Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote

  • LordQulex
    Captain

    I don't know about everyone else, but during the Gifts and Glory weekend my hourglass win rate got much closer to to 50/50. I think this was due to players returning to the play mode for the allegiance multiplier.

    • Steamcharts saw a measurable uptick in players this weekend (duh, it's Gifts and Glory!)
    • Gifts and Glory weekend increases gold and reputation as well, so there is no way to determine via steamcharts whether the uptick was in adventure mode or hourglass mode.
    • BUT my uptick in W/L ratio would certainly suggest that many players did in fact return to hourglass for increased allegiance

    I think this is strong anecdotal evidence that players will return to hourglass for increased allegiance gains! That is something that Rare simply can't ignore IMHO—I think that one thing everyone can agree on that the more pirates in hourglass the better it is for everyone. That was also shown during the last few weeks on arena where people were trying to grind out Seadog cosmetics before they went the way of the dodo, arena actually flourished.

    Did anyone else notice an improvement to their W/L ratio this weekend?

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  • HiradC
    Legend
    Insider

    Dunno personally I've had rougher queues which makes sense given the holiday

  • Magus104
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    Playing the mode with this double rep feels amazing... It felt really bad before. Especially losing. A decent amount of losses due to being sailed out of bounds makes the mode feel even worse. Very bad choice to try and insure people wouldn't intentionally sail out of bounds for a "fast loss" Rare has no concept of time apparently because that's the slowest way to lose a battle. Ironically it's also one of the fastest way for the other crew to win a battle so a very good strategy for them to use.

    Also no rewards for allegiance 201-999... Typically they have never added new cosmetics to current reputation level progression so the notion that they may fill that MASSIVE gap in rewards at a later date.... But that would be just giving the higher level people free cosmetics as they already achieved those goals! So in typical Rare fashion any new cosmetics would likely be tired behind commendations for stuff we have already grinded with no past progress taken into consideration. Even more Ironically at least 4 of the commendations don't seem to work if you are playing with other crew members. There are commendations tied to you having unlocked a curse and they don't progress if you have a crewmate who hasn't unlocked a curse. So now you are also being punished for playing with people bellow your level. Obviously that's not intentional but... Man it feels bad missing out on progress because a friend wanted to play with you.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    increase in activity is likely to lean heavily towards alliance servers

    even content creators and pvpers participate in alliance servers during gold events

    alliance servers from small operations to larger ones are extremely common and popular during these types of events

  • I Jusa I
    Marauder
    Insider

    No thanks, I have felt the allegiance has been enough and theres no reason to change it. 2x allegiance only makes ghost / skele curse 2x less of an acomplishment and hence 2x less special.

  • LordQulex
    Captain

    @magus104 said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:

    Playing the mode with this double rep feels amazing... It felt really bad before. Especially losing. A decent amount of losses due to being sailed out of bounds makes the mode feel even worse. Very bad choice to try and insure people wouldn't intentionally sail out of bounds for a "fast loss" Rare has no concept of time apparently because that's the slowest way to lose a battle. Ironically it's also one of the fastest way for the other crew to win a battle so a very good strategy for them to use.

    Also no rewards for allegiance 201-999... Typically they have never added new cosmetics to current reputation level progression so the notion that they may fill that MASSIVE gap in rewards at a later date.... But that would be just giving the higher level people free cosmetics as they already achieved those goals! So in typical Rare fashion any new cosmetics would likely be tired behind commendations for stuff we have already grinded with no past progress taken into consideration. Even more Ironically at least 4 of the commendations don't seem to work if you are playing with other crew members. There are commendations tied to you having unlocked a curse and they don't progress if you have a crewmate who hasn't unlocked a curse. So now you are also being punished for playing with people bellow your level. Obviously that's not intentional but... Man it feels bad missing out on progress because a friend wanted to play with you.

    Yea I think this is a big problem, for Athena. The curses are a bit lop-sided I think, the phantom curse will utilize any cosmetics on your pirate and make them "ghostly." The skeleton curse makes you a naked skeleton. All the boots and pants and hats and gloves and torsos are unlocked by leveling up reapers further. I think the mysterious stranger set is level 100-200 in athenas, but I don't think that will have the same effect as skeleton accoutrements that reapers has...

