2. I'm reading over the threads on this topic and taking the various opinions on board. As always, we're open to feedback.

    I'm a little confused on one specific aspect in relation to PvE brought up by a couple of posters though. I've seen examples of an island owner leaving or going awol and thus leaving settlers open to being wiped. Wouldn't those settlers just continue to pay the upkeep on the claim to keep it secure in that case? (aside from waiting to jump and claim it themselves of course). I'm not quite understanding how people can just "lose" a claim. 


  3. Ahoy Pathfinders!

    In this Captain’s Log, we aim to give you an update on some new and exciting features that will be making their way to the ATLAS, as well as a brief status update on the next Mega Update.

    Before we begin, we’d like to give each and every one of you a huge thanks for the support you’ve shown ATLAS. Over the course of ATLAS’ development, our recent review scores on Steam have jumped considerably. We just wanted to express our thanks and show our gratitude for your support. We know that our work is far from over and that ATLAS still has a long journey ahead. There are many more changes we plan to make and features we would like to introduce. Keep your eye on the horizon, there is much to look forward to, some coming sooner than you might expect ;)!

    :anchor: Mega Update 3! :anchor:

    It’s been a while since we’ve spoken about our next Mega Update 3. There have been questions about the release date, and how it’s progressing. The update is still coming together, our team of developers is actively working on getting it ready to release. When we’ve got something to share about the launch date, additional features, it’s availability on the PTR, we will let you know.

    Though, we won’t leave you guys empty handed! Here’s an update on our Hydra Six-Shooter Pistol! In an earlier log, we revealed it’s concept art, now we can actually show you what it looks like in game as it’s going through its implementation. This pistol, as the name indicates, allows for up to 6 shots before reloading -- though it is significantly weaker than the single-shot flintlock! So if your aim sucks, or you have multiple targets, this will be a great weapon of choice.

    large.86591993_Hydra_Revolver1080pcomp.jpg

    :anchor: Wild Pirate Encampments! :anchor:

    We’re excited to reveal to you a new system we’ve been working on, which will be released for Single Player, Non-Dedicated Multiplayer (more on that later!), Unofficial Dedicated Servers (optional), and potentially expanded onto the Official Networks in the future. 

    This is how the new feature will function on Non-Dedicated Multiplayer and Single Player mode: 

    “Wild Pirate Encampments” (WPE) are collections of enemy NPC characters, defensive fleets, and fortifications which inhabit claimable islands. They have varying weapons (melee and ranged), defenses (various cannons/turret types), and live in pre-built forts. They’ll also have AI ships representing all 4 classes (Sloop through to Galleon) patrolling the shoreline of their islands. The placement of Encampments will be randomized along the islands, and they can also include inland encampments without ships. You’ll have to explore an island to discover all the encampments which inhabit it, and the number can vary based on the island size, with larger islands having bigger and more Encampments. Each region will also have a WPE Level visible to players, some being higher than others resulting in better loot but a more challenging task.

    In order to claim an island, Pathfinders must destroy the WPE that currently live on it. This includes their patrolling ships and any enemy NPC within range of the Encampment center. Players will be able to use the Encampment claimflag to reveal nearby enemy NPCs. After claiming an Encampment, all Encampment structures transferred to the new settlement owner, and an Encampment Loot Box will be spawned. Once defeated, an Encampment will never respawn, and you cannot unclaim an Encampment. However, if the Encampment has not been fully defeated, it will reset to full strength if sufficient time has transpired without it being rendered.

    large.DuTtfTHW0AAbrET.jpg

    Players will have the option to disable WPE entirely via the Host Settings UI, or scale the difficulty of Encampments (this will not affect the loot quality). 

    If you decide to enable WPE on an Unofficial Dedicated Server please note that:

    • Encampments will only spawn (and can respawn) on unsettled islands when no players/tames/structures are nearby at all, over a long period of time. 
    • An island can only have Claim Flags placed on it when no Encampments are present on the island, indicated on the HUD when the system is enabled.

    With the implementation of this togglable content, we’ll be nerfing the traversal capability of Gliders on Non-Dedicated Multiplayer and Single Player, with an option to use the original values in Non-Dedicated Multiplayer. 

    We’re excited to introduce this type of encounter to the ATLAS and we expect to have it ready in the very near future.

    :anchor: Non-Dedicated Multiplayer! :anchor:

    Following the positive response to Single Player and after evaluating the relatively small amount of technical bandwidth required to make this a possibility, we’re excited to announce that a new game mode will be making its way to players!

    Non-Dedicated Multiplayer will facilitate playing as a client whilst also hosting the server at the same time. It will allow up to 8 players to play simultaneously on the server. Similarly to Single player, the host will be able to make use of the host settings UI to adjust server settings to your group’s needs, as well as additional enhancements in your .ini files.

    We expect to have this game mode available next week (the week of July 14), and the “Wild Pirate Encampments” Beta towards the end of the month.

    :anchor: ISO: Blackwood :anchor:

    large.Blackwood_01_4262019_resize.jpg

    We are working on final touches and testing for ISO: Blackwood and we expect to have it ready to play later this month.

    Explore the heart of the jungle or settle in rolling farmland. Silent eddies run before your boat as you make your way through the slick reeds of The Mire. Wade through thick green waters teeming with dangerous creatures, rare plant life, and the occasional Gorgon to find buried treasure and lost corpses. Approach the ancient serpent boss, Anacython, if you dare!

    For those not familiar with Blackwood, this is not something we’ll be supporting specifically on our Official Network, as it was designed and intended to be used for single servers an example of a mod map that can be hosted unofficially. This specific map will be set up so that you can still enjoy all the mechanics that ATLAS has to offer, whilst hosting it as a standalone server with no database setup required!

    :anchor: Live Game Patches :anchor:

    Since the last Captain's Log, our live game updates have taken a look at some more long term issues we’d like to address with the game in addition to our general focus towards bugs, performance, and QOL. 

    We released an update which was shortly reverted with the aim of tackling sky high Claim Flags. Our initial attempt involved setting a maximum height for flags to be placed at, but we recognize this one-stop solution doesn’t work for all islands, so we’ll be looking at a more island-specific approach in the future. We understand why these locations are chosen for flags, and how they relate to some of the more frustrating mechanics involved in contesting claims for both attackers/defenders, which we also plan to improve in the future.

    An additional patch focused on the implementation of Fast Decay on our Official Network in order to tackle the structure spam that is present on islands. We understand that this doesn’t resolve the root issue and it can be worked around, however, it’s an initial measure we wanted to put in place whilst we explore proper long term solutions.

    With today's patch, we'll be deploying a measure to help new settlement owners clear out existing structures on their island. A frustrating part of the game, after claiming an island from someone else, is dealing with the remains of their structures, whether that's a large base, or where that's multiple pillars and foundations littered around the island. With the latest patch, new settlement owners will now have a 12-hour window to activate a one-time razing of an island. This will destroy all structures on that island, including their own. It can only be used during peacetime, and will notify everyone on that specific grid, as well as log into any companies that had wiped structures on that island.

    And finally, crew changes! So, of course, you guys may remember our mention of the I.W.C.R.S, now dubbed the Silo - a structure which can store gold and berries and is capable of feeding and paying crew from anywhere on the island - a much needed QOL change!

    Another crew focused change we made recently, was to sync up the costs of both stationed and idle crew. This was because we wanted to encourage players to keep their crew stationed when possible, and the primary reason for that is for performance. Stationed crew are a lot more cost efficient on our servers due to specialized logic. So it’s a win-win for everyone here!

    Further changes involved allowing the stationed crew to repair boats, but that change was shortly reverted due to players requiring the choice of whether or not they wanted their crew to repair their boat. Having all crew capable of repairing meant resources were being used up a lot more rapidly than some intended due to natural boat decay, but changing it back to idle only, means players have a partial choice in determining how often those resources are being used up. It's clear this system could use some improvements, and it’ll likely be something that's touched on in the future.

    We wanted to highlight that sometimes we’ll make changes and they may not pan out, but we’re not afraid to pull those back, give them some more time in the oven or tackle problems from a different point of view. We appreciate your feedback as always and will continue to iterate on solving these problems and more!

    And now for the rest of the patch notes:

    209.499
    
    - Fast Decay has now been enabled for Settlement Owners
    - Fixed Reservoir and Waterpipes being from being falsely flagged by Fast Decay
    - Fixed some edge-case 3-5 structure builds from being falsely flagged by Fast Decay
    
    209.497
    
    - Fast Structure Decay has been enabled on our Official Network. This means that core foundation structures (floors, pillars, and fence supports), which are not snapped (connected) to more than 2 pieces or do not have a valid structure on top will have rapid decay which will result in their destruction after 12 hours of not being rendered in. Unofficials can enable this setting with the following command parameter: ?FastDecayUnsnappedCoreStructures=true
    - Reverted the change to Stationed Crew repairing anchored boats in order to control the amount of materials that are being consumed when a boat has been anchored. Idle crew will still repair boats.
    
    v209.491
    
    - Magic Mythos bonus rates have been disabled
    - Fast Structure Decay has been disabled on our Official Network (needs more tweaks before we can set this live)
    
    v209.48
    
    - Fixed a bug which would cause bears and horses from not basing on ships when they had storage carts attached to their harness (this would cause them to fall off ships when sailing)
    - Non Seamless Grid maps now save and load player/ship locations properly (notable on mod maps such as OceanTest)
    - Stationed crew can now repair anchored boats
    - Stationed Crew and Idle Crew now have the same gold cost requirements on land and on ships (Client will need to be updated to visualize this change, it's inc!)
    - Fast Structure Decay is now enabled on non-snapped core structures. This means that they will decay within 12 hours.
    
    v209.46
    
    - Shipwrecks and their icons should now correctly vanish on the map after 5 days. We're still investigating legacy wrecks and however they may clear with this change after 5 days, as company data is loaded
    - Fixed "leave Company" button
    
    v209.43
    
    - Fixed a bug which would sometimes cause the Wall Hook to not remember whether a light source was active after loading a saved game
    - Fixed a bug where players would temporarily enter combat state upon transition
    
    v209.4
    
    - Fixed a bug which prevented players from gaining experience at level 149 (Max is level 150)
    - Companies are now enabled and force-created on Single Player so players have access to their Company Log. If you had a pre-existing savefile, you will be able to create a company, however it will only pull in boats/structures/creatures for the grid you're currently on. We recommend creating your company on your most active grid. You can use the cheat command 'cheat givetome' to pull boats/structures/creatures into your new company
    - Added an Admin Command to Single Player: cheat DoLeaveTribe
    - Forest Colouring can now be crafted and applied to items
    - Renamed one of the Purple colours to 'Dark Violet' as there were two of the same name
    - Demolishing buoys will no longer leave the sign floating behind
    
    209.36
    
    - Fixed a bug which caused silos to pay crew that weren't on the same team
    
    v209.35
    
    - Reverted the Claim Flag height limit on Official Servers
    
    v209.34
    
    - When replacing invalid claimflags, you can now place them within the green ring of your original flag
    - Claim flag height limit has been increased to 6500 units above sea level
    
    v209.31
    - Magic Mythos is enabled on our Official Network: 4x Harvesting, 4x Taming, 4x XP, 2x Gold, 2x Egg Hatching, 2x Baby Maturing, 2x Crop Growth, and 50% less mating interval!
    - Company Island Point Limit has been increased by 100
    - Tax Banks can only be placed by Admins or above in companies.
    - Fixed certain level creatures not receiving experience points in Single Player
    - Fixed underwater trenches not loading properly in Single Player
    - Fixed a bug which caused Pistols to have a bullet loaded after being repaired from a broken state
    - Discovery Zones on the map can now be hidden using the Toggle Island Info button on the ATLAS map
    - Discovery on the map now temporarily disappear beyond a certain zoon distance on the map (zooming back in will have them reappear)
    - Important: Claim Flags now have a maximum height limit when being placed. Claim Flags that were previously placed which exceed this limit will indicate as such on the HUD. Those which exceed the limit will be able to place a 2nd claim flag in a viable location. This will destroy your old flag and drop it's entire inventory into a loot cache (2 hour expiration time) on the ground. Next Wednesday, we'll be deploying an update which will force destroy any legacy flags which exceed the height limit. The limit is 4k units above sea level which is approximately 16/17 walls and only admins or above will be able to replace the flag.
    - New configurable ini setting for Claim Flag height limit
    
    [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
    MaxSettlementFlagZ=4000 // you can set this number to 999999 to have no height restrictions.
    
    v209.1
    
    - Added activate sail turning as a keybind (default: Left Shift)
    - Crew Members will now take food/gold from the following structures in this priority (it goes to the 2nd/3rd if the first does not have gold). 
    
