Ahoy Pathfinders!
It's your Co-Captain back again with my trusty bag of pistachios and bad Dad jokes (although I'll restrain myself in relation to the latter this once). We’ve prepared a hearty edition of the Captain’s Log to make up for last week’s absence. There is a load of information, updates, and glimpses of what’s to come to share with you! In this Captain’s Log, we will be taking a look at what has been implemented over the past fortnight along with a view of what’s on the horizon for the weeks ahead including some key changes to design aspects of the game.
Upcoming ‘Mega’ patch and Current Focus
In an earlier Captain’s Log, we announced that we would be making changes to the game which reduce the steepness of the climb necessary to experience some of the later game content. We want to reduce how punishing ATLAS is, especially to solo players and smaller groups, and ensure that those who cannot invest as much time are still able to experience the fun that ATLAS has to offer.
We’ve begun that process with our recent minor updates which have incorporated changes to weight, structures, QOL improvements and small tweaks to creatures. However, we recognize that there is still a lot more that needs to change, including revisiting some major design aspects of the game. It is for that reason, we’ll be delaying the February Content update to Mid/Late March so we can include some of these major changes.
First of all, we’ll be revamping the Land Claim/Ownership System. We recognize that for a lot of players, land is incredibly difficult to get, and in some cases impossible, unless you’re in a lawless zone or playing with a large group. This is something we’re planning on addressing by introducing some new mechanisms related to land claiming, such as upkeep, as well as some possible limitations which we’ll be able to cover precisely in the next Captain’s Log, as we’re still hashing out the details.
The next aspect we’d like to tackle and include in this March update is defense against ‘offline raiding’. This is something that has often been echoed around the community as being a critical problem with the game. Players are unable to enjoy PvP versus one another because the meta encourages/enables offline raiding through how easy and effective it is. Our plan is to introduce game mechanics which will funnel PvP taking place during online hours and the overall objective is to provide players more power and defensive options over their land.
These are two major systems that will be receiving attention from our development team over the coming weeks so we can have them ready to launch in tandem with the aforementioned changes in March. We’ll also be including some additional QOL changes, first pass adjustments to the vitamins system, Companies and other aspects of the game based on recent feedback. You can look forward to the specifics of those changes in the next Captain’s Log where we’ll share the full updated patch notes, including the revamp of the Claim System and how we want to deal with the offline raid meta.
Public Test Realm
As we get closer to the release of this update, we’ll be deploying the changes in advance on a publicly accessible test network before it hits the Official Network. We’ll be iterating based on the feedback and reports you guys make, ensuring that we’re able to deal with any critical concerns prior to the update hitting our live servers. Additionally, we’d also like to use this network for some of our more regular updates too. Most hotfixes will still go through our internal processes before they’re pushed live, but when it comes to the more widespread/impactful changes, whether balance or fixes, we may look to deploy them onto this network for players to experience first hand in a test environment.
Please note that these servers won’t be considered ‘stable’, and therefore could be wiped at any given moment. We’ll likely set them up as multiple smaller clusters, and have tweaked rates on them to account for the fact that it won’t be as large of a network, have as many players, and playtime being minimized.
ISO Blackwood!
Prepare for a dark twist on the Equatorial biome with ISO Blackwood. Dark jungles, caves, alcoves, villages, homes, and farms, an interesting array of animals and a new concept; The Mire. Wade through thick green waters teeming with dangerous creatures, rare plant life and the occasional Gorgon to find buried treasure, lost corpses and even the giant and ancient snake boss Anacython.
The mega content update to drop in March will also include an alpha release of ISO Blackwood (from the creator of the popular ARK mod, ISO Crystal Isles). This will be a standalone map which players can host on a single server and still experience all that ATLAS has to offer!
Creature Feedback
Following (or alongside) the upcoming update, we’d like to take a pass at the creatures we’ve currently implemented and are presently seeking feedback related to them! If you’d like to suggest some changes, especially if it’s related to their abilities/perks, then please do so here:
https://www.playatlas.com/index.php?/forums/topic/47562-creature-designer/
Patch Roundup!
We wanted to tackle concerns players had in regards to QOL along with overall balance and we implemented some key aspects of that in our v18.84 patch. We have made interesting design choices at times and realised it would be good to take a step and back and observe how some of those aspects were playing out on a grand scale.
Taking a look at weight in general was a focus and we made some sweeping changes to the weight of all items and resources as well as providing buffs to weight capacity in some specific ways. Balance in relation to defense was also on the agenda, with built structures being given resistance buffs along with some a new defensive mechanism for anchored boats. We'll continue to monitor PvP balance moving forward and make further adjustments as we deem necessary. Creatures were also given some love in an initial pass and, as mentioned elsewhere in this Log, we are currently taking feedback on creatures that we will utilize in tandem with our plans moving forward. General QOL changes also included the Fountain Of Youth (pending a redesign in the future), a respec option, and skillpoints among others.
