Ahoy Pathfinders!

This will be a rather compact Captain’s Log focused around updating you all on our progress as we work towards the upcoming megapatch -- which we’re going to designate “ATLAS 1.5” so that we don’t have to keep calling it megapatch! It will include information on some changes along with further details related to our Public Testing Realm.



A submarine is used to salvage a treasure chest on a new procedurally generated shipwreck.


We have made a decision in regards to our PvP networks for ATLAS 1.5 based upon taking your feedback into consideration along with our own development pipelines and vision for the game. We feel our players are interested in, primarily, two distinctly different styles and scopes of gameplay. One group of players is interested in design focused on small to mid-sized companies (2-50 players) and another has a preference for large company-centric design (200+ players). Rather than aiming to strike a middle ground between the two groups, which might end up diminishing the experience for either style of gameplay, we wanted to support two modes separately to see how that plays out. We’re going to be running 2 uniquely configured PvP networks, to allow players to choose the game mode which best represents your playstyle. To be clear, while we hope both of these networks prove permanently successful for their specific purposes, we’ll continue to iterate on their rules if necessary.


Large-scale PvP Mode:
ATLAS: Empires

ATLAS: Empires will honor the original ATLAS system with which players are familiar whilst incorporating some small adjustments to the claiming system to address issues players were experiencing. To clarify, ATLAS: Empires’ claiming system will be very similar to the traditional claiming system, but adjusted for maximum speed (increased rates) and no “anti-size” scaling. This will be the go-to hardcore mode for those looking for sandboxy high risk and high reward on a grand scale. We will not be limiting large companies, there will be no scaling based on members and there will be no pvp windows or war system.


Mid/Small-Scale PvP Mode:
ATLAS: Colonies

ATLAS: Colonies will be more structured and will utilise the new claim system we’ve announced. It will include hard company and alliance limits, the war system, and raiding hours. This game mode will be survive-and-thrive, targeted towards smaller and medium sized groups. We will be seeking to incentivise players to fight in the open world and on the sea whilst maintaining the options to raid bases and seize territory from enemies for those dedicated to doing so.


PvE Mode:
ATLAS: PvE

This game mode will be spooling up with changes and the system will be based upon details discussed in the last Captain’s Log. We will monitor our PvE mode in the PTR and beyond and continue to iterate on it as we move forward.



The submarine harpoon is a new underwater weapon which will ramp up oceanic combat


Work is still continuing on the upcoming game systems changes and, to ensure we put out the most quality and complete patch possible, we will be delaying the release schedule. As such, the PTR will be released late March / early April and we expect the test realm will run for approximately 1 week. Please bear in mind the run time may be adjusted after players get a feel for the changes, and, if any critical issues arise. We know that players are keen to get back into ATLAS, we are excited for you to do so as well! We’re committed to a quality ATLAS 1.5 launch though and it will take a little more time.


In relation to our Public Testing Realm overall, we’re planning to get multiple smaller clusters online which will incorporate the three game modes as well as everything else listed in the patch notes. Players can expect higher rates to facilitate fast progression and testing of the new systems along with the fact these servers are likely to wipe as needed.




Various Companies organised and participated in an entertaining FFA Kraken Bowl on NA PvP on the 3/6/2019. OwO emerged victorious after various rounds of ship on ship combat. You can check out some highlights from their event here:

https://youtu.be/RmOKMajlP0U











Continue to show us yer mighty fleets, paint pieces, flags & sails, impenetrable forts, hellish tats, scenic screenshots, 'n entertainin' videos! The Show n’ Tell deadline is the 28th of March so get your entries in for a chance to win some cash booty!.

https://www.playatlas.com/index.php?/forums/topic/55545-show-n-tell-6-deadline-28th-march/

Alrighty, that ’s it for this log! 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🏴‍☠️

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

Ahoy Pathfinders!

We’ve seen some interesting action over the past week whilst Anarchy rules! Players have found imaginative ways to entertain themselves within this no holds barred meta whilst we gather useful data for the future. Meanwhile, the team has had in-depth discussions regarding the upcoming patch, with some specific focus on claim and war systems. There will be some adjustments to our previously announced plans and this Captain’s Log will outline the details that have emerged during this process. The specifics will be honed and adapted as we approach the PTR as well as the launch of these new systems.


If you didn't have a chance to read our previous Captain's Log, please do so as it covers a lot of information regarding our massive update coming later this month, and will add some clarity to the changes we discuss below.

https://steamcommunity.com/games/834910/announcements/detail/1800782304061080656


We’ll be making some general changes to the system which will impact both PvE and PvP servers:

• The boat decay system will be enabled. This means that there will be a tagging system attached to boats which will cause them to self destruct after multiple weeks of inactivity on PvE, Golden Age Ruin, and Freeport servers. To tag a boat, the owner of that boat (single player or company) will just need to enter its stasis/render distance.
  
• Claim owners will be able to demolish structures (via the pinwheel) on their settlements temporarily as long as the structure has been placed within the last 12 hours. After the 12 hour period has passed, they will not be able to demolish the structures using the pinwheel, and must manually destroy it. Claim owners can do this outside of raid hours or warlike. This exists as an anti-griefing mechanism. On PvE servers, we may extend the time beyond 12 hours as players will not have the option to destroy via PVP.
  
• There will be a notice sent to the Settlement Owner’s Company and also via a cross-server notification pop-up when new players/companies are building on their territory. Players will have the option to subscribe to this Company Log via email or Discord, similarly to other Company Log messages.

We received an extensive amount of feedback from the PvE community regarding our upcoming changes. The overwhelmingly clear message was a desire to retain some form of a claiming system. One aspect of the design is the fact we want players to always have an option to build, otherwise, the game cannot be truly experienced in its current state.

We understand that there are some concerns regarding how that could potentially be exploited in a PvE environment, and we’ll be working on designs and systems to ensure that isn’t the case from a technical point of view, as well as through GM involvement.