    Crew on Land:
    
    1st priority: Resource Box and Food larder
    2nd priority: Silo
    3rd priority: Claim Flags
    
    Crew on Fully Anchored Boats:
    
    1st priority: Silo
    2nd priority: Claim Flags
    3rd priority: Resource Box and Food larder
    
    - New placeable land structure 'Crew Resources Silo' which allows storage of food and gold to feed crew. Note this will also function on lawless servers, but to do so we've had to have them display island points on the map, however they still will not be able to be claimed.
    - New option on claim flag which allows turning off crew gold and food payment
    - Fixed an edge case which allowed you to fire cannons through walls
    - Fixed a bug where Crew was taking gold/food from a flag before they took it from a resource box/larder when dealing with Crew on Land.
    - Fixed a bug which prevented harvesting on creatures/using tools in Singleplayer
    - Fixed a bug which would sometimes cause the resource override to stop functioning, therefore provide players with a different resource than intended

    :anchor: Show 'N Tell #9 :anchor:

    We loved looking over the entries for Show 'n Tell and we're excited to showcase our favourites so everyone can check out player's creative endeavours and piratey adventures! Feast yer eyes on  th' best o' th' bunch below! 

    LUNNINGSTOOKSlarge.lunningstooks.jpg

    This shows some dedication to aligning and individually painting each canvas. Love it! 

    GUNSLINGERlarge.Gunslinger.jpg

    Kudos to the builder, this is meticulously designed and executed. 

    OTAWA72large.otawa72.jpg

    Otawa never fails to impress with well-framed and creative shots. 

     Honourable mentions 

    MESCALINlarge.mescalin.jpg

    PIRATESS

    large.piratess.jpg

    Congratulations to all of the winners who will receive some real life cash booty! We look forward to the next round of Show n' Tell!

    :wheel:

    Happy Sailing,

    Grapeshot Games

    :skull: For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information :skull:

    Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
    Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
    Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
    Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame


    View full article

    • Like 1

  4. Consider this phase one of Operation Spam Prevention. We plan to implement phase two in the near future. Structure spam is a complicated issue and, whilst we wont claim to have a cure-all, we do feel that the next phase of our plan will mitigate it substantially (or at least cause people to consider how much spam they can afford to maintain 😉 ) 

    We'll keep you all posted. 

    • Like 2
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  5. Ahoy Pathfinders!

    In the last Captain’s Log, we revealed our plans to incorporate a Singleplayer game-mode; initially, we had hoped to release a beta-test by mid-July. Due to unforeseen circumstances… we’re ahead of schedule! The beta was released over the weekend, earlier than expected! (ikr)

    :anchor: Singleplayer Mode Beta :anchor:

    Singleplayer will be accessible via the in-game menu as of the latest major version. Unlike our previous betas, this is a game mode that doesn’t impact the multiplayer version, therefore, it was optimal to integrate it into the live game immediately. An added benefit of doing so is that you won’t need to maintain separate ATLAS folders or switch between the branches to access the Singleplayer beta and also play on the Official/Unofficial networks.

    The game mode is still in a highly iterative beta state. You will encounter issues but rest assured it is still fully playable. We’ll be actively collecting your reports and feedback as well as patching issues throughout the coming weeks. 

    Now sink your scurvy sea dog teeth into Singleplayer and break all of the things so we can fix them 😉

    :anchor: Our commitment to multiplayer :anchor:

    Singleplayer mode has been a highly requested feature and we’re excited to provide an alternate option for those who find multiplayer less suitable to their wants within the ATLAS. That said, the majority of the work involved in getting singleplayer’s maiden voyage away smoothly takes place during the initial phase of setting up the game mode. Once she’s at sea, it will grow in tandem with the multiplayer experience with little extra bandwidth necessary. 

    Our team is fully dedicated to the multiplayer experience; it is and always will be our main priority. The team is constantly working on improving it, whether that’s through the introduction of new content, optimizing the game; covering both client-side and server-side performance, balance, QoL, and bug fixes. Plus, the work we’re doing with singleplayer will actually benefit the multiplayer game due to client-side optimization.

    large.Dt1qwYqW0AIYoPN.jpg

    :anchor: Live Game Patches: Quality of Life :anchor:

    Over the past few weeks, along with our regular live game patches targeting bugs and balance, we have had some focus on quality of life changes. 

    As many players will have noticed, we’ve rolled out a few significant QoL updates recently. These have incorporated smaller changes such as increasing the slot capacity of storage items and allowing more varied resources to be stored in storage boxes along with more technical implementations, namely, allowing NPC crew to collect their gold payments and edible rations via the claim flag. 

    It’s no secret that achieving certain goals in ATLAS can be a considerable grind - and part of that adds to the feeling of reward and accomplishment. What we don’t want is tedium. We’d rather your playtime be spent sailing the high seas, completing quests, fighting each other if you are of the PvP persuasion, working on your fleets and bases - things you enjoy. With this in mind, we’re committed to rolling out more of these types of QoL changes throughout ATLAS’ development cycle.

    This is a marathon rather than a sprint, some aspects will be quick and easy, whereas others will need more delicate and thought out solutions. We're confident we're up to speed on which aspects of the game you guys find particularly tedious. That said, please continue to let us know the type of QoL changes you’d like to see. Let’s work together to identify what’s important to you. We understand that this is a diverse community, each group holding a different perspective and all of your feedback is valuable to us and the game’s development.

    Speaking of which, we’ll be adding a new structure to the game, the Island-Wide Crew Resource Storehouse. That’s I.W.C.R.S for short. This structure will store berries and gold, as well as automatically feed and pay your crew from anywhere on the island. This will be limited to 1 per company per island, whether you’re the settler, an island owner or inhabit a lawless island. We’ll also be providing an option on claim flags to disable their island-wide feeding and paying options for crew.

    Updates that have gone live since our last Captain's Log

    Complete Patch Notes 

    v208.21
    
    - Fixed a bug which would cause players to be stuck when unmounting creatures
    - Cleared up the pinwheel text on Claim Flags, so they now indicate what it'll be changed to. 
    
    v208.2
    
    - Fixed invalid discovery points value on server
    
    v208.11
    
    - Fixed a client side crash
    
    v208.1
    
    - Single Player Beta Mode
    
    Note: Whilst not a formal system, Singleplayer users can play on any world json they want, by just replacing these files:
    \ShooterGame\ServerGrid.json
    \ShooterGame\ServerGrid\ (the map images)
    
    When doing so, please back up your SavedAtlasLocal folder, and then delete your save data using the in-game save delete button.
    
    - Claim Flags now have a toggleable setting in Settlements mode which allows Settlement owners to choose whether to pay and feed the NPC Crew for allies or everyone settled on the island. This will be displayed in the top-right hand corner HUD. A single + means ally crew will take gold/food from claim flags. ++ means everyone will take gold/food from the claim flag. A lack of + means that only the settlement owner's crew will be able to take good/food from claim flags.
    - Magic Mythos is now active for the weekend: 2x bonus rates for Harvesting, Taming, XP and Gold!
    - Future proofing landscape optimization (large patch)
    
    Just some further information on the update size, the reason it is so large is because a technical change went in place to improve the logic surrounding landscapes (not related to single player). Something we plan to improve more on in the future. This optimization will basically allow us to reduce the current install size of the game by, hopefully, ~33%.
    
    The way it works in technical terms is that all the landscape variants of the same shape will use one map, with material variants, rather than each having a redundant copy of the large maps themselves. This means we won't have to have all those additional copies, thus reducing the effective size of landscapes (which together comprise over 50% of the game's install size)
    
    v207.999
    
    - Crew gold payment and food can now be done via your Company's claim flag. Crew that are on an island or on a fully anchored ship within Settlement range are eligible. Berries are the only food that can be used in the claim flag (there is a greatly extended spoil timer on berries in a claim flag for further QoL). Crew will still seek out payment and food from nearby food larders and payment boxes and if there are none nearby or they are empty, they will take from the claim flag.
    - Increased SoTD XP:
    
    Schooner approx 20% increase
    Brig approx 50% increase
    Galleon approx 100% increase
     
    207.998
    
    - Fixed Ghostship not appearing/disappearing
    - Increased step height for Elephants and Rhinos to 110 to allow to climb half wall steps, and helps with other obstacles both would realistically be able to step over
    - Golden Age AoD now drop less gold, have a larger respawn radius around players/tames and a longer respawn interval
    - Fixed cases where players would be dismounted from the swivel gun when firing on a ship
    
    v207.997
    
    - A claim flag can longer be placed on a fully anchored ship during peacetime.
    - Grog: Damage bonus changed from +6% to -3%, duration changed from 600s to 300s
    - Rum: Now instead of giving 15 waters, it removes 20 water
    - Target soft spots - Cooldown increased from 15s to 60s and torpor bonus reduced from 35% to 28%
    - Critical strike - Cooldown increased from 20s to 60s and damage bonus reduced from 2x to 1.65x
    - Target weakness - Duration increased from 10s to 24s
    - Reduced the following armor stat scales by 30%:
    
    Health
    Melee
    Damage
    Stamina
    Fortitude
    Intelligence
    
    v207.996
    
    - AoD on GoldenAge now drop gold when killed. Scales with level.
    - AoD now have a non-weighted random spread up to level 120 on GoldenAge servers
    - AoD are now immune to anything except gun (non-puckle), melee damage and tame damage.
    - Fixed cannons shooting thru overhangs 
    - Increased sword damage by 50%
    - Increased mace damage by 35%
    - Increased pike damage by 15%
    - Increased spear damage by 20%
    - Increased throwing knife damage by 20%
    - Increased gun effectiveness against creatures 12.5%
    - Reduced med kit self heal 20%
    - Reduced tiger and lion head hitbox bone damage multiplier to 1.5x
    - Increased minimum island points on PvE from 30 to 70
    - Increased max island points on PvE  from 150 to 250
    - Increased max island points on PvP from 250 to 320
    - Magic Mythos is now active for the weekend: 2x bonus rates for Harvesting, Taming, XP and Gold!
    
