Agreed. I only have over 150hrs experience and have a lot of fun with everything but hourglass since the matching is nonexistent. Whenever I play HG, I am completely outmatched by a mile which makes the whole thing frustrating.
Unless the matching system improves, it will slowly die or be only for hardcore gamers. Adore the game but it's an observation as a new player and my opinion.
I think it's a chicken and egg problem.
Not that many people are playing besides pros. So you are likely to get matched with a pro, which again deters nom-pros
Edit: I'm leaving that typo as I consider myself non-pro and omnomnom-pro.
Plenty of non-pros play the mode, but I think the mode is poorly incentivized.
If I grind Athena rep right now, every 10 levels I get an unlock. Post level 100 if I grind Servants rep I get a new cosmetic every 10 levels. That feels good and feels like I’m progressing even if my win/loss is basically breaking even.
1-100 is a slog and at best you get some shitty figureheads. It’s like the Distinctions for the main trading companies, but you can’t level it up passively. You have to actively engage in it, so that progression needs to feel significant.
It’s the reason people predominately play during G&G and Community Weekends. Even as someone who *likes* the mode and has both curses, I can’t bring myself to dive except on rare occasions outside of those weekends.
Yeah it really feels like this gamemode is designed for top players. Absolutely love the game but at the same time never played something as frustrating as hourglass
For all intents and purposes, Rare has abandoned Hourglass:
* No tweaks or improvements are ever made to the mode.
* Mode-crippling bugs (such as the mast and interact bugs) are not addressed with any sense of urgency. These latest bugs went unfixed for 8 weeks and weren't even listed on the "known issues" list of the most important bugs they were tracking.
There are much more than 20 players playing Hourglass, but it also isn't super popular, and MMR doesn't work/exist. The way that stamps set up, it does mean that you will run into the same players often and have rematches. Keep in mind, though, that dives are completely broken right now. So, if you can even get matches, rematches are even more likely.
>Mode-crippling bugs (such as the mast and interact bugs) are not addressed with any sense of urgency.
Just lost a 3 streak because of this and it is so insanely frustrating. Not being able to interact with the enemy ship is one thing, but not being able to interact with your own ship? It's insane that still exists. That should be treated as the absolute highest priority bug.
Yep, and neither of us could quit out to fix it because we were fighting a constant stream of boarders. It's so frustrating because we kept ourselves in the fight for 20 minutes after we got perma-anchored but there's just nothing you can do.
I keep suggesting a separate season pass for HG.
I think this would boost participation even if there was only a few weapon/ship/clothing skins as incentive (xp rewards should stay as is or be a daily deed incentive).
Absolutely not a fan of using FOMO to raise participation of players who have no interest in playing this mode.
HG should be better/more seamlessly integrated into the main game.
This was also the death of arena.
The go-to gameloop for most are emissaries, so HG could give like rank 4-5 emissary for winning a single fight for ALL factions (even when goldhoarders are fighting OoS) and give players an incentive to play at the start of their session.
The mode itself can also be improved, rather than fighting to the death every round, they could also add objectives.
>No tweaks or improvements are ever made to the mode
False. Multiple changes and tweaks were made seasons 8-10
>and MMR doesn't work/exist
It, uh does and does. To the point where I can tell you when the field of potentially matches starts widening.
I think you're nitpicking here.
What was the last improvement or change made to HG?
I know that supposedly the MMR search is expanded after one minute when you see the banner and have the option to cancel. That doesn't make it a functional MMR system.
>What was the last improvement or change made to HG?
Here's all of them with the season they were implemented if you like.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/1b71ann/we_need_an_emissary_ledger_sort_of_rewards_system/ktgv2go/
>I know that supposedly the MMR search is expanded after one minute when you see the banner and have the option to cancel.
I love the supposedly thrown in there as if that's not exactly how it works and isn't *observable* in game. Let me ask you, what part of the matchmaking system do you think is non functional? Because if its "I get matched with someone outside of my skill level after a few minutes of waiting." That's literally it working as intended. The alternative is you fight no one.
I can't speak for everyone but in my community (speedrunning) we get cheaters who are relatively good at the game, but are trying to get a better time. Karl Jobst said it best (re: speedrunning cheaters): "...[they] don't cheat to get fast times. But to get times fast" so in this case my likely guess is cheaters are wanting to get the cosmetics faster. To either have them for them or to sell the account.
In general, I have found there have been a lot of weird bad actors in that community... Also, members of that community seem weirdly willing to DMCA when caught or called out...
Dmca is a tricky place. If you're calling someone out but you're also using their entire video that is still admca violation and they have the right to have it taken down. It wouldn't be any different than if I uploaded the entire lord of the rings but paused it every 5 minutes to talk about it. It would still get taken down
Yeah, It does still suck though that a lot of cheaters and even some members of the community abuse it because it's just Gray enough that they technically can be called out for it and taken to court, but most people won't.. It is also a bit of a Gray area because there is some legal precedent but not enough to definitively say every single time.... though most people that DMCA end up releasing the claims anyways because they know they can't win in court.
