[2019] In which direction should the devs develop their next patches ?

A technical hurdle we have with ships is the memory footprint they add to the game. With all the unique pieces on a boat, just by introducing a new type, we end up adding a lot of memory and there isn't really any other gameplay aspect that's comparable to it, once we make some improvements and overhauls to this system, it'll become a lot more likely that we'll be able to add additional ships, not to say that it won't happen now, but this is one of the things we have to workaround. Memory is an important aspect as it's something we need to consider when getting ATLAS to launch on console later on.

It's why in the past when we have decided to do introduce an update that effects ships, it tends to be based on introducing mechanics that work with ships, so think ship weapons/structures, their attachment system etc: Racks, Ballista Harpoon, Fishing Net.

The attachment system is pretty robust, so it wouldn't be surprising to see new systems based around it.

Hopefully, until we're satisfied with the state of the game

We're targetting 1.5 - 2 years though.

Those structures/objects are negligible in comparison. We recognize that a more diverse selection of ship designs would be better received and we would like to give players more options not only for gameplay reasons but forging their own identities within the game and allowing them as much customization as possible, it's just more of a long term goal

Just their existence, it isn't an unsolvable problem, it'll just take some time.

Honestly, I wouldn't be able to say - I am not technical enough - but I do know creatures are rather negligible in comparison. Though some good(ish?) news is that we did have a bit of a discussion about it today and there are some technical things the team are going to look into in the future, hopefully, we'll be able to share more on that later on . We know how much ya guys do want it though, it's not fallen on deaf ears!