Hey folks!
We’ve seen some murmurs in the community recently regarding the amount of Faction Allegiance gained by engaging in our hourglass PvP gameplay, first released in Season 8.
While we understand the concerns, especially given the appeal of recent Gold and Glory reward boosts, we currently have no plans to change the base amount of Allegiance rewarded by this experience.
Since the release of this Hourglass gameplay, we have been keeping a very close eye on player and crew progression through both of our new Factions. This includes monitoring win/loss rates and the overall time taken to reach level 100 (and beyond), across a range of ship sizes, session lengths, and player skill levels. At the moment we are very confident in the numbers set and are happy with the rate at which we are seeing players progress through each of the factions.
Progress in these Factions, and in particular the curses granted for reaching Level 100, were always intended to be aspirational goals that players would look forward to achieving as they master the skills necessary to take them to the top. That is why the Allegiance earned for wins is set as it is. We offer a satisfying chunk for each victory, and reward players brave enough to risk it all in pursuit of higher undefeated streaks!
The Allegiance granted for losses has had careful consideration as we aim to offer as much as we can (to keep players motivated even if they suffer unfortunate defeats) without giving so much that we encourage “loss farming” to reach the higher levels. This is a tricky balance but, having already increased it once (to be more forgiving), at this moment we feel confident in the player behaviours we are seeing.
All this being said, we totally understand the desire for crews to have the option to earn more Allegiance and have experienced the thrill of it ourselves as part of recent Gold and Glory weekends. Rest assured that we are always monitoring your feedback alongside our data so we can consider ways to give our players a little boost, without impacting the careful balance of the experience as a whole which is why we always boost Allegiance during Gold and Glory days and Community Days.
As always, this is something we will continue to keep tabs on and we will always be reading and listening to your feedback!
Back to the fight!
Cheers,
George “Scourge” Orton
Senior Designer
