Sheepshooter

you can put a NPC on a lever for the gate and press the dismount button "Y" while aiming at the lever (not the NPC).
You can even do it with the spyglass from afar...

Better solution would be PVP rework so that ships in anchor are protected legit at least on a claimed island.
That would save a huge amount of eye sore and lag, because it would not be needed to wall everything of.
Also make bigger size structures for everything 2x2 walls, etc...

My personal preference would be a claimed island only has PVP all the time near the flag, everything else is save until the flag falls.
That way the massive amount of PVP structures is only at the flag and not every farming tame needs a fully walled off and defended building with up of 300 structures...
Could be an option to get the PVEs on the PVP servers, as they are almost save - and we would at least get one cluster to working player numbers maybe.
We are facing the point were they have to combine the PVP servers into one and the PVE as well and after that all into one, because the numbers playing official is getting too low and people are leaving because it is no longer MMO or even multiplayer...

Same here since last patch.
Solution currently just wait (do something which works in lag), it eventually goes down to normal after 30-60 mins if I not change grid.
Funny thing had the same problem in ARK with some patches doing exact same thing - oh the good old times... 

6 hours ago, Realist said:

yes, that is how much room I need for two people. There wouldn’t be enough room on the entire map for 1000 of me, let alone an island. Sucks I am going to have to have people farm hold for me while I build. Very sad but oh well I guess. Hopefully they have fun treasure hunting

LOL, shows you not have played the game, only in your head...
The amount of space you will need, especially in PVP, is way way smaller for 2 people - hell, at medium size we don't need that much space you describe and would not want to because of defense.
But PVP players love your kind of PVE bases, large spread out defenses like a swiss cheese with few guns placed and even less NPCs on them.
And if we are lucky you did not get raided for some time so we find atleast a few gold coins, yarr!

But you will learn, if you ever play the game. You can have all your farming needs on 5x5 (it is only 14 types available).
Your base does not need more space for all the production items. That goes under the garden.
And the few tames you can hold on to (2x bears, 1x elephant, 1x rhino, 1x giraffe) all fit also in the 5x5. You will not need more as you are 2 dudes and if you get raided you are more likely no one will kill a few tames than you having alot. Also alot, will take alot of time to replace every time you get raided.
Hell you could do all that from the deck of a gally or even a brig.

Lucky for you so few people are playing right now everyone gets an island when he wants to and many become available all the time, because the 2 men companies find out really quick they cannot hold them because of cost = time spend for claim

Back to your pipe dream of continent size islands. Not going to happen.
That would be a very empty thing, as most will be on the coast - you know 'sailing game', more gold the further you go...
If you want to have lots of land, play ARK - which you also most likely not did - as without the sailing and island hoping ATLAS is only ARK with rum...

A server with 150 player max would be a good fill for most the current sectors if only those PVE-Players would not be so toxic "I want claim, I want safe space, I want plunder, not plundered, wahhh!"
But we are running into problems when the count reached 20 and they all look - as in render - at the giant PVE bases at the same time.

That is why I repeatedly suggested that the claim owner should be able to start a demo-timer on all structure at all time.
The structures will just disappear including the loot inside after the timer runs out - say for one unconnected structure maybe just 24h...
Gives reasonable time for the structure owner to demo it for resources himself and move on before timer runs out.
Also keeps grieving at a minimum, while the claim owner cannot use it to steal stuff (because it disappears).

Your assumption is wrong in that you think you loose 40% of the max possible speed, while in reality you only loose 40% of whatever speed is possible under current weight ratio of the ship. As weight sail lower the weight ratio you go faster with them if the ship has significant weight in the hold.

And the cargo racks are there for you to easily (and not switching out sails in a complete build) carry more cargo temporary. But they are limited to stuff you not need during travel, so no weight reduced cannon balls and repair materials that are available at sea.

And again, the cargo racks do not reduce 40% from the top speed empty hull, but only 40% of whatever weight ratio the ship has. So the ship does not get faster than the empty cargo hold, but stays faster than your full cargo hold.

Build your ship to your liking with empty cargo (only stuff you need to be sea worthy). Than check if you would go faster with one or more weight sails than speed sails.
If you need extra cargo at some point add a rack or two that you are able to fill up.

