Hourglass Changes

Shrinking zone for the battle area after a set amount of time
So I can beat @burnbacon to it.

How often and how small would require play testing. For a start play testing deal, let us go with once every 10 minutes, 10% shrinkage down to a min size of 60% of the current size. So 100% - 90% - 80 % - 70% - 60% - 60% - 60%

This can be easily done in a couple of ways.

1. Step wise shrinking every X minutes where out of bounds edge moves Y ship lengths towards the center. The outer boarder were you explode also moves in the same amount but not until both ships are located within the new battle area.
2. The new smaller circle mid point is centered between the two ships causing both the circle to shift and become smaller

Either of these methods would prevent ships being caught off guard and dying from the shrinkage or ending up on either side of a large island.

Instead it would be cool to earn additional rep for cannonballs hit, players killed

I hit you more than you hit mean and sink. So I should get more rep? So if I also kill you, and make your ship slowly, slowly sink and pop in 100 shots. I should be rewarded No.

love PvP in sea of thieves but I just feel like hourglass can feel so grindy and just not super fun sometimes

Ok…so don’t use the hourglass? And sail the seas for a player, regardless what they are doing and attempt to sink them. Less Grindy if nothing to grind for.

I feel new modes could help spice it up

Pretty much want to turn hourglass. A system designed for instant pvp into a comp/arena

Shrinking zone for the battle area after a set amount of time

Everyone knows how a hourglass zone is created. The center is always where the two ships face.
So if it shrinks..say the center happens to be near some large rocks or island. At some point, you’re gonna have two ships you can’t reach each other. Exploitable. This isn’t Fortnite kids

Equal supplies

So I been defending my loot and collecting curses for awhile. I’m suddenly attacked, ship rises from the sea. What happens to my current supplies in stock piled? Removed? Lost?

Supply stocking doesn’t = better ship. Equal supplies doesn’t = equal footing.
I can dodge your ships fire. You miss more than you hit. After awhile…you empty. Meanwhile I havnt fired a shot. Outplayed? Now you plan on running?

I really think. People need to think about what hourglass really is about. It’s just a tool. Not a mode. Not arena. No set rules.

Let champion battles be avaliable to all hourglass crews and not just champion crews.

Then change champion battles to a 5 or 6 ship free for all.

I want to vote on HG, roll out the parchment, vote for a champion battle, and dive for a fight with multiple ships of any size instead of just one ship of equal size.

@testakleze This would be so awesome

@miserenz I really like this idea a lot I hope rare comes up with some stuff because i feel like theres so much they could do with it even if its just a "tool" LOL

@desi-da-wulf

Reputation:
I definitely think they should add in some engagement metrics to help boost allegiance earned from fights, even in the case of a loss. I agree - metrics for hitting cannons, repairing ship, bucketing, hitting cross-boat shots (with firearms), etc. These would be capped to avoid the spawn camping exploit situation Arena ran into, and could basically just be presented in the form of deeds. You could get per match, per day, per week, and per season deeds that grant you allegiance rather than plunder pass points. I'll bang that drum forever.

Arena Size:
A shrinker circle is interesting, but like @D3ADST1CK mentioned, it could be abused similarly to how folks wait out battle royale circles. I think I'd rather just opt for a smaller circle to begin with. It seems kind of unnecessarily large and allows for folks to get really far away. I get that in the case of invasions you'd want a bit of a space buffer (in case you are away from your ship) but in my experience I run into very few folks intentionally waiting for invaders. Usually either folks accidentally clicking HG or folks who got outposted.

I also think simply making the ring smaller to begin with would be far easier to test and implement.

Additional Modes:
I daydream about this sometimes. I feel like we have skelly forts, skelly camps, and sea forts that could lend towards some interesting modes that are less naval focused. This would also give a place for TDMers to go so they don't feel trapped in the standard mode.

I feel like you could even map different modes to the different island types, something like:

Skelly Forts - Pure TDM. Best of like 10-20 rounds wins.
Skelly Camps - Capture the flag.
Sea Forts - Zone control (like hardpoint). Keg diffusal (like search and destroy). King of the hill (you hold the fort against waves of invaders).

These could also be hard timed, and boat respawn points are in a small zone parked around the islands. The win condition isn't sinking, its whatever the objective of the timed mode is. This would also mean getting 3rd partied doesn't necessarily remove you from the match.

I dunno, those are obviously pie in the sky kind of things and would be so hard to develop/test/implement but I think they'd add a lot to the faction-based, war going on. AND it would give us a reason to utilize existing structures (especially the sea forts).

@i-marmot-i Yeah i definetly agree with all of this tbh, smaller area and cap for bonus rep would be great imo, i have always thought they should add some sort of tdm, even if its just like a toggle to allow friendly fire on your crew

@d3adst1ck A time limit is by far the worst option since it takes away player agency. You don't win based on skill, you win based on whatever the game decides makes you win after the timer runs out. It would feel so much more boring to just be forced to make a match end, and it would be infuriating if you were close to sinking them, and then the match ends, and you lose because for the first 14 minutes of it you were on the back foot, but then got advantage. I cannot tell you how many times I have been on the back foot for like 7-10 minutes of a fight and once I recover I win. If my match was forcibly ended and I was declared the loser based on whatever arbitrary stats the devs choose, even though I was about to win, I would never play the game mode again.

@d3adst1ck In some ways that would be worse. You fight for 15 minutes and have spent all of those supplies for nothing? Or are you saying that at the end of the 15 minutes it resets your supps to what they were when you dived? Both of those options seem annoying beyond any system that is currently in the game. Especially if there is no "tie XP". If there is no XP for getting a tie, it invites loss farming even worse. Why fight for 15 minutes for no XP when you can queue, anchor, and be guaranteed loss XP?