Grapeshot Games had themselves an ambitious project when they announced their next title Atlas, a pirate MMORPG that had its sights set on being, well, massive. It had plans to host over 40,000 players at one time in one server. It planned to have features that allowed players to create pirate crews and steal entire ships from other crews. It was an ambitious plan with an early access that was delayed by week . And when it finally did…
Atlas was not entirely well received. The realistic style of the game caused some issues with bits and pieces that players had to deal with and take care of, down to being able to die from lack of vitamins. With the brutal intro island levels, many players found their characters dying every few seconds. Those who were able to survive the entry levels found that life on the sea was even worse with its micromanaging of characters health. The review section on Atlas’s Steam page has been Mostly Negative, and the comments aren’t holding back:
Check out the review section on the Steam page, as some of these get pretty intense.
So finally, Grapeshot Games started working on patch, one that would hopefully make the game playable. The patch includes reducing the damage of sea monsters by 66%, players no longer being able to die from exhaustion, water being able to be found in more places, and certain movements causing less exhaustion. These were scattered through the several general patches fixing some issues and adding more character levels. However, the most notable patch note was hidden in the bottom of the patch notes, and it sounds like something that belongs in a list of patch notes for The Sims: “Eating poop is now insta-death.”
This patch not only comes as a bit of a shock as given how many players have said they died over the most benign excursions, but this would have already been on the list of causes of death. The patch notes never specific type of feces they have to be, so that’s a good excuse to dodge all excrements.
Grapeshot Games has stated that they hope that this upcoming January 7 patch will make Atlas more balanced and more playable for those who suffered quick deaths. Atlas is still in early access, but available for $29.99 USD for those who want to experience it.