Chucksteak

Except that there's not. Unless you have 100% proof, in which case you should share with the group what you have. You may feel strongly that they will wipe the servers, but that is still just your speculation, regardless of how many other people share that view, it is still just......"like, your opinion, man." Don't get me wrong, I think there is a strong possibility they might do a wipe. I would put the odds as high as 50% that it will happen. Lets however not fail to appreciate that there are other options that might sell better to both sides. As someone said, they might just open a cross-play server. This might be the way to go and make everyone happy. Probably better odds of this than a wipe. They might take into account the current player base size and the current decay settings (witch I LOVE, don't hate on them), and come to the conclusion that a wipe simply isn't necessary. Although to be fair this logic works both ways. They could easily fold in a few thousand x-box players and the current thousand or so already playing needn't worry due to the size and availability on the map. It is also possible that there is only a partial wipe. Perhaps some grids get cleaned out, while others are left intact. This would facilitate adding or changing some of the grids with new biomes or land masses. This would also cater to the large companies as those grids are still relatively populated by said companies. Using past experience, we know that GS HEAVILY favors large companies (if not exclusively) and this would be in line with that tradition. This would also allow them to say they didn't do a "wipe", which is something they have publicly stated they wanted to try and avoid. These facts alone make this option far more legitimate that a complete wipe. Regardless, lets not allow this to overshadow the good news. We are getting cross play, that's an awesome thing. It's the way of the future that we should not be so segregated by who can and cannot afford a PC. We should celebrate the ability to play with all of the children who want to sail and get pirated like the rest of us adults. This is not a new or a scary thing. The UR4 engine has been out for many years and the x-box is perfectly capable of handling it. Welcome X-box players! Sorry Sony fans. As the Spiderman saga has shown us, they are just greedy assholes who don't care much what their customers want or think. -CS

You said you found me funny, but then seemed to be upset with my take. LOL don't be bitter, we all built the cannon wall. Be it on the side, back or front. We all did it for the same reason, because it was a broken mechanic. I did not suggest that you should not have done it. Only that you not play dumb about it, or to opine that you lost your customization ability as you built the same thing as most everyone else. If you don't like my calling it an exploit, then call it a broken mechanic. It was in the game, it was far too effective and created unintended interactions, and was fixed because of it. So use whatever term you have available to you that means the same thing. Again, I want to say, you can still do anything you could with your boat with the ONE exception of using large cannons to make a 1 hitter quitter wall. I don't feel this is removing your ability to "customize" your ship in any meaningful way. I never stated anything about what a real boat can or cant do. Although, I would prefer better physics in the game. You were the one who made a post about uninstalling the game because of the loss of (1) type of weapon stacking that was OP to begin with. Maybe I interpreted it incorrectly, but it sure sounded like you were crying about it. You could have just uninstalled and not posted anything. Based on what you said. PS - Its ABILITY, not HABILITY. The "H" is not part of the word. I only say this because you spelled it the same way multiple times.

@MOTIK I mostly like your thoughts. Except the island reduction, personally a hard no on that one. There are some massive islands, such as (A4) that satisfy a continent feel without sacrificing the island aspect. (Feel free to completely ignore Realist when he has any opinions about the game as he has not even purchased the game, let alone play it to be able to provide anything useful to the conversation. Hence why he says silly things like there isn't enough land for him to build, when he could spend a year on a medium island and not run out of space.) The tames are out of control I agree, I wouldn't feel bad about removing them altogether. NPC's and an economy are needed in a bad way. TBH, I'm coming around on the trade wind idea. Ive been against fast(er) travel, and still am. However enough of the community is wanting something, this seems like a good compromise (although not an original idea to be fair).

Exactly. I think its the #1 reason why people don't currently play in the numbers that they did a few months ago. So I ask myself, why is it sooo much cheaper and takes sooo much less time to blow a hole in a building than it does to make one? Obviously, its how they intended it to work. Its unfortunately efficient and rewarding to steal 100k of each resource. Or even better, to use thier mats and thier smithy to craft a shit load of walls, cieling, and foundations and sail off with a castles worth of structures. Its not how I would design the game. Id prefer a more compelling scenario involving more skill. Hell id settle for just making it much much more expensive to break into a building. Balance the scales and such.

