I think I played enough both the arena and the hourglass to be able to talk about the good and bad of both.
I will at the end suggest something (a new pvp system without removing the hourglass)
The new pvp system (hourglass) now able pvp tryhard (few percent of player) to encounter new player (the vast majority of the playerbase) much more often that before.
It's because reason 1 :
- you can't dive if there are other ship nearby which result most of the time in the pvp player destroying, spawn-camping the other boat in open world until he votes the hourglass or sinks.
- new players don't know a thing about the game which leads to newbie decision(/discover decision) like the red flag, or in this case voting the hourglass.
This system leads to toxic environment and comments between the two. (*note : I believe toxic environment will always exist in competitive gamemod)
With the arena it was seperate and so, in few numbers (encounter between tryhard/new player).
Now on the second reason :
With the arena if there was a cheater, what we would do is try to gather all the other boats who understand what's happening and gang up on the cheater's boat. Which leads to them stop playing most of the time.
Now with the hourglass system you are most of the time doomed, (#sot tp keg, CDM, esp etc..) because it's a 1 on 1 thus you don't stand a chance. Which result in a huge loss of time and energy either by trying to actually sink them while using their cheats against them (if they aren't that good at using them).
Now let's add everything up in terms of time lost :
- spawning/despawning(when sunk) + preparing the boat(buying supplying, sorting or not, scavenging, end of pve session, etc..) + anchor + sailing away + diving + finding player + fighting + boat sinking time.
Most of them are needed in pve session I'll give you that, but in pvp it's just not worth it, with the arena it's a 15 or 30 minutes game if I remember well. And it's only spawn/despawn + (anchor/sail) + fight + sink = which is a HUGE difference.
Lastly the mod at one point is bland, no flavor or humanity behind it compare to the arena. It's even more competitive than the arena due to the 1 on 1, especially on sloop it's just bland in my opinion.
The arena felt like he had some work behind it, the grind was worth it (I did 100% all reputation arena) and I still wanted to play it.
It had some flaws sure but way less than the new mod.
Honorable mention : event during the hourglass are just hum very annoying may I say, to top if off the blizzard and tempest is well no comment you get the idea.
Now onto the suggestion, 3 mods and changes in the hourglass :
-
1st mod SHIP-FIGHT = reward(point) increased for cannonball shot(hit), oneballed, deckshot (an idea why not), demast etc... (chest spawns but aren't worth it)
-
2cd mod THIEF ONWARD = chest will spawn on every ship (not on land) thus reward increased for board and stealing chest who are on other's ship. The longer you keep a chest from an other ship on board the better your point increase but dangerous and all chest despawn after 5 minutes (so you better sell them) if you haven't stole an enemy's chest (to counter reaper runners) point will still be earn with cannon hit, kill etc.. though greatly reduced to induce people to steal chest. (the countdown for the reset chest onboard is reset each time you put your hands on another team's boat. (*An other option to counter runners : if a boat hasn't sold another boat's chest after 5 min, this boat becomes the number 1 target of the server by increasing the point/reputation earned when stealing this chest's a message pops on every single boat to make them aware of it. Also the targeted boat will lost more point if it sinks. It's an idea)
-
3rd mod ARE YOU WORTHY ENOUGH a tdm mod on ground where each boat has a flag (like emissary flag and is anchored near a fort. you have to defend your flag while stealing and selling others flag [to prevent spawn kill, the team with the most point will be marked on the map (the same as a reaper bounty or the old athena chest in arena) and point for their death will be double until flag captured/and sold or all dead, something like that] Also those who haven't been killed for while will be also marked, and more point will be earned for those who kill them. (Flag appear on top of the head or something and the more you earn flag the more wanted you become thus the more valuable)
All of this is just ideas, I really like the game though I highly dislike the new pvp system. You have to be a madman or love the game to some dangerous degree to still play it (hacker aren't only in the pvp system anymore). Or 3rd option Sea Of Thieves is the best of the worse nothing is better so it still makes sense to play it.
Other ideas :
- a button to report the previous boat even though you might have not seen one or a few crew mate (if boosting/cheating)
- Tryhard player put crate around the deck in sloop and brigantin (even maybe galeon), it would be nice to be able to transform or have the opportunity to upgrade the ship while in a streak, example, wood or something transparent so we can shoot through will start to form around the boat to counter harpoon. Each time someone harpoon the exact same position the structure is damaged and maybe around 2 or 3 it breaks (can't be damaged by cannonballs)
- automatically refill the boat like the arena system each time you get out of the water (after diving in matchmaking) 200 cannonballs in each barrels etc..
- boats who haven't vote the hourglass and still comes next to hourglass battlefield will get a message as they approach ("You will soon enter an hourglass area, danger incoming") something like which result in them automatically changing the hourglass to a blank pvp state. That way if another ship sinks it the streak increase.
