The latest problem facing Grapeshot's Ark clone, Atlas, isn't cheaters, bugs, or optimizations — although those problems still persist — but admin accounts. Specifically, one that was hacked, giving those who captured it the ability to do just about anything they want in the game's main server. It didn't take long for whales and tanks to start raining from the sky.
"Earlier today, an admin’s steam account was compromised and used to cause some devastation on our Official NA PvP Network," Grapeshot community manager, Jatheish said on the official Atlas forums. "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."
Grapeshot hasn't announced if it knows who was behind the hack or explained how it happened in the first place, but many players are certain it relates to a group known as Black Butterfly, which has been notorious for its hacks and cheats in the game. This latest attack seemed to be concentrated around the group's in-game territory.
Atlas still maintains a large player base of tens of thousands, but many have retreated to private servers to avoid the problems found with the major, singular server style of play.