Argh!

There are a lot of interesting ideas in this thread -- It's important to remember that there are two modes of play in this game... What works for PVP doesn't necessarily work for PVE (and vice versa) -- Also, what's easy for a hardcore player is not as easy for a noob or casual player. The Devs have made it clear that they are trying to remove barriers to entry, without nerfing the hardcore game... That's a hard balancing act. Gold and upkeep -- later in the game, gold becomes less of an issue (depending a lot on your style of play). It's great for people that play all the time, terrible for noobs and weekenders. I'd call myself a mid-core gamer, and it took me several weeks to get to the point that I had the gear and means to do treasure maps reliably. I'm also part of a small company (3 pretty regular players, 3 weekenders, and 1 casual), and we have to spread our skill point pretty carefully to cover all the job requirement to survive comfortably in this game. Taxes -- at 30% We make about 3-10 gold a day with sea claims in our zone... we make nothing off the taxes on our little spit of land. I think I got a potato and some fish oil once. Taxes only seem to work for large land owners near resource nodes. I could see easily see this game world without taxes -- IF we get a working market system.

I totally agree with limiting land claims per person, with the possibility of earning more? I agree with predefined plots of land -- get rid of the dynamic circles. I agree that it would be nice to have non-claimable areas "wild lands" that are more dangerous and resource rich than the claimable areas. Currently the random alpha spawns in/near bases is annoying -- not fun. Gold upkeep in land claims is... (not sure about this?) -- I could see instituting a threshold - if you have more than (X) number of claims (in a company). Taxes might be able to offset this. This could also be offset by a robust market system -- allow players to set prices and "amounts needed" for certain goods in their bank (i.e. I'll pay 2 gold per stack of wood, or I'm selling this horse for 650 Gold) When other players deposit desired item into the bank, they receive the corresponding gold, or they can pay for items listed in the bank) -- Put the Banks on the Atlas map, and this would definitely encourage exploration and trade. Sea claims should only be possible if you have a bank in that zone. I understand how interwoven and complicated these systems can be, and look forward to hearing what the Devs have come up with!! ARGH!

Not rendering the body while sleeping is fine -- I get the performance reasons for this. It is possible however to keep a local (server-side) transform for the body (an anchor so to speak) that allows the body to re-spawn at the appropriate location -- this should also work for moving ships. We've had teammates get left behind because the sever rebooted while the ship was underway. The first person that re-spawned was attached to the ship, but each subsequent player logged in at different timestamps, they were all left in the ocean in a line behind the boat.

Yep @thelawninja -- That's become standard practice (workaround) -- unfortunately the issue still rears it's head if you get kicked from the server, or the game client crashes while you are at sea.

Yep -- every single time!

I've witnessed the same thing... Shortly after a respec, my fortitude was in the 60's, then it dropped to the 20's for no discernible reason -- It is really confusing. There is not much clarity on how, or how much, fortitude effects anything. No matter how much I pump fortitude (eat the right foods, or wear the right clothes), I'm still dying from extreme weather... So frustrating!!