Say your battle brig is ready at 12.000 weight (level1), you add a weight sail and it will be faster than with three speed sails (switch is around 10.000 weight).
As long as your meta is all speed sails and nothing else you will go slower when you have too much weight, but please do not complain about the other options while you are already slower than possible, just because the weight sails and racks have a speed reduction (which is more than negated when used properly...)

21 minutes ago, boomervoncannon said:

It's noteworthy that you quoted part of my post, but not the part where I said there could be problems with this approach. You conveniently chose to ignore that part of the post when responding.

you saw me show you how this approach would 'play out', which basically confirmed your statement that there 'could be problems with this' - alot of problems...

as for your suggestion to play around more on the ships if you cannot play anymore on land due to the obvious problems... well you need a shipyard and support structures to even build a ship...
and if you sink while not having a land base to go back to, you lost everything...

59 minutes ago, boomervoncannon said:

 I for one would be interested to see how such an approach played out.

PVE foundation spamming in PVP...?!?!

and

Size of Bases = Claim Flag circle...?!?!

LOL, please make the calculation with a Schooner.
Adding two Cargos to it give you 16.000 additional units on a ship that can only hold 9.000 units (base) for max 3.200 units.
Which under normal conditions would sink you right there,
While giving you the option to move 16.000 for only 3.200 units of your actual 9.000 units total, at just 40% less of what your speed would be with just 3.200 units of cargo added to the weight of the ship...
That is what people do not understand, it is 40% less of whatever slow speed you would normally have at same weight, NOT 40% less of the top speed of the empty, zero weight, ship.
So instead of going say 10 knots you are going 6 knots at 5-times the cargo weight. Not 10 knots minus (24knots max speed time 0.4 = 9,6knots) = 0,4 knots.
The trick is to add the cargo rack only if you have to actually move stuff, with it being useful way before the rack is fully loaded.

Just check if you are still fast enough for your needs, but do understand you can move way more at same speed than without it or go faster at same amount of cargo carried.

Also the trick is pretty easy with the new weight sails. You add those AFTER you figured out the base weight of the ship (like empty cargo, or fully combat ready, so on) and than add a weight sail for the ship weight were you are actually faster than with the all speed sail meta.
If you then need to carry extra cargo you add the racks temporary giving you a significant speed boost compared to trying to haul without them...

With the changes now weight sails are viable finally - or at least you look way closer to your minimum weight requirements.
Also has the added benefit of less lag, because you no longer spam your ship with structure and their weight. Same is the only benefit with torpedoes, because against them speed is life, and weight = structure is death...

@Realist
Please do check the numbers for PVE also, were the bases are already invulnerable... and also the ships and tames and and and...
You imply that people are staying away from the game because they can be wiped. Not happening on PVE. Still leaving and not coming back...

And by the way, if it takes you 2hrs to get anywhere and you don't, it also means people that want to PVP you that far away will also more likely not come to you - safety in distance keeps wipes low...
Also there is something called a FOB, your are not limited to one SafeSpace(tm) on the whole grid you know...

What keeps them leaving and not coming back is
- This is not the game that was advertised to the people.
- This game is more about anything else but sailing.
- PVP has not a good mechanic and producing meta that is not enjoyable.
- PVE is toxic because it misses PVP options (but that is on the PVE players, they want to be protected from each other and blocking each other in the process).
- As the MegaUpdates show, the Devs not only lost their goals, but are not even trying to get back on track - more tames, more Mega-weapons, more SteamPunk, more unrealistic contend for the advertised setting. (Most people here came for the High Barbarey; Most Ark players for the not so heavy reliance on tames, hell most non-Ark players because they did not like the taming reliance in Ark)
- What killed the main aspect of the game for most is the claiming. People like that generally. But the first iteration at the start was not workable way before the EA release and after that it became a salvage operation with them not knowing what to do, because their best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry...
- That combined with the problem that 95% of the Atlas buyers have no idea what EA means and that they have NO reasonable expectation for content or changes.
- This leads to the problem that everyone and their mother wants to be able to solo their own island now, not understanding that it is not for them, and not even good for them at all. The fun fact is, that currently the pop is so low everyone can have an island if they want to, but they find out the "grind" to keep it is too much for them, so it is not even the limited island numbers
- Then we have the people that don't want to be wiped, so they join a local civilization (aka Ally or directly into Mega) for protection and then find for the protection they are not allowed to attack whoever they want. They want to be protected but not want anyone else to be from them, me, me, me...!
- And oh yeah, the contend is limited this early so at some point there is not much more to do, till they add hopefully interesting things to come back to.