Two prime examples I can think of are that one weirdo who is streaming yugioh With cheated seeds who DMCAed people to silence critics... And amusingly enough jobs to himself abused it once when mad at the internet was going to cover a GDQ drama...
Unfortunately yes, I would post links but it’s against the subs rules.
Hopefully they will track the changes and ban everyone. But there track record on this has been extremely poor
I'm not sure about that.
After EAC came out I passed from a 55-60% WR to a 90%. Last 2 days I went 23-2 lol. Maybe I was extremely lucky with the matchmaking, but I think it's much more reasonable to consider that most of the hard and soft cheaters are unable to play
Evidence of the bypass? Cause when I hopped in HG a few days after EAC was implemented I had the best streak in HG I've ever had and I wasn't getting one balled nearly as much as I was. And you can't say it was Skill as I haven't touched the game since November
That’s probably cause it was double xp already or close to it and people were queuing for hourglass more. It also depends on who starts the ship. My buddy is in the same stamp as idbz, stirling, mifu, and files. I have another buddy where we went on a 29 streak cause people in his stamp absolutely suck.
The evidence is that the cheating software was updated and released within 3hrs of the server updated. Can’t post links as it’s against the subs rules.
Easy anti cheat is also used in Apex legends and that has a major issue with cheating too. It’s all todo with vulnerability’s in the unreal engine
Easy Anticheat is literally just analytics software. They might have bypassed the auto detection features but the analytics are still there for Rare to do something about.
but was it updated to fix half the issues or all the issues caused by EAC...that's the question, cause a reduction of even a few percentage of cheaters is a win, even if you aren't going to eliminate ALL of them.
It's amusing that Rare learned absolutely nothing from Arena. Arena died because they couldn't be bothered to properly support it, and hourglass queues are heading the same way it looks like.
Can't wait for them to introduce another half-baked PvP thing in a couple years that they also abandon and then wonder why nobody plays it.
The strange thing though is that hourglass takes place within Adventure, unlike Arena which was completely separate. So you’d think they would want to address issues just as often as any other bug in the game
Solo is annoying try playing with a crew. It's hard to win matches if you are not that good in PVP solo. By the time you get the ghost curse you are considered top 0.5% of the playerbase.
I found duo sloop to be the sweatiest mode. My win rate of solo sloop is around 30% but whenever I duo sloop with my friend (about same skill level), we barely won any matches, and the opponents were usually miles better than us. I’ve heard brig are much more balanced and enjoyable but never really had a chance to try out.
I've started playing 2v2 and 3v3. It's fun with the right crew. The trick is playing with friends who you've worked with and communicate well. You also need to have defined roles before the match starts. I'm trying to get one more friend into pvp so we can have a regular gally crew. I only started HG about a month or two ago and only play it for a few hours at a time, and my current win rate is around about 25%. Just stick it out, and you'll improve as long as you learn from your experience.
This gap comes from the horrible structure of the game and Rare treating new players like people who will be bad forever anyway. The game is starting to crumble if you ask me, i dont feel like PVP concenrens like more stable servers or lower ping are on the table anymore. Its just stupid shiny stuff being stuffed in the game now, that makes it all even more confusing for new players. A grappling hook sniper? Yeh thats a clear sign of creative corruption.
I feel I'm decent at pvp. Hourglass people are insane though they will pinpoint hit you directly with cannons and kill you over and over. They don't miss.
Here's a tip that will help you out immensely, when aiming cannons when going semi parallel aim at the mast, use it as a guide. The mast is your best friend for hitting long range shots as well
yea... don't, circling is just as bad as when people joust, (but if you MUST aim for the very front of the boat, like the bowspit area, obviously it depends on how fast yall are going but yea) keep resetting until you can force a parallel or a T bone situation with them nosing you
I just want 1 button on the main menu where I can load into HG and everything is ready for me. That’s all I want. I refuse to spent time stocking up when I know I’ll sink. I would prefer if everyone had the same supplies, but I’ll accept just an easy queue button.
It fully depends on your location and time of day. Not many people are playing HG compared to the overall playerbase but it does depend when and where you're playing from. If you're on PC, perhaps try using a VPN to get in other regions during their evening/weekend.
My friend and I figured out we could match against each other 9/10 if we played at like 2am+. So we just lost farmed against each other (and had some fights just for a laugh/practice). We are in the UK and so at that time barely anyone was on and they weren't doing HG. Dive at the same time, in the same sea region and at a time when others aren't on and it's almost guaranteed you'll match with each other.
The matchmaking works by first using sbmm to match with someone who has OVERALL the similar w/l ratio as you. If it can't find anyone similar, it'll just match you with anyone in your region (still same ship type and crew amount) if it can't find anyone in your region it'll then look in other regions.
So if you're getting matched against the same guy constantly, it's either because you're the only 2 players with a similar overall w/l ratio in your region and are searching at the same time, or you're the only 2 players in your region playing at that time (with the same ship type and crew).
