Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s

@potatosord said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

So you can shoot at an empty ship as it full sails past and then wait for it to eventually sail itself out?

So normal players are rewarded for queueing hourglass: either get an actual engaging battle, or free rep. And more normal players join. The loss farming exploiters will find it harder to match with their own ship. Loss farming exploiters eventually leave.

Right now, normal players are punished for queueing hourglass: no battle (cancelled due to one party's alt+f4), and no rep. Normal players leave the game. The loss farming exploiters will find it easier to match with their own ship. Loss farming exploiters are the only main "players" in these servers.

Even when I meet their ships (i.e. they alt+f4 too late), when I get onboard the empty ship and read the captain's log, it will say that their ships are crewed by 1 pirate with 0 gold earned, 0 voyages completed, 30 (or some random number) captained ships spotted. These accounts were created precisely for loss farming exploits. And they're ruining matchmaking.

Earlier in the week, some of these loss farmers invite cheaters into the game (instead of alt+f4) to discourage us from playing. I have made 9 support tickets on blatant cheaters over the past week. All 9 of them received the update saying "at least 1 or more players were permanently removed from the game".

Now, since these 9 accounts were banned, they resort to alt+f4 method.

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How they do it: operate multiple ships in quiet servers. OCE galleon for example.
1 flagship = crewed by pirates who are receiving boosting services
1+ feeder ships = crewed by 1 pirate each, 0 gold earned, 0 voyages completed.

Park flagship at an outpost. Recruit pirates who purchased boosting services. Raise hourglass. Vote to dive.
Setup the 1+ feeder ships.
When ready, the flagship will remove vote to dive (i.e. it can be invaded), and the 10 feeder ships will dive.

Ideally, no one else is on the server except your ships. So, 1 of the feeder ships will match with the flag ship. The flag ship receives free rep. Flag ship votes to dive again (to prevent unintended invasions until the next feeder ship is ready to dive).

If someone else is on the server, 1+ of the ships might match with a random ship. As soon as the screen turns black, quickly alt+f4. Both ships will return to outpost. The random ship will get zero rep (so they are discouraged from playing).
If they alt+f4 too late, the ship might surface and give free rep to the random ship (which might reward the random ship for staying in the server).

Repeat, until the flagship received enough allegiance levels for the day.

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I'm fine with normal loss farmers. They don't alt+f4. No battles. But they give the free win. Players are encouraged to join to claim the free win. When more players join, more actual battles eventually happen.
I'm not fine with exploitative loss farmers. They alt+f4. No battles. No free win. Players are encouraged to leave to avoid wasting time raising anchor, diving and outposting on repeat. When players leave, less actual battles happen.

Who could have forseen the consequences of locking two extremely popular curses behind an unforgiving and quite frankly garbage PvP reputation grind?

I understand your frustration of having a mode designed for finding PvP on demand be extremely undermined and populated with a "fake population" for lack of a better word and I do think you should get your allegiance if you've successfully matched against a ship and they Alt + F4, but don't blame loss farmers when Rare set this sort of environment up, intentionally coercing people who don't like PvP into a PvP centric mode.

@nohr-tenko said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

Who could have forseen the consequences of locking two extremely popular curses behind an unforgiving and quite frankly garbage PvP reputation grind?

I understand your frustration of having a mode designed for finding PvP on demand be extremely undermined and populated with a "fake population" for lack of a better word and I do think you should get your allegiance if you've successfully matched against a ship and they Alt + F4, but don't blame loss farmers when Rare set this sort of environment up, intentionally coercing people who don't like PvP into a PvP centric mode.

Nobody has to get the curses, nobody is entitled to the curses. Should I be complaining about the shores of gold curse being incredibly tedious since I don’t like doing tall tales more than once (if that)?

You are not forced in any form or fashion to do anything. Don’t like the requirements? Don’t get the curse. That’s why I don’t have the shores or gold curse.

