Slash78

Thing is they don't even need to be a huge company to destroy you. A handful of trolls with too much time on their hands can get a cannon bear and several dozen grenades and blow holes in your base in no time. Even easier for them to sink all your ships.

IDK, I looked at Ark's official forums and apparently adding Titans in the Extinction DLC was an ever worse move than Wyverns in Scorched Earth. Something about only being able to build safely in caves. Sounds like a mess.

They have some good artists and obviously have talent on the technical side. The problem is in game design and the execution of that design.

Maybe not all XP. And if someone runs down my Sloop when they are in a Brig, they definitely shouldn't get all the XP. Say 50% XP for same ship size or larger, 25% for one size smaller and 0% for ships too sizes smaller.

Yes, Colonies has failed. It is an abject failure. The island claim system was a good idea COMPLETELY RUINED by bad implementation. Also, you can't blame solo players and small groups or casuals for not buying into "Colonies". 60+ hours since coming back and I haven't once landed on a claimed island. Why not? When I sail close and see gate walls and towers packed full of cannons, I GTFO. Also a lot of the island near me all seem to have their raid timers set for when I'm online. Not going to sail up to an island then. Nor can I ask the owners if I can build on them because at most their are 5 people on the server and none are answering in global chat. Nor have I once seen an inviting message left by island owners. So yeah, claimed island are a no-go zone as far as I'm concerned. And I never seen any ships. Not at claimed islands. I see the very occasional ramshackle sloop or raft. Only seen three other ships, two schooners and a galleon and they were parked at lawless island. (Though I'm sure none of them lasted for long). In a game where ships are a necessity, there should be a few of them around. This makes me believe there is no such thing as ship safety. And I'm not going to complain about game performance. I have over 3,600 hours in Ark since November 2015. This game runs smooth as silk compared to what I was getting in Ark much of that time.

Do companies need to go? No. Do they need to completely do away with any kind of land claim system? Maybe on a PvE server, but otherwise no. So, what should they do? -Increase the functionality of Free Ports -Additional company owned ports and towns (ie, "settlements") -modify the current claim system -Factions -Reputation System -More Content (duh!) -So, how to improve Free Ports? One, change the Commodities Vendor to a Commodities Market. Add Storage. A Dry Dock for ship storage (just the ship and structures on it, not what's in the inventories). A Stable for tame storage (again, with empty inventory and w/o saddles). A Bank (gold and gear storage, including saddles). What doesn't get stored? Maps, crew, commodities. Also add a market currency, "Silver Pieces" (SP). 1 Gold = 10 SP. -Settlements. Scattered across the map would be abandoned ports, towns, ruined forts, etc. If you claim the island and put some resources into them, they become "settlements". They would have all the function of a Free Port, though only for your Faction (or those friendly or neutral). Additionally they would have several plots of land in them that would function like platforms that can be built on (with build limits, etc). Though only one plot per company per settlement. The owning company would also get a plot and some platforms scattered around the settlement to build on. -Claim system. You would have two kinds of claims. An Island claim that would function similar to the current island claim, but WITHOUT upkeep. The second, each company would get a claim one claim flag similar to the original claim flags to claim where their "main base" is. -Factions. There would be another of factions you could join. (I prefer a large number of factions, 9-15). To stay in a faction you CANNOT kill another faction members tames, sink their ships, raid their bases. A factions ranking would be based on the island they own (islands rated on size, resources, if they have active settlements and number of main base flags they have). To join you would have to buy in, the more members a faction has, the more expensive it would be (not necessarily with gold, but with resources, etc). Each faction would get a Capital Island (which would be an island with multiple settlements already established on it). Only factions can declare war. Though wars can only be declare on Rivals (another faction of similar strength) or factions that have been hostile (repeated attacks on faction assets). Wars wouldn't just be between factions and their allies, but Letters of Marque would be offered to companies from friendly or neutral factions. Wars will be fought until 1) the war goal is conceded. 2) Both factions decide to end it (w/o war goals being met). Each faction would have a limited number of allies and rivals. -Reputation System. Not just to determine friendliness or hostility to another company or faction, but if you regularly sink anchor ships, break into bases, kill tames, etc, you'll eventually get enough negative points you can no longer be part of a faction or build on faction controlled land. Eventually become an Outlaw and anyone can attack you without fear of gaining negative points. (War between factions would be an exemption. Likewise if you've obtained a Letter of Marque against a given faction). -More ships, wider variety of animals, NPC ships, both factional and pirate, etc. I'm sure stuff like this won't be added to the game...because it doesn't seem to be the kind of game the devs want. Edit: And add more islands. I thought they were gonna do this? If they did...well, ADD MOAR!!!111

You can't expect WildGrapeCardShot to understand their player base. They ASSUME that "the only way to really play Ark is on the official servers". This is despite the fact only about 15-18% of Ark's player base is on the official servers at any given time and about 3/4 of those official server peak around 10 players. In other words, the majority of Ark official servers probably have only one tribe that players on them on a consistent basis. They are incapable of analysis. They go with the game play the big boss wants and if he wants a shitty trollfest, the game ends up being a shitty trollfest.