With the Mega March update, the claim systems on PvE will change from being lawless-esqe servers to the following:

• Use the same claim system as PvP, but remove the raidable hours and war aspect. This means that players will be able to claim islands, and anyone can build on those settlements. Each settlement will have an upkeep cost which is based on a variety of factors such as the islands ranking, the number of settlements that company has, and how many different companies are building on the settlement. Settlement owners will be able to set a tax rate, and also players will be able to place their player run shops on the claimed land.

However, we are planning some PvE specific changes

• We’ll be imposing a hard limit of Claim Points equivalent to one small island for single players.
  
• Companies will be able to own multiple settlements, but there will be a hard limit and it will be based on Island Points and the number of players who are currently in that company. This means that larger companies will have access to more ‘Claim Points’ and are therefore able to settle on more islands with higher rankings, however, we will still be imposing a relatively low cap.
  
• Company alliances will no longer be enabled on PvE servers. We understand that there are some legitimate use cases, however, in this sandbox environment, we believe they will primarily be used to game the system and get past company rules/limitations. We recognize that this may impact how trading communication takes place on PvE servers and we are looking into an alternative option for players.

We’ll also be adding some new options along with changing how cannons are used during raidable/wartime hours.

• Give claim owners the option to enable allied companies to build cannons on their lands
  
• Give company owners the option to allow allies to use their cannon (governance setting)
  
• Enable an activation timer on cannon structures placed by non-allied companies during wartime and raidable hours to prevent instant FoBs. Similarly to battery-powered heavy turret activation timer on ARK.
  
• Delay on joining a new company or alliance after leaving one (24 hours)
  
• Company owners and admins can now set other companies as neutral. This is done via the in-game pinwheel, similarly to alliances when targeting another company’s structure or player. Companies which are marked as neutral will have a different colour display HUD, as a way for players to indicate they are non-hostile, however, they will not have other benefits which the alliance system would provide. In summary, there will now be three states in which other companies can appear: ally/neutral/enemy.

We recognize that there has been a lot of feedback regarding alliance limitations and how they impact mid-sized companies along with the role they play when sharing territory. This is something we are currently discussing and we may have an update for you closer to the time of the patch.


This update will also include our first phase of the Player to Player secure trading system! We regard this is an important aspect of the game, alongside our Player ran shops, which you’ll be able to experience later this month on the PTR!


The March Mega update will also be introducing a new environment objective for players to explore whilst out at sea! Procedurally generated shipwrecks exist as a new source to loot for items and blueprints. You’ll be able to find them randomly populating throughout the sea floor, with a higher density present around the underwater trench. You can find them by diving deep into the ocean or looking out for their visual indicator on the surface of the water, or successfully completing the sextant mini-game which will point you in the direction of nearby shipwrecks (procedurally generated or player-made).

We’ll have various types with their own unique looks. Players will need to swim into them to locate the chest to loot, which will vary based on the shipwreck.

The structural pieces (planks) will not be able to be harvested, and the submarine can just directly attack the shipwreck to harvest the loot. Once the chest inside the wreck has been activated, it will begin a timer which will destroy the wreck, additionally, looting it entirely will also cause the wreck to be destroyed.

Please keep in mind that this will be our initial implementation for these procedurally generated shipwrecks and we’ll be expanding on them in a future update, as well as introducing more PvE content for players to explore and experience.


This update, including the war system and claim changes, will be making its way to our Public Test Realm before it hits the entire Official Network and will be accessible for all players for both PvP and PvE. We anticipate that Test Live will be available to play around the 20th of March but will keep you posted should there be any more updates as the time approaches.

We appreciate all of the feedback you’ve shared regarding the update and will continue to work on improving the systems, and the game by incorporating aspects of that feedback into our existing developmental pipelines as well as our vision for the game!


We’ll also be releasing a major version update on the 8th of March, which will contain a massive overhaul to the way items are replicated on our networks. This should result in a considerable performance gain and reduction in bandwidth on servers, and due to the scale and necessity of the changes, a major update will be required.



Additionally, we will be rolling out the Peg Leg and Hook Hand cosmetics which can be acquired at your nearest Freeport!




Our roundup of the Dynamic ATLAS Maps will be on a temporary hiatus due to the current Anarchy patch and the fact we have announced the wipe. It will be making a return when the ATLAS relaunches with the new claim and war system.


We saw an impressive array of submissions in this fortnight’s 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-23-setting-a-course-r90/

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

Ahoy Pathfinders!

This Captain’s Log will go into some of the finer details of what we shared during our livestream earlier today. If you didn’t have a chance to watch it, you can check out the full VOD here, which also includes live gameplay of some of the upcoming features:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/388358265

In previous logs, we stated that we would be visiting some major design aspects of the game which make it more accessible for smaller groups and solo players, along with reducing the steep climb necessary to experience some of the later game content. There is a lot that we want to do over the coming months, and this update will be the first of many to help resolve these problems. However, before we get into that, we’d like to talk about something pretty important.


With the release of this first milestone, we will be wiping all our Official Networks. This is not a decision we’ve taken lightly, however we believe based on a number of reasons that this will be the best move for the game, moving forward.

First of all, the changes we are planning for this update are huge. We are completely redesigning the world layout, introducing new island types and biomes, adding new playable areas beneath and upon the ocean along with completely revamping the claim system. Due to the impact of these changes, we believe a wipe is the best course of action so that you can experience the update in a fresh environment, without being influenced by any of our legacy or deprecated code.

The wipe will allow us to see whether the changes we’re making are heading in the right direction, or whether we need to sit back as a team and further adjust our design for the game. We believe that these systems, which we’re going to discuss in more detail, are some of the most important and core aspect of ATLAS. Using your feedback, insight, and creativity, we want to build on the foundation of the game throughout Early Access and we’re willing to make the changes necessary, no matter how large, to get them to work. Whether that means more content, complete redesigns, or wiping the network when big changes have come in.