    207.994
    
    - Fixed multiple cases where players would become unbased (slide off ships) due to certain structures.
    
    v207.992
    
    - Company Rank settings are no longer the default option on E for climbing ladders if you're an admin or owner of a company
    - Improved Ghostship appearance logic
    - Fixed a bug which allowed clients to complete a musical sheet without even having to play a track
    - Updated Equatorial tags and temps for Giraffe breeding, as it now spawns in the bog.
    - Hid and cleaned up text overlap issues with the Sextant/GPS when inside menus

    :anchor: Meaningful communication and keeping an eye on the horizon :anchor:

    Following this post, we plan to make a shift to our routine in regards to Captain’s Logs. We’ll be opting for quality over frequency and making sure they are meaningful and offer insight into what we’re working on. This means we may decide to change our regular schedule of Captain’s Logs in favor of bringing news and updates which matter. We assure you, we’ll still be present reading, interacting, digesting and responding to your communications across Discord, the Forums, and social media. Keep that precious feedback and bug reporting coming!

    There are big things in the works for the game and, unfortunately, they can’t be shared just yet. Rest assured that you can take things growing a little quieter as a sign of the calm before the exciting storm!

    large.Caps-Log-3comp.jpg

    Finally, we’d like to extend a sincere expression of our gratitude to all of our community for your support as we ask you to batten down the hatches and keep a keen eye on the horizon for the bigger adventures to come!

     

    Happy Sailing,

    Grapeshot Games

    :wheel:

    🦀For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information 🦀

    Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
    Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
    Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
    Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame


    View full article


  6. Ahoy Pathfinders!

    We have much to share! Let's get down to business, shall we? 

         :anchor: Mega update 3! :anchor:

    Mega Update 3 is on the horizon and we’re excited to share some more teasers and information!

    New Islands: Discover! 

    large.ATLAS_NewIsland2_1.jpg

    More new, unique Islands will be landing on the ATLAS giving you more opportunities to own land, explore and unlock new Discoveries.

    large.411264492_playatlaslog32newisland1resize.jpg

    New Cosmetics: Sail Skins!

    large.ATLAS_Sails.jpg

    Unfurl new sails against the sky with new Sail Cosmetics. The new cosmetics for small and medium sails lend the appearance of a delicate Junk or Sampan rig with bamboo slats which harkens back to a Far Eastern inspired sail design preceding Western square sails. Opt for the new large sail cosmetic to imbibe your ship with a commanding battle galley aesthetic and make it stand out as the flagship of your fleet!

    New Creature: Sea Horse!

    large.ATLAS_SeaHorse_1.jpg

    The elegant Sea Horse can be found in the deepest trenches of the ocean. It has a calm demeanor unless provoked which will anger this aquatic species, resulting in a deadly attack. They have two known methods of poisoning their foes, it can either be through the form of a venomous bite in close quarters or a toxic substance shot from their snout at medium range. The poison is said to be quite potent with strong penetrative abilities that have been reported to even pierce through armor and golden age infused metals used to build vessels. 

    While generally a solitary creature, it seeks out the assistance from its kin when in danger. A few daring adventurers have yearned to saddle this beautiful marine equine, however, due to its hostile nature when disturbed, it has been an impossible task. 

         :anchor: Single Player Mode :anchor:

    We’re excited to say that we are currently working on a single player experience! This has been a common request from many of you and it is currently being prototyped by our team. We expect that we will have it ready to test on a beta branch in Mid July. This mode will be a true single-player mode; you won’t have to run a server in the background using up your precious memory! Every piece of content will be available, that includes the same massive world, with each and every island.

    With single player, there always comes the question for whether we plan to allow users to play in a listen/local server mode. This isn’t something we’re working on at the moment, and pending on how the single player works out, it may be something we consider in the future.

         :anchor: ISO: Blackwood :anchor:

    large.ATLAS_Blackwood_1.jpg

    Prepare for a dark twist on the Equatorial biome with our standalone map, ISO: Blackwood coming Mid July!

    Explore the heart of the jungle or settle in rolling farmland. Silent eddies run before your boat as you make your way through the slick reeds of The Mire. Wade through thick green waters teeming with dangerous creatures, rare plant life, and the occasional Gorgon to find buried treasure and lost corpses. Approach the ancient serpent boss, Anacython, if you dare!

    Please note, this is not a map that will be supported on our Official Network, as it was designed to give players all the mechanics that ATLAS can offer hosted as a single server, without the use of a database.

         :anchor: Live Game Patches :anchor:

    Our patches can focus on various different things. They may be aimed to hotfix a bug introduced by new content, improve performance, resolving outstanding technical issues, and much more. This past week, the primary focus for our live updates was QOL improvements and balance changes. A lot of these changes were influenced by your suggestions and feedback, so keep it coming, Pathfinders! We understand you may feel something is too strong, too weak, or tedious - let us know, and we’ll do our best to improve the game experience. We truly appreciate all the support you’ve shown the game and will continue to work on improving it.

    v207.991
    
    - Fixed bolas releasing creatures prior to their timer ticking down entirely.
    
    v207.99
    
    - Fixed a bug which prevented tames and crew on ships from not having their claim timer refreshed on PvE. To refresh their timers, you will need to board the boats they're on.
    - Fixed a bug which would result in the XP Curse lasting permanently (retroactive)
    - Fixed a bug which prevented firing cannons which were placed on the top deck above gunports
    - Beds can only be used to spawn on after their initial respawn cooldown has cleared
    
    v207.981
    
    - Inactive PvP boats will now automatically destroy after 4 weeks of inactivity
    - Enabled auto-destruction for decayed structures on Official Servers.
    - Sunken ships will always destroy after 5 days on Official Servers. This will clear the icon from your maps too, as long the area where the boats were sunk have been revisited.
    - Gunports can now be opened again without cannons (i.e you can now fish out of them again)
    - Fixed some invalid cannon placements / shooting edge cases. 
    - Open gunports will obstruct firing from any cannons that are not explicitly linked to them, either by dismounting the shooter or blocking the projectile.
    - Fixed a Sail placement exploit.
    - New game.ini mode for Sunken Ships
    
    [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
    DestroyDeadShipsIntervalTime=0 // Defaults to 0, meaning sunk ships would last forever and set to 2592000 for officials.
    
    v207.972
    
    - Fixed an issue where NPCs on a Galleon's front NPCs would not replicate, due to the Captain being all the way in the back. This would have previously shown Missing NPCs, even if they were stationed.
    
    v207.971
    
    - Updated localization for German, French, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Swedish.
    - Gunports will no longer open if they do not have a cannon snapped to it
    - Cannons using gunport-snaps now check for near-by freely-snapped cannons before snapping, in order to prevent multiple cannons shooting from one gunport.
    - Fixed the Global Ship Limit counting Sunken Ships
    
    v207.95
    
    - Increase torpedo ammo weight to 12
    - Increase the torpedo launcher weight to 240
    - Reduced the weight bonus torpedo launcher receives from closed gunports to 20%
    - Bola CC duration reduced to 6 seconds on players
    - Bola release time now reduced to 0.5 seconds when removing it from a player
    - Torpedo crafting costs updated. Reduced by approximately 20% and updated metal to require 2 types of ingots. Mythos requirement unchanged.
    - Flame damage now eliminates ballista harpoons
    - Improved server performance on Golden Age grids as AoD enemies will only be networked to clients once they've awoken.
    - Ballista Harpoon reload time has increased
    - 2x Magic Mythos is now active with bonus rates for Harvesting, XP, Taming, and Gold.
    
    207.93
    - Mortar and Pestle slots increased to 40
    - Soap Blueprint added to Cooking Pot and Grill
    - Large Storage Box slots increased to 100
    - Small Storage Box  slots increased to 40
    - Sugars now stack to 500 (increased)
    - Thatch now stacks to 1000 (increased)
    - Grenade weight increased to 5
    - Firegel, Gunpowder, Blasting powder, Mythos and Coral can now be stored in the ship resource box.
    - Reduced Grenade damage to players by 33%, to NPC Crew and Creatures by 10%
    - Increased Playershop health to 12000
    - Reduced base damage of Blackjacks by 10% and reduced the Fall Swing damage by 65%
    - Doubled stamina cost of shield bash
    - Fire Elemental now takes 50% more damage from Shotguns and 100% more damage from Ballista
    - Fixed ""Fail" sound line for the medkit using male voiceline for female characters
    - Fixed being able to place wallhooks on demolishable resources to prevent floating structures
    - Fixed being able to place triangle foundations on top of beds
    - Player Name is now included in the tribe log when scuttling ships or demolishing it via a shipyard
    - Fixed a bug which allowed you to move whilst bola'd 
    - You can now base on non-allied PvE boats, and we've added an actionwheel entry to force non-allied characters off of your ship in PvE
    
    207.91
    
    - Torpedo Damage reduced by 45%
    - Boats will no longer sink when overweighted or overcrewed if they are fully anchored (green anchor)
    - Settlement Mode: Claim Flags now appear on the World Map for the grid region you're currently on
    - Submarines docked on hangars now retain their colour after server restarts
    - Prevented firing from gunports if the gunport has not fully opened. This is to resolve crews being dismounted as they were blocked for firing too soon
    - Quest skills are blacked out with a silhouette when not learned
    - Cocoa can now be crafted properly in irrigated grills
    - Fixed FPV reload animation playing when switching from TPV to FPV with the Crossbow
    - Fixed an issue where servers that were running for more than 4 days consecutively without reboot would have choppy water on the client.
    
    v207.9
    
    - Networking range for players on ships is now the same as players not on ships (~34,000 units)
    - Networking range for unseated NPCs on ships are now about 18,000 units, and seated NPCs are now about 9,000 units.
    - Fixed Crows no longer flying to attack.
    - Fixed Shipyards at max storage capacity (300) fail to create ships.
    - Fixed being unable to gain any stamina after sailing to another server with a stamina debuff active from using any feat, for example, "reload overdrive" feat on a ship. Previously you would have had the debuff permanently until you die and respawn
    
    v207.81
    
    - Improved third person view offset so that it now positions at the average head height rather than the center of the character's capsule. This should improve how it feels when the camera is brushed up against a collision in the world. 
    
    v207.8
    
    - If a launched torpedo hits within the first 3.75 seconds of being fired, it will do significantly reduced damage
    - Torpedo overall damage reduced by 20%
    - Torpedo overall projectile lifespan reduced by 10%
    - Torpedo and Torpedo Launcher crafting cost has been increased
    - Fixed hotkey assignments to save on relog
    - Readjusted Marker UI location when minimap is open to prevent overlap
    - You can now use "prying eyes" to look inside lock chests if they are your own company's boxes
    - Cannons/Puckles will no longer fire in peacetime if the structure does not own the claim and the target is a player or tame
    - Significant shoreline data memory optimization

         :anchor: Community Spotlight :anchor:

    The Community Spotlight is a new series that introduces you to player-driven communities, projects and/or initiatives in the ATLAS community. If you’re looking for more player created ATLAS resources and fun, keep an eye on these amazing projects, groups, and individuals.