Dying because of a sudden extreme heat or cold snaps doesn't make this game more fun. It just feels like a poor design choice. Here are some legitimate reasons to change or remove this: Freeport Zones -- in the Arctic or Desert are subject to extreme weather all the time, and as a result, anyone that is unfortunate enough to begin there journey at one of these Freeports dies over and over. There is no way to progress your character fast enough to survive past the first day -- as a first impression of Atlas, this is nothing but frustration and disappointment. I know of several solid gamers that wrote off Atlas for this reason alone. Fortitude -- has to be leveled to a ridiculous degree to survive even the basic elements, which means you cannot use these attribute points to specialize your character, and expect to live. the majority of points currently go to Weight and Fortitude to even function in Atlas. Immersion breaking -- I'm in the middle of particularly intense (sea battle, beast tame, building spree, crafting session... etc,.) all of a sudden I have a broken leg, I can barely move, and my health is nearly depleted... why? It's hot/cold out!! -- This just sucks... Every single time. Early game -- Through at least level 15, and in some cases beyond, if you have not invested the majority of your attribute points in to Fortitude, you will just randomly die because of the weather. This happens WAY TO OFTEN, and discourages exploration early on. This is where those of us that played a lot of Ark have an advantage -- But I didn't come to this game just to play with my old Ark pals -- I'd like to be able to recommend this game to other friends, and not have to explain to them how to survive for more than three minutes. in ARK there were areas that you could escape extreme temperatures -- only when you CHOSE to go to the arctic or desert regions did you need to prepare, but this was a choice, and not randomly dropped on the player. In Atlas, there is no escape -- During a heatwave, no amount of swimming in the water, hiding in your house or inside your boat, or getting naked will save you -- If you don't have enough points in Fortitude, or have the ability to tame high level parrots or penguins, or make special armor <-- which doesn't even work unless your stats are high enough. YOU WILL JUST DIE!! Please consider either removing extreme weather, or tuning it to be more localized to dangerous areas that you need to prepare for. And don't get me started on Cyclones... there is already another post about that. (see forum link below) https://www.playatlas.com/index.php?/forums/topic/44310-weather-and-zcyclones/

I just found this thread, and wholeheartedly agree. The current implementation of the Cyclones is immersion breaking. It was Awe inspiring the first time I saw one, but when I learned that they are just weather trolls that slightly damage you and your boat for no reason, and ALWAYS spawn in your path... they no longer felt special -- just annoying. They should be RARE events that are to be feared -- and should be singular or maybe a couple at a time. Sometimes less is more... this is one of those cases.

I think we can all agree that the game should be FUN!! What I took away from this post is that one of the joyful moments of this experience was crippled, and that does have a broader affect -- I've seen evidence in the game industry of developers making foolish choices based on vocal minorities. Unfortunately in this case we can never know the internal debate that lead to this change, or extrapolate the developers intent. Regardless... I did try the gliders for fun, (as did the rest of my company) and the glider's already tough to control -- much less to master. Their potential as a major threat to game balance is really low (even if you could cross oceans) -- It's a solo act, with limited offensive capabilities. honestly You could do more damage with a raft - the trade off is carry weight and time. But the act of flying with a glider is REALLY FUN! <-- ultimately we rarely use ours. It's cool to see so many people passionate about this game's potential and its promise to fulfill our Age of Sail pirate fantasies. It serves us better to focus that passion towards the Devs, than on each other. @LiLBiTs I'm glad you posted -- There is a metric in the industry called the "MTS" (Mean Time to Smile) used to measure engagement. When you are in the trenches on a project of this scope it's easy to loose sight of that. It never hurts to remind developers that the reason we play their games is because they are (first and foremost) FUN!

An interesting consideration @Bullet Force -- I have mostly played PVE where this is not an issue. Ultimately each game mode may need its own set of rules (PVP vs PVE). One of the reason I don't like PVP is that there is no respite. Especially in games like this (Rust, Ark, Atlas). for many of us, real life often intercedes, and it would be nice to know that you can safely hole up for a period of time while the storm passes. It sounds like there might be an argument for a "Safe Harbor" concept in this game; whether it's Freeport, or player owned -- There are legitimate reasons to duck out of PVP. To your point, It shouldn't become an exploit... <personal preference> I think narrowly escaping death on a PVP server by making a run for safety is part of the thrill. Given how big the overall map is, the idea of escaping to a Freeport or player run "Safe Harbor" naturally makes areas further from these more dangerous, and prone to piracy. it's never fun to just get steamrolled by a superior force with no place to hide, but it is fun to gear-up, party up, and run through a known "danger zone" when it's your idea. Interesting point and worth discussion! In the end this game is attempting to be an MMO, and there are certain tropes that improve the quality of life and longevity of a player base. One of those, is building mechanics that allow people to have a life outside the game. Without a diverse and thriving player base, this game is dead in the water... Ark and Rust lost a good portion of the non-hardcore players to this very problem. This is something WoW got right, and the game is still going 15 years later. (FYI I'm not comparing this game to WoW, just using them as a model of how to engender a strong community) Thoughts?

