@jolly-ol-yep said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

Guess if you vote to dive before another ship enters the "zone"....

Yes! Voting to dive nearby an island/rock and with no other ships in range is a neat trick in order to ease off the pressure from hourglass. This prevents you from getting invaded while selling/supplying up, and other player ships will be taken for quite a surprise to see you suddenly dive once you're out at sea.

To add, if you're interested in defending moreso than diving, you can also vote down your ready-up to dive, essentially making you "protected" in a sense while selling, and still leaves you ready to defend if you still grab loot on the same server.

@sweetsandman I don’t understand...I get away from a fight with a bigger ship, keep the flags on board, keep the supplies, keep my flag and hourglass grade...so it's not like I scuttled...

Anyway, it's not working that way, this was just a respond to the other guy, who didn't see a sense in it, if it works...

I think you can somehow use the hourglass to "escape"...

One time I needed to resupply after a long fight so I went to an OP.

I wanted to do some shopping on the OP too, so I voted to dive once at the outpost, knowing I wouldn't since I wasn't in open waters, and hoping this would prevent an invasion.

Did my shopping, forgot about the hourglass, want away to make myself a coffee.

As usual when you afk in this game, when I came back sure there was an agressive brig shoting at my ship (it's always brigs, why is it with brigs and free agression ?). Lowered my sails and went away to repair and reset.

To my surprise (and theirs I guess), I dove in front of them, while they were shoting me.

Guess if you vote to dive before another ship enters the "zone"....

@schwammlgott said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@sweetsandman sagte in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@schwammlgott said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

You are on a sloop and a skilled brig is fighting you...you can escape by diving down to get an easier enemy...

Right, but you're sacrificing all your loot and such just as if you portal hopped away from them...so...what's it matter?

I know, but the point was, you could get away from a fight with a stronger enemy...

You're not "getting away from it", you're effectively forfeiting the fight. It'd be the equivalent to just scuttling.

@sweetsandman sagte in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@schwammlgott said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

You are on a sloop and a skilled brig is fighting you...you can escape by diving down to get an easier enemy...

Right, but you're sacrificing all your loot and such just as if you portal hopped away from them...so...what's it matter?

I know, but the point was, you could get away from a fight with a stronger enemy...

Edit: if you read what I responded to...he asked what purpose it has, to get away from pvp just to get to another pvp fight

@magus104 My idea of a war server would have a form of forced rotation of crews over time but would try to guarantee that there's at least 2 of each faction on the server. Sinking from a battle would just 0 your hourglass instead of lowering and you would respawn somewhere on the same server giving you a chance to seek revenge. Highlighting regions that an enemy hourglass faction is in would be useful for finding a fight as well as marking on the map any enemy ships that are within range of one of your faction ships that are on the server. The other thing is that choosing lower the hourglass would give you a time limit to reactivate before it merges you back into standard servers making room for another ship who wants to fight the war.

@monkeyboy4551 said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr actually, no. It protects your spot in the server until you get matched. I've seen many reapers on the table that aren't shown on the map because they have dove and are waiting for the game to match them with another crew. If you cancel, you rise back up where you dove.

You know what a glitch is, right?

@targasbr actually, no. It protects your spot in the server until you get matched. I've seen many reapers on the table that aren't shown on the map because they have dove and are waiting for the game to match them with another crew. If you cancel, you rise back up where you dove.

@sweetsandman All the other boat would have to do to stop this is vote for the hourglass. I'm talking about people who aren't joined in the war and have no interest that session stopping players who are joined in the war from matchmaking just because they are present. This forces the players who want to dive for a fight to choose either sail around the seas until they find a clear spot to dive which might take an hour depending on where everyone is and is moving or just sink someone not interested in the war just to create a clear spot. Both are bad for both sides. Although there were good intentions in this, it is not beneficial to either side. One, who is trying to level their hourglass and the other who just wants to sail the seas like normal. I also suggest war servers because they can balance it so that there's 2 of each faction on the server with a floating position for either side and to combat repeatedly fighting the same crews all the time, the faction with the most ships would, at a regular time interval, have the ship that's been on the server the longest merged into another war server. This would not only allow solo battles but allow for bigger battles like you might find with alliance vs alliance battles on the regular servers. It would also reduce the matchmaking time because once your in one of these servers, diving would take you to one of the ships on the same server that you're on or you could hunt down where a battle is on one of these servers and join in.

