José Gaspar

This last patch seemed exceptionally bad. I am getting disconnected when I log in. even at 14KB/s i only can connect some times. Recommended is 60/s no luck at all with that. I am running 150MB fiber and Atlas installed on a M.2 SSD drive. Before the 12.31 patch never had this problem.

Getting lots of disconnects since last patch, never had those prior to today. They can be fixed my lowering my rendering distance, but was that the intent for us to play on substandard settings?

For PvE, yes. PvP putting base jsut outside the reach of cannons on ships is useful. The resources on the island is why you want to own it for the taxes. But in PvE I think taxes are very stupid.

It would be great but very time consuming, but redefining claim boundaries based on island features would be be a great way to divide up islands. use the rivers biome lines and natural barriers to divide up the island, make sure every claim has a placew they can anchor a ship and make one claim per player. You might be able to make something that would work, but I don;t think there will be enough locations to support the number of players they want on a map. A simpler method would be allow only coast line will be buildable in PvE and the center of islands be un-claimable and very fast upkeep like 4 hours so you can build temporary structures, that any one can destroy after 4 hours or leave if they find it useful. You get one claim and you ship must be in the claim flag radius when you place it.

The math simply does not work., Industry averages are 10% of players are active at any time, the peak will be about 25% so if they every really plan to have 40K players in game at once you are talking about 150K claims. there is not enough room for 150K land claims on map. I am not sure there is enough for 40K claims on map that do not overlap.

With the latest Captain's Log, they said there would be no alliances in PvE but they still would be in PvP. What about private maps that have both PvP and PvE grids. Are alliance lost when you go to PvE grid? They inactive? I would like some clarification here I am a PvE player and use alliances to organize trade and coordinate with other companies, most of the other companies I align with are also small companies. we have no interest in being in same company, as we like the company to be small. Even given the prospect of having a large island does not interest up in combining into a single company. We would rather live in lawless than join a bigger company, but we do like occationally interacting an like to know the friends of friends on the map. Knowing you have a friendly port in a new grid is always a nice find.

No one is sure is if PvE Claims will work, I would like to see claims but doubt the could ever work. How about open North Half with no claims (aka all-lawless) and south of map with normal claims, lawless and freeport mix. Let is tun a month. Then compare the two halves of the map to see which has more players is more active and less problems,. Then either may rest of map claimable or remove claims from all map. I suggestion a month. as that is time normal turnover should begin. I suggest a north/south split so there are same biome on both sides of the map., south being claims as there are more claimable cells on the south.

When you say players are you referring to active players. Under OPs solution, after the first 10000 players, all islands would be taken no new players need apply. not a good use of 225 servers. I do not see how any claim system works, in PvE. There is not enough islands to claim for all the players needed to needed to keep a server populated. I am absolutely sure all the pro-claim people would simple quit if they do not get a claim. That is we get a claim system or not. since there are only 1000 or so islands, a minority of players will get claims. So most of them will end up leaving anyway. I have a claim in current, and still spend most of my time on lawless island simply to avoid paying taxes. If they do have a claim system, they absolutely need a way for the claim to be challenged. A claim is affecting other player's game-play they need a way to counter that, but any challenge system is inherently PvP. As much as I like a claims, they should remain a PvP mechanism. As much as I would like a claim, the only way PvE works is to make everything effectively lawless, and focus no reducing pillar spam. Having upkeep related to amount space you occupy is the best way of going.

the problem with making upkeep the same materials that it took to make them, then thatch becomes the cheapest thing to maintain. Maintenance should be constant or inverse to the cost to build, that is why stone should be least expensive to maintain and thatch the most. Everything should have some maintenance, even anchored ships. PvE also has a problem with abandon ships as well, just go to a FoY location to see that.

