Hourglass is way to slow to level already losing interest

They messed up the rewards model IMHO.

For what it takes time wise to get to 100, you could earn the gold for 5-10 Galleons.

That is just crazy.

Also, the 5 different figure heads, really? 50-100 is a joke.

Finally, seriously, seen one skeleton seen them all, there should have been clothing items from the existing skeleton set.

@tesiccl As it stands it's more entertaining to loss farm on my phone while watching a movie with my xbox than to actually play it. Watching the level go up so slowly has already made me lose interest in doing it legit. Even people who atr boosting right now have said it takes like 3 to 4 days to get to 100 and that's if it goes smoothly with little interruption.

@tesiccl no cheesing is 3 to 4 days on cheeaing wins for levels. You know launching ships at the same time for free wins

It needs to let us do entire crews from solo queue, instead of just putting you alone vs entire crews.

@tesiccl said in Hourglass is way to slow to level already losing interest:

@goutfoot-stiner if it’s sped up, then it isn’t a grind is it?

Gee, not a grind, that would be such a shame :)

I always thought the first curse unlock (lvl 100) should be easier. Even if 1 win equalled 1 lvl and one loss equalled half a lvl until that point. These were one of the most requested curses in the game since day 1 and it’s locked behind an arena…. Mental.

For the extra unlocks sure let that be a grind. If you want the extra flashy gold curse then prepare to work really hard. But the initial curse should be open to all with a bit of work, not the insanity we have now. What is it 200 wins plus or 2000 loses I think I’ve seen.

@cpn-tartanbeard

Don't forget you also need to be rank 75 for reapers or Be pirate legend as well... You need to grind out a faction in its entirety and then need to grind out another, somehow even more PvP demanding faction, to rank 100... with some of the cosmetics being locked behind captaincy... All the banners, name plates, and even captains logs I've earned on my sloop can't be put on my brig or gally.

I don't mind PvP being a requirement for things, but boy oh boy... they want to wring a LOT of pvp out of you, hope you're good at it.

@tesiccl it's worse than Arena at least Arena was fun this is just poorly designed and it's amplified by how slow the xp is.

@burnbacon everyone complained about chasing it use to be a top complaint so the fact you don't know that defeats your own argument.

@personalc0ffee That would be better than what it currently is. I plan to wait till hourglass dies or gets fixed to play it legitimately.

if you think its too long and are losing interest, then the pvp curses arent meant for you. they are supposed to be a badge of experience and more importantly, legitimate love for pvping. if they were made easier, then they would be less esteemed

it's the only grind in the game where people are going to be rewarded for losing, that makes it as forgiving as a grind can be

it's never going to be fun for a lot of people, it wasn't created to be wide serving fun it was created to address effects of issues with side effects that are overall positive.

With loss rep it's just time consuming, that's all it is. It's not hard it's just time consuming and people get to choose if that time is worth it for them or not.

As far as grinds in sot go it's by far the least severe, nothing else rewards loss other than seasonal passes.

It's not fun for many to lose a lot of fights but losing quick fights for some rep is a heck of a lot easier to get through than grinds where people get robbed/sunk after a bunch of effort and nothing to show for it. It's just time consuming.

@personalc0ffee If I were the lead developer for hourglass, this would be my algorithm:

1. Vote to dive, get put in invader queue.
2. Is my MMR inside of a defenders MMR band?
3. Yes, invade defender, remove me from invader queue.
4. No, is there an invader who's MMR is inside of my MMR band?
5. Yes, invade invader, remove invaders from queue.
6. No, increase my MMR band.
7. Insert me into back of MMR queue.
8. Goto 2.

That would yield close matches to defenders, and fast matches for invaders. But really, this is exactly what I'm experiencing right now. Being invaded while defending is rare because there is no guarantee anyone near your MMR is invading right now. Getting unfair/imbalanced matches while invading invaders because player participation is low and skill gaps are wide.

OP had the right idea; interest is simply low. Rare should have learned their lesson with arena mode's less than three percent pirate time: the community by and large does not really want PVP on demand. Most of us like the PVEVP shared world sandbox. We like PVE, we like PVP, but more importantly we like them in the right proportion. Enough PVE to get a loot stash (maybe 2-3 voyages/world events), and enough PVP to create the drama and tension (maybe once an hour or so). I think that's what HG defending is supposed to be, but because the pirates who enjoy PVP are very good at it, there are few invaders available to invade the low MMR defenders. That makes defending virtually useless as a means to climb the faction ranks.

@zig-zag-ltu said in Hourglass is way to slow to level already losing interest:

2 Years later

Ahoy!

All decisions around The Hourglass, its closure, cosmetics, commendations and achievements are final and you can read about it here(To be added), including why we made this difficult decision.

While we understand your intent is to leave feedback, the decision around The Hourglass and its cosmetics etc will not be changed or reversed as we focus our development and passion on Adventure.

Dropping anchor here.

Thanks,
Insert Developer name

Am I too Soon :P?

Hg is a part of adventure

Arena got the axe because it was its own thing and requiring extra resources.

Things don't have to be popular in adventure to be worth having. HG isn't popular but it does have value in the environment. No reason to get rid of it, especially because even at its worst it still has shown very little toxicity. Taking one off the server shortly after the fight ends and no common waiting room cuts down significant amounts of toxicity.

@zig-zag-ltu said in Hourglass is way to slow to level already losing interest:

@wolfmanbush Yeah I know what happened, but would they really keep it if nobody would be playing it or it would take long amounts of time to find an opponent?

It seems fine at the moment as there are many players who did not get the curse yet and there are many sweats who just love it.

But you know, the loop itself is tedious due to resupplying and if you loose more than you win it quite frankly sucks. New games will come out eventually. I think the PVP mode needs more innovation to keep people playing it in the long run.

It's never been fine from the perspective of inexperienced players. The "good place to practice" narrative was always misleading. HG would need mass participation for any sort of quality matchmaking for inexperienced players and it was never going to have that. It's predictable repetitive fighting that even burns out people that it was designed for

The benefits from HG are that it takes pressure off pve, any pressure off pve is a positive in this environment. Consenting pvp is a positive.

Pvers took more risks and participated more specifically because of HG. We saw that with a clear increase in fotds in the second half of season 8. That was not based on anything other than skilled pvpers being mostly or entirely focused on hg. It brought hopping for targets down significantly.

Now at this stage it has less impact but still positive impact.

I think defense needs a rework too.

I was with a crew trying to work on the defense mode.
we did veils, fofs, nothing.
3 hours went by we did a FOTD
the second we loaded a keg onto our ship (we had to unload it quickly) a challenger finally appeared.

They hit us with many magic balls, very accurate cannonballs, and acted very quickly. I was the noob on the ship, only 1000 hours in this game, all my crew were old LSD insider pros. we got sunk in under 1 min.

3 hours we get 1 fight and they were jacked on a roll, all curse bearers, on a hot streak.

how tf someone supposed to get commendation for defense battles?

@jj-h816 one four streak is a level for me

@ghostfire1981 till it goes the Arena route people stop playing it and it stops being supported.