Down with entitlement.

@capt-greldik

You are not forced, but you can't look at that and say it wasn't an intentional move to get people who don't like PvP to play a PvP mode (not a bad idea if it weren't for the staggering difference in allegiance), people want the curses, this is easy to understand. These are very popular curses, given a huge part of SoT is "Ghost vs Skeletons".

The Shores of Gold is a HUGE time sink, yes, but here's the catch, it's PvE, not only that, it is a relatively consistent grind with steady progress with a helping of awards along the way. (The amount of people trying to grief people on tall tales is probably very low)

The difference between an Hourglass curse farm can be as low as probably 90 games (a 50% win rate with a few streaks is probably around 150 games) or a 1,700+ game loss streak. There is no alternative option but to bash your head against a wall if you suck at HG, maybe dice rolls (if they even honor it), or "git gud" which is again, easy for some people, harder for others.

That's before we even count the headaches of exploits (or poor sportmanship), genuine cheaters, 3rd parties, any number of things that make hourglass even more volatile and inconsistent.

If there was another, but equally (or even more) demanding PvE alternative, people would take it. If there was a practical (and obtainable) reason for players to put in effort in fighting, players would do it. The difference in a 30 minute match and a 2 minute blowout is just the time wasted.

If you don't want loss farmers (who by their standards are taking the most optimal route) don't lock the cosmetics they want in a mode they don't want to be in.

The system we currently have sucks, it sucked from the start when getting thrown out of the ring and it didn't even award loss allegiance and it sucks now (Just to clarify, the HG mechanic itself is great, the implementations, incentives, and volatility of said grind is questionable at best). Loss farmers and win-traders are a clear result of that.

Just as they aren't entitled to curses, you aren't entitled to people engaging with the system the way you want.

Edit: And wouldn't your idea just result in you getting a free win? Shooting a ghost ship? Is asking for allegiance for doing the bare minimum of loading in not an entitled request?

@nohr-tenko

I think your comparison between the HG and shores of gold curse grind is a bit biased. I absolutely slam my head against the wall when trying to complete shores of gold, it’s increasingly tedious, time consuming, and boring to me, which is why I think I’m like 70% complete as of a year and half ago at least. I’m not sure if I’ll ever finish that thing.

You could argue that every curse/commendation/skin is incentive to do something in sot. I don’t see how offering specific curses for HG accomplishments is any different than any other curse in the game. Some curses appeal to more than others. My first curse was the coral curse, do you think I ever returned for more of those puzzles after I got it? Nope. Others like that style of play, though.

We are not entitled to things in this game just because they exist. Don’t want to put in the effort? Don’t get the reward. Also, if someone doesn’t like PvP, why are they playing sot? The entire game is built around player conflict, it’s a PvPvE game after all.

Lastly, I never mentioned any “way I want” people to engage with the system. HG is a free for all as far as I’m concerned, as long as you don’t cheat or exploit I don’t care what happens.

@capt-greldik

I never said Gold curse was fun, but doing the tall tales is a far more consistent and steadier grind compared to Hourglass, if one tall tale roughly takes you 20 minutes, when you do the same tall tale the next 4 times, will take roughly the same amount of time. The time between any Hourglass match can vary from 2 to 10 (sometimes more) minutes, and there's no guarantee that you'll win or lose, it is far more difficult for a player to gauge how long their grind is going to take. It is also significantly easier to look up a guide and become well versed at tall tales compared to "gitting gud" at PvP.

Specific curses being offered means they will attract more attention, I have been under the impression that for the majority of players the skeleton and ghost curse are very popular, given that ghost vs. skeletons is a huge part of the story and skeleton curse even has additional cosmetic options (can't speak for ghost curse), this means there will be a larger number of people, who despite not liking PvP, will interact with Hourglass, both positively and negatively.