Secondly, since ATLAS launched as an Early Access title, there have been a number of bugs, exploits, and patches made to the game that have had a significant impact on the state of the persistent world. A number of players have benefited or have suffered grievances due to these various since-fixed issues, whether they were taking advantage of crafting exploits, alpha babies, duping, or had their boats sunk by Gatling Ship of the Damned.

As such, being a game that is focused on players building an empire, claiming and ruling over what’s theirs, and being the hero or villain they were meant to be; we believe that a wipe is necessary to put everyone back on an even playing field.

Furthermore, we’ve been a little more soft in some cases when it came to players taking advantage of these game exploits. After the first wipe has taken place in March, that will no longer be the case. We will still prioritize fixing issues/bugs/exploits, so we encourage you to work with us when you’ve discovered something that could be exploitable. That is our mandate, fixing and resolving game problems, however we’ll be taking a more firm stance against the serious cases where a company has used an exploit without coming forward which could result in company-wide and or alliance-wide punishments.

Finally, at the end of March, when this update drops, we’ll be commiserating those of you who have taken part in ATLAS’ first iteration. We’ll be rewarding all players who have ever logged into Official ATLAS prior to the wipe with a special cosmetic item that you’ll be able to keep post-wipe. Please keep an eye out for our announcements for when the deadline is, so you can be sure to get the cosmetic!



Please note that this wipe will not be forced on Unofficial Servers, however the old claim flags will disappear and you’ll have to replace them or allow them to naturally populate.




With this patch, the team have a number of primary and secondary objectives. With our primary and biggest changes we hope to address the following:

• Players not being able to find land to build a base on both PvP and PvE
  
• Offline Raiding
  
• Incentivizing large companies to work with smaller and solo groups
  
• Players not being able to connect/spawn on a server

We recognise that these aren’t the only aspects of ATLAS which need to improve. There are problems with the new player experience, how punishing it is to recover after you’ve been defeated, server performance during large epic battles, viability of creatures, weapons, boat builds, etc. The list can go on and these are things which we plan to address, and more in the coming months ahead.

This patch, however, will primarily be focused on the points we mentioned above, and will hit our PTR/Test Live Environment a week before it makes its way onto the main game, so you’ll be able to get an early look at it and experience it on that network.

Please let us know your thoughts about this upcoming update, we value your feedback and insight. We don’t claim to be omniscient, and you may raise attention to something we hadn’t considered which will either result in us adjusting the design further, or we’ll consider how to tackle those concerns at a future date.


Firstly, we’re going to be making a number of changes to the claim system and introducing a new war system with this update. Please read through the entire design, as both systems will work with one another.

General Rules

• Players can now build anywhere, without owning a Settlement (an island which has been claimed).
  
• An island which has been claimed is now known as a Settlement.
  
• Only one claim flag can be placed per island, and the owner (player/company) is the owner of that Settlement.
  
• There will be a hard limit on the total number of claim flags.
  
• Islands are given a rank based on their location, size and how valuable they are. These rankings will be used to determine upkeep, as well as identify the Top 10 Companies which will be a sum of all the islands that Company has claimed.
  
• Structures that are built on islands that are not Settlements can be raided at any moment.
  
• Fog of War and Shroud of War have been eliminated, so the entire ATLAS will be shown to everyone.
  
• World Map will now show the name of an Island (which can be changed by Settlement owners), who a Settlement is owned by, the current tax rate, and the current war status of the island.
  
• Islands will have colored overlay for ownership (Owned by you, an ally, or non-ally).

Company Updates

• NPC crew on offensive/defensive seated structures will no longer count towards the tame limit whilst seated.
  
• Company limit has been reduced to 250 members
  
• Group ranks have now been increased to 10
  
• Alliance changes will now be logged in the Company Log
  
• You can now sort the Company log to display entries from top to bottom
  
• A new group setting which can grant ‘owner’ permission for company members, which can only be set by the owner and unset by the owner. Members with the ‘owner’ permission will not be able to remove the actual Company Owner from the company.
  
• An alliance now only contains a maximum of 4 companies
  
• A company can only be in 2 different alliances at a time.

Claim Flags

• Sea Claim Flags have been eliminated
  
• Claim flags can no longer be used to steal structure ownership on land
  
• Claim flags can no longer be merged into other companies
  
• There will be a hard limit on the total number of claim flags per company. For example, 20. Numbers can be adjusted.
  
• A claim flag cannot be placed without a tax bank.
  
• Claiming an island will take a fixed amount of time plus an additional amount per claim flag owned. For example, 1 hour to claim and +1 hour per owned claim flag. Numbers can be adjusted.
  
• Declaiming will always take a fixed amount of time. For example, 2 hours. Numbers can be adjusted.

Claim Flag Upkeep

• Claim Flags now have an upkeep cost which is paid from the tax bank
  
• The upkeep cost will be an assortment of resources.
  
• The upkeep cost will scale on the size of the island, the total number of claim flags a company has, and how many different companies/players are building on the island.
  
• Players can only place items into a tax bank that go towards upkeep
  
• Claim Flag will have a grace period after successful claim to allow resources to gather in a tax bank before upkeep is charged
  
• The claim flag will visualize if the upkeep will not be met, so players are able to contribute directly to the Tax Bank. The Tax Bank will now stack resources like a ship resource box.

Settlements

• Settlement owners must set a window of vulnerability, currently set to 9 hours, where their island is raidable. Outside of this window, players, structures and ships will not take damage from other players.
  
• There will be a timer on players before they receive the invulnerability status.
  
• Anchored boats or docked boats will follow these same rules, if they are in the radius of a Settlement
  
• Non-settlement owners who have cannons on ships and are anchored shall not be allowed to fire cannons outside of wartime.
  
