Scraping the Barrell with Hourglass Population

  • Looks like it's already in the dumpster. Prime time for US doing duo with a friend. We've had less fewer than 20 total matches in hourglass pvp.

    First group (loss) and second group (loss) both had players with a skeleton curse.

    The weird thing is the queue time underwater was less than 10 seconds.

    Seems like there was either too hard of a course correction for matchups, or the population is so low that there's virtually no chance of a better matchup, so they just 'send it'? Either way, I think it made my friend quit SoT.

    Lousy mode

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  • @beeg-birdo I think most casuals just gave up because the allegiance you get from a match (even if you win) is just way to small. Basicly the death nail of all modes: if it is way to grindy players will give up and do other stuff.

    They might come back when there is a double allegiance day/weekend, but that might be it.

  • It was doomed from the start:

    The rewards model is a joke, it takes the same amount of hours to get the base curse as it would to buy what, 5-10 galleons?

    Then add to that the massive number of matches where both sides got credit for the win.

    The annoying cheats.

    The runners.

    Plus it has a math issue with defending, because it can only match defender with diver or diver with diver, and defenders have a cooldown, there has to be more divers that defenders or the queue collapses.

  • Either way, I think it made my friend quit SoT.

    Lousy mode

    If they quit because of a 10% part of the game, they were just looking for a reason.

  • I dont understand why your friend would quit an entire game because of 1 single opt in mode, the rest of the game is no different because that mode exists. They could just play adventure the same as always and not let a different mode affect it.

  • @goldsmen said in Scraping the Barrell with Hourglass Population:

    I dont understand why your friend would quit an entire game because of 1 single opt in mode, the rest of the game is no different because that mode exists. They could just play adventure the same as always and not let a different mode affect it.

    It's those damn curses. They know it's possible to get it, but it's an endless skill difference till the end of time.

    Why play as a pirate if you can't make funny skeleton jokes as a skeleton? Totally not a superficial reason to play a game all about having emergent encounters with randoms.

  • Even as one of "those pvp sweats" as we're called, we cant seem to find matches anymore either.

    NAWest has been utterly dead this week, East hasnt been much better, and the cheating is so bad on EU I wont touch it anymore.

    Runners are more frequent, see fewer people re-queing after we sink them, and have to resort to sailing around bothering people on the sea asking if they'll raise opposing faction hourglass.

    Rare needs to add more rewards for folks who have curses and some form of rep increase (like reward weekends) for those without base curse, in order to keep interest fresh

  • I honestly feel like I'm living in an alternate dimension and peeking into another world when looking at these forums sometimes, especially when comparing peoples experiences here to my own.

    I never have any longer than 2 minute matchmaking times except for a relatively small window of time around noonish to like 1pm or 2pm and matchmaking is most commonly within seconds, my friends and I are quite average at best and our matches are very even/close 90% of the time leaving us at about a 50/50 win/loss, I've only faced the same crew twice once on the same day, I've never encountered hackers, and I've only fought people with the curses a total of 2 or 3 times through matchmaking. Should also point out that all of my matches have been mostly duo sloop, with the occasional brig or solo. Though my experience has been the same regardless of crew/ship size.

    I'm seriously trying to wrap my head around why my experience is so vastly different from others, especially those also in the US. Like I know cross stamp has been a thing for a while so it shouldn't matter much anymore but is SoT and Hourglass PvP just that much more popular specifically around Florida for some reason? I'm so confused like the Hourglass experience has been rather fantastic for me ever since the patches for it.

  • My experience has also been something along the lines of yours @peony7185.
    Only just starting to play this mode (early 20’s levels), we play Gally (EU), matchmaking times have been swift, not met the same crew twice and only came across some seriously suss players last night and that was while completing a FoF :D.
    I don’t PvP much as I’m more of a fisherman not a fighter, but I can say I have actually been enjoying this mode. We win some, we lose some, but overall it’s been a good experience.

  • Im glad someone is getting good queues.

    My winloss is about 8-0 or 12-1 most days, so I might be in a weird bracket.