Yes, you should put in effort to get rewards, if players want to lose 1000+ times, fight their friends, or "fight" (win-trade) their friends, that is their way of putting in effort even if it is to the detriment of another player's Hourglass experience or debatably dishonest, but unless it breaks the EULA or is outright cheating (legitimate hacking or some such and you can prove it), players are largely going to have to deal with it until they're done. (And while you have said you are fine with loss farmers, there are other people who would actually like to have a fight when they opt in for PvP)

PvP is just one aspect of SoT, and while it was intended to be a part of the core gameplay loop, is by no means mandatory. Many people enjoy the game while avoiding the PvP aspects, or more likely, enjoy the game despite the PvP aspects. Just as there are players who love this game despite PvP always being a threat, there are players who are going to do Hourglass despite the fact that they don't want to play Hourglass because they want the curses that much.

And to get back on track, I do think you should earn HG rep if people Alt + F4 (win through forfeit and all that), but I also think they need to improve the Hourglass grind as a whole so that there aren't so many people trying to game the system every chance they get. There are so many exploiters because the grind is just that bad.

@nohr-tenko said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

And to get back on track, I do think you should earn HG rep if people Alt + F4 (win through forfeit and all that), but I also think they need to improve the Hourglass grind as a whole so that there aren't so many people trying to game the system every chance they get. There are so many exploiters because the grind is just that bad.

There are many exploiters not because the grind is that bad (there are other games that similarly reward better for grindy/hard missions).

There are many exploiters because
(1.) it's PVP,
(2.) this exploit has not been fixed for a long time, and
(3.) no one is punished for ruining matches through this exploit.

In other games, people are banned for doing or encouraging behavior that cancels matches. The opponents who remained get free win.

• There's a post-match scoreboard, which outlines who the opponents are, and who DC-ed to cancel the game. Those who DC to cancel matches are penalized. They can't go into the next match for X minutes. If they repeat the offense in a short time, the punishment stacks - up to more than 24 hours.

But in this game, those who cancel matches are not punished. Those who remained in match get nothing.

• There's no post-match scoreboard. We don't know who's repeatedly alt+f4-ing. We can't report them.

I can understand that we can't punish those who DC in this game. Genuine hazelnutbeard/almondbeard/whatever-beard often happens. But at the very least, those who remained to play normally should be rewarded for attempting to play properly.

Treat the free rep from the alt+f4 forfeit as a matchmaking incentive to play. If it attracts enough people, players can get fun matches.

Anyway, I appreciate that you agree - players should earn HG rep if the opponent crew alt+f4 / forfeits the match.

@potatosord

Doing 45 tall tales feels worse than being forced into PvP to grind for a curse? Agree to disagree, I like knowing that it's only 45 tall tales compared to the vast disparity between hourglass. No wrong answers with this one, all opinion.

Just because it is opt in does not mean players (some of who have been requesting these curses since the start of the game) are not being strong-armed (persuaded, incentivized, if you want to be nice) into the mode they don't like. Oh? "Don't play it" you say? I'm sure they would love to not play hourglass! Except they want the curses! So much so that they're willing to grind a mode they hate!

They're still loss farmers or some other brand of Hourglass grinder, and just as you don't want them there, I'm sure they don't want to be there... but guess where the curses are? While I am sure there are people doing it specifically to troll, the majority are probably trying to waste as little (of their) time as possible in the mode, get their curses, and get out.

@nohr-tenko said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

@potatosord

Doing 45 tall tales feels worse than being forced into PvP to grind for a curse? Agree to disagree, I like knowing that it's only 45 tall tales compared to the vast disparity between hourglass. No wrong answers with this one, all opinion.

Just because it is opt in does not mean players (some of who have been requesting these curses since the start of the game) are not being strong-armed (persuaded, incentivized, if you want to be nice) into the mode they don't like. Oh? "Don't play it" you say? I'm sure they would love to not play hourglass! Except they want the curses! So much so that they're willing to grind a mode they hate!