• Settlement owners can freely damage other characters and structures on their island.
  
• Settlement owners can set taxes on their island which will automatically be deposited into the Tax Bank
  
• Structures that are built on a Settlement which do not belong to the Settlement Owner will have a decay timer.
  
• Player Run shops which are placed on islands can also be taxed by Settlement owners

Declaring War

• Players can purchase a war token (significant cost) which can be used to declare war on an island.
  
• When war is declared on an island, players must select a schedule time in the future (3 days to 1 week)
  
• Only one war can be scheduled at once
  
• There is a cooldown after a war has ended before another war could be declared on that island
  
• Declaring war is per-island, so it is possible to declare war against multiple islands at the same time.
  
• The UI will indicate whether an island is experiencing Wartime soon or is currently in Wartime.
  
• Wars will last a fixed period of time
  
• When an island has been deemed warlike, building rules no longer apply. After the war has ended, the normal rules are enacted again.

Settlement Build rules

• Only the owner of a Settlement will be able to build offensive structures (mortars, cannons, and swivels) on their island, outside of Wartime.
  
• Other companies can build defensive structures (puckle) at any time.
  
• Other companies can build offensive structures ONLY during Wartime. Outside of Wartime, these structures are non-functional (inactive and unusable)

Notification System

• Players can sign up for email notifications related to company log activity
  
• Company Logs that have any physical in-world location shall now include the grid and GPS. (e.g a boat was sunk on K5 at 50 50)
  
• Discord Webhook for in game company notifications

Lawless Servers

• Will continue to operate like normal, no islands on these servers can be claimed.
  
• Reduced structure placement rules
  
• Damage decay added over time on all structures

PvE Network

• No claim flags
  
• Damage decay overtime added to all structures
  
• A new auto-repair structure which players will need to upkeep to prevent structures from being destroyed by decay.

This milestone will also introduce some world changes to the ATLAS itself. The overall objective from these changes is to provide players with more land to use for their bases, as well as a general update for our current biomes and introducing new areas to explore.

• Over 200 islands added to the network, approximately 1 additional island per grid.
  
• Players can now set any server as their home server. Following the wipe and the potential for freeports to be overloaded, we’ll be temporarily enabling setting any ATLAS server as your homeserver. Additionally, we’ll most likely create a respawn on current server option too.

• New Vehicle: Submarine. Explore the depths of the ocean in this small scouting submarine. No weapons on board, but it does have claw arms to help harvest the ocean floor and explore (demolish) shipwrecks

The submarine can also light up its surroundings, and will require fuel to run. The fuel cost will be based on movement, so the more it moves, the more it uses. Additionally, there will be a higher cost for movement that is lateral (forward/backwards) compared to longitudinal (upwards/downwards). The submarine will not outclass ships as you’ll need to pay a lot in fuel costs to be able to travel far, the intention is to use them in these underwater deeping-diving scenarios. It’ll be unlocked and can be driven by defeating the Kraken, though players will be able to be passengers in other users submarine’s without having completed the Kraken quest.

• New Environment: Deep Ocean Trench. A new area to explore, guarded by powerful underwater creatures and home to the new Giant Crab.

The trench will be found on the Golden Age Ruin servers and contain 8 new power stones which can be used to unlock fight a more difficult version of the Kraken. It’ll be an area where players can find new resources, new creatures, such as the Crab with more to come in the future.

• New Creature: Giant Crab. It can heavy loads, along with players, tames and wild creatures

The crab can be found in the Trench and it is a tamable creature. It’ll have the ability to carry and throw other players/creatures, and it can also jump very far. These abilities may change over time as we progress further into ATLAS’ development.

• New Environment: Eastern Tundra now has its own visual design, no longer using the Western Tundra style

We’ll be updating the eastern side of the Tundra to have it’s own unique design!

• New Structure: Guillotine. Hanging your foes in a noose taking too long? Off with their heads!

When you behead another player, the game will remember their facial appearance and hairstyle, which can be used as decoration on wallhooks (on gunmounts too)!

• New Feature: Curses. Tied to the execution of players

When executing a player, you’ll now receive a % of their experience points. This will have a cooldown, so it cannot be used to quickly drain/transfer experience, and some general experience will be lost when the transfer occurs. We’re not intending for this to be an incredibly aggressive feature, but something more fun which occurs when executing players. We’ll be expanding the curses system more later on.

• New Feature: Squads (ships) of the Damned will now come in multiple size variations with different stats and difficulty levels.

Ships of the Damned will now appear in squads! They’ll contain an assortment of various types including Galleons of the Damned, Brigantines of the Damned, and Schooner of the Damned. These types will determine their difficulty, and the loot will scale based on the level of the damned, as well as type of damned that the squad is comprised of. For example, a Squad containing 2 Galleons is going to reward better loot than a Squad containing 5 Schooners. Loot will be rewarded on a per-ship basis. The intent behind this change is to make the fight less predictable and a more interesting experience out on the seas. We are not planning for them to be killing machines or an immense threat, they’ll still maintain a reduced targeting ranged and players will have the choice whether to engage in battle or to flee. However it should be noted that they will now share the same target when attacking.

• New Cosmetics: Peg Legs and Hook Hands.
  

These will be acquired through the cosmetic vendor in freeports, as they won’t be providing any stat benefits, we prefer that they are readily available for players. You will not be able to equip both the left hand and left leg (or foot) at the same time. Additionally, it will not be colourizable nor can it be used on naked characters but we are working on both of these aspects.

Rest of the notes

• New Feature: Player shops in freeports. Players can set up automated shops in each Freeport, listing loot for sale and naming their own gold coin prices.
  
• New Cosmetics: Multiple Armor sets to customize the look of your company and crew! Provided as a permanent unlock for completing the Quests in addition to skill rewards.
  