    We will sit in the queue for 45 minutes and then get complete swabbies. I usually assume that means our stamp is conpletely dead and we're catching the first people to queue available, then go back to nothing for ages.

    We end up sailing around looking for anyone we can convince to raise HG in order to finish of a 4x streak most days and swap servers

  • We were on brig yesterday with a ton of supplies + wraith balls, about 00:00-01:00 UK time. MM was showing in red 10 minutes or longer to find opponent, obviously we didnt find a fight and had to log off with those supplies left unused.

    Also the server was dead empty after we sunk two other brigs.

    I think a lot of players also are reluctant to play due to ever increasing cheater problem.

    My honest suggestion to Rare. If you have pest infestation (cheaters) you get pest control (professional help). You invent traps (anti cheat) before the place is over run with pests not afterwards.

  • My thoughts on how to make HG more popular.

    Make HG easier to jump in. Rare already made great changes to world events so that they are fast and easy to do. Seems it immediately made more people ready to turn and fight for them instead of running away to protect an hour of work. Diving is still a bit stressful due to all the resources you need for it and since losing gives you nothing. Maybe boost the renown a bit and add quick-buy to get all supplies easier than now so we can dive instantly on new session and after being sunk.

    Fix hitreg. Increase tick rate and slow down movement speed a little if it helps hitreg, teleporting animations and wonky sword block. If it can't be done on old xbox, then maybe give pc players separate lobbies with better performance? I'm sure it would appeal to new competitive players who would rather only play pvp modes.

    Fix blackscreens. Still happens too often that you respawn and get stuck in black screen on your ship for few minutes for no apparent reason.

    Anti-cheat. It's too long overdue. Also add some quick report button IG.

    Leaderboards & seasonal rewards for HG. Just something to keep people playing it. Maybe something similiar to what emissaries have if nothing else.

  • Oh there we go; inspiration just struck.

    Guardians and Servsnt Emissary roster rewards like the other emmi factions!

    Ship set, weapons, perhaps cosmetics, slow burn participation rewsrds and boom; recurring HG

  • @lizalaroo said in Scraping the Barrell with Hourglass Population:

    My experience has also been something along the lines of yours @peony7185.
    Only just starting to play this mode (early 20’s levels), we play Gally (EU), matchmaking times have been swift, not met the same crew twice and only came across some seriously suss players last night and that was while completing a FoF :D.
    I don’t PvP much as I’m more of a fisherman not a fighter, but I can say I have actually been enjoying this mode. We win some, we lose some, but overall it’s been a good experience.

    It's the "how's my driving" phenomena. No one calls the sticker to say "this driver was safe and courteous," no, it's always "this jack-wagon in the tractor trailer cut me off at 90mph!"

    People don't come to the forum to say "hourglass is great and I love it so much!" (save the rare @Peony7185), the come here after a single bad incident and make wild generalizations.

    I picked up an idiom from my supervisor a few years back: "companies make money off of products that are 80% complete." Couple that with the fact that no software is ever devoid of bugs, and here you go. Most of the time the feature works during peak hours, but every once in a while someone hits the bug and bam, complaint in the forum.

    But it hurts. The grind is long when you're not great (first curse took me four months to unlock) and they are highly desirable. I understand the frustration.

  • @korpp1s said in Scraping the Barrell with Hourglass Population:

    My thoughts on how to make HG more popular.

    Make HG easier to jump in. Rare already made great changes to world events so that they are fast and easy to do. Seems it immediately made more people ready to turn and fight for them instead of running away to protect an hour of work. Diving is still a bit stressful due to all the resources you need for it and since losing gives you nothing. Maybe boost the renown a bit and add quick-buy to get all supplies easier than now so we can dive instantly on new session and after being sunk.

    This is a terrible idea. Quick access to supplies is already an albatross around adventure mode's neck. It encourages server hopping and discourages organic PVP in a sandbox where the crew that has invested their time in the server has the resource advantage during PVP. The only way I would consider this is if the tunnels lasted a mandatory 30 seconds, during which you can buy hourglass supplies that disappear if you vote down the dive. Adventure mode has waaaaaay to many supplies because of all the concessions made for hourglass.

