Dear Rare please read from New player loving the game but too unforgiving to learn casually

New players shouldn’t be playing hourglass until they at least know the way around there ship.
Go fight the fleet a few times

Also. This isn’t a post about the game itself but hourglass being difficult. Which should be when you’re straight up fighting other players.

You’re implying somehow that hourglass should be made “easy” for newcomers. I’m sorry but hourglass was quite literally designed to test your skill—regardless if you are new, or old—when functioning properly. It took me hundreds of hours to get both curses and I lost a lot when I first started. Keep at it and the reward will feel earned. When facing a skeleton curse or ghost on the seas—one who got there legimately—you know it’s going to be a challenging fight and that is what the cosmetic should convey.

Hourglass curses are locked behind hourglass to motivate people to play the mode. I don't cry that I can't get obsidian bones without PvP. I don't cry that I have to get 80 burning blades to be allowed to have my PvP skin. I don't cry that there's no PvP way to get shark curse. I'm not gonna ask the devs to give me a way to get gold hoarders curse with hourglass, I'm gonna have to do the 45 tall tales like anyone else. I'll let you know right now, I have only done 29 out of 45 of them because I don't enjoy doing them. I likely will not get the gold curse, but I will not say that they need to make it an hourglass reward. Some parts of the game just aren't for you. If you really want to, there is a PvE way to get both HG curses, but it'll take longer and be worse for you than actually playing hourglass. You can build a grade 5 faction treasure pile on your boat while representing a faction, then after 15 minutes you can sell the hourglass for a little bit of XP. Do this 500 times and you will have the level 100 curse. That said, this will also take about an hour each time, and not only that, you have no way to stop yourself from being invaded, so more often than not people will invade and attack you, likely sinking you since you are so PvP averse.

If you want to appeal to the "game world" aspect of it, the cosmetics you have tell a story of which parts of the game world you have explored. The PvP curses are the way to show you explored the PvP world of it. If you don't explore that part, you don't get the curse. If I don't explore the tall tales, I don't get gold curse, or OoS curse.

@hamsmoothie0

Don't beat yourself up over it. People on here love to disagree with literally anything just for the sake of it. They treat is as a job.
They want to "gatekeep" the game as how "it's always been" to them. They're stuck in the past, refusing anything new just because "that's not how this game works".

You want the developers to listen to your ideas, not the randoms on here. If the developers like your idea(s), that's what matters.
They finally added the option to increase FOV to 110 for this very reason. Because people like you never stopped asking for it, sharing their ideas and feedback.

I agree with you. There should be alternative ways to earn Hourglass rewards. A simple way to make people interested in the Burning Blade and the Siren Song voyage again would be to offer Hourglass reputation for completing/taking part in those events/voyages.
This would obviously mean that you'd be battling more experienced players occasionally, but you simply can't get around that. The player base isn't large enough to support skill-based matchmaking unfortunately. It would result in lots of half empty servers, I think.

Here's my quick run through:

• hourglass but with bots mixed in
  This would significantly devalue the work many players put in, specifically several days worth of hours for some of the higher level players.

• bring back the mode the original players are still yapping about
  You can find the reason for Arena's closure somewhere on the forums here. The short and narrow is that it was 2% of playtime amongst all players and ran on a separate server.

-guardians and servants voyages
These are pretty much Reaper and Athena voyages respectively. This is pretty much something already in the game

• skill/experience based servers
  This would help a lot, but due to the way SoT servers operate, would cause servers to constantly feel empty. This would be especially visible in smaller stamps

• lastly and frankly my favorite add more pvp gamemodes(not tdm based) like hardpoint, search and destroy, prop hunt, capture the flag, anything that takes the immediate attention off bullying noobs to allow for a little more game
  This I've been pushing for for a while, and I agree with the idea. I would rather have players that prefer Deck Combat have a zone they can Deck Combat, rather than camping the first Swabbie they see without sinking them. In addition, this would be a nice gap filler for shorter sessions and may even boost playtime for those who don't have the time to go through longer sessions.

Just note whenever talking about those ideas, do not refer to TDM. While I agree it's a synonym used by players for Deck Combat, moderators disagree and will lock the forum post containing that suggestion.

@kashmero If you remove the need to do PvP from hourglass, then you remove hourglass essentially. I get that you like the curses, but you need to do what the game asks to get them. I'm not trying to "keep it how it always was", I'm trying to get the point across that you don't get to have the rewards for everything just because you want it. They will never add a way to get HG XP without PvP in the same way that I will never be able to complete the tall tales with PvP. Gold curse is locked behind the work you put in to get it. I won't put in that work, I won't get it. I'm not asking to be able to sink people to get the PvE curses. If I could get the meg curse by sinking players, I would, but that's not how it works. You don't get to have the rewards for a thing if you are not willing to put in the work for that thing. That's not gatekeeping, it's game design that is trying to coerce you into trying a different gameplay style than you might normally for a cool reward. When I started hourglass this year, I suuuuuuucked at the PvP. I could not hit cannons worth a damn, and I lost most of my matches. But then I practiced and got better. Now I win most of my matches, and have ally 367 servants, 121 guardians. When people tell you to get good, it's not an insult. You are not playing the game at it fullest potential if you ignore some game modes and try to avoid interacting with PvP as often as possible. My time spent in hourglass has made me able to enjoy adventure more, since now when people attack me, I sink a lot less. I keep more of my loot and feel more confident with my loot. I enjoy more parts of the game more, now that I have played hourglass.

@potatosord

Hourglass is hourglass. I never asked for it to change. I have unlocked everything except the 10k titles.
Hourglass is going to end just like Arena unless they keep give it some love. Players that's already completed it needs incentive to go back to the mode, and even then a lot of players won't, unless the mode receive a massive overhaul. New rewards, ways to stop people from running by shrinking the zone to force ships closer to each other.