• Territory map will now display allies as teal-coloured
  
• Character creator now has a Height slider to make it easier to set your character's desired height
  
• Any dead ships (shipwrecks) from your Company appear with a unique icon on your map now, so you can find the wrecks
  
• Global territory message updating
  
• Currently contested claims will be indicated on the minimap
  
• Players can now mount a sail to directly control the sail's open/close amount and rotation settings in a more intuitive way.
  
• Vitamin Rebalance
  
• Pistol Reloading now changed to have the mini game appear back to back, rather than through various points of the animation.
  
• Various spawner adjustments & fixes across all islands
  
• All servers can now be set to a home server and have unique spawn points
  
• Players can also respawn on the server they died on
  
• Grappling Hook has been revamped, better physics & rappelling mechanics, and players will be able to realistically swing using them.

As more changes are made to the patch, these notes will be edited to include them.


With our planned changes for March, the game will be heading into a more rule based system, so for the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes to experience what it would be like if we took an alternative route.

We’ll be releasing an update tomorrow which includes the following changes:

• 6x Rates - Harvesting, Taming, Experience, and Gold.
  
• Claim flags will no longer prevent enemy building. You can now build anywhere, and only structure build radius will prevent it. This is a non-default, which will be enabled on our PvP Networks. Unofficials can also use this as a custom server-side config.
  
• All servers, other than Golden Age Ruin servers, can be set to home servers, allowing players to respawn at them.

This is what we’re enabling on all our non-Golden Age ruin servers, but please note that you must also flag the corresponding grids as homeservers on the servergrid.json.

This patch will also include:

• Whispering voice hotkey
  
• Server side config that allows you to alter the distance for the 3 voice modes: Whispering, Normal, and Yelling.

• Removing the Destruction Mesh on Lighthouses
  
• Increased the limit of folders in inventories from 20 to 40, and 80 in Bookshelves
  
• Treasure Map names now includes the grid for easy filtering

These changes will allow us to see how the game would pan out if we didn’t have the claim system affect build rules, which helps us collect more feedback on playstyles.


Complete Patch Notes



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, Eternal Diamond, CHZ!!**, Kraken, Dark Project Armada, Frogue One and Stray Cats

Arrivals: Just Look for Merge

Departures: Enslaved

[NA PVP] The Kraken’s Maw



Held: Dynasty, TPG, CSTG, OwO, The Federation, No No No, Uganda, SoV, Bobs of the Seven, and Team Casualty.

Arrivals: Slam Whales

Departures: CSTG

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, SwiftS.RU, Black Hand, Phantasia, M.E.R.C Spirit, and mochi.

Arrivals: War Bradaz

Departures: DoS Bros$

[NA PVE] The Hydra’s Den



Held: Scales & Sails, Atlas Shrugged, The Exiles, East India Trading Co, Sons of Orion, Without Divide, Lotus, Poets and Pirates, and Darksea Dawgs.

Arrivals: Paragon

Departures: TPG


We’re still collecting entries for the Show ‘n Tell! So you have a little longer to astound us with your creations, be they your fleets, building designs, imaginative tatts, entertaining videos, original fanart or scenic screenshots. Don’t be shy and head to the submission thread for a chance to win some booty in the form of a cash prize!

https://www.playatlas.com/index.php?/forums/topic/49986-show-n-tell-5-deadline-wednesday-6th-march/

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 on the horizon!

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

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. 




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.


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.




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!




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/


Full Patch Notes

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



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.


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

Ahoy Pathfinders!

The Year of the Pig represents hard work, discipline and overall putting one's nose to the grindstone. It also signifies a focus on generosity and goodwill. We wish all of you a fortunate and rewarding Year of the Pig! 🐷

To celebrate, you can now save 17% off ATLAS as part of Steam Lunar New Year Sale! The game will be on offer until February 11th, 2019.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/834910/ATLAS/


In our last Captain’s Log, we spoke about some upcoming Design Changes for the game. That’s still a focus for our team and we’ll start to see those changes as we get into March and the months beyond. If you didn’t get a chance to read about, you can do so here:

https://www.playatlas.com/index.php?/atlas-news/records/captains-log-19-the-golden-age-of-piracy-r75/

In the meantime, the team are preparing on getting the major February content patch out. In addition to new content and features, we’ve still been iterating heavily on the live version of ATLAS, releasing two major versions and multiple minor version updates in the past week. Our time was split between various different areas, including many critical bugs and exploit fixes, as well as some major balance changes for our musical instruments, the Kraken, and some more general/misc notes.

Released Patch Notes up to v18.46



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.

Those 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…

The companies that have occupied islands for a certain period of time will soon gain the automatic privilege to name them on the in-game and web maps, as it is their land!

Remember you can don your company's 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, Frogues Orientales, and Eternal Diamond

Arrivals: OOOOOOOOOF, CHZ!!**, Dark Project Armada, CHEPO

Departures: Bad Company, ETERNIA, Goulou Goulou, Les Spectres, Future

[NA PVP] The Kraken’s Maw



Held: Dynasty, High Seas Booty Bandits, TPG, CSTG, OWO, No No No, and The Federation

Arrivals: Destiny, BLDX, Team Casualty

Departures: Barry Sails, The Cartel, Black Butterfiy ?BB???

And whilst there isn’t active PvP on PVE servers, we’d like to recognize the following Companies for their claims!

[EU PVE] The Siren’s Call



Held: Compagnie des Indes, Rum ueber Bord, Phantasia, Future Company (HUN), SouL SanD, Dos Bros$, SwiftS.RU, and Black Hand

Arrivals: mochi and Woelfe des Rudels

Departures: Fenrirs Dogs and JomsViking.

