Chucksteak

C'mon Gomez, you know its EA. Don't act like wipes are bad. Your better than that.

Lol that you think they cash grabbed at $15 or less per copy. I'd be surprised if we even covered 6 months of overhead. Cash grab? See star citizen at some $60+ per copy before the P2W kicks in on that 11 year alpha. They are over $300mill in revenue so far and counting. Or how bout Baulders gate 3 at full price for EA? No kid, we got a great deal and they got *some* money. How many hours of game play has your $15 got you so far? I'm willing to bet it's a lot of hours. For me it's easily one of the best values I've ever seen for an entertainment budget. Thanks devs for keeping it real.

1. Sea of thieves is awesome. Such a simple concept done perfectly. I wish we had the sea work as well as it does in sea of thieves. 2. This is a PvP game. The sooner PvE peeps accept it the better off they will be mentally. I'm not talking down on them, it's just what it is. 3. You dont play PvP in a FPS? Wow dude, perhaps take some time off gaming and reevaluate your situation. It's not real, and they cant hurt you if you dont let them.

@Ranger1k, @Xantria From a dev standpoint, if I can sell 3 or 4 copies to everyone I'd be ecstatic. Also, try blockading 1 boat with 2 or 3. It's not as easy as youd think if you park as far out as possible. Can it be done? Sure. But what if I also get a 2nd account and make a 2nd boat? Will you now buy 2-3 more additional accounts to now stop my 2 boats? And keep the gold stocked? Dont forget I had a gold cost for the green anchor. Or what if I go for 3? Soon you will be at 12+ and the math isnt getting better for the griefers. I can surround your boat with pillars right now, hundreds and hundreds for free with 1 account. Make it a pain in the ass/impossible to even move. That's happened to me 0 times. How much time and resources would you spend to grief 1 single person? I feel like I represent a majority of players and I wouldnt even consider it.

Its just a thought of what I would do if I was a pirate who could not pirate anyone. Still depriving them of using the gathered resources in any useful way.

What you refer to as "Wolf and Sheep" dilemma, I call a lack of proper incentive. By default the mechanics will always favor a bigger company, cant be helped. This makes the default incentive to join a bigger company. Examples: 1. The wolves go after the sheep because there is no incentive for them to go after another wolf. In fact the incentive is currently reversed. It costs/risks nothing to cruise by lawless and level everything insight. Where as you could loose all your gear and fleet in a more competitive engagement. 2. There is no incentive to take over someone's island if you already have your own. In fact, its reversed again. There is more benefit/incentive to defending your island than taking someone else's. Even worse, the implied incentive is for a solo/small company to try to get an island with that sweet peace timer. GL 1 or 2 vs 50+. If we had proper incentives for the bigger wolves, they would not eat all of the sheep. We need something to compete for that is tangible, rewarding, and progressive. Example: Lineage 2 had castles that could be contested every other weekend. Some smaller castles that drew tax from their local towns, and some larger castles that drew tax from the region. Bigger clans would go for bigger castles, smaller clans would go for smaller castles. Solos and tiny clans would go for forts. A group of 4 would be happy with a fort, knowing they could never take a castle, because outside of taxes, they functioned similarly, both had stores, buffs and teleporters. The owning an island and taxing residents was an attempt at this, but the balance is lopsided. The owner has near complete control of residents and structures and gets the tax. The little guy gets nothing from the deal. The WH and trade markets are a good step towards this. Personally (as a rough draft), I would add NPCs with stores and AH in freeports (a working economy basically), then a central island that is claimable once a week that sets/draws tax from the 4 freeport islands and perhaps a portion of the control points. The control points are for solos and small companies to squabble over, while the bigger companies would contend for the central island. This is all after removing claimable islands OFC. Lets open the map back up, make everything lawless outside of freeports. Oh, and not once will I ever care about what a dev spends on servers. Their monetary concerns are theirs, not mine. We didn't fund the game with our $5-15 per person. They are a business and it takes money to make money. They will not make money without a game that can release and sell for $40-60 a copy. hmmm....unless your Star Citizen.

The goal is for them to not be able to get out, like a wasp trap.

