DoubleHelix

Depends of what BPs are you after. To get 180%+ dmg big cannons BP with enough crafts I have spent two weeks in the sea. Reached land for replenishing ammo and repair res. To do good maps - i.e. 1500+ you have a lot of sailing in front of you - trust me About the outposts - you can build them in Lawless only, but then is a bit pain in the ass to keep them alive. And now with the decay system... I'd rather sail on Gally. I do support the new system as it is fair. If implemented, a tribe like mine could not have such big territory. The max we can afford as time and reasonable effort is a medium size island. Holding 2 major ones was not right. But if you are allowed to do it - you do it and that is why I find the current system as broken. Yes, it is a wishful thinking, but I am optimist But even the uninformed people can learn - sometimes it is the hard way. And if they don't - well - this is natural selection too It is highly unlikely to have low upkeep. It has been already announced that the smallest islands are going to be affordable for solo/2 players. But these are rocks with no resources or bare minmum - e.g. the small rocks in C4 - you have wood, fiber and berries there. And some crystal. According the info so far - they will reduce it.

The high-end content requires a lot of sailing and farming everywhere to gather the craft mats, so it is completely indifferent for me what is the local tax of the island I have been allowed to build my 5x5 crafting base, my 2x2 Behe gates animal pen and my shipyard as all above this is pure greed and waste of time and resources. Out of courtesy I will farm some resources locally to assist the landlord with his upkeep - after all that is the deal we have signed for as long as he provides the comfort I need, but I definitely don't want to get involved into landlording. It is time consuming effort. i prefer to spend this time in farming SotDs for better ship prints or Treasure hunting somewhere across the map and along with this - gathering the high-end craft mats for the next upgrade of my ship and gear. In fact, with some fantasy and practical solutions in base and shipbuilding, you can fit your base on the back of your shipyard and place your animal pen on the beach in front. Like this you will use less space and you will have the comfort with unloading your cargo practically inside your base directly from the ship. E.g. the Large shipyard have fixed height above water and it is almost equal to the height of brig top deck plus wall on top or gally lowest board minus half wall. Having these constant heights, I believe you can do the math how to build your base in a compact and efficient manner and what amendments to add to your ships - just a hint. If you follow similar concept, no landlord would evict you as you are not creating troubles for him. On the contrary, you will be more than welcome. But if you decide to place gate walls from sea to mountain with no care if you are preventing half an island of having easy access to metal or something else - well, then you are going to be classified as dick and you will be kicked out. While I was sailing around, I have seen enough players that have blocked solid chunks of islands "just because this is their land". Well, sorry, but this have to be regulated somehow. If you want to build whatever you want - become a landlord. Oh, but you don't want to waste your time to maintain your island - just to receive tax? Well, sorry my friend, but this is a price you have to pay. Of course, if you become a landlord, you have the absolute right to refuse any care for your land. This way you will have the fine opportunity to spend your play time in farming resources for your upkeep since people will not stay on your land if they lack the comfort of calm life just because you chose to fail with this part. As a result of your decision you will become a pirate with a pick, sailing in the sea of stones until you quit with the land business or decide to take responsibility of your claim. It is all up to you. This is the reality many people will have to get used with - a real life implemented in a game No entitlement, forced responsibility for every action a player takes - looks more than fine for me. About the direction the devs took - due to the game concept, the community have the potential to be a pretty efficient in self-regulation. If e.g. you are a foundation spammer or resource blocker, it will be enough a single landlord to post your name in the forums with a screenshot and believe me - your buildings are going to be deleted from now on automatically with no explanation on any Settlement island you decide to build. Yes, you can play cat-and-mouse with the landlords community for some time, but I expect even harsher steps if you decide to go on "war" with them. E.g. if your ship is noticed on anchor on any Settlement island, it can get enclosed pretty easily with behe gates and left to rot there forever. So your final choice will be to get evicted into the lawless, where you will have for neighbors people that are same like you and you will be free to foundation-spam each other. And of course, to pay the upkeep for this pleasure. All above is a task that a GM cannot do with the same success like the community can. Information sharing about unwanted tenants and as well unwanted landlords is going to be a constant hot topic as no one wants to deal with dicks. You can GM a 3x3 private grid with 20-30 players, but having the same effectiveness on 4 15x15 grids with thousands of players is already a serious investment in support team. That is why Grapeshot are transferring half of this effort to the community, which by the way is a normal practice for EA game as the active players are way more familiar with the gamer-side aspects of the game than the dev/GM team. For Grapeshot this will appear as quite powerful feedback gathering tool. And don't forget that as it is EA, the upcoming changes can be revamped again if the current solution is not working. After all, the natural selection is a system that haven't failed already several billions of years.