[NA PVE] The Hydra’s Den



Held: Scales & Sails, The Exiles, Atlas Shrugged, East India Trading Co, Paragon, Lotus, Darksea Dawgs, Without Divide and Sons of Orion

Arrivals: Milky Armada

Departures: Narcos


We’re still collecting entries for the Show ‘n Tell! So you have a little longer to astound us with your creations, be they your fleets, building designs, imaginative tatts, entertaining videos, original fanart or scenic screenshots. Don’t be shy and head to the submission thread for a chance to win some booty in the form of a cash prize!

https://www.playatlas.com/index.php?/forums/topic/42756-show-n-tell-4-deadline-monday-11th-feb/

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

Ahoy Pathfinders!

Over the past week, the crew have been engaged in deep discussion over our core design and philosophy of the game. We’ll be making changes based on your feedback and our internal reviews over the past 5 weeks. This Captain’s Log is going to go take a high-level look at our plans going forward!


We recognize that the game has a lot of fun mechanics and gameplay that players enjoy, especially when you can live out your dreams of being a pirate. However, the feedback we often receive is that it’s too tailored to large companies, alpha groups, and hardcore players.

A large number of you have expressed that you are unable to make enough progress to reach this stage of the game, due to our hardcore design. Our thinking going forward, with the community’s help and feedback, we plan to make the game less punishing and reduce the steep climb required for players to reach the parts of the game which make it special. This means we’re going to be changing core systems to ensure that those who do not have as much time to invest or play in small groups or as solo players are still able to experience the highs seas of ATLAS.

For those of you in large companies, worry not, as you are still a fundamental part of our design and key to the game’s vision. We believe there are changes we can make which will make the game more immediately accessible for everyone and overall more enjoyable, without detracting from the heights that large and dedicated groups of players can achieve. All players will be able to experience the best parts of this humongous shared persistent world, whether you’re a solo player, a small group, a large company, or a multi-company alliance.

Some of our design changes will revolve around:

• Allowing players to experience the ‘piracy’ side of the game immediately, whilst not trivializing the content.
  
• Making sure that solo players and smaller groups feel safer when logging off, or that after they’ve taken a break they can come back and know that it won’t be such a difficult feat to get out on the seas again.
  
• Incentivize companies to neutralize their territories, inviting others to make use of their land so that both can benefit.
  
• More MMO aspects: player markets, player-specified automatic trade routes, additional quests, and daily missions

and we'll be continuing as always with:

• Continuous focus on bug/exploit squashing, stability, and performance.
  
• Relevant QOL and Content additions to meet game and community needs

We plan to have our first real serious round of adjustments with this philosophical change in mind around March (as we’re already well into preparing the February content update so that’ll proceed with some changes), and this will continue relentlessly going forward.


Complete Patch Notes

Between now and February’s Mega update, you’ll see a number of patches which will help improve various aspects of the game based on your feedback.

v17 - February Mega Patch - ETA: Late February

The update has had some slight changes to make it more aligned with our goals. Some aspects of the update remain as we see them as a necessity for the team to develop and understand core elements, such as the underwater experience with trenches and the submarine. Additionally, some content creation has been well underway for some time, and it isn’t the most efficient move to scrap them! However, the Mega March update and the ones to follow will focus more on our core design changes.

Planned Patch Notes:

New Features and Content

- New Feature: Daily Missions for players with unique and powerful rewards
- New Feature: 7 more ‘Main Quests’ which upon successful completion will provide their own unique Skill unlock
- New Structure: Guillotine. Hanging your foes in a noose taking too long? Off with their heads!
- New Feature: Curses. Tied to the execution of players
- New Creature: Giant Crab. It can carry heavy loads, along with players, tames and wild creatures
- New Vehicle: Submarine. Explore the depths of the ocean in this small scouting submarine. No weapons on board, but it does have claw arms to help harvest the ocean floor and explore (demolish) shipwrecks
- New Structure: Bookshelf. Store and sort your high-quality maps and blueprints.
- New Environment: Deep Ocean Trench. A new area to explore, guarded by powerful underwater creatures and home to the new Giant Crab
- New Feature: Player shops in freeports. Players can set up automated shops in each Freeport, listing loot for sale and naming their own gold coin prices.
- New Cosmetics: Multiple Armor sets to customize the look of your company and crew! Provided as a permanent unlock for completing the Quests in addition to skill rewards.
- Ship of the Damned will now come in multiple size variations with different stats and difficulty levels.

QOL Changes

- Reorganized claim flag notifications, so they no longer clutter up the entire HUD when lots of messages are flying by
- Territory map will now display allies as teal-coloured
- Character creator now has a Height slider to make it easier to set your character's desired height
- Any dead ships (shipwrecks) from your Company appear with a unique icon on your map now, so you can find the wrecks
- Global territory message updating
- Currently contested claims will be indicated on the minimap
- ‘Search Members’ field added to Company UI
- Players can now mount a sail to directly control the sail's open/close amount and rotation settings in a more intuitive way.
- NPCs will be added to Freeports which will allow players to redesign their character's tattoos for a gold cost

And of course, note that these notes below will be a given on a regular basis:

- Server and Client performance improvements
- Server and Client stability improvements (crash fixing)
- Bug fixes & balance changes

GPU Performance Improvements

In the coming days, we’ll be releasing a special beta branch which players can opt-into for a minor client-side update which should increase GPU performance by approximately 25%. We’ve been thoroughly testing this internally and it feels like it’s in a good place, however, we would like some feedback from you guys before shipping it live. When the client is available to download, we’ll put up a thread with instructions on how you can download it. You’ll still be able to play on the latest Official Network or the latest Unofficial Servers even if you’re using the beta client!

Wood, Stone, Sap, and Explosives

Our initial thought behind the change was that we wanted to buff Wood so that it was closer to Stone in terms of strength, so that early and midgame players would be at less of a disadvantage if they weren’t using stone. Whilst we’re not going to be entirely walking back this change, we think we may have overshot with our changes and as a result will be making some adjustments in an upcoming update.

