As mentioned in the title, I used to play Arena when it was still in the game and just returned after taking a break for a few years. Arena had already been out for years by the time I started, and I wasn't the sweatiest player, but I got good enough and enjoyed the game mode enough to get all of the commendations with friends I made in the Arena. I was a jack of all trades, but master of none, but Arena never demanded mastery from you to make progress and have fun doing so. It certainly had its flaws as a competitive game mode (like the fact that you are incentivized to find the worst crew and farm them if you want to win), but there were a few things about it that made it easy to enjoy that Hourglass doesn't have.
-
What I miss most is the unlimited and standardized supplies. Arena was easy to queue into, even when the wait times were long because you didn't need to do any setup for the match. You just wait and play, and you queue again whether you win or lose. Hourglass isn't like that. You start every session buying supplies and looking for cursed balls/chain shots, and you have to do it again every time you lose. It can actually be a drain on your gold if you keep losing. I think a possible fix is to give crews special temporary supplies that can only be used in Hourglass matches. They disappear after the match. Personally, I'd also disable cursed balls in HG matches.
-
You didn't have to win for Arena to be rewarding and fun. Winning arena matches wasn't as hard ironically, even though there were more crews you were playing against. The best players went off to a fort to TDM each other instead of trying to win. But if you aren't winning the match, it doesn't feel like a waste of time. Getting 2nd place is still more rewarding than coming in last. There's plenty of other commendations to farm for that aren't about winning too. So it felt like there was always something to go for. Hourglass is really only rewarding if you win and if you go on streaks, and it's very punishing if you lose because you lose your streak and your supplies. Nothing but winning matters. I didn't mind losing in Arena, but losing in Hourglass is annoying and unrewarding, especially if you fought hard for 30+ minutes and then lost, and most crews I've formed/joined just stop playing when you lose which wasn't the case in Arena. I think some possible solutions would be increasing the amount of rep both teams get depending on the duration of the match. Obviously, this could be abused if implemented poorly, but you could cap the bonus rep, and add in other changes that could limit the duration of the match to prevent abuse. Personally, I'd also remove the streak system or at least make it more rewarding to win without a streak. Currently, it's a system that's uninviting to anyone but the very best crews which is why only the very best crews are playing most of the time.
-
Arena matches were quick and had a set duration. Sessions could be quick too. Arena was easy to queue for when you didn't have a lot of time to play. You had an hour to play? Well that's not enough time to loot or get into extended fights in Adventure Mode, so you just queue up for Arena and get a quick couple matches in. Hourglass fights can take forever. There's no time limit. There's no supply limit. There's no shrinking circle. Some might say this is a skill issue. Just hit your chains and make sure there's enough pressure on your enemies to board and blah blah blah. Sure, but this still contributes to the fact that Hourglass is only rewarding if you're good, and it's very unrewarding if you're not. Correction, it's not even rewarding if you're good. It's only rewarding if your crew is good which leads to a lot of resentment towards crewmates for not being good enough, which is why good players only want to play with other good players. Even if you find a good crew and are winning, HG is most rewarding when you have a win streak, so you can't really expect to just hop off after an hour or two and get full rewards like you could with Arena. You might say if you can't find a good crew, just play solo sloop, so you have only yourself to blame. The problem of long matches is the worst in solo sloop. Everyone just runs away with full sails at the first sign of trouble. There's a mix of possible solutions for each problem. Limit the match duration and call it a draw if both ships survive. Shrink the circle over time. Emphasize streaks less in rewards. I'm sure the devs could come up with something.
I'm sure there's things I'm missing, but overall, Arena was a place you could PvP with pretty low commitment. It was almost like a PvP sandbox where you could practice naval or TDM freely, and it rewarded you for doing a variety of activities, not just winning. Getting good just meant you were rewarded faster, but you could get by with average skills and average crewmates. Hourglass is the complete opposite. It's a big time commitment. It's a big supply commitment. It's not a sandbox for you to mess around and have fun in. It's a toxic environment that only rewards the best crews. It brews resentment towards crewmates for underperforming and the overhead and cost that comes with losing discourages any good players from sticking around on worse crews and help them improve. Hourglass gives everyone but the best crews every reason to stop playing it, and most people only play it because they want the curses.
Edit: Oh yeah one more thing. What on Earth are these HG spawns? Sometimes you spawn into a rock. Sometimes you spawn on an active ghost fleet or skeleton fleet that hits you with cursed balls. Sometimes you spawn in a storm or fog. Sometimes you don't spawn at all. Once, I spawned at the very northern part of the map with no noise, and it was great. I get that variety is the spice of life, but too much spice can ruin the match. I've lost a match and a streak from just being cursed dumped by skeleton ships.