WTF are you talking about? Read it again. Your boat becomes anchored, nothing was said about parking. In my statement, your immune vessel cannot deal or receive dmg, so you would do nothing to me. We would get along splendidly. While I'm offline, you can still attack my land base, but at least I can still play the game when I get back. WTF are you talking about? Boats are things you can steal, I said nothing about taking this away. In fact I specifically mentioned having to sleep on my boat and keep it stocked with gold in order to keep it safe. You cannot steal a boat with an owner on board. If the boat cannot take dmg due to green anchor after 15 mins, then you cannot get to my character to hurt or remove me from my boat. So you cannot steal the boat I am logged out on if I enclosed myself and have a green anchor. I suppose, if you were so inclined, that you could park next to me and wait for me to log on and hope I will raise anchor and sail away with you right there. That would be highly unlikely though, and regardless it forces you to deal with me when I'm online, witch is what we are going for after all.

I couldn't put a warehouse down either. So I had to steal from some farms, make a shack, go gather a few things form another island. Then I built come cannons and cannon balls and blew up all the shit blocking me. Now I have a warehouse. You see, the solution to your problem does in fact exist in the game. You are refusing to acknowledge it. Normally this is where I start bashing you for playing PvE and wanting/needing PvP, because it is a PvP game and not a PvE game. You can tell by your lack of options you currently have to pirate people, while playing as a pirate. However, there is still a solution I think. Here is what I would do. Build a giant structure around this other warehouse. Its possible you cant roof it in 100%, so build the walls as high as you can and as much roof as possible to prevent grappling hook and climbing picks as viable options. Now the owner cannot place another one or access the one he has. You have to be patient, and hope this other person gets mad and quits or leaves. If done right you can watch the decay timer and place your own when the other one pops. Sadly what took me 2 hours will take you many weeks likely, but three you have it. GL, hope to see you on PvP, where it is certainly not impossible for solos.

I would make a few major generic changes starting from the build we are on now. The goal would be to encourage sea travel, interaction and conflict without driving away your average player base. We need to be sure and keep the theme of a sandbox and not a theme park (so no stupid shit like factions). Since a large company will always inherently hold an advantage, the mechanics should favor solo/small group play whenever possible. 1. Bring back the big map. (It made the world feel more vast.) 2. All islands outside of freeports are lawless. (We're pirates not landlords.) 3. Ships green anchor after 15 minutes. Green anchored ships do not deal or take dmg. Green anchored ships take x gold per day or become white anchored. 4. Add Auction house to freeports. All items and tames are able to be put up for auction. (A real economy) 5. Improve and add more docks to freeports. Charge for safe dock for extended period of time. 6. Add NPCs to Freeports to facilitate quests for exp and/or gold. (Delivery's to other freeports, Ghost ships- kill them, rescue and return NPCs, ect.) 7. Increase visibility range at sea. 8. Add more ships. 9. Play your game. (If its not your favorite game, ask yourself why.) 10. Maintenance - Balance combat. Fix all bugs. Balance gold sinks. Ban all cheaters.

Devs, I can save you a lot of effort. Reduce company ship limits (1-3 per person). Make green anchored vessels immune to deal or receive dmg, or just cap it at .01% dmg if it has to have a value. Add a gold upkeep to ships like NPCs and it draws from the chest onboard. Its not a big deal, Sea of Thieves gives you a new ship every time yours sinks. There nothing wrong with me having to sleep on my boat and keep gold in it to keep it safe 100% when I'm parked. Less lag, less effort, more friendly to solos and small groups. Your welcome.

Possibly. I am sure that they paid for SOME things. Else why pirate the gold to begin with?

Get real. Blow that shit up and rob everything becuase your a pirate. If you find your a pirate who cant actually pirate anything.....time for introspection. Would you play a racing game where you cant race anyone? Would you play a FPS where you dont shoot anyone? Do you even want to be a pirate? Perhaps minecraft is what you were looking for.

WTF you talking bout Willis!? Oh, it's awesome living on lawless and watching megas who own multiple islands sail by 2x a day to destroy any boats floating on our lawless island because they dare not or could not attack anyone their own size. Even better now that I need 5k just to build another schooner that will be gone tomorrow morning. Island claiming is trash. No solo is holding their own island. Its great if you enjoy being in a big company. Its not great for everyone else. As I've said before, I'm a fucking pirate, I don't pay fucking taxes. Personally I would make every island lawless and be down with it.