I like to play the game as it was intended to be played. So when I'm alone I sail around looking for real pirate strong holds, lawless is fun, but finding a claimed island under attack timer works too. Now that the decay thing has been cleaned up (thanks devs, that was really needed), what you see is recent and likely full of loot if it hasn't already been pirated. Once you find a good one, usually built with stone and large enough to look like its protecting something, I go to work. Look at the timers to see how long they have been offline first. If you assume some things, you can work out a rough time line of when to expect them to return. I use this to establish my window of attack. People usually log on about the same time each day, or about 24hrs since they last logged on. So while they are out, we can give them something to do when they get back. 100 grenades will usually get you in just about anywhere in just a few minutes. Take a boat that can hold some weight ofc to haul back anything good you find. The best things are finished products. This is a great way to spend time at sea, and is more fun than actually having to harvest your own resources. The bonus is that everything is tax free, and the knowledge that you are playing with other people the way the devs intended through incentives.

I think your overstating what you lost and underestimating what you still have in terms of customization. The fact is, if you built a wall of large cannons, you did it becuase it was a broken mechanic. Not becuase you preferred that particular style becuase of looks or speed or the intrinsic artistry of your creation. Just so as to make killing another ship as easy as possible. While I personally would have removed ALL cannons from the top deck, the devs knew there would be people, like yourself, who cried about fixing this exploit. So in their generosity they allowed ship cannons to still be utilized on top decks. So your really only mad that you cant exploit as hard as you used to be able too. You still have your cannon wall if you want it. And im positive you would bc thats what people do now as its the next best thing. Now, as to building a custom ship, there are several ways to go about this with a combination of how you build your ship and how you level your ship. You can make a tank, or a fast mover, or a hauler, and spec the points as you see fit. With the ability to make a semi-broken wall of cannons on one side only that somehow still floats with the null gravity cannons. Point is, uninstall for a good reason, not becuase you lost your favorite exploit.....months ago. -CS

@Cascco they do read and respond. Especially Jat. Witch is only odd becuase dollie was hired to be community rep, but Jat responds much more frequently. OP- I like everything except the part about gliders. Best part of the game. Leave them alone.

....you want to pay someone to kick your own ass? Interesting. Why wait for a raid when you can pay for one to happen...

Boomer said the solution cant be faster sailing...... So, no, absolutely not. That's not good juju. Fast travel as it is now is out of control. You can die, spawn anywhere, and setup camp and make a bed. As a solo I could, without trying very hard, maintain 3 independent bases with tames, ships, and modest defenses. Need crystal? NP just port on over and schooner some back in minutes. That's only if I decided to NOT fly back, because that is at least harder to do. You would make any meaningful sense of distance, or the grandness of the size of the map account for fuck all. You would undermine a core mechanic and function of the game just to make it easier, and thus less fulfilling. As it is now, you can max level with very little effort. As it is now, with tames, you can build anything you want with very little effort. Your saying you would prefer to sail anywhere, regardless of distance with very little effort. - Leveling should be harder. It would give it more meaning. - Not every skill tree should be accessible at all times. It gives them, and other people more meaning and value. - You should not be able to port anywhere at any time. In PvP, it ruins strategy and it makes building defenses too easy. (OMG were being attacked, and aren't at base! Good thing we can INSTANTLY port in, put on gear and defend.......HOW, FUCKING, LAME!) Its just a gigantic win win mechanic for bigger companies. You cannot surprise attack someone when it doesn't matter if they are there or not. Look I understand, a lot of you like WOW, and Tera, and ESO. You can go anywhere with anything, see all the sights and ride all the rides real quick and easy like. They are called theme park MMOs, because at the end of the day you are left with Mickey Mouse. It was never immersing, never got your blood pumping because it was all fake and meant nothing with no consequences. Just there to entertain you for a short amount of time. That's what your asking for when you advocate for more fast travel. To make this a shity play for an hour or 2 a week game. I hold Atlas to a deeper vision. I want a game that is challenging and offers growth and progression over multiple years. Please, lets not theme park this one.

Personally, I'd like to know why the walls can't snap into the ground like foundations and pillars. Actually, let me take a step back. Your absolutely right about those columns. The appearance of them is appalling. Worse, due to the single option snap point they are not nearly as effective as they should be. Back to the walls, when I build a wall down into a hill I would very much expect it to seal into the ground exactly like a foundation or a column would. as it is, it is very difficult to form fit slopes.

Are you aware you can go to any freeport whenever now? Just like using a bed, die and spawn there. You can even port from island to island inside of that grid. I like your other ideas. I do feel fast travel should be far less than it is now though. Its already absurd.