    Fix hitreg. Increase tick rate and slow down movement speed a little if it helps hitreg, teleporting animations and wonky sword block. If it can't be done on old xbox, then maybe give pc players separate lobbies with better performance? I'm sure it would appeal to new competitive players who would rather only play pvp modes.

    Yes please!

    Fix blackscreens. Still happens too often that you respawn and get stuck in black screen on your ship for few minutes for no apparent reason.

    Amen!!!

    Anti-cheat. It's too long overdue. Also add some quick report button IG.

    This is tricky because of the high bar of reporting. You essentially need a video to catch someone cheating, and I don't know about XBox but that pretty much means ignoring the game while you capture the last 30 seconds of video in game bar on PC. I agree though, there's got to be a better/easier way to report cheaters.

    Leaderboards & seasonal rewards for HG. Just something to keep people playing it. Maybe something similiar to what emissaries have if nothing else.

    Seems reasonable, but there is nothing. The curses are what everyone wants, and why most people stop playing hourglass after level 100. They were literally the most requested cosmetic since the inception of the game! There is nothing they can create that will bring back the casuals and the PVEVP'ers.

    My two cents: they need to boost defense. No one defends; if you want to earn gold via PVE, then defending hourglass cuts into your efficiency and increases your risk without increasing your reward (no reward from hourglass unless you win). If you want PVP on demand, defense takes too long to match. If you want the curses, then defense is inefficient because of the 20 minute cool down between invasions. There is simply no good reason to defend. There needs to be a reason for PVEVP'ers like me to vote hourglass defensively.

    New cosmetics? Maybe if they add more cosmetics for the skeleton curse, but I'll never defend athena probably. Leaderboard/ladder? Don't care. What, you want to entice me with another cutlass and the servant's hat or something? Not gonna happen. Commendations? Nope. Give me a reason to vote on the hourglass and defend. I firmly believe the livelihood of hourglass is in convincing people to defend, which is zero right now because of the "only wins count" paradigm in hourglass. Am I going to collect loot for an hour only to get invaded, lose, and my reward be a pittance of allegiance I don't need? No, I'm going to ignore the hourglass and turn in my loot, thank you very much.

  • @burnbacon Totally unsurprised to see yet another post reply from you that is negative and adds nothing productive to the criticism being levied

    Is there a way I can hide any and all posts you ever make? You personally make this feedback forum definitively less useful/enjoyable.

  • @beeg-birdo said in Scraping the Barrell with Hourglass Population:

    Is there a way I can hide any and all posts you ever make?

    Yes. Click a person's name, then 'block user'. That will hide their forum posts, too.

  • @eldritchbear Thanks for looking out, friend

  • @lordqulex said in Scraping the Barrell with Hourglass Population:

    @korpp1s said in Scraping the Barrell with Hourglass Population:

    My thoughts on how to make HG more popular.

    Make HG easier to jump in. Rare already made great changes to world events so that they are fast and easy to do. Seems it immediately made more people ready to turn and fight for them instead of running away to protect an hour of work. Diving is still a bit stressful due to all the resources you need for it and since losing gives you nothing. Maybe boost the renown a bit and add quick-buy to get all supplies easier than now so we can dive instantly on new session and after being sunk.

    This is a terrible idea. Quick access to supplies is already an albatross around adventure mode's neck. It encourages server hopping and discourages organic PVP in a sandbox where the crew that has invested their time in the server has the resource advantage during PVP. The only way I would consider this is if the tunnels lasted a mandatory 30 seconds, during which you can buy hourglass supplies that disappear if you vote down the dive. Adventure mode has waaaaaay to many supplies because of all the concessions made for hourglass.

    I mean it could be done via main menu just like there is option to hop on Pirate's Life.
    Just give option to hop on PvP, choose faction (raises you emissary automatically) and maybe choose from few choices of resources that cost something. If it throws you to match queue where you instantly spawn into a fight it won't make any difference for people in adventure mode.

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