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Ahoy Pathfinders!
We hope you had a great weekend filled with adventure, action, and bountiful booty! The seas were much calmer for us as we put our heads down to work on the major update v10, which is now live on Steam!
thar she deploys, v10!
We won’t go into too much detail about this patch, as we covered it quite extensively in our last Captain’s Log.
This is our biggest update thus far, taking into account various feedback we’ve received over the last 2.5 weeks since the game’s launch, as well as making design changes based on what we’ve experienced and witnessed ourselves. The patch notes have grown tremendously since we first put them up on Friday, and the full list of changes can be seen here (as well as on our dedicated patch note threads):
current v10.42
Claim flag related changes
- Claim Flags now have settings which allow other companies or players to build within them, with the specified tax rate applied to them.
- You are also able to define an inclusion or exclusion list to these, to only allow or exclude specific company IDs (also used by players without companies). To grab someone's ID for the inclusion/exclusion list, you'll need to look at a structure they've placed which will list their Company ID; this number can be input into the flag's list system to prevent/enable building. Please note that exclusion/inclusion lists are not saved when altering building permissions, so switching from 'Everyone' can build to 'Company & Alliances' only will clear your list should you wish to return to 'Everyone' can build.
- All claim flags will use the 'Everyone can build' as a default setting when placed, and this will also be a retroactive change. However, it will not function until Thursday the 10th of January, where we will release another server update to make this setting active. This means you will have two days, from Tuesday to Thursday, to decide and adjust the settings on your claim flag before the change is live.
- Only admins and above will be able to make changes to company claims.
- Claim Flags will have icons above them to represent their owner and setting. Your claim flags have a green icon. Claim Flags belonging to your allies that do not permit you to build, have a blue icon, or purple if they do belong to your allies and allow you to build. Claim Flags which belong to your enemies and do not allow you to build have red icons, or yellow if they belong to your enemies and enable you to build within them.
- Fixed some bugs related to Sea Claims.
- Enemy Claim Flags can now be directly pinged to identify any contesting enemies nearby
- The time required to steal an enemy claim now decreases the more Claims that enemy team has.
- Looking at your Claim Flag will show you how many land claims you have, and looking at an enemy one will show you how many land flags they have, note that this does not update dynamically on the client for server performance reasons. To always have the latest number, you can relog or re-enter stasis range of the Claim Flag.
general changes
- Server performance improvements
- All Cannons/Turrets can now be pin code protected for lever activation/deactivation
- There are 4x as many trade ships on the seas, and they now also sell commodity types for gold, as do NPC's at Freeports.
- Lawless servers can no longer be specified as Homesevers. If your Homeserver was a lawless server, you'll be required to pick a new (Freeport) Homeserver upon respawn. This does not mean that land will be claimable on these servers, just that they cannot be selected as a server to respawn on.
- You can now buy a "Ramshackle Sloop" from the NPC Shipyardsman at Freeports. The "Ramshackle Sloop" is a pre-built sloop which has permanently lower plank HP, carry weight, and crew limit, but is cheaper and faster to acquire if you want to get into sailing faster.
- "Favorites" server selection drop-down is added for Unofficial
- Joining through Steam browser server list with password now properly caches the password for ATLAS travel
- Fixed up some temperature scalings and Weather events are now indicated on the HUD
- Armour effectiveness and some values have been adjusted so that firearms are more useful in PVP
- Fixed some bugs related to Sea Claims, Enemy Claim Flags can now be directly pinged to identify any contesting enemies nearby, and the time required to steal an enemy claim now decreases the more Claims that enemy team has.
- Farming rebalances to be easier; water can now pipe uphill, region requirements for growing crops are more forgiving, and crop growth & yield is much faster and higher. Crops now take much longer to spoil when placed in a preserving bag.
- Reduced shovel stamina cost.
- You can now fill waterskins/jars from ground spouts.
- Metal Tools can no longer damage the planks of anchored ships.
- 50 more player levels added, and Skill Points per level increased.
- Loot stat scaling has been boosted (retroactively) by 60%
- Some ship costs have been adjusted, and in some cases reduced by approximately about 50%
- Animals health regen rebalanced, so they're not regenerating high amounts whilst in combat!