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@monkeyboy4551 said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr you are thrown to the server you just left at the point that you dove. Your treated as still being on that server until you get matched for a fight. That's the point at which you actually merge into a new server.

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

There is a GLITCH that throws you on another server without necessarily having to join the battle.

@monkeyboy4551 said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr you are thrown to the server you just left at the point that you dove. Your treated as still being on that server until you get matched for a fight. That's the point at which you actually merge into a new server.

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

There is a GLITCH that throws you on another server without necessarily having to join the battle.

I think the problem is the old server merging system is still in place. So with the hourglass having us merge constantly we have frequent open slots on lots of servers. This includes old aging servers the game is trying to shut down. So basically you get merged to an old server for your pvp battle. Battle ends, server is trying to shutdown so it merges you out. I was hoping they would do away with all the forced mergers with the addition to the hourglass because I imagined it would be a lot of strain on the servers having so much merging happening all the time.

The issue with a designated war server is then if you hit your 4 streak then you are safe to go sell because the server is empty. Part of the streak system is supposed to be other ships seeing you on the map and choosing if they want to come hunt you down. Though I am curious if they even get progress now with the new change to try and fix the alliance exploit and not getting allegiance or streaks if you aren't a member of the battle. I finished my pvp goals before that change so I haven't been able to see if the unintentionally ruined the natural pvp encounters that would happen while people were qued for the hourglass. While I do feel the alliance exploit needed addressing I am not sure if that had a negative impact on some pvpers fun. Like I had a sloop come interfere with my battle once as a solo sloop so trying to fight off a duo sloop and a solo sloop at the same time I could see being a negative experience for some (lets be real probably most people) it also stops cool moments. Like I didn't really care that it happened... I was guardians and another guardian saw I was being 2v1'd and tried to help out. So those natural seeing a fellow faction member on the map and trying to assist could create some fun chaotic pvp moments. Even saw one streamer coming to the aid of someone in the same situation and they were qued for the hourglass as well and as they were helping a ship invaded on them to just add to the chaos and they were loving it.

Kind of a bit off topic maybe at the end? But I guess its kinda related to you saying you wanted an isolated server for 1v1 battles then you could have time to go hand in after without getting merged off. Also keep in mind if you were doing a 1v1 on a dedicated server it would mean you both had to dive to get matched up which means neither of you would have loot outside of emissary flags so does it even matter if you merge? Definitely a solo sloop issue though because if you're on any other ship just have someone jump off when the fight is done. You only merge if the whole crew is on board.

@targasbr you are thrown to the server you just left at the point that you dove. Your treated as still being on that server until you get matched for a fight. That's the point at which you actually merge into a new server.

@monkeyboy4551 said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr but the funny thing is that this sends us to a battle.

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

There is a glitch that throws you on another server without necessarily having to join the battle.

@targasbr but the funny thing is that this sends us to a battle.

@pithyrumble said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@wolfmanbush said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

A chase, for example. Let's imagine that you are being chased, you vote for the hourglass and that's it, you run away from the battle.

People don't take loot with them which the chaser will take

it's essentially just a red sea sacrifice where they either gotta quit or fight/lose in a new match

The same with Tall Tale portals, but this never stopped players from running away from a fight.

Tall Tale portals take you somewhere safe.

Diving doesn't. As someone who actively avoids vP, I'm not going to dive and be sunk to avoid being sunk. That's stupid.