I'm sure they Atlas Devs will do everything they can think of in an attempt to bring back Mega Companies. And the player base will continue to shrink. They'll also try to think of more gold sinks and claim they are "working on the economy".

I have a ton of ideas, but it's pointless to put them on here. And for those who's paychecks do depend on it, not only is "Colonies" a failure, but Single Player and the Steam Summer Sale (Atlas 67% off) isn't bringing people back or new people in. Player count is still down over 20% from June despite this. July is a new low.

Updating and re-DLing some other games. About 62 hours in the game since coming back and I think I'm done.

There's not getting around the fact that "Colonies" has failed. So now what? Where does the game go from here?

Yeah, but that's not going to work. 1) tech issues. 2) This development team simply can't think of rules to sustain neither the official PvP nor PvE servers, how are they going to come up with a rule set to merge everything in one MMO world?

They already have different regions with different rules.

And my Rhino disappeared. Literally. I had it and my bear out doing things, parked the Rhino next to the base, ran down the beach on my Bear then heard the Rhino being attacked. It was fighting a scorpion right next to the raft. Which is weird as that is the only time I've ever seen a scorpion on the island. Rhino knocked the scorpion into the water. Ran over on the bear and killed the scorpion before it came out of the water. When I turned around, no Rhino. Checked the log, it wasn't dead. Swam out into the water, server went down, died, got back in, got the bear out of the water. My death was in the log, nothing about the Rhino. Searched the whole island. No Rhino. Remembered to check the tame limit in my inventory. Three (3) tames out of 1600. Three? Bear, check. Elephant, check. Giraffe, check. Checked the log again. Then checked the log again. Nothing about the Rhino dying. It was there, then it wasn't. And it was a nice Rhino too. (At least Rhinos aren't hard to tame, though it will be a PITA to find a nice level one again).

Huh? Steam chart doesn't just have those on official servers, it's everyone logged in through Steam. Trying to figure out the point you're trying to make. Right now about 61% of players are on official servers.

I was shocked to see that The Isle (an Ark knock-off) has more active players than Atlas. Yes, Atlas is in trouble. Even with Single player out people aren't coming back.

Have you tried feeding them stuff other than berries? Cooked/salted meat/fish does a lot better job.

There isn't just a lack of a relevant AI enemy, when it comes down to it PvP is meant for Mega Companies. It's either them or small groups with a lot of time on there hands going around and sinking ships/wiping small bases. Why do that do that? Because the goal of any survival game (well, survival with PvP) is to chase everyone else off the server. And people are either consciously trying to do that, or simply following that pattern of play (ie, "that's how survival games are supposed to be played"). Even if they added an AI enemy won't stop people from sinking ships, etc. Boredom is only part of the issue. Three things are needed. 1) That everyone can participate in conflicts, Mega Companies along side smaller companies and solo players. 2) A reason for conflicts as well are rewarding participation and rewarding certain actions. Conflicts that have clearly marked opponents as well as clearly marked neutral parties. And 3) a system that discourages players for the behaviors that chase a lot of people off the servers (sinking ships "4 teh lulz", raiding/wiping small bases "jus cus u can").

The players are a large part of Atlas's problems. Just like players are a large part of the problem on Ark Official servers. The Devs not only didn't do anything to mitigate the problem there, they in fact encouraged the problem behavior. And a big part of what is sinking Atlas is the very same behavior.

You mean kind of like how the Atlas playerbase is almost non-existent compared to the Ark playerbase?

As the VAST majority of people who've actually played the game have decided that it's not worth playing, maybe the opinion of those who stayed don't matter much either. Especially the ones who say things like "it's EARLY ACCESS" or "maybe it's just not the game for you" or "don't worry, the devs know what they are doing".

They do have fast travel, that's what the beds are for.

Now that you're done patting yourself on the back, a major issue you can do all that, then log in the next time it's all gone. Ships sunk, holes in your walls, resources gone, tames dead. 37 hours of gameplay after coming back and I have to force myself to even log in. I don't want to build another ship. I patched the holes in my walls and then logged off. Don't know when the next time I'm going to log in. Maybe tomorrow, maybe never.

There are 0-for-2 when it comes to the claim system. Companies should have as many claims as they can hold on to. They should get to set a tax value. Anyone is the same faction should be able to build freely on a company's island as should friendly and neutral players (both being decided by a reputation system). Upkeep on the flag makes no sense. Maybe if there were company/faction owned ports/settlements on the island, I would say a certain material upkeep and gold/food upkeep for any NPCs (guards, etc), yes. Gold upkeep, I don't get it. Why have island ownership? For faction ranking. Ranked by size, resources, tax income, improvements, player population, etc. Also as tie ins to other mechanics. Like if you anchor at a faction controlled island and someone decides to sink your ship "4 teh lulz" then they take a major reputation his with your faction as well as a their overall rep. (Or at an allied island, they take rep hits with your faction and your ally). Same with breaking down doors, busting open boxes, LEVELING THE WHOLE GODDAMNED BASE!!!111.

WoW is a theme park MMORPG. Atlas is a sand box. Because it's a sand box you need things to be more dynamic. This is the why on multiple factions. So there is an ebb and flow, a dynamic political map.