    ExploreAtlas

    large.manpowercalcdollie.png

    ExploreAtlas is a user-friendly resource and creature index for ATLAS with over 10,000 resources and creature locations currently logged. The site also offers an up to date taming calculator for gaining max efficiency on your tames!

    Other features include:

    • PVE claim point calculator
    • Imprint calculator
    • Added Resource Navigator (Allows you to input a location you are at and the resource you desire to find the closest available) 
    • Support 9 languages through native translations
    • Live player tracking on a Cluster and Region basis
    • Introduction of Companies to show off your home island and flag

    https://exploreatlas.co.uk

      :anchor: Show 'n Tell :anchor:

    We’re still collecting entries for the Show ‘n Tell! So you have a little more time to astound us with your creations, be they your fleets, building designs, imaginative tatts, entertaining videos, original fan art or scenic screenshots. Don’t be shy and head to the submission thread for a chance to win some booty in the form of a cash prize!

    large.spookyanonymous.jpg

    Art by SpookyAnonymous

    Alrighty, that ’s it for this log! Thank you so much for becoming a part of our crew and we can't wait to show all you scallywags, landlubbers, captains, and seadogs what lies ahead!

     

    Happy Sailing,

    Grapeshot Games

    :wheel:

     

    🦀 For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information 🦀

    Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
    Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
    Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
    Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame


    View full article


  7. :skull: SHOW 'N TELL :skull:

    Avast, Pathfinders it be time for a new Show 'n Tell Showcase!

     

    Hear ye, hear ye! We be treasure huntin' fer the finest of ATLAS community creations! Show us yer mighty fleets, paint pieces, flags & sails, impenetrable forts, hellish tats, scenic screenshots, 'n entertainin' videos!

    Each fortnight, we'll be runnin' a contest where we'll select th' best o' th' bunch 'n award tha winners wit' a cash prize! Submit your entries in this 'ere thread for us to be viewin'. 

     

    We’ve created this dedicated thread for submissions. Don’t hesitate to show us what you’ve got. The last two week's entries were amazing and we look forward to what you have for us this fortnight! 

     

    large.829702825_PRINCESSSUGAR.jpg
    Princess Sugar

     

    This is a friendly contest and not intended as something highly competitive. We'd like to showcase your creations in their many varied shapes and forms.

     

    Submit your entries by Wednesday 3rd of July for a chance to fill your chests with some cash booty!

     

    :anchor:

    • Like 2

  8. Ahoy, Pathfinders!

    June marks the 6-month anniversary since ATLAS’ initial launch to Steam Early Access. We’d just like to take a moment to say “Thank you!” to all of our players and fans for your support over the last 6 months and to reaffirm to all of you now that the development team is still committed to making ATLAS the best game it can possibly be. Especially with the help of your continued feedback and support; please keep your ideas, concerns, complaints, and reports coming.

    For this Captain's Log, we'd like to give you an early glance at some of the content that'll be making its way ashore with the upcoming Mega-Update!

    Head to the shooting range and pull out your pistols, it's time to brush up on your marksmanship!

    Introducing our latest weapon, the Hydra Six-Shooter Pistol!

    large.970442286_Atlas_Weapons_Revolverdetailed3_0.jpg

    This new and improved pistol allows for up to 6 shots before reloading! So if your aim sucks, or you have multiple targets, this will be your weapon of choice.

    Curious about what else we'll be adding? Careful, you might just kill the...

    Cat

    large.cat_web.jpg

    You can pick up a high quality wallpaper-suitable version of the image here

    Found in caves, the cat makes a purrfect pet for contaminating enemy pirates! It can be tamed by hand-feeding, but you better be sneaky, as they’re known to be quite skittish. After a cat has been tamed, order it to ‘hunt’ and wait for your tamed feline friend to catch a rodent, either a rat or a mouse. Each offering the pathfinder something different:

    • The mouse can be used to create a powerful delicacy and makes players temporarily immune to catching the plague.
    • The rat, infected by the contagious bubonic plague, can be loaded into catapults and launched at your enemies. The plague is a temporary debuff which can spread to others if you’re not careful!

    We realize this may not be everyone's tankard of grog, but don't worry, there’s more to come and we can’t wait to share it with all of you. Stay tuned!

     

    :anchor: Official atlas discord news :anchor:

    Bug reporting Channel

    We have added a bug reporting channel to the ATLAS Official Discord. We appreciate your bug reports and we aim to collate and act upon them as efficiently as possible. In order to facilitate this further, we have shared some guidelines there on how to how to make a clear bug report including information that is relevant to maximizing the way in which we sort, investigate, and debug. 

    We’ll continue to keep an eye on Bug Reports posted on our Official Forums but we are finding Discord is very conducive to investigating and resolving bugs.

    Discord Nitro Serrver Boost Perks

    We have enabled Nitro Server Boosting for the Official ATLAS Discord. Fellow pirates of the Discord who boost the server will find treasure awaiting them! 

    What do you receive for boosting the Atlas Discord?

    • A special icon next to your name.
    • A new unique role and colour on the Official Atlas Discord
    • Access to our Booty Bay VIP channel
    • Members will get the opportunity to add an emoji of their choosing to the atlas Discord. (Pending Approval) Those who boost the server can submit their request by messaging ModMail with the emoji. Once approved by the Discord staff, the emoji will be added to the Official Atlas Discord and will remain for the duration of the active boost!

    For those of you unfamiliar with the new server boost feature, you can find out more about it here
    Join the ATLAS Discord: discord.gg/playatlas

         :anchor: Patch Notes up to v207.7 :anchor:

    While working on the upcoming mega update, we are still continuing to iterate on the live game. These are the updates that the game has seen since our last Captain's Log.

    v207.7
    
    - Fixed harvesting boost from giving more resources than intended
    - Fixed some unharvestable rocks and adding Fiber to missing freeports
    - Moved sextant GPS/Speed/Direction from above the hotbar to below the sextant compass widget
    - Prevented using Lucky Loader when in the middle of a reload
    - Fixed Harvest Boost and other skills from resetting their cooldown upon death
    - Crafting that requires 'water' as a resource will now consume 100 water, rather than the entire container
    - Fixed Grill not being able to use water containers as a crafting resource
    - Fixed overlapping text with Reservoir and Grill
    - Hydra is able to reliably break down trees
    - Fixed an issue with fishing rod where it would destroy itself when the item had broken
    
    v207.6
    
    - Added JSON object library.
    - Added blueprint interface for anonymous communication between mods.
    - Added helper functions for:
    
    Searching for creatures by ID.
    Retrieving filtered class lists.
    - Re-enabled UObject counter in the devkit
    
    v207.5
    
    - Fixed an issue with dropped ship cargo being incorrectly calculated
    
    v207.45
    
    - Optimised Fog of War memory usage.
    - Added a new slider: Ship Draw Distance (note: changing this will require a client reconnect to take effect). This setting changes the distance at which non-core ship structures and seated characters will draw for clients. If you wish to revert this, move the slider all the way to the right, alternatively, slide to the left for higher performance (particularly in large-scale ship battles).
    - Looking at boats through a spy glass will force maximum draw distance on non-core structures and seated characters.
    
    v207.41
    
    - Fixed some server-side crashes
    - Fixed double harvesting feat
    - Ship of the Damned will now lose agro if they have not dealt damage for some time
    - Ship of the Damned Galleons now have cannons on the front
    - Decreased the time it takes for Ship of the Damned to respawn on Golden Age Ruin servers by approximately 75% (previously 1 hour, now 15 minutes)
    - Fixed being able to drag players inside the Ice Dungeon
    
    v207.2
    
    - Fixed a server-side crash
    
    v207.2
    
    - Enabled Ship Structure Weight to the item tooltip
    - Fixed a client crash caused by crop plots
    - Giant Tortuga: Added step damage to prevent getting stuck on trees. Increased step height to prevent getting stuck on small obstacles and helps to more easily get out of water. Decreased tail swing range as attack missed at old max range.
    - Fixed combat state not being unset with gamepad
    - Fixed displayed ingredient requirements for Unthinkable Delicacy. Notable differences:
    
    25 animal meat -> 10 cooked prime meat
    10 Magic Marrow -> 10 Mythos
    added 50 hunger requirement to feat description
    - Updated Cargo container and Dinghy hangar to respect activation rank
    - Updated Shipyards and Scaffolding to respect activation rank
    - Server option to force disable structure prevention volumes
    Server Launch params:
    ?DisableStructurePreventionVolumes=true
    
    or in GameUserSettings.ini
    [ServerSettings]
    DisableStructurePreventionVolumes=true
    
    v207
    
    - Fixed a bug which impacted Ship of the Damned's ability to sail
    - Updated the quest description for 'Veteran Explorer'. It now takes 25% of all DPs, rather than 50%.
    - Crossbow damage reduced from 65 to 55
    - Faster reload skill effectiveness have been reduced by the following: Pistol - 25% less effective and Blunderbuss/Rifle: 75% less effective
    - Fixed merchant ships from sailing through islands

    :anchor: Dev Kit :anchor:

    The new ATLAS Devkit update, including all of the latest content from Mega-Update 2 is now available! Information including links to download the Update and the optional Ocean map sublevels can be found here

    :anchor: Show 'n Tell #8 :anchor:

    We loved looking over the entries for Show 'n Tell and we're excited to showcase our favourites so everyone can check out player's creative endeavours and piratey adventures! Feast yer eyes on  th' best o' th' bunch below! 

    FORSAKENEDENlarge.FORSAKENEDEN.jpg

    Cannon to right of them,
    Cannon to left of them,
    Cannon in front of them
    Volley’d and thunder’d;
    Storm’d at with shot and shell - Lord Alfred Tennyson

    FLOBOTlarge.FLOBOT_0.jpg

    The lighting and perspective in this shot give the pier and its docks an eerily beautiful feel. Impressive! 

    :pirate_mask:

    HONOURABLE MENTIONS

    KILLERFARMlarge.killerfarm.jpg

    ETHAN TARGARYANlarge.833855917_ETHANTARGARYEN.jpg

    ZADIRA

    OTAWA72large.otawa72.jpg

    Congratulations to all of the winners who will receive some real life cash booty! We look forward to the next round of Show n' Tell!

    :wheel:

    Alrighty, that ’s it for this log! Thank you so much for becoming a part of our crew and we can't wait to show all you scallywags, landlubbers, captains, and seadogs what lies ahead!

    Happy Sailing,

    Grapeshot Games

    🐈 For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information 🐈

    Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
    Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
    Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
    Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame


    View full article

    • Sad 1

  9. In light of the volume of recent bans we have had to issue regarding behaviour related misconduct we're issuing a reminder to players for whom this may be relevant. 