They're still loss farmers or some other brand of Hourglass grinder, and just as you don't want them there, I'm sure they don't want to be there... but guess where the curses are? While I am sure there are people doing it specifically to troll, the majority are probably trying to waste as little (of their) time as possible in the mode, get their curses, and get out.

You have never been forced into a single thing ever in sea of thieves.

You keep pushing this narrative that you’re forced, persuaded, enticed, pressured, lured, yadda yadda. No, none of those things. Stop acting like a permanent victim and take responsibility. It’s a video game.

@dermasterbob said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

Getting "outposted" in hourglass is a current problem with cross stamp matchmaking.
No exploits beeing done.

It's not a cross stamp matchmaking issue. It happened even before cross stamp matchmaking was introduced.

Getting outposted in 1-2 minutes means we matched within our region quickly. Cross stamp matchmaking is not applicable.

If we're lucky and those exploitative loss farmers aren't on, then if the servers are quiet, then we'll match with players from other regions. With cross region matchmaking, ping is an issue. But it's a better issue than being outposted repeatedly or waiting 20-40 minutes between matches.

@capt-greldik

Putting cool loot in a mode so that more people play that mode is literally something game developers do. That's a way to farm engagement and keep Hourglass populated and alive.

And take responsibility for what? I'm just saying the current system sucks and could be improved.

@Boneheart1237

I would rather they keep both curses locked behind the same requirements because I feel it would be disrespectful to those who had earned it already to invalidate most of their work, that includes the SoG curse too, as pained as I am to say that. Same with Arena cosmetics, even though they're some of my favorite.

This is a fair stance to take and is an issue across many games, developers should respect the work players put in. I think the only issue with this stance is that there is an argument to be made that a bunch of things have been devalued. Pirate legend has more options to get there with Reapers and Hunters call. Anything tied to FoTD now has the skull of Destiny, didn't season 1 have the legend curse that anyone can now grind out? People can argue that re-skins devalue loot such as with the Kraken or bone crusher sets, don't want to farm commendations? Here's a set for doubloons. This is before we even mention how alliance server or safer seas could have devalued things. OP's own idea would devalue the curse for anyone who earned it before it was added, that doesn't mean it's not a good idea or that nothing should be done.

I'm not saying give the skeleton curse away or that everyone should have it. I'm saying that having a system in place where loss farming, quitting, and fighting friends (real or paid) is an optimal farming method (for what feels like a few too many people) is not a sign of a good system and improvements can and should be made even if you risk devaluing a curse so long as it means improving the health of a game mode.

Even a weekly/daily challenge to land "X cannonball shots" for bonus allegiance would encourage more players to participate in hourglass the way it was intended. Small things can make a big difference. Fight Nights / Gold and Glory are good examples.

@dermasterbob said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

@raft2c7c
I know that it happened before, but i only experienced it in about 1/100 fights.
After crosstamp was added, i experienced it 5/15 fights on the first day.
So there is definitely a problem with that.

Also i dont see the advantage players would get from blackscreening you to an outpost.
Since the crazy HG exploit in season 9 was fixed, it doesn't make sense to do this anymore, so i personally dont think thats the problem your experienceing.

@dermasterbob
You obviously did not read my comment on how the exploit works.
Read it.

@raft2c7c said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

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How they do it: operate multiple ships in quiet servers. OCE galleon for example.
1 flagship = crewed by pirates who are receiving boosting services
1+ feeder ships = crewed by 1 pirate each, 0 gold earned, 0 voyages completed.

Park flagship at an outpost. Recruit pirates who purchased boosting services. Raise hourglass. Vote to dive.
Setup the 1+ feeder ships.
When ready, the flagship will remove vote to dive (i.e. it can be invaded), and the 10 feeder ships will dive.

Ideally, no one else is on the server except your ships. So, 1 of the feeder ships will match with the flag ship. The flag ship receives free rep. Flag ship votes to dive again (to prevent unintended invasions until the next feeder ship is ready to dive).