There is a glitch that throws you on another server without necessarily having to join the battle.

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@wolfmanbush said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

A chase, for example. Let's imagine that you are being chased, you vote for the hourglass and that's it, you run away from the battle.

People don't take loot with them which the chaser will take

it's essentially just a red sea sacrifice where they either gotta quit or fight/lose in a new match

The same with Tall Tale portals, but this never stopped players from running away from a fight.

Tall Tale portals take you somewhere safe.

Diving doesn't. As someone who actively avoids vP, I'm not going to dive and be sunk to avoid being sunk. That's stupid.

I understand that it's a mechanic to prevent 'escaping with hourglass', but the range is ridiculous. And it doesn't even have to be ship of opposing faction. Just a newbie sloop without emissary hidden miles away counts and prevents diving. It needs tweaks - I agree, but I'm not sure how to deal with it exactly.

What I dislike even more are server merges. I lost so many emissary flags and supplies, because I got server merged right before harpooning the flag (ship right next to the loot, properly angled already). This is nonsense. Items floating in water should go with the merging boat (just like loot from skeleton ships you sunk ect.) Bonus points if it merges you near other ship so you can't dive... or are forced to fight full galleon xD.

There should be a minute warning before server merge or something like this...

@wolfmanbush They can take their emissary flag, though. And that's valuable to many.

@lordqulex said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@sweetsandman said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

If you submerge and cancel at a certain point, you are thrown to another server.
Many players have used this as an alternative Server Hop method.

Even before the update for same-faction battles, I scienced this several times after 20+ min queues, cancelled and wound back up on my original server.

There is an exact time that you can change servers and there is no time to enter a battle, this is how many are using glitches to farm victories.

No battle no win, win no win allegiance... you're going to have to explain this a little better for it to make sense. I don't understand what you're saying here.

If I explain this further it will encourage players to use glitches to farm wins. Better leave it as it is.

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@sweetsandman said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

If you submerge and cancel at a certain point, you are thrown to another server.
Many players have used this as an alternative Server Hop method.

Even before the update for same-faction battles, I scienced this several times after 20+ min queues, cancelled and wound back up on my original server.

There is an exact time that you can change servers and there is no time to enter a battle, this is how many are using glitches to farm victories.

No battle no win, win no win allegiance... you're going to have to explain this a little better for it to make sense. I don't understand what you're saying here.

@sweetsandman said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

If you submerge and cancel at a certain point, you are thrown to another server.
Many players have used this as an alternative Server Hop method.

Even before the update for same-faction battles, I scienced this several times after 20+ min queues, cancelled and wound back up on my original server.

There is an exact time that you can change servers and there is no time to enter a battle, this is how many are using glitches to farm victories.

@targasbr said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

If you submerge and cancel at a certain point, you are thrown to another server.
Many players have used this as an alternative Server Hop method.

Even before the update for same-faction battles, I scienced this several times after 20+ min queues, cancelled and wound back up on my original server.

Even if you did wind up on a different server after cancelling after a long queue, who cares? You're forfeiting your loot and such just as if you portal hopped. Essentially giving that other crew the 'W' that they wanted anyways while more than likely subjecting yourself to PvP anyways.

_
The only time I can think of it being advantageous for someone to dive to avoid a fight is if you're already queued up for hourglass, and you've got a bigger crew trying to fight you and you want to dive to get a more fair fight instead of getting invaded and now being up against two boats.

@sweetsandman said in excessive server merges and hourglass players being forced to fight non-hourglass players to dive:

I do feel like the mechanic disallowing you to dive when another ship is close was rooted with good intentions, but ultimately falls short.

I can't imagine anyone would be using it as an "escape mechanic" since your loot gets left behind, you forfeit whatever voyages/quests might be active or in your radial...oh and you'd be subjecting yourself to PvP anyways...so...

If you submerge and cancel at a certain point, you are thrown to another server.
Many players have used this as an alternative Server Hop method.