If you are building with and within reason and you are not blocking vital resources or access to certain areas, no normal landlord will demolish your base as he will benefit from your presence on his land (less upkeep + tax from your local farming towards his upkeep amount - i.e. less farming for him). But if you have the intention to build a 100x100 foundations useless stone monstrosity plus another one of the same size, linked with a copy of the Golden Gate bridge plus real sized copy of the Great Pyramid as a center of your garden and all this surrounded by a copy of the Great Wall and block half the island with your weird architectural experiments, I doubt that your "base" will last even 2 hours. Or if the landlord is a dick and destroys your tiny shack just because he does not want ppl on his island, find another island and carry on. Oh, and wish "Good luck with the farming" to the dick as he will have to pay in solo his base and his island upkeep. And post your experience on the forums. I am sure that a topic "Good/bad landlords list" will be very popular and regularly updated with up-to-date info. And via natural selection, new landlords will replace the idiot ones much faster than expected. And not only as many people are about to overestimate their potential and soon they will realise that this is not for them due to time consumption. Just wait for the upkeep time to come. Of course, this will happen if the devs set it in a way to be a real collective effort, depending on island size and resources. The announced "claim power" based on company size and different class islands, requiring different "claim power" is a good sign that they are working in the right direction. In fact, a 5x5 base plus 2x2 Behe animal pen and a shipyard is more than enough to cover all your ingame needs. Owning and maintaining and island with all its pros and cons - I'd rather skip that part. Anyway, to have all the good stuff crafted, you have to sail and farm all around the map, so focusing your effort to one island is not the smartest move. Unless you are fine with all generic or green/blue at best items as your top crafts. If I get heat stroke and decide to become a landlord, I will strictly determine the building plots, where people can build a base - e.g. up to 10x10 plus animal pen 2x2 Behe gates in size, and small, big shipyard and a pier for several ships. The rest of the island will be no-build farming area with only exception to structures, easing access to certain resources - e.g. stairs to pure metal nodes or gems on top of a steep rock. Such structures will be built by me as landlord and will be accessible for everyone. Of course, exceptions are possible for no-resource areas - e.g. big rock by the sea with not a single bush or stone on it or several not worth the farming effort trees, but all this would be a subject of discussion. And of course, the tax will be calculated for mutual benefit. If e.g. 5% are enough to cover the upkeep of the island and my 5x5 base, so be it. But again - this is just a theory what I would do if I decide that I need this constant engagement with a single island. @Hattrix - For the record - I haven't voted in the poll as it is not unbiased - I believe you can figure out alone where it is.

You can farm anywhere or you own a special set of tools that do not cut trees/break rocks etc. outside your own claim? A brig is farmable in several hours even on x1 in lawless. Then the world is yours. And a hint - dismantle your shipyard for your first ship repair resources About the treasures - if you don't sail, your "treasures" fit in land-placed ship resource box. You can keep your pick in a box next to it or in your inventory when you log out. All this fits on a single foundation. Your bed and Smithy can stay on the raft/sloop, you used to arrive on this land. And both are placeable on the ground with no foundation. But if you have the right understanding of the game concept, your most valuable treasures are your ship, the BPs you have and your bear/rifle. All this you can keep on your ship wherever you go. About the gold - you still will have to go through this scary and dangerous thing full of monsters - e.s. the sea to reach your shop in the Freeport. Btw, just a hint - most gold you do with Treasure maps, but this requires - guess what - sailing FYI - Digging a hole in earth until you pop out through the planet is the core concept of Minecraft. Breeding the ultimate dino is not the core concept here too - for this go in ARK and play on 10x10km map. For roleplaying - go to SecondLife. Here you have to build the ultimate battle ship and to use it properly - valid both for PvP and PvE. This is the concept of Atlas. Imho - you are in the wrong game And yes, I am happy with the new system. It is fair. Atm my tribe have a solid hold of 2 big islands - 100+ land flags just because we were there first and we claimed the resource rich areas. The beaches we left free so anyone can settle with his own flag. We are fine with this as long as these "settlers" will farm on our land. Plus smaller claims spread out around the maps with outposts. To keep them, we have to do nothing as we do not allow building on our land. No griefing, no resource blocks, no foundation spamming, no mad builders. A single login once in a couple of days and several bed jumps are enough to maintain all this - a 10 min job. Took a look in one of the banks minutes ago - just the metal there is 50k+. And we haven't even moved a finger to get it. Do you find this fair? Cause I don't, but you have to play the game by its rules and the current ones are like this - utterly unfair. That is why I find the new changes more than necessary and well designed. P.S. I am hoping for a good discussion with valid well explained pro and con positions. "Cause I don't like it" a bit fails as argument. Nothing personal.

