'Atlas' Servers Rolled Back After Compromised Admin Account Causes Mayhem
Chaos hit Atlas late last week when an admin account for Grapeshot Games’ pirate MMO was [...]
Chaos hit Atlas late last week when an admin account for Grapeshot Games' pirate MMO was compromised and led to the spawning of whales, tanks, and all sorts of strange happenings which resulted in an official server rollback.
Atlas players were witnesses to the effects of a lost admin account last week when they saw events such as the one shown in the clip below occurring in-game. Set in a fantasy world where players play as pirates who roam the seas surviving and looking for loot, Atlas already has some fantastical elements, but the effects of the compromised account resulted in some interesting effects. The clip below is one of many that shows a plane crashing in the water next to an old-fashioned ship, much to the streamer's surprise. Another clip showed a tank cutting lose on the pirate setting as it drove on walls and sped across the ground.
When the events first started unfolding, players quickly suspected the situation was a result of hackers or modders who were affecting other players' experiences. Grapeshot Games took the network offline to investigate the reports from players and eventually brought them back with an explanation of what happened. The announcement confirmed that the game itself was not hacked and that an admin account had fallen into the wrong hands.
Pathfinders,
We've temporarily offlined our Official Network whilst we look into reports. We'll be restoring the servers online as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and our apologies for the inconvenience.
— ATLAS (@sailtheatlas) January 17, 2019
"Earlier today, an admin's steam account was compromised and used to cause some devastation on our Official NA PvP Network," Grapeshot Games said on the official forums regarding the situation. "To be clear this was not caused by a hack, third party program, or exploit. We have taken the appropriate steps to ensure this does not happen again. We'll be rolling back our Official NA PvP Network by approximately 5 and a half hours to a network world save at approximately 11 AM UTC (3 AM PST/6 AM EST). We apologize for the inconvenience and we thank for your patience and understanding during this time."
Atlas is currently available via Steam in an early access form and is listed as having "Mostly Negative" reviews since it released late in 2018. The game still maintains tens of thousands of players at any given time following a rocky launch marked by several delays.