@burnbacon This is not in HG, there's a chance it can happen but not a given and what i am suggesting is joining a mode where there will always be AI ships along with 2 or 3 other players.
But if an empty server is needed then so be it, don't understand what point you are trying to make.
The moment anyone is left on a server on their own they get migrated to one with other players, so same here, players get migrated to an empty server for the fight (if that was the only option) then once a player wins and there are no other ships sailing around then migrate him to another.
Could be a sweet addition to 1v1, depending on the queue time.
Like, give one more option on HG: To decide wether you want 1v1 or 3+ : this could then be any number from 3 to 5/6 ships HG battle. Could be a lot of fun and a way to bring back those bigger arena fights.
I dont see an issue for having to choose an almost empty/empty server for that, as you could just re-migrate the winner to another server afterwards, if needed.
Im all in for total mayhem on the seas.
@parrotlord6426 The one vs one HG is fun but i think it's time for some variation.
I also believe if Arena had focused on accessing this mode from within the main game and making combat the main focus vs turning in treasures, then most likely it would have survived.
@eva1977 that's a good idea, I do miss that old vomit filled hot tub, saw someone else asking for the tavern to be brought back as like a small PvP area with friendly fire. Could do both those things then
@eva1977 said in HG battle variation:
Why not introduce an HG mode where multiple ships are involved including AI ships?
Last ship standing wins.In the current state HG is fun but a simple variation to allow multiple ships to be involved vs the one on one where everyone complains whenever another ship gets involved.
I’m all for all the modes, the more modes the better… in a perfect world. The problem is that many regions can’t even successfully queue for a solo sloop match within a reasonable amount of time. Luckily for me, the NA queue is pretty healthy, but further fragmentation of the HG population is going to put further strain on queue times.
NA queues may survive some additional modes, maybe not, but regions already suffering would just become worse off if HG participants are split between modes.
With anti-cheat coming this week, the HG queue will probably improve, assuming some level of cheating mitigation is taking place. Perhaps in the future the HG queue will be healthier worldwide, but at this time I don’t think that splitting up the existing participants is a good idea.
I could see this being a lot of fun!
I would design it to be a scored PvE in which PvP happens as both crews attempt to get shots on the same ghost ships.
20 points per ghost ship destroyed + 10 points per cannonball hit on player ships or ghost ships. 10 points per player kill.
Match lasts for 10 minutes.
You win if you have the most points at the end, or are the last ship standing.
Extra fun bonus: have a seafort at the center of the map which can be used to shoot ghost ships as well. Control of the seafort at the end grants 750 points (15 ghost ships if each has 3 health and your crew hit all shots). This would be enough to swing the battle if you are behind in closely matched contests.
Solo sloop battle would have trouble trying to control of the seafort and keep their ship alive since they would need to abandon their ship to do so. But, it would be possible if you win the naval fight against your opponent and they are forced to flee, giving advantage to the crew who wins their naval battles.
I would definitely have this in an instanced server, and think ships should queue up from within the game.
Your idea relates to a larger idea I always envisioned about crews using special combinations of loot in game to spawn special instanced dungeons. This could be one of them, but would be free to enter & would drop as a potential reward a character bound item. This item could be used to open other competitive PvP style dungeons that you can challenge other crews, either from your server or matchmaking between servers. Personally, I think the pool for hourglass is low simply because it is too direct in its PvP focus.
Introduce some dungeons that can be completed solo, or can be invaded for higher chance of reward, and you will see people flock to enable PvP. But having a more PvE feeling HG mode definitely would help.
@eva1977 said in HG battle variation:
@parrotlord6426 The one vs one HG is fun but i think it's time for some variation.
I also believe if Arena had focused on accessing this mode from within the main game and making combat the main focus vs turning in treasures, then most likely it would have survived.
Even if it focussed on turning in treasures, Arena would have survived with the ranked matching changes, better stamp integration, and reduced downtime inside the sea dogs tavern.
What Arena (and hourglass) desperately needed, was multiple game types on rotation, so it didn't get stale.
Arena had 3 invisible gametypes, just due to how the meta shook out.
Sloops: score shots, sink ships, score treasure. (classic arena)
Brigs: Race with your insane speed avoiding ships and turning in treasure. (race mode)
Galleons: spawn camp and bucket the enemy while you spam cannonballs, because it's faster then 'playing the game'. (Ship TDM and Boarding)
It also had TDM's that the players invented, which was team based fights on islands.
Hourglass has Offensive Diving, and Defensive adventure mode.
Defence mode is ok, but it gets tiring to lose your loot over and over with little compensation against players whose only interest was diving and sinking and not necessarily invading. I think 'defence mode' should get significant boosts to the rep you get when you sink, BUT ONLY if it happens if someone invades you. The current rewards for handing in a 15m hourglass after getting some loot is sitting at a good place.