If people would just understand what multiplayer means.
If people would just understand that they do not need a claim, but a reasonable save place to live and therefore have time to enjoy the rest of the content.
This game would - at least with current mechanics and content - get people back.

If you are one guy or a small group get onto an claimed island (of your choosing) and co-live with the others there, they want you.
If the taxes are too high for your liking leave to other island - vote with your flippers...
But keep in mind that the land owner is the one that gives you passive and/or active protection that you cannot handle yourself in most cases and that also cost time and resources - therefore taxes - unless you would be so kind and make meaningful donations?
Also this understanding would help many small companies help each other, if people would just understand the cost benefit. Yes small, not so active companies cannot handle a bigger claim - and don't need to and save their time trying for more fun stuff in the game. But many small companies with one company playing harbor captain can have a claim while being mostly their own boss.

18 hours ago, Sinappia said:

Most ppl here rly missunderstood the Topic. It's ridicolous. Because it's a valid topic.
There have only been 1 single thing for small & mid-sizzed companys: the colonie server. And that got binned faster than you can say "bamboozeld".
The idea that everyone MUST like huge 75+ companies and love that playstyle is beyond me. I am convinced the majority absolutly does not want to play withing such huge groups. How do I know? Ppl prooved it by not joining the empire-server.
...

The only thing that got proven with the empire and colonies servers - which everyone predicted before - that the few large follow the many small...
And that there are way more small than larger...
Who wants to be the last one to make the light out - king of the empty world? - Talono it was... begging that people would come to the empire server so he can get wiped again, because there would be more people, if his begging would have worked... so he could come to the forums to complain again about too many people grieving him...

So if you think there should be a different server for small and large groups, tell us all how that should work?

But keep in mind, it does not matter how much you try to limit crew count and alliance members, people will always be able to organize large groups with third party tools.
And also think how you limit the ability of small groups to compete, if they cannot have large alliances of other small groups protecting each other from the large ones.
An alliance of 5 small groups is smaller than an alliance of 5 medium/large groups. But an unlimited alliance of small groups can be bigger than a few large ones.

The only thing you achieve by limiting group sizes, is to make it a little more logistics in organizing a big group - you are not stopping big groups from being with this.
And I am talking from the small group perspective, and we already have the problem that not even all our companies on the island can be in one alliance for protection from the big fishes...

So how, tell us, will you make it that large groups do not form, while you cannot physically stop it. What game play feature would that be?
Because without it there is no talking about it, just accepting the facts.
Or are you thinking along the lines, that anyone organizing large formations outside the game and limits is "cheating" and has to be banned...?
And what happens when your own group reached the threshold becoming "too big"? Let me guess, "raise the limit!"

And then I read that you cannot be a pirate because you have to be in a mega alliance and the tell you who to not attack - and enforce that...
Well nothing easier than that. Leave the alliance and attack who you want. But do not complain that you cannot do that for long, because you get wiped all day by the people that organized some civilization by enforcing not to pirate your own... you know, like in real life...
Just shut down your computer, go outside and rape and pillage in RealLife, see how that will go.
"Dear judge, I am the victim, everyone else is after me, because I don't play by the community rules... you have to change the rules so I can rape in pillage, without getting raped and pillaged!"

Again, how do you want to keep the it to small groups, while you cannot stop people that want to be together from being together?

22 hours ago, Chucksteak said:

... Then you have @Sheepshooter with the balls to say we should get rid of lawless grids!? ...

Hey, @WayneLaPierre
not only that, let me show you how Spud Crowley size they are by not only getting rid of the LawLess.

But by also getting rid of the War/Peace-Timers and combining the PVE and PVP servers!