I feel as though we have a lot of PvE posts so far. These are all geared towards PvP. Just for the record, I highly enjoy sailing as it is now. I don't think there is a lack of things to do while sailing. Between managing the sails and keeping course, I have to contend with SoTD, whales, pirates and I also have floatsom and shipwrecks to keep me hoping. Although the value/reward to most of these activities is where the rub is I feel. BIG CHANGES 1. DO NOT MAKE SAILING FASTER. To be more elaborate, do not take away the vastness of the map its possibly the most special thing Atlas has atm. Its already compromised by beds as they currently work. If anything, nerf beds to reduce the unlimited teleport and create more need for sailing. Sailing not only should be better, it should be more needed as well. 2. ADD MORE SHIPS. This is the big one. Specifically, more ships and diversity among them. Some ships should be faster for exploring or for crossing 3+ grids, but less sustainable for combat or material hauling. Some ships should be slower and geared for hauling or combat. Make some with oars that less wind reliant. Make more subs, or at least subs more available. Almost, like, all the thought and time that was put into those god damn tames, do the same for boats. Use history and get creative. At the end of the day, I shouldn't have more options for a wall than I do for a ship. 3. MAKE SHIPS SAFER ASSETS. Currently the greatest assets in the game, and hence what everything revolves around is what you have on land (bases, ports, ect). Ships are fickle things that can only be semi safe behind ports that have been heavily vested with defenses and NPC mounted turrets. A very big complaint, is not necessarily going sailing around, but rather having to sail BACK to base before you are done. I would like to see, especially for the solo and duo player, the boat be the preferred base. Id like to see the boats immune to taking or giving dmg when anchored. This would allow you to spend days or weeks sailing around, only needing to find an approachable beach to end your gaming session for the day. Ofc this means no stealing anchored boats as well. I'm also open to adding an upkeep cost to this, and/or reducing the company limit to prevent abuse. 4. INCREASE VISIBILITY. Another big complaint is SoTD, other boats, and structures built around islands not populating or being visible until the last moment. While on a flat sea, I should have a much greater range of sight to avoid colliding with things much sooner than I currently have the option to do. 5. MR. SULU. I personally disagree with this one, but it has enough merit and support on its own, and I am not so much a blind idealist as to not see the benefit to a navigating NPC helmsman. I don't like the idea of any NPCs taking the jobs that should be real people playing an MMORPG, but they are there and there to stay. I would prefer it to be a skill buried at the bottom of the captain tree. It would be nice to set a destination and an aggro level (behavior, like the NPCs and tames) and allow you to do other things while en route. 6 MAGIC. It is...(Damn you for making me say it out loud Boomer)..(/clenched teeth)..a fantasy game..not just a pirate game as so many of you have successfully argued. There should be a magic (tarot or otherwise) skill tree. This allows more dynamics with wind, fog, visibility range, ship capacity, ship durability, ship stealth (npc range), ship dmg, short range radar and on and on and on with what could be done with simple buffs/debuffs/AOEs and just justifying them with a high level magic user. I would balance this by limiting how many skill trees a person is able to master relative to how it is currently setup (jack of all, master of all). QOL Changes 7. Don't make me use the damn sextant, its annoying, not challenging or engaging. Just give me the buff on the captain tree. 8. Let me set an NPC to collect floatsom with a grappling hook when I get in range. At least if you don't buff what they give as rewards, because they blow as is. 9. Ship flag for decoration/affiliation, steal it straight from Sea of Thieves. In particular the PvP flag, which allows your location to show as a red dot on the map for all to see. Come and get some!

Pretty much what the dude above said. I used a brig bc i prefer brigs. 4 rear mounted ballista, normal is fine, 4 crew on them 3 on sails. Get close, sick the ballista crews on it and just let it follow you while your crew kills it. With no dmg levels and plain balista its roughly 60-80 bolts per whale to kill. Takes a minute to get the speed down, not to fast to loose agro, not too slow to get got by shamoo. Use grapling hook or diving suit to gather the gold. Can farm good amounts of oil from the carcas. Do it on weekends with gold buffs for extra gold.

Dude if you wanna make gold go whaling. You can snag 2 or 4 in a short amount of time and return to harbor with 2-3k gold.