    This particular type of misconduct, as outlined in our Code of Conduct, constitutes any of the following: 

    This includes but is not limited to language or behaviour which is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, obscene, hateful, sexually explicit, or racially, ethnically or otherwise offensive.

    Unfortunately, many of our recent Misconduct bans have revolved around racial/cultural and/or homophobic statements. This will not be tolerated on our Official Networks and will result in a permanent account ban. Please abide by our Code of Conduct when playing on our Networks if you wish to avoid such action. 

    PvP-related trash talk is fine. We trust the vast majority of our players know the difference between that and the type of talk which will likely result in enforcement action.

    Our full Code Of Conduct can be found here

    Regards, 

    Grapeshot Games.


  10.      :anchor: The mega update 2 is now live :anchor:

    The time has come for challenging the enraged boss in his icy lair, exploring new and previously unchartered islands and putting your mark on the ATLAS with new items, creatures, and quality of life additions; the Mega Update 2 is here!

    The Public Test Realm heavily facilitated our getting the Mega Update 2 ready to push to our Official Network and ready for everyone to jump into and explore. Thank you to those of you who contributed through playing on the PTR and being enthusiastic about reporting bugs and issues and offering feedback.

    We look forward to hearing about your experiences and seeing you explore all the new content that Mega Update 2 has introduced to the ATLAS. As always, we will continue to monitor and rapidly iterate on the game!

    For those of you who haven’t yet set sail on the high seas, worry not as during the next 48-hours ATLAS is available on Steam Early Access for the promotional price of $14.99 ($29.99 Early Access S.R.P). Come on in, the water’s fine!

    :skull: mega update 2 :skull:

    New Quests:

    • Into the Ice: When you have collected all the Power Stones, head deep into a Polar Ice Dungeon to discover what lies beneath...

    large.823811667_IntotheIce.jpg

    • Master Cartographer: And with a thundering swell, the heaving ocean rose and fell beckoning avid explorers to uncover her secrets. Get at least 40% of the ATLAS Discovery Zones

    Skills and Feats:

    • Feat: Instant Hotbar Equip, unlocked after completing "Master Cartographer" quest.
    • Feat: Harvest boost, unlocked after completing "Into the Ice" quest.

    New Levels: 

    • Ice Dungeon: Traverse the depths of the new Ice Cave as you navigate foreboding chasms, expansive halls, and abandoned mines to reach the lair of the abomination which lies beneath awaiting your crew. Found in the polar region, the dungeon can only be entered if players have unlocked all the 9 power stones. 

    large.469189948_IntotheIce2.jpg

    • New Islands: Multiple equatorial and polar islands added to the ATLAS!

    large.991909765_EquatorialIslands.jpg

    New Boss Fight:

    • Snowman: Activated lights in the boss arena now power a shield that maintains the Snowman's ice armor. Killing a round of minions will disable the shield, and prevent minion spawns for a short duration, which allow the ice armor to receive damage. When the minion cooldown is over, the shield reactivates. When the ice armor reaches 0, the Snowman's health can be damaged directly and no more minions will spawn until the next health state.

    large.1408847447_AbominableSnowmanEntrance.jpg

    • Upon entering each new health state, one extra minion will spawn at a time, and an increased amount of minions will be required to be killed for the shield to be deactivated. When in the last health state and ice armor is destroyed for the final time, chaos ensues, and will continue until the boss is killed!

    large.1900835005_IntotheIce4.jpg

    New Structures: 

    • Offensive Structure: Torpedo Launcher and torpedoes. Master the waves with this heavy artillery projectile designed to detonate on contact with its target. Skill is obtained after completing "Into the Ice" quest.

    large.Torpedo.jpg

    • Building Structure: 3x4 Medium Gates further allow customization within the comprehensive building system.
    • Utility Structure: Ice Box - a high-insulation box for generating ice in cold areas. Has “active” mode that will drain ice but reduce surrounding temperature (reverse fire). Consumes less ice if “indoors”. New Resource: Ice - Generates over time in cold zones inside of the Ice Box. Decays relatively quickly if not in “insulated” storage. Can be consumed to reduce temperature and the half negative effects of armour weight debuffs for a short duration (15s per ice cube, max of 5 mins). Ice, which is relatively heavy, can be placed inside preserving bags to extend spoil times, and also lasts much longer in preserving bags. Keep it frosty.

    New Cosmetics:

    • Player: Adopt a menacing tribal-esque countenance with the Hydra Hide Armour Set or  don the Cyclops Heavy Armour Set for a streamlined and foreboding Stygian look.
    • Ship: Further customize your ship with the new Hydra Steering Wheel, and Bone Skin Steering Wheel

    large.1896733607_BoneWheel.jpg

    New Attachments:

    • Boat Attachment: Cargo Racks offer more options to the discerning Captain! This large hangar-based crate can carry a ton of resources at a massively reduced weight, but can only be accessed when anchored, and slows down the speed of the ship which carries it (at maximum cargo carrier attachments, a boat's speed will be reduced by a total of 40%). It can also be dropped into the water if your boat needs to make a hasty getaway, and recovered later into its hangar!
    • Cart Attachment: Transport goods more efficiently! The large storage box can now be placed on the back of a bear or horse’s field-harness saddle, where it becomes a special “freight box” that provides reduced weight for the items it contains when on land. And now you can ferry around your items while looking like a proper traveling merchant!

    large.821102774_CargoCart.jpg

    New Item:

    • Fishing Net: Bide your time chasing that catch whilst on long journeys with the new fishing net. Can only be used when sitting. Equips on the back slot. Will begin automatically catch fish when the boat has met minimum sailing minimum velocity

    large.1321841189_FishingNet.jpg

    New Weapons and Ammo types:

    • Ballista Ammo Type: Boat Harpoon. Stop fleeing enemies in their tracks by using this formidable weapon to attach to and reel in their vessels.

    large.167917970_BallistaHarpoon.jpg

    • Weapon: Master the aquatic depths armed with the Speargun. Can only be used underwater.

    large.Speargun.jpg

    • Weapon: Up the ante with the new crossbow boasting the ability to load up to five projectiles and higher accuracy. Cannot be used underwater.

    large.Crossbow.jpg

    New Creatures

    • Olfend: This quirky looking creature narrowly avoided being burdened with the moniker: the Camelephant. The unique Olfend possesses some utilitarian attributes based around water. Water can be collected as you ride it across fertile land or by drinking from lakes and the considerate Olfend will store it, distribute it amongst water containers or...spit it in a friend’s eye. The delicately-legged creature also has the potential to be more heroic than it may appear by being put to use in extinguishing fires.

    large.Olfend.jpg

    • Giant Tortugar: In some ways, the Tortuga, or carrier turtle, acts as an organic armored personnel carrier and, in others, it is similar to an organic submarine. Nestle under its’ sectioned shell for protection or stay sheltered as it plunges into the depths and affords its passengers reduced oxygen consumption.

    large.55423250_GiantTortuga.jpg

    New Features:

    • Company: Map markers
    • Company: Announcements
    • Boats: Can now be unclaimed and claimed
    • Controls: Full gamepad support

    large.1199526924_IceDungeon.jpg

    New Quality of Life Improvements:

    • UX: Revamped Skill Tree UI
    • UX: Adjusted 3rd person aiming so there is less likelihood of foliage clipping
    • UX: Sextant Buff Corner Mini Map is now hidden by default and can be revealed by pressing the H key. Sextant Mini Map can be permanently enabled by turning on the option in Advanced Settings
    • Combat: Players now have the option to turn dual wielding weapons off by holding the TAB key and the hotbar key to equip the new pistol, rather than duel wield it.
    • Combat: Gun hotbar equip time now scales (improves) with the various reloading skills 
    • Combat: You can now attack from the run-state (but not whilst running). Previously when attempting to attack whilst running, you would have had to pause, then attack. Now you can go straight from a run into an attack.
    • Structures: The grill can now be attached to water pipes
    • Controls: You can now use the F key as an option to pick up all items from the floor within a certain radius
    • Ship: Pressing the F key whilst driving the ship, now allows you to access its inventory menu

    large.985430038_EquatorialIsland.jpg

    Bug Fixes:

    • Skills: Fixed skills showing up in the wrong order on the skill tree
    • Ships: Fixed a bug which prevented ships from reversing when they bumped into shores
    • Ships: Fixed pressing right click to zoom in on the compass when sitting at a wheel of a ship
    • Ships: Can no longer place a Steering Wheel inside the sail mast
    • Building: Fixed a bug which prevented Water Reservoirs from irrigating grills if gathering water from a non-lake source
    • Building: Fixed vertical encroachment check on the bookcase so it fits in 1-high wall rooms
    • Resources: Fixed a bug where brain coral and fire coral were incorrectly labeled
    • Map: Multiple level fixes (holes, waterfall transitions, soil types, etc)
    • Creatures: Fixed a case where creatures would be stuck in the flee state whilst bola'd
    • Creatures Fixed a case where creatures would appear to stand up briefly just after being bola'd
    • UX: Fixed a bug which prevented you from seeing the HUD of a dropped item
    • UX: Scaled the size of ammo texts on ammo containers to make them more readable and changed CanisterShot to Canister Shot
    • Misc: Fixed icons for: Cooked Prime Fish Meat, Explosive Barrels, and Instant Equip
    • Misc: Disabled male voice on female characters when using a repair hammer on damaged planks
    • Misc: Fixed multiple cases where players shoulder disappears when harvesting with new anims
    • Misc: Fixed manual targeting aim location not replicating to clients

    large.1682226989_IntotheIce3.jpg

    Balance Changes:

    • Combat: Reduced sickle damage against creatures and players
    • Combat: Sprint/Charge weapons have been disabled and will be re-added to the game as enhanced feats
    • Ships: Small Weight Sail weight bonus increased from 515 to 1000
    • Ships: Medium Weight Sail weight bonus increased from 920 to 2500
    • Ships: Large Weight Sail weight bonus increased from 1300 to 4000
    • Ships: Small Handling Sail wind effectiveness increased from 101 to 118
    • Ships: Medium Handling Sail wind effectiveness increased from 101 to 118
    • Ships: Large Handling Sail wind effectiveness increased from 101 to 118

    🦀 For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information 🦀

    Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
    Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
    Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
    Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame


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  11. The Public Test realm is now Live! The PTR will be running with 8x rates to expedite your progress so players can dive right into testing, bug reporting and sharing feedback. 

    Instructions on how to opt in can be found here.

     


  12.  

       :anchor: Joining the PTR :anchor:

        The ATLAS Public Test Realm is available to all players by opting into the Steam Beta branch. You can join the PTR by following these steps: 

        1) Right click on the ATLAS game in your steam library and select "properties"

        large.ptrproperties.png

        2) Select the "Beta" tab on the popup as indicated below: 

        large.publictestrealm.PNG

        3) Locate publictestrealm in the drop down menu and select that.

        4) Select close then launch ATLAS.

        You may need to restart your Steam Clients to make sure you see the publictestrealm branch as a beta option.