That would help with getting rid of the Toxic PVEing that this game can only handle in PVP setting.

But before you get total mindless hollywood over it, let me give you the twist to it:

- Everything on an claimed island is always fully protected from PVP, except the defined area around the claim flag, which is full PVP only.
- Anyone else who PVPs in the flag area will get his structures and ships PVP-able on the island for some time.
- In the claim flag area only the owner/allies are able to build everything.
- It becomes the Fort for the island to protect it from lawless raiding of everything on the island.
- Everyone can build all defensive structure they like, but they only work when the island gets unclaimed.
- And so that you not bitch anymore, taxes are fixed and are not reduced from your farming, therefore every inhabitant is a bonus for the owner, promoting getting people to your island.
- Owner can start auto-demolish timer on any structure at any time and loot in containers will disappear with the structure when timer runs out.

So we get rid of this sleepless stupidity of war timers and people that like it get their full PVP.. Yeah only the most active and/or large corps can hold an island 24/7. But you have to finally understand the island owner system is not a single player thing (not until the number of players is equal to the number of islands available...).

As the attacker gets his stuff PVP-able on the island, the owner can get rid of that FOBs and ships.

As the inhabitants are equal good for the current and the next owner, if the island becomes lawless it does not mean that everyone gets raided. As inhabitants are 'resources' for the owner more is better, pissing them off the island is not positive.

So PVE-ler are almost in full PVE. Only while lawless they can be attacked - but could help holding the Fort, maybe just by being part of the 24/7 protecting people. Could mean that small company could hold an island, because they amass enough people outside company to be fully manned at all time.

If a toxic PVE-ler structure blocks anyone else (resource spots, takes too much space) he does not loose all his stuff, because the owner cannot just demo or destroys it. He will get a warning that his structure is set to demo in X amount of time, giving him the option to take it down himself before the timer runs out and get some resources and his loot out.
 

Yes your PVE ships are only save while anchored. But...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbVVT3KOLAI

On 6/7/2019 at 5:08 PM, Talono said:

Funny, megas answering the solo questions. No, you can not kill the Kraken solo, or aquire the 9 power stones. You can kill the Hydra by using exploits, but not the dragon.
Golden age ruins are extremly unhealthy, if you have any hints how to avoid the one hitting light speed cyclops i would be grateful.
So, as you asked for a list :
No brigs and galleons for solos (you cant prevent offline sinking AND your skill points are not enough solo, if you also want to have weapons and armor)
No sub, no torpedoes
No tools/weapons above blue (treasure guards too difficult), no mythical (not enough skill points and mythos too difficult to aquire]

Currently anything can be done solo easily - by just showing up and temporary work together with other players.
Like on the Golden Age islands. Only the greatest A* or a company you are at war with, would not be grateful for one more hand to mutually help.
What do you think people got from KOS you so you not get something they cannot have anyway = your individual progress... ?
Yeah everyone is out there to keep you down, mainly you yourself...

Also in that light you doing the whole solo game wrong.

Talono looses his ships all the time - Sheepshooter looks for a claimed island with owner that wants people on his island and good peace time, maybe even get to use the owners defenses (ally) to protect ship and stuff = does not loose ships offline, but maybe online while actually using them.

Talono does not want to pay taxes to his 'slave master' - Sheepshooter looks for protected island with good resources and tames and acceptable taxes, does not loose time travelling to save taxes or loose his stuff unprotected in lawless, plays more of the game.

Talono sees everyone in PVP as the enemy out to get him,  so he has to hide and avoid - Sheepshooter makes new friends that help each other even if we are not in same company or just doing the same quest.

Talono wants to use BP stuff - Sheepshooter just uses tames and saves the skill points for the brigs and galleons and all the other stuff... or gets to enjoy all skills by asking someone that has the skill make it for him...

Talono comes to forum to complain why he cannot progress in single player mode on the multi player server - Sheepshooter shakes his head at that...

Talono complains about Torpedos - Sheepshooter wants them banished from this age of sail pirate game, yarr!!!

