José Gaspar

Anytone thinking of making an company "Bring back NA PVE", would not take much to get it to top company in Empires. There are enough NA PvE plauyer might be able to take all 10 spots.

Now average lawless grid population is almost double of claim grid. not even a week in. This weekend will be telling. the more I watch this move, the more I want NA PvE to be all lawless.

There are things an owner can do to make the island more attractive. Public Taming traps, ladders to hard to reach places that contain gems, some safe housing to get away from predditors, maps/signs showing where the resources are,, and working to keep the island spam-free. THe location he has is a primo one, temperate so can grow any crop. one grid away from east tundra, high desert and two from low desert and west tundra ans as close to polar as you can get without being in tundra., While I do not like the island ownership model, this owner is they type of owner that would make it work. more power to the OP. A friendly owner is preferable to lawless, however more owners will think they are friendly than actually are.

Yes, I have been watching the player number over past 3 days. Players on lawless grids are rising, and those on claim grids are falling. total numbers on PvE are steady to slightly rising. Not arguing the foundation spam is rampant, and something needs to be done, but island level claiming is not currently working, the promised structure maintenance would have helped. Not to say it won't start working as owners actively court settlers, but right now its the exception for owners. In general PvE players don't want to be tenants or landlords, they just want their space, the foundation spam is an extension of that desire. many of the spammed area, the owner will pick up if you ask, but that's if they are available to ask and get approval from there rest of company, which generally not worth the time. I can't place link, but google "Atlas Player Tracker" and you can find the numbers yourself.

If you look at the heat map of player usage, the lawless islands double the average population of claim grids, and the difference is increasing. At this point I thing NA PvE should open all lawless, leave the claims on EU PvE, for the people that want claims. I don't think the total lawless populations is greater than the total claim poulation, but its rapidly approaching it.

Players in Mega-Companies (Megas), seem not to understand or care, that the game play method use drives a majority of players away. They are not big enough to support a server on their own, yet no one outside those in Megas wants to play with Megas in the game. Because of the mega play-style, draconian measures are put in place such as alliance limits in attempt to curtail their impact, attempts to mitigate the impact to the majority of player by providing a server for them have failed, Mainly because they have no interest in the survival of the game, just asserting dominance. While Megas-companies are frequent on forums, have attention of Developer's attention, they are a insignificant minority of the players. The mega-companies are a destructive force in the player base. Most players want to play a game for fun.

This move move is even more significant today. Good news this morning total population is mid 3000's while populations in lawless are significantly increasing, claim areas continue to drop numbers, with exception of SW temperate and tropical. they are growing, good things may be going on there.

worse poll site ever

So there is not enough Megas to worry about, if they could not fill a server they should therefore, not deserve any accommodations made for them? I think you are agreeing that Mega simply are not self-sustaining, they absolutely need other player to act as prey for them. Sounds like the Colony setup is working as intended. Players don't want to play as prey and they should be forced to. Reddit is showing a nice map to find them and remove from them from colony server.

How many small animals, you said no larger animal. - 4 small animals will sink a sloop, schooner will take 14 of them though - or if over weight, may have stuffed somethng heavy in resource chest?

The anchor symbol will turn green when fully anchored. Not sure of time (between 15min and hour) but you can see progression an anchor symbol when on the ship.

Obviously the Megas have the ear of the Devs, how about devs set down with this group which seem to be working, Tailor the Empire server to their specs and leave the Colonies alone. However, i feel this would not work, its quite obvious they want easy prey, not mega battles where they may loose. Mega seem not to able to exist without small companies to raid with near impunity.

Other then the needless obscene title, valid points. I threw in the towel day one of the launch but hoping they figure out how to fix it. Loved the game, but the last PvE change was just too much. decided to re-tile my bathroom this weekend instead of playing. good news, wife is happy.

If the population of EU PvE continues to gravitate to Lawless island. - Open NA-PvE as all Lawless, (as originally announced) - 10 day expiration, but the radius used for build on claimed island on unattached structures, and the current lawless build blocking radius for snapped structures and those that need to placed on other structures. - the promised structure maintenance would also help, for reducing spam, using flags to supply a small auto-repair radius would be great, just don't let them block building or have taxes. If the current Island claim grids start getting more players than lawless, please disregard this request. It may still work if island owners are supportive of settlers. 2-3 weeks should be enough to know. But leave the EU the way it is. No need to wipe or remove existing claims, there are obviously people that like that style.

The peek Friday Night was higher than launch, and Tonight is about the same as Friday. Its not falling, but not growing much either. Only Grapeshot knows the number of new purchases. Given the populations in Freeports, new players are coming in.

hopefully, per connected structure maintenance will come ad help with this. Time will tell if this is a problem

Grapeshot should care, exit interviews are very enlightening. I you look at past posts, many people leaving now, were avid supporters of the game in past These are not people that played for couple hours and got a refund. If populations grow, these exit comments are taken lighter as part of typical player churn, but when population is dropping, they should be reviewed.

I have not found to get the merchant ship to stop. While on one is keeps moving further and further away from you ship unless someone stays aboard and keeps up with the ship which can be challenging, No easy way to return to your ship and swimming in open ocean with valuable is inviting disaster. And it gets really ugly if SotD shows up. What is the best way to actually use the merchant ships?

Looking at the per server chart for EU PvP, population is fairly stable day-to-day peeking in high 2000's. However, a couple exceptions, the player base has given up on trying own or live on claimable island and moving to lawless grids. those that set up early on the lawless grids, made a good move. I did not expect to see this latest change where taxes do not cost harvester anything. But 10 days upkeep on lawless vs 4 days on claimed island may have something to do with this. Further notice that Polar and to lesser extent Tundra grids are no or very low populations. with two exception 10 or under on tundra less than 5 in polar, C1/D1 have in the teens as a I observer now). Players have a definite preference for Tropical and Temperate where most claim grids have 10-20, and lawless have 20-30 players. Even the Tundra grid next to temperate are more populated than the ones next to polar. There are a couple grids over 40 players (C7, E11, N9) and E11 is over 50. I hope Grapeshot is looking at this, and see if the trend continues or reverse and take that information in account when setting up NA PvE. If they have time check out the high population grids and see what may them that way, and put things in-game to encourage that behavior.

but when you get on s ship with a captain, you do not sign over all your property and other ships to them, Your luggage is still your luggage. They actually pay you when you leave the ships crew to get started on you own. The Communal ownership structure is one of my biggest dislikes of Atlas (and Ark)

Grats, you are among the elite of the Mega Companies and deserve the attention.

The 20% taxes the does not come form people harvesting, is great/ The should be some taxes to offset the time the owner has to spend collecting gold. This change will encourage owners to be welcoming to visitors and tenants, as they will bring free resources and gold. Those that wall off and block will be on own for maintenance. Island owners the keep foundation spam under control and encourage settlers, will prosper. Many like will decide to transfer ownership at some point, because they tire of the upkeep, and since there builds are likely 24 hours old, they are protected from new owner. This tax change was great, since it does not cost the harvester anything.

Freeport decay is now back on, was turned off. Do not leave ships overnight in freeport or Golden Age area, they will likely be sunk or at least have significant damage.

Unfortunately I did not get to test that in PTR. I would expect it not to be protected, but I do not know.

I am currently just watching the forums now, I unistalled after the PvE claim mess on relaunch. May comeback when I can play solo on equal footing as other players.