     

    We will be reopening our PTR Bug reporting channels on the Discord and here on the Forums to coincide with the launch of the PTR. Instructions on opting into the PTR Bug Report channel on the ATLAS Discord can be found in #discord_news. 

         

    • Like 9

  13. Ahoy Pathfinders

    We've had our heads down and just wanted to give you a quick update on where we're at with our upcoming Public Test Realm and major version release!

    Public Test Realm

    The team has been running the latest update through its paces via our internal testing and bug fixing prior to releasing it to all of you on the PTR for more wide-scale extensive testing.  We've found the Public Test realm to be highly beneficial for our team thanks to your enthusiasm in helping us to identify issues and bugs. 

    We're excited to relaunch the PTR next week prior to the update officially launching on our main network. We will keep you posted in regards to the exact date!

    large.Dungeon_2.jpg

    Magic Mythos Event

    We will be holding a special Magic Mythos Event in tandem with the extended weekend from now until Tuesday. Bonus 3x rates across the ATLAS to EXP, harvesting, taming, gold, crop growth, and as a special bonus, breeding and raising creatures!

     

    We really appreciate your patience and look forward to sharing all our Mega Update has to offer with you!

    :wheel:

        


    View full article


  14. :skull: SHOW 'N TELL :skull:

    Avast, Pathfinders it be time for a new Show 'n Tell Showcase!

     

    Hear ye, hear ye! We be treasure huntin' fer the finest of ATLAS community creations! Show us yer mighty fleets, paint pieces, flags & sails, impenetrable forts, hellish tats, scenic screenshots, 'n entertainin' videos!

    Each fortnight, we'll be runnin' a contest where we'll select th' best o' th' bunch 'n award tha winners wit' a cash prize! Submit your entries in this 'ere thread for us to be viewin'. 

     

    We’ve created this dedicated thread for submissions. Don’t hesitate to show us what you’ve got. The last two week's entries were amazing and we look forward to what you have for us this fortnight! 

     

    large.globytheoldpirate_resize.jpg
    Globytheoldpirate

     

    This is a friendly contest and not intended as something highly competitive. We'd like to showcase your creations in their many varied shapes and forms.

     

    Submit your entries by Tuesday 7th of May for a chance to fill your chests with some cash booty!

     

    :anchor:

    • Like 2

  15. Spam Bots work by crawling and looking for signatures of known software. Usually this is a snippet of text like a copyright or a meta tag but it could be any consistent identifier. This usually applies to blog and forum software.

    It is a constant back and forth between Captcha/ReCaptcha/use of a field that requires the user to answer a question and the bots "learning" them. Rinse and repeat. 

    Making security in regards to these bots as tight as possible tends to lead to genuine users encountering difficulty or frustration in signing up to our Forums so we look to walk a fine line between catching the bots and user experience. 

    • Like 3
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  16. Attention Pathfinders,

    Recently, we were able to identify multiple ways in which players were able to gain a massive amount of experience points, very quickly. Some of these methods were made public, some reported privately, and others were identified internally. We wanted to be thorough and catch every possible way this could have been abused. Due to these bugs, a few scenarios arose ingame:

    • Players were levelling much faster than intended.
    • It highlighted a balance concern with how high items and characters could scale.

    Our aim was to tackle this in the smoothest way possible, and our intention was to avoid a wipe/rollback, and minimize damage to innocence at all costs. Ultimately, this is what we’ve decided to do and with our most recent update, we have introduced the following changes:

    •  Crafting Bonus on items is now capped at 60%.
    •  Any character which was above level 100 will now be reverted to level 100.
    •  One time character respec for any character that had their XP reduced back to 100.
    •  One time destruction of all crafted items with a crafting bonus of over 60%.

    We believe that these changes, whilst imperfect, should help restore sanctity to the Official Game. Going forward, we'll also be taking a look at how high stats can scale, in particular intelligence and health and we'll be adjusting them in a way that will have a retroactive effect in the future. We want to make sure that everyone can enjoy their adventures and will continue to take bugs and exploit matters seriously. We know we may not always act as fast as you like, but rest assured these matters are highly concerning to us and we will look for an effective solution which we can deploy rapidly within our means.

    As always, we value your feedback and encourage you to share it with us.

    Grapeshot Games

    • Like 2
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    • Confused 1
    • Sad 3

  17. Ahoy Pathfinders!

    Today's log will just be a brief update on our current status with our upcoming Mega patch touching on where we are!

         :anchor: MAY MEGA UPDATE :anchor:

    The team are currently working on wrapping up the patch for internal review and we expect it to enter our QA process later today. Following that, we'll be hitting it hard and barring any fires, we should be in a good state to get the update released onto our new Public Test Realm soon. This means that we're currently planning for the Public Test Realm to be available around the end of next week. As we get closer to the date, we'll be able to provide you with a more specific timeline. So far it's been smooth sailing, and we're on track for our end of the month release date.

    For those who have been away at sea, in our last Captain's Log, we covered our most recent Developer Livestream, as well as spoke about the content that's coming in the latest update. If you've not had a chance to watch the stream, you can do so here for some in-game footage of what's to come:

    But for those just after the nitty gritty of the patch, here's what you can expect:

    • New Cosmetics: Hydra Steering Wheel, Hydra Hide Armour Set, and Cyclops Heavy Armour Set!
    • New Offensive Structure: Torpedo Launcher (and torpedoes!)
    • New Boat Attachment: Cargo Racks!
    • New Cart Attachment: Large Storage Box!
    • New Tool: Fishing Net!
    • New Ballista Ammo Type: Boat Harpoon
    • New Weapon: Spear Gun!
    • New Creature: Olfend
    • New Creature: Giant Tortugar
    • New Level: Ice Dungeon
    • New Weapon: Crossbow
    • New Structure: 3x4 Medium Gates
    • New Structure: Ice Box - a high-insulation box for transporting ice. Has “active” mode that will drain ice but reduce surrounding temperature (reverse fire). Consumes less ice if “indoors”. Extends spoil time of things inside, but greatly extends the storage time of ice. Also has an option to turn ice into water to consume.
    • New Resource: Ice - Must be harvested from cold zones. Decays relatively quickly if not in “insulated” storage. Can be consumed to reduce temperature for a short duration (15s per ice cube, max of 5 mins). Relatively heavy.
    • New Feature: Company-wide map markers
    • New Feat: Instant Hotbar Equip
    • QOL: Structure Weights now displayed on items
    • QOL: Revamped Skill Tree UI (first pass has already made it in!)

    With more still to come!

         :anchor: latest Patch notes :anchor:

    While working on the mega patch, we are still continuing to iterate on the live game. These are the updates that the game has seen since our last Captain's Log.

    104.56
    
    - Skill UI redesign (first pass, more work to come with it!)
    - Fixed misalignment with female first person hand view
    
    v104.55
    
    - Ending Magic Mythos event on Official Servers
    
    v104.52
    
    - Large Cannons not snapped onto Gunports on Servers using bDontRequireLargeCannonsToSnapOnShips=true will now fire correctly.
    
    v104.51
    
    - RMB or Middle Mouse Button will now "drop" a grenade
    - Grenade physics tweaked slightly be weightier, damage radius increased 15%, and grenade explosions now move with ships properly
    - Stationed NPC's aside from puckle are now properly melee-damageable
    - Added server option to allow large cannons to not require snap on ship: 
    
    Game.ini ShooterGameMode bDontRequireLargeCannonsToSnapOnShips=true
    
    - Fixes for cyclops Cloth boots and Kraken Hat not being rewarded
    - Switched from Add New Item to Increment Item Quantity for Milk and Wool from Cow and Sheep to prevent being limited to Max Item Quantity if the player had no exiting stacks of the item given.
    - Increased max amounts at full yield from 60 to 80 for Cow and 100 to 200 for Sheep.
    - Melee Combat, fixing two bugs related to blocking:
    
    Setting traces to use zero instead of complex collision groups on clients so that clients properly see hits
    Fixing mistaken/unclear orderings for block determination that led to servers failing to correctly identify and pass along a block if the client-based block didn't succeed (such as in the cases where the client couldn't land a hit due to the collision group)
    - Added a "turn off" option to ballista and catapult
    - Fixed floating characters on standable tames such as elephants
    - Fixed a bug where clients would see characters that had been grapple pulled off tame still move with their tames as if they were mounted resulting in a weird flight-like state.
    - Added option to hide the pause menu's Server Info Panel
    
    104.33
    
    - Fixed an issue with leatherwing's grab
    - Large cannons should now properly snap to all gunports
    - Large cannon snaps now require floor/deck underneath
    - Nature's touch cooldown now has unique icon
    - Coral item now has correct coal-type item category icon
    - Reduced Golden Age creature spawns by 60% and increased their respawn interval by a factor of 3
    - The extra Water-structure foundation checks now only check against other Water-structures, and do not apply for Settlement Owners
    - Item Skins are no longer eliminated when Trading
    
    v104.2
    
    - Hid the unclaim boat button as it's not ready for public release yet
    - Fixed an issue where Large Cannons were being destroyed on the destruction of a gunport they were snapped to
    - When demolishing a non-ship/core type structures on a non-fully-anchored boat, resources will not be returned to you. This will be indicated to you via the demolish HUD. The boat must be fully anchored to get resources back for non-ship/core type structures.
    
    v104.14
    
    Balance Changes
    
    - Crab can no longer grab crew off stations
    - Ship claim time reduced by 5x when a ship is unanchored.
    - Large Cannons can now only be placed in gun ports when on ships. Existing Large Cannons that have been placed on decks or ceilings will not be functional and will need to be demolished. 
    - Small reduction in Large Cannon damage
    - One-time doubling of acquired Discovery Points for all previously existing player profiles
    - Players will now get 2 Discovery Points per regular discovery rather than 1
    - Quest Discovery Points have also increased by approximately 2x
    - Lighthouses will check for nearby enemy players before being able to be successfully placed
    - Large Gateways, Gates, and Large walls will check for nearby online players before being able to be placed unless on Settlements during peacetime.
    - Core Structures will check for nearby online players before being able to be placed during Combat Phase on Settlements
    - Flotsam gold reward gold increased by 20%
    - Crew Payment Interval doubled (this means that you'll need to pay them less gold)
    - Shipwreck Gold Reward doubled
    - Creatures able to be equipped with armour along with Crew are now able to equip gear above common quality.
    - Any structure that checks for enemy foundations when placed in water now has a 4x enemy foundation check radius (such as pillars and shipyards)
    - There is now a creature specific cooldown on Nature's Touch
    
    QoL Changes
    - Increased spoil timer on SotD loot.
    - Reduction in Blizzard Sound Effect volume
    - Crewmembers will no longer eat Water Jars from the food larder or their inventories
    - Transferring materials with a filter on now transfers all children types too. For example, filtering HIDE will transfer Leather, Fur, Hair, etc.
    - Transferring items of a higher than base quality will now automatically go into the hotbar space
    