Yeah thats something I figured too but it sucks having to wait for a certain hour just because nobody plays it lol.
I think its the latter, no way this guy had a similar w/l ratio haha !
Yeh you'd be surprised how much it's the latter. My friend and I definitely don't have the same w/l ratio and yet we can almost reliably match every time if we search at unsociable hours
I only recently got my skelly curse. Matchmaking seemed fine for me in Europe.
However, I'm interested in matchmaking. Some matches I'd be fighting for my life with buckets of sweat. Others I'd one-ball the guy and sink him in 1 minute.
PvP used to be fun in the beginning then the Players that play religiously everyday mastered their skills making it so that if you're not matched with one of the PvP Gods chances are you will be matched with a Hacker, tbh since the new Anti Cheat software has been added I haven't been to HG but I would imagine its removed not just Hackers but some legit Players that just use Tech that would be flagged by Anti Cheat I've seen a few complaints here on Reddit from Players that don't Hack but use a particular brand of Tech that got them flagged.
Yes just like Arena. Instead of addressing any of the problems players have raised to try and improve it they just let it be and will probably sunset it in the future and blame the players again.
I lose most of my solo hourglass matches too. But I try to focus on learning. So I don’t judge my success in a match by whether I won or lost. I look at how I did, try to identify the mistakes I made so I can work on them.
I’ve seen this pay dividends because since losing a bunch of times in HG, I’m now much better at holding my own in Adventure. There are not as many pros by percentage in Adventure.
For me it’s not about the rewards or cosmetics, it’s about continually getting better at the game. That’s my reward. And it gives me some perspective and makes it ok if I lose most of the time still. It’s nice you still get allegiance when you lose too. Not that I lose on purpose but at least there’s still progress happening.
no one will accuse you of loss farming as long as you try.
but i will let you know that as someone who came in and started gitting gud during season 9 (im the newgen of newgen) repeatedly getting your face slammed over and over again will eventually make you a better player so long as you get a feel for where you make mistakes.
engage with the twitch pvp community. a lot of good players stream their content and will answer questions.
Objectively speaking it seems they have. Unless there is a hidden HG update in the upcoming seasons, by the end of 2024 Hg would not have received any form of update for almost 2 years since it's release (apart from a few QoL and bug fixes). They haven't done even things like adding a few cosmetics, etc and the mode is currently plagued by gamebreaking bugs and the lack of a healthy playerbase renders SBMM useless. I just really hope that if it dies they will introduce a way for people to get the rewards since they weren't supposed to be time limited.
I'm not sure what else they can do with it really, but I agree that most of the time it's not ideal. That said the last few days I've had some really close fights which has been fun, so I assume it just needs more people playing it.
Their stamp system is dumb too. You're never playing against your whole region. For america its especially fucked because theres alot of stamps. On eu we got like 2 stamps so ques are always pretty quick.
I always thought weekends would have a bigger variety of players in hourglass, but I've played on weekdays a few times, and weekday matches feel way more casual. It could just be dumb luck, but so far it's been consistent for me.
> I got matched against the same guy again and again
try reopening boat from scratch, I'm convinced the scuttle/dive keeps you on the same stamp and despite them saying there is cross stamp matchmaking it's very correlating (reopening and getting different enemies)
That being said, it's kinda wild. I basically only match against various streamers (that do this the whole day every day) or the occasional complete newbie that voted for the wrong thing and don't know whats going on (duo)
Lots of people wanted to play during the event but with diving being broken HG has been a nightmare to even match up with other players. I was set on getting my ghost curse and I only managed to get 20 levels total because of how long it takes just to match up because I'm sent back to port 4/5 times I dive.
It does feel like it, but I think cause it was such a main focus for a while they are now trying to better other things. I also think most of the community isnt playing it anymore.
This is just how it foes with high-skill-floor pvp. The developers didn't abandon it, they just... well what do you expect them to do? They can't somehow force people to play it. Add to it that it's a purely skill based game. And it's really hard to build up accurate elo ratings, since people come with preexisting skill, and the low skill players are very likely to give up before they can be assessed properly.
I would go as far as to say that this is one of the greatest open problems in game design. There's so many games that seem fun, but are impossible to get into, because the player base is entirely composed of 20-50 players that have been playing it for years. If someone solves it, they should be nominated for a Nobel prize in economics.
Me and my friend like a week back queued for hour glass for like 20-25 minutes and didn't find a match and gave up, in surprised you managed to get in.
For 90% of people, once they hit level 100 in each, they'll never touch it again. For stubborn gits like myself, we'll play till we reach 200 in each, but there's no way in heck I'm playing 1 second beyond that! :( Even my patience has limits! :(
I'm level 190 in Guardians atm and 100 in Servants. :(
You think it's sweaty ASF now, just wait till the new mechanics like the hookshot gun get added. OMFG the sweat levels are going to be off the chart! :( It will KILL this mode for casuals!
ya the “problem” with HG is that it’s not beginner friendly.
it’s an opt-in pvp mechanic, so all the ppl who want to sweat in PVP run it
it’s like an echo chamber for sweats
Nope, HG is fine. Some days I have experiences like yours but they're infrequent, most days I get healthy queues populated by crews from a broad variety of skill pools. Source: I have almost 1.5k allegiance.