Devs, What protections for my schooner do I get for 5000 gold? I'll pay the gold, but I'd like to get something for it. Like immune to barrels or wont take dmg while green anchored. I'm super thrilled about changing the claiming system. No more part of a lawless island for me and 2 grids for a cheating mega. Let's hope its 1 claim per person.

I'll day, we dont know how easy it is to farm gold through trades. But itd better be stupid easy for those prices. I'm not even saying the price is bad. It's that in Atlas, for solos and small companies these boats are 1 time use items. I can save that up and spend it on a schooner or brig if I know it will be there when I wake up. But it wont. These things are made of tissue and you've seen fit to arm us all with tactical nukes. I sincerely look forward to you giving us better offline protection. Or adjusting these prices much lower on PvP. PvE should be fine with this, actually a good change for that crowd. Should free up some server load , if that's even a thing.

Dude they abandon the entirety of the original claim system. Tried a 2nd server with different rules for megas and smalls. Then scrapped that whole claim system and we got the 1st version of the shit bag we have now and it still is the worst part of the game. On top of the dupes. Lawless is literally ...lawless. Lawless works because you only own what you can, use the space you need, and cede what you don't to others. You cant stop me from having some space, and you certainly cant demo my structures or charge me taxes. Because I'm a fucking pirate, I don't pay fucking taxes. Those raided shells are usually left overs from new people. They leave as fast as they come after realizing there are islands you can own, but that they never will. Some of them are just discovery points for megas, annoying but super easy with barrels to take out a 1 or 2 foundation shack. That's if you cant wait for it to disappear in a few days. Regardless, Id rather see a few abandon shacks, than some of these megas hording several islands and spamming them with the shit they do. Its not engaging, its harmful to the server performance, it hampers gameplay and discourages conflict in general. If I owned an island, why would I even bother attacking your island/islands. I would have 1 already and likely spend my time with defense and upkeep of it. NOT ON THE SEA MIND YOU. The devs talk out one side of their mouth and say they want to drive people to the sea. Then from the other side they say here, you can OWN an island and defend it. We will even let it be untouchable most of the day, and let you choose when that is. These dumb asses could have just left the original claim flag in place and put hard limits on flags per person/company for all the trouble they've caused trying to make this island ownership work. Better yet, like I said, make every island lawless because lawless actually works. Problem solved. What games have you made or worked on? If your gunna apply in an open forum, at least post your resume.

Yes, claiming and taxing settlers is the worst part of the game....easily. it's the reason S1 ended, it's the reason s2 ended, it's why most people leave the game. It could work, but it doesnt. Lawless works. Do I want 24/7 pvp? I did choose a PvP server afterall. I might get raided, but I've never been wiped on lawless. Also, it's not mongolians attacking every second. That's obtuse thinking. You wanna park next to my base? If you can fly sure. It's my fault for leaving my harbor open enough for you to feel safe sailing in there. Do I want your ship immune from taking or dealing dmg when green anchored? Abso-fucking-lutly. Just like mine. Along with a cap so you only have 3 at a time floating. Just dont get mad if I build cannon towers around your ship if you leave it there too long.

They end up in the WH. a. no lol b. WH, because you know....its a WH. c. *POOF*....EA, what did you expect? No, probably like a smithy that's full when you craft. It just autogenerates a new spot. d. I don't remember anything like this mentioned.