Since people have the habit to communicate, such dicks will became "famous" quite fast via forums, Reddit etc. and noone will even think to settle there. So they will have to farm extensivelly to pay buildings and island upkeep. Or give up. Due to the brain capacity of such "special individuals" they are not going to be able to realise what went wrong and of course will blame the dev's. But who cares... Sorry to disappoint you, but if you want someone to wipe you ass, you will have to pay the prise. This is how real world works. And it will be the same in the game. If you want to vegetate carelessly, someone have to deal with the dicks that exist in any game. With the mechanic that is going to be implemented, this is going to be the landlord. And unfortunately, your simple "Thank you" (if any) will not pay his island upkeep. That is why you will pay tax. Od course, you can become a landlord too and get your own island. Deal with idiots. Manage the area. Keep the resources unblocked. Plan carefully the building allowed areas. Improve your island to keep it attractive. Control the mad builders and so on. Oh, but this is too much time and responsibility, right? Well, welcome to the real world where you are entitled to nothing. Nothing personal. Just trying to explain you that being a landlord is much bigger responsibility than what you imagine. And via natural selection, in few months the bad ones will disappear. Or their punishment will be the constant farming to support their stupidity. Both are fine for me.

All the above is quite easy to achieve. To build an all around brig (combat and cargo capable), you need one day lazy farming in any lawless. What you need to farm for your ship is repair resources and ammo. You can do this everywhere. If you are literally living on a ship, the resources you need are not much. With the player stores open in FreePort, you can store your goods there by setting insane prices for what you offer. Of course, most probably you will have to pay some tax for placing an offer or you will get charged with some % at offer completion. On a boat, the only tame you need is a bear. So, go for it.

First of all, I would like to congratulate the dev's team (please @Jatheish and @Dollie, pass my most sincere regards) since imho they have found the best way to implement a regulation in the game and it is the oldest existing on this planet - natural selection at its finest. I have went through a lot of topics where ppl are moaning about the claim chages, about how some ppl are going to live on others' expenses just because they own an island. That is quite incorrect. If you are island landlord, you have to pay 2 upkeeps - for your base and your island. If you fail - say goodbye to your property. As per what has been revealed so far if you read between the lines or at least read and think before jumping to cry on the forum, that is not going to be a simple task that requires no involvement on your behalf. Your island's upkeep will depend on it's size, your total claims and as well, on the amount of companies living there. To achieve a good "financial" balance, you have to be a good landlord - i.e. you have to protect the valuable resources from being pillarspammed/blocked, you have to ensure that there are enough attractive settlement plots for your "tennants", you have to consider carefully your tax level and many other small details. On the contrary, if you are a dick, you will become "famous" and noone will have even the smallest desire to settle on your island. When this happens, you will have to farm constantly to keep ypur "property" or to give it away thanks to your natural stupidity. If you read the above and think a little, you will figure out that being a landlord will require a plenty of time or collective effort. The next thing you should do is ask yoursef if you can/want such dedication and commitment. With the above mechanic, via natural way the good landlords will prosper and the dicks are going to be eliminated. And second, but not less important - it is really funny to see people failing to get the game's core concept. This is not ARK, this is not Minecraft. This is not a game to keep your head dug in the sand and having to other goal apart from digging a mine through the planet. This is a game of SAILING. All good stuff in the game you can get only by getting your ass on a boat, figure out how this works and why your pick is useless here, kill NPCs, do Treasure maps, get good BPs, again SAIL to gather the crafting resources, get better gear and SAIL again. Get better in sailing, make a better ship, kill the Kraken, get the sub, get the next PSs, kill the next boss and so on. All this requires many hours of SAILING and exploring the world. Of course, a lot of people believe that they are entitled to get everything now, served on a silver plate just because they exist. Well, sorry to disappoint you, but neither the game, neither the real world work in that way. If the above is not the playstyle you like, then you are in the wrong game. Or the wrong person in the right game. Or both...

