Sleepinator2000

Well since Jat mentioned a desire for variety, which I strongly agree with, perhaps they could consider mixing up the x2 events a little more and give some warning, but make them something, ANYTHING weekly that we can look forward to that might be a little more special than we have seen. Ideas: Have some happen during weekdays, just as a tip of the hat to the non-weekenders. Split up the standard XP, Tames, Gold, Harvest boilerplate and mix them a little - Have an X3 Gold-only weekend, have an X2 Breeds and Tames weekend, have an X4 Harvest weekend, have a double-map-bottle weekend, have a two-fer crafting weekend, have a vitamin-free weekend, have a 2x cannon damage weekend, etc... Give people some advanced warning, or better yet a schedule so they can get excited about something the future, and stop reminiscing about the predictable past.

I just noticed yesterday that if you are heading west, with your sextant buff up and turn from left to right in a ship watching the degree heading on the compass, it will show 268, 269, 270, 271, 270, 271, 272, 273, ... I was along a zone barrier, and it appeared the right pair of 270 and 271 were actually probably 272 and 273 because I was significantly closing distance with the barrier on those headings. I was in a hurry, so wasn't able to complete a 360 degree turn to see if there were other directions where numbers are either duplicated or skipped, but I suspect that there are some degrees skipped between 272 and 360, because a heading of 0 degrees does consistently stay aligned with zone barriers. If there aren't any numbers skipped then I guess the only other explanation is that the degrees aren't actually degrees, because there are at least 362 of them in the circle.

Just a hunch. I have been picking up about 25 maps a day for a very long time, and the failure rate seems to fluctuate in a way that correlates with population density. The only thing players add that could really impact a map's location is structures, and my experience has been that the few maps I have seen spawning close to structures have been akwardly positioned in a way that makes me think an algorithm adjusted the point to avoid player-built floors. If any of us could ever know where a map that "failed" was located, we could get actual evidence for or against this theory, but obviously that is impossible.

That's assuming that you (as a designer) are okay with players not being able to snap walls/floors/roofs somewhere in the middle of your 4x4. Perhaps they would make that choice. They did that with the superwalls to make them feasible. You can't snap jack to those things.

Perhaps it is something like that. It might be related to communication/verification with idle servers (ones with no players currently logged on), though I have definitely seen green screens when porting to an active player's ship too. I assumed it might be some kind of location verification that occurs at the moment you touch the bottle as a last minute protection against maps within player structures.

I am sure that rendering a contiguous building taller or wider than the render range puts a serious strain on their implementation of the engine, so it probably wasn't an oversight.

The OP's buzzkill comment was right on for me. I am not overly concerned about the loss of 2x for a weekend, but avoiding complex extended operations (like Golden Age patrols) from Friday night halfway through Saturday because I was convinced that a patch would be announced any moment really limited the things I was doing. If they knew they weren't going to patch, I would have loved a heads up. I have grown to expect them on Fridays/Saturdays at this point.

I enjoy having enough freedom in building and ship designs to make things that are truly unique and efficient. I enjoy how much wilderness there is to be found. Exploring the bigger islands really makes me feel like a Conquistador. I enjoy how adorable you made the baby pets look. Your team could have just made small bears using the same model and called it a day, but you went the extra mile. I enjoy the ambient sounds of the boat and jungles.

Two high walls.

Less tedious absolutely, but if the larger pieces retain the same functionality (snap points), then the benefit to performance will be pretty small. For a 4x4, the underlying geometry can be simpler, but vertices are pretty cheap. To retain the snap points, there would still need to be the same number of bones with rotations and positional offsets. For texture, you could either tile the 1x1 texture 16 times across the object, create a monster texture 16x as large, or reduce the level of detail on the texture, which will look pretty bad next to a full-res tile. One of those is best for instancing, one is best for streaming, and one is better for memory, but they all hit specific hardware harder (RAM, CPU, GPU, or network bandwidth) The only thing that would significantly improve performance would be reducing resolution on the textures, or reducing the number of snap points on larger objects.