- Eating poop is now instant-death
- Fixed an issue where you couldn't kill yourself by exhaustion (for stuck situations)
- Pipes can now move water upwards and the vertical limit on underground junctions has been eliminated. Also, pipes can go farther without foundation requirement, and underground junctions can now be snapped onto existing pipes.
- Guns and melee weapons have had their damage and penetration values adjusted to make them more effective against armour
- Throwing Knife does significantly more damage when thrown to unarmoured targets (body and headshot)
- Armour penetration has been reduced on spear throw to make it less effective versus higher armoured targets
- Explosive Barrel weight has been increased
- Stone Arrows now stack to 60 and a bow can fire them 60 times before breaking
- Fire Arrows now stack to 40 and a bow can fire them 40 times before breaking
- Puckle damage has been increased and also been made more effective against armour
- Fixed Salted Animal & Fish Meat so that they naturally generate when placed in an active preserving bag (must use raw meats)
- Updated some legacy sounds and icons
- Updated stair collision on shipyards
- Fixed a bug which prevented passive feats from applying after death
- Fixed a bug with the torch which caused it to repair endlessly
- Lighthouses can now be lit even if they are touching water
- Using a bucket on a tamed cow now causes the bucket to lose durability
- Fixed a bug where players would get stuck in the crouched position
- Fixed a bug which sometimes would occur where players would disconnection when being invited to a company
- Fixed a bug which prevented creatures from receiving experience points above a certain level
- Fixed a bug which would cause NPC Crew to sink into foundations when exiting stasis range
- Rewrote structure destruction logic to avoid cases of floating structures
- Inventory ranks per structure and creature will now work for companies
- Fixed a bug which prevented admins from accessing remote inventories with the F key when changing group ranks.
- Autolock all structures in 'PvE only' with an inventory, except campfires and similar structures which can be placed without a claimflag. Unofficial Servers can run this with PvE enabled & ?ForceAllStructureLocking=true
- Gunmounts are now colorizable
- Gates and Gateway costs have been adjusted and now include metals (wood) and alloy (stone)
- Gateways and Gates are now crafted in smithy instead of player inventory
- Fixed an exploit with Prying Eyes
- Can no longer glide up mountains with the glide suit
- Fixed an exploit which allowed you to gain massive height when using the zipline
- Fixed a building exploit which allowed you to float structures and fortify walls with floors
Creature related changes
- Sea Monsters' damage has been reduced by 66%
- Tamed Creatures take 20% less damage
- Wild Alpha creatures HP and Damage reduced by 20%
- Tames HP and Damage scaling nerfed by about 40%, and Cannons/Explosions damage to tames increased 50% due to level increase and scaling possibility
- Killing the Monsterous Sperm Whale or Blue Whales (as they're now named) provides (one-time) 50 Discovery Points each to everyone within 100k units of that event.
- Penguin AoE insulation now scales by level, the higher the level, the more insulation.
- Updated Mounted and Rider buffs to display icon while active, to better inform players the source of stat boosts.
- Dolphins now periodically leap out of the water. If you're nearby to witness that at close-range, you'll gain a temporary Intelligence buff!
- Updated affinity ineffectiveness values based on the recent x2 taming increase
- Updated creature specific buffs and ability value clamps to be scaled across 130 levels, due to recent extra 30 level ups for tames.
- Increased Wolf attack destination offset and increased some physics bounds to reduce clipping into players. Temporarily increased Wolf saddle scale in the engine to limit fur clipping.
- Updated taming ineffectiveness values to allow the highest efficiency to only be achieved with Taming Proficiency skill 3.
- Updated some undesired movement speed bonuses on tamed creatures
- Adjusted Seagull and Crow aggro speeds (Would previously take a long time to de-aggro). Updated collision to allow player attacks to land more consistently.
- Updated Vulture AI to only target sleeping humans if the player is connected. Updated attack logic to better harvest corpses, while reducing its melee swing radius (Was previously hitting from very far away)
- Reduced Bee movement to allow player attacks to land. Reduced sting buff duration to better reflect its size.
- Increased harvest amount of fur and milk from Sheep and Cow to incentivise taming and better compete with natural resource gathering amounts. Updated max yield timings to scale with creature level, similar to other creature abilities, instead of food value.
- Added durability decreased to the bucket when milking.
- Clamped amount of fur gained from harvesting wild sheep, again to incentivise taming. Wild sheep will also flee and may attack players after excessive shearing. We'll be adding recipes in an upcoming update which can be used to heal your creatures!