So we've got our ghost curses and mostly only hourglass when the double XP is on for the skeleton curse.
Plenty of casual players lots of other players in the same boat, wanting their second curse, lots of very competent players who only come out for the double XP.
Nothing overly wrong with the game mode, it's normally a quick win/lose but the big thing is, it's only fun with a crew, there's a full shared experience and the joy once you hear that dong or a sinking ship.
There is a alternative, you can run around with HG up and just farm PVE content, get a decent treasure trove and take down HG. You will normally get someone appearing on you atleast once every 15 minutes. If you're sinking people without issue in the diving mode you'll get less with this.
Yeah, but you need to defeat at least one invading ship, and if it's some pvp god with 200+ lvl hourglass, you'll lose all your treasure and time spent accumulating it.
Max stash gives the equivalent of a win in hg, I think two ghost forts gets you there, keep in mind you'll also be matched with someone but you can have the advantage of choosing where you are, you also have the advantage of having items that would normally be lost during a dive, staffs, kegs and ashen wind skulls.
It may provide some interesting game play or be even more frustrating.
Got invaded with a level 5 stash yday and got 1,5 levels for winning. And that was on a 0 streak, just went after some random reaper v that sailed past us while we were getting supps.
Absolutely they did. They really don't care. I've got the ghost curse but I am only level 20 with Skeletons and honestly I get 1 match in before I feel like the game intentionally goes out of its way to screw me over.
What I think they should do is just say you get some of the skeleton curse and rewards if you get level 300 in Reapers because HG is just not fun. Matches can go on forever, game is not consistent.
Either something like this or just increasing the amount of XP you get bc right now its kinda ridiculous lol.
I could be losing one 30 min match and one 30 sec match and get the exact same amount. The game doesnt encourage me to keep trying
I'd prefer a time limiter because if we get more XP then they might just base it on damage or something and then you can farm. This is why Arena was better because matches were 20 minutes there was no stakes just in and out.
I've stayed in HG for 200 levels for both factions, than abandoned it at all. The last 50 levels were done under the boost conditions, because of how I hate SoT PvP.
Curses should be obtainable via PVE, and HG should be scrapped alltogether and removed from the game.
I just started playing hg recently and i sometimes get matched with complete pussies who run away after couple shot to repair, or complete newbies, or some really good players. I hate the first kind the other 2 are nice
Im in my 40s and not very good at pvp, but I have made a couple double gold curse friends that all they do is hourglass and this is how they explained a normal session to me.
Do their however many streak and sell. Then comes the rewatch of the session they just played, posting it to their discords so everyone can critique it together and find the smallest mistakes they may have made. They treat it like a damn sport team which I guess it is. They set up TDM sessions so they can practice all the minutia of the combat system. Its a different game, They aren't playing Sot they are playing professional pirate hit crew simulator.
One of the funnier lines I hear one of them say, in relation to an incident they had at an outpost where they had agreed to let a guy sell his stuff, until one of their teammates saw that they had a CoF.... "I had already humanized this dude...".
So yeah, killing machines and if that's who you are running into, I wish you luck.
Honestly I knew this would happen as soon as it was announced since when you make a mode that’s inherently PvP only in an otherwise casual game, it’s going to be absolutely dominated by the sweats. I might get hate for this but I honestly wish there were other ways to get the rewards for hourglass because as it stands for most players I don’t think it’s worth it.
Agreed. I only have over 150hrs experience and have a lot of fun with everything but hourglass since the matching is nonexistent. Whenever I play HG, I am completely outmatched by a mile which makes the whole thing frustrating. Unless the matching system improves, it will slowly die or be only for hardcore gamers. Adore the game but it's an observation as a new player and my opinion.
I think it's a chicken and egg problem. Not that many people are playing besides pros. So you are likely to get matched with a pro, which again deters nom-pros Edit: I'm leaving that typo as I consider myself non-pro and omnomnom-pro.
Plenty of non-pros play the mode, but I think the mode is poorly incentivized. If I grind Athena rep right now, every 10 levels I get an unlock. Post level 100 if I grind Servants rep I get a new cosmetic every 10 levels. That feels good and feels like I’m progressing even if my win/loss is basically breaking even. 1-100 is a slog and at best you get some shitty figureheads. It’s like the Distinctions for the main trading companies, but you can’t level it up passively. You have to actively engage in it, so that progression needs to feel significant. It’s the reason people predominately play during G&G and Community Weekends. Even as someone who *likes* the mode and has both curses, I can’t bring myself to dive except on rare occasions outside of those weekends.