A few people in our company had this happen several times, and all in the same way. If you are over level 8! Die in Freeport Try to re spawn on the island - No bed Roll the dice and hope you come back on about 5 separate occasion this lead to the loss of a character. For me, this manifested twice: I returned to a Freeport to pick up a friend -- I accidentally struck an Alpha pig (died), and was forced to restart as new character. I lost my company, my boat and all it's resources. I was around level 21 at the time. I've since moved on, but if I ever get accidentally transported to a Freeport zone I make sure I swim offshore to 100% before I swim to the bottom to re-spawn again. (If you click re-spawn when a bed isn't available, it sends you to the Freeport server your character was bound to.) if you are over level 8, this could be a permanent death sentence. When I started a new character on the EU PVE server, I hit the level (8) cap on the Freeport island, and died from vitamin deficiency, I was forced to start a new character. For one of our other member, version number 2 (above) happened at least three time.

Ouch -- a Galleon!! We lost our first fully outfitted sloop to the same thing. Went to Freeport to get crew, and had to log out for the night because of an update... No warning (of any kind), just woke up in Freeport with nothing. A Galleon's gotta hurt...

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197970530678/screenshots/?appid=834910 Happened to me today -- three crewmen floating in mid-air

Linea, It might be worth taking some of the most important (to you) ideas, and breaking them out in to their own posts... this way (singular) ideas can be up-voted by the community, and allow the ones that resonate with people to get the appropriate attention. Use the system to it's full potential! Working on a project this large is time consuming and complicated -- a monolithic list like yours would be daunting (from a Dev perspective), individually some of your ideas have merit, and I know many players are probably thinking the same thing. It's easier to hit the up vote on something you like, than writing a whole new post. Cheers!

Above is a related "Suggestion" post I made earlier... It feels like the "Property Title" portion of this might facilitate selling ships. Vote it up if you agree..

Because this game is billed as a "PIRATE" game (mostly younger) players have assumed a faulty and misguided persona of trolling and messing with people. I suspect what many of us have in mind for this game is more of the "Privateer" version of pirates -- Historically Pirates were not all "Criminal" -- many were hired by governments to mess with rival countries or companies. Piracy only thrives when there is a thriving resource trade -- Merchants!! <-- I'm sure this is in the works... Here are some ideas that might be fairly easy to implement: Craft-able MARKET (like the Bank) -- Allows players to put up resources, ships, animals, and gear, for sale on their own land. <-- also a taxable resource TRADE HOUSE/TABLE/CHEST -- Similar to above, but allowing for a safe trade/transfer interface similar to other MMO''s where two parties can put up their individual offer, and either accept or decline. Property TITLES -- For any "Claimable" (ships, animals, land, even chests or connected foundations) allow the player to generate a "Title" that can be put up for sale or traded to another player. Titles would just be another commodity. Issue LETTERS OF MARQUE -- These were given to captains of renown to "legally" hunt rival ships. <-- This would allow for a second layer of company interaction. Not allies, but a hired guns (cannons) <-- they could receive a (negotiated) cut of the profits, or run off with the loot and gain a price on their head. This would allow for limited PVP on PVE servers. If the player gets a price on their head, they are fair game for PC's as well as NPC's <-- It's important the the bounty be assigned by the game, not other players... this is just another avenue for trolling. AHRR!

Another option would be to pay mooring fees to anchor in a Freeport... this does not preclude having a delay on the timer. an hourly (gold) rate allows for (an amount of time) in the Freeport. If you need to stay overnight due to unforeseen circumstance you will not return to a scuttled ship as long as you either prepay the "Dock Purser" or have the funds in a resource box on your ship -- Also limit this to any ship above the Ramshackle Sloop... these days this is a pretty much non-issue, as the Freeports are mostly empty. This definitely needs addressed before the merchant updates are put in place.

pick up an egg, and observe the weight. Compare this weight to any other food. NOTE: I suspect that the decimal point got moved when setting up the chicken egg. Each one weighs 1 pound -- a stack of 100 can seriously effect your weight. All other food is far lighter.