- Added Lion roar animation.
- Fixed fur stretching on Wolf's face and hind leg
- Decreased Crocodile swim speed.
- Creature health regen rebalanced and changed so that they no longer regen health when forcefed or from consuming corpses. With the exception of Wild Carnos, which still can consume corpses to heal at a reduced rate.
- Baby breeding balance changes to compensate for the overall creature regen changes.
- Wild Scorpions will no longer target large creatures, will no longer be aggressive towards Elephants, Giraffes, etc.
- Lion will only dismount players that are on medium and less sized creatures, will no longer dismount players from Elephants, Giraffes, etc.
- Updated taming foods to allow a variety of items to be used in taming creatures.
Effectiveness left(more) to right(less):
Tier 1
Chicken - Fruits, Berries
Monkey - Fruits, Berries
Parrot - Hardtack, or Berries
Rabbit - Carrots, or Berries
Sheep - Flowers, or Berries
Tier 2
Bear - Honey, Vegetables, Fruits or Berries
Cow/Bull - Rushes, Fronds, Vegetables, Fruits, or Berries
Crow - Worms, Fruits, or Berries
Horse - Sugarcane, Vegetables, Fruits, or Berries
Ostrich - Chili, Vegetables, Fruits, or Berries
Penguin - Prime Fish Meat, or Fish Meat
Pig - Maize, Vegetables, Fruits, or Berries
Seagull - Prime Fish Meat, or Fish Meat
Vulture - Spoiled Meat, or Worms
Wolf - Prime Animal Meat, Bones, or other Meats
Tier 3
Elephant - Wheat, Vegetables, or Fruits
Giraffe - Beets, Vegetables, or Fruits
Lion - Prime Animal Meat, or other Meats
Rhino - Turnip, Vegetables, or Fruits
Tiger - Prime Animal Meat, or other Meats
As mentioned previously, this is just the very beginning of our journey. We’ll continue to frequently pump out major patches every week to improve the state of the game, introducing QOL changes, bug and exploit fixes, rebalance adjustments, redesigns, and new content. ATLAS fans will have a lot to look forward to and we’re so excited for the future. We’re already working on some major content & feature additions in tangent with our frequent live game patches, so stay tuned for more information on that!
As for what’s in the immediate future, well in addition to a current hot topic we’ll go into below, Pathfinders can expect to see a tremendous increase in server performance over the coming weeks. We are confident that we will be able to double it incrementally over forthcoming updates. Plus, you’ll be able to change your tattoos in freeports at your local Tattoo Artist NPC! And we have major changes incoming related to how you’ll be able to manage and benefit from the territories that you own, improvements and additions to sailing and crew mechanics, player-run shops and Freeport interactions, and much more. Finally, the biggest news is the ATLAS Dev Kit is finally nearly ready to release, and we intend to have it in your hands at the start of this coming week -- get your creative juices flowing to help make ATLAS bigger and better than it is! We’ll have more notes to come in the next Log, so please make sure you bookmark the page below to keep up to date with our latest changes!
Link to complete Patch Notes:
capt'n exploits and scummy seadogs!
It goes without saying that cracking down on cheaters, exploits, and general misconduct is a priority of ours. One of the many items on a list which we are working to address over the time ahead, and here’s how we’re going to do it:
Basics of Anti Cheat & Support: BattlEye Implementation
Now that v10 is out the door, outside of dealing with critical issues that arise from that patch or are otherwise discovered, we’ll be working on intensely on enabling BattlEye Anti Cheat on our Official Network, as well as for Unofficial Servers to use, plus other underlying data-driven systems, to help put a stop to cheaters.
Secrets of Anti Cheat & Support: playATLAS Tickets
As of today, we’ll have launched our first phase of customer support. We will be (and have already done so) providing in-game assistance to players who have lost ownership of their companies, and players who have found themselves in a sticky situation that they cannot escape (outside of intended game mechanics). Additionally, we’ll be providing an option that players can use to report other users who have broken our Official Network’s Code of Conduct. Please note that this list isn’t entirely exhaustive and this is just the first phase of what we’d like to tackle as the game grows.
CODE OF CONDUCT!