Released Patch Notes up to v18.95
v18.95
- Optimized server spatial octree, which should result in better server performance and reduced stalls.
v18.94
- Fixed an issue with NPC's not interacting when stationed.
v18.92
- Canvases are now free-paintable
- Improved the appearance of storm cyclones vfx
v18.9
- Fixed an issue with babies not eating from inventory/troughs when in stasis.
- Fixed a bug with Alpha creatures.
v18.89
- Fixed an issue with the unstasis/render distance on ships
- Optimized performance of various server subsystems.
v18.87
- Optimized performance of various server subsystems.
v18.84
Weight
- Gold coins have had their weight reduced by 50%
- The weight of all items have been reduced by 30% globally (does not apply to structures that are placed on boats, only items in inventories)
- Weight Sails now provide 20% more bonus weight.
- Diving Suit now provides a buff which gives players a 50% extra base weight when diving underwater
- Water Barrel now has a base weight of 75. It can hold 6000 water (previously was 500). For every 1000 water, it will add 20 weight. This means the lightest it will be is 75, and the maximum weight will be 195.
- Players now start the game with 30% more personal weight and will gain an additional 40% per level (so base weight has increased from 250 -> 325 and bonus per level is up from 10 to 14)
- Tamed creatures now gain an additional 6% weight per level into weight rather than 4%
Creatures & Tames
- Elephants and Rhinos now provide a 25% weight reduction to their specialised resources
- Giraffe now receives an approximate 2x bonus when harvesting thatch and has a 25% weight reduction when carrying thatch
- Elephant base stamina increased to 390
- Rhino base stamina increased to 190
- Giraffe base stamina increased to 440
- Baby creatures will no longer take into account the temperature alterations from coldfront and heatwave
- Tamed creature resistance has been increased by 30% and damage increased by 20%
- Bear health has been reduced by 10%
- NPC Crew can now be renamed
- NPC Crew can no longer be placed on Bear and Horse Carts
- Company Tame Limits have been doubled
- The interval between paying crew gold has been increased by 40% (there is now more time before you have to pay them again)
- Ship of the Damned will no longer physically damage a team's structures and anchored boats unless they have been specifically damaged by that target. PvE servers only.
Structures and Items
- Puckle Damage has been increased to 100 base and is 50% more armour piercing
- Carbines reload time has been reduced by 10%
- Pistol reload time has been reduced by 33%
- Blunderbuss reload time has been reduced by 20%
- Blunderbuss damage to creatures has been increased by 50% to wild and by 20% to tamed.
- Stone Structure SAP crafting requirements changed to fibre.
- Wooden Structures resistance to explosive and siege damage types increased by 30%
- Stone Structures resistance to explosive and siege damage types increased by 45%
- Explosive Barrel change reverted until the redesign
- Reverting damage increase and crafting cost decrease to Grenades
- Oil Jar weight has increased to 10 and fires lit on top of oil have had their duration reduced by 50%
- Oil Jar has been made more difficult to craft
- Fully Anchored Boats now have a buff which provides a bonus 300% structure resistance
QOL
- Old Age no longer has a debuff
- Fountain of Youth is now available on all Golden Age Ruin servers (we'll be looking at redesigning how this works in the near future)
- Players can now purchase a respec soup at the Commodity Trader in Freeports
- Players now have approximately 20% more skill points per level
Bug fixes
- Fixed a bug where quality specific equipment would display a multiplicative % stat increase and a flat stat increase, but only one would work. Going forward, the flat stat increase will be made obsolete and items will no longer be generated with it. Quality stated items will now only generate with the multiplicative stat bonus, and this change will be retroactive.
- Fixed a bug where items would falsely state that they were providing a speed benefit (did not do anything). They should not generate anymore going forward.
- Mortars will no longer be able to shoot at players outside of render distance
v18.76
- Fixed a bug where fire AoE would not attach properly to moving boats.
v18.74
- Potential fix for some frequent server side crashes. We'll be monitoring with this build
v18.73
- Diving Suit will make wild underwater creatures ignore you unless you attack them
- Alcohol will no longer spoil
- Cooking Recipes spoil time increased to 10 hours
- Spoiling time increase bonus on Preserving Bag has been increased
- Decreased crafting costs for Grenades by approximately 20%
- Improved cannon collision and obstruction check to limit the effectiveness of multiple cannons in gunport.
- Diving Attachment now has the same health as the Dinghy Hangar
- Fixed a bug relating to shooting cannonballs, previously allowing it to go through certain ally structures. This will no longer be the case anymore.
- Cannister shot range increased by approximately 20%
- Cannister shot damage increased by approximately 10%
- Spike shot explosion timer is now 30 seconds instead of 20 seconds
- Spike shot now reloads approximately 10% quicker
- Spike shot range increased by approximately 15%
v18.69
- Fixed some server startup crashes
- Widened the amount of networking info the server can send to clients
- Server optimisations
v18.65
- Fixed a bug related to server transitions
v18.6
- Crow's Nest peak will no longer block the camera.