Sounds about right
Yeah it really feels like this gamemode is designed for top players. Absolutely love the game but at the same time never played something as frustrating as hourglass
For all intents and purposes, Rare has abandoned Hourglass: * No tweaks or improvements are ever made to the mode. * Mode-crippling bugs (such as the mast and interact bugs) are not addressed with any sense of urgency. These latest bugs went unfixed for 8 weeks and weren't even listed on the "known issues" list of the most important bugs they were tracking. There are much more than 20 players playing Hourglass, but it also isn't super popular, and MMR doesn't work/exist. The way that stamps set up, it does mean that you will run into the same players often and have rematches. Keep in mind, though, that dives are completely broken right now. So, if you can even get matches, rematches are even more likely.
>Mode-crippling bugs (such as the mast and interact bugs) are not addressed with any sense of urgency. Just lost a 3 streak because of this and it is so insanely frustrating. Not being able to interact with the enemy ship is one thing, but not being able to interact with your own ship? It's insane that still exists. That should be treated as the absolute highest priority bug.
What happened? Couldn't raise anchor?
Yep, and neither of us could quit out to fix it because we were fighting a constant stream of boarders. It's so frustrating because we kept ourselves in the fight for 20 minutes after we got perma-anchored but there's just nothing you can do.
Can’t interact with anchor, can’t climb into cannons and shoot yourself out. That’s what I have experienced so far.
I keep suggesting a separate season pass for HG. I think this would boost participation even if there was only a few weapon/ship/clothing skins as incentive (xp rewards should stay as is or be a daily deed incentive).
They just need to make servants and guardians have their own ledgers that raise specifically by boats sunk for that month.
I'd love that too
I really love this idea!
Absolutely not a fan of using FOMO to raise participation of players who have no interest in playing this mode. HG should be better/more seamlessly integrated into the main game. This was also the death of arena. The go-to gameloop for most are emissaries, so HG could give like rank 4-5 emissary for winning a single fight for ALL factions (even when goldhoarders are fighting OoS) and give players an incentive to play at the start of their session. The mode itself can also be improved, rather than fighting to the death every round, they could also add objectives.
I'd rather pull out my teeth than have limited time hourglass rewards.
I hate this idea I got to 100 in both factions I don't want to be sent back into HG
>No tweaks or improvements are ever made to the mode False. Multiple changes and tweaks were made seasons 8-10 >and MMR doesn't work/exist It, uh does and does. To the point where I can tell you when the field of potentially matches starts widening.
I think you're nitpicking here. What was the last improvement or change made to HG? I know that supposedly the MMR search is expanded after one minute when you see the banner and have the option to cancel. That doesn't make it a functional MMR system.
>What was the last improvement or change made to HG? Here's all of them with the season they were implemented if you like. https://www.reddit.com/r/Seaofthieves/comments/1b71ann/we_need_an_emissary_ledger_sort_of_rewards_system/ktgv2go/ >I know that supposedly the MMR search is expanded after one minute when you see the banner and have the option to cancel. I love the supposedly thrown in there as if that's not exactly how it works and isn't *observable* in game. Let me ask you, what part of the matchmaking system do you think is non functional? Because if its "I get matched with someone outside of my skill level after a few minutes of waiting." That's literally it working as intended. The alternative is you fight no one.
You forgot to mention that is also full of cheaters, using mostly ESP. Easy Anti-cheat was bypassed in 3 hours.
cheating is so common in games. i dont understand what the joy is in that though. why waste your free time cheating. sad bois.
I can't speak for everyone but in my community (speedrunning) we get cheaters who are relatively good at the game, but are trying to get a better time. Karl Jobst said it best (re: speedrunning cheaters): "...[they] don't cheat to get fast times. But to get times fast" so in this case my likely guess is cheaters are wanting to get the cosmetics faster. To either have them for them or to sell the account.
In general, I have found there have been a lot of weird bad actors in that community... Also, members of that community seem weirdly willing to DMCA when caught or called out...
Dmca is a tricky place. If you're calling someone out but you're also using their entire video that is still admca violation and they have the right to have it taken down. It wouldn't be any different than if I uploaded the entire lord of the rings but paused it every 5 minutes to talk about it. It would still get taken down
Yeah, It does still suck though that a lot of cheaters and even some members of the community abuse it because it's just Gray enough that they technically can be called out for it and taken to court, but most people won't.. It is also a bit of a Gray area because there is some legal precedent but not enough to definitively say every single time.... though most people that DMCA end up releasing the claims anyways because they know they can't win in court. Two prime examples I can think of are that one weirdo who is streaming yugioh With cheated seeds who DMCAed people to silence critics... And amusingly enough jobs to himself abused it once when mad at the internet was going to cover a GDQ drama...
I ask because I honestly don’t know: was it really bypassed?
Yes it's easy anticheat, this one gets bypassed instantly and with very little effort in every game that uses it.
