Hourglass 2.0: Time Limits and Score System

disincentivizes loss-farming

I never understood this. You are getting a Free Win...bonus exp toward you, while the loser gets what Half? 1/3?
Why are players upset about these, its a playstyle. Why change someones playstyle.

New Time limit

New Score System

Say we get 20min as proposed. What if some how..both are equal Scores....who wins?

Scenario 1] The match reaches the time limit and neither team sinks:

as long I hit more, and run away preventing you from hitting me..my score will be higher. So my running tactic still a thing, but more Hit and Run. :P

I can get behind a time limit, but the whole score thing is silly.
Players who actually play Hourglass as it was designed, Just wanna pvp without a care of scores or who did what better. That isn't fun for many players who just want to sink a ship, cause explosions and fight with swords and guns on decks.

Plus you forget about all the other factors in an Open World. Npc enemies who can spawn close, islands/rocks crashing, random third party ships. Maybe a random keg spawning or Fortresses firing cannons.

@burnbacon said:

as long I hit more, and run away preventing you from hitting me..my score will be higher. So my running tactic still a thing, but more Hit and Run. :P

Yeah but they would only have to suffer you for 20 min instead of however long you waste their time now. Lucky them.

Also, that only works if they don't land more hits on you. And if they don't, then its not really like you're winning by underperforming, is it?

And ultimately, you just win a fixed amount of XP, and they still get more for their effort than they would with the current system. Again, that's provided they put in effort to fight back. And if not, then ggs to your "hit and run."

@wolfmanbush said:

I miss the score screen, always felt exciting with the timer and last second plays.

I'd like to see one balls in there, that's a fun one that really isn't something that can be cheesed/abused to any significant degree. Gives a good goal/reward

When the drums kicked off that 2 min timer music & you're telling the homies to lock in because they can and will win this broad. Good times.

One balls would be fun & could be tied to separate commendations too. Against unique pirates (at least per match) to avoid camping/farming. Same thing for weapon kills.

@hefty-henri said:

All for it. I'd even say lower the timer to 10 minutes. It takes 30 sec to surface, adjust sail and angle. From there most of my matches are over in 5 minutes. Someone gets masted and/or one balled, and that's the end of it 95% of the time.

This is closer to the time limit I would personally prefer. Makes the most sense for dive v dive fights where both crews are just interested in PvP.

For treasure defense players (potentially dealing with multiple crews), or crews who play more defensive in general - I didn't want them to feel too rushed to execute in 10 min, else they lose their streaks, supps, loot and everything.

So I also agree with @d3adst1ck on:

... maybe just don't affect streaks if you time out which might also limit players who 'run' in order to time out the match after a good broadside for mega points.

And:

ending a match while ships are engaged might not be great, so maybe have a sudden death where no repairing is possible...I but it could be better to just end the match at 20. Not sure.

Maybe a 15 min limit, with an additional 5 min sudden death (e.g. no repairing, or holes popping) that only triggers if at least one crew is still engaged?

And if a crew loses due to time limit, they are merged out of the server as normal, lose all loot onboard, but retain their streak and supps?

Yes. YES. Maybe some finer details to work out on the scoring, but directionally absolutely YES!

And make the circle smaller... Not a shrinking circle...just make it generally a LOT smaller.

@sweetsandman said:

Yes. YES. Maybe some finer details to work out on the scoring, but directionally absolutely YES!

As in the activities to consider, or their point values, or the percentage-system in general?

I do think that rewarding for activity, relative to the winner's activity as a percentage, is the way to go.

The points and activities I listed were just examples to illustrate the reward system. Because in the past, whenever I mentioned this in other threads, some said that it was "too complicated."

Percentages... too complicated.

Maybe if I stitch a video of someone playing minecraft below my talking points...

And make the circle smaller... Not a shrinking circle...just make it generally a LOT smaller.

I think a smaller circle is another one of those things that dive v dive crews might prefer over a defending crew. Maybe scaling the circle down respective to ship size? The way my crew prefers to do HG, we'd be happy with just 1 square lol.

@theblackbellamy said in Hourglass 2.0: Time Limits and Score System:

@sweetsandman said:

Yes. YES. Maybe some finer details to work out on the scoring, but directionally absolutely YES!

As in the activities to consider, or their point values, or the percentage-system in general?

I like the concept of keeping it simple, but I feel like with all the different artillery types we have available, there should be incentives for landing them.

Chainshots on masts: 20 points?
Scattershots: 5 points per ball?
Blunderbombs/Firebombs/Bone callers (fired out of cannons)/Curses: 20 points?

By simply lumping them into the same points category as hitting a cannonball it doesn't promote strategy enough IMO. Maybe I'm overcomplicating it, but that's my thinking.

And make the circle smaller... Not a shrinking circle...just make it generally a LOT smaller.

I think a smaller circle is another one of those things that dive v dive crews might prefer over a defending crew. Maybe scaling the circle down respective to ship size? The way my crew prefers to do HG, we'd be happy with just 1 square lol.

Yeah it would need to be scaled by ship type, definitely. They're all on the large side, but the sloop circle is especially enormous.

@sweetsandman said:

I like the concept of keeping it simple, but I feel like with all the different artillery types we have available, there should be incentives for landing them.

Chainshots on masts: 20 points?
Scattershots: 5 points per ball?
Blunderbombs/Firebombs/Bone callers (fired out of cannons)/Curses: 20 points?

By simply lumping them into the same points category as hitting a cannonball it doesn't promote strategy enough IMO. Maybe I'm overcomplicating it, but that's my thinking.

If we want to promote strategy then I feel it might be better to factor in activities like dropping an opponent's anchor or breaking their mast, as opposed to "chainshots" specifically.

Since supplies aren't equal between crews, I don't think a crew should go in with an advantage of higher (point-)value supplies.

Maybe something like this?

Primary Objective - Sink opponent:
Cannon hits (any ammunition): 10
Repairs: 10 (@D3ADST1CK this would negate any dump & run strats?)

Secondary Activities:
Drop Anchor: 2
Drop Mast: 4
Kill Boarder: 5
One-balls: 3 (@WolfManbush)
Reviving crew mate: 2

I'm picturing a very simple scoreboard in some corner of the screen that just displays your & your opponent's overall score. It would be cool if a scroll appeared on the voyage table that gave a full breakdown of your crew's score, for the current (and most recent) match.

I'm also leaning towards a hard 20 min time limit (only to keep things simple). Then, in a win/loss situation: Loss-XP is scaled. In a tie: both crews get a fixed XP (less than Win-XP); retain their streaks, flags and remaining supplies; are merged out into separate servers.

@itz-majman said:

#1 thing is to fix the cheating problem. It's overwhelming... I like the ideas overall though but I feel like they will go down poorly if they don't fix the overall matchmaking & the problem I talked about above.

My crew isn't playing this weekend lol. We tried last weekend and ran into all the stuff you were talking about. And it looks like the community has figured out another supplies exploit (unless it's been patched since, idk). One of my best friends lives in Sweden. I have played on his servers and I empathize with you.

The mode is meant to attract players like me, and because of how ineffective EAC has been at catching cheaters, we get burned out and leave the player pool. That must have some impact on matchmaking as well.

I agree with you. I feel Rare should address this as a priority over any new content. Harpoon guns and traps can wait. Hourglass content can wait.

Still... if we do ever get to a place where EAC is actively and effectively cleaning the servers up, and more people are willing to participate in HG, I do think Rare would retain their activity much better with this type of reward system.