Here is my take how upkeep should work, I just to a shot at hard numbers, those should be tweaked Repair chest takes one item, thatch, available almost everywhere and any one can get in little time. Every foundation, pillar, gate, or other structure put into ground requires just thatch to maintain at a rate of 1 thatch an hour,every minute not maintained it takes one damage, which must be repaired normally. Anything put onto another structure does not need maintenance. A newly placed item gets an hours before it starts taking damage. A repair chest covers all items in a small radius, (10x10 foundations) and also attached to same structure the chest is on. Pressing H will show structures not covered by a repair chest. The chest should hold enough thatch to keep a 10x10 build for only a 10 days, if you will be longer, you will need multiple chest or a smaller build Ship should have setup, but the repair chest is anywhere on ship, even a galleon, but with ships each plank requires maintenance. A raft is considered to have 6 planks. Advantages: - the support of a small building will be trivial, getting enough till next week only should take a couple minutes. Not much more overhead than eating. - Not instant destruction for non-repair. just need to repair the item. - No extra cost for fancy buildings, just footprint requires maintenance, - Can take longer periods away by building multiple repair chests. - Stronger structures will last longer when not maintained, but will cost more to repair when returning. Thatch would go away fairly quickly, stone will take noticeable longer. - Pillar/foundation spam will be next to impossible to maintain as each piece would require separate repair regularly. Disadvantages: - elevated buildings would reduce the cost. a single foundation can support a 7x7 area. the extra overhang may need to be incorporated into cost. - I person with a large stockpile of thatch could be there just long enough to transfer the thatch to the repair bin., but sooner or later they will run out of thatch.

I am hoping that stone should need the least upkeep, were thatch needs the most. The cheaper to put down, the more the upkeep.

This will replace pillar spam fence spam. What about structures like large walls and freestanding chests that do not snap together. No many people want a 30 minute large gate. I think decay should be very high for floors, pillars, fence supports and gates. these thatch would be the fastest decaying, wood being next followed by stone. The stuff that is cheap to put down fast, should go away the fastest. But walls ceilings, crafting stations, chests on floors, and generally things inside the base should not decay at all. Encourage people to build compact structures.

While hex grids would be nice, the maps were not designed with that in mind so would not fit well. I would suggest the older claim always takes precidence. so you could claim the area between to claims but you only get the unclaimed area. The prior claim would still be in place. While this change addresses the initial land grab, the fundamental problem with PvE and Claims remains, what to do with claims of players that near inactive or manage to get a large number of them. There are 1000's of claims, that the owner currently shows up once via fast travel every week or to for a moment or two just to keep the land. I do this to 9 lawless basses now, they are spread all over the map, so I can harvest almost any resource during 2x weekend, the do ship runs during week to camps with things I need. While this are each small camps, I could have just as easily pillared majority of those islands as players leave and the structures are can be demolished. Few islands have had continuous ownership, However I only once seen a claim go up for challenge, and that was after the wipe was announced. There were two of us 3am, in morning as the timer expired. I decided just to allow him to have it as I have claims on 3 other islands, but it would have been nice to get a tundra claim closer to my main base. Now this is solo, only one currently playing from a 8 person company, they are techinally still in the company, they have not logged in over a month. But honestly, I prefer harvesting on lawless island, because even on Islands I have claims, most of the harvest area are 30% taxes. I can be 50% more effective harvesting on lawless and less resource nodes are blocked. I only keep my claims alive so I have somewhere to keep my stuff in case I am gone for more than 4 days. The all lawless I think will work as long as the maintenance is not too high to be burdensome to players, and not to cheap that players can lock down large areas for long periods of time with little effort. While the a claims are nice, the math simply does not work for them in PvE. It would be too small to build anything significant, or too large that not everyone can build. I may generalize here, but most PvE players are not interested in going large companies.

Forget the Island, I want the dinos in Atlas.

If no one else is playing, there will be plenty of space to build. I expect severe greifing the first week or so, but then the upkeep will kick in. I am hoping each set of connected structures needs to updated individually, no area upkeep. So if you pillar spam each of the pillar will have to be have upkeep applied separately. People with large structure will have large upkeep, but only have to upkeep each free standing structure, connect them with walkways it becomes a single structure again. I know they check for connected structures for foundation support so it can be done. IHMO only foundations, pillars, and other free standing structures need upkeep. encourage people to build nice bases, not minimalist containers for goods.

I think they should go something simpler, Ship cannons can only be placed on decks on stone structures or the damage the structure they are, so if your running elevated cannons, you better be repairing what its on or it could to fall apart. This would highly encourage placing in gun ports, it would not force it. Large Cannon only can be placed on stone structures, while they can be placed on deck they will cause damage to the deck every shot, if placed on wood ceilings the damage wouid be significant every time you fire. Like only get 5 or so shot on a large cannon before a common the wood structure collapses. where on a deck it make get a 100 or so shots. These limitations should be on land as well, possibly allowing cannons to be placed on stone floors without damaging them (IMHO wood floors should be treated a stone) Swivel cannons could be placed anywhere and balistas shoul get there own platform like a dinghy or diving platform. where you can mount multiple on one side, but they should have a back and front version of the mount

First time I saw a cannon ball flying I was surprised how slow it moved. When you can turn a ship to dodge one, that's slow.