  • LordQulex
    Captain

    @wolfmanbush

    The increase of players in hourglass garnering a better W/L ratio is due to... participation in alliance servers? Help me to understand this please.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    @lordqulex said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:

    @wolfmanbush

    The increase of players in hourglass garnering a better W/L ratio is due to... participation in alliance servers? Help me to understand this please.

    I highly doubt it brought in much new activity to the new content, it increased qol for those already participating by giving them more rep.

    Having a good outcome weekend for the new content isn't any different than having a good outcome weekend on the older content, a lucky few days happens to people all the time.

    I think fight deeds and objective focused bonuses would be positive for the content though.

  • LordQulex
    Captain

    @wolfmanbush said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:

    @lordqulex said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:
    Having a good outcome weekend for the new content isn't any different than having a good outcome weekend on the older content, a lucky few days happens to people all the time.

    I like to say "even a blind squirrel finds a nut everyone once in a while." I think that's fair. I owe a few more weekends (generally a time when people have more time to play) to Rare before I decisively conclude the increased allegiance is what brought players back. This is simply a hypothesis at the moment.

  • PithyRumble
    Rogue
    Insider

    @lordqulex

    G&G weekends are usually huge for alliance servers, so you'd see a higher player count on steamcharts.

    I stayed out of pvp this weekend so I don't have firsthand.

  • Grog Minto
    Master
    Insider

    @i-jusa-i It's really fair when you winstreak a lot (because the progression have been calculated with streaks in mind probably), it's quite different if you don't. Now I guess we should all aim to be in the top 20% of PvP players. That's a zero sum game though, we cannot mathematically all git gud enough since it's all relative.

    Imo if the aim was to reserve the base curse to a select few, it shouldn't be the first mainingful reward on the ladder, it should be sitting at lvl 500 with a bunch of rewards underneath.

  • WolfManbush
    Champion

    @lordqulex said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:

    @wolfmanbush said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:

    @lordqulex said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:
    Having a good outcome weekend for the new content isn't any different than having a good outcome weekend on the older content, a lucky few days happens to people all the time.

    I like to say "even a blind squirrel finds a nut everyone once in a while." I think that's fair. I owe a few more weekends (generally a time when people have more time to play) to Rare before I decisively conclude the increased allegiance is what brought players back. This is simply a hypothesis at the moment.

    they haven't made any of the big changes yet to matchmaking (afaik) so we are still in a pretty random system that has some having very positive experiences and some having very negatives experiences because of the randomness within matchmaking, even over the g&g weekend.

  • Arch iDeall
    Marauder

    I haven't seen much difference in hourglass battles. Was meeting several players multiple times while restarting the game quite often (tons of spawn campers who don't shoot any cannonballs) to end up in different stamps. I would bet most of the activity were players doing PvE like the Gilded Voyages. Allegiance even while boosted by Glory event is still garbage - lose 1000 battles instead of 2000? What's the difference when it's 100s of hours for one basic curse doing something far from enjoyable? The whole progression looks like Rare forgot that players can lose. With 50% win rate it perhaps looks fine in theory, but real players face one loss after another with only difference being if it's 5 minute loss or 50 minute loss - for same reputation, or in case of out of bounds no reputation. Playing the mode feels more like wasted time than progression towards something.

  • ajm123
    Legend
    Insider
    Founder

    It was busy but dead at times...increased rewards would diminish the value of curses

  • I Jusa I
    Marauder
    Insider

    @grog-minto Welp I've seen the curse around ALOT already in open crew. So I feel like it definetly isnt too hard to get. Even now its a fairly common sight.

  • Grog Minto
    Master
    Insider

    @i-jusa-i Only place I see them is on my crewmates (they play more than I do) and on opponents in the HG mode.
    I've yet to come across one out of the mode. But I guess we'll now when Rare will share that data like they did at the beginning.

    After all, it's possible that this mode wasn't meant to the casual pvp'er that I am and in this case, it's on me not on Rare.

  • NEON iC0N
    Vanguard
    Insider

    I suppose we would have to see something similar to a Gold & Glory boost, that's exclusive to only allegiance, to really know if it has an effect.

    Personally, my queue times did not noticeably change, nor did my win ratio; but maaaan! I really loved the boost! Didn't feel too bad when losing haha.

  • BurnBacon
    Vanguard
    Insider

    I saw my win/lose got worse. I lost more than ever, joined other crews and it was even horrible to the point I wanted to quit SoT

    The weekend was horrible experience. As of today afterwards, it much better. Idk maybe it just me but the gift glory event was bad experience.

