ATLAS I have seen it all, there is no more to see. |
| I have seen it all, there is no more to see. Posted: 15 Aug 2019 12:49 PM PDT Long mostly pointless post follows. I can't fathom why you should read it. I'm just bored and figured I'd share my round-up of Atlas experiences. I think my experience is somewhat unique because I made a point to try many different modes of gameplay.....and they all had their rather serious faults. Mode 1: Lawless Living FTW I played all of season 1 as a small tribe living in lawless and engaging in raids. This was fun in a "keep your heads down" sort of way. As lawless, you really couldn't own "nice things". There's nowhere to store them that's really secure. There are design philosophies that help a lot (build far inland on very large islands; have "fake resource boxes" with just enough in them to look legit while the real resources are under floorboards that you replace each night), but in the end you are limited to mostly lawless raiding and hit-and-run ship attacks. Surprisingly you might go for 2 weeks or more with a brig parked in plain sight but all it takes is one bored person at 4am to sink it. So it was fun, but you hit "peak raider" pretty early and then it's just repetitive raiding on minor outposts and never really getting the good stuff and never really getting to partake in big-boy ship fights. Mode 2: Independent Tribe on a Small Island No king! No queen! No lords! Own your own island! Bow to no man. In season 2 with the new land rules this was very viable and probably the most fun we had overall. Overnight protection means you can have more "nice stuff". Your tames aren't getting killed overnight on a regular basis. You can actually store some blueprints. You can work on having a harbor with ships. Problem is, eventually a mega comes around and demands you suck their dick, and if you don't suck their dick, or maybe even if you do, they will eventually just land on your island with 70 people for 8 hours straight for as many nights as it takes. It's BETTER security than lawless living but your day will come. Which in practical terms means it's probably still not worth it to really invest in "end game" things, like farming up mythical cannons or making a full legendary ship. That's a lot of time to sink in stuff that's pretty boring to do and your security is only as good as your willingness to suck that dick when it comes around. So mode 2 is better than mode 1 but again you will find it's hard to do "big boy ship fights" because you just don't have the security you need to justify the investment of a legendary ship and all that this entails. Mode 3: Be a Renter I think if you got lucky this could be the most fun way to play. You're a renter on the island of a more powerful tribe, probably one that's in an alliance of some sort. That alliance at least leaves your island stuff alone, because they will defer to the island owner. But you aren't really held to the alliance's laws or restrictions. You can pretty well FFA. Might be the alliance tells you to back down here or there but you have pretty good freedom and pretty good security. Island owner isn't going to just let some foreign mega come in and fight on his island so you have some protection. Problem is you can't ever really know what the island owner's plans are. Eventually, perhaps inevitably, they will just up and leave. Maybe they quit the game. Or decide you're good enough that they are simply going to give you the island so they can spend those points elsewhere. Which is nice but either this sends you to Mode 2, with all of its problems, or puts you into: Mode 4: Joining an Alliance This is the most secure way to play. Now you piss off a mega and they bring 70 people to your shores? Party time! Your own alliance brings their own 70 people and it's a real war. And with defenders having a pretty solid advantage in this game, as long as you can avoid being severely outnumbered, odds are pretty good that you can keep your important stuff secured for months if not indefinitely. Now you can have that legendary ship. And use it! And probably even get it sunk out on the seas like god intended instead of while anchored! And then make another one! Buuuuut the tradeoff for this style is that you will tend to clear out all of the "mode 1" and "mode 2" players around you to the point that there is nothing to do, or else you have to sail for 4+ grids (and back) to find people to attack. You can't just be all like "Eh, 8pm, guess I'll log in to Atlas and fart around a bit." Nope. Full fledged mode 4 means if you are logging on to play, you are committing to a 4+ hour session because once you set sail, you are not going to be able to log off for probably the rest of the night, with most of it being pretty uneventful sailing in a straight line. Many was the night in "mode 4" where I basically said "oh god" because I really wanted to log out but I had to sail 4 grids upwind to safely park again. Try not to have a social life in mode 4, or else get used to asking and being asked to "can you just sail this the rest of the way for me, I need to go". ... I think in the end, Atlas is actually ruined by the ships. Or rather, the conflict between "the need for good ships that represent a lot of time investment" and the ability to just log in and walk out your front door and have fun. You can do one or the other but not both. Fun outside your door = your ships probably died at anchor. Safe ships = there are no enemies anywhere near your front door. ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯ I never played Ark but I imagine it's why Ark is more popular. Presumably it does not have that same tradeoff of "immediate fun" vs "necessary security". [link] [comments]  |
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