If someone else is on the server, 1+ of the ships might match with a random ship. As soon as the screen turns black, quickly alt+f4. Both ships will return to outpost. The random ship will get zero rep (so they are discouraged from playing).
If they alt+f4 too late, the ship might surface and give free rep to the random ship (which might reward the random ship for staying in the server).

Repeat, until the flagship received enough allegiance levels for the day.

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I'm fine with normal loss farmers. They don't alt+f4. No battles. But they give the free win. Players are encouraged to join to claim the free win. When more players join, more actual battles eventually happen.
I'm not fine with exploitative loss farmers. They alt+f4. No battles. No free win. Players are encouraged to leave to avoid wasting time raising anchor, diving and outposting on repeat. When players leave, less actual battles happen.

The advantage players would get from blackscreening you to an outpost is

1. it preserves their win streak, and
2. it wastes other peoples time and discourages them from continuing with hourglass. Who likes to "Raise anchor, dive, outpost and repeat" ?
3. it helps them to return to outpost quickly, and dive again to match their flagship with a feeder ship.

Why you're seeing them more often now? This is the situation:

1. You're based in a more active server. (Loss farming exploiters avoid being based in active servers.)
2. These exploiters are in quiet servers.
3. With cross-region matchmaking, these exploiters in quiet servers are more likely to be matched with players in active servers.
4. So, players in active servers will see them more often.

@captain-knyt said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

If you get outposted you’re on the same server as your opponent btw, sometimes you can catch them before the next dive. We sank a ship with like 30 flags like this

There are way easier ways of making your opponent not get rep that doesn’t require closing your game, so most likely you were going up against the winner ship that were alt-f4ing

Yes. It is true that when we get outposted, we're on the same server as the opponent. we have caught them a few times before the next dive. It's usually when both ships are at port merrick and sanctuary outpost OR dagger tooth and galleon's grave outpost.

But I'm not sure what you mean by there are easier ways to make your opponent not get rep that doesn't require closing the game? What are you referring to? You mean the one where they scuttle before they surfaced? So we surface (not outposted) without rep? Or get invaded without rep?

The ship we were going up against is usually the feeder/losing ship. When we find their ship - it's a crewed by 1 naked pirate with 0 gold earned, 0 voyages completed, 30 ships spotted, with no flag, and no streak.
Maybe their intention is simply to return their feeder/losing ship to the outpost asap so they can dive again - and alt+f4-ing during black screen (when their flag ship doesn't black screen) seems to do the trick. Nonetheless, their actions have the effect of discouraging us from playing by not giving us loss farming rep.

For any Rare staff reviewing this feedback, if you need data or evidence, please refer to my videos linked in the following support tickets.

Request ID: 806416 (24 Jun - we're outposted 5 out of 8 dives in an hour)
Request ID: 807000 (26 Jun - we're outposted 8 out of 11 dives in an hour)
Request ID: 807824 (29 Jun morning - we're outposted 3 out of 5 dives in about half an hour)
Request ID: 807870 (29 Jun late afternoon - we're outposted 4 out of 6 dives in an hour)

One reason I did not link the videos directly here is because some culprits have their names shown in these videos and there's rules against name and shame or giving free publicity to bad actors.

All 4 videos in these tickets were recorded in Hourglass Oceania Galleon servers on 3 different days.
Overall, we're outposted at least 20 times out of 30 hourglass dives in OCE galleon servers.

This is an exploit that certain players have repeatedly used to provide paid/unpaid boosting services.

If you still see this as a bug, then be aware that this is NOT a one-time uncommon bug in OCE galleon servers.

Whenever they are late to alt+f4 (or maybe they're overwhelmed when multiple ships matched with their flag ships and feeder ships at the same time), then both our ships would surface. If they scuttle quickly, then we don't get any reputation. If they scuttle too late, then we get reputation.