We plan to address the availability of sap and also look at base defence which means possible changes explosives, and other gameplay mechanics encompassing raiding to see where else we want to make adjustments. It’s something we’re still exploring internally but plan to have patched relatively soon. It’s possible that our first round of changes may not be enough, and if so don’t worry, as we’ll continue to adjust as necessary.

Wild Creatures

We want to make some adjustments to the power of wild creatures, including on Golden Age Ruin Servers. First of all, we wanted to hone in on the strength of alpha creatures. As of Monday, we released an update which significantly reduced the amount of power that Alpha creatures held, as well as how common they were. Going forward, we’ll be adjusting spawn-weighting across the map for all creatures so that you’ll encounter less giant groups wanting to murder your face. After making those changes, we’ll see where we need to go next but believe it’s a step in the right direction.

PVE Updates

There are some PvE specific changes we want to make as soon as possible. First of all, we want to create two server options, which will be enabled on our Official Network.

• Sleeping/logged off players will no longer be replicated on any grid (similarly to Freeports). This should improve server and client performance, as well reduce some cases of griefing.
  
• Force destruction of any character that hasn’t been logged onto in 3 weeks (2 weeks if it’s a Homeserver).

We’ll also be fixing a bug which allowed sleeping characters to contest claims, even if the claim has been inactive, so going forward only logged in characters will be able to contest claims.

Linux Servers

Not much of an update here, we just want to acknowledge that our engineering team are looking into the major issues reported on Linux Servers and we hope to have these resolved as soon as possible. Thank you all for your feedback and reports, it won’t be long until you’re setting sail on the high seas of your unofficial servers!

Company Rankings

Large companies are very much still a major part of the vision we hold for ATLAS. We believe that being able to conquer and maintain large territories is an important part of the game and we’ll be rewarding those who are able to do so. By this weekend, we’ll have released a patch that does the following:

• List current top 5 companies in-game on the map (names, soon to be flags)
  
• Have a historic archive of companies for when they ruled the ATLAS, using both in-game days and real-life time
  
• Special Cosmetic Icons will be given to members of top 5 companies, which can be turned off on a per-user basis.
  
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639072016
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639071859
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639071423
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639071580
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1639071704
  
  
• Unique Cosmetic Figureheads will be granted to the top 5 companies and will remain persistent as long as the company maintains their ranking within the top 5.
  
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1638966438
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1638966337
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1638965975
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1638966224
  https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1638966066
  
  
• Resolving the bug which prevents some Company Flags from displaying on playatlas.com!

We plan on introducing more features in the future to expand on how influential large companies can be with their territories, as well as additional incentivizes to be a part of the top 5 rankings. We’re toying with the idea of a neutral Company Hall, for the strongest and most influential to hold their diplomatic meetings, whether it’s over trade, peace, love, or war, because we know much you love your large gatherings ;)!

Lest we forget, a quick round-up of all the updates the game has seen since the previous Captain’s Log:



This is just the tip of the iceberg for our upcoming plans and over time we’ll be sharing more and working closely with you to ensure that ATLAS gets one step closer to becoming one of the most ambitious persistent online worlds of all time and fulfilling its destiny as the ultimate fantasy pirate adventure!


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.

Those 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…

The companies that have occupied islands for a certain period of time will soon gain the automatic privilege to name them on the in-game and web maps, as it is their land!

Remember you can don your company's 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, Bad Company, ETERNIA, The French Monkeys, IVANARMY, and ENSLAVED.

Arrivals: Frogues Orientales, Goulou Goulou, Future, and Les Spectres.

Departures: XSM???, BLDX DouYuTV 56887, Chem B, and LEGION.

[NA PVP] The Kraken’s Maw



Held: Dynasty, High Seas Booty Bandits, TPG, CSTG, Barry Sails, OWO, No No No, and The Federation

Arrivals: The Cartel and Black Butterfiy ?BB???

Departures: SNC, and Destiny.

And whilst there isn’t active PvP on PVE servers, we’d like to recognize the following Companies for their claims!

[EU PVE] The Siren’s Call



Held: Compagnie des Indes, Rum ueber Bord, Future Company (HUN), Fenrirs Dogs, SouL SanD, Dos Bros$ and SwiftS.RU.

Arrivals: Phantasia, JomsViking, and Black Hand

Depatures: Paragon, Tacorsair, and Woelfe des Rudels.

[NA PVE] The Hydra’s Den



Held: Scales & Sails, The Exiles, Atlas Shrugged, East India Trading Co, Paragon, Narcos, Lotus, and Darksea Dawgs.

Arrivals: Without Divide and Sons of Orion.

Departures: Dead Men Floating and CN- adilt supplies.


Check out our PlayATLAS announcement to see the results of our third Show 'n Tell contest!

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

Ahoy Pathfinders!

We’ve hope you’ve had a bountiful weekend! For those of you on our Official Network, we’re currently running a bonus 2x event through until Wednesday with double harvesting, gold, and taming on all our Official Servers! This Captain’s Log wraps up a big week which included our first ever livestream, which we’ll have a link to below, as well as the introduction to our upcoming mega content patch, featuring bounties, player markets and more!


Thank you for joining the Seattle Crew for our Livestream! We were thrilled to interact with the community directly in a live environment whilst answering questions you had sent in, sharing an overview of our developmental process, our vision for the game, as well as giving ya a sneak peek at what’s to come!

For those who weren’t able to catch the stream, you can check it out here:

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/365978125


Complete Patch Notes

During the livestream, we spoke about three pillars of development: optimisation/bug fixes, balance changes, and content. Over the past few weeks since the launch of the title the team have been highly focused on the first two pillars, but now we’re ready to talk about the 3rd: additional content!

In February, we’ll be launching our first major content update which will introduce a number of exciting new gameplay features and mechanics, new areas to explore, creatures, end game balance, fixes and miscellaneous changes.