TDM's need to be implemented in a different way, Pirate Duels are a perfect way to scratch that itch in adventure mode, despite just being Death Matches and not Team Death Matches. This is mainly because they are so different, that it doesn't really make much sense to implement them in the hourglass Lore.
This is basically attacker vs attacker hourglass already, in a better implementation. However at current it is just 1 vs 1. I'd like to see some 2v2 hourglass matches, as it would keep with the lore.
I'd like to see some 'hourglass only' voyages.
Voyages that have been designed to be done in defence mode, similar to the briggsy quest, but guaranteed to be contested.
Imagine if you could only sign up to briggsy's quest while hourglass flagged, you would be broadcasting to others to invade you like the voyage was originally pitched.
The circles for hourglass mode would have to be suspended for these voyages though, so it could get irritating if all someone did was run, but if there was some sort of catch-up mechanic like slowing down one of the ships, (like briggsy's skull does when unlocked) or letting invading ships 'boost' in some way.
Basically, the concept of the Briggsy quest was awesome, it was just implemented extremely poorly, probably because they rushed it earlier when we all complained due to a lack of content. The actual quest is fun, just the method of participation. Ghost appearing on ship with note, opt-in, no invaders.
I'd also like to see Hourglass Raid voyages.
Imagine a Raid voyage on a skeleton fort, except you were allowed to dive to it in defence mode, the rewards are juiced, because you are participating in an hourglass at the same time, and you are likely to get attacked by players in the hourglass dive queue, whether it's by a fellow raider or just someone 'diving to hourglass'.
This would basically be like doing a Fort of Fortune on demand, when they had the Chest of Fortune inside.
Except you might get a little warning if someone attacks via the hourglass banners. It might also lower your ability to check horizons if you are expecting that banner to pop, so more tuck or sneak plays would be possible too.
@eva1977
Can we have negative hg mode? Loser gets triple xp.
It's random, so no one knows until after. Then both parties are told. 😈
@honestauntyelle I believe the whole purpose of Arena was to provide an outlet for those who were only interested in PVP, the main problem was you could be #1 at that and while you could be occupied fighting and defeating ships, some sneaky player was turning in the gold and all of a sudden he wins.
So the focus was not on fighting and more on chasing chests, which to me defeated the purpose of a player looking for a fight, expecting to win should he be the most proficient at this.
This is one of the reasons HG feels completely different, there is no other goal other than to fight and defeat opponent.
Had they done this with Arena where the focus was more on last ship standing then i'm sure it would still be around.
@pithyrumble I say definitely yes let's have that random reward for some players including myself, i believe i have never done a streak of more than 5 or 6 at a time since it becomes impossible to win for some of us after reaching champion status.
I saw a video of this one dual sloop that reached a 47 win streak, which is something i would not even attempt even if it was agains't players farming loses, i just don't play that much let alone reach their skills.
@eva1977 said in HG battle variation:
@honestauntyelle I believe the whole purpose of Arena was to provide an outlet for those who were only interested in PVP, the main problem was you could be #1 at that and while you could be occupied fighting and defeating ships, some sneaky player was turning in the gold and all of a sudden he wins.
So the focus was not on fighting and more on chasing chests, which to me defeated the purpose of a player looking for a fight, expecting to win should he be the most proficient at this.This is one of the reasons HG feels completely different, there is no other goal other than to fight and defeat opponent.
Had they done this with Arena where the focus was more on last ship standing then i'm sure it would still be around.
That's one approach that keeps PvP minded people around.
HOWEVER the thing that drives away the casuals is it's too rigid around PvP and skill.
Having varied modes, means that casual players might have the chance of being good at 1 gametype, so they would hold out hope of getting a few wins in that game-mode until they got good enough to compete in all of them.
It's keeping the casual playerbase interested in match-making that is the core driver to success of a match making mode.
A lott of above cloud be achived easly if defening party would get piority in que.
So if you in mood for dive the first paring should be someone defending.
Loot being on board of defending party after reaolve of batle should be glowing a little bit - now it's worth gold and some alligance.
To prevent cheasing that cloud only happen trough matchmaking.
After that loot should be visible on map as it is now high piority target.
Enyone on server cloud now stole it for sweet alligance.
And to create chockepoint it cloud be sold only in repaer for repaer allignace or at sea dog for athena allignace.
Throw some comenadtion and maybe some comsetic for selling that war touched lood and voila.
@honestauntyelle Hopefully the Playstation influx of players will generate less queue times in hg and more balanced matches.
But new game modes like competitive HG or something are needed to remove that 1% of players with extreme skills that are on a league of their own, let us normal pirates have fun matches not blowouts at the hands of those whose sole purpose in SOT is to sink other players 24/7.