When we're outposted, if they're nearby (port merrick - sanctuary outpost or dagger tooth - galleon's grave outposts), we can sink them. It's a solo galleon, whose pirate has 0 gold earned, and 0 voyages completed. But usually, we're not so lucky. They're either too far away, or dive again too quickly for us to catch them.

It's fine if some players want to loss farm - at least give us the free rep when they match against us! Instead, we're forced to return to outpost with no rep, raise anchor and dive again on repeat. Do you see how unfun and time-wasting this process is? That's why legitimate normal players leave and this server remains a hotspot for such loss farming exploiters.

It seems like the only way we can find their flag ship is by diving multiple ships at the same time. Then when they're overwhelmed - they might not be able to alt+f4 in time.

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When we're not dealing with alt+f4 exploiters from all over the world, we're dealing with blatant cheaters. Russians in OCE brigantine. Chinese in OCE galleon. Please refer to my support tickets for evidence. At least one per night during Fight Nights (thanks for the updates on my 9 reports - about permanently removing at least 1 player reported on each of them). Two last night - both OCE brigantine and OCE galleon servers. They taunt us for not buying a certain popular C** or A********* cheat. (Why aren't these cheat providers sued out of business yet?)

I envy EU/NA players. They don't have these issues. Or at least, these issues are relatively uncommon in those servers. But I struggle a lot with ping in those servers. Sigh.

If anyone appreciates a clearer perspective of how diving for hourglass brigantine is like in Oceania, see my timestamps on a recent video below:

Date of video recording: 2025-07-09

0:22:08 Match 1 - Invaded by AHG white sails brigantine - solo crewed by AZW
0:24:48 Won
1:22:53 Dive
1:24:04 Outposted
1:25:39 Dive
1:29:54 Outposted
1:31:20 Dive
1:33:41 Outposted
1:37:37 Dive
1:41:15 Match 2 - RHG champion (17 streak according to log book) crewed by LW4 and NTY6. (Our 3rd crewmate was temporarily diving on another ship, which black screened at the same time as us.)
1:49:05 Won
2:12:28 Dive
2:14:23 Outposted
2:14:45 Match 3 - Invaded by AHG white sails brigantine - unknown crew
2:14:54 Null - Enemy scuttled early - while faraway in front of ship. No reputation/win.
2:16:52 Dive
2:19:16 Outposted
2:24:21 Dive
2:26:52 Outposted
2:32:53 Dive
2:35:28 Match 4 - RHG champion crewed by LW4 (black skeleton) and NTY6 (afk on ferry) and a third pumpkin costume pirate.
2:41:12 Lost

Video is not linked here. Video link is visible to Rare staff in support ticket #810798.
Names in this post have been changed. Rare staff can confirm by comparing these names with my video. I did not break any rules against name & shame.

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I believe that being outposted 6 times out of 8 dives isn't normal gameplay, especially now that it has been weeks since Fight Nights, and we get black-screened pretty quickly - so cross-region matchmaking is unlikely to be the issue.

Based on the above experience, and other accumulated experience over multiple hourglass sessions, I hope whoever is reading this can understand why I suspect that players like LW4 has arranged for a fleet of ships to either proceed with match (if matched against the flagship), or either alt+f4 while in black screen, or scuttle early (if matched against others).

We had Match 2 because they thought they matched against their own ship. Four ships black-screened at the same time: Their flag ship, one of their feeder ships, my ship, and my friend's ship. Hence they didn't alt+f4. By Match 4, they were more prepared to fight in case of accidental match up against non-target ship. Their gameplay was also suspicious. But whether or not cheats were also used is a separate matter.

LW4's fleet behavior of cancelling matches is hindering the ability of other players to participate in Hourglass. The average hourglass crew isn't going to persistently queue into Hourglass if they get outposted and gain zero rep.