The ray trace to determine a buildable location is straight down to nearest terrain (not nearest foundation). If part of your cliff platform, foundation, or structure is more than 65 building units above terrain, you can't build on those parts. That seems really high, but there are lots of islands with 100+ high mesas and overhangs.

Recoveries, escorts, and desperate bailing with friends are my favorite memories from ATLAS. The few times I have been able to picture myself as a true hero. Those memories will live on long after they shut down the servers. Once they fix the problems with gate camping SoTDs and stacked deck cyclones, I do hope there will still be places where players can still get over their head, but maybe with mechanics that aren't quite so cheap and unpredictable.

I can imagine that. Is that what happened?

... or a lifetime.

If I am reading this correctly tl:dr: Don't wipe PVE, but wipe PVP when XBox crossplay is added. I can get behind that.

While I agree they need to fix it, there is a certain element of seamanship that everyone should be using when crossing a zoneline: Don't blunder in at a 90 degree angle, instead turn to a tight angle with favorable winds before crossing. I usually blunder through with my Galleon, partly because of the poor maneuverability and excellent survivability, but when crossing into Golden Age or Polar regions, this is still something I do. If I find myself in a more delicate ship, I generally use it everywhere I go. The 10 seconds of extra time is worth not finding yourself in the middle of three galleons, a monstrous sperm, and a cyclone in the freezing fog.

If it is your building, you should be able to deconstruct the piece of geometry that has you stuck. I have seen this in the past with limited space around beds, so I always try to build them over floor (not ceiling, and in a space with at least 2 walls of height above.

Considering how many of the maps spawn near cliffs, it would be great to have a no-knockback option like we used to have with grapeshot swivels.

It is double-plus bonkers that the ships camping the zonelines also get a firing window while you load the zone. I have seen comrades take two full galleon volleys before they had fully loaded in. Surely they could have the AI ignore a newly zoned player for 15 seconds, or better yet, path out of firing distance from a zoneline when there are no players present.

If you want players to spend more time on the water (which I couldn't agree more with), give us more reasons to spend time there: Add more variety to flotsam, including: Pre-crafted weapons (not blueprints, individual items) Pre-crafted armor Pre-crafted ship components Crafted food Treasure maps Stacks of resources (like seaweed, lightwood, crude oil) Make another tier of flotsam (jetsam!) that needs to be damaged to open (yay marksmanship), and deals light damage to ships that ignore/strike them. Give us a ship structure or figurehead (like a dragnet) that will allow us to "capture" flotsam that we guide it through. Unlock it with a relatively high level piracy skill, and make the capture area narrow enough that piloting skill is required, and maneuverability is rewarded. Limited inventory. Let us equip NPCs with grapnels, unlocked with relatively high level captaineering, give them a fair chance of failure so they are never as dependable as a real human. Give us a flotsam harpoon option for ballistas.

They were sneaky hiding this in the Announcements section. I had assumed people were getting their information from the livestream, which I didn't have the time to watch. This is way, WAY better than I imagined based on everyone's feedback. They have a plan in stages and narrowed focus for each phase with very specific goals. This is awesome! Now if they can avoid wiping through this goat circus, I'll have a good reason to keep all those other games gathering dust on my shelf.

Regular firearms should work, but not puckles, swivels, cannons and the like. That was done on purpose back in May. Also some maps won't despawn properly if you don't kill them all and will infinitely stack spawns if you keep coming back with the map. That was done by accident, probably as a side-effect of the above nerf.

Although I understand and agree with your comment on puckle guns, I actually don't know what you are talking about here. I have been playing since late January, but can't recall, what did they nerf on gliders and guns? Those two things are my staples.

Didn't know the maps went that high. I sincerely hope it isn't on a knife-edge peak where half the guardians don't emerge. Please let us know what you get!

Tried to suggest this a while ago, hopefully yours will put them over the top. Alternate suggestion: Give player shops a lower spoiltime on maps so that enterprising maphunters could make a business out of shipping and selling them. That would kill two birds with one stone.