Here’s what you can look forward to:

v16 - ETA: Late February

New Features
- Bounty System for PVP: Don't like a particular player or Company? Set a bounty on their heads, then other players can get gold for bringing in the target's head
- Guillotine: hanging your foes in a noose taking too long? Off with their heads!
- Submarine: explore the depths of the ocean in this small scouting submarine. No weapons on board, but it does have claw arms to help harvest the ocean floor and explore (demolish) shipwrecks

- Player shops in freeports. Players can setup automated shops in each freeport, listing loot for sale and naming their own gold coin prices
- New creature: Giant Crab. It can carry heavy loads, along with players, tames and wild creatures

- Tame tokens are available for more mythical creatures, allowing players to have limited-time tames of the Fire Elemental, Rock Elemental, Cyclops, and Gorgon. BONUS: Rock Elemental and Cyclops are rideable!
- New cosmetics: get your pirate on with hook hands and peg leg cosmetics. Yarr!
- New armor cosmetics to customize the look of your Company and crew

- New Ship Figurehead Cosmetics




- Streamer Stealth Mode: client option to disable showing all location information; super useful to prevent stream-sniping :wink:
- Added a new deep ocean trench environment to explore, with powerful underwater creatures and is the home of the new Giant Crab
- Added a new extensive Polar Dungeon, only accessible by Pathfinders who have all the PowerStones or have defeated the Kraken


Endgame Balance improvements
- Beating the Kraken unlocks a new Feat, which allows players to prevent wild creatures from aggroing on them within range for a period of time
- Beating the Polar Dungeon unlocks a new perfect water breathing Feat, allowing players to remain underwater for a period of time without consuming any oxygen

Updates
- Players can now mount a sail to directly control the sail's open/close amount and rotation settings in a more intuitive way
- AOD AI Ships will now come in multiple size variations with different stats and difficulty levels
- Global territory message updating
- Any dead ships (shipwrecks) from your Company appear with a unique icon on your map now, so you can find the wrecks
- Character creator now has a Height slider to make it easier to set your character's desired height
- Territory map will now display allies as teal-colored
- Reorganized claim flag notifications, so they no longer clutter up the entire HUD when lots of messages are flying by

Misc
- Streamlined ship hull rendering for performance gains
- Server Performance improvements round 2 (+25%)
- Additional balance changes - NPCs will be added to Freeports which will allow players to redesign their character's tattoos for a gold cost
- Significant server improvements over the coming weeks, where we'll be doubling performance increment by increment.


Over the weeks ahead, we’ll be talking more specifically about some of these features in detail, including the Bounty System for PVP servers and Player Shops in freeports.

Whilst the team have begun working on the content changes, we’ve still had a lot done over the past week in terms of updates, with more on the horizon too! In regards to balance, we gave wolves a thorough overhaul, as well as tweaks to both the Wild and Tamed Dragon plus the Kraken is now easier to defeat after having it’s health sliced and more rewarding, with a brand new passive skill that reduces all Feat cooldowns by 33%!

Additionally, this patch also introduced phase one of our aging process and the Fountain of Youth. Characters aged 90 years and higher will receive a specialist quest which encourages them to visit the Fountain of Youth to reset their characters age back to 20, remove an age debuff, and receive a rejuvenated buff which is a significant permanent statistic boost.

The past week has also included a number of other bug fixes and balance changes as we continue to iterate on and fine tune the live game. You can check out the full list of changes here:


We’ll continue to work on issues as they arise, including tackling ones that are important to you and relentlessly improving our server and client side performance. Additionally, there’ll be an update later this week which should enable BattlEye for Windows Insider builds which should allow those of you using that operating system to rejoin our Official Network.


Early last Friday morning, we were able to release the first iteration of the ATLAS Devkit. As the game continues to grow overtime, you can expect the Devkit to grow in tandem with additional features, content, and gameplay mechanics for modders to enjoy. We put up an announcement thread which covered a lot of details regarding the kit and how you can get the most out of it, so if you’ve yet to have a read, we’d recommend doing so:

https://www.playatlas.com/index.php?/atlas-news/atlas-devkit-launch-r66/

Additionally, our modding Community Manager, ZenRowe, has also been working on with the team on putting together some documentation for the editor which will be updated on a regular basis. Check it out here:

https://devkit.playatlas.com/


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. 

Those 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…

The companies that have occupied islands for a certain period of time will soon 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: XSM???, French & Ships, Bad Company, BLDX DouYuTV 56876, Chem B, LEGION, ETERNIA, The French Monkeys, Enslaved, and IVANARMY

[NA PVP] The Kraken’s Maw



Held: Dynasty, High Seas Booty Bandits, TPG, CSTG, Barry Sails, OwO, The Federation and SNC, No No No, and Destiny.

The top companies on both PvP Networks have held their positions! Are we already seeing the best companies as players contend for their place in the overall pecking order or will new contenders emerge next week?

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, Paragon, Rum ueber Bord, Woelfe des Rudels, Future Company (HUN), Fenrirs Dogs, Tacorsair, SouL SanD, Dos Bros$ and SwiftS.RU.

[NA PVE] The Hydra’s Den



Held: Plunderers, Scales & Sails, Dead Men Floating, Atlas Shrugged, East India Trading Co, CN- adilt supplies, Paragon, and Narcos.

Arrivals: Sons of Orion

Departures: The Exiles


We have extended the due date on our current Show ‘n Tell to give you all a little longer to astound us with your creations, be they your fleets, building designs, imaginative tatts, entertaining videos, original fanart or scenic screenshots. Don’t be shy and head to the submission thread for a chance to win some booty in the form of a cash prize!

https://www.playatlas.com/index.php?/forums/topic/32535-show-n-tell-3-deadline-monday-28th-jan/

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🏴‍☠️

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