Please consider giving the opponent ship a win when they alt+f4 or scuttle early. This incentivizes players to keep queueing even if the current match is cancelled (outposted or nullified by early scuttle). When enough players queue in these servers, this exploit will become very difficult to do, and OCE players can get more normal matches like in NA/EU servers.

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In case it isn't clear enough,
I am not against loss farmers in general.
I am against abuse of exploits.

Loss farming without exploits is fine. They proceed to lose when matched, so all player ships gets to actually match into hourglass and someone gains rep if anyone forfeits.

Loss farming with exploits is NOT fine. They organize a fleet of ships (they operate multiple ships at once) that alt+f4s to prevent others from getting into matches, and scuttle early to prevent others from gaining rep when they forfeit.

Their abuse of this bug/exploit basically makes the game unavailable to those who aren't involved with their exploits (didn't pay for boosting services).

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If anyone else agrees/disagrees with the way I see this issue, appreciate your support to upvote my suggestion or add your thoughts on better/alternative solutions to deal with this "bug".

@nohr-tenko

It's genuinely so much easier to just learn how to play the game instead of doing all this extra stuff lol.

There's already a huge chunk of swabbies queuing hourglass, like 60-80% depending on the ship size/stamp. All you have to do is beat those guys and lower 2's for a few weeks to earn your curses.

Additional data on the bug that this suggestion seeks to address:

Date occurred: 12 July 2025.

My friend's first dive today: found this the log book on the enemy galleon with 4 AFK pirates. 41 streaks by day 9. They sink each opponent consecutively within 3 in-game hours each (i.e. ~3 minutes real life between each match). No outposting bug. No matchmaking issues. Basic supplies in their barrels.

My friend's next 2 dives: Outposted. Outposted.

My friend gave up. Told us not to bother setting up a galleon crew.

Boosters are disabling hourglass galleon in oceania

Info update on bug mechanics - regarding "early scuttles" that result in no win rep:

A friend has experimented and confirmed that if a ship scuttles immediately after the surfacing animation starts (after black screen), and just before "Battle Begins" or "Battle for Honour" banners, then the opponent doesn't gain any win streak.

@Raft2c7c

Please consider giving the opponent ship a win when they alt+f4 or scuttle early. This incentivizes players to keep queueing even if the current match is cancelled (outposted or nullified by early scuttle). When enough players queue in these servers, this exploit will become very difficult to do, and OCE players can get more normal matches like in NA/EU servers.

If anyone else agrees/disagrees with the way I see this issue, appreciate your support to upvote my suggestion or add your thoughts on better/alternative solutions to deal with this "bug".

I dont think you should name drop someone just on a suspicion alone, there is a reporting system for that.

Also if rep was given for being outposted due to early scuttle/alt-F4 isn't that just....faster loss farming and makes it easier for the feeder ship to serve it's purpose to the crew using it?

Ideally you should just lose your streak if you disconnect, no rep given so it doesn't give incentive to try it, yeah it sucks if it wasn't an exploiting situation and you lose a streak but these things happen and we just say "well that happened, back to it i guess"

@thedrakyle said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

I dont think you should name drop someone just on a suspicion alone, there is a reporting system for that.

What are you referring to? Did anyone name drop anyone anywhere in this post or comments? The only time I "name-dropped", I changed their name - so that I could describe the situation clearly without name-dropping.

@thedrakyle said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

Also if rep was given for being outposted due to early scuttle/alt-F4 isn't that just....faster loss farming and makes it easier for the feeder ship to serve it's purpose to the crew using it?

Yes it does. I think Rare already has an automated system for detecting when these loss-farmers are doing it too rapidly. They do not have a system for preventing alt+f4 abusers from blocking the game for everyone else. I don't care about how much rep they gain from loss farming. I care about everyone else who wants to play. We can't get any rep when these alt+f4/scuttle-early exploiters are active. Pointless outposting/raise-anchor/diving on repeat. Exploiters are disabling the game mode for other players.