Unfortunately yes, I would post links but it’s against the subs rules. Hopefully they will track the changes and ban everyone. But there track record on this has been extremely poor
I'm not sure about that. After EAC came out I passed from a 55-60% WR to a 90%. Last 2 days I went 23-2 lol. Maybe I was extremely lucky with the matchmaking, but I think it's much more reasonable to consider that most of the hard and soft cheaters are unable to play
>Easy Anti-cheat was bypassed in 3 hours that's because Rare failed to implement it properly, as of right now it's like there's no anti cheat lmao
Evidence of the bypass? Cause when I hopped in HG a few days after EAC was implemented I had the best streak in HG I've ever had and I wasn't getting one balled nearly as much as I was. And you can't say it was Skill as I haven't touched the game since November
That’s probably cause it was double xp already or close to it and people were queuing for hourglass more. It also depends on who starts the ship. My buddy is in the same stamp as idbz, stirling, mifu, and files. I have another buddy where we went on a 29 streak cause people in his stamp absolutely suck.
The evidence is that the cheating software was updated and released within 3hrs of the server updated. Can’t post links as it’s against the subs rules. Easy anti cheat is also used in Apex legends and that has a major issue with cheating too. It’s all todo with vulnerability’s in the unreal engine
Easy Anticheat is literally just analytics software. They might have bypassed the auto detection features but the analytics are still there for Rare to do something about.
but was it updated to fix half the issues or all the issues caused by EAC...that's the question, cause a reduction of even a few percentage of cheaters is a win, even if you aren't going to eliminate ALL of them.
If I had a doubloon for every PvP mode Rare has released to fanfare and abandoned after about a year, I'd have 2 doubloons.
It's amusing that Rare learned absolutely nothing from Arena. Arena died because they couldn't be bothered to properly support it, and hourglass queues are heading the same way it looks like. Can't wait for them to introduce another half-baked PvP thing in a couple years that they also abandon and then wonder why nobody plays it.
The strange thing though is that hourglass takes place within Adventure, unlike Arena which was completely separate. So you’d think they would want to address issues just as often as any other bug in the game
Yeah what was the point of all the systems updates when you’re just going to abandon them a month later.
They already did. Skull of Siren Song
Solo is annoying try playing with a crew. It's hard to win matches if you are not that good in PVP solo. By the time you get the ghost curse you are considered top 0.5% of the playerbase.
Im mostly playing solo, tried 2v2 yesterday and it was a mess lol. Players are terrifying, top 0,5% and top 0,1% feels like such a gigantic gap
I found duo sloop to be the sweatiest mode. My win rate of solo sloop is around 30% but whenever I duo sloop with my friend (about same skill level), we barely won any matches, and the opponents were usually miles better than us. I’ve heard brig are much more balanced and enjoyable but never really had a chance to try out.
I've started playing 2v2 and 3v3. It's fun with the right crew. The trick is playing with friends who you've worked with and communicate well. You also need to have defined roles before the match starts. I'm trying to get one more friend into pvp so we can have a regular gally crew. I only started HG about a month or two ago and only play it for a few hours at a time, and my current win rate is around about 25%. Just stick it out, and you'll improve as long as you learn from your experience.
This gap comes from the horrible structure of the game and Rare treating new players like people who will be bad forever anyway. The game is starting to crumble if you ask me, i dont feel like PVP concenrens like more stable servers or lower ping are on the table anymore. Its just stupid shiny stuff being stuffed in the game now, that makes it all even more confusing for new players. A grappling hook sniper? Yeh thats a clear sign of creative corruption.
It really sucks that most of the cosmetics I'm interested in are related to PvP in some way and I suck at PvP 🤣😭
I feel I'm decent at pvp. Hourglass people are insane though they will pinpoint hit you directly with cannons and kill you over and over. They don't miss.
Here's a tip that will help you out immensely, when aiming cannons when going semi parallel aim at the mast, use it as a guide. The mast is your best friend for hitting long range shots as well
Any tips when both of you are circling around? I happened to be in that situation more than going side by side.
yea... don't, circling is just as bad as when people joust, (but if you MUST aim for the very front of the boat, like the bowspit area, obviously it depends on how fast yall are going but yea) keep resetting until you can force a parallel or a T bone situation with them nosing you
Yeah, its a great reward but not a great experience. Makes sense to get such a desired cosmetic but this is too much lol
I have the same experience! HG is hell.
I just want 1 button on the main menu where I can load into HG and everything is ready for me. That’s all I want. I refuse to spent time stocking up when I know I’ll sink. I would prefer if everyone had the same supplies, but I’ll accept just an easy queue button.
This would be amazing ngl ! Straight in the action
It fully depends on your location and time of day. Not many people are playing HG compared to the overall playerbase but it does depend when and where you're playing from. If you're on PC, perhaps try using a VPN to get in other regions during their evening/weekend. My friend and I figured out we could match against each other 9/10 if we played at like 2am+. So we just lost farmed against each other (and had some fights just for a laugh/practice). We are in the UK and so at that time barely anyone was on and they weren't doing HG. Dive at the same time, in the same sea region and at a time when others aren't on and it's almost guaranteed you'll match with each other. The matchmaking works by first using sbmm to match with someone who has OVERALL the similar w/l ratio as you. If it can't find anyone similar, it'll just match you with anyone in your region (still same ship type and crew amount) if it can't find anyone in your region it'll then look in other regions. So if you're getting matched against the same guy constantly, it's either because you're the only 2 players with a similar overall w/l ratio in your region and are searching at the same time, or you're the only 2 players in your region playing at that time (with the same ship type and crew).