Talono is getting nowhere, because he does not want to - Sheepshooter merged with other like minded people and alliances enjoys the game, make other people enjoy the game, no slaving, no exploiting others... and not even in a Mega Zerg... doing what he likes, like everyone else, yarr!!!

This game would be more enjoyable for your kind if they finally would get rid of all the lawless regions. Then you would be forced to do something good for yourself getting on an island with good people - well you would have to still do the search, poor thing. Also having more islands to claim would help with your kind of thinking "I am solo and can never own an island because they are all claimed" (not true with current pop on the servers anyway)...
Currently an lawless island is not save. If ones goes to a lawless island one has to expect to get shot at, because everyone on it is on the edge that everyone else is going to attack. Claimed islands are much safer because of timers and less people that shoot first and ask questions later. Lawless is toxic, especially for the own mindset !

Hör endlich auf rumzuheulen und mach was! Wenn du einen sicheren Platz in der Welt willst, wo man dich zufrieden läßt, beschützt und GEGENSEITIG unterstützt, dann melde dich, oder schau dich nach den vielen anderen um, die wie wir gemeinsam leben und leben lassen. Aber dir sind wahrscheinlich symbolische 5% noch zu viel, lieber täglich 100% ein neues Schiff bauen müssen, weil mal wieder alles weg ist und keiner einem hilft...

How much damage does one make against stone structures?

And can we get torpedo nets for our anchored ships or ports?

14 hours ago, Bullslayer said:

so wait, let me get this right, you locked the sub behind a big bad raid boss and now you are giving it torpedoes. Does the concept of game balance elude you that much? If these torpedoes aren't anything else but explosive auto deplankers you can bet you'll see more numbers drop off ur precious official servers. ...

Well you have to see it this way...:

Because they have no concept around how their sea battles between sailing ships should be, they allow the one-hit-wonder one sided cannon shotguns to drive ( and not tip over ) around the oceans... Therefore loosing anyone who is here for "pirate-themed" sail ship battles... just to try to keep the sea battle aspect of the game skill free for those skill free customers that seem not to show up to buy the game anyway...

And because of that even the weight bonus on cannons in gun ports is not enough to use them anymore and they stay empty...
So lets put torpedoes in those gun ports that are not used anyway...
That will fix the meta problem and finally we get broadside ship battles like in the old days of sailing and pirates and torpedoes... 

The even more important question one should ask is: where to put the AntiAircraftArtillery for defense against the airship menace... 
And what iteration of the Boss Battle and pre-requirements need to be met to unlock those things for everyone not 24/7-Mega4theWin...

On 4/17/2019 at 5:54 PM, UDO said:

u need to read, a system that the onwner can clean up if he wants to and needs too ? u mean demolish when u want ,
it  doesnt matter if they get their stuff back or not , no island owner should have permanent removal rights over any other player on the island ...

LOL, do you even read what you write yourself?

You are against a system where the owner can remove/demo/whatever on his island, while on the other hand knowing that he can PVP you basically anytime, while you cannot do anything about it... to get you of the island... so you loose everything in the process anyway = same result concerning you... while you are complaining that if the owner can still delet your stuff after 24hr is not ok...

So, ok, hopefully you get cannon-beared good and hard all the time... loose all your stuff every time... even if the owner does not want to grief you in the process...
and don't complain about it later... because you love it...
because you would not like to get a fair warning to get your stuff out, before it is destroyed and looted from you...

and like I said before, lets see how it is when you own the island and the next Udo spams your island... what you will think then...

9 hours ago, UDO said:

no owners should never be able to just demolish others structures whenever they want , i can only imagine the griefing that would go on , pvp just blow their building up, 

Udo, read again...

I am not proposing that the owner can demolish anything.

I am proposing a system where the owner gets the island cleaned up IF he wants and needs to,
but at the same time gives the other player time to get his stuff out and structure resources back,
while the landowner cannot steal what is inside the structures...

You proposal - to use PVP - means that the island owner is forced to use resources to demo every individual structure, which can be used for griefing the island owner by spamming structures - do you want that?
And your proposal means that the owner can demo your stuff right away, because he is online during PVP timer he has set... - so you loose your stuff between Zero to 15hrs.
And because that would be the only option left for the island owner to get rid of you from some spot on the island, how long till you rage quit, because some island owner just demos = griefs your stuff and steals the rest every time...?