@thedrakyle said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

Ideally you should just lose your streak if you disconnect, no rep given so it doesn't give incentive to try it, yeah it sucks if it wasn't an exploiting situation and you lose a streak but these things happen and we just say "well that happened, back to it i guess"

I think my suggestion is better than yours. For clarity, let me recap:

• Right now: when your ship's entire crew disconnects (alt+f4 during black screen), the match is cancelled, both ships return to outposts with their streaks retained.
• Your suggestion (please correct me if I've misunderstood): when a ship's entire crew disconnects, the disconnected ship will lose streak, the opponent ship will gain a win streak.
• My suggestion: when a ship's entire crew disconnects, the disconnected ship will continue surfacing in, the opponent ship will also surface.

My suggestion gives a chance to the genuinely disconnected crew to return and fight (before the ship sails out or sinks from ram holes). And the opponent ship will still need to put effort into securing the sink. If the opponent ship didn't do anything quickly, the dc-ed ship will stand a fighting chance.

@raft2c7c said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

@thedrakyle said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

I dont think you should name drop someone just on a suspicion alone, there is a reporting system for that.

What are you referring to? Did anyone name drop anyone anywhere in this post or comments? The only time I "name-dropped", I changed their name - so that I could describe the situation clearly without name-dropping.

@thedrakyle said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

Also if rep was given for being outposted due to early scuttle/alt-F4 isn't that just....faster loss farming and makes it easier for the feeder ship to serve it's purpose to the crew using it?

Yes it does. I think Rare already has an automated system for detecting when these loss-farmers are doing it too rapidly. They do not have a system for preventing alt+f4 abusers from blocking the game for everyone else. I don't care about how much rep they gain from loss farming. I care about everyone else who wants to play. We can't get any rep when these alt+f4/scuttle-early exploiters are active. Pointless outposting/raise-anchor/diving on repeat. Exploiters are disabling the game mode for other players.

@thedrakyle said in Hourglass matches should proceed even if one ship's entire crew alt+f4s:

Ideally you should just lose your streak if you disconnect, no rep given so it doesn't give incentive to try it, yeah it sucks if it wasn't an exploiting situation and you lose a streak but these things happen and we just say "well that happened, back to it i guess"

I think my suggestion is better than yours. For clarity, let me recap:

• Right now: when your ship's entire crew disconnects (alt+f4 during black screen), the match is cancelled, both ships return to outposts with their streaks retained.
• Your suggestion (please correct me if I've misunderstood): when a ship's entire crew disconnects, the disconnected ship will lose streak, the opponent ship will gain a win streak.
• My suggestion: when a ship's entire crew disconnects, the disconnected ship will continue surfacing in, the opponent ship will also surface.

My suggestion gives a chance to the genuinely disconnected crew to return and fight (before the ship sails out or sinks from ram holes). And the opponent ship will still need to put effort into securing the sink. If the opponent ship didn't do anything quickly, the dc-ed ship will stand a fighting chance.

If you mentioned somewhere that you was changing the name when describing what was happening, i apologise i didnt see that. That is my bad.

The only part you got wrong was that the opponent doesn't get rep either, yeah it would be annoying to not get rep and just be outposted but the culprit loses their streak so they can't use it to their benefit. While it would also hit people who accidentally dc'd, it's likely to be a less common occurance than it would be towards those who are actively wanting to use it as an exploit. The goal being when people no longer can benefit from it, the rate of it drops off significantly so the rate of 'outposting' also drops.

This is all assuming they can't just setup a system to flag when someone is outposted frequently and has their crew losing connection far more often than would seem accidental cause yeah while both ships do get outposted when an alt-f4/scuttle happens. Only one ship would have evidence of being the trigger for the outposting meaning they would quickly notice who is repeatedly causing it and if it's happening too frequently it's either intentional or a connection issue and in either case they shouldn't be trying to connect to HG in the first place under such circumstances.