Smokey Bones

17 minutes ago, gnihar said:

Easy to lvl 70 if you are part of the zerg. Even the smaller tribes can kill 3 whales for 150 points, and do powerstone while ballistaing hydras etc for another decent boost. But only the zerg have beds on every region for easy discovery point, pushing them past 70.

Good point!  Although, I believe large groups will always have some advantage over smaller groups due to numbers.  How do you think the new cap on company size and the changes to alliances will impact how effectively large groups can get discovery points?

Also, with the additional islands they are adding, do you think it will be easier to get discovery points with more locations available in game?

19 hours ago, [GP] Guybrush Threepwood said:

The PTR won't be any shorter than a week, so even if there's no bugs or issues, which lets face it, it is unlikely, they would still keep it running for a week minimum.

Totally agree with you.  I wanted to present the scenario with zero bugs to give perspective on what truly dictates how long PTR will be

I think there is a positive side to the character wipe as well.  Although, it's sad I'm going to lose my levels (level 66), I've seen players well above level 70 and it was becoming more and more common.  

A lot of those characters may have leveled up killing alpha creatures when they gave multiple levels per kill at launch, or exploited the day where discoveries counted as 3 discovery points.  These characters were well on their way to level 90 long before we would break upper 60s. 

Now, I'm excited to see everyone on equal footing again as far as levels go.  Sorry that you had to lose your character's levels too

40 minutes ago, [GP] Guybrush Threepwood said:

The Devs originally said the PTR would last a week before the live wipe and update, so for now all we know is it will still be a week not a month. So wipe is expected around 27th March. However, who knows what mess the PTR will find.

In my opinion, it's hard to estimate how long PTR will be.  If we login to the test servers and find zero bugs, that would dictate a shorter test cycle.  I think, realistically, the test cycle time frame will be determined based on the number of bugs found and the complexity / difficulty for the devs to fix those issues.

Let's be supportive of the devs right now so that the initial delivery to the test servers will be higher quality, then,  we'll find less bugs on the test server when the time comes

10 hours ago, Talono said:

Whole Atlas is extinct considering the wipe plans ?

Are there really still people sailing the dying world ? Well humanity deserves extinction if this is the case.

Why do you still think the game died because you quit? 

Yes.  Once the patch is deployed on the test servers, players will have the opportunity to help find bugs and unexpected issues with the changes.  Based on the bugs that are discovered during the test period, the developers will likely make changes to the code and re-deploy a new, better version of the patch to the test servers.  This iteration will continue for a period of time until the developers are comfortable with the state of the patch.  

2 hours ago, Bolognapwny said:

Just get rid of the alliance system... your game literally can't handle alliance scaled pvp.... Nobody has 100 friends that play the game... you aren't going to deter anyone from playing the damn game if you limit Company membership and dismantle alliances... I mean seriously do you think all those people are truly that tight-knit?  They aren't... they will enjoy the game on a smaller scale hands down, and see there is no fun in a zerg mentality.

Imagine a game where every grid has its own politics...it would be the best thing ever for this type of game.

I appreciate you guys trying to take a lot of concepts from Eve... but you need to understand you are a different type of beast... so copy paste isn't going to work.  (talking about that dumb neutral shit I read)

 

 

TDLR:  get rid of alliances, reduce company cap even further.  

31 minutes ago, Enki Anunnaki said:

+1

10 hours ago, bluelance said:

Well the sub is mainly used to get the other 9 power stones they are introducing, there are no other underwater areas that they have announced except for those 9 servers. 

Sure it will help you salvage and sure it can be used if you wanna try and gather jute etc from the seaweed but tjats about it. Also for tsming i forgot about that.

I believe they also mentioned the trenches will have rare resources.  I speculate that these resources might be needed to make mythical blueprints at the least, but who knows.

On 3/2/2019 at 1:58 AM, Lukaseka95 said:

It is sad, that devs told us that, they will help solo players. So as solo player i wont be able to get submarine. I was looking forward to this mega update, and they give us this and also wipe... 

What is this thread even about?  Everyone is talking about solo-ing the Kraken lol

As a solo player, you need to have a specific perspective about this game.  Atlas is a game intended to be played with a group, as it should be.  The upcoming patch does help solo players, in my opinion.  Because the game is intended to be played with a group, every current and future feature cannot be balanced for solo and group play, or, this game will never come close to it's potential.  Solo players have to accept that not all content will be accessible to them, even though the game is getting better for solo play.

Even a solo player will be able to get a submarine if they are determined enough and make the right friends along the way.

So far, we have no hard timeline on the patch, so I wouldn't buy into the talk of the 27th that's happening here.  The captains log provided a general ETA on the test servers:

Quote

 It is anticipated that Test Live will be available to play around the 20th of March and we will keep you posted should there be any more updates as the time approaches. 

Also, if you read the captain's log, you may notice that they've added additional content and features to the patch that weren't previously announced such as Procedural Generated Shipwrecks

My request to Grapeshot for the patch is to take the time they need to take to get the patch out, but work on cutting scope from the patch, not adding scope to the patch which can further elongate the process

Love this!  Would be nice to swim around the ladder a little less trying to get the right actions on the action wheel when all I want to do is grab onto the ladder in front of me XD

Although some may claim it's pointless to play before the wipe, I propose it's not pointless for everyone.   There are still activities that can be time productively spent in game leading up to the wipe.  Some example activities I would recommend before the wipe include the following.

