WhiskeyBarrel

I like all the sandbox adds lately. But every patch note I read hoping to see fixes to the melee combat system. I think this system is crucial to fix/update/rework to the best you can do in the engine. That's really what I'm waiting for to re try Atlas.

If there was a system in place where your ship did not sink and become unusable in ~3 feet of water, the game would be more solo/duo/small crew friendly IMO. Its not fun or realistic that you can't restore your ship after an offline planking. For the attacker you still have access to kill the char, take all items off them and the ship, and cause max damage to the ship if you wanted. But the ship owner should still always be able to recover the ship without having to salvage and start over from scratch. Maybe something like a wench n pulley could be added. So you could use that to pull your ship out of the water in time to replace a couple missing planks. I'm for any mechanic that is not too carebear but lifts the game out of such a griefer state and promotes actual online pvp. edit: also I actually really dislike the current offline protection system. Its super unrealistic and very carebear. And it does not help solo/small crews from being griefed in the earliest part of the game which is the most important for a healthy, sustainable pop. I've always hated artificial timers in games like this. All I want is a way to not have my ship sunk overnight and be unrecoverable. At least its fun to farm up items. The plank grind is what gets me.

You wouldn't be safe. All your gear and items on your ship would still be at risk but I suggest not being able to lose your ship in ~10 mins when it's green anchored. I know it's prob hard to understand if your a moms house basement dweller, but ppl have lives and losing your ship that takes a day to rebuild every time you have to unexpectedly step out for a bit WILL drive away the pop again. Your supporting/promoting design flaws that will drive this game under, again.

That is a very short sighted thought process. Say you are out exploring an island and need to log off for a few mins, or can't get back to your ship in time and someone comes by and planks your ship. This is going to drive away the new xbox crowd fast as soon as that new car smell of the game wears off for them.

Green anchored ships shouldn't be sinkable. Just returned a few days ago and lost 2 ships to this in 2 days while offline. Not going to build a third. Will check the game out again if this gets fixed. I'm fine with them getting my loot but too time consuming to rebuild the ships.

Currently you are discouraged to enter free port areas due to the constant ship damage. So the freeports are not as active as they could be and dont support community interaction well. At first it was good to get ppl out of the freeports since we were at server load. But now they feel kind of desolate, and its not as fun to be there unless starting a new char because of the ship damage. I suggest the ship damage is changed to something like every 8 hours your planks take 25% damage. So you dont take any ship anchor damage unless you go past a certain amount of time. Also you could tie the freeports into territory control somehow making it so the owners are able to do things like build gallows and execute criminals there. Just no walls can be built there or anything like that. The only pvp would be criminals brought in to be executed publicly. There should be a pub in every free port that sells cheap booze and gives a bonus for spending time in there, as well as a great place for performers. It should be a place to meet shady adventurers to pick up quest lines.