IHMO remove them until they make them climbable. That is the only real reason for them to be there.

I like that idea of redefined areas, but is still needs a way to keep ownership with active players, such as reasonable claim limits and upkeep that can be only paid so far forward. Also they should have some areas unclaimable, such a s high resource areas, rare resource locations and places maps are found.

Three things contribute to the rear cannon design. Stupid AI and Slow Sailing of SotD, they will keep running into your shots even when they cannot catch you or hit back. A dual rear cannon sloop can down max level SotD solo easy, the only fear is running into another SotD while looking backward. The SotD are SLOW, the can be dragged along at 85% load and still keep distance. SotD should pack, you hit one, every one on the server should be heading towards the battle. This pack should only be when one attacks not when its perusing a ship. this way you will have attacks from all sides. The ease cannons should be placed on wood ceilings IMHO cannons should ONLY be place-able on decks and stone structures. The could be put on wood ceiling but every shot cause 500 damage to the ceiling it's placed on. Heavy cannons would do that to even decks. leave the elevated work flooring to the ballista and swivel guns. The last is wood structures are too strong in relation to planks. Even small planks should have double the resistance of wood structure. right now wood roof is close to a medium plank and if the roof gets destroyed, you don't start sinking. IMHO wood structure should either be significantly heavier or weaker placed on a ship or planks should get much tougher.

Just make the shop placed on foundation like any other structure, except in PvE the shop itself would have to hold the gold. It would take some effort to be inviting to people and make it know your shop is there. but those brimming with gold, could stop at shop buy the local goods instead of harvesting themselves and get out back to doing pirate things.

Variants of the Bears, current bear would become a brown bear. Polar Bear, in polar regions, larger and stronger than the current bear, Tier-3 saddle, but lousy collector, only collects fish, meat and leather. Kodiak Bear, in tundra regions, larger and stronger than current, similar to polar bear, but cannot be tamed and aggressive, but short agro range. Black Bear, in temperate regions, smaller than the current bear, Tier-2 saddle, week in combat, but better collector than brown bear. Variants of Bull. Water Buffalo, in Tropical Regions, aggressive but tamable not ridable, but can carry more weight than bull. Male and Female look similar, females are not milkable Variant to Crocodile Alligator, smaller than croc, spawns near fresh water. Variant of Elephant Mammoth, fur and spawns in Polar and Tundra regions, Similar to Elephant in stats, but furry. Other Cat. Mountain Lion, Tundra and Temperate can climb steeper but barely carry a rider without armor.

That is why you watch were you build, there is plenty beach and inland areas that have places to build. Build big where nothing spawns, and build small where resources are. I know on our island one foundation with a bed is blocking half the metal spawns on the island. That is what I want to avoid. Covnersly I have a couple build on lawless island, metal spawns right next to my smithy, can harvest and store in smithy without moving, which is good since its gives over 1000 metal right now.

I does appear that the Developers go not get the PvE version of their own game. The everything is lawless is better than what we have now, but much depends on the how they implement upkeep. I am hoping that thatch foundations takes the most to upkeep, wood foundations and pillars take about average, and stone take about the same as wood. The cheapest thing to spam land with should be the most expensive to maintain. I think give the amount of time they have to "Fix" PvE making lawless is best way to go. Later, once player get establish they can review how it goes, and posssibly add soem player control on the island., Something such electing a company to govern the island. SInce defense will not be a thing, ruling an island will be more about providing infratructure like public crafting stations and bridges and protecting spawn areas, in exchange for taxes. Don't help improve the island or taxes too high, will be voted out, Do a good job may be rulling the island until you stop playing. First Come first served claims simply was not a good match for PvE, it was far too easy to keep land when you could refresh 11 claims in less than 5 minutes every 20 days. People not even playing were keeping the lands claimed, just in case they came back. That would not bnad if a couple of players were doing that, but almost every had an average of less than a player on it, ti had to change.

I hope the Devlopers explain the mechanics before live. Under existing rules only time island will be claimed is when you get in server and others are blocked.