Last week, the new lead designer of Atlas admitted openly that change has to happen to bring the game back to the path of success. We now have a clearer look at that path with the unveiling of a new development roadmap, which plans to make a huge swath of changes to the piratical sandbox.
First, the roadmap offered up a pie chart of what players are doing right now versus where players should be after these next updates. In synopsis, the devs are looking to make sure Atlas players are out on the ocean more than they are on land, facing more combat encounters and less time taming creatures.
The route to these changes will happen in four phases. The first phase will focus on bug squashing, performance improvements, and quality-of-life changes. Phase two takes to the seas with improvements to sailing and ship systems, more sea-based NPC encounters, adding more sailing activities, and looking at ways for players to safely store their ship when they go offline. Phase three will work on a reworked skill tree and more fluid combat. Finally, phase four will focus on reducing the importance of land claiming to counter “pillar spamming” and “honeycombing,” along with MMO-minded features such as more populated towns and ports, a deeper in-game economy, and more storage options (because storage is one of the biggest bosses in MMO gaming, as we all know).
The journey to these changes will kick off after Atlas releases its new Mega Update and arrives to the Xbox. A launch date for the console version has not been announced, but the Mega Update is currently live on the PTR.