You can click here if you’re seeking some assistance! Please be patient as we work through the kinks of the system and get it under control, we’re expecting a heavy influx of requests day one and there might be some lead time in responses, however, we plan to tackle these as quickly as possible in cases where we are providing assistance.
We’ll be using these systems, in addition to general feedback, to help us identify what problems people are facing and how we can tackle them from a technical point of view. To be transparent and speak realistically, as a small studio, we’re better equipped to funnel our resources into dealing with game problems that arise through technical implementation rather than customer service, however, we do see the need for it and wanted to provide an option in some cases. Over time, these options will grow and expand as both the team and game do to address the needs of you guys and tackle some of your in-game problems which aren’t viably resolved with a technical change.
Esotery of Anti-Cheat & Support: Additional Cheat Detection & Prevention
Following the implementation of BattlEye and ensuring smooth seas on BE protected networks, we’ll be exploring additional internal options to help identify, track and catch cheaters as well as general player concerns and problems. We’re not going to go into too many details, it’s important to keep these bits close to our chest, however, we just wanted to iterate that BattlEye would just be the beginning and over time our team will continue to invest resources into sinking the ships of cheaters!
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: XSM???, Cobra, French & Ships, Bad Company, BLDX DOUYU56876, and Chem B
Arrivals: LEGION, Enslaved, The French Monkeys, ETERNIA, and OOOOOOOOOF.
Departures: PUBG GOLDEN HORDE, La Flotte Ancestrale, and Blackwater Company.
[NA PVP] The Kraken's Maw
Held: Dynasty, High Seas Booty Bandits, Order of Freedom, TPG, CSTG, and Barry Sails.
Arrivals: OwO, The Federation, and The Late Shift.
Departures: MAGA, INFINITE, The Goodship Misery, Radium,
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, M.E.R.C Spirit, Paragon, Rum ueber Bord, Woelfe des Rudels, Future Company (HUN), and Fenrirs Dogs
Arrivals: Black Lotus, Tacorsair, and SouL SanD.
Depatures: Forlorn Hope, I.C.E, PIRATES, Unlucky,
[NA PVE] The Hydra's Den
Held: Plunderers, Scales & Sails, The Salty Seamen, Dead Men Floating,The Exiles, Atlas Shrugged, East India Trading Co.
Arrivals: CN-adilt supplies, Paragon, Narcos,
Departures: Biz Enton Company, blublublu, and Sail, Fail, Repeat.
Show 'n Tell Showcase
Avast, Pathfinders and welcome to the results of our first Show n' Tell Showcase
Yer entries to the Showcase shivered our timbers. 'twas a challenge to select jus' a few! We look forward to seein' what the community create in the future. Keep yer one good eye cast on the Creative sub forum and have your mighty fleets, paint pieces, flags & sails, impenetrable forts, hellish tats, scenic screenshots, 'n entertainin' videos ready to share for next week's Showcase. Congratulations to our winners who have scored themselves cash prizes!
Winners
SITHARIAS
An exquisite build along with impressive editing and production. Witness someone exploring the building mechanics in ATLAS to breathtaking effect.
SpookyAnonymous
A beautifully wrought portrait of steely-eyed Captain surveying his fleet or a depiction of a certain Captain Fatbeard about to shout at his crew? Either way, we admire the amount of detail put into this original artwork!
BPEPPERS
The bold use of colour in this original fanart depicting a Pirate's best friend caught our attention. Did you know that a Parrot gives a player extra fortitude scaled by the creature's level?
LOCKEMURDOCK
We loved the sail design of this ship. Lady Luck was definitely on your side when you entered this competition. We hope she does likewise for you when you are on the high seas seeking treasure in this magnificent vessel.
STONIEDUDE
The intricacy of this tribal-style tattoo put wind in our sails and the menacing aspect of the ready-for-war facial decoration looks like it could blow them back down!
Honorable Mentions
JUKARI
SCOTTY
BLUEDRAGON
AHRA
BENTENPENNY
KANE
5010
WOOKIEESTICK
That wraps up this weeks' showcase. Congratulations to those of you we've featured! We’re looking forward to seeing what amazing new art the community can come up with next week! Thank you to all of ye scallywags, landlubbers and seadogs for the bootyful submissions ye shared with us 'ere rapscallions.
Sail across to the submission thread if you would like to check out all of the past week's fantastic entries.
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
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