My apologies, I think we misunderstood each other. I do not assert that EA and Alpha mean the same thing. Only that a game in EA is in Alpha stage, or possibly in Beta. I don't frown upon Grapeshot for not clearly stating if Atlas was in Alpha or Beta as I don't think Steam requires you to make this distinction when you put a game out in EA. My point is that being in EA it is assumed by steam, and therefore the players, that the game is in Alpha or Beta at best. -CS

Umm what lol? Lets set aside the lack of effort you put into making that a real sentence with the correct words. I am not sure you are following along. I was saying that EA games are generally games that are in one of those states that you highlighted above. Actually, I was not saying it, the internet was. Or to be more specific, Valve corp, Wikipedia, and Urban dictionary were saying that. I did not coin the term Early Access, therefore I will not assume it to mean something it doesn't, or redefine it to fit what I think it should be. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/earlyaccess This link that I used in my post above is directly from the steam page that explains to developers what EA is. They specifically state that an EA game is a playable game in Alpha or Beta that is both worth the value charged and with intention to be finished. You seem to be upset that Grapeshot did not tell you if the game was in Alpha or Beta. It seems semantic to be upset with that specific lack of clarification.

To be sure, I personally don't care enough to have a horse for or against the definition on "Early Access". I do try to understand the words and terms I use and help others when I see it. 1. I usually default to "wikipedia" as they pop up first and are generally socially accepted as being at the least, mostly correct. 2. The only thing I have to say is that this is possibly one of the lowest pop forums I've posted on. I wouldn't use these as a sample size for the gaming community simply due to the lack people. All the same I looked around some more. I found steams position and the urban dictionary's definition. I must respectfully conclude that an EA is a playable Alpha or at best a Beta version of that game. https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/earlyaccess What is Early Access? Steam Early Access enables you to sell your game on Steam while it is still being developed, and provide context to customers that a product should be considered "unfinished." Early Access is a place for games that are in a playable alpha or beta state, are worth the current value of the playable build, and that you plan to continue to develop for release. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=early access early access When video game developers sell a game before it is done to milk more money out of their customers. It's usually broken and in the alpha or beta stages.

Forb Hidden has the right of it on this. I looked this up several months back, but no worries, I was also incorrect when I first looked it up. Early access From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article is about the video game industry term. For the clinical drug testing term, see expanded access. Early access, also known as early funding, alpha-access, alpha founding, or paid-alpha, is a funding model in the video game industry by which consumers can purchase and play a game in the various pre-release development cycles, such as pre-alpha, alpha, and/or beta, while the developer is able to use those funds to continue further development on the game. Those that pay to participate typically help to debug the game, provide feedback and suggestions, and may have access to special materials in the game. The early-access approach is a common way to obtain funding for indie games, and may also be used along with other funding mechanisms, including crowdfunding. Many crowdfunding projects promise to offer access to alpha and/or beta versions of the game as development progresses; however, unlike some of these projects which solicit funds but do not yet have a playable game, all early access games offer an immediately playable version of the unfinished game to players.

If I were making a game, I would prefer the only person not playing my game to give the most advice. Another doomsday post about game population in late summer time, on an game that isn't even released yet. /sigh Another thread where Realist responds to his own posts, multiple times, before anyone else. @Realist Give it up already. You aren't getting factions. Regardless of how much you whine and cry for it. Go play WoW or ESO if you want that BS. They never intended to implement them, they never hinted at adding them, and largely excepting you no one is asking for them. They aren't taking the sand out of the sand box just so you can play cowboy's and indianan's. Also, your reputation sucks. Why even bring it up? Boomer is multiple times your number. Because he makes well thought out posts that contribute to a game he plays (I assume its a "he"). Oh and for the record, I believe you do qualify as an actual "Troll". Possibly one of the biggest of all time. In Internet slang, a troll is a person who starts quarrels or upsets people on the Internet to distract and sow discord by posting inflammatory and digressive, [1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into displaying emotional responses [2] and normalizing tangential discussion [3] whether for the troll's amusement or a specific gain. - You are a person who constantly upsets people and distracts actual players who are giving real feedback. Arguably in an attempt to sow discord. - You continually go off topic with player count when the opinion of the developer has been explicitly to not care about this statistic. - You repeatedly try to normalize a tangential discussion, in this example, "Factions". Which do not and never have been planned for this game, making it 100% tangential. - You are working towards a specific gain to yourself. In this case, a game exactly tailored for you're personal preferences.

