Atlas new “map” update

Atlas continues to betray its user base even a year and a half later. They released a “new map” update of 74 mbs.. Yes an entire new map that is so changed it was only 74 mbs. I think warcraft 3 had bigger map download sizes than that.

They did not fix or change anything except to shrink the map. The map name is still ocean and nothing new like they kept calling it up in the updates on steam. They simply shrunk it because of the lack of user base. All while wiping the entire game to help with server costs as well.

Supposedly they added new team members a month ago and this was the “We did things guyz” content patch that was supposedly gonna change the game for the better. It is literally the exacty same. No new islands or interesting locales. The same old copy paste still.

No real bug fixes or changes except to shrink upkeeps of things while also nerfing drop amounts. That is their grand hope at changing the game. Considering what Ark became this is just a huge embarrassment for the team behind atlas.

But what do you expect when Atlas was meant to be a mod for Ark and not a standalone game? They seemed to rush out this crap update to capitalize on the steam summer sale.

Avoid this even a year and half later. It is still the same and even worse now because of all the lies and dare I say, almost scam like behavior from the devs.

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Amazons Crucible Fails as predicted. Is New World destined to the same fate?

As I did a write up on Amazon Games Studios first official game Crucible here and touched on many of the issues that were present at launch. Well new news regarding Crucible. It has gone from an officially launched game…back to closed beta with signups on the site.

This is a very rare thing. The only time I can really think of that a game has gone from official release to taken down and back to the drawing board was Final Fantasy XIV. Which was also met with a horrible launch and tons of negative criticism for what they gave us.

This does not bold well for the new game studio. While it is nice they see it is not a good game and want to put the time and money into fixing it.. it leads to what may be the norm for the giant studio.

As New World 6 months before release completely changed from an open world sandbox pvp game to a theme park game without any of the systems a themepark has and expected it to be ready for release..Well I have a feeling New World will launch and be pulled back to alpha. Simply because they have not had time to add any of the systems from a complete game change.

I feel this is similar to Crucible. As if you played it..the game itself felt like they had made it a battle royal game then upon seeing the success of Valorant, changed it to try and capitalize on that success. However they left all the battle royal stuff in and did not add any of the systems that makes games like valorant how they are.

This indeed seems like amazon games MO at this point and I cannot help but wonder how they can keep doing this? It just boggles my mind.

The Survival Genre Issues

There are quite a few glaring issues with the survival genre. Atleast those online anyways. Many try various gimmicks to try and fix it but normally fail for the most part. So what are the biggest issues in the genre?

Offline raiding. This tends to be a major issue for most survival games. The issue of this is that if you are not on the game 24/7 there is a high chance people will wait till you log off to raid you. Now there is a few trials to fix this in the genre but most tend to not do well. Many offer a pve-conflict type option where there is timed pvp and no base destruction, but that leaves tons of other issues and a lower player base.

Last oasis has the offline protection logging for the player/walkers but the server issues make this impossible to be good or even work many times. Others like rust/cryofall tend to wipe every month but that makes it more session based and less fun for folks who do want a static place. Also unless the core loop is really really good like rusts gunplay then no one is gonna want to keep doing that fresh start loop.

The most logical fix would be to create a way for the base to become immune or protected a few minutes after the player logs. While this can create issues of battle logging but there are ways to make it so one cannot battle log either.

Another issue is that many in the survival genre think pvp is offline raiding. Infact that is the complete opposite of pvp. But the least risk and most reward is offline raiding as bases simply cannot survive without the player online. So this creates a weird non pvp meta in a genre that promotes pvp. Of course this would be solved if offline raiding was not a thing.

The core game loop tends to be a big issue for many of these as well. Many of the survival devs say they just can’t fix the offline raiding problem, however, I think it is mostly because without that loop of always starting over most players would find the core loop is basically nil.

So rather than create a good loop and a lot of good content they rely on crappy mechanics to be lazy.

The last issue is the alpha or huge tribes that are able to build up and keep things in games that do not wipe. Of course many of those do get all that by offline raiding and not really grinding it out so of course offline raiding protection would help this. But there can be other ways to help this. Various limitations on numbers, or places owned. Something like a purge like conan does. Or even adding a system where if you get to a certain level then random folks could team up to take you down. Letting the player population basically police itself agaisnt such things.

Of course these are only some of the issues but the most glaring ones that plague the genre. Think you for reading and if you have any comment or ideas feel free to do so!

Valorant not a CSGO Killer

Many are touting Valorant as a CSGO killer. Having gotten in to play it today I can tell you that is not the case. While the level design does seem more similar to cs maps than other fps games that is where the similarities end.

Valorant is more of an assault on overwatch and apex legends than anything. But based on Riots upcoming game list, which includes a card game, this fps game and even a diablo like game, it seems Riot is assaulting Blizzard. Which considering Blizzards epic blunders the past couple of years, well it is a good time to strike at the once pc gaming giant.

So why do I say it is not a CSGO killer? The guns and movement feel abit “stiff” compared to the entrenched CSGO community and esports scene. The abilities alone add too much randomness and “luck” more akin to a modern EA fps game.

While yes this game will become something and be a thing in the esports scene, most of the “pros” joining it are mid tier at best. So they are not taking away much talent or prospect from the current CSGO scene at all.

However, apex legends and overwatch pro scenes will most likely be more in trouble. The abilities is akin to what they are used to as well as the roles the characters you can choose plays in a team.