    Bug Fixes
    -The Accordion song, “A Mockatoo Once Told Me” will now appropriately apply the buff to players in the area
    - Fix to the movement of elevator when manually operated
    - Fixed a crash on transition
    - Submarine now consumes fuel consistently after crossing a world border
    - Kracken should no longer aggro onto ships/players outside of the barrier
    - Fixed an issue related to ships transitioning with players when a catapult was used
    - Fixed a basing issue which could occur when crabs jumped off ships
    - Fixed an issue caused by opening the feats wheel then pressing “i” which caused the mouse cursor to be placed on screen.
    - An unraised noose on a ship will no longer cause a player to take damage upon transferring
    - Fixed an exploit related to harvesting from crop plots
    - Fixed an issue with crop plots unintentionally being able to be stacked
    - A player’s bag will no longer spawn above the cave if they die completing the Powerstone quest
    - Items inside a loot bag will now register the correct weight
    - Fixed a visual bug related to the cloth Cyclops Helmet skin 
    - Cannons can no longer be placed right beside another (to address stacking three cannons inside a gun port)
    - The sextant compass buff will no longer be removed upon logging out
    - Fixed Hydra Spawn on H6
    - Cleaned up levels from Mnt_R_PVE and reworked spawns on Cay_H
    - Cannonballs will no longer pass through own collision
    - Gateways and Gates can no longer be placed in Freeports or Golden Age Ruin servers
    - Alloy will now be correctly detected from a resource repair box
    
    Misc
    - Settlement Owners on our PvE Networks can no longer set rules on building offensive structures
    - Rectified an inconsistency when painting decks and ceilings on ships
    - Adjusted the Chest Width slider for females in the character creation screen
    - Corrected Hide Cyclops Armour name in BP description
    
    v103.32
    
    - Improved logic for fixes related to items/blueprints changing into Engrams.
    
    v103.31
    
    - Fixed another case where items/blueprints could change into Engrams. 
    
    v103.3
    
    - Fixed a bug which would have caused items/blueprints to change into Engrams. 
    
    v103.2
    
    - Fixed a bug which would have caused items/blueprints to change into Engrams. 

    Complete Patch Notes:

         :skull: SHOW 'N' TELL #7 :skull:

    We loved looking over the entries for Show 'n Tell 7 and we're excited to showcase this collection so you can check out player's creative endeavours and piratey adventures! Feast yer eyes on  th' best o' th' bunch below! 

    WINNERS

    ATLASGENESIS

    I...have no words...this made me laugh. Fantastic editing and shots also. Congratulations, you take first place!

    GLOBYTHEOLDPIRATE

    large.globytheoldpirate_resize.jpg

    Ships that pass in the night, and speak each other in passing, only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness; So on the ocean of life, we pass and speak one another, only a look and a voice, then darkness again and a silence - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

    OTAWA72

    large.otawa72.jpg

    Otawa is at it again with stunning composition and quality. 

    KNIVET

    large.knivet.jpg

    This unique perspective on an elephant shrouded in firelight caught our eye.

     

    HONOURABLE MENTIONS

    ENKI ANNUNAKI

    large.21860802_enkiannunaki.jpg

    XXVISIONARYXX

    large.XXVISIONARY1XX.jpg

     

    :wheel:

    Alrighty, that ’s it for this log! Thank you so much for becoming a part of our crew and we can't wait to show all you scallywags, landlubbers, captains, and seadogs what lies ahead!

    Happy Sailing,

    Grapeshot Games

     

    🦀 For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information 🦀

    Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
    Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
    Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
    Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame


    View full article


  18. Ahoy Pathfinders!

    Well, it’s been a few weeks since ATLAS 1.5 went live and we’re pleased with the progress thus far. Thank you again for all of the support and feedback - especially during the PTR and beyond. 

    This Captain’s Log comes straight off the back of today’s Livestream and we’d like to offer a recap for those who may have missed it. The purpose of the Livestream was to answer questions asked by the Community and to discuss some of the things you care about along with showing off our upcoming content slated for the May mega-patch. We collated questions on our Community Hub, but, in the interest of time, we focused on answering a few big topic ones initially. We will be pulling more from the community’s responses and addressing those throughout more Captain’s Log and general outreach on social and our community hub. 

    If you didn’t have a chance to watch the steam, worry not as you can check out the entire VOD here!

             :anchor: Livestream Recap! :anchor:

    Before we begin going through the content in the mega update, we want to cover some topics that frequently came up in our Q&A thread. Please keep in mind that we’re not going to be able to cover everything, however, we will be looking over the thread at your suggestions, feedback, and try to cover more in the coming weeks through these logs and additions to our patch.

    Will there be a wipe with this Mega Update?

    No. We have no plans to wipe the networks with the next mega update. The game is in Early Access and we don’t want to be afraid to make big changes for the betterment of the game in the long-run, but we balance that with the time you guys have invested and the feedback you’ve provided. Adding new content, including exploring areas doesn’t necessarily mean that a wipe will be necessary. The last mega update required a wipe as we were making some grand changes to the core game like claiming and ownership of islands, and we look at that type of situation as an extreme case which would advance the game’s development.

    Does ATLAS have lore, do you guys plan to explore on that through quests or other means?

    The world of ATLAS has a history and lore that we are building through the environments and things like discovery zones and notes. We’re handling this similarly to the early days of ARK, where the lore was sprinkled in but none of the dots could really be connected. Over the course of development, as we solidify our game mechanics and technical features, you might start to see more of this lore introduced into the world in various ways that ties everything together. We have some really fun stuff planned for the future in terms of quest lines and world building.

    What’s planned for the state of Piracy as an action?

    We know this is a question that has been raised a lot, and especially recently with this update’s reveal of content that may not be as pirate focused as some would like. We are interested in how these various pieces of content play out and it’s important to state that what is in the current game may not be in the ultimate game. This means we’re going to try different things and experiment a lot, especially throughout early access. Over the weeks and months ahead, the game will continue to evolve as we sail towards our goal of making the most fun pirate fantasy game, as opposed to the most realistic pirate game. On that note, this upcoming mega patch does introduce a fair bit of content related to seafaring and the pirate playstyle, and we’ll continue to look into ways we can further establish this via new multidimensional gameplay mechanics as well as rebalancing and tweaking existing systems. 

    Where is the Pirate Hat cosmetic from playing pre-1.5?

    It’s coming! Between addressing bugs and server performance along with working on the mega patch, it kinda got stuck in our pipeline! Yes, we will give you all your fancy hats soon, sorry for the wait.

    XBOX?

    We’re going to have some very exciting Xbox news for you in the coming months. We’re thrilled to have you aboard, our plans haven’t changed and can’t wait to bring it to you this year. Stay tuned!

    And now...onto the update itself!

    Unlike the last Mega Patch, this one is more content focused and less systemic. We still plan to make more systemic changes, however, we want to give our previous changes some time to settle, so we can see how they play out and decide what steps we’d like to take next. That means this for this patch, we’ll be introducing some new weapons/combat related items for players and ships, structures, items to generally improve QOL, cosmetics, creatures, and an explorable area, the Ice Dungeon!

    New Cosmetics: Hydra Steering Wheel, Hydra Hide Armour Set, and Cyclops Heavy Armour Set!

    large.heavy2.jpg

    large.heavy.jpg

    Similarly to our other skins, these will be purchasable at your local Freeport.

    large.wheel.jpg

    It’ll be the first time we’ll have skinned a steering wheel, and it’s applied by accessing it’s inventory and equipping it in the skin slot. The skins will be able to be painted and we plan to have many more exotic wheel skins in the future.

    New Offensive Structure: Torpedo Launcher (and torpedoes!)

    large.torpedo.jpg

    Torpedo Launchers are a new Golden Age ruin item which allows crew and captains to fire torpedos at their targets. The launcher must be snapped to a Gunport location and can be used manually or via the Captain’s Firing mode. Shooting a torpedo at or above the water’s surface will make it follow that path on the surface, and angling it downwards will have it follow that trajectory, like a missile. We can assure you that we are aware of the ways in which Torpedo’s could be problematic in terms of the meta and we’ll be keeping a close eye on their balance.

    New Boat Attachment: Cargo Racks!

    large.ship_cargo.jpg

    A new storage option for medium and large boats. The cargo rack is snapped to dingy hangar locations and will significantly reduce the weight of any item inside of its inventory. The cargo rack can only be accessed when the boat has anchored, and if the boat is sunk, the cargo rack will turn into a special-flotsam which contains the inventory floating out at sea, providing the potential for it to be stolen by another pirate crew!

    New Cart Attachment: Large Storage Box!

    large.large_cart_storage.jpg

    Cargo Carts now own up to their namesake and can carry additional cargo! Attach a large storage chest to a cargo cart will automatically reduce the weight of the items (this effect will be disabled on ships), to help players transport resources more easily on land.

    New Tool: Fishing Net!

    Pleasantly pass the time at sea on long journeys, as you cast your new fishing net to satisfy your hunger and deepen your pockets!

    New Ballista Ammo Type: Boat Harpoon

    Stop your fleeing enemies in their tracks and reel them in with the new Boat Ballista Harpoon! Load up your ballistic and fire the projectile, if it successfully attaches you and your target will be unable to move. Reel them in before they destroy the harpoon. You can only successfully harpoon same-or-smaller ship classes.

    New Weapon: Spear Gun!

    large.spear_gun.jpg

    With a highly accurate piercing projectile, a rapid reload rate, and the ability to reuse ammo
    the Spear Gun is the best choice for your underwater weaponry! 

    New Creature: Olfend

    large.olfred2.jpg

    This quirky looking creature narrowly avoided being burdened with the moniker: the Camelephant. The unique Olfend possesses some utilitarian attributes based around water. Water can be collected as you ride it across fertile land or by drinking from lakes and the considerate Olfend will store it, distribute it amongst water containers or...spit it in a friend’s eye. The delicately-legged creature also has the potential to be more heroic than it may appear by being put to use in extinguishing fires. 

    New Creature: Giant Tortugar

    large.1010282141_tortuga1.jpg

    We’re pretty fond of this creature and the aspects it can bring to player’s experience of the game. In some ways the Tortuga acts like an armoured personnel carrier and, in others, it is similar to an organic submarine. Nestle under its’ sectioned shell for protection or stay sheltered as it plunges into the depths and affords its passengers reduced oxygen consumption.
        
    New Level: Ice Dungeon

    large.Dungeon_2.jpg

    large.Dungeon.jpg

    An enormous dungeon found deep in the depths of the polar region. We can see that this was clearly once occupied by pathfinders but now deserted. Rumour has it that they were slaughtered or their fear of a legendary and elusive mythical beast steered them away.  

    Additional Mega-Patch Notes!

    • New Weapon: Crossbow
    • New Structure: 3x4 Medium Gates
    • New Structure: Ice Box - a high-insulation box for transporting ice. Has “active” mode that will drain ice but reduce surrounding temperature (reverse fire). Consumes less ice if “indoors”. Extends spoil time of things inside, but greatly extends the storage time of ice. Also has an option to turn ice into water to consume.
    • New Resource: Ice - Must be harvested from cold zones. Decays relatively quickly if not in “insulated” storage. Can be consumed to reduce temperature for a short duration (15s per ice cube, max of 5 mins). Relatively heavy.
    • New Feature: Company-wide map markers
    • New Feat: Instant Hotbar Equip
    • QOL: Structure Weights now displayed on items
    • QOL: Revamped Skill Tree UI
    • QOL: Breeding Temperature Gate adjustments
    • QOL: Faster Reload skills now also scale the corresponding equip time

    With more notes still to come!