I am currently spec'ed out as a tamer with maximum sneaking, and I have not seen any noticeable effect from it either... In it's current form, it's hard to know IF sneaking works. It might help to have some indicator that it's active? -- many games employ "sneak mode", or a visibility indicator showing how visible you are to the enemy. I've been targeted by lions that are at the edge of reliable visual identification.

If shoulder mounted animal hits the deck of your ship while you are at "ship crew capacity", it will begin to sink your ship -- This is extreme, and a high price to pay for dropping a small animal on your costly ship's deck. I count this as a bug because this it can happen without the player's explicit command. If you have a fully crewed ship, and one user has a shoulder mounted pet -- the server crashes or is reset. When it comes back up, the ship is now one crew member over the limit, and if the user doesn't log in immediately the ship will sink while the player is offline. This is even worse if more than one user is carrying a pet. This has happend to Twitch streamers. If a user needs to log off while at sea and the crew limit is exceeded by accident. Ship will sink... This also limits using small animals as trade commodities. Chickens should not be crew either. Suggested solution: Don't count small animals against crew -- they can still count against weight on the ship, but bucketing them in with crew doesn't make ANY sense. For consideration (simplify the problem): Don't sink ships based on crew numbers -- this doesn't make any logical sense or serve a practical purpose that I can surmise. Ships already had weight limits -- just count the crew as weight, and get rid of the crew count. This makes ships far more customize-able and flexible -- Ships should just be over burdened like humans or animals. You could have a ship with no guns as a passenger service -- exchange the reduced weight for more crew You could have a mobile farm ship for food supply You could escape a bad island with your entire crew by making weight sacrifices I don't see the benefit of a crew limit that couldn't be balanced out via the existing weight system. In it's current form, it doesn't seem to serve a real purpose other than griefing players. <-- I'd be interested to hear what its original intent was?!

General Tso, Were you keeping an eye on crew limits? if someone logged out on the boat with their parrot on shoulder (and you were at capacity), it adds an additional crew; if it's not caught soon enough this will sink the ship. This has happened to a couple twitch streamers as well.

I got this same bug -- It is really exaggerated with shoulder mounted animals. I picked up my parrot, and was unable to put it down again hitting DOUBLE 'F' would not put it down. It was both on my shoulder, and off at the same time. it collided with me when I was walking (stopping my forward motion in pulses) It drifted behind me when I moved, then it would snap back to my shoulder's location Other players were able to see the same weird behavior as I was (so it wasn't just local to me) Accessing the inventory of the animal would open the inventory for about 3 seconds, then it would close on its own. The hat that the parrot was wearing would also blink out about every 3-5 seconds. I had to abandon the bird because I was on a sea voyage, and we were at crew limit on the boat -- i didn't want to sink our boat due to an accidental extra crew. I took screenshots, but they are on my other computer, I can attach later if needed.

I appreciate your point of view Vaenix -- I'm not here for a war of words, just to try and stop the devs from doing stupid stuff. Keep fighting the good fight!!

I got stuck on a raft, and several log's later I finally had to kill myself... it doesn't reliably work to log off. I'm glad it worked for you though!

While I appreciate where you are coming from Vaenix -- whether the Dev's intended this as a mechanic or not doesn't preclude it from being a bug -- getting stuck on any surface in a game, is definitely a bug. It is too easy for this "mechanic" to be triggered unintentionally. Devs make mistakes too, and bug reports are our way of guiding them from outside the trenches. Playing Early Access essentially makes us unpaid testers. I've worked professionally as a game tester, and can state with absolute certainty that this is a bug. The devs are now getting data and feedback on a (not so great) decision -- a dev's intent is not gospel -- this happens more often than you might think. It's important we don't downplay the impact of issues like this by labeling it "not a bug" because "somebody did it on purpose". <-- please read this with all due respect. I'm certainly hope the devs didn't intend death every time we step on the wrong raft. <-- that would just be cruel.