The problem is, if you are an owner everyone building on your island could grief you and other inhabitants with it and you want to be able to get rid of it...
In the end it would be best not to have anyone around just to be save - back again to no building space for everyone else - do you want that?

And if you are not the owner, you have to fear that the owner will grief you out of your base and steal your stuff and you will cry for game mechanic to protected you from this...

Seems everyone is only thinking about himself, dann ist an jeden gedacht...
The claim-griefing will continue until moral improves?- not...

Well it shows the all around badness of the current system.

Yes it is not OK that the land owner can just demo anything (in time limit) on sight.

And yes it is not OK that the landowner cannot demo stuff after the timer runs out.

Just gives some form of the idea I already had elsewhere in the forum more credence now that even the owners complain about the current system:

Make it so that the owner can start a timer on structure that when it runs out the structure is just deleted, with all items in it.
Send notice to the structure owner. He has time to demo it himself for the resources and items in it and move somewhere else.
If he does not (because he is offline and never coming back) the owner gets rid of the structure problem, but cannot steal stuff and griefing by the owner is limited in that the structure owner has fair warning and some time to get his stuff out before he gets "griefed" (not really anymore) from the spot in say a week.

Therefore owners can demo at any time anything and the structure owner does not loose everything and can move peacefully.

You can make it that the timer for deletion is depending on the number of structures.
Foundation spam (like 1-3 connected structure) = 1hr.
Small house-thing = a few days to a week.
"Giant Base" = 1-2 weeks.

21 hours ago, Winter Thorne said:

Right now, it's an island.  Previously it was a little more space than needed to put the stuff used to do crafting, taming, shipbuilding, etc.    Previously, you owned that space and people couldn't destroy your stuff  in pve.    Now you get whatever some other player decides you can have, and they can destroy your stuff.

You a right of course, see my suggestions up above.

I am happy that they took my recommendation/came to the same conclusion about the tax problem. Was hoping to get it not only on PVE but on Colonies as well.
Colonies is more of the PVE just with (hopefully) 'online-PVP' for everyone that has a real life.

Same with my ideas about Colonies PVP on an island and that land owners should not be able to just delete other structures.
Hell, with the raid timers now, it is not like that the Devs haven't already admitted that destroying player stuff on island on sight from small companies that cannot be online all the time, is not their intended idea for the game mode and their player base.
They want to tweak it, I understand. But 9 hour raid window is a matter of degree. They will lower it, because the "griefing window" is still too big. Maybe 5 hours? 3hr? The limit will be ZERO...
So I say get it rid of it and redefine how islands are protected and how they loose that protection. Incenitives owner/tenant to be mutually beneficial with least amount of griefing.
By the way under my suggestion their is no raid times, but full PVP, while all structures are save - raiders have to de-claim the island first (making it lawless again) to be able to ransack the island, they have to (finally) work for it. And every person living on the island is incentivised to help 'Hold the Fort' around the claim flag.
So even with only small companies/single players living on the island not being online all the time, some will be online at any time and help to protect the island from falling.
Think about it as a Mega (where there is also someone online at any time for defense) but for the "Mega" that are the island dwellers...

5 minutes ago, Winter Thorne said:

A small base as a start/return point IS a claim.  (Assuming people mean a small base that other players can't screw around with)

Your base is the actual ground on which it stands.
A Claim is the whole island right now, which you not need to have a base on it - compare to your base on lawless/unclaimed islands.
And like I said the problem is, that your base is not save in the current toxic player environment, where even the landowner can grief your base the worst way possible - by just deleting it.

Nicht jeder braucht einen Claim. Inseln gibt es halt nicht für jeden, deren Zahl ist halt begrenzt. Dafür kann man überall bauen.

Das deine Basis einfach vom Besitzer der Insel entfernt werden kann ist aber ein Problem, was abzusehen war. Das muss sich ändern.

------------------------------------------

Not everyone needs a Claim. There is not one island for everyone, their numbers are limited. But you can build everywhere.

That you base can be deleted by the island owner is a problem, which was foreseeable. That has to change.