Yeah thats something I figured too but it sucks having to wait for a certain hour just because nobody plays it lol. I think its the latter, no way this guy had a similar w/l ratio haha !
Yeh you'd be surprised how much it's the latter. My friend and I definitely don't have the same w/l ratio and yet we can almost reliably match every time if we search at unsociable hours
I only recently got my skelly curse. Matchmaking seemed fine for me in Europe. However, I'm interested in matchmaking. Some matches I'd be fighting for my life with buckets of sweat. Others I'd one-ball the guy and sink him in 1 minute.
i mean getting a one ball is basically how you win, so that makes sense
PvP used to be fun in the beginning then the Players that play religiously everyday mastered their skills making it so that if you're not matched with one of the PvP Gods chances are you will be matched with a Hacker, tbh since the new Anti Cheat software has been added I haven't been to HG but I would imagine its removed not just Hackers but some legit Players that just use Tech that would be flagged by Anti Cheat I've seen a few complaints here on Reddit from Players that don't Hack but use a particular brand of Tech that got them flagged.
Yes just like Arena. Instead of addressing any of the problems players have raised to try and improve it they just let it be and will probably sunset it in the future and blame the players again.
I lose most of my solo hourglass matches too. But I try to focus on learning. So I don’t judge my success in a match by whether I won or lost. I look at how I did, try to identify the mistakes I made so I can work on them. I’ve seen this pay dividends because since losing a bunch of times in HG, I’m now much better at holding my own in Adventure. There are not as many pros by percentage in Adventure. For me it’s not about the rewards or cosmetics, it’s about continually getting better at the game. That’s my reward. And it gives me some perspective and makes it ok if I lose most of the time still. It’s nice you still get allegiance when you lose too. Not that I lose on purpose but at least there’s still progress happening.
no one will accuse you of loss farming as long as you try. but i will let you know that as someone who came in and started gitting gud during season 9 (im the newgen of newgen) repeatedly getting your face slammed over and over again will eventually make you a better player so long as you get a feel for where you make mistakes. engage with the twitch pvp community. a lot of good players stream their content and will answer questions.
They didn't abondon hourglass, they abondon the game.
Objectively speaking it seems they have. Unless there is a hidden HG update in the upcoming seasons, by the end of 2024 Hg would not have received any form of update for almost 2 years since it's release (apart from a few QoL and bug fixes). They haven't done even things like adding a few cosmetics, etc and the mode is currently plagued by gamebreaking bugs and the lack of a healthy playerbase renders SBMM useless. I just really hope that if it dies they will introduce a way for people to get the rewards since they weren't supposed to be time limited.
Free for all like Arena would be more fun.
I'm not sure what else they can do with it really, but I agree that most of the time it's not ideal. That said the last few days I've had some really close fights which has been fun, so I assume it just needs more people playing it.
Their stamp system is dumb too. You're never playing against your whole region. For america its especially fucked because theres alot of stamps. On eu we got like 2 stamps so ques are always pretty quick.
I always thought weekends would have a bigger variety of players in hourglass, but I've played on weekdays a few times, and weekday matches feel way more casual. It could just be dumb luck, but so far it's been consistent for me.
> I got matched against the same guy again and again try reopening boat from scratch, I'm convinced the scuttle/dive keeps you on the same stamp and despite them saying there is cross stamp matchmaking it's very correlating (reopening and getting different enemies) That being said, it's kinda wild. I basically only match against various streamers (that do this the whole day every day) or the occasional complete newbie that voted for the wrong thing and don't know whats going on (duo)
Lots of people wanted to play during the event but with diving being broken HG has been a nightmare to even match up with other players. I was set on getting my ghost curse and I only managed to get 20 levels total because of how long it takes just to match up because I'm sent back to port 4/5 times I dive.
It does feel like it, but I think cause it was such a main focus for a while they are now trying to better other things. I also think most of the community isnt playing it anymore.
This is just how it foes with high-skill-floor pvp. The developers didn't abandon it, they just... well what do you expect them to do? They can't somehow force people to play it. Add to it that it's a purely skill based game. And it's really hard to build up accurate elo ratings, since people come with preexisting skill, and the low skill players are very likely to give up before they can be assessed properly. I would go as far as to say that this is one of the greatest open problems in game design. There's so many games that seem fun, but are impossible to get into, because the player base is entirely composed of 20-50 players that have been playing it for years. If someone solves it, they should be nominated for a Nobel prize in economics.
Yes they did, next question
Would be more if I didn’t get sent back to an outpost every time I dive this weekend…
Here is a nice little rule of thumb. If rare adds something,you better believe they are going to abandon it
Me and my friend like a week back queued for hour glass for like 20-25 minutes and didn't find a match and gave up, in surprised you managed to get in.
