I already know some mods are gonna have a heart attack when they see that title, so I’ll just say this right now to avoid the issue entirely:

THIS DOES NOT REFER TO ONLY DECK COMBAT, THIS IS PRIMARILY A NAVAL SUGGESTION

One of my issues with how Hourglass feels is that we don’t really feel like we’re fighting a full on war between the Servants and Guardians. The gameplay loop being improved was a great change, but lore wise, I’ve felt more like we’re just pretending to make a change in the Seas when in reality we’re only doing practice Skirmish matches.

I’d like to pitch the idea of 3 boats of Guardians players attacking 3 boats of Servants players in a Team Death Match. The last team afloat wins the fight.

In addition, a 10’000 gold “buy in” could be added to give a decent gold sink and risk-reward feeling to the fight. In order to avoid team infighting as I’m sure there would be “spies” on each side, damage would have to be disabled to both same-team boats and same-team players. It would be as if those players are sailing in one crew altogether if possible. In addition, the 10’000 buy in is refunded if a cheater is reported and banned during the match, as it would be unrealistic to expect they wouldn’t ruin a few matches.

It might have to be sloop only to avoid the servers collapsing in on themselves like a black hole spawning in, OR, it could be a notable legendary Athena’s Fortune ship taking on the Burning Blade (without the frontal siege weapon and skeleton minions of course), with 8 players on each boat. In addition, it would need to rotate monthly to avoid damaging base Hourglass queue times.

This pushes the idea that the two factions have moments of crews greatly loyal to Flameheart and Ramsey banding together to take on the opposing faction; while bound not by the Pirate Code, but magic from each faction to prevent infighting during the match.

It would also just be a lot of fun and a great social experience to meet new Pirates imo, as you’d be meeting other crews than your own.