Well that is the problem, isn't it?
Everyone thinks they need a claim to do anything.

What you really need is a (small) base as a start-/return point for your ships to explorer the world.
That is the intended concept of the game.

But the advertisement for Atlas is still different.
They wanted to cater to the competitive companies to have something to play over - conquest of claims.
But they advertise it in a way that everyone, even the single-player, needs a claim to do "anything".
Even thought this is totally not true, most people believe it, look at the map, can't see a free island to claim, and "rage-quit" to a lawless where they live like they had no claim anyway...

So better to get on a claimed island - as intended - and finally play the game
"But the toxic landowners...!!!"
Yeah?!?! Find one that is good...

Or - for the Devs - make changes to make land claims more beneficial for everyone:
- Most PVP people want to get back online to their ships intact, to continue play the game as intended, with ships. Most people who loose their ship on the high seas, want to get back to where they can build a new ship in peace. But with the raid times - which are too long - your chances are high you still loose everything 'daily'.
So make it that claimed islands are always protected and just make the Claim Flag Radius PVP - anything in it can be destroyed by anyone anytime.
If the flag gets declaimed the island becomes lawless and therefore PVP everywhere.
That will give max protection in peace time, and incentivise everyone (owner and tenants) to help setup defenses around the Claim Flag and help when the island is attacked.

- The Tax problem is also easy, if it gets incentivised for the owner.
Just make it that the taxes are a % of the harvest which the owner just gets, but are not reduced from the harvester. Set them at a fixed value like 10% or lower to incentivise owners to have more people harvesting on the island. So for every 100% harvested the harvester gets 100% and the owner get additional 10%. No Tax griefing and landowners loving visitors.

- The Problem with land owners deleting structures is also easy.
Make it so that deleting a structure starts a timer of a few days. When the timer runs out the structure (including all items in it) is deleted - so no stealing stuff by the land owner.
Notify the owner of the structure that a timer has started. He can either take his structures down - getting some resources back - or loose it, because maybe he is no longer playing the game.

I think the problem - apart from my PC not installing the PTR... - is that it is not very clear what Atlas is and/or should be.

Right now it is 'Raft-ARK', were the rafts mechanic is better working (npc crew) and somewhat more realistic (wind).
But still it is highly focused on land bases and resources - tames included. They tried to get rid of the foundation spam problem with the claim (spam) system.
With most of the player base coming from ARK, they ARK-ified Atlas ASAP... claiming everything, building giant (laggy) bases as usual and kicking everyone out if possible, which was made much easier because of the claim system...

So under the hood Atlas is ARK for Rafts, but the intend - as can be seen playing all other parts of the game, apart from the ARK stuff - is this 'living on the sea', travelling the world.
They tried to enforce it with the resource scarcity and blueprint system. They tried to enforce it with the level cap by exploration points. With the tames biome scarcity. With the quest line.

It failed because of the non-PVP (aka offlining aka 'Hard-Core'PVP) and other griefing mechanics, which resulted in ships lost in port while offline.
Without ships no living (as in being online with ship) on the sea - back to the usual ARK game play.

As we see already on the PTR, all islands are already claimed. Taxes can be set to even higher griefing values (50%?) or you just get destroyed by 'the owner' in non-PVP.
So even if you just want to have your ship and get out to sea it is still hard.

Would be nice to have a place called home, sure. But if the intend of the game design is to get you out on the ocean, how 'much' base do you need?
Basically you need a small place to put stuff, which should not sink with your ship (in case you encounter actual PVP) and resources around it to get back on your feet again. Oh yeah and some safe space for your tames (as in not a giant behemoth gate circle...). Who needs a whole island for himself for that? No-one...

But because Atlas is ARK you cannot get the 'pirate haven' and if you try you have to just protect that all the time and cannot leave on an adventure.

So they try to tweak the game mechanic to promote live and let live on the islands. Raid timers and upkeep. Just so you might be allowed - welcomed? - to use an island and maybe get online with your ship still there.