I am not a dev, but these are easy thought experiments if you just go by what they are implying. 1. You can cancel any route until the boat has left. Once the boat has left, your mats are gone from your WH and are now en-route. They either will, or will not make their destination. 2. Under certain conditions. Company A would have to be at both boats to accomplish this. IF both boats took the same route, and both boats made it halfway intact, and you knew the route (likely not shown), and its possible to attack your own boat, then I suppose you could be at the halfway point to ambush them. That would be an incredible amount of effort to steal something that is on its way to you anyways. 3. Good question. I would imagine the B ship would turn around and go back to port to return its goods to sender. It could also be that B arrives with goods but no gold is generated. It could also be that B just dissolves and all mats are lost at sea. 4. I don't see any reason they shouldn't be armed similar to a SoTD. Code for that is already in place. 5. Yes, they could. Although they will forfeit the gold from taxes they stand to make. Its just a spot on the sea, I would imagine farming the gold to be more desirable than constantly shipping raw mats somewhere else. 6. The route will either be auto generated when the boat departs, or it will evaluate after each checkpoint. I would guess the former based on nothing. If a checkpoint changes hands at any point, then the only difference is who gets the taxes, and possibly what the tax rate is. 7. The gold amount is determined by the distance of the destination. The gold should auto generate at each tax point, and at the arrival of the destination. It is possible it generates on board at set intervals. Depending on if the devs want us to profit gold from sinking these or not. I would assume the gold does not exist on the trade boats but simply populates upon arrival to prevent exploitations. 8. Insurance was not mentioned. Its for the best not to add more moving parts than necessary. Besides, your shipping something your FHs and WHs did all the work for at no risk to yourself or time. What are you insuring? 9. I would imagine the ships are treated the same as SoTD are across the board. Left alone by all other NPCs and functions. 10. I would guess they have a primary goal of arriving at destination. They will probably respond to protect themselves, but not engage and chase. 11. Nothing of this sort was mentioned. 12. None. See #9. 13. No. 14. Maybe. That or a log of completed trades, or a full account of both. 15. Virtual trades were stated to generate when the live ones were already deployed and to prevent overcrowding. I would imagine the vast majority of successful trades will be done by pushing out your live ones to force the virtual ones knowing they wont be sank.

huh? You would force players to only 2 choices. Be big enough to hold an island, or be forced to pay taxes on someone else's island? I've done both of those and they both suck compared to lawless living. If anything, get rid of claimed islands, go 100% lawless. Claiming is the dumbest and worst part of this game. Pirates don't become land lords and governors. Couple that with reducing max ship count to 3 per person in company, and let the green anchors be safe everywhere from taking or receiving dmg. Fix the bugs, slap a box on it and sell the trading ships as a DLC if they ever work out. BOOM, how hard is that GS? Oh fuck, umm yeah, we should also go ahead and count the barrels a a bug even though the devs don't agree. I take back what I said about them having good ideas.

Doing treasure maps, forces you to sail. Also, its called treasure hunting.....you know, cuase pirates bury treasures of gold on islands. Also, whaling, by default is done on a boat. Shipwrecks, also by default on a boat. Trading will hopefully be the primary gold generation, be it via trading, taxing or pirating, but not the only one. If we are honest, it likely wont even be the most profitable knowing how talented these dev are (speaking about implementation, not ideas, they have great ideas).

You like to build ships, but as you say you dont have a need to build very many at all.. PvP can solve this. You dont like the big companies taking everything and having no recourse? PvP can solve this. You think there should be a limit to structures? There IS! On PvP, I limit how many structures I allow to exist near me. You like to farm and craft from BPs and tame animals? We got all that and more in PvP! Your problem is you are wanting to play a pirate game. But you don't like the idea of anyone else having a chance to be a pirate in your world. This game was not made for PvE and its selfish and arrogant of you to ask for things that are already in place on the servers they didnt turn off. I'm a solo player who only plays a few days a week. I have a castle, farmhouses, warehouses, tames , BPs, gold ect. I'm not wiped. I've never been wiped after establishing myself. Its not super easy, but it's not super hard. Sure I get broken into , and lose some raw mats. So what, they show up again in the WH. Maybe I get worked over and loose some tames, so what. My only real complaint is building a boat everytime I want to sail. But as you said, you like building pretty boats. And as I said, the mats are all right there. Come to PvP or go play Black sails or minecraft.

Yeah, I can take a bed across the map in about 2 sec. It's super annoying and breaks the immersion. Why do we have wormhole technology, but have to build ships out of wood?!

Yeah, you have to actively raise anchor and move the ship once every 10 or 14 days or it will decay. Simply rendering them wont do anything. Otherwise it was a drive by while you were offline. If your on PvE, re-evaluate some things in your life.