Slash78

You understand that. I understand that. The Devs don't see it that way. Look at the guy they hired to "fix" the game (and just left). Guild Wars 2 (along with EvE) is often sited by advocates of large scale PvP. They hired a guy who worked for years on Guild Wars 2. They still want large scale free-for-all PvP. And not with groups of players coming together, but between large companies/(guilds/clans/tribes). They want this despite the fact that not only is it playerbase breaking, it's also server breaking. Devs don't always see things the way players do. A fine example would be World of Tanks a few years ago. Wargaming had promoted most of the people who made WoT a success into other roles and turned development over to "Storm" (that was his forum handle). He was a big proponent of clans and thought most players should join them. Even though only 3 to 5% (depending on the server) of the player base belonged to one. The way he was going to do it was a lot of clan-only features, incentives, etc. He also wanted new game modes, new (and highly exploitable) "customization" for tanks. It was all supposed to start in 10.0 "Rubicon". There was an outcry from community. "Storm" ignored it. Then a lot of the streamers, Youtubers (ie, their "content creators") revolted, saying what a horrible idea most of this stuff was. Days before it's release the 10.0 patch was cancelled. Wargaming gave a lot of the old Dev team leadership their jobs back. And a game mode that did make it into the game was permanently disabled within 6 months. All because a new lead developer though 1) he know better than those who made the game a success, 2) was obsessed with the idea of large clans and that most players should belong to them and 3) because he was uninterested in either listening to the player base or even understanding what your own internal metrics are telling you. Edit: roles, not rolls.

No, they aren't all the same group. There are large PvP companies that don't cheat, though they often do power game. And it's not just big companies that troll. I've seen small groups do it. And you're also wrong about the devs not wanting large groups. The game was (mistakenly) made to cater to them. They think those large groups 1) bring people to the game and 2) keep them playing. The fact is they do bring a few people in, they chase far more people away and as you've pointed out, they generally leave for whatever game is the New Hotness. Even those that stay awhile, they leave as soon as a different large group pounds on them. And the devs also forgot that in an open world PvP game this is only one way of "winning". That's make people stop logging in so you have the server to yourself. Ark official servers are terrible for that very reason. And Atlas took that up to 11.

Yeah, but the devs WANT the big groups. Even when they redesigned the claim system it was so small and medium groups would have to ask large groups mother-my-i to "settle" on their land. Three things that have hurt this game, 1) the Big PvP companies, 2) Power-gamers, 3) Trolls/Griefers/Cheaters. (And I was amazed by the damage a group of two could do on the official US PvP server, who had nothing better to do than spend several hours sinking ships and looting bases while people were off line).

Not talking about buffs, I'm talking about them giving more than one vitamin, or being "filling" when that's in the description.

Of course there is also the issue of HOW they are able to cheat. Both the pistol and carbine have very long ranges, laser like accuracy and no bullet travel time. You know, just like muzzle loaded matchlocks, flintlocks, snaplock, snaphance, etc, weapons had! Except they didn't.

If you need fish, go up to the town on the starter island. They all seem to be there. Or catfish and tuna anyway.

Or...they have somewhere animals can be stored. In Ark you can store them in Obelisks (or you could). And as for resource storage...they should have somewhere to store resources at freeports too. As well as somewhere to buy/sell them. A commodity exchange/market instead of a commodity vendor.

Except the devs won't come back until Genesis is FINISHED. That won't be until December at the earliest. What's out now is just "Part 1" of 2. Why? He left Grapeshot because they took all of his developers away to work on Ark. Don't get me wrong, I have no interest in buying it, but I'm not going to boycott it because a frustrated dev left the company.

You haven't heard from them because they are all working for Wildcard on Ark: Genesis. They can't shut up about it on twitter. Why do I see their constant tweeting about Ark you might ask? Because they are SUPPOSED to be the community team for Atlas and I've been following them on Twitter for news about Atlas. Hint: There hasn't been any. For months.