But the problem is the incentives towards the type of players. As long it is not negative enough to grief you and not positive enough (as in needed for survival) to keep you around, the game stays toxic.
Sure make upkeep so high that no-one can hold claim to an island alone. Maybe that will get landlords thinking. Maybe the just setup some dummy corps and have those within their clan to keep cost down, while still kicking everyone else out...

And griefers, as long as they can grief you they will... maybe atleast with some form of ORP griefers would have to look you in the eye doing it, unlike how the 'hardCore'-PVP crowd likes it...

What could be the solution? I don't know, but I have my own ideas...
But before first it is understood what type of game play is intended for Atlas - exploring the high sea as pathfinders - and second understanding the incentives for griefing other players that a trying to enjoy that game play nothing will change basically...
If that means getting rid of the ARK game play to finally get an Atlas game play, yes please.

PS: Ideas
- Maybe make it so, that anyone on an island is fully raid protected, but the land owner or even just the claim flag area. Meaning that the owner or the flag can be attacked at any time - no need for war tokens. But when the claim falls the island becomes raid able for a set amount of time and no one living there is save anymore.
This would promote 1. the owner wanting to have 24/7 as many people on deck to hold the fort and help in the defense, meaning to have as many inhabitants as possible on his island and his side ; 2. which means he has to keep them happy - low taxes, no griefing from his side; 3. giving the inhabitants the incentive to help in the defense of the claim, to keep their stuff save as well; 4. or maybe helping the attacker in getting rid of the current owner.
There would have to be some form of protection against insiders, so the fort is not opened to the enemy from the inside, etc. - or maybe that could be part of the fun...
Anyway I think this could be a way to have raid protection for your stuff, while it is still possible under certain conditions that you can loose it in battle.

- For the problem with landlords griefing inhabitants by being able to destroy their stuff, this could be fixed positive for both sides, by not allowing the owner to attack anyone (as per the raid protection rules above), but giving the owner the option to put an 'eviction timer' on any structure part and or connected building and or player/company structure. That timer/s should be something between one hour (for foundation spam) to one week (for complete player/company eviction). When the timer runs out the structure, including any loot in it, disappears. The owner of the structure gets informed by the game when such a timer is started on him. He than has the option to take out his stuff and/or take the structure down for the resources.
As no one gets any loot from the structure owner, their is no incentive to do it from the side of the claim owner to do it for loot. And because there is a 'fair warning' timer griefing can be at a minimum - you just have to leave, but not get annihilated, just for fun.

same...

And there I was thinking ATLAS is what happened after ARK...

Quote

Long-ago, far above the watery world of ATLAS there once existed a magic-powered “Golden Age” [Element powered]-- where great Empires of the Sky [orbit above Earth] lived at peace alongside magical creatures [like Dinos, Wyverns, Rockelemental] flourishing upon floating continents above the clouds [ARKs], all powered by a magical source of energy [Element] known as the Heart of the Goddess, granted by the powerful beings [HomoDeus] who dwell in the stars beyond. However, a powerful warlord known as Xevos sought to unite the human civilizations over the magickind, and launched a war that broke the Heart into pieces, unleashing a wave of destruction that shattered the floating landmasses and plunged them into the waters [someone battled the Overseer to crash the ARK system from orbit to Earth] below.

As in the Element powered ARKs in orbit crashed onto Earth and bring back life to Earth after the Element corruption on earth was destroyed by HomoDeus and H2O was brought back to Earth for recolonization...

And because everyone on TheIsland loved their raft bases, battles with it and living on the sea (until they introduced the Leedsichthys), ATLAS became a Pirate themed ARK-rafting game...
Somewhat coincides with the time when they started working on ATLAS - at the time of the golden age of ARK raft sailing - that is why the original ATLAS code seems to be from that time in ARK development...

PVP = Player vs Player

So called "HardCore / No Rules" PVP = CounterStrike with no one on the other team online...
In Atlas it is basically TowerDefense with the "HardCore PVPer" the stupid Zerg running towards the towers, while the defender has to await the results of his defence design when he comes back online...
"HardCore PVP" in Atlas is "Player Vs Player Made Enviroment", not PVP

That is why players that like real PVP (unlike the "HardCore" crowd-ardice) are either not playing this game or go PVE and play the sandbox that Atlas is.