• Try new ship builds you've wanted to try
• Build your first galleon and set sail
• Experiment with talents and talent builds you haven't tried yet
• Try content you've never tried, i.e. If you've never killed a ghost ship, now is the time!
• For PVP, join the naval battles that are happening.  Check the player tracker to find where the population is at for the fight.

With the increased resources gains, you don't have to invest a whole day to build a ship and sail it to find a naval battle.

What are some activities that you're still having fun with in game leading up to the wipe?

5 hours ago, Talono said:

Dont know, stopped Atlas in the moment when they announced the wipe.

It is pointless to play before the wipe.

More than 8000 players still logged in last weekend. Thats the kind of people who still go to work after end of the world is announced.

Although, it might be pointless for you to play depending on the activities you enjoy in game, it's not pointless for everyone to play.

With the increased gathering rates, it's the perfect time to test ship builds you've wanted to try, or build your first galleon, or try a skill tree you never spec-ed into before.  If you're on PVP,  come join the naval battles happening.  You can see on the player tracker where the population is at in game to know where to go to get in on the fight and can build a new ship to join the fight very quickly.

Right now, there's less of a need to login all day to grind out what you want to do and more of an opportunity to login for a shorter period of time and try something you've been wanting to do in game.  That's why I wouldn't say it's pointless for everyone to play before the wipe.

My character is level 66 on official.  We've had some epic adventures and fought large battles together.  Yet, it is time to say goodbye.  I'll willingly leave him behind to move forward to a new world, a more populated world where no one speaks the curse of offline raiding as they once did.  No longer will an ally or enemy benefit from the extreme experience gains fire arrows and alpha creatures once gave.  Although, these times of adventure will never be forgotten, ultimately, we would give up our characters in order to live in a better world.  Good bye old Atlas

@Talono wouldn't you say that the 9 hour raid time window benefits small groups more so than megatribes?  Smaller groups typically have more/larger windows of time when they are susceptible to an "offline" attack.  Megatribes typically have higher player activity and can react to "offline" attacks more reliably.

From that perspective, after this change will benefit small groups as they will be less susceptible to an attack they could not defend?

2,000 player hard cap on allied players seems incorrect to me. 

* An alliance can have 4 companies
* A company can be part of 2 alliances
* At maximum, each alliance will include your company. Count the unique companies these two alliances, a total of 7.  

Alliance 1: [ company1, company2, company3, your_company]
Alliance 2: [ company4, company5, company6, your_company]

7x250 players = 1,750 is the _hard cap_

This is still a stretch imo.  Do you think that one company will find two alliance with no company overlap in both alliances where all companies in each alliance have max players?  I'm not saying it won't happen, but I think typically an alliance will have some number of active players lower than the cap.

In Captain's Log 22 the following changes to companies and alliances will go into place:
 

• Company limit has been reduced to 250 members
• An alliance now only contains a maximum of 4 companies
• A company can only be in 2 different alliances at a time.
• There will be a hard limit on the total number of claim flags per company. For example, 20. Numbers can be adjusted.
• Settlement owners must set a window of vulnerability, currently set to 9 hours, where their island is raidable. Outside of this window, players, structures and ships will not take damage from other players. 

I'd like to hear some opinions on the following topics in relation to the changes listed above:

* Do these changes help or hurt small groups of players?
* How will the limited alliances impact the overall activities in the game?
* How will larger groups work around these limits?
* What will smaller companies need to do in order to survive wartime?

26 minutes ago, Greyleaf said:

Somehow I doubt that the patch will be released 1 week after the PTR goes up. I know that's the plan, but bugs will be found and they will need more time to fix and test them on the PTR.

Can't say I disagree.  At least we know the progression of events to watch for even though we know the timelines are always wishy-washy  

Keep in mind we should have a test environment aprox. a week before the patch goes live, so watch for the test environment as a sign the patch is getting closer

23 hours ago, Forefrost said:

I put too many hours into this game to have it all server wiped. thanks, devs for sinking your own game no one knows how to sink their own ship as fast as an Atlas dev does.

Game is about to get better and have a higher pop, wrong time to leave forever imo

I was on NA PVP and got kicked.  Now, I can login to EU PVP just fine but nothing on NA PVP.

CORS error that they might need a web developer to look at (see attached screenshot devs).

What I'm about to suggest is a really bad idea

You can disable your browser security and view the map with the following command on windows (not recommended)
chrome.exe --user-data-dir="C://Chrome dev session" --disable-web-security

Sometimes, I accidentally click off my bed when on the respawn screen and I respawn in my home server.  This can be inconvenient because of the time it takes to load into my home server then load back into the server I intended to load into.  One solution to prevent this inconvenience would be a confirmation dialog when respawning at your home server when you have other beds to spawn in.  For example:

GIVEN a user in on the respawn screen
AND the user has one or more beds available to spawn into
AND the user has selected their home server as their spawn point
WHEN the user activates the respawn action
THEN the user is presented a confirmation dialog
AND the dialog has a accept action
AND the dialog has a cancel action

Thanks! XD

For anyone who feels like there’s no land to claim, I have hope for you!  I’ve been grinding discoveries and I’ve found claimable land in all biomes.  There’s companies that own land that have gone inactive and seemingly great locations that just need an active company.  My advice: spawn at multiple Freeport’s, build sloops, sail with the purpose of unlocking discoveries and you find your home outside of lawless land.  Good luck!