  • LordQulex
    Captain

    @grog-minto said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:

    @i-jusa-i Only place I see them is on my crewmates (they play more than I do) and on opponents in the HG mode.
    I've yet to come across one out of the mode. But I guess we'll now when Rare will share that data like they did at the beginning.

    After all, it's possible that this mode wasn't meant to the casual pvp'er that I am and in this case, it's on me not on Rare.

    Yea I haven't seen that guy make any actual contributions to any conversations. They just chime in with one line every now and again just to tell you you're wrong. I don't believe anyone in pub crews has the curse, they're probably just gaslighting/trolling us. Best not to engage.

  • Grog Minto
    Master
    Insider

    @lordqulex Him not agreeing with me doesn't make him a troll. My own experience could be an outlier or the mode could simply not be meant to appeal to a pvpver with 10-16 hours a week dedicated to video games and who likes having a few cosmetics throwed his way.

    When exchanging on forum, we should never forget that we could be wrong, as weird as it may sounds. ;)

  • I Jusa I
    Marauder
    Insider

    @lordqulex Okay dude, I must have been trolled by the atleast 7 ghost and 5 skele curses ive seen in open crew already then. And here I am gaslighting and trolling you about it for... what reason exactly?

    No need to attack me like that when all you are doing is crying how hourglass mode is dying with zero evidence to back it up and telling how making allegiance 2x faster to gain is an amazing thing, again with nothing but you and your very shallow analysis of "steam charts" and "personal experience on hg mode".

    I'm not telling people youre trolling and gaslighting and to "best not engage with you" either with the wild stuff you write out here.

    Youre free to voice your opinion, as am I.

    edit: Just joined 3 open crews after getting home from holiday and theres a guy with both curses in my crew :)

  • GtotheFo
    Ship Mate
    Insider

    @lordqulex said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:

    I like to say "even a blind squirrel finds a nut everyone once in a while." I think that's fair. I owe a few more weekends (generally a time when people have more time to play) to Rare before I decisively conclude the increased allegiance is what brought players back. This is simply a hypothesis at the moment.

    Well, the issue is that even if you somehow conclusively prove that more players came back for that period, there's no way of knowing if its because people will come back if rewards are higher or if engagement will spike for a limited time offer. I mean, unless your position is that there's no such thing as FOMO or people reacting to getting the sense of a greater deal over normal, and that's a position that doesn't seem super strong, then there's no reason to conclude that raising the static rewards would have any long term effect on the basis of the short term effect of something similar.

  • dlCHIEF58
    Champion
    Insider

    @lordqulex said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:

    @grog-minto said in Keep the Rewards, an Anecdote:

    @i-jusa-i Only place I see them is on my crewmates (they play more than I do) and on opponents in the HG mode.
    I've yet to come across one out of the mode. But I guess we'll now when Rare will share that data like they did at the beginning.

    After all, it's possible that this mode wasn't meant to the casual pvp'er that I am and in this case, it's on me not on Rare.

    Yea I haven't seen that guy make any actual contributions to any conversations. They just chime in with one line every now and again just to tell you you're wrong. I don't believe anyone in pub crews has the curse, they're probably just gaslighting/trolling us. Best not to engage.

    Au Contraire, if anyone around here is "gaslighting" it is you.

    I myself have encountered people with curses and the appropriate cosmetics in regular Adventure...and have video proof as well in case you doubt it. I ran across the first batch a couple of weeks past, where after I turned in my loot at the Reaper's Hideout I was met by both an Athena and Reapers boat all decked out...and both were actually friendly. After launching several rounds of fireworks, we were also joined by the other 2 boats on the server at the Hideout. I left shortly after that as I was done and had other things to do...wish I had been streaming that session to show not all organic encounters devolve into a battle like many try to portray to further their own narrative.

    The other time was yesterday, where I happened to be pursued by TWO sloops carrying the curses and ship cosmetics. They were working in a team taking down other emissaries and reapers, and I led them on a merry chase for some time while doing some drive by sells. They first ambushed my ship at a Sea Fortress where I almost escaped, but the two working in tandem was a little overwhelming for a solo sloop...especially after they had the jump on me initially. And there is video proof of this natural encounter while just playing Adventure, showing that it it NOT as rare as you claim.

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