    ISO: BLACKWOOD

    large.blackwood_new_2.png

    Prepare for a dark twist on the Equatorial biome with ISO Blackwood. Dark jungles, caves, alcoves, villages, homes, and farms, an interesting array of animals and a new concept; The Mire. Wade through thick green waters teeming with dangerous creatures, rare plant life, and the occasional Gorgon to find buried treasure, lost corpses and even the giant and ancient snake boss Anacython.

    In early June we expect to be able to release our special mod-map, Blackwood, created by Iso, the level designer behind ARK’s popular mod-map Crystal Isles. This is not something we’ll be supporting specifically on our Official Network, as it was designed and intended to be used for single servers an example of a stunning mod map that can be hosted unofficially. This specific map will be set up so that you can still enjoy all the mechanics that ATLAS has to offer, whilst hosting it as a standalone server with no additional database setup required!

         :anchor: Latest Patch Notes :anchor:

    CURRENT V103.0 
    - Player Shops only cost upkeep on Non-Lawless PvE-style Homeservers. (Technically in Official PvP too, but only on the non-lawless homeservers that are effectively PvE regions)
    - Servers can use this server config value to scale the player shop upkeep:
    
    Game.ini:
    [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
    PlayerShopGoldUpkeepMultiplier=0.08
    
    Default value is 0.08, for a 92% reduction from the previous rate.
    
    - Player Shops are now limited to 70 slots
    - You are now allowed to build more than one player shop per team on an official homeserver, now you can build as many as you want to pay the upkeep for.
    - War Declaration cost has been reduced to 40k gold and 500 of each additional material, rather than 1000.
    - Ability to respawn on your current server when you die on a lawless/freeport server that isn't set to be your home server.
    - Water creatures will no longer lose their targets close to the water surface.
    
    - Magic Mythos is now enabled on Official Servers: bonus 2x Harvest, XP, Taming, and Gold rates for the weekend.
    
    v102.62
    
    - Fixed a client-side crash
    
    v102.61
    
    - Optimizations for creature food consumption and structure tagging
    
    v102.5
    
    - Fixed some rare crashes.
    - Stationed NPCs (on boats and land) no longer take damage from guns on Official Servers.
    - Added a new Game.ini ShooterGameMode config bool: bSeatedNPCIgnoreGunDamage=1
    
    v102.47
    
    - You can now reveal unconscious targets contesting your own claimflag (pinwheel option activated on your claimflag)
    
    v102.46
    
    - Magic Mythos is now enabled on Official Servers: bonus 2x Harvest, XP, Taming, and Gold rates for the weekend.

    Complete Patch Notes: 

         :anchor: Show 'n tell #7 :anchor:

    We’re still collecting entries for the Show ‘n Tell! So you have a little longer to astound us with your creations, be they your fleets, building designs, imaginative tatts, entertaining videos, original fan art or scenic screenshots. Don’t be shy and head to the submission thread for a chance to win some booty in the form of a cash prize!

    :wheel:

    Alrighty, that’s it for this post. Thank you so much for becoming a part of our crew and we can't wait to show all you scallywags, landlubbers, captains, and seadogs what lies ahead on the horizon!

    Happy Sailing,

    Grapeshot Games

    🏴☠️ For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information 🏴☠️

    Hoist ye sails to our Homepage: https://www.playatlas.com/
    Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
    Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
    Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
    Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgam

     


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  19. Ahoy Pathfinders!

    Now that the flux of development related to ATLAS 1.5 has settled, we have made a return to our regularly scheduled patches to address stability, bugs, and balance whilst we prepare our next Mega-Update. This is a good time to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring ATLAS continues moving towards its ambition of becoming the ultimate fantasy pirate adventure. This Captain's Log will give you a sneak preview of what we're currently working on for our May Mega Patch whilst maintaining the live game on the side.

         :anchor: livestream! :anchor:

    But before we get into that... save the date, as next Friday, the 3rd of May at 2 PM PT we’ll be live streaming some of our upcoming content and revealing more details about the next Mega-Update!

    The stream will be hosted on both Twitch and Mixer, so be sure to tune in!

    twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    mixer.com/playatlas 

    We’ll also be collecting questions from the community which we’ll be answering live. If you’ve got something on your mind, whether it’s about future development plans, upcoming content, decisions regarding features, or how we feel about Endgame, submit your questions to this thread!

         :anchor: mega-update! :anchor:

    Now that our first large milestone has made it out the door, the team has been working hard on our next major content update. This will include new playable areas, creatures, weapons, items, ship mechanics and more -- much of which we’ll be covering in our upcoming Live Stream!

    Please keep in mind that this update is an evolving work-in-progress and thus, isn’t set in stone. This means that it’s open to change, whether it’s the visual appearance or the actual intended gameplay purpose it serves. 

    But without further ado, here’s a little peek of the content to come!

    Icebox

    large.ATLAS_Icebox_resize.jpg

    A high insulation box for transporting ice! Can be used to reduce surrounding temperature, extend the spoil time of perishables, and quench your thirst -- assuming it’s fully stocked. 😉

    Spear Gun

    large.ATLAS_Speargun_resize.jpg

    An underwater weapon that players can use to launch a piercing spearbolt with power and accuracy.

    Torpedo

    large.ATLAS_Torpedo_redo.jpg

    An underwater missile fired from a torpedo launcher (snapped to gunports), which can be aimed down into the ocean to destroy structures built underwater, or shot across the water surface (cannot travel or be shot above the water surface).

    Heavy Cyclops Cosmetic

    large.Atlas_Characters_Heavy_Cyclops_resize.jpg

    The heavy armor edition of our Cyclops Armour opens the door to intimidating your foes in our tribal-themed skin with a little extra heavy...metal 😄

    :skull:

    This Mega-Update will be loaded with new features and content and we’re excited to get it into your hands. There’s a lot to come with it and even more planned for the months ahead which we will be displaying and discussing in the stream next week. As always, thank you very much for all of your feedback and reports; this community is very involved and passionate and you guys directly facilitate the evolution and development of ATLAS along with our ability to address issues and bugs.

         :anchor: iso: Blackwood :anchor:

    large.Blackwood_01_4262019_resize.jpg

    large.Blackwood_10_4262019_resize.jpg

    In early June we expect to be able to release our special mod-map, Blackwood, created by Iso, the level designer behind ARK’s popular mod-map Crystal Isles. This is not something we’ll be supporting specifically on our Official Network, as it was designed and intended to be used for single servers an example of a stunning mod map that can be hosted unofficially. This specific map will be set up so that you can still enjoy all the mechanics that ATLAS has to offer, whilst hosting it as a standalone server with no additional database setup required!

    large.Blackwood_11_4262019-Resize.jpg

    large.Blackwood_12_4262019_resize.jpg

         :anchor: patch roundup! :anchor:

    The community’s contributions throughout early access, whether that’s bug reports, feedback on features, and content suggestion have been highly helpful in ATLAS’ development. Thanks to your reports, we were able to identify and resolve one of our more frequent server crashes. Additionally, we’ve spent a lot of time focusing on the core technical aspect of the game and have significantly optimized crew attached to stations, movement on ships, and resolved some outstanding bugs.

    77d4c1609b12a79c54ddedf2e42c10aeec7ff182

    The effect on our servers after eliminating that crash. The dip you see on Wednesday and Early Thursday was because we had temporarily disabled a feature which had a high chance of causing the crash and then further dropped Late Thursday onward after we fixed the issue and re-enabled the feature. We couldn’t have done it without your report, so please keep them coming!

    You can submit a bug report to our forums here

    Please have a read through of our guidelines thread to help us get all the information we need:

    And we’re currently collating information regarding ‘vanishing’ structure pieces, so if you’ve experienced it please post a response in this thread with any information that you can provide, we’ve included a guideline that’ll help us identify the problem.

    :skull: Patch notes up to v102.45 :skull:

    - Fixed issue where tames could be given move-onto-ship points that were outside the bounds of the ship, or nearly outside.
    - Fixed issue where tames could potentially fall endlessly and drown when moving-onto-ship.
    
    v102.4
    
    - Fixed a server crash
    - Re-enabled Red Alert and the ability to return the crew to their previous seat following a Red Alert (can be activated using Right Shift) on Official Servers
    
    v102.38
    
    - Fixed creature "drift" on ships for client
    - Fixed issue where creatures could disappear or erroneously die in some cases when moved onto ships, re-enabled move to ship functionality for Officials.
    - Added cooldowns to activate or reset Red Alert state (clients get a corresponding message onscreen when they try to execute the order during the cooldowns).
    - Fixed issue where crew melee swings on ships couldn't hit their targets.
    - Red Alert temporarily disabled on Official Servers whilst we investigate an issue related to its stability.
    
    v102.1
    
    - Hand Harvesting Skills now affect tool usage as well.
    - Fixed Climbing Picks sometimes sending the player off into infinity.
    - Ended the Easter Event. Bunny hat skin applications and skinned items will still exist.
    - Significantly optimized the networking of character movement on ships.
    - Fixed a bug where you couldn't see another player turning their character on a ship if they weren't moving.
    - Fixed a server crash.
    - Fixed issue with resources not respawning near shipyards/docks.
    - Fixed an issue where mortars and lighthouses may not have had their activity tags updated properly.
    - Fixed issue that would cause characters (including creatures) based on a ship to "drift" off the ship over time.
    
    v101.32
    
    - Possible fix for shoulder creatures disappearing or flickering post-transition.
    - Placed Water Reservoirs will now show their water richness percentage on the HUD.
    - Water Reservoirs will now gain water from rain.
    - Fixed Treasure Maps generating locations stuck in the world. Will not effect existing Treasure Maps.
    - Empires PvE mode will now have a 2 week declaim tag period of claim flags (was previously 6 hours for test purposes).
    - Disabled 'Move To Ship' pinwheel action for non-crew tames on Official Servers until we have resolved issues related to the feature.
    - Fixed Island Points totals getting de-synced/displaying incorrectly for Companies.

    and you can check out our entire Patch List since release, here:

        :pirate_mask: SHOW 'N' TELL #7 :pirate_mask:

    large.ATLAS_1.5_Final-7.jpg

    We’re still collecting entries for the Show ‘n Tell! So you have a little longer to astound us with your creations, be they your fleets, building designs, imaginative tatts, entertaining videos, original fan art or scenic screenshots. Don’t be shy and head to the submission thread for a chance to win some booty in the form of a cash prize!

     

    :wheel:

    Alrighty, that ’s it for this log! Thank you so much for becoming a part of our crew and we can't wait to show all you scallywags, landlubbers, captains, and seadogs what lies ahead!

    Happy Sailing,

    Grapeshot Games

    🏴☠️For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information🏴☠️

    Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
    Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
    Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
    Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
    Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame


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