- When it rains, cyclones now only have a 33% chance to occur (previously 100%), and will deal twice as much damage.
- Dolphins chance to jump has been reduced to 20%.
- Client-side option to hide the Gamepedia Wiki button in player inventory.
- Patched out some .ini changes which allowed people to remove certain visual effects granting them an unfair advantage in PvP
- On PvE specifically, Ship of the Damned should not attack anchored ships that have not fired upon them.
- Rare Resources are now available on PvE Commodity traders for a higher gold amount than regular resources.
- Fixed crew on puckle gun taking damage from fire aoe buffs.
- When gunports are closed they now reduce their specific snapped-cannon weight by 60% (previously 50%), open-ports are default cannon weight.
- Gunport crafting and repair costs are now the same as regular planks.
- Fixed an exploit which allowed players to place multiple claim flags at once.
- Large Cannons now do 30% less damage against Ship planks and Ship decks.
v18.58
- Added extra server-side protection to remote inventories to resolve an exploit
v18.57
- Company Claim Flags cannot be personally owned anymore.
- Server crash fixes
v18.55
- Client Side GPU Optimisations
- Explosive Barrel Weight now correctly displayed as 60
- Added a direct button to the ATLAS wiki when opening your inventory
v18.5
- Server optimisation for structures on boats
- Fixed a bug where picking up a higher quality structure within the pickup timeframe would result in the common structure, rather than the specific higher quality itself
Dynamic ATLAS Maps Round Up
The ATLAS Dynamic Maps is a system that monitors live in-game territory ownership and indicates which companies dominate over the lands.
Each week with our Captain’s Log, we’ll be including an image to monitor the progress of the maps, taking note of any exits or new arrivals and any drastic changes in the overall claim.
Who will come to dominate the ATLAS may very well become clear in the days and weeks ahead, though maintaining a large Empire will likely come with its own longer-term challenges…
Soon, the companies that have occupied islands for a certain period of time will gain the automatic privilege to name them on the in-game and web maps, as it is their land!
Remember you can don your tribe’s company flag by stylizing it in the game with a paintbrush! Upload your own images or design it how you like, with the top company flags always being visible on https://map.playatlas.com/
[EU PVP] The Whale’s Wrath
Held: French & Ships, The French Monkeys, IVANARMY, ENSLAVED, and Frogues Orientales.
Arrivals: Eternal Diamond, CHZ!!**, Kraken, Dark Project Armada, and Stray Cats.
Departures: Goulou Goulou, Future, ETERNIA, Bad Company, and Les Spectres.
[NA PVP] The Kraken’s Maw
Held: Dynasty, TPG, CSTG, OwO, The Federation, and No No No.
Arrivals: Uganda, SoV, Sons of the Seven, and Team Casualty.
Departures: High Seas Booty Bandits, Barry Sails, Destiny and SNC.
And whilst there isn’t active PvP on PVE servers, we’d like to recognize the following tribes for their claims!
[EU PVE] The Siren’s Call
Held: Compagnie des Indes, Rum ueber Bord, Future Company (HUN), SouL SanD, Dos Bros$ and SwiftS.RU.
Arrivals: Black Hand, Phantasia, M.E.R.C Spirit, and mochi.
Departures: Paragon, Woelfe des Rudels, Fenrirs Dogs, and Tacorsair.
[NA PVE] The Hydra’s Den
Held: Scales & Sails, Atlas Shrugged, The Exiles, East India Trading Co, and Sons of Orion.
Arrivals: Without Divide, TPG, Lotus, Poets and Pirates, and Darksea Dawgs.
Departures: Narcos, Paragon, Dead Men Floating, Plunderers, and CN- adilt supplies.
Show ‘n Tell #4!
We saw an impressive array of submissions in this edition of Show 'n Tell. It's awesome to see all of your creativity and talent. Feast yer eyes on th' best o' th' bunch by heading to our Community Hub!
https://www.playatlas.com/index.php?/atlas-news/records/captains-log-21-hull-up-on-the-horizon-r84/
Alrighty, that’s it for this post. Thank you so much for becoming a part of our crew and we can't wait to show all you scallywags, landlubbers, captains, and seadogs what lies ahead!
Happy Sailing,
Grapeshot Games
🏴☠️For the latest dispatch on #playATLAS keep yer one good eye trained on this here information🏴☠️
Hoist ye sails to our Homepage: https://www.playatlas.com/
Natter n' chatter on Discord: https://discord.gg/playatlas
Navigate ye olde Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/playatlas
Hear ye, hear ye on Twitter: https://twitter.com/sailtheatlas
Watch us scallywags on Twitch: http://twitch.tv/sailtheatlas
Plus ye can band with us Pirates on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playatlasgame