It’s been a wild ride since we set sail last Summer to renew the Atlas journey! We’re going to take a look at how the Game Preview journey has been so far and see what’s on the horizon!
At our journey onset we introduced The Maelstrom map, giving the world a more identifiable shape with clear areas of conflict and safety. Up next was the Trade System that automates the gathering of simple resources and allows the creation of a trading network to advance a company’s influence in new ways. This was made possible with several new types of gathering buildings (farm, quarry, mine, and lumberyard), a warehouse which automatically collects from the farms, and a market which allows a company to configure automated trading from the warehouse.
Sea forts are now capturable micro-island that are integral to the Trade System. Companies can take over sea forts then tax trade shipments that go through its region or blockade other companies from using that trade route. The next step for this system is to add NPC ships to execute the company trades, allowing players to pirate these shipments.
This week, Atlas sees the Area Claiming System coming to the public server! Place a land claim tower on a lawless region to assert ownership over that area and prevent others from building there — until they knock your tower down.
Atlas is synonymous with ships and a new Ship System is rolling out starting with modular ship designs. First was the Ramming Galley, a sturdy vessel that has rowers for a speed boost, allowing it to ram straight into enemy ships. In February we added the Majestic Kraken ship featuring two rows of gunports armed with 160% damage cannons. These ships laid the foundation for a new modular system of customization – coming soon! This will allow players to easily swap various ship parts to change the function and the form of their ship. By the end of the year we expect players to be able to choose a ship skeleton and fully customize from bow to stern, giving full control of the type of ship they want to build while allowing beautiful ships to be effective at sea.
We have added new ways to protect your ships while you are not around. The armored dock now provides an added layer of protection while you are not around.
Taming and breeding are a fun highlight in Atlas and we continue to make tames more viable and more fun! We are starting to introduce tamable sea creatures, with dolphins and seahorses recently added to the list of tamable and rideable creatures.
Our focus is to make the game revolve even more around sea conflict and having a strong navy. This is why we have been making changes which reduce the amount of time you spend on land collecting resources and increase the amount of interactions you have on sea. Coming soon is trade winds, which are like the highways on the sea. This should allow players to move around on the map more and set up choke points for conflict. A strong fleet and well-trained Sea Tames will be necessary to have success in Atlas. Keep yer eye on the Atlas website www.playatlas.com for more details as we draw closer to these changes!
ATLAS (Game Preview)
Snail Games USA
ATLAS is now crossplay enabled to allow PC and Xbox One players to play together in the same world!
From the creators of ARK: Survival Evolved comes ATLAS — the ultimate pirate experience! Explore a persistent, massive open world with thousands of other players simultaneously. Build your ship, assemble your crew, sail the high seas, search for buried treasure, plunder player-built settlements (or replace them with your own), and conquer the world of ATLAS island by island. Wage war against enemy fleets while you single-handedly command large ships of war — or divide the responsibilities among your trusted shipmates instead. Dive into the watery depths to explore sunken shipwrecks. Team up with other explorers to discover new lands rich with resources, exotic creatures, and ruins of a bygone time. Become a pirate legend in this ultimate quest for fortune and glory!
Create the Pirate Ship of Your Dreams
From tiny rafts and dinghies to colossal frigates and galleons, your dream vessel is only a shipyard away with our robust ship customization system. Construct your ship piece by piece, give it a name, design the look of your sails, and decide exactly where all the planks, masts, and gunports on your ship should go.
Assemble Your Crew
Recruit other players or hire NPCs to join your crew and aid you on your quest for riches and glory. Whether manning weapons on your ship, hoisting the sails, or helping search for buried treasure on shore, your crew is an essential part of your pirate adventure. Just be sure to keep their stomachs full and give them their fair share of the booty, lest you want a mutiny on your hands…
Explore a Massive World
Physically sail in real-time across a vast ocean, featuring over 700 individual landmasses across 45,000 square kilometers. Discover thousands of points of interest over a number of distinct world regions, each with their own unique resources, creatures, secrets, and dangers!
Shape Your Identity
Choose from a wide range of character customization and cosmetic options to create your specific pirate look. Unlock skills across 15 different disciplines to form your own unique role in the world of ATLAS.
Experience Classic Pirate Action
Become the world’s greatest swashbuckler, a pistol-packing gunslinger, or perhaps a master cannoneer instead. Engage in fierce raids on land-based strongholds, swing from grappling hooks to board enemy ships, or unload volleys of cannonballs into your foe’s hull. The world of ATLAS has no shortage of ways to dispatch your enemies, be it at the end of a sword… or in true pirate fashion… at the end of a rope.
Build Your Organization
Want to create a rich merchant empire that spans from pole to pole? Always wanted to command a fleet of privateers who work for the highest bidder? Or perhaps you’d like to create a government navy and protect the innocent from pirates? In ATLAS, you can build any organization you can think of. Create a settlement for your company and build it piece by piece with our modular construction system. Contest other companies’ land, structures, or ships and add them to your ranks. With the right organization in hand, the world is truly your oyster.
Choose Between PvP and PvE Play
Choose between PvP or PvE play on our official servers:
On a PvP server, everything is up for grabs: be it ships, player inventories, NPC crewmembers, tames, player-built structures, player-owned territory, and lots of other loot. If you can get your hands on it, you can take it for yourself. Do you have what it takes to become the most notorious pirate on the high seas?
Care for a less “cutthroat” experience? Join one of our PvE servers and cooperate with thousands of other players to explore the globe, discover new secrets, and even fight mythical creatures together. Create powerful companies with old friends or build an entire player-run town with some new ones. The world of ATLAS is yours to shape!
Play in Singleplayer and Non-Dedicated Private Sessions
In addition to experiencing ATLAS on our official/unofficial servers with thousands of other players, you can now enjoy ATLAS by yourself in our Singleplayer mode, or with up to eight friends privately in our Non-Dedicated Server mode. Adjust the game to suit your preferences and enjoy your own private version of ATLAS.
And Much, Much More
Only a fraction of ATLAS’ features and content are outlined above, with many more to come throughout the game’s Early Access development period.
Related:
Dungeon Defenders: Awakened Available Now on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One
An Absurd Medieval Open World Awaits in Rustler, Coming to Xbox Later this Year
Next Week on Xbox: March 23 to 26
Source: Xbox Blog
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