The start (or even the entire content) of this post will not be what most players expect: I hate Hourglass PVP.
I used to like PVP with the arena because Arena offered many options: many ships, terrain strategy, time limit, a treasure to dig and deliver, almost unlimited resources, etc. But the hourglass ... I don't feel it nice at all. It is not the kind of match that will keep me playing Sea of Thieves. I am the kind of players that just want to get lvl 100 to open the special doors, get the curses and never play hourglass again. Sorry, not sorry.
But some weeks ago I crossed trayectory with a very cool pirate. She offered me to roll a dice. 1D20. Higher number wins. If she wins, I let her sink me. If I win, she do the same. My first thought was "it's a trap!" (read it with a Mon Calamari voice). But when I won and she said "GG!.. now sink me!" I realiced that it wasn't. With huge guilt, I sinked her ship and my level was increasing.
Few minutes later, the matchmaking algorithm crossed our paths again and then I asked her why she do that. She said "I hate PVP. And this is faster than chasing another player for 30 minutes in a battle for resources". She had a point and was totally right to me!. We roll a D20, I lose, she sinked me, we wished each other HF/GL and we move on.
Next days I started to see ships named "Roll dices to win". I loved the concept of the sign at the beginning of the match and I started to do the same. I absolutelly love more this kind of match than the Cat and Mice play. I think it is because I miss the Marco's Arena Spirit (if such thing ever existed)
Now when I want to play hourglass, I only play "Dices of Honor". I called "...of honor" because it requires to keep your word to let the other sink you if you loose. Some pirates doesn't. I can take it, it is a game and we are pirates!. But I think it is because they don't understand the concept yet. I mean... I don't mind if you don't accept the game at the beginning of the match because I can decide to fight or just let you sink me making your game expremelly boring. But accepting the dice roll and getting angry because you lose is just a lack of honor. But hey!... we are pirates!.. It's totally fine too!
Sometimes we play with dices, sometimes with the Score Card given during the Community Day, sometimes we Toss a Coin. It doesn't matter which "random result generated emote" we use. The important part here is that I made more friends, I already have one of the curses and I will keep doing it because it is the only way I can play hourglass.
It only works on Sloop Solo mode because any other configuration with a crew has an internal "fight of ego" on the ship and usually crewmembers do not accept not to fight. So that's the price for me. But I am having SO much fun doing this that honestly I don't care!
I still don't know the name of the pirate who showed me the idea, but if you are reading this: Thank you!
So, pirates!.... if you want to have a try and have some "non PVP on PVP" experience, I gladly invite you to sail your sloops in solo and accept a Dice of Honor match. We can drink a grog or two together on the seas!
Cheers!
