Just lost a 21 duo sloop streak to a galleon full of swabbies that third partied us. We would've sunk our original opponent, if we were not 3rd partied by a galleon. Hour opponent managed to get away, then came back and started to sink us again. Why aren't Hourglass only servers a thing? You had them for arena, I know you can have them for hourglass.
Why No Hourglass-Only Servers?
a 21 streak boat sunk by a "galleon full of swabbies" is very much on brand for SoT adventure. That's kinda what they are going for in an adventure game like this.
People often say "why don't we have hg only servers" but that ignores a huge part of why HG even exists. It was to shake up metas and take off hopping pressure from pve (pressure that was causing significant damage to the game which lead into season 9)
One can argue that the game has become so casual and nerfed and many of the veteran players are so frustrated that the pressure has now naturally been lifted enough to be sustainable.
Personally it's whatever to me. It served its purpose at the time, I'd like to see it become more organically appealing but I don't have a strong view about where they fight anymore.
An hourglass only server would die just as the Arena did. The 3rd party invasion has always been an intentional feature.
Personally, I feel if a 3rd party enters an hourglass battlefield they should be automatically locked in the circle and unable to leave without their ship blowing up.
Arena is the reason, the lesson learned was maintaining a separate mode that isn't used by majority of population was not deemed a good investment of dev resource. Hourglass is less likely to be discontinued because its another tool within adventure
Third parties suck but tbh if you've gone on a 20 streak you are good enough to consistently get the wins anyway (assuming no cheese involved)
People often say "why don't we have hg only servers" but that ignores a huge part of why HG even exists. It was to shake up metas and take off hopping pressure from pve (pressure that was causing significant damage to the game which lead into season 9)
A lot of that pressure came from Arena's absence.
The folks who spent hours fighting each other had nowhere else to go, so they'd find a reaper, sink them, turn in (if it was worth it), and then hop to the next.
Something else that takes a huge amount of pressure off PvE is a separate mode for PvPers to fight each other as much as they want.
I always thought it was a very "Rare" decision to use an Elo system for matches in which supplies are uneven, spawns are uneven, and there's a random chance for PvEvP third partying.
We had the whole "tunnel to an instance" thing back when PotC TTs were introduced, as in before Arena was closed. Hourglass could've been an opt-in "tunnel to a PvP instance" thing where supplies are reset every match. Some small zone in the Sea of the Damned.
Participants could've been controlled. They could have limited the matches with time limits and scoring systems. Then used Elo.
Didn't have to be tied to curses, but could have had commendations/milestones & pvp-related rewards (weapons, cannons, etc).
People could have used it as a "get better" tool in place of Arena. No pressure to grind it if you don't enjoy it, but it's there if you want it, or want to track milestones related to it.
In addition to 1v1s, 5-boat FFA and TDM modes would've been fun too. Opt-in/out as you like.
For the 5 boat naval - once in the zone, every ship spawns (and respawns) with set supplies and a flag. Sink ships and turn in their flags to get rep. No spawncamping & cannon farm meta, just pure naval.
For the TDM - 5 ships anchored (permanently) around a fort. It is barricaded, so they must cannon themselves over. No cannons on the fort, and the barricade makes it so that no one can climb onto a ship. Kill a team to get rep. Wiping all teams gets more rep.
Maybe for Hourglass 2.0...
@theblackbellamy said in Why No Hourglass-Only Servers?:
People often say "why don't we have hg only servers" but that ignores a huge part of why HG even exists. It was to shake up metas and take off hopping pressure from pve (pressure that was causing significant damage to the game which lead into season 9)
A lot of that pressure came from Arena's absence.
The folks who spent hours fighting each other had nowhere else to go, so they'd find a reaper, sink them, turn in (if it was worth it), and then hop to the next.
Something else that takes a huge amount of pressure off PvE is a separate mode for PvPers to fight each other as much as they want.
It was far more content creation than anything else.
Fast action for quick content to keep people interested.
Arena people hopping around isn't heavy pressure on the ecosystems of servers. Content creators with discords/chats full of people that are willing to spend their day hopping for servers and setting up boats was.
The networking turned coordination for content creation had far more impact than arena players hopping around.
The shift from stealth play to ambush play in content creation along with marked content was devastating for organic play for a couple of years. So much so that an entire season (and the longest season) was built around trying to correct some of those mistakes in maintenance. Now their issue is over-correcting to the point of sea of farming simulator with extreme nerfs/bugs/exploits.
Too much imbalanced risk to too much imbalanced reward.
@wolfmanbush content creation was definitely part of it, but there was a good amount of crossover between smaller content creators and comp. Arena players.
It was a mix of covid, Arena's closure, and the high-school bragging rights you often bring up. For several months (idk about nowadays) most of the top reapers on the ledgers (who weren't alliance players or cheat advertisements) were very involved in Arena prior to its closure.
They didn't have entire servers hopping for them, but they had nothing else going on, so they'd hop for themseleves and for their homies. And they were damn good at the game.
@tinyfoxtato6252 you're complaining about losing a 21 streak of hourglass against supposed swabbies? Riiiiight. If they were so bad, why didn't you sink them? Also, if you're hitting such a high streak, shouldn't you already know that Hourglass is meant for Adventure? I get you're salty for losing that streak, but that was the risk you took keeping the streak up.
Hourglass-Only servers...with a 70% reduction in rewards.
After all; Less risk (No third parties. No weather dangers (according to some). Etc.) means less rewards.
Same as the Safer Seas.Lol imagine.
If they were swabbies you should of been able to sink them if you're good enough to get 21 streak as a duo. I personally like that third parties can get involved it maintains that element of keeping your eyes on the horizon at all times that makes this game what it is. Losing a streak sucks but it's part of the game and like every loss it's an opportunity to figure out what you did wrong and learn from it. I liked arena but it wasn't working so they shouldn't repeat what they deemed a mistake
1 out of 13