When did I say you should be able to earn allegiance without pvp? Being able to earn allegiance through voyages/events in Adventure could mean 6 ships fighting for it. Isn't that pvp?
If you could get half a level for lowering an 8 streak Burning Blade/Sword, more people would be willing to sail on the BB and more people would fight manned BBs. Literally incentivicing pvp if done correctly. Same goes for the Siren Song event.
All it requires is to find the perfect balance, so people won't be able to exploit/abuse such a feature to farm levels with no risk of pvp.

Problem is, people avoid pvp in hourglass too. All the loss farmers. People have earned the lvl 100 curses without sinking a single ship. Some people just don't like pvp.

HG and the curses are endgame content. They should be kept as they are. One reason is that it will give more experienced pirates and long time players something to work towards. Another reason is that the cosmetics that are locked behind the fights, are the things that actually keeps HG alive.

BTW, im a day one player, and have never had any longer pauses in SoT. I have the skeleton curse, but only halfway to the ghost one. My point is THERE IS NO HURRY TO GET EVERYTHING. Its meant to take time to unlock those things for normal players that have work, family and, well... life. Just play the game, get better at it and the HG curses will unlock in time. And when you get those curses/cosmetics, they will feel so much better as you had to wait and work for them. This goes for other cosmetics as well, not just the HG stuff.

@ghostfire1981 said in Dear Rare please read from New player loving the game but too unforgiving to learn casually:

HG and the curses are endgame content. They should be kept as they are. One reason is that it will give more experienced pirates and long time players something to work towards. Another reason is that the cosmetics that are locked behind the fights, are the things that actually keeps HG alive.

BTW, im a day one player, and have never had any longer pauses in SoT. I have the skeleton curse, but only halfway to the ghost one. My point is THERE IS NO HURRY TO GET EVERYTHING. Its meant to take time to unlock those things for normal players that have work, family and, well... life. Just play the game, get better at it and the HG curses will unlock in time. And when you get those curses/cosmetics, they will feel so much better as you had to wait and work for them. This goes for other cosmetics as well, not just the HG stuff.

Two examples of "end game" content that they changed over the years.

Pirate Legend status used to be end game content. Then the game changed. They made it easier to level up. Now you can get PL in 10 hours.

The Tall Tale gold curse used to be an indication of an experienced player. Then they added Tall Tale check points, to make it less sufferable for normal people to take breaks or to fail.

Same thing might happen to hourglass, because its slowly fading out of existence.

OP is asking for new ways to earn allegiance. They hint towards Arena. Maybe they could take some inspiration and introduce multi-ships battles. 6 ships in either a free for all, or 2-3 ships per team fighting in an alliance.

The current state of Hourglass is boring and extremely repetitive.
Spawn, raise sail and turn right. Fire cannons and sail in an orbital until the other ship is de-masted and/or sunk - repeat.
That is only fun for so long.

Hourglass itself need regular updates to keep it fresh and to keep players coming back to it. Otherwise, it will just be filled with 3 types of players.

• The experienced hourglass players that never play Adventure.
• The new players struggling to find balanced battles because there's barely any new players playing hourglass.
• And cheaters.

There should be rewards between lvl 0-100.

If they were to introduce alternative ways to earn allegiance, all they have to do is to make certain cosmetics tied behind taking part in the ship vs ship battles.
Let's say someone gets past lvl 100 in both factions through the new ways of earning hourglass rep (That the Burning Blade, TDM, new quests or Events)
All you have to do is add a commendation that says: "Requires 50 ship battles won to unlock".
This could be done for the lvl 100 curses so that people can't just earn those curses by playing in alliance servers or in quiet Adventure servers.

BTW, I'm a day one player with both gold curses, that rarely take breaks from SoT either. This isn't about trying to speedrun the game. It's about implementing new and fun ways to enrich the sandbox.

@hamsmoothie0 I do like the idea of adding more game modes for variety, and I know the game seems really difficult for new players so I'll give you a few easy suggestions that will make the game a lot simpler. First, these will be hourglass focused, they can work in adventure but unlike hourglass there are less hard and fast rules for succeeding in adventure. Second, they'll be solo, they work differently in duo but will still be applicable.

The second you are at the wheel, turn it all the way to the RIGHT. (I turn it a little less but that's specified to my preferred sail length)

Next, raise the sails to your sails halfway. I raise them higher, some may raise them less but halfway is good for a beginner. I would HIGHLY suggest not raising them less than halfway because added speed makes it more difficult to lead your shots and forces you to turn your wheel more which adds risk.

Then, go back to your wheel, turn it all the way back to center and continue turning it left by I'd say four pegs. (Tip: you can turn on extra wheel noises in settings so your wheel makes a noise every time a peg is rotated) Again, this is variable based on your speed but for a halfway raised sail this should be a good angle.

Importantly, when turning your wheel it is always better to turn less than you think is necessary, rather than more. You would rather under turn, than overturn right into your opponent. Eventually, you'll not have to think so much but while you are still counting the pegs, keep this in mind.

Finally cannons. Really, there is no special trick, just practice and learn to adjust every time you shoot until you hit.

Learn to tell when you are overturning or under turning, waves and cannons can affect how your ship is turning so you will always have to adjust in a fight. Don't EVER wait until you've lost angle to fix it, when you notice your window to hit shots getting tighter and tighter, go loosen or tighten the wheel to compensate. If you feel them getting behind, tighten and if they are getting in front, loosen. If you notice yourself consistently losing angle the same way, adjust how you are turning the wheel at the start.

Don't be scared of getting demasted, any good fight will end up in that situation and you should welcome the practice of balancing reps, buckets and shots.

GL!!