It's been 7 months since the roadmap livestream (August 28th) and they don't even seem to be half way through "Phase 1". Nor have they announced anything for Phase 2 or 3. And no new content, features or gameplay loops are planned until "Phase 4". Yet DAILY the "community team" for Atlas is talking about Ark: Genesis and have been for over a month. But I'm not here to talk about that. No. I bought Sid Meier's Pirates! (2004 version) when it was on sale about two weeks ago and it holds up. Also been playing a little Ark (exploring Valguero, NOT buying Genesis until they start taking their other, seemingly abandoned game serious). Even watched one and a half Pirates of the Caribbean movies. 1) Gameplay should revolve around ports/towns. This seems like a no brainer. It's such a no brainer they showed a bustling port in their original trailer for the game. 2) I get though want to get people out to sea faster and want people to be able to spend more time doing it. But there simply aren't the gameplay loops to A) Get people out to sea quicker, nor B) to keep them their. They need those gameplay loops. It doesn't matter how much you take away from the current game or if not take away, marginalize it to force people to spend more time at sea, because "they spend too much time on land, taming animals, etc". Without those gameplay loops, there's no point. And I hope the devs aren't dumb enough to think or hope by forcing more people out to sea, that those people will somehow be that "content" for others. 3) Pirates need something to pirate other than other Pirates. 4) While the greatest asset the game has is it's large, open world sandbox, that game world needs a lot of improvements. Between hastily made islands, generic, repetitive, monolithic biomes that stretch on from zone to zone, seeing the same handful of animals over and over again, a lack of points of interest that are actually OF INTEREST! It largely kills the fun of exploring. 5) PvP is a mess and offline raiding will always be a shitshow. Also, the goal of a pirate was to capture a ship, not sink it. Yet it's a lot easier to sink-n-loot that it is to capture. And even then most of that is done not at sea, but at anchor. This chases off far more players than it attracts. Then again, simply allowing offline raiding and at-anchor sink-n-loot are gameplay loops that require ZERO EFFORT on the part of the devs to allow and it would take far too much thought and effort to actually DEVELOP alternative gameplay loops.

I haven't tried to cook any recipes in nearly a year. Do they actually work now? They were broken (or so people thought) for so long nor does (did) anyone seemed to know what each one was supposed to do or if they worked at all.

If Atlas development is delayed by a year...would anyone notice?

Not sure what you're talking about. Could you explain in greater detail?

I wanna make it clear that I'm NOT asking for them to get arid of the fantasy elements of the game. What they need to do is sit down and look at some piracy/age of sail games. Games like Sid Meier's Pirates! or Uncharted Waters 1 & 2. Though I wouldn't say looking at Sea of Thieves, because it's all about spawning in, running around and sinking other "pirates" or getting sunk. Then spawning back in to try to sink the person that just sunk you. Atlas doesn't need to be a poor man's Sea of Thieves, it needs to be the massive, open world game that Sea of Thieves can never be.

Ark is nothing more than a pile of thrown together content and features in a sandbox. Many people like it because they like exploring the new maps, or collecting new creatures. Others like it because they love to harass people and chase them off servers. Hell, even the "boss fights" are nothing more than a resource grind. No real point to them other than "well, we gotta give players more to do".

It would be nice. Though I always but a box next to ever bed, to remind me to take my gear off. Been doing that since Ark.

I would take it a step further and let you strip sails, planks/gun ports and guns off captured ships.

They haven't been silent though. They've been talking up the new Ark DLC "season pass". The season pass they've pulled almost all of Atlas's development team, included community managers, to work on. That was after they go all that Xbox launch money. And we know they aren't going to turn around and spend that Ark DLC money on Atlas...because the current DLC season pass means development on Ark continues though at least December (when the second half is due out).

Yeah, but in those days they were keeping players engaged by continuously adding new content. Often on a weekly basis. It sucks because Atlas has so much more potential. But in a lot of ways the Ark mindset of the devs held it back. Then they just gave up on it.

It happens.

I HAVE asked for more ships, several times and I will NEVER say we don't need more ships. Edit: Here's a link of me asking for more ships from over a year ago...

The problem with that is the didn't sell Ark: Genesis as an expansion, they sold it as a "season pass" for a serious of expansions (or future add-ons to what's been released) and they charged $34.99, which is more than the $19.99 they charged for any of the previous expansions. Edit: I just looked it up, the second part of Genesis is due out this winter. So at least 9 more months of stalled Atlas development. By then I don't think anyone would really care no matter what they're able to add to Atlas.

Yes, they shifted personnel to work on Ark: Genesis. AFTER convince people to buy into Atlas with the promise they would fully develop the game. Yet development on Atlas has been stalled on Atlas ever since the XBox launch. Question, what are did they do with the money they got from the XBox launch? They aren't spending it on Atlas. If fact they seemed to have used that money to get Ark: Genesis out the door.

Ok, the same part of "Pirate Theme Survival Game" that has you fighting Cyclopes, Whaling and hunt Yeti. That's the same kind of "Pirate" game where you should be able to spend your days riding around on a Tiger with a Rabbit on your shoulder. If you did post stuff like that, then put some links in here or PM them to me. As for more ships, you will NEVER seem me say they don't need more ships.

Not only are they talking about Ark, both Jat and Dollie have Ark job titles currently. Jat is the "Product Manager" and Dollie is "Live Operations" for Ark. They are still supposedly the "Community Lead" and "Community Manager" for respectively for Atlas, but they've been doing neither. Nor is new content in the works. Look at the latest Patch (from a month ago). Big fixes, re-balancing, adding stuff to loot tables that probably should have been there all along. If you look at everything that's came since XBox launch, it's all stuff you see post launch. They no longer seem to be actively developing the game, only maintaining it.