PVE way to get the skeleton curse and ghost curse

It's not a coincidence that the devs put two of the most highly requested cosmetics in the game behind hourglass.

They want you to learn how to PvP, it's like half of the core gameplay loop.

@burnbacon Not necessarily, I know plenty of former PvP-averse players who grew to love PvP through their grind, and still play hourglass to this day.

The curses work great as bait to lure these kinds of players into exposing themselves to low-stakes PvP and experience a major part of the game they'd otherwise shelter themselves from.

@xorzius

I think that a no-invasion HG option with reduced rep from faction stash turn-ins is a decent compromise. When HG diving was recently disabled everyone had the chance to test accumulating a faction stash level 5 and turning it in for HG rep without the chance of invasion. The conclusion is that it’s slow, even with the level of rep it provides currently. If there were a no-invasion option with reduced gains I think it’s a fair compromise as the participants still assume some risk. For example, if I saw someone doing a ghost fort with HG raised I’d likely raise the opposing faction (assuming my emissary permits it) and attack them. I always do this; if I happen to stumble upon someone with HG raised, and they’re not currently in a match (since interfering doesn’t give rep anymore), I will raise HG and attack them.

This would be very slow gains and simply doing HG, win or lose would be faster, but it would provide an opportunity to play the game normally with HG raised assuming some risk while gaining reduced rep. The cap for gains could even be maxed at 100 for no-invasion HG, while still allowing for gold turn-ins after 100 (or something).I think no-invasion HG would increase HG participation as those reluctant to participate get their feet wet, while also offering an opportunity to acquire the curses for those who for some reason refuse to improve their survivability in the PvPvE pirate game. I had to stick a slight burn in the end there, sorry ;)

@potatosord said in PVE way to get the skeleton curse and ghost curse:

@capt-greldik You get less XP for a grade 5 faction stash than you get for losing. 2000 grade 5 faction stashes is a mind numbingly boring way to do it, which I suppose means there is already a way to do this without PVP. If there was an effective way to do it without hourglass, why would the devs want that? It would take more players away from hourglass, which would make hourglass matchmaking even more sparse. The community already complains enough about long wait times and constantly getting matched against people who have 1000+ rating, and even complains about loss farmers (who actually help them get their curses faster). Having more people removed from hourglass would make it arena 2.0, and it would dump more bloodthristy murder hobos back into the seas.

That’s a possibility. I guess my thoughts are that it could be a net positive with players who wouldn’t normally dip their toes getting a taste of some rep and maybe taking the next step. I also think it would be cool to see people repping HG everywhere, which I assume would happen eventually. Pirates are already out there murdering each other daily, why not do it while repping HG?

I agree that it’s super slow, and with reduced rep it would be incredibly slow. I think that some people would eventually decide to speed up the process by diving or being invaded, and for those who don’t, they can get their rep via PvE but with a presumably increased risk of being attacked.

Also note that some regions were basically like this already prior to universal matchmaking. I played with an Aussie friend on OCE servers when I was new, and I’d sometimes forget we even had HG up until we were turning in the faction stash. We did get invaded occasionally, but it was infrequent.

I think the ghost curse is less of a grind than the pve 500 ghost ships commendation for the chest of the damned disguise

@potatosord said in PVE way to get the skeleton curse and ghost curse:

@captain-knyt Which basically means that this is slower than loss farming. Loss farming is faster than grade 5 faction stash farming. Also, you are NOT reliably getting G5 faction stashes EVERY 15 minutes. It's gonna take almost that long in TRAVEL time, nevermind actually doing something to get the money. Even if you could do a FotD in under 5 minutes, it would still take time to get the skull of destiny, then go to FotD, then do it, load it, sell it. That's like half an hour absolute bare minimum before you even get into the FotD fight.

Yea I tested this thoroughly both when invasions were enabled and disabled, and realistically one could turn in a level 5 faction stash maybe every 45 minutes or so. Loss farming would probably be better. Which is why I think a no-invasion option with reduced allegiance is a reasonable compromise. Someone who actually wanted to grind it out would probably still loss farm (or just play normally), while those who choose a no-invasion option might still find themselves in a hg fight. I think with some tweaks (cap at 100) it might actually increase hg participation. It would certainly increase random organic hg fights, and I’d wager by including some pirates who might have otherwise shied away, it may get some new blood in the mix after they get a taste.

@potatosord said in PVE way to get the skeleton curse and ghost curse:

@capt-greldik Having a no invasion option invites alliance servers to just take advantage of HG and spam HG rep with faction loot.