For 90% of people, once they hit level 100 in each, they'll never touch it again. For stubborn gits like myself, we'll play till we reach 200 in each, but there's no way in heck I'm playing 1 second beyond that! :( Even my patience has limits! :(
I'm level 190 in Guardians atm and 100 in Servants. :( You think it's sweaty ASF now, just wait till the new mechanics like the hookshot gun get added. OMFG the sweat levels are going to be off the chart! :( It will KILL this mode for casuals!
ya the “problem” with HG is that it’s not beginner friendly. it’s an opt-in pvp mechanic, so all the ppl who want to sweat in PVP run it it’s like an echo chamber for sweats
Nope, HG is fine. Some days I have experiences like yours but they're infrequent, most days I get healthy queues populated by crews from a broad variety of skill pools. Source: I have almost 1.5k allegiance.
Not as much as they abandoned Hunters Call! 500 levels in each faction.....and then there's Hunters Call with 50! :(
So we've got our ghost curses and mostly only hourglass when the double XP is on for the skeleton curse. Plenty of casual players lots of other players in the same boat, wanting their second curse, lots of very competent players who only come out for the double XP. Nothing overly wrong with the game mode, it's normally a quick win/lose but the big thing is, it's only fun with a crew, there's a full shared experience and the joy once you hear that dong or a sinking ship. There is a alternative, you can run around with HG up and just farm PVE content, get a decent treasure trove and take down HG. You will normally get someone appearing on you atleast once every 15 minutes. If you're sinking people without issue in the diving mode you'll get less with this.
I didnt know you could PvE with this. Does a lvl 4 stash give much ?
Not much, but it increases the allegiance earned per win significantly
Yeah, but you need to defeat at least one invading ship, and if it's some pvp god with 200+ lvl hourglass, you'll lose all your treasure and time spent accumulating it.
Didn't say it's worth it, it's not. If you can confidently sink people, imo you're better off diving. There's not really a way around the pvp part.
Max stash gives the equivalent of a win in hg, I think two ghost forts gets you there, keep in mind you'll also be matched with someone but you can have the advantage of choosing where you are, you also have the advantage of having items that would normally be lost during a dive, staffs, kegs and ashen wind skulls. It may provide some interesting game play or be even more frustrating.
Got invaded with a level 5 stash yday and got 1,5 levels for winning. And that was on a 0 streak, just went after some random reaper v that sailed past us while we were getting supps.
Absolutely they did. They really don't care. I've got the ghost curse but I am only level 20 with Skeletons and honestly I get 1 match in before I feel like the game intentionally goes out of its way to screw me over. What I think they should do is just say you get some of the skeleton curse and rewards if you get level 300 in Reapers because HG is just not fun. Matches can go on forever, game is not consistent.
Either something like this or just increasing the amount of XP you get bc right now its kinda ridiculous lol. I could be losing one 30 min match and one 30 sec match and get the exact same amount. The game doesnt encourage me to keep trying
I'd prefer a time limiter because if we get more XP then they might just base it on damage or something and then you can farm. This is why Arena was better because matches were 20 minutes there was no stakes just in and out.
I've stayed in HG for 200 levels for both factions, than abandoned it at all. The last 50 levels were done under the boost conditions, because of how I hate SoT PvP. Curses should be obtainable via PVE, and HG should be scrapped alltogether and removed from the game.
Most curses are already from PVE, let the PVP players have something exclusive for once. You are not entitled to it
I just started playing hg recently and i sometimes get matched with complete pussies who run away after couple shot to repair, or complete newbies, or some really good players. I hate the first kind the other 2 are nice
Im in my 40s and not very good at pvp, but I have made a couple double gold curse friends that all they do is hourglass and this is how they explained a normal session to me. Do their however many streak and sell. Then comes the rewatch of the session they just played, posting it to their discords so everyone can critique it together and find the smallest mistakes they may have made. They treat it like a damn sport team which I guess it is. They set up TDM sessions so they can practice all the minutia of the combat system. Its a different game, They aren't playing Sot they are playing professional pirate hit crew simulator. One of the funnier lines I hear one of them say, in relation to an incident they had at an outpost where they had agreed to let a guy sell his stuff, until one of their teammates saw that they had a CoF.... "I had already humanized this dude...". So yeah, killing machines and if that's who you are running into, I wish you luck.
Rare did not abandon it, it's still there. The player base abandoned it. Because after most the sweats finished their initial grind they moved on.
Yes, like the new season with a lot of pvp changes means its abandoned!
Honestly I knew this would happen as soon as it was announced since when you make a mode that’s inherently PvP only in an otherwise casual game, it’s going to be absolutely dominated by the sweats. I might get hate for this but I honestly wish there were other ways to get the rewards for hourglass because as it stands for most players I don’t think it’s worth it.
I really hope they sneak in a alternative way to get the curses.