The "Game" we are all waiting for, even if you aren't yet aware of it is "Ashes Of Creation". A true MMORPG SANDBOX, where what Atlas has to offer is only a small piece of the game. This is being created by an Intrepid Studios, on the UR4 engine. The UR4 engine might just be not that good of an engine unfortunately (ref the Atlas experience when more than 25 people are in a grid). Atlas is missing a lot to become the MMORPG it was advertised as. Albiet it is still in EA. The sailing aspect is not the problem. In fact, it is by far the easiest sailing of multiple sailing games. Not only that, it is one of the few areas that isn't broken or missing something gaping. The NPC's will literally do everything for you, excepting evasive maneuvering. The wind varies, making sailing a thing. The ocean is full, all the way down, with terrain, obstacles, mobs, please try to appreciate this enormity of this. The stage is set to bring in an entirely separate race that lives under the sea and would integrate seamlessly because of this. Don't forget whaling, killing un-dead boats, floatsom, shipwrecks. It may take up to an hour to cross 2 grids against the wind, but this is planned. This was the feeble attempt at incentive to not attack someone too far away. Here are some major items Atlas needs to move forward; - Incentive, give me a reason or reward for attacking certain people or strong holds. The reason we PvP now is just because, or for territory, but the territory isn't really any more valuable than the next island over. No one GAINS from wiping another clan. You spend an exorbitant amount of resources just to basically force some other group out of the game. Certainly there should be more incentive for bigger clans to attack each other or at least the same thing to create a more equal conflict setting. Same goes for smaller clans. Conversely there should be a disincentive to just obliterating other players out of the game. Other wise we should take a different route, and do seasons with 1-3 wipes a year starting a new "season" and restarting the race. - Economy, there is no official one. You have to have 3 things; Supply, Demand, and a medium. I need something I can't easily get, you have to have it, and we need some NPC help to facilitate this transaction over distance. This is an MMORPG pillar that has been ignored for some reason. This means skill trees have to matter. Can't have anyone who gets to lvl 100 be able to do everything. MMORPGs should create the necessity for variation of play styles. Right now, I am all classes whenever I want. - Bank, There needs to be some way to save some things. Preferably, gold, items, and boats. Almost like a.....dare I say....."Fee Port" with a harbor that will save a boat away somewhere. Even if there is a modest cost to it, although I feel 1 boat for free is best. Perhaps whatever fits on the boat is what is saved. Problem of wiping people out of the game is eased greatly for this one thing. - Anchored boats should neither take nor deal dmg. This could almost alleviate the need for a bank, excepting the boat can disappear after 10 days if its not in a bank. If anyone feels this allows you to ring off an island, simply lower the allowed boat count. You can only hold so much on a boat. Attacking any anchored boat right now is just taking candy from babies and then drowning them in shallow pools. I cant tell you how many people I played with logged on, saw all boats wrecked and left for good. Dammit, I am not even writing this very well. TLDR; Tames suck. The first paragraph is the most important.

Lol yeah, newsflash for the OP. At some point the servers will get wiped. Crossplay, probably a wipe. Major update, probably a wipe. Launch day, a wipe. Giant cheating fiasco, probably a wipe. Dont be disillusioned, this is an EA game that is about late alpha early beta at this point. You have to be reasonable and understand that this game is not yet finished and ready for an uninterrupted lifespan. Its certainly not ideal to peeform wipes prior to the launch day, but its also not necessarily unavoidable. Personally i think its rather healthy for a wipe 2 or 3 times a year while in EA. Especially while they are still trying to concoct a reasonable land claim system.

@Realist Ok so again the least qualified person makes the biggest post. Someone send realist a blowup doll, he clearly needs a release. Some people, realist the non gaming gamer among them, bitch about server pop nom stop. Now you are against a feature that would add population to servers. Funny, ironically so. Then there is the case you make that PC players have the advantage, ark, atlas, blah blah bullshit, blah. Guess what, gamers learn to play games fairly quickly. Please dont suggest consoles players are inept. They are largely children and teenagers, not people suffering from downs. Crossplay is new and its big and its awesome. Free the shackles of proprietary consoles and the added expense that comes with a good PC. Come one and come all to simply play a game without reguard to your brand of choice hindering you. Oh also, they did this in Sea of thieves and it worked great. Played with other PC gamers and X box gamers. Super solid, super fun.

Woot, did they finally fix the FTL travel/teleporter problem? No mass teleporting would be a dream for this game. 2nd worst thing about this game is the brokenness of the beds.

Yeah, silly ass Canadians ftw. Great shit. If youve never herd of "Trailer Park Boys", watch the first few season's of that too. Similar, but wayyy past the line.

+1 for crossplay. Its the future of gaming, reguardless of how much sony hates sharing. Especially with the next gen consoles on the horizon, they can usually compete with PCs for the first year or so untill PC gamers do the next GPU or RAM or CPU upgrade and blow them out of the water for the rest of thier cylce. Crossplay on SoT was awesome. Concoles are for kids i know. But i enjoy playing with my nephew. Or at the very least the capability to. Lettekinney? Props.