There are people that will try this - no doubt. But the trick is in sustaining them. This should resolve this issue via natural selection.

Ok, as a start - you are naked with no tools. On x1 you are gathering 5-10 fiber from a plant. Now lets count how much you will need just to block a spot enough for your own base as you will need wood and thatch too. Lets say - half an hour. Then next factor - you are not going to be the only one claiming places. After the servers are up after the wipe, there are going to be other 5000 people like you doing exactly the same. That is why I have recommended you a reality check.

Yeah, good luck surviving naked and with no tools there. Oh, and farming enough resources to pillar spam an entire island in the mean time. Take a reality check dude. Nothing personal.

The best part of the building upkeep is that will prevent solo players to have private islands as it is now. If a mega tribe is having one - that is normal as it a really collective effort and they have the manpower to sustain it, but a solo having one just because he was the first that arrived there - well, no. In reality, a 10x10 base is more than significant for a company of up to 10 players. The rest is greed. So if you are greedy - pay the price.

1 HQ claim per company with size of a sea claim+ 1 flag for each company member up to 15 flags per company. Upkeep price for every flag. Same goes for boats - upkeep for every boat above the company members count. Upkeep not paid = 10x decay speed. Buildings upkeep is also good. Ppl will think twice before they decide to spam foundations.

The wipe is more than necessary. And the claim removal is also a kind of solution of the current situation. The decay system is also good. This way the mad builders will be restrained from turning entire islands into concrete blocks. No more 300x300 solo-player useless stone monstrosities and no more private islands. Good job devs!

@MICROPHOBE - the structure limit is just for the lawless regions, where by design newbies should get familiar with more game details before they start looking for their permanent base (claim). Right now as it is almost impossible to get a claim, players spam foundations around like madmen and thus preventing ppl to settle there too.

A well known issue in the game is the lack of free land to be claimed by new players or ones that started later. This leads to overcrowding of the Lawless zones and due to their specifics, many players lose their bases, tames, ships and they just quit. A possible solution is to turn the land claims into company resource with an upkeep. Each company receives a HQ land claim with the size of a sea claim. Then it receives an additional claim for every company member. Each claim a company have should have an upkeep of 10 astronomical hours of gameplay per calendar week. Such upkeep will prevent dead soul companies to keep entire islands with a single one person login once a week or once in several days. The HQ claim should be an exception from the above rule and its upkeep should be halved. If a company fails to provide the necessary upkeep, the claims it have become available for reclaiming in reversed placement order - i.e. the last placed claim becomes available first. Ships should receive an upkeep price as well. All ships a company have should require additional upkeep of 2 astronomical game play hours per calendar week for the ships up to the head count. Every ship above this number should receive an additional upkeep of 5 hours per week. The company leader should have the option to alter the claims and ships priority. Ships that haven't received their upkeep, get 10x decay rate and a capturing time of 24 hours via "What is yours is mine" skill in Piracy tree. To prevent HQ claims abuse by having an active company being split into solo one-man armies, there should be a limit for the alliances - 10 companies in a single alliance on PvP and 5 on PvE plus limit to alliances membership - 2 alliance memberships per company in PvP and 1 in PvE. I.e. on PvP your company can become a member of two different alliances, while on PvE your company can be member of a single alliance. Such solution can resolve many issues especially on the PvE servers, where players have no possibility to get a claim apart from finding a completely dead company and waiting for weeks in some occasions. The ovebulding and resources blocks can be resolved via the proposed solution in a pretty effective way. As an addition to the above, a limitation of the structures per company should be implemented into the lawless zones - e.g. 600 bulding elements (walls, foundations etc.) plus 1 small and one big wharf per company. Cliff platforms and lighthouses should be counted as 100 structures, small gates as 10, big gates as 50. In practice, this is 10x10 base plus pier for ships. The building prevention radius of each structure should become 15 foundations for 100+ linked structures, 8 for structures up to 10-100 elements and 1 for structures below 10. The long story short - a solo player can keep his base and ship with one hour game play per day or longer weekend session. But if you want more, you should pay the price. Or if you are not interested in the game anymore, then free your space for the others that want to play. Such solution will resolve via natural selection a vast amount of current ingame problems and will give the opportunity of every new player to find easily his own spot under the sun.