Kveldulf

Ok. But do you think they should maybe listen to people who have actually experienced the system/mechanic you summarily want to just remove entirely? A survival aspect will not stop the kinds of player institutions you want to see. Not in the least. It's just not that drastic. It's not going to stifle social evolution. On the contrary, the institutionally minded players you want to focus on will organize far beyond the trifle of basic survival. It's a good mechanic for small bands of explorers to contend with, for lone wolves to conquer. It doesn't need removal, at all. On the contrary. It may well prove a catalyst for what you want to see, in some situations. Regarding the numbers. You were in here a mere few hours after patch launched with doomsday numbers. Big picture doesn't mean you take a myopic outlook and make it bigger. That's still myopic, just with thicker glasses.

How does it determine how many people you have? Meaning, I build a house, a dock, animal pen, etc. but sleep on my boat while traveling and offline... am I still considered part of that island? Can I belong to two, or three islands if I have settlements in several places? Am I only part of the island when actively on it? (ie. online or sleeping offline but on the island) What if I'm just a member of the company that owns the island, do I count to extend the timer? Or, do I need to be my own company for it to help?

I can see that some pvp players wouldn't care about a wipe. Whether you lose everything while you sleep to a dev or a player, what's the difference? Someone annoyed by offline raiding can't really spend that much time playing pvp in these types of games, so it would make sense that one wouldn't be bothered by randomly losing everything. PvP players don't care about animals? Why bother noticing the lack of balance then? I do not think it means what you think it means. I also don't think PvE players want unbalanced systems, pvp, pve, or otherwise. Mind you, I do like it when a game I play has horses that are fun to ride and it's not about getting an upper-hand so you may have a point. Somewhat. Cosmetics and FoY... you mean you think the trouble with the FoY is that it makes us look old? Nah. ) The trouble is the lack of thought that went into the design of what is essentially a PvE system. Long, long ago, devs used to make games harder not by improving the ai, but by giving npc perfect aim. They couldn't really do better at the time. That's the course the dev in charge of the FoY took here. MOAR beasties! isn't exactly creative or interesting. That's the trouble with the FoY, not the cosmetic effect.

I believe some foods maintain vitamins longer than others. It's a balancing act, for sure. For people who have trouble because their hunger is going down faster than they can spend vitamins... more stamina helps. Hunger goes down when recovering chunks of stamina. The more stamina, the less hunger overall. Also works the other way. I was going through vitamins pretty quickly, the foods I eat don't take long to digest. I went with less stamina so I'm hungry more often and can more finely tune my vitamin intake based on what's readily and easily available. There is way more than one way to approach all this. Different players, different strategies. Having said that, I'm not at all against tweaking these systems. By all means, that's why we're in early access providing feedback. What I object to, and strongly at that, is people who want to get rid of the system because they couldn't figure it out, or more likely because they didn't want to take the time to figure it out and just want to pew pew. I want more from my games than pew pew.

Let's not make this a game for 5-year-olds the way Sony handled SWG. There are plenty of other games that are stupefyingly simplistic. The fact that Atlas does not aspire to be one of them is refreshing. As Jack Shandy pointed out, the food situation is absolutely manageable. Milk helps, the order in which you eat makes a difference. When to add fruit makes a difference. Pay attention to the system rather than just stuffing your face or forgetting you need to think ahead a little bit. You're going out to sea, so you have to plan a little. As it should be. There is no way this should become some brain-dead arcade game. Nope, nope, nope. Temperature? You want to remove it? No. No way. Tweak it so it makes a bit more sense? Absolutely. Can't be bothered to think ahead about what you're gonna need on your trip? Die. If you want to play a game that requires no brainpower at all, plenty of them out there. Better yet, get two cups, fill one with water, transfer the water back and forth. You can go ooh, and ahh, as you do so. It's great fun, and a freakin' monkey could do it. Enjoy.

Just saying it's a question of timing. Right at this moment, if they promote it and people come check it out... they'll see a server full of taken land, ghost ships everywhere, with a wipe coming any day now and a patch that hasn't even been tested yet. Imagine you buy a horribly broken down house with the intention of fixing it up, making it great, and then flipping it for a great profit. Wouldn't you want to finish the work before you put the house on the market? Otherwise, people who come to your house are going to say "wow, this is awful, what were you thinking?" Or, they'll say "well, good luck, call us if you ever manage to do this." etc. There'll be time for promotion, absolutely, I'm just saying right now isn't it.