I guesso, but I don’t see that being much more efficient than just doing it on your own. A solo player can load up on loot as quickly as a galley. I see alliance servers more as something people pursue for safety. Sure, technically you could join an alliance server for safety and do hg stashes, but I don’t see it being much quicker.

Also, this can essentially already be done. Ship proximity (like two squares?) prevents invasion. All you need is one buddy ship and neither of you can be invaded. I’m not advocating for this, but I don’t see how a no-invasion option with reduced allegiance makes what cheese is already available any worse.

I’m one of the first people on these forums trashing on ideas that essentially amount to people asking for easier allegiance. I’m on my way to green bones and the gold curse with servants, and have like 260 in guardians; however, as someone who has tested faction stash efficiency a lot, I’m okay with a small bump for a no-invasion option. I also see it as something that might increase participation, but that part is hard to be sure about.

@potatosord said in PVE way to get the skeleton curse and ghost curse:

@capt-greldik You get less XP for a grade 5 faction stash than you get for losing. 2000 grade 5 faction stashes is a mind numbingly boring way to do it, which I suppose means there is already a way to do this without PVP. If there was an effective way to do it without hourglass, why would the devs want that? It would take more players away from hourglass, which would make hourglass matchmaking even more sparse. The community already complains enough about long wait times and constantly getting matched against people who have 1000+ rating, and even complains about loss farmers (who actually help them get their curses faster). Having more people removed from hourglass would make it arena 2.0, and it would dump more bloodthristy murder hobos back into the seas.

I didn’t catch this before but you get significantly more rep for a grade five stash than a loss. A grade 5 stash gives a little less than a quarter level.

@potatosord said in PVE way to get the skeleton curse and ghost curse:

@capt-greldik They will take advantage of bugs to make more loot spawn, I've seen the methods they use. They would be getting it every 15 minutes with exploits and loot swapping

I’ve seen it too, but again, that’s already possible. In that scenario they’re already close enough to one another to prevent invasion. A no-invasion option with reduced allegiance does not make that scenario worse.

After reading several of the other replys, I feel like instead of giving the same curses as Hourglass, there should just be different curses, maybe a ghost skelly, or just different style or color ghost/skelly. I understand OP's issue of the game really only rewarding PvP players with cosmetics that are really cool because PvE content is hard in its own ways, but it would also be a slap in the face to anyone that already did a PvP grind to get the curse.

I initially would have been against this but the more I’ve played HG the more I’ve started to see why nobody likes HG anymore. The majority of times you get into a HG match (that is if you can actually get into one) it’s either you come across a loss farmer which is no fun or you get matched with someone who hasn’t left their couch since the game launched, there are VERY few times I’ve actually played against someone in HG and actually had fun. I don’t mind having the curses being locked behind a PVP mode and I’m still skeptical about having a PVE way to obtain them, but I wouldn’t mind if maybe a certain world event or maybe even BB or FoF would give HG rep maybe if it was reduced a little compared to a HG wins, unless they decide to actually do something about HG which the only solutions I can see are either 1: Rare actually fixes HG to actually work as intended or 2: Rare gives HG the Arena treatment and make a new PVP mode that doesn’t make you want to pull off your fingernails with pliers.
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like Rare is actually gonna do anything about HG so until then it’s back to the pliers but that’s just me.

@sixrenitent13 said in PVE way to get the skeleton curse and ghost curse:

I initially would have been against this but the more I’ve played HG the more I’ve started to see why nobody likes HG anymore. The majority of times you get into a HG match (that is if you can actually get into one) it’s either you come across a loss farmer which is no fun or you get matched with someone who hasn’t left their couch since the game launched, there are VERY few times I’ve actually played against someone in HG and actually had fun. I don’t mind having the curses being locked behind a PVP mode and I’m still skeptical about having a PVE way to obtain them, but I wouldn’t mind if maybe a certain world event or maybe even BB or FoF would give HG rep maybe if it was reduced a little compared to a HG wins, unless they decide to actually do something about HG which the only solutions I can see are either 1: Rare actually fixes HG to actually work as intended or 2: Rare gives HG the Arena treatment and make a new PVP mode that doesn’t make you want to pull off your fingernails with pliers.
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like Rare is actually gonna do anything about HG so until then it’s back to the pliers but that’s just me.

Does the universal queue not help your queue times? I play NA so the queues have always been good for me, but I thought the new queuing methodology was an improvement for those in slower regions.

I still think they should let you gain some rep (maybe the equivalent of selling a level 5 flag at full emissary) by turning in the Brigsy quest while running one of the HG factions. It would provide a way to get the curse slowly over time without loss farming, energize that quest which is a lot of fun with multiple people going after it, and spice up HG fights. Win, win, win IMO.