I’m sure anyone who has played Hourglass a decent bit has experienced getting third partied at some point. I have asked some players and streamers their thoughts on third partying and some say it is fun and some say it should not be allowed. When I ask what do they think when it is two solo sloopers in an hourglass fight, most have agreed that it shouldn’t be allowed. Now I have been playing hourglass lately and I’m trying to get the skeleton curse. Solo hourglass fighting can already be a drag with people constantly running after getting hit once or twice, making the fight last for an hour or two. For those that have done it, I’m sure you can agree. Now an issue I have had a lot within just the past two days of playing HG is being third partied numerous times. Now I will state my opinion right here… I do not respect people who third party in hourglass fights one single bit. I know that every single time a third partier showed up, I was the one who got teamed up on, so here is my thoughts. Do I think it should be bannable? No, but what I do think is that there could be changes to prevent this issue. One of two options if not both.
Option 1: Boundaries for third party players.
- So like the boundaries for the players in the hourglass fight, if you sail out of bounds, your ship eventually blows up. I think it should be the same for players outside of the fight but vice versa. The area should be highlighted red on the map for all players to see in the server that are not part of the hourglass fight and if they sail into it, I think they should receive one of two effects. The same effects as the Red Sea or the same effects as what the hourglass players receive when they go out of bounds and blow up. Needless to say if third parties try to enter the circle with intent to interrupt the fight or team up against another player, their ship should sink. The area would then be opened back up after the fight is over.
Option 2: Separate Servers
Smaller, separate servers could also be an option. I had asked this to a streamer and a viewer in his chat mentioned something I hadn’t thought of and is a very valid view, “ What if other players have a tall tale, voyage, etc that happens to be inside that circle and can’t get to it because of the HG fight.” Which is a very good point, regardless of how I feel about third partiers, that would not be fair to those who are trying to do something else that the HG fight and boundaries may be in the way of, so an alternative could be separate servers. The separate servers would consist of a much smaller area that is not the whole map, just the size of the usual battle area in Hourglass. Would possibly be easier for rare to uphold those servers since they would be on a smaller scale also. I feel as though that would solve multiple issues with Hourglass.
All in all, the better option would most likely be separate Hourglass servers so other cannot interrupt. It creates a frustrating environment and can lead to lots of toxicity and with the winning side getting a very undeserved win. Therefor if players then find ways and reasons to bypass any of this, and third party that Hourglass fight then punishable actions could be taken as deserved. I do not think that people third partying, and teaming up in hourglass with other, outside ships should be allowed as those outside ships can also go resupply anywhere and you cannot. It is a cheap and cowardly way to play the game in my opinion and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way and there are ways to fix this.