Where is the disregard for the players, exactly? You need your hand held more than it already has been? You say they need more numbers to "stay afloat..." You do realize that once someone has bought the game, their financial contribution is over, right? Current numbers are irrelevant. Everybody knows they are reworking things, and everybody is busy doing other things until the devs are ready to go. What's so hard to understand about that? I honestly don't give two sh*ts about anyone's experience with Ark. Enough about Ark. People can't even get their story straight. "It was horrible!" "They never lost numbers!" So which is it? Ok. And you really think this moment is the best time to be promoting Atlas? Really? You don't think, maybe, oh I don't know, hold off promoting until after PTR, after wipe and new systems are good and stable? Good G*d people, get a hobby for a little while. Advance your careers before you get sucked back into the game again. Catch up with old friends. Take the dog out. When there's news, we'll get news.

what about the sea storms? Also, I'm not sure I'd love to see all kinds of bases out in the ocean. I prefer it as vast, open, free from player clutter which is likely what would happen. The open seas just wouldn't be quite open anymore.

If you spend hundreds of hours, I think you'll be fine. The window for the landlord to destroy something will be 12hours, or a bit more, but not days. At least that's what I last understood unless they've changed it. I'm hoping tax payers will get something for the taxes we pay. We'll see when it's released I guess.

Well yeah Landlords aren't the only ones that can have a negative impact on other players, but they do have the most long-term power to affect others on that island. Not sure what happens if an island is just never claimed. Who gets the 12+hour window to destroy pillars, or anything else? What if a claim is made after things are already built on the island? Could a landlord share island admin rights? There's no alliances, but could there be a permission system? Things that are placed are still identified in the database as being owned by a particular company. There's potential for programming permissions in there right? Island caretakers, Island defenders, Island citizens, Island criminals? Having a system in place of some kind does open the window for that system to be improved. It still seems better than no system present to be improved. Or... I'm wrong and the whole thing goes to hell in a hand-basket. If there's anything I've learned over the years it's that hell in a hand-basket is always a risk.

Yeah... Pretty certain I wouldn't have the time to be an overlord/landlord/mayor. However, if I did have the time, I know the kind of benevolent shepherd I'd love to be. My hope is the people who would be awful to others won't be able to sustain holding a large island. A tiny one, maybe. I think with the system they're suggesting/planning, they'd have the ability to play with the numbers (upkeep, etc) and punish anyone who wouldn't have the social skills to hang on to tenants. SWG had a mayor system of some sorts where the current leader could actually be deposed if need be. Been a long time so hard to remember the specifics, but I think having a system in place that allows them to have some control over the playerbase is better than not having anything and making it all lawless. just mho.

Primary problem with the system as it stands is the tenant has no predefined, tangible benefit in return for the taxes paid. The sandbox might make up for that, but only if the pain to motivate landlords exists. "but... but you get to build on MY island!" No. That's not the appropriate benefit. The tenants paying taxes are providing a service to the landlord, but receiving nothing in terms of services in return, so far. I had suggested having the pvp system on pve BUT with the inclusion of a benefit to tenants. Like maybe protection from PvE raids (ghost pirates), some PvE component that replaces the human component of PvP. To me, that's what's missing here. There is no benefit to the tenants and there needs to be. I might be willing to pay 30%, does it include healthcare? Let's not forget this is a work in progress. Including the PvP style claims in PvE does leave open the window for it to be fleshed out in the future. I think it has potential. There is also a sandbox aspect to this so we'll see what landlords can come up with to entice tenants to come and help with their upkeep. The upkeep needs to be substantial. The landlord must see value in their tenants. No tenants? No island for you. There are tons of places I can take my taxes. You want to play landlord? Cool. Make it worth it to your tenants. That HAS to be part of this. The cost to the landlord should be such that they're begging tenants to come live on their island.

You do realize the npc know where you sleep, and they never go offline... I would take this discussion offline if I were you.

How bout letting all animals go through the "small" gates? Seems plenty large enough to me. Requiring the large gate for elephants and such just seems over the top. Thoughts?

My first thought was I'd rather shit